Day is done

Lest we forget:

They still walk among us (and always will)

Lieberman: General Keane... Do you think that political correctness may have played some role in the fact that these dots were not connected?

The first two words of the general's response were "Yes, absolutely". But there were more, including these:

But in fairness to many of the people who are associating with him, based on what preliminary research I have done and I think what the committee is doing, I think we're going to find very clearly that we do not have specific guidelines on dealing with Jihadist extremism in terms of the obligations of the members of the military to identify a reported and what actions to take and what constitutes Jihadist extremists itself.

Last summer (on the heels of news of the retracted Department of Homeland Security report warning of the threat posed by "right wing veterans") Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, made news when he issued a press release regarding a letter he'd sent to four members of congress announcing his discovery of 40 "whites only" chat room participants who claimed to be military. That story faded fast, without an ensuing "witch hunt" - but as noted in the ensuing discussion, "racist" can be grounds for discharge - even though it's a fairly simple "condition" to fake.

It shouldn't be too difficult to extend that same consideration to those whose sympathies are aligned with the enemy in time of war - especially when that enemy is an extremist group (and no, this doesn't mean "all Muslims") with members - "card-carrying" or not - demonstrably more inclined (and motivated - we are officially at war with them, after all) to act in extremis than Nazi's (or communists, if you prefer) have been over the past few decades.

And that was a long statement, but "shouldn't be" was the key phrase.

MilBlogger Down - Thoughts and Prayers Please

Military blogger "Concrete Bob" could use your thoughts and prayers, however he'd rather they go to others than to him.

Short and sweet, I had a serious heart attack on Wednesday night. I`m in the hospital, hooked up to a bunch of tubes. I have had a catheterization done and a stint put in, but there is still some blockage. So next Wednesday the doctors are going to do a little carving and install some new parts. No big deal.

Pray for the doctor and my family.

"No big deal" - now isn't that just like him.

Go here and wish him well

The war on corruption

The best answer to the question "can we win in Afghanistan in spite of corruption in the government?" might be another question: which government?

Muslim Leader Calls Fort Hood Review Critical to National Security

"Qaseem Ali Uqdah, executive director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, and a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, credits military leaders with establishing a climate that's prevented any backlash against Muslims servicemembers since the Nov. 5 shooting."

The fact that Hasan is Muslim, he said, doesn't matter. A review would have been necessary whatever the perpetrator's religion, as a "preventative measure" to prevent a similar incident from ever happening again, he said.

And to be truly effective, he said, the review should go beyond Muslims, to help identify and weed out zealots of any kind who could become potential threats. "It would be most prudent to go across the military and leave no stone unturned," Uqdah said.

The world situation demands it, he said. "We have to recognize this for what it is: a war on several fronts, with no boundaries, and here on our own shores," he said. "So we have to be vigilant. If that requires all of us being examined, then so be it," as long as it doesn't overstep civil liberty boundaries.

"So long as it is not prejudicious, a review right now is necessary," Uqdah said.

While providing an important "litmus test," the Pentagon review will also help highlight the contributions Muslim servicemembers make to the U.S. military, and the sacrifices they have made, he said.

Full text below:

Pentagon Launches Review of Fort Hood Shooting

"The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers," Gates said. "It is prudent to determine immediately whether there are internal weaknesses or procedural shortcomings in the department that could make us vulnerable in the future."

Initial review 45 days, followed by a follow-on investigation "expected to last four to six months".

Full text below:

Warlords and Warlords

From Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel Daily Brief:

As part of her media outreach following yesterday's inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a brief but wide-ranging interview to Afghanistan's Azadi Radio (State Department, AFP). Maintaining a conciliatory tone towards the embattled president, Clinton expressed a wish for the presence of more professionals and technocrats in the Afghan government; when asked whether the U.S. would support a Karzai administration with warlords, she said, "Well, there are warlords and there are warlords."

However, the anti-Dostum campaign continues.

On one side of the cavernous room sat Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's warned that the international community is losing patience with Karzai.

On the other side was Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Afghan warlord who's become a symbol of cronyism and government corruption. Dostum was stripped of his top military post after he was accused of war crimes and investigated for enacting vigilante justice on the streets of Kabul.

Although foreign leaders have demanded that Karzai sideline Dostum and other discredited political allies, the Afghan president is also under pressure to reward those, such as Dostum, who helped him win re-election.

That he (along with the rest of the "Northern Alliance" who are now delegated to "warlord" status) was once a key ally in America's war against the Taliban has become an inconvenient truth that doesn't fit the space allotted for modern media coverage.

As at a wedding, the guest list said a lot. Sitting in the second row was General Dostum, a military commander briefly exiled from Kabul with a reputation for viciousness even in a room of tough military men. His presence in a Karzai cabinet - yet to be announced - might prove a problem for the west.

And while betrayal of former allies is anything but rare in Afghanistan, his opposition could prove even more problematic. A brief introduction to "the unsavory characters surrounding the Afghan president and his new government" here.

Hanging out with the boys

James Hooker is just one guest among many in an impressive line-up for tonight's YouServed Radio show:

LTG Freakley, USAAC CG. Lieutenant General Benjamin C. Freakley assumed command of U.S. Army Accessions Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia, on 18 May 2007, consisting of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Fort Knox, KY; U.S. Army Cadet Command, Fort Monroe, VA; and U.S. Army Accessions Support Brigade, Fort Knox, KY. http://www.usaac.army.mil/cg.html Kenny Gamble. Kenny is a Grammy-award winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and the co-creator behind such classics as "Aint No Stoppin' Us Now", and "Love Train". By collaborating with iconic soul singer Patti Labelle, and the Temple University's Choir and Orchestra, "I Am An American" seeks to bring a renewed sense of patriotism to this country. - James Hooker. Today, November 19th, James releases his third solo album in the last two years - this one,¨Hanging Out With The Boys¨ is a collection of the 11 songs that rose out of the September 11th attacks and the World War On Terror that James calls WWlV. He is, as you can tell from these songs, a true supporter of the men and women ¨up at the sharp end, who lay it on the line for our kids, and our otherwise worthless asses!¨ Larry Pratt will talk about the The Veterans Disarmament Act which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2008. This law places any veteran who has ever been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the federal gun ban list. http://gunowners.org/a010808.htmhttp://gunowners.org/netb.htm Dudley Brown - Executive Director of National Association for Gun Rights to talk about the "Gun Free Zone" in our military that possibly contributed to the Fort Hood massacre. http://www.nationalgunrights.org

CJ and Troy have done a hellagood job putting this one together- their shows keep getting better and better. Listen online here tonight at 7PM Eastern. You'll be able to join the on-line chat or call in during the show.

The signal corps

NPR exposes more details of Nidal Hasan's "career" in the US military, today revealing a memo written by his supervisor in 2007.

The memo ticks off numerous problems over the course of Hasan's training, including proselytizing to his patients. It says he mistreated a homicidal patient and allowed her to escape from the emergency room, and that he blew off an important exam.

According to the memo, Hasan hardly did any work: He saw only 30 patients in 38 weeks. Sources at Walter Reed say most psychiatrists see at least 10 times that many patients. When Hasan was supposed to be on call for emergencies, he didn't even answer the phone.
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The memo does have a couple of qualifications that say something positive about Hasan. It says, "He is able to self-correct with supervision." And Moran writes, "I am not able to say he is not competent to graduate."

Officials at Walter Reed told NPR that those statements were very carefully worded. What they convey is that when Hasan's supervisors read him the riot act -- when they gave him intensive supervision -- he would improve just enough so that they had to tell their commanders: "Hasan is capable of doing better."

But officials say nobody has the time to supervise a doctor that closely.

That's accurate - "works well when supervised" is a classic damning term for a military performance evaluation. The full memo is linked from NPR's report. Anyone familiar with military writing would be hard-pressed to describe this passage...

He is able to self-correct with supervision. However, at this point he should not need so much supervision. In spite of all of this, I am not able to say he is not competent to graduate nor do I think a period of academic probation now at the end of his training will be beneficial. He would be able to contain his behavior enough to complete any period of probation successfully.

...as anything other than a recommendation that Hasan's "skills" were perhaps best utilized elsewhere.

Elsewhere, the Washington Post's headline "Senators press Obama on Fort Hood probes" is subbed with "White House wants lawmakers to slow their investigations".

Congressional Democrats have not been nearly as aggressive in their oversight of the Obama administration as they were during the Bush administration. The actions on Capitol Hill this week, however, demonstrate a growing impatience, particularly among senators, with the White House's preference that lawmakers slow down their inquiries.

Lieberman's hearing Thursday, the first on Capitol Hill regarding the Texas shootings, will start what potentially could be a more assertive approach to administration oversight, at least on matters of national security.

The report adds that "Even some of President Obama's most steadfast allies have questioned whether intelligence agencies crossed their signals" with regards to information-sharing on Hasan.

Meanwhile, President Obama concluded his Asia trip with a stop at Osan Air Base in Korea:

Obama arrived on the base 3:19 p.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) and received a rousing welcome from 1,500 troops in camouflage uniforms, many holding cameras or pointing cell phones to snap pictures.

"You guys make a pretty good photo op," the president said.

Standing on a riser wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a cluster of troops and a large American flag behind him, Obama expressed "the gratitude of the American public" and said his meetings in four countries over eight days in Asia will help deliver a "safer, more prosperous world for all of us."

He got a huge cheer when he told them he was increasing military pay. "That's what you call an applause line," he said, before boarding his jet and taking off at 4:11 p.m.

Mission accomplished.

Mop needed. Plumber, too

When it comes to Afghanistan - America's top national security concern today - the "leaks" from the administration have amounted to a flood, with new and seemingly contradictory reports appearing daily in the global media. It's been going on for months, but now President Obama says it's "not appropriate".

Here's a look back at the history of the problem.

CBS - Obama: I'd Fire Afghan Decision Leakers.

"We have deliberations in the situation room for a reason; we're making life and death decisions that affect how our troops are able to operate in a theater of war. For people to be releasing info in the course of deliberations is not appropriate."

"A firing offense?" Reid inquired.

"Absolutely," Mr. Obama responded.

In the same interview, "the president said it's still several weeks before he makes a decision on how many more troops to send to Afghanistan." He told CNN "we are very close to a decision" on Afghanistan, and "I will announce that decision, certainly in the next several weeks."

Earlier this month, sources revealed to ABC News that "as of now President Obama will likely announce his decision about a new strategy in Afghanistan at some point between the Afghan run-off election, November 7, and the president's departure for Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, November 11." But almost immediately afterward other sources revealed that it "appears increasingly likely that Obama will not announce his new Afghanistan strategy until after returning to the United States on Nov. 20." But late last week a leak from senior U.S. officials revealed that

Ambassador Eikenberry's memos expressed "deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said."

...and that could be cause for further delay.

The Gates comparison from the CBS story ("Reid says he asked the president if he's as angry as Defense Secretary Robert Gates about all the leaks...") was in reference to a recent report headlined "Gates Lashes Out at Leakers" in which the secretary was quoted as saying "I am appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on."

"If I found out who" was involved, he said, "it would probably be a career ender."

He also expressed concerns over the complexity of the president's approach to Afghanistan: "How do we signal resolve, and at the same time, signal to the Afghans and the American people that this is not open-ended?" However, the fact that those were actually administration concerns wasn't officially leaked until the following day:

One senior administration official, who requested anonymity in order to reflect the details and tone of confidential deliberations, said these concerns had added to the president's insistence at a White House meeting on Wednesday that each military option include the quickest possible exit strategy.

As for possible troop numbers, while late October leaks had indicated the president was leaning towards a smaller number, ("...what one official described as "McChrystal Light''), in early November McClatchy declared Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan - but noted that "the officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss internal administration planning, cautioned that Obama's decision isn't final.

CBS quickly trumped that story with the dramatic announcement that "informed sources tell CBS News [Obama] intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for". That report prompted an administration response CBS described as "attributed to White House National Security Advisor James Jones":

Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false.

Last week, McClatchy revealed that according to their sources (no less than six military and administration officials who had requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly), those leaks had "deprived Eikenberry and other officials of the ability to tell Karzai that no more American troops will be forthcoming if he doesn't agree to implement reforms." And worse...

The Obama administration's internal debate over Afghan policy has escalated into a battle of media leaks that's straining relations between officials who're seeking a major troop increase and those who want a more limited approach and a greater focus on domestic priorities.

The feud also has poisoned ties between the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan and the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, and left the administration struggling for leverage to press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to appoint untainted officials to his new government, attack corruption and share power with the parliament and provincial officials.
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A U.S. defense official said the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, feels he was "stabbed in the back" by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan...

However, they added in perhaps unintentional hilarity, "The official, like others who were interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly. However, according to a half-dozen U.S. military and administration officials..."

So that might explain why the president is starting to get upset about leaks.

Meanwhile, Spencer Ackerman recently described a dramatic scene inside the White House...

It was a tense meeting this morning at the White House, as Ambassador Karl Eikenberry addressed the National Security Council by teleconference from Kabul just hours after the media got hold of his dissent on the crucial question of sending more troops to Afghanistan. "He is very unpopular here," said a National Security Council staffer who described the meeting.

No one was happy to read in The Washington Post that Eikenberry, who commanded the war himself from 2005 to 2007, thinks that the Karzai government needs to demonstrate its commitment to anti-corruption measures before the administration can responsibly authorize another troop increase. The prevailing theory is that "he leaked his own cables" because "he has a beef with McChrystal," the staffer said.

...however, unlike most reporters who have been recipients of leaks, Ackerman later retracted the story: "My original source for the post stands by the account provided. The individual, a National Security Council staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity, has provided truthful and verified information on past stories, and so I trusted the source for this one..." But "White House spokesman Tommy Vietor says he checked with Amb. Eikenberry's office and the teleconference call reported in this post did not occur."

Maersk 2, Pirates 0

But this time the game didn't go into overtime. The Associated Press: "Somali pirates attacked the container ship Maersk Alabama today for the second time in seven months."

Four pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again today at about 6.30am local time, opening fire with automatic weapons from about 300 yards away, a statement from the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said. A security team repelled the attack by using evasive manoeuvres, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones.

Here in Mudville we believe non-lethal methods are best, but more effective when lethal options are also readily available.

Reactions:

The wife of the Maersk Alabama's captain, Paul Rochford, told WBZ-AM radio in Boston that she was "really happy" there were weapons on board for this attack.

"It probably surprised the pirates. They were probably shocked," Kimberly Rochford. "I'm really happy at least it didn't turn out like the last time."

A self-proclaimed pirate told The Associated Press from the Somali pirate town of Haradhere that colleagues out at sea had called around 9 a.m. -- 2 1/2 hours after the attack.

"They told us that they got in trouble with an American ship, then we lost them. We have been trying to locate them since," said a self-described pirate who gave his name as Abdi Nor.

Perhaps they're suffering permanent hearing loss.

"It's not the first vessel to have been attacked twice, and it's a chance that every single ship takes as it passes through the area," said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. "At least this time they had a vessel protection detachment on board who were able to repel the attack."

However, not all piracy experts agree.

Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the Chatham House thinktank in London, said the international maritime community was solidly against armed guards, but that American ships have taken a different line.

"Shipping companies are still pretty much overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of armed guards," he said. "Lots of private security companies employ people who don't have maritime experience. Also, there's the idea that it's the responsibility of states and navies to provide security. I would think it's a step backward if we start privatising security of the shipping trade."

Four pirates boarded the ship last April, starting a multi-day hostage standoff that ended dramatically with the ship's captain rescued, one pirate captured and three killed. The event prompted some discussion of the feasibility of shipboard armed guards, but the Obama administration expressed preference for other approaches to the piracy problem.

The captured pirate is awaiting trial in New York.

Unicorns in Kabul

"Do you trust President Karzai?" CNN's Ed Henry asked U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to Beijing, China. "President Karzai has served his country in important ways," Obama responded. " When he first came in, there may not have been another figure who could have held that country together. He has some strengths, but he has some weaknesses. I'm less concerned about any individual than I am with a government as a whole that is having difficulty providing basic services to its people in a way that confers legitimacy on them."

And that change from when he first came in is the official position of the United States of America. You can see a bit of that reflected in this MSNBC story on Karzai's second-term swearing in.

As Hamid Karzai is again sworn in as Afghanistan's president on Thursday, the mood about the man could hardly be more different from when he first emerged to lead the country.

Instead of being celebrated as a person with the stature and credentials to unify and lead, he steps back into office after a fraud-tainted election, to head a government that is steeped in corruption and apparently incapable of halting the Taliban insurgency and violence.

On the eve of the ceremony Kabul is a place of appalling gloom, we are told in this LA Times report: "The mood is glum, fueled by disappointment in the government." They even found one local whose opinion sounded amazingly like... Barack Obama's.

Mahmood Barakzai still remembers the rush of pride and optimism he felt when Hamid Karzai was sworn in for his first term as Afghanistan's president. This time around, the Kabul shopkeeper wasn't even going to bother switching on the television.

"Here in our country, everything has become more sad, more uncertain and more dangerous," Barakzai said, shaking his head as he wrapped his hands around a cup of hot sweet tea, trying to ward off a penetrating early-winter chill.

Not only is that a far cry from five years ago, it's a far cry from reports on the announcement of Karzai's victory just two weeks ago: "In the capital, a sense of relief was instant and palpable. Kabul residents honked horns and exchanged celebratory text messages as the news spread." We won't be seeing reports like that any more.

