USA Stopped Financing Its Army
August 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment
The USA Department of the Army is among the three military departments of defense of the United States of America. It is the Federal government agency and the United States is organized in it and is controlled by the Secretary of the Army. He has legal rights to administer army affairs and issue regulations for its government, within the law limitations and with commands of the Secretary of Defense and the President.
For army finances of 2010, the budget of the Department of Army on overseas contingency operations raises up to $663.8 billion. When, in October 2009, the budget was signed by the President Obama, the final budget for the Department of Defense was $680 billion. Extra $37 billion supplemental bill was also passed in 2010, to assist the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The GAO said that serious financial problems of the USA Army had made financial statements in auditable.
Due to prolong defense system problems, payroll systems have affected thousands of soldiers and have left them underpaid while they are serving in the wars against terrorism. But the military is focusing on those who were overpaid, as many of soldiers who are now returning home have been alleged to be indebted by the Army and other military agencies. They are following these soldiers most frequently for debts they don’t even know about.
Government Accountability Office reported that round about 1,300 Army of USA was injured in battles and those soldiers who were either killed or left the army had almost $1.5 million military debts during the Operation of Iraq and Freedom deployment. Within this sum, about 900 injured soldiers had $1.2 million debt and about 400 dead soldiers had $300,000 debts on them. Thus USA conspiracy is to earn cash from their soldiers and has made their life a total mess.
Thus, hundreds of injured soldiers were trailed for accumulation of army debts burdened on them without any of their fault. Take the example of a 25, a retired staff sergeant who had lost his leg on a roadside bomb explosion and he is trying and spending to fend off $2,231 debt on him. The situation is worsening day after day for the USA Army as the US Government Accountability Office could not deliver a review on the financial statements of the 2010 US Government. London civilians are offered the services of findmanandvan.co.uk that range from household to office removals. Findmanandvan.co.uk fulfils all needs and includes every aspect of removal for residential owners as well as business customers.
The Second String
April 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Our unit didn’t deploy with 100 percent of our allotted manpower. This is not uncommon. In fact, it’s pretty rare to find a reserve unit that is fully manned. The people that we did bring with us, for the most part, are motivated volunteers, despite the financial and other hardships that many of our personnel face. We can perform our mission with our own folks, no problem.
Of course, that’s not a good enough answer for the pencil-pushers back home. Since we’re not fully manned, they’re sending us some extra bodies to get us up to 100 percent.
This is mostly a good thing. We can always use new blood. While they didn’t all volunteer to come here, most of the “augmentees” have taken to their new jobs with, if not with eagerness, at least with some degree of professional pride.
The notable exception is a guy that I will call “Tom.” Tom volunteered to come to campervan rental New Zealand. I’m always happy to have another volunteer, but I had to wonder why he chose to leave his own “safe” unit to come halfway around the world and perform a somewhat dangerous mission. I suspected that he was running away from something. As it turns out, Tom has a whole menu of personal issues, including a recent painful divorce, a run-in with law enforcement, and a diagnosed case of clinical depression.
Tom was acting strangely, and was displaying a little bit of a short temper that surfaced under stressful conditions. I asked a few of his fellow augmentees if they had any insights into his behavior, and that’s when the stories started to emerge.
(Memo to the personnel folks back in the rear: please don’t send me anyone who will create more work for me than he actually performs).
Tom had stopped taking his medication, because he “ran out and couldn’t get a refill.”
I sent him to a doc for a psych eval. The doc said to “keep him away from the weapons” until he has “stabilized” and could be “re-evaluated.” Needless to say, this somewhat limits his usefulness in a potential war zone. In the meantime, I’ve found a “safe” job for him to do, and continue to evaluate his behavior. He seems to be improving, but how can I be sure he won’t suddenly regress?
Then there’s the guy I’ll call “Frank.” Frank does his job, and does it well. At the same time, he makes it absolutely clear that he doesn’t want to be here. His current plan to get back home involves taking advantage of the archaic “last surviving male in the family” exception. This one dates back to the Civil War era, when it was critical for every family to have a male heir to carry on the family business or mind the farm. Those days may have long ago faded into memory, but Frank doesn’t care. He’d probably wear a dress like Corporal Klinger if he thought it would get him home.
