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Banned
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Originally Posted by moosenose
.......Saddam was not a nice man. Your defense and support of his rule is duly noted. "Aid and comfort", "aid and comfort", my "friend"...
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Originally Posted by alansmithee
But the problem is that we are left at a stalemate-protesters won't quit protesting, and supporters won't quit supporting. I see one as being more in the wrong not necessarily from an ideological standpoint, but from a practical standpoint. People's lives are being put in danger by some of the anti-war rhetoric..........
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<a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3668484/">Newsweek Archive</a> or http://www.wanttoknow.info/020204newsweek
February 4, 2002, Newsweek, U.S. Edition
By Howard Fineman
With Debra Rosenberg and Martha Brant
The Battle Back Home
Dick Cheney was on the line, and it wasn't to chitchat. The vice president rarely calls the Senate leader--a Democrat he dismisses as an "obstructionist"--so Tom Daschle knew the topic was important when he hurried into his Capitol office. What he heard was a plea, and a warning. The Senate will soon launch hearings on why we weren't prepared for, and warned about, September 11. The intelligence committee will study the matter, but mostly behind closed doors. Cheney was calling to pre-emptively protest public hearings by other committees. If the Democrats insisted, Bush administration officials might say they're too busy running the war on terrorism to show up. Press the issue, Cheney implied, and you risk being accused of interfering with the mission...............
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Originally Posted by Ustwo
Hehe Durbin is saddly from my farked up state, and I laughed out loud when he gave his tearful appology once he finally got the clue just how stupid his statement was.
Dumbass.
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Originally Posted by Ustwo
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Rove, the architect behind President Bush's election victories, on Wednesday night told a gathering of the New York Conservative Party that "Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Conservatives, he said, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
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Its funny because for some members of the left it was true.
I don't see what the issue is either.
Its pretty weak compared to Dean's diatribes lately. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/po...nd-policy.html
Rumsfeld Speaks Cautiously on Strength of Insurgency
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
International Herald Tribune
Published: June 26, 2005
..............Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to square a comment last week by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said that the insurgency was in its "last throes," with General Abizaid's testimony on Thursday to Congress that the insurgency's "overall strength is about the same" as six months earlier and that the flow of anti-American fighters into the country had grown.
Mr. Rumsfeld, noting that the word "throes" can encompass violent spasms, said that there was "no contradiction at all" between Mr. Cheney's and General Abizaid's comments.
Mr. Rumsfeld was also asked about the accusations of abuse of detainees at the United States base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He categorically denied that there was "any policy of abuse or policy of torture."
"There have been, I believe, 50 convictions of people for not obeying the rules that have been established," he said on Fox News. "The prisoners in Guantánamo Bay are being treated humanely.
"The idea that there's any policy of abuse or policy of torture is false, flat false."
Mr. Rumsfeld also confirmed, but played down, a British press report that American officials had negotiated recently with Iraqi insurgents in two meetings in a villa north of Baghdad.................
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0031009-9.html
George W. Bush Oct. 9, 2003
These Senators are strong supporters of your mission. They appreciate what you do. They vote for strong defense budgets, because they know what I know -- that any time we put our troops into harm's way, you must have the best training, the best equipment, the best possible pay. (Applause.)
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So....let me get this straight.....the people who advocate keeping large numbers of our inadequately equipped troops in a country that the U.S. military invaded pre-emptively, without legal or logisitical justification, on the orders of a civilian U.S. government that has evinced the opposite of integrity, honesty, or competence, in this campaign, and in most of it's other endeavors....are.....the patriots? And.....the people who protest pre-emptive war, illegal invasion, sending our troops to fight and die when our national security is not at stake, all while putting them in harm's way when it was clearly not a "last resort", these people are undermining our troops by urging their swift return home, while working to expose the deceipt and corruption of the current U.S. administration.......these folks are the traitors ???
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http://www.optruth.org/main.cfm?acti...es&htmlId=1528
12/8/2004: Iraq Vet and Operation Truth Founder Comments on Troops Questioning Rumsfeld
Administration "deserves it" for ignoring troops' issues since beginning of war, says Rieckhoff
NEW YORK - Operation Truth Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff today expressed disappointment in the continuing reluctanceby Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to take the concerns of the troops into account, even when confronted by them publicly today in Kuwait.......
............Today in Kuwait, a number of troops publicly raised objections to the way the war in Iraq is being waged, when Secretary Rumsfeld spoke to them. The soldiers raised issues ofthelack of protection for the troops, treatment of Reservists and Guardsmen, andthe military's "stop loss" policy. According to press reports, at one point, "A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense."........
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http://www.optruth.org/main.cfm?acti...es&htmlId=1537
........The shortage of armor for Humvees in Iraq has left many of our troops vulnerable. Two years after military brass first recognized the shortage, the problems still aren't resolved, and troops are still improvising their protection with sandbags and "Hillbilly Armor" -- glass and scrap metal welded to an unprotected Humvee............
