Target Centermass

A former soldier has been recalled and doesn’t want to report for duty. And this time, if the details are correct, I generally agree with him.

A veteran of the first Persian Gulf War is suing the Army after it ordered him to report for duty 13 years after he was honorably discharged from active duty and eight years after he left the reserves.

Kauai resident David Miyasato received word of his reactivation in September, but says he believes he completed his eight-year obligation to the Army long ago.

“I was shocked,” Miyasato said Friday. “I never expected to see something like that after being out of the service for 13 years.”

His federal lawsuit, filed Friday in Honolulu, seeks a judgment declaring that he has fulfilled his military obligations.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Yee said his office would defend the Army. He declined to comment further. An Army spokewoman at the Pentagon declined to comment to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Miyasato, 34, was scheduled to report to a military facility in South Carolina on Tuesday.

Within hours of filing the lawsuit, however, Miyasato received a faxed letter from the Army’s Human Resources Command saying his “exemption from active duty had not been finalized at this time” and that he has been given an administrative delay for up to 30 days, said his attorney, Eric Seitz.

Miyasato, his wife, Estelle, and their 7-month-old daughter, Abigail, live in Lihue, where he opened an auto-tinting shop two years ago.

His lawsuit states that Miyasato is suing not because he opposes the war in Iraq, but because his business and family would suffer “serious and irreparable harm” if he is required to serve.

Miyasato enlisted in the Army in 1987 and served in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Persian Gulf War as a petroleum supply specialist and truck driver.

Miyasato said he received an honorable discharge from active duty in 1991, then served in the reserves until 1996 to fulfill his eight-year enlistment commitment.

The Army announced last year that it would involuntarily activate an estimated 5,600 soldiers to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Army officials would be tapping members of the Individual Ready Reserve — military members who have been discharged from the Army, Army Reserve or the Army National Guard, but still have contractual obligations to the military.

Miyasato said he never re-enlisted, signed up for any bonuses or was told that he had been transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve or any other Army Reserve unit.

“I fulfilled my contract,” Miyasato said. “I just want to move on from this, and I’m optimistic that I’ll be successful.”

Miyasato speculated that he may have been picked because his skills as a truck driver and refueler are in demand in Iraq. He told reporters he did the same work as that done by a group of Army reservists who refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route in Iraq last month.

I suspect that this is an administrative error, as I’m sure we have sufficient numbers of transport troops in the IRR, and I would expect for this to be resolved in Miyasato’s favor. Earlier, when I said I generally agreed, I meant that I agreed up to a point. However, if the Army truly needed the man, I would expect him to serve. If the Army called me up, I would go, and I am also free of IRR commitment.

Well, looks like French and UN involvement may legitimize foreign intervention in some eyes, but they don’t guarantee things will go smoothly.

Mobs loyal to the Ivory Coast government roamed the streets in two major cities of the West African country, searching for foreigners to attack.

The search on Saturday came as nine French troops were killed and 23 other people were injured when Ivory Coast warplanes bombed a French position near Bouake, a rebel stronghold.

An American citizen was also killed, but the State Department said details of the death were unclear.

Ivory Coast has been split between the loyalist south and rebel-held north since an attempted coup in September 2002 triggered a civil war. The nation gained its independence from France in 1960.

Although French forces have often kept rebels away from government positions, they are widely suspected in the nationalistic south of siding with the rebels, The Associated Press reports.

About 4,000 French troops and 6,000 U.N. forces are in the country, according to the AP.

The U.N. Security Council, meeting in an emergency session Saturday, condemned the initial attack on French forces as a violation of a May cease-fire agreement, and demanded the “immediate cessation” of military operations in accordance with that agreement.

France and the U.N. forces were authorized to use “all necessary means” to carry out that directive, a U.N. statement read.

….

Appearing on national television, presidential spokesman Desire Tagro called for calm said mobs should stop attacking civilians.

