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unhappycamper
unhappycamper's Journal
unhappycamper's Journal
March 26, 2013
Researchers link ‘unfounded’ wars to increased risk of PTSD
By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, March 24, 2013 14:28 EDT
New research suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder is linked to social morality, a finding that helps elucidate the relationship between politics and veterans’ mental health.
“The clinical psychological literature suggests that a key factor in PTSD experienced by soldiers at war is the guilt that is experienced from perpetrated acts of violence that violate moral standards,” the study’s lead author, David Webber of the University of Alberta, explained to Raw Story. “This is why in our study we focused on guilt-related symptoms. In the sense that killing is deemed immoral in most cases, and soldiers are asked to kill, it’s only if a soldier is able to view that killing as different or acceptable (i.e., moral), that guilt should not arise.”
The study, to be published in the April issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that social consensus played an important role in feelings of guilt. The research was co-authored by Jeff Schimel, Andy Martens, Joseph Hayes, and Erik H. Faucher.
Previous research has found that killing in war is a major risk factor for PTSD, which affects up to 25 percent of the veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Research has also uncovered that social support has a strong protective effect.
unhappycamper comment: I did two 'vacations' in Vietnam and I have to agree with this article.
Researchers link ‘unfounded’ wars to increased risk of PTSD
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/24/research-suggests-unjust-wars-increase-risk-of-ptsd/Researchers link ‘unfounded’ wars to increased risk of PTSD
By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, March 24, 2013 14:28 EDT
New research suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder is linked to social morality, a finding that helps elucidate the relationship between politics and veterans’ mental health.
“The clinical psychological literature suggests that a key factor in PTSD experienced by soldiers at war is the guilt that is experienced from perpetrated acts of violence that violate moral standards,” the study’s lead author, David Webber of the University of Alberta, explained to Raw Story. “This is why in our study we focused on guilt-related symptoms. In the sense that killing is deemed immoral in most cases, and soldiers are asked to kill, it’s only if a soldier is able to view that killing as different or acceptable (i.e., moral), that guilt should not arise.”
The study, to be published in the April issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that social consensus played an important role in feelings of guilt. The research was co-authored by Jeff Schimel, Andy Martens, Joseph Hayes, and Erik H. Faucher.
Previous research has found that killing in war is a major risk factor for PTSD, which affects up to 25 percent of the veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Research has also uncovered that social support has a strong protective effect.
unhappycamper comment: I did two 'vacations' in Vietnam and I have to agree with this article.
March 26, 2013
Aerospace lobby hopes to renew NASA with crowd-funded ad campaign
By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, March 25, 2013 19:18 EDT
The aerospace lobby has launched a new crowd-funded advertisement campaign to raise awareness about NASA’s space exploration programs.
Daniel N. Stohr, the director of communications for the Aerospace Industries Association, told Raw Story on Monday that the campaign was aimed at increasing investments in the space program.
“Raising awareness of NASA’s exploration programs we hope will increase willingness to invest in our future both in terms of programs and in terms of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] education,” he explained. “The most critical element of building the capability to do great things in space is attracting the best and brightest to work on these programs –- the only way to do that is to invest in vital programs. We want to dispel the myth that NASA exploration programs are over and done.”
The Aerospace Industries Association is using the website IndieGoGo to crowd-fund the ad campaign and hopes to raise $33,000 by May 1. If successful, the organization will buy advertising time for an ad trailer in more than 50 movie theaters in major cities during the premier of the “Star Trek Into Darkness” film.
unhappycamper comment: Gee, I wonder why NASA is not being funded..... Could it be all the money we are spending on the military crowds out everything else?
Aerospace lobby hopes to renew NASA with crowd-funded ad campaign
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/aerospace-lobby-hopes-to-renew-nasa-with-crowd-funded-ad-campaign/Aerospace lobby hopes to renew NASA with crowd-funded ad campaign
By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, March 25, 2013 19:18 EDT
The aerospace lobby has launched a new crowd-funded advertisement campaign to raise awareness about NASA’s space exploration programs.
Daniel N. Stohr, the director of communications for the Aerospace Industries Association, told Raw Story on Monday that the campaign was aimed at increasing investments in the space program.
“Raising awareness of NASA’s exploration programs we hope will increase willingness to invest in our future both in terms of programs and in terms of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] education,” he explained. “The most critical element of building the capability to do great things in space is attracting the best and brightest to work on these programs –- the only way to do that is to invest in vital programs. We want to dispel the myth that NASA exploration programs are over and done.”
