Slashdot Mirror

Corruption, pure and simple. When was the last time a high-ranking government official was fired or jailed for their malfeasance?
https://www.stripes.com/some-v...

And what about the IRS scandal? The taxpayers are on the hook for the payouts but Lois Lerner retired with her pension.
https://www.dailysignal.com/20...

Add to this that government employees can leave office and then work for the same businesses they regulated the week before.

No, I'm refusing to take the bait you're trying to use to change the subject, as a way to distract from the fact she only avoided indictment because of political support from the administration.

Nope, you're refusing to address a serious problem, and making a tedious excuse for your refusal to do the right thing. Yet it was a subject you brought up.

Why do you lack the courage to denounce an actually abusive system, so badly that you immediately start to retract your support for your own statement?

Did you not realize someone would notice what you said, and support you? Are you afraid that you'll be subject to criticism for taking on a sacred cow?

Regardless, not a SINGLE person in the US military is there but for having volunteered to be there.

Indeed, the rich and privileged have managed to end conscription, leaving themselves free to benefit, without risk of paying the price. And there are still concerns about lying recruiters, and even targeting of the impoversished for recruitment.. Recent editorial on conscription. Which is why there are severe questions about the prosecution of individuals in the military, since it is not representative of the public, which leads to abuse, since nobody cares about them.

And then there's Trump's proposals.

So needless to say, these are some serious issues, and you should treat them with a modicum of consideration, not attempt to ignore them.

The UCMJ is publicly available to read before you decide to start taking a paycheck and benefits from the DoJ, and nobody - NOBODY - is even a little bit foggy on whether or not being in uniform and carrying around weed are compatible. Anyone in uniform who's too dumb to know that should be in the brig just for being that dumb.

Which would be one thing except For all the shit it has lead to happening. I'd rather they smoke weed than commit suicide to be honest.

It's ok, you can continue to stick your head in the sand and ignore the problem. You can do that. Totally.

You shouldn't. But you can.

Both military and civilian government employees who work with the clearances to handle classified material are subject to the same rules.

Nope, different rules and protocols. Was true even when it was Francis Gary Powers, who absolutely was not working for the DOD, absolutely not. And of course, there are severe problems with that system, as came up in a story the other day.

And then there was the story about misuse of databases by individuals engaging in personal affairs. Which is another problem that gets ignored.

Any involvement of the military in Hillary Clinton's prosecution would violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

Whew! It's a good thing you made that counterpoint to an argument nobody is having with you.

You're the one bringing it up, when it's meaningless what would be done under the UCMJ to someone who isn't subject to it anyway. Now something meaningful is the treatment of individuals to injustice under the UCMJ. You brought that up, but the swerved away from it.

It's a hot-potato, I'll grant you, but if you're brave, you can handle it. Right?

Google is your friend

Hmmm ... disingenuous or ignorant, disingenuous or ignorant . . .

The correct answer is neither, although I understand those are both big clubs.

Judge said Army or jail, but military doesn’t want him - Army: ‘Not taking jailbirds has been our policy for decades’

Guerra, of North Tonawanda, outside Buffalo, was facing up to a year in jail after pleading guilty to an aggravated assault charge for allegedly hitting a woman who came between him and his girlfriend during a domestic dispute, said Niagara County District Attorney Matthew Murphy.

When Guerra’s attorney told the judge in the case that his client wanted to join the military, the judge gave Guerra a choice, Murphy said.

“The judge said, ‘Well, I’ll give you a conditional discharge: the condition is you join the military,’ ” Murphy said.

But Army regulations say that people facing pending charges are ineligible to enlist, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty.

“Army policy reflected in Army Regulation 601-210, paragraph 4-32a states ‘waiver is not authorized if a criminal or juvenile court charge is pending or if such a charge was dismissed or dropped at any stage of the court proceedings on condition that the offender enlists in a military service,’ ” Hilferty said in an e-mail response to questions.

Army recruiters are also banned from helping someone get out of pending charges by joining the Army, Hilferty said.

