Memories

How many times has this happened to you: you are looking around frantically for your car keys or your Air Force or something, and then you remember you left them in Yugoslavia in the 1980's.

Yeah, me too.

Old Photos

The above photo of then-Major General Stanley McChrystal is from April, 2003.

So I'm confused - why is it still being used in "news" reports six years later? There are plenty of more recent photos available. I just can't figure it out.

Haunted Iraq

"It is time for me to leave this country, " says Marine.

(Via the Dawn Patrol.)

Spokesman: execution of termination intended

"The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract," belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces-Afghanistan.

I think that means a military spokesman says they are going to stop paying a contractor to read for them and tell them what to think about what they read.

(If you missed it, the story began with Bad press)

Even More Funniez

One out of four pro health care reform people at a town hall meeting can't find Iraq on a map.

Why does that matter? What does health care have to do with Iraq? It is very importance and it matters lots and lots, and here's why: almost half of the anti-health care reform people couldn't find Iraq on a map. See the importance now? There are more pro-health care reform people who can find Iraq on a map than there are anti-health care people who can. That's because pro health care people are more better informed and smarter about stuff. Mostly. At least about Iraq they mostly are more better informed and can find it on a map. Anti health care people probably know more about NASCAR and stuff.

Here's a movie about that problem that explains it in a gooder way:

I don't know if she thinks Americans should have some free health cares or not.

Update - here is a map. I put a red dot on Iraq, and a blue dot on South Carolina, which is in the United States of America. Now you know where Iraq is.

Also I tricked you into wanting health care reform! Ha ha, jokes on you!

Another update - uh oh, some confusions:

This map has another Iraq on the other side of America.

More updatings: Now my brane hurtz. Time for some health cares:

Even More Bad Press

"We just help the military figure out what embed is right for a particular reporter," one Rendon employee told me over drinks. "If a reporter is classified as "negative" they are less likely to go where the action is and more likely to be covering a platoon that guards sandbags in Herat."

Read the rest here.

Did I mention before how bad this idea was? Yes, I did say it was bad, but I didn't say how bad. I'm not sure I can gauge that just yet. Really, really bad seems too weak.

Because it keeps getting worse.

Will it get worse still? It could - major media folks tend to respond to outrages perpetrated against their sacred honor swiftly. But then again, maybe not - the downside for reporters: none will want to learn the Pentagon looks favorably upon them - it could be the kiss of death to many a career.

Update: Okay, I'm not letting the Pentagon off the hook here (Have I mentioned that this was a bad idea? Why yes, in three posts now, with additional details in the comments...) but my final paragraph above does raise interesting questions in my mind.

How far can the media go in reporting this story? Small Wars Journal linked the Washington Post coverage. A question raised in comments there: "Is it asking too much for reporters/editors to provide some perspective with the story, rather than just dropping the tidbits of information that are likely to rile people up?" appeared to be rhetorical, but got me thinking and prompted this response: That's a tough call for them - they have to "balance" getting readers riled up at the implication that all embeds are simply regurgitating Pentagon-approved facts with the knowledge that if they let it go too far they'll have to explain why that means "except ours, of course".

But that problem has at least one potential solution. Here's a report from Wired Magazine's Danger Room:

Prof. Bob Zelnick, a former ABC military reporter now at Boston University, is worried about the prospect of Pentagon media manipulation...

He added that small media outlets -- blogs, free weeklies, local papers -- are more vulnerable to Pentagon screening than big, established outlets that can loudly protest any military manipulation.

So the case for "you can trust powerful corporate media - but not those little guys" can be made - if those in said media want (and are permitted) to make it. (No doubt the temptation is there.)

Update: Spokesman: execution of termination intended

Teh funniez

So a couple of weeks ago I'm sitting at a table with a couple of former Army guys, swapping stories about various interesting places we'd been and the fun we'd had while there.

Like the time I was in Korea, and we were out on a field exercise. The weather was fair on the first day when we set up camp, but from that point on it rained continuously for the next two weeks. Much time was spent re-engineering the trench systems designed to keep most of that rain out of the tents, much caution was taken maintaining the various generators and electrical wires crisscrossing the area and powering the various tools of the trade inside those tents, much fun was had by all.

And day after day the rain fell and the soft ground became softer. And puddles of water rose and combined and became lakes and rivers, and unbroken high ground paths between points became rare. You could get nowhere in the camp without sloshing through standing brown water of uncertain depth and soft surface below. Every step was cautious, with eyes down to see just how close the water level was to the top of your overboots. Every time you lifted your foot you did so in hope that the mud below wouldn't suck that boot right off.

And nowhere was that worse than in the dirt track "road" that big trucks used to bring in supplies. Deuce-and-a-halfs can effectively rut solid ground, their effect on the mostly-submerged road was to create something like islands of mud pudding oozing up between rivers of sludge. And you had to cross that road to get to the chow tent - where trays of food product (known as "t-rats") were boiled to provide us hot meals twice a day. (Lunch was an MRE, if you were hungry.) And you couldn't cross swiftly - the line from the tent stretched across that road and moved forward slowly, with everyone in the line spaced at intervals favorable to surviving an attack and moving forward a few steps at a time as each person who'd made it through exited the tent with food in hand and attempted to negotiate the course back to their own tent to eat before falling rain filled the various sections of their plates.

So there I am, standing in that line, feeling myself sink slowly into the ooze, watching the water level rise around my boots, waiting for the moment I could step closer to my t-rat feast. The rain is falling, but I'm wearing green plastic raingear head-to-knees over my BDUs. (But it's hot outside, so I'm sweating enough under all that to make me wonder if it's actually keeping me dry.) And the guy in front of me glances back at me and says "hey, are you in the Air Force?"

"Yes," I reply.

"I should have joined the Air Force." He responds. "You guys don't have to put up with this shit."

What could I say?

"Yeah. Me too."

That story is funny. You either get the joke or you don't.

Even though I was living evidence to the contrary standing in the same rain right before his eyes, I calculated my odds of convincing him he was wrong as zero, or close to it. Because basically, he was right - or at least close enough.

So is Army vet James Joyner: "But most people in the Air Force have been office workers since its inception as a separate service. Truth be told, most soldiers and sailors do non-trigger-puller jobs, too. "

The warrior culture is similar to that found in a locker room. It uses brutal humor to lighten the tension and test the mettle of one's fellows. Airborne troops make fun of dirty nasty legs. Combat arms troops crack jokes about REMFs, the rear-echelon so-and-sos. The Army disparages the Marines and vice versa. In the Air Force, it's pilots and everybody else. In the Navy, it's Line and other. But anyone much above the level of an entering recruit understands that it's all one big operation.

And speaking of recruits, I wish I had a dollar for every one of my Army brothers who has explained to me over the years why he couldn't join the Air Force when he tried, and one for every Air Force Airman I've met who joined because his Army dad told him that was the branch to join (in many cases in conjunction with pointing out how wrong they now thought dad was).

But most of those without family advice or tradition join the branch they think best suits them. After joining some few find themselves spending a lot of time with one of the other branches anyway, and required to train and live to the standards of both. I'm one of those few.

Which might help explain why I've always thought this was funny - since the first time I saw it twenty years ago as a Xeroxed document making the rounds on an Air Force base:

I don't know who first created that cartoon, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was an Air Force guy. And - because it did first go "viral" hand-to-hand in a pre-internet, pre-email age as a Xerox-copied document - I'm certain the Air Force facilitated that. That's not because our aircraft were required to transport the document, it's because Army guys at the time were still busy trying to figure out why the big white box in the office lit up when they pushed the button (from a safe distance in full protective gear with two broom sticks duct taped together).

And they might not have it figured out yet. While the joke is dependent on the cartoon, Army guys to this day are forced to tell it verbally, and it usually falls flat.

*****

So a couple of weeks ago I'm sitting at a table with a couple of former Army guys, swapping stories about various interesting places we'd been and the fun we'd had while there....

(More to follow)

All done!

More bad press

No one wants bad publicity, but when do efforts to minimize that go "too far"?

Did I mention before how bad this idea was?

Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters' coverage is being graded as "positive," "neutral" or "negative."

Moreover, the documents -- recent confidential profiles of the work of individual reporters prepared by a Pentagon contractor -- indicate that the ratings are intended to help Pentagon image-makers manipulate the types of stories that reporters produce while they are embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Yes, I did.

And N.S. Webster (a guy who's done some embeds) nailed it: "What's pitiful isn't that the military checks up on reporters prior to embedding them. I always assumed they kept a file somewhere of my stories they could refer back to. What's pitiful is that the military hired an expensive PR firm to do the same thing any Private could accomplish with a five minute Google search."

I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries "to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda - health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal."
<...>
The call would include "a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!"

I learned after the conference call that there were approximately 75 people participating, including many well respected street-artists, filmmakers, art galleries, music venues, musicians and music producers, writers, poets, actors, independent media outlets, marketers, and various other professionals from the creative community.
<...>
It sounded, how should I phrase it...unusual, that the NEA would invite the art community to a meeting to discuss issues currently under vehement national debate. I decided to call in, and what I heard concerned me.

The people running the conference call and rallying the group to get active on these issues were Yosi Sergant, the Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons.

We were encouraged to bring the same sense of enthusiasm to these "focus areas" as we had brought to Obama's presidential campaign, and we were encouraged to create art and art initiatives that brought awareness to these issues. Throughout the conversation, we were reminded of our ability as artists and art professionals to "shape the lives" of those around us.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

I don't see "prompt those artists how to best support the government" there - they appear to be experiencing a bit of mission creep.

You can apply for some of that NEA funding here. I'm certain many well respected street-artists, filmmakers, art galleries, music venues, musicians and music producers, writers, poets, actors, independent media outlets, marketers, and various other professionals from the creative community have.

And credit the DoD - audio transcripts of their conference calls are available for listening online. I've participated in some that resulted in "bad press" - and I still get invited back.

Update: Even more bad press

PFC Thomas Lowell Tucker Memorial

Three years after PFC Thomas Lowell Tucker was murdered in Iraq, the community of Madras, Oregon, led by his friends and classmates, K'Lyn Bush and Lyndasy Hessel, dedicated the memorial project they have worked so hard on.

(Photo by SGT Eric Rutherford, Oregon National Guard. Click picture or here for the rest of the story - and more here.)

Awesome work.

The Kennedy Airbrush (II)

USA Today posted this eulogy for Senator Kennedy shortly after his late night demise:

The arc of Ted Kennedy's 46-year career in the U.S. Senate provides a cautionary reminder of how first impressions can turn out to be woefully wrong.

When Kennedy entered the Senate in 1963 he was widely viewed as callow and unqualified, ridiculed as the playboy baby brother of a glamorous president and a hard-driving attorney general. A distinguished Harvard law professor, Mark De Wolfe Howe, spoke for many when he archly called Kennedy "a fledgling in everything except ambition." The young senator's image suffered further a few years later when a car he was driving after a night of partying in Chappaquiddick, Mass., went off a bridge, killing a young woman passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

At the time, many predicted that his political career was over. Yet Kennedy persevered. By the time he died early Wednesday morning, after a valiant battle with brain cancer, he was known as "the Lion of the Senate," lauded by political friend and foe alike as one of the most effective legislators in the nation's history.

Go to the same link now and you'll see that's all gone.

I hope the night shift guys don't get beaten up too badly.

Update: The original story is reproduced here. Don't know how long that will last.

It closes with this: "If life were like the movies, an ailing Kennedy would have been wheeled into the Senate chamber to cast a final, decisive vote on universal health care, an enduring cause of his long career." I'm not so certain we won't see a movie like that some day.

(Previous use of the Kennedy Airbrush noted here.)

News you can choose

The Washington Post:

Major Shiite parties with close links to Iran announced a new coalition Monday that excludes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a development that appears to make him the underdog in the coming national elections. If the new coalition remains intact and secures a majority of parliamentary seats in the Jan. 16 vote, Iraq's next government probably will be run by leaders with deep ties to Iran, which would considerably curb US influence here as American troops continue to withdraw. The new alliance and the likelihood that Maliki will be forced have to partner with Sunnis suggest that Iraqi politicians are increasingly willing to cross sectarian lines in the pursuit of power. Maliki's exclusion from the alliance was not entirely surprising. Despite his considerable popularity, the prime minister has become a divisive figure, and a recent surge in violence has triggered criticism from Iraqis who view his administration as cocky and incompetent.

The LA Times:

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki broke ranks Monday with the Shiite Muslim coalition that propelled him to power in 2006 and appears set to contest January's national elections on his own, opening the door to a new, uncertain era in Iraqi politics. Maliki was conspicuously absent from a gathering of Shiite leaders launching the Iraqi National Alliance, a revamped version of the coalition that easily won the elections in 2005 and is hoping to garner a majority of Shiite votes in January. The door is still open for Maliki to rejoin the coalition should he change his mind, several Shiite leaders at the launch said. But aides to Maliki said he has calculated that he stands a better chance of holding on to the post of prime minister by running alone on his record than with Shiite partners who he believes have been widely discredited in the eyes of many Iraqis. "If he runs alone, he feels he will have more success," said Shiite legislator Sami Askari, who is close to Maliki. "It is now certain."

So take your pick.

Or read Iraq the Model - they said this would happen (and why) the day before it did.

Soldiers' Angels is CFC #25131 in the Combined Federal Campaign

Soldiers' Angels is CFC #25131 in the Combined Federal Campaign

The mission of the Combined Federal Campaign is to promote and support philanthropy through a program that is employee focused, cost-efficient, and effective in providing all federal employees the opportunity to improve the quality of life for all.