The Aerospace Industries Association is using the website IndieGoGo to crowd-fund the ad campaign and hopes to raise $33,000 by May 1. If successful, the organization will buy advertising time for an ad trailer in more than 50 movie theaters in major cities during the premier of the “Star Trek Into Darkness” film.
unhappycamper comment: Gee, I wonder why NASA is not being funded..... Could it be all the money we are spending on the military crowds out everything else?
March 26, 2013
General John Allen: U.S. will keep presence in Afghanistan after 2014
By Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian
Monday, March 25, 2013 23:36 EDT
The US and its allies will retain a presence in Afghanistan big enough to bolster Afghan forces after the withdrawal of international combat troops at the end of 2014, the recently retired commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said on Monday.
Speaking in Washington, Allen said he had never been asked to produce a report on the so-called “zero option” – the suggestion that no American troops would remain after the 2014 deadline, floated by one White House adviser in January.
Instead, Allen said that he expected that Obama would approve a force that would be commensurate with ensuring that the Afghan security forces could be properly supported.
~snip~
In spite of the complexity of the relationship between the Obama administration and Karzai, whose term is due to finish next year, Allen stressed that the US and other countries intended to stick with Afghanistan for the long term.
unhappycamper comment: The Forever War continues,
General John Allen: U.S. will keep presence in Afghanistan after 2014
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/general-john-allen-u-s-will-keep-presence-in-afghanistan-after-2014/General John Allen: U.S. will keep presence in Afghanistan after 2014
By Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian
Monday, March 25, 2013 23:36 EDT
The US and its allies will retain a presence in Afghanistan big enough to bolster Afghan forces after the withdrawal of international combat troops at the end of 2014, the recently retired commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said on Monday.
Speaking in Washington, Allen said he had never been asked to produce a report on the so-called “zero option” – the suggestion that no American troops would remain after the 2014 deadline, floated by one White House adviser in January.
Instead, Allen said that he expected that Obama would approve a force that would be commensurate with ensuring that the Afghan security forces could be properly supported.
~snip~
In spite of the complexity of the relationship between the Obama administration and Karzai, whose term is due to finish next year, Allen stressed that the US and other countries intended to stick with Afghanistan for the long term.
unhappycamper comment: The Forever War continues,
March 26, 2013
Todd Kincannon. R-Asshole
Former S.C. Republican official: ‘C*cksucker’ anti-war vet should have ‘come home in a body bag’
By David Edwards
Monday, March 25, 2013 10:57 EDT
The former head of the South Carolina Republican Party on Sunday lashed out at an Iraq war veteran who now opposes the war, saying that he should have “come home in a body bag.”
In a series of tweets, former South Carolina GOP executive director Todd Kincannon blasted Iraq war veteran Michael Prysner over tweets last week defending former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and the assertion that an American police officer was a “coward and a sociopath.”
“What do you get when you combine asshattery and jizzwhistlery with a side of epic douchebaggery? Why, you get @MikePrysner!” Kincannon wrote.
The former South Carolina GOP head continued: “This cocksucker @MikePrysner insults American policemen yet thinks Hugo Chavez, currently burning in Hell, was a misunderstood humanitarian.”
unhappycamper comment: Don't fuck with Veterans, asshole.
Former S.C. Republican official: ‘C*cksucker’ anti-war vet should have ‘come home in a body bag’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/former-s-c-republican-official-ccksucker-anti-war-vet-should-have-come-home-in-a-body-bag/Todd Kincannon. R-Asshole
Former S.C. Republican official: ‘C*cksucker’ anti-war vet should have ‘come home in a body bag’
By David Edwards
Monday, March 25, 2013 10:57 EDT
The former head of the South Carolina Republican Party on Sunday lashed out at an Iraq war veteran who now opposes the war, saying that he should have “come home in a body bag.”
In a series of tweets, former South Carolina GOP executive director Todd Kincannon blasted Iraq war veteran Michael Prysner over tweets last week defending former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and the assertion that an American police officer was a “coward and a sociopath.”
“What do you get when you combine asshattery and jizzwhistlery with a side of epic douchebaggery? Why, you get @MikePrysner!” Kincannon wrote.
The former South Carolina GOP head continued: “This cocksucker @MikePrysner insults American policemen yet thinks Hugo Chavez, currently burning in Hell, was a misunderstood humanitarian.”
unhappycamper comment: Don't fuck with Veterans, asshole.
March 25, 2013
Drone Warfare is Neither Cheap, Nor Surgical, Nor Decisive
by William Astore
Published on Monday, March 25, 2013 by TomDispatch.com
Today’s unmanned aerial vehicles, most famously Predator and Reaper drones, have been celebrated as the culmination of the longtime dreams of airpower enthusiasts, offering the possibility of victory through quick, clean, and selective destruction. Those drones, so the (very old) story goes, assure the U.S. military of command of the high ground, and so provide the royal road to a speedy and decisive triumph over helpless enemies below.
