I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Increase the defense budget. Allot more money for water.
Well Jeebus H. Christ. $4 billion a month for the Iraqi occupation and not enough water for our soldiers.
Way to go George. Oh, BTW, how's the vacation going in Crawford?
Holy shit. And I only scrolled about 1/3rd of the way down.
I finally had to stop when a soldier asked why Tommy Franks could retire and come home and he could not.
Look for the editor of Stars and Stripes to find a horse head in his bed....
I'd like to personally punch this guy in the face, and I'm 5'1" (and usually non-violent):
We Americans are proud of what U.S. troops are doing for the Iraqi people and for America. But those who are constantly writing whiny letters about food, slow mail service (do they really think the military is purposely holding up the mail?), rotations and God knows what else need to realize that they’re in a war. They should get a grip and read about World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Then tell us they have it so bad.
Don Thompson
Kaiserslautern, Germany
What a clueless SOB.
Here are some opportunities to send a friendly note or care package to US soldiers.
Yeah, "gov't oughta support them more." But personal attention is irreplaceable.
http://www.usocares.org/home.htm
http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/
Four billion dollars a month?
I'm getting a strange impression we should be monitoring some people's bank accounts.
Here are some opportunities to send a friendly note or care package to US soldiers.
Yeah, "gov't oughta support them more." But personal attention is irreplaceable.
http://www.usocares.org/home.htm
http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/
the letter about pulling out of Germany was priceless, too. I think that kid has a real future in Republican politics ahead of him.
Millions for Halliburton, but no one penny for bottled water. Oh, and make sure our imperial potentate of the month has his air conditioning working.
No, we don't need to spend more on defense, just spend it on water instead of a non-functional Star Wars system.
Seriously, this has been a problem with the military for quite some time. They like spending bucketloads of money on high-tech weapons like the Predator and Comanche (which are immensely valuable), but they don't match it with infrastructure investments which support the soldiers. And it's only getting worse with Rumsfeld and his fetish with high tech and special forces.
Heh... read down some. This one guy thinks we should get our troops out of Germany. As a bonus, he thinks we should get all American goods and influence out of Germany for good:
First, I’d close down all American establishments in Germany. After all, why would Germany need McDonald’s or Pizza Hut when Germans can eat bratwurst instead? Next, I’d stop sending Germany any major Hollywood productions. This would not only hurt their movie theaters’ business, it would also force the German movie industry (if there even is one) to create its own motion pictures. Who wants to watch an American movie dubbed in German anyway? I know I wouldn’t watch a German movie dubbed in English.
...
Don’t get me wrong. I think Germany is a great country. I just think that it needs to be taught a valuable lesson.
ugh.
Judging fromt the letter about the Kid Rock concert, I'd say the guys are green are pretty fed up the MBFs, too.
Do you think National Review is linking to these letters? Or just recycling old stories about how liberals spiton servicemen?
I will never forgive Rumsfeld for putting these people in this situation without the resources they need.
Yeah, you begin to feel sorry then come upon the redneck's letter about teaching Germany a lesson...! What about teaching the US a lesson for starters?
Germany, in case that redneck soldier doesn't know it, is keeping safe all the troops and their dependents stationed there. OK, so let's punish them and get blown up in the process that would teach them!
Can't help but notice that all the letters complaining are from Iraq, while the ones critical of the complaints are from Germany and Japan.
Weird, huh?
Seems like the letters come in three types: a third bitch about the mail and other conditions on the ground in Iraq, a third tell the bitchers to suck it up, and a third is everything else. Funny how letters from the first group are all postmarked Iraq, while letters from the second group tend to arrive from Germany or Japan.
Just wait untill they get back. My dad was at the VA in Durham, NC last week. This was a follow-up from surgery a year ago. He has some other problems and tried to make an appointment. No problem, see you in August '05. Two years.
I think the second group should change places with the first.
This only proves the article claiming that certain civilian companies were no shows.
Which support companies are tied to Haliburton?
Privitization is a bad, bad thing.
"I know I wouldn’t watch a German movie dubbed in English."
Fuck no dude. Everyone knows subtitles are the way to go.
