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Exactly. This may be dressed up as some incompetent attempt to deter foreign interference but one needs only to look at polls.. like this image to understand the real motivation.

There is a record for a 1 mile run in a bomb suit, though.

Army Times Story

The Army response:

I won't go through all of them but this one accusation says it all: "Women were first sent to a special two-week training in January to get them ready for the school, which didn't start until April 20. Once there they were allowed to repeat the program until they passed – while men were held to a strict pass/fail standard."

The women started RTAC however this report says that 26 women started RTAC and only 5 passed that iteration. So this is a bold faced lie. In all the accusations, none of the accusers are named. They are all "unknown".

If they were any smart, they'd speed up the development of such things as precision time-fused grenades for hand-held grenade launchers, such as the ones used in the XM25. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit in such humble endeavors.

... the real issue is how to prevent this from happening in the future. The first thing that comes to mind is the word "Legislation". But then again, it is exactly that what gave rise to this situation in the first place.

Well, that is part of having the rule of law. You have to spell out what is to be done, and what the rules are. Some things don't work out the way they were intended, and the law get changed. You still have to come up with a plan which translates into law.

Things can get tricky when you have to develop laws that cover a wide range of situations as is the case with national security. You never know may crop up. For example, the US military has had to rely upon an 1861 law to continue operations on more than one occasion.

1861 law may help Army operate under shutdown
For Pentagon, A Legal Leg To Forage On

~ Free food: Bought at a cost ration of greatest weight per dollar, which translated into cheapest food medically allowed. Joke I heard was: Grade E Beef-substitute, suitable for Americans worst and finest, served to our military and death-row inmates. With the way the Army operates, I was lucky to get two meals a day from cooks. Breakfast usually consisted of coffee and cigarettes, a bagel if I was lucky. Lunch and dinner was at the dining facilities where everything was rationed out using grade school sized portions. I ate the best when I was in the field or on vacation.

Oh man, I'm so glad I was in and out way before the era of obscene contractor takeover. At least we knew that if the E-6 in charge of the mess served up rotten food, he would get Article 15'd at least.

Your post reminds me of one time I got in line for chow for dinner. Yum, roast beef: we could smell it form outside the building. I slide my metal, WW2-surplus tray down the line and the E-2 ladles me a nice portion.

I sit down and start tearing into the meat, but nearly gag in horror when I get a piece into my mouth. I pull it out and realize that it is 100% fat/gristle. The brown gravy camouflaged the fact that there was no meat. I dig around and find a few bits of actual meat. Maybe the size of a quarter, if you mash them all together. So, I did what I always do when faced with crap from REMFs:

I carefully pour the grease-infused watery brown gravy onto my potatoes and (white, pasty) bread, drink my water, and think of creative ways to frag low-bid contractors. If I hadn't had night duty, I probably would've Hoggled when I got back to the barracks. God damn Army.

The relative number of reserve and National Guard active are not that large compared to the total reserve force. The current goal is no more than three or four deployments over the course of a career - assuming there is a need for that force level deployed to a war zone, which seems unlikely to me.

Managing the Reserve Components as an Operational Force

In January 2007, the Secretary of Defense established total force utilization guidelines that included the planning objective for involuntary mobilization of National Guard and Reserve units and individuals of a “one year mobilized to five years demobilized ratio.” This guideline does not mean that every Reserve member will serve one year out of every six years. . . .

Many skills that are useful to the uniformed military are difficult to acquire through traditional accession policies, are challenging to obtain on short notice, or are only needed for a limited duration. These skills might include cutting edge, technical skills such as those possessed by engineers, scientists, or information technology professionals, as well as specialized skills such as languages and cultural understanding. Flexible affiliation options allow the Services to meet requirements with individuals who may be willing to volunteer for some form of military service for short periods of time or in response to specific emergencies, but for whom traditional affiliation programs are not of interest. Thus, removing barriers that limit Reserve members from contributing more to defense missions is an ongoing and necessary process.

