At Los Angeles Times, "Rick Perry: Marines who urinated on dead bodies are 'kids'." And at USA Today, "Perry slams Obama team's response to Marines video."Boeing reported a $1.1 billion quarterly profit on Wednesday that beat expectations because of strong growth in its defense business.Photo: "Long Beach Boeing C-17 Tour."
The company's passenger jet profit grew more slowly and manufacturing problems have forced it to cut its forecast for deliveries of its two newest jets.
A large share of Boeing's defense work is done in Long Beach and surrounding communities, including production of the C-17 Globemaster cargo jet, satellite research and development in Seal Beach, and engineering and other work in Huntington Beach.
Boeing also maintains a large defense workforce in El Segundo, where crews operate the world's largest satellite manufacturing facility, said Paula Shawa, Boeing's regional spokesperson.
RELATED: At London's Daily Mail, "Rebel fighter answered Gaddafi daughter's desperate phone call and told her: Old Fuzzhead is dead."
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he had ordered the deployment of 100 armed military advisers to central Africa to help regional forces combat the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity.Well, it's certainly fits the progressive rationale for foreign military intervention: human rights. But 100 "advisers"? Sounds like how the Kennedy administration sent advisers to Vietnam and we ended up with 500,000 troops in country by the end of 1965. And boy, it's that some creepy group, the LRA. I'd be interested to hear some of the internal White House debate on the mission.
The deployment represents a muscular escalation of American military efforts to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army, which originated as a Ugandan rebel force in the 1980s and morphed into a fearsome cultlike group of fighters. It is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet known for ordering village massacres, recruiting prepubescent soldiers, keeping harems of child brides and mutilating opponents.
“For more than two decades, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa,” Mr. Obama wrote in a letter to Congress announcing the military deployment. “The LRA continues to commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan that have a disproportionate impact on regional security.”
The decision by Mr. Obama to deploy armed military advisers into the region was welcomed by human rights advocates who have chronicled the atrocities committed by Mr. Kony and his subordinates. But it also raises the risk of putting American military personnel in harm’s way in another region while the United States is winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rebecca Taber and the Army lieutenant kissed on the sidewalk outside her 16th Street apartment.What a guy.
They had met through friends and had spent, at most, six hours together over the course of two evenings. In a few weeks, 1st Lt. Dan Berschinski was going to Afghanistan, where he would lead a platoon of 35 men. It was June 2009.
Rebecca, then 23, noticed the black memorial bracelet that he wore as a reminder that his soldiers’ lives would depend on his decisions. “It made me think that he was mature,” she recalled. The looming danger of his combat tour only added to the evening’s excitement. Rebecca felt as though she were playing a part in a movie.
She had graduated from Yale University one year earlier, where she had been student body president. She was slim and pretty with a high forehead and dark hair. People told her that she resembled actress Natalie Portman.
Like most of her friends, she knew no one her age in the military and gave only passing thought to the wars. Speaking to students at Duke University last year, former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates lamented that “for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do.” He could have been describing Rebecca.
After graduation, she landed a sought-after job working for McKinsey & Co., a management consulting powerhouse that each year hires a small number of the country’s best college students. She was one of those earnest Ivy League graduates who come to Washington convinced that it’s their destiny to do something of consequence.
Earlier that night, at a U Street bar, she had asked Dan if he was scared of combat. The 25-year-old lieutenant said his biggest worry was making a mistake that would cause one of his soldiers to be injured.
As they kissed on the sidewalk, Dan’s mind shifted to less consequential matters. He wanted to get upstairs to her apartment, but she kept putting him off. She had work the next morning, she said. Her Indian roommate’s conservative parents were staying in her spare bedroom. She barely knew him.
He reminded her that he was leaving for war in just two weeks and gave it one last shot.
“Don’t let me die a virgin,” he joked. She turned him away.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE TILLMAN, Afghanistan — The sun had been up less than a half-hour on the 10th anniversary of the start of the American-led war in Afghanistan when the first rocket struck. Flying in from near the border with Pakistan, it shook this outpost with an explosion that hinted at the long day ahead.More at the top link.
Soon insurgents near the border were firing on four Afghan-American outposts simultaneously — a coordinated barrage and assault that included dozens of 107-millimeter rockets, and at one post, a suicide truck bomber, American military officers said.
Only one American soldier was wounded in the insurgent attack, which the American regional command called the largest in Paktika Province since 2009. His wounds were not life-threatening. But the events on Friday demonstrated that as the war begins its second decade and the Pentagon plans to start sending tens of thousands of soldiers home after a buildup that since last year has made significant gains, the United States remains bedeviled by a bold, resilient foe.