“It isn’t a new regulation. Not taking jailbirds has been our policy for decades,” he said.

July marks 40th anniversary of all-volunteer Army

Only 20 percent of Americans are qualified to be in the Army under standards of health, behavior, and intelligence. Seamands said recruiting still remains a challenge.

"We are very selective because we know what's at stake," Seamands said. "What's at stake is having a professional force that's capable of fighting and winning our nation's battles."

It isn't 1969 any more.

Actually, recent studies show that the remote pilots do have PTSD issues....they don't just fly a drone in, launch a missile from 20 miles, and leave. The pilots often work 10-12 hour shifts 6 days a week, and they often follow their targets for weeks if not months before any attacks. After the attack, the drone has to hang out and continue watching, doing an assessment of the damage; ie a body count. The drone team (usually three people) has to count and catalog each dead body. It's highly stressful; these soldiers know damn well it's NOT a video game, they know they are actually killing people. And when they do go home from the office, they can't talk to anyone about the burning bodies of the children they had to tally up that day.

Here's more articles on this, if you don't believe me.

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".

I would suggest that Hawaii's strategic place in the Pacific has lead to a considerable influx of military money, military personnel and associated increase in the economy related to it

The Philippines, which had demanded that the US Navy abandon Subic Bay in the 90's, is welcoming the of the US Navy's return with open arms because of the boost to the economy
http://www.stripes.com/news/us...

Sure, it is nice to harbor old-timey notions and traditions, but be careful that they do not have long term downsides

http://www.stripes.com/news/sail-army-the-unknown-career-field-of-us-army-mariners-1.214294

There's an official term for it: Mission Creep

It's not enough to just help find the bad guy, you also have to help punish him or get information from him about the next bad guy.
And it's not enough that there are a bunch of bad guys outside the US, there are some within the US. Gotta catch those guys as well.
And it's not enough to only catch terrorists or spies. Since we're looking at EVERYBODY [because anybody could be a terrorist], might as well also go after the everyday crimes.

not strictly true

you don't just have to hit the engines to take out the helicopter.

http://www.stripes.com/news/bird-strike-caused-fatal-helicopter-crash-in-england-air-force-report-says-1.292555

Admittedly they were incredibly unlucky in getting hit by three geese but depending on the environment you're flying in you don't want to be hit or distracted by anything.

there's also the suspected airstrike on a seaking that was lost in the Falklands. (19 May 1982 - Royal Navy Sea King HC4 ZA294)

Depending on which news network you check depends on what you are told... At this point I feel the major news media is covering up the fact he was contagious since Wednesday of last week by either saying his symptoms started later or that he has been in the hospital since Sunday.
The person arrived here on the 20th. I have read some articles saying he started showing symptoms on Wednesday Sept 24th and that he went to the Hospital (the same hospital that has been readying itself to handle Ebola) he was then sent home with Antibiotics. He then came back several days later VIA ambulance because his condition worsened.
“After arriving in the U.S. on Sept. 20, the man began to develop symptoms last Wednesday and initially sought care two days later. But he was released. At the time, hospital officials did not know he had been in West Africa. He returned later as his condition worsened.”
http://www.stripes.com/news/us...

Failure 1: They never asked him and he never divulged he was from Liberia?
Failure 2: They misdiagnosed the issue as a common cold or bacteria infection.
Failure 3: will they really be able to trace everyone if he went somewhere in public while showing symptoms (he must have gone somewhere to get the antibiotic prescription filled, how many people in CVS, Rite-Aid etc. got exposed?)

Failure 4: They are assuming he will divulge even people who may be here illegally living with his friends or family. Most likely these people will not seek medical treatment nor be reported for fear of deportation they may finally report to the hospital when critically ill but in the interim they are an exposure risk to the general public.
Failure 5: The hospital was not using any Tyvex suits, booties, face masks, etc when treating this patient on Friday. They were using no EBOLA precautions. This article from the New York Times also contradicts completely the BS being spread through NBC news that just washing your hands will prevent contracting Ebola. Two problems with that are that washing your hands will not stop ebola if you came in contact with infected fluids or someone with ebola you can’t just wash it off. Secondly this study here proves americans do not wash their hands enough
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/s...
Here is the CDC recommendations to the hospitals which this hospital DID NOT FOLLOW until the patient came back
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/p...

