Those Rascally Iraq Reports

If it doesn’t look good for you, change it. That seems to be the theme these days. Just glad that nobody believes the Pentagon’s crappy excuses. A failing grade is still a failing grade, even if you do boost it up to like a D.

The UN praised Iran today for being very compliant to the International nuclear inspectors. So much for the support of the rest of the world in bombing Iran. I bet that burns the Vice-President’s biscuit really bad. lol

Strange local news: An Iowan judge basically upsurped the gay marriage ban by ruling that it’s unconstitutional. That’s kind of a “WTF” moment in Iowa – who is reportedly more Conservative than its neighbors. I’m not sure what the outcry or impact is, but I’m pretty sure that Iowa just moved up two points on my list for States That Aren’t As Lame As They Seem. Now, if Nebraska would only be a little less anal.

Oh, and here’s a list of the top 20 poolitical websites. At the bottom, there’s links to the top 20 political blogs, etc. Take a casual glance and see if anything lures you in.

Read Full Post »

Remember When the Boy Scouts …

Was about boys doing scouting … things? Now, the BSA is apparently the outlet for pedophiles and idiots.

While the insurgent Shiite army may be calling off the fighting for awhile to re-organize in Iraq (which would be awesome if the entire army obeys the ceasefire), now disease is threatening to kill a ton of people. What’s even more interesting is that the so-proclaimed “high morale” presented by both McCain and the Administration is a big fat lie. Petraeus is going to have a helluva time selling his report in a week or so because of all the tampering and bullshit pulled by the White House.

There’s a reason Bush’s approval rating is so low, and it has absolutely nothing to do with those “damn, dirty liberals.”

People always tell me I’m overreacting about Iowan drivers, but with most of them uninsured and driving old, shitty vehicles, I’m pretty sure I’m justified. I hate Council-tuckians (my nickname for people in Council Bluffs) driving around in Omaha, fucking up our roads.

Read Full Post »

Iranian Diplomacy

There are times when diplomacy makes all the difference between uneasy neighbors. It’s apparent that Iraq’s neighbors want to take part in helping the country reach some sort of stability, although their motives are often questionable.

So what to do about Iran? Undoubtly, it is the largest and most powerful Islamic state on the Gulf – it even tops Saudi Arabia’s large mobile military. The US has a hard time with Iran, because we’re not neighbors or friendly with them. So it’s no surprise that we sit here and plot the destruction of any progress in Iran while basically arresting every Iranian in Iraq under shaky pretenses. The reason the Middle East is so turbulent is because the West has no freaking clue what the Hell they’re doing there. Yet we keep getting involved.

Meanwhile, despite the surge, violence ramps up in Iraq. It doesn’t help that US contractors and military leaders are getting caught in corrupt schemes during the most critical part of the year. The UK pulled out of Basra, and the Iraqi forces are very ill-prepared to take over. Yet, despite all the evidence, Patreaus gave into the political pressure. I am so disappointed in our Administration. And it doesn’t look like I’m the only one.

In regular news, for every 100 US citizens, there are 90 guns, making the US the most heavily armed civilian population in the world. China would be, if they let their citizens keep their guns.

Omaha News:
More horrific weather in Nebraska/Omaha. And apparently, the illegal aliens from Latin America have a nice little fake ID ring going on in South Omaha.

Played Warcraft 3 with my SOSDan clan last night. It wasn’t too bad, but I’m learning that I’m incredibly slow with the production. I kick out units pretty damn fast, but when it comes to gathering resources, I’m at least a thousand points behind my teammates. Played two 3v3 games with clanmates and both times had a really hard time controlling my groups in mass combat. My orcs were basically slaughtering, but the enemy was healing/ressurecting units as fast as I was killing them. In FFA, I seem to always be the last one alive to be crushed by LordOmlette.

(Although, in the first FFA, I probably should have not attacked LO so many times in a row. I think I assaulted him a total of four times, and lost each assault. Then EK showed up and nearly crushed me – I was down to two buildings when Rigs crushed EK’s home base, leaving me alone to wait for LO to show up and wipe out EK’s lingering forces and mine)

Read Full Post »

The Pentagon Needs Someone to Kick Their Asses

A fellow ex-military friend of mine (handle – CD Rhom) has brought to my attention something quite alarming:

Apparently the Pentagon is labeling people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as “having a personality disorder” in order to avoid having to pay for the inconvenience of treating veterans returning from Iraq (and from past conflicts).

Some Senators have taken it upon themselves to call for a suspending order on the Personality Disorder Discharge process until there is oversight to STOP this wrongful practice. It pisses me off that Congress has to now walk over to the Pentagon – our military leadership – and serve them their asses on a platter.