News - April 6, 2005 http://www.theunionleader.com/articl...?article=52972
ARMORED HUMVEES:
Iraq commanders ask for more
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - For the fifth time in the past year, U.S. commanders running the war in Iraq have told the Army to send more armored Humvee utility vehicles to protect U.S. troops.
Just as the Army was reaching its target of 8,279 factory-built armored Humvees for delivery to Iraq, U.S. Central Command last month raised the bar again, to 10,079, Army officials disclosed Tuesday.
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http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/0...orld/48801.htm
Armor-kit oversight admitted
By Drew Brown
Knight Ridder Newspapers June 22,2005
WASHINGTON - Two top Marine Corps officers acknowledged Tuesday that they waited two months to issue a contract for armor kits to protect the undersides of Humvees after promising to do so earlier this year.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. William L. Nyland, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and Brig. Gen. William D. Catto, the chief of Marine Corps Systems Command, attributed the delay to a "lack of leadership." They assured the committee that all Humvees and military trucks that used in Iraq would be adequately protected by December.
Lawmakers expressed frustration Tuesday that troops don’t have enough protective armor and other equipment to protect them from the explosives, which typically are jury-rigged from cast-off artillery shells and other munitions.
"This is a sad day for us," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee’s chairman and the father of a Marine. "It’s a sad day because you’ve got Marines out there in the theater who are fighting with a great sense of urgency for our country ... but the bureaucracy you gentlemen have back here ... is resistant to moving this thing with a sense of urgency."
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., noted that "for nearly two years we’ve watched the services struggle to provide enough protective armor" without success. He suggested that more congressional oversight was in order.
"Needless to say, I’m sorely disappointed," he said.
Catto, who has oversight of all Marine Corps equipment issues, took the blame for the delay. "This is a lack of leadership on my part for not paying more attention to that specific contract," he said.
Nyland also accepted fault, but said increased production of armor kits in the United States had made up for the shortfall.
"I acknowledge that we took our eye off the ball on that contract," he said. "But we had a parallel course at the same time ... and we have in fact now almost 400 underbodies on the ground for the purposes of installation at the unit level."
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http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...ack_equipment/
Excerpt from "an investigation by the Marine Corps' inspector general provided to Congress yesterday.(June 20, 2005)"
..........But the report says that about a quarter of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force's Humvees lack sufficient armor to protect troops against roadside bombings, including 1,000 vehicles that have yet to be fitted with armor plates to protect the undercarriage.
The report also says that if the current demands in Iraq continue, the Corps will need another 650 Humvees, which have been logging an average of 480 miles a month, mostly over rough terrain. And despite an agreement with the Army to repair broken vehicles at a maintenance facility in Kuwait, the Marine Corps had not scheduled any repairs as of last month.
<h3>Meanwhile, those Humvees that have received full armor -- which the report says have significantly improved the safety of troops -- are suffering excessive wear and tear because they were never designed to carry the additional weight</h3>
The report also found that Abrams tanks and other combat vehicles are being so overused that replacements are needed quickly. It found that all of the Marines' battle tanks in Iraq have passed the normal criteria for replacing them.
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http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...ack_equipment/
Marine units found to lack equipment
Corps estimates of needs in Iraq are called faulty
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | June 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Marine Corps units fighting in some of the most dangerous terrain in Iraq don't have enough weapons, communications gear, or properly outfitted vehicles, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps' inspector general provided to Congress yesterday.
The report, obtained by the Globe, says the estimated 30,000 Marines in Iraq need twice as many heavy machine guns, more fully protected armored vehicles, and more communications equipment to operate in a region the size of Utah.
The Marine Corps leadership has ''understated" the amount and types of ground equipment it needs, according to the investigation, concluding that all of its fighting units in Iraq ''require ground equipment that exceeds" their current supplies, ''particularly in mobility, engineering, communications, and heavy weapons."
Complaints of equipment shortages in Iraq, including lack of adequate vehicle armor, have plagued the Pentagon for months, but most of the reported shortages have been found in the Army, which makes up the bulk of the American occupation force.
The analysis of the Marines' battle readiness, however, shows that the Corps is lacking key equipment needed to stabilize Al Anbar province in western Iraq. The province is where some of the bloodiest fighting has occurred in recent months between American-led coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents aided by foreign fighters who have slipped across the border.
Marine Corps forces and newly trained Iraqi soldiers battled insurgents in Al Anbar province for the fourth straight day yesterday as part of Operation Spear, launched last week along the Syrian border.
The Marine Corps' mission, among the most difficult of the 140,000 American troops in Iraq, is to help stabilize a huge swath of Iraq where popular support for the insurgency is highest and where more sophisticated enemy tactics have been introduced, including larger and more effective improvised explosive devices, the roadside bombs that are the single biggest killer of American troops in Iraq.......
(Missing paragraphs are excerpted in the previous quote box.)
.......Meanwhile, units need at least twice as many of the .50-caliber machine guns that are mounted atop vehicles and designed to protect an entire unit from enemy fire, the report said.