"it would also force the German movie industry (if there even is one) to create its own motion pictures"
forgot Run Lola Run, I guess.
Guess morale is not high on the Pentagon's list of priorities. Four billion a month, and we can't spend a few million on getting these guys a phone line home once a week, some hot food, plenty of bottled water, daily mail, and maybe throw in a few hundred satellite dishes so they can get some CNN or AFRT's during down time. Guess that happens when the guys that send them have never been there themselves. The weakness of ivory tower think tanks.
You'd think with all those hydrogen-producing trucks of mass destruction in Iraq, we could manufacture some water for these poor troops.
Seriously, I feel for them. Thanks for the reminder about supporting the troops, EssJay.
if any of them soldiers is too hot or thirsty or lonely or whatever, they should just think about me riding around muh ranch in muh golf cart on one heckuva beautiful thirty five day vacation. Or they could be thinkin' bout me relaxing in muh air conditioned ranch house, with all muh buds from back in D.C. that should ought a cool 'em off. I got plenty 'o sweet cool water right here, right from the tap even! Hell, didn't they hear me bragging about all the progress we've made in Iraq in the last hunnert days. When I say misshun accomplished I mean misshun accomplished.
Does one think it is an accident that soldiers don't have Internet access? How many of them would agree with Bush's latest lie... "We are making progress in Iraq."
TechnoPeasant - some do have Internet access. Check out turning tables, a blog by a soldier in Baghdad.
Mebbe we should write Halliburton and let them know what we think about this:
Mr. John W. Gibson, Jr.
President
Halliburton
5 Houston Center
1401 McKinney, Suite 2400
Houston, TX 77010
With only a semester to go a simple well-written letter to the dean would have got that guy his degree.
I seem to remember this was a fairly well-known occurrence in other wars. If I'd only know what school that guy went to I could started that ball rolling.
2nd letter. Spc. Anthony B. Hutchings
If I'd only known what school that guy went to I could've started that ball rolling. Sorry.
Meantime, Richard Perle is helping himself to a second portion of Beluga.
gee, i thought we should bring back the phrase-'the natives are restless' and add the troops are restless.
and time to cut bushits AC. can't have it tile the soldiers do.
How come the people who read this 'blog know about, and think about, this stuff and Bush and his cronies don't?
Molly,
How come someone in the press corps doesn't pose a question along these lines:
Mr. President, the United States is currently paying nearly $1 billion a week to support our military presence in Iraq. As you know, since the beginning of desert operations, there have been and continue to be widespread complaints by soldiers that they are not supplied an adequate daily ration of drinking water. What are you going to do to address this problem and when are you going to do it?
i remember when the wall came down in berlin. the innternet was new at our school. our professors would communicate with thier collegues in eastern europe and showed their students what was going on on the web. we would get in chats with students in the east. i loved the stuff from prague. it was different during tienimen square (sorry for spelling). nothing. one revolution worked, the other didn't. i am sure cheney will make it classified for reasons of nationalexuctiveprivledgeforsecurity if halliburton is responsible for the "hot chow and the mail".
my favorite question for high schoolers these days is, "how do you feel about the draft?"
beeohbe
Imagine what would happen if letters like these were being written during a Democratic President's term- the Right would have the White House surrounded and would be preparing to storm the gates with hand grenades.
Was there anything ironic about the fact that someone telling their fellow soldiers to suck it up and be professional about e-mail was able to MAIL his letter to Starts and Stripes?
I thought so too.
Some have access to email. One of those guys sends me messages and some photos every 2 months or so.
The S&S publish lots of controversial letters. Once they went so far as to publish a letter criticizing a General's wife that had thrown her weight around when ticketed by the MP for taking half of a handicapped's parking space. Now that was a venomous letter that stirred the cauldron for weeks. Try sending them a letter they may publish it, maybe we can tell those soldiers to read Eschaton.
When Johnny comes marchin home again...
He lost an arm; he lost a leg;
He's an armless legless chicken egg;
we'll put him out with a bowl to beg
When Johnny comes marchin home
When Johnny comes marchin home again...
They pinned on him a purple heart
gave him some money said `now make a start'.
See him there with his shopping cart?
