Griper Blade: Shinseki the Realist

I would say that what's been mobilized to this point -- something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We're talking about posthostilities control over a piece of geography that's fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence.
-General Eric Shinseki to Sen. Carl Levin of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on the size of the force required to invade Iraq, 2003.

That got Shinseki fired. Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had long argued that the US needed to use a lighter force, with the emphasis on speed, and that anything else was fighting a 21st century war from a cold war mindset. Needless to say, Shinseki was right. Rumsfeld's strategy was shortsighted and simpleminded. When we invaded Iraq, our forces were too few to defend gains. We'd chase fighters off, declare victory, then roll of in a triumphant cloud of dust. Then the fighters would return and we'd be gone. This boneheaded "strategy" of Rumsfeld's had entirely predictable results. We'd chase off Iraqi guards from munitions stores, roll off in our big American cloud, and leave these ammo dumps completely unguarded, because we didn't have enough personnel to leave behind. Munitions captured by militias and terrorists are probably still being used as IEDs to this day. Donald Rumsfeld's brilliant plan for a light, fast fighting force was just as idiotic as it seemed to be.

But before all that happened, before Shinseki was proven right, the general was forced into retirement for not buying the neocon line. Rumsfeld said Shinseki's estimate in senate testimony "will prove to be high." Deputy SecDef Paul Wolfowitz said his numbers were "way off the mark."

It wasn't until 2006 that anyone admitted that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz had bet on the wrong horse. "General Shinseki was right," Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, told that same committee three years later. Bush's "surge," while coming too late to correct the neocon vision for the military of the future, was basically an admission -- three years after the fact -- that Shinseki was right and the Rumsfeldian's side of the argument was as wrong as any ten year-old could've told them they were. As a result, Bush wound up claiming success for his surge, although the decrease in violence was due more to successful ethnic cleansing campaigns by militias and insurgents that might have been avoided. Violence had died down not because of an increased military presence, but because the killers had run out of people to kill. Rumsfeld's brilliant new strategy not only cost him his own job, but also countless lives. Entire neighborhoods went dark, the residents either dead or refugees...

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Griper Blade: Occupation, Inc.

The number being reported is "at least $85 billion," but when talking about money and Iraq, the truth is always murky. In a war practically run by war profiteers, the number is likely to be higher. The upper estimate of the amount of public dollars we've paid private contractors in Iraq is more than $100 billion. Normally, erring on the side of caution would require you to assume the lower figure -- which is why that number is being used in the media. But when we consider the history of waste, corruption, and corporate malfeasance involved in the occupation of Iraq, the higher number seems the safer estimate.

The higher figure comes from Voice of America. In their story, the cite Peter Orszag of the Congressional Budget Office [CBO], who said, "The federal government has awarded $85 billion in contracts for work in [the] Iraq theater through 2007. If you included this year, the total would exceed $100 billion: roughly one of every $5 for the cost of the war in Iraq." The piece goes on:

Orszag says the use of private contractors in U.S. military engagements is not new. What is new, however, is the extent of the reliance on private firms. The Iraq war marks the first time in which the number of private personnel has equaled or exceeded the number of military personnel. By contrast, the CBO report notes that, during World War II, military personnel outnumbered private contractors by a ratio of seven-to-one.

Given what they're being paid and how much we're relying on them, you'd think that private contractors are doing just an astonishingly great job of whatever the hell it is we're hiring them to do.

Of course, you'd be wrong...

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Study: Risk of Alcoholism High in Returning Combat Vets

clipped from ap.google.com National Guard and Reserve combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to develop drinking problems than active-duty soldiers, a new military study suggests. The authors speculate that inadequate preparation for the stress of combat and reduced access to support services at home may be to blame. The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to compare Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' alcohol problems before and after deployment. The research is one of the first major studies to emerge from the Pentagon's landmark "Millennium" study, launched in 2001 because of concerns about possible health effects from the first Gulf War. It includes tens of thousands of military personnel and is designed to evaluate the long-term health effects of military service. The Millennium study will continue to track veterans' health and may determine whether drinking problems among returning combat troops are long-lasting, Boyko said.