Times have changed:

The United States was represented at the last swearing-in by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. This time, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to be the highest-ranking American official in attendance. Clinton landed in Kabul late Wednesday, her visit not announced in advance because of security concerns.

Of course, there are many good reasons why the current Vice President couldn't attend - an earlier meeting with Karzai ended when he threw his dinner napkin onto the table and stomped out of the room, hardly the ground work for future diplomacy.

But on the flight over Clinton was able to issue additional instructions to reporters:

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we are asking that they follow through on much of what they have previously said, including putting together a credible anticorruption governmental entity - a commission, an agency, something that truly can deliver on the concerns that we and the people of Afghanistan have about corruption. They've done some work on that, but in our view, not nearly enough to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose to tackle corruption. And it is going to be one of the principled requests that we make. But it is reflective of what members of the government and others tell us they want to see happen as well.

QUESTION: But what if it doesn't happen? Then what?

SECRETARY CLINTON: We are concerned about corruption and we obviously think it has an impact on the quality and capacity of governing. So we're going to be persistent, asking for the kinds of outcomes that we think reflect that they are serious about this. But I can't predict what will or won't happen at this point.

QUESTION: Sorry. He's appointed already a vice president that has had some allegations of corruption surrounding him. He's made alliances during the campaign and with General Dostum. That doesn't bode very well.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think it certainly raises questions, and whether those two problems are dealt with directly or whether there are other approaches that create confidence in the government's commitment to not only fight corruption, because that's only part of the equation, but to actually deliver results that work to stand up the Afghan national security force, to recognize the necessity for a new compact with the people of Afghanistan, and the recognition of the commitment that the international community is willing to make if we can see clear and effective results. We just have to continue to press for that and to try to achieve it.

"Karzai in May sparked controversy when he chose Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a former rebel leader accused of war crimes, as his running mate for the August election," UPI reported in their Clinton story. "In another move, Karzai has embraced Uzbek militant leader Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who faces a wide range of charges of abuse and aggressive tactics."

MSNBC likewise eagerly detailed those two problems...

In August, in what appeared to be a deal to gain support for his election, Karzai allowed the return of notorious warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum to Afghanistan from his exile in Turkey. Dostum is accused of allowing his men to kill up to 2,000 prisoners captured during the U.S. invasion in 2001 and then hiding evidence of the crime.

Karzai also selected Mohammad Fahim, a former militia chief with a reputation for human rights abuses and corruption, to be his running mate in the presidential race, to the chagrin of many Afghans and Western officials who had urged him to choose someone less controversial.

Their names had appeared in an earlier report as potential human sacrifices following Karzai's victory:

Administration officials declined to provide the names of people they wanted to see arrested and acknowledged that such arrests were a long shot. The international community's wish list of potential defendants includes Mr. Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade; Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is accused of involvement in the killings of thousands of Taliban prisoners of war early in the Afghan conflict; and one of Mr. Karzai's running mates, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, a former defense minister who is also suspected of drug trafficking.

"A couple of high-profile heads on a platter would be nice," said one European diplomat

It's rarely convenient to mention Fahim (a Tajik) and Dostum (an Uzbek), as leaders of the Northern Alliance, were the principal allies of the United States during the initial phases of the war in 2001. How those two problems are dealt with now could prove problematic on many levels. It's arguable who would appreciate their "heads on a platter" more, Barack Obama, the Taliban, or Osama bin Laden.

However,

Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko told SPIEGEL ONLINE in Kabul that his office has prepared indictments against five high-ranking politicians. "We have indictments with sufficient proof against five ministers," Aloko said. "Two of them are in the current cabinet and three are former ministers." The indictments have been submitted to President Karzai. "The president only has to grant his approval, then the trials can proceed," Aloko said.

"They've done some work on that," Secretary Clinton said regarding corruption, "but in our view, not nearly enough to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose."

Citing Afghan law, the attorney general declined to name the politicians involved until the trials begin. He said he was confident that the legal proceedings would result in "stiff penalties."

"If he doesn't say anything concrete, or even names names, he will feel the wrath," said one European diplomat of Karzai. "And he knows that."

"There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a new compact with the people of Afghanistan to demonstrate clearly that they're going to have accountability and tangible results that will improve the lives of the people who live throughout this magnificent country," Clinton announced to the world after she stepped off the plane.

"Are all commanders bad, even those who fought the Taliban and al-Qaeda and have disarmed?" General Dostum asked elsewhere, "They are demanding unicorns in Kabul."

More to follow.

"ObaMao"

News from China:

In Shanghai, a CNN correspondent says she was detained for two hours by Chinese security guards after she held a banned T-shirt in front of the camera. The shirt showed so-called "ObaMao"--U.S. President Barack Obama looking like Mao Zedong.

The incident took place while CNN correspondent Emily Chang was filming in a Shanghai market.

The AP has the story, too.

Note to American entrepreneurs:

This may be the report that generated the incident.

The president also met his half-brother, a pianist in China, and following a brief discussion of his Nobel Peace Prize told CNN that

"I think that we've restored America's standing in the world, and that's confirmed by polls," he told CNN's Ed Henry in a wide-ranging interview this week during his trip to China.

"I think a recent one indicated that around the world, before my election, less than half the people -- maybe less than 40 percent of the people -- thought that you could count on America to do to the right thing. Now it's up to 75 percent."

Kabul--U.S. President Barack Obama aims to bring the Afghan war to an end before he leaves office, he said on Wednesday...

In an interview with CNN, Obama said he would soon announce the results of a long-awaited review, which would include an exit strategy to avoid "a multi-year occupation that won't serve the interests of the United States".

"The American people will have a lot of clarity about what we're doing, how we're going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost, what kind of burden does this place on our young men and women in uniform and, most importantly, what's the end game on this thing," he said.

"My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president. One of the things I'd like is the next president to be able to come in and say I've got a clean slate."

When asked "do you trust President Karzai?" Obama responded that "President Karzai has served his country in important ways. When he first came in, there may not have been another figure who could have held that country together. He has some strengths, but he has some weaknesses. I'm less concerned about any individual than I am with a government as a whole that is having difficulty providing basic services to its people in a way that confers legitimacy on them." The president added "we are very close to a decision" on Afghanistan, and "I will announce that decision, certainly in the next several weeks."

These are a few of my favorite things

Raindrops on roses - Media Matters, yesterday:

...why hasn't the press turned its attention to this week's Newsweek's cover which features Sarah Palin in an apparent breach of protocol?
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UPDATED: Palin (writing in the third person) is reportedly upset that Newsweek used the photo, which was from an older Runner's World issue, because it featured her in a running suit. The fact that it featured her apparently disrespecting the flag is of no concern. The media continue to remain mum.

UPDATED: Conservative pundits now want to talk about the Newsweek cover...to show how biased and sexist Newsweek is. They want the issue of the Newsweek cover to become a thing. But so far, crickets from the right-wing press regarding the fact that Palin trampled etiquette and inappropriately used the United States flag as a photo prop.

But whiskers on kittens, here's Media Matters today:

There are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticize Sarah Palin, her new book, and her policies, but you don't have to stoop to sexism to do it. Newsweek's November 23 issue, however, does just that by publishing on its cover a photo of Palin in short running shorts and a fitted top, leaning against the American flag. Making matters worse is the equally offensive headline Newsweek editors chose to run alongside the photo -- "How Do You Solve a Problem like Sarah?" -- presumably a reference to the Sound of Music song, "Maria," in which nuns fret about "how" to "solve a problem like Maria," a "girl" who "climbs trees" and whose "dress has a tear."

Gosh, it sure is hard to hold a moonbeam in your hand.

The flag controversy failed in July and again in November, and while it may not have been their intent, Newsweek has managed to simultaneously remind people how attractive and healthy Sarah Palin is - and piss off feminists everywhere.

In other news, "Palin said the president should follow the advice of Gen. Stanley McChrystal."

To listen to McChrystal, to listen to the appointee that President Obama asked for, the advice from," she said. "McChrystal gave the president the advice and said, 'We need essentially a surge strategy in Afghanistan, so that we can win in Afghanistan. And that means more resources, more troops there.' It frustrates me and frightens me -- and many Americans -- that President Obama is dithering around with the decision in Afghanistan."

Here in Mudville we think nothing would have convinced Democrats to support the war faster than Sarah Palin opposing it - but apparently Palin is determined to say what she thinks.

Advice to Newsweek: Next time try a photo of Palin with a gun, to remind people that she's a hunter, who probably wouldn't mind shooting a doe. (A doe is a deer, a female deer.)

Update: Whooops - been done:

But what I had in mind was something more like this:

Sometimes when you want things done right, you gotta do it yourself.

(And yes, that's her. Some people will use any excuse to post beauty pageant photos...)

More: for any confused Democrats, here's the official Party line on Palin:

DNC MEMO

In advance of Sarah Palin's stop in Michigan today, please find below everything you need to know about Going Rogue - a memoir that has been received as 1) political payback for Palin's rivals that adds to the tabloid nature of her profile rather than provide a display of substantive policy chops that would reset her ability to be taken as a serious leader; and 2) substantively more fiction than fact compounding the credibility problems she earned during the 2008 campaign. These factors are reflected in recent polling which shows extraordinary disapproval numbers and small minorities who feel she's qualified to be President. The sensational nature of Palin's book continues to dominate news cycles - and does so to the detriment of the Republican Party. Combined with her dismal polling numbers and Republican willingness to cede the party to her and her polarizing tea party following, the political impact of her re-emergence, spells political disaster for the GOP going into 2010 and beyond.

With all the right-wing, knee-jerk, feminist blowback from the Newsweek cover this is exactly what people need in order to start correctly thinking for themselves again. Newsweek did their part - now make sure it appears in your local newspaper today.

The cover-up

Back around the Fourth of July when Sarah Palin's Runner's World profile appeared online, web luminaries were amused to discover the shamefully disrespectful treatment the American flag was given in one of the accompanying photos.

Daily Kos: "Today, I noticed an odd-seeming photo of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska in a recently posted feature at Runner's World, which was linked to by the Huffington Post..."

Andrew Sullivan: "I'm not a stickler for this kind of thing, and don't think it's that big a deal, but..."

Readers of both were treated to explanations of how this sort of thing wouldn't play well with their fellow Runner's World subscribers (presumably that's how this came to their attention - no one else was likely to see these pictures) who might also support Sarah Palin and tend to get outraged at pictures like this one:

I'm not sure how large that demographic is, but for whatever reason (her resignation as Governor of Alaska, perhaps - an obvious cover-up!!!) no outrage on any significant scale materialized, the story was forgotten. In this case, Alinsky's Rules for Radicals ("Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.") didn't really come through.

But this week Newsweek recycled that very same Runner's World photo for its cover story on Palin.

And before the ink could dry "media watchdog" Media Matters for America was expressing outrage at the media's refusal to condemn the former Governor's shocking disrespect for Old Glory:

If the press is going to robotically follow the lead of the right-wing media and spend time actually dissecting Obama's bow over the weekend before Japan's Japan's Emperor Akihito, and if the press is going to legitimize the notion that perhaps all kinds of (evil) motives can be interpreted by the common act of protocol, and that maybe Americans can learn all sorts of things about how Obama views America's role in the world from the passing action, than why hasn't the press turned its attention to this week's Newsweek's cover which features Sarah Palin in an apparent breach of protocol?

Yes, that was all one sentence. This is another: "The fact that it featured her apparently disrespecting the flag is of no concern." This is another: "But so far, crickets from the right-wing press regarding the fact that Palin trampled etiquette and inappropriately used the United States flag as a photo prop."

Elsewhere, Palin and others on the right are shocked, shocked I tell you, that Newsweek would use a picture of an attractive and obviously healthy woman in short pants to sell magazines. And that's part of the point Media Matters was trying to hint at so subtly. You see, they ignored the fact that she disrespected the flag. See? See it? That's why that photo was chosen, hypocrites!!. Now stop ignoring it or we'll call you hypocrites again!

What's any of that got to do with anything that matters? Nothing, really. I'm more amused than anything else over the cottage industry that's sprung up around Sarah Palin. (Yesterday I visited the Indianapolis Star web site to get the local version of the Colts/Pats game and actually found a headline above the game-of-the-year on the front page - it seems Sarah would be visiting Indy-suburb Noblesville for a book signing...) And honestly I enjoy watching people tremble at the mention of her name.

And strangely enough, when I first saw the Newsweek cover I recognized the months-old Runner's World photo immediately. I actually am a runner but don't have much time to read about running. So I was aware of the Runner's World photo only because my email inbox filled up last July with messages alerting me to the horror Palin had perpetrated against America's symbol of right, might, and purity. I was less than impressed then, I'm even less so now.

But I also noticed something slick Newsweek had done with the cover layout:

The other item you might notice in the original picture is a Blue Star flag, symbol of a family member overseas. (In this case, Track Palin.) It's clearer still in the original, but you won't be noticing that on the cover of Newsweek.

It didn't get any big media attention, but Palin's unit rotated out of Iraq in September, so perhaps Newsweek's goal was to hide the age of this particular recycled photo. More likely, no one involved at Newsweek had any idea what that thing she had hanging in the window was. They aren't exactly common in America these days.

But for the record: I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you. Aghast even. Stunned at Newsweek's callous disregard for the symbol of sacrifice on the part of all military families on the home front with a loved one risking everything in an overseas contingency operation half a world away.

Outraged.

Update: disgusted.

Update: This blast from the past reminds me why so many people fear Sarah Palin more than anything in this world:

Previously: Michael Jackson is still... oh look! It's Sarah Palin!

Defense?

ABC:

Major Nidal Malik Hasan's military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open criminal prosecutions of soldiers he claimed had confessed to "war crimes" during psychiatric counseling, according to investigative reports circulated among federal law enforcement officials.

This: "Legal analysts say psychiatrists are strictly bound by the rules of patient confidentiality except in cases where they might become aware of crimes about to be committed" - isn't true of military psychiatrists. A very limited privilege exists between persons subject to the UCMJ and psychotherapists.

32

It's the Secretary of State's turn on the Sunday talk shows. Here's the message: Clinton: Karzai 'Must Do Better' for U.S. Backing.

Very nice. But thus far the Obama administration has failed on multiple fronts:

1. Doing something to keep Karzai on the straight and narrow - or at least prevent questionable actions on his part. Best example: election fraud in Afghanistan was predicted and anticipated - one would think it could have been prevented, too - if prevention was desired.
2. Convincing Americans that it matters. Either Afghanistan is a national security issue or it isn't. Even the "leak" of a letter from Eikenberry - the latest in a long series of efforts to proclaim that Hamid Karzai is no one's dream partner, has done nothing to change that. "We're waiting for a better government" doesn't resonate; without a US presence in Afghanistan Karzai's most likely replacement is the Taliban.
3. Paying attention to Afghan opinion. Karzai's only real competitor was a distant second, Karzai won a solid victory even if fraudulent votes for all candidates were thrown out. Beyond that they are more concerned with violence, security, and the threat of the Taliban than they are with Hamid Karzai's purity

Secretary Clinton made sure to remind America that the Obama administration inherited the mess in Afghanistan from President Bush, but with each passing day that argument grows weaker. Having failed to make the case against Karzai, arguments that he's the real problem - regardless of the degree of validity - will appear increasingly like blame-shifting to a new target. That's something Americans can understand.

But then again, if the Karzai thing just ain't workin', apparently there are plenty of other issues to demonstrate the president's thoughtful concern.

How many is "plenty"? Would you believe 32?

Woodward said he's working on a book on topic and revealed that the President has no fewer than 32 issues on the table that need answers before he can decide how to go forward on Afghanistan.

I hope that list is getting shorter.

More Zero Tolerance

A roundup of milblog reactions to CJ and Emily Grisham's story.

If CJ made a mistake it was in not realizing that in America today merely suggesting a seemingly inconsequential issue like school uniforms should be debated before it's enacted can result in your becoming a victim of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

And that PTSD - as depicted in the media - has given plenty of ammunition to those who would apply the tactic to veterans.

War Costs Money

...that's why a "senior administration official, who requested anonymity in order to reflect the details and tone of confidential deliberations, said these concerns had added to the president's insistence at a White House meeting on Wednesday that each military option include the quickest possible exit strategy."

Exit strategy is a fine talking point, clearly it polled well among Democrats back in 2006 and '07 - and getting Democrats to support the war in the US is reportedly an Obama admin goal. (Republicans are reliably - if increasingly reluctantly - on board. For now.) That's domestic politics, but in war your willingness to quit is something you don't advertise, among other reasons because it sends enemies and allies (and those still choosing sides) alike a message that you aren't really serious. For one of those groups it's also inspiring.

Which is why Gates has already signaled his concerns. Once again.

Kilcullen expressed concern that Obama might deny McChrystal the 40,000 extra troops and split the difference between the four options, the kind of fudge common in domestic politics.

"Time is running out for us to make a decision. We can either put in enough troops to control the environment or we can credibly communicate our intention to leave. Either could work. Splitting the difference is not the way to go," Kilcullen said.

"It feels to me that all these options are dangerously close to the middle ground and we have to consider whether the middle ground is a good place to be. The middle ground is a good place on domestic issues, but not on strategy. You either commit to D-Day and invade the continent or you get Suez. Half-measures end up with Suez. Do it or not do it."
<...>
"I do think, though, the policy process of this administration this year has been, shall we say, messy and this, the latest incident [the leaked diplomatic cables], underlines how messy it has been, and I think that is problematic.

"It sends a message of indecision and uncertainty which has an effect on allies, and has a huge effect on the British political debate and has huge impact on the Afghans."

