I can top that my lj has decided that one of my friends can't comment, I've gone through everything on my end and he's not banned but thats what pops up when he tries to post
It seems that what you mean to say is that you have selected the option called "Disable anonymous comments," not that you have in fact disabled said anonymous comments. Nice work, LJ...
Um...can we have a little more accuracy in the link title?
The only reference to the US Army is that any investigation is their responsibility.
And if I had to guess, I'd say that the contractor in charge of feeding them dropped the ball(possibly on purpose) and CENTCOM just hasn't noticed, yet.
"hasn't noticed, yet"? I know CENTCOM are a bunch of fucking omphaloskepsic ninnies, but they can still make decisions faster than people can mail meals to the middle of the sandbox. If it's been going on that they have to resort to the post office to eat, it's bullshit that it hasn't been stopped.
Unfortunately, 90% of theatre operations are being run via contractors. A policy decision I think is retarded but that's the way it is. As such, there's about a hojillion different ways for our goods and services to get rat-fucked and a limited number of people in charge of oversight. One of my biggest problems with said policy.
Is it bullshit, yes.
Has anyone at the affected units bothered contacting CENTCOM, probably not.
Of course, the true pessimist in me is quietly muttering about the fact that there is NO WAY IN HELL the Army has let the prisoners miss a meal...
Whereas *I*, who am educated and who has been watching the actual facts from the actual impartial observers, say that if you think MEALS are the major problems for the prisoners of Americans, you're a complete fucking moron.
Americans *torture* and *murder* their prisoners, without regards for rank, condition, or guilt. A MEAL? Fuck that, prisoners of Americans are lucky to be *alive*, and the fact that they might get fed once in a while is a FAR DISTANT SECOND CONCERN.
One day, hopefully soon, the American prison camps will be liberated, and, if the world is lucky, they'll be HALF as heartwrenching as the Nazi death camps.
Maybe you don't read my LJ but I'm kind of IN IRAQ RIGHT NOW.
I've had Marines miss meals because there wasn't enough food to feed both them and the POWs, so the POWs got fed and they waited. This is a recorded fact from this Gulf War AND the last. Hell, one of my Staff Sergeants spent two weeks on one MRE a day because of the number of deserters they took into custody during GW1.
Yes, we've fucked up on several occasions but in case you missed it, the Joint Chiefs have been one of the loudest voices AGAINST waterboarding, not to mention other attempts to clean up what is quite admittedly a deplorable track record.
And for the record, my initial objection to your wording in the link was due to the fact that I WANT to know when we fuck up, so it can get fixed and assuming an error before anyone's actually established if there was one just clouds the waters and re-enforces the blind defensiveness of those who say it's all false reporting by a biased media.
A great many Americans WANT our country to live up to the ideas we've always strived for and many are actively combatting the mistakes, cruelties and, YES, evils committed in our name.
No, I don't read your journal, and I didn't know that. I'm sorry for you.
Fundamentally, the stories keep coming. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib still exist. Prisoners keep being taken for arbitrary reasons, innocent people are not being released, and reports of the torture keep happening - and everyone in authority keeps saying that US forces have never tortured, raped, and murdered prisoners (which is a lie, we have all of those on fucking video), that there was no knowledge from higher ups or complicity in any of this (which is a lie, we have that in writing), and that besides, torture isn't REALLY torture at all, right?
I understand that the majority of the US and the majority of the troops in the field have absolutely no desire to do any of the things the US has a history of doing, in Iraq. I understand that most Americans would much rather try, convict, and hang the people who rape, torture, and murder in their name, than let it continue happening - and yet, this majority continues to do nothing.
I got out of the military 2 years ago and I'm currently here under an involuntary recall. That span of time gives me a certain degree of detachment that allows comparisons between now and then. There has been a fundamental shift in attitudes, priorities and actions.
I remember the very beginning when people laughed about kicking some guy with a sandbag over his head, when it was completely acceptable to punch someone in a bullet wound to get them to tell you what was needed, when trashing random houses in searches was not only justified but justice.
It's not like that, anymore.
Now, the stories I hear are from farm boys complaining that local farm boys are losing crops due to falling apart irrigation systems, grunts talking pissed about the Awakening militiaman that died right next to him on a checkpoint and people who have finally figured out that not as many people shoot at us when we aren't shooting them first.
Is EVERYone on board? No. But there's been a very definite tide change.
