Target Centermass

Month: October 2005

  • War Leaves Guard Short on Critical Equipment

    The National Guard has been forced to go hat in hand before Congress as overseas deployments have taken a hit on equipment stocks.

    The Army National Guard has lost so much critical equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan that its ability to respond to a national emergency could be severely hampered, says a government report released Thursday.

    Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told the House Government Reform Committee that the Guard needs $1.3 billion to replace or upgrade radios, helicopters, tactical vehicles, heavy engineering equipment, chemical detection gear and night-vision goggles, which are essential to responding to national emergencies such as the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes and terrorist attacks.

    Blum’s testimony, along with that of other top National Guard and military officials and the governors of Idaho and Pennsylvania, coincided with the release of a new Government Accountability Office report, which says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left many Army National Guard units dangerously short of critical equipment. The shortages threaten the National Guard’s ability to prepare its forces for future missions at home and overseas, the auditors found.

    “The bottom line is that our inventory is now at 34 percent” of what it should be, Blum said.

    The article cites three key reasons for the equipment shortcomings, which may have an impact on the Guard’s ability to fulfill stateside emergency responsibilites.

    • The largest reliance upon Guard forces since World War II
    • Stocking of Guard equipment at 70 percent of actual allocation under the assumption that, if activated and deployed overseas, “they would have time to obtain the rest before deployment”
    • Unprecedented demands for key items by current deployment stresses

    On the bright side, there are signals of relief coming from Capitol Hill.

    Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said he and Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., are working to ensure that the National Guard gets the $1.3 billion it needs in the next supplemental spending bill.

    “Quite simply, we are robbing the nondeployed Peter to pay the deployed Paul,” he said. “I understand the need to prioritize, but this shouldn’t have to be a zero-sum game.”

    That is good to hear. Whatever one’s views on the current overseas military efforts, the idea that those operations should be allowed to affect the Guard’s stateside responsibilities is, in my view, indefensible.

  • The Astros Win the Pennant!

    The Astros Win the Pennant! The Astros Win the Pennant!

    More later but, for now, I’ll recommend you check out the Houston bloggers. Personally, as an H-Town fan, I’m too stuck in disbelief right now.

  • Iraqis Nab Alleged Top Terror Financier

    Like father, like son.

    Iraqi police on Wednesday arrested Saddam Hussein’s nephew in Baghdad, charging that he served as the top financier of Iraq’s rampant insurgency, senior Iraqi security officials said.

    Yasir Sabhawi Ibrahim, son of Saddam’s half brother Sabhawi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, was arrested in a Baghdad apartment, several days after Syrian authorities forced him to return to Iraq, the officials told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Cairo. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to deal with the media.

    One of the officials, who works as a coordinator between Iraqi authorities and U.S. military intelligence, described the purported financier as the most dangerous man in the urgency. The other official, who is a senior member of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said the arrest was a serious blow to terrorist networks.

    Both officials said Syrian authorities “pushed” Ibrahim into Iraq but did not hand him over to authorities.

    The Syrians were aware of his whereabouts in Baghdad and informed U.S. authorities, who then passed the information to Iraq security forces who carried out a “fast, easy” raid on the fugitive’s apartment, the Defense Ministry official said.

    Chad Evans at In the Bullpen looks at the news as possible good turn in Syrian policy.

    Is this a possible sign Syria may be starting to turn the corner from allowing terrorists and Saddam-linked insurgents to operate freely from their soil? Let us hope.

    Sorry, Chad, but it’s no change from less than eight months ago when, on Feb. 27, the Syrians actually handed over Ibrahim’s daddy to Iraqi authorities. At that time, I harbored the same hope about the Syrians. Nope, they haven’t changed much yet.

  • Last of Aussies’ Great War Fighters Passes

    Australia, our stalwart ally Down Under, has lost a key piece of its history.

    Eighty-seven years after the end of World War I, only a gossamer thread now links the nation to its baptism of fire and blood, after the death of the last Australian to go to the Great War.

    Evan Allan died late on Monday night at the age of 106, leaving only one living connection with the “war to end all wars” – Jack Ross, 106, who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1918, but who never saw a shot fired in anger.

    Born in Bega, NSW, in July 1899, (William) Evan Allan enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy as a boy sailor at the outbreak of the Great War, when he was only 14 years old.

    He served 33 years in the navy and was the sole surviving Australian veteran to serve in both world wars.

    A statement from his family said he passed away peacefully.

    The countdown to the passing of those Aussies from the first World War has been a painful but steadily progressing process, as history must be.

    On a day when her predecessor, Danna Vale, attracted widespread condemnation for suggesting that a Gallipoli theme park should be established on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, with re-enactments of the Anzac landing, Veterans Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly said: “With his passing, we have lost an entire generation who left Australia to defend our nation, the British Empire and other nations in the cause of freedom and democracy.”