"Leaks" are part of the game - nothing leaks that isn't approved, and there have been far too many to believe otherwise. (Note the Gates story is purportedly about leaks, too.) But while normally I'd experience some satisfaction in seeing I'm not the only one thinking what I'm thinking it's diminished completely by the fact that I'd prefer to think everything I wrote above was wrong.

Send half the needed troops and advertise an "exit strategy". Hella plan. I've learned to never underestimate what the men and women of the American military can do, but that's going to get an awful lot of them killed.

We Were Soldiers

A reminder that this weekend marks the anniversary of the battle of Ia Drang in this Medal of Honor Moment.

The War Show

Or: How the world's first war movies saved the movie world.

Near the end of the 19th century, it appeared the craze over the new moving pictures was fading, nothing more than a fad.

The small town of Owego, New York, was not unusual: while projected motion pictures drew crowded houses when first shown in March 1897, interest faded with familiarity. Two months later, another showman booked films for three nights at the local opera house. "Although it was a good exhibition, there was less than half a house the first night," reported the Phonoscope. "The second night the attendance was not sufficient to pay for the gas and subsequent exhibitions were 'declared off.'"

Then came the war with Spain, and the nascent industry was saved.

With the onset of the Spanish-American War the motion-picture industry discovered a new role and exploited it, gaining in confidence and size as a result.

But there's a bit more to the story. As Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and other contingents shipped out for Cuba the few moving picture companies of the day knew they could get footage the public was hungry to see (would pay to see, even). So like the major newspaper chains of the day they embedded their correspondents with the troops, cameras in hand.

In fact, the Government is going to organize immediately a floating photographic studio, which will make pictures of every possible incident in the great conflict that is now beginning. It will be equipped, regardless of expense, with all kinds of apparatus and appliances for work of this description. Thus the history of the war with Spain will be recorded for the benefit of future generations not only in writing, but also in a vivid pictorial shape that will appeal to the understanding of the smallest schoolboy.

During the Spanish-American, new long-range battles (made possible by more accurate artillery and rifle technology as well as the new tactic of individual soldiers firing from under cover) further helped to insure that there would be no motion pictures of land battles of the Spanish-American War. "Though one sees in the press of this period flamboyant notices for war films promising action galore," writes Stephen Bottomore, "in practice because of the new weaponry, most early cameramen couldn't get near enough to film any fighting, and so [were] satisfied with recording 'the human side of war,' showing troop movements, hospital scenes, and so on".

But that wasn't what Americans really wanted to see. So Tom Edison's crew set off into the nearby wilds of New Jersey to film re-creations of war as popularly imagined.

The result: America's (and the world's) first war movies - and a much needed shot in the arm for a fad that seemed to be fading. The Edison Company's films included scenes of Spanish soldiers executing captured insurgents (the insurgents were the good guys in this war), an ambush (touted as having "fine smoke effects" in the Edison catalog), the Rough Riders in action, and the stirring "Raising Old Glory Over Morro Castle". "Down goes the Spanish flag," the film's catalog description read in 1899, "and up floats the Stars and Stripes. Down falls the symbol of tyranny and oppression that has ruled in the new world for four hundred years, and up goes the Banner of Freedom. In the distance are the turrets and battlements of Morro, the last foothold of Spain in America." Or at least a drawing of it - and not a very convincing one at that.

But the films survive to this day. We added the music (The America Forever March, composed by E.T. Paull in 1898 as America prepared for war) for the Mudville premier, but otherwise, here are the five Edison films - totaling almost three minutes and 30 seconds of pulse-pounding, patriotic glory.

Footnote: Edison sold the film company in 1918. However, General Electric - the company Edison founded, bought back into the business years later.

Possible futures for Nidal Hasan

• Not guilty
• Insanity
• Life in prison
• Death
• Stand up in front of a firing squad

Looks like we can rule out walking the green mile, too.

Hey Rube!

From the president's remarks at Elmendorf:

I will not risk your lives unless it is necessary to America's vital interest. And if it is necessary, the United States of America will have your back. We will give you the strategy and the clear mission you deserve. We will give you the equipment and support that you need to get the job done. And that includes public support back home. That is a promise that I make to you.

Is the president going to do something to increase public support for the mission in Afghanistan? Some of the folks at CNN keyed in on that quote pretty quickly:

BLITZER: All right. So there's the president of the United States, wrapping up relatively brief remarks at Elmendorf Air Force base in Alaska on way his Asia, Japan, China, he's got a big trip coming up. Candy Crowley is here, David Gergen is here. It fits in with this pattern, the thrust of his remarks we've heard over the past few days.

GERGEN: It did, Wolf, but both Candy and were like, whoa, when he said, we'll have your back, when you go to Afghanistan, we'll have your back. And then he went on to say one of the things we're going to do, we're going to guarantee you public support back home. Now, he does not have the public with him on Afghanistan now. What he's real saying is, I've not only got to come up with a strategy to succeed in Afghanistan, but as Candy was saying earlier, he's beginning to recognize, he's got a big job to do here at home.

Now the good folks at CNN aren't military strategists - but they do get public affairs releases from the White House, so they might have insight into just what that effort might be. So here's Candy:

CROWLEY: It's the sales job, and no one likes to hear that with a military operation. But the president understands that he does have to have this public support, as well as those service people have to have it. And the only way to get that, as far as they can see, and I think that's what we've seen over the past 24 hours, is the president saying, tell me how I get out and tell me how we hand over this country to a stable government. And it's just so complex. But it's clearly what he has to do if he's going to put more troops in there.

In short, he'll increase public support by having a clear exit strategy.

Coincidentally, yesterday Robert Haddick at Small Wars Journal noticed an Armed Forces Press Service report on Secretary Gates:

The question, [Gates] said, comes down to "How do we signal resolve, and at the same time, signal to the Afghans and the American people that this is not open-ended?"

If President Obama and his team are waiting until they come up with an answer to that dilemma, it is no longer a mystery why the review is taking so long. Sorry, you can't commit to both the long road and the exit ramp at the same time - you have to pick one or the other.

And if amazingly coincidental CNN PR work for the White House and DoD PR work for themselves doesn't convince you that some new PR spin is brewing then you certainly aren't a suspicious sort.

But new PR campaigns aside, that's actually been a key component of team Obama's Afghan strategy from the start. "The United States must overcome the 'trust deficit' it faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where many believe that we are not a reliable long-term partner" - that's a quote from the White Paper. And this is a quote from President Obama at the time of its release last March:

The United States must look for a way out of the war in Afghanistan, President Obama said, in a signal that the military build-up in Afghanistan will not be open-ended and will lead to the eventual withdrawal of American and NATO troops from the country.

"There's got to be an exit strategy," Mr. Obama said in a wide-ranging interview shown Sunday on "60 Minutes" on CBS.

During the presidential campaign there were those who noticed Obama's habit of saying one thing to one group and the opposite to another. Some might call that "nuance", others "politics" - but some reasons why that's questionable military strategy are addressed here. As far as running for office goes it's a proven winning tactic, Obama is just the latest to use it to his advantage.

Not that he wasn't helped by folks like those at CNN, who are perfectly willing to declare on behalf of the White House that the best way to increase domestic support for the war is to indicate a willingness to (retreat/abandon/acknowledge futility/accept reality - your choice) at some point in the future, probably (days/weeks/months/years - your choice) from now. And - oh by the way - call it "new".

Same poll, different day:

Some people...

...will latch on to any excuse to post beauty pageant pictures.

Shameless! Shameless, I say!

On diversity

From a great comment left at Salamander's:

"Sir, you see, I think we have an issue of age here.

YOUR generation was taught to see color when you grew up, and your generation still does. MY generation was taught NOT to see color, and we still don't until someone from your generation reminds us to."

From comments there and at the Washington Post story it's good to see that regardless of generation most people actually can discuss this issue like grown ups.

Morale Check

Somewhere early in my career (closer to 20 years ago than 10) I remember that headline used as the call part of a very unofficial call and response; one guy would shout those two words, everyone else present would provide in unison an identical two-word response (I'll leave those two words to your imaginations). What did all that mean? Nothing really. And I don't know how widespread the practice was or if that's done anywhere any more.

But apparently morale is checked:

Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday.

Efforts already under way to get more health workers to the Afghan war could be hampered somewhat by last week's shooting. The psychiatrist charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder was slated to go to Afghanistan. Some of the dead and wounded also were to deploy there to bolster psychological services for soldiers.

But as usual, "the Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for active and reserve components for October 2009." Goals were met or exceeded for all four active duty services in both categories. This follows last month's news of similar results for all of fiscal year 2009.

Meanwhile, President Obama visited troops in Alaska:

President Barack Obama told servicemembers in Alaska today he will not risk their lives without a clear mission, the equipment they need and the strategy required to succeed.
<...>
Obama told the servicemembers he will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or the nation's vital interests. "But I also make you this promise: I will not risk your lives unless it is necessary to America's vital interests," he said. "And if it is necessary, the United States of America will have your back. We'll give you the strategy and clear mission you deserve. We will give you the equipment and support you need to get the job done - and that includes public support back home. That is a promise I make to you."

The president praised servicemembers for their spirit and service in a time of war. "That's a sense of responsibility on your part: The belief that the blessings we cherish as Americans are not gifts that we take for granted, they are freedoms that are earned," he said. "It is your sense of unity - coming from every corner of he country, from every color and creed and every faith and every station - to take care of each other and to succeed together as Americans."

The military is a diverse bunch. An unfortunate example: of the six medical professionals killed by the "psychiatrist charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder" two were woman and four were men, one of whom was born in Mexico and immigrated to the US.

But this brief quote from Lt General Cone's remarks at their memorial service sums things up quite well:

By the way, if you want the package to arrive by December 25, today is the recommended mailing date to send a parcel post package to a member of the military serving overseas.

Update: Hmmm.. seems there was more to the president's speech than I thought. More on the secret message here.

Little Dog Found

Lets start Friday the 13th off with some good news:

AUSTRALIAN DOG RETURNS HOME AFTER A YEAR IN THE AFGHAN WILDERNESS

An Australian Special Forces Explosive Detection Dog has been found alive and well almost fourteen months after going missing in action (MIA) in Afghanistan. "Sabi" was recovered by a US Soldier at an isolated patrol base in north-eastern Oruzgan last week.

The black Labrador was trained to counter the threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Oruzgan province.

Sabi was declared MIA in September 2008 during the same battle with the Taliban in which SAS Trooper Mark Donaldson won his Victoria Cross. Sabi was present with her handler when their combined Australian, US and Afghan National Army convoy was ambushed by a numerically superior, well-sited and prepared insurgent force. Nine Australian soldiers, including Sabi's handler, were wounded during the engagement.

The US soldier who recovered her and who can be identified only by his first name, John, was aware his Australian Special Forces mates were missing one of their explosive detection dogs.

He said it was immediately obvious that Sabi was no ordinary canine. "I took the dog and gave it some commands it understood."

John thanked the man who was with Sabi and shook his hand.

Sabi spent more than a year in the desolate south of Afghanistan. Repeated attempts were made by the Special Operations Task Group to discover Sabi's fate. Sabi was flown to Tarin Kowt to be reunited with one of her Australian Special Forces trainers.

The Australian trainer knew instantly it was Sabi.

"I nudged a tennis ball to her with my foot and she took it straight away. It's a game we used to play over and over during her training," the trainer said. "It's amazing, just incredible, to have her back."

Currently in the United Kingdom after meeting Her Majesty the Queen, Trooper Mark Donaldson said Sabi's return closed a chapter of their shared history.

"She's the last piece of the puzzle," Trooper Donaldson said. "Having Sabi back gives some closure for the handler and the rest of us that served with her in 2008. It's a fantastic morale booster for the guys."

At the time of her disappearance Sabi was coming to the end of her second tour of duty in Afghanistan, having previously deployed to Oruzgan in 2007.

Sabi had also deployed with the Incident Response Regiment during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.

Sabi will now undergo a period of quarantine before a decision can be made about the timing of her return to Australia. A veterinary assessment of Sabi's exposure to diseases has yet to be completed. It is hoped the tests will prove negative and Sabi can return to Australia.

(Via Small Wars)

And if you're interested in the "battle with the Taliban in which SAS Trooper Mark Donaldson won his Victoria Cross" (the first awarded to an Australian soldier in 40 years), Blackfive wrote about that here.

On the radio

Speaking of CJ and Bouhammer, their radio show is on the air now (and recorded for later listening. Tonight:

Ben Steele, WWII veteran and Bataan Death March survivor. Ben's story was told in the recent book, "Tears In The Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath."

Listen here:

We did a write up on the book here.

Rejects

Official: Obama rejects war options because U.S. envoy resists troop increase, cites Karzai as problem.

Ambassador Eikenberry's memos expressed "deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said."

Hardly surprising news there, the Obama administration's first priority in Afghanistan has always been Hamid Karzai, with troop levels and strategy a distant secondary concern. (For full coverage start here, the most recent report here.) This isn't a story about anything other than the latest in a series of "leaks" from "officials" in an administration that's probably already set a record for them.

Gallup says Americans Split on Afghanistan Troop Increase vs. Decrease. No shocker there, either. And I love my fellow Americans, but most probably can't name the Vice President of the United States, let alone find Afghanistan on a map. (Hey, I'm ignorant of important things too - I probably couldn't run a successful farm or turn iron ore into a car.)

But even if they aren't participants (or close relatives), most readers here are informed to some degree about America's wars (hopefully from a variety of sources). And I'm interested in what informed people think, too. So here's your chance to give your opinion with two simple mouse clicks.

07:01

Zero Tolerance

While the Army may have fumbled the case of Major Nidal Hasan, they certainly didn't have as much difficulty dealing with CJ Grisham.

CJ's crime was opposing a uniform policy at his kids' school - and writing about it on his blog.

"Ugly" is too easy a word for it. Eventually "Jennifer Scott, V.P. membership J.E. Williams Elementary School" published a defense ("An Open Letter") of the actions taken against CJ that includes this bizarre passage:

This has moved beyond a uniform issue, this had became a personal vendetta between everyone. Mr. Grisham felt as if his Constitutional rights were violated. I ask you the question call me a liberal or tratior to our country if you must, but how many others rights were violated during interogations? How many of them were innocent? I am not ignorant to what goes on during war by any means. I know first hand how they rape and toture their male captives, I've seen the physical wounds that many civilians would not believe.

"I hope you feel as if you achevied your personal victory," she added, "I feel empathy toward you, regarding the inner turmoil you are going through (yes i am refering to your PTSD) I know about the nightmares and terrors as I have seen them first hand from team members. I do not think you are crazy just a person with too many memories on their mind, I hope they fade in time."

Perhaps they will - but here's CJ's wife Emily explaining some of what her family experienced (you wouldn't expect people like that to leave the kids alone, would you?) to Greta Perry on WIST radio:

(Click here if above audio player does not appear in your browser.)

CJ has always been up front about his PTSD, and has even written extensively about it, and his reasons for being very public about it:

But, there came a point where I felt very hypocritical telling my Soldiers it's okay to seek help for mental health issues while I was still hiding my own. Truth be told, there were many people who weren't fooled by my acting. How can I, as a First Sergeant or a Senior NCO, tell my Soldiers to do something I wasn't willing to do myself? So, in June, I wrote "One Step At A Time" making my commitment to my troops - and myself - public.

One of the things I wanted to do was convince troops out there that it's okay to seek help. The Army has made a very public plea to troops to get help without worrying about their jobs. I promised to document this here and I plan to do so honestly and openly.

But comments like Ms. Scott's are what CJ was up against from the beginning of his opposition to a school uniform policy - a campaign waged against him in public and through his chain of command, in spite of the fact that this was never anything other than a civilian issue.

One might expect a commander to politely explain that to the PTA pitch fork brigade, right?

Wrong.

How is it that a Army Major can make treasonous remarks and still hold his job and then go and murder 13 people, but CJ tries to exercise his rights of free speech and then gets his life turned upside down? What the hell is this about? How can this happen?

Good question. But America need no longer fear the threat to school uniform policies posed by CJ's milblog, he's shutting it down.

Diversity in the ranks

A bit of proud Navy Academy public affairs:

3Nov09 - Think those young men and woman presenting the colors at last night's World Series game in New York looked familiar?

You thought right.

The Naval Academy Color Guard presented the national flag during opening ceremonies last night for the second game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

"Being a part of the color guard is a lot of practice and a lot of hard work, and we all want to do this, we love what we do," said Midshipman 2nd Class Bryen Roder of Little Falls, N.J., who carries the Navy flag for the color guard.

It was Roder who got the ball rolling - and followed up to make sure it happened.

"Basically, we all talked about how we wanted to do some type of public event," he said. "I was persistent and ended up calling Major League Baseball directly."

A "through and through" Yankee fan from birth, Roder was excited about the chance to be in the new Yankee Stadium. But it was also a chance to represent the academy.

"We feel that whenever we go out (we) represent everybody who doesn't always get a chance to be represented," he said.

Besides Roder, the color guard members who participated were Midshipman 1st Class Dan Sauer of Kirkland, Wash., carrying the American flag; Midshipman 1st Class Luke Leveque of Kodiak, Alaska, carrying the Brigade of Midshipmen flag;

Midshipman 1st Class Jason Mazzoni of Salisbury, N.C., carrying the Marine Corps flag; and Midshipmen 2nd Class Zishan Hameed of Norfolk, Va., and Hannah Allaire of San Antonio, Texas, who served as rifleman.

