The Pentagon has sent out a release to ‘splain how it is that we’re confident the Navy can shoot down that satellite:
Although the chances of an impact in a populated area are small, the potential consequences would be of enough concern to consider mitigating actions. Therefore, the
President has decided to take action to mitigate the risk to human lives by engaging the non-functioning satellite. Because our missile defense system is not designed to engage satellites, extraordinary measures have been taken to temporarily modify three sea-based tactical missiles and three ships to carry out the engagement. Based on modeling and analysis, our officials have high confidence that the engagement will be successful. As for when this engagement will occur, we will determine the optimal time, location, and geometry for a successful engagement based on a number of factors. As the satellite’s path continues to decay, there will be a window of opportunity between late February and early March to conduct this engagement. The decision to engage the satellite has to be made before a precise prediction of impact location is available.
Sounds a bit fishy to me. We’re just gonna go out and DO it, based on nothing more than "modeling and analysis?" We’ve never done this before? Yeah, OK. I hope it works. Otherwise, we’re going to have a hydrazine mess on our hands, and I hear that’s not good.
By the way, in the picture above right, Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. James Cartwright promises that if the Navy’s fancy-schmancy missile doesn’t work, he will personally take out the satellite with a single punch. (Not really, it just looks that way.)
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, The Associated Press has learned. U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire a missile from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the options will not be publicly discussed until a later Pentagon briefing. The disabled satellite is expected to hit the Earth the first week of March. Officials said the Navy would likely shoot it down before then, using a special missile modified for the task. Other details about the missile and the targeting were not immediately available. But the decision involves several U.S. agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Defense and the State Department. Shooting down a satellite is particularly sensitive because of the controversy surrounding China’s anti-satellite test last year, when Beijing shot down one of its defunct weather satellites, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and other countries.
The recent Chinese development worried me. Why, you ask? Because it meant they could wipe out our economy with a few well-placed missiles. You say they wouldn’t want to do that? Maybe not at this particular moment, no. But I’m almost certain that they’d love to have it as an option.
I’m only slightly reassured that we seem to have a cruiser-based capability in this regard. Or is it that we want the Chinese to think we do? I don’t know; I haven’t kept up with this stuff, so the cruiser bit took me by surprise.
Now I’ll probably hear from the "all countries are morally equal" crowd to the effect of, "why is OK for us to be able to do it and not THEM?" And if you can conceive of that question and ask it without embarrassment, there’s probably not much I can say to persuade you.
For my part, I was no fan of Reagan’s "Star Wars" initiative. And not just because it was a particularly risky, destabilizing gambit in the era of MAD. Also, while it was fine by me to beef up conventional forces (AND diplomatic efforts, and economic ties, and every other way we might engage the rest of the world comprehensively), there seemed to be an isolationist fantasy involved in the notion that we could put up a missile-shield umbrella that enabled us to ignore the rest of the world.
But if somebody’s going to have this technology, I’d infinitely rather it be the world’s first and biggest liberal democracy than the Tiananmen-Square crowd.
And here I thought we’d put the "Hunt for Red October" days behind us. The nouveau-oil-riche Russians are continuing to try to prove that they’ve got big ones, too — bombers, that is:
{Russia says bombers’ flyover of US aircraft carrier part of routine} patrol {Eds: PMs.} MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian military said Tuesday that its bombers’ flyover of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific was part of a routine patrol conducted in accordance with international rules. Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said in a statement carried by Russian news wires that the Tu-95 bombers didn’t violate any rules of engagement when they flew over the Pacific on Saturday. U.S. military officials said that one Tu-95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 50 nautical miles out. U.S. fighters were scrambled from Nimitz to intercept the bombers. Drobyshevsky said the Russian bombers conducted their flight "in strict compliance with the international rules of using airspace rules, over neutral waters and without any violation of other countries’ borders." He said the bombers were fulfilling their "assigned task" when they were escorted by the U.S. carrierborne fighters. The Saturday incident came amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. The U.S. has defended the plan as necessary to protect its European allies from possible attacks by Iran. But the Kremlin has condemned the proposal, saying it would threaten Russia’s security. Such Russian encounters with U.S. ships were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since then. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Russia revived the Soviet-era practice of long-range patrols by strategic bombers over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans last August.
Boys and their toys — right, ladies? Combine that facet of the male character with the Russian’s titanic inferiority complex over how the Cold War ended, and you’ve got … well, the New French. I wonder what the term is for Russian deGaullism? Putinism, perhaps? But that describes so many unpleasant things, doesn’t it?
Expect to see more of these incidents. And let’s pray one of them doesn’t turn really, really ugly.
This is why — or rather, this is another reason why, in addition to the war on terror, the rise of China, etc. — that in an era in which so many want to obsess about domestic issues, America’s role in the world is the first thing we ask presidential candidates about. Because that is Job One for the chief executive.