The leaders of the Young Patriots group also appeared on television to accuse France of attacking Yamoussoukro, the country’s capital, and said the pro-government militia is now at war with France, CNN has learned.

French troops retaliated to the attack by government warplanes, destroying an Ivorian military base in Yamoussoukro and a stash of weapons, CNN has learned.

….

About 100 people were stranded to the south at Abidjan’s airport when the facility was closed, said Carrie Giardino, a reporter for Voice of America. Earlier, smoke billowed from the suburb of Cocody after an attack on a French school. Pro-government rebels were stationed at roadblocks in the city, attacking cars holding suspected foreigners.

Explosions could also be heard in Abidjan, she said.

The French deaths and injuries resulting from Saturday’s bombing were confirmed by John Victor Nkolo, spokesman for the U.N. operations in the Ivory Coast, and the French Defense Ministry.

The African Union, meanwhile, accused the Ivory Coast government of breaking existing peace agreements, according to a statement issued after top-level crisis talks.

AU chairman Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria, “expressed his deep concern at the renewed fighting, particularly at the bombardment by government forces on rebel locations in the northern part of Ivory Coast,” through a statement read to CNN by presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo.

….

Obasanjo called for a change of the U.N. mandate in Ivory Coast from one of peacekeeping to peace-enforcing.

I love the smell of French military involvement in the morning. It smells like … quagmire.

Fox News is reporting that a man has offed himself at the site of the WTC, possibly because of George Bush’s re-election.

A 25-year-old university worker from Georgia shot and killed himself at ground zero Saturday morning, authorities said.

The man, Andrew Veal, of Athens, Ga., was found atop the structure housing the 1 and 9 subway lines after a hotel worker spotted what he believed was somebody sleeping inside the site around 8 a.m., said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A shotgun was found near the body, Coleman said. No suicide note was found, he said.

Veal apparently was distraught over President Bush’s re-election, Newsday reported Saturday on its Web site edition, citing an unnamed police source. The newspaper also said the man was a registered Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq.

Coleman said he could not confirm Newsday’s account.

Police were investigating how Veal entered the former World Trade Center site, which is protected by high fences and owned by the Port Authority.

Veal worked in a computer lab at the University of Georgia and was planning to marry, friends said Saturday.

Not meaning to make light of this but, if Veal did indeed take his own life over Tuesday’s decisive election, it seems a wee bit of an over-reaction. At least he didn’t pack on an explosive belt and go for a more serious statement.

Going in to today’s Oklahoma game, I was thinking a 42-24 loss for my Aggies. That, in itself, would’ve been a huge improvement over last year’s 77-0 debacle in Norman.

Kyle Field was rocking and the Twelfth Man was in full force. The Ags started hot, surging to a 21-7 lead but unable to shake the Sooners. Alas, a disastrous start to the third quarter brought an end to a 28-21 halftime lead. A muffed kickoff return, a punt, an interception and a fumble saw the lead evaporate. The Ags rallied to tie in the fourth with a touchdown on a bold fake field goal to add to a TD on a fake punt earlier in the game. The Aggies couldn’t hold on, finally falling 42-35 when a two 37-yard prayers to the endzone went unanswered. Oh so freakin’ close on that last tip.

Nice game for the folks in maroon. A little short, but a hell of an improvement. Looks like probably a 6-5 year, plus a bowl game.

Oh so freakin’ close.

While air strikes continue to hit the Islamist stronghold of Fallujah, the pressure is mounting on both the Islamists in the city and the Iraqi and American forces readying for assault.

U.S. warplanes attacked targets in and around the insurgent-held city of Falluja early Saturday, while sporadic gunfire and artillery echoed through the night.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the western city and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Friday the “window is closing” for a peaceful settlement there.

“We intend to liberate the people and bring the rule of law,” Allawi said in Brussels, Belgium, where he was visiting the European Union and NATO to discuss aid for his fledgling government.