"We feel that whenever we go out (we) represent everybody who doesn't always get a chance to be represented," he said. Unfortunately, they've since been ordered not to talk about it.

The Washington Post picks up on a story that surfaced at Cdr Salamandar's blog.

According to an academy spokesman, Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, the color guard was invited to present the flag during the national anthem at the World Series game. Senior staff members reviewed the names of those who wanted to go, all white males, and decided that the group should better reflect the academy's diversity. Of the 4,400 midshipmen, 20 percent are female, and about one-quarter are members of minority groups.

"The color guard that was going to the World Series, which by all accounts is an event on a national stage, with a national audience, needed to be representative of the Naval Academy," Carpenter said.

Naval Academy leaders removed two midshipmen from a color guard that performed at the World Series last week because they were white men, and replaced them with a non-white man and a white woman so the academy could present a more "diverse" profile, according to several sources, a move that has reportedly angered mids and alumni.

As it turned out, the color guard still ended up all white because the male replacement forgot parts of his uniform.

But the story was Salamandar's - and his latest update is here (with links to his earlier reports.)

I've seen commanders instructed to ensure any group with the potential for media coverage or other public exposure is "representative of the modern face of today's military". You can file all that under smart PR work or over-obsession with political correctness or whatever you choose. Such efforts shouldn't be necessary; lest anyone forget, the military is a diverse organization, as the victims of last week's shooting rampage demonstrate all too tragically.

But the problem isn't with forced diversity in a color guard - it's about whether that same process extends beyond color guard selection to more important issues of national security - promotions or key assignments, for example - in which the impact of including someone who isn't quite ready can have ramifications beyond mere embarrassment - and the impact of that on capability and morale.

And interpretation of quotes like these:

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, elevated diversity to a "strategic imperative" during his tenure as chief of naval operations. Academy leaders, on their official Web site, call diversity "our highest personnel priority."

The Post's story is here, the Navy Times coverage here, but the story is Salamandar's and there's much more here.

Not just the "Chair Force" (continued)

[This is a revised post from last year]
Our Air Force has now been heavily engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq since Day One in both areas of operations. As I mentioned here, while we don't always see or hear much about our Air Force activity, there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

In my previous post I highlighted the Pararescuemen (the Air Force's Special-Ops team), and Combat Weathermen and the dangers they face. Now let's talk about the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Teams:

Airmen from all walks of life in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal community answered the call when the Army asked for help in the joint effort against IEDs, thus again ensuring Air Force boots were on the ground and in the fight.

"Our primary (tactical control) mission (with) the Army is to clear IEDs, whether it's roadside bombs on supply routes targeting Coalition Forces or in the city targeting civilians," said Senior Master Sgt. Al Schneider, 506th EOD flight superintendent. "We also do post-blast analysis, collect (evidence) and come up with ways to counter (insurgent tactics)."

And of course we can't forget about the TAC-P guys (Tactical Air Control Party).

USAF Valour-IT team member Buck from Exile in Portales profiles the TAC-Ps here. TAC-P's are Air Force specialists that are assigned to Army combat maneuver units around the world. Tactical Air Control Parties provide numerous critical functions on the modern battlefield; from advising ground forces on aircraft employment and capabilities and coordinating and controlling aerospace operations, to participating in battle planning.

TACPs live, train, and deploy with the US Army units. When deployed, the TACPs live under austere field conditions, and are responsible for the coordination, de-confliction, and execution of all USAF attack aircraft. Qualified individuals, serving as Terminal Attack Controllers (ETACs), provide final attack control to the pilots while the fighters are inbound to the target. The ETAC is responsible for ensuring that the pilot identifies and attacks the correct target while minimizing the risk to friendly ground forces. During peacetime, training is the major focus. This training can take the form of common skills testing (mission readiness), various weapons qualifications, chemical warfare and combat first aid training.

A more recent video here

Honor these men who deserve to be recognized as the heroes they are.

National Donut Day

...was yeasterday. I mean yesterday.

But shouldn't every day be donut day?

(See also here - but don't miss that first link - it's about a lot more than donuts.)

"I am going to die well"

This salute to veterans of the war in Vietnam was originally published in November, 2005, and is re-posted today in honor of Veterans Day.

This weekend the veterans of that campaign will gather to observe the 40th anniversary of those days. Editor and writer Jules Crittenden (an occasional and welcome visitor here) recently profiled two of those men in the Boston Herald (Update: Archived story here). But due to space constraints much of their story was left out - and as you'll see shortly the story was too powerful to remain untold. My thanks to Jules for choosing to tell that tale here. I'll offer a brief thought at the end - the rest of this is Jules' work, and the story of heroes.

I met John Eade in the mid-1990s, when he was head of Inspectional Services for the City of Boston. He had a reputation for being tough and honest. The eyepatch was startling, and he had on his desk a small 1st Cav Division emblem, the yellow shield with a black stripe and the profile of a horse's head, but nothing else to indicate who he was or where he had been. He was a slightly built, somewhat odd man in City Hall, with an engaging and gentle air about him.

After I came back from Iraq in 2003 and met Joe Galloway, I asked him to put me in touch with any Ia Drang vets in the Boston area so that when the 40th anniversary came around, I could write something.

Galloway steered me to Larry Gwin, an investment lawyer downtown who had published "Baptism : A Vietnam Memoir" about his year in Vietnam and his 45 combat assaults, including the Ia Drang battles of Nov. 14-17, 1965. Gwin and I went out to lunch, and became friends. He invited me to bring my family to his Fourth of July barbecue in 2004, attended by several Ia Drang vets and veterans of other battles from Guadalcanal to Tet. They were gathered up on the second floor deck looking over the dunes to the Gulf of Maine and Cape Ann. I was introduced around. The last man whose hand I shook was a small guy with an eyepatch. He said, "Hi Jules. It's John Eade." I recognized him and did a doubletake, saying, "Oh. You're THAT John Eade."

Gwin's 1999 book -- an excellent companion to Moore and Galloway's "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young," mentioned how Sgt. John Eade was found alive and conscious, though shot in the head, the sole survivor of those who had remained in Second Platoon's position at LZ Albany. Because Gwin had not yet reconnected with Eade when he wrote the book, he had little detail on what John had experienced. John, severely wounded, was immediately medevaced and had no further contact with his comrades for nearly four decades. When I read Gwin's brief account of Eade's experience, I didn't made the connection with the John Eade I had met in Boston City Hall five or six years earlier.

I've since become friends with Eade, and as the 40th anniversary of the Ia Drang approach, he agreed to speak about it. He had never done this in any public venue, and as I understand it, never with anyone who wasn't there.

I was greatly honored by his decision to speak with me, but due to space restrictions was only able to get a few of his remarks into the newspaper article. My goal was to convey something of the reality and cost of combat to those who have not experienced it, and even in the Ia Drang battles about which so much as been written, there is more to be said. Everyone needs to know about people like John Eade, Wilbert Johnson, Barry Burnite and Oscar Barker Jr. So here is the rest of what Eade had to say:

Harley-Davidson Salutes the Troops

Much free stuff for GI's - including a Harley. Details here.

Hooker's ¨Hanging Out With The Boys¨ - for ¨Project Valor IT¨

The songs on this page were written and recorded by me, James Hooker 7 Star Commanding General USAF, SDTTSSSC (Super Duper Tippy Top Secret Strategic Songwriters Command) ALL of the songs you find here during this fundraiser are free downloads until 12 November, 2009. The album is slated for release early December. Then you have to feed me! All I ask, for now, is for you to hit the blue Team Air Force button, or, those Army, Navy, Marines guys. It all goes into the same pot! Thanks. -James Hooker

"Over the years spanning this war," James recalls, "I´ve written what amounts to an entire album that relates to the Men and Women most involved and effected by this war. The Men and Women ¨up at the sharp end.¨ Damn, I love ´em! Hanging Out With The Boys is presented here, for the first time, in that album form."

Along with several more of his tunes. Click here, enjoy, and thanks, James!

2009-10-27 11:40:21

Not just the "Chair Force"

[This is a revised post from last year]
When it comes to the participation in Iraq and Afghansitan, I don't think the Air Force receives the respect that it deserves. With jokes like "the Chair Force", "Air Farce", etc.

While we don't see or hear much about our Air Force activity, let me provide a typical day's aerial activity.

Our deployed Air Force members fly and support about 400 combat sorites (missions) each day. More than half of these are strike and reconnaissance missions providing close air support to our ground forces.

Our U.S. Air Force has also been engaged in direct combat. Lest we forget, the Air Force that went downtown Baghdad on the evening of 16 January 1991 at the start of Desert Storm. The 'Mother of all Battles'.

Here's some VTR tape of Sams over Baghdad.

And did you know the USAF have their own Special-Ops team? They're called Pararescuemen, or Parajumpers, also known as PJs, and are the only Department of Defense specialty specifically trained and equipped to conduct conventional or unconventional rescue operations.These "air commandos," like their Army and Navy counterparts, use darkness as a cloaking device that helps them achieve maximum advantage against enemies who lack the technology and training to fight at night. They are among the most highly trained emergency trauma specialists in the U.S. military.

Air Force SOF are rarely the trigger-pullers, so much of the attention for wartime tends to go to the combat forces that the air commandos support. Other special operator units, such as the Navy SEALs and the Army's Special Forces, Rangers, and Delta Force, produce more news. The USAF Special Operations Forces stay in the shadows. In a way, Air Force operators are more discreet than special units from other services and so do not receive much recognition. Pararescuemen continue to deploy so "That Others May Live"

They also have other special units called Combat Weathermen that spend dangerous times in remote outposts gathering the real-time, eyes-on, ground truth about conditions that can critically impact the mission.
They're tough guys who get it done no matter how rough it gets. To give you some idea how inportant these guys are, They are currently listed on the Global Military Force Policy low-density, high-demand asset list.

During the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it began with heavy aerial attacks on Baghdad and other cities. This was publicized in advance by the Pentagon as an overwhelming barrage meant to instill "shock and awe". However, the Air Force were also on the ground with combat weather troops. Tasked with collecting weather data, the team endured sandstorms that buried them in their sleeping bags. They survived 12 missile attacks, one which destroyed their humvee, and endured almost continuous small-arms attack

Every day A-10s deliver 30 mm; we have a squadron of A-10s up at Al Asad in Western Iraq. F-16s are dropping Joint Direct Attack Munitions and delivering ordnance, 20 mm, every day. Predators are delivering Hellfires tactical missile as well as imagery every day. And, oh yes, for a few years now, C-130s have been replacing truck convoys to eliminate much of the threat from roadside bombs. Essentially, this has taken over 3,500 trucks and 8,600 personnel off the dangerous roads.

Our Air Force has now been heavily engaged in aerial combat in Afghanistan and Iraq since Day One in both areas of operations.

The Air Force also stand prepared for rapid response in conflict around the globe as our nations serve and shield. They fly, fight, and dominate in three warfighting domains: air, space, and cyberspace, Go Air Force!

There is much more I could write about our U.S. Air Force at war. But I'll just add that today we have nearly 125,000 airmen of all ranks engaged around the world. There are 61,000 troops forward deployed in Europe, the Pacific and other locations, with another 27,000 forward deployed from their home stations in the United States. Many of these airmen have been deployed numerous times to Iraq and Afghanistan and have developed into this nation's most combat-experienced Air Force. These marvelous young men and women are engaged daily in our Global War on Terror. They need our continuing understanding and support. Now show them your support.

Thank A vet today!

DONATE TO TEAM AIR FORCE!

One Free Donut

Alert the media:

Veterans and active military personnel are invited to visit any participating U.S. Krispy Kreme store on Veterans Day, November 11, and enjoy one free doughnut of any variety.

"Krispy Kreme is delighted to offer free doughnuts as a small gesture to thank the dedicated men and women who have served, or are currently serving in the armed forces," said Ron Rupocinski, corporate chef for Krispy Kreme. "It is our hope that veterans and active military will visit a participating U.S. Krispy Kreme store on Veterans Day to enjoy a free doughnut, and maybe share stories about their service to our country. We salute each and every one of them."

Veterans and active military personnel will be able to select from more than a dozen varieties - including Original Glazed®, Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled, Chocolate Cake, Pumpkin Spice and Glazed Raspberry Filled - that are available at most Krispy Kreme locations.

Those would have to be very short stories.

I'm sure it will be very crowded, but I would urge all Marine Boots to eat their donuts on the premises:

Update: Yesterday was National Donut Day. (Do not miss this story.)

A celebrity at Arlington

AFP:

Of the eight million British soldiers who fought in WWI, only 108-year-old Royal Navy veteran Claude Choules, who lives in Perth, Australia, remains alive.
<...>
The last three veterans of World War I living in Britain died this year. The last American veteran is Frank Buckles, 108, while Canadian John Babcock also survives.

The last French veteran, an Italian immigrant who lied about his age to join the Foreign Legion and fight in the trenches, died last year aged 110.

Buckles, Choules, and Babcock are the world's last verified surviving veterans of the first world war.

Local news from West Virginia:

JEFFERSON COUNTY, WV - Ceremonies honoring Veterans will take place across the Nation Wednesday, and one local veteran will be celebrated at one of those events.

Frank W. Buckles of Jefferson County, is America's last remaining documented World War I Veteran. He will attend Wednesday's ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Coverage:

The New York Times: Obama Pays Tribute to Veterans

USA Today: President Obama marks Veterans Day at Arlington Cemetery

Voice of America: Obama, World Leaders Honor Veterans

The Associated Press: Obamas to host veterans breakfast, visit Arlington

CBS: Obama to Veterans: "America Will Not Let You Down"

An excerpt from a letter from Mr Buckles marking Memorial Day, 2009:

The Armistice commenced on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and battered troops on both sides crawled out of their trenches for the last time. When the armistice came, I thought the Europeans would be dancing in the streets. After the Armistice, I was assigned to deliver German POW's back to their homeland. Looking at their war-weary faces, I never dreamed that one day I'd find myself in the same position - but in much worse circumstances.

On December 7, 1941, the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor. Even before Congress declared war on Japan, young American men were lining up to enlist. At the time, I was working in the Manila office for a shipping firm called the White Star Line.

White Star was the line that had owned the Titanic. White Star also owned the Carpathian - the ship that had rescued the Titanic's survivors...and the Carpathian was also the ship that had taken me to the battlefields of France in 1917. You know, looking back I think I should have seen all those White Star connections as an omen of things to come. But I didn't.

The Axis war in Europe and Asia had been going on for the last several years. But General MacArthur had assured us that Manila was the safest city in the Orient. MacArthur was a great general, but this time he guessed wrong.

On December 8th, just one day after Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion took control of Manila. The Japanese took thousands of us foreigners to Los Banos, a prison camp 40 miles southeast of Manila. Along with 2,000 other foreign civilians, I was designated a prisoner of war.

For the next 3 and a half years, my fellow POW's and I had only two things on our minds. We wondered when MacArthur was going to return and how we were going to find something to fill our stomachs. The starvation at Los Banos was so bad, it is surprising that any of us survived. When The 11th Airborne finally freed us on February 23, 1945, we all looked pretty much like skeletons with skin on.

America goes to war to free, to liberate, to protect, and to bring justice to bear. I hope this Memorial Day, you take the time to thank the veterans you meet for their service to this country - the sacrifices that they have made to preserve your freedom.

"Guns on the Q.T. - Thank God for That"

A Mudville Veterans Day tradition, I first posted this one from Baghdad in 2004. My grandfather (whose grandfather fought for Ohio in the Civil War) was a medic on the battlefields in WWI, the letter reproduced below was to the girl back home who would become his wife.

Note: Veterans Day, 2007, and I'm in Iraq. And in November, 2004 I was also in Iraq. On that tour my mother sent me a copy of the following letter, written by her father from "somewhere in France" on November 11, 1918. His war was over - but a very few years later his sons would find themselves completing the mission. Take from that what lesson you would - for now, from two combat zones, from my family to yours, a safe and happy Armistice Day...

The following is transcribed from my grandfather's letter home from the front to my grandmother.

Somewhere in France
Nov 11, 1918

My dear ____

A few lines to you dear one to let you know that I am still on top and getting along O.K. Thank the good Lord for that.

I have not received any mail or had any chance to write any for about a week but the best of all is the war is over or just about so. The guns are on the q.t. now, thank God for that, and we hope and pray that they do not start again. We were almost blown of the map last night by shell fire but none of us were hurt but believe me we had some narrow escape. Though everything looks good today and we all expect to be home before many months. Unless the war starts up again in full blast, but we do not think it will start again for everything looks to be in our favor at present. The yanks sure have given the Huns a good whipping so I do not think they will be very anxious to start the ball to rolling again. And if they do the thing will not last very long so I hope to be back in the good old U.S.A. with my girl before so very long. Then I can tell you all about it. If possible I will send a message to you in the near future. That is if I find out just how things turn out over here and I can get any dope on how soon I will be starting back to the U.S.A. So do not be alarmed if you get a message from over here. But I would like if you will please let father and my grandparents know in case you do get a message from me. I have not had a chance to do much writing to any one for a few days, for we sure have been some busy over here. We are or have been cited by the general H.Q. of the A.E.F. for our work in the div. If possible to do so I will send you a copy of it soon. I am sending a German gas mask and a shoulder strap also a button off a Hun's coat. And I will send a helmet soon. In this letter I am sending a piece of paper gauze that the Huns must use in place of cotton for the wounded.

I must close this for tonight. We expect to be pretty busy for some time yet but I think I will have more time to write in the future than I have had. Please excuse the scribbling and the pen.