- - -

-- a lot of people who have finished their tours are told that they must re-up

I think you're confused. Service members were not told they must re-up, but rather some had their service period involuntarily extended by a "Stop Loss" order due to critical wartime need. Now some service members face the prospect of having their service period involuntarily shortened as the military has started shrinking again.

Stop Loss Special Pay

Stop loss provides a valuable and critical tool to quickly retain and generate forces to surge in a major conflict. However, as deployment schedules stabilize, the department must then adapt and minimize its use of stop loss. The secretary of defense announced in March a comprehensive plan to eliminate the current use of stop loss, while retaining the authority for future use under extraordinary circumstances.

Army Stop Loss Special Pay
Soldiers, veterans and survivors of those whose service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss between September 11, 2001 and September 30, 2008 can apply to receive $500 for every month, or portion of a month, they served under Stop Loss.

More soldiers will face prospect of early-outs

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairwoman and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman jointly signed a letter stating their willingness to not provide needed care to military veterans injured on-duty. That covers both ends of the political spectrum.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/10/military-veterans-committee-leaders-open-to-VA-cuts-101711w/

i don't know; there's this: http://policelink.monster.com/news/articles/131311-secrets-out-trijicon-inscribes-bible-verses-on-scopes

but that's only one piece of equipment, you say. well, yes, but imagine how well-armed someone would be once they got to the entire bible, or even just the new testament. i wonder if they'll use in-n-out burgers for rations.

(for completeness: they stopped doing it; probably made a sweet pile of cash on the modification kits to remove the verses, too. there's just no way to lose on a military contract.)

U.S. Army Wants Keylogging Software to Help Prevent a Second Cablegate

- https://www.securityweek.com/us-army-wants-keylogging-software-help-prevent-second-cablegate

The full story and additional reporting on DARPA research into the matter is available from the Army Times:

- http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/05/army-wants-to-monitor-your-computer-050512w/

Panetta is the same guy who compares cyber threats to Pearl Harbor. He sees threats everywhere, and his solution is more DoD funding.

Seriously, in your earlier post you basically said that everyone who disagrees with you is lying for political gain, and everyone who agrees with you is a sincere communicator. Don't you see a serious logical problem in that? If you don't, I'll make it explicit: just because people agree with you, that does not mean they are kind, sincere, or even right.

Let me explain how politics works. People will attempt to gain power wherever they can. It doesn't matter if AGW is 110% real, and serious threat with fires erupting on the equator, people dying of starvation, and oceans rising to the Rocky Mountains. Politicians are STILL going to try to use it to their advantage.

We see this all the time. In the 1950s, communist spies WERE a reality. A guy named McCarthy twisted this fact to destroy his political enemies. In the 2000s, anti-American terrorists WERE a real threat. A guy named George Bush used this fact to invade a completely unrelated country and destroy its government.

It doesn't matter if an issue is real or not. If it has captured attention, people will try to use it for their advantage.

Ok, here is the link to the Army, not Battalion but rather combat Brigade stationed to the US. If you read the article it talks about "civil unrest".
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl6RXRHMXwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYyvw0x4h88

Here is one about the Marines operating a DUI check point with the police
http://freespeech.vo.llnwd.net/o25/pub/images/chp01.png
http://www.infowars.com/massive-checkpoint-operation-in-tennessee-violated-posse-comitatus-fourth-amendment/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgMx2F41XD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWs4A8WEFk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE2oLMsNJnE

There are dozens of YouTube videos about the military training on the streets of America. Why do they need to train on public streets and the entire city they are in? They can train on their bases just as well. They call these Urban Warfare Training. It is really creepy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Jux68F_AQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks43WZftoqA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NDmqZU_2a0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah_8xu--IEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX6u8kqL5Z8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5swzxOYQ0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdeWTjDrIls

About the Tea Party. You said there are a few unhinged. That must be a few around you since we have had several Tea Party rallies here in Missouri and had none of those problems. They were peaceful, people talked and there were no issues.