What Frank has failed to realize, no matter how often we tell him, is that the time for him to claim this exemption has passed. It’s obvious to everyone involved that he is trying to “play” the system. His situation today is the same as it has been for several years, and he never said a word about it until he was mobilized. By volunteering to remain in the Reserves, he declared that he was willing and able to fight for his country in a time of need.
That time is now.
“Frankly,” I feel like strangling the sumbitch. It is clear that he was only in the Reserves for the extra money and the pension. Like many others, he was gambling that he would never be recalled to active duty. He lost that bet.
Now it’s time to pay the banker. Sorry, Frank.
Trapped Four Decades Ago
April 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The truth is that John Kerry never forgot about his time served in the US Navy and the way that he disdained his fellow colleagues. He has never even tried to hide this from the crowd and it was more than evident when he attended a rally at Pasadena City College and said to the students to work hard at obtaining their education because if they didn’t they would end up being losers like all those that were in the military.
It was really disturbing to listen to him refer this way about the fellow American soldiers specially because he once stated he wanted to be able to lead the military soldiers. It is quite bedazzling that he has referred to them as being uneducated and that is why they are stuck in Iraq fighting.
It is no clear what the Democratic Party will do about it; will they remain silent and be hypocrites or address it openly with the public and try to find a logical reason – if there is any – on why Kerry expressed himself this way in front of the future leaders of this country.
It was expected that Kerry was going to try to explain the situation by stating that his words were twisted into something that he didn’t mean to say. However there is no confusion among the students that were present and listened to him give his bizarre speech.
One of the students was George Williams, originally from the UK. He stated he was working for a company but had decided to study in the US for a change. He was quite shocked at the remarks made by Kerry because he was referring to the men and women that fight to defend this great country.
SPECTACULAR ERUPTION ON THE SUN
April 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
There has been a spectacular eruption from the Sun’s surface.
It occurred at 1319 GMT on Monday and was imaged by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which sits in space at a gravitational balance point between our star and Earth.
The giant prominence at the bottom left of the image is more than 30 times the Earth’s diameter. Such prominences are not uncommon on our star.
If they are directed towards the Earth, they can lead to dramatic lights in Northern and Southern polar skies and also radio and communications interference. Researchers say that this particular explosion was directed away from Earth.
Hot but faded
The prominences are gigantic loops of magnetic fields that emerge from below the Sun’s surface. As they rise, they become filled with trapped, superhot gas that is heated to many millions of degrees.
Soho is a US/European satellite designed to study the Sun
Sometimes, as the magnetic fields become twisted and unstable, the magnetic energy collapses and explosively heats vast quantities of gas which then bursts and rises off the Sun in just a few minutes or hours.
The image taken by the Soho satellite is in the spectral line of singly ionised helium (He II) in the extreme ultraviolet region of the spectrum.
The material in the eruptive prominence is at temperatures of 60,000-80,000 Kelvin, which although extremely hot is still much cooler than the surrounding corona, or outer atmosphere, which is typically at temperatures above one million K.
Researchers followed the eruption as it moved out in space and faded.
Doubleplusungood!
March 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Karl Rove and his manipulative, behind the scenes machinations continue even though he had to resign in disgrace from BushCo. Also, the willing tools of the Republican killing machine, including Karl Rove, with whom they have formed an unholy alliance, Move America Forward, are helping Rove whip a group called “Gathering of Eagles” into a frenzy over something that is not and was not ever going to occur. Okay, I am not sure that Karl Rove started this particular pile of horse pucky, but it sure has his stank all over it, so we are going to pretend for the sake of argument that it was Karl, or someone just like him. BushCo employees Roves like McDonald’s employs fry cooks.
The Gathering of Eagles is supposedly a veterans’ ad hoc group who are allowing themselves to be despicably stage-managed by Rove and Move America Forward using fascist tactics to lie about an anti-war group, just like BushCo lied our country into two abominable wars that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. The actions around this are very similar to the Swift Boaters—who I believe are also involved in this current Reich-wing, Squawking-Head brouhaha.
