March 7, 2012

The Costs of War, Collective Amnesia and Learning From Experience

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-bobrow/the-costs-of-war-collecti_b_1324609.html

The Costs of War, Collective Amnesia and Learning From Experience
Joseph Bobrow
Posted: 03/ 6/2012 3:49 pm

Last year I attended the annual Memorial Day commemoration at a military cemetery. A retired general officer was among the speakers. I had seen him over the years in various settings and he was always super patriotic and upbeat. This time his presentation sounded different. He spoke of how acutely he felt the burden, more than 20 years on, of having sent men and women into harm's way, and how deeply he felt responsible for their injuries and deaths. You could hear his voice tremble. Then he said something that startled me. With complete conviction, this patriot's patriot said that the costs of war are so great that we just have to find ways to solve our problems that do not involve killing one another.

A decorated commander from the Fallujah conflict often speaks publicly about his experiences. As tough, dedicated and respected as they come, each time I've heard him speak, he will say "war is obscene." None of the scores of military personnel I've met over the past five years, especially those who know or work closely with returning service members, veterans, and their families have a hankering for war. They know the impacts too well. They know the costs are staggering and multi-dimensional. Then why this new cycle of loose talk and bellicose rhetoric on the part of some?

In a recent piece in the New York Times, news analyst Scott Shane writes that "Despite a decade of war, most Americans seem to endorse 'the politicians' martial spirit.' In a Pew Research Center poll this month, 58 percent of those surveyed said the United States should use military force, if necessary, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Only 30 percent said no. Yet, 75 percent of respondents said that Mr. Obama was withdrawing troops from Afghanistan at the right pace or not quickly enough, a finding in keeping with many indications of war weariness."

One expert who has studied security threats since the Cold War found it puzzling: "You'd think there would be an instinctive reason to hold back after two bloody noses in Iraq and Afghanistan." Another expert on conflict prevention said, "Faced with an intractable security challenge, both politicians and ordinary people want to 'do something,' and nothing 'does something' like military force." He sees an old pattern. And here's the line that jumped out at me:

March 6, 2012

Caught in an ambush by Agent Orange

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article749146.ece




Caught in an ambush by Agent Orange
Updated: March 5, 2012, 8:13 AM

Thirty-five years after the fact, Frank B. Brochowicz received a nasty reminder of his service in the Vietnam War. In late 2006, he lost 25 pounds and attributed it to a lack of appetite after a beloved family member had died.

But when the pounds kept falling off, he went to a doctor who directed him to a cancer specialist.

“The oncologist said my hemoglobin count was very low. It wasn’t transferring oxygen into my blood. I was told I’d been working on a half a tank of gas,” Brochowicz said.

Further testing determined he had multiple myeloma attributable to his exposure to Agent Orange, the carcinogenic defoliant used to clear dense jungle vegetation in Vietnam.

March 5, 2012

Cigna CEO sees compensation jump 25 pct in 2011

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Cigna-CEO-sees-compensation-jump-25-pct-in-2011-3382446.php


Cigna CEO sees compensation jump 25 pct in 2011
TOM MURPHY, AP Business Writer
Updated 09:10 a.m., Monday, March 5, 2012

Cigna Corp. CEO David M. Cordani's total compensation climbed 25 percent last year, as the nation's fourth-largest health insurer launched a $3.8 billion acquisition, and its stock outperformed the broader market.

Cordani, 46, received compensation valued at $18.9 million last year from the Bloomfield, Conn., company, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing Monday.

That included the same salary Cordani received in 2010 — $1 million — and a performance-related bonus that climbed 27 percent to $9.3 million. Cordani's stock and options awards totaled nearly $8.5 million, also up 27 percent from the previous year.

The executive, who became CEO in 2010, also received $62,865 for security alarm installation and maintenance in 2011 after the company gave him $48,733 for the same thing the previous year.

March 5, 2012

Some in Congress object to new soccer field at Guantanamo

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/04/140778/some-in-congress-object-to-new.html

Some in Congress object to new soccer field at Guantanamo
By Carol Rosenberg | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, March 4, 2012

Some members of Congress are questioning the wisdom of the Pentagon's spending $744,000 on a soccer field to keep captives busy outside a $39 million penitentiary-style building at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for crying out loud?" Rep. Gus Bilirakas, R-Fla., said in a television interview. "Our deficit this year is $1.2 trillion and we're spending this kind of money on terrorists?"