5.56mm and similar rounds are being sought after less and less due to their lack of range.

Checkout : Marksmen issued better rifles in Afghanistan (7.62mm DMR)

And: SCHOOL OF ADVANCED MILITARY STUDIES: Increasing small arms lethality in Afghanistan: Taking back the Infantry Half-Kilometer

Larger caliber helps with that, but it's not a requirement. The caliber of AK-74 is smaller than that of M16, but the latter has looser tolerances, and is generally more reliable as a result

I think everyone here is talking about the ubiquitous AK-47 which shoots the 7.62mm round, a good deal larger than the 5.56mm M16 round. Both the AK-74 and M16 can hit targets accurately out to about 600m. The AK-47 and other guns that chamber the larger 7.62mm round, the M14, DMR or SVD for example, can hit targets accurately out to 800m and can shoot out to 1000m or more. The 7.62 round has almost twice the kinetic energy as the smaller 5.57 round. A lot of engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq take place between 400m and 1000m where 5.56mm rounds just don't reach their target, so being accurate just doesn't matter as much as being able to put rounds far enough to reach the target.

It's accurate enough at most realistic ranges of engagement ... 200-300m.

5.56mm and similar rounds are being sought after less and less due to their lack of range. Bigger does not mean less accurate, it just means further distances and more kinetic energy impacting the target.

Checkout : Marksmen issued better rifles in Afghanistan (7.62mm DMR)

And:
SCHOOL OF ADVANCED MILITARY STUDIES: Increasing small arms lethality in Afghanistan: Taking back the Infantry Half-Kilometer

Of course any long range discussion cannot truly take place without the mention of the .338 Lapua Magnum. Taking out targets at almost two miles away is just mind boggling.

So you have no proof to offer?

we didn't need to have these informants named in these documents, champ.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/ap_afghanistan_kandahar_041210/

That your bus incident? Already plenty well-publicized, if the ARMY TIMES is distributing the AP coverage of the incident. I don't exactly think that's evidence of some sinister coverup that we needed these leaks to reveal.

But then, of course Americans are to blame for every civilian death there, right? How inconvenient that six people died about a week ago to a roadside bomb (I think it's safe to say that's not an American device that did it). Or another ~30 killed in another incident months back by another roadside bomb? Or 25 dead about 2 weeks ago?

Yes, you're right. American forces are clearly just killing untold numbers of civilians, and getting away with it there. Fuck off.

1. It was tested, under controlled conditions, by experienced engineers who only turned the thing on long enough to test it. What happens when you get some sadistic grunt on the trigger who just holds the fire button down?

Well, hypothetically the safeties kick in. In practice, when things go wrong you get $18,000 worth of second degree burns. And that's during a controlled test.

Of course, nobody ever encounters additional surprises when going from controlled tests to open production.

The US Army justcancelled a similar project although their version was rather smaller than a shipping container, because in testing it didn't meet some of the requirements (i believe it was the IR seeking mode that was problematic) and because it would have cost ~$200k per missile (it costs ~$500k at the moment).

Apparently the technology was 90% ready ,though.

Not sure I like the idea of this. There are too many crazies with access to the kind of money that makes this viable

The new eco-friendly, no-lead M885 5.56 rounds the Army is using in Afghanistan will not even punch through a car's windshield. on one instance over 400 rounds hit a light truck yet failed to even scratch the driver. It appears that the Army feels the new rounds are as deadly when a soft target is hit,

“If you hit a guy in the right spot, it doesn’t matter what you shoot him with,” said Maj. Thomas Henthorn, chief of the small arms division at Fort Benning, Ga., Smaller-caliber bullets come under fire

but unfortunately the new rounds get soft and/or melt in use

In the M855A1 LFS bullet’s design, the bismuth-tin alloy sits beneath a steel penetrating tip. A copper jacket encases all but the point of the bullet. The round was designed to work specifically with the M4 carbine. Army officials have maintained that the new round will provide more “consistent performance” than the current M855 round and perform better against hard targets.