The CDC list was revised after the doctors below spoke out about the initial precautions CDC recommended which were gloves and paper mask!

“But Dr. Michael V. Callahan, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who has worked in Africa during Ebola outbreaks, does not think it is wrong for hospitals to opt for more protective equipment.
The minimal precautions recommended by the C.D.C. “led to the infection of my nurses and physician co-workers who came in contact with body fluids,” Dr. Callahan said. “I understand the desire to maintain absolute protection in U.S. hospitals.”
Dr. Justin Fairless, an emergency physician in Tulsa, Okla., said that health care workers in Africa “are wearing the highest level of protection, but the C.D.C. recommendation lets us go down to the lowest level of protection.”
Dr. Fairless is considering buying his own air-purifying respirator to pair with a head-to-toe coverall. “I am not comfortable going to see an Ebola patient wearing a paper mask that doesn’t cover my entire face,”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08...

After the article CDC recently revised their recommendations to this:

Here is a link for the Navy cheating. http://www.stripes.com/news/na...

Side Note and Refs:

It is probably this very reason, the inadequacy of projecting military might, that has driven the growing panopticon of gov't and private intelligenc operators.
The Military has been reduced to an extraction machine; it serves no political ends. Only opportunism and corruption.

Paired to a means of remotely controlling the events the intel describes, that circle completes the square in the wet-dreams of the puppeteer.

Some Refs:
David Galula's classic work, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice

http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/JanFeb06/Petraeus1.pdf
http://www.army.mil/professionalWriting/volumes/volume4/april_2006/4_06_2.html

Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq
"General John R. Galvin observed that "[a]n officer's effectiveness and chance for success, now and in the future, depend not only on his character, knowledge, and skills, but also, and more than ever before, on his ability to understand the changing environment of conflict"

I suspect that its in the hubris of thinking understanding matters less in the ability to shape the environment of conflict regardless of outcome. More $ more time will make some bad thing better regardless of origins or fault!

security/protection, local trust, accepting a 'federal' presence, better services,
  Petraeus issues Afghanistan COIN guidance
By Kevin Baron Published: August 2, 2010
  his co-authored 2006 Army counterinsurgency manual,
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/coin/repository/FM_3-24.pdf
http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.113197.1280774784!/menu/standard/file/COMISAF's%20COIN%20Guidance%2C%201Aug10.pdf
www.fpri.org/enotes/200704.mills.afghanistancounterinsurgency.html
tcf.org/assets/downloads/tcf-BuildingAfghan.pdf
https://frdl.train.army.milcatalogview100.atsc6a489d10-160c-4301-90d5-377e5fe38156-13111677814413-24.2chap8.htm/

No, the SR-71 is truly retired. The predecessor U2 spy plane, however, is still flying for US http://www.stripes.com/news/u-2-spy-plane-soldiers-on-after-nearly-60-years-1.211448

* For example, schoolchildren having to cover their ears several times per hour due to the large number of painfully loud low-flying aircraft that pass endlessly pass overhead.

Citation? Where do Japanese schoolchildren have to cover their ears several times each hour?

http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=3128
http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/okinawa/okinawa-residents-testify-in-class-action-lawsuit-over-noise-from-military-flights-1.158246

Where is this schoolhouse that can't be relocated from the end of some flightpath? This schoolhouse has been subject to some loud jet noise for over 50 years and they haven't moved it? Or is this an attempt to drum up some anti-military sentiment? (Wikipedia only lists 39 overseas Air Force locations not counting the ones closing in Afghanistan.)

"There are approximately 90 U.S. military facilities including major military bases throughout mainland Japan and Okinawa, with an area total of 3,130,000 sq.meters, 75% of which are in Okinawa. They are concentrated in a few areas (prefectures), 37 in Okinawa, 15 in Kanagawa, 11 in Nagasaki, and 7 in Tokyo. About 52,000 U.S. troops are stationed in these bases, 26,000 in mainland and 25,000 in Okinawa (2001)."