CFC is the world's largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, with more than 300 CFC campaigns throughout the country and internationally to help to raise millions of dollars each year. Pledges made by Federal civilian, postal and military donors during the campaign season (September 1st to December 15th) support eligible non-profit organizations that provide health and human service benefits throughout the world.

Let's take a look at what some of these Angels do.

Soldiers' Angel Cynthia is a part of the Living Legends team, which provides condolences and comfort to families of the fallen through letters, cards, and very special gifts of remembrance. More on her story here .

MaryAnn is on our Wounded Warriors Team and literally goes the extra mile to take care of our wounded troops who arrive at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Not only is she there to comfort our wounded, she calls their stateside families to reassure them, passes messages of comfort, and helps in travel arrangements or anything else needed. In many ways she is Soldiers' Angels first responder to our wounded.

Soldiers Valour-IT program helps provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries.

There are many Angels ready to support our troops in whatever needs arise, from adopting troops, writing letters , sending care packages, travel to medical appointments or even emergency travel assistance, and giving first responder backpacks which provide a full set of travel-sized toiletries and accessories (such as toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, shampoo, and soap), an international calling card, and a handmade Blanket of Hope. Each backpack also includes clothing specially-designed by Sew Much Comfort to be easily donned by those with serious wounds and to give relief from drafty hospital gowns. Whatever the needs Soldiers Angels are there ready to help.

Here's some one who's been touched by Soldiers' Angels

Here's a A wonderful thank you

So consider Soldier's Angels during the Combined Federal Campaign season or donate today here.

The Kennedy Airbrush

The media have had ample time to prepare obituaries for Senator Edward Kennedy, and given certain aspects of his public career a degree of airbrushing could be expected.

But this example from the Boston Globe is both subtle and impressive:

Despite his illness, Senator Kennedy made a forceful appearance at the Democratic convention in Denver, exhorting his party to victory and declaring that the fight for universal health insurance had been "the cause of my life."

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

For me this is a season of hope -- new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few -- new hope.

And this is the cause of my life -- new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American -- north, south, east, west, young, old -- will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

Kennedy declared "health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege" as the cause of his life; the Globe changed that to the fight for universal health insurance.

"Just words", to be sure. But a look at a Politico story from this past weekend explains why Kennedy's actual speech had to be altered postmortem.

In his Wednesday night address, Obama talked about "health insurance reform" a noticeable shift from the "health care reform" he had been talking up until late last week.

With support for reform softening, Obama attempted to move the conversation away from the talk of taxes, public plans and the other divisive issues dominating Congress and the headlines back to how his reforms would help the 160 million Americans who already have insurance. The pivot was an attempt to reframe the bill as something that directly benefits most Americans, instead of a subsidy for the uninsured.

It's an impressive organization that can manage their message control that swiftly and to that degree. Kudos to the Globe, I've no doubt the late Senator would approve.

Update - apparently some folks hadn't prepared for this as effectively as the Globe staff:

The death of Edward M. Kennedy immediately raises the question of who will succeed the senator -- and how quickly -- as Congress is embroiled in a bitter battle over plans to overhaul the nation's health care system.

...the effort to find a quick replacement for Mr. Kennedy may prove complicated. In the week before his death, reaction in Boston to his request ranged from muted to hostile. The state's Democrats found themselves in the awkward position of being asked to reverse their own 2004 initiative calling for special elections in such instances.

Until that year, Massachusetts law had called for the governor to appoint a temporary replacement if a Senate seat became vacant. But when Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, was running for president in 2004, the Democrat-controlled State Legislature wanted to deny the governor at the time -- Mitt Romney, a Republican -- the power to name a successor if Mr. Kerry won. The resulting law requires a special election within 145 to 160 days after the vacancy occurs.

From Boston: Jules Crittenden has more.

Update: USA Today has disappeared their original (honest, fair but less than completely flattering) Kennedy obit - The Kennedy Airbrush (II).

Senator Kennedy

...has died.

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the Kennedy family said in a statement. "He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it."

He was expelled from Harvard during his freshman year after he asked a friend to take an exam for him.

After a two-year stint in the Army, Kennedy returned to earn degrees at Harvard and then the University of Virginia law school.

Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army in June 1951. Following basic training at Fort Dix, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped after a few weeks without explanation. He went to Camp Gordon for training in the Military Police Corps. In June 1952, he was assigned to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris. His father's political connections ensured he was not deployed to the ongoing Korean War. While stationed in Europe he travelled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn. He was discharged in March 1953 as a private first class.

Upon his victory in the general election, John vacated his Massachusetts Senate seat. Ted would not be eligible to fill the vacancy until February 22, 1962, when he would turn thirty. Ted initially wanted to stay out West and do something other than run for office right away; he said, "The disadvantage of my position is being constantly compared with two brothers of such superior ability." His brothers were also not in favor of his running immediately, but Ted desired the Senate seat as an accomplishment to match his brothers', and their father overruled them. Thus, the President-elect asked Massachusetts Governor Foster Furcolo to name Kennedy family friend Benjamin A. Smith II to fill out John's term, which he did in December 1960. This kept the seat open for Ted.

His winning campaign slogan was

"He can do more for Massachusetts", the same one John had used in his first campaign for the seat ten years earlier.

"Kennedy championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights in his storied career," ABC News reports, "For Kennedy, the ascension of Obama was an important step toward realizing his goal of health care reform."

USA Today*:

The arc of Ted Kennedy's 46-year career in the U.S. Senate provides a cautionary reminder of how first impressions can turn out to be woefully wrong.

When Kennedy entered the Senate in 1963 he was widely viewed as callow and unqualified, ridiculed as the playboy baby brother of a glamorous president and a hard-driving attorney general. A distinguished Harvard law professor, Mark De Wolfe Howe, spoke for many when he archly called Kennedy "a fledgling in everything except ambition." The young senator's image suffered further a few years later when a car he was driving after a night of partying in Chappaquiddick, Mass., went off a bridge, killing a young woman passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

At the time, many predicted that his political career was over. Yet Kennedy persevered. By the time he died early Wednesday morning, after a valiant battle with brain cancer, he was known as "the Lion of the Senate," lauded by political friend and foe alike as one of the most effective legislators in the nation's history.

After Chappaquiddick:

In October 1971, Kennedy made his first speech about The Troubles in Northern Ireland: he said that "Ulster is becoming Britain's Vietnam", demanded that British troops leave the northern counties, and called for a united Ireland. Kennedy was harshly criticized by the British, and formed a long political relationship with Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party founder John Hume. In scores of anti-war speeches, Kennedy opposed President Richard Nixon's policy of Vietnamization, calling it "a policy of violence [that] means more and more war."

Kennedy ran for president in 1980

But in 1979, with Carter in deep trouble at home and abroad, Kennedy announced he would seek the 1980 Democratic nomination. Though the opinion polls were initially heavily in his favour, his campaign was a disaster from the outset. In an extraordinary nationwide television interview, he was completely incoherent when asked why he wanted to be president.

The media were filled with accounts of his long history of sexual misbehaviour, his now notorious use of alcohol and drugs, and the Chappaquiddick accident. Even the deeply unpopular Carter began to win one primary election after another and, though Kennedy continued the battle through to the party convention, he was finally forced to cede the nomination to Carter.

Perhaps with the realisation that he had no hope of ever reaching the White House, Kennedy again made a superb speech to the convention, calling on delegates to fight for the ideals that had informed the party from the days of Franklin Roosevelt. "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

The Cape Cod (Massachusetts) Times

Following his failed presidential campaign, Kennedy and his wife, Joan Bennett Kennedy, divorced in 1982. They had three children.

He was connected with another scandal in March 1991, when a woman accused the senator's nephew, William Kennedy Smith, of raping her at the family's Palm Beach, Fla., estate over the Easter weekend. Kennedy was at the estate at the time the alleged rape occurred. A conservative political group filed an ethics complaint against the senator, alleging he violated Senate rules when he failed to speak with police about the incident, even though detectives had attempted to talk to him.

Smith was later acquitted and the Senate Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint against Kennedy. But the rape accusation and trial became international news and was another blow to Kennedy's prestige.

In an October 1991 speech at the Harvard Kennedy School, Kennedy took responsibility for his actions and acknowledged how those actions blunted his ability as a senator.

"I am painfully aware that the criticism directed at me in recent months involves far more than honest disagreements with my positions, or the usual criticism from the far right," Kennedy said. "It also involves the disappointment of friends and many others who rely on me to fight the good fight.

"To them I say: I recognize my own shortcomings - the faults in the conduct of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."

He added, "I believe that each of us as individuals must not only struggle to make a better world, but to make ourselves better, too."

After the rape case, Kennedy took on the role of statesman, pursuing his own dreams in the Senate. He became a standard-bearer and bipartisan advocate for civil rights, education, protection of children, poverty programs, health care, pensions, minimum-wage law, abortion rights, and immigration.

In July 1992, he married Victoria Reggie, a Washington lawyer and daughter of a longtime Kennedy family friend.

Kennedy was known worldwide for his support of human rights.
<...>
Kennedy was a staunch opponent of the proposed Cape Wind project, which would place 130 offshore wind turbines within sight of the family's Hyannisport compound. Supporters of the project lampooned Kennedy as a hypocrite for his position, but the senator steadfastly maintained he was opposed to giving a private developer access to Nantucket Sound without an appropriate regulatory process.

The Boston Globe:

He was a force behind the Bush administration's chief domestic policy achievement in its first term, No Child Left Behind, the sweeping education bill that mandated testing to measure student progress.
<...>
In early 2008, shortly before his own cancer diagnosis, Senator Kennedy surprised much of the political world by endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The comparisons between Obama and John F. Kennedy were obvious to many, and the endorsement was seen as a passing of the Kennedy torch to the man aspiring to be the nation's first black president.
<...>
Despite his illness, Senator Kennedy made a forceful appearance at the Democratic convention in Denver, exhorting his party to victory and declaring that the fight for universal health insurance had been "the cause of my life."

He'll be buried at Arlington.

Update: The USA Today story quoted above has been disappeared.

All done!

Marking time

From Robert Stokely:

August is a particularly difficult month around our house especially August 16 and the 11 days that came after. August 8, 2005 was the last phone call and chance I got to speak to Mike before he was killed a week later. We gather at Mike's grave at 1820 hours on August 15 to Remember Mike at the time it was here in Georgia when he was killed near Yusufiyah in the early morning hours of August 16. It is amazing how so many still come to be with us and there are always new ones in the crowd, and of course, as is going to happen, some are not there that have been. This year several of our regulars were serving in Afghanistan. And the family of SFC Mark Allen were not there because he was seriously wounded July 8, 2009 in Afghanistan. Mark served with Mike in Iraq and he and wife Shannon had not missed a time at the annual gathering on August 15 at Mike's grave. Mark's future and that of his family is now uncertain as he battles a serious brain injury from gunshot wound. As we gathered a few days ago, we remembered him, wife Shannon, son Cody (12) and one year old baby daughter Journey.

Two of Mike's good friends from high school and college and who joined the National Guard because he joined and talked them into it are with Delta Company 1st Battalion of the 121st Infantry, 48th Brigade Georgia Army National Guard. SGT Charles "Chuck" Crowder and SGT Alden Williams now serve somewhere in the eastern part of Afghanistan (actual location not mentioned for OPSEC reasons). They were supposed to be together this deployment but the Army had a different idea and they are split up. Last deployment to Iraq when Mike went they were all three in different units because they wanted it that way to help increase the chances at least one of them made it home. I used to watch the "Moon over Yusufiyah" as I called it when Mike was serving south of Baghdad four years ago. Now, with Chuck and Alden in Afghanistan, I think of them as I watch the "Moon over Yusufiyah" rise over my home at night. They couldn't be there this year on August 15 but they called and they sent wishes through their family, including Alden's sister and mom who came. Chuck's wife, Capt. Donita Crowder and their two daughters, Destiny (Mike's goddaughter and Charlye Mikalya (Mikalya after Mike) couldn't be there because Capt. Crowder is in train-up to go to Iraq early 2010 and the girls are staying with her mother, a retired U.S. Navy Veteran.

They know how sharp the point of the sword is, but yet they, along with Mark Allen and his family, continued to serve even in the wake of their dear friend Mike's death.

Last Saturday, August 22, I reflected on the Memorial Service we held to Remember and Honor Mike before he came home and at which I gave his eulogy. I was at the Freedom Concert hosted by Sean Hannity and honestly, it was difficult for me to stay as they continually honored the fallen - it was a day that was too wrought with emotion maybe to be there for that. I thought of the service four years ago and my eulogy of Mike. I don't do prepared speeches, rather I speak from the heart. I generally speak so from the heart that I don't even usually know what I say afterwards, and August 22, 2005 was certainly that day as I was laden with grief. I had to go back and look at the video to be able to know what I said that day, But, I got through it at his Memorial Service.

Today, as I sit here on August 24, 2009, I am reflecting on being at the International Airport in Atlanta, just 30 miles up the road from where I live - four years ago. At this moment and time of 1800 hours , I had just met Mike as they uncrated his casket in the U.S. Airways Air Cargo Hanger and neatly draped and cornered an American Flag over him. As they did this, I saluted as best I knew how, given I never served in the military and had never been taught how. I held my salute until they put Mike in the rear of the hearse. Tears dripped down my cheeks and onto my navy blue blazer as I stood in the doorway from the Air Cargo Office to the unloading bay in the warehouse. They wouldn't let me go out there because they were concerned about my safety with moving equipment and also, because they weren't sure how I "would handle it." As I saluted and cried, the office staff froze, suddenly realizing what I was there for and what was going on outside their office as they too could see through the window to the warehouse. The warehouse staff came to a stop as they realized what was happening. I could feel their stares of disbelief and wondering what "to do."

