Trump Claims He has Sacrificed For America - He Lied

When he spoke to the Democratic convention last week, Gold Star father Khzir Khan (whose Army Captain son was killed in Iraq) addressed Donald Trump, saying "You have sacrificed nothing and no one".

The proper (and only decent) comment that Trump could have made to that is to agree -- that he has not suffered the great loss of Mr. khan and his wife, and respects the service of their heroic son and honors the sacrifice they have made.

But Donald Trump (caricatured here by DonkeyHotey) is not a decent human being. He is a thin-skinned narcissist who cannot take the slightest rebuke. So he attacked the Khan family. When that didn't work, he than tried to claim that he too has "sacrificed" for this country.

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Trump said the following when asked how he had sacrificed:

“I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot.”

What an outrageous statement! He has the audacity to compare his capitalist ventures with a family losing a son in war? That is especially ludicrous when you consider that all of those "sacrifices" made him a tom of money -- many times by paying sub-par wages, union-busting, and importing foreign workers. That's not sacrifice. That is GREED.

Do we really want a president who sees his own greed as sacrificing for his country? Trump should be ashamed of himself. The problem though, is that he has no shame -- only naked ambition, unbridled greed, and an immense love of himself.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Caves In To Conspiracy Nuts

(This image of Gov. Greg Abbott is from the website of Progress Texas.)

If you had thought there had to be a limit to the pandering of Texas Republican officials to the insane right, then this should change your mind. Governor Abbott has caved in to the conspiracy nuts on the right (who believe the federal government is preparing to declare martial law). The very idea of this is ludicrous, but Abbott shows us there is no ridiculous belief on the right that he (and our state government) will not pander to. Here is how it is described in a blog at the conservative Dallas Morning News:

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Guard to monitor federal military exercises in Texas after some citizens have lit up the Internet saying the maneuvers are actually the prelude to martial law.

The operation causing rampant suspicions is a new kind of exercise involving elite teams such as the SEALs and Green Berets from four military branches training over several states from July 15 to Sept. 15

Called Jade Helm 15, the exercise is one of the largest training operations done by the military in response to what it calls the evolving nature of warfare. About 1,200 special operations personnel will be involved and move covertly among the public. They will use military equipment to travel between seven Southwestern states from Texas to California.

On Monday, command spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria attended a Bastrop County Commissioners Court meeting to answer community questions and was met with hostile fire. Lastoria, in response to some of the questions from the 150 who attended, sought to dispel fears that foreign fighters from the Islamic State were being brought in or that Texans’ guns would be confiscated, according to a report in the Austin American-Statesman.

He was forced to rebut that martial law was underfoot and said misinformation has been spread by those with a “personal agenda.”

“You may have issues with the administration. So be it. But this institution right here has been with you for over 200 years,” he was quoted as saying. “I’ve worn this uniform across five different administrations for 27 years.”

Radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been sending out warnings for weeks regarding the exercise, saying it is the U.S. military positioning itself to take over the states and declare martial law.

Abbott apparently has heard the concern and ordered the Guard to monitor the training and U.S. military personnel.

“To address concerns of Texas citizens and ensure that Texas communities remain safe, secure and informed about military procedures occurring in their vicinity, I am directing the TExas State Guard to monitor Operation Jade Helm 15,” Abbott wrote in his letter to the commander of the Texas Guard.

Abbott hedged the suspicion inherent in his message, saying, “The action I take today comes with the recognition of Texas’ long history of supporting our military forces.”

The Bradley Manning Verdict

(This photo of Bradley Manning is by the U.S. Army, and was found at Wikipedia.)

The official verdict in the Bradley Manning trial was sort of a mixed bag. The judge found him innocent of aiding the enemy, but guilty of six counts of violating the Espionage Act. Of course, this brings up the question of who he had performed that espionage for. If it wasn't the enemy, then who did he do it for? There is no evidence that Manning released the information on behalf of any other country.

The truth is that he did it for the citizens of this nation -- the United States of America. He did not endanger any military personnel. He simply exposed the lies our government had been telling, by giving the American people the truth. And that makes the charges of espionage rather ludicrous, since in a representative democracy the government is the people. His only real crime was in embarrassing the elected leaders of this country, and sadly, that is a crime those leaders consider to be unforgivable.

Now we wait to see what Manning's punishment will be. I could see him being kicked out of the Army (with whatever kind of discharge they want to give him), but I don't think he should have to spend any more time in prison. He did nothing to hurt this country. Of course, he's not being punished for hurting the country. He's being punished for embarrassing elected officials -- and that means he will probably get a long prison sentence.