[Source] (Note: The US Air Force isn't the sole operator of US military aircraft.)

I'm not an expert on Japanese affairs or US imperialism; (I found the citations you asked for during the composition of this reply — I don't know (for example) why Japan doesn't move around their buildings to satisfy the whims of a foreign occupying force). If you're interested in these subjects, Chalmers Johnson wrote extensively about US/Asian relations and US imperialism in the Pacific, prior to his death in 2010. For current information on areas of interest, I suggest consulting news sources from those locales — US media is pretty sparse and somewhat biased in reporting foreign issues that could cast the US in a less-than-stellar light.

http://www.stripes.com/news/obama-signs-law-to-pay-servicemembers-during-shutdown-1.244356
"Defense Finance and Accounting Services, which learned yesterday it would continue issuing paychecks for most employees of the department."
The interesting aspect is exempt versus nonexempt civilians and the staff numbers now depended on by the DoD.
The US learned a lot from the MI6/Mi5 and GCHQ 1950-80's years - keep your clandestine staff funded or Moscow will :)

You have a great luxury in that the police and security services have been effective to date in keeping terrorism under control with a fairly regular series of arrests and convictions. That can change, just ask the Iraqis. They thought they had terrorism under control and now it may be spiraling out of control. At its height, there were probably tens of bombs going off daily around the country. Things are bad enough now they would like the US to come back.

Iraq seeks help from US amid growing violence

Have we? Who can say? Without information being open for public scrutiny we have only the police and security services word on this to know if they have in fact kept terrorism under control. With all of the powers in place they seemed to miss a fairly obvious suspect that was involved in the Boston Marathon bombing. Was this an aberration or about par for the course? We just don't know.

By all means keep currently operational information secret but allow review of past operations, both successes and failures. It would increase public support and security. The idea that things have to be kept secret so as not to reveal operational information to terrorists is security through obscurity, such a thing only protects against the ignorant. I suggest that terrorist organisations, rather than individuals, already know how they were caught before and will update their procedures accordingly.

You have a great luxury in that the police and security services have been effective to date in keeping terrorism under control with a fairly regular series of arrests and convictions. That can change, just ask the Iraqis. They thought they had terrorism under control and now it may be spiraling out of control. At its height, there were probably tens of bombs going off daily around the country. Things are bad enough now they would like the US to come back.

Iraq seeks help from US amid growing violence

So you don't want to go out on a limb and agree that stopping mass murder by the thousands and tens of thousands of Iraqis by the government was a good thing?

Although violence from terrorism by al Qaida and affiliates has been flaring in Iraq, overall it is still much more peaceful than it was. Terrorism is a minor problem compared to Saddam.

10 Years After the Fall of Saddam, How Do Iraqis Look Back on the War?

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg put the question to Barham Salih, the former prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan's regional government and a former deputy prime minister of Iraq's federal government.

"Iraq, today, 10 years on from the war, from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, is not what the Iraqi people hoped for and expected. We hoped for an inclusive democracy, an Iraq that is at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbors," Salih said. "To be blunt, we are far from that."

"But," he added, "it's important to understand where we started from. ... Literally hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were sent to mass graves. Ten years on from the demise of Saddam Hussein, we're still discovering mass graves across Iraq. And Iraqis are better off without Saddam Hussein -- the overwhelming majority of Iraqis are better off without Saddam Hussein."

You might find this interesting: Iraq seeks help from US amid growing violence

The vast majority of those deaths were either terrorists killing Iraqis, or Iraqis killing each other. This internecine warfare was often a part of militias struggling for control or extracting what they considered vengeance for terrorist attacks. The Coalition forces killed relatively few of them. So no, once again it was not the US.

You may interested to learn that Iraq has requested aid from the US to combat al Qaida in Iraq.

