Author Archives: Bob

Military.com

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My best friend in the whole wide world (not to mention a hell of a writer) wants to point everybody over to Military.com, a website which ain’t exactly a bastion of liberal anti-war activists.

And yet these are some of the top headlines over there:

Marines Show Frustration In Iraq, which begins with this:

The sound of the Black Hawk medical helicopter is an ominous sign for the Marines patrolling this forgotten western corner of Iraq that borders Syria. It means that one of them is seriously wounded or killed at the hands of their elusive enemy…

“We are losing guys left and right,” says Cpl. Cody King, 20, of Phoenix, Ariz. “All we are doing around here is getting blown up,” he says, not hiding his anger.

Reservists Doubt Their Combat Readiness:

… almost half of Army Reserve soldiers believed their units were not “well prepared” for their wartime missions.  Army Reservists who had served in Iraq graded their units’ readiness for war even lower…

Check out the lead sentence of Troops Experience Difficulties In Voting:

U.S. service members based in Iraq and across the globe can’t be confident that their votes will be counted in this year’s presidential election, analysts and military advocates said this week.

And further down, in the featured articles, we even learn that all the high-tech advantages field commanders supposedly had during Shock’n’Awe

Military.com

Posted on by

My best friend in the whole wide world (not to mention a hell of a writer) wants to point everybody over to Military.com, a website which ain’t exactly a bastion of liberal anti-war activists.

And yet these are some of the top headlines over there:

Marines Show Frustration In Iraq, which begins with this:

The sound of the Black Hawk medical helicopter is an ominous sign for the Marines patrolling this forgotten western corner of Iraq that borders Syria. It means that one of them is seriously wounded or killed at the hands of their elusive enemy…

“We are losing guys left and right,” says Cpl. Cody King, 20, of Phoenix, Ariz. “All we are doing around here is getting blown up,” he says, not hiding his anger.

Reservists Doubt Their Combat Readiness:

… almost half of Army Reserve soldiers believed their units were not “well prepared” for their wartime missions.  Army Reservists who had served in Iraq graded their units’ readiness for war even lower…

Check out the lead sentence of Troops Experience Difficulties In Voting:

U.S. service members based in Iraq and across the globe can’t be confident that their votes will be counted in this year’s presidential election, analysts and military advocates said this week.

And further down, in the featured articles, we even learn that all the high-tech advantages field commanders supposedly had during Shock’n’Awe

The Vision Thing

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Tom over at This Modern World (this site’s alma mater) points out today’s NYT piece reviewing just how not-reality-based the Bush plan for Iraq always was:

By September, the more than 140,000 troops in Iraq could be down to little more than a division, about 30,000 troops.

That was supposed to be over a year ago.

They had no f***ing clue what was coming.  None.  And we’re supposed to keep trusting them with our future.

Cut to the present, where we learn Bush has refused to allow UN Muslim peacekeepers in Iraq to help safeguard the upcoming not-reality-based elections.  Why?  Simply because they wouldn’t have been directly under U.S. control.  Because, y’know, we’re doing such a bang-up job on our own.

The episode raises doubts about the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that proper elections can be held in Iraq by January and that it is eager to have other countries send troops to Iraq to ease the burden on American forces. The U.S.-led coalition has been losing members since the insurgency intensified in April. Five countries  —  Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines  —  have pulled out their troops, about 2,200 total.

At least two other countries plan to withdraw their forces earlier than scheduled.

But don’t forget Poland!

Oh, wait.  Now they’re pissed off at us, too.