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Some get kudos; the less deserving get a kudo.
...we need to keep the fire on these poloticians...
Polo pols?
What about the draft? Hmmm, may not be too popular, eh?
Pentagon weighs troop demands in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Wed Sep 20, 1:14 PM ET
"A radical new policy may be needed, such as offering citizenship to foreigners abroad if they'll serve first" in the U.S. military.
The dimming outlook for significant U.S. troop cuts in Iraq means the Pentagon may soon face a difficult and politically sensitive decision: either make more frequent call-ups of some National Guard and Reserve troops or expand still further the size of the active-duty Army, defense officials say.
That choice, already under discussion but with no timetable for decision, is looming in light of the fact that the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put the Army under enormous strain. In particular, active-duty soldiers are not getting the desired minimum of two years at home between combat deployments.
Army officials had hoped for some troop relief in Iraq in this election year, but the surge in sectarian violence, the persistence of the insurgency and the slow pace of political progress in Baghdad have snuffed out those hopes.
Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces throughout the Middle East, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the military will likely maintain — or possibly even increase — force levels of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring. The current total is 145,000, up about 20,000 since June.
In an Associated Press interview from Baghdad on Wednesday, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said it is important to "get people's expectations calibrated" about what can be accomplished in the months ahead.
"Until we see the new government get its legs under it, until we see how the security situation in Baghdad comes out, we need to be thinking along the lines of maintaining about what we have" in terms of troop levels, he said.
Late last year, military leaders had indicated they hoped to reduce troop levels to about 100,000 by the end of this year for an Iraq war that has become widely unpopular at home. But Abizaid said Tuesday that rising sectarian violence and slow political progress made that impossible.
"I think that this level probably will have to be sustained through the spring," he said. "I think that we'll do whatever we have to do to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and use the military power of the U.S. to do that."
The U.S. military has about 21,000 troops in Afghanistan, an increase of several thousand over the past year.
Abizaid, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace are expected to meet with members of Congress later this week.
President Bush, in New York for U.N. General Assembly meetings on Tuesday, told Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that the U.S. will keep soldiers in Iraq as long as necessary. "I've told the president of Iraq that America has given her word to help you and we will keep our word. The people of Iraq must know that," Bush said.
Meanwhile, the White House denied reports that American officials are beginning to question whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki can hold Iraq together and take the steps necessary to end its sectarian troubles.
"It's absolutely false," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "The man has been in power for barely more than 100 days, and frankly there has been significant progress."
The Army has been aiming to reorganize its combat forces in such a way as to increase the number of brigades available for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, but thus far it is six brigades short of its goal of 42. That is one reason why the Army was forced in 2004-05 to use more National Guard combat units in Iraq than normal; at one point there were seven Guard combat brigades there, compared with just one now.
But even now, active-duty Army brigades are cycling in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan at a faster pace than the goal of one year deployed for every two years at home. That puts a great deal of stress on the soldiers and their families.
"I don't know how long" that can go on, a senior defense official said in an interview this week. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the problem, which is being discussed behind closed doors.
The official likened the earlier troop-reduction plan for Iraq to the situation facing a soldier traveling down a road with a map that does not match the terrain he's seeing: The soldier has to deal with the terrain as it actually exists.
For the U.S. military, the road in Iraq has gotten rockier rather suddenly. An indication of that was the decision to extend the yearlong tour of duty for the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade; some of the unit's soldiers had already left Iraq — and families had already hung welcome home banners around the 172nd's main base in Alaska — when the decision to extend their tour by four months was announced in late July.
The Army has committed itself to not mobilizing National Guard and Reserve soldiers for war duty more than one year out of five. But in light of the possibility that troop requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan will remain high into 2007 and beyond, officials are already discussing whether in some cases Guard or Reserve soldiers may have to be recalled more frequently.