Prison camp commanders unveiled the 28,000-square-foot soccer field during a visit last week by reporters to cover a Pakistani man's guilty plea to war crimes. Commanders called it part of the cost of doing business at the remote outpost and keeping captives diverted at the detention center.

The yard opens in April after contractors install latrines and goals.



unhappycamper comment: Gitmo costs the United States around $800 grand per detainee per year.

In other related news,




Detroit Bus Service Is Cut At Nighttime, While Private Contractor Is In Line For Bonus
Posted: 03/02/12 04:34 PM ET | Updated: 03/02/12 08:27 PM ET

Detroit's beleaguered bus riders already have little love for the Motor City's transit system. Now service is about to get worse.

Beginning Saturday, some Detroit bus routes will stop running as early as 8 p.m. and service will be halted between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. The changes will leave about 3,200 of the 110,000 to 120,000 people who ride Detroit’s buses every day without nighttime transportation and likely cost some their jobs, say public transit advocates. Meanwhile, the private companies who run Detroit's transit system are in line for large bonuses if cost-cutting measures succeed.

Facing an ever-tightening budget noose, Detroit officials are trying to stave off a fiscal takeover by the state. When the bus service cuts go into effect on Saturday, the city's transit system will save $11 million and help Detroit move toward more reliable service during peak hours when buses are most in demand, said Chris Brown, Detroit's chief operating officer, who oversees transit operations.

Officials insist that the changes will affect the smallest number of riders possible. These riders might be the transit system's neediest users, though.

March 2, 2012

How Does One Flummox The United States Air Force?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flummox


flum·mox

tr.v. flum·moxed, flum·mox·ing, flum·mox·es Informal

To confuse; perplex.


ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Verb 1. flummox - be a mystery or bewildering toflummox - be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me"

baffle, bewilder, dumbfound, mystify, nonplus, perplex, puzzle, amaze, stupefy, gravel, vex, pose, stick, beat, get
stump, mix up - cause to be perplexed or confounded; "This problem stumped her"

befuddle, confound, confuse, discombobulate, fox, bedevil, fuddle, throw - be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly; "These questions confuse even the experts"; "This question completely threw me"; "This question befuddled even the teacher"

riddle - set a difficult problem or riddle; "riddle me a riddle"

elude, escape - be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by; "What you are seeing in him eludes me"


Never fear, Lockheed Martin is here.


http://www.military.com/news/article/f22-woes-continue-to-flummox-air-force.html?comp=1198882887570&rank=8





F-22 Woes Continue to Flummox Air Force
March 01, 2012
Military.com|by Michael Hoffman

It was not the first grounding for the $77 billion fifth-generation fighter fleet. Officials restricted missions to below 25,000 feet after Haney's crash before grounding the fleet altogether for five months in May 2011. And still the Air Force can't figure out why pilots can't breathe.



unhappycamper comment: These are the same guys building (and attempting to sell) the F-35. In other words, that first $77 billion dollars didn't do the trick. Let's throw another $384 billion dollars at them and maybe we can get an airplane that works.

March 1, 2012

Remember when a chaplin and other people came to your house to tell you your husband was killed

in (wherever)?

Welcome to the new DoD:





Military Spouse Notified of Death By Text: http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2012/02/military-spouse-notified-of-death-by-text.html

Family of Text Messaged Spouse Speaks Out: http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2012/02/family-of-text-messaged-spouse-speaks-out.html?comp=1198882887570&rank=2


How despicable.

March 1, 2012

Wha chu smoking, dude?

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/02/airforce-schwartz-defends-cost-of-next-gen-bomber-022912w/

Schwartz defends cost of next-gen bomber
By Jeff Schogol - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 29, 2012 12:52:52 EST

At a breakfast with reporters Wednesday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz explained why he expects the bomber’s sticker price to stay at $550 million a pop.




unhappycamper comment: A frickking F-22 costs $418 million dollars. B-2 bombers cost $2.4 billion dollars each. Shit - a Predator drone costs around $36.3 million dollars. Those Hellfire missiles we use to kill 'insurgents' costs $160 grand.