I remain as ever yours, hoping to be with you soon -

Love and best wishes to you and all,

xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Interesting that they were shelled on the day before the war ended - when everyone knew it was going to end the next day.

More here.

(Original post: 2004-11-11 18:19:51)

Final Day

For the next year wounded veterans of America's war will benefit from a simple action on your part today.

Project Valour-IT 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. Items supplied include:

• Voice-controlled Laptops - Operated by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, they allow the wounded to maintain connections with the rest of the world during recovery.
• Wii Video Game Systems - Whole-body game systems increase motivation and speed recovery when used under the guidance of physical therapists in therapy sessions (donated only to medical facilities).
• Personal GPS - Handheld GPS devices build self-confidence and independence by compensating for short-term memory loss and organizational challenges related to severe TBI and severe PTSD.

The Valour-IT fundraiser is built around competition between teams representing each branch of the military - but regardless of which team you donate through, all proceeds raised - and 100% of all proceeds raised - will be used for purchase of the above technologies for wounded troops from all branches of the US armed forces. Click here for more.

This Army

Lieutenant General Robert W. Cone just took command of III Corps at Ft Hood in September. This veteran of Afganistan and Desert Storm will soon lead that unit to Iraq - his second tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. (His full bio is here.)

This ten-second passage stood out to me during his remarks at the Ft Hood memorial ceremony yesterday.

But the entire address - only five minutes long - seems especially appropriate today. Full video here:

Underachiever

Via Laughing Wolf at Blackfive: Five student veterans.

Including Abe Trindle:

Abe enlisted in the Navy in 2001 and became a member of SEAL Team 8 after graduating BUD/S class 241. He has served three tours in Iraq. "In high school, I was involved in many extracurricular activities, but was an underachiever. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I had what it took to be successful and the SEAL teams provided that opportunity."

He joined the Purdue football team as a walk-on "In the SEAL teams, the men are professional warfighters and brotherhood is a common virtue. I thought the Purdue football team would be a good way to reconnect with that aspect by surrounding myself with people who are willing to sacrifice for a goal greater than themselves, and I've found that with the football team." After earning his degree, Abe plans to return to the SEALs as a commissioned officer.

Abe was recently featured on ESPN:

More here.

My Veterans Day lunch plan...

Good stuff for vets from Applebee's:

In recognition of your service to our country, all veterans and active duty military personnel are invited to eat free at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar Restaurants this Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.

As you may recall, Applebee's launched a pilot program last year on Veterans Day offering free entrees to military service personnel and veterans. Because the response was so overwhelmingly positive, Applebee's is extending the invitation throughout the country this year.

All U.S. veterans and active duty military with proof of current or former military service will eat free at all Applebee's nationwide on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009.

For additional details, visit: www.applebees.com/vetsday

You love life and we love death

Who said the quote in the headline?

1. Caliph Abu Bakr
2. A terrorist
3. George Bush
4. Nidal Hasan

Answer below...

Modern Warfare

This is... why, this is just... um....

This is just... I mean, I am... these people...

This is just ...

First we're gonna try 'im...

Full text of the president's remarks today here. No excerpt could capture it, a fine speech from start to finish - but this will probably get some attention: "It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know -- no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice -- in this world, and the next."

Not the sort of thing that one would expect to resonate with the presumed base, and I believe it took a bit of courage to say that. "We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes," the president added for good measure.

Ft Hood Memorial Ceremony

Scheduled for 2PM Eastern.

Fox News just (1:20) reported that the president's remarks will be approximately 15 minutes long, and "the White House is telling us that his speech will be 'somber and uplifting.'"

The Washington Post reports that the event is "giving him [President Obama] another opportunity to express outrage over the deaths and to tell the nation that the government is taking steps to prevent similar tragedies in the future."

USA Today: "Obama assumes role of presidential healer in times of crisis"

Coincidentally, the New York Times makes several of the same points. So does the AP: Obama Takes Turn as Healer-in-Chief. An earlier report ran with the same theme, including citations of Obama's predecessors in similar circumstances, as does this report from al Jazeera - who took time to find videos. (However, they missed the obvious one.)

I'll offer up a different idea: today is about the fallen.

This version should be free of network talking head interruptions.

Ceremony has concluded. Text of the president's remarks here.

Here's the actual heart of the event.

Death by PowerPoint

- the phrase sounds even less funny now.

The Washington Post has obtained the slideshow presented by Nidal Hasan.

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program.

Instead, in late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

You can't draw too many conclusions based only on these bullet-points (sorry - that's what they're called) without hearing the presentation itself, but here are the final two of 50 slides.

The rest of the presentation is here.

Heroes for Ghosts

Kudos to the Fox NFL team for their coverage from Afghanistan last weekend, including this report:

The initial response to the death of Pat Tillman is long forgotten - but for many it was fear that the former Arizona Cardinal killed in action in Afghanistan would be viewed as a hero:

But when it became clear he had been killed by friendly fire - and had his own questions about the mission - those fears were extinguished. None of that changed the fact that Tillman was a man who exhibited courage at (obviously) great risk to his own life.

Certainly a network NFL sports crew isn't going to go to Afghanistan and ignore the story of a former player who died there, but this story is particularly timely as John Krakauer is out on the television circuit hustling his book on Tillman. Released at the start of the NFL season this year, the book initially sold well but has since slumped - perhaps in part as a result of overall negative reviews.

Needing a new selling point, Krakaur has turned to pimping a timely "McChrystal" angle - this in spite of the fact that "General McChrystal appears in four pages of Krakauer's 400 page book."Even more sadly, Krakaur's point relies on acceptance of the fact that Tillman didn't deserve a medal - a point on which the fact that he died from friendly fire has no bearing.

One could make the argument that well-known guys like Tillman (or well-connected guys like John Kerry) get inflated medals, but Tillman's courage and character - and the tragedy of the entire story - are beyond doubt.

The milblogger's lament

Quatto, in Afghanistan:

In Afghanistan, reporters were scrambling for local "reaction" to the story. This herd mentality demonstrates again how far contemporary journalism has fallen from its social mission. Rather than bringing the war zone they were assigned to cover to their audience, many reporters--on their own or at the urging of editors--quickly reverted to bringing their audience's fixation on another story into the war zone.

Something you tend to notice while deployed - though some stories are bigger than others. In this case it appears that 'something' is being noticed at high levels.

(Via the Dawn Patrol, where we still follow the deployed.)

The lie spreads 'round the world

Jihadist battle cry is called 'speculation':

FORT HOOD -- One of the most sensational allegations stemming from last week's shooting spree at Fort Hood was a claim that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar!" before firing into scores of soldiers at a large post processing center.

A day after Army chief of staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. expressed concern over potential anti-Muslim reaction in the wake of the mass shooting, Fort Hood appeared to distance itself from the controversy.

A spokesman for the post, asked to clarify comments made last week by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander, who suggested that Hasan issued the jihadist battle cry, called it "speculation."

"The supposed shouted quote is still a matter of speculation and under investigation by CID," Bruce E. Zielsdorf said. "Lt. Gen. Cone is correct in saying he'd heard such reports, but without audiovisual documentation of the incident, it is still an issue to be addressed through the investigative process, and we will do nothing to jeopardize that effort."
<...>
One of the wounded, Pfc. Joseph Foster, told CNN that he was doing paperwork for his deployment in January to Afghanistan when said he heard a cry and then nearby gunfire.

"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster told CNN's "American Morning"

In an interview that aired Monday, Foster, who refused to discuss the incident in a news conference Sunday, said he couldn't be certain the shooter said those exact words, explaining that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."

But the truth has laced its shoes. I hope Pvt. Foster and the other survivors don't end up being punished for this.

There is a lot of evidence available that Nidal Hasan is an extremist - and that most Muslims are not. Covering up evidence of the first point à la CNN is not the best way to make the second - in fact, it's counterproductive and feeds paranoia. But in reality, retaliatory strikes are exactly what the media wants - bloodshed sells.

Hopefully no one's buying.

Blame the military

Sally Quinn blames the victims on Morning Joe:

Quinn: "There's been so much focus on the fact that he's (Hasan) a Muslim - when the focus should be on the fact that the military did not pick up on the fact that this guy was emotionally disturbed. This is the problem - he clearly had serious problems. You could have said a doctor killed all these people, or a disgruntled military man killed a lot of people Part of it was that he was Muslim, that he was disaffected. There's an incredible amount of harassment in the military that's going on towards people who are religious minorities, who are atheists, and that's condoned by the military."

Mika: "You think Majors get harassed in the military?"

Quinn: "This guy did. I think anybody who is a religious minority in the military gets harassed and it's a real scandal, because it's not only condoned it's approved of."

Joe: "I don't think anyone's saying he did this because he's Muslim - I think what they're looking into is the extremist convictions of some sectors of Muslim society that can be very dangerous to us - no one is saying that because he is Muslim, that this happened."

Quinn: "No. I think that's true, but what I'm saying is, the fact that he was a Muslim and he was looking into this extremist part of his culture, um, makes everybody think that "oh, all Muslims are terrorists" - so that's a problem. Especially for mainstream Muslims who are educated and affluent and who go about... who are very... American citizens.

"But I really put the blame on the military here. Because you know you have disaffected people in the military for a lot of different reasons. They let this guy go through school studying to be a Psychiatrist. They let him treat patients when his other colleagues were saying they wouldn't send patients to him because they thought he was so strange. They didn't pick up on the fact that he was giving speeches saying that these two wars were against Muslims. Where were the supervisors all along, and where were the people who were sitting around while he was being harassed for being Muslim?"

Joe: "We certainly can agree on that - where were they when he was giving speeches? Let's move to the health care debate..."

Of course, this could explain part of it: "His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint."

Murder isn't a cultural component we have to embrace. Affluence isn't an indication whether a person is a decent human being or not - any more than the religion they profess to follow is. Contrary to what Quinn says, there are non-wealthy, non-"educated" Muslims and non-Muslims who are decent human beings, too. But it's becoming increasingly clear that media figures are clueless. That's a stereotype it's difficult not to embrace.

Clean up crew at work

Turns out the C stands for "cover-up" - CNN is hard at work covering up their fraudulent soldier quote (see updates at story). But they're doing sloppy work on that, too.

For the Wounded

Yes, there's an ongoing global war - troops are wounded every day. What can you do?

Consider donating to the Soldiers' Angels Valour-IT fundraiser, running through November 11 (Veterans Day). We're raising money for technology that reconnects wounded warriors and supports their recovery.

Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of laptops and other technology for severely wounded service members, aiding in their recovery and reconnecting them to the world. As of October 2009, Valour-IT has distributed over 4100 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country, and is now expanding its mission to include other technology that supports physical and psychological recovery.

Donate here.

All done!

What the "C" stands for

Pvt Joseph Foster is yet another soldier reporting that Nidal Hasan shouted "Allah Akbar" when he began firing last week - but Foster made the mistake of saying it on CNN:

Roberts: So the first moments of Thursday afternoon, can you tell our viewers, you know, where you were, what happened, how it all unfolded?

Foster: I was sitting in what they call station 13, it's where we get, basically, our final outs of our RSP (ph) system and I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up, screamed and yelled Allah Akbar (ph) in Arabic and he opened fire.

Foster was not only there, not only sitting in the second row - he was one of those wounded in the attack. But two minutes later in the interview, Foster would try to downplay Roberts' implication that he was a hero:

ROBERTS: So you were acting like a soldier. You were acting heroically. We should point out that you're with the 20th Engineer Battalion and despite your best efforts and I guess the efforts of your comrades, as well, four members of the battalion were killed, 10 others were injured. And you were shot in the hip and you didn't realize it at the time?

Foster: I had realized it at first, but with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things.

Meaning very specifically that an adrenaline rush can help you overcome pain - or in Foster's case forget you've been shot. That's a common combat story, but true of any violent situation. But here's how CNN is reporting their own interview now:

Among the wounded in the shooting was Pvt. Joseph Foster, 21, who was hit in the hip as he sat at the base's military processing center, preparing paperwork for his January deployment to Afghanistan.

He said he "was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster said Monday on CNN's "American Morning."

Foster, 21, said he wasn't clear about whether the gunman said those exact words, noting that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."

And hero or not, that's what you get for telling CNN something they don't want to hear.

Update: Turns out the "C" stands for "cover-up". CNN has deleted the story and replaced it with another one at the same url. No doubt that can be explained as a "re-write" - of course, no explanation is provided. (Common practice among news organizations these days.) That first mistake was not a transcription error or a typo, nor was Pvt Foster's meaning unclear. Two comments delivered two minutes apart were combined to make one that meant exactly the opposite of what he said.

However. the same passage can still be found in this CNN report (for now) - they really wanted people to get the message.The original CNN story (headlined Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Conscious, Talking, Hospital Says) can still be found at other locations.

Another of Pvt Foster's quotes deserves attention - this one about Ft Hood: "The community came together, it's like a giant family. When anything like this happens, we just get stronger, become better united." True of anywhere I've ever been stationed - and that message should be delivered loud and clear.

From the day this story broke, CNN has run with a storyline that the killer's actions are typical of all military members - that he's a typical soldier - which means his victims were just like him.

As evidence to the contrary mounted they ignored it, but here they willfully and intentionally re-wrote an eyewitness account to make it fit their narrative - something altogether different. This isn't the only example from the Ft Hood story that proves once again if you get your news from television and newspapers you're getting something other than news.

By the way, per comments below, in the rewritten story Pvt Foster's first name is now being reported as Robert - in the original it was Joseph. Sounds like someone was in a hurry. Sloppy coverup work all around.

Still more - CNN's lie spreads:

Jihadist battle cry is called 'speculation'

FORT HOOD -- One of the most sensational allegations stemming from last week's shooting spree at Fort Hood was a claim that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar!" before firing into scores of soldiers at a large post processing center.

A day after Army chief of staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. expressed concern over potential anti-Muslim reaction in the wake of the mass shooting, Fort Hood appeared to distance itself from the controversy.

A spokesman for the post, asked to clarify comments made last week by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander, who suggested that Hasan issued the jihadist battle cry, called it "speculation."

"The supposed shouted quote is still a matter of speculation and under investigation by CID," Bruce E. Zielsdorf said. "Lt. Gen. Cone is correct in saying he'd heard such reports, but without audiovisual documentation of the incident, it is still an issue to be addressed through the investigative process, and we will do nothing to jeopardize that effort."
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One of the wounded, Pfc. Joseph Foster, told CNN that he was doing paperwork for his deployment in January to Afghanistan when said he heard a cry and then nearby gunfire.

"I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire," Foster told CNN's "American Morning"

In an interview that aired Monday, Foster, who refused to discuss the incident in a news conference Sunday, said he couldn't be certain the shooter said those exact words, explaining that "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things."

I hope Pvt. Foster and the other survivors don't end up being punished for this.

The right to remain silent

CNN:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

The story doesn't say what he's talking about. Most jihad-inspired killers can't resist explaining that that was their motive. Abdulhakim Muhammad, after killing a soldier and wounding another in Little Rock earlier his year, boasted he "would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot" at the time.

(Update: CNN has deleted that story since we busted them for the fabrication noted below. However, it can be read here.)

CNN also has a new theory on why so many soldiers are reporting the killer was shouting "Allah Akbar" while gunning down as many Soldiers as he could: "with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things." But that quote is actually a complete fabrication on the part of CNN.

But this one isn't. "The community came together," Pvt. Joseph Foster told CNN, "It's like a giant family. When anything like this happens, we just get stronger, become better united."

"Mt son got shot," the father of a wounded troop said, "but the first responders, the police officers, the other soldiers that responded... this is the best America has to give."

More stories from wounded survivors are beginning to appear:

The soldier, who has a degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, was just out of boot camp and preparing to serve as a mental health specialist. Like others in the Soldier Readiness Center, he was unarmed and defenseless.

After being shot in the leg, he found refuge under a desk and played dead. When he heard a lull in the gunfire, he made a break for it, and along with others ran out of the building. He saw the gunman follow, shooting madly.

"He was just shooting as fast as he could," he told his father. "It just seemed like he was shooting whoever he could.'

But the most complete version so far includes this: "I then went over the slaughter house...the medical SRP building. No human should ever have to see what that looked like, and I won't tell you."

Atonement

Okay, having introduced Miss England yesterday it could be considered down right un-American of me not to offer a salute to Lisa-Marie Kohl, our contestant in this year's Miss World Pageant. So in the spirit of patriotism, here she is. Best of luck to Miss England Corporal Hodge, and Miss Norway, and Miss Croatia, and all the rest of the contestants - but Miss USA gets our vote.

While I'm at it, it's worth remembering that Lieutenant Kelly George, USAF, was Miss Arkansas 2006. "Lieutenant George has been preparing for pageants for more than a decade and says training for pageants is similar to being an Airman in the Air Force."

My heart swells with pride.

Update: And here's a former Miss Rhode Island, Army ROTC cadet Allison Paganetti - and another great quote: "Believe it or not, turning an about-face is really no more difficult in high heels than in combat boots."

That's not exactly news to most soldiers, of course. (I mean, the story is from 2004.)

By the way,

After passing on her crown to Leeann Tingley and graduating, Paganetti commissioned into the Army as a second lieutenant in 2006. She was deployed with her unit to Iraq in December 2007 to March 2009. During her deployment, Paganetti was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. She is now working for the 11th Signal Brigade as the Public Affairs Officer.