When Johnny comes marchin home
When Johnny comes marchin home again...
His friend wont have no time for him
he was kinda screwy when he went in
The VA called and said no again
When Johnny comes marchin home
Privatization of support services is only a fraction of the problem.
It looks like the Iraqi resistance is having a significant impact on the logistics train. When convoys consistently get ambushed, the tactical solution is to increase firepower - add more Bradleys and helicopter gunship escorts to the convoys - vary convoy routes/times, and reduce convoy size. All those ambush countermeasures have the net effect of constricting the supply pipeline.
The funny thing about this "teaching Germany a valuable lesson" letter is of course that the American movie industry is funded by German money to a not insignificant extent. Apparently German tax laws makes it more attractive for Germans to invest in Hollywood productions than in German ones...
Yeah let's teach them Germans a lesson. What was the U.S.'s balance-of-payments deficit again?
Why are these goldbricks bitching and moaning about Fearless Leader's
take-over-the-world plan? If you want an omelot, you've gotta break some eggs - and you guys be the eggs.
Look at poor W: He has to stand out in 100 degree heat and answer questions from major asshole reporters. Then, there's the brush clearin' an' shit. If you think it's so easy, you buy a fuckin' ranch with swindled money and try it some time.
To top it all off, he has to listen to bullshit from Rummy and Powell and other dipshits. What the fuck do they know? This is W's ball, and he's takin' it straight up the middle for the winnin' TD.
So suck it up, candy asses, and stop writin' boo-hoo-hoo letters home to momma. You never had it so good, and you know it. Consider yourself lucky that W doesn't come over there and personally kick the shit out of each and every one of you.
Town Drunk! You rock!
Ok, I found this at RTense.com
It Is about Hackworth.
http://www.rense.com/general40/a...l40/
asshole.htm
Col David Hackworth (Ret)
Calls Rumsfeld An 'Asshole'
From Salon.com available online at Common Dreams.org
By Jonathan Franklin
8-10-3
The Retired Colonel calls Donald Rumsfeld an "Asshole" Whose Bad Planning Mired U.S. troops in an Ugly Guerrilla Conflict in Iraq. His Sources? Defiant Soldiers Sending Dispatches from the Front.
Retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth is a cocky American military commander who for half a century was at the front lines of the Army's most important battles. Most recently, though, Hackworth has been at the front lines of a domestic war: the debate over U.S. military strategy in Iraq, and whether the Bush administration planned well enough to achieve a decisive military victory and keep the postwar peace.
Hackworth was everywhere on cable television during the first days of the war, when early military setbacks convinced him and other retired military leaders that the administration, whose backers sold the conflict as a "cakewalk," hadn't sent enough troops to quell Iraqi resistance. He wrote a widely quoted column headlined "Stuck in the Quicksand" in early April -- just as the tide seemed to turn and the pace of victory picked up again. Though he is a colonel by rank, Hackworth was counted among the so-called "television generals" the administration blasted after Baghdad fell, and many conservative admirers turned against him.
But now, with American soldiers still dying almost daily in Iraq, the tide of opinion may be turning again, in favor of Hackworth's argument that the administration was unprepared for what's turning out to be a long-term guerrilla resistance in Iraq. Today the primary front of Hackworth's war of opinion isn't cable television, but a pair of Web sites -- Soldiers for the Truth and his own site, Hackworth.com -- where he's campaigning to document the dire fate of U.S. troops in Iraq. The sites have quickly become a repository for the gripes and fears of America's beleaguered combat troops.
On a typical day Hackworth receives hundreds of e-mails, letters and faxes from American soldiers, complaining about everything from silk-weight underwear to the weapons they've been assigned. "Pistols suck," wrote one soldier. "Bring and use every weapon. Shotguns are great at close ranges." At a time when soldiers have been disciplined for griping to the media, Hackworth is providing a fascinating outlet for what they're really experiencing. Among the more evocative messages:
"Soldiers are living in the dirt, with no mail, no phone, no contact with home, and no break from the daily monotony at all. I practically got in a fist fight with this captain over letting my private send an e-mail over his office's internet. This clown spends his days sending flowers to his wife and surfing the net. Fucking disgraceful and all too typical of today's Army."
http://www.rense.com/general40/a...l40/
asshole.htm
"Soldiers get literally hundreds of flea or mosquito bites and they can't get cream or Benadryl to keep the damn things from itching ... .I am not talking about bringing in the steak and lobster every week. I am talking about basic health and safety issues that continue to be neglected by the Army."