Fantasies about the certain success of air power in transforming, even ending, war as we know it arose with the plane itself. But when it comes to killing people from the skies, again and again air power has proven neither cheap nor surgical nor decisive nor in itself triumphant. Seductive and tenacious as the dreams of air supremacy continue to be, much as they automatically attach themselves to the latest machine to take to the skies, air power has not fundamentally softened the brutal face of war, nor has it made war less dirty or chaotic.
Indeed, by emboldening politicians to seek seemingly low-cost, Olympian solutions to complex human problems -- like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from the sky to skewer puny mortals -- it has fostered fantasies of illimitable power emboldened by contempt for human life. However, just like Zeus’s obdurate and rebellious subjects, the mortals on the receiving end of death from on high have shown surprising strength in frustrating the designs of the air power gods, whether past or present. Yet the Olympian fantasy persists, a fact that requires explanation.
It did not take long after the Wright Brothers first put a machine in the air for a few exhilarating moments above the sandy beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in December of 1903, for the militaries of industrialized countries to express interest in buying and testing airplanes. Previously balloons had been used for reconnaissance, as in the Napoleonic wars and the U.S. Civil War, and so initially fledgling air branches focused on surveillance and intelligence-gathering. As early as 1911, however, Italian aircraft began dropping small bombs from open-air cockpits on the enemy -- we might today call them “insurgents” -- in Libya.
Drone Warfare is Neither Cheap, Nor Surgical, Nor Decisive
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/25Drone Warfare is Neither Cheap, Nor Surgical, Nor Decisive
by William Astore
Published on Monday, March 25, 2013 by TomDispatch.com
Today’s unmanned aerial vehicles, most famously Predator and Reaper drones, have been celebrated as the culmination of the longtime dreams of airpower enthusiasts, offering the possibility of victory through quick, clean, and selective destruction. Those drones, so the (very old) story goes, assure the U.S. military of command of the high ground, and so provide the royal road to a speedy and decisive triumph over helpless enemies below.
Fantasies about the certain success of air power in transforming, even ending, war as we know it arose with the plane itself. But when it comes to killing people from the skies, again and again air power has proven neither cheap nor surgical nor decisive nor in itself triumphant. Seductive and tenacious as the dreams of air supremacy continue to be, much as they automatically attach themselves to the latest machine to take to the skies, air power has not fundamentally softened the brutal face of war, nor has it made war less dirty or chaotic.
Indeed, by emboldening politicians to seek seemingly low-cost, Olympian solutions to complex human problems -- like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from the sky to skewer puny mortals -- it has fostered fantasies of illimitable power emboldened by contempt for human life. However, just like Zeus’s obdurate and rebellious subjects, the mortals on the receiving end of death from on high have shown surprising strength in frustrating the designs of the air power gods, whether past or present. Yet the Olympian fantasy persists, a fact that requires explanation.
It did not take long after the Wright Brothers first put a machine in the air for a few exhilarating moments above the sandy beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in December of 1903, for the militaries of industrialized countries to express interest in buying and testing airplanes. Previously balloons had been used for reconnaissance, as in the Napoleonic wars and the U.S. Civil War, and so initially fledgling air branches focused on surveillance and intelligence-gathering. As early as 1911, however, Italian aircraft began dropping small bombs from open-air cockpits on the enemy -- we might today call them “insurgents” -- in Libya.
March 25, 2013
The ever-destructive fantasy of air power
By William J Astore
Mar 25, '13
Today's unmanned aerial vehicles, most famously Predator and Reaper drones, have been celebrated as the culmination of the longtime dreams of airpower enthusiasts, offering the possibility of victory through quick, clean, and selective destruction. Those drones, so the (very old) story goes, assure the US military of command of the high ground, and so provide the royal road to a speedy and decisive triumph over helpless enemies below.
Fantasies about the certain success of air power in transforming, even ending, war as we know it arose with the plane itself. But when it comes to killing people from the skies, again and again air power has proven neither cheap nor surgical nor decisive nor in itself triumphant. Seductive and tenacious as the dreams of air supremacy continue to be, much as they automatically attach themselves to the latest machine to take to the skies, air power has not fundamentally softened the brutal face of war, nor has it made war less dirty or chaotic.
Indeed, by emboldening politicians to seek seemingly low-cost, Olympian solutions to complex human problems - like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from the sky to skewer puny mortals - it has fostered fantasies of illimitable power emboldened by contempt for human life.
