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By Erik Larson
$13.78
By Eugene Robinson
$16.47
$23
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news.bbc.co.uk
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A suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday in a failed attempt to blow up Vice President Dick Cheney. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which killed between nine and 14 people.
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The Department of Defense plans to build an $18-million facility at Guantanamo Bay in anticipation of mass migration following the eventual death of Fidel Castro. Administration officials say the housing center will be needed for interdicted Cuban migrants now that space normally used in such an event is taken up by the detention and interrogation facility that holds suspected terrorists.
(h/t: Boing Boing)
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AP Photo / Dennis Cook
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By Robert Scheer — In light of her hawkish posturing and consistent support of the war for all the wrong reasons, the best advice on Hillary’s campaign comes from the candidate herself: If you’re against the war, vote for someone else.
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starbulletin.com
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U.S. Central Command has developed a plan for airstrikes against Iran that includes hitting not just nuclear facilities but most military targets throughout the country. According to the BBC, either confirmation that Iran is building a nuclear weapon or evidence linking Tehran to a high-casualty attack inside Iraq could set the plan in motion.
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playboy.com
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Pvt. Jacob Burgoyne was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and ordered to a psychiatric facility, but the Army sent him home instead. Shortly thereafter, Burgoyne stabbed a fellow soldier 32 times and set his body aflame because, he said, “that’s how we disposed of bodies in Iraq.”
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Before the invasion of Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks gathered with his top advisers to review their plans. The recently released slides from that meeting offer an insight into the startling optimism of the men who designed the war. Four years post-invasion, the commanders expected Iraq to have a fully representative government, a functioning army and as few as 5,000 U.S. troops. Whoops!
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Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s point man for military operations in Baghdad, announced sweeping new military powers on Tuesday as part of a large-scale crackdown on sectarian violence. Qanbar said he is in absolute control of the effort and answers only to Maliki, signaling an expansion of the prime minister’s authority.
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wikipedia.org
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The Navy is hoping to deploy a group of dolphins and sea lions to protect a base on the Puget Sound from the risk of scuba-diving terrorists. Seriously. Not surprisingly, PETA thinks it’s a bad plan.
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Two Defense Department officials and a mysterious analyst held an anonymous briefing for reporters Sunday to offer evidence of Iran’s involvement with hostile forces in Iraq. The three claimed Tehran is supplying militants with sophisticated weapons that they said had been used against U.S. forces for at least two years, but the analyst, whose exact job description was withheld, admitted the evidence was not a “smoking gun.”
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Last year, the Army vehemently denied allegations that Halliburton had hired Blackwater, another private contractor, to provide security in Iraq, but in a hearing before the House Government Oversight Committee on Wednesday, the military reversed itself. The committee also made public an e-mail from a Blackwater employee who frantically demanded that the firm properly equip its guards, four of whom were killed hours after the message was written.
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news.yahoo.com
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The court-martial of Lt. Ehren Watada has been ruled a mistrial because of a dispute over a pretrial agreement. Watada’s attorney, Eric Seitz, called the ruling a “significantly positive event,” and said he hoped it would put an end to the case.
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asashop.org
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that if the surge goes badly, the military will probably move troops “out of harm’s way.” Why wait? He also said the surge is not the “last chance” to get it right in Iraq. Let’s hope Congress stops quibbling and makes him wrong.
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The Pentagon has had it with picking up the slack from civilian agencies in Iraq, grumbling its concerns to the president and even Congress. The military has been forced to fill jobs that otherwise would be performed by civilians, mainly from the State Department, which, unlike the Army, can’t force people to work under the nightmarish conditions it helped to create.
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targikielce.pl
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By Robert Scheer — President Bush’s outrageous military budget has nothing do with fighting terrorism but everything to do with pumping up the profits of the administration’s generous political donors in the defense industry. So, the question is: Will the Democrats have the guts to stop this betrayal of the public trust?
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globalsecurity.org
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Although the United States and Iran have a testy relationship at best, weaknesses in security protocol currently allow buyers for Tehran to procure valuable aircraft parts from the U.S. military. At least two Democrats in the Senate want to cut off the supply, which would make the Iranian air force effectively irreparable.
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hrw.org
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A preliminary investigation by the State Department has found that Israel’s cluster bombing of civilian areas of Lebanon violated terms of an arms agreement with the United States. Israel receives roughly $2 billion annually in military assistance from the U.S., but Washington places classified conditions on how American munitions can be used.
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The Pentagon lists the number of soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq at more than 23,000, a tally often quoted by news agencies. But if one considers troops injured in “noncombat action,” a separate category that includes noncombat helicopter crash victims, the critically ill and others, the number doubles to about 50,000, leading critics to charge that the military is attempting to conceal the true human cost of the war.
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latimes.com
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The Pentagon has traditionally played a major role in monitoring U.S. borders and assisting the Coast Guard in intercepting drug shipments, but the burden of Iraq has forced the military to scale back its efforts, opening holes for drug smugglers to exploit.
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The Pentagon estimates that the cost of the Iraq war will reach $8.4 billion a month this year, or $9.7 billion if you include Afghanistan. That’s up from $8 billion a month last year, and $4.4 billion back in 2003. Either America was getting twice as much war for half the price four years ago, or someone is inflating his budget.