"We did not receive a single piece of parts-support for our vehicles during the entire battle ... not a single repair part has made to our vehicles to date ... my unit had abandoned around 12 vehicles ... .I firmly believe that the conditions I just described contributed to the loss and injury of soldiers on the battlefield."
"We have done our job and have done it well, we have fulfilled our obligation to this operation, but we are still here and are still being mistreated and misled. When does it end? Do we continue to keep the liberators of Iraq here so they can continue to lose soldiers periodically to snipers and ambushes? My unit has been here since September and they have no light at the end of the tunnel. How many of my soldiers need to die before they realize that we have hit a wall?"
Although the controversial Hackworth has his critics, no one disputes his half-century of military accomplishment. During World War II the 15-year-old Hackworth lied about his age to fight in Italy. During Vietnam he designed and implemented unconventional warfare tactics -- allegedly including a private brothel for his troops -- and wrote the Vietnam Primer, considered by many to be the leading book on guerrilla warfare tactics in Vietnam. Wounded eight times (his left leg still carries a bullet from the Vietnam War), he racked up enough medals, he says, to declare himself the "Army's Most Decorated Soldier" -- though he admits the U.S. Army has no such title. No one denies that Hackworth has seen more combat and taken more bullets than almost any American soldier still alive.
Today, the bestselling author -- his books include "Steel my Soldiers' Hearts," "Price of Honor" and "About Face" -- writes a column for the conservative site World Net Daily.
He's starting to feel his years. His bullet-ridden leg propped up on pillows at his home in suburban Connecticut, Hack is far from the action. So he chose another tactic: He brought the front home. In a conversation with Salon, he termed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld an "asshole" who "misunderstood the whole war" and he predicted that American troops could be stuck in Iraq for "at least" another 30 years.
How long do you think U.S. troops will be needed in Iraq?
God only knows, the way things are going. At least 30 years. Tommy Franks [recently retired commander of U.S. troops in Iraq] said four to 10 years. Based on Cyprus and other commitments in this kind of warfare, it is going to be a long time -- unless the price gets too heavy. We say it is costing the U.S. $4 billion a month; I bet it is costing $6 billion a
http://www.rense.com/general40/a...l40/
asshole.htm
We say it is costing the U.S. $4 billion a month; I bet it is costing $6 billion a month. Where the hell is that money going to come from?
How do you see the combat situation evolving in Iraq?
There is no way the G [guerrilla] is going to win; he knows that, but his object is to make us bleed. To nickel and dime us. This is Phase 1. But what he is always looking for is the big hit -- a Beirut [-style car-bomb attack] with 242 casualties, something that gets the headlines! The Americans have their head up their ass all the time. All the advantages are with the G; he will be watching. He is like an audience in a darkened theater and the U.S. troops are the actors on stage all lit up, so the G can see everything on stage, when they are asleep or when his weapons are dirty. The actor can't see shit in the audience.
For many weeks your Web site has described conditions in Iraq as being far more chaotic and unstable than generally reported. Why did the Pentagon try to downplay the problems instead of playing it straight and saying this is a long- term problem for America?
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz made a very horrible estimate of the situation. They concluded that the war would be Slam Bam Goodbye Saddam, followed by victory parades with local Iraqi folks throwing flowers and rice and everything nice, then the troops would come home.
When I examined the task organization, my estimate was totally contrary to this asshole Rumsfeld, who went in light and on the cheap, all based upon this rosy scenario. I never thought this would be a fight without resistance. And there was another guy who thought the same way I did; his name is Saddam Hussein. He looked at the awesome array of forces being set up against him and said, "Wait a minute, no way can I prevail, I tried that in '91 and just saw in Afghanistan what happened to Taliban and Al-Qaida, I will run away for another day."