However, just like Zeus's obdurate and rebellious subjects, the mortals on the receiving end of death from on high have shown surprising strength in frustrating the designs of the air power gods, whether past or present. Yet the Olympian fantasy persists, a fact that requires explanation.
The ever-destructive fantasy of air power
http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-250313.htmlThe ever-destructive fantasy of air power
By William J Astore
Mar 25, '13
Today's unmanned aerial vehicles, most famously Predator and Reaper drones, have been celebrated as the culmination of the longtime dreams of airpower enthusiasts, offering the possibility of victory through quick, clean, and selective destruction. Those drones, so the (very old) story goes, assure the US military of command of the high ground, and so provide the royal road to a speedy and decisive triumph over helpless enemies below.
Fantasies about the certain success of air power in transforming, even ending, war as we know it arose with the plane itself. But when it comes to killing people from the skies, again and again air power has proven neither cheap nor surgical nor decisive nor in itself triumphant. Seductive and tenacious as the dreams of air supremacy continue to be, much as they automatically attach themselves to the latest machine to take to the skies, air power has not fundamentally softened the brutal face of war, nor has it made war less dirty or chaotic.
Indeed, by emboldening politicians to seek seemingly low-cost, Olympian solutions to complex human problems - like Zeus hurling thunderbolts from the sky to skewer puny mortals - it has fostered fantasies of illimitable power emboldened by contempt for human life.
However, just like Zeus's obdurate and rebellious subjects, the mortals on the receiving end of death from on high have shown surprising strength in frustrating the designs of the air power gods, whether past or present. Yet the Olympian fantasy persists, a fact that requires explanation.
March 24, 2013
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Not Ready for Combat Until at Least 2019, GAO Says
The $397 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be ready to go into operation until at least 2019, 23 years after the Pentagon signed a contract in 1996 with Lockheed Martin to produce just fewer than 2,500 of the aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, according to a new report.
Initial operational test and evaluation -- or IOT&E -- testing of the F-35, the most expensive Defense Department procurement in history, is scheduled to begin in 2017 and run through 2019, the Government Accountability Office said. These tests will “evaluate the combat effectiveness and suitability of the aircraft in an operationally realistic environment,” GAO said.
These tests will determine if the plane can achieve “key performance parameters [that] are critical to the F-35 meeting the warfighter’s operational requirements. They include measures such as range, weapons carriage, mission reliability and sortie rates. These parameters also cannot be fully verified until the end of IOT&E in 2019,” GAO said.
~snip~
Software development for the F-35 presents a “significant challenge” for Lockheed and the Pentagon, with completion of the final version of some 9.5 million lines of code not expected until 2017, GAO reported.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Not Ready for Combat Until at Least 2019, GAO Says
http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/03/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-not-ready-combat-until-least-2019-gao-says/61832/F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Not Ready for Combat Until at Least 2019, GAO Says
The $397 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be ready to go into operation until at least 2019, 23 years after the Pentagon signed a contract in 1996 with Lockheed Martin to produce just fewer than 2,500 of the aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, according to a new report.
Initial operational test and evaluation -- or IOT&E -- testing of the F-35, the most expensive Defense Department procurement in history, is scheduled to begin in 2017 and run through 2019, the Government Accountability Office said. These tests will “evaluate the combat effectiveness and suitability of the aircraft in an operationally realistic environment,” GAO said.
These tests will determine if the plane can achieve “key performance parameters [that] are critical to the F-35 meeting the warfighter’s operational requirements. They include measures such as range, weapons carriage, mission reliability and sortie rates. These parameters also cannot be fully verified until the end of IOT&E in 2019,” GAO said.
~snip~
Software development for the F-35 presents a “significant challenge” for Lockheed and the Pentagon, with completion of the final version of some 9.5 million lines of code not expected until 2017, GAO reported.
March 24, 2013
Drillers from Central Asian Mining Services collect samples from the North Aynak mineral zone outside Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Excavating a future in Afghanistan
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2013
TAGHAR, Afghanistan — In a rugged valley outside Kabul, where mud-walled villages blend into bare scrubland, a team of international mining experts and Afghan trainees set up camp over the winter to probe the region's mineral resources.
Protected by armed guards, they spent three months drilling test holes into the snowcapped peaks, as curious goat- and sheepherders looked on.
"We hit copper damn near everywhere," said Robert Miller, a Colorado-based mining executive recruited by the Pentagon to help advise Afghan authorities on how to develop the country's natural resources. "It's a very encouraging finding."