As I ended my salute, I walked outside to call my wife Retta, who loved Mike like one of her own. He was the reason we met and had been there every step of our courtship and marriage, including being in our wedding. It was at our wedding that he gave me - us - our favorite memory of him, and it was a story I told in my eulogy of him at the Memorial Service. As Retta answered the phone, my voice quivering and tears still streaming down my cheeks, I simply said "Our boy is home." Then we cried together. The death of a child can be hard on a marriage. For us, we had never been us without him. While we have become even closer, we feel this sense of incompleteness now that Mike is dead, for again, we had never been just us without him and we literally are missing a piece of ourselves.

Now, as I write this paragraph at 1811 hours, August 24, 2005, I think back to being in the hearse, Mike's Flag Draped Casket just inches behind me as we rode up I-285 to the Stone Mountain Freeway to head out to Snellville GA to the Funeral Home for the night. Snellville is just eight or so miles west of Loganville on U.S. 78 and we had not announced Mike coming in on August 24, because the city of Loganville, where Mike went to high school, his mom and wife Niki lived and where Mike was to be buried, wanted to have the chance to show their respect for him with a Welcome Home Mike parade, which they, along with the City of Snellville, did a great job with less than 24 hours notice on August 25. Thus, the word went out over night that Mike would be "coming home on August 25."

Unlike today where the Flag Draped Casket of the Fallen is flown by non-commercial charter to the nearest local airport with advance notice, our family was given but two hours notice that Mike was coming in commercial flight to Atlanta. The United States Army treated us real good in the 12 days and after, but the one place that it went really bad due to the coarseness of one particular General. I was refused access to the flight information so I could come fly home with Mike on the same regularly scheduled commercial U.S. Airways flight at my own expense and that was loaded with other passengers / strangers who did not know Mike. This General, whose name I don't remember from that time of grief and sometimes being totally overwhelmed by so many names, denied me something dear and something so simple. It is probably a good thing I don't remember him at this point... I have never been bitter or angry at the person(s) who killed Mike as I view that is what you do in war - you try to kill the guy on the other side. But this General was supposed to be on "our side" and look out for Mike and us, yet for whatever reason, he took away something I can never have back, and even blew off my U.S. Congressman who tried to intercede.

But, ever since the moment the news of Mike's death came to my door at 0700 August 16, 2005, I have tried to make the best of the situation and God has blessed me with many things, what I call Romans 8:28 blessings. Back in February when the President ordered Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert Gates to review the Dover Policy and determine if the media could be allowed back to record the coming home of our Fallen, I had the opportunity to meet with an Under Secretary of Defense who was heading up the policy review. In a thirty minute private meeting at the Pentagon, I told my story with Mike coming from Dover and how we were not allowed to see him received home on U.S. soil nor even allowed to ride in the same commercial aircraft at our expense. Respectfully, I didn't bite my words when it came to who should be on the front row and have the most access to their loved one's return at Dover and eventually to their home destination. While I thought the media should be kept out of Dover, I also recognized and expressed that some families might want that and the family should decide, not the U.S. Government. But I also emphasized that the family had to be protected and not be hounded by the media to gain permission or while at Dover. And, if anyone was at Dover, it should include the family, and they shouldn't have to buy their own ticket to get there given what has already been paid! While I didn't get my first choice - no media at Dover, I am pleased overall with how the policy was laid out and put into effect and honestly, I have talked to a number of families since who have been to Dover under the new policy and it seems to work with respect.

It is now 1839 hours and four years ago Mike's hearse had just passed the Burger King on U.S. 78. As I sat there at Mike's feet, tears were continually welling up and trickling down my cheeks as I recalled the number of days we had stopped at this same Burger King to eat and let him burn off some energy after we had picked him up from school for an evening out or to head home for the weekend. It has changed over the years and the slide he and I used to play on when he was but three and four is now gone. But I could still see it in my heart that day four years ago just as I can now.... In a few minutes, four years ago, we were going by Yellow River Game Ranch where we used to visit the animals - kind of like a mini zoo with more intimacy and some of the animals like deer, squirrel and other critters walking about. One particular memory was when Mike had to save his younger brother Wes, then about age three, from an aggressive deer that was rearing up on his hind legs and kicking at Wes. Mike, then about ten, stepped in between, pushing Wes back toward me as I ran to them Mike swatted the dear away. Even then, he protected us, I guess it was just who he was...

Now, in just a few moments the ride in the hearse was about to be over and there are many other memories and stories I could tell about taking Mike home those many days from visitation. My personal private ride in the hearse with Mike was about to be over and it was to be My Last Ride to Take My Boy Home. I would not have him to myself from that moment on, for it was now time to share him and over the next three days there would be thousands we would share him with.... My Boy was Home.

DUTY HONOR COUNTRY.

Robert Stokely
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 AUG 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
USA E 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG

First Interrogations

From the opening pages of Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan:

The following morning, November 25, two CIA paramilitary officers, Dave Olson and Mike Spann, kitted up at headquarters in Mazar and prepared to drive across town to the fort. Both men hoped to interrogate as many prisoners as possible.
<...>
At the fort, Abdul Hamid climbed the steps from the basement of the Pink House and blinked in the morning sun, his arms tied behind him with a turban. The stairway resembled a collapsed brick chimney as it emerged from the dark hole that reeked of piss and shit.

Abdul was led past the Pink House, the walls of the fort soaring around him. About a hundred other prisoners had already been led into the courtyard, also trussed with their own clothing, arms behind their backs, sitting cross-legged on an apron of trampled weeds twisting up from hardpan mud.

Mike Spann bent down and peered at Abdul.

For the life of him, he couldn't figure out where the kid was from or who he was,. Arab? Pakistani? Canadian? He studied Abdul's tattered British commando sweater, sensing that the prisoner - what was he, twenty, twenty-three? - could speak at least some passable English.

"Where are you from?" Spann demanded. "You believe in what you're doing here that much, you're willing to be killed here?"

No answer came.

"What's your name? Who brought you here to Afghanistan?"

The kid on the carpet dropped his head, stared at the shalwar kameez

"Put your head up!" Spann yelled.

The young man's face was sunburned, his eyes the color of cold tea.

Spann let his gaze linger, and then raised a digital camera and framed a shot. The photo would be sent by encrypted satellite communications back to headquarters, where the image would be cross-referenced against a digital lineup of terrorists and known Al Qaeda soldiers.

"Mike!"

It was Olson, lumbering across the dusty courtyard. He'd spent the last five minutes talking with another group of prisoners. Olson towered over the young man on the ground.

"Yeah," said Spann, "he won't talk to me... I was explaining to the guy we just want to talk to him, find out what his story is."

"Well, he's a Muslim, you know," mused Olson. "The problem is, he's got to decide if he wants to live or die... We can only help the guys who want to talk to us."

It was Spann's turn: "Do you know the people here you're working with are terrorists, and killed other Muslims? There were several Muslims killed in the bombing in New York City. Is that what the Koran teaches? Are you going to talk to us?"

Then it was back to Olson: "That's all right, man. Gotta give him a chance. He got his chance."

Olson scuffed the dirt with his boot; Spann, exasperated, hands on hips, looked at the prisoner.

Finally, Spann said, "Did you get a chance to look at any of the passports?"

There's a couple of Saudis, and I didn't see the others."

They agreed that the young man wasn't going to tell them anything, and the two CIA officers started walking away along a gravel path lined by pine trees toward the gate in the middle of a tall mud wall that divided the fort into its separate courtyards. They were headed to teh former headquarters to regroup.

At one point Olson turned to see Spann stopped on the path, joking with a group of Northern Alliance soldiers. He turned back and kept walking.

By the time Olson reached the middle gate he heard the explosion of a grenade, followed by a burst of gunfire. He turned.

Spann was frantically attempting to fight off a gang of prisoners who were beating at him with their fists and screaming, Allah Akbar! - God is Great!

Olson started running toward Spann, and as he did so, Spann emptied his pistol into the crowd, then reached behind to the other gun, hidden in his waistband. He fired and fell to the ground under the storm of flesh.

CIA agent Mike Spann was the first American killed in the line of duty in post-9/11 Afghanistan; "Abdul Hamid" would turn out to be "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh.

We've forgotten much in the years since. This is a timely reminder.

(Note: Originally posted 2009-05-21 12:22:43)

The CIA Report

...in full (as released), below. (Via Spencer Ackerman - who also has posted the appendices.)

Those looking forward to vivid descriptions of blood flowing in the gutters will be disappointed - it appears that threat of torture was the technique most commonly used. That many of those same disappointed folks would have gleefully reported or consumed descriptions of the blood flowing in the gutters had any of the attacks described as uncovered in the planning stages actually been carried out must be equally vexing.

Glennn Greenwald has determined What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report (that's his headline - not my characterization). "Every American should be forced to read and learn this in order to know what was done in their names", writes Greenwald - though it's not clear to me whether he means the report or his commentary; likewise he stops short of indicating what degree of force should be applied. (I suppose that absolves him of blame in some strange GlennGreenwaldworld where that command would be carried out.)

John Hinderaker's commentary on the CIA report indicates that not everyone who reads the document will share Greenwald's interpretation, so perhaps it's to his benefit that the vast majority of Americans never will.

Resolve

Sixty-three percent of Americans polled at the announcement of President Obama's Afghanistan troops surge last February said "they support Obama's plan to beef up U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with 36 percent opposing the move." A new commander was announced in June, the Marines were in action in Helmand Province in July. But although President Obama's 17,000 additional troops have been conducting operations for several weeks now the war drags on.

Small wonder polls indicate some Americans are turning against the effort ("51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting"), prompting Senator Russ Feingold to take charge:

"This is a strategy that is not likely to succeed," Sen. Feingold said about the troop buildup in Afghanistan.

"After eight years, I am not convinced that pouring more and more troops into Afghanistan is a well thought out policy," said Feingold. The liberal Democrat said he has expressed his reservations with President Obama, Admiral Mullen, and others inside the administration and he says he has "never been convinced they have a good answer."

"I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out," said Feingold. "Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do," he added.

Okay, he's the leader, who will follow?

Footnote: "The Wisconsin Democrat is starting to be a bit of a liberal thorn in the President's (left) side and has some Democrats wondering if he may be plotting a 2012 primary challenge to Mr. Obama."

Previously: Can't get enough

Bad Press

A pair of stories that highlight the difference between "an accident" and "a mistake".

The first:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Former Air Force Reservist Gale Reid received a letter from the Veterans Affairs Department that told her she had Lou Gehrig's disease, and she immediately put herself through a battery of painful, expensive tests. Five days later, the VA said its "diagnosis" was a mistake.

The Montgomery, Ala., resident was among at least 1,200 veterans who received a letter about disability benefits for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, even though they hadn't been diagnosed with the illness, according to the National Gulf War Resource Center. Veterans were initially suspicious of the letters, but still went through the agony not knowing exactly whether they had the fatal disease, which typically kills people within five years.

At least 2,500 letters informing veterans of disability benefits for ALS were sent out, and of those, some 1,200 were a mistake, according to the National Gulf War Resource Center.

Actually, that's the one I thought was an accident. (I wonder if they were accidentally sent a copy of this pamphlet, too? Hope not...)

This bright idea was a mistake:

As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.

U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group, which gained notoriety in the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq for its work helping to create the Iraqi National Congress.
<...>
Rendon examines individual reporters' recent work and determines whether the coverage was "positive," "negative" or "neutral" compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials. It conducts similar analysis of general reporting trends about the war for the military and has been contracted for such work since 2005, according to the company.

"We have not denied access to anyone because of what may or may not come out of their biography," said Air Force Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a public affairs officer with U.S. Forces Afghanistan in Kabul. "It's so we know with whom we're working."

On a somewhat related note, Mike Yon reports "The British Ministry of Defence canceled my embed... Next Stop U.S. Forces."

Update: VA apology letter here. (No, it doesn't say "we're sorry you aren't going to die".)

Update two: More bad press.

Meanwhile, back at the front

Strategy Page reports "The [Iraqi] government televised the confession of the man they say planned the twin truck bombings that killed over 100 people in the center of Baghdad. Police say they have arrested ten people involved in planning the attack."

Earlier story here, and more news here.

Shut Up and Die

We mentioned the document folks have taken to calling the the "VA Death Book" (the term originated with a Wall Street Journal headline) here previously. At the time the document (and the WSJ piece describing it) seemed to be receiving surprisingly little attention, but apparently Sarah Palin has changed all that by posting a mention of it to her FaceBook page.

Which may have prompted a pair of somewhat conflicting responses from the VA. One, this addition to the online version of the pamphlet:

Note - The following is a 1997 publication that was produced under VA IIR Grant No. 94-050, "Development of an Advance Care Planning Workbook," 4/01/95 - 3/31/97. The document is currently undergoing revision for release in VA. The revised version will be available soon.

And two, a defense of the document from Tammy Duckworth:

In the meantime, the Huffington Post assured readers that "the so-called "death book" contains the same advance-care planning required of all health care organizations under federal law".

It all started with Jim Towey, the former president of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under George W. Bush, who penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal describing how the Department of Veterans Affairs was using an end-of-life planning document that was aimed at steering veterans toward choosing death.

Towey stated that the message of the veterans' health-care system to its patients was "hurry-up-and-die" and he contrasted the "death book" with "Five Wishes," his own advance care planning document.