The article includes this statement:

Alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression make up an "unholy trinity" that haunts some combat soldiers, said psychologist William Schlenger of the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. in Durham, N.C. He was a principal investigator of the influential National Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Study, but was not involved in the new research.

"They have intrusive recollections: 'I keep remembering it, I have nightmares about it, I can't escape it,'" Schlenger said. Vets try to escape the memories through alcohol or drugs, he said.

This is a lasting damage to the country that we'll pay for for decades.

Homeless Veterans Bill Faces Veto Threat

clipped from www.mlive.com The House approved a homeless veterans housing bill overwhelmingly Wednesday, even though White House advisers warned they'd urge President Bush to veto it. Bush's advisers said in a statement they oppose a wage provision in the bill that requires builders of veterans housing to pay employees prevailing wage. The advisers said that provision is the bill's major problem. Bush has long opposed any changes to the law that would either increase or decrease the number of employers subject to the prevailing wage requirements in the Davis-Bacon Act, the advisers said. "For this reason, if the bill were presented to the president in its current form, his senior advisers would recommend he veto the bill," the White House said, adding that the bill also duplicates existing programs.

Davis-Bacon is a 1931 law that governs pay for public works projects. It requires that employers pay the local prevailing wage -- i.e., what everyone else in the area pays for workers. As hardships for employers go, this isn't one.

Bush, in a move so cartoonishly evil that you expect a couple of kids from a Disney movie to show him up in the end, opposes housing for homeless vets for purely ideological reasons. FDR must never, ever be encouraged or he'll just pass more of these laws, I guess -- seriously, trying to figure out what goes on in these guys' heads is a losing proposition. None of it ever makes any damned sense at all.

Rule of Law? What Rule of Law?

Big news. Last night, Rep. Dennis Kucinich presented articles of impeachment against George W. Bush. Thirty-five counts in all. Big, big news...

Except it's not. Flipping through the channels this morning, I saw nothing about this. As far as the mainstream media is concerned, it never happened. We watch crime after crime after crime revealed, but holding the criminal accountable is completely out of the question.

The Democratic leadership likewise looks the other way, declaring impeachment "off the table" for political reasons. Far from holding the administration accountable for their undeniable crimes, the media would rather pretend they don't exist and cover the horse race of the election, while congressional leadership pretends that hearings without consequences and empty expressions of outrage are punishment enough. The truth is, that's not punishment at all. Bush and the rest of the bloodsoaked neocon crew, with shreds of the Constitution still hanging from their fingers, are going to get a stern talking-to, believe you me Buster and no two ways about it. They won't avoid the wagging congressional finger, the Harry Reid letter of miffedness, the Nancy Pelosi statement of irk, but any actual lasting consequence for their actions is completely out of the question. At this point, it could be revealed that Bush and Cheney have Iraqi children for breakfast every morning and all that would happen would be that they receive a letter respectfully asking them to stop -- please, if they feel like it.

Although not criminal in any legal sense, one issue where the Bush administration's moral criminality is most apparent is on the 21st Century GI Bill. Bush and Cheney are constantly hiding behind soldiers and veterans, constantly telling us that disagreeing with their stupid and pointless war in Iraq is somehow abandoning the troops. Bush is the military, any criticism of Bush is magically transformed into "not supporting the troops."...

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Griper Blade: McCain's Stand on Veterans is to Stand on Veterans

The ABC News blog, Political Radar, summed it up this way; "Obama Tells Veterans: 'I WIll Not Let You Down'." Speaking to a town hall in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Obama told vets:

We should make sure that today’s veterans get the same benefit that my grandfather got when he came back from World War II. It was a good investment not only for him, but it was a good investment for the country, built our middle class. So we're gonna make sure that that get's passed. Because we gotta have outstanding educational opportunities for our veterans when they come home.

"I will cede to no one the ability to talk about veterans’ issues," Obama said. "John McCain will have to decide whether he thinks that the current level of benefits is sufficient. If he does, then that’s a substantive debate that we’ll have in November."...

