Theodore's World

Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look
WASHINGTON (AP)
Breitbart.com
Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday.

“I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

“And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another,” Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a “major policy shift” and Bush has made it clear that he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.

“There’s both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families,” he said. “And ultimately, the health of the all- volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions.”

The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re- established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
No a draft is a bad idea. And Gen. Lute shouldn’t have suggested that it was even being considered. The MSM vultures and the Dems will go after this like fresh meat.
And Hillary does become President, oh I hate to even type that, but if she was President and we had the draft. Can you imagine a draft.

A flight medic assigned to the 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) stands by as a UH-60A Black Hawk shuts down on the flight line in Balad, Iraq, Aug. 6, 2007. The flight medic will standby until the aircraft is entirely shut down to ensure that the area around the Blackhawk is clear, and that the main and tail rotor are slowing down properly. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Maryalice Leone

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets with five Navajo Code Talkers who served as U.S. Marines in World Warll, at the Pentagon, Aug. 10, 2007. Defense Dept. photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen

Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Charles Baldwin, Air Force chief of chaplains, helps distribute humanitarian aid packages to women and children, Aug. 7, 2007, at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals

U.S. Army Spc. Bryan J. Lowney, a crew chief assigned to the 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) sits atop a UH-60A Black Hawk as he checks the main rotor blades while stopped at Al Taqqadum, Iraq, Aug 6, 2007. These checks are done to ensure that the UH-60A Black Hawks have not sustained any damages and that they are ready at any moment to take off. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Maryalice Leone

U.S. Army Spc. Megan M. McKinzie, a crew chief assigned to the 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) straps her helmet in preparation for a run up aboard Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Aug. 6, 2007. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Maryalice Leone

A music video put together by the pilots of the 7440th Joint Task Force “Proven Force” during the 1st Gulf War.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
A Vet sent this to me and I thought it was good and wanted to share it with you.

Senators Durbin and Casey are in Iraq, and were interviewed this morning by CNN’s John Roberts (video below). Senator Durbin made the first attempt to recognize the success of the surge and dismiss it in one breath:

SEN. DICK DURBIN: There were two important parts of this story, the military type as Senator Casey said the men and women were doing their best and making real progress. We found that today as we went to a forward base. The fifth year of the war, it’s the first time we’re putting troops on the ground to intercept al Qaeda. There’s another side to this story the Brookings institution shouldn’t miss. As we are seeing military progress, any political scene is discouraging. We are seeing the al Maliki government once branded the government of unity coming apart. We are seeing Sunnis and others leaving and not becoming the stability of this country.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Durbin is part of the enemy within, his past cannot be erased by going to Iraq then being on CNN, and trying to make a half assed statement like he does on this video.
Heck yes the surge is working and all of us konw it. We also know the progaganda of the left to say it is not working over and over.
Posing to take credit for surge’s success.
Faced with the undeniable fact of the Anbar awakening (well, almost undeniable), the Democrats have subtly shifted from Reid’s and Pelosi’s and Edwards’s line that the surge has failed to the more nuanced (and more accurate) line that the political process has failed.
OK, so he’s saying that the military solution is working and the political solution doesn’t? Isn’t this exactly 180 degrees out of synch with what they’ve been saying all along?
It must be hard to be a Democrat! LMAO What a jerk Durbin is.

Not Anti-American, We Just Hate America – Watch more free videos

Wild Thing’s comment……..
OMG this is hilarious. People like this actually exist. It is like they are born from those pods from theold movie ( that was the best one) “Invasion of the body snatchers.”. So for a good laugh it is very funny to watch. Pathetic but funny.
Gosh I hope these people do not vote. hahaha

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you … getting to like you … hoping ….

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, walks hand in hand with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during their meeting in Tehran, Wednesday. Maliki met Iranian leaders for talks aimed at winning Tehran’s unequivocal support for restoring security to his war-torn country.

Iran promises security help for Iraq
TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian officials told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday that only a U.S. pullout would bring peace to his nation and claimed the Tehran government was doing its best to help stabilize neighboring Iraq.

Al-Maliki said decisions about an American pullout were between Baghdad and Washington. This issue “belongs to the Iraqis only and it is related to the readiness of the Iraqi armed forces and their ability to take over security responsibilities,” he told The Associated Press during the visit.

Al-Maliki has long played a delicate balancing act in the bitter rivalry between his two allies, putting off Iranian calls for an American pullout while balking at U.S. pressure to take a tougher line against Tehran.

President Bush said he hoped al-Maliki’s message to Tehran would be the same as the U.S. message — that Iran should halt the export of sophisticated explosive devices used to attack U.S. troops in Iraq or “there will be consequences.”