Still more - from 2007:

While serving as a combat medic in Afghanistan, Sgt. Jill Stevens could always count on her Army buddies to shield her from the less sensitive aspects of a mostly male military. The soldiers, she says, developed a warning system. Off-putting jokes, racy movies and stories filled with foul language were introduced as "NFS": Not for Stevens.

Until a few months ago the Miss America Pageant would have carried the same disclaimer. Now here she is, Miss Utah, a self-described klutz in heels, competing for a crown that symbolizes femininity and well on her way to becoming the crowd favorite.

She's also a marathoner.

Defending the Caregivers

"I'm more than a little angry right now," writes J.R. Salzman.

Yes, I'm irate that some shitbag Major ("shitbag" is often used as a technical term in the Army) opened fire on a group of his fellow Soldiers killing 12 and wounding 30. But that's not even what is under my skin right now. What is bothering me is the general reaction of our media and those stupid enough to think this was not an act of terrorism, but was caused by supposed PTSD caused at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Salzman, whose milblog Lumberjack in the Desert went from being a personal chronicle of combat to an even more personal epic of recovery after he lost his arm to an IED in Iraq ("it is hard for me to tell you all this but i was hurt by an ied here. my right arm has been amputated below the elbow, my left has four working fingers. my legs are fine so l can still logroll!" - he wrote at the time), recently won the Men's Log Roll event at the 50th annual Lumberjack World Championships.

Read the rest of his response to the Ft Hood murders here.

The need to believe

Confederate Yankee:

Ironically, there is no known record of that weapon even being used to kill a police officer in the United States, and there is a distinct possibility that Sgt. Kimberly Munley, wounded while engaging Hasan, may have been the first American law enforcement officer ever shot with a Five-seveN.

Munley, a 34-year-old former soldier who became a civilian cop on the Fort Hood base, was shot twice in both legs during Thursday's confrontation. Two powerful "cop killer" rounds allegedly fired by Hasan tore through her left thigh, exited and blasted through her right thigh as well. She was also struck in the wrist.

File this as one of the things we'll never know about this case: it's possible that Hassan bought that particular weapon because the media had hyped it as a "cop killer". Ignorance is the second-most powerful marketing tool on earth.

While we're on the topic of bad reporting, note that the tone of part of the story is beginning to change. ABC says "Army officials say that an investigation is under way about whose bullets brought down Hasan as there was much confusion following the shooting. Munley's supervisor initially credited her with the shot that stopped Hasan."

Part of that may be due to this:

Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her (according to the news accounts she got a round into him.) I believe it, I just didn't see it. He didn't go down.) She goes down. He starts reloading.

He's fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn't dropped the one that was in his weapon. He's holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go). I see the male cop around the left corner of the building.

(I'm about 15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, "He's reloading, he's reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!) You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter.

He goes down. The cop kicks his weapon further away. I sprint up to the downed female cop. Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She's bleeding profusely out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we've been trained (I hope we did it right...we didn't have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had).

There were conflicting versions of the story from the get-go - and that's just part of the truly awful job the national media did with the Ft Hood shooting story all around (local media did much better). The bottom line is: if you get your news from television and newspapers you're getting something other than news.

Sgt Munley is reportedly recovering ("sixteen victims remain in hospital with gunshot wounds, seven of them in intensive care." - a point that you don't hear much about amidst the media-superstar coverage of Nidal Hassan) so thus far the "Cop Killer" tag can't be called a self-fulfilling prophecy. There were many heroic actions taken at Ft Hood that day, and you can find heroes on every U.S. military installation. Kimberly Munley's actions were heroic by any definition, she moved to the sound of the guns at great risk to herself. We don't know the full story yet - and at this point the media doesn't need to try and make her into another Jessica Lynch.

Of course, the same people doing that are making Hassan into the new Lynndie England (tragic victim, typical of all military), so it's not likely to stop.

A Prize-Winner

Actually, something better than $10.

The Valour-IT Auctions

...with some fantastic, rare, and one-of-a-kind items end this weekend (many today).

If you can't find something for yourself, you'll probably find something for someone on your Christmas list - and 100% of the proceeds go to help wounded troops through project Valour-IT.

Browse and bid here.

Landstuhl honors the fallen

"I am so excited to be leaving the country again soon. Just now got a few minutes. So much to do, so many lives to touch. Just wish it didn't take me away from home so much."

- Psychiatric nurse practitioner Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, in her final Facebook entry hours before she was murdered by Nidal Hassan. "Warman had been at Fort Hood for only 24 hours to be processed for duty in Iraq, a deployment for which she had volunteered."

LtC Warman is survived by her husband, two daughters, three stepchildren and eight grandchildren, her mother and six siblings.

Read the rest here.

One account from Ft Hood

"I'm about 15-20 meters from the shooter. I yell at the cop, "He's reloading, he's reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!"

From one of those emails going 'round, as they say. Believe it or not - and even if true, bear in mind it's one point of view.

"This is what I saw," the author says, "It can't have been real. But this is my small corner of what happened."

He saw a lot.

(Pictures from this post.)

The (not-too) private life of Corporal Hodge

Hey, what's this half naked model doing here?

Why, that's Katrina Hodge, runner-up in this year's Miss England competition.

But the story doesn't start or end there...

You see, she's also a Corporal in Her Majesty's Armed Forces...

...and here's how she got that modeling gig:

Kat, nicknamed 'Combat Barbie' by her fellow soldiers in the Royal Anglian Regiment, was spotted by La Senza to front the campaign when she won second place in this year's Miss England contest.

Katrina said it best when she said, "Everybody calls me Combat Barbie because I love pink but they know I can do the job. I'm proof you don't have to be butch to join the forces."

But it's a tough job - from what I've heard the British Army isn't as well equipped as ours.

But wait - there's more to the story...

Here in Mudville we're always ready to salute our fellow Iraq vets, who will never be considered second place by us!

The glamorous 22 year old was also awarded a medal of bravery for disarming an insurgent while on a tour of Iraq at the age of 18 and was recently promoted to the level of Corporal.

But the story gets better - because the Corporal just got another promotion...

Corporal Katrina Hodge was sitting in her barracks in Surrey wearing regulation combats, hair scraped back and face devoid of make-up, when the telephone rang.

The call was from the organiser of the Miss England competition, offering her the title. The previous holder, Rachel Christie, had been involved in an alleged nightclub brawl the week before and forced to stand down.

As runner-up in the contest last July, Katrina was the natural successor.

...thanks in part to a Royal Marines Commando. You see, it seems the fight began when Miss England Rachel Christie...

...got into it with Miss Manchester over Miss England's boyfriend, TV gladiator Tornado (AKA David McIntosh), who may once have been Miss Manchester's main squeeze.

The alleged assault occurred during a costume party at the Mansion Club in Manchester, according to Sky News. Miss England was dressed as an angel, while Miss Manchester was dressed as a cave girl. The angel and the cave girl came to blows over the gladiator. (He's a Royal Marines Commando who has served in Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Somalia and the Persian Gulf. He has been arrested more than once for bar brawls.)

Now Corporal Hodge "will fly out to South Africa on Tuesday in preparation for the Miss World competition."

Congratulations, Corporal! Knock 'em dead!

Look - more Combat Barbies: Atonement
All done!

Names chosen at random

The New York Times original headline read 'Obama Reminds Nation of Military's Diversity' - but for whatever reason that's been rewritten to 'Obama Urges No 'Jump to Conclusions'.

I prefer the first. Fortunately, the sentiment as expressed in the first line of the story remains intact:

WASHINGTON -- President Obama, extending condolences to the community at Fort Hood, Tex., reminded Americans on Saturday that people of "every race, faith and station" serve in the military...

Names have not been officially released, but around the country family members have been notified... The youngest was 19, the oldest, 62. Many were health care professionals. One, 51-year old Russell Seager, was described by his uncle as a man who "joined the Army a few years back because he was a psychiatrist who wanted to help returning veterans adapt back to civilian life."

The names have now been officially released. Some might see them as victims of fate, others might cite the will of God; here are the names of the people killed by Nidal Malik Hasan, as released by the DoD:

Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood.

Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, Ill. She was assigned to the 15th Combat Support Battalion, Fort Hood.

Spc. Jason Hunt, 22, of Tillman, Okla. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, Fort Hood.

Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolinbrook, Ill. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood.

Spc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood.

Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, Fort Hood.

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis. She was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.

Staff Sgt. Justin Decrow, 32, of Plymouth, Ind. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, Fort Hood.

Capt. Russell Seager, 41, of Racine, Wis. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison.

Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Detachment, Madison, Wis.

Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 54, of San Diego, Calif. He was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.

Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, 55, of Havre De Grace, Md. She was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.

Michael Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas. (CWO, retired) He was a civilian employee at Fort Hood.

The story isn't just about Ft Hood, and it certainly isn't about a deranged killer. It's about Americans - men, women, young and old. Eduardo Caraveo was born in Mexico and immigrated to this country over 30 years ago; the others were from hometowns dotted all across the USA - literally North, South, East and West - and their families' roots stretched around the world. Like the military as a whole they indeed represent the diversity of this nation and the best it has to offer, and are united not by their deaths at the hands of a maniac but by service to the country in which they fell.

Why do they hate us? was a popular question in the wake of 9/11. To this day the answer is debated, but rarely since then have we had such a stark reminder of who they hate.

Read the story here.

Air Force vs Army

First this:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The Air Force Academy will hold a moment of silence in honor of the shooting victims at Fort Hood before Saturday's Army-Air Force football game.

Academy spokesman Troy Garnhart says the observance will also honor soldiers from nearby Fort Carson who've been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The academy and Fort Carson are on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. Saturday's game is at the academy's Falcon Stadium.

Fort Carson spokeswoman Brandy Gill says a pep rally for the Army football team is still planned Friday night at the post. It's not yet clear how the Fort Hood tragedy will be recognized.

The dean of West Point's Academic Board and the deputy commander of Fort Carson's 4th Infantry Division are expected to speak at the rally.

...and then a guy in a stripped shirt will blow a whistle, and it's go time.

There was a brief discussion about ending the competition part of our Valour-IT fundraiser this week - but we're all about rivalry, and we won't let terrorists change that.

The game starts at 3:30 Eastern. Online Gametracker here - link to live audio here.

Update: final 35-7, Air Force. However, the real winner is Navy: "With their quest for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy already spoiled, the Falcons tarnished Army's chances as well. Navy, who beat Falcons earlier this season, will retain the trophy for a seventh straight season."

Ft Hood: the view from Iraq

From one of the many deployed soldiers with family at Ft Hood:

I've been deployed to Iraq for the past four months, and I've figured out how to cope with the stress that comes from being thousands of miles away from my family.

But I wasn't prepared for what happens when violence intrudes on my loved ones, who are supposed to be safe at home while I am in a combat zone. It flipped all of my attitudes toward deployment upside down. And the aftermath of the attacks at Fort Hood, allegedly committed by a fellow Muslim, also raised a different set of concerns -- not just about my family's safety, but about the perceptions of my faith.

I was working late on Thursday and decided to call my wife, at home on post in Fort Hood, Tex., to check in. She didn't answer. I tried again.

The story continues here.

Aftermath (part 2)

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is pushing back a trip to Capitol Hill aimed at discussing the proposed health care overhaul with lawmakers.

Obama had planned to head to the Capitol on Friday. Now the White House schedule shows Obama planning to visit the Capitol on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, Obama plans to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama spent nearly two hours visiting wounded U.S. soldiers Friday afternoon.

The president met with 19 soldiers being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, as well as the families of three soldiers in intensive care, and hospital staff. He also awarded two Purple Hearts.

The president's visit came a day after an Army psychiatrist who once trained at Walter Reed hospital allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood. The White House says the hospital visit was planned before the shootings.

Friday's visit was Obama's first to Walter Reed since taking office, though he visited as a presidential candidate.

Obama will attend a memorial service that will be scheduled at the convenience of the victims' families, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs added that a memorial service is keeping Obama's schedule next week in flux. The president is scheduled to leave for Asia on Wednesday but wants to attend a memorial before starting the 10-day trip. Gibbs says the White House would not rule out delaying the trip because of the service.

With families of fallen soldiers living throughout the United States, the logistics of the mission could prove complicated.

However, it appears the effort to simplify may be under way:

A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft will arrive at Dover Air Force Base the night of Nov. 6 with the remains of 12 U.S. Army soldiers and one U.S. Army civilian employee killed Nov. 5 during a gunman's rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Upon arrival the bodies will be transported to the Air Force Mortuary Operations Center.

The families of the Fort Hood servicemen have not authorized media coverage and media access to the base will be restricted.

A forensic investigation, including a complete autopsy, will be performed by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner. The autopsy results will be made available to the appropriate federal agencies active in the ongoing investigation into the shooting.

Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations is working closely with affected families to determine their wishes regarding final preparation of their loved ones remains.

Transportation to Dover is not standard protocol for military members killed in the United States.

Previously: Aftermath

The fallen

From a story on one of the soldiers wounded at Ft Hood: "Lunsford is in stable condition at the hospital in Temple, Tex., where hundreds waited in line to give blood for the wounded."

Staff Sgt. Joy Clark, 27, was standing in line when shots rang out, says her father, Jerry Nelson of Des Moines.

"She heard some noise and the soldier in front of her went down," he says. She tore off her jacket and knelt to apply it to his wound.

"That's when she got shot," Nelson says. The bullet tore through her left forearm and broke two bones. A soldier for seven years who was a medic before becoming an occupational therapist, his daughter reacted instinctively, Nelson says.

She was about to deploy to Afghanistan. Clark's husband, Josh Clark, drove all night to Temple, Texas, where his wife is hospitalized, Nelson says. He and his wife, Danise, are flying to Texas today.

"I'm glad that she's alive ... and very disappointed for those who lost their lives," Nelson says.

Cpl. Nathan Hewitt was hit by two bullets as he led other soldiers out of the Fort Hood building during the rampage, says his uncle Rex Deaton, who spoke with him two hours after the shooting.

Deaton told USA TODAY that Hewitt described one bullet grazing his hip and another hitting his calf.

In an interview with CBS' "The Early Show", Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said soldiers caught in the hail of bullets at an on-base medical facility were "really remarkable in terms of their reaction."

Witnesses told Cone that the suspected gunman, military psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, walked into the Soldier Readiness Center and opened fire in a "very calm, measured approach." Thirteen people - 12 of them military personnel - were killed and at least 30 were injured.

One soldier, who was wounded four times, told Cone that when he was on the ground, he "made the mistake of moving," and was shot again.

But the carnage could have been worse if not for soldiers' reactions.

"As the shooter would change directions, the soldiers would scramble on the ground and try to help each other to carry each other outside the building," Cone told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith.
<...>
After realizing some of the soldiers were escaping, Cone said the gunman followed them outside where he continued to fire at them. He was eventually brought down by civilian police officer Kimberly Munley, who was the first responder on the scene. She shot the suspect four times while sustaining a gunshot wound herself, though she was in stable condition.

The toll may still rise:

W. Roy Smythe, head of surgery at Scott & White, said six of the wounded at the hospital remain in intensive care, while four have been moved to regular rooms. Smythe said the patients were shot in various parts of the body, and several had multiple gunshot wounds. Of the six still in intensive care, he said, two require additional surgery.

Although all the patients are stable at the moment, Smythe said, it was possible that the death toll could mount.

"I don't think there is an excellent chance that everyone will recover," he said. Several of the patients are "not at all out of the woods."

Names have not been officially released, but around the country family members have been notified. And the story isn't just about Ft Hood, it's about a cross-section of Americans - men, women, old, young - united by service to the country in which they fell. The youngest was 19, the oldest, 62. Many were health care professionals. One, 51-year old Russell Seager, was described by his uncle as a man who "joined the Army a few years back because he was a psychiatrist who wanted to help returning veterans adapt back to civilian life."

Their stories follow.

Chicago:

A woman from Chicago was one of the 13 people killed in a shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday.

Pfc. Francheska Velez, 21, had just returned from Iraq because she was three months pregnant, according to her family. She had served in the Army for three years.

Chicago:

An Army private first class from southwest suburban Bolingbrook was one of the 13 people killed in the rampage at Fort Hood, his family said.

Michael Pearson, 21, joined the Army slightly more than a year ago and was training to deactivate bombs, said his mother, Sheryll.
<...>
About 10 p.m., an Army surgeon called to say that Mike hadn't made it. He said doctors had brought Mike back to life twice on the operating table but were unsuccessful the third time.
<...>
She said she last talked to her son two days ago about him coming home for Christmas. She told him she had already gotten his room ready. She was particularly excited because she hadn't seen her son in a year. He had been training for a year in the Mojave Desert.

"He was always upbeat and looking forward to coming home," she said.
<...>
"He was the poster child of what any mother wanted in a son."

At Pearson's Bolingbrook family home on Friday, a yellow ribbon was tied to a porch light and a sticker stamped with American flags on the front door read, "United we stand."

"He was a genius as far as we were concerned," Kristopher Craig told CNN affiliate WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, late Thursday, reeling from the news that his 21-year-old "little kid brother" was among the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Pearson grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois, with two brothers and a sister. "He was really living his life playing guitar," Craig said. "When he picked up a guitar, we all understood that he was expressing himself."

Pearson enlisted in the Army more than a year ago so he could some day go to college to study music theory, his brother said. Basic training toughened him up and matured him, Craig said, adding, "Even though it's hard and it hurts, he loved every minute of it."

Pearson was scheduled to return home in a week or two to catch up with family and friends before deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan in January, his brother said.