Odds And Ends

The right-wing seems to be grasping at straws in trying to find something to attack the White House on. They are now trying to accuse Joe Biden of being racist because he talked of Americans being re-chained (which made perfect sense in the context he used it -- regarding Wall Street being deregulated by the GOP). And Senator John McCain decided he would pile on by saying the president should replace Biden as his running mate.

But the White House had the perfect comeback for that suggestion. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said:

I have great admiration for and respect for and a long relationship with John McCain but one place I would not go for advice on vice presidential running mates is to Senator McCain.

Considering the pick McCain made when he ran for president, I don't think he should ever be paid any attention when vice-presidential choices are discussed. Picking Sarah Palin was the biggest blunder any candidate has made.

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I am simply amazed by the ease and frequency with which Republican presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney lies. It's like he expects everyone to forget what he said yesterday so he can sound good today (with truth not even being an after-thought for him).

On Wednesday, in response to Biden's statement about the Republicans wanting to de-regulate Wall Street, he said that "no one is talking about deregulating Wall Street". The problem with that statement is that Romney himself has repeated called for repeal of Dodd-Frank (the financial reform law passed in 2010 which put some weak regulations on Wall Street actions).

Repealing Dodd-Frank is without a doubt de-regulating Wall Street, so he has indeed been talking about de-regulating Wall Street. It's just another Romney lie -- one in a long list of lies.

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The trial of the Fort Hood shooter has been put on hold by a higher court. Why? So the court can determine if the Ft. Hood trial judge can force the defendant to shave off the beard he has grown "for religious reasons". This defendant murdered U.S. soldiers on a U.S. Army base and probably faces execution for that -- and the trial judge is worried about a beard? How stupid can you get?

Compared to the issues this military court should be addressing, the stupid beard is of no importance at all. Let him keep it, and get on with the trial.

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The Republicans are still fighting to protect the rich from having to give up the tax cuts given to them by the Bush administration. They have threatened to go so far as to deny tax cuts for ordinary Americans (the ones who really need tax cuts). What kind of money are we talking about for the rich. Well, at least 57 of the top 100 CEOs in this country are getting over a $1 million a year thanks to the Bush tax cuts (and creating no jobs). The chart below shows what the top five made in income and get thanks to the Bush tax cuts. It's ridiculous.

Suicides Of Active-Duty Soldiers Sets Another New Record

It looks like the very disturbing trend of the increasing number of suicides among active-duty soldiers is continuing -- in spite of increased suicide prevention efforts and more drug and alcohol counseling. The Army officials deny that repeated postings to war zones has anything to do with the rising number of suicides, but that sounds pretty weak. Consider that before the era of repeated war zone postings the suicide rate was 9.6 per 100,000, but in 2011 that has risen to 24.1 per 100,000 -- a huge jump and well above the 18.6 per 100,000 among the civilian population.

A total of 164 active-duty soldiers committed suicide in 2011. That sets a new record. And if you add in the non-mobilized Reserve and the National Guard, that figure rises to 278.

And that's not all of the bad news. It seems that serious sex offenses among active-duty troops jumped by a whopping 30% in 2011. This is also in spite of Army efforts to stop it (a failed "zero tolerance" policy). And nearly half of the victims were active-duty female soldiers between the ages of 18 and 21. The Army had a lot of excuses -- more crimes are being reported, new barracks offer more privacy, alcohol use is rising, etc. -- but excuses don't help the victims of sexual assault (or suicide for that matter).

The Army has some serious problems, and the biggest cause of those problems is the fighting of unnecessary wars that can't be won militarily. And the blame for that must be laid at the feet of the politicians, who used the politics of fear to start and continue those wars (and refuse to stop them because of their own vanity or electability).

We need to bring all of our troops home immediately. And we need to stop any future unnecessary wars -- including Iran, where many of our politicians are wanting to attack next. How many more young Americans (and others) must die before we learn our lesson? Wasn't Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan enough?

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Is Officially Ended

The letter above is the official announcement from the United States Army letting everyone know that they have officially ended the odious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that has been in effect since the Clinton administration. But it is not just the Army that has ended DADT. As of one minute past midnight today the policy was ended for all of America's military forces.

It was a given that this day would come ever since Congress passed a bill dictating DADT should end and the bill was signed into law by the president, but the military was given the authority to impose the new policy in their own way and after preparing their service members for the change. They have now done that, and it marks another step forward toward true equality in this country.