Where do you think you can find a bomber for a lousy $550 million dollars?

Don't bogart that joint, my friend.

March 1, 2012

Iran, Syria, Who’s Next?

http://watchingamerica.com/News/145307/iran-syria-whos-next/


Iran, Syria, Who’s Next?
Berliner Umschau, Germany
By Charly Kneffel
Translated By Ron Argentati
27 February 2012
Edited by Casey J. Skeens

Whoever believed America's policy changed when George W. Bush was replaced by Barack Obama was poorly informed. At any rate, it’s now taking greater pains to propagandize, and appears to be counting on recruiting more countries into its coalition of the willing while taking more care to not totally alienate the citizens of those nations. But that's about all. In substance, not much has really changed. Under the pretense of “humanitarian assistance,” pressure is being applied to governments in various forms, whereby the military option is always on the table and, in fact, has already been applied in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing that it is by no means the trump card of last resort.

The bottom line is domination of the Middle East, where the largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas are found and the control of which is essential to the preservation of Western society. A side purpose is to exclude global competitors such as Russia and China and run them out of the region. This has far less to do with human rights than it has to do with geopolitics. Another strategic side issue of some importance is Iran, where the change from a Shah, who was completely in America's pocket, to a council of ruling Mullahs remains a thorn in America's side to this day.

Since then, America has resorted to a policy of international isolation, economic sanctions, covert intelligence actions, exploitation of real tensions, political maneuvers — some with the threat of military action — and open interference in Iran's domestic affairs, accompanied by occasional olive branches that have the effect of making it impossible to judge whether or not they were genuine or just designed to show Iran in a bad light, and therefore incorrigible.

A sober political assessment can be made of events over the past decade, showing their relative risks and limits: Iraq's vicious dictator was overthrown but (considering the economic costs and the cost in human lives) this resulted in little more than a ruined country where conditions conducive to civil war abound and whose foreign policy orientation looks hopeless, even to those responsible for the changes. In Afghanistan meanwhile, an actual civil war is in full swing and the population is completely against the foreign invaders, and not just since the Koran-burning incident. What will come out of those countries that underwent the “Arab Spring” remains to be seen. In Libya's case, at any rate, the outcome was a thinly veiled military intervention by Western powers.

March 1, 2012

Quran Burning Came as a Gift from Heaven for the US

http://watchingamerica.com/News/145295/quran-burning-came-as-a-gift-from-heaven-for-the-us/




One torture method or one humiliation more or less will not easily upset them. They have developed an undefined threshold for pain. But do not touch their faith; then there are limits to their tolerance.


Quran Burning Came as a Gift from Heaven for the US
Volkskrant, The Netherlands
By Ferdows Kazemi
Translated By Anne Hukkelhoven
27 February 2012
Edited by Janie Boschma

Bin Laden is dead, Afghanistan is a mess, negotiations with the Taliban have resumed and the Americans can leave. “Afghanistan has again been pushed back 50 years in history; mission accomplished,” asserts Ferdows Kazemi, columnist for vk.nl.

~snip~

Whoever knows the Sunni Islamic faith even slightly knows that such an act will surely not remain unpunished. The Quran is the word of God and therefore the holiest of the holy in Islam. You are to touch the holy book only after you have ritually cleansed yourself. You are not allowed to put a book or other object on top of the Quran. You can never take the Quran to places that you suspect to be unclean. And burning the Quran is even worse in Islam than violating the Ten Commandments in Christianity.

Afghanistan is not the first Islamic country that has been attacked by NATO. And the Americans have had enough friendly Islamic countries sitting with them at the table for decades. You would expect the American soldiers to be well-informed on the consequences of such a deed. That they have apparently overlooked this simple fact demonstrates a large lack of professionalism. That they pee on corpses and torture prisoners might be understandable. They do not endanger their own lives or the lives of their colleagues with these.

Before the reports and pictures of these crimes surfaced, they had long landed back in their safe haven. Moreover, the Afghans have become accustomed to such acts during the already decade-long wars, the suppression and the bloodshed. One torture method or one humiliation more or less will not easily upset them. They have developed an undefined threshold for pain. But do not touch their faith; then there are limits to their tolerance.

February 28, 2012

Thanks Utah!!!1!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/27/group-anti-war-message-bomb-iran-billboard/