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hhill.org
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China has successfully completed a test of an anti-satellite weapon, alarming the United States and other nations, the White House said. Although the Bush administration is weary of a possible militarized space race, it has steadfastly opposed a ban on such tests in order to preserve U.S. “freedom of action in space.”
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Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, has resigned amid ongoing investigations into Israel’s botched invasion of Lebanon. Imagine, someone in government actually taking responsibility for a failed military adventure. What a concept!
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A provision slipped into a spending bill by the last Congress and approved by the president makes civilian contractors in Iraq subject to military court-martial. But legal scholars believe the rule could also be extended to include civilian government employees and even embedded journalists. (h/t: Largest Minority)
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from asashop.org
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who only two years ago supported renewing diplomatic relations with Tehran, has taken the administration’s recent Iran bashing to heart, saying the U.S. will beef up its presence in the Persian Gulf to make sure Ahmadinejad & Co. don’t get any ideas.
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AP Photo / Murad Sezer
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By Chris Hedges — A longtime observer of insurgencies, violence and war, the reporter writes that the presidential plan to send more troops to Iraq is a mistake of catastrophic proportions that is likely to rival the most stupid and brutal blunders he’s seen.
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latimes.com
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s choice of Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar, a relatively unknown figure, to head the military in Baghdad has upset Iraqi military commanders and politicians. American commanders have also expressed dissatisfaction with Qanbar, due to the key role he will play in Bush’s planned escalation of the war and fears that his promotion might be motivated by a sectarian agenda.
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unbsj.ca
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The Defense Department says it has learned of a plot to spy on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances traveling through Canada. Though it released few other details, the U.S. Defense Security Service says it found tiny transmitters hidden in Canadian coins.
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sfgate.com
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The military is trying to coerce freelance journalist Sarah Olson to testify against Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse to go to Iraq. Olson, whose story about Watada appeared on Truthout.org, has resisted the military because, in her own words: “Journalists should not be asked to participate in the prosecution of political speech.”
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socom.mil
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The United States launched its second air assault in Somalia in as many days, according to a representative from the Somali government, who told Reuters: “As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force.”
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From Salon.com
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By Chris Hedges — The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country’s military and law enforcement.
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At least six small bombs exploded in Bangkok on Sunday, killing two and injuring at least 30. Many believe opponents of Thailand’s military regime are to blame in what appears to be the world’s second major case of domestic terrorism in two days, following an explosion at an airport in Madrid on Saturday.
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated on Thursday that she still believed Iraq would emerge “as a country that is a stabilizing factor” for the Mideast, and that President Bush would not ask for continued investment if he—and she—did not believe the venture was worthwhile. Well, that’s good to know. For a few years there, it seemed like they didn’t know what they were doing.
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cnn.com
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Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command and the military chief of the Iraq fiasco, will retire in March. Though officials say Abizaid tendered his retirement before Rumsfeld was pushed out, his departure will allow Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Bush more flexibility in their Iraq makeover, as Abizaid has been a dogged opponent of increasing troop levels.
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The Pentagon has asked the White House for an additional $99.7 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for a total increase of $50 billion over last year’s record spending. According to the Congressional Research Service, military spending on Iraq, Afghanistan and other operations has exceeded $500 billion so far.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Believe it or not, winning the war in Iraq was never the Bush administration’s highest priority. Saving its tax cuts was more important. That was once spoken of as a moral problem. Now, it’s a practical barrier to a successful outcome.
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pageoneq.com
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The Pentagon is expected to recommend expanding both the military and its presence in Iraq as part of its “double down” strategy. Another element of the plan, to be presented to President Bush on Wednesday, is likely to include a direct confrontation with Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia.
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By Marie Cocco — Our hypocritical Congress appears poised to approve a $170-billion “emergency” military appropriation bill to continue financing the Iraq war.
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address should be required viewing at the White House. Decades later, his words of caution and hope still resonate.
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washingtonpost.com
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The Army says military equipment is breaking down faster than it can be repaired, and has asked for more money. The estimated cost for repairs is $17 billion to $19 billion annually, and Congress has already approved an extra $23.8 billion for emergency maintenance in 2007.
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politics.co.uk
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Tony Blair intends to modernize Britain’s nuclear arsenal, including the U.S.-made missiles and nuclear-powered submarines that deliver them. But the prime minister will have to survive the misgivings of his own party, with critics questioning the utility of nuclear weapons against suicide bombers.
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AP / David Hume Kennerly
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On Monday the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times will run a joint editorial calling for the resignation or removal of the defense secretary: “Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.”
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From Wired News: “Some of the web’s more popular “milblogs”—blogs maintained by present or former active duty military personnel—are going quiet following a renewed push by U.S. military officials to scan sites for security risks.”
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A Marine stationed in Iraq found he was blocked from accessing the cheeky, left-leaning political blog Wonkette, while he had no problem accessing conservative Michelle Malkin’s site.
Hmmm….
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Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV expressed concern Thursday over the failure of the military’s new Baghdad strategy to curb mounting levels of violence in the city: “In Baghdad alone, we’ve seen a 22% increase in attacks during the first three weeks of Ramadan, as compared to the three weeks preceding Ramadan.”
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Courtesy of the Tillman Family
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By Kevin Tillman — Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat (left, above) was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin has written a powerful, must-read document.
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Bush’s new space policy, the first major overhaul in 10 years, reserves the right to prevent access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests.”
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View the most popular tags overall?
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Guantanamo Prisoner’s Case Demonstrates Unfairness of Military Commissions
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