Saddam is saying, "I am going to copy Ho Chi Minh and the Taliban and go into a guerrilla configuration." It [the invasion of Baghdad] did go Slam Bam Goodbye Saddam, but we are in there so light that we don't have sufficient force to provide the stability after the fall of the regime. We can't secure the banks, the energy facilities, the vital installations, the government, the ministry, the museums or the library. The world was witness to this great anarchy, the looting and rioting that set over Baghdad. There was that wonderful quote by Rumsfeld. "Stuff happens," he said. He flipped it off.
Do you see any similarities to the U.S. engagement in Vietnam?
The mistake in Vietnam was we failed to understand the nature of the war and we failed to understand our enemy. In Vietnam we were fighting World War II. Up to now in Iraq we have been fighting Desert Storm with tank brigade attacks. The tanks move into a village, swoop down, the tank gunner sees a silhouette atop a
In first letter...
Due to more attacks on convoys, more items are becoming rare. Two examples are mail and bottled water. Our mail has been reduced to two times a week. Due to a lack of bottled water, each soldier has been limited to two 1.5 liter bottles a day. We’ve had two soldiers drop out due to heat-related injuries.
Today in MSNBC news --The U.S.-led coalition reported that an American soldier from the 3rd Corps Support Command died of heat stroke while traveling in a convoy near the southern city of Diwaniyah on Saturday.
This is a death is a result of just plain cold indifference – Bush and Rumsfelds don’t care whether or not our soldiers have adequate supplies of drinking water. Bush to busy making backroom deals with his campaign contributors in Texas right now. This is why we need to push to bring the troops home because Bush is just using American troops, not to for Iraq liberation but to protect his campaign contributors’ backroom no bid deals for special interest campaign contributors. At 4 million a day Bush is looting the American taxpayer while killing US citizens for his crooked money deals.
Also note that Stan Goff is set to speak.
Editor's Note: Military families and veterans will hold a special news conference at the National Press Club, Wednesday, 10 a.m. (EST), August 13, 2003, to launch the Bring Them Home Now campaign, and to discuss the lack of planning and support for our troops as well as to question justification for going to war with Iraq in the first place. Contact the national media and demand coverage. For more information, contact: Ryan Fletch, 202-232-8997; Nancy Lessin, 617-320-5301; http://www.bringthemhomenow.org.
Am I the only one who thinks that maybe one of the Democratic canidates should start including promises to bring mail, hot food, and water to the soldiers in Iraq?
PinkDreamPoppies
Housing and air conditioning would be nice as well.
I thought Brown and Root had the meal supply contract?
http://hackworth.com/
Feedback from Iraq
Imagine this bastard getting away with such crap if we had a draftee army?
"I do know there are people living in areas with running water and A.C. That, of course, is not us... although my COL lives like that. I do believe he was shielded from the reality by his staff for a while. As we crammed 50 soldiers in to two medium frame tents near a pond of dead fish which was also infested with mosquitos and there was absolutely no field sanitation support for miles, he was living in his own room inside an air conditioned building, had his own king size bed, his own bathroom, his own refrigerator, and his cappuccino machine. It was two weeks before he came down to see where the soldiers were living and that was only after the S4 and CSM kept blowing me off... so, I had to get the Corps Surgeon involved for sanitation reasons.
I do believe the COL is entitled to a higher standard of living, however, the inequality was astounding and even more was the fact that he tried to hide it, by posting guards at the entrance to the hallway and didn't say more than two words to any of the soldiers until two weeks after our arrival in Baghdad. We just needed to hear that he understood our situation and was doing everything he could to improve it."
http://www.sftt.org/
article07132...e07132003a.html
Navy Corpsman Sounds Off
Sir,
I am a Navy Corpsman stationed with Bravo Company 4th Light Armored Recon (LAR). I have been in theatre since 23 Feb. In the last few weeks I have observed several trends in the way the Army is operating that should be brought to your attention. I understand that the Army occupies an area that has more Saddam loyalists then the Marines (who are in southern Iraq), but the Army is taking a less defensive posture then we are.