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

Jim Towey was assistant to the President of the United States, and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002 to May 2006 under George W. Bush.
<...>
Prior to his White House service, Towey was employed as one of the legal counsels in the United States to Mother Teresa of Calcutta for 12 years, specializing in immigrant affairs. In 1990 he lived as a full-time volunteer in her home for people with AIDS in Washington, D.C. As her attorney, he helped to ensure people were not using Mother Teresa's name to raise money without her permission, assisted in establishing AIDS clinics and homeless shelters, and coordinated immigration matters for her nuns. He says the experiences motivated him to establish the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity in 1996. The group's Five Wishes document, called "the living will with a heart and soul", is distributed by more than 15,000 organizations. More than 11 million documents have been distributed worldwide.

He served as senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Oregon) for ten years, and as director of Florida's health and human services agency under Gov. Lawton Chiles (D).

He is currently the president of Saint Vincent College, a small liberal arts school in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Onward then.

At the Democrat's VetVoice blog, another swift response: "Jim Towey is one sick mother fucker" and "nothing more than a Sarah Palin wannabe. Except not as smart." And in conclusion, "When Veterans want advice on their care from someone who has never served in the military, nor received care from the Veterans' Health Administration, we'll call you."

I believe I've mentioned here before that folks who claim to Speak for ALL Veterans should be viewed with extreme skepticism, at best. However, I'm fairly certain most of us can indeed make decisions without the assistance of the government and actually will consider advice from non-veterans (contrary to popular beliefs the "shut up, chickenhawk" smear isn't that widely accepted or appreciated), and I suspect few would publicly denounce either Towey or Pearlman in those terms.

Crooks and Liars concurs with VoteVets - at least with the Sarah Palin comparison - and adds that "Towey could benefit financially if the Veteran's Administration drops the current material "Your life, Your choices" used for end-of-life consultations. Towey sells his own materials that compete with documentation currently in use."

On the other side of the Debate, Jonah Goldberg:

I just watched Tammy Duckworth try her best to defend the V.A. "death book" on Fox News Sunday. The Iraq War veteran was severely wounded as an army aviator, losing both her legs, and is currently an assistant secretary at the V.A. The administration sent her out to defend the book and to push back against Jim Towey, who first raised the issue. While she admirably held her own, her talking points were often very, very lame (she kept insinuating that Towey's bitter his $5 book isn't free of charge to vets). The upshot was she defended this irretrievably gross book on the merits and attacked the messenger to boot. And here's the thing: The death book is doomed, doomed. It's obvious Obama will pull the thing, because it's the right thing to do and because it's a political no-brainer while he's trying to shake off the "death panel" albatross. So they sent out Duckworth to stake a position that will be reversed, making her look like a fool. Just give it time.

That prompts this response from firedoglake: "Here is a suggestion for Jonah Goldberg that is shorter than Towey's book and $5 cheaper: You have failed, please die."

Update/exit poll: Was Goldberg gutsy or foolish for saying Duckworth's "talking points were often very, very lame"?

Holding hands and giving comfort

...is something Soldiers Angels does best. One in particular who literally goes the extra mile to take care of our wounded troops who arrive at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany is very special. (She'll hate this attention). Not only is she there to comfort our wounded, she calls their stateside families to reassure them, passes messages of comfort, and helps in travel arrangements or anything else needed. In many ways she is Soldiers' Angels first responder to our wounded.

And if you like to wish this particular Angel a Happy Birthday (belated) you can do that over at the Castle.

Meanwhile, Chuck Z, who's been touched by many Angels, has a must-read story on how Angels work their magic.

There are many ways you can help the troops, either through time, visiting, writing a letter, or adopting one. (There are currently 1,113 waiting to be adopted.) Join Soldiers Angels today.

And Happy Birthday, MaryAnn!

Can't Get Enough

George Stephanopoulos:

My exclusive interview with Senator McCain took place far away from the world's hot spots, on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where he's preparing for Senate Field Hearings on the National Parks. But McCain's mind was clearly on what he had just witnessed on his extensive Congressional Delegation tour this month to Afghanistan and Iraq.

He's concerned that McChrystal's strategic review (expected in the next couple of weeks) won't include a specific request for more troops. "We need to know exactly what resources he needs," McCain said. "General McChrystal is going to make some recommendations. I'm not happy with what he's going to do...it will be high-risk, medium risk, low risk. Whenever you do that, they always pick the medium risk. I think he ought to do what General Pertraeus did, and that's decide exactly on the number he needs and then we debate it."

McCain said McChrystal is under "great pressures" from people in the Administration to reduce estimates for more troops. "From the President?" I asked. "No," McCain, said, "I think it's from people around him and others...that I think don't want to see a significant increase in our troop presence there." In fact, he had no criticism for Obama on the war front.

Quick review: A few weeks ago "a senior U.S. military official familiar with Gen. Stanley McChrystal's thinking" claimed that McChrystal would request more troops (similar stories abound - I grabbed the first example found). Shortly thereafter Secretary Gates announced that McChrystal's Afghanistan report would not include a troop request.

Which brings us back to this - with some consideration for this.

Update:

American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama's chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.
<...>
It was unclear whether the commanders told Mr. Holbrooke exactly how many additional troops might be required.

That reported by Helene Cooper of the NY Times.

Is that story the same as this one?

In a region the Taliban have lorded over for six years, and where they remain a menacing presence, American officers say their troops alone are not enough to reassure Afghans.
<...>
And they do not have nearly enough forces to provide the kinds of services throughout the region that would make a meaningful difference in Afghans' lives, which, in any case, is a job American commanders would rather leave for the Afghan government.

Both are from the NY Times. The difference (aside from authorship) is the first says commanders claim "they did not have enough troops to do their job", the second that they "do not have nearly enough forces to provide... services" - a task expected of the Afghan Government.

Is provide services part of the military mission?This might be a good point to review our published objectives in Afghanistan:

Achieving our core goal is vital to U.S. national security. It requires, first of all, realistic and achievable objectives. These include:

• Disrupting terrorist networks in Afghanistan and especially Pakistan to degrade any ability they have to plan and launch international terrorist attacks.

• Promoting a more capable, accountable, and effective government in Afghanistan that serves the Afghan people and can eventually function, especially regarding internal security, with limited international support.

• Developing increasingly self-reliant Afghan security forces that can lead the counterinsurgency and counterterrorism fight with reduced U.S. assistance.

• Assisting efforts to enhance civilian control and stable constitutional government in Pakistan and a vibrant economy that provides opportunity for the people of Pakistan.

• Involving the international community to actively assist in addressing these objectives for Afghanistan and Pakistan, with an important leadership role for the UN.

"Provide services" that the Afghan Government can't (or won't) seems a bit beyond that purview - but there's a certain lack of clarity in the Times report as to exactly what that phrase means.

Regardless of mission, the troop number question was raised during McChrystal's confirmation hearings.

Note that "I can ask for what I need" means something different from "I'll get what I need" - and "I don't know" means exactly that. The president's troop increase Graham announces support for here is a reference to the then-popular February announcement of 17,000 additional troops for Afghanistan.

A few weeks later, as the Marines began operations...

...plans to partner with the Afghan army have been scaled back because the Marines have been allotted only about 400 Afghan soldiers instead of the several thousand Nicholson had sought.

He has been promised more troops, but they will not start rolling in until next year. In the interim, he has asked his superiors for permission to arm young men and train them to serve as a local protection force. It is similar to the Sons of Iraq initiative the Marines created in Anbar that resulted in locals turning against foreign fighters in the group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

But senior commanders have shown no sign of approving the request.

Postscript: a point worth noting, the "more troops" story, while not new, has drawn much attention from the political Left and Right. This makes it somewhat unique among recent Iraq/Afghanistan news, most examples of which are ignored by one side and noted (or embraced) by the other.

And cue the opposition.

Meanwhile, back at the front: Ramadan

In Afghanistan the elections pass, and Ramadan begins. From Doc H:

The 22nd of August heralds the start of Ramadan. In this country, which is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ramadan is a very important month. We had the ANA Corps Cultural Advisor- ie Mullah, come and give us a lecture on Ramadan last week.

Read it all.

I spent two Ramadans in Iraq, and have to wonder if this chart was part of the Afghan Mullah's lecture to the troops - I suspect not.

(Click for larger version)

We were always mistaken (culturally insensitive, even) to present charts like these using western months. At least in this one you can see the vertical yellow bands for Ramadan.

News from Twitterstan

By one valid definition, Twitter is a place where at any given moment fifty million people are ignoring fifty thousand "tweets" from the five thousand people they follow because they're too busy trying to get another thousand followers themselves. Growth, at least in the short-term, seems assured.

I do NOT think that definition applies to Josh Foust, whose Registan is one of my daily reads. He goes well over the 140-character limit here. In fact, by my (automated!) count it would take 44 "tweets" to convey this information (unless all the vowels were removed) via Twitter. Here's an excerpt:

On a normal workday, I get my information from two basic sources: my RSS feed, and my Twitter feed. I'm much more likely to pore through Twitter than my news RSS feeds for one simple reason: the people whose feeds I follow are mostly other analysts and researchers, and they act as an information filter. Pre-filtered information, at least from people you trust, is much more efficient than doing the filtering yourself.

During the election on Thursday, though, this efficient filtering system broke down. While the AP wrote a breathless story about Afghans using Twitter to get the word out, there were really only three sources: Alex Strick van Linschoten (@strickvl on Twitter), a researcher and freelance journalist living in Kandahar; the Pakhwok Afghan News agency (@Pajhwok), a truly remarkable independent news organization operating across Afghanistan; and maybe one or two others (like Felix Kuehn, one of van Linschoten's colleagues).

As a result, my Twitter feeds during Election Day had an incredible noise-to-signal ratio--by an informal calculation, 90 percent of the tweets filling my computer screen were just retweets of something I had already seen (that is, other users were reposting, with credit, someone else's tweets) from those same three sources. It got so bad that, by mid-morning, I had to stop reading Twitter...

Please read the whole thing. (And for those interested, here's an unfiltered round up of election day reports from bloggers and other media sources in Afghanistan.)

I've heard from folks in Afghanistan that Twitter is often the most reliable method for getting information out, but I'm also aware that a really "BIG" news story - the death of Michael Jackson - crashed the service. (In fairness, it practically "crashed" the entire internet.) That event also marked the end of the brief fad of people pretending to give a damn about Iranian protesters - a story Twitter received much credit for making possible. Texting is a wonderful tool for adults as well as kids, and I see the potential of Twitter as a pointer to useful information, but I wouldn't depend on the attention span of most folks enamored with 140-character limit "news" for anything requiring a long-term commitment.

Books and bumper stickers both have their uses, but the distinction should be obvious.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Oh my!:

Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security, says that he was pressured by other Bush administration department heads to raise the national security-threat level on the eve of the 2004 presidential election -- a move he rejected as having such uncomfortable political undertones that it could destroy the administration's credibility.

"The disclosure comes in Ridge's new book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . and How We Can Be Safe Again," written with Larry Bloom and published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press."

I was in Iraq at the time, and my family was in Germany, so we weren't aware of the impact on Americans of these "threat levels" - I can only imagine what you folks must have experienced hiding in your basements, eating canned foods and rushing out only long enough to reelect Bush.

And I understand that Book Sales are Important and that Bush was a Fear Monger and that Americans are Easily Duped, but seriously - isn't it time to stop living in the past and confront the future?

After all, we're finally focused on the Real Central Front of the War on Terror now:

WASHINGTON -- With a bloody suicide bombing near the Khyber Pass adding urgency to his words, President Obama announced on Friday that he plans to further bolster American forces in Afghanistan, increase aid to Pakistan, and set strict standards for measuring progress in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in both chaotic countries.

"The situation is increasingly perilous," the president told government officials, top military officers and diplomats at the White House, presenting the conclusions of a review he ordered when he came into office in January.

Although the timing of the suicide attack that killed dozens of worshippers in a crowded mosque in northwest Pakistan may have been coincidence, it underscored Mr. Obama's ominous tone as he warned -- just as President George W. Bush did repeatedly over the years -- of intelligence estimates that al Qaeda "is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan."

Of course we don't call it the War on Terror any more, but I think you get the gist.

High Performers

This could look bad on someone's performance report:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While hundreds of thousands of disability claims lay backlogged at the Department of Veterans Affairs, thousands of technology employees at the department received $24 million in bonuses, a new report says.

A report issued by the VA's Office of Inspector General said the department issued millions of dollars in awards over a two-year period in 2007 and 2008.

"The frequent and large dollar amount awards given to employees were unusual and often absurd," the report stated.

The reports also called the payments "not fiscally responsible."

Four high-level employees received about $60,000, $73,000, $58,000, and $59,000, respectively, according to the report, without sufficient justification. Another employee received a $4,500 performance award within the first 90 days of her employment from a manager who said that she did not even remember her.

Note the years - 2007 and 2008. This happened under the previous administration.

Earlier this week President Obama reminded veterans of this year's "historic increase in our commitment to America 's veterans"

":...a 15 percent increase over last year's funding levels and the largest increase in the VA budget in more than 30 years. And over the next five years we'll invest another $25 billion more.

These are major investments, and these are difficult times. Fiscal discipline demands that we make hard decisions--sacrificing certain things we cannot afford. But let me be clear. America 's commitments to its veterans are not just lines in a budget. They are bonds that are sacrosanct--a sacred trust we are honor bound to uphold. And we will.

Among other efforts, the VA is developing pamphlets designed to help veterans determine if their lives are still worth living.

Is that what "Fiscal discipline demands that we make hard decisions--sacrificing certain things we cannot afford" means?

A Theater Near You

McQ:

Congress is on a "dollar hunt" right now to pay for their favorite domestic agenda items. Afghanistan (and Iraq) are places where some dollars can be stolen. Lack of popular support and money to be had should be more than enough impetus to begin the "cut and run" mantra in earnest.

