|
Thursday, October 16, 2003
You know those identical "Letters Home"? Turns out there were more than 500 of them. An Army battalion commander has "taken responsibility" for them. When something fails it's so convenient to have someone to point to, doncha think? Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo said he wanted to highlight his unit's work and "share that pride with people back home."
Army officials revealed Tuesday that 500 identical form letters were sent to newspapers across the country with different signatures. They said the mass mailing was the wrong way of getting the message out, but they didn't know whether the commander would be disciplined. Via Josh Marshall.
posted by jeev |
12:46 PM |
 
You know that thing where the administration says that the Li-Bruhl Establishment press has got it all wrong and that soldiers on the frontlines in Iraq are actually doing just smashing? Turns out that's not true either:A broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist.
The survey, conducted by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of little or no value. Fully 40 percent said the jobs they were doing had little or nothing to do with their training.
The findings, drawn from 1,935 questionnaires presented to U.S. service members throughout Iraq, conflict with statements by military commanders and Bush administration officials that portray the deployed troops as high-spirited and generally well-prepared. Though not obtained through scientific methods, the survey results suggest that a combination of difficult conditions, complex missions and prolonged tours in Iraq is wearing down a significant portion of the U.S. force and threatening to provoke a sizable exodus from military service. Or maybe the Stars and Stripes is just another arm of the Li-Bruhl Establishment? Yeah, that's the ticket.
posted by jeev |
12:37 PM |
Monday, October 13, 2003
Back home again, in Indiana:A key Republican lawmaker urged President Bush yesterday to take control of his fractious foreign policy team and plans for Iraq's reconstruction, as one Democrat deepened his criticism of the administration's arguments for going to war.
"The president has to be president," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That means the president over the vice president, and over these secretaries" of state and defense. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice "cannot carry that burden alone." You go, Dick.
posted by jeev |
1:58 PM |
Why they did it?:Administration sources said they believe that the officials who discussed Plame were not trying to expose her, but were using the information as a tool to try to persuade reporters to ignore Wilson. The officials wanted to convince the reporters that he had benefited from nepotism in being chosen for the mission.
What started as political gossip and damage control has become a major criminal investigation that has already harmed the administration and could be a problem for President Bush for months to come.
One reason investigators are looking back is that even before Novak's column appeared, government officials had been trying for more than a month to convince journalists that Wilson's mission was not as important as it was being portrayed. Wilson concluded during the 2002 mission that there was no solid evidence for the administration's assertion that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium in Niger to develop nuclear weapons, and he angered the White House when he became an outspoken critic of the war. From the Washington Post.
posted by jeev |
1:52 PM |
Just when you think it couldn't get any more bizarre:There�s an interesting new story making the rounds about letters to the editor from soldiers in northern Iraq showing up in local and regional newspapers around the country. The letters explain how things are much better than people think in Iraq and how the Army is helping to rebuild the country with support from the locals.
The only problem is that it�s the same letter --- the identical letter --- showing up in multiple newspapers over the names of at least a dozen different soldiers. The blogger who�s on top of this is �Hesiod� who�s been on the story for a few days. And The Olympian, from Olympia, Washington, reported the story out in helpful detail yesterday.
From Josh Marshall.
posted by jeev |
1:47 PM |
Monkeying around:Monkeys that can move a robot arm with thoughts alone have brought the merger of mind and machine one step closer.
In experiments at Duke University, implants in the monkeys' brains picked up brain signals and sent them to a robotic arm, which carried out reaching and grasping movements on a computer screen driven only by the monkeys' thoughts. Read the NYTimes article here. Download the original report here.
posted by jeev |
1:39 PM |
|
|