If it is decided to stick to the once-in-five-years formula for the Guard and Reserve, then it may be necessary to increase the size of the active-duty Army, the official said. The Army already is on a path to grow by 30,000 soldiers, to 512,000. It expects to end this fiscal year Sept. 30 at about 504,000 soldiers.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution who closely follows developments in Iraq, said Tuesday the Army should have put itself on a course to grow beyond the 512,000 mark at the outset of the war rather than wait until now. Many in Congress pushed for a bigger increase in the Army, but Rumsfeld argued against it, in part because of the enormous long-term costs.
"We are in a dilemma," O'Hanlon said. "A radical new policy may be needed, such as offering citizenship to foreigners abroad if they'll serve first" in the U.S. military.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060920/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq&printer=1;_
ylt=Akr1zDLQJxSP73leEYmVZv6WwvIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
This isn't Starbucks...
I am Contra what the big says about the market. It usually is 90% full proof for the last few years.
Trading Under the Influence?
That wasn't your question.
You do.
(Nice grub!)
Here's the link to the photo and article in my prior post:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6988054/
What's not to believe?
The body of an Iraqi who died while under
interrogation lies in ice as Pvt. Charles
Graner, a guard who has since been sentenced
to prison, poses for a photo.
Yes, you can check with ABC...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1221593,00.html
Can't believe you missed all this when it was happening.
www.google.com
Abu Ghraib + testimony + time line
Subject: U.S. torture at Abu Gharib
Q: Are they alive today......?
A: Some are, some are not. You need to read more.
Q: No.....you need to be more specific when trying to aid and comfort the enemy..
A. No, some are, some are not alive? or, no, don’t need to read more?
The Abu Gharib photographs, court martial testimony and high level investigations and their resulting public reports are what has aided and comforted the enemy. How could it be otherwise?
...considering registering a second alias is against this site's TOU...
If this were true 95% of iHub would be posting in The Jailhouse and the rest would be there because they went beyond considering registering the second alias. <g>
Some are, some are not. You need to read more.
I responded to your question. Surely your definition of torture cannot be limited to: didn't find anything saying they beheaded any of them, or cut their penus'[sic] off, or hung them from a bridge.Don't you include electric shock, rape and beating to death torture?
Sorry I brought it up if you think all they did was put bags over people's heads at Abu Gharib. You might want to read up on our military people who have already been convicted and are serving time in prison for the torture (including rape and deaths) we perpetuated. So much for standing on high moral ground.
Maybe Abu Gharib? for one...
no doubt YHOO breaks $25's it has to its enivetable.
I don't know how to sort torts
Visit your local bakery for a lesson.
Here's an excerpt from a review of Madonna's Russian performance:
Thanks to the Russian Orthodox Church, most of the public was aware that one of the songs in the concert would be performed with the singer suspended on a giant luminescent cross. What I — and, I assume, most casual observers — did not know was what the song would be and what the point would be. The song was "Live to Tell," her 1986 hit, and the point was not subtle. Flashing behind her (and the cross) on a giant video screen were the faces of children and some statistics: the number of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa and the fact that without help they will all die before the age of 2. And then there was a long quote from "The Sheep and the Goats" story from the New Testament.
"I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink" — I think the words are familiar to most of us, even those of us who are not Christians, right through the "as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." The point of this passage is that Christianity is measured not by faith alone but by good deeds. It was not a point that Madonna made subtly, or in good taste, but it is the sort of thing that ought to disarm any protest, simply because at the end of the song she makes an appeal for donations to help the children.
The entire article is here:
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=18857
...in review of the terms of use tehre is no indication that multiple users cannot access this forum from an a single atomimous unit...
The atomimous unit is in the nuclear power plant lunchroom?
So you are saying a moat mote is mute or moot?
New iHub feature...
Hi MATT & grubmaster [quasi-Admin],I am still banded & nothing been done as you promissed!
new plan is to build a mote around Baghdad
Left, right, moderate...George had the idea way back when...of course he uses the word "decider" instead...
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." —President-elect George W. Bush, at a photo-op with congressional leaders during his first trip to Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000
[Suppressed Sound Link]
Forget the left. Watch the right.
=================================
Bush defends CIA interrogations amid revolt
Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:43 PM ET
By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Saturday defended his proposals to allow tough questioning of suspected terrorists as necessary to keep Americans safe, despite a revolt in his own Republican Party over the issue.