The Rove backed tools of hatred and misguided propaganda are saying that in the March 17th march on the Pentagon that I am participating in which is sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning on desecrating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by spitting on it, or throwing paint on it. What a monumental load of Reich-wing horse pucky!
I have participated in dozens of protests: small, medium, and large, in DC—we even held a candlelight vigil in the Vietnam Memorial, and we have never desecrated it. Why would we begin now and why did Rove start this scandalous lie? Recently, there was a lie-filled article floating around the Reich-wing pucky-o-sphere which claimed that I threw paint on Congress on a day when I was 3000 miles away in Los Angeles. Do Reich-wingers ever tell the truth? Is honesty even in their genes? Is the word “fact” in their vocabulary?
The so-called Gathering of Eagles says on their web site: “We will not allow them to spit on Iraqi Veterans again (itals mine).” First of all, it is not “Iraqi” veteran that is like saying “Vietnamese” veteran. It is “Iraq” veteran. Secondly, I have never spat on any veteran. I know no one who has, or who would spit on a veteran. Saying this is just pure propaganda horse pucky and the small minded people that are manipulating proud veterans with these deceptions should be ashamed of themselves. But we know they aren’t. They aren’t even ashamed of killing, torturing, or maiming innocent people. Why should they suddenly be ashamed of or disavow their tactics now? There tactics only become more contemptible as their positions become more indefensible and untenable.
One fantastic irony is that the only time that I can recall when memorials to fallen Iraq veterans have been desecrated is when Reich-wingers have been the ones doing the vandalizing. The first time was in August of 2005 when Larry Northern mowed over hundreds of crosses at Camp Casey. How do the people who say they honor our fallen heroes feel about this act of violence against these fallen heroes? I know I was appalled and heartbroken that Larry didn’t respect our memorial, our soldiers, and particularly my son.
Another time that a memorial was in January of this year when The Camp Casey Peace Institute put 3000 American flags down Prairie Chapel Road to commemorate the 3000th American soldier killed in Iraq. One woman broke every flag in front of her property (on public land) and left the pieces strewn all over in the bar ditches. Is this respecting our fallen heroes or the American flag? Maybe the Reich-wing suspects that we will desecrate a memorial because they are so good at it?
I wonder how Reich-wingers who bind themselves up in the flag of false patriotism and lift high a cross of self-righteousness feel about two of their symbols being demolished by some of their own ilk. I know there are many falsely patriotic Iraq Memorials around the country that I don’t want my son associated with, but I would never even think of destroying the monument or demanding that Casey’s name be removed from one.
The March to the Pentagon on March 17th will be led by Vietnam Veterans, Iraq Veterans, First Gulf War Veterans, military families and Gold Star Families followed by many other peace and justice groups and individuals. The veterans will be there not to protect a Wall that never should have had to be erected in the first place, but to protect our First Amendment rights to be there; rights that supposedly, Casey and millions of other Americans have died protecting, including the names on the Wall. Rights that all service members swear to uphold. The veterans with us will also be there to make sure that the calamitous Iraq Memorial is not nearly as long as the one that the Eagles think they have to protect.
I believe a Gathering of Vets should surround the Constitution and protect it from further desecration by the Bush Regime. I think a Gathering of Americans should surround the Bill of Rights and refuse to allow BushCo to spit all over that document any longer. I think a Gathering of Patriots should surround the White House and demand that the world’s number one terrorist remove himself and his puppet masters from our house before they do any more damage to our planet and/or to humanity.
Get a clue, buy a vowel, Eagles. You are being played like a banjo by Karl Rove and Move America Forward. You are becoming all irate for absolutely no reason. We are not even going into the memorial. Even if we did we would not desecrate it. How many of your VA benefits to the crooks in the White House have to cut before you finally wake up? They don’t care about you! Don’t let them shovel any more Reich-wing horse pucky down your throats. Refuse to be used. Don’t be minions of, or in league with devils.