Iraq seeks help from US amid growing violence

Even as recent as the gulf war (yes I'm old enough to consider 1991 as recent) these aging spy planes were pressed into action because they were all we had, and they performed their task very well. Have to admire how well the military does being yanked around so much by politics (and of course they dish the politics right back... sequester and all that). But with all the abuses revealed of late by Private Manning, perhaps it's only fitting that the military is in decline, along with the nation, and has had its toys taken away.

How about as recent as this year. The U2s are still flying.

Congress gave them some extra money to put it off for a while, but they still are planning furloughs for civilian employees. So, yeah, GP was full of shit...

You're missing the important element for selling hip hop - the arrogant thug-life frontman. Without that attitude, you aint gonna sell shit.

Arrogant and Thuggish enough for you?. Just got to program it to say "bitch" instead of "sir" when a person walks by.

Seriously though, we are going to see the emergence of "virtual pop stars" designed by committee to be appeal to as many people as possible appear in the next few years. Electronically produced music makes this goal a hell of a lot easier (a robotic arm that can play the guitar or piano as well as a human is probably a long way off).

Well, let's see — not only is Iran Times is not state-owned, it is published in the US. It is also just repeating a Washington Post story. Further, the fact that the US is continuing to fly drone missions over Iran unabated runs counter to the Iranian government's narrative that they have the capability to "take down" a US drone in the first place.

Is FOX News a better source?

How about:

Stars and Stripes
Business Insider

"I said no such thing, I said 'Supreme Court only deals with laws within the sovereignty of the US.'"

Yes, I know. Which is incorrect. (I fixed the quotes for you, by the way.) Your example was of a U.S. citizen acting on their own outside the borders of the U.S. But that is irrelevant to the issue. Agents of the government do not automatically lose all legal restrictions on their behavior when they set foot outside U.S. territory. We also have laws regarding military behavior, which are also overseen by the Supreme Court, and which are still in effect wherever that military happens to be. Outside U.S. "sovereignty" or not, it doesn't matter. So you are very clearly wrong.

And yet you still swing and miss.

Note 2 things: they are agents of the government, and behaving on behalf of the government. This places them under the rule of the government. Note that if they happen to do something while off-duty, while they may still get punished by the US, often local rules apply first. Note the recent incarceration of a US serviceman in Korea for rape. He won't be punished by the US until he's done with his Korean jail sentence. (btw, this would be known as citing references in support of a point, it's not some opinion piece by an unknown website.)

Had his activities while being off-duty been legal, there would have been little recourse for the US gov against him. Should you argue that if he took drugs, and when he returned to duty, he would have been punished by failing a drug test, you'd still be incorrect, because the drugs would be in him at that time, and that's what he would have been his "crime".

"And yet you failed to produce a single one. Bullshit."

I shouldn't have to. If you can't find information about it, you are clearly inept. It took me 5 seconds. I am not here to hold your hand.

Ahem. Maybe you should try that Wikipedia article after all. It was the Yemenis who arrested him. The, AFTER he had been interviewed by the FBI, spent some time in that Yemeni jail, U.S. authorities told the Yemenis that it was okay to let him go.

Note that this was in 2006, not 2001 as alleged in your linked article and debunked as stated previously. Another "fail" on your part.

Seriously. And speaking of citations, you still haven't shown me ONE credible bit of evidence that he did anything other than spew hateful words (which, I repeat, is not a crime or at least sure as hell isn't treason under the law). Until you do, I still maintain that he was murdered. And here's a hint: things like "... such and such newspaper wrote that someone in the State Department reportedly said...", and "... he is thought to have met or talked to" are not evidence.

"I shouldn't have to. If you can't find information about it, you are clearly inept.... I am not here to hold your hand"

The Marines just cut their assistance program 75%. I'd not continue spreading that trope that the military will finance all of a college degree. The other branches are expected to follow suit. [1]

Or they could join the military. Do two years and your schooling is paid for.

The military is slashing it's education budget.

I might have to call this one bullshit. I briefly checked Asahi, Mainichi and Yomiuri, the three major newspapers in Japan. Only Mainichi has this news.