By BRAD WARTHEN Editorial Page Editor ON MAY 20, 1967, Air Force pilot Jack Van Loan was shot down over North Vietnam. His parachute carried him to Earth well enough, but he landed all wrong. “I hit the ground, and I slid, and I hit a tree,” he said. This provided an opportunity for his captors at the prison known as the “Hanoi Hilton.” “My knee was kind of screwed up and they … any time they found you with some problems, then they would, they would bear down on the problems,” he said. “I mean, they worked on my knee pretty good … and, you know, just torturing me.” In October of Jack’s first year in Hanoi, a new prisoner came in, a naval aviator named John McCain. He was in really bad shape. He had ejected over Hanoi, and had landed in a lake right in the middle of the city. He suffered two broken arms and a broken leg ejecting. He nearly drowned in the lake before a mob pulled him out, and then set upon him. They spat on him, kicked him and stripped his clothes off. Then they crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him in his left foot and his groin. That gave the enemy something to “bear down on.” Lt. Cmdr. McCain would be strung up tight by his unhealed arms, hog-tied and left that way for the night. “John was no different than anyone else, except that he was so badly hurt,” said Jack. “He was really badly, badly hurt.” Jack and I got to talking about all this when he called me Wednesday morning, outraged over a story that had appeared in that morning’s paper, headlined “McCain’s war record attacked.” A flier put out by an anti-McCain group was claiming the candidate had given up military information in return for medical treatment as a POW in Vietnam. This was the kind of thing the McCain campaign had been watching out for. The Arizona senator came into South Carolina off a New Hampshire win back in 2000, but lost to George W. Bush after voters received anonymous phone calls telling particularly nasty lies about his private life. So the campaign has been on hair-trigger alert in these last days before the 2008 primary on Saturday. Jack, a retired colonel whom I’ve had the privilege of knowing for more than a decade, believes his old comrade would make the best president “because of all the stressful situations that he’s been under, and the way he’s responded.” But he had called me about something more important than that. It was a matter of honor. Jack was incredulous: “To say that John would ask for medical treatment in return for military information is just preposterous. He turned down an opportunity to go home early, and that was right in front of all of us.” “I mean, he was yelling it. I couldn’t repeat the language he used, and I wouldn’t repeat the language he used, but boy, it was really something. I turned to my cellmate … who heard it all also loud and clear; I said, ‘My God, they’re gonna kill him for that.’” The North Vietnamese by this time had stopped the torture — even taken McCain to the hospital, which almost certainly saved his life — and now they wanted just one thing: They wanted him to agree to go home, ahead of other prisoners. They saw in him an opportunity for a propaganda coup, because of something they’d figured out about him. “They found out rather quick that John’s father was (Admiral) John Sidney McCain II,” who was soon to be named commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, Jack said. “And they came in and said, ‘Your father big man, and blah-blah-blah,’ and John gave ’em name, rank and serial number and date of birth.” But McCain refused to accept early release, and Jack says he never acknowledged that his Dad was CINCPAC. Jack tries hard to help people who weren’t there understand what it was like. He gave a speech right after he finally was freed and went home. His father, a community college president in Oregon and “a consummate public speaker,” told him “That was the best talk I’ve ever heard you give.” But, his father added: “‘They didn’t believe you.’ “It just stopped me cold. ‘What do you mean, they didn’t believe me?’ He said, ‘They didn’t understand what you were talking about; you’ve got to learn to relate to them.’” “And I’ve worked hard on that,” he told me. “But it’s hard as hell…. You might be talking to an audience of two or three hundred people; there might be one or two guys that spent a night in a drunk tank. Trying to tell ‘em what solitary confinement is all about, most people … they don’t even relate to it.” Jack went home in the second large group of POWs to be freed in connection with the Paris Peace Talks, on March 4, 1973. “I was in for 70 months. Seven-zero — seventy months.” Doctors told him that if he lived long enough, he’d have trouble with that knee. He eventually got orthoscopic surgery right here in Columbia, where he is an active community leader — the current president of the Columbia Rotary. John McCain, who to this day is unable to raise his hands above his head — an aide has to comb his hair for him before campaign appearances — was released in the third group. He could have gone home long, long before that, but he wasn’t going to let his country or his comrades down. The reason Jack called me Wednesday was to make sure I knew that.
You may have seen this e-mail make the rounds already; I’m pretty sure I have. Samuel passed it to me (and many others, I’m sure) this morning:
DRAFTING GUYS OVER 60 New Direction for the war on terrorists. Send Prior Service Vets over 60!
I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I’m too old to track down Terrorists. (You can’t be older than 42 to join the military.)
They’ve got the whole thing backwards. Instead of sending 18-year-olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn’t be able to join a military unit until you’re at least 35. For starters:
Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.
Young guys haven’t lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. "My back hurts! I can’t sleep, I’m tired and hungry!" We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.
An 18-year-old doesn’t even like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys always get up early to pee so what the hell. Besides, like I said, "I’m tired and can’t sleep and since I’m already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical son-of-a-bitch.
If captured we couldn’t spill the beans because we’d forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.
Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We’re used to getting screamed and yelled at and we like soft food. We’ve also developed an appreciation for guns. We’ve been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.
They could lighten up on the obstacle course, however. I’ve been in combat and didn’t see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training. I can hear the Drill Sgt. now, "Get down and give me … er .. one."
Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy. I’ve never seen anyone outrun a bullet.
An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He’s still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn’t figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.
These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm’s way.
Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten cowards who attacked us on September 11. The last thing an enemy would want to see right now is a couple of million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.
If nothing else, put us on the border and we will have it secured the first night.
Share this with your senior friends. It’s purposely in big type so you can read it.
All Samuel had to say about it was "I am ready!" Me too, as I’ve said before.
This morning, I turned out for a campaign announcement by John McCain, and realized when I got to the State Museum that I should have dressed better — or at least shaved. He was there with four admirals, representative of the 110 admirals and generals who are endorsing his campaign.
It wasn’t just the brass; there were some impressive people from the ranks as well. Command Sergeant Major James "Boo" Alford, formerly of the U.S. Army Special Forces and veteran of Korea and Vietnam, was among them. That’s him pictured below with Tut Underwood, P.R. guy for the museum.
Here’s video from the event:
And here’s an excerpt from the release (which you can read in its entirety here):
Today over 100 retired admirals and generals endorsed John McCain for President of the United States at a press conference in Columbia, South Carolina. These distinguished leaders supporting John McCain come from all branches of the armed services and include former POWs, Medal of Honor recipients and former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
John McCain was joined today in Columbia by five distinguished military veterans: Admiral Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, USN (Ret.); Vice Admiral Mike Bowman, USN (Ret.); Rear Admiral Tom Lynch, USN (Ret.); Rear Admiral Bob Shumaker, USN (Ret.); and Major General Stan Spears, USA, Adjutant General of South Carolina.
"This nation is at war and we’d better damn well understand that fact," said Admiral Leighton "Snuffy" Smith, USN (Ret.). "John McCain understands it, and he is the only candidate that has not wavered one bit in his position regarding the importance of victory in the war against Islamic extremism or in his commitment to the troops who are doing the fighting. He has consistently demonstrated the kind and style of leadership that we believe is essential in our next Commander in Chief. Our nation faces a growing array of serious foreign policy challenges. John McCain is the ONE candidate who, in our view, truly understands the strategic landscape and is fully prepared to deal decisively and effectively with those who wish to be our friends and, importantly, those who wish us harm."
The event was held on the museum’s fourth floor. Sen. McCain and the admirals stood behind a twisted
steel beam from the World Trade Center — what you might call a way of focusing civilians’ minds on what’s important. (Inset, at right, you see Green Diamond opponent and McCain supporter Robert Adams and his kids by the beam.)
Anyway, when the event was over, I paused only to grab a quick coffee before going straightaway to get a nice short, regulation haircut. Next time, I’ll be ready.
Yesterday at Rotary, one of the preliminary speakers told an anecdote, the punch line of which was one I’ve heard a number of times recently: "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re reading it in English, thank a soldier."
I can assure you there was no ill intent toward anyone in the mind of the person who said that Monday. He simply meant to express the obligation that all of us owe to those who have worn the uniform of our country, and I agree with the sentiment. As for the actual words… well, as tends to happen during meetings, my mind starting riffing on what I’d heard, and it launched on two tracks. The first was that it seems that I started hearing that bit about "reading it in English" repeated more often about the time illegal immigration became such an emotional issue in this country. I suspect that I’m wrong; I’m sure I just started noticing the phrase, and hearing vague xenophobic echoes that weren’t really there, at about that time. After all, the two issues have no actual connection. Then I went down the second track: Is there any soldier alive today who fought in a war that prevented a situation in which we were likely to be speaking any language other than English? I started running through all the wars in my mind. Certainly we’d still speak English if we’d lost in 1783 or 1812. Maybe the Southwest was changed by the war with Mexico, but those guys have been dead a century and more. Certainly the world would be wildly different had we lost in 1919 or 1945, or the Cold War, but I suspect we’d still speak English — although maybe the REST of the world wouldn’t have switched to the English standard…
Anyway, all this nonsense was swept away when the main speaker stepped to the podium. It was Sgt. José Muñoz, United States Army. (That’s him in the video above. I apologize for the quality; I shot it with my phone.) The first words out of his mouth were to beg forgiveness for his strong accent. He had been born in Mexico. He became a U.S. citizen earlier this year. He has done two combat tours in Iraq, and is about to go to Afghanistan. He joked that he joined the Army hoping to see more of THIS, his adopted country, but has seen little outside of Fort Bragg, while he has been all over Iraq, first with artillery, and later with convoy security.
Sgt. Muñoz was visiting us as part of the Pentagon’s "Why We Serve" speakers program. (That’s his official portrait below at left, much better than my phone version.) He said he didn’t fully understand at first why he was going to the Pentagon. He had never been there
before. They just told him to show up in his Class A’s, so that’s what he did.
