BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
NOBODY can convince me the words in this tweet from the repiglican national senatorial committee weren't deliberately chosen. God bless you Rep Duckworth, thank you for your service and sacrifice! SHAME ON THE nrsc!!! From +Daily Kos .....
The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly deleted the tweet below Tuesday afternoon, but “quickly” wasn’t soon enough for a screw-up of this magnitude. 1) Tammy Duckworth is a veteran.
2) Tammy Duckworth is a veteran whose combat-related injuries left her a DOUBLE AMPUTEE—she lost both legs. Under the circumstances, “standing up” may, just may, have been the wrong idiom to use.
Who do the Republicans have running that Twitter feed? Really speechless. It sure will be interesting to see what kind of apology the NRSC comes up with … or if they even bother.
"It would be great if reporters would pay as much attention to a deleted tweet as they should to Tammy Duckworth being sued by VA whistleblowers for ignoring claims of mistreatment and corruption."
ARE we the people going to let the military-industrial complex, the war profiteers of wall street and the Washington politicians mislead and deceive us into another war in Iraq, another Middle East war? Are we going to send our military to die and be wounded in countries where we, as a nation, are hated and despised? We can't even provide proper care and support for the wounded still returning from our war in Afghanistan and from our last war in Iraq? Tragic and brutal as the murders of James Foley and Steve Sotloff were, they do not justify the deaths and wounding of thousands more Americans. We do not have allies in the Arab Middle East, we have consumers of our weapons systems and business interest. American lives should not be sacrificed for corporate profits. Click the link to tell your senators NO MORE AMERICAN WARS in the Middle East. And remember, it was public outrage and outcry that prevented us from getting us involved in Syria last year. We have the power and can stop this march to war in Iraq and Syria. From +Daily Kos ..... War hawks are trying to rush us into yet another lengthy war without
any questions or debate. We need to hit the pause button here, take a
breath and remember what happened the last two times we did this.
Then, we need to make sure our elected officials take the time to ask the tough questions.
War hawks like Dick Cheney and John McCain are beating the drum for new
war in the Middle East—and, just as in 2003, most of the media are
letting them make their case without criticism or questioning. Even
Congress may allow new military intervention in the Middle East without
so much as a floor debate or a vote to authorize it. This is
unacceptable.
After a decade of war, Americans understand that military action has
profound consequences. Congress needs to vigorously and publicly debate
newly proposed action in the Middle East.
Everything I wrote here still stands.
We've spent billions arming our Middle East allies to the teeth. They
are the ones directly threatened by Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL. Not us.
So why is it us that have to do the fighting? It's their backyard,
but they can watch comfortably as the United States bleeds trillions
more to bail them out? Nice gig, if you can get it.
Let those directly threatened by Islamic State put their skin in the game.
Originally posted to kos on Wed Sep 10, 2014 at 01:26 PM PDT.
MORE beating of the war drums by the military-industrial complex and the big oil / energy companies who are more interested in their profit margins than the deaths of American soldiers in another worthless war in Iraq and probably Syria. These war pigs care nothing about the fate of the American men and women in uniform serving and defending our country. The American interest they say we need to protect are the war profiteers who reap millions from death and destruction. We need to stop this before we are in another full blown war to "save" another Middle Eastern country who will turn against us once we have saved the asses of their corrupt political leadership. I wish Pres Obama and Congress were as outraged over the neglect and suffering of the tens of thousands of wounded vets from Iraq and Afghanistan as they are over the murder of James Foley. Maybe then the government would actually take the necessary action to take care of these wounded warriors. War is not the answer, when will we, as a nation learn? From +PBS NewsHour
Islamic
State fighters captured the last major military base in northeastern
Syria on Sunday, bolstering its influence in the already unstable
region. The U.S. kept up airstrikes against the group over the weekend,
amid growing talk of an expanding ai campaign into Syria. Jeffrey Brown
gets analysis on the threat from retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor and
Stephen Walt of Harvard University.
GWEN IFILL: Last
week’s execution-style murder of journalist James Foley has intensified
the debate over how the U.S. should handle the expanding Islamic State
group. Officials at the White House and the Pentagon have signaled they
will act against the militant group soon, perhaps striking within Syria.Jeffrey Brown takes a closer look at the choices facing the Obama administration.
http://youtu.be/nth1vLvqHkw JEFFREY BROWN: U.S.
jets flying off the carrier George H.W. Bush kept up airstrikes against
Islamic State fighters in Iraq over the weekend. There was also growing
talk of expanding the air campaign across the border into Syria.