The problem surfaced when some of the bullets did not follow their trajectory or planned flight path.

“During ballistic testing of production LFS cartridges, we noticed that some projectiles occasionally varied from the intended trajectory,” Woods said. Temperature issues arise for lead-free slug

so it's pretty hard to hit what you're aiming at with them. Personally if I had to chose between a round that bounced of windshields like the 5.56 and a round that penetrate 12 inches of oak tree like I've seen the 7.62 do, I have to go with the 7.62 also.

The new eco-friendly, no-lead M885 5.56 rounds the Army is using in Afghanistan will not even punch through a car's windshield. on one instance over 400 rounds hit a light truck yet failed to even scratch the driver. It appears that the Army feels the new rounds are as deadly when a soft target is hit,

“If you hit a guy in the right spot, it doesn’t matter what you shoot him with,” said Maj. Thomas Henthorn, chief of the small arms division at Fort Benning, Ga., Smaller-caliber bullets come under fire

but unfortunately the new rounds get soft and/or melt in use

In the M855A1 LFS bullet’s design, the bismuth-tin alloy sits beneath a steel penetrating tip. A copper jacket encases all but the point of the bullet. The round was designed to work specifically with the M4 carbine. Army officials have maintained that the new round will provide more “consistent performance” than the current M855 round and perform better against hard targets.

The problem surfaced when some of the bullets did not follow their trajectory or planned flight path.

“During ballistic testing of production LFS cartridges, we noticed that some projectiles occasionally varied from the intended trajectory,” Woods said. Temperature issues arise for lead-free slug

so it's pretty hard to hit what you're aiming at with them. Personally if I had to chose between a round that bounced of windshields like the 5.56 and a round that penetrate 12 inches of oak tree like I've seen the 7.62 do, I have to go with the 7.62 also.

The military has conducted dishonest wargames before, gaming the rules to prevent the Red team from achieving a politically distasteful victory. Perhaps the parties involved can learn from their loss instead of pretending it didn't happen. Of course, if the Red Team was supposed to win, in order to bolster budget requests and score political points, we're back to meaningless pantomimes.

Let's apply a bit of research to that John Kerry quote, turns out he just boffed a joke, the copy of his written remarks that was handed out to reporters before he made the speech had this sentence at that point: "I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

Something that the youtube sound-bite has conveniently edited out is the fact that he was clearly beating up on Bush at that point, to take his statement the way you have is to completely ignore the context and assume he just decided to make a random comment about the military in the middle of a totally unrelated discussion.

I can't really blame you for doing that, the republican party is so highly skilled at doing the faux outrage act, its no surprise millions of people are suckered in by it. However, I do blame you for citing Murtha - how does accusing someone of murder equate to thinking that they are dumb or poor? Since when do only dumb or poor people commit homicide? Sounds like you may be a classist. And, you didn't even get that one right either, Wuterich is still charged with negligent homicide.

So, in summary you have completely failed to support your claims that Murtha or Kerry have a "desire to paint the military as a bunch of dumb poor people."

Now, lets take on the general perception that poor and uneducated people end up in the military...

99.9 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education; 73.3 percent have some semester hours toward a college degree; 16.2 percent have an associate's degree or equivalent semester hours; 4.7 percent have a bachelor's degree; 0.7 percent have a master's degree and .01 percent have a professional or doctorate degree."

You just kicked the crap out of your premise with that one.

let's compare:

Bachelor's Degree:
enlisted force: 4.7%
us population: 16.7%

Master's Degree:
enlisted force: 0.7%
us population: 5.9%

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_009.asp

And don't even try to point at the officers - a bachelor's is a requirement to be a commissioned officer, having a degree gives you options. This is about the military being the employer of last resort for a lot people. If that were not the case, we would not have seen the number of conduct waivers double over the last 5 years - the people with options have been going elsewhere.