Abu Ghraib was years ago...and possibly a large part of what triggered the shift in the attitudes of boots on the ground.
As for Gitmo and other creative CIA rapings of the constitution, people ARE fighting, in the courts, in the press and with their votes. And that's one part I think you may have missed, the military is becoming less and less trusted with the more questionable missions. The FBI is getting shut out and losing access to cases for asking the wrong questions. And private contractors are becoming the new arm of executive abuse as the old guard begins to become restive.
We're facing an entrenched and well-financed powerbase that took advantage of our fears to fortify and reinforce their positions and piles of secrets so deep that I quail at the thought of what HASN'T come out yet.
But we ARE fighting.
p.s.And don't even get me started on waterboarding.
Has anyone at the affected units bothered contacting CENTCOM, probably not.
Well, the grunts have NCOs, and there are still some officers out there that listen to their stripes. Those officers report to the field officers, who are beginning the political aspect of their careers and it behooves them to avoid news headlines like "Natl. Guard Unit Not Fed In Iraq?" attached to their unit. If it's a problem with the contractors, then it's a problem with the contractors; but if the flags aren't at least making noise about it (not to mention the press getting wind of it before they do) then it's their ass on the line.
I agree with you completely, except I would add a secondary question: "Has this been going on for six months or for one week?"
This is the most connected deployment I have EVER been on to the point that I can pass word or receive word from the states before my chain of command can manage to get the information up or down.
I'm not assuming this whole ordeal ISN'T as bad as theweaselking's headline would make it appear. I'm just saying that A.There's not enough info to say so and B.My experiences would lead me to believe it's unlikely but not impossible.
But the article also says that some families were sending packages with food in them, and at least when I was there a couple years ago it took 2+ weeks to get anything from Stateside. Add to that the time it would take for the grunts to realize there's a problem, and ask the folks back home to help.
Even if it has been going on for a while, even if there isn't a solution in place yet, the battalion and brigade commanders can point to a paper trail that says "Yes, we're aware of the situation and have been doing everything we can to remedy it". If they handle it right they could spin it in a way that makes them look good, but if they run their unit in a way that doesn't allow noise like this to make it to the top ("General Bumhole, KMQT News. Why weren't your commanders aware of the situation?" "Er...") it makes them look even worse on top of the current mess.
That last bit of the article sounded anecdotal. And just to clarify, packages are taking a smoking 3-10 days. It blows my mind after waiting months my first time. Amusingly, LETTERS can take up to a month.
It doesn't say anywhere in the article that there isn't a paper trail. The whole thing is brand new and based off of an email from a single soldier and her family's efforts to go through the civilian channels. My point was that this is a possible lead but not a story, yet. And, definitely, not the story that was advertised by the above link's title.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:14 pm (UTC)Also, OH DEAR GOD.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:53 pm (UTC)My town's stupid..let me show you..
Date: 2008-04-25 05:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:44 pm (UTC)No cheezeburger for YOU
You don't go to war with the MREs that you want...
Date: 2008-04-26 12:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 02:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 05:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-25 07:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-26 06:10 am (UTC)god that's depressing
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-26 11:30 pm (UTC)The only reference to the US Army is that any investigation is their responsibility.
And if I had to guess, I'd say that the contractor in charge of feeding them dropped the ball(possibly on purpose) and CENTCOM just hasn't noticed, yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 02:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 02:24 am (UTC)Is it bullshit, yes.
Has anyone at the affected units bothered contacting CENTCOM, probably not.
Of course, the true pessimist in me is quietly muttering about the fact that there is NO WAY IN HELL the Army has let the prisoners miss a meal...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 02:29 am (UTC)Americans *torture* and *murder* their prisoners, without regards for rank, condition, or guilt. A MEAL? Fuck that, prisoners of Americans are lucky to be *alive*, and the fact that they might get fed once in a while is a FAR DISTANT SECOND CONCERN.
One day, hopefully soon, the American prison camps will be liberated, and, if the world is lucky, they'll be HALF as heartwrenching as the Nazi death camps.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 02:45 am (UTC)I've had Marines miss meals because there wasn't enough food to feed both them and the POWs, so the POWs got fed and they waited. This is a recorded fact from this Gulf War AND the last. Hell, one of my Staff Sergeants spent two weeks on one MRE a day because of the number of deserters they took into custody during GW1.
