Moran: ‘We owe’ Iraq veterans
Jim Moran was a critic of the Iraq war when being a critic of the Iraq war was not only not cool, but was considered by more than a few to be treasonous.
The Virginia Democratic congressman spoke Thursday on the day that the U.S. officially declared the end to the military action that began in 2003 with a focus on the ongoing price that will be paid by a nation that came to be divided over the controversial war.
“It’s our obligation both as taxpayers and as legislators to assist all of those returning veterans as they transition to civilian life – by providing the proper health care and the education and employment opportunities that they deserve and they will need,” said Moran, who voted against authorizing then-President George W. Bush to go to war, co-authoring a resolution that would have required the administration to have fully exhausted all diplomatic options before taking military action. Continue reading “Moran: ‘We owe’ Iraq veterans” »
Remarks by Obama, Al-Maliki at joint press conference
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Please have a seat. Good afternoon, everyone.
When I took office, nearly 150,000 American troops were deployed in Iraq, and I pledged to end this war, responsibly. Today, only several thousand troops remain there, and more are coming home every day.
This is a season of homecomings, and military families across America are being reunited for the holidays. In the coming days, the last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq, with honor and with their heads held high. After nearly nine years, our war in Iraq ends this month.
Today, I’m proud to welcome Prime Minister Maliki – the elected leader of a sovereign, self-reliant and democratic Iraq. We’re here to mark the end of this war; to honor the sacrifices of all those who made this day possible; and to turn the page – begin a new chapter in the history between our countries – a normal relationship between sovereign nations, an equal partnership based on mutual interests and mutual respect. Continue reading “Remarks by Obama, Al-Maliki at joint press conference” »
Final Virginia National Guard convoy ships out of Iraq
With Operation New Dawn close to end of mission, the Virginia Army National Guard is exiting Iraq in its final convoy out of Contingency Operating Base Adder on Dec. 2.
“We were a convoy escort team,” said Staff Sgt. Raymond Bunch, convoy commander, Able Troop, 2nd Squadron, 183rd Cavalry Regiment, Virginia Army National Guard, from Scottsville, Va. “We would pick up logistic supplies … and escort them from one base to another to their final destination.”
Soldiers’ equipment and vehicles are inspected and ready for the final journey.
Able Troop is getting ready to leave COB Adder and head south across the border into Kuwait, and start turning in all of our gear for our end of deployment, said Bunch.
The mine resistant ambush protected vehicles the unit will convoy out of the country in are lined up just outside the Soldier living area.
“Our squadron was all housed here,” said Bunch. “Our squadron tactical operation center was right across the road, and the main motor pool was behind there. That’s why we’ve moved all the vehicles over here to be closer to the containerized housing units and get everything out.”
The unit was scheduled to leave days ago, but stayed on after being tasked with a few last missions.
“Things got pushed along,” said Bunch. “We ended up having to run a few more missions, and it seems like every time we thought we were running our last mission, they said, ‘We need you to run one more.’ And of course, the needs of the Army comes first.”
The convoys throughout the deployment were successful, even though soldiers had to learn new tasks and responsibilities for the mission.
“Able Troop itself is just a conglomeration of where they pulled a whole bunch of people from across the state to make this [mission] come together,” said Bunch. “Military occupational specialties and people that aren’t necessarily used to working together had to come together quick and learn a whole new role than what any of us were trained for, and I think we did an excellent job in doing that.”
This is the final mission preparation for Able Troop.
“Today is a culmination of everything we’ve done,” said Cpl. Josh Brainard, vehicle commander, Able Troop, 2nd Squadron, 183rd Cav., from Williamsburg, Va. “Now, it’s our final convoy to Kuwait, to leave today.”
Essentially what we’re doing now is almost like a regular mission preparation, said Brainard.
We have to inspect the vehicles, lay out our medical equipment, our weapons cleaning kits, safety gear, meals-ready-to-eat and water, everything to be inspected for this mission, he said. Then get everything strapped down and get ready to go.
“I’m very, very excited,” said Brainard. “My wife actually had our first child, so I’m really very anxious to get home.
The soldiers are hopeful to be home before the holidays, said Bunch.
“Of course here at the end [the mission] is to get everybody out,” said Bunch. “And then today is the end for us. We’re basically escorting ourselves out. Everybody’s pumped and excited about that because we’re done, we’re getting ready to go home.”
Kwiatkowski: Goodlatte’s days are ‘numbered’
Karen Kwiatkowski voted – twice – to re-elect Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte. She did so for the same reason that she thinks a lot of fellow Republicans in the heavily GOP Sixth support Goodlatte election cycle after election cycle.
“They’ve known him for years, and because they’ve known him for years, they think he’s safe,” said Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force officer and Shenandoah County farmer who is challenging Goodlatte for the Republican nomination.
The problem with Goodlatte to Kwiatkowski is that it seems to her that the congressman takes the same “I’m safe” approach with voters.