Wikipedia notes

The Medal of Honor has not been awarded to any living persons in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, only posthumously. In addition, the percentage of persons receiving the medal in these wars has been significantly lower than in previous wars (one out of a million vs. one out of one-hundred thousand).
The Army Times published an article analyzing the awards in its March 30, 2009 issue.It was suggested that because of the intense partisan politics in Washington, D.C. over these wars, the Bush Administration subjected potential Medal of Honor recipients to intense background checks so as to avoid scrutiny, from political opponents, of both the administration and the recipient. An Army Times editorial suggested, "Our heroes deserve to be recognized."

Typical uninformed protestors.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/army_recruiting_numbers_031109w/

The military is enjoying a recruiting boom thanks to the poor economy. Enlistment bonuses are getting cut and the military is getting much more selective in whom they accept. This year in particular is a recruiter's wet dream.

All this "experience" does is reach out to Generation Y in a new way.

despises Bush ... Infantry and medical in my case, including Desert Storm.

You are a tiny minority, and you know it... Bush may have lost some military support since the linked article, but most in the military supported him — unlike the new President.

Try wrapping your right-wing-chickenhawk

Now, now... Do we really need these slurs? Not sure, why chicken hawk has become such a derogatory term among Bush-hating leftists, but for a mature (Desert Storm was 18 years ago!) person to use it seems quite wrong. I suspect, you weren't anything more than an enlisted man, got out as soon as you could, and have been nourishing your Leftist Illiberalism in academia ever since...

Thank you for your service nonetheless, of course.

Don't forget that policies are in place to not allow the media to show flag draped caskets. Seeing a number of dead soldiers is one thing, actually seeing the body count would be a much stronger reaction.

Can't hide a shuttle loss so well.

I'm interested to know how you feel about this.

The Air Force doesn't let Jim from the trailer park fly their planes.

The Air Force only lets people gullible enough to believe in the moral authority of the United States government fly their planes. Anyone who attains a position of trust or authority in any armed force has shown high suggestibility.

And let's remember that just last year, the U.S. Air Force loaded live nukes on a B-52 flying across the country. Association with the USAF is not a guarantee of competence.

more than double that...

http://www.armytimes.com/projects/money/pay_charts/2008/retirement_pay/

O7 starts at $4961 a month, and most of them probably have closer to 30 years of service than 20. so that's almost $100k a year in retirement. i'm not certain, but i think at least some of that may be tax-free too.

Now, not to say that the bill is useless, but major funded programs like Iraq or Social Security don't justify (relatively) smaller programs, especially when the existing system isn't broken

I haven't heard anything about a lack of care for our solders, I don't see what the big issue is.

Army tests show that 200mg every 2 hours (for up to 8 hours) is the optimal amount to keep soldiers alert.

http://www.armytimes.com/offduty/health/ONLINE.HEA LTH.CAFFEINEGUM/

So well metered amounts of caffeinated products really would be a boon to police doing the graveyard shift.

This is worse than fighting random wars? I don't hear about this telescope killing a few dozen Americans per week.

Please. We must support the troops. If you don't stand with them, you stand against them.

The $14M spent on Arecibo could be spent to support the troops in Iraq. Sure, some of that spending doesn't actually go over to Iraq, but that ignores the way things get done in our system. Without proper motivation, our national leadership is unable to focus on getting the job done.

It is cut and runners like you who are sap our legislative will to fight. Democrats know how sensitive Republicans are to criticism. Congress would have done better, if it weren't for unpatriotic people who don't support our troops.

But we shall stay the course: freedom is on the march.