Read the whole thing. Something worth mentioning quickly (and in more detail later in this discussion): I'm less certain than McQ seems to be that this developing "Afghanistan debate" will shape up as a Democrat vs Republican issue. I'm certain it won't to the degree that Iraq did, and I'm glad of it. Again, more on that later; for now a look at the arguably outdated (and certainly provocative) term "cut and run".

Worse things can happen than that. In fact, given the unlikely exercise of that option, worse things are more likely to happen. As with Iraq, a "slow bleed" strategy may be seen as preferable for purposes of extending certain political careers; as U.S. casualties mount in an under-resourced effort blame can be focused on the previous administration and the Government of Afghanistan - who would certainly deserve their share. Among other early signs of employment of that strategy will be increasing focus on the DoD as its architects and references to Gates as a "holdover". But conversely, Democrats are in power and can't be certain they will maintain that should Afghanistan prove to be an epic (and bloody) fail.

What's being discussed here, it should be noted, is the political theater of war, something (certainly from the P.O.V. of the soldier, at least) as distinct from the strategic, operational, and tactical environments as it is overwhelming in importance to them all. The lot of the soldier (Private or General) is to have some direct influence only in the latter three; once upon the political stage they are seen as pawns - a point with which they can agree or disagree, acknowledge or ignore, or use to their perceived advantage. (The majority of those who choose to acknowledge this at all look on the political theater as a necessary evil at best.)

Much of that is a foundation of our democracy - civilian control of the military is a fine thing. In execution it leads to open (and eternally unsatisfying) debates about who really lost Vietnam. In near-real time you can catch glimpses of smaller-scale events in this political/military dynamic like this recent point of discussion in the McKiernan/McChrystal switch:

"Blame General Petraeus," a senior Defense Department official said. "He redefined during his tour in Iraq what it means to be a commanding general. He broke the mold. The traditional responsibilities were not enough anymore. You had to be adroit at international politics. You had to be a skilled diplomat. You had to be savvy with the press, and you had to be a really sophisticated leader of a large organization. When you judge McKiernan by Petraeus's standards, he looked old-school by comparison."

I'd add that "a senior Defense Department official" has a weak grasp of history if he or she really believes there's something new in that.

But back to McQ: "Congress is on a "dollar hunt" right now to pay for their favorite domestic agenda items" - that's also an eternal truth, but it's undeniably more significant now than any time in recent memory. It's also a concern in line with my own troubled conclusion from the recent development of the "now is the time for an Afghanistan debate" theme discussed here.

(More to follow)

The Wayback

From the archives: Sgt Hook reports from Afghanistan on the elections - from October, 2004.

Here's another milblogger report on the day (and here's another) - Maj John is now LTC John, and still blogs here.

In spite of scandal ("opposition candidates claimed the polls were unfair because the ink used to mark people's thumbs so they vote only once rubbed off too easily") the event didn't get much worldwide attention - Australian elections had just been held and the US elections were looming.

The Washington Post, before the elections:

The pre-election period has been marred by repeated attacks against voter registration workers and facilities, mostly carried out by Taliban forces. The Taliban has vowed to sabotage the election -- the first national poll in Afghanistan in three decades of war and turmoil, and the country's first-ever presidential election.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban vowed to turn the Afghan election into a day of bloodshed, but the rebels mounted only a smattering of small-scale attacks on police and civilians and a larger clash that left many of their own dead.

After months of what proved to be empty threats, military commanders and ordinary Afghans said Sunday the vote was a serious setback for the holdouts of the hard-line Islamic regime that was driven from power by U.S. bombs almost three years ago for harboring Osama bin Laden.

"Yesterday was a big defeat for the Taliban and a huge defeat for al-Qaida," Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, told the Associated Press. "It shows that the political process is overwhelming any influence they may have."

Voters also said the Taliban had been exposed as weak.

From the Front: Afghan Elections

"In the end, however, dullness may be the real story."

If so, the real story is seldom told.

And the day certainly wasn't dull for everyone. More milblog reports here.

Blasts Rock Baghdad

WSJ: "The blasts, the worst episode of coordinated violence since American forces withdrew from Iraqi cities on June 30... The attacks underscored the calculated risk that American officials took with the withdrawal..."

WaPo: "The early-morning blasts, by far the deadliest attacks since the June 30 withdrawal of US troops from cities, raise fresh questions about whether American troops disengaged from Baghdad too quickly..."

LA Times: "Thunderous truck bombs targeted the heart of the Iraqi government Wednesday in a blunt challenge to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his assurances that Iraqi police and soldiers will be able to maintain control as US forces pull back."

London Times: "Extremists struck at the Iraqi Government with a wave of bombings and mortar attacks, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 560 and raising new doubts about the withdrawal of US soldiers from the country."

And so on. On the heels of a recent "leaked" opinion from an American adviser there (here's a better but lesser-known one, btw), questions have certainly been raised that underscore the difficulties of the many risky challenges confronting Americans and the government of Iraq. We're fortunate to have newspapers to provide that level of insight.

"Boss Mongo" is a Transition Team Leader in Iraq. Among other things that means he's training Iraqi forces - one of those "non-combat roles" Americans are fulfilling over there. As such, his response to reports of progress (or lack thereof) in that effort is essential reading for those folks who consider information from a variety of sources a requirement to being well-informed. (And isn't that really what front-line milblogs have always been about?)

The article highlights the (ofttimes seemingly insurmountable) cultural gap between the US and Iraqi militaries. We (the US military) are hostile and resistant to change; we are pikers compared to the Iraqis, though. The article examines Iraqi military culture through their ineptness at dealing with IEDs, but the traits revealed are true across the spectrum of military endeavors. I find the article reinforces most of my personal findings over the years in dealing with Arabs (and we all know how wonderful it is to find external validation for our preconceived notions). While I find the article is accurate in general, I thought it interesting comparing and contrasting with my current experience with the Federal Police, here and now...

Read the rest here.

"Hey, General Order #1 states: no booze, no porn, no fraternization. What the hell else am I going to do?" Says Mongo regarding his blog. Options are limited, but I'm glad he chose the one he did.

Update (24 August): Strategy Page reports "The government televised the confession of the man they say planned the twin truck bombings that killed over 100 people in the center of Baghdad. Police say they have arrested ten people involved in planning the attack."

"You think you're gonna live forever?"

In the old movies that was one of the lines the sarge delivers to motivate the Joes to attack the heavily-defended enemy bunker.

It could also serve as the title of this VA pamphlet:

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

But the real story was on the streets outside the downtown convention center, where the corners were packed with vocal opponents and supporters of the his health-care reform plans.

Army reservist Lt. Corey Harris, 33, of Peoria, said he just returned from Iraq eight days ago.

He said he has experienced first-hand the ability of the government to help administer health care.

"As someone who has been involved in the VA system, I've seen the great job government can do in getting involved in health care," Harris said. "Everyone deserves health care."

Jim Mariman, a veteran from Idaho who served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, was spending his time outside the convention center rather than in it.

"What we are seeing here is people speaking their minds and their hearts," Mariman said.

Mariman is opposed to Obama's health-care reform plan, but enjoys the fact that those who disagree with him, can disagree with him openly.

"These people can protest because I gave them the right."

Leonard Clark, of Phoenix, called himself an Independent.

Standing on the corner near Third and Washington streets, he stopped and said those opposed to health-care reform were only doing so because the president "is Black."

Immediately, a group of people opposed to the president's plan surrounded him, yelling "race baiter, race baiter, race baiter" at the top of their lungs.

I say "possible veteran" because Leonard Clark wasn't identified as such in the article, but a few years back there was a politically-active milblogger from Arizona with that name.

Meanwhile, a guy named Chris was attracting more attention than anyone else at the event, perhaps due to his AR15 (magazine in) that helped create a rather disturbing image...

Those who get their information from blogs rather than newspapers and television would learn a bit more about Chris:

1. The event was a planned and staged "publicity stunt", and

2. MSNBC skillfully transformed it into something it wasn't.

Read both those links (more here) for a great lesson in media attempts to manipulate Americans.

One of the things I appreciated about coming home from Iraq was that I no longer had to have a weapon with me everywhere I went. I'm more than a little dismayed that on a day when many Afghans are actually risking their lives to vote I see a manufactured story like this one in America. But here's another lesson learned from a combat zone: corpse photos sell newspapers and bring in TV viewers - so it isn't hard to see where it's in the best interests of folks who would make a few dollars from that to inflame the passions that could bring that result.

Returning to the point at which our discussion began, the answer to "can my death help a media conglomerate make a few bucks?" probably shouldn't factor in to your end of life decision process.

Afghanistan Election Day (UPDATED)

REPORTS FROM THE FRONT:

Quatto Zone:

A few hours after polls have closed in Afghanistan, here are my initial impressions of the information I've been tracking from Kabul today.

Good: There was more violence than we probably would have liked to see, but far less than we could have expected given what was at stake for the insurgents. While the number of security incidents was high, the severity of those incidents was low. More importantly, Afghanistan stood on its own, both in terms of administering the election and providing security at the polling centers. ISAF was not called in to support the army and police, which provides some hope that a cornerstone of the coalition strategy--building a viable national security force--is achievable.

Bad: From a certain perspective, the government's decision to impose a media blackout made sense. After all, the insurgent attacks during the past few days have been designed to intimidate voters, and immediate, persistent media coverage of those attacks only amplifies the message. A government decree was never going to stifle coverage, however, so all the blackout really accomplished was to reinforce perceptions of government incompetence--although at least it was the incompetence of a government flexing its sovereignty.

Indifferent: We'll see how the coverage shakes out, but ... More here

Danger Room:

No one got blown up. And a few hundred people actually showed up to vote. So, by that slim measure, election day here has to be considered a success. This town was packed with Taliban, just last year. The fear of additional militant attacks is never far off.

American and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commanders have put an enormous amount of energy into securing the elections - even though President Hamid Karzai is all-but-guaranteed to be re-elected, most observers believe. Mounting death tolls are beginning to undermine support for the Afghan war in several countries. A relatively calm election day gives leaders from Washington to Berlin to Kabul a sign of tangible progress. The next step is to bring the paper ballots to the provincial capitals, and then... More here

Outside the Wire:

There are actually three or four elections today, depending on the region and province. Some places went smooth. Others...well.

...In a day or two all the international election monitoring groups will issue statements and preliminary reports.

International groups ranging from the EU, NDI, IRI, DI and others were out in force today. Most them have expansive networks of Afghans reporting what happened throughout the country.

Any irregularities are being documented and will be reported. More here

Outside the Wire:

Kabul is quiet for now.
The streets which are normally teaming are not empty, but the buzz of the city is muted.

The normal background noise, usually pumped up to 11, is only at 2 or 3.

People are getting out to vote in the city.

In Afghanistan repeat voters are prevented by the dipping a finger in ink and a triangle punch on the voting ID card.

The fear is corrupt/incompetent poll workers not punching cards or ensuring the ink dip is used. More here

Helmand Blog

An Afghan man looks at his inked finger after casting his vote at a polling centre in Kabul (Photo AFP)

Striding out of a polling booth in central Kabul as one of the first Afghans to cast his vote early Thursday, Ramin held aloft an ink-stained finger and proudly proclaimed: "I have voted."

"I'm proud of my finger," the 27-year-old security guard told AFP.

"It's the symbol of a great day for Afghanistan.

"I don't care about the Taliban and their threats. Who do they think they are? We have a government, police, army, the infrastructure of a functioning state. The Taliban are all talk." More here

Helmand Blog: UPDATED PICTURES:

Election day picture update from Afghanistan

Free Range International:

It is hot, humid and sunny this morning in Jalalabad with a pleasant light wind blowing out of the Northeast. The traffic is light, people calm and as we sit here on the Baba deck monitoring the election we are recieving a report about every 10 minutes of mischief and mayhem. I bet less than 50% of them are true. For example, there is a report out of Kunar that the Taliban is shooting "an RPG" off near a polling station "every hour." We are getting a steady stream of SMS messages out of Kabul where most of the international community is currently located due to potential instability in the countryside that there are several gunfights and a few bombs. As most of the security companies are on complete lockdown it is highly probable that their reporting is BS too. Good companies and good operatives report as fact only those things they have verified themselves - everything else is suspect. So when we hear there is a "gun fight between political parties in Zone 9 of Kabul" we don't necessarily believe it. More here

Embedded in Afghanistan...:

Afghanistan's election is coming up on Thursday. Here in the northeastern part of the country, conducting an orderly election will be a difficult task, to say the least. This region, due to the high mountains and its shared border with Pakistan, is a well-known insurgent haven. Our enemies inhabit the high ground and getting up there to deal with them is tough.

Nearly every engagement here involves the insurgents shooting down at us from above. When that hasn't been the case, the enemy has been shooting at us from inside a village on the other side of a valley. Fighting an enemy while he's inside a village presents its own set of concerns.

Conducting day-to-day operations here is difficult. Holding an election here against the wishes of our numerous enemies will certainly be interesting. More here

Doc H's International Adventure:

I have been anticipating the arrival of this day since about mid April. That is when I figured out that I would be present in Afghanistan during this historic day. It is a day that the Afghan people and allies of ISAF(International Security Assistance Force) have been planning for a long time as well. A lot hangs on the results of this day. It remains to be seen how many Afghans will be brave enough to risk actually going to the polls and then voting. This is a land steeped in retribution, so lack of loyalty to one's family, tribe or region can have direct and dire consequences. Please remember the Afghan Security forces who are protecting the polling areas, roads and crowds today. Please also remember the US and Coalition forces who are working with or assisting the Afghans in their lofty goal of obtaining a nonbiased and democratic vote.