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Griper Blade: John McCain's Hundred Year Jobs Program

As the wars slog on and on and on, the consequences at home grow. The war in Iraq is now expected to cost Americans $3 trillion dollars, once all the borrowing and spending has finally been accounted for. That figure, by the way, represents cockeyed optimism -- the debts continue to rise.

Coalition losses total 4052 military deaths. Of course, that's today. Accurate casualty figures have a very short shelf life and the number only increases. On the Iraqi side, as many as 90,778 have died.

Those costs are permanent, the money wasted will never be regained and the fallen will never rise again. Other costs are likewise permanent, but go unmeasured or when they are documented, go largely ignored by a media fascinated by a presidential campaign at home and war fatigue among the public.

News & Observer (N. Carolina), "Combat vets face hurdles as students":

Spc. Natasha McKinnon survived losing part of her left leg to an improvised bomb in Iraq. Now that she's back, she's trying to find her balance in college life. Sometimes she can't recall a professor's name. She loses track of test dates. Occasionally, she forgets she has pulled off her prosthetic leg to rest her stump during a long lecture, only to tilt off balance when she tries to stand.

As tens of thousands of veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq try to collect on their promised college benefits, McKinnon and others are finding that their combat experience complicates the transition from soldier to student.

Some have trouble collecting the government money that is supposed to pay for college, or they discover that the benefits aren't nearly enough to cover tuition and other bills. While their classmates complain about homework and hangovers, many vets struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, the effects of traumatic brain injury, lost limbs and a range of chronic medical problems.

"Not only am I a full-time student," McKinnon told the paper, "I'm a full-time patient. It takes a toll, mentally and physically. Sometimes I'm there in class, but only in body. Not in mind."...

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Griper Blade: McNasty

I've never been a huge fan of liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz. Not because of any of his views -- they seem to be pretty mainstream, for the most part. My problem is with his constant self-promotion. He's attacked bloggers as ineffective in the past, while pushing liberal talk radio as the be-all and end-all of lefty opinion. Never mind that few people on the left or right listen to talk radio of any stripe. To Schultz, the only medium worth a damn is talk radio -- specifically, his show. Newspaper columnists and magazine writers apparently aren't crap.

That said, we all have reason to congratulate Schultz, who called John McCain a "warmonger" at an Obama event.

Ed Schultz, host of a nationally syndicated radio program, was warming up the crowd Friday at a $100-a-person fundraiser for the North Dakota Democratic party in Grand Forks when he tagged the probable Republican presidential nominee as a "warmonger," Schultz acknowledged in a telephone interview Saturday.

He said he has used the term many times on the air to refer to McCain because of his support for the war in Iraq.

"He voted for this war. He's a perpetrator of the war. He's an advocate of the war," Schultz said. "In my personal definition, that's a warmonger."

Team McCain took offense with this."I would hope that in keeping with his commitment that Senator Obama would condemn such language, since it was part of his campaign," McCain said. To his discredit, Obama did just that.

I say "discredit" because there are few words in the English language that describe John McCain so well as "warmonger."...

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Griper Blade: Support the Troops -- But Only While They Fight

Bill O'Reilly's been catching some deserved criticism for denying that there are many homeless veterans in America. "They may be out there, but there's not many of them out there. Okay?" the ridiculous boob said. "If you know where there's a veteran sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it."

It didn't take long for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to make sure O'Reilly learned of a lot of them. O'Reilly was mocking John Edwards, who said there were 200,000 homeless vets on any given night. Of course, Edwards was right and O'Reilly was wrong. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there are almost 200,000 homeless veterans at any given time.

O'Reilly caught some flack over the comment from a lot of sources (including me). So he addressed his self-inflicted controversy yesterday by digging himself in deeper:

Now I've said on this program that we will pay for homeless veterans to be taken to the Edwards mansion in North Carolina for shelter. Of course, that's an immature remark, I know that, but there's a reason I'm saying it.

Certainly there are homeless veterans, but it's not because of the economy. It's mostly because of addiction and mental illness, something politicians can do little about...