“When you’re in office as long as he’s been, 20 years, it’s as much about survival as it is about getting anything done. That’s the problem with the system across the board,” said Kwiatkowski, whose disaffection with Goodlatte dates to her communications with his office over an issue involving a controversial animal-identification program that the libertarian-leaning Kwiatkowski views as a clear intrusion on the private-property rights of farmers.
“Here’s one more way for me to give away my property rights,” Kwiatkowski said of the program, and she raised the issue with Goodlatte, the former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, only to get what she felt were “form letters” from staffers who clearly didn’t understand her objections to how the program was to impact the ag community.
“My assessment was that Goodlatte didn’t understand the problem, and didn’t take the time to educate himself,” said Kwiatkowski, who would “forgive him” for his lack of knowledge on agricultural issues, “but I can’t forgive him for not wanting to understand something affecting so many of his constituents.”
Kwiatkowski, to those who know her, is not one to shy away from a fight – be it an animal-identification program or the drumbeat to war. She says she had a “happy” military career until her final year in the Air Force, when what she saw being done from her job at the Pentagon in the Near East and South Asia directorate made her come to the conclusion that the Bush administration was cherry-picking intelligence to provide a false pretext for going to war in Iraq.
Kwiatkowski, a publisher author who wrote books on U.S. foreign policy during her time in the Air Force, and has written extensively since on topics ranging from the military to neoconservatism, became an outspoken public critic of the war – and as such was a frequent target of prowar supporters. She felt somewhat “vindicated” by the way things turned out in Iraq, but at the same time left the Pentagon disillusioned about what she had seen happen in front of her eyes.
“I got to see a different side of how decisions are made in Washington, D.C., and that has informed my thinking. I can speak to anyone about that. I saw a segment of how we do business, and I can share that with anyone,” said Kwiatkowski, whose thoughts and writing have turned in retirement to include critiques of other areas of government life.
“I don’t think we can afford any of this social-welfare state that we have created for ourselves. We can either just say no, to borrow from Nancy Reagan, or we can go on being fat, dumb and happy and spending ourselves into oblivion. And I think that’s where we’re heading. I believe that we’re headed toward a disaster, but I’m hoping there’s something I can do to get us back on a constitutional path,” Kwiatkowski said.
She admits to not being entirely comfortable with politics. “I’m not a politician,” Kwiatkowski said, and she harbors no illusions about her chances to unseat a 10-term congressman in a party primary.
“He cannot be beaten in the two-party system. He can only be beaten if we articulate real conservatism. And the only way to do that is to have a nomination race. And that’s what we’re doing,” said Kwiatkowski, who takes the long view in thinking that Goodlatte’s days “are numbered.”
“If it’s not this cycle, it’s the next cycle, and if it’s not that one, it’s the one after that,” said Kwiatkowski, who sees Goodlatte’s consistent votes in favor of deficit budgets and increases in the federal debt ceiling as his Achilles heel.
“This last (debt-ceiling vote) was a tradeoff to get a vote on his balanced-budget amendment, which is nothing but kicking the can down the road with the end goal being to make the excuse that, Well, you guys didn’t modify the Constitution, so sorry, but we couldn’t stop ourselves from spending. Sorry, but we don’t get that option in our own households,” Kwiatkowski said.
It doesn’t bother Kwiatkowski at all that she is getting nothing in terms of support from GOP leaders in the Sixth.
“My message is resonating with true conservatives who are upset with the party. That’s more important to me,” Kwiatkowski said.
More on the Kwiatkowski campaign online at www.KarenKForCongress.com.
The Rant | The early ’90s, part two
Video Essay by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The more things change, the more they actually don’t. Chris Graham started thinking about this while messing with his XM-Sirius radio today and noticing that music and culture for him seemed to come to an end around 1992.
What else is similar to 1992 – well, a recession leading to the election of a Democratic president, activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, the more things change …
Continue reading “The Rant | The early ’90s, part two” »
Focus | ‘Selfless service’ motivates lieutenant colonel
Story by Chris Graham
With AFP Video
William Coffin has seen Iraq twice now, spanning two decades. And he’d go back again, no question, not a moment’s hesitation.
After speaking to cadets at Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro at a Veterans Day ceremony, I asked Lt. Col. Coffin, a 26-year military veteran now serving as the deputy commander of the 116th Brigade Combat Team, also known as the Stonewall Brigade, based in Staunton, what it is about the men and women who serve in our nation’s military that makes them willing to give their lives in service of their country. Continue reading “Focus | ‘Selfless service’ motivates lieutenant colonel” »
Sanford D. Horn | Obama announces surrender date
Moments ago, while speaking at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Barack Obama announced that on “Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.” He further said that by that date in 2011 all troops will be gone from this troubled nation. Continue reading “Sanford D. Horn | Obama announces surrender date” »
David Reynolds: Sowing seeds
Column by David Reynolds
Seventeen months ago a man named John came to town to sow some seeds. He was very down. At least in the polls. Few in that tough river town north of here gave him much of a chance. John was not only running out of money, he was letting staff go. To make matters worse, John was saying we needed more men and equipment for a war that already was costing way too much.