Al-Maliki did not say whether he pressed Iran on the U.S. accusations, and the first two days of his three-day trip aimed at enlisting Iranian help in pacifying Iraq appeared to bring no concessions from America’s greatest rival in the region.
Instead, Iranian officials used the spotlight to decry American involvement in Iraq, and promote their increasingly close ties with al-Maliki’s government.

Meeting with al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, in the sect’s holy city of Mashhad, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that “occupation forces are responsible for the problems in all aspects of life” in Iraq. A staunch opponent of the U.S., Khamenei predicted that the “U.S. policy toward Iraq will definitely fail.”

Al-Maliki also had a warm meeting Wednesday evening with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, walking hand-in-hand with him into an ornate meeting room.
Iranian support boosts al-Maliki amid Iraq’s political turmoil — particularly rumors of maneuvers among his fellow Shiite politicians to remove him. But the close ties with Tehran could further disillusion Sunni Arabs, who in the past weeks have pulled out or boycotted his government, damaging attempts at reconciliation among Iraq’s sects.

Khamenei said Iranian officials want Iraq’s government “to be for all Iraqi sects: Kurds, Sunni and Shiite.”

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Ahmadinejad had expressed support for continuing talks between Iranian and American officials in Baghdad about stabilizing Iraq.

“We understood from the (Iranian) president that there is a real desire to continue this dialogue and especially on the borders issue,” Zebari said, referring to cross-border movement of militants.

But Iranian officials continued to make clear in the talks that U.S. forces should go, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

“The United States won’t get out of the complex situation it has created for itself in Iraq unless it corrects its policies,” Mottaki said, according to IRNA, Iran’s official news agency. He said that when Iraqi forces run security instead of the Americans, “one can be hopeful that effective steps will be taken and that one can be hopeful of talks in the future.”

Iraqi and Iranian officials also sought to increase the already surging economic ties between the two oil-rich countries.
Under some of the deals being worked on, Iran would build a power station in the Shiite Sadr City enclave and supply Iraq directly with electricity. Iran would also provide 400,000 tons of kerosene and liquid gas this year.
Sadr City has been the scene of fierce fighting between the U.S. and Shiite militants, most recently on Wednesday when U.S. aircraft and soldiers attacked Shiite militia bomb makers accused of links to Iran. The U.S. military said 32 suspected militants were killed and 12 were captured.
Iraq has only partially backed the U.S. claims that Tehran is behind attacks on U.S. troops, saying it has not ruled out an Iranian role. Iran has denied the charges, most recently on Thursday in Damascus, Syria, at a gathering of officials from Iraq and its neighbors as well as the United States and other countries.
There was little word on the pledges al-Maliki obtained during his Iraq trip, but according to an Iraqi official traveling with him, Iran promised to help convince its ally Syria to take a more “positive role” in keeping Iraq’s security. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to media.
Iraq and the U.S. have accused Syria of allowing Sunni insurgents to cross its border into Iraq.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Maliki is a short timer. He is furious with General Petraeus, according to past reports of his tantrums about General Petraeus. meanwhile the General just ignores his fatazz and keeps on kicking ass.

Suspects in girl’s murder admit they entered the U.S. illegally
Dallas Morning News and AP …for complete article
Two suspects charged with aggravated murder in the killing of a Texas teen admitted they came to the United States illegally.
Police said 15-year-old Dani Countryman was trying to fight off Alejandro Rivera Gamboa and his cousin, 23-year-old cousin Gilberto Javier Rivera Gamboa when they strangled her at a Milwaukie apartment in late July.
Alejandro was taken into custody last Saturday on an outstanding warrant for an unrelated probation violation involving drunk driving. The murder charges were later added.
Gilberto Javier Rivera Gamboa was arrested Monday on aggravated murder charges at the Balboa apartment complex where he lives just a few doors from where Countryman was discovered.
The two also faced an immigration hearing after the murder investigation was complete. According to immigration officials, both of the suspects admitted to entering the country illegally six months ago.

“She was only 5 foot and 95 pounds,” said 20-year-old Ashley Countryman, the half-sister who found Dani’s body the morning after a going-away party. “I don’t think they were expecting such a fight out of her.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
They should take all the stories like this and there are many and put them on the desk of Kennedy, Graham, Bush and all that tired so hard to get the amnesty bill passed.

Congratulations!

Marine’s Charges Dropped in Iraq Deaths
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A general dropped all charges Thursday against a Marine who had been accused of killing three Iraqi brothers in response to a roadside bomb attack in Haditha in 2005.