A point of order, here. Bill never said he'd pay to have vets taken to the "Edwards mansion" -- he said, if you find a vet sleeping under a bridge, "you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it." Turns out, with nearly 200,000 out on the street every night, keeping that promise turned out to be a little more expensive than Bill had counted on. So he tries to turn the criticism back to John Edwards...

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Griper Blade: When is an Epidemic not an Epidemic?

The TimesOnline gets right to the lead:

More American military veterans have been committing suicide than US soldiers have been dying in Iraq, it was claimed yesterday.

What TimesOnline is relaying is a CBS News story on what's finally being labeled a "suicide epidemic" among veterans. While the rate for all vets is higher than the rest of the population, one group stood out.

...Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)

"Wow! Those are devastating," said Paul Sullivan, a former VA analyst who is now an advocate for veterans rights from the group Veterans For Common Sense.

Contrast that with the comment by Dr. Ira Katz, mental health head at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Katz told CBS, "There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem."...

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Griper Blade: The War to End All Wars

After WWI, November 11 was celebrated as Armistice Day. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany. WWI was called "the war to end all wars" -- didn't really work out that way. Since WWI, America alone has fought fourteen wars -- at least, by my count. I may have missed one or two. The war to end all wars was followed by one helluva lot of wars. In fact, to a large degree, WWII was a result of a poorly thought out treaty ending WWI. The German economy was ruined by the cost of reparations and the people, tired of runaway inflation in combination with a worldwide depression, were desperate enough to follow anyone who promised a way out. Fascism made that promise.

Then, as now, money made the world go 'round.

After WWII, Armistice Day became Veterans Day. It was that day that Americans celebrated yesterday. It was a day to honor the fallen and has become a day to honor all war veterans. It'd be nice if we followed up the wreaths and parades and speeches and flags with some sort of actual help, though. As things are now, we help a few and let the majority of those who need help slide. No doubt we've made a lot of progress since WWI, but we haven't come close to solving all the problems we create with our wars. Like the Armistice that ended WWI, our past wars intrude on the present. The wars come home with the heroes who'd fought them.

Voice of America:

Veterans Day, November 11, is a national holiday set aside to honor the men and women who have served in America's armed forces and to acknowledge the debt we owe them. However, a new study shows that veterans are more likely to be homeless than those in the general population, and that, nationwide, veterans tend to have less access to health care and other supportive services than they need.

The study, which was done by the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance to End Homelessness, also found that nearly half a million veterans were homeless at some time during 2006, and as many as 66,000 of those vets were chronically without shelter. And while veterans comprise only 11 percent of the American population, they make up one of every four of the nation's homeless...

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Griper Blade: Disposable

Proof positive that there is no issue that some fringe nut won't politicize.

Associated Press:

Congress took steps [Oct. 23] to reduce the high rate of suicides among former members of the armed forces, but only after a gun-rights senator succeeded in removing a plan to track veterans treated for mental illnesses.

[...]

[Oklahoma Republican gun nut] Coburn succeeded in making changes to "help protect the privacy of veterans' medical records" because of his concern that a provision requiring the VA to track the veterans it cares for could result in veterans treated for mental-health issues being denied the right to purchase guns.

Because it's the job of the federal government to make it more difficult for states to enforce their laws, I guess. Republicans are all for state and local control -- except when they're not, then they're big fans of big government.

Meanwhile, according to Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Bob Filner, suicide among veterans is a national tragedy of massive proportions. "It's a terrible statistic: As many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war," he said. "That's over 58,000."

But it's all-important that they be able to get guns...

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Griper Blade: Mr. 24%

Mr. 24% gave the bully pulpit a shot yesterday, in a rant from the White House.

White House transcript:

Congress is not getting its work done. We're near the end of the year, and there really isn't much to show for it. The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq. And yet there's important work to be done on behalf of the American people.

That important work being investigating wrongdoing and getting the troops out of Iraq. See, that's why dems were elected in such huge numbers in '06, Speed.

But that wasn't what got me, this was:

Spending is skyrocketing under their leadership -- at least proposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership. After all, they're trying to spend an additional $205 billion over the next five years. Some have said, well, that doesn't matter much; it's not that much money. Well, $205 billion over the next five years in the real world amounts to this: $4.7 million per hour, every hour, for every day, for the next five years. That's a lot of money.

