Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Somebody in the bowels of the Pentagon responds

To my post about General Richard Cody emphasizing the 'All Volunteer' military.

Citiwindo, a blogger name created in April 2008 and whose ip address showed (s)he is connected to the Pentagon said this in comments:
The last thing GEN Cody wants is to bring back the Draft. If you look at all of his previous statements in hearings and in media - he STRONGLY opposes the Draftt. He served in a draft Army, and knows how bad it can get. He made that statement last week to get Congress to get off their duffs and give the Army the money it needs to win this War, and to take care of the Soldiers and families. Congress continues to underfund this Army and cut key programs, FCS, etc. His message has always been the same. Grow the Army, fund it appropriately in the BASE budget, and stop trying to win this war on the cheap thru supplementals.
He served in a draft Army, and knows how bad it can get.

What do you mean? Do you mean those people who don't volunteer tend to be hostile about fighting incompetently run wars? And volunteers apparently will go uncomplainingly and willingly to their deaths because they ... volunteered? Or do you mean the fact that activating the draft would bring the wrath of all voters down upon the heads of politicians? Or could it be you are suggesting the draft gathers up people who shouldn't be in the military? Kinda like those soldiers who won WWII?

He made that statement last week to get Congress to get off their duffs and give the Army the money it needs to win this War, and to take care of the Soldiers and families.

Hmm. I understand the statement about taking care of our soldiers, like not cutting veteran's benefits which Republicans have done several times during the Bush administration. Besides the Walter Reed scandal which was mirrored in every other VA hospital across the nation, just recently we found soldiers who were suffering traumatic brain injuries were being sent back to the war and that some VA employees were told to no longer help disabled soldiers with the filing their paperwork. Is that the kind of getting off of the duff you mean? Or could it be the wonderful new GI Bill Senator Webb is trying to get passed? Why isn't McCain supporting this?

And yet you are blaming Congress? Is it because it is now run by a Democratic majority? You're not blaming the administration that got us into this mess? Not the people who thought this war would be a cakewalk? Not the neocons who thought they'd take out Hussein and pop in Chalabi and everything would be over in six weeks? Not the idiots who try to stifle the soldiers voices when they come back to the US? You aren't blaming the Bush administration but Congress? How odd.

So the plan is to keep sending the volunteers back again and again on their third... sixth... twelfth deployment while they slowly go mad or die? Is your response: So?

We have lost trillions ... TRILLIONS of dollars in this unwarranted, unsupported, unnecessary war of Bush and Cheney's. The neocon wet dream of all wet dreams was to take out Saddam Hussein and wedge ourselves into control in the middle of the oil lands. Well, we are now wedged between Iraq and the Eternal War on a Noun with no clear way out.

So. Just how would more money solve this problem? What could be done with even MORE trillions tossed into the quagmire that we haven't yet tried?

Do you think you could define what winning this war would entail? How do we win the Iraq war which is actually about twenty different little wars: the sectarian vs nationalist war, Shiite vs Shiite factions, Sunni vs Shiite, Kurds vs Turks, Kurds vs Shiite and Sunni, tribal loyalities, revenge, Saudi Arabia vs Iran posturing, warlords jockeying for power and a say in the new government, and al-Qaeda vs everybody else?

I don't think I have ever heard anyone even good ol' Petraeus dare to even attempt to define what victory in Iraq would look like and how it could be achieved. It's always just six months away. Wait another few months, four months, six months.... wait until Bush is no longer President....

Can you define your statement: winning this war? Because, by defining victory, you must then explain the real reason we attacked and invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11.

I don't think you can.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"FCS" = Future Combat Systems = billions of wasted money for toys that may some days work, but don't actually work today because nobody is really sure what the program was supposed to do, but it really sounded neat at the staff meeting and the lobbyists of the major defense contractors are solidly behind it.

Fact: it is illegal for the Federal government to spread misinformation directed towards the United States.

Fact: the military closely monitors access to blogs, and only authorized individuals are able to see blogs on Department of Defense computers because of filtering.

Fact: Congress supplied everything the DoD asked for without any oversight for years, so if the Army didn't get what it wanted, talk to the DefSec and POTUS. General Schoomaker decided to make a direct appeal to Congress to get the funds to fix equipment, because Rumsfeld kept cutting his budget. It's important to know your enemy, and it wasn't Congress.

ellroon said...

But don't you want to get the latest Puke Ray or crowd controlling heat zapper? I mean, it can be used on insurgents and citizens alike!

And thanks for the facts. The Pentagon/ Department of Defense/ Military are just this huge bureaucratic amorphous mess to me, and it's nice to see the distinctions.

Anonymous said...

It's a sad commentary that the Pentagon doesn't have the Soviets ability to create believable sock puppets for this sort of activity.

The KGB was never this clumsy. They at least made you work to trace it back to them, while these guys are undone with an IP trace.

Show some pride people! You are embarrassing the craft.

ellroon said...

Domain Name pentagon.mil ? (Military)
IP Address 141.116.128.# (Army Information Systems Command-Pentagon)
ISP Army Information Systems Command-Pentagon
Location
Continent : North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : Virginia
City : Alexandria
Lat/Long : 38.7909, -77.0947 (Map)
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor
Resolution : 1024 x 768
Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit Apr 10 2008 4:28:38 am
Last Page View Apr 10 2008 4:28:38 am
Visit Length 0 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://blogsearch.go...=%22cody%22 and Army
Search Engine blogsearch.google.com
Search Words "cody" and army
Visit Entry Page http://rantsfromther...ntagon-responds.html
Visit Exit Page http://rantsfromther...ntagon-responds.html

Hi guys!

Anonymous said...

It appears that Cody or Cody's attaché searches for his name on Google Blog Search.

Anonymous said...

I just don't see how more money is supposed to equate to more troops. Maybe insane signing bonuses or a GI Bill on steroids, but the bottom line is that most sane people don't want to risk life and limb in a useless, stupid war.

And if there aren't enough troops, then you either leave or institute a draft. So if Cody wasn't advocating a draft, then he must have been advocating withdrawal.

ellroon said...

Maybe it would be to pay $100,000 to each soldier for staying on? With the billions and trillions being spent they wouldn't miss a few millions....