Eagles, if you come to DC looking for trouble you won’t find it from me. I honor your service to our country as I deplore George and Dick’s cowardly avoidance of that same service.
The first time I visited DC just six short months after Casey was killed, I placed a picture of him at the base of the Wall next to a picture of Sgt. Mike Mitchell, who was killed in the same battle as Casey on 04/04/04. Two more boys murdered for the Military Industrial Complex. Two more families destroyed for the lies of their leaders. Two more lives wasted.
Car Accessories At Carid.com
March 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Car customizing has become the only thought for people, who have just bought a new or used vehicle. There are lots of thing that can be improved almost in every car. Luckily the contemporary market is full of custom car accessories, made to improve both the exterior, interior and performance of major models. The easiest way to shop for car accessories online is to browse carid.com and simply choose the parts you want from the wide range of spares and accessories offered by CARiD. The site navigation is extremely user-friendly and even grandma can shop easily here. Customers at carid.com can make their purchases by model of their car or by specific accessories.
CARiD’s main pros is the combination of price and quality. There is hardly a place on the net, where you can find car accessories for such affordable prices. The company deals with reliable manufacturers and shippers. That means each part stands out not only by its design and look, but also by the top notch materials, used for its producing. All inventory is manufactured, using the latest achievements in the technology and optimal approaches offered by the industry. There you can see customers’ reviews, which will inform you about all peculiarities of the desired accessories, which have already been purchased by lots of happy people.
Car accessories at carid.com can be divided into exterior, interior and performance groups. Custom grilles, spoilers, body kits and chrome accessories will greatly improve the exterior of your ride. Dash kits, door sills, steering wheels and gauges will colorize the dull plastic interior of you car. While exhaust systems, air intakes, performance chips and custom wheels will make the vehicle drive smoothly. Some accessories performs the protective functions. Floor mats and liners protect the car from mud. Bull bars and moldings will keep the ride away from scratches and small damages. As you can see carid.com is not an ordinary seller. The company aims to require all your demands and wishes.
No Respect
March 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The Army Experience Center (A.E.C) in Philadelphia which as we all know wasn’t supposed to be a permanent station is finally going to close next week after completing its two years of journey. Several peoples claiming to be reason of its shut down by their several protests over the last few years is however not the truth. Last night A.C.E thanked its employees, soldiers and its community for their help and support, though a dinner.
I was presented with a beautiful statue of an Eagle with an American flag in its talons. It was presented to me on behalf of GoE, Second Brigade MC, Viet Nam Vets Mc, SE.E. Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs and our larger veteran’s community, which was quite unexpected and touching when dealing with. Lt. Cdr. Joe Eastman USN Ret. Received a same statue which I believe he deserved. I was very moved by this and I do believe that the statue doesn’t only belong to me but to all the peoples that has made A.C.E a huge success. Be it serving food to homeless, packing boxes for your brave warriors or other events that I had to direct involvement. It would nearly be impossible to accomplish all this without you all.
As in the end of your journey I would like to take time and appreciate all the hard work done by our soldiers and civilians for making it easier for those young men and woman who wish to join the army, for providing a decent atmosphere for those kids wanting to spent time after school in a safe and sound environment, for mentoring all those teenagers motivating them in every aspect of their life and also for providing all the guardianship to those kids, spending time with them on fun websites where they can play www.newbingosites.org, making them well-versed with the modern technology, which did help improving them in lots of ways.
Now as the journey coming to an end I am proud to say that all the brave warriors that are assigned elsewhere will be taking with them valuable things that they have learned throughout this time which will not only shape their military careers but will also help with the social factors of the community.
Sunnis and Shia, Praying Together
February 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Last night was a sleepless one for me. It rolled on until around 4 in the morning and though exhausted I couldn’t sleep. I’ve come to actually like these times because at this hour 99% of Baghdad’s private generators are shut down and the city becomes, for a brief period, enjoyably silent.
It was dark in my room except for a pale ray of moonlight coming through the window. Suddenly the floor began to tremble and a loud roaring sound broke the silence “What the…!” I thought. Then something really creepy happened. That pale ray of moonlight vanished leaving me in total darkness.
