More evidence Army is dying:

Seems the Army is so stretched that Air Force personnel are being sent to guard convoys and such.

No slam on the USAF, of course, but that's not exactly what they are normally trained to do. If the Army's really that bad off, then the USAF needs to just give up several thousand folks to the Army for good. Same for the Navy.

Meanwhile, Congress and the current adminisatration have no plan for strengthening the Army and Marine Corps in light of the OPTEMPO of the last 5.5 years. No one has a plan, apparently.

Sorry, soldiers and Marines, it's going to be a long two years before reinforcements start to show up.

Interesting

I see NASA is paying $26 Million to survivors of the 2003 Columbia disaster.

That works out to about $3.71 million per family.

I'm a NASA/spaceflight nerd, one who mourns the loss of these men and women in their pursuit of spaceflight and science.

But is there a real difference between them and the 19-year-old Private who goes to Iraq and gets killed?

The families of our combat dead certainly don't get $3.71 million each.

Think about it.

Bear with me, please

Well, I'm trying to update this a bit. May take a day or two, please bear with me. I'm hoping to add some stuff, update pix and make it a bit more fun.

(Pic at left is me in APR 04, lookin' real tough, mustache and all, holding captured weapons in Iraq. I'm holding an AK-47; on the ground are, from left, an RPG7 launcher, BKC machine gun and a very rusty small -I think 60mm Soviet -mortar tube)

While you are awaiting the 'improved' IrritatedVet, write your Congressman and Senators and ask them the million-dollar question:

What is the Congress doing not only to meet the needs of Iraq, but to shore up a military that is smarting from the demands of the past five years?

Bear with me, folks...I feel like my father did when I was 12 and thought a VCR was SO simple, why couldn't he understand. I'm that way now with HTML, RSS, uploading photos, etc.

I'll get better.

Digressing from Iraq

I briefly digress from the Iraq issues...

OK, we all know eyes have been taken off the war in Iraq recently by such things as Anna Nicole's baby's father and the now-ended saga of Don Imus...yet, America goes on, oblivious of the ramifications of what has happened globally over the past 5.5 years or so.

And for all my banter about our geopolitical situation, I'm gonna have a quick banter about Imus.
I don't listen to Imus. I don't get up that early. When I listen to the radio, it's almost always to rock out or listen to a real news program. I almost forgot Imus existed until this week. (I'm still trying to forget Howard Stern exists, too).

Imus definitely screwed up last week in his comments about the Rutgers womens' basketball team. In turn, Imus has admitted very publicly that his choice of words was pretty crass, and asked for the forgiveness of a 'man of God,' namely the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Afterward, instead of a public announcement of forgiveness, Sharpton proceeded with his effort to get Imus fired, and Sharpton was successful on Thursday.

Later, Sharpton went on TV and said something along the lines of being disappointed that the airwaves are being used to promte sexism and racism.

Sharpton went on to say, "This is only the first round...there are others as guilty as Imus, and there are others in the music world..."

WHOA! Now Sharpton wants a blank check to go after anyone he feels doesn't toe his line? He's starting to sound like Dick Cheney's long-lost twin!

I have to call it as I see it, Rev. Sharpton: Watch MTV for a few minutes sometime, will ya? The racism might not be as overt, but rap videos, 90%-plus of which are made by African-Americans, ooze with blatent sexism. It's not normal or prudent to call women 'bitches' or 'hos,' regardless of skin color. Indeed, my wife would 'correct' me rapidly and painfully if I were to refer to her as such.

If Sharpton wants to go after modern music, go watch MTV. I wonder who he will go after. This could be interesting.

I am not prejudiced, biased, hateful or discriminatory as regards race. I am, on the other hand, very keen on looking out for both double-standards (example: 'diversity' is a code-word for 'freedom of expression, as long as it conforms to leftist views') and doing my best to find political grandstanding and hypocrisy when I see it.

I'm seeing both now.

Back to the war in Iraq, where American men and women -- of all races and ethnicities -- are dying every day for a neocon pipe dream that will cost America unimaginable amounts of blood and treasure in the years and decades to come.

If you aren't interested, go back to your bubble, with your Paris Hilton, your (dead) Anna Nicole, your latest millionaire in rehab.

Your empty-headed paradise.

"Czar" to run Ministry of Peace?

Just when I thought the absurdities generated by the current White House could not get any deeper, we learn of this gem in Wednesday's Washington Post.

OK, OK, let me get this straight...The President wants to hire someone to make the big decisions regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have the authority to issue orders to State, Defense, etc. to get the job done.

Quick question: ISN'T THAT THE PRESIDENT'S JOB?

The Post article states that the issue that spurred the search for such a czar - which at least three retired generals will have none of - was to settle the the long-standing blood fued between State and DoD on who does what in Iraq.

George W. Bush has had years, and two secretaries of each of the respective agencies, to resolve those problems. The time to resolve them was before invading Iraq - It all comes back to going in without any plan whatsoever after Saddam fell.

I'm calling it as I see it: 1) If Bush can't solve these problems and get everyone on the same (any) game plan, why does he think someone lower than him can do it? 2) The poor schmuck who takes the job is ultimately signing up to be a whipping boy; when it gets worse in Iraq, the more Bush will lean on his 'czar.'

Bush is bending over backwards (with Cheney at his ear) to abdicate his responsibility for the unbelieveable mess he's thrust America into in Iraq. I wonder what he'll "decide" next...