But while gays and lesbians can now proudly and openly serve in any branch of the military, the fight for equality is not over -- even in the military. That's because the anti-equality Defense of Marriage Act is still in effect. DOMA will keep the spouses/life partners of military members who are homosexual from receiving the same military benefits that heterosexuals receive. The next step for American equality will be to have DOMA either repealed or declared unconstitutional by a court.

Even so, this is a red-letter day for equality in the United States.

"Birther" Army Doctor Goes On Trial

The picture above is of Lt. Colonel Terrence Lakin, who has been an Army doctor for the last 18 years.   Last April I wrote a post about how he is throwing away his military career (just two years short of being able to retire on half-pay) because he is a right-winger who has fallen for the "birther" lie that President Obama was not born in the United States.

Col. Lakin decided he could not follow any orders issued by his superiors in the Army because he believed the president (the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Military) was in office illegally.   Somehow he figured this justified his refusal to follow orders -- either that or he was ready to dump his career and go to prison for his fringe right-wing views.   Lakin is one of those people who refuse to face reality, since the president's birth certificate has been released and is available online to anyone who wants to see it.

Lakin was charged with three offenses by the United States Army -- refusing to meet with a superior when ordered to do so, refusing to report for duty at Fort Campbell (Kentucky), and refusing to board a flight as ordered.   Last September a military judge ruled that the president's birth certificate was irrelevant to the charges against Lakin and could not be used as a defense against those charges.

Yesterday Lakin's military trial got underway.   Since he could not use the "birther" defense (which he told the court he still believes), he pled guilty to two of the charges -- refusing to report for duty at Fort Campbell and refusing to meet with a superior officer.   But he pled innocent to the charge of refusing to board a flight when ordered.  

Maybe he thought they would drop that charge if he pled to the other two, or maybe he still has his martyr complex and is willing to increase his possible sentence to please his "birther" brethren (thirty of which showed up for the trial carrying signs).   The charge was not dropped and his trial on that charge is proceeding.

Lakin faces about 18 months in prison for the two guilty pleas and dismissal from the Army -- likely a dishonorable discharge.   If found guilty on the third charge, and that is very likely, his sentence could be bumped up to three years.

It's still incredible to me that this man would throw away an 18 year career and his retirement, and go to prison for such a stupid reason.   It makes me wonder if he's a racist who just can't stand the thought of an African-American president.   But whatever his ulterior motive, the U.S. Army will be better off without him.

Record Number Of Soldiers Commit Suicide

It's no secret that the war in Afghanistan (or rather the misguided nation-building effort in Afghanistan) is not going too well. When the American soldiers "pacify" an area and move on to another area to do the same, those we are fighting move back in and take over again and nothing has been accomplished. And while this futile merry-go-round is happening the American deaths continue to rise, standing now at about 1100 (not to mention the thousands of deaths of innocent civilians in both Afghanistan and Pakistan).

It is a fact that June of 2010 set a record for the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan (with 60 soldiers being killed) for any month in the nine year history of the war. But that is not the only death record that can be attributed to the effects of the endless war (in both Afghanistan and Iraq). June was also "the worst month ever for suicides in the Army", according to a report by CBS News. At least 32 soldiers, both active and reserves, killed themselves in the month of June.

In the first six months of 2010 a total of 145 soldiers committed suicide -- a record for times of both war and peace. That is an increase of more than 11.5% over the same period last year, which had 130 suicides by soldiers -- also a record at that time. This is a serious problem that seems to be getting out of hand.

To try and get a handle on the situation, the Army is changing the way it is trying to combat the growing problem. The Army has been using actors in the anti-suicide films it shows it's personnel, and they now admit that the soldiers consider these films to be a joke. They have now replaced these films with films of real soldiers who have tried to commit suicide, in the hopes that these messages from real soldiers will have more effect on soldiers considering suicide.

I hope that does help. But we all know that the only thing that'll really help is to end the senseless and endless wars foisted on us by Bush and Cheney (and continued by the current administration). The other day the Army Chief of Staff said we could be looking at another decade of war. What's that going to do to the number of dead soldiers -- both battle-related and suicides?

Soldier Chooses "Birther" Politics Over Career

This is kind of a sad story. It's the story of a man who is throwing his career away because he has bought into the lies of the teabaggers' "birther" politics. Lt. Colonel Terry Lakin is a doctor in the United States Army, and evidently a competent doctor, because he has served in that capacity for the Army for 18 years. He only had two years to go before he could retire with some pretty nice benefits.

