While the US diplomats have successfully resisted compulsory posting to Iraq, the Army personnel do not enjoy such luxury. The result: growing desertion.

Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, reports Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer.

“According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

“The Army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for longer than 30 days. The soldier is then discharged as a deserter.

“The increase comes as the Army continues to bear the brunt of the war demands with many soldiers serving repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military leaders — including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey — have acknowledged that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the combat. Efforts are under way to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to lessen the burden and give troops more time off between deployments.”

As I noted earlier this month, George Bush has broken the United States Army because of his reckless and never ending adventure in Iraq, and it’s not going to be fixed anytime soon.

General George C. Casey confirmed that this week in an extraordinary appearance before Congress. It was extraordinary because the new Army chief of staff wasn’t called up to Capitol Hill because of political grandstanding but because he requested a public hearing.

Casey, in his first appearance as CoC, told the House Armed Services Committee that the Army is:

“Out of balance . . . The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies.”

It was Casey, of course, who was relieved of his position as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq because of his tepid support for the then-proposed surge strategy now being carried out by his successor, General David Petraeus, and proving so successful that only 56 people were killed and 103 wounded in car bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday.

In their appearance before lawmakers, Casey and Army Secretary Peter Geren essentially drove a stake through the heart of the president’s contention in his prime-time speech on September 13 that a possible drawdown of some 30,000 soldiers — or roughly five combat brigades — by next summer would be a result of all of the progress being made in Iraq.

What Bush didn’t say was that a drawdown of that magnitude would merely return in-country troop levels to what they were before the surge and that there is no alternative to such a drawdown.

This is because the 15-month tours of duty for these brigades will begin to expire next April, there are no units to replace them, and Geren and Casey and other service chiefs refuse to extend duty tours any further.

While the Casey-Geren appearance was not exactly subordination, it was a revealing indication that the White House and Pentagon may still be only a few miles apart physically, but they’re light years apart in realistically assessing the state of the military and what the Forever War has done to it.

More here.

The memorial fund established to remember Sergeants Omar Mora and Yance T. Gray has exceeded its initial goal and is now shooting for $10,000. The fund was established by five blogs from across the political spectrum. Click here for an update, and please consider contributing to this most worthy effort.

TO DEPORT MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS

There is one element that winds through most everyone of Native American blood, including Mayas, Nahua and Inka, Mestizos, and our Native people within the boundaries of the USA… The people carry a kind of humor that is often gentle on the surface, but ironic, carrying serious dual and triplicate meanings right beneath the surface……almost identical to the same kind of humor Eastern Europeans and Russians had under Communist rule. And still have all these many years later. My elderly father used to say, “We will stop telling funny jokes when they stop acting funny.” I’d say the greatest satirists are the Eastern Europeans and the Native groups, but there are other satirists as good too… Perhaps we’re in ‘a time of our times’ now, where ‘there’s satire, and then there’s satire about satire about satire.’

Here is the piece by Don Davis at
The Satirical Political Report

“Flexing their new-found political muscle, Native Americans - the only “true” Americans - have now weighed in on the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, lobbying Congress to provide for the immediate deportation of all Mayflower descendants.

“Speaking for the National Council of American Indians, Chief “Running Tab at Foxwoods” asserted that the Mayflower settlers “not only entered this country illegally, without visas or work permits, but behaved very badly-spreading disease, raping our women, despoiling the land, and worst of all, stealing our very identity for their sports teams.”

“While most tribes oppose any type of amnesty, some have supported a limited trail to citizenship…

“Other tribes have proposed a “touchback provision,” requiring the illegal squatters to return to the 17th Century, for four centuries, before applying to live here legally in the present.

“Some Native Americans would also grant favorable treatment to those who have high-tech skills, such as converting corn to ethanol.

“This proposal has predictably drawn a huge outcry from the WASPS, who claim that they’re merely doing the jobs that Native Americans refuse to do, such as running investment banks and hedge funds.

“In addition, although genealogy records reflect that his ancestors arrived not on Plymouth Rock but on Ellis Island, the Indian tribes have also insisted on the unconditional and immediate deportation of Jack Abramoff.

http://satiricalpolitical.com/

tx/rgonzales y cburciaga

Gates has decided to replace General Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September. Gates further said that he’d recommend Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations, for the job.

If you’re wondering who Admiral Mike Mullen is, I suggest going here. There are speeches, messages, etc. His message:

Everyone in the Navy has the potential to lead. We have to pull that potential out of our Sailors. My emphasis is on our people, leadership and accountability. Those are three crown jewels of our Navy.

It will be interesting to see how having a navy guy in charge, instead of an army guy, will influence everything.

More at The Washington Monthly and The Newshoggers.