About two weeks ago I spent 3 days up north near Camp Dogwood, where the Army and Marine areas butt up against each other. Every patrol we ran in the LAVs had each and every Marine (and Corpsmen) armed with a rifle providing security. We rolled past 3 Army convoys (consisting of 20-30 large trucks each) that had ZERO security setup. Not a single weapon in sight. One lone Hummer drove by us, with a SAW on the pintle mount, but the gunner was inside the vehicle with just the top of his helmet sticking out. Anybody could have attacked him, and he would have been unable to defend himself.
Four days ago a group of Army MPs stopped just outside our compound to buy sodas and ice from local vendors. While I find it ironic that MPs are violating camp rules on this matter, I was more concerned with the fact that nobody set up any security. One of the SAW gunners was in the back of his hummer arranging his cooler, the second SAW gunner was away from his pintle mount smashing blocks of ice. About half of the men on the deck were running around with out weapons (they had left them in the vehicle). The fact that two other soldiers have died in the past weeks doing just this, was totally lost on them.
On another occasion we were providing security for Army MPs who were assisting local police during traffic stops. The MPs in question were told us they were not allowed to touch their SAWs unless they radioed in for permission. They were also only issued two magazines, and if a gun fight occurred, unseal a box to get more.
I have also heard stories from my Marines about other examples. I am concerned that this lax attitude is not only getting soldiers killed but making this entire operation look worse then it really is.
Thank you for your time.
Very Respectfully
A Navy Corpsman
Just the best parts from this one
http://www.sftt.org/
article06192...e06192003a.html
I would first like to both confirm and dispel some of the misunderstandings concerning logistics in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is absolutely true that the logistical portion of the campaign was the biggest downfall both in planning and execution. The biggest travesty is, while there was an obvious miscalculation of what it would take to support us on the battlefield, there was little to no evident planning for sustaining the soldiers upon completion of the main war effort. Here are some prime examples that cannot be disputed by any twist of fact or camouflaging by the "spin doctors" in public relations:
1. We crossed the line of departure [from Kuwait] and finished the missions in a pretty much "as is" state of readiness with our vehicles. We did not receive a single piece of parts support for our vehicles during the entire battle. If a vehicle went down we had to cross-level parts from a more seriously damaged or mission incapable vehicle. We brought common replacement parts as part of our basic load configuration but they were limited due to the amount of vehicles and the limited carrying space. Now the [supply] system is turned on, but with the amount of soldiers in theatre and the subsequent amount of equipment that require repairs, not a single repair part has made to our vehicles to date. (This system applies to the units that have received follow on missions to places like Fallujah.)
3. During operations, it seemed impossible to maintain our necessary supplies of water and food. We all carried five days of supply with us at LD with the intent of utilizing it only in an "emergency" situation. The problem being that because our logistics lines were so poor, we had to break into them during the trip rather than in an established emergency situation. One of the biggest reasons for this is the mismanagement of the haul assets available for the support of the operation. The logisticians were forced to make a decision, haul food and water on their limited hauling assets, or haul ammunition and parts. With the continuous "Go! Go! Go!" mentality of our movement to Baghdad, I guess it was more important to continue the fight.
4. We had a very elaborate plan of attack going into the operation. However, we failed to realize that the enemy had a vote in how exactly we were going to conduct our operation and the changes to the plan that they could affect. We, as we planned, would "take Baghdad in a matter of days" and were told that "There is no expected contact for a significant piece of our movement." We were even told not to place a round into our weapons when we LD'd because "We won't see the enemy for quite sometime." and "will have plenty of time to react." The intent was that this would reduce the risks of a "negligent discharge or fratricide incidents." Well, we know what the truth is: We received ambush and guerilla warfare tactics from almost
http://www.sftt.org/
article06192...e06192003a.html
5. The movement to the objectives was pure chaos. It was poorly orchestrated and executed. I was witness to several vehicle accidents, where soldiers lost their lives, that were a direct result of the "Go! Go! Go!" mentality. Units were getting separated by their inability to maintain convoy continuity due to the extremely dusty conditions, better known as "brown out," and the sheer number of vehicles traveling the exact same path. I cannot adequately put to words the absolute confusion caused by the movement north. The tanks and Bradleys were not stopping for anything, and that very mentality caused several problems. Imagine having only soft-skinned vehicles, small caliber firearms, overcrowded vehicles, no communications ability (except internal to your immediate group), and hearing sporadic transmissions of ambushes and close contact firefights. That is exactly what many units had to endure and it cost soldiers their lives. (I can think of a certain maintenance support unit that made the news.)