Army
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said last week
that’s the only way to defeat the militant group. But at the White House
today, spokesman Josh Earnest was noncommittal. JOSH EARNEST, White House Press Secretary: The president thus far has not made a decision to order additional military action in Syria. JEFFREY BROWN: Also
today, Syria’s foreign minister today rejected any airstrikes, unless
Damascus is consulted. Still, he said Syria welcomes all help, despite
repeated U.S. calls for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. WALID AL-MOALLEM,
Syrian Foreign Minister (through interpreter): We are ready to
cooperate and coordinate with regional countries and the international
community in fighting terrorism following the resolutions of the
Security Council. We welcome everybody. JEFFREY BROWN: The
need for help was evident Sunday, as Islamic State forces captured the
last major military base in northeastern Syria. They celebrated in the
streets of Raqqa with vehicles honking horns and shots fired in the air.
Calls
for U.S. action to extend into Syria have mounted since American
journalist James Foley was beheaded by Islamic State captors. Sunday, on
NBC, the British ambassador to the U.S., Peter Westmacott, said
investigators are close to identifying the British-accented militant in
the video. He also acknowledged that some 500 Britons have joined the
Islamic State.
The chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Rogers, warned that Westerners in the group pose a mortal threat. REP. MIKE ROGERS,
R-Mich.: And one of the problems is, it’s gone unabated for nearly two
years, and that draws people from Britain, to across Europe, even the
United States to go and join the fight. They are one plane ticket away
from U.S. shores, and that’s why we’re so concerned about it. JEFFREY BROWN: Meanwhile,
the U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, accused Islamic State forces
of widespread crimes in Iraq, including slavery, sexual abuse, and mass
executions of hundreds of prisoners.
How great a threat is the Islamic State group? And what should the U.S. do about it?
We
join the debate now with retired Army Colonel Peter Mansoor. He was
executive officer to General David Petraeus in Iraq during the surge in
2007 and ’8. He’s now an associate professor of military history at the
Ohio State University. And Stephen Walt is professor of international
relations at Harvard University. He’s written extensively about security
policy issues.
Peter Mansoor, let me start with you.
How do you define the threat and how urgent is the need to act? COL. PETER MANSOOR (RET.),
U.S. Army: Well, ISIS is a group that is well-funded, well-armed, and
has thousands of fighters under its ranks and more joining it every day.
It’s
a threat to the region. It can destabilize the Middle East, from which
we get most of our oil, in terms of the global economy. And it can
inject terrorism into Europe and the United States, given that it has
hundreds of fighters in its ranks who hold Western passports.
So this is a group that is a threat to the United States and the global community and it needs to be dealt with. JEFFREY BROWN: Stephen Walt, how do you respond to that? How do you define the threat first? STEPHEN WALT, Harvard University:I
think that there’s no question ISIS is a bunch of very bad guys. But
it’s primarily a threat to the people in the areas they control and not a
direct threat to the United States.
It’s a predominantly Sunni
group which will not be able to expand into non-Sunni areas. And the
potential terrorist threat there, I think, has been greatly exaggerated.
There are lots of groups around the world who would like to be able to
go after the United States. Most of them fail. And, in fact, the way to
deal with it is primarily with intelligence and counterterrorism here at
home. JEFFREY BROWN: All right, so, Peter Mansoor, what
exactly would you propose? Are there — are airstrikes into Syria
required? Are special forces on the ground required? Spell it out for
us, what you would like to see. COL. PETER MANSOOR: Well,
if the goal is to destroy ISIS, you have to do it on both sides of what
is now a nonexistent international border, because, otherwise, if you
just deal with the group in Iraq, it will just move back into Syria and
remetastasize.
I believe we need to wait until there’s an
inclusive and legitimate government in Baghdad. But provided that
happens under Prime Minister designate Haider al-Abadi, then I think we
need to provide advisers and trainers to reform and retrain the Iraqi
army and Kurdish Peshmerga, ramp up the equipment effort, especially to
the Kurdish forces in the north, ramp up our airstrikes and provide more
drone strikes and aircraft, and base them in the region, so they don’t
have to be based on ships floating out in the Gulf.
And then I
think — and this is probably the most controversial point of what I have
to say — we need to provide special forces to embed themselves with
Sunni tribes and rekindle the awakening that did so much to destroy the
forerunner to ISIS, al-Qaida in Iraq, in 2006, 2007 and 2008. And they
need to do that probably on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border. JEFFREY BROWN: All
right, Stephen Walt, you didn’t see the same threat, so I assume you
don’t see that same kind of ramp-up. What’s your response? STEPHEN WALT: I
think that, first of all, the United States should remember that we
have spent the last 15 years trying to use military power, including
military assistance, to try and organize the politics of this region.
And we have failed miserably.
We have got a failed state in Iraq.
We have a failed state in Libya, and we spent $25 billion training the
Iraqi army, which then subsequently turned and ran when confronted by
ISIS. So I think to believe that we can go in again with airpower
primarily and some special forces and eliminate this problem is
fanciful.