But Lakin is in the process of throwing his career and retirement benefits down the drain. He is doing this because he has accepted the specious arguments of teabaggers that President Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States. None of the repeated assurances by the state of Hawaii that Obama was born there has convinced Lakin. It's like he's made up his mind and is not about to be confused by any inconvenient facts. Either that, or he's a racist and cannot accept that America actually has a duly elected African-American president.

Lakin (pictured) said he first became aware of Obama's "questionable" natural birth in October of 2008. He claimed that at that time he was considering volunteering for duty in Iraq, but after Obama's election that November he stopped those efforts to volunteer.

He says he talked many times with friends and family seeking their advice. Then around the end of March 2009, he submitted an Article 138 against President Obama with his company commander, claiming Obama was an illegitimate president and commander-in-chief and it would be illegal for him (Lakin) to follow any orders from the president. He received a reply from the Pentagon saying his Article 138 was out of order because the president was not Lakin's commanding officer.

But Lakin was not about to accept the decision of his superiors at the Pentagon. He then contacted the offices of Senators Alexander and Corker, and Congressman Wamp. When that did no good as far as he was concerned, he filed another Article 138 in November of 2009 -- this time against General Casey, Army Chief of Staff. The Pentagon gave him the same answer again -- General Casey was not his commanding officer.

Again, the Pentagon decision was not good enough for the soldier-doctor. He has now informed his commanding officers that he will refuse a posting to serve in Afghanistan. He says, "I am today compelled to make the distasteful choice to invite my own court martial, in pursuit of the truth about the president's eligibility under the Constitute to hold office."

The Army has tried to deal with Lakin in a civilized way, but he seems determined to become a martyr for the "birther" cause. I don't know if he really believes this silly idea, or if it's just a cover for his racism, but he's willing to throw his career and retirement away for it. I hope he doesn't think this will make him some kind of hero, because most Americans will just consider him to be a fool.

He has left the Army no choice. He must now be court-martialed, punished and probably dishonorably discharged. The Army cannot let its soldiers pick and choose which president they will obey and which they won't obey. That would invite anarchy within the ranks.

I guess the Ft. Leavenworth Military Prison will be getting a new doctor -- and inmate.

Army Repeats A Bad Mistake

It looks like the United States Army is incapable of learning from past mistakes. On Tuesday, the Army awarded defense giant KBR (once an affiliate of Halliburton) a new contract for support work in Iraq. The contract could be worth as much as $2.8 billion for the Houston-based company.

KBR was quick to jump on the new contract saying, "The award demonstrates that the government recognizes KBR's ability and expertise in delivering high quality service in challenging contingency environments." Despite their bragging, the record shows that KBR has definitely NOT shown "ability and expertise" in its Iraqi operations. Let me remind you of just a few of KBR's screw-ups in Iraq.

First, consider the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a 24 year-old Green Beret. Maseth was electrocuted while taking a shower in 2008. It turned out that his death was due to faulty electrical work done by KBR. An investigation then found 17 other deaths due to faulty electrical work, most of it done by KBR. The company was denied $25 million in awards for this shoddy work.

But this was not all. Earlier, it had been discovered that KBR had been selling the Army contaminated water. The water caused our soldiers to experience skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses. Instead of fixing the problem, KBR covered it up and continued selling the contaminated water to the Army for THREE YEARS (from January 2004 thru December 2006).

And it goes on. In 2005, a young woman named Jamie Leigh Jones was working for KBR in Iraq when she was raped by several male employees of KBR. Did KBR report this to the proper authorities? Of course not! When the young woman tried to go to authorities, they had her kidnapped and held in a shipping container with no food, water or medical help.

Thank goodness for a single KBR employee with a shred of a conscience, who allowed her to use his cell phone. She called her father in the United States, who then called Rep. Ted Poe. Poe contacted the State Department and demanded her release. The State Department sent investigators, who rescued Ms. Jones and got her medical help.

Ms. Jones sued KBR, and instead of doing the right thing, the company is fighting the case tooth-and-nail. They even tried to get the case thrown out of court, claiming that her contract with the company denied her the right to file suit. Fortunately, the court did not buy this feeble argument and ruled she had the right to sue.

These are just some of the more well-known examples of KBR demonstrating its "ability and expertise" in Iraq. I'm sure there are more. KBR has not only not shown a level of excellence, it has not even shown a basic level of competence in Iraq. They have also shown they care little about our soldiers or even their own employees.

