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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! January 31, 2006 AP/NY Times: Guard Recruiting Exceeds GoalBy GreyhawkThe guys toiling in our department of headlines we thought we'd never see are busy these days. Today's gem comes from the AP, in the NY Times: Turnaround In Recruiting Puts Guard On Path For ExpansionFirst time since 1993 - wow. But some of the surprise wears off when the AP reveals why it can now publish stories like this. (Read closely - it gets tricky). The story points out that just when things are really turning around, President Bush wants to shrink the Guard! National Guard officials said Monday that recruiting had accelerated so much in recent months that they expected to expand the Guard even as the Bush administration proposes to shrink it.But wait - because here's where things get tricky: In his 2007 budget, to be sent to Congress on Feb. 6, President Bush would pay for a Guard of 333,000 soldiers; its Congressionally authorized limit is 350,000. Administration officials say that is not a cut, because the Guard now has 333,000 soldiers.So setting aside enough money to pay the actual people in the Guard, rather than the authorized number of people in the Guard - is a cut. (Some fiscally responsible people might call it a good one.) But... Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey had said that if the Guard was able to grow beyond 333,000, the Army would shift money from elsewhere in its budget to pay for the extra soldiers.In other words, the number of troops authorized in the Guard won't be cut, there just won't be any money frozen to pay the salaries of Guard toops until they actually exist. (Or if you prefer, "if needed, your check will be in the mail". How you respond to this should be an indicator of your level of trust in "the system".) Which brings us to how the AP/NY Times decide to frame the issue: The administration's plan to pay for a smaller Guard has stirred opposition in Congress and among groups like the National Guard Association of the United States, which represents current and former Army Guard and Air Guard officers.But the final word on this belongs to Congress, and you can bet they'll vote their home-State pocketbooks on this one. Not on the Guard issue so much - that's just an opportunity to look like good guys who stood up to Bush - if the local papers run the story just so. My prediction: the money will be "found". After all, those dollars will represent a fairly small drop in a rather large bucket of taxpayer dollars. Bucket? Perhaps trough is the better term. Last year's $82 billion supplemental spending bill for the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan included $20 million for a road project in Mississippi, $5 million for the Fort Peck Fish Hatchery in Montana, $2 million for an upgrade of chemistry laboratories at Drew University in New Jersey, and $1 million for the Woody Island and historic structures in Philadelphia. Don't be fooled by any outraged congressional table-thumping over this Guard funding issue - watch your congressman's other hand. But that, good friends, is half the story. For whatever reason they actually ran it, that headline in the NY Times was too good to just use just once. So here: Turnaround In Recruiting Puts Guard On Path For ExpansionGood stuff. Posted by Greyhawk / January 31, 2006 7:44 PM | Permalink 1 TrackBackRep. Murtha, call your office. Mudville Gazette points to some of the most welcome (and therefore certain to be underreported) news in years: the National Guard's recruiting is at the highest level since 1993. Neither the article nor Greyhawk offer Read More |
March 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003 [Greyhawk]
"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world." Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...
Updating... more to follow.... MILBOGSAndrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun. Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit. Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio? Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking. Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way. Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch! Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location: Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.
BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon. Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt... Iraqi BlogsSalam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house... Other BlogsAndrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish: How much more morally indefensible is appeasement when we also have complete international authority to do what must be done? I think we will look back in the future and not ask, as so many now are, how it was that diplomacy didn't get unanimity on this matter. We will look back and see the moral obtuseness of Chirac and Putin and Schroder and Carter and feel nothing but contempt for them, and their preference for state terror over the responsibilities of the free world. That's why I felt enormous pride tonight in the stand being taken by Blair and Bush. The president's speech was measured, firm, just. Blair's political risks - in order to do what he believes is plainly right - will confirm him in history as a great prime minister, the conscience of his party, and the leader of his country. I say that before this war begins, because the cause is just whatever vicissitudes of conflict await us... Glenn Reynolds has a ton of links. Other OpinionsMark LeVine, Alternet - 'Bush Wins': The Left's Nightmare Scenario: ...With war seemingly imminent, the movement is being forced to fall back on a second scenario, "Everyone Loses," in which the warnings of a protracted and bloody war that destabilizes the Middle East and increases terrorism bear their bitter fruit. However unpalatable in terms of destroyed lives and infrastructure, this latter scenario would at least quash the Administration's imperial dreams and force the kind of soul searching of United States' policies that is a major goal of the movement. But this outcome is less likely than many assume, and the antiwar movement would be well advised to plan for a third scenario: "Bush Wins." In this third scenario, the war is over quickly with relatively low U.S. casualties, some sort of mechanism for transitional rule is put in place and President Bush and his policies gain unprecedented power and prestige. From my recent conversations with organizers and their latest pronouncements, it is clear that this possibility has yet to be addressed. Waiting much longer could spell disaster for the antiwar movement... The social and political forces unleashed by the end of decades of Hussein's murderous rule will not easily be penned in by a US-sponsored show-democracy; but whether these forces use a reopened public sphere or turn to violence to respond to the likely betrayal depends in good measure on how adroitly the world progressive community can lay fast but deep roots in Iraq. Newpapers
Updating... more to follow.... |
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  |
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