There was no particular political message other than the usual grousing about how "the media" always tell you the bad stuff that happens in Iraq. I just sat impassive through that, the way I always do (something that’s made easier by the fact that I know exactly what he means, and I know it has nothing to do with me). He had just come to tell why he, José Muñoz, is a United States soldier. He told of how, when he went into Iraq in the 2003 invasion, the Iraqi civilians treated him and his comrades like rock stars. Specifically, he said he felt like Ricky Martin. Later, it was more neutral, he said — they were looked upon just as a fact of life.
He also wanted to let everyone know that despite the fact that convoy security is extremely hazardous, his unit did not lose a single soldier during that deployment.
In response to a question that seemed to lead in this direction, Sgt. Muñoz volunteered the fact that his family came to this country legally. So that pretty much spoiled any pious little sermon I might offer on the immigration issue, seeing as how the angry people all insist that they don’t mind immigrants as long as they have their papers, and probably believe that if Sgt. Muñoz didn’t have his papers, he’d be essentially a different person (a sort of thinking I don’t follow, but that’s why I don’t get why this issue is as hot as it is).
In any case, suffice it to say that Sgt. Muñoz received a standing ovation. All present seemed to feel privileged to be in his presence.
Maybe we should add a corollary: "If you’re reading it in English as a second language, thank a soldier." I certainly made a point of thanking Sgt. Muñoz after the meeting. To me, and I believe to my fellow Rotarians, he’s a much bigger deal than Ricky Martin.
It’s an ABC News clip about a Marine staff sergeant surprising his young daughters upon his return from Iraq. It’s an evocative piece of video, and it stirred Rusty DePass to share this with us:
I can sympathize. I got my boy back from Afghanistan yesterday for 2 weeks. Nothing quite so dramatic but we are glad to have him home. During the next 2 weeks I think his Momma is planning to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, St. Patricks Day, and any other holidays she can think of.
Here’s wishing a joyful Chrismukkah, and many more such to come, to the DePass family, and my God bless all who serve, and their families.
Judge Michael Mukasey seems uncertain on the point of whether "waterboarding" is torture. Others who have tried it seem a bit more decisive. (Both of the following links were brought to my attention by Samuel Tenenbaum, who in real life
thinks about lots of things besides his 55-mph proposal.)
Here’s a video of a guy undergoing the treatment. He gets through it OK — but remember, he knew the guys doing this to him were friendlies, and would eventually stop.
Waterboarding is slow-motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of blackout and expiration. Usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch. If it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia — meaning, the loss of all oxygen to the cells. The lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threatened with its use again and again. Call it "Chinese water torture," "the barrel," or "the waterfall." It is all the same.
After reading that, and watching the video, I believe I’d agree with John McCain that this constitutes torture. (Of course, I would be loathe to argue the point in any case with the one presidential candidate who truly knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to torture.)
But here’s another question: If you were actually racing against the clock to prevent a terrorist attack that could kill hundreds or thousands, would you do it anyway? Or would you allow others to do it in your behalf? Or would you simply look the other way if they did?
I’ll tell you what got me thinking along those lines. It was the interview with Alan Dershowitz on the above-linked video. He didn’t seem to mind the use of the technique to stop terrorism, as long as there is "accountability." He would want the president of the United States to specifically permit it, in writing. That’s a lawyer for you. Strain at a gnat, miss the camel — or the beam, or whatever.
Personally, I wouldn’t want anybody I’d ever vote for to give permission for such a thing. Nor would I want him to give a nod and a wink, either. If some Jack Bauer-like subordinate did such a thing, without authorization, and did indeed save many lives doing so, I’d be inclined to thank him on behalf of a grateful nation, then prosecute him to the full extent of the law. Unlike Mr. Dershowitz, I think under the circumstances I could live with the inherent contradiction.
Please join Senator John McCain at 5:00pm on Friday, November
2nd, 2007 in honoring the memory of Lance Corporal Joshua L. Torrence, USMC.
Joshua graduated from White Knoll High School in Lexington, SC where he made a
name for himself both in the classroom and on the football field. He was the
epitome of a leader and a true team player. Following his graduation in 2003,
Joshua selflessly answered the call to duty. He enlisted in the United States
Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq. As those who knew Joshua will tell you,
it was no surprise that he volunteered to be transferred to Fallujah, where some
of the fiercest fighting of the war was taking place. Sadly, he lost his life
while on patrol on March 14, 2005.
Because of their love of Joshua and their gratitude for his
service and sacrifice, members of the White Knoll High School community have
united in a remarkable way. They have organized a massive grassroots campaign
in order to raise the $150,000 necessary to name the high school’s new field
house in Joshua’s honor. Senator McCain will be attending the November 2nd
ceremony which will take place prior to the White Knoll vs. Lexington football
game. Additionally, four of the 9/11 FDNY firefighters, who also play on the
FDNY football team, are flying to South Carolina to help honor Joshua’s
service.
