Why isn't there more talk of the smoking gun memo?

[MrFun]

Some people will continue to plug their ears and sing out loud, "I can't hear you, I can't hear you!"

[Dinner]

In related news it seems Rumsfield will get his leaners Army but not the way he was thinking. Enlistments in the Army have fallen off precipitously -- missing the quota by 42 percent for May's original goal of 8,050 enlistees.

Short of fresh troops to relieve units deployed twice or three times into Iraqi, the Army is abandoning standards of its all-volunteer force.

It wants to lure enlistees with a doubled signup bonus of $40,000. Maximum age for new officers is being raised from 35 years old to 42. Criminal offenses will no longer be a bar to enlistment. Educational standards will be relaxed. Army personnel usually discharged for misconduct and inferior performance will be allowed to remain.

BTW Rumsfield continues to claim the force isn't over stretched and that they don't need to expand the total number of troops in the military in order to slow down the op-temp. Even responsible Republican Senators like McCain have said they have no confidence in Rumsfield and that he's running the military into the ground.

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=06-15-2005&ID=2005103539

[Ted Striker]

The Iraqi charade is destroying the Army the same way Vietnam did. Just not to the same degree...yet.

No offense Oerdin. You are a good soldier.

[Alexander's Horse]

they are already sending back amputees - probably the first war ever where that has happened

Maybe Charles Grainer and Lyndie England will get a second tour

[Ted Striker]

I'm surprised we aren't going to 3rd world nations to get soldiers. The way Rome used to get the Germans to do all their fighting in later years.

We already do alot of outsourcing, why not outsource the army. In this adminstration's masturbatory affection for privitization, it would make sense.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
they are already sending back amputees - probably the first war ever where that has happened

I'd really like to see a source for that, if for no other reason than to tick myself off reading it.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I'm surprised we aren't going to 3rd world nations to get soldiers. The way Rome used to get the Germans to do all their fighting in later years.

You tried that before and ended up with the Taliban

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs


I'd really like to see a source for that, if for no other reason than to tick myself off reading it.

What better source than Foxnews, who think amputees going back to Iraq is a damn fine idea.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151759,00.html

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


You tried that before and ended up with the Taliban

Good point.

They seem to want to blow us up when we stop paying them.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


What better source than Foxnews, who think amputees going back to Iraq is a damn fine idea.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151759,00.html

On the upside they aren't likely to find any other employer that wants them. Sucks but true.

[Ted Striker]

I have mixed feelings. Someone with a prosthetic limb who wants to fight should certainly be able to if they can do the job.

On the other hand it does show the extremes to which the Army is going if it is doing something like that that it has not before.

[Alexander's Horse]

I tend to think those who have given a limb have done their bit, but yes, its their call.

[Dinner]

Most people would but suspect they'd be working at Wal-mart if they didn't stay with the Army so that could be a financially better choice for them.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Of course, you could argue that attributing nearly any attack to Al Qaeda is misleading, given the extremely nebulous nature of that organization. Such is the problem with using commonly accepted, but ultimately inaccurate terms.

Not really. Various organizations have MOs. When the 2nd tower was hit, I knew AQ was behind it (I was also one of the few people who knew the morning of the OKC bombing that white supremicists/militias were behind it). That's their MO, big showy attacks. Nearly all of AQs attacks have the same character.

While AQ isn't like EIJ or Abu Nidal, it's real and it's an actual force.

[Dinner]

AP: We "dropped the ball" on Downing memo

As newspaper editors look back and examine why the controversial Downing Street memo, first published by the Times of London on May 1, received so little coverage in their papers, several of them are pointing to the same culprit: the Associated Press. Editors rely on the worldwide wire service to let them know what's worthy of attention, and that's particularly true for international events. In the case of the Downing Street memo out of London, they say the AP simply failed to cover the story.

Jim Cox, USA Today's senior assignment editor for foreign news, tells Salon that when the story first broke last month, "we looked to wires for guidance" but for days didn't see anything. It was a month before the paper reported on the memo; Cox takes the blame for that omission.

On Sunday, the ombudsman at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune addressed readers' complaints about the paper's lack of Downing memo coverage. According to that account, the paper's nation/world editor, Dennis McGrath, was aware of the memo story when it broke in May, and he and his deputies "began watching for a wire story. A week later, they were still watching. 'We were frustrated the wires weren't providing stories on this,' McGrath said." The paper eventually assigned the story to a local reporter.

At the Portland Oregonian recently, public editor Michael Arrieta-Walden covered the same territory: "For an international story, the Oregonian primarily relies on material provided from about 10 wire services. The Associated Press, the world's largest newsgathering organization, essentially didn't cover the document in its reports until last weekend in a story mostly about John Bolton, Bush's nominee to become U.N. ambassador. The document then was reported on in an AP story stemming from last week's news conference involving Blair and Bush."

More...

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/06/14/downing/index.html