John spoke about taking a long shot which he labeled a “surge.” He knew that nobody would buy it if was called just another military plan. So he put all his chips on General David.
So John, plus another David, a Mr. Brooks, drove a SUV from D.C. to Lexington. John knew that those sitting straight on the wooden pews of VMI’s Jackson Memorial Hall, would listen. If John’s seeds could grow not here, where could they grow?
(That was the beginning of a column written in April 2007. It was never published. Reason: I had introduced Matt Thompson, a young U. S. Army captain and VMI professor. VMI, for some strange reason, frowns on any sort of personal publicity of its military officers. I went along their censorship. Now Matt has left both VMI and the Army, while I am still practicing my First Amendment rights. So let us continue.)
Young Matt was already seated. He had his orders. Sit quietly until the senator arrives. Do not applaud while he is speaking. And please try to keep your heart from pounding. With the captain seated below, up on stage, framed by the life-size Battle of New Market painting, was the star attraction. Both were in dress blues. John’s version was a dark pinstripe suit.
Jackson Hall is normally reserved for peaceful music and worshiping peace. That day the subject was war. And like all wars, the current one was not going according to the original script, except for the first act. Wars have a way of having messy second acts and inconclusive third ones.
For Matt, it was clear who should listen and who should talk. The young captain knew that the power of wisdom was flowing down from the stage to the corps of cadets. Yet at one time John had no power. He did not have the power of freedom.
So it went on that spring day in 2007 when John’s first seeds took hold in a town named after the first battle fought to gain our freedom. His seeds of thought were scattered elsewhere. In South Carolina, John described his seeds this way, “We want government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and to do it with less money; to defend our nation’s security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us; to respect our values because they are our true source of our strength; to enforce the rule of law that is the first defense of freedom; to keep the promises it makes to us and not make promises it will not keep.”
I realize that either candidate today could have said those words. However, only John did. And he said similar words earlier this month in Paul’s city. What will happen in 49 days? No one knows. That’s why we hold elections. But a picture is emerging.
Presidential campaigns have changed. We no longer debate the government’s job. Budgets are dull stuff. We must be entertained – even if it pushes the war off the front page, the same war that was to doom John.
On the surface the two men talk of change. One speaks of policy changes; the other of systematic changes. But change is a cover. This campaign is a cultural battle. Our society is divided. One views the USA as a sociologist would; the other as a psychologist. One sees only groups; the other, individuals. One sees social justice as missing in action; the other sees it as being present. One wants to redistribute income; the other to create wealth. One side sees widening gender, racial and economic gaps; the other is only concerned with the opportunity gap.
And so it goes – a cultural battle between those who see a limited world and those who see the unlimited potential of the human spirit.
But please don’t be alarmed if John does not win. Seeds take time to grow. We all need to remind ourselves that our national fabric will not unravel as long as we trust the people. And we also need to remember that there is no need to sing “God Bless America.” He already has.
Coming home when it’s over, over there
Op-Ed by Clyde Winter
ClydeWinter.wordpress.com
Opinions Wanted! Click here to learn more
There have been over 60,000 official U.S. casualties, and about 4,000 U.S. dead in Iraq. So far. (That doesn’t count, for some reason, the “private contractors.”) There is no rural community, no urban or suburban neighborhood, without families that have suffered devastating combat casualties in this opening decade of the new millennium. Some 700,000 Iraqis have been killed, and 4 million made refugees. No community can escape the long-term effects of the unprecedented escalating cost of the occupation of Iraq. The direct cost (just in U.S. tax dollars alone) of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has now climbed to over $500 billion, and the water’s still rising fast. Continue reading “Coming home when it’s over, over there” »
David Reynolds: Tony got it right
Posted by afp on February 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Column by David Reynolds
Submit guest columns: freepress2@ntelos.net
It has been 94 months since the United States, Great Britain and our allies decided that there was no recourse but to get rid of the regime that governed Iraq. Before March 2003 a multinational decision was brewing for years. Yet, for those of us who don’t read People Magazine, we know that the decision to wage a military attack was neither an easy nor a popular one.
Those opposed, including our current president and his party, were very vocal. However, their bark was louder than their bite. Their views – often with full explanations – can still be found on bumper stickers.
Some stickers refer to “Bush’s War.” But it was also Tony’s. Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the head of the Labour Party, remains the most elegant spokesman for a decision which has cost so much.
As for its benefits, history’s verdict is not yet in. However, Iraq’s absence from today’s front pages and breaking news is a positive sign. So, too, are the revised opinions coming from those who once were so negative. My goodness, what one can accomplish in the political arena when the blame game is discarded and success can be pinned on your new suit! Continue reading “David Reynolds: Tony got it right” »
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