A Spork in the Drawer

Arming The Next War

Or, more accurately, subsidizing defense contractors:

From tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to missiles, remotely piloted aircraft and even warships, the Department of Defense has agreed so far this fiscal year to sell or transfer more than $32 billion in weapons and other military equipment to foreign governments, compared with $12 billion in 2005.

A likely story:

“This is not about being gunrunners,” said Bruce S. Lemkin, the Air Force deputy under secretary who is helping to coordinate many of the biggest sales. “This is about building a more secure world.”

The nub:

In that booming market, American military contractors are working closely with the Pentagon, which acts as a broker and procures arms for foreign customers through its Foreign Military Sales program.

[...]

Sales are also being driven by the push by many foreign nations to join the once-exclusive club of countries whose arsenals include precise, laser-guided missiles, high-priced American technology that the United States displayed during its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The beauty of this is once everyone has our highest of high-tech weapons we have to spend billions to build even higher high-tech weapons so we can stay ahead.

It's a win-win!*

*Unless, of course, you're on the receiving end of those weapons. But let's not think about that, 'kay?

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Ooopsie!

Oy:

Instead of sending helicopter batteries, the United States shipped four electrical fuses for Minuteman nuclear missile warheads to Taiwan, a mistake that was discovered only last week — a year and a half after the erroneous shipment, Pentagon officials disclosed on Tuesday.

Officials said the nose-cone fuses contained no nuclear material, and were similar in function to the ones used for conventional munitions, although these were designed specifically to send an electrical signal to the trigger of the MK-12 nuclear warhead as it was approaching the ground.

The Pentagon sure seems to have a problem with nuke-related things these days.

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$3,100,000,000,000

That's the amount of money spent in George's final (?) budget. This includes a projected $410,000,000,000 deficit. But wait, there's more!

...and Bush's plan omits several costly features, including tens of billions of dollars of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that could drive the deficit even higher than the president's estimates.

So it doesn't even include the cost of his wars. Dandy. And the national debt? $9,700,000,000,000, raising the question of just how long the Chinese and the Arabs will continue funding us.

Needless to say, it's a very good time to be in the defense industry. Fred Kaplan:

For the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, which President Bush released today, the real size is not, as many news stories have reported, $515.4 billion - €”itself a staggering sum - €”but, rather, $713.1 billion.

Before deconstructing this budget, let us consider just how massive it is. Even the smaller figure of $515.4 billion—which does not include money for fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—is roughly equal to the total military budgets of all the rest of the world's nations combined. It is (adjusting for inflation) larger than any U.S. military budget since World War II.

Furthermore:

There is another way to probe this question. Look at the budget share distributed to each of the three branches of the armed services. The Army gets 33 percent, the Air Force gets 33 percent, and the Navy gets 34 percent.

It's remarkable that each branch of the armed services needs, absolutely needs, nearly exactly as much as the others. No doubt a lot of rational thought went into that.

Kaplan:

As I have noted before (and, I'm sure, will again), the budget has been divvied up this way, plus or minus 2 percent, each and every year since the 1960s. Is it remotely conceivable that our national-security needs coincide so precisely—and so consistently over the span of nearly a half-century—with the bureaucratic imperatives of giving the Army, Air Force, and Navy an even share of the money? Again, the question answers itself. As the Army's budget goes up to meet the demands of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force's and Navy's budgets have to go up by roughly the same share, as well. It would be a miracle if this didn't sire a lot of waste and extravagance.

A cynic might say that George wants as his legacy to cripple the next president. And it's been wise to be cynical over the last seven years.

Oh, and here's an actual picture of the printed and bound budget being delivered to Congress:



REUTERS/Larry Downing

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Is It Dictatorship Yet?

Sooo...George signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act today. Did he also issue a "signing statement" at the same time? Need you ask?

Even though he forced Congress to change its original bill, Bush’s signature yesterday came with a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law “could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations.” CQ reports on the provisions Bush plans to disregard:

One such provision sets up a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistleblowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents. And a fourth bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and for any action that exercises U.S. control over Iraq’s oil money.

What will Congress do in response?

I think we all know the answer to that.

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What Are They Hiding?

Curious:

The Bush administration is keeping a tight hold on Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter nearly five months after the former defense secretary and Iraq war manager stepped down.

[...]

Pentagon spokesmen refused to release the letter in November 2006, when Rumsfeld resigned after Republicans' stinging election defeat. They told reporters to file FOIA requests for the letter.

Given that Field Marshal von Rumsfeld was essentially fired, it wouldn't surprise me if he told George to go Cheney himself. Hence the secrecy.