Please join Senator McCain in supporting this
wonderful cause. Your financial support is much appreciated. This
event is non-political and 100% of the proceeds will go directly towards the
memorial field house. To learn more about Joshua and how to help the community
accomplish their goal, please visit the following:
News coverage about the effort: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9AshUXXQoQw
Which reminds me that I had meant to bring your attention to this editorial in the WSJ yesterday. It
was an editorial about the awarding of the third Medal of Honor in the war. It was presented to the family of Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. An excerpt:
The SEALs were at a tactical disadvantage and became pinned down in a ravine. Lt. Murphy, already wounded, moved out from behind cover, seeking open air for a radio signal to place a rescue call. He was shot several more times in the back. He dropped the transmitter, picked it back up and completed the call, and then rejoined the fight.
Only one of the four SEALS in the team would get out alive. Lt. Murphy was not one of them. The Journal’s conclusion:
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is almost spoiled for choice when it comes to such instances of heroism and sacrifice. It is regrettable that these volunteers are too often rewarded with indifference by the U.S. political culture, where "supporting the troops" becomes nothing more than a slogan when there is a score to settle. The representative men in this war are soldiers like Lt. Murphy.
Thank God for Lt. Murphy and those like him. And may God send solace and strength to his family. Those are his parents, Maureen and Daniel, below, with Navy Secretary Donald Winter at left.
SAS Special Forces Ops in Iran Britain ‘s Sunday Times reports that British SAS and American
and Australian Special Forces have been engaged in operations inside the Iranian
border to interdict weapons shipments. There have been at least half a dozen
intense firefights between the SAS and arms smugglers, a mixture of Iranians and
Shi’ite militiamen. The unreported fighting straddles the border between Iran
and Iraq and has also involved the Iranian military firing mortars into Iraq .
UK commanders are concerned that Iran is using a militia ceasefire to step up
arms supplies in preparation for an offensive against their base at Basra
airport. An SAS squadron is carrying out operations along the Iranian border in
Maysan and Basra provinces with other special forces, the Australian SAS and
American special-operations troops. They are patrolling the border, ambushing
arms smugglers bringing in surface-to-air missiles and components for roadside
bombs. “Last month, they were involved in six significant contacts, which killed
17 smugglers and recovered weapons, explosives and missiles,” a source said. It
was not clear if any of the dead were Iranian.
You’ll notice that our boys are involved too — but that’s on the Q.T.
I’m weary of seeing news stories about wounded soldiers and assertions of "support" for the troops mixed with suggestions of the futility of our military efforts in Iraq. Why aren’t there more accounts of what the troops actually do? How about narrations of individual battles and skirmishes, of their ever-evolving interactions with Iraqi troops and locals in Baghdad and Anbar province, and of increasingly resourceful "patterning" of terrorist networks that goes on daily in tactical operations centers?
The sad and often unspoken truth of the matter is this: Americans have been conditioned less to understand Iraq’s complex military reality than to feel sorry for those who are part of it.
After all the hard work my colleague Warren Bolton has done fight predatory lenders here in South Carolina, it’s gratifying to see this finally taking effect:
New DoD Predatory Lending Regulation Takes Effect The Department of Defense today put into effect a new regulation that protects service members and their families from high-cost, short-term loans. The regulation limits the fees and interest that creditors can charge on three specific types of loans: payday loans, vehicle title loans, and tax refund anticipation loans. These three products were targeted because they have high interest rates, coupled with short payback terms. Payday loan and vehicle title loans can often lead to a cycle of ever-increasing debt. Refund anticipation loans provide seven to 14-day advances on tax refunds, but at a high cost to the borrower. The financial stress service members and their families suffer in turn causes a decline in military readiness. The new regulation is part of wide-ranging DoD efforts to increase ‘financial literacy’ among servicemembers and their families. These efforts include 24/7 access to confidential financial planning and counseling, a variety of financial readiness training courses, improving the availability of small low-interest loans from financial institutions, promoting the practice of setting aside a $500 emergency savings account, and educating service members on the availability of counseling, grants, loans and other services from military aid societies.
Morning Edition, October 1, 2007 ·
A new federal law bans predatory lenders from taking advantage of
military personnel and their families. Check-cashing stores around
military bases often charge annual interest rates of 300 percent. But
the new law caps interest at 36 percent for loans to active-duty
military and their families.
Alison St. John reports from member station KPBS in San Diego.
Today, I was "on the bus," as Ken Kesey would put it, with John McCain, attending events in Aiken and Lexington, and riding with the senator on his "No Surrender Tour" bus in between.
I have a lot more material than I can go through today, but in order not to keep my readers waiting entirely, here’s some fairly representative footage from the Lexington event — formally, the "Veterans Appreciation Lunch and No Surrender Rally," at 11:45 a.m. at the American Legion Post 7, just off just off Harmon Street.
The theme for the tour, which ends tonight in Charleston, was the war in Iraq, with McCain presenting points he’s been stressing — well, forever, really, but particularly since the Petraeus testimony last week. His message was pitched as an advance of what’s likely to happen next in the Senate, with Democrats and the president resuming the monotony of putting up an amendment with a withdrawal date, having it knocked down, putting up another one, etc.