With the U.S. Congress considering legislation on how to try and question foreign terrorist suspects, Bush is pushing a proposal to allow for what he calls "an alternative set of procedures" for CIA interrogations.
"As we work with the international community to defeat the terrorists and extremists, we must also provide our military and intelligence professionals the tools they need to keep our country safe," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
A trio of powerful Republican senators -- John McCain of Arizona, John Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- has endorsed legislation that would protect the rights of detainees.
The rift among Republicans over the legislation comes as Bush has tried to rally his party behind a push to emphasize national security before elections in November in which Republicans are trying to maintain control of Congress.
The three senators object to Bush's bid to define more narrowly the Geneva Conventions' standards for humane treatment of prisoners, which the president insists is needed for the CIA to elicit valuable information from detainees.
The White House says it wants to "clarify" the Geneva Conventions' provision.
McCain, Warner and Graham say the administration's proposal would weaken the Geneva Conventions by encouraging other countries to interpret the language to meet their own needs, putting U.S. troops at risk of mistreatment. McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"What is being billed as 'clarifying' our treaty obligations will be seen as 'withdrawing' from the treaty obligations," Graham said in a statement on Friday. "It will set precedent which could come back to haunt us."
The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the version of legislation that McCain, Warner and Graham sought, while the House of Representatives has backed the president's approach.
'VITAL PROGRAM'
Bush reiterated he would try to seek "common ground" on the bill, but said it must allow the CIA questioning to continue because it had helped to foil plots.
"This CIA program has saved American lives, and the lives of people in other countries," Bush said. "I have one test for this legislation: The intelligence community must be able to tell me that the bill Congress sends to my desk will allow this vital program to continue."
The full Senate will take up the issue as early as next week. If the chamber adopts the language favored by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House and Senate would then need to reconcile their differences in a conference committee.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said negotiations were ongoing with the Senate. She added, "It may be that we have to part ways for now and then come back together in a conference."
Limited time remains for debate as Congress will recess within a few weeks to allow lawmakers to campaign for re-election.
The spelling may not be perfect, but clearly he has command of the language. Hmmm, that post is already missing. Guess admin understood it too.
His heart's in the right place.
(Is that an idiom?)
English is such an idiomatic language...
These "helpful" people understand that English is not your first language and they are messing with you. Go on about your business...
Thanks, grub.
hi; why am i band from posting ...
You might have been high, but not on "height" street.
You gotta be a hippy to get this oops...
...my mother lived on height and ashbury during the sixties.
Follow-up:
“3- Bush & Republican bashing WILL NOT be tolerated here, all posting of this nature will be deleted without mercy.
Thank You, The Mods”
_______________________________________________________
I'm seriously scared as to who is going to be our next president. I’m watching and hoping somebody steps up to the plate with some class, some back bone, a good knowledge of world history and the ability to communicate without a shit eating grin.
Oops...
Nigerian candidates in graft con
A number of Nigerian politicians have been conned out of thousands of dollars by people selling papers purporting to certify them as "corruption-free".
The scam follows a warning by Nigeria's anti-graft agency EFCC that anyone guilty of corruption would be banned from contesting next year's elections.
Conmen have been impersonating agency officials, donning dark suits to look the part.
But the EFCC says certificates are never given to those free of suspicion.
The BBC's Alex Last in Nigeria says that although the episode is embarrassing, it does go to show that the anti-corruption drive is seen as a real threat by some Nigerian politicians.
Nigeria is seen as being one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has asked the public to inform on anyone who claims to work for the agency who demands money for services.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5348208.stm
Published: 2006/09/15 09:43:21 GMT
I too have things I don't like about Bush, like the way he turned into a sissy bitch ...
As is clearly stated in the i-box, ... Bush bashing will not be allowed on the NOLIB board.
That's wacky.
I wouldn't have believed your comment about Bin Laden hiding out
as a banjo picker in Tennessee, but it looks like you're right.
P. Cashews Image Library
As soon as I finish my night-school structural engineering course. <g>
ddf, fyi:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=6&c=y
(I haven't read it yet.)