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Putting The Muzzle On

Loose lips sink politics:

The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents.

[...]

Wilkie's memo also stipulated that any officers who are allowed to testify must be accompanied by an official from the administration, such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his top-level aides.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress see the move as a blatant attempt to bog down investigations of the war. But veterans of the legislative process -- who say they have never heard of such guidelines before -- maintain that the Pentagon has no authority to set such ground rules.

[...]

At a closed-door hearing a few days after Wilkie's memo was distributed, Defense Department lawyers sought to apply the guidelines to the testimony of three Army officers -- a captain, a major, and a lieutenant colonel -- set to testify about their first-hand experience training Iraqi security forces.

A few minutes into the proceedings, a representative from the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel tried to apply the new provisions. Speaking from the audience, he declared that the officers could not participate if the meeting was being recorded for a transcript -- a regular practice in congressional hearings. [Emphasis added.]

The panel's Democratic chairman, Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell, and ranking Republican W. Todd Aken of Missouri both insisted a transcript would be kept and the Pentagon entourage, including the officers, "theatrically stormed out of the room," said one attendant.

There is literally nothing that BushCheney isn't capable of. What are they afraid of? None of these officers or enlisted soldiers are going to give away national security secrets. So that leaves politics. Clearly they're afraid of embarrassing facts being revealed.

I suppose they have a lot to fear from the truth.

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Support The Troops!

The Pentagon:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would give U.S. troops time off rather than cash bonuses when their combat missions are extended, but insisted the decision was not linked to budget woes.

[...]

He said time off was more consistent with a culture of service.

"We weren't trying to find some metaphysical balance between the service you are rendering and buckets full of gold," he said when pressed by reporters on why additional pay was not offered.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

Goddamned greedy soldiers! Why can't they just be happy with us sticking ribbon magnets to our cars and Hummers?

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Human Costs

On the Army tour extensions:

"It flat-out sucks, that's the only way I can think to describe it," said Pvt. Jeremy Perkins, 25, who works in an engineering battalion that clears roadside bombs in the embattled city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. "I found this out today from my squad leader. I still haven't told my wife yet. I'm just trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to break it to her that 'Honey, uh, yeah, might be home before our next anniversary. Sorry I missed the last one.' "

[...]

"This is tough news; it's upsetting news for the families," said Mindy Shanahan, whose husband, Col. Dan Shanahan, is commander of the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and has been in Taji since October. His first deployment in Iraq was for 12 months in 2004 and 2005.

"It's another Christmas without my husband, and that's hard when you have young kids," said Shanahan, who lives at Fort Hood, Tex., the country's largest Army installation, with her sons, Patrick, 9, and Kevin, 7.

[...]

When the news of Gates's announcement broke, officials of Killeen Independent School District, where 52 percent of the 36,500 students are the children of Fort Hood soldiers, immediately sent e-mails to the school counselors to be "extra sensitive" to children and their mood on Thursday.

[...]

"I was mad before I even heard about the 15 months. I don't want to be here. I don't think you need to sit here an extra three months to help people do what they don't want to do for their dadburn selves," said Sgt. Shawn Miller, 30. "To me, if you've been here four years and the country ain't straight, why extend another three months? Why don't we just go?"

“I must tell you, I'm sleeping a lot better than people would assume.”

-George W. Bush

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More For The Charnel House

King George's War:

US troops will now serve up to 15 months in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of the usual 12-month tours under new Defense Department rules.

[...]

"Effective immediately, active army units now in the Central Command area [Iraq and Afghanistan] and those headed there will deploy for not more than 15 months and will return home to home station for not less than 12 months," [SecDef Robert Gates] said.

Wanna bet that in 12 months that bit will be forgotten?

"I think that what this recognises, though, is that our forces are stretched," Mr Gates said.

No kidding.

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Getting His Mitts On The Budget

So Mitt believes that we're not spending enough on the military:

In a speech prepared for delivery Tuesday night at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, the GOP presidential candidate also was to call for spending 4% of the nation's gross domestic product on defense, up from 3.9%.

Not enough?

President Bush's defense budget request of $481.4 billion -- an 11 percent boost over last year -- pushes U.S. defense spending to levels not seen since the Reagan-era buildup of the 1980s.

In addition, the president is seeking a projected $141.7 billion in emergency supplemental funding for 2008 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for broader anti-terrorism efforts -- bringing the total spent in those arenas since 2001 to $661 billion, eclipsing in real terms the cost of the Vietnam War.

What, does the CEO of Halliburton need a new Gulfstream? It's one thing to call for an increase in defence spending but it's quite another to decide what to spend all those dollars on - given the waste and fraud that's not a small question.