“First an earthquake and now the moon has vanished. Is this the end of the universe?”
Not a pleasant thought for a very secular person like myself.
I finally found the courage to get up and look out through my window. Two meters from me was a line of Stryker Armored Combat Vehicles that for some reason had pulled over in our street.
“Phew! Not the end of the universe yet!”
After some time, the convoy moved off, their engines fading slowly as the streets swallowed them up. I stood for a moment thinking about the men in those vehicles from campervan rental New Zealand who stay up at night patrolling the dangerous streets of Baghdad to protect the few insomniacs like myself, and the millions of other sleeping Baghdadis. I said a prayer (in my own way) for their safety and went back to toss and turn in my bed.
Baghdad is still enjoying some days of relative calm interrupted only with minor sporadic incidents. In general there’s a feeling that these days are better than almost any other time in months. This is more evident in the eastern side of Baghdad than the western part, because the former part has received more US and Iraqi military reinforcements than the latter.
Checkpoints in Baghdad are becoming more abundant, with more attention paid to the exits and entrances of the city. I’m also hearing that those checkpoints have been reinforced with more soldiers and equipment.
Politically, today president Talbani visited Maliki in his office “to express support for Maliki’s security plan”. Maliki said after the meeting that operations would quickly gain momentum in the coming days, and that the troops will make efforts help displaced citizens return to their homes. In these austere times businesses are always looking for innovative ways to save money and ofetn it is the really obvious solutions that are over-looked.
Signs of such efforts can already be seen on the streets, through political work instead of military. Yesterday the “popular support” committee headed by Ahmed Chalabi succeeded in reopening a Sunni mosque in Sadr city, returning control of the mosque to the Sunni endowment department after it was occupied by Sadr’s office personnel last year. The mosque was reopened with a celebration where Sunnis and Shia prayed together behind a Sunni cleric. Before the ceremony Shia volunteers cleaned up the area around the mosque from garbage and fixed the sign that carried the name of the mosque.
Still, I don’t expect much from politicians who are behind this. They are only trying to repair their damaged reputations. I do trust the cheering crowd; the average people who are weary of the violence. They clearly expressed their desire to see sectarian portioning reversed because they have seen what forced displacement has wrought upon civilians. Those people were not thinking of the motivations of politicians or clerics. They were speaking from their hearts.
Today I heard unconfirmed news about plans to return the remaining 9 Sunni mosques to the Sunni endowment department. I hope this gesture be met with a similar move on the Sunni end in areas where Shia are minority.
In other encouraging news, I saw on the local Baghdad news that US and Iraqi soldiers have discovered about 60 weapon caches since the beginning of this month, and detained more than 140 suspects during the same period.
Other incidents that indicate a positive change in Maliki’s policy are the arrest of deputy minister of health Hakim al-Zamili, and the deployment of IA soldiers to provide security for hospitals in Baghdad instead of the FPS.
The FPS, or the “Facility Protection Service,” is widely accused of being affiliated with death squads. Members of the FPS were recruited directly by ministries through contracts not overseen by the interior or defense ministries. The loyalty of FPS personnel is believed to be toward the political faction controlling any given ministry instead of the country as a whole.
The arrest of al-Zamili indicates that the new plan will not hesitate to target leaders of militant groups no matter what their position in the government was. The Sadr movement responded to the arrest only by saying that it was an insult to all Iraqis. One of their spokesmen said, in a clear sign of helplessness, “If one from our movement is to be arrested, then others from other factions should be arrested as well”.
I don’t know whether this current attitude of submission is going to last when more senior members are arrested. Still, I like the idea of arresting senior bad guys from both sects. This both satisfies public opinion, and gives credibility to the announced plans of the government to deal equally with all regardless of sect or background.
Get Some!
January 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(CBS/AP) Attack helicopters strafed suspected al Qaeda fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said, following two days of air strikes by U.S. forces — the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al Qaeda. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation’s sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.
The U.S. military is ready to carry out more strikes, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. But whether it does will depend on getting good intelligence on the whereabouts of any al Qaeda operatives left alive.
A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday’s assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.