    In Bendigo, Victoria, Jack Ross’s daughter, Peggy Ashburn, offered condolences to Mr Allan’s family. “I just feel very sad, really,” she said.

    The countdown to the last link with the Great War had been “a bit like the green bottles, standing on the wall”.

    She said her father was a modest, unassuming man who had “answered the call” and enlisted in January 1918, two months before his 19th birthday.

    Transferred to the Light Horse Brigade as a wireless operator, he was decoding German propaganda in Sydney when the war ended, and was demobilised on Christmas Eve, 1918, six weeks after the Armistice.

    One by one, year after year, the Great War generation has slipped away, while holding no less a powerful grip on the national psyche.

    The last battlefield Digger, Peter Casserly, died in Perth in June, aged 107. His death extinguished the nation’s last link with the slaughter on the Western Front. One newspaper marked his passing with the headline “All is quiet on the Western Front”.

    The last Gallipoli Anzac, Alec Campbell, a boy soldier who upped his age to enlist, died in May 2002, aged 103.

    At his state funeral in Hobart, the Prime Minister described Campbell as “Gallipoli’s last sentinel”. He spoke of a reflective silence and the gentle stirring of half-flown flags.

    Obviously, we are talking about people who were youths from a different time, a different standard of patriotism.

    At a time when Australia’s population was less than 5 million, 416,809 enlisted for the war (about half of the eligible men), 331,000 served overseas and 61,720 perished (all causes).

    I, for one, mark the passing of Mr. Allan with the haunting Gallipoli-based tune “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the Pogues.

    And now every April I sit on my porch
    And I watch the parade pass before me
    And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
    Reliving old dreams of past glory
    And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
    The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
    And the young people ask, “What are they marching for?”
    And I ask myself the same question
    And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
    And the old men answer to the call
    But year after year their numbers get fewer
    Some day no one will march there at all

    [full lyrics can be found here]

    Contrary to the song, though, I would like to say that neither the heroes nor the war can or should ever be forgotten. History slowly but unfailingly slips by us — please find a veteran, thank and talk to the person. Hear, honor and remember the tales.

  • Carnival of Liberty XVI

    This week’s installment of the Life, Liberty, Property community’s Carnival of Liberty is up over at Searchlight Crusade. Go read another fine collection of posts from a libertarian slant.

  • ‘Stros: Heartbreak in Place of History

    At one time a single strike away from their first-ever World Series, the Astros fall 5-4 in a dramatic and painful ninth-inning loss.

    Still, one strike away. Now, back to St. Louis.

    By the way, this puts the Astros at 0-5 in games that could have sent them into the fall classic. Last year, they lost two in St. Louis and, in 1980, they lost two at home to Philadelphia. Like tonight, they had a lead at some point in each and every game. 1980 was particularly painful, with multiple-run leads blown in the two straight eighth innings and extra-inning losses in both games.

    Still, one strike away with a two-run lead. And a heart-crushing loss comes instead.

    Now, a repeat of last year’s 3-2 series lead heading back to Busch Stadium for an Astros team that should almost certainly feel snake-bit. If there’s any hope, it’s in the starting pitching duo of Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemons on the mound for a team that has proven amazingly resilient all season.

    Still, one strike away with a two-run lead and the home-town fans roaring and the champagne chilled. Damn, this hurts.

  • Russia’s Islamic Revolt is Spreading

    There was a startling and disturbing revelation today concerning the recent Islamist attack in southern Russia — the perpetrators were mainly locals, not Chechen as initially suspected.

    The diehard gang of Muslim extremists responsible for last week’s attack on the southern Russian city of Nalchik consisted mainly of local militants intent on creating a strict Islamic state independent of Moscow, according to security sources in the region.

    The disclosure that the gunmen were not sent from the war-torn republic of Chechnya but belonged to a group from Kabardino-Balkaria, the Russian republic of which Nalchik is the capital, will be of great concern to the Kremlin.

    It provides alarming evidence that far from dying down — as claimed by President Vladimir Putin — the bloody Chechen conflict is spreading.

    “Most of the militants who were killed and those caught alive are local,” said an officer with the Nalchik anti-terrorism police unit. “ The ferocity of the attacks has shocked the city.”

    The onslaught, which turned the town of 280,000 into a war zone, was the most daring raid by pro-Chechen Islamic militants since last year’s Beslan school siege in which 330 hostages were killed. It came less than a month before parliamentary elections in Chechnya, hailed by Putin as evidence that the region is becoming stable.

    The 24 hours of gun battles in which several police stations and other security forces buildings were attacked left at least 108 dead, including more than 60 militants. Nearly 30 others were detained.

    Most of the gunmen were thought to be members of Yarmuk, a homegrown fundamentalist group that the local authorities twice claimed to have destroyed.

    Go read for a detailed look at the attack.

    UPDATE: Mac Powell at In the Bullpen has more on the story, including a link to an interview with a hostage that gives an insight into the chilling mindset of the Islamist terrorists.