Tommorrow heralds the start of Ramadan. In this country, which is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ramadan is a very important month. More here

U.S. Forces

Afghanistan Polls in Afghanistan's second democratic election scheduled to close 20 minutes ago; however, voters who were in line by 4 p.m. local time will be permitted to cast their ballots.

OPFOR - Lt Col P:

Today's the day here in Kabul, and across the country.

If you're the praying sort (and I hope you are), ora pro nobis-- for the brave folks who will stick their necks out to vote, to work the polls, to protect the polls, to clear the roads, to watch the crowds, to do their utmost to make sure that it's a fair, clean and quiet process. More here

Michael Yon:

This dispatch has been dictated by satellite phone due to communications difficulties. My satellite gear has failed on election day. I do not know how well the elections turned out in other parts of Afghanistan. Here in North Helmand Provence, near Sangin, I am told that less than 300 people voted. In this area the day was marked by serious fighting. Apache attack helicopters were firing their cannons throughout the day. The howitzers fired many times. The mortars were firing. Various bases were attacked. On the mission I accompanied the snipers were firing. We got into a firefight, and the soldier beside me had his antenna shot off. I would not characterize this as a failure of the elections, it was a local setback. We saw the same in Iraq in early 2005, where some people boycotted the elections. The situation here is not good, but this is only one area of Afghanistan. I do not know what happened elsewhere. More here

OTHER MILBLOGS IN AFGHANISTAN TO CHECK IN WITH:

Afghan Quest
Afghanistan My Last Tour
My trip to BAF
Sgt Danger
There's sand in my...
Desert Bound
Knights of Afghanistan
306 days
My Thoughts
Kudzu's Wandering...
Afghani Kush
To the Rock Pile and Back Again
Conversations in the Desert
Defence of the Realm - (UK)




AFGHAN AND US MEDIA REPORTS BELOW THE FOLD

Moving Heaven and Earth

In late July, a British Soldier deployed in Afghanistan sustained extensive life-threatening wounds to the abdomen and chest. Emails went flying.

Via Michael Yon in Afghanistan:

A gunshot ripped through the darkness and a young British soldier fell dying on FOB Jackson. I was just nearby talking on the satellite phone and saw the commotion. The soldier was taken to the medical tent and a helicopter lifted him to the excellent trauma center at Camp Bastion. That he made it to Camp Bastion alive dramatically improved his chances. But his life teetered and was in danger of slipping away. Making matters worse, the British medical system back in the United Kingdom did not possess the specialized gear needed to save his life. Americans had the right gear in Germany, and so the British soldier was put into the American system.

British officers in his unit, 2 Rifles, wanted to track their man every step of the way, and to ensure that his family was informed and supported in this time of high stress. Yet having their soldier suddenly in the American system caused a temporary glitch in communications with folks in Germany. The British leadership in Sangin could have worked through the glitch within some hours, but that would have been hours wasted, and they wanted to know the status of their soldier now. So a British officer in Sangin - thinking creatively -asked if I knew any shortcuts to open communications. The right people were only an email away: Soldiers Angels. And so within about two minutes, these fingers typed an email with this subject heading: CALLING ALL ANGELS.

Soldiers' Angels Shelle Michaels and MaryAnn Phillips moved into action. Day by day British officers mentioned how Soldiers Angels were proving to be incredibly helpful. The soldiers expressed deep and sincere appreciation. Yet again, the Angels arrived during a time of need.
The severely wounded soldier, whose name I will not print without explicit permission, is recovering in the United Kingdom.

Two or three weeks after the injury, I was having dinner with a British Major and several Captains. The Major talked reverently about Soldiers Angels, and then about a herculean effort that the United States military extended to save a single British soldier. I had no idea about that effort. I just heard the gunshot, saw the soldier carried away into the night, and heard the helicopter roar into the darkness. I knew Soldiers' Angels had intervened back in Germany, but the details that followed came as incredible surprise. The U.S. military had quietly moved Heaven and Earth to save a single British "Squaddie."

MaryAnn emails us her story from Germany, explaining the extrodinary efforts of Camp Bastion, the Heros that work there and the Heros that come thru there:

"They did all that for my son?": Coalition medical personnel team up to save lives - and to support each other

and

The needs of the one...

Must Reads!

President Obama addresses the VFW

"Fulfilling America's Responsibility to Those Who Serve"

On Afghanistan:

As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight. And we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy.

But we must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.

Going forward, we will constantly adapt our tactics to stay ahead of the enemy and give our troops the tools and equipment they need to succeed. And at every step of the way, we will assess our efforts to defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies, and to help the Afghan and Pakistani people build the future they seek.

As they take control of their destiny, Iraqis will be tested and targeted. Those who seek to sow sectarian division will attempt more senseless bombings, more killing of innocents. This we know.

But as we move forward, the Iraqi people must know that the United States will keep its commitments. And the American people must know that we will move forward with our strategy. We will begin removing our combat brigades from Iraq later this year. We will remove all our combat brigades by the end of next August. And we will remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. And for America , the Iraq war will end.

The Drawing of the Three

More than 3,000 donkeys, 3,000 cars and three helicopters will traverse harsh terrain to carry voting materials to remote polling stations. And 30 observer groups, domestic and international, will be on hand to help guard against fraud.

Well then, the lucky number is three. "Preliminary results are scheduled September 3, with final results expected two weeks later."

Yesterday: "With three days until ballots are cast in presidential and provincial elections here," says Brian Katulis in The Afghan Elections: An Insider's Guide, "an air of uncertainty hangs over a process that U.S. President Barack Obama has called the most important event of the year in Afghanistan."

And while USA Today counts "An incumbent president and 38 challengers, including two women... vying for the votes of 17 million registered Afghans", here's a look at the top contenders.

A round up of more coverage here - including several reports from "on the ground".

"Now is the time" (II)

More from Salamandar on the McKiernan/McChrystal switch. Read it all - this brief excerpt can hardly be called definitive:

At this moment there are changes being made, as it should be, by the new commander in Kabul. These things take 6-mo to a year to effect on the ground. Another fact. In 6 months you will see the operational and strategic change from Gen. McChrystal. Everything you see right now is McKiernan.

I believe, having replaced the commander in Afghanistan with the military's so-called "A Team", we now owe the command in Afghanistan the time and resources to be successful. I believe that policy-makers and the public alike have the right to expect a shift in momentum over the next 12-18 months. But they must give the men on the ground those 12-18 months. It is unfair to both the Afghans and the allies to demand a dramatic U Turn in our policy at the very moment when Afghanistan is now being given the kinds of resources and personnel so long denied to it by the war in Iraq. Politically, the deficit and health care policy are going to determine who is and is not elected in the 2010 midterm elections -- not the war in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the president can afford to be patient. He should allow the commanders and ambassadors on the ground time to develop the situation.

[If change is not evident by Christmas 2010, President Obama, then direct the Department of Defense to shift its strategy in conjuntion with that of the NATO alliance. But until then, allow your new commander -- the guy you put in charge because you fired the other guy and after you promised to properly resource the war on the campaign trail -- to develop a plan for winning and to execute that plan.]

Signal, Noise, Reverb, and Echo

Was this the straw that broke the camel's back?

In mid-March, as a White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan was nearing completion, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met in a secure Pentagon room for their fortnightly video conference with Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Kabul.

There was no formal agenda. McKiernan, a silver-haired former armor officer, began with a brief battlefield update. Then Gates and Mullen began asking about reconstruction and counternarcotics operations. To Mullen, they were straightforward, relevant queries, but he thought McKiernan fumbled them.

"McKiernan's answers that day were the tipping point for Mullen." Says Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the Washington Post. "Soon after, he discussed the matter with Gates, who had come to the same conclusion."

An interesting opening, but one that begs more questions than it answers.

Frustration

"Sure, that's frustrating, but we've got to deal with it," said Capt. Zachary Martin, commander of Golf Company.

Sounds as if the reporter was asking him for a quote that included the word "frustrating".

The word, as I'm certain the reporter well knows, has degrees of meaning. All of us are "frustrated" continuously to one degree or another in carrying out various tasks. Red lights at intersections often frustrate my efforts to get to a certain place at a certain time. So do people in front of me who are driving slower than I want to go. I'm not the sort who will honk the car horn on these occasions, but (as folks who've driven with me will agree) I will often express my frustration by saying things like "Good Lord, how long is this red light?" or "C'mon dude, find the gas pedal". I've never uttered any such comments loud enough to be heard outside the car.

None of that implies I wish for an end to all traffic laws or even find them too restrictive. Even though they may appear to delay my immediate goal I know that without them my trek would likely be much worse - maybe even impossible given the number of intersections clogged with multi-car pileups (or gridlock, at best). Such rules are what we live with. (I've experienced driving in major cities in places with less restrictive rules, btw, but that's another story...)

But I'll still curse the next red light that halts my progress, frustrating my wife's efforts to get me to stop.

(Footnote: I tried to leave this post as a comment at Old Blue's, but was frustrated by server problems. Blue, being in Afghanistan, seems frustrated with those who would interpret the story as meaning Marines are frustrated that they can't kill baby Afghans. Many folks - some who were able to leave comments at Blue's - are frustrated by the fact that this is yet another unfortunate example of ignorance in academia.)

Lynndie goes to the Library (Update/Bump)

..of Congress:

Lynndie England will discuss her biography Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World at the Library of Congress Veterans Forum on Friday August 14 at noon in room 139 on the first floor of the James Madison building.

I am a Library of Congress employee and a veteran.* I retired with an honorable discharge after serving for 25 years in the Air Force. I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay for more than two years and I resigned in 2007 in large part because I believe waterboarding is torture and my superiors, Tom Hartmann and Jim Haynes, did not. I believe my views on torture have been clearly expressed, so it should come as no surprised that I am more than a little disappointed that the library that belongs to the United States Congress is hosting one of the most infamous torturers in modern time so she can promote her book. I'm even more disappointed that the event is sponsored by a veterans group. Perhaps I should start a rival group within the LOC called Veterans with Values and our motto will be "we don't honor the dishonorable." It doesn't appear that we'd overlap in any way with Mr. Moore's group.

2009-08-13 10:51:43

Update - Shhhh... no talking in the library!:

WASHINGTON -- Organizers have canceled a lecture at the Library of Congress by the woman who became a symbol of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal after threats caused concerns about staff safety. [Link]

Something about that reminds me of the story of how the Daughters of the American Revolution got Jimi Hendrix kicked off the Monkees' tour.

Update two:

David Moore, a Vietnam War veteran and German acquisitions specialist at the library who organized the event... said he was disappointed by the cancellation but supports the decision because of safety concerns. "We can't have an event here that's going to develop into a brawl like a town hall meeting," he said.

He added, "Free speech in America is pretty well dead."

He blamed an essay decrying the event on the Small Wars Journal blog for stirring up much of the opposition. The site focuses on war politics and strategy...

"Free speech in America is dead"? "brawl like a town hall meeting"? Stunning.

Dave Dilegge reports no contact from the police or the library regarding the alleged threats. I encourage him to contact them and offer to assist in any way possible with the investigation.

More from the last link above:

Moore said he won't plan future lectures because of the England problems and that he's canceling three already scheduled, including ones by a woman who wrote about sexual harassment in the military and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq.

Veteran Moore has weathered a wave of criticism in recent days, but he remains steadfast in his hatred for Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and his admiration for Lynndie England's "guts."

And this is from Wall Street Journal coverage prior to the cancellation:

"I'm apolitical. I bring in people from the left and right, people who are for and against, you name it," Moore said in an interview. He said he extended an invitation to England after reading her book. "I was actually intrigued by it. She recognizes what she did was wrong and she apologized for it," he said, "Quite frankly that's more than [former Vice President Dick] Cheney or [former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld has ever said."

Moore said he would not be deterred by opposition to England's appearance, stating that he's received a handful of "personal attacks" over email, and likened it to recent angry exchanges over health care at town hall meetings with lawmakers this month.

A representative for the book's publisher, Bad Apple Books, asked to clarify that the biography is written by Gary S. Winkler and not by England. Further, the scheduled Friday appearance at LOC is not an official promotion.

"The author, Mr. Gary Winkler, was threatened with an injunction by Ms. England's representative prior to the release of the book." [Source]

Meanwhile, over at NPR:

As an earlier posting by my blogging partner Mark suggested, England sounds fairly unrepentant.

The AP, (referencing the first Small Wars Journal post) noted "The posting had 19 comments by Friday afternoon, including several criticizing England." More remarkably, it has several defending her, too.

DoD Web 2.0

Introducing the Department of Defense (DoD) Web 2.0 Guidance Forum:

...a new initiative to solicit input from the public that has been undertaken in the spirit of President Obama's Open Government Directive. President Obama issued a memorandum on 21 January 2009 entitled, "Transparency and Open Government," which emphasized the need to ensure public trust and to establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. We are using this blog as an approach to engage the public in Department of Defense (DoD) considerations of web 2.0 capabilities, and are excited to participate in this new facet to the President's openness and transparency efforts.

Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?

Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?

Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?

You can respond to those questions here.

Based on earlier responses,

...our biggest take-away is the blinding flash-of-the-obvious need for training as a primary risk mitigation technique for which many of you are asking.

Shhhh... no talking in the library... (Update/bump)

WASHINGTON -- Organizers have canceled a lecture at the Library of Congress by the woman who became a symbol of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal after threats caused concerns about staff safety. [Link]

Something about that reminds me of the story of how the Daughters of the American Revolution got Jimi Hendrix kicked off the Monkees' tour.

Update:

David Moore, a Vietnam War veteran and German acquisitions specialist at the library who organized the event... said he was disappointed by the cancellation but supports the decision because of safety concerns. "We can't have an event here that's going to develop into a brawl like a town hall meeting," he said.

