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POPSBusting the Surge Myth Cont.... The Shiitization of Baghdad was thus a significant cause of falling casualty rates. But it is another war waiting to happen, when the Sunnis come back to find Shiite militiamen in their living rooms.
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POPSThis is my Kind of Guy--Inyerface, in the Army and Green The banner remained hanging for seven hours, which speaks volumes about the sentiment among enlisted personal on the base. The fact this incident wasn’t reported also tells something about the attitude of the press. The accomplishment of which Bartelli feels most proud from his service was when he was assigned to design an infrastructure that would bring low cost power, solar and wind, to remote Afghan villages. “I spent a considerable amount of time writing and talking with vendors from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, coming up with a plan that was affordable and as locally based as possible. By giving them solar and wind, fully sustainable, we could bring electricity to the villages.” While the chain of command eventually rejected it, there was little doubt Bartelli’s commanding officer chose him for this project because of his outspokenness on the environment.
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POPSOperation Brimstone Operation Brimstone boasts two striking features: 1. It will include for the first time units of the US Expeditionary Combat Command, who are trained to operate in shallow coastal waters and rivers, such as the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf and the small islands around its chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Revolutionary Guards marine units are posted on these islands. The international force will have to control the islands to ensure oil shipping freed passage out to world markets. 2. The Roosevelt’s decks will for the first time host French Rafale fighter jets which will share space with US warplanes, while the only French carrier Charles de Gaulle undergoes maintenance.
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POPSAfghanistan: Obama Sees Problems; McCain Sees A solution The differences are not small ones, and reflect a distinction between the kind of staff-driven, laundry-list mush that sees the immensity of a problem and a leader-driven set of priorities that sees a solution. It is the distinction between Obama's opposition to the Iraq surge and McCain's support for it: not just the courage to make the tough choice, but the clarity to follow the right course. It's also the distinction between winning the war and simply ending it. Thomas Donnelly is the Resident Fellow in Foreign & Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
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POPSText of McCain Editorial rejected by the NY Times This editorial was a written response to Obama's editorial. It was rejected. continuing.. "Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism."
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POPSMCRD San Diego I was piddling around and ended up at the place where I went to boot camp back in '71. Come to find out the lawyer I had to go see at Cherry Point, NC, is now in charge of the whole enchilada.
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POPSMcCain Hits Obama On Iraq, Outlines Afghanistan Plan some of whose members have national restrictions on where their troops can go and what they can do. This is no way to run a war.” The Arizona senator touted the Afghan army as a “great success story” and said it needs to be expanded. He added that the global community should share the cost of doubling the size of the Afghan army. “We must convince Pakistanis that this is their war as much as it is ours. And we must empower the new civilian government of Pakistan to defeat radicalism with greater support for development, health and education,” McCain said. “Sen. Obama has spoken in public about taking unilateral military action in Pakistan. In trying to sound tough, he has made it harder for the people whose support we most need to provide it,” he added. “I will not bluster, and I will not make idle threats. But understand this: When I am commander in chief, there will be nowhere the terrorists can run, and nowhere they can hide.”
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POPSFort Bragg Soldier Missing After Fire At Her Apartment According to WRAL, Mrs. Wimunc had sought a protective court order in May, claiming that her husband "held loaded 9mm to my head; choked me. Threw me around living room" and also that he had threatened to take his own life, claiming that he "also held gun to his own head." Police have described the fire that consumed much of Wimunc's apartment to the media as an arson and various television reports say that fire investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene on Friday as well. FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=298888 A member of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command speaks with detectives from the Fayetteville Police Department and an ATF agent at the scene where police are investigating the disappearance of a female soldier at Morganton Place Apartments.
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POPSUS Military and Gov't Resisting Iran Conflict "Red light": The military brass are resisting, even with Admiral Fallon out. The consequences would be huge, including on gas prices, military drain, and upheaval in the entire middle east if Iran was attacked by Israel with US support. Even Secretary of Defense Gates said : "There is a lot of signalling going on. But I think everybody recognises what the consequences of any kind of a conflict would be," Gates said. Problem: hard to contain Israel and the neoconservative administration, namely Cheney who is a rogue operative with Israel. ( Sources said that Cheney was behind the B-52 nuke displacement scandal, by-passing normal chain of command).