The units also need more M240G machine guns, a heavy gun used in battle, and more of the lighter MK19 machine guns, used at checkpoints to thwart insurgent attacks.
''Most infantry, logistics, and security battalions require approximately twice the number of .50-caliber machine guns and more M240G and MK19 machine guns than they would normally possess," according to the 40-page report, entitled ''Marine Corps Ground Equipment in Iraq."
Communications gear, too, is lacking. The Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters, known as Multinational Forces-West, ''has command responsibilities that far exceed any level contemplated by organizational and equipment planners," the report said. Radio and satellite tracking systems are ''in critical demand and constant use."
After interviewing commanders, staff members, and unit leaders, the inspector general's office concluded that the Marine Corps' current strategy to meet its communications needs in Iraq ''is not sufficient to meet the current and future needs of the force."
The inspector general also determined that even with recommended changes, including replacing damaged armaments, the war will continue to take a toll on the Marine Corps' equipment, from having nearly all of its fighting gear ready for combat this year to having less than two-thirds of it in battle shape by the middle of 2008.
The Marine Corps' equipment shortages are expected to be the focus of a House Armed Services Committee hearing today, where lawmakers will hear testimony from General William Nyland, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps and Major General William Catto, commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command.
Officials at Marine Corps headquarters and the Systems Command declined to comment on the inspector general's report, saying they were not yet familiar enough with its findings to respond to questions.
Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...ason18Z10.html
Dad picks up $600 tab to get Marine battle ready
Jun. 18, 2005 12:00 AM
John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father's Day worrying about his son's pending date with the war in Iraq.
Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments.
Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival.
The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.
"He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had," Tod said.
Total estimated cost: $600.
Tod said his son's call about two weeks ago from the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma was a sobering reminder that the military is not prepared to equip Pfc. Tod and fellow Marines with the best equipment.
Besides the essential flak jacket with steel "trauma" plates, the shopping list for the young Marine included a Camelbak (water pouch) special ballistic goggles, knee and elbow pads, a "drop pouch" to hold ammunition magazines and a load-bearing vest.
Tod, 45, is picking up the tab for a son who blew most of his savings on a new pickup truck. And dad says he is tempted to forward the bill to the Pentagon. "Or maybe I can write it off in taxes," he said with a grin.
It's not the cost that concerns him, even though the self-employed home repairman will have to dig deep for the cash.
"We're supposed to have a professional army," he said, "the best in the world. And we're not providing them with the type of gear they need to protect themselves as they do their jobs."
Marine Maj. Nat Frahy, a spokesman in Washington, said the military issues equipment, but it's possible that young Tod's commanders told him that it was perfectly OK to buy equipment that would help him on the battlefield.
Told about the Marine request, U.S. Rep. J. D. Hayworth, the Republican whose 5th District includes Mesa, said he has never heard of a service person being told to buy his own equipment.
Hayworth said he will contact the military to "find out what on earth is going on and why isn't that stuff there for them already. If it involves bottlenecks and glitches to get equipment to them then there should be a voucher system where military personnel can be reimbursed."........................
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...ason25Z11.html
Pfc.'s dad didn't tell me what I heard, Marines say
Jun. 25, 2005 12:00 AM
The Marines have landed again.
This time they shut down a young Mesa Marine and his father.
In a June 18 column, I told the story of John Tod's troubling conversation with his son, Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod.
John Tod said his son had told him during a phone call that he was urged by a superior to buy, with his own money, special military gear that could help him in combat. He said he expects to be in Iraq this year. The list included a flak jacket with steel plates, a Camelbak water pouch, special ballistic goggles, knee and elbow pads, a drop pouch to hold ammunition magazines and a load-bearing vest.
The very concerned 45-year-old dad said during a June 9 interview over breakfast that Uncle Sam, not his son, should pick up the tab for such equipment.
Now, the Marine Corps says John Tod denied making statements attributed to him in my column and that 19-year-old Pfc. Tod insists that he never had such a conversation with his father.
The denials came as young Tod's commanders questioned father and son together, dad by telephone, said Maj. Curtis Hill, a spokesman for both the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in San Diego and the Marine Corps' inquiry into the matter.
The major acknowledged that Pfc. Tod, stationed at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, Calif., was "under a lot of pressure" when questioned by his commanders.
John Tod, a father very willing to talk about his son's equipment quandary this month, did not return my calls after being quizzed by his son's commander.........
........The Washington Post reported in March that the demands of sustained ground combat were heavier than expected, "depleting military manpower and gear faster than they can be fully replenished." The article noted that "shortfalls in recruiting and backlogs in needed equipment are taking a toll, and growing numbers of units have been taxed by repeated deployments."
U.S. Rep. J. D. Hayworth, a Republican whose 5th District covers parts of Mesa, said last week that military personnel should not be required to buy equipment that's essential to their jobs. Hayworth couldn't be reached Thursday but his spokesman, Larry VanHoose, said the congressman was still seeking answers from the military.
"He's not going to let this thing go," VanHoose said.........
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