This is going to be ultimately a problem for locals to
deal with, not for the United States to try and deal with. And because
it is not a vital threat to core American security interests, it’s one
we should stay away from. JEFFREY BROWN: What about,
though, Mr. Walt, the argument that if we don’t — if the U.S. doesn’t do
something now, it may be too late later on if you are wrong? STEPHEN WALT: Well,
again, we have to recognize this is not the Third Reich. This is not an
incredibly powerful movement. It has maybe 20,000 fighters, no air
force, no navy, basically lightly armed infantry that has been able to
expand in stateless area, areas that are stateless in part because we
destroyed the states that were governing there.
And the idea that
we are going to go in again with a few thousand special forces and
reorganize the politics of that region, I think, has been tried and
found wanting in the past. And it would be found wanting again if we
tried it again. JEFFREY BROWN: And, Peter Mansoor, speaking
of complications in your argument, Syria has warned against airstrikes
into its space. Would your — would a push toward going across the border
not complicate things even more there? COL. PETER MANSOOR: Well, it’s a simple military mission of destroying an enemy armed force.
And
we send Syria a simple message: Stay out of our way or we will start
bombing you as well. And I think Bashar al-Assad and his forces would be
happy to watch us bomb ISIS with or without coordination with them.
I
think the main difference between Professor Walt and me is, he doesn’t
see ISIS as a threat to the United States. And I see it as a direct
threat to the United States. It has an ideology that will eventually
lead it to attack us. JEFFREY BROWN: But, Mr. Mansoor, even
if it is a threat or not to the United States, one of his arguments, as
I hear it, is history doesn’t bode well. It doesn’t show us that the
U.S. has the kind of power, ability, efficiency to do what you think we
can do. COL. PETER MANSOOR: Well, I beg to differ.
I
just finished writing a book on the surge. And in 2007 and 2008, we did
turn around a war effort that had nearly failed, and had that country on
the road to stability. Unfortunately, through political missteps, most
of them by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that victory was thrown away.
So
I don’t see the same military dysfunction as Professor Walt. What I do
know is that, without U.S. help, Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces cannot
defeat ISIS. JEFFREY BROWN: Stephen Walt? STEPHEN WALT: I
think, first of all, if the Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces can’t
defeat them, then we’re not going to be able to defeat them ourselves.
And
we disagree on the success of the surge. The surge was a tactical
success, but a strategic failure, because it did not produce the
political reconciliation that was a requirement for strategic success
there. And there’s no evidence that we have the magic formula for
recreating political order in Syria or in Iraq. And, ultimately, that’s
going to be a task for the residents of those areas to do, and not
expect the United States to do it for them. JEFFREY BROWN: One
other brief issue, starting, Peter Mansoor. What about the allies? Does
— can — should the U.S. act alone if it doesn’t have the support of
other allies? COL. PETER MANSOOR: We actually do have the support of a lot of nations around the world who have been calling for U.S. leadership in this case.
European
nations would like to see ISIS destroyed. They realize that a lot of
their citizens are in ISIS ranks, and could be a threat to them as well.
So with U.S. leadership, I believe that we actually will have
international legitimacy for this mission, unlike the war in 2003. JEFFREY BROWN: And a brief last word for you, Stephen Walt, if the U.S. has that kind of legitimacy? STEPHEN WALT: There’s
no question that almost everyone around the world would like to see
ISIS weakened, but ultimately that is going to be a task for the people
who are mostly threatened. And it is the people who are living right
next door to ISIS, not the United States, which is an ocean away. JEFFREY BROWN: Stephen Walt and Peter Mansoor, thank you so much. We will continue the debate.
allen west is so ignorant and so repulsive his comments about +Rep Tammy Duckworth D IL should be denounced by his employer, fox "news". He is a disgrace, even to fox, and if his supporters and the politicians allied with him (repiglicans & tea-baggers) do not denounce him for questioning Rep Duckworth's loyalty to our nation there is something very wrong with them too. This from +Daily Kos followed by part of Rep Duckworth's bio on +Wikipedia ....
When last we heard from Former Congressman Allen West (R-FL-OfCourse) he was hard at work being a horrible human being. I see he is still at it.
Fox News contributor Allen West questioned the "loyalties"
of decorated veteran and Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth for serving with
her fellow Democrats on the Benghazi select committee. [...]
West remarked of Duckworth: "I just don't know where her loyalties
lie. You know, for her to have been a veteran, a wounded warrior for the
United States Army, she should know that this is not the right thing.
And hopefully, you know, she will remember the oath of office that she
took as an Army officer and not the allegiance I guess she believes she
has to the liberal progressives of the Democrat Party."
Apparently merely being assigned to the committee is all it takes for
combat veteran Tammy Duckworth to have her loyalties questioned by West;
a truly loyal American would shut up and let Republican conspiracy
peddlers say whatever they wanted about dead Americans.
