Showing posts with label US military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US military. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
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Friday, May 11, 2012
A course for US military officers has been teaching that America's enemy is Islam in general and suggesting that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam.
The teaching in the military course was counter to repeated assertions by US officials over the past decade that America is at war against Islamic extremists, not the religion itself.
"They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit," the instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, said in a presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The college, for professional military members, teaches mid-level officers and government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war. » | Associated Press in Washington | Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
WASHINGTON – The other-than-honorable discharge given to Marine Sgt. Gary Stein for writing “Screw Obama” and other criticisms of the president on Facebook means he will lose all of his military privileges, including access to military health care and education benefits, as well as the right to shop in the tax-free grocery and department stores on base.
Is this a fair punishment for a Marine who has served in the military for nine years – a tenure which also included a tour in Iraq during the particularly violent years of 2005 to 2006? Some service members who have been found to have deserted have received “general” discharges, after all.
The problem, analysts say, is that Sgt. Stein was warned repeatedly about his Facebook posts. Troops are encouraged “to carry out the obligations of citizenship,” and are allowed to express “a personal opinion on political candidates and issues.” They can also put political bumper stickers on their cars, sign petitions, donate to political parties, and attend rallies, debates, and conventions.
They cannot, however, take part in any political activities as official representatives of the US military.
For his actions, Stein, who also wrote that he would refuse to follow President Obama’s orders, was not court-martialed. He could have been given a “general” discharge. Though this may sound fine to many civilian ears, it also carries with it negative intimations and is quite different from the “honorable” discharge that the majority of troops get. » | Anna Mulrine, Staff writer | Thursday, April 26, 2012
Verwandt »
WELT ONLINE: Präsidentenbeleidigung wird bestraft: Ein Soldat muss die Armee verlassen, weil er seine kritische Meinung über Barack Obama auf Facebook kundgetan hat.
Ein Marineinfanterist muss die US-Streitkräfte verlassen, weil er Präsident Barack Obama im Internet unter anderem einen "Feigling" genannt hatte. Gary Stein sei eines "ernsthaften Verstoßes" für schuldig befunden worden, teilte das Marineinfanterie-Korps am Mittwoch (Ortszeit) mit. » | AFP/sab | Donnerstag, 26. April 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A US soldier will be charged with 17 counts of murder over the killings of civilians in a rampage in southern Afghanistan, a US official said on Thursday.
The official, confirming the murder charges on condition of anonymity, also said Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales would be charged with six counts of assault and attempted murder.
Bales, 38, is alleged to have walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar under cover of darkness March 11 and killed 17 people in two nearby villages, including women and children, and burning some of their bodies. He later returned to his base and gave himself up.
The charges raise by one the number of deaths reported immediately after the atrocity, which plunged relations between the United States and Afghanistan to their lowest point in a decade of war. » | Friday, March 23, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
REUTERS: The U.S. Army identified the soldier implicated in the massacre of 16 villagers in Afghanistan this week as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, and said he arrived on Friday at a Kansas base where he will be held in a solitary cell.
Bales, a four-tour veteran, is suspected of walking off his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and gunning down the 16 civilians, including nine children and three women, in a massacre that sent American-Afghan relations into a tailspin.
"The Army confirms that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bales is being held in pre-trial confinement," the Army said in a statement. » | Laura Myers and Missy Ryan | TACOMA, Wash./WASHINGTON | Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Suspect in killing of 16 villagers is described as decorated serviceman scarred by war wounds and multiple tours of duty
The US soldier accused of shooting dead 16 Afghan villagers saw his friend's leg blown off the day before and is himself a decorated survivor of war wounds from mutliple tours of duty, his lawyer has said.
Seattle attorney John Henry Browne said that according to his client's family the soldier had been standing next to his friend when the blast happened.
Browne said all of the soldiers at the remote camp where his client was assigned were upset by the injury. It was not clear whether that might have prompted the killings last Sunday of the civilians, who included women and children.
The soldier, a 38-year-old father of two originally from the American midwest, deployed in December 2011 with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, and on 1 February was attached to a "village stability operation".
Browne described him as highly decorated and said he had once been nominated for a Bronze Star, though he did not receive it. » | Staff and agencies | Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The military said the unnamed staff sergeant had been transferred because there were no suitable facilities for long-term detention in Afghanistan, but the move signalled the US's desire to prevent the criminal case against him from becoming a flashpoint for further violence.
The decision has provoked fury in Afghanistan, where MPs have demanded that the soldier be handed over to the Afghan justice system and called on President Hamid Karzai to suspend all talks with the US until that happens.
“It was the demand of the families of the martyrs of this incident, the people of Kandahar and the people of Afghanistan to try him publicly in Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai, a Kandahar lawmaker who is part of a parliamentary commission investigating the shootings.
Abdul Khaliq Balakarzai, another Kandahar lawmaker, said President Hamid Karzai should respond to the US decision to move the soldier by refusing to sign a strategic partnership agreement governing the presence of US soldiers in the country after most combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014. » | Raf Sanchez and agencies | Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
REUTERS.COM: Suspected insurgents fired on an Afghan government delegation on Tuesday investigating the massacre of 16 civilians by a U.S. soldier, officials said, hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings.
Two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Addul Qayum Karzai, were with senior defense, intelligence and interior ministry officials travelling to the scene of the massacre in Najiban and Alekozai villages, in Kandahar's Panjwai district, when insurgents opened fire.