Few details, but here is a samplng of stories about eployment of the Global Hawk UAV and its capabilities:

Global Hawk offers images of quake's destruction [March 18]

Guam Global Hawks Surveying Earthquake Damage [March 18]

Japan Earthquake: Global Hawk UAV May Be Able to Peek Inside Damaged Reactors [March 17]

... They need food, water, and supplies delivered to areas suddenly unreachable through normal means. They need crews to rip apart buildings to rescue those trapped inside.

What rescuers really need are tools, like helicopters, ships to launch them from, water purification equipment, etc.

... Right now, helicopters are needed most. With roads, airports, and ports washed away or clogged with debris, the only way to reach many of the affected areas is by helicopter. Yet Japan now has barely 100 military helicopters engaged in relief efforts. The United States should start sending all of its heavy-lift helicopters in Japan and South Korea to northern Japan. Similarly, the Air Force should dramatically ramp up the number of C-17s bringing in supplies to Misawa Air Base, so that supplies are on the ground when transportation to affected areas can be undertaken. ...

-Japan Needs Its Own Berlin Airlift (March 15th, emphasis added)

The U.S. Navy has sent the USS Ronald Reagan and other "helicopter capable" ships. But the Ronald Reagan only has a couple small helicopters... Amphibious assault ships are designed for helicopters & V-22 Ospreys.. And the Tortuga can service two helicopters itself:

... The USS Tortuga embarked landing craft units and departed Sasebo Friday evening, he added. The ship is headed toward Pohang, South Korea, where it will pick up MH-53 heavy lift helicopters.

âoeWe have directed most helicopter capable ships to be ready to sail within 24 hours,â Davis said. ...

-U.S. military directing assets toward Japan relief efforts

The USS Tortuga was in Japan, but had to go to South Korea to pick up a pair of helicopters first. Like all the other relief efforts in recent memory, this one is being thrown together too.

If the re-purposed USS Enterprise had been in Hawaii (pre-loaded with disaster supplies and heavy-lift helicopters), it could have arrived by ... yesterday, probably.

When I was still formulating my proposal, Win Wenger suggested that there should actually be three disaster-response ships: one in Hawaii, one in Australian, and one in the Atlantic somewhere. How far is the boat ride from Australia to Japan? At least two responders from the last time I posted this suggested retired amphibious assault ships might be more appropriate than the Enterprise (due to the expense?). We can use those too.

When Disaster Strikes, Send The Enterprise. It's a good idea, and everyone knows it. :)

UFO chatter is way up? 100/1 feels about right.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/28/national/main6907702.shtml
http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/ufo-expert-aliens-cautioning-humans-on-nukes-1.119813

Guilty until proven innocent is traditional for males accused of sex crimes in America.

Historically, I think you would find many women who would disagree with you.

Sexual assault experts dispel date rape myths

Before you start calling someone a liar, check your facts.

Civilian

"A civilian under International Humanitarian Law is a person who is not a member of his or
her country's armed forces."

    I guess you could say "Some people" use it that way.

Ratification of IHL by nation and treaty

    Oh, 194 nations have signed GC I-IV 1949. ya..

    You can get more IHL info here.

    The news reports cited the two officers as "civilian police officer"

    "Civilian police officer Sergeant Kimberly Munley"
    "Civilian police officer Sergeant Mark Todd"

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65937

"The buildings that comprised the Soldier Family Readiness Center sit on top of a hill. Civilian police officer Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who was nearby doing routine daily maintenance on her patrol car when the gunshots rang out, was able to approach the scene using one of the buildings as cover. "

"Mark Todd, another civilian officer, rushed up the hill and began firing at Hasan."

http://militarytimes.com/news/2009/11/ap_army_hood_carnage_110609/

"Around this time, Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley got the call of "shots fired." The SRP isn't on Munley's beat; she was in the area because her vehicle was in the shop."

So, yes, an armed civilian, who was in the area. Munley wasn't on duty, providing security services to that location. She was with her patrol car at the shop.