He's all class, that one. I can see why Fox News couldn't bear to be without him.
Originally posted to Hunter on Thu May 22, 2014 at 10:49 AM PDT.
Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district since 2013. A Democrat, she is the first Asian American woman elected to Congress in Illinois, the first disabled woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and the first member of Congress born in Thailand.
Duckworth previously served as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs from April 24, 2009 to June 30, 2011, and as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs from November 21, 2006 to February 8, 2009.
An Iraq War veteran, Duckworth served as a U.S. Army
helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, losing both of her
legs and damaging her right arm. She was the first female double amputee
from the war.[1] Having received a medical waiver, she continues to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran.[2]
Video:
Here are key moments from the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on
Thursday where Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of
Staff Ray Odierno testified about Wednesday's shooting at Fort Hood,
Tex.
The soldier who went on a shooting rampage
Wednesday at Fort Hood, Tex., had been undergoing treatment for
depression and had seen a psychiatrist last month, but Army officials
said Thursday they did not consider him a threat before he killed three
fellow soldiers and took his own life.
Army Secretary John M. McHugh said the 34-year-old shooter had
been prescribed “a number of drugs,” including Ambien, a sleep aid.
After giving the soldier a full psychiatric evaluation last month, Army
officials detected no indications “that there was any sign of likely
violence, either to himself or to others,” McHugh told a Senate panel
Thursday.
“The plan forward was to just continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate,” McHugh added.
He
said the investigation was still unfolding and did not comment on a
possible motive. But he echoed other Army leaders in saying there was no
evidence the shooter was “involved with extremists of any kind.”
McHugh did not identify the soldier, but other military officials and law enforcement officials have named him as Army Spec. Ivan A. Lopez,
a military truck driver. He was dressed in his standard-issue
camouflage uniform when he abruptly pulled out a .45 Smith & Wesson
semiautomatic pistol Wednesday afternoon and opened fire in two
different buildings on the vast Army post in central Texas.
The mass shooting immediately prompted flashbacks to another terrible day at Fort Hood. On Nov. 5, 2009, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan,
a psychiatrist who had been in contact with an al-Qaeda leader
overseas, gunned down soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and
Afghanistan, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30.
Ever
since, Defense Department officials have worked to bolster security and
improve screening at bases across the country. Despite those efforts, insider attacks by people working for the military have persisted, frustrating military leaders and lawmakers alike.
In
September, a government contractor who had been hearing phantom voices
carried a shotgun into the Washington Navy Yard and methodically killed
12 people. That shooter, Aaron Alexis, a Navy veteran, had recently
sought treatment for insomnia from Veterans Affairs medical centers.
When
doctors asked Alexis if he had thoughts of harming himself or others,
he said no. He was prescribed medicine for sleeplessness and anxiety,
but, like Lopez, he was not labeled a potential threat. Nineteen days
later, he carried out his attack.
Army officials said they were
still trying to unravel a motive for Lopez’s attack. Investigators were
questioning Lopez’s wife and searching their apartment in Killeen, the
city that abuts the Army post. The couple were both natives of Puerto
Rico, Army officials said.
Lopez grew up in the town of
Guayanilla, on Puerto Rico’s southwestern side. The town’s current
mayor, Edgardo Arlequín, was the director of a local band for school
children when Lopez joined. That was about 1990, the year that Lopez
turned 11.
The mayor said that Lopez came from a musical family: his father and brother both played music in the local Catholic church.
“Ivan
was quiet . . . introverted, calm,” Arlequín said in Spanish in a
telephone interview. He said he knew Lopez for several years and had
never seen him show anger with another student. “Never. Never. I never
saw him get in a fight.”
Lopez spent 10 years as a police officer
in Puerto Rico and was still counted as an “inactive” member of the
force while he served in the Army, a spokesman for the Puerto Rican
police service said Thursday.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, described the shooter
as “a very experienced soldier” who had served for nine years in the
Puerto Rico National Guard before enlisting in the active-duty Army in
2010.
While with the National Guard, the shooter served a
one-year deployment to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. In 2011, after he
joined the Army full-time, he served four months in Iraq and was one of
the last U.S. troops to come home at the end of the war.
McHugh said there was no record that the shooter had been wounded or injured in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commanding general of Fort Hood, told
reporters Wednesday night that the shooter had “self-reported” a
traumatic brain injury from his Iraq deployment and that he was
undergoing evaluation to determine if he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Milley
said the shooter “had behavioral health and mental health issues” and
was taking antidepressants. “We are digging deep into his background,”
he said.
Lopez had been stationed at Fort Hood only for several
weeks. He arrived in February and was assigned to the 13th Sustainment
Command (Expeditionary) as a truck driver.
