Army Times: McCain Flip Flop or Fib?

Even The Army Times is kicking John McCain for his crazy attacks on Barrack Obama:

So where does McCain really stand? Some bloggers and analysts have suggested that he used the term “future combat systems” generically. Obama’s campaign maintains their candidate was speaking specifically about FCS, in which case McCain may be twisting his rival’s words.

Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute called it deceitful.

“McCain’s interpretation of Obama’s position is typical of the way in which the Republicans have twisted Democratic views in order to undercut their opponents and at the same time obscure the past positions of the Republicans,” Thompson said. “Future Combat Systems is the centerpiece of Army modernization. However, McCain has been more critical of it than anyone else in the chamber. Obama has been much more detailed and thoughtful in his comments about future military investment than McCain’s very superficial statements.”

Officials with the McCain campaign did not return phone calls and emails requesting clarification.

They manage to point to the reality that McCain had said point blank that he would scrub FCS completely from the military budget in the WaPo and now McCain is twisting himself up like a pretzel trying to distance himself from his own previous official campaign position on FCS.

And to make matters worse for McCain. He is is McLying AND trying to say Obama's policy on FCS is bad because he merely wants to review the program and cut some of the "wasteful spending" - you know? Missile systems and other pork programs that don't work at all or won't provide any more value than a bridge to nowhere would...

The reality of the Future Combat systems is that there is a constant evolution in the list of equipment that is wanted, needed, developed and tested as new wants and needs are pinpointed.

My unit was one of many tasked with testing a lot of the early FCS equipment that is now in use today. On paper a lot of the equipment sounded great. In the field some of these systems might prove to be invaluable while others would be deemed pure junk and useless. Either they couldn't build something rugged enough, or the technology needed to function properly was still out of the engineers' grasp.

There is not an American I know that wants soldiers to have anything less than the best equipment available to them. But neither soldier nor civilian wants to see our government flushing money down the drain on junk or useless programs when there are so many equipment shortcomings on even the basic equipment a soldier needs to function. Except for, apparently, John McCain. Either he wants to scrub the entire FCS program as he has stated earlier... Or he thinks we should be wasting our money on useless programs now.

Either way McCain shows a clear lack of understanding - much like he shows a complete lack of understanding of foreign policy and the economy - on the direction of today's military.

Soldiers in 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’

Via the Army Times, a platoon gets about as minimum a punishment as you can get for mutiny:

‘Not us. We’re not going.’
Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart.

For all his dark humor, the “Hero of Burger King,” as fellow soldiers teasingly called him, was deeply rattled by the carnage of the explosion at the fast-food court. At Apache, he expected trouble. But not at Burger King.

“That affected me,” he said. For the next few days, he said, he slept in the open-ended concrete bunkers positioned between the housing units.

It was just another bad day to add to many — and DeNardi’s platoon had already faced misery that seemed unbearable. When five soldiers with 2nd Platoon were trapped June 21 after a deep-buried roadside bomb flipped their Bradley upside-down, several men rushed to save the gunner, Spc. Daniel Agami, pinned beneath the 30-ton vehicle. But they could only watch — and listen to him scream — as he burned alive. The Bradley was far too heavy to lift, and the flames were too high to even get close. The four others died inside the vehicle. Second Platoon already had lost four of its 45 men since deploying to Adhamiya 11 months before. June 21 shattered them.

Though their commanders moved them from the combat outpost to safer quarters, members of 2nd Platoon would stage a revolt they viewed as a life-or-death act of defiance. With all they had done and all they had seen, they now were consumed with an anger that ate at the memory of the good men they were when they arrived in Iraq.

snip

“A scheduled patrol is a direct order from me,” Strickland said.

“‘They’re not coming,’” Strickland said he was told. “So I called the platoon sergeant and talked to him. ‘Remind your guys: These are some of the things that could happen if they refuse to go out.’ I was irritated they were thumbing their noses. I was determined to get them down there.”

But, he said, he didn’t know the whole platoon, except for Ybay, had taken sleeping medications prescribed by mental health that day, according to Ybay.

Strickland didn’t know mental health leaders had talked to 2nd Platoon about “doing the right thing.”

He didn’t know 2nd Platoon had gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally in Adhamiya — that several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

“We said, ‘No.’ If you make us go there, we’re going to light up everything,” DeNardi said. “There’s a thousand platoons. Not us. We’re not going.”

They decided as a platoon that they were done, DeNardi and Cardenas said, as did several other members of 2nd Platoon. At mental health, guys had told the therapist, “I’m going to murder someone.” And the therapist said, “There comes a time when you have to stand up,” 2nd Platoon members remembered. For the sake of not going to jail, the platoon decided they had to be “unplugged.”