  • U.S., Britain, Iran Trade Charges over Attacks

    Bomb attacks hit Iran over the weekend, and Iran responded by pointing an accusing finger at the Brits.

    Yo, Iran: Pot, kettle, black.

    Iran’s president accused Britain on Sunday of being behind deadly weekend bomb attacks in Iran, sharply escalating tension after the United States and Britain charged Iran was involved in insurgent attacks in Iraq.

    “We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts,” the ISNA student news agency quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying of twin bombings that killed five people in southwest Iran on Saturday.

    “Our people are used to these kind of incidents, and our intelligence agents found the footprints of Britain in the same incidents before,” Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting.

    […]

    Britain, which has more than 8,000 troops in southern Iraq, has denied any link with the two bombs in the oil city Ahvaz, which injured more than 80, and with the string of attacks this year in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran’s oil industry.

    No one has claimed responsibility for the homemade bombs, planted in garbage bins and detonated a few minutes apart.

    Ahmadinejad’s remarks raised tension between Tehran and London to new heights. Relations were already sensitive because talks between Iran and Britain, France and Germany on Iran’s controversial nuclear program broke down in August.

    Britain and the United States have accused Iran or the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hizbollah of providing military expertise to Iraqi insurgents behind attacks on British troops in southern Iraq.

    Iran denies meddling in Iraq and says the accusations against it are psychological warfare tied to efforts by Washington and London to report Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear program.

    Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if these attacks were a home-grown problem from a vary sizable portion of the Iranian population growing ever more restless for freedom and democracy. Likewise, I wouldn’t mind a bit if the U.S. or our allies were working to foment any such restlessness.

  • Iraq Constitution Appears Likely to Pass Referendum

    With official returns some days away, signs are already positive the the Iraqi people, who turned out in large numbers to the polls Saturday, will likely approve their constitutional referendum.

    Local election officials in Diyala province say 70 percent of the 400,000 people who voted there in Saturday’s referendum said “yes” to the draft constitution. Twenty-percent rejected it and 10 percent of the ballots were rejected as being irregular.

    Sunni Arabs, who largely reject the constitution because they believe it gives too much power and oil wealth to rival Shi’ites and Kurds, form a majority in Diyala, Salahaddin and Nineveh provinces. But all three provinces have sizable populations of Shi’ites and Kurds, who mostly favor the constitution.

    Without Diyala, Sunni Arabs now have a more difficult task reaching the two-thirds “no” vote in three provinces that would be required to nullify the constitution. That has raised concern that Sunni dissatisfaction over the charter could deepen sectarian and ethnic tension in Iraq, and strengthen the Sunni-led insurgency.

    Sunni Arabs lost power and have felt marginalized since U.S.-led forces deposed Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Many Sunnis boycotted elections in January in protest, which brought Iraq’s long-oppressed Shi’ites and Kurds to power.

    Sunnis charge the country’s new powerbrokers drew up the constitution with the intention of ignoring the Sunni people, and looking out only for their own communities. Sunni Arabs say that is a recipe for starting a civil war.

    VOA spoke to about a dozen Sunni Arab residents who took part in Saturday’s vote. Most said that they participated because they regretted boycotting January elections, and needed to feel politically relevant again.

    The heavy turnout gave hope to some that enough Sunni Arabs voted “no” to defeat the constitution. Others said that they voted with the hope that their involvement in the political process will help undercut support for foreign Sunni extremists, like al-Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and bring stability to Iraq.

    […]

    If the constitution passes, Sunni Arabs have a chance to request changes in the charter after elections in December. The challenge of Sunni leaders now is to calm their followers, and focus on generating a huge turnout of voters in December, which will then allow Sunni Arabs to form a political bloc to be reckoned with.

    Once again, the terrorists failed to stop the Iraqis from voting in large numbers and failed to make the streets run with blood. Maybe, just maybe, they’re not the great and popular force that some seem to believe.

    Also, with each election, democracy becomes more ingrained in Iraqi society.

  • Astros One Win from NL Pennant

    Coming out on the winning end of a tense defensive dual, the Houston Astros took a 3-1 series lead over the St. Louis Cardinals and find themselves one win away from being the first team from Texas to reach the World Series.

    Poised as can be no matter how tough the task, Brad Lidge pulled off another great escape against St. Louis.

    Now it’s the steaming-mad Cardinals who are in a serious jam in the NL Championship Series.

    Defensive replacement Eric Bruntlett started a game-ending double play, Lidge wriggled out of a major mess in the ninth inning and the Houston Astros scratched out a 2-1 victory Sunday in Game 4 to move within one win of their first trip to the World Series.

    […]

    The Astros can close it out at home Monday night, with Andy Pettitte on the mound against Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter.

    St. Louis has quite an uphill climb if it wants to win its second consecutive pennant. The Cardinals must face Pettitte, Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens in the next three games — if they can push it that far.

    Sweet.