He had previously been
stationed at another Texas installation, Fort Bliss, for two years as an
infantryman with the 1st Armored Division, 4th Brigade. According to a
person familiar with his military service, he was taking medications
while stationed at Fort Bliss to help with depression and anxiety, but
his behavior did not raise any red flags. Because of privacy
restrictions, his commanders were unaware of the medications he was
receiving.
Lopez had been experiencing some stress in his life;
his mother had passed away in the past year and he had been seeing a
chaplain for counseling on that and other undisclosed issues, according
to the person familiar with his military record. The military monitors
people for stress levels, and Lopez was deemed to be “low risk” at the
time.
He left Fort Bliss in November for several months of
training to become a truck driver, then won an assignment with a
truck-driving unit at Fort Hood, starting in February.
In March,
not long after his arrival at Fort Hood, Lopez legally purchased the
.45-caliber Smith & Wesson from a Killeen gun shop, Guns Galore —
the same store where Hasan bought the weapon he used in the 2009 Fort
Hood rampage, according to two law-enforcement officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
About 4 p.m. Wednesday, Lopez began
shooting. Officials, while stressing that they were still trying to
determine the precise sequence of events, said he opened fire inside two
different buildings: one belonging to the 1st Medical Brigade and
another belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion. In between, he
fired shots from a vehicle he had driven onto the base.
He was
eventually confronted by a female military police officer. He put his
hands up at first, but then pulled out a gun from under his jacket and
shot himself in the head, according to Milley, the Fort Hood commander.
Milley said investigators were looking into reports that the
shooter may have gotten into an argument with another soldier, but he
did not give details.
Doctors at Scott and White Memorial Hospital
in Temple, Tex., said Thursday that they were treating nine patients —
eight men and one woman, all current service members — and that three remain in critical condition.
Matthew
Davis, trauma director at the hospital, told reporters that five others
are in fair condition and the remainder in good condition. He said it
was possible that several victims with minor injuries could be
discharged Thursday.
Davis said the patients in critical condition
have injuries to the neck, abdomen and possibly the spine and that two
of them require further surgery. The patients range in age from 21 to
the mid-40s, he said.
Among the wounded was Maj. Patrick Miller, who had previously served in Iraq.His condition was not known.
Several
of Miller’s Facebook friends posted messages asking for prayers for his
recovery. His mother and wife took to Twitter asking for prayers. His
wife tweeted directly to two football players on the Buffalo Bills, his
favorite team, asking them to pray for her husband.
“I have no
doubt he’ll pull through because of who he is,” Robert Heckler of
Brazoria, Tex., who served in Iraq with Miller from 2004 to 2005, said
in a phone interview. “Man, that guy is one of a kind. Honestly, he’s a
straight dude, he’s a cool dude.”
Like many other soldiers and
Army veterans, Heckler said he was stunned that the Army had been
victimized by another insider attack.
“It happened at our home, at
our house,” he said. “He was shot by another soldier. That’s a lot
different than the Army I was in.”
President Obama directed
officials to “utilize every resource available to fully investigate the
shooting,” the White House said Wednesday night. The president spoke in a
conference call with his national security team, including Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin
Dempsey and FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano. Speaking during a fundraising trip to Chicago, Obama said he was “heartbroken that something like this might have happened again” and pledged “to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”
At
Guns Galore, which advertises that it has 3,000 guns in stock and 1,700
on display, general manager Cathy Cheadle said she could not comment
because of the investigation.
But a part-time sales clerk, a
retired police sergeant who gave his name only as Ebert, said, “We are
religiously in compliance with state and federal law — to the point
where we have pissed some people off.” He added: “We have refused gun
sales before. It’s based on the little voice inside your head that says
it’s not a good idea. . . . We have done good things since we’ve been
here. We do whatever needs to be done to keep the community safe.”
On
Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid said Thursday that
Congress should revisit the issue of expanding the federal gun
background check program in response to the latest shooting spree at
Fort Hood.
“As I was told today, this young man bought his gun a
day or two before he killed these people,” Reid told reporters.
“Couldn’t we at least have background checks so that people who are ill
mentally, or who are felons, shouldn’t be able to buy guns? Even NRA
members, a majority of them, support that, so I hope we can bring it
back up.”
When asked whether he would like to bring up a bill to
expand the background check program, Reid said, “I would like to be able
to bring it back up; I need some more votes.”
But Rep. Steve Stockman
(R-Tex.) called on Congress to end a ban on carrying weapons at U.S.
military bases. In a statement, he charged that the latest shooting
occurred “because our trained soldiers aren’t allowed to carry defensive
weapons.,” adding: “Anti-gun activists have turned our military bases
into soft targets for killers.”
Although installations such as
Fort Hood contain large storehouses of armaments, and many of their
inhabitants have spent years at war, military posts are usually among
the most idyllic communities in the country, a throwback to the 1950s,
with manicured lawns, drivers who conscientiously abide by the speed
limit and parents unafraid to allow their children to frolic out of
sight.