I looked around a little. I didn't find what Todd was doing. If I remember right though, he was doing traffic control nearby.

when i was in ramadi (05-06), AQI shot themselves in the foot by trying to muscle out the local boys. started a war-within-a-war between themselves and groups like 1920 Revolution Brigades and MML...at times there was more "red on red" violence than anything else. we (people above my pay grade...WAY above) saw the opportunity to play nice (read: pay nice)...and it worked out pretty well... probably not forever, but those suni's can be a pragmatic bunch. sons of anbar, awakening counsils, desert patrol...all started thanks to AQI being voilent and stupid.

case in point: at one point, while we were recruiting locals for the Iraqi police and army...all the local insurgents declared no attacks on the recruitment: they wanted to get people in...to influence, grab power, spy, whatever. well AQI said fuck that...and sent a suicide-vest-wearing dude who proceeded to kill several iraqis and a guy in my battalion. AQI never learned that there was no I in retard...

little story behind that story for ya.

How many dead Americans?

As of yesterday, the official count of Americans dead in Iraq is 4,158. As to the number of dead Iraqis, that number depends on how you count the dead.

I'd bet both numbers are extraordinarily low.

If you mean strictly civilians killed by American and other forces, that number will never be revealed. Obviously we don't want the civilians of Iraq to know how many of their neighbors were killed by the liberators. In fact, when the Iraqis tried to keep a running total based on the number of bodies brought to morgues, the Iraqi government was forced to stop counting the figures.

If you mean the number of civilians killed by American and other forces along with the number killed by their neighbors due to religious, cultural or other reasons, again, that number will never be revealed. Wouldn't want to reinflame sectarian violence, would we? However, based on interviews and other sources, as of November 2006, we have the following estimates:

Iraqi civilians deaths: 49,000 > 655,000

Those figures were derived from Iraq Body Count and a study published in Lancet in 2006.

If you mean the number of Iraqi civilians who took up arms against the occupying forces but who are considered insurgents/terrorists/member of Al Qaeda/etc, then the military will gladly give you that number. In fact, as of August 2007, the military reported 18,832 suspected insurgents killed.

For a report on why getting numbers is so difficult, see this story in The Guardian from March of this year.

I love how I have to read other country's news reports to find out what's going on in my own country...

http://www.stripes.com/07/may07/MHAT_IV_Report_17N OV06.pdf

Sure, because the liberal CIA, with it's leaders appointed by the arch liberal GWB, is totally sitting on all the evidence of WMDs, because they don't want to have to say, "Hey, we found some WMDs finally."

If this administration could find a credible talking dog to back up their search for WMDs, they'd be trumpeting it as loudly as possible. The fact that the only evidence you can point to is a fluffy article not even printed in the damn Stars and Stripes, but on the DoD webpage, suggests that the "article" is totally lacking in merit.

And they all look like this

sorry here is the real picture

Originally published by Wesley Bradshaw,
taken from a reprint of the National Tribune, Vol. 4, No. 12, Dec 1880,
National Tribune Inc., P.O. Box 1803, Washington, DC 20013-1803
Voice (202) 829-3225, FAX (202) 829-5657

The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on the fourth of July, 1859, in Independence Square. He was then ninety-nine years old, and becoming very feeble But though so old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he gazed upon Independence Hall, which he came to visit once more.

"Let us go into the hall," he said. "I want to tell you of an incident of Washington's life, one which no one alive knows of except myself; and, if you live you will before long, see it verified.

"From the opening of the Revolution we experienced all phases of fortune, now good and now ill, one time victorious and another conquered. The darkest period we had, I think, was when Washington after several reverses, retreated to Valley Forge, where he resolved to pass the winter of 1777. Ah! I have often seen the tears coursing down our dear commander's care-worn cheeks, as he would be conversing with a confidential officer about the condition of his poor soldiers. You have doubtless heard the story of Washington's going into the thicket to pray. Well, it was not only true, but he used often to pray in secret for aid and comfort from God, the interposition of whose Divine Providence brought us safely through the darkest days of tribulation.