Allawi will make the decision whether to begin the assault. Iraqi authorities have asked Falluja city leaders to hand over the insurgents.

That the terrorists are on the clock is obvious. The battle that is brewing is one they cannot win. Unless they avoid the assault, the terrorists can only hope for another act of restraint by Allawi, whether driven by high losses or another gambit of mercy.

That the clock is a danger to the coalition is more subtle but two-fold.

First, I wrote less than two weeks ago about the British agreement to move troops of the Black Watch Regiment to Baghdad to free up American forces for the anticipated Fallujah action. Well, as somehow seems wont to occur to troops in a war zone, the Black Watch has suffered casualties and the anti-war Brit press is melodramatically playing it for all it’s politically worth.

British newspapers are keeping Prime Minister Tony Blair in the hot seat by playing up the nation’s grief and anger over the deaths of three soldiers redeployed to a US-run sector of Iraq.

For the second day in a row, the national dailies ran front-page stories about the deaths of three soldiers in a suicide attack after their Black Watch regiment redeployed in the last week to an insurgent-hit area near Baghdad.

The Daily Express, a mass circulation tabloid, ran a 12-year-old girl’s poignant farewell note to her father who was killed in the bombing under the headline: “So Is It Really Worth It Mr. Blair?”

“To Dad, Love you and miss you, Love Kirstin,” read the note to Sergeant Stuart Gray from his daughter Kirstin Gray.

The Express and other newspapers also ran a searing condemnation from Private Craig Lowe, a serving soldier whose brother Paul was one of the three killed.

He said his 19-year-old-brother had been deeply opposed to a conflict fought over “money and oil”.

“He (Paul) thought they shouldn’t be there, they should all just be back here because it’s a war which nobody knows why it was started or what it was done for,” said Lowe, who himself returned from Iraq last month.

The Independent newspaper ran a front-page photograph of Paul Lowe wearing his ceremonial military kilt against a backdrop of the number 19, his age. The headline read: “A boy who just wanted to come home.”

The Ministry of Defense in London on Friday named Private Paul Lowe, along with Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31, and 22-year-old Private Scott McArdle as the soldiers killed along with an Iraqi civilian translator.

The trio, all from the Scottish-based Black Watch regiment, died on Thursday afternoon when a vehicle-borne suicide bomb exploded at a checkpoint they were manning by the Euphrates River.

….

The incident happened just two days after the 850-strong Black Watch battle group started full operations at Camp Dogwood, a bleak outpost to the west of the insurgent-hit town of Mahmudiyah, southwest of Baghdad.

….

The redeployment has been hugely controversial in Britain, with Blair’s critics accusing him of sending troops into harm’s way largely as a symbolic gesture to show that the United States is not fighting alone in Iraq.

Blair has insisted the decision was military, not political.

….

However the deaths, so soon after the redeployment, were bleak political news for a prime minister who has seen his opinion poll ratings tumble since he opted to back the invasion of Iraq.

Blair came under swift condemnation, with Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, bitterly contrasting “the bravery of our soldiers with the duplicity of the politicians who sent them there”.

Blair, however sturdy in his resolve and right in his cause, cannot for long be asked to pay a political price for Fallujah.

Secondly, the planned election calendar adds to the pressure and, as is the norm, Kofi Annan and the dysfunctional United Nations ain’t helping.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned the United States, Britain and Iraq that an assault on Falluja risked further dividing the Iraqi people and undermining planned January elections.

…. U.N. officials made no secret of their fear that a large-scale attack on Falluja could provoke an election boycott by Sunni Muslims [previously discussed here] and undermine efforts to promote stability.

Okay, granted a beatdown of the terrorists may spur a Sunni boycott, but a prolonged standoff will most assuredly affect the election. Possibly damned if you do, certainly damned if you don’t. No matter the UN’s eventual level of love for the election, Iraq is better off with a pacified Fallujah. Let’s roll.