Encompassing 340 square miles, Fort Hood is larger than
the five boroughs of New York combined. But most of the area is open
terrain, used for tank and artillery practice. Many of the post’s
facilities are concentrated on its southern perimeter, near its gates to
the city of Killeen. The facilities include the headquarters for III
Corps, which is comprised of two full divisions and support regiments.
More than 40,000 service members work on the post, which has about 6,000
family residences.
In the wake of the Navy Yard shooting, Hagel
ordered a series of security changes at military installations,
including more rigorous screening of personnel and the creation of an
analysis center to examine “insider threats.”
“When we have these
kinds of tragedies on our bases, something’s not working,” he said
Wednesday during a visit to Hawaii. “We will continue to address the
issue. Anytime you lose your people to these kinds of tragedies, it’s an
issue, it’s a problem.” Shelby Sementelli in Killeen, Tex.; Ernesto Londoño in Hawaii; and
Sari Horwitz, David Fahrenthold, Clarence Williams, William Branigin,
Colby Itkowitz, Ed O’Keefe and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to
this report.
'We Do Not Expect Any More Fatalities,' Doctor Says Of Fort Hood Victims
by
Sgt. First Class Erick Rodriguez stood guard
at the entrance to Fort Hood as officials prepared to brief the news
media about Wednesday's attack at the post.
Erich Schlegel /Reuters/Landov
On the day after , in which a gunman killed at least three people, wounded 16 and then reportedly killed himself, there was this welcome news:
"We
do not expect any more fatalities at this point," Dr. Matthew Davis,
head of the trauma unit at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in
Temple, Texas, told reporters Thursday morning. Three of the nine
victims being treated at the hospital remain in critical condition, but
Davis said all three should survive. Scott & White is where those
who still need care are being treated.
The day's other
developments include word that the gunman, who authorities have
identified as Army Spc. Ivan Lopez, was reportedly being treated for
depression but had shown no sign he was likely to do harm to anyone or
to himself.
There was also word Thursday that three of those
who were injured remained in critical condition — but that doctors
expect they will survive their wounds. Officials said the nine people
being treated at Scott & White Memorial Hospital are all members of
the military and range in age from 21 to the mid-40s. Eight of the nine
are men. Several may be discharged later today.
The latest news and our original post, which has much more about the deadly rampage, follow: Update at 11:50 a.m. ET. Three Victims Critical, But Are Expected To Recover:
Three
of the nine patients at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple,
Texas, remain in critical condition, Dr. Matthew Davis just told
reporters at the hospital. He's head of the hospital's trauma unit. But
he added this hopeful note: "We do not expect any more fatalities at
this point."
Of the others, two are in fair condition and the
others are in good condition, Davis said. Several of them may be
discharged later today.
Davis said eight of the patients are
men. All nine are now members of the military, he said. Their ages range
from "21 to the 40s." the news conference at the hospital.
The
doctor also said that the three patients in critical condition have
injuries to different parts of their body — one has "injuries to the
neck," another has a "potential spine injury" from a gunshot wound and
another has an abdominal injury. Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. "Early Evidence: Fort Hood Gunman Showed No Warning Signs":
"He was seen just last month by a psychiatrist," , who was an Army
soldier. "He was fully examined and as of this morning we had no
indication [from] the record of that examination that there was any sign
of likely violence either to himself or to others." Update at 10 a.m. ET. "He Had A Clean Record":
The
gunman "had a clean record" in the military and background checks of
him "show no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind," at
the top of a previously scheduled Senate hearing. McHugh also told the
lawmakers that the soldier had been prescribed multiple prescription
drugs, including a sleep aid. Our original post began with some of the day's headlines and rounded up the news:
We'll start with some of the morning's headlines and links to accounts about what happened Wednesday:
— "Fort Hood Suffers Another Shooting Tragedy." ()
— "Shooting forces victims of 2009 attack to relive the tragedy." ()
— "Fort Hood shooting comes less than 5 years after attack." ()
— "Shootings frustrate U.S. military efforts to secure bases." ()
— "Texans' hearts are once again very heavy." ()
It
was around 4 p.m. local time when the gunman reportedly opened fire in
one building, got in a vehicle and fired more shots from it, then
entered another building where he fired again. Officials say that at
least one MP then confronted the gunman in a parking lot.
,
NPR's Tom Bowman said early reports indicate that the MP "drew her
weapon," and that the gunman then pulled a handgun from under his shirt
and "placed the gun to his head and killed himself."
The local Killeen Daily Herald :
"III
Corps and Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Mark Milley said the shooter
used a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun, which he'd purchased
recently. Milley said the soldier, who arrived at Fort Hood in February
from another military installation in Texas, suffered from depression
anxiety and other mental heath issues and was in the process of getting a
diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Fort Hood
officials did not release the name of the gunman Wednesday night pending
notification of next of kin, but a Bell County sheriff's deputy
identified him as 34-year-old Spc. Ivan Lopez.