Ybay had gone to battalion to speak up for his guys and ask for more time. But when he came back, it was with orders to report to Old Mod.

Ybay said he tried to persuade his men to go out, but he could see they were not ready.

“It was like a scab that wouldn’t heal up,” Ybay said. “I couldn’t force them to go out. Listening to them in the mental health session, I could hear they’re not ready.”

At 2 a.m, Ybay said, he’d found his men sitting outside smoking cigarettes. They could not sleep. Some of them were taking as many as 10 sleeping pills and still could not rest. The images of their dead friends haunted them. The need for revenge ravaged them.

They are alive because they refused their orders. Other soldiers that pulled the patrol are dead. A First Sargent in another company says he can't take it anymore and blows his head off in front of some of his soldiers.

I hope your having fun shopping for your government sanctioned Christmas... With everything else going on in this country and around the world, that is what is really important, right?

Anemic Republican Response to Veto

Here is the anemic Republican response to their own failure to fund the troops:

“Several Republican leaders said Tuesday that they were likely to support such benchmarks, and White House aides said Tuesday that Mr. Bush…might back such a measure — but only if the benchmarks are nonbinding.”

Bush tells Americans that Congress can't have a say in what is going on because:

He said the measure would “impose impossible conditions on our commanders in combat” by forcing them to “take fighting directions from politicians 6,000 miles away in Washington, D.C.”

If bush really thinks this, why doesn't he just make those soldiers enlistment contracts "non-binding" and let them decide who they want to "take fighting directions" from? heh According to a January poll in the Military Times:

Only 35 percent of the military members polled this year said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved. The president’s approval rating among the military is only slightly higher than for the population as a whole.

I wonder where they would poll now considering the continued failures?

Anyways... What do Americans want their Congrees critters to do?

Do Democrats take John Edwards's suggestion, as relayed in his new campaign ad, and "send [Bush] the same bill again and again"? Or should Democrats and Republicans in Congress work with the White House to find some sort of solution that isn't likely to give either side a complete political victory?

A Pew Research Center poll released on April 26 suggests that the American public favors the Edwards approach, with each side standing their ground rather than compromising.

snip

Roughly six-in-ten people in the Pew sample (59 percent) said they want their member of Congress to back an Iraq funding bill that includes a timeline for American troops to begin withdrawing.

They want Congress to demand binding timelines. And they are right.

[Update]I just wanted to add these two responses to the Veto via The National Security Network:

Today, two retired Generals who led troops in Iraq expressed outrage at the President's veto of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act.

The President vetoed our troops and the American people. His stubborn commitment to a failed strategy in Iraq is incomprehensible. He committed our great military to a failed strategy in violation of basic principles of war. His failure to mobilize the nation to defeat world wide Islamic extremism is tragic. We deserve more from our commander-in-chief and his administration.
--Maj. Gen. John Batiste, USA, Ret.

This administration and the previously Republican controlled legislature have been the most caustic agents against America's Armed Forces in memory. Less than a year ago, the Republicans imposed great hardship on the Army and Marine Corps by their failure to pass a necessary funding language. This time, the President of the United States is holding our Soldiers hostage to his ego. More than ever apparent, only the Army and the Marine Corps are at war - alone, without their President's support.
--Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, USA, Ret.

'Nuff said.

Inside Bush's Brain...

Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo Echo...

Do you feel a draft in here?

From the Department of I Shit You Not and via The Marine Corps Times and the Army Times:

The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony Tuesday that increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps may not resolve severe and growing personnel problems. There was even talk of returning to the draft to fill the ranks.[..]

"If the United States is going to have a significant component of its ground forces in Iraq over the next five, 10, 15 or 30 years, then the responsible course is for the president and those supporting this open-ended and escalated presence in Iraq to call for reinstating the draft."[..]
(H/T C&L)

Don't worry about it! I am sure there will be plenty of time for the milions of young Americans to get their last wills and testaments in order. If they haven't done it in time, JAG will surely help them out before they deploy. (I know the drill...)

[update] Raw Story has Rep. John Murtha on the draft:

Rep. John Murtha, a veteran of the U.S. Marines who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, said that President George W. Bush cannot continue to carry out his current war plans in Iraq without starting a draft.

"The president asks the impossible and the burden continues to fall on the very few. The pressure must be taken off the current force and their families who have already sacrificed so much," said Murtha today to the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, which he chairs. "If the President insists on continuing the current operational tempo and policy, then he should call for a military draft. That is the responsible thing to do.”

Murtha's full statement, which was sent to RAW STORY, is provided below.

I am begining to think there may be a "Surge" in anti-war sentiment soon... Or, perhaps, a "Surge" in College applications if the draft laws aren't changed to share the burden a little more equally.