Most of the high-explosive rockets striking the outposts were fired from just inside Afghanistan, suggesting that the attack had been prepared and launched from Pakistan, and the rocket crews withdrew to sanctuaries there as the Americans fired back.
And the relative weakness of Afghan soldiers and police officers living and working on the American-built bases was equally clear.
As the attacks escalated in the morning, only the American military possessed the firepower, communications and skills to fight back in what developed into a long-range, artillery-and-rocket duel — raising once more the familiar questions about how Afghan forces, underwritten at tremendous expense, will fare when the United States pulls back.
"It is only American power—conceived in the broadest terms—that can provide the foundation of an international system that ensures the security and prosperity of the United States and our friends and allies around the world."I was impressed with Romney's foreign policy back in 2008, and I met Romney at the book signing for his autobiography. I admire his values, which really come out here. Bruce Kesler has more, at Maggie's Farm, "Serious Republican Foreign Policy." And at Weekly Standard, "Romney Criticizes Obama at Military College."
Only about one half of one percent of the U.S. population has been on active military duty at any given time during the past decade of sustained warfare. Some 84% of post-9/11 veterans say the public does not understand the problems faced by those in the military or their families. The public agrees, though by a less lopsided majority—71%.
I cannot describe to you my shock, my awe. I hardly know what to say -- these items are sacred. Our freedom is written in the blood of these heroes, but they honor me with these treasures. I do not deserve such precious gifts. But I heard that Harry Reid had requested this 911 flag, and the heroes at Camp Leatherneck said "No, we are giving it to Pamela Geller." Let me tell you, that was delicious.
About 3,400 spectators witnessed the first navy vessel commissioning ceremony ever to take place in Key West, despite the island being a base for naval operations for almost two centuries.
The battleship Maine sailed from Key West prior to her 1898 sinking in Havana, leading to the Spanish-American War. In 1917, Navy seaplane and blimp activity began at Naval Air Station Key West. The facility expanded to nearby Boca Chica Key in 1943 and today remains a strategic air base.
"We have such a proud history and tradition with the U.S. Navy down here all the way back to the Civil War," said Key West Mayor Craig Cates. "To have the navy commission a new warship in our city makes us so very proud."
My view of this targeted killing is straightforwardly, congratulations, Mr. President. What has been visible publicly leaves little or no doubt in my mind that Al-Aulaqi was deeply involved in AQAP in operations, and indeed at the highest levels.And at the update:
Who? As an international law matter, is Al-Aulaqi a lawful target? The US government sees him as taking part in hostilities, part of the operational leadership of an associated force with Al Qaeda, the AQAP. So, yes, he can be targeted with lethal force — and targeted without warning, without an attempt to arrest or apprehend as a law enforcement matter.Still more at the link.
Where? Does it matter that he was in Yemen, and not an “active battlefield” in a conventional hostilities sense? The US government does not accept the idea that the armed conflict with Al Qaeda — or armed conflict generally — is confined as a legal matter to some notion of “theatres of conflict” or “active battlefields” or related terms that have been used in recent years by academics and activist groups. As I understand the US government position, it sticks by the traditional concept of “hostilities,” and that where the hostiles go, the possibility of armed conflict goes too (I try to explain this evolution of these views in this short essay). So the fact that he was present in Yemen does not make him beyond targeting, because he is not present in some “active” battlezone such as Afghanistan.
This claim — the conflict follows the participants — frequently leads to a complaint that this means the US might target him in Paris or London. The US position is that the standard for addressing non-state actor terrorists taking safe haven somewhere depends on whether the sovereign where the terrorist is hiding is “unwilling or unable” to address the threat. No, there won’t be Predators Over Paris; Yemen or Somalia is another matter, as President Obama has repeatedly and without cavil said in speeches over the last few years.
But this a$$magot has nothing to write about the victims of al Awlaki and other terrorists. His only concern is that the terrorists didn't get 'due process'...Greenwald hates America. He routinely attacks American policy as equivalent to the Nazis. What's amazing is how well his hate goes over. But that's the left for you.
Sometimes there's a downside to the 1st Amendment, and it's having to listen to drivel like this. And yes, I will continue to cheer the death of terrorists, whether they were once a fellow American citizen or not.
Be sure to watch the interview, if you can, where Greenwald speaks so proudly of al Awlaki's radicalism and seemingly justifies terrorism in response to U.S. aggression in Iraq.
BEHAR: But what did you – I have to ask you, what did you think of the booing that went on the other day, about the gay soldier. Did you have a visceral response to it?Also at NewsBusters, "Joy Behar Baits Biden to Slam GOP Candidates on The View."