6. Once the objectives were reached and seized, we established our operations within Baghdad and started the humanitarian effort. The supply lines have yet to come into fruition and simplicities such as bottled water have yet to make their appearance on a consistent basis. We have had no potable ice since our arrival. I have personally been forced to buy ice from the Iraqis so that my soldiers were not drinking hot water day in and day out. It is bad enough that they have been forced to drink water that tastes like it came straight from a swimming pool (because of the sanitization process). Don't get me wrong - bottled water is showing up, but not with anything that can be remotely considered consistent.
We are steadily providing bottled water to the citizens of Iraq though, and you can bet your next paycheck that anyone who is of any rank that allows them to work on a brigade or higher level staff position hasn't had to drink warm sanitized water lately. As a matter of fact, I have witnessed several "higher ups" in my particular unit with private shower facilities, private porta-johns, and ice chests full of bottled water and potable ice in their immediate work areas while their subordinates (meaning the soldiers) are struggling every day to get a cold bottle of water. These very same senior soldiers are living in an air conditioned room while their soldiers are trying, in vain, to keep mosquitoes from consuming them nightly, and using hoses from an Iraqi latrine stall to get water enough to maintain their hygienic needs.
A different take on the PUTSCH
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/
csNe...3.2144188788424
Officers who retire before spending three years in their current rank revert to the next-lower rank, receiving less retirement pay. The Army for a number of years has enforced a very strict “no exceptions” policy to the rule.
To fully comprehend what is going on, it is important to note that this is not the first incident of its type. Beginning last year, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld effectively decapitated the Army’s topmost leadership. First, he announced the replacement for Gen. Eric Shinseki as Army chief a full year before his term was slated to end, in what many observers saw as a ploy to sideline Shinseki from the ongoing struggle over the Army’s future. Then on Apr. 25, Rumsfeld fired Secretary of the Army Thomas White, subsequently announcing that Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche would replace White.
Following that, Rumsfeld went looking for a new Army Chief of Staff from the roster of active-duty generals and came up empty. He then drafted Schoomaker from retirement for the top Army post, following the reported refusal of three active-duty Army generals - including former Central Command commander Gen. Tommy Franks and Keane himself - to take the position.
Pentagon observers have termed those promotion refusals as a “legal mutiny” by three of the Army generals who deserve much of the credit for the preparation and conduct of the war against Iraq. When senior subordinates refuse to follow their leader – in this case, Secretary Rumsfeld – something is badly wrong. One has to ask, “What do they know?”
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/
csNe...3.2144188788424
Here’s something that we do know: Rumsfeld has made a name for himself by pushing the Army toward rapid organizational and deployment reforms. These reforms have sparked significant internal resistance within the uniformed leadership. Rumsfeld’s opponents fear that his proposed reforms will come at the cost of major cuts to the ground force structure.
When one observes 150,000 of America’s finest troops virtually pinned down in a country without an opposing army, it becomes difficult to dismiss the critics’ fears as unfounded. Re-arranging the foundation of the U.S. Army during an ongoing military campaign is dangerous, especially for an obviously under-strength Army.
While the argument is valid that the time of the Cold War and the Cold War-sized U.S. military has passed, it is also valid to recognize that current operational requirements from Korea and Kosovo to Iraq demand a larger fighting force.
There was a report on CNN that we've lost a soldier to the heat.
Now's the time to turn up the heat on aWol.
If you read further down another letter asks why no ATT call center like they had back in Gulfwar 1. I wonder why these guys aren't being allowed to call home once a week?
because MCI got the no bid contract and they are busy bothering YOU and ME and NEXT DOOR and........
c'mon guys. that germany letter had to be sarcasm. it was dripping with it, and i thought it was a toungue-in-cheek snipe at the previous letter writer.
please tell me it was. pls god.
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