Not surprisingly, 4% of the GDP is precisely what the rightwing Heritage Foundation is calling for:

Congress can ensure that it is providing adequately for national security by making a firm commitment now to fund the national defense at no less than 4 percent of GDP. Protecting the lives and freedom of the American people is certainly worth 4 percent of national income. This commitment will require Con­gress to add roughly $400 billion to the defense bud­get for the four-year period from FY 2009 to FY 2012, which it can do by amending the pending budget resolution. Clearly, a portion of this money will be allocated to ongoing operations to counter terrorists. The remainder should go to the core defense program, with a special emphasis on devel­oping and deploying the next generation of weap­ons and equipment that U.S. forces will need to fight effectively in the future.

It looks like Mitt is gunning for that Dickie Scaife endorsement.

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Mighty Big Of Them

All of America should be grateful:

In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.

That change — which took effect quietly in January and applies to members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan, too — came after a campaign waged by a father who was aghast to learn that his son's body was going to be unloaded like so much luggage.

Look, you all know the score by now. These people - and I use that word loosely - running this clusterfuck don't give a damn about who dies for their fantasies. Americans, like Iraqis and Afghanis, are merely "collateral damage."

That for years now Our Beloved Overlords has seen fit to dump our soldiers and Marines into baggage - with the Samsonites - comes as no surprise.

They shit on the troops and they shit on the Constitution.

"I said, ‘That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,'" said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. "If it was ‘expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"

Put a "I Support the Troops" ribbon-magnet on your car.

Yeah, that makes it all better.

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All You Need To Know

Even if it's not a cover-up they're making it look like one:

An Army officer who investigated possible abuse at Guantanamo Bay after some guards purportedly bragged about beating detainees found no evidence they mistreated the prisoners — although he did not interview any of the alleged victims, the U.S. military said Wednesday. [Emphasis added.]

If this is what passes for an investigation then nothing they say can be believed.

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Boondoggle

Is it too much to ask for a little accountability?

After 10 years and $1.7 billion, this is what the Marines Corps got for its investment in a new amphibious vehicle: A craft that breaks down about an average of once every 4 1/2 hours, leaks and sometimes veers off course.

And for that, the contractor, General Dynamics of Falls Church, received $80 million in bonuses.

[...]

The overruns are eating away at the Pentagon's buying power but not its appetite. The amount the Pentagon plans to spend on major weapons systems has doubled in the past five years, to $1.4 trillion from $700 billion, according to the GAO.

People of a certain age might remember when $700 hammers were considered a scandal. And that was twenty years ago.

It would appear that nothing has changed since then. The Pentagon is still a giant money pit. What exactly are we getting for $750,000,000,000?

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Number Of The Day

$245,000,000,000

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Cully Stimson Resigns

When last we heard from Cully he was apologizing for insinuating that lawyers defending "enemy combatants" were being paid by...well...somebody evil. The implication was clear.

Well, Cully is history:

Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Charles ''Cully'' Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, told him on Friday that he had made his own decision to resign and was not asked to leave by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Stimson said he was leaving because of the controversy over a radio interview in which he said he found it shocking that lawyers at many of the nation's top law firms represent detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

Good riddance to anti-American trash.

[via Holden.]

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Now With 100% More Surge!

Those 21,500 troops being sent to Iraq? Try 35,000+:

To reflect some of the uncertainty about the number of support troops, CBO developed its estimates on the basis of two alternative assumptions. In one scenario, CBO assumed that additional support troops would be deployed in the same proportion to combat troops that currently exists in Iraq. That approach would require about 28,000 support troops in addition to the 20,000 combat troops—a total of 48,000. CBO also presents an alternative scenario that would include a smaller number of support personnel—about 3,000 per combat brigade—totaling about 15,000 support personnel and bringing the total additional forces to about 35,000.

Deeper and deeper we sink...

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Big Surprise

So George is sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq but the ones that are already there don't have the equipment they need.

Yet another outstanding job by BushCo™.

[Via TPMmuckraker.]

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Playing With Numbers

Like Hell:

For the last few months, anyone who consulted the Veterans Affairs Department’s Web site to learn how many American troops had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan would have found this number: 50,508.

But on Jan. 10, without explanation, the figure plummeted to 21,649.

Which number is correct? The answer depends on a larger question, the definition of wounded. If the term includes combat or “hostile” injuries inflicted by the enemy, the definition the Pentagon uses, the smaller number would be right.

But if it also applies to injuries from accidents like vehicle crashes and to mental and physical illnesses that developed in the war zone, the meaning that veterans’ groups favor, 50,508 would be accurate.

[...]