Yes, we've fucked up on several occasions but in case you missed it, the Joint Chiefs have been one of the loudest voices AGAINST waterboarding, not to mention other attempts to clean up what is quite admittedly a deplorable track record.
And for the record, my initial objection to your wording in the link was due to the fact that I WANT to know when we fuck up, so it can get fixed and assuming an error before anyone's actually established if there was one just clouds the waters and re-enforces the blind defensiveness of those who say it's all false reporting by a biased media.
A great many Americans WANT our country to live up to the ideas we've always strived for and many are actively combatting the mistakes, cruelties and, YES, evils committed in our name.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 10:58 am (UTC)Fundamentally, the stories keep coming. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib still exist. Prisoners keep being taken for arbitrary reasons, innocent people are not being released, and reports of the torture keep happening - and everyone in authority keeps saying that US forces have never tortured, raped, and murdered prisoners (which is a lie, we have all of those on fucking video), that there was no knowledge from higher ups or complicity in any of this (which is a lie, we have that in writing), and that besides, torture isn't REALLY torture at all, right?
I understand that the majority of the US and the majority of the troops in the field have absolutely no desire to do any of the things the US has a history of doing, in Iraq. I understand that most Americans would much rather try, convict, and hang the people who rape, torture, and murder in their name, than let it continue happening - and yet, this majority continues to do nothing.
And this makes me a touch bitter.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 03:35 pm (UTC)I got out of the military 2 years ago and I'm currently here under an involuntary recall. That span of time gives me a certain degree of detachment that allows comparisons between now and then. There has been a fundamental shift in attitudes, priorities and actions.
I remember the very beginning when people laughed about kicking some guy with a sandbag over his head, when it was completely acceptable to punch someone in a bullet wound to get them to tell you what was needed, when trashing random houses in searches was not only justified but justice.
It's not like that, anymore.
Now, the stories I hear are from farm boys complaining that local farm boys are losing crops due to falling apart irrigation systems, grunts talking pissed about the Awakening militiaman that died right next to him on a checkpoint and people who have finally figured out that not as many people shoot at us when we aren't shooting them first.
Is EVERYone on board? No.
But there's been a very definite tide change.
Abu Ghraib was years ago...and possibly a large part of what triggered the shift in the attitudes of boots on the ground.
As for Gitmo and other creative CIA rapings of the constitution, people ARE fighting, in the courts, in the press and with their votes. And that's one part I think you may have missed, the military is becoming less and less trusted with the more questionable missions. The FBI is getting shut out and losing access to cases for asking the wrong questions. And private contractors are becoming the new arm of executive abuse as the old guard begins to become restive.
We're facing an entrenched and well-financed powerbase that took advantage of our fears to fortify and reinforce their positions and piles of secrets so deep that I quail at the thought of what HASN'T come out yet.
But we ARE fighting.
p.s.And don't even get me started on waterboarding.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 05:09 am (UTC)Well, the grunts have NCOs, and there are still some officers out there that listen to their stripes. Those officers report to the field officers, who are beginning the political aspect of their careers and it behooves them to avoid news headlines like "Natl. Guard Unit Not Fed In Iraq?" attached to their unit. If it's a problem with the contractors, then it's a problem with the contractors; but if the flags aren't at least making noise about it (not to mention the press getting wind of it before they do) then it's their ass on the line.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 07:29 am (UTC)"Has this been going on for six months or for one week?"
This is the most connected deployment I have EVER been on to the point that I can pass word or receive word from the states before my chain of command can manage to get the information up or down.
I'm not assuming this whole ordeal ISN'T as bad as theweaselking's headline would make it appear. I'm just saying that A.There's not enough info to say so and B.My experiences would lead me to believe it's unlikely but not impossible.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 07:51 pm (UTC)Even if it has been going on for a while, even if there isn't a solution in place yet, the battalion and brigade commanders can point to a paper trail that says "Yes, we're aware of the situation and have been doing everything we can to remedy it". If they handle it right they could spin it in a way that makes them look good, but if they run their unit in a way that doesn't allow noise like this to make it to the top ("General Bumhole, KMQT News. Why weren't your commanders aware of the situation?" "Er...") it makes them look even worse on top of the current mess.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-27 07:56 pm (UTC)It doesn't say anywhere in the article that there isn't a paper trail. The whole thing is brand new and based off of an email from a single soldier and her family's efforts to go through the civilian channels. My point was that this is a possible lead but not a story, yet. And, definitely, not the story that was advertised by the above link's title.