Any Plans on Sunday?

Might want to take some time out of your schedule to listen to this:

I'll be on WRKO's Pundit Review Radio Sunday at 7pm (680am if you're in the area or you can get it through internet streaming) participating in the first interview CPL Justin Sharatt has given about the [Haditha] incident. We've spoken to Justin's father Darrell a couple of times, but this will be the first time Justin has spoken out (and if I'm not mistaken he's out of the Marine Corps now). It should be an interesting show. The irony of all this is Sharatt's comgressional Rep is the one and only John Murtha.

With representation like that....

Full story here.

Look who popped in at the Code Pink protest

Our l'il buddy Pablo Paredes: Deserter. Coward. Race pimp.

Or, to Medea Benjamin and crew, an hero.

Til Death

Fairly good news on the marriage front:

WASHINGTON - The strain of war on marriage has led to a gradual increase in divorce among couples separated by military duty, a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense suggests.

The findings are surprising only because researchers expected to find a more significant spike in divorces, considering that military deployments have become longer, more frequent and more dangerous in the years since Sept 11, 2001.

"We see a slight increase, not the drastic increase that some would have expected," said UCLA social psychology professor Benjamin Karney, who spearheaded the study on behalf of The Rand Corporation.

The study, made public Monday during a briefing on Capitol Hill, was conducted because of concerns over media reports and other anecdotal evidence pointing to a link between divorce and war. The findings will be forwarded to David S. Chu, Defense Department undersecretary for personnel and readiness.

On the other hand the Mrs and I just marked our 23rd Anniversary. (Love you, baby!) I spent our 20th in Iraq, too.

From rumors I've heard, there are also people who get married immediately before deploying to get the extra pay and benefits, then divorce on end of tour. I'm sure those rumors aren't true, and even if they were they would probably only account for a small percentage of the rise.

Drawdown

The 1st Cav's 3rd BCT will not be replaced when they leave Iraq.

In accordance with the Prophecies.

On Paul

Houston Chronicle: Paul leads in donations from military voters, with Obama next.

I'd be willing to bet (based on my experience) that about 99.9% of military members have never heard of Ron Paul. The other .1 percent are certainly a generous lot.

The story actually only claims that Paul "has gotten more contributions than any other White House contender from donors identified as affiliated with the military. Not sure how that's defined. If your hairdresser's kid is on delayed entry are you "affiliated"?

One of Paul's military-affiliated supporters is actually quoted in the story:

One of the contributors to Paul's campaign was Lindell Anderson, 72, a retired Army chaplain from Fort Worth, who donated $100 to the Texas lawmaker.

"As a Christian, I think he speaks to a theme that the United States shouldn't be the policeman of the world," said Anderson.

RE: Now We Can Talk

Average Iraqi Civilian and Military Daily Killed by Localtion for the first 17 days of October

Baghdad - 9.52/day
Zaab Triangle(Baiji,Qayyarah,Kirkuk) - 3.11/day
Southern Iraq - 2.23/day
Diyala Province - 1.82/day
Salahadin Province- 1.70/day(Minus Zaab Triangle)
Ninewa Province- 1.64/day(Minus Zaab Triangle)
Anbar Province- 1.35/day

I would not that the average daily murder rate in NYC in 1990 was 6.15.

Dude...wheres the war?