"About 9:30
p.m., Milley said there was no indication the shooting was related to
terrorism, but the investigation would leave nothing 'off the table.'
" 'We are not ruling anything out at this time,' he said."
NPR's
Bowman adds that Lopez served in Iraq in 2011 and that there is "no
indication he was wounded in combat," but that the soldier had
apparently "self-reported a traumatic brain injury."
Our colleagues at KUT in Austin :
"The
region's only Level 1 trauma center, the Scott and White Memorial
Hospital in Temple, Texas, has absorbed several of the Fort Hood
casualties. The hospital has issued the following statement:
"
'We have accepted 9 patients, 8 are currently here and 1 will be
arriving shortly at Scott & White Memorial Hospital. We currently
have 7 male patients and 1 female patient that we continue to monitor.
All patients are in the ICU, 3 are critical condition and 5 are in
serious condition.' "
Wednesday brought back awful memories, of course. In November 2009, Army when he opened fire on the post. Hasan has been convicted and sentenced to death. Note:
As often happens when stories such as this are breaking, details about
what occurred will likely change. We'll focus on reports from officials
in a position to know about the investigation and news outlets with
reliable sources. We'll update as warranted.
'THIS IS WHERE WE TAKE OUR STAND' is an anti-war documentary from the IVAW. Check it out if and tell PBS to broadcast it on the station you support.
This is Where We Take Our Stand Washington DC Premiere
Thurs., February 2, 6:00pm
Busboys and Poets Restaurant
2021 14th St. NW at V St.
This is Where We Take Our Stand, a new documentary by critically acclaimed director David Zeiger (Sir! No Sir!, 2005) is a portrait of three IVAW members as they testify from their own experience about the nature of the occupations at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008. Our veterans’ stories remain relevant long after withdrawal from Iraq. As you know, more and more troops are returning with serious physical and mental injuries to an America not prepared to support them. “The war might be over,” says Geoff Millard, a star of the film who served 13 months in Iraq in 2004-05, “but veterans will continue dealing with all kinds of issues. The film gives voice to these vets as they try to reintegrate into a society telling them to take their medals, sit down, and shut up.” Please join us for the premiere, followed by Q&A with director David Zeiger, cast member Geoff Millard, and IVAW DC-area members. Can’t make the premiere? This is Where We Take Our Stand will air across the country on PBS, thanks to generous support from the National Educational Television Association. Due to its controversial nature, many local PBS stations will relegate the film to their smaller and less widely available digital affiliates.Contact DC's local PBS affiliate, WETA, at (703) 998-2600and urge them to air This is Where We Take Our Stand on their major channel.
THE Iraq war is symbolically over, but is not really over till every one of our troops is out of there and brought safely home......God speed to those stil there, please bring them all home safely Lord.....
EnlargePablo Martinez Monsivais/pool/AP The American flag, Iraqi flag, and the U.S. Forces Iraq colors are carried during ceremonies in Baghdad today marking the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.
America's colors have been cased in Iraq — the flag was just symbolically put away at a ceremony marking the end of a war that lasted nearly nine years.
At the Baghdad airport a short time ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials were there to mark the occasion, NPR's Kelly McEvers reports. It was, she said on Morning Edition, a "quiet, small ceremony."
"The U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was furled — or wrapped — around a flagpole and covered in camouflage," The Associated Press says. "It will be brought back to the United States."
Panetta told those gathered that "challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation," The New York Times reports.
He also said, the BBC writes, that the effort had been worth the cost because the U.S. leaves with an Iraq that is now a partner.
"You will leave with great pride — lasting pride," Panetta told troops at the ceremony, according to the AP. "Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside and to offer hope for prosperity and peace to this country's future generations."
America's mission, which quickly toppled Saddam Hussein's regime but required years' more effort to bring some stability to the country, officially ends after the deaths of about 4,500 U.S. military personnel and an estimated 100,000 Iraqis. About 32,000 U.S. forces were wounded. American taxpayers spent about $800 billion.
Hussein, who was captured in December 2003, was executed three years later.
From a peak of about 200,000, there are now about 4,000 U.S. military personnel left in Iraq, Kelly says. All American combat forces are due to be out of the country by Dec. 31. Most of the remaining personnel are expected to leave before Christmas.
The U.S. forces there still face dangers. "According to military officials," the Times adds, "the remaining troops are still being attacked on a daily basis, mainly by indirect fire attacks on the bases and road side bomb explosions against convoys heading south through Iraq to bases in Kuwait."
By Missy Ryan and Patrick Markey
(Reuters) - The U.S. military officially ended its war in Iraq on Thursday, packing up a military flag at a ceremony with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
The last 4,000 American troops will withdraw by the end of the year, leaving Iraq still tackling a weakened but stubborn insurgency, sectarian tensions and political uncertainty.