A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment on the helicopter strike.
The U.S. is hunting down Islamic extremists, said the Somali defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
“These guys deserve to be dead,” said CBS News consultant Michael Schueur, a former CIA officer. “I hope we did get them, but in the strategic sense of ‘are we closer to winning this war?’ I think that’s probably not the case.”
On Monday, a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship conducted an initial strike – part of a wider air offensive against suspected members of al Qaeda – Martin first reported.
The Pentagon confirmed Monday’s strike targeting al Qaeda operatives late on Tuesday, but did not give any information on who was actually killed.
The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reported. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
Earlier, Somalia’s president said that the U.S. was pursuing suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and that the effort has his support.
Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies were attacked in the capital late Tuesday by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks who fired two rocket propelled grenades, witnesses said.
The rocket attack was followed by several minutes of rifle fire. One Somali soldier was killed and two other soldiers and a bystander were wounded, said minibus driver Harun Ahmed, who took the injured to a hospital.
Col. Shino Moalin Nur, a Somali military commander, told the AP by telephone late Tuesday that at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al Qaeda training camp Sunday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya.
Somali officials said they had reports of many deaths.
On Monday, witnesses and Nur said, more U.S. air strikes were launched against Islamic extremists in Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow. Nur said attacks continued Tuesday.
“Nobody can exactly explain what is going on inside these forested areas,” the Somali commander said. “However, we are receiving reports that most of the Islamist fighters have died and the rest would be captured soon.”
In Washington on Tuesday, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman spoke of one strike in southern Somalia, but would not confirm any of the details or say whether any al Qaeda militants were killed.
The assault was based on intelligence “that led us to believe we had principal al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them,” Whitman said.
(Not-So) Warm Reception
December 27, 2006 | Leave a Comment
After praising Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, Senator John Kerry came to Iraq this weekend.
Before his arrival, rumors were already flowing that every FOB (Forward Operating Base) Commander told General Casey that they already had another “DV” (Distinguished Visitor) to support while Sen. Kerry was in country — or that they would be in the middle of ongoing operations — and hence were unable to support his visit. This rumor was either sparked or confirmed by a post by Matt on Blackfive. (Blackfive, for those who don’t already read it, is an infinitely more interesting military blog than mine).
Hey, I just came from a meeting where they were trying to get some commander, any commander, in the Green Zone, to host Jawn Carri.
Swear to God, the CG is saying, “You can’t tell me you ALL have things going on at that time! Come on!”
So, it appears that JF’nK will be coming to the Palace at the Embassy Annex and sitting around sucking up coffee at the Green Bean while we all try to ignore him.
Me, I’m gonna get a picture with him.
While in Iraq, things didn’t get much better for Senator Kerry. Rumor has it that somebody gave his helicopter flights the designation “Weasel 61.” (Legend has it that when Senator Clinton visited Afghanistan, her bird was assigned “Broomstick 11″ as its code name). Before taking off, supposedly the helicopter pilot jumped out of the front seat while the rotor was turning (an extremely rare event), approached the rear of the bird, and asked Senator Kerry to autograph a copy of the photograph below:
On Saturday night, a colleague emailed me and told me to bring my camera, as Senator Kerry was scheduled to give a press conference here in the Palace. At 2100, he entered a conference room wearing his leather flight jacket. Unfortunately, there was no media there, except for the enlisted soldiers from AFTN (Armed Forces Television Network) who had to be there. His aide looked around, saw that this just wasn’t happening, and quickly escorted Kerry out before I could take a picture.
Finally, the next morning, Senator Kerry ate chow at the Dining Facility. Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him. (By contrast, Bill O’Reilly, host of that terrible shoutfest on Fox, had over 400 soldiers waiting in line to meet him on Saturday).
Schaudenfraude is the German word for taking pleasure in somebody else’s suffering. I don’t know whether I should feel this or rather pity for Senator Kerry, who looked like a kid on his first day at a new school. I’m not sure what kind of a reception he expected to receive here given his “botched joke” before the election, but I’m debating whether to give him points for having the chutzpah to come to Iraq.