Military

The NSA wouldn't spy on phone calls unless they were a threat to national security - right? Guess again:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism."

She said US military officers, American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and "collected on" as they called their offices or homes in the United States.

So they do this for enjoyment and some comic relief? I don't take our constitution as being some kind of joke, yet people charged with protecting this country from another 9/11 do. If they "hate us for our freedoms", then these people just gave Osama another victory in the war on terror.

The Army and Air Force are at odds, so the Army goes out and starts up it's own air unit. What next - will we see one branch of our military go to war with the other? I guess this can be chalked up as more of that financial conservatism by the GOP.

Truly disturbing statistics out by the Army today:

Pentagon officials say there were fewer Army suicides last year than they had feared. But it was still the highest number in almost two decades.

Two defense officials said Thursday that 108 troops committed suicide in 2007, the most since 1990. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the full report on the deaths wasn't being released until later Thursday.

I like how they try to downplay the numbers by saying "fewer than they had feared". Iraq is causing so much stress on our soldiers, and for what? So George Bush could achieve some "greatness" in his mind? Every solider killed either in action, or by their own hand, as well as every Iraqi life lost is the fault of this incompetent, arrogant, idiotic thing we call a President. Yes - he is a murderer and should be held accountable for his actions.

They are now considering changing the cremation procedure for our soldiers. It turns out our soldiers have been cremated at a company that also cremates animals. I wonder which Bush administration official was buddies with this company and got them the contract?

He won't support the Webb GI bill, and is instead offering his own that will give the greatest benefits to those that have served 12 years or more.

Hey - sorry if you got your legs blown off in Iraq, but we don't want to do anything for you!

That is exactly what will happen with the number crunchers in the Pentagon. Perhaps the better question would be; Why does John McCain hate the troops?

And yet he still won't sign onto Jim Webb's (one year old) G.I. Bill that does just that. Just another sign that John McCain is is really John McDementia.

Is this how the right wing supports the troops, by insulting their service?

(h.t Think Progress)

Pretty big words coming from some low life chicken hawk. Between that and Darryl Issa saying 9/11 was "just airplanes flying into buildings", we have the making of some great political ads this season.

So this is supposed to be an example of our "missile defense" system that we have dumped billions into. They can't launch today due to bad weather.

Morale of the story - Pray that our enemies only launch attacks against us on clear, sunny days.

This really makes a lot of sense:

A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.

So they deliberately put our troops in harms way and only pay $2.2 million for yet, but that gets over shadowed by a new $74 million contract. That doesn't sound like punishment - it sounds like the cost of doing business. I guess that is what we should expect from a Republican President who puts company profits over human life.

The administration just loves David Petraeus

The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration but that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.

A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing “a next assignment for Petraeus” and that the NATO post was a possibility. “He deserves one and that has also always been a highly prestigious position,” the official said. “So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisions and nothing on the timing.”

Now if Petraeus is doing all these wonders in Iraq, then shouldn't they wait until they are 100% certain Iraq is stable before pulling him out? It sounds like the Pentagon is more worried about one man than an entire military.

The Army is warning it's people about sending the fake chain letters accusing Obama of being a Muslim. The Army needs to find out who initially sent the email and reprimand them for violation of Army regulations.

An interesting look at how that may be the case when it comes to our "close call" with that Iranian boat. This really sounds like something Congress should be questioning.

Because losing in court means nothing to him:

The White House yesterday sought to overrule a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises, exempting the service from complying with two major environmental laws.

Environmentalists who sued to limit the use of loud, mid-frequency sonar -- which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals -- said the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to follow environmental laws.

In a court filing yesterday, government attorneys said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off southern California was "essential to national security" and of "paramount interest to the United States."

That sonar really worked good in determining that it wasn't a boat from Iran trying to get us - didn't it?

These stories always put a not in the stomach. At least the military is investigating this one right away, unlike Pat Tillman

Sounds more and more like it might just be talk. A lot of the reduction is happening because the administration has no option. Troops will have served their maximum required time by law, and Bush knows he can't get that extended. As matter of fact, Jim Webb is still pushing his plan to get troops more time off than on, and it is really gaining momentum:

Now that President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus have charted their course for the Iraq war, Democrats in the Senate say one of their proposals aimed at shifting the president’s strategy is finally close to winning enough Republican support for a real chance at being approved. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as on their most recent tours overseas before being redeployed.

The proposal, by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has strong support from top Democrats, who say that the practical effect would be to add time between deployments and force General Petraeus to withdraw troops on a substantially swifter timeline than the one he laid out before Congress this week, and that it would protect troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.

Of course there are still some Republicans, and the administration, who are dead set against this plan. These are the same people who share the Boehner sentiment of "small costs" when it comes to our troops dying and spending countless months away from their loved ones.

I think the biggest insult is the fact that our troops don't even get the same amount of time home as they do in theater. Right now they server 15 months and get a year off. Compare that to the U.K. Troops serve 1 year and get 4 years off. George Bush and every single person that has backed him are guilty of destroying our military. Rudy said yesterday that Move On should be chased out of this country for their ad about Petraeus. Well if we are chasing people out of this country then Bush, his administration, and all his backers also deserve the boot from the country.