But the company did make billions of dollars from the Iraqi war, and now it stands to make billions more. How can the Army reward this incompetence with a new multi-billion dollar contract? Even the dumbest individuals know better than to touch a stove a second time, after being burned the first time. Why can't the Army learn from its past mistakes?

There are those who think our government is broken. Things like this make me think they could be right.

Army Corps Of Engineers Is Responsible

For years now, the Army Corps of Engineers has denied any responsibility for the flooding and damage caused in New Orleans during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina. It's going to be much harder for them to claim that now, because a federal judge has disagreed.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval has issued a decision, which says the flooding in the Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish was not due to Hurricane Katrina but was directly due to the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to properly maintain a navigation channel known as the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO). The judge cited the Army Corps' "insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness" in not maintaining the channel properly.

In harsh terms, Judge Duval said the Army Corps has known for over 40 years that failure to properly maintain MRGO could cause the failure of the levee protecting the affected areas, and found that they were negligent in failing to do what they knew to be necessary to protect New Orleans. The judge ordered a damage payment of $719,000 be paid to a small group that had filed suit against the Army Corps in 2006.

But that payment may be just the tip of the iceberg. Over 100,000 people have filed claims with the Army Corps of Engineers, and this judgement makes it far more likely they will eventually be paid damages also. It is possible that this judgement could cost the federal government billions of dollars.

The Army Corps is not talking and neither is the Justice Department. They just said they are "studying" the decision. They will probably appeal and drag this out for many more years, but I hope not. This has drug on too long, and these people have suffered for too long. It is time to make it right.

The United States government failed the people of New Orleans, causing much damage and loss of life. They can't take back what was done in the past, but they can stop failing them now and do the right thing -- regardless of cost.

Doing the right thing is never too expensive.

Hasan Showed Problems During Residency

The following is a transcript of the evaluation of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan by the director of his Psychiatry Residency Program. It was obtained by NPR. The director notes some obvious and troubling deficiencies about Hasan, but then approves his receiving his credentials. He notes he should be all right with proper supervision, but admitted he shouldn't need supervision at this point.

Frankly, after reading this I am troubled by Hasan being credentialed. I certainly would be worried about being treated by a doctor (psychiatric or otherwise) who had this much trouble with his residency and was still deemed to be in need of supervision. Is the Army in such dire need of psychiatrists that they need to take borderline cases like Hasan?

When you consider other things like Hasan arguing with his peers about religion and justifying suicide bombers and contacting an Imam with dubious ties, I am starting to believe the U.S. Army dropped the ball on this one (and possibly the FBI and others also). Hasan has been sending out troubling signals for years. Someone should have acted.

National Capital Consortium

Psychiatry Residency Program

Borden Pavilion, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Bldg.6, Rm. 2059, 6900 Georgia Ave, NW

Washington DC, 20307-5001

XXXXXXX

Consortium Participating Instructions: Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, National Naval Medical Center, Malcolm Grow USAF Medical Center

May 17, 2007

Memorandum for: Credentials Committee

Subject: CPT Nidal Hasan

1. I am the program director for NCC Psychiatry Residency Training Program. I took over as PD in MAR 2007 and was Assistant PD from July 2006. I have been a faculty member of the residency since July 2004.

2. This memo is based on my personal knowledge of and the documented incidences in CPT Hasan’s Resident Training File.

3. The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic. Clinically he is competent to deliver safe patient care. But he demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism. In his PGY-2 year, he was counseled for inappropriately discussing religious topics with his assigned patients. He also required a period of in-program remediation when he was discovered to have not documented appropriately an ER encounter with a homicidal patient who subsequently eloped from the ER. He did successfully remediate this problem. At the end of his PGY-2 year, he was placed on administrative probation by the NCC GMEC for failure to take and pass USMLE Step 3 and to obtain an unrestricted state medical license by the end of his PGY-2 year; as a result he was not promoted to PGY-3 on time. He did eventually complete step 3 and get a license and was promoted to PGY-3. He was counseled for having a poor record of attendance at didactics and lower than expected PRITE scores. One year he failed to show for his PRITE examination at all. During his PGY-3 year, he was counseled for being consistently late to NNMC morning report. During his PGY-4 year, he was discovered to have only seen 30 outpatients in 38 week of outpatient continuity clinic. He was required to make this missed clinic time up using his elective. He failed his HGT/WGT screening and was found to be out of standards with body fat % and was counseled on that.Lastly, he missed a night of call for MGMC ER and then did not respond to numerous pages by my office the next day.