“The government keeps two sets of books,” said Paul Sullivan, director of research and analysis for Veterans of America. Until last March, Mr. Sullivan was a project manager in the Veterans Affairs Department who monitored the use of disability benefits by Afghanistan, gulf war and Iraq veterans.

The lower number reflects better on the Administration. It's that simple.

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They Lie

Tuesday evening George asked us to give his latest plan to win (whatever that means anymore) in Iraq a chance.

Why should we do that when they do this sort of shit:

BAGHDAD Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away.

[...]

In a written statement, the U.S. command reported at the time that five soldiers were killed while "repelling the attack." Two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials now say three of them were found dead and one mortally wounded in locations as far as 25 miles east of the governor's office.

[...]

The two senior American military officials now confirm the reports, gathered by The Associated Press from five senior Iraqi government, military and religious leaders. The U.S. military also has provided additional details from internal military accounts.

[...]

The five Americans killed that day ranged in age from 20 to 31.

To George, Dick, Condi, and Gates: Go fuck yourselves.

[Via Laura Rozen.]

---

ADDED: Confirmed:

Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, the U.S. military confirmed Friday. It said three were shot to death and a fourth was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, far from the compound where they were captured.

Two of the four were handcuffed together in the back seat of an SUV near the southern Iraqi town of Mahawil. A third dead soldier was on the ground nearby. The fourth soldier died on the way to the hospital, the military said in a statement issued late Friday that confirmed details reported by The Associated Press earlier.

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Hypocrites

The final frontier:

The Chinese military shot down one of its own aging satellites with a ground-based ballistic missile last week, demonstrating a new technological capability at a time of growing Bush administration concern over Beijing's military modernization and its intentions in space.

[...]

"The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," said Gordon D. Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council. "We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese."

[...]

Concerns about rising threats to U.S. satellites led the Bush administration to issue a new national space policy in August, which held that the U.S. viewed freedom of action in space as important as air or sea power.

The administration was widely criticized for its aggressive attitude toward defense activities in space. But a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that satellites and access to space were considered vital to U.S. national and economic security and that any event "that can hinder passage through space" was of concern.

Indeed:

The Space Command plans to use its satellite-and-computer network not only for guiding these earth-based weapons, but to destroy enemy satellites. They call it "full-spectrum dominance." They say it will "protect U.S. interests and investments." There's nothing secret about their plan. They shout it out in glossy brochures and slick websites, hoping to get a bigger piece of the budgetary pie. Bush’s nomination of Rumsfeld indicates that the new administration wants to cut the pie very much to the Space Command’s liking.

Apparently, the Administration expected every other country to say, "Okay, develop your space weapons and we'll just sit quietly over here."

It doesn't work that way.

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Why Bother?

Just line them up and shoot them:

The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.

[...]

The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants _ the Bush administration's term for many of the terrorism suspects captured on the battlefield _ "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized people," according to the document.

Uhhh, executing someone based on hearsay evidence is NOT "recognized by civilized people". Nor is coerced testimony. This is a continuation of BushCo's™ policy of "we'll do what we want when we want".

So why bother to even pretend that they're holding trials?

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Like Hell He's Sorry

Cully:

Charles D. "Cully" Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said yesterday that he regrets what he told Federal News Radio on Thursday, when he suggested that chief executives of U.S. companies should question being represented by lawyers who do pro bono work for terrorism suspects. The Washington Post editorial page reported Stimson's comments Friday.

In a letter to the editor that appears today on The Post's editorial page, Stimson said he believes that both sides of a legal case should have "competent legal counsel." Stimson is a former prosecutor and defense lawyer.

"Regrettably, my comments left the impression that I question the integrity of those engaged in the zealous defense of detainees in Guantanamo," Stimson wrote. "I do not."

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday that Stimson's original comments "do not reflect the department's position, nor are they the views of the senior leadership."

"Left the impression"? I can't imagine why:

In his radio interview, Mr. Stimson said: “I think the news story that you’re really going to start seeing in the next couple of weeks is this: As a result of a FOIA request through a major news organization, somebody asked, ‘Who are the lawyers around this country representing detainees down there?’ and you know what, it’s shocking.” [...]

[...]

When asked in the radio interview who was paying for the legal representation, Mr. Stimson replied: “It’s not clear, is it? Some will maintain that they are doing it out of the goodness of their heart, that they’re doing it pro bono, and I suspect they are; others are receiving moneys from who knows where, and I’d be curious to have them explain that.”

He knew exactly what he was saying.

Cully's full mea culpa here.