“The evidence does not support a referral to a court-martial,” Lt. Gen. James Mattis wrote in his written decision.

Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, 22, had been charged with the murder in the deaths of three of those killed after the bomb attack Nov. 19, 2005.
The decision to drop the charges followed an earlier recommendation from a hearing officer who listened to evidence in the case. Under military law, a commanding general has total jurisdiction over a case.
In his recommendation, Lt. Col. Paul Ware said murder charges brought against Sharratt were based on unreliable witness accounts, poor forensic evidence and questionable legal theories.

“The government version is unsupported by independent evidence,” Ware wrote in an 18-page report. “To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”

And more here…………….
(AP)
Charges Against Cpl. Sharrat Dropped in Haditha Case
The Marine Corps has dropped all charges against a captain accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 civilians and another Marine accused in some of the killings, the Corps announced Thursday.
Capt. Randy W. Stone, 35, a battalion lawyer from Dunkirk, Md., was one of four officers charged with failing to adequately probe the killings.

“It is clear to me that any error of omission or commission by Capt. Stone does not warrant action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” Lt. Gen. James Mattis wrote.

The Corps also announced that charges had been dismissed against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, who was accused of murdering three brothers in the assault that followed a deadly roadside bombing of U.S. troops.
The decision to drop the charges against Sharratt followed an earlier recommendation from Lt. Col. Paul Ware, a hearing officer.

“The government version is unsupported by independent evidence,” Ware wrote. “To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”

Prosecutors alleged Sharratt and other members of his battalion engaged in a revenge-motivated assault on Iraqi civilians after a roadside bomb killed a fellow Marine. Sharratt contended the Iraqi men he confronted were insurgents and at least one was holding an AK-47 rifle when he fired at them.
Ware said prosecution of Sharratt could set a “dangerous precedent that … may encourage others to bear false witness against Marines as a tactic to erode public support of the Marine Corps and its mission in Iraq.”

“Even more dangerous is the potential that a Marine may hesitate at the critical moment when facing the enemy,” Ware said.

Besides Sharratt, two other enlisted men were charged with murder. Four officers, including Stone, were accused of failing to investigate the deaths.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
A great big WOO-HOO! Congratulations Justin and the entire Sharratt family. Myheart is singing! Now to exonerate the rest and sack Murtha!
A defamation lawsuit was filed against Murtha on behalf of SSgt Wuterich. The Department of Justice is shielding Murtha with the claim that he was doing his duty as a congressman.” How about the Department of Defense shielding these Marines “with the claim that (they)he was doing his duty” as Marines!!!!!!Thank God, these Marines had their charges dismissed, now we pray that the rest will meet the same thing of CHARGES DISMISSED!!!!
Paging John Murtha, paging John Murtha….
Rep. Murtha, we are still waiting for your profuse apologies, which can never be sufficient for the slanders that poured forth from your vile mouth.
Rep. Murtha, we are waiting for you to resign in shame and disgrace. We know that Demagogues are shameless and indecent, but maybe now you can begin to express your shame and regrets for your dishonest and appalling misconduct.

Hmmmm I don’t see any bullets down there. Pehaps if I depress this trigger shaped object???

.

Gore Refuses to Debate Global Warming Theory
newsmax
Best-selling author Dennis Avery is the next prominent figure to challenge the facts Al Gore is promoting in his global warming crusade. Mr. Avery is co-author of “Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years.” Both Al Gore and Dennis Avery have New York Times best-selling books on global warming, but with opposite conclusions.
The list of Al Gore detractors continues to grow as his extreme rhetoric and conclusions get dissected by scientists, economists, and researchers.
Avery joins Lord Christopher Monckton (former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advisor), Bjorn Lomborg (Danish economist), author Michael Crichton, Prof. S. Fred Singer (former director of the U.S. National Weather Service), Tim Ball, Ph.D. (historical climatologist), Prof. Ian Clark (University of Ottawa), and Prof. Richard Lindzen (MIT) among others.
Gore has refused all debate challengers to date.
Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, noted, “Maybe it’s because climate alarmists tend to lose when they debate climate realists. Or because most scientists do not support climate alarmism.” The Heartland Institute has run more than $500,000 of ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Times promoting a debate.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Anyone with a legitimate cause and theory should not be afraid of debate. Facts are Facts, and Scientific Facts should be analyzed and debated openly. His alarmist tactics are only scaring people and causing our government to enact extra taxation legislation against anybody without enough ‘carbon credits’ associated with there enterprise. Good work Al! Glad you are not president!!