Turnout was good at both events. You can see the SRO crowd at this one; the one in Aiken was much the same.
I was chided by an anonymous poster who claims to be — and who, from the tone and context of the message, I believe is — a U.S. soldier back on this post:
I am a US soldier, and Iraq war vet scheduled to go back in 2009, and not a "professional nut job". I think we SHOULD pull all troops out immediately–we soldiers accomplished the missions given to us, don’t change the mission on us now, especially under Bush’s leadership…
Fortunately, I can read that with a clear conscience because it was very clear in my post who I was referring to as the unelected professional whack jobs, and it was obviously not this soldier. All one had to do, if confused, was click on the link.
I was reminded on this when I read this piece by another American in uniform, this one a Marine. I hope you will read it. It examined head-on the truths behind this ugly fact:
(A)ccording to an August CNN poll, 68% of Americans said Gen. David Petraeus’s congressional testimony on Iraq this week would not sway their personal view one way or the other. Worse, 53% of Americans do not trust him to report what’s really going on in Iraq, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll published Monday.
He wrote of "the blatant absence of common ground" in our pathologically partisan political culture:
First, the Republicans declared the enemy in Iraq defeated before we started fighting, later employing invective to attack rational critics of the order of battle. Then Democrats declared the war lost just as we employed a new strategy. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has been especially careless, declaring defeat last spring, labeling the new strategy and the surge in troops a "failure" before it began, slandering an elite warrior in Marine Gen. Peter Pace, and continuously undercutting Gen. Petraeus–most recently dismissing his forthcoming testimony as "Bush’s report."
He ended with a plea — a demand — that whatever we think about the politicians who have never risked enemy fire or led those who do so, we should take the general at his word:
…Gen. Petraeus is a guardian whose lifelong calling is service to his country. He knows the enemy. He knows our limitations. And he is telling the truth.
This rings true with me because of something that goes beyond Gen. Petraeus, beyond Iraq, even beyond the realm of the military, of war and peace.
Over the past 30 years or so, the profoundly destructive dynamic of Democrat vs. Republican has become something that to its adherents supercedes truth or honor or anything so alien to the practitioners’ value system as honor.
Such people — those who believe in the left-vs.-right nonsense the way others among us believe in God — don’t trust any code that claims to be above their own. Not only do they not trust soldiers, they don’t trust the FBI, or local cops, or anyone who has devoted his or her life to public service outside of the partisan sphere.
Here’s one way this manifests itself: Instead of letting the "bureaucrats" who do it for a living investigate a potentially criminal matter independently, we create monsters called special prosecutors, to conduct the inquiry along partisan lines. This has always disgusted me. You see, I trust people who devote their lives to public service outside the self-serving realm of partisan politics. I respect bureaucrats. But the partisans spit on them.
And now, they’re doing it to soldiers, whom I respect even more, but for some of the same reasons. All in the service of their partisan gods.
Southern Afghanistan 16 AUG 2007 Dear Family and Friends: Well, three months, 25% of the deployment has passed and Team Swamp Fox is doing very well and making measurable progress mentoring the Afghan National Police (ANP). Since we began combat operations in our AO we have only had one day off. There is a great deal of work to be done and much terrain to be covered. There has been so much that has happened since my last update I am finding it very difficult to begin.
What follows is a series of pictures from numerous missions over the past several weeks which illustrate the challenges the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) faces in eliminating Taliban and Al Qaeda without and the corruption within. I am encouraged each day by my fellow Swamp Fox teammates as well as my ANP counterparts. As you know from my previous emails the ANP is struggling to clean its house of those that would rape, steal and murder the population they are charged with protecting. One of the most encouraging signs developing here is the team of ANP “Regulators” that Team Swamp Fox is mentoring. This is only one of our many responsibilities working with the ANP.
The Regulators are established to receive additional specialized training to exemplify the high standards that should be present in the ANP and be the enforcement of those standards on other ANP throughout the Province at the direction of the Provincial Police Chief. We know that we, the US or ISAF, cannot bring about the necessary and sustainable change ourselves. It must come within the ANP itself. To see ANP officers correcting others and being proud of the uniform they wear and proud of their service to their country gives us all encouragement. Just as impressive to us has been the devotion that has developed in the Regulators for the members of Team Swamp Fox and us for them. When the Regulators finish their training, they will then train others and those will train others and those others and so on.
As you can see from these photos we have demanded a great deal from them and they have met the challenge with each mission and with each training day and as a result security is improving….
Burn baby burn… Millions worth of raw opium goes up in smoke. It took more than a day for it to completely burn. Had these drugs not been destroyed, they would most likely have been processed for sale in the UK and US and the proceeds of which would be used to support TB and Al Qaeda.
Stacks of counterfeit US $100 Dollar bills created in another nearby country unfriendly to US interests to be exchanged into Afghan currency and used to support the TB and Al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan….