He added, "Free speech in America is pretty well dead."

He blamed an essay decrying the event on the Small Wars Journal blog for stirring up much of the opposition. The site focuses on war politics and strategy...

"Free speech in America is dead"? "brawl like a town hall meeting"?

Much more here.

Rest in peace, Major Chris Galloway. You will not be forgotten

MilBlogger and Flopping Aces Writer Major Chris Galloway Dead at 36

On June 30th Major Chris Galloway took his own life. He had come back from Afghanistan in April, and things just weren't the same we're told.

Why'd we lose him? Who the hell knows. There is no rational reason for doing such a thing, so using reason to figure it out is both impossible and ineffectual. It accomplishes nothing. In the end, he's still gone. For the sake of his wife, his kids, and for ourselves it's better to remember him for who he was. Given that he was so much to so many, there's a lot to think about. He was a husband, father, soldier, a writer for Flopping Aces, and I consider him my friend. We all consider him our friend. May God bless him and give him peace. He's earned it.
<...>
Along with losing a cyber friend that I treasured, I have a particular sadness for Chris. He spent his adult life loving, giving and protecting. I can't help but feel that, at a time when the "protector" needing protecting himself, that we... those he guarded and shielded with his very life... were perhaps unintentionally blind to his personal plight. Maybe we felt that one who displayed so much magnificence in his dedication to others was invincible to every incoming threat... military or personal.

Today, we know differently. For a reason we may never know, this man who gave his all for country, his fellow troops, and even strangers in a strange land, found himself running on "empty" when it came to protecting himself.

We are sad to hear this, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

His final post was from Afghanistan in November.

Our friend CJ Grisham provides information here on suicide prevention programs within the military.

"Now is the Time"

Wish I had a dollar for every article I've read (via think tanks, blogs, or major media outlets) that started with (expressed or implied) "now is the time to debate Af/Pak strategy" (or even whether or not we should be there in the first place).

Respectfully, no. Operational and tactical tweaks are forthcoming (best handled by those in or near the the trenches), but that window on the grand strategy debate closed a few months ago (arguably should have been earlier) back when the current course was being mapped out. Now is pretty much the time to see where the chosen path leads.

However, given that we can be sure of unsteady and uncertain progress - no plan is perfect, foolproof, or survives contact with the enemy - now IS the time for masters of the obvious to point out the imperfections and claim foresight and wisdom.

This is not to say the topic can't be examined, discussed, explained, or debated to a point. Adjustments are one thing that's certain, after all (but "how can I help" might be the first question one should ask and honestly answer). But the "act" point is here, the "plan" stage is past.

Now we members of loud and boisterous democracies will debate what we please when we please, and that's a great thing. And plenty of folks did provide good, well considered arguments when it mattered, and will carry those arguments forward. But I'm unimpressed with the timing of complaints from apparently sharp folks (whose opinions matter) who suddenly declare that "now is the time".

That was my first response to Dave Dilegge's point here. Dave's not one to opine frequently, this in spite of being a proprietor of a fine platform from which to do so. Obviously there's something about the current Af/Pak debate that prompted him to take on the task.

I've been pondering the topic myself, as evidenced by that comment above and other recent posts here. I've been perplexed - as a guy who's observed and reported on the development and implementation of our current Af/Pak strategy and tactics here over the past several months - by the rather sudden (and late) growth of the debate, and the concurrent growing noise level that Dave mentions in what I believe is his real point of contention. Signal doesn't particularly bother those who know and understand (as much as that's possible) an argument - noise does.

Then again, one man's noise is another man's signal.

All that by way of introduction to topic - more to follow.

A Local Hero Comes Home To Rest

Like many small towns across America, the small community of Richmond Hill, Georgia came out to welcome home a fallen hero. Marine Captain Matt Freeman was killed in Afghanistan last Friday while supporting combat operations. Thousands lined the streets of U.S. 144 (Ford Ave) and U.S. 17 with American flags and signs in hand waiting for the procession to pass. Dozens of local business offered tributes on their marques, flags throughout town were at half staff.

It was a sweltering hot day but I heard no complaints as I walked through the crowd, only tidbits of conversations as I passed. Some knew him, others knew him by a few degrees of separation. "His mother taught my daughter..." "They lived in our neighborhood..." Many shed tears. All were there to show their love and support for Matthew's family.

With a full police escort, followed by the Patriot Guard Riders, Captain Freeman came home to rest.

Patriot Guard - GA Ride Captain, RedThreat600RR sums it up:

There are families who understand words like duty, sacrifice and excellence. And there are families who live them. Matt Freeman grew up in a family that certainly must have understood those words. Matt's friends at Richmond Hill High School remember him as the kid with the infectuous smile...every picture I've seen attests to that. I wonder how many of them knew he was the son of a career Naval Aviator. There is something terribly right with the Freeman family. They give. They give to their country and their community. I wonder how many Thanksgivings have been on Saturday and how many birthdays have been late to accommodate military commitments over the years. Still they give. Matthew Freeman was an excellent student. An Honor Student. He could have been anything and what he chose was to be a Marine Officer. I believe in MY heart that Matthew Freeman believed in HIS heart in something much larger than himself. Matthew sought and attained an appointment to Annapolis. I have no doubt that he excelled there as well. Alan Jackson recorded a song in which the lyrics asked, "Where were you when the world stopped turning that September morn?" Matthew was at the U S Naval Academy. A Senior...about to accept a commission. From what I've learned about Matthew Freeman, it just steeled his eyes and strengthened his resolve a little more. Between 1998 and now, Matt transformed from a Richmond Hill Wildcat into Midshipman and ultimately a U S Marine Corps Devil Dog. An Aviator. And yet, he volunteered for a combat tour on the ground. Flying a C-130 in that part of the world is no walk in the park, but Captain Freeman felt the need to do something a little different from the left seat of a Hercules. When asked why, he said it was his patriotic duty.

I feel a tremendous sadness at the loss of a Brother and a personal loss at having never gotten to know this man who grew up only 45 minutes from where I sit now. Heroes truly walk quietly among us. I know that now, better than I have ever known it. I also feel a bit of pride in that my extended community can produce...HAS produced...families like the Freeman and Hess families.

Captain Matthew Freeman willingly stepped into the gap between all we hold dear...all that makes us American...and anyone, anywhere who would try to take that away or do us harm. He was prepared to do whatever the job required, to pay any price up to and including his life. Last Friday, Captain Freeman gave his all on the field of battle and tonight I feel an overwhelming sense of indebtedness. The debt I owe...that WE owe...to Matthew C. Freeman of Richmond Hill, Georgia cannot be repaid. To offer a few words...to put the key into my motorcycle...to spend a few hours of my life standing in honor of this Marine don't even come close to the minimum payment due. But these things I offer humbly as a first payment.

Captain Matthew C. Freeman, your service and your many sacrifices are deeply appreciated, Sir. Your duty here is done; rest in perfect peace.

My family and I offer our heartfelt condolences to all of the Freeman and Hess families and Matt's friends and fellow Marines. May God grant each of you the peace that only He can give and the strength and guidance to face the days ahead.

SEMPER FI.

Welcome Terrorists!

Last week's news, but I was on vacation: The Mudville gazette - "a great one-stop shop....FOR TERRORISTS! ".

Or for anyone who wants to monitor milblogs in general, even in an official capacity. I've been well aware for a long time that members of both groups are visitors here - but I'm the guy who coined the phrase "write like Osama and your momma" (and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) are readers". (And "when milblogs are outlawed only outlaws will have milblogs"). So best of luck and good hunting to all.

Back in '07 (maybe still) the official MNC-I screensaver in Iraq (the one your computer launched automatically after a few moments of "inactivity") was an OPSEC slideshow that included this blog's logo on one of the slides - so on visits to headquarters I would often see my humble logo (Mrs G's handiwork, btw) displayed on hundreds of computers at once. Very weird feeling. (But if you're a first-time visitor who thinks the site is familiar that could be why. Hope that doesn't trigger flashbacks...)

And?

The Quatto Zone:

The Wall Street Journal's Yochi Dreazen certainly sparked a minor news tsunami with an article entitled "Taliban Now Winning." Problem was, the putative source of that assessment, International Security Assistance Force Commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, didn't say that--which I know because I sat in on Dreazen's interview.

(Via the Dawn Patrol)

Regardless of its degree of accuracy, I think we can state with certainty that the headline ("Taliban Now Winning") is neither a direct quote or one with which General McChrystal would concur (at least without definitions, caveats, conditions, and significant qualifications). Therefore it's unfortunate - at least - that it sits atop a published interview with the General - one that contains some other implied quotes ("upper hand") that support it.

The question becomes why? I can think of a range of answers of varying degrees of reasonableness, motive, and likelihood - and "sloppy reporting" is not among them. (Simple example: drama - manufactured or not - sells. But is the WSJ prone to tabloid journalism? I think not.)

Assuming for discussion that "winning" has some applicable meaning here ( I say no, but that discussion is here), perhaps a better question is the fill in the blank sort: "They're winning, we're losing, therefore _________". Anyone want a crack at that one? Either your answer or what you think the Wall Street Journal's (yes, some anthropomorphism or personification is required) may be? Consider the "blank" as long or as short as needed.

Immediate update: A further point - as I see it the WSJ story doesn't exist in isolation, it's a significant part of a broader and growing debate regarding Af/Pak in general - one I've already characterized as "too late" in many regards and thus must wonder why it is occurring now. Any one with thoughts on that topic please chime in - I'm absolutely interested in what others have to say.

Not too keen on wannabe Keanes

The title above describes Dave Dilegge's point here.

I make my point in comments there. Short version: if you think "now is the time" for an Af/Pak goals and strategy debate you missed the last train out of the station a few months ago. In the think-plan-act process we are most definitely at the act stage.

Some will misconstrue that to mean now is the time to act important, act intelligent, or just act like a/an _________ (chose your preferred pejorative). Others will be taking difficult actions where it matters.

That's the short version. More here - including the (contradictory?) point that we members of loud and boisterous democracies will debate what we please when we please, and that's a great thing.

First do no harm

U.S. Paratroopers Face Afghan Mob.

Hopefully we'll see a follow-up to this story - which seems to describe our desired "boots on ground" approach to Afghanistan fairly well: first and foremost, do not harm the locals.

I do like this quote, though: "As ugly as it was, we were able to confirm there is anti-coalition sentiment in Tokchi''. It may be one of the finest military quotes ever.

Update: More discussion (some from me, via email) at Castle Argghhh. For the record, while I concur with John's points I don't see the postscript as "end of story" by a long shot (nor, I believe, does he). We're several chapters away from that.

On Drugs

WASHINGTON -- Fifty Afghans believed to be drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon target list to be captured or killed, reflecting a major shift in American counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional study to be released this week. [Link]

If this news is actually new - it's certainly convenient that we chose Helmand Province (the world's largest opium-producing region, responsible for 42% of the world's total production) as the place to send in the Marines.

Two intertwined bumper-sticker type inaccuracies should be dispensed with immediately in this discussion. One, that this signifies a "war on drugs" effort in Afghanistan, and (two) that this is "mission creep". Poppy profits represent a significant source of funding for enemy activities, and while not the sole source of funding eliminating or reducing that has an obvious military benefit. Conversely, ignoring the enemy cash crop in your backyard might be considered questionable at best.

That said, the amount of time, human, and other resources devoted to the task of eliminating individuals involved is but one aspect of a much larger problem set. I suspect the NY Times headline - "U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban" - is (like another recent headline) a bit overly dramatic. In domestic U.S. civilian terms, putting someone on a "wanted list" or even issuing a warrant for arrest (something akin to what we're discussing here) does not necessarily mean they will (or won't) be actively or aggressively pursued.

On a somewhat related (and much more dramatic) note:

A CRACKSHOT Scots squaddie has killed a feared Taliban warlord - from a mile away.

Corporal Christopher Reynolds shot the high profile Afghan drug baron dead during ferocious fighting, notching up the longest range confirmed kill in Afghanistan.
<...>
"I saw that he had a weapon, an AK47. We did all the calculations for range, windspeed and all that. I have to admit the first round landed next to him. We were so far away that he didn't even realise he was being shot at.

"We changed our aim and when I took into account different factors like the trajectory of the bullet, my gun scope was actually aiming at the top of a doorway. I fired and the bullet went off, coming down and hitting him in the chest.

"He dropped straight away into the arms of a fighter behind him.

"The guy just panicked and dropped the leader and ran away.

"He had been given a lead sleeping tablet. I was quite proud of that shot - it is the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. I am going to use that fact as a chat-up line in the pub when I get back home."

Lance Corporal David Hatton, 20, from Castlemilk, serves alongside Cpl Reynolds.

He said: "We had been in position for three days when he made that shot. I was the spotter on that job and I was giving him the information about the target.

"He did a top job that day - but we are all sick about him going on about it and telling us what a great shot he is."

A great story (cached version here for now - a shorter version here) - read it all. But I have to say that along with superb shooting skills and top-notch equipment that's a hellagood scope he had, able to identify a guy as a drug baron from over a mile away.

Great discussion elsewhere:

Holbrooke's drug war

Killing Pablo -- er, Ahmed (as usual at Abu M, don't miss the comments)

The Upper Hand

An accurate headline, a flair for the dramatic, or both? Jimbo seeks clarification - and gets some.

Given that "victory" is on the bad word list, it's difficult to see how "winning" or "losing" are applicable terms.

Update: Kimberly Kagan explains "Why the Taliban Are Winning -- for Now".