Yeah, it's the Democrats who are such spendthrifts. Bush, who's been spending money like a horny drunk at a strip club, thinks he's in a position to lecture others on the virtues of responsible spending. The Iraq war alone is costing half a million per minute, which in the real world amounts to this: $30 million per hour, every hour, for every day, for... well, who the hell knows? If Bush had his way, I'm pretty damned sure it would be decades. That's a lot of money....

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Griper Blade: President Bumpersticker

The Bush administration supports the troops.

That is, if by "support the troops," you mean use them as backdrops for photo ops, to hide behind when he has something unpopular to say. He supports them, if by "support," you mean sending them off to Iraq and Afghanistan in longer and longer rotations. It's support if by "support," you mean using them as human sacrifices to keep a failed policy going until Bush is safely out of office. Then someone else gets to take the blame for "losing Iraq."

It's "support" only if you radically redefine the word.

It's more honest to say that Bush uses the troops to support him. They're this lame duck's crutch as he hobbles toward the end of two disastrous terms in office. Bush uses soldiers as human political shields, a way to pass the buck. This president gets to call himself a "War President," but pretends that war is entirely out of his hands. We're supposed to believe that Gen. Petraeus runs this war, that decisions are left to "commanders in the field," as if the military were a government in itself over which the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of civilian government have no legitimate control.

See, that way, when things go horribly, horribly wrong -- as they have with Abu Ghraib or at Walter Reed -- it's not Bush's fault. No, President Bush is the first president in american history to have no responsibilities. Nothing is the fault of the White House -- ever. If you were to believe what Bush says, you'd have to believe that everyone under him just does whatever the hell they want to...

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Griper Blade: Army Suicide Problem Nothing New

In December of 2003, the Baltimore Sun ran a headline -- "Army's Suicide Rate has Outside Experts Alarmed." In that article, we were told, "A report by a 12-member team of military and civilian mental health professionals dispatched to Iraq in October to evaluate mental health of soldiers is expected to be released after the holidays." Good news, something was being done.

"After the holidays" turned out to be the end of March of 2004, when Stars and Stripes ran the headline, "Suicide Report Makes Army Improve." That story reported the Army taking "swift steps to improve mental health services for troops in Iraq and Kuwait" and that it would "send in behavioral health experts and improve logistics to get antidepressants and sleeping pills to combat troops immediately."

Now we see the headline, more than three years later, "Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years." Not surprisingly, a new Army Suicide Event Report (ASER) notes that "there was a significant relationship between suicide attempts and number of days deployed" in theater.

"This new report only confirms what we veterans have been saying for years," writes Paul Rieckhoff, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He tells us "Soldiers and Marines who have deployed to Iraq more than once have a 50% higher rate of combat stress," that "90% of military psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers reported no formal training or supervision in the recommended PTSD therapies," and that "VA officials have admitted that
waiting lists render mental health and substance abuse care 'virtually inaccessible.'" You have to wonder what things were like before the Army made all of its improvements...

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Griper Blade: What's Bush Have Against Americans?

I'm not sure when it happened or why, but it's becoming clearer that President Bush doesn't like americans very much. In fact, it's a little hard to look at his history and assume he doesn't hate us.

News came through a few days ago that the House had passed expanded hate crimes legislation that would address attacks on gays. Bush, however, has threatened to veto it. His reasoning was screwy.

Washington Post:

The White House responded yesterday with a formal statement recommending that the president veto the bill.

"There has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement, and doing so is inconsistent with the proper allocation of criminal enforcement responsibilities between the different levels of government," the White House statement said.

Tell it to Matthew Shepard. The problem is that there are many areas of the country where police fail (or, more accurately, refuse) to investigate crime committed because of the victims' sexual orientation. By making it a federal crime, people wouldn't have to rely on bigoted morons to investigate bigoted morons. It's basically anti-lynching legislation.

Bush has decided to side with the bigoted morons. Bush hates the same americans the haters do, proudly throwing in his support behind the bigots' cause...

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