Archive for the 'Military' Category

Generals, Admirals Call Cheneys Scaremongers For Terrorism Claims

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Cheney, Guantanamo Bay, Military, The War On Terrorism

If you didn’t believe me before about Guantanamo and why it was a remarkably dumb idea, will you believe these guys?
From Politico:
“It’s up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they’re doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at [...]

September 30th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

Yes, Extraordinary Rendition To Continue Under Obama

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Military, Obama, The War On Terrorism, Torture, Transparency

But they promise that detainees won’t be abused. More on why I think that’s nonsense later on in the post.
But first, more from NY Times:
The announcement, by President Obama’s Interrogation and Transfer Policy Task Force, seemed intended in part to offset the impact of the release on Monday of a long-withheld report by the C.I.A. [...]

August 25th, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Fox News Military Pundit Calls For Soldier’s Death

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Partisan Hacks, Video

Good lord…

So if you desert you should die? I understand being brought up on charges if you leave and then lie about it, which is possible what’s going on here, but the last time I heard anything about a court martial for deserting, the punishment didn’t include death.
There are few things I hate, but this [...]

July 20th, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Dems Set To Pass Retroactive Stop-Loss Bonuses

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Money

Because we overreached so much during the past eight years, the practice of stop-loss was an unfortunate and common reality for many soldiers who would have otherwise left the military.
Now we’re honoring their forced service with more than a pat on the back.
From AP:
WASHINGTON -The House and Senate reached a compromise Thursday to give a [...]

June 12th, 2009 | Permalink| 8 Comments »

Petraeus: Violence In Afghanistan Is Up. Way Up.

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Afghanistan, Military, Terrorism

From AP:
Gen. David Petraeus said the number of attacks in Afghanistan over the last week hit the highest level since the December 2001 fall of the Taliban.
“Some of this will go up because we are going to go after their sanctuaries and safe havens as we must,” Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said during [...]

June 12th, 2009 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Army Recruiter Killed By Islamic Extremist?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Islam, Military, Terrorism

Awful news out of Little Rock, Arkansas…
A man with “political and religious motives” killed a soldier just out of basic training and wounded another Monday in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center, police said. The shootings were not believed to be part of a broader scheme. [...]
William Long, 24, of Conway, died, and [...]

June 1st, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Why Religion And Military Don’t Mix

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Religion, Video

It appears as if evangelical Christians inside the military could be urging troops to give out bibles in Afghanistan…which is strictly forbidden by both the military’s code of conduct and Afghan law.
Here’s the report…

Now, the military denies that the bibles were ever distributed, but there’s no way to really prove if they were or weren’t. [...]

May 4th, 2009 | Permalink| 52 Comments »

U.S. Forces May Stay in Mosul Past Deadline

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Iraq, Military, War

For those who’ve worried that under the command of President Obama, our military in Iraq won’t be able to adjust to realities on the ground, there’s this story out of Mosul. Conditions in the region are not good and our forces are likely postpone the scheduled withdrawal if Iraqi authorities ask us to stay.
Army Colonel [...]

April 14th, 2009 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Special Forces Free American Captain, Kill 3 Somali Pirates

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Military, The World

Quite a nice surprise on this holiday weekend.
From ABC:
A senior US official tells me that President Barack Obama approved a recommendation by Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen to dispatch special forces to the US scene on Friday.
These special forces were authorized to take action “in extremis” against the [...]

April 12th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

The New Obama/Gates Military Budget

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Military, Money

The strategy is simple.
Quit plowing billions into the programs that aren’t working and up the funding for some programs that do.
From Wash Post:
Gates’s aides say his plan would boost spending for some programs and take large whacks at others, including some with powerful constituencies on Capitol Hill and among influential contractors, making his announcement [...]

April 4th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

US And Russia Agree To Arms Deal Within The Year?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Nuclear, Russia, United States

Some good news already from G20:
After a meeting between the two men in London, on the eve of the G20 summit, President Obama also accepted an invitation to fly to Moscow in July, by which time both sides hope negotiators from both countries will have worked out an arms control deal to replace the Strategic [...]

April 1st, 2009 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

Robert Gates Leads The Charge To Cut Costly Weaponry

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Money

A new type of threat requires new ways of combating it.
Thankfully our Defense Secretary is leading that charge with some needed changes to the Pentagon’s budget.
From Boston.com:
WASHINGTON – As the Bush administration was drawing to a close, Robert M. Gates, whose two years as defense secretary had been devoted to wars in Iraq and [...]

March 17th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Obama To Send 17,000 Troops To Afghanistan

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Afghanistan, Barack, Military, The World, Video

Following up on his campaign promise to have a surge-like push in Afghanistan to see if it could help the country.
From Fox News:
“This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “I recognize the extraordinary strain that this deployment places on our troops [...]

February 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

French Navy Fighters Grounded By Computer Virus

By Glenn Church | Related entries in Military

Here is the simple way to ground a country’s air force…
The Telegraph is reporting that fighter planes in the French navy were unable to take off after their computers were infected by a computer virus.
The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been [...]

February 8th, 2009 | Permalink| 7 Comments »

Obama Suspends Gitmo Prosecutions

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Guantanamo Bay, Law, Military

As promised, this is one of the first orders of business. And given that we eventually freed the majority of those we kidnapped and held indefinitely without access to legal counsel, this move is yet another signal that America is starting a new chapter.
From AP:
The U.S. moved Tuesday to halt the Guantanamo Bay war crimes [...]

January 21st, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Joe The Plumber Thinks Media Shouldn’t Report On Wars

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Disasters, Israel, Media, Military, Video, War

Kind of an odd statement coming from a guy who accepted a paid gig to be a war correspondent, but hey…it’s not like Pajamas TV is paying Wurzelbacher to be consistent or even correct.
AP reports…

And here’s a partial transcript just in case you can’t see the video…
I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists [...]

January 12th, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Is “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Gone? Obama Says Yes

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Blogging, Military, Science, Sexuality, Video

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answers a lot of questions for the transition. Definitely try to watch them all.
However, check out the last question/answer around 4:15 of this video.

All I can say is…it’s about time.
I’ve never understood the claim that somebody disclosing their sexuality would destroy troop morale, especially when it has been well documented that [...]

January 10th, 2009 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

500+ Palestinians Dead In Gaza

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Israel, Military, The World, War

The fighting is growing more intense as Israel has started their ground offensive. And if Israel doesn’t realize that they’ve overreached here and are losing sympathy around the world, then they better wake up and realize it soon. You can’t kill this many women and children and not get a ton of backlash.
From CNN:
“Every couple [...]

January 5th, 2009 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Generals Put Together Iraq Withdrawal Timetable

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Iraq, Military

Looks like it’s a little bit longer than the 16 months Obama talked about during the primaries, but as long as the plan is to get out during his first term I bet he’ll allow the generals more time to execute a plan they think is realistic.
From NY Times:
The plan was proposed by the top [...]

December 18th, 2008 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Obama’s Announcement Of Gen. Eric Shinseki

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Health Care, Military, Video

I missed this yesterday, so here’s his introduction and Shinseki’s acceptance.

Shinseki was absolutely correct that more troops were needed back in 2003 and he was punished for speaking truth to power. So there’s certainly some poetic justice that he’s now in charge of helping those who suffered in some small part from the naive strategy [...]

December 8th, 2008 | Permalink| 4 Comments »