Feeling has a lot to do with 'quality of life'

if a spouse calls you an asshole every day, your mindset will falter pretty soon, or you'll get a divorce. either way- it is a change.. consider this is the best analogy I can feel about the difference in the relationship between me and my Govt.

as to the other, it's what I got from talking to some vet's I know.. but I found a reference readily
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2513 919.php
One likely factor in that support: Military members are much more likely to identify themselves as Republicans. Recent polls show about one-third of Americans consider themselves Republicans, but 57 percent of those surveyed by Military Times identified with the GOP."... "The poll found:

About half described their political views as conservative or very conservative; four in 10 called themselves moderate; and only 7 percent called themselves liberal.

More than half called themselves Republicans, and just 13 percent said they are Democrats. Recent polls of the general public show the nation evenly split, with Democrats, Republicans and independents making up about a third of the population each. "...

Ever see this: http://www.armytimes.com/print.php?f=1-292236-2336 437.php ?

Hey you stupid shit, the pentagon and the Administration are always looking to screw the little guy in the forces. Also, you're clearly too shortsighted to remember what his daddy, and the earlier republicans have done. Friends of the Military, they are not. Why so many servicemen support them defies me. They're always closing hospitals and bases (screwing over the towns that need them). They're always going after pensions and health care. They're always going after bonuses and hazard pay.

If one kept a journal of every time they tried to fuck over the backbone of the military, you'd have a thousand page book in short time. But since you're so sold on the party line, and how "liberals" (aka anyone against "them") are the spawn of Satan, Saddam, Lenin, Carl Marx, Mao, Stalin, Adolf Hitler and The Smurfs, then no amount of enlightenment is likely to eject your head from your ass, but it's worth a try, I guess.

Witness:
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292259-1989 240.php/
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/20 03/08/14/MN94780.DTL/
http://www.iupa.org/newsroom/PayDiff.html
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,74425, 00.html
http://actforvictory.org/act.php/truth/articles/20 06_wont_be_first_year_bush_cuts_support_for_vetera ns

But, hey, they vote, and people support them also tend to vote, so they aren't so quick to clusterfuck their pawns in front of public scrutiny:

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry= 7830

And when they do get around to giving pay increases, they're often less than the cost of living!

Phony interview? So sez the Dems. Even the LA Times can't come up with a sentence to incriminate the administration without making a fairly grandiose assumption on context. Note the brackets around "question" in this article, when "answer" or even "topic" would have been more accurate:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-f g-bush14oct14,0,7903715.story?coll=la-home-headlin es

Also note that the article indicates that the soldiers didn't ask the questions - they answered them. The "coaching" was so that the soldiers knew which other soldier was best suited to answer particular questions. The soldiers would then know whom to hand the microphone to next, based on the question that was asked. They weren't told how to answer.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1174 866.php

Nevertheless, the Democrats and Jon Stewart spout kneejerk nonsense as to what was going on, and all the Bush haters out there take it as gospel truth.

Those elderly patients must have just been stubborn eh!

In other news, america goes to war against its own population:

Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer

NEW ORLEANS -- Combat operations are underway on the streets "to take this city back" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"This place is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. "We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control." ...

While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077 495.php

There are over 8,000 National Guard members already in southern Louisiana with other states pitching in help. Not to mention the assets from the Navy and the Coast Guard that are already on the scene. Instead of focusing in on a political angle to hang your hat on, take some of the self absorbed, righteous indignation and channel to something that can actually help those affected by this natural disaster by contributing to the Red Cross or show us all how much of a wonderful, caring human being and go to Louisiana or Mississippi to pitch in.

This story and video show that American soldiers are currently using body armour that can stop rifle rounds. Although it doesn't say so anywhere, the sniper rifle was almost certainly 7.62mm. Here are some pictures of the aftermath: image 1 image 2.

You are correct however that the armour is pretty heavy, but that is less of an issue for vehicle based soldiers rather than pure infantry.

However, the problem with this powered exo-skeleton is that just the act of adding more weight, even if it is "self supporting", makes the soldier slower and less mobile (because of extra inertia). They need to be able to react very quickly and be able to dive to the ground, and jump behind cover, etc. There is a very long way to go before projects like this would actually improve a soldiers chances of survival. A better short term prospect is to continue to improve body armour to make it lighter.