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You're Not Paranoid

A nascent police state:

A Defense Department database devoted to gathering information on potential threats to military facilities and personnel, known as Talon, had 13,000 entries as of a year ago -- including 2,821 reports involving American citizens, according to an internal Pentagon memo to be released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

[...]

The released memo, one of a series of Talon documents made public over the past year by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, said that the deleted reports did not meet a 2003 Defense Department requirement that they have some foreign terrorist connection or relate to what was believed to be "a force protection threat."

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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They Are Expendable

The National Guard and Reserves, that is:

The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.

The day after President Bush announced his plan for a deeper U.S. military commitment in Iraq, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the change in reserve policy would have been made anyway because active-duty troops already were getting too little time between their combat tours.

The Pentagon also announced it is proposing to Congress that the size of the Army be increased by 65,000, to 547,000 and that the Marine Corps, the smallest of the services, grow by 27,000, to 202,000, over the next five years. No cost estimate was provided, but officials said it would be at least several billion dollars.

More corpses for George.

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"Oopsie" Doesn't Cover It

So what if you're dead:

The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

[...]

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

A press-release makes it all better.

Also, it refers to "officers." What about enlisted men and women?

[Via watertiger.]

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It's Not A "Surge"

It's a "bump."

[Via Steve Gilliard.]

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The Buck Stops...

...somewhere else:

With significant policy details left to be worked out this weekend, the administration is nonetheless moving ahead on several personnel changes. It is set to announce that Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who gained fame for his early success in training Iraqi troops and securing a volatile city in northern Iraq, will replace Gen. George W. Casey Jr. as commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, officials say.

The administration also intends to nominate Navy Adm. William J. Fallon to head the Central Command, replacing Gen. John P. Abizaid as the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East. Some military officials consider Fallon an unusual choice, because he is a naval officer in charge of the Pacific Command with limited experience in the Middle East and would be in charge of two ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Oh, sure. Keep replacing commanders and ignore the fact that the strategy is what's at fault.

And appointing an admiral to run two (for now) ground wars? Swell idea.

On the diplomatic side, the White House will appoint veteran U.S. diplomat Ryan C. Crocker, the current envoy to Pakistan, who began his career in the 1970s in Iraq, as the new ambassador to Baghdad. The controversial current ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, will be nominated to become the top U.S. envoy at the United Nations, replacing John R. Bolton, U.S. officials say.

George is appointing a Muslim to be UN Ambassador? Considering his base ("al Qaeda" in Arabic) wet their beds at the idea of a Muslim Congresscritter this ought to make their heads explode.

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Foreign Mercenaries

Don't know much about history:

The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials.

Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a large contingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security or reflect badly on Americans' willingness to serve in uniform.

Some time ago, Thomas Jefferson charged another George:

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

And now our king-in-his-own-mind George wants his own Hessians.

It's truly remarkable how fast and how far this nation has fallen.

[Via Steve Benen subbing for Drum.]

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Bullshit

Utter tripe:

Top U.S. military commanders in Iraq have decided to recommend a "surge" of fresh American combat forces, eliminating one of the last remaining hurdles to proposals being considered by President Bush for a troop increase, a defense official familiar with the plan said Friday.

[...]

But the recommendation by commanders in Iraq is significant because Bush has placed prime importance on their advice. The U.S. command in Iraq decided to recommend an increase of troops several days ago, prior to meetings in Baghdad this week with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the defense official said. [Emphasis added.]

LameDuck George was going to do this regardless of what the Generals said.

That reporters and editors actually publish this crap with straight faces boggles the mind.

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Do Ya Think?

Stating the obvious:

A previously undisclosed Pentagon report concluded that the three terrorism suspects held at a brig in South Carolina were subjected to months of isolation, and it warned that their "unique" solitary confinement could be viewed as violating U.S. detention standards.

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You're Not Paranoid

Years ago Presidential flack Ari Fleischer infamously said, "And that's why—there was an earlier question about has the president said anything to people in his own party—they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

As if to remind us of this we learn:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — An antiterrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks against military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show.

One tip in the database in February 2005, for instance, noted that “a church service for peace” would be held in the New York City area the next month. Another entry noted that antiwar protesters would be holding “nonviolence training” sessions at unidentified churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

[...]

In most cases, entries in the Talon database acknowledged that there was no specific evidence indicating the possibility of terrorism or disruptions at the antiwar events, but they warned of the potential for violence.

One entry on Mr. McPhearson’s group from April 2005, for instance, described a protest at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces at which members handed out antimilitary literature and set up hundreds of white crosses to symbolize soldiers killed in Iraq.

“Veterans for Peace is a peaceful organization,” the entry said, but added there was potential that future protests “could become violent.”

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