Funny, we have a drug 'czar,' too, and we can see how well the "War on Drugs" has gone.

National Guard Alerts

Just saw on an AP story that 39th (Arkansas), 76th (Indiana), 45th (Oklahoma) and 37th (Ohio) National Guard Infantry Brigades have gotten the call to go to Iraq in the next year or so.

Am still wondering if the 30th Brigade (North Carolina) is on the short list still...I'm rather surprised they haven't gotten the call so far. We went to war at the same time as 39th, back in 2004, and have actually been back a smidge longer than 39th.

30th is heading for AT at Camp Shelby, Miss. this week. Why in April, when many Guardsmen are still in college, I'll never understand. Anyway, I bet there are a bunch of anxious Soldiers getting on a bus right now, wondering whether they'll be getting on another bus bound elsewhere later this year.

Because 30th - which, before the 2004 deployment was ranked as the premier Brigade in the National Guard - hasn't gotten the call this time, I'm now curious as to whether 30th has lost prestige.

I'll tell you one thing we did lose because of Iraq, though: Equipment! We lost our Bradleys (they were kept in theater as replacements for other units), much of our heavy weaponry (machine guns, grenade launchers, etc.) and general field equipment (tents and such).

The 30th finally got 'new' Bradleys a few months back, but the crews are likely woefully behind on regular training. Ammo's been an all-around issue, I hear from former colleagues.

So, what's the deal with 30th? Are they out of the loop, or is the Pentagon just waiting for them to come home from AT to spring a new surprise on them?

It's a small piece of the bigger picture known as the decline and fall of the world's greatest Army.

Here's your sign...

NYT has a report in Monday's paper that the Army is finally beginning to crack down on deserters...the facts that are discussed paint what I believe is a snapshot of an Army that is coming apart at the seams.

Recruiting standards are as low as they can be, desertion/AWOL is up, Soldiers are being deployed to a mismanged, poorly executed war again and again...and there is no end in sight.

And speaking of things that should have been done long ago...

CNN reports that ol' Muqtada al-Sadr is alive, well, and in an effort to re-assert his power over the Mahdi Army, calling for everyone to forget the sectarian violence and fight only the Americans.

The thing is, if I had been the theater commander in 2004, Muqtada al-Sadr would be long dead by now. Remember when he and his ilk were using a mosque as a firebase against U.S. forces? A single well-placed 2,000-pound bomb would have ended that little siege. Unfortunately, the US balked at the time, fearing bad press by so publicly obliterating a bonehead.

So now, in 2007, more Soldiers will perish because al-Sadr is still around to spread his brand of Islam and violence. Someone, please, take that dude out.

BOHICA alert, 30th Brigade

(BOHICA = Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!)

I saw on MSNBC tonight that the Pentagon is awaiting Sec'y Gates' signature to order four NG Brigades to Iraq for another tour. I'm certain that 30th Heavy Separate Brigade, my old outfit in North Carolina, will be one of them.

(To a good friend and fellow vet: Andy, looks like you dodged a bullet! Timed that ETS just right!)

The latest news is only another symptom of the current administration's continued abuse of the United States Armed Forces since 2001. The administration suddenly realizes that they're short on regular Army to fill the staffing gaps in Iraq, so it's back to a 2003-style National Guard call-ups.

This time around, however, the military is far shorter on readiness overall than it was three and a half years ago, when I was called up with 1/120IN, 30th Brigade, NCARNG, to serve in Iraq. I've heard reports from my buddies still in the NCARNG that they've had little field training (range time, exercises) since our return in Dec 04 - Jan 05. The Bradleys have been long in returning, the ammo's been hard to find. Sounds more like the Ugandan military than the American, if you ask me.

A very telling indicator of how bad it's gotten is when the Washington Times - that bastion of pro-GOP everything, including delusional foreign policy - comes out with an editorial like this, today. Gen. McCaffrey is on point, on target, I fear; without the significant expansion of our military (personnel as well as materiel) to meet the needs of our wars, what's the point of continuing the farcical war in Iraq?

I just hope that my friend Andy doesn't somehow get jacked by the Army into another call-up. I have too many friends going back there as it is, it seems.

Look to the right of this column to see today's KIA count in Iraq. It's not getting smaller, folks.

C'mon, John, who are you kidding?

Sen. John McCain took an unannounced trip to Baghdad this weekend, and has pronounced sections of Baghdad to be so secure that "Americans can travel safely." Meanwhile, the CNN report about this states several times that the Senator traveled in a very heavily armored convoy.

Sen McCain, if it's that safe, why not travel in a regular car...or walk along the streets without body armor? If it's as safe as say, New York or Phoenix, then put your money where your mouth is.

Also, apparently a CNN correspondent, Michael Ware (according to Drudge) heckeled Sen. McCain, calling it as he sees it (and as American troops see it on a daily basis): “I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad," he was quoted on Drudge as saying.

In the main CNN story about McCain, the city of Tuz Khurmatu is mentioned...there was a bomb there today, killing three people...this after a week of several bombs and shootings there, perhaps the most violent eweek that city has had since before I was stationed near there in 2004.

Between that and violence elsewhere in the country, it indicates what the "surge" in Bagdad has been successful at: Driving the insurgents/terrorists out of town to wreak havoc elsewhere. When the "surge" is over, Baghdad will get nasty again. And while the blood-letters are doing their elsewhere, they will train more to continue their work when they go home to the big city.

In other words, the violence has been spread and magnified by the "surge." Nice going.