I personally think that the military operations themselves are failing because there has been no coherent theaterwide counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Despite U.S. President Barack Obama's newly announced "Af-Pak" strategy, the U.S. and coalition campaign this summer is a continuation of the poorly designed operations from 2008. And the sheer inertia of military operations means that it will be hard to turn this supertanker around for the better part of this year.

I'm not certain I'd dismiss operations as "poorly designed" in 2008 - it's an arguably true statement but under resourced might be more accurate.

But it's certainly hard to view this video report (or see pictures of fully armored troops with full rucks and weapons at port arms climbing hills with their eyes downward searching for footing instead of enemy) without wondering exactly how well implementation of counterinsurgency doctrine is going. If "hard to turn this supertanker around" is the wrong analogy (for other than nautical applicability reasons) it might be because it falls short of capturing the enormity of the task. (Though reversing a supertanker anchored somewhere in the Afghan landscape might be exactly right.)

Then again, if all was well (or if the Army believed all was well) on that front then we wouldn't have a COIN academy in Afghanistan, or regular updates from from Old Blue.

None of this addresses or answers the question is COIN "right"? My short answer is "we'll see". For now, right or not is moot. As strategy and tactics go COIN is ours.

More - speaking of under-resourced, "Another 45,000 US troops needed in Afghanistan, military adviser says" and "More troops, fewer caveats. Let's get serious".

However, returning to the Wall Street Journal piece that began this post, "Several officials who have taken part in Gen. McChrystal's 60-day review of the war effort said they expect him to ultimately request as many as 10,000 more troops". Talk of 45,000 might be an effort to make that smaller number appear more palatable - though certainly some might have the opportunity to declare Afghanistan '09 "poorly designed" next year.

And speaking of hindsight, it's worth recalling that many thought the Iraq surge pointless, many others thought more troops were needed, and few (if any) thought the number "just right".

Still more - from Mr and Mrs Kagan here.

Clearing Hurdles

Bing West provides a dramatic video of a firefight from Afghanistan - but his brief accompanying text is a bit perplexing:

This is a one minute video that illustrates the nature of the fighting in the flatlands / villages of the '"Green Zone". This is typical of the fighting I observed day after day. We have the firepower. Body armor and gear weigh about 70 pounds per man on patrol. The Taliban gangs have the mobility and concealment. They initiate most firefights. We cannot locate their firing positions with sufficient precision to apply accurate killing fires. This is a serious operational-level issue, not a tactical hurdle. If we cannot fix and finish them, they can choose when to fight and extend the war.

Generally speaking - yes, we want to be able to kill people who are actively trying to kill us. It's one way to get people to stop trying to kill us.

But that's not our focus in Afghanistan, as explained in the comment here:

...after the initial fighting is over and the enemy fades into the masses, then they can bound towards the nearby village.
<...>
This move will allow them to capture the physical enemy terrain. Next, they can focus on the so-called "human terrain." The ground commander can begin to focus on making relationships with the local social, political, and religious leaders and determine the appropriate sphere of influence for this village. Simultaneously, he can send out LP/OP's (Listening Post/Observation Post) or simply recon teams to extend his Area of Operations.

With these tasks complete, they can drive on...

The video itself lacks context, and the brief text adds none, but if taking the physical terrain to reach the human terrain was the mission interrupted by this exchange of greetings, then it appears that the mission was accomplished - the bad guys surrendered the terrain. If "move to contact and kill some bad guys" was the mission then we've got a whole 'nuther problem set altogether, and it's operational indeed.

Video (and more discussion) here.

Danger Room in Afghanistan

Nathan Hodge of Danger Room reporting from Afghanistan...

Below that parachute, a thirty-six foot long, 16,000-pound 155-mm howitzer, inbound to an undisclosed location. Ride along for the delivery here.

He is dead (an ongoing series)

Very much so indeed:

A Hellfire missile, fired from a CIA-operated drone an hour past midnight Wednesday, Pakistan time, tore Baitullah Mehsud's body into two pieces. He was said to be on a glucose drip -- dispensed by a local paramedic named Saeedullah -- on the rooftop of his in-laws' house in Zangara, South Waziristan, when hell rained down and took several lives, including that of Mehsud and his second wife.

That from Foreign Policy's new Af/Pak Channel, where we are also informed that "like most other militants and several Pakistani opposition leaders Baitullah also bitterly opposed the drone attacks". In addition to that insight, we learn that "he was barely 5.2 feet tall" - which says something about "precision targeting", ins'Allah, our ability to work with Pakistani intel, just plain luck - or all of the above.

Whichever explanation is most accurate,

Now the hard part begins. Since the CIA has demonstrated its ability to pinpoint "high-level targets," it will want to go after other top Taliban leaders in Pakistan, such as Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan and Jalaluddin Haqqani in North Waziristan. But Pakistan's military and security establishment perceives both men, who focus their fighting in Afghanistan and not in Pakistan, as national security assets more than threats.

I imagine his elimination might be comparable to that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--even though al-Qaida in Iraq continued after Zarqawi, it was never the same.

Mehsud's death may or may not have the impact of Zarqawi's - but on a somewhat related side note that Zarqawi angle was something else about which I commented here, noting that it was only after we killed him that awakening movement really got going in Anbar - after earlier failures.

And on the topic of media coverage of killing enemy leaders, here's a blast from the past.

Last time I heard his voice

Robert Stokely:

August 8, 2005 at 11:30 a.m. I received a call from Mike and we talked for 30 minutes or so. He was due home September 1 for leave and we talked about that, but then the talked turned to how dangerous it was in the Triangle of Death and the near misses he had, including one that day. Mike was killed by a road side bomb a week later and I never got to talk to him again. Each year on August 8 since, at 11:30 I stop what I am doing and I remember that call and what I shared with Mike in those last 30 minutes of conversation.

And I remembered today, August 8 at 11:30 a.m. while I was at the post office mailing one of Mike's best growing up / high school friends, SGT Charles "Chuck" Crowder, a package. When he called a few weeks ago from Afghanistan I asked if there was something I could send him, he said he wanted a white Georgia Bulldog ball cap - he had left his back home. Georgia Bulldog Head Coach Mark Richt autographed two for him. I figured in Afghanistan a white hat doesn't have a great chance of staying white long, so he can keep one put up for a keepsake. I wouldn't know Chuck but for Mike and Mike's death has brought us much closer, and he is not afraid to tell me he loves me. And it is the same with their mutual "best friend" Alden Williams who took the last known picture of Mike when responding to an IED incident, the one which Mike told me about as a near miss during that "last call". Alden called me recently from Afghanistan but I missed his call. I was so mad at myself, but I saved his message, and the ending warms my heart when he said to tell the family hello and I love all of you.

I thought about Justin Oulton, another of Mike's "best friends" (Mike couldn't just be an ordinary friend). They played high school soccer together and later shared an old farmhouse living on their own, dogs included. Justin keeps in regular touch with us and even helped for several weeks with hauling water to keep the new sod I planted on Mike's grave watered last September.

While at the post office I was also mailing out nine scholarship checks from the Mike Stokely Foundation, Inc. which brings to 29 scholarships for graduating high school seniors headed to their first year of college. While they are not full rides, they do carry out the mission of the Mike Stokely Foundation - giving a lot of kids a little help to go a long way in life. I thought about the kids in Yusufiyah who were so happy last year to get school supplies from the Mike Stokely Foundation, and the student at Georgia Military College who was the first recipient of the Mike Stokely Memorial Scholarship endowed by funds raised in the "Ride to Remember...." two years ago, and the one for this coming year. I thought about young children in need who got a book a month this past year to help them get a boost in life with reading skills, and wondered about a group of children whose socio-economic situation was pretty grim and were elated to get a book from the Mike Stokely Foundation for a birthday present (some the only present they got that day). I thought about several hundred inner-city kids who come to an annual Christmas Party called Flight to the North Pole and their gift bags contain a book from the Mike Stokely Foundation. I thought back to 1983 when I first got involved with the Flight to the North Pole and the many times Mike came to help with that annual party, even after he was grown.

I thought about the MilBlog community and friends I have come to know through Mike's death. I thought about all my Soldier's Angels including head Angel, Patti Bader. I thought about all of Mike's former unit, E 108 CAV 48th Brigade GAARNG, many who now continue to serve and are deployed to Afghanistan and a good number of those are with Bravo 2 / 121 INF 48th Brigade GAARNG in Afghanistan. I thought about the opportunity I was given to serve as Co-Chair of Bravo 2 / 121 Family Readiness Group. I thought about how this came about because of Mike. And there are so many other things that Mikes sacrifice has brought my way.

It has been four years since Mike last called me and the last time I heard his voice while he was alive. I remember every word, but I especially remember how re-assuring he was in the calmness of his voice even though he faced great danger in the Triangle of Death. Today, even though I can't actually hear him speak as he did in that last phone call four years ago, I can still hear him through all the things I describe above in the same re-assuring, calm way he sounded that day four years ago. You know, now that I think about it, August 8, 2005 really was not the last time I heard Mike's voice, for he continues to speak through so many blessings in our life, and that of many others. His voice is still calm and re-assuring.

DUTY HONOR COUNTRY

Robert Stokely
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 AUG 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
USA E 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG

It has been a blessing to have met Robert Stokely and to now call him a friend. Robert has been able take his personal loss and turn it into a celebration of Mike's life and what he stood for and he does it with dignity, grace, and honor.

Mike would be proud.

"When I am President..."

A great beginning for a quote, perhaps especially when uttered by a citizen of Afghanistan.

The Secret Plan

Shhh... it's a secret:

President Barack Obama next month will send Congress a new plan for measuring progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an effort to build confidence among wavering Democrats and give sharper direction to a costly and increasingly bloody war, White House officials told POLITICO on Saturday.

The document will include specific metrics under nine broad objectives -- some of them classified, and divided roughly half for Afghanistan and half for Pakistan. The list has not been released, but is likely to leak after it goes to lawmakers.

He is dead not

A close associate of Pakistan's most wanted man, Baitullah Mehsud, who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack, has told the BBC he is alive.

Commander Hakimullah Mehsud said reports of the Taliban leader's death three days ago in an attack on a house in South Waziristan were "ridiculous".

The US said on Friday it was increasingly confident its forces had managed to kill Mr Mehsud.

Neither side has provided evidence to back up their claims so far. [Link]

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Hakimullah Mehsud and another Taliban leader Wali-ur-Rehman have been killed in an armed clash erupted during the Tehreek's Shura meeting, Geo TV reported Saturday.

At the meeting Hakimullah Mehsud was appointed as TTP Chief after the reported killing of Baitullah Mehsud, the state media reported.

The agenda of the meeting was to appoint successor of Baitullah Mehsud, sources said.

The Pipeline

Trust me on this: No one - repeat - no one with any knowledge or appreciation of the situation confronting US/NATO (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan at this time will claim there are or will be (under current plans) sufficient troops (and/or "resources") in-country to achieve strategic goals there. No one - repeat - no one has made that claim to date. In fact, many have stated the opposite, and while claims have been made that no additional troops will be deployed none of those claims have been justified with any claim that they aren't needed. In other words, the conventional wisdom has been that

a) more troops are needed, and

b) they won't be delivered.

The real question is: are they available? The answer is maybe. There's one (count 'em) one "talent pool" of additional troops for Afghanistan - and that's the Brigades currently scheduled for deployment to Iraq this Fall and Winter.

AKA The months following the delayed delivery point of General McChrystal's Afghanistan review (or the months prior to Iraq's January elections).

What would you do?

Toll

Vampire Six, just home from Afghanistan, takes time to tell tales.

He is dead, he is dead not...

He is dead (for now).

"He" being Baitullah Mahsud, the infamous Taliban leader most Americans never heard of. There was a discussion thread here a few weeks back on whether it would be worthwhile to target him.

In response to this:
"...if we were indeed to knock out Mehsud. You better believe that the following day this news would appear on the frontpage of cnn.com and become a major talking point amongst all the pundits..."

I contributed this:
"No offense intended, but you're mistaking something that matters to you (and me and others here) for something that would be "newsworthy" in the broader sense. Short of OBL I think not."

Perhaps I was mistaken.

Some might recall Mahsud from this news from 4 April:

A Pakistani Taliban militant leader has claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which 13 people were killed, Reuters reported.

"I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks," Baituallah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location on Saturday.

Actually the attack was carried out by a Vietnamese immigrant, completely unrelated to any events in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

When Mookie comes home

"Sadrist bloc MP Ahmed Masoudi says that Moqtada Sadr will soon be on his way back to Iraq." [Link]

Meanwhile, 3,300 Sons of Iraq get civilian jobs

And the walls...

...come tumbling down - at least some do. Others have been down for a while, others will be up a while more...

Meanwhile, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani pledged Sunday to resolve disputes over land and oil".

Johannes in the 'Stan

My buddy J.D. Johannes is boots-on-ground.

Room with a view

An August day in military history

There have been 101 Medals of Honor awarded for actions on this day in history.

I can't help but wonder if any descendants of John Smith are currently serving in the US Senate...

Home

Captain Scott Speicher comes home.

And this week marks the 19th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.

Is it over over there?

Oh my, look at the time...

Did we stay too long? (Note date this entry - September 1, 2008.)

A good day to dust

"Yes, the Iraqis are complaining about the dust. That's how bad it is." Says Starbuck.

Meanwhile, back at the Castle, Alawi's grandmother earns high marks as a forecaster. (Hardly fair to the pros - she's not constrained by group consensus derived from computer models, Doppler radars, and multi-spectral satellite imagery.)

Others notice the dust, too.

Don't let anything that sounds like complaining fool you, however. We called them "snow days" last time I was there, and as Starbuck notes that means a little more time for the blog (among other important things - so visit the main pages at these links, too).