Navy officials and the White House yesterday said that while the crew of the Lincoln came up with the banner's message, the White House printed it. "The Navy asked for help in the production of the banner for the president's visit. So we helped," said White House spokesman Allen Abney. The crew felt the banner reflected their recent operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Navy officials and the White House.

Navy officials and the White House yesterday said that while the crew of the Lincoln came up with the banner's message, the White House printed it.

Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad "was hit by something" that crippled the 69-ton behemoth.

Army officials still are puzzling over what that "something" was.

According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle's skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that "my little finger will not go into it," the report's author noted.

The "something" continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner's seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner's flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank.

As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of "mobility kills" since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago. The other Abrams knocked out this year in Iraq was hit by an RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade.

Experts believe whatever it is that knocked out the tank in August was not an RPG-7 but most likely something new -- and that worries tank drivers.

Here is the full article

Terrorists blow things up and kill about 1/10th the number of Americans who die in highway deaths each year, but in doing do they stiffen our resolve and so never get anywhere near to changing our fundamental America values.

But dissidents and domestic trouble-makers can cause real problems for a regime that calls questioning its mistakes tantamount to aiding America's enemies.

Today is Memorial Day. I hope that all Americans will take time today to reflect on the costs of freedom and the American men and women in our armed forces who have paid for our freedoms with their service, their wounds, and their lives.

On this Memorial Day, let's really support our troops by following the advice of so many retired officers and men by insisting that "Robert S." Rumsfeld and his band of incompetent chicken-hawks resign -- or be fired.

Like this?

In a brief but intense firefight, Thomas hit one of the attackers with a single shot from his M4 carbine at a distance he estimates was 100 to 110 yards. He hit the man in the buttocks, a wound that typically is not fatal. But this round appeared to kill the assailant instantly.
"It entered his butt and completely destroyed everything in the lower left section of his stomach ... everything was torn apart," Thomas said. Thomas, a security consultant with a private company contracted by the government, recorded the first known enemy kill using a new -- and controversial -- bullet. The bullet is so controversial that if Thomas, a former SEAL, had been on active duty, he would have been court-martialed for using it. The ammunition is "nonstandard" and hasn't passed the military's approval process.
"The way I explain what happened to people who weren't there is ... this stuff was like hitting somebody with a miniature explosive round," he said, even though the ammo does not have an explosive tip. "Nobody believed that this guy died from a butt shot." The bullet Thomas fired was an armor-piercing, limited-penetration round manufactured by RBCD of San Antonio.

So now, instead of a "beowulf cluster of...," are we going to start seeing weapons/ammo tech here at slashdot and the question will be "I'd like to see a MetalStorm cluster of THOSE!"???

People are leaving the United States out of disgust and fear.

According to who? Show me some proof that a significant number of people are leaving the US, and that those people are leaving out of "disgust and fear", and that this number is higher now than in the past. I call bullcrap.

Comparisons are being made to pre-war Germany.

Who is making these comparisons? If you believe that, it would benefit you to open up some WWII history books.

The draft commission is coming back online.

No its not.

Suddenly religion is leaking into the government

Bullcrap. The 9th Circuit just ruled this year that the words "under God" in the pledge were unconstitutional. They just remove a 10 Commandments monument from a courthouse in Alabama. Most people in this country, including members of the government and our current President, have always been and will always be religious. There is nothing wrong with that.

like blood out of a bullet-riddled Iraqi

I find it interesting that you are more negative about the US presence in Iraq than the Iraqi's themselves are.

and even more horrifically, most people seem to think that's okay.

Whats not okay? That our current President doesn't hide the fact that he believes in God? Would you like it better if we outlawed all public expressions of faith? Yeah- that sounds great.

And despite vast technological superiority over all enemy nations, the U.S. continues to ramp up weapons development.

And I wouldn't have it any other way. If we relax, it won't take long before somebody gains an advantage.