Karzai's brothers were unharmed in the brief gunbattle during meetings at a village mosque, but a soldier and a civilian were wounded. The area is a Taliban stronghold and a supply route.
"The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahideen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the term with which the Islamist group describes itself. » | Rob Taylor and Mirwais Harooni | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Sunday, March 04, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Afghan-US military inquiry may lead to review of at least five personnel despite concluding burning of texts unintentional
At least five US military personnel could face a disciplinary review following the burning of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers in Afghanistan.
A joint investigation by senior Afghan and US military officials has concluded that although mistakes were made when troops at Bagram airbase, near Kabul, had burned copies of the Qur'an and other religious literature along with piles of waste paper, there was no intent to desecrate the Islamic religious texts.
A western official said the investigation could lead to a disciplinary review of at least five US military personnel involved. » | Staff and agencies | Saturday, March 03, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
CBS NEWS: After the Pentagon announced Thursday its decision to allow women in the military to serve in critical roles closer to the front lines of combat, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum expressed "concerns" about this prospect of women serving in combat roles - due to the "other types of emotions that are involved."
"I want to create every opportunity for women to be able to serve this country" Santorum said in an interview with CNN.
But, he said, "I do have concerns about women in front line combat. I think that could be a very compromising situation where - where people naturally, you know, may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved."
Santorum went on to say that while "probably, you know, it already happens, of course," due to the "camaraderie of men in combat."
But he said that if women were also serving on the front lines, "it would be even more unique."
"And I think that's probably not in the best interests of men, women or the mission." » | Lucy Madison | Friday, February 10, 2012
Saturday, February 04, 2012
When he was a child growing up in Plano, Texas - a place he describes as the "oversized, goofy buckle on the Bible belt" - he would bring his bible to science class and debate his teachers on the finer points of evolution.
"In my head, I won every time," says Mr Griffith, now 29.
But somewhere along the way, his penchant for picking ideological fights with the non-religious got him in trouble. He found it harder and harder to argue with the points they were making. At 13, he suffered a crisis of faith.
"It was so painful. I lost my religion before I lost my first girlfriend. Nothing that big had ever happened to me, and I didn't have any coping skills," he says.
Mr Griffith found peace with his atheism, but he is not done sparring with the opposite team.
As an active-duty sergeant in the US Army, he's leading the charge to get atheists more respect in the armed forces. In the process he is earning attention, both positive and negative, from around the world. » | Kate Dailey, BBC News Magazine | Friday, February 03, 2012
Friday, February 03, 2012
FOX NEWS: WEST POINT, N.Y. – A retired U.S. lieutenant general who made comments denigrating Islam withdrew Monday from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after a veterans' advocacy group asked the Army chief of staff to rescind the invitation.
VoteVets.org told Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin to speak at the U.S. Military Academy next week would be contrary to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets.
Late Monday afternoon, West Point issued a brief statement saying Boykin had decided to withdraw speaking at the Feb. 8 event and that another speaker would be lined up in his place.
Boykin, a former senior military intelligence officer, had been criticized for speeches he made at evangelical Christian churches beginning in January 2002. He said that America's enemy was Satan, that God had put President George W. Bush in the White House and that one Muslim Somali warlord was an idol-worshipper.
Boykin later issued a written statement apologizing and said he didn't mean to insult Islam. But VoteVets.org said Monday that Boykin has continued to make denigrating comments about Islam since his 2007 retirement.
"These remarks are incompatible with the Army values, and a person who is incompatible with Army values should not address the cadets of the United States Military Academy," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz said in a letter written with the group's vice chairman. » | Associated Press | Monday, January 30, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
LE FIGARO: Depuis 2005, le nombre de viols commis par des soldats américains a presque doublé. Selon un rapport de l'armée, c'est l'une des conséquences des traumatismes subis après dix ans de guerre en Afghanistan et en Irak.
Toutes les trois heures, un crime violent est commis par un militaire américain. C'est le chiffre donné par un rapport publié jeudi par l'armée américaine sur la santé et la discipline au sein de ses troupes. Le document révèle que 2811 crimes violents ont été commis en 2011, sur une base à l'étranger ou sur le sol américain, dont presque la moitié de nature sexuelle. Depuis 2005, ces derniers ont connu une augmentation foudroyante, de 90%, largement au-dessus des statistiques nationales. Et l'état-major s'attend à ce que cet écart augmente encore dans les prochaines années. » | Par Thomas Vampouille | vendredi 20 janvier 2012
Thursday, January 05, 2012
President Obama has unveiled plans for America's military future, outlining a historic shift towards a smaller and leaner force that will focus on China and move away from large-scale ground warfare that has dominated the post-9/11 era.
Obama became the first president to announce a strategy change directly from inside the Pentagon – a theatrical gesture designed to underline the significance of the shift. Mindful of the dangers of displaying any weakness over national security in an election year, Obama said he was determined to maintain US military supremacy around the world, but he admitted that the review involved a move to "smaller conventional ground forces" and the removal of "outdated cold war-era systems".
The immediate incentive for the change in tack, set out in a Pentagon strategy paper, is the fiscal crisis and the Congress-led drive for spending cuts. Currently, the Pentagon is under orders to slash $487bn from the resources it had expected to receive over the next 10 years, and those cuts could rise to close to $1tn if Congress fails to reach agreement on alternative reductions by January next year. » | Ed Pilkington in New York | Thursday, January 05, 2012
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