"After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real," Panetta said at the ceremony.
U.S. soldiers rolled up the flag for American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-colored sleeve.
Nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in a war that began with a "Shock and Awe" campaign of missiles pounding Baghdad, but later descended into a bloody sectarian struggle between long-oppressed majority Shi'ites and their former Sunni masters.
Saddam is dead, an uneasy politics is at work and the violence has ebbed. But Iraq still struggles with the insurgency, a fragile power-sharing government and an oil-reliant economy plagued by power shortages and corruption.
In Falluja, the former heartland of an al Qaeda insurgency and scene of some of the worst fighting in the war, several thousand Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal on Wednesday, some burning U.S. flags and waving pictures of dead relatives.
Iraq's neighbors will keep a close watch on how Baghdad will confront its problems without the buffer of a U.S. military presence, while a crisis in neighboring Syria threatens to upset the region's sectarian and ethnic balance.
President Barack Obama, who made an election promise to bring troops home, told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington will remain a loyal partner after the last troops roll across the Kuwaiti border.
Iraq's Shi'ite leadership presents the withdrawal as a new start for the country's sovereignty, but many Iraqis question which direction the nation will take once U.S. troops leave.
Some fear more sectarian strife or an al Qaeda return to sow terror in the cities. A squabble between Kurds in their northern semi-autonomous enclave and the Iraqi Arab central government over disputed territories and oil is another flashpoint.
Violence has ebbed since the bloodier days of sectarian slaughter when suicide bombers and hit squads claimed hundreds of victims a day at times as the country descended into tit-for-tat killings between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.
In 2006 alone, 17,800 Iraqi military and civilians were killed in violence.
Iraqi security forces are generally seen as capable of containing the remaining Sunni Islamist insurgency and the rival Shi'ite militias U.S. officials say are backed by Iran.
But even for those enjoying a sense of sovereignty, security is still a major worry. Attacks now target local Iraqi government offices and security forces in an attempt show that the authorities are not in control.
"I am happy they are leaving. This is my country and they should leave," said Samer Saad, a soccer coach. "But I am worried because we need to be safe. We are worried because all the militias will start to come back."
SECTARIAN TENSIONS
The fall of Saddam opened the way for Iraq's Shi'ite majority community to ascend to positions of power after decades of oppression under his Sunni-run Baath party. But nine years after the invasion Iraq remains a splintered country, worrying many that the days of sectarian slaughter are not over.
Even the political power-sharing in Maliki's Shi'ite-led government is hamstrung by sectarian divides. The government at times seems paralyzed as parties split along sect lines, squabbling over key laws and government posts.
Sunni Iraqis fear marginalization or even a creeping Shi'ite-led authoritarian rule under Maliki. A recent crackdown on former members of the Baath party has fueled those fears.
Sectarian divisions leave Iraq vulnerable to meddling by neighbors trying to secure more influence, especially as Sunni-controlled Arab nations view Iranian involvement as an attempt to control Iraq's Shi'ite parties at the cost of Sunnis.
Iraq's Shi'ite leadership frets the crisis in neighboring Syria could eventually bring a hardline Sunni leadership to power in Damascus, worsening Iraq's own sectarian tensions.
"WAS IT WORTH IT?"
U.S. troops were supposed to stay on as part of a deal to train the Iraqi armed forces. Washington had asked Iraq for at least 3,000 troops to remain in the country. But talks over immunity from prosecution for American soldiers fell apart.
Memories of U.S. abuses, arrests and killings still haunt many Iraqis and the question of legal protection from prosecution looked too sensitive for Iraq's political leadership to push through a splintered parliament.
At the height of the war, 170,000 American soldiers occupied more than 500 bases across the country. Now only two bases and 5,500 troops remain in the country. All will be home before the end of the year when a security pact expires.
Only around 150 U.S. soldiers will remain in Iraq after December 31 attached to the huge U.S. Embassy that sits near the Tigris River. Civilian contractors will take on the task of training Iraqi forces on U.S. military hardware.
Every day hundreds of trunks and troops trundle in convoys across the Kuwaiti border as U.S. troops end their mission.
"Was it worth it? I am sure it was. When we first came in here, the Iraqi people seemed like they were happy to see us," said Sgt 1st Class Lon Bennish, packing up recently at a U.S. base and finishing the last of three deployments in Iraq.
"I hope we are leaving behind a country that says 'Hey, we are better off now than we were before.'"
(Editing by David Stamp) Timeline: The U.S. war in Iraq
March, 2003: Shock And Awe
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U.S. President George W. Bush launches an invasion in Iraq. "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder," the President says in a televised address.
A U.S.-led coalition begins bombing Baghdad on March 19, 2003.