Something is deeply wrong in the U.S.

Yes. Right now we have 10 democrat presidential candidates that are so blinded by hatred and partisanship that the are hoping our economy gets worse and we fail in Iraq. Why? Because then they have a better chance at winning an election. They have set themselves up so they will succeed only when America fails. We also have a media that, for whatever reason, seems unwilling to report our successes in Iraq. Do you think that is helping?

The US military wants to make sure that all the GI's who have been sent into a pointless overseas quagmire can still be shown to "vote" for the Chickenhawk-in-Chief, who is even now conspiring to cut their benefits. A truly secure online voting system would defeat this purpose.

Yes, I'm a vet. Yes, I'm cynical as hell about this.

...the guerrilla-style resistance of Iraqi militia groups made for an enemy that was "different from the one we war-gamed against.
This is likely to be a problem, regardless of whether it's 'muddy boots' training or a computer simulation. If you train wrong, and haven't learned how to adapt, you're in for a world of hurt.

Another problem is that war games/simulations can be rigged to provide the desired result. This is likely to be a problem with either 'muddy boots' training or computer simulations, too.

But it seems like it would be easier to secretly rig a computer simulation to accomplish this. Read more about recent rigging of war games: General says Millennium Challenge 02 'was almost entirely scripted'. This had real people giving orders, and the general in charge of the OPFOR found out about it. But if it had all been computer-based, how hard would it be to stack the deck in secret?

Careful who you call stupid, you're likely to get it all over yourself.

It is legally sufficient to ban some weapons and not others even if it is not logical -- this is not about equal protection for firearms. The important thing in a criminal statute is that it give notice what is proscribed. Also, the wisdom of the law as a whole is a different matter from the meaning of its parts; some parts being illogical or even unconstitutional will likely not invalidate the other parts. And as a matter of policy, I think it is silly, for example, to argue that grenade launchers shouldn't be illegal because no crimes have been committed with them. No crimes have been committed with nuclear weapons -- should they be legal? Or, less ridiculous-sounding, flame throwers, exploding bullets, land mines, hand grenades, silencers ... you get my point. And this is all beside the point here of interpreting the law.

I'll speculate M16 does not need inclusion in the assault rifle list because it has burst and full-auto capabilities, thus falls under existing "machine gun" regulations. It is however an assault rifle if one has ever existed, and meets the generic definition of one in the statute. It is also referred to thus, perhaps informally, in military parlance. If you must get really picky, with the flip of a switch an M16 can be placed in semiauto mode; thus it has the capability of being an assault weapon and thus ought to be illegal altogether. If the statute establishes a broader meaning to assault weapon, so be it; if a machine gun is not technically an assault weapon, fine; what is important is the content of what is or is not banned, not the label.

If you feel weapons functionally similar to those banned are still legal, then lobby Congress to include them in the interest of fairness. Logically machine guns should be included; let's see that they are! The rule in criminal prosecutions, importantly, is the "rule on leniency": ambiguities in the statute are resolved in favor of the defendant. Regardless, having spent some time in my life interpreting the law, I am 100% in favor of legislative clarity. One rarely sees it.

Finally, here is the ideal cite to the statutory definition of "assault rifle" in the United States Code (embarassing I forgot Cornell posted the Code -- they're my alma mater and the professor in charge of the site was my property instructor). As you have not identified any errors in the Brady site description of the law, the point is moot, though I would immediately notify them of any, as I would the NRA. You haven't identified any errors in what I wrote, either.

Feel free to raise any concrete objections to the interpretation of the law but not again the wisdom of its passage. The latter is politics.

From CNN: Special Forces in Afghanistan
From ArmyTimes.com: More special ops troops enter Afghanistan
From BBC: Allied Forces in Afghanistan

If you don't know, please refrain from posting and use Google...

PS to the last post. Go to the Army Times Website and see if you can do a search through the archives. A lot of people in the military were nervous about the vaccine and any health consequences.