4. Take together; these issues demonstrate a lack of professionalism and work ethics.

He is able to self-correct with supervision. However, at this point he should not need so much supervision. In spite of all of this, I am not able to say he is not competent to graduate nor do I think a period of academic probation now at the end of his training will be beneficial. He would be able to contain his behavior enough to complete any period of probation successfully. My purpose in writing this letter is to give the credentials committee the benefit of full disclosure and the opportunity to modify CPT Hasan’s plan of supervision following initial privileging.

5. I did discuss this memo with CPT Hasan and informed him I would be adding it to his initial credentialing paperwork.

6. POC is the undersigned and may be reached at 202-XXX-XXXX or email at XXX/

Sincerely,

Scott Moran, MAJ, MC

Program Director

NCC Psychiatry Residency Training

Tragedy At Fort Hood

I guess everyone's heard about the tragedy at Fort Hood by now. A soldier went off-track and started shooting at the base processing center (where soldiers going to or coming back from a war zone are processed). There are at least 12 dead and 30 wounded. It will be a long time before the folks at Fort Hood can put this tragedy behind them.

It is terrible enough that our soldiers are getting killed in two ridiculous overseas wars, but to have them gunned down on American soil is unbearable. President Obama agrees saying, "These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis. It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

There are a couple of unusual aspects to this incident. First, the gunman was an Army Major. Usually, when something like this happens, it is done by a soldier with little rank and no power.

Second, the Major was a mental health professional. It is very odd that he would be the shooter, rather than a patient of his with something like PTSD. Why did he do it? No one knows yet (and we may never know).

-Was he striking a blow for muslim fundamentalists? We know he was a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent.

-Was this a delayed reaction to a poor rating he received before being transferred to Fort Hood last summer?

-Was this a reaction to his upcoming deployment to either Iraq or Afghanistan?

-Had he just heard too many horror stories from soldiers returning from a war zone, and just snapped?

-Was it a result of personal problems that we don't yet know of?

It could be any or all of the above. I have to wonder though, would this have happened if we weren't involved in two unnecessary quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan -- wars that have accomplished little except to kill thousands of soldiers and mentally and physically wounded many, many others? Maybe not.

NOTE: Think Progress is now reporting that the shooter is not dead. Although shot several times, Major Nidal Malik Hasan is in stable condition and is not in imminent danger of death. Maybe we will find out what motivated him after all!

Army Tries To Restrict Free Speech

One of the things that makes the Iraq war different from wars in the past is the internet. No longer do people have to depend on the Main-stream Media outlets for their information. The internet has given those on both sides of Bush's war a way to get their opinions out to the people.

One of the most interesting aspects of this, especially as it pertains to the Iraq war, has been the blogging by active duty soldiers and National Guard. For the first time in history, ordinary citizens can hear and read what the soldiers who are fighting the war actually think about it. In the past, the people were only told what government leaders wanted them to hear.

At first, the war was popular with many, including our soldiers, so the U.S. Army didn't mind their soldiers blogging as long as they didn't give away any military operational secrets. For their part, soldiers have been very good about not giving away any secrets. After all, they don't want to do anything to hurt their fellow soldiers.

But as the war began to drag on with no end in sight, and we learned more about Bush's lies to start it in the first place, the American people began to oppose the war more and more. Soldiers also began to question just why we remain in Iraq, and this questioning began to take the form of opposition to the war on many of their blogs.

The soldiers have not given away any military secrets, but evidently the U.S. Army is unhappy with their opposition to Bush's war. As more and more soldier blogs begin to voice this opposition, the army is beginning to crack down on soldier blogs. It looks like the army only supports free speech when you agree with Bush.

In April, the U.S. Army issued new rules regarding blogging by soldiers. According to the new directive, soldiers must now consult with their immediate supervisor AND another officer in charge of "operational security" before they can do any of the following:

*Post anything on a website or blog.

*Enter discussions on information forums or message boards.

*Send e-mail that may be published in a public forum.

In other words, the U.S. Army is trying to shut up those soldiers brave enough to tell the truth about the war. They know that the words of our soldiers are very powerful in shaping public opinion. They also know that the more Americans learn about the truth of Bush's war, the more they oppose that war.

The army is wrong on this issue. Even though Bush would like to restrict our freedoms, we do still live in a free country - and for a country to remain free, it must protect free speech. Just because a soldier dons his uniform and bravely fights as instructed, does not mean that he no longer has a brain or no longer has a right to free speech.

The army has a right to ask soldiers not to reveal military secrets, but a soldier's personal opinion of Bush's war is not a military secret. They should be free to express their views just like any other American.