BIDEN: I did have a visceral response, and I'm not sure it's because my son spent a year in Iraq, and I know my son and all the kids with him. Kids – they're grown men. I don't think they give a damn whether a guy firing a rifle to protect them is gay or straight. I don't think they care about that. And look, this kid risked his life, this kid is there for a year, and I, quite frankly, I thought it was reprehensible.
BEHAR: Right. And no one spoke up. That entire panel, not one person said anything.
Her barely audible delivery and long pauses appeared to make Gates and other dignitaries on stage uncomfortable.
In a tweet Thursday night from the auditorium, Inquirer Staff writer Tom Infield reported that Delaney "seemed high or ill, or something. She stumbled in speaking. Had to be led to seat."
No word yet from Delaney's representatives what might have caused her behavior.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a way of containing the destructive force of sex on a combat capability called “unit cohesion.” To create the perfect killing machine, the military works hard to drain recruits of their individuality and their self-interested desires in order to make them think like cogs, well, in a machine. An essential part of the military mind is that the members of a fighting unit don’t think for themselves, but do as they are told. They work as a unit in which each performs an appointed task. The mission objective – not personal consideration – guides their actions. Suppose a commander were faced with the choice of risking his unit or risking the life of his own son, for example. Suppose the life of his son were threatened, but to save him would risk the military objective his superiors had set. Suppose he let the human override the imperatives of the machine. He would be doing what was natural, but the military objective he sacrificed might cost the lives of hundreds or thousands.Also, Mackubin Thomas Owens, "The Case Against Gays in the Military":
To avoid such breaches of military discipline, military policy does not allow family members to fight in the same unit. The same principle underlies its policy towards gays. Sacrifice of unit cohesion and military order is the threat that sex between soldiers poses for any combat force. The open inclusion of gays in the military is regarded by military men who oppose it a threat to effectiveness of the military as a fighting force.
Winning the nation's wars is the military's functional imperative. Indeed, it is the only reason for a liberal society to maintain a military organization. War is terror. War is confusion. War is characterized by chance, uncertainty and friction. The military's ethos constitutes an evolutionary response to these factors—an attempt to minimize their impact.We'll of course see how these arguments play out in real life.
Accordingly, the military stresses such martial virtues as courage, both physical and moral, a sense of honor and duty, discipline, a professional code of conduct, and loyalty. It places a premium on such factors as unit cohesion and morale. The glue of the military ethos is what the Greeks called philia—friendship, comradeship or brotherly love. Philia, the bond among disparate individuals who have nothing in common but facing death and misery together, is the source of the unit cohesion that most research has shown to be critical to battlefield success.
Philia depends on fairness and the absence of favoritism. Favoritism and double standards are deadly to philia and its associated phenomena—cohesion, morale and discipline—are absolutely critical to the success of a military organization.
The presence of open homosexuals in the close confines of ships or military units opens the possibility that eros—which unlike philia is sexual, and therefore individual and exclusive—will be unleashed into the environment. Eros manifests itself as sexual competition, protectiveness and favoritism, all of which undermine the nonsexual bonding essential to unit cohesion, good order, discipline and morale.
The desperate call crackled over the radio in predawn darkness: A small team of American and Afghan troops was pinned down in a remote village under withering fire from three sides. A young lieutenant was begging for artillery or air support. Without it, he yelled, "we are going to die out here."Added: Bing West's essay, "The Afghan Rescue Mission Behind Today's Medal of Honor."
Can't be done, came the reply. It might kill civilians.
Less than a mile away, Marine Cpl. Dakota L. Meyer heard the radio exchange in agony. His buddies were dying, yet Meyer was under orders to stay where he was. Four times he requested permission to go to their aid, and four times he was refused.
After two hours, Meyer decided to defy his superiors. The powerfully built 21-year-old with a soft Kentucky drawl climbed into the turret of a gun truck mounted with a .50-caliber machine gun and, with another Marine driving, raced toward the battle.
On Thursday, Meyer was at the White House to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, for saving the lives of 36 combatants — 13 Americans and 23 Afghans — and personally killing at least eight Taliban fighters that day, Sept. 8, 2009. He is the first living Marine to receive the award since the Vietnam War.
Meyer, now 23, stood at attention in dress uniform as President Obama recounted what happened in the village of Ganjigal in Afghanistan's Kunar province.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Heavily armed insurgents wearing suicide vests struck Tuesday at two of the most prominent symbols of the American diplomatic and military presence in Kabul, the United States Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters, demonstrating the Taliban’s ability to infiltrate even the most heavily fortified districts of the capital.Keep reading.
As the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, Westerners sought shelter — one rocket penetrated the embassy compound — and Afghan government workers fled their offices, emptying the city center. NATO and Afghan troops responded with barrages of bullets. At least 6 people were killed and 19 wounded.