"He was accepting the possibility of what might happen over there, but we were completely blindsided by this," Craig told WGN. "He didn't even get the chance to leave."

Utah:

A 19-year-old Utah man was killed in Thursday's massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.

Aaron Thomas Nemelka is among the dead, relatives at his family's West Jordan home confirmed.
<...>
Ogden native Joey Foster, 21, was shot in the hip, but is expected to recover.

More:

In a prepared statement, Michael and Teena Nemelka said they were "devastated" by their son's death but "so proud to have him serve our country in the military."

Nemelka is the youngest of four children. His aunt, Alesa Forrest, told the Deseret News that Nemelka was supposed to come home on leave during Christmas and planned to propose to his girlfriend before being deployed to Afghanistan in January.

"His family was everything to him," Forrest said.

The yard of Nemelka's West Jordan home was covered with at least two dozen American flags Friday morning. Numerous vehicles were parked in the driveway and along the street, including one with U.S. government license plates.

Gloria Nemelka, grandmother of Aaron Thomas Nemelka, who was killed at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, talks to reporters in front of the Nemelka home in West Jordan on Friday. Michael Nemelka hugs his daughter Bridget in the background. (Rick Egan / The Salt Lake Tribune)

Frantic over her brother as the night drew on, Ashlee Brewer sent a note to friends on Facebook. "We sit and stress and they can't tell us anything," Brewer wrote. "I guess I can take comfort in the fact he cannot possibly be injured because then I would know where he is."

She was right...

The West Jordan teenager, an Eagle Scout and the youngest of four children, had enlisted in the Army after graduating from West Jordan High School last year. He was a member of the 510th Engineering Company, 20th Infantry Battalion, 36th Engineering Brigade. He told his family and friends that he wanted to go to war so that he could help dismantle the powerful roadside bombs that have accounted for so many fellow soldiers' deaths.

His first combat tour was scheduled to begin in January. In December, family members said, he was planning to return home to propose to his girlfriend. "He was excited," said Lindsey Nemelka, his sister-in-law. "He had the ring."

Aaron Nemelka and girlfriend Kristin Whittle

Wisconsin:

A second Wisconsin resident died in the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas, according to a family member.

Russell Seager, 51, of Racine was killed in the shootings, according to a person answering Seager's phone who said he was a relative. The family member declined to answer other questions and referred all other questions to public affairs officials with the military.

Family members of Amy Krueger of Kiel say she was also killed. The Army said 13 people were killed by a shooter on the Texas base Thursday afternoon.

State records indicate Seager was licensed as a registered nurse and advanced practice nurse prescriber.

More:

Seager's family received a call at around 12:00 a.m. Friday.

He was listed in the Army reserves as a mental health specialist, serving as a nurse who treated veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder at the Veteran's Administration hospital in Milwaukee.

His uncle says the 51-year old Seager "joined the Army a few years back because he was a psychiatrist who wanted to help returning veterans adapt back to civilian life."

Detectives assigned to the Fort Hood Directorate of Emergency Sevices respond Nov. 5, 2009, to a shooter barricaded in the post's deployment readiness center. Thirteen people died and 30 more were wounded in the incident. U.S. Army photo

Also killed was 29-year-old Amy Krueger of Kiel. The injured included 23-year-old Army Reserve Spc. Grant Moxon of Lodi and 19-year-old Amber Bahr of Random Lake.

In Amy Krueger's home town:

Krueger, a sergeant with the Army Reserve's Madison-based 467th Medical Detachment, died in the shooting that left 12 other people dead and about 30 injured, including Random Lake native Amber Bahr, who was shot in the back, and 23-year-old Army Reserve Spc. Grant Moxon of Lodi who was shot in the leg.

Krueger was a 1998 graduate of Kiel High School and joined the military soon thereafter, principal Dario J. Talerico said.
<...>
Flags still stood at full staff at Kiel Veterans Memorial on a nearby bridge over the Sheboygan River.

A drive through Kiel's neighborhoods paints a picture of its patriotism: military banners flew beneath Old Glory outside a number of homes.

Talerico said Krueger's years of service alone showed her love of country. And sentiment was evident from neighbors on a signboard outside the 11th Frame Sports bar in nearby New Holstein that read, "In memory of Amy Krueger."

"She was very proud to serve in the military," Talerico said.

Friends share memories of Kiel woman killed at Fort Hood:

Krueger, a sergeant with the Madison-based 467th Medical Detachment, had arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in December, said her mother, Jeri Krueger. She had previously spent three months in Afghanistan in 2002.

Amy Krueger and a friend, Kristin Thayer, went to a recruiter to enlist together the day after Sept. 11, 2001, Thayer said.

Post police take cover when a gunman fires shots at the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center Nov. 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo.

Oklahoma

A Tipton soldier killed Thursday during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, was a quiet boy who thought the military would help him grow into a man, his family said Friday.

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, was one of 12 soldiers killed when a gunman opened fire at a soldier readiness center on the post.
<...>
"He never gave his mother one minute of heartache in his whole school life," Smith said. "He was a good student. He was so embarrassed if someone thought he did something wrong."

Hunt was married two months ago, Smith said. His wife, Jenna, was finishing a class in Oklahoma City and planned to move to Fort Hood, where Hunt recently bought a home.

Leila Willingham, Hunt's sister, said one of the family's fondest memories was when Hunt's mother, Gale Hunt, had to drive to the high school and give her permission for him to sit out of a cat dissection for a science class because he didn't feel right about it.

Hunt joined the Army a year after graduating from Tipton High School and served for three and a half years, including a tour in Iraq, where he celebrated his 21st birthday.

Willingham recalled her brother once likened his feelings for his military family to the love a parent feels for their children.

"He said, 'I would die for your children.' He said, 'I would die for a stranger to save them.' And he said he would dive in front of a bullet for a soldier."

Hunt, who was stationed in Fort Stewart in Georgia after high school, transferred to Fort Hood to be closer to his family.

Texas:

A Cameron man was among the 13 fatalities from yesterday's shooting at Fort Hood. Mike Cahill, who worked as a physician's assistant for Dr. Sid Richardson from 1997 until 2000, and who stilled lived in Cameron, was killed during the Thursday afternoon incident.

The alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is blamed for the deaths of 13 soldiers and one civilian, military officials said.

Another 30 people were wounded in the incident. About half of them required surgery, and all were in stable condition Friday morning, said Col. Steven Braverman, hospital commander at Fort Hood.

If early reports are correct, Michael Grant Cahill, a 62-year old physician's assistant, was the only civilian killed in the murder spree. Cahill was formerly a resident of Spokane, and leaves behind his wife, Joleen, three children, Keely, Kerry, and Jaime, and a grandson, Brody.

...and Washington:

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A Spokane native was among those killed during a rampage at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

Michael Grant Cahill, 62, was a physician assistant who worked at the base as a contracted civilian.

His daughter, Keely Cahill Vanacker, said Cahill was among 13 killed in the shooting spree.

Michael Cahill graduated from Spokane's Rogers High School in the 1960s and Eastern Washington University in 1973.

Cahill suffered a heart attack two weeks ago, but had already returned to work. He and his wife, Joleen, had been married 37 years.

The family's typical Thanksgiving dinners ended with board games and long conversations over the table, said Vanacker, whose voice often cracked with emotion as she remembered her father. "Now, who I am going to talk to?"

SWAT team members approach a building with a gunman inside. Thirteen people were killed and 30 more wounded in an attack by a lone gunman at Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jason R. Krawczyk

California:

SAN DIEGO -- A county government employee who recently deployed with the Army was among those killed Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas.

John Gaffaney, a supervisor in the county's Adult Protective Services department, was one of 13 people killed when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire in a crowded medical building. Thirty others were injured, making it the nation's worst-ever attack on a stateside military base.

Gaffaney was 56 and lived in Serra Mesa.

Capt. John Gaffaney, US Army Reserve, was a North Dakota native who had also served in the Navy and the California National Guard.

Minnesota:

A young St. Paul man who loved fishing in the St. Croix River with his brother was one of the 13 people shot and killed Thursday in the attacks at Fort Hood.

Specialist Kham Xiong, 23, had been at Fort Hood for five months preparing for a New-Year's deployment, according to his family.

His relatives said he was in line waiting for a physical.

His wife Shoua texted him a message saying, "Come home for lunch and go back later."

But he wrote back, "No, I'll stay. It's almost my turn."

Moments later he was shot.

Xiong's father Chor Xiong is upset none of the soldiers were armed. Only police are allowed to carry weapons on base.

Chor Xiong said, "The sad part is he had been taught and trained to protect and fight, yet it's a tragedy he didn't have the chance to protect himself at the base."

The Xiongs have a history of serving the U.S. in war.

Kham Xiong's 18-year-old brother Nelson is a marine in Afghanistan.

Chor Xiong is from Laos and fought the Vietnamese alongside the CIA in 1972.

Kham is survived by his wife, three children and ten siblings.

Emergency personnel carry a victim to an ambulance in the deadly shooting on Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 5, 2009. Thirteen people were killed and 30 others were injured in the rampage. DoD Video Screengrab.

Pennsylvania:

Juanita Warman, 55, a military physicians's assistant, was among the 13 people who have died so far, said her sister, Margaret Yaggie of Roaring Branch, Pa.

Ms. Warman attended Pittsburgh Langley High School and put herself through school at the University of Pittsburgh, her sister said. She had spent most of her career in the military. The family was notified of her death early this morning.

Ms. Warman had two daughters and six grandchildren, her sister said.

According to this story Warman was "originally from Pittsburgh, but she lived in Maryland in the Havre De Grace area for the last ten years."

"I am so excited to be leaving the country again soon. Just now got a few minutes. So much to do, so many lives to touch. Just wish it didn't take me away from home so much."

- Psychiatric nurse practitioner Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, in her final Facebook entry hours before she was murdered by Nidal Hassan. "Warman had been at Fort Hood for only 24 hours to be processed for duty in Iraq, a deployment for which she had volunteered."

LtC Warman is survived by her husband, two daughters, three stepchildren and eight grandchildren, her mother and six siblings.

Indiana:

The family of an Indiana soldier said they were told Friday that their son was among 13 people killed in the shootings at Fort Hood.

The father of Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Plymouth, told WSBT-TV in South Bend that representatives from the Army visited the family on Friday to tell them of DeCrow's death.

After 13 years in the Army, DeCrow, who was married and had a 13-year old daughter, was scheduled to be medically discharged:

...last month, Thompson said, DeCrow was told to report to work at Fort Hood until the paperwork for his medical discharge came through.

After anxious hours of trying to call her son and sending him text messages, Thompson received a call early Friday from her sobbing daughter-in-law. Justin had been shot. No, he wasn't one of the people in the hospital.

His wife said Friday night that she wanted everyone to know what a loving man he was. She paused frequently during a phone interview, crying as she talked about him.

"He was well loved by everyone," MaryKay DeCrow said. "He was a loving father and husband, and he will be missed by all."

DeCrow had been stationed at Fort Hood since returning from a year stationed in Korea, said his father, Daniel DeCrow of Fulton, Ind. Before that, DeCrow was stationed at Fort Gordon, Ga., where he and his wife and daughter had a home, his father said.

The family planned to live in Georgia after his discharge.

However,

CNN says his wife, Marikay DeCrow, said her husband went to Fort Hood in September to prepare for his deployment to Iraq. He was scheduled to deploy sometime between December and March.

Arizona:

L. Eduardo Caraveo arrived in this country as a young immigrant with a drive that helped transform him "from nothing to something."

Caraveo, 52, one of 13 people who died in the shooting rampage Thursday in Fort Hood, Texas, arrived in the United States in his teens from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, knowing very little English, according to his son, Eduardo Caraveo. By 1986 he'd earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Arizona.
<...>
Caraveo had just arrived at the post on Wednesday and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan with a Wisconsin-based combat-stress-control unit, his son said during a phone interview from his mother's home in Tucson.

Caraveo had been in the Army National Guard for almost 10 years and was a major in the U.S. Army, his son said.

Caraveo moved from Mexico to the United States in the mid-1970s.

He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with an undergraduate degree in 1979 before receiving his master's degree in counseling from the university in 1980, according to his Web site.

He came to Tucson from Lubbock, Texas, in 1984 and received his doctoral degree two years later.

Caraveo worked with bilingual special-needs students in the Tucson and Sunnyside unified school districts before entering private practice, his son said.

He also taught at Pima Community College's West Campus, his son said.

Tragically, more to follow

A first responder to a lone gunman's attack at Fort Hood Nov. 5 renders honors at retreat after aiding his fellow soldiers. U.S. Army photo.

All done!

Know your mass murderer: Nidal Malik Hasan

A "socially awkward, quiet type":

Hasan was born in Arlington to Palestinian immigrants from near Jerusalem who later settled in Vinton.

Neighbors on Vinton's Ramada Road remembered him as a "studious" boy who went by "Michael."

While his brother Eyad -- "Eddie" -- would play football with Zachary Garlick, 21, who lived across the street, Michael didn't come out to play much.

"Michael was more school and less play," said Zachary Garlick. "He'd get home and he'd have his book bag, and he'd go straight inside."

That quiet demeanor and apparent social awkwardness would follow Hasan into adulthood.

Hasan's family settled in an apartment on Lancelot Lane off Cove Road in Northwest Roanoke, the 1987 Roanoke City Directory shows.

Hasan's father, Malik Awadallah Hasan, immigrated from Palestine to Virginia in 1962, when he was 16, stories in the Times' archives show. He moved to Roanoke in 1985, with his wife, Hanan Ismail "Nora" Hasan, following in 1986. Neighbors on Ramada Road said they moved to the Vinton neighborhood in the early 1990s.

The Hasans ran the infamous Capitol Restaurant on the Roanoke City Market from 1987 to 1995. It was a dive beer hall and diner with a bad reputation and a lot of down-and-out regulars. The Hasans closed the Capitol to open the short-lived, Mediterranean-themed Mount Olive on Jefferson Street.

Other details of his later years are emerging.

Great comment here: "To me, this is just a guy that, for whatever reason, decided to cut ranks and join the other side." I agree.

And this appears to be the now-frequently mentioned message board comment - allegedly from the Major - that supposedly brought him to the attention of authorities:

There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE" and Allah (SWT) knows best.

Reminders

Hotline for relatives of Fort Hood personnel: (254) 288-7570 or (866) 836-2751 for information about loved ones.

If you live in the Ft Hood area, blood donors are needed.

Blood donations are being accepted at Scott & White Blood Center until 6 p.m. today and all blood types are needed at this time. No appointment is necessary. Currently the wait is approximately 30-45 minutes.

Remember to bring a photo ID when donating and please make sure you have eaten a good meal prior to donation.

The hospital reports "10 people were transported to Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple yesterday after a shooting incident at the base."

According to local news "victims were being transported to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center where they were triaged and sent on to other hospitals. Victims were flown to Scott & White Hospital in Temple and to Seton Hospital in Round Rock. Other victims were also taken to Metroplex Hospital in Killeen."

Joe Medicine Crow

"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you." - President Obama, in remarks that preceded his statement on Ft Hood.

But for the record, while Joe Medicine Crow sounds like an incredible and accomplished person whose service during WWII is awe-inspiring, he has not received America's highest military medal:

Joseph Medicine Crow (or Joe Medicine Crow, full name Joseph Medicine Crow-High Bird, born October 27, 1913) is a Crow historian and author. He is also an enrolled member of the Crow Nation of Native Americans. His writings on Native American history and reservation culture are considered seminal works, but he is best known for his writings and lectures concerning the Battle of Little Big Horn. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Bronze Star Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal and the Légion d'honneur.

President Obama did present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August of this year.

More on this incredible man here.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley

Readiness:

The hero cop who ended the bloody rampage at Fort Hood had been directing traffic moments before she confronted the gunman and pumped four bullets into him despite being shot herself.

Civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday.

Colonel Steven Braverman, commander of the base hospital and Major Hasan's supervisor, said that Sergeant Munley was in a stable condition in a nearby community hospital.

Her Twitter biography reads: "I live a good life ... a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."

More - a slightly different version of the story:

The police officer who brought down a gunman after he went on a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here was on the way to have her car repaired when she responded to a police radio report of gunfire at a center where soldiers are processed before being sent overseas, the authorities said Friday.

An incredible story - read the whole thing.

Hmmmm.... a third version:

Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her (according to the news accounts she got a round into him.) I believe it, I just didn't see it. He didn't go down.) She goes down. He starts reloading.

He's fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn't dropped the one that was in his weapon. He's holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go). I see the male cop around the left corner of the building.

(I'm about 15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, "He's reloading, he's reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!) You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter.

He goes down. The cop kicks his weapon further away. I sprint up to the downed female cop. Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She's bleeding profusely out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we've been trained (I hope we did it right...we didn't have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had).

Much conflicting information here. Best to wait a bit on this one, first reports, fog of war, etc.

The Enemy in the Wind

Jim Wilkinson didn't like the secrecy. "I'm taking a beating out there," he said, pointing toward the press center. "They're filing stories that we've lost the war."

"Good," I said. "We couldn't ask for a better deception."

"Damn, general," Jim said. "We should tell them something."

A story of the early days of the war in Iraq, originally posted in March, 2009, that includes a rare look at Air Force troops on the front lines...

Anyone who has been to Iraq for any significant amount of time has pictures like this one:

The sun near its zenith, obscured by dust. That's one of mine, one of several. As is this one:

If you spend any time reading milblogs at all you've seen it before. No one can resist posting pictures of their first dust storm, they are mind boggling, and the photos hardly do them justice.