Having ANP ANA and American and Romanian Soldiers descend upon your home early in the morning can be an unnerving experience no matter your age. With every action we take we accompany an Information Operation (I/O) campaign so that we communicate the “who,” “what” and “why” we are present. By performing the cordon and search with the I/O campaign we connect with the locals and communicate the importance of their help and we send a clear message to the enemy…
The Face of the Enemy… – One of the suspected Taliban fighters charged with
possession of illegal weapons, ammunition, rocket and bomb making material in his compound….
One of the best parts of the job is the kids. The first thing is they remind me of my own children at home and how proud I am of them. When seeing and
speaking with the children and knowing the environment they are growing up in how could you want anything else that for them than to have a secure and peaceful place in which to grow and learn. The girl’s school, which of course did not exists when the Taliban were in charge, is doing a fantastic job and the courses in both the boys and girls schools look very familiar and remind me of the challenges I had with such subjects as chemistry, algebra, physics and geometry. They are also being taught English and they are all too proud to share their knowledge as they point and say “bird” or “boy.”…
We all are privileged to serve our Country in this way. As do all who are deployed away from home, we miss our families and friends and we hope with each days work that it in some way merits the loss of our time with our families … that our work is making a difference. Even more so for those who have given all their tomorrows for this cause, we commit ourselves every morning to making sure that we leave this place better than we found it so that this place, Afghanistan, will never again be a place that exports the terrorism we saw visited upon our Nation on September 11, 2001. We have not forgotten why we are here.
He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust. Psalm 91 Cheers, J
Fridays are ridiculously busy and long in Editorial, so even though I had received this PDF file from our correspondent "MacGyver" operating out of Kandahar early this morning, I’m just getting to posting it now. To read all of it, with all the pictures, call up the full file. In the meantime, here are excerpts:
27 JUL 2007 Dear Family and Friends: I hope all is well. Here, this mission is proving to be all that we anticipated and more. Team Swamp Fox had been trained to serve as Embedded Tactical Trainers (ETTs) for the Afghan National Army (ANA) but when we got here we were tasked as ETTs for the Afghan National Police (ANP). Team Swamp Fox is spending most of its time training and mentoring the ANP to be able to defeat TB and Al Qaeda attacks and secure and maintain peace and security after we leave….
Our mission has moved into the execution phase in one of the most difficult areas in country and working with the most challenging indigenous force to mentor. Team Swamp Fox is one of the first mentor teams to work with the ANP in the 205th Corp area – otherwise known as RC South – Southern Afghanistan. A new man replaced the previously arrested Provincial Police Chief (PPC) by the name of Gen. Yacoub. Gen. Yacoub was formally an ANA Kandak Commander and has the military experience needed in the Province. He has tremendous challenges ahead and has a staff not of his choosing some of which has very close ties to the TB. Team Swamp Fox has traveled most of the province making assessments of the various District Police Chiefs and Ring Road (Hwy 1) Check Point commanders. I have sent photos of these travels in previous email photo updates. Essentially, we found some semi-good ones but many others who steal from the local population, kidnap and hold young boys as sex slaves, assist the TB with food, water and equipment, actively assist in emplacing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), assist the TB in hiding the weapons caches. As part of the insurgency the TB will commit atrocities on the local population in ANP uniforms to undermine the people’s support of the Government of Afghanistan (GoA). One of our challenges will be separating the good from the bad….
This MAJ Shay Pallan (translated his name means Lion Leopard) [Pictured above]. MAJ Pallan has been in combat for 25 years and formally a Mujahadeen Tank Commander. MAJ Pallan and I hit it off and got along real well almost right away. Despite his countenance in this photo, he has a great sense of humor and understands military discipline and its importance on the battlefield. Most importantly, he makes sure his policemen/soldiers have what the need. That brings me to another point… Although these guys are called policemen, the really don’t do police work like we understand it to be. The are no statutes to enforce and they essentially are a domestic security force that operates more militarily to defeat the TB – Al Qaeda insurgency – which is good for us because we are not policemen and can’t teach that but we can teach them military tactics to increase their survivability….
Civilians are always a primary concern for us and the TB all too often use civilians as a shield, a violation of the law of war…(not that such a violation would be a concern of theirs). In many cases they will fire upon Coalition and Government of Afghanistan (GoA) forces from buildings containing civilians. This young boy handled those sheep like a master – he was moving his sheep through the area we were operating and I took a moment to speak with him and provide him with a bottle of water….
I love the Sat-phone – anytime anywhere – well anywhere outside – because the antenna has
to be outside – I can call anywhere in the world… I think of my family who has fought in previous wars… and what kind of communication they have had or not have had… to be so far in the middle of no where and simply dial a few numbers and speak to your loved ones keeps you connected to home…
They were so proud when they returned – they turned on their blue lights and sirens and paraded through the streets of Qalat – they were very proud of their hard work and felt honored to be working with Americans… the ANP has been largely left alone without supervision or oversight and the increased focus on the ANP will replicate the ANA success of the past… The ANP seemed to be very devoted to the work and desirous of being a professional force… as you can see we have a lot of work to do … but they are ready for the hard work ahead…
[This goes with picture below] I told them how proud Team Swamp Fox was to be working with them but it is up to them to secure their country – they have to want it and be willing to give everything for it… we would be with them side by side as we were in this operation but if “Asadi” (Freedom) is what they want for their Country then it is ultimately up to them, the ANA and the people of Afghanistan…
Thank you for your continued prayers. The Team is doing very well and making a difference for the American and Afghan peoples. The Taliban and Al Qaeda cannot and will not be able to train and export terrorist activities from Afghanistan. As a soldier here, I hope that our nation will not wait and allow Pakistan to become the next Afghanistan.
While our work at times may involve direct action against the enemy, we achieve our biggest victories by building relationship with the people. And that takes time… lots of it….
A child’s heart is a loving heart… The children are always the first to great us and they have no doubt been conditioned a bit as US soldiers at times give treats while they pass but it always reminds me of my alma mater’s, the University of South Carolina’s motto – “Education humanizes the heart and does not permit it to be cruel.” I have never seen that pronounced so clearly and with such exclamation as when I pass each day and village and people here. And I believe the converse of that is true. A heart of hatred has to be trained and conditioned to hate… Those that would follow the Taliban and intentionally kill themselves and those completely innocent with them have to be taught to hate us and others like us. Despite our different languages and cultures and vastly different wealth… as peoples those things really important in life we share. The value of our families and our communities and a desire for the opportunity for our families to live and grow in a safe, healthy, peaceful and secure environment.
The Wonderland of Washington, driven by polls and 24/7 TV, is its own, separate reality. Unfortunately, the TV-watching public and partisan activists think it’s the reality.
Meanwhile, over in Iraq, the surge is doing what it was intended to do, as this piece back on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal — under the appropriate headline, "Moving Forward in Iraq" — reports:
In Washington perception is often mistaken for reality. And as Congress prepares for a fresh debate on Iraq, the perception many members have is that the new strategy has already failed. This isn’t an accurate reflection of what is happening on the ground, as I saw during my visit to Iraq in May. Reports from the field show that remarkable progress is being made. Violence in Baghdad and Anbar Province is down dramatically, grassroots political movements have begun in the Sunni Arab community, and American and Iraqi forces are clearing al Qaeda fighters and Shiite militias out of long-established bases around the country. This is remarkable because the military operation that is making these changes possible only began in full strength on June 15. To say that the surge is failing is absurd. Instead Congress should be asking this question: Can the current progress continue?
That’s the way it starts. I hope the link works so that you can read the whole thing. The next 10 or so paragraphs go into greater detail about the ways in which the surge is working. The author, Kimberly Kagan, is "an affiliate of Harvard’s John M. Olin Institute of Strategic Studies, is executive director of the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. She even tries to express some optimism about Mr. Maliki’s efforts to achieve the strategic aim of the surge, a political solution. That part is somewhat less convincing. But the part about what our military is achieving is convincing.
What would be wonderful — what we owe our troops — is to praise and applaud and encourage what they are accomplishing. But that’s not what we’re doing back in this country, is it?
The piece ends this way:
This is war, and the enemy is reacting. The enemy uses
suicide bombs, car bombs and brutal executions to break our will and
that of our Iraqi allies. American casualties often increase as troops
move into areas that the enemy has fortified; these casualties will
start to fall again once the enemy positions are destroyed. Al Qaeda
will manage to get some car and truck bombs through, particularly in
areas well-removed from the capital and its belts. But we should not allow individual atrocities to
obscure the larger picture. A new campaign has just begun, it is
already yielding important results, and its effects are increasing
daily. Demands for withdrawal are no longer demands to pull out of a
deteriorating situation with little hope; they are now demands to end a
new approach to this conflict that shows every sign of succeeding.
Indeed. And that demand is coming from both Democrats and Republicans. What is happening in this country is an appalling spectacle.
Everybody makes fun of poor ol’ Al "I’m in control" Haig, but the general has a lot of sense, and we could do worse — and would probably be much better off — if he were in charge now.
Admittedly, I’m just basing that on this short op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal today, but common sense seems in such short supply these days, I get all worked up when I run across it. An excerpt:
John Quincy Adams warned us against going abroad "in search of monsters to destroy," and some argue that the war on terror is just such a case. I disagree. On 9/11, the monster found us asleep at home and will continue to find us inadequately prepared unless we muster more strength and more wisdom. Unless we break with illusionary democracy mongering, inept handling of our military resources and self-defeating domestic political debates, we are in danger of becoming our own worst enemy.
Actually, that was a tough piece to excerpt in a truly representative manner. I recommend you go read it. It won’t take long.
The event was held on the museum’s fourth floor. Sen. McCain and the admirals stood behind a twisted
The Face of the Enemy… – One of the suspected Taliban fighters charged with