Studies have found that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and most war-torn countries, sits atop hydrocarbon and mineral deposits that could be worth more than a trillion dollars. The Afghan government and its U.S. backers are counting on this largely untapped wealth — including oil, gas, copper, iron, gold and lithium — to bring in cash and create jobs as international assistance begins to wind down.
Excavating a future in Afghanistan
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-mines-20130324,0,3542528.storyDrillers from Central Asian Mining Services collect samples from the North Aynak mineral zone outside Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Excavating a future in Afghanistan
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2013
TAGHAR, Afghanistan — In a rugged valley outside Kabul, where mud-walled villages blend into bare scrubland, a team of international mining experts and Afghan trainees set up camp over the winter to probe the region's mineral resources.
Protected by armed guards, they spent three months drilling test holes into the snowcapped peaks, as curious goat- and sheepherders looked on.
"We hit copper damn near everywhere," said Robert Miller, a Colorado-based mining executive recruited by the Pentagon to help advise Afghan authorities on how to develop the country's natural resources. "It's a very encouraging finding."
Studies have found that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and most war-torn countries, sits atop hydrocarbon and mineral deposits that could be worth more than a trillion dollars. The Afghan government and its U.S. backers are counting on this largely untapped wealth — including oil, gas, copper, iron, gold and lithium — to bring in cash and create jobs as international assistance begins to wind down.
March 24, 2013
U.S. Marines in northern Kuwait gear up after receiving orders to cross the Iraqi border on March 20, 2003. It has been 10 years since the American-led invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Look back at moments from the war and the legacy it left behind.
Why the war in Iraq was fought for Big Oil
By Antonia Juhasz, Special to CNN
March 19, 2013 -- Updated 1507 GMT (2307 HKT)
(CNN) -- Yes, the Iraq War was a war for oil, and it was a war with winners: Big Oil.
It has been 10 years since Operation Iraqi Freedom's bombs first landed in Baghdad. And while most of the U.S.-led coalition forces have long since gone, Western oil companies are only getting started.
Before the 2003 invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies. A decade of war later, it is largely privatized and utterly dominated by foreign firms.
From ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP and Shell, the West's largest oil companies have set up shop in Iraq. So have a slew of American oil service companies, including Halliburton, the Texas-based firm Dick Cheney ran before becoming George W. Bush's running mate in 2000.
unhappycamper comment: In case you forgot, the original name given to the Iraq invasion and occupation was Operation Iraqi Liberation.
Why the war in Iraq was fought for Big Oil
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/U.S. Marines in northern Kuwait gear up after receiving orders to cross the Iraqi border on March 20, 2003. It has been 10 years since the American-led invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Look back at moments from the war and the legacy it left behind.
Why the war in Iraq was fought for Big Oil
By Antonia Juhasz, Special to CNN
March 19, 2013 -- Updated 1507 GMT (2307 HKT)
(CNN) -- Yes, the Iraq War was a war for oil, and it was a war with winners: Big Oil.
It has been 10 years since Operation Iraqi Freedom's bombs first landed in Baghdad. And while most of the U.S.-led coalition forces have long since gone, Western oil companies are only getting started.
Before the 2003 invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies. A decade of war later, it is largely privatized and utterly dominated by foreign firms.
From ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP and Shell, the West's largest oil companies have set up shop in Iraq. So have a slew of American oil service companies, including Halliburton, the Texas-based firm Dick Cheney ran before becoming George W. Bush's running mate in 2000.
unhappycamper comment: In case you forgot, the original name given to the Iraq invasion and occupation was Operation Iraqi Liberation.
March 24, 2013
Doing the backstroke
By Daryl Lease
The Virginian-Pilot
March 23, 2013
~snip~
"Lockheed Martin Consumer Hotline. How may I help you?"
"Um, I must have dialed the wrong number. I was calling to complain about a can of funky tasting soup."
"Oh, you've reached the right number!"
~snip~
"Yes. I'm a specialist in the F-35 division, and I'll be happy to assist you."
unhappycamper comment: Four paragraphs do not give the 'flavor' of this article. I suggest you go to the link.
LMAO
Doing the backstroke (humor)
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/03/doing-backstrokeDoing the backstroke
By Daryl Lease
The Virginian-Pilot
March 23, 2013
~snip~
"Lockheed Martin Consumer Hotline. How may I help you?"
"Um, I must have dialed the wrong number. I was calling to complain about a can of funky tasting soup."
"Oh, you've reached the right number!"
~snip~
"Yes. I'm a specialist in the F-35 division, and I'll be happy to assist you."
unhappycamper comment: Four paragraphs do not give the 'flavor' of this article. I suggest you go to the link.
LMAO
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