Yet another thing I have to write to my state Senators about. This is horrifying and downright criminal. I hope that you join me in writing Congress in rectifying the problem ASAP.

Read Full Post »

nebraskhan

For those of you who have LiveJournal, you can now get my WP RSS feed on LJ by adding nebraskhan to your friends list. Just please note that if you want to comment on anything that you read on LJ, you have to come back here to comment, since I won’t be monitoring the comments on the syndicated feed on LiveJournal to respond to anything left there.

For all the bad news coming out of Iraq, there’s some good news – the National Guard medivac unit from Lincoln is home from their 17 1/2 month tour. All 90 individuals appear to be well and happy. It made me feel good to see them come back in one piece.

On top of yesterday’s link to the Army Secretary speaking out against the Administration’s recommendations for the surge, the Joint Chiefs are now requesting that the military be reduced by 50% in Iraq by next summer. Despite all the talk about “listening,” the Administration is chosing to ignore everyone who has an opposing view – even their own political party. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the President an elected official who is supposed to represent the majority?

Normally, I dislike the Washington Post editorials, but this one op-ed actually gets a lot of things correct. As already pointed out by other writers, the reason why the Administration cannot listen to reason on Iraq is because they have everything to lose if we don’t obtain some sort of tangible “victory” in the Middle East. The fallacy is that Americans believe they can convert or pressure the Middle East into thinking like Americans. It is doubtful that will ever happen, and that you can just get rid of Islam tomorrow with enough guns and bombs.

This looks fairly interesting engineering-wise, but for some reason, the image reminds me of a Hive city from Necromunda (Warhammer 40k).

Read Full Post »

Putin

Now there’s a manly man for you. LOL

Read Full Post »

Being ex-Air Force

I think I have seen this document before.

It’s no surprise, as a lot of old 1980′s documents still hang around in the military. I’m assuming it was written around the time when we were planning on fighting in (or actually just fighting) countries like Lybia, Nicaragua and the Congo.

It’s the old “The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend” principle, which is very outdated and not very effective today (since arming any group of insurgents is a very bad idea).

Read Full Post »

What’s Interesting

Is the upcoming clash of, “What the Administration wants out of the Army,” with “What the Army can provide the Administration,” and, “What the Republican party is expecting of the Administration.” Although the new NIE with new Bushites running the show is telling us to stay, I count the timing and the assessment of the NIE to be questionable at best. It’s political – nowhere in the Intel doctrine does it tell you to do several estimates within such a short period of time and those estimates to be pushed by civilian contractors.

Three battle lines are being drawn in those camps. The Administration wants more troops in Iraq with deployments over 15 months (Bush himself wants 18 month deployments or longer). Army Secretary Geren and his people have announced that the Army cannot and will not extend deployments over 15 months, and does not have the weapon or troop strength to make the numbers the Administration wants. The Army administration itself is starting to defy the requests of the President. NOT A GOOD SIGN.

On top of that, with Senator Warner stating his position to the President to start withdrawing troops by CHRISTMAS, that makes 11 influential Republicans asking for a solid timetable of slow withdraw from Iraq, with us entirely out by the end of 2010. Funny how it takes a trip to Iraq and the Middle East for a Republican to return and change his/her stance on the war. Senator McCain, on the other hand, went and had his hand held so he thinks things are “GREAT” in Iraq.

I’ll have more when I actually get to work today. I’m tired, and work is being a bitch. I hate cross-training to do another job because the present people on my team can’t stand doing actual work.

Read Full Post »

Iraqi Heat

Merely a week or two before General Petraeus goes up to give a report on Iraq’s progress, the shit is already hitting the fan.

First, Bush criticizes the Iraqi government while standing in support of the Iraqi government in the greatest bullshit maneuver of his time.

Then, in retaliation for being shit on, Maliki turns around and says that Iraq doesn’t need our criticism – instead, they can find other allies and friends (read: Syria and Iran) to rebuild.

Iraq also turns around and tells France that they don’t want political or military help – no, what they want is more money. Why? Oh, maybe for reconstruction, maybe for social aid, maybe for … personal bank accounts, etc. Good example of Iraq not trusting the West (and who can really blame them?)

Aside from the UN embarrassingly pointing out the US’s ulterior agenda with Iran, the Pentagon then turns around and admits that they cannot meet the deadlines or the promised dispersement of armored vehicles and weapons to the US troops in Iraq. How lame is that? REALLY FUCKING LAME.

The Democrats aren’t the ones losing the war in Iraq – the Administration and their badly managed efforts are. Which is frustrating, to say the least.

Read Full Post »