Such photos were less familiar in 2003. But we knew they were coming:

A powerful storm is likely to pummel military forces in and around Iraq with blinding sand and choking dust starting on Monday night, meteorologists predict.

The dust storm would probably be nearly twice as strong as the one that grounded helicopters and limited troop movements in Kuwait on Wednesday, the forecasters said.

General Tommy Franks:

Just as I was checking the latest message traffic before turning in, Gene Renuart was called away from the war room. He returned a few minutes later. "General, we're getting an update on the weather."

It was the most ominous weather forecast I had ever sat through. A strong cold front would cut across the region like a giant scythe, bringing gales from the west-southwest, thunderstorms and blowing dust -- a classic shamal sandstorm.

The young officer reporting on the video link from combined air operations command in Saudi Arabia added: "We'll see the wind increase around 1800 local tomorrow, sir. It will be peaking out with 50-knot gusts by late tomorrow night. The dust load will be major. Our models call for zero-zero conditions."

Zero visibility. Zero ceiling.

"And how long will this storm last?" "Current models call for 72 hours of marginal conditions, sir."

Down the table someone muttered, "The mother of all sandstorms." Nobody laughed.

Still, some apparently didn't get the memo.

In March, 2003, Rick Atkinson was embedded with the 101st Airborne on the "march" northward, and was traveling with the Division Commander, then-Major General David Petraeus to a newly established Forward Area Refueling Point (FARP) curiously code named "Shell" - a trip he would later recount in his book In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat

Petraeus watched as Exxon quickly receded until it had been swallowed by the desert expanse.
<...>
"I'm really proud of what we've done at Exxon, the fact that they did it as effectively as they did. That's an achievement," he said. "I really do think this thing is overstretched. But to be fair, they didn't expect this kind of resistance. " Referring to Colonel Greg Gass, who commanded the Apaches scheduled to attack the Medina Division's 14th Brigade that night, Petraeus added, "Destiny Six may have that same look in his eyes as some of those guys you write about in the early days of the North Africa campaign."

I barely had time to wonder what he was talking about - wasn't the 3rd Infantry Division more than half way to Baghdad? Why should Gass be unsettled just because the 11th Regiment had lost a couple of helicopters the previous night? - when the fair weather abruptly vanished. Dust thickened and within five minutes the helicopter seemed wrapped in cotton batting. The pilots slowed down, picking their way.

At 11:30, Petraeus radioed the D-Main at New Jersey, using his call sign, Eagle Six. "Get hold of Destiny and Thunder," - his two aviation brigades - "and tell them not to launch any more aircraft west. The winds are picking up and conditions are marginal."

Peering out the left window, I thought his description was generous. The sun floated above us like a gold lozenge in the haze, but the world below had become vague and opaque. An occasional smear of green drifted past, only to be swallowed by the relentless brown.
<...>
At 11:45, the chief pilot, Marc Daniels, told Petraeus over the intercom that we had reached the point of no return. The Blackhawk had sixty-five minutes of fuel remaining. Shell lay thirty-three minutes ahead at our current pace. If we were to return to Exxon, - flying into the wind - we had to do it right now. Petraeus wiped the window again, and advised the crew to push on.

"Roger. Bad enough to scare, but not bad enough to make yourself turn around," Daniels said with remarkable sangfroid. Visibility now was perhaps a couple of hundred feet. Daniels climbed to three hundred feet, following an azimuth and relying on instruments. The door gunners, Sergeants Christopher Marchand and Patrick Croff, leaned out of the bay, watching for other helicopters, as well as uncharted hills and power lines. I tried to block out an insistent image of the Blackhawk cartwheeling across the desert in a cataclysm of broken blades and burning fuel. My palms were moist and my pulse had quickened. Petraeus was very quiet, and I wondered if he felt as unsettled as I did. From his seat in the forward bay, Fivecoat fiddled with the Blue Force Tracker screen, which showed our position relative to Exxon and Shell.

More radio reports came over the corps network. At Rams, visibility was under a quarter mile. A protracted gunfight had occurred at Nasiriyah, the Euphrates River city not far from Exxon and about two hundred miles south of Baghdad. Iraqi forces had ambushed the 507th Maintenance Company, a support unit traveling by convoy at the rear of the 3rd Division. At least fifteen soldiers were missing - among them, as we later learned, Private First Class Jessica Lynch. Survivors reportedly had taken refuge at Tallil air base, where they were said to be "looking for their parent unit." Three Iraqi artillery pieces had been spotted in Nasiriyah "250 meters from a children's hospital. " We heard Wallace ask for grid coordinates. After plotting them on a map, the corps commander advised, "That is a legitimate target. Use as precise a munition as possible."
<...>
Visibility had dropped to fifty feet. Petraeus wiped his window.The pilots eased Warlord 457 up and down, climbing when they glimpsed ground through the blowing dust, then easing back down when the ground vanished.

At 12:23 P.M. I spied a rectangular patch of green, then another and another. Tents. Vehicles, FARP Shell. I felt a sweeping sense of salvation, and gratitude to our crew as the pilots settled the helicopter into the first available spot. The thin sand crust gave way beneath the wheels and the helicopter lurched sharply to the right. The engines died as we scurried out into the warm wind...

"That may have been the worst flight I ever had," Petraeus told me. He smiled.

(Unsourced photo)

Warlord 457 was among the few helicopters to get through to Shell this afternoon. More than a dozen others had been forced down by the weather, and two more made emergency landings after running low on fuel. Blackhawks and Chinooks littered the southern desert... Several helicopters sling-loading equipment had been caught by high winds, and the pendular effect had threatened to bring them down. A couple managed to set their loads onto the desert floor, but one crew had simply cut loose a large crate of Apache spare parts. No one knew where the container was, or whether any of the equipment had survived the two-thousand-foot fall.

"The next good weather is sixty hours from now," Fivecoat reported.

"We're not doing an air assault for at least seventy-two hours," Petraeus said. "Call Exxon and tell them not to launch anything else out of there."

Part two is here.

*****

2009-03-24 12:39:20

All done!

Common?

Watching the television talking heads going on about Ft Hood this morning, they're trying to figure out what might motivate a murderous Islamic extremist to kill American soldiers (without jumping to conclusions). One thing is clear: because the Ft Hood killer had never deployed, a new mental affliction will have to be defined. I propose calling it "Pre-TSD".

In other news:

The news of the mass shooting at Fort Hood Thursday hit close to home for some Utahns. One man says his daughter heard the shooter exclaim "Allah Akbar" as he opened fire.

We want to stress that no government or military officials are reporting that and there is no way for us to independently confirm that it is true.
<...>
"A person behind counter stood up, and he said, 'Allah Akbar!' And just opened up on everybody," the father told us.

Again, that's what the man tells us his daughter said, but no one else is saying that and we cannot confirm whether it's true. He, himself a military veteran, says at first his daughter thought it was some sort of drill but quickly discovered it wasn't.

"It was within a second or two she realized it was real because the person right next to her was shot and killed instantly," he said.

Earliest report:

"I was here for a 2 p.m. graduation,"Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep said. "A I drove up, I heard some shots. A soldier came running past me and said 'sir there is someone shooting.'

"As he ran past me I saw blood on his back. I don't think he even knew he had been shot. He has since been treated and should be OK," he said.

"I can tell you there are casualties," Schannep said.

"I heard three or four volleys of shots with eight to 12 shots in each volley. Initially, I thought it was a training exercise," he said.

Just as the tragedy was unfolding at Fort Hood, officials from a veterans group based in Austin were meeting in Washington with the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee to plead for more mental health counselors for U.S. soldiers coming home from war.

"We warned the military about this. We warned the military about the need to increase the number of mental health care providers. We warned the military about lowering recruiting standards, about the medical exams for soldiers coming back from the war and needing mental health care and brain injury exams."

Later they would learn the killer was a mental health care provider - one who had never deployed. Other than that, we'll acknowledge that lowered recruiting standards could have been a factor, but there's an obvious lesson about jumping to conclusions without facts here.

What name did this veterans group chose for itself? "Veterans for Common Sense".

But as ridiculous as that seems in hindsight, this defense of the Ft Hood killer (part of a longer piece explaining that the soldiers got what they deserved) might be the most ignorant bit of typing I've ever seen:

"There are also reports that he had recently been the victim of a hate crime: His car was vandalized, with the word "Allah" scratched into the paint, and he was reportedly extremely upset by it."

But it's early; plenty of people will have the chance to top it, and many are trying their very best.

It shouldn't have to be emphasized that not every Muslim is a murderous fundamentalist, or that not all mass murderers are Muslims, but common sense ain't so common anymore - as the very old saying goes.

Sure, the Major was a Muslim. Sure, the Major was "anti-war" (at least at the time of the shootings). Sure, he was a psychiatric medical professional. Sure, he set his sites upon and fired his weapons into the bodies of United States military troops. And this all leads up to... what again? Nothing more than what has been previously stated. He was a crazed lunatic of a military psychiatrist who was an anti-war religious guy. That's it -- unless and until we learn there is more to the story. Until anything more is confirmed, let's try to refrain from becoming bigotted racists, shall we?

I agree that his actions reflect on him, and no more on other Muslims than on other soldiers.

More: Know your mass murderer: Nidal Malik Hasan

Aftermath

According to ABC, President Obama will make his first visit to Walter Reed as Commander in Chief tomorrow:

White House officials tell ABC News that President Obama will visit with wounded soldiers tomorrow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The trip was scheduled before the incident today at Fort Hood, officials said. President Obama visited wounded troops at Walter Reed as president-elect in January and has visited wounded troops at Bethesda Naval Hospital as senator. Last week the president made a secret late-night journey to Dover Air Force Base to participate in the dignified transfer of troops and DEA agents killed in Afghanistan. He is in the midst of making up his mind about a new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which administration sources say will likely include sending more troops.

Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration.

The presumed Democratic nominee, who was in Washington to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, slipped into the facility shortly after 9 a.m. without stopping to speak to the small group of reporters who follow him. The visit wasn't on his public schedule.

A day after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, Obama began Monday with an unscheduled stop at Walter Reed, where he is meeting with those wounded during their military service.

Monday is the federal holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., and Obama is leading a day of community service Monday, asking the nation to honor King's legacy by making a renewed commitment to service.

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."

The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

"The last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through weather this is political or not or getting caught in the crossfire of the campaigns," Mr. Obama said then. "So rather than go forward and get potentially caught up in what might have been seen as a political controversy of some sort, what we decided was that we would not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops."

The president's visit to Landstuhl in June 2009 was much more low-key, with no reporters present. Here's the White House announcement issued a week prior to alert the media to the visit:

The President will visit wounded warriors and their families at Landstuhl Regional Medical Facility in Germany on June 5, 2009. Landstuhl supports our service men and women stationed in Europe, and serves a leading and vital role in the care and recovery of personnel medically evacuated from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other forward-deployed posts within the U.S. European Command, Central Command and Africa Command areas of responsibility.

President Obama took time during his remarks at the Closing of the Tribal Nations Conference yesterday to note the events at Ft Hood. The president was criticized last summer after failing to issue any statement in the wake of the shooting of two soldiers in Arkansas by an Islamic fundamentalist.

According to the New York Times, the event ABC refers to as the president's "secret late-night journey to Dover Air Force Base" last month was "intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste."

Hate Crime?

This defense of the Ft Hood killer (part of a longer piece explaining that the soldiers got what they deserved) might be the most ignorant bit of typing I've ever seen:

"There are also reports that he had recently been the victim of a hate crime: His car was vandalized, with the word "Allah" scratched into the paint, and he was reportedly extremely upset by it."

But it's early; plenty of people will have the chance to top it, and many are trying their very best.

Footnote: The definition of a "hate crime" was expanded to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity last month. The measure was passed as part of the 2010 defense spending bill. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the approach put "radical social policy" on the "back of our soldiers."

Grim news from Hood

Note: we've reached a point in this story where old news is being reported as new (including on evening news broadcasts); scroll through this post and you'll see info in order reported, with latest confirmed reports below older information.

Six November update: In stories like this one, erroneous news reports are the norm. In the military we call it the fog of war. First reports are always wrong - and reporters eager to get a scoop are generally willing to pass on anything as news, the more sensational the better. As an example, in the earliest reports of this event CNN presented a live phone call with someone claiming to be in the hospital on Ft Hood. The first thing this individual related to CNN was that they didn't know anything about what was happening except for what they had seen on TV - then the interview continued.

Here's what happened yesterday: the global war on terror continued, with a battle on American soil. That's twice this year. Here's what matters at this point:

Hotline for relatives of Fort Hood personnel: (254) 288-7570 or (866) 836-2751 for information about loved ones.

As of a 7:30 CST press conference, officials at Ft Hood were unable to confirm if all next-of-kin notifications had been completed.

Video from Ft Hood:

Latest -

8:15 CST: Single gunman, in custody, hospitalized, not dead. Death toll is 12 or 13 (for now).

First report - 2:28 CST - Developing story:

At least seven people are dead and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.
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One gunman was reportedly in custody and another was on the loose, NBC News said.

There are unconfirmed reports that one of the shooters is surrounded by police in the 42006 building on Fort Hood. That source tells KCEN the shooter has a high-powered rifle and is aiming to kill.

Early reports are often wrong... but that would be the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic. However, other reports say the Commissary.

CNN reporter Barbara Starr at the Pentagon says "US military officials" have not confirmed multiple shooters. CNN is also running the "soldiers are psychos, and there are more of them on Ft Hood than anywhere" storyline.

Local news from the area:

Two and possibly three gunmen were involved and only one is confirmed to be in custody.

A military statement confirmed seven dead and 20 injured.

There are also confirmed reports that a police officer was shot in a post exchange, but other details weren't available.

CNN reported that the president was advised of the shootings at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday.

Live local news broadcast here. Reports Killeen City police say three shooters, one captured, one "holed up" in a building, one location unknown.

Local report:

So far there are 7 people reported dead, and 20 wounded.

There are also reports of two different crime scenes: the SPC and Howve Theater on Battalion Ave.

One person is in custody.

Police surrounded the 42006 building, said to be used for traumatic brain injuries, on Fort Hood and fired shots at a male suspect in an Army uniform with a Major rank. The suspect was injured, but has now run in to another building.

Reports say the shooter had a high-powered rifle and was aiming to kill.

Killeen ISD says all Fort Hood schools are on lockdown.

Two suspects now reported caught.

Temple (Texas) Daily News:

FORT HOOD -- Rescue crews have been dispatched to Fort Hood for what is being described as a mass casualty event. Fort Hood officials are meeting media representatives to escort them onto post.
The base is closed amid reports that several people have been shot and killed at the post, The Associated Press is reporting.
At 2 p.m. it was reported that Soldier's Dome was not safe as a staging area for emergency responders who were enroute.
" I was here for a 2 p.m. graduation,"Retired Army Col. Greg Schannep said. "A I drove up, I heard some shots. A soldier came running past me and said 'sir there is someone shooting.'
"As he ran past me I saw blood on his back. I don't think he even knew he had been shot. He has since been treated and should be OK," he said.
"I can tell you there are casualties," Schannep said.
"I heard three or four volleys of shots with eight to 12 shots in each volley. Initially, I thought it was a training exercise," he said.
John Fisher, Bell County commission for the precinct that includes Killeen, said the shooters were wearing military clothing, but was not sure if they were military.

The paper's web site is now just a text version of that story - the site for the Killeen Daily Herald appears to be inaccessible this afternoon.

Report: As many as nine people are dead and as many as 30 more are injured after two or more gunmen in military uniforms opened fire Thursday afternoon in a deployment processing center at Fort Hood. Schools on and around the post are locked down and hospitals report receiving mass casualties.

News conference, 3:50 CST, Lieutenant General Robert Cone, recently assigned Commanding General: "One shooter killed - he was a soldier. Two other soldiers apprehended, they are suspects. (Eyewitnesses indicate more than one shooter, all soldiers.) Twelve dead, 31 wounded. All casualties took place in initial incident at 13:30 CST. 'Primary shooter' had two hand guns."

4:12 CST: ABC News: Shooter: Major Malik Nadal Hasan. ABC does not name a source for this information.

04:31 CST: Independent sources confirm a soldier by that name is stationed at Hood.

He was a Psychiatrist.

04:53 CST:

A law enforcement official says a shooting suspect at Fort Hood has been identified as Army Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan.

The official said Hasan, believed to be in his late 30s, was killed after opening fire at the base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

The official says investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to the Islamic faith at some point in his life.

8:15 CST: Hasan Single gunman, in custody, hospitalized, not dead. Death toll is 12 or 13 (for now). Other two suspects reportedly questioned and released.

Repeat: early reports are often wrong. What is certain is several good people are dead, a lot of families are grieving, and many more are wondering - and very uneasy right now, to say the least.

Hotline for relatives of Fort Hood personnel: (254) 288-7570 or (866) 836-2751 for information about loved ones.

Statements:

Secretary Gates: "I am deeply saddened by the tragic events today at Fort Hood. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fallen, the wounded, and all those touched by this incident. There is little we can say at this point to alleviate the pain or answer the many questions this event raises, but I can pledge that the Department of Defense will do everything in its power to help the Fort Hood community get through these difficult times."

Army Secretary John M. McHugh: "This is a terrible tragedy that we will know more about in the coming days. For now our focus is squarely on taking care of our soldiers and their families. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been killed and wounded. The leadership at Fort Hood is marshaling the medical support and counselors necessary to take care of our soldiers and their families and to notify the next of kin."

President Obama: