Eideard

A debt is a debt. Even if it comes in the form of a 58-year-old parking ticket with a $1 fine.

That’s what 79-year-old Dale Crawford thought when a ticket issued on Feb. 3, 1953, made repeated appearances in his home in recent years.

“It kept popping up every couple of years, and a couple weeks ago I went in the drawer and there it was,” Crawford said. “And I said, ‘I’m going to contact the city.’”

The ticket was issued on the day Crawford was inducted into the Army after being drafted. He had driven his 1946 Nash to the induction center at 1200 Milam, where he left the car for his father to pick up after he reported for duty. Crawford didn’t see the ticket until he found a box of keepsakes after his mother died in 1995, he said.

He sent a letter to the mayor’s office about his outstanding fine and said he wanted to pay it off. Mayor Annise Parker commended Crawford at a news conference Wednesday where he handed over his payment. She praised him as an example for others to follow…

Parker was so impressed with Crawford that she waived all penalties and interest that could have added “some zeroes” to his debt, she said.

Good for you, dude. Cripes – imagine what the interest would have been if Houston decided to bag him!

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

About 200 active-duty troops and veterans wearing T-shirts advertising their branch of service marched Saturday in San Diego’s gay pride parade with American flags and rainbow banners, marking what is believed to be the first time a military contingent has participated in such an event in the U.S.

Many of the active-duty troops said they were moved to come out because it is time to end the military’s ban on openly gay troops. The march comes a day after a federal appeals court reinstated “don’t ask, don’t tell” but with a caveat that prevents the government from investigating or penalizing anyone who is openly gay.

National Guard member Nichole Herrera, 31, said she didn’t think twice about marching, even though the policy is back on the books. She said she was “choked up” several times as she walked down a main thoroughfare in San Diego, a major Navy port.

“This is one of the proudest days in my life. It’s time for it (the policy) to be gone,” Herrera said. “I’m a soldier no matter what, regardless of my sexual orientation.”

The crowd roared as the group waving military flags and holding placards identifying their military branch walked past the thousands.

Every branch of service was represented Saturday, including the Coast Guard. Marines and sailors ran out carrying their branch’s flags over their heads. One Marine stopped to pose with two towering bikini-clad blondes in stiletto-heeled boots.

Onlookers stepped into the parade route to salute them.

Bravo! The salute is overdue. Wish my cousin Billy was alive to see the Navy allow him public pride.

The crown prince of Abu Dhabi has hired the founder of private security firm Blackwater Worldwide to set up an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the United Arab Emirates, the New York Times said Sunday.

The Times said it obtained documents that showed the unit being formed by Erik Prince’s new company Reflex Responses with $529 million from the UAE would be used to thwart internal revolt, conduct special operations and defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attack…

Blackwater, which once had lucrative contracts to protect U.S. officials in Iraq, became notorious in the region in 2007 when its guards opened fire in Baghdad traffic, killing at least 14 people in what the Iraqi government called a “massacre…”

The newspaper said the Emirates, a close ally of the United States, had some support in Washington for Prince’s new project, although it was not clear if it had official U.S. approval…

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told The Times the department was investigating to see if the project broke any U.S. laws. U.S. law requires a license for American citizens to train foreign troops…

Toner also pointed out that Blackwater had paid $42 million in fines in 2010 for training foreign forces in Jordan without a license, the Times said…

Prince had insisted the force hire no Muslims, because they “could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims,” the paper said.

I feel strong enough about American history to have nothing but distaste for mercenaries. Hiring on to kill whomever your paymaster chooses isn’t what professional soldiering has ever been about – at root and cause. Not in centuries.

Differing political contexts certainly made some armies seem like mercenaries – especially when dropped into a foreign land to support an unpopular government; but, control over those armies, recruitment, history still differed from mercenary troops.

Police fire tear gas at protestors in Bahrain
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Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain today to help put down weeks of protests by the Shi’ite Muslim majority, a move opponents of the Sunni ruling family on the island called a declaration of war.

Analysts saw the troop movement as a mark of concern in Saudi Arabia that political concessions by Bahrain’s monarchy could embolden the Saudi kingdom’s own Shi’ite minority.

Which shows you how much political courage “analysts” have.

About 1,000 Saudi soldiers entered Bahrain to protect government facilities, a Saudi official source said, a day after mainly Shi’ite protesters overran police and blocked roads…

Witnesses said the 25-km (16-mile) causeway between the two countries was closed and tanks were rolling across to Bahrain, a key U.S. ally and home of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

Analysts and diplomats say the largest contingent in any GCC force would come from Saudi Arabia, which is already worried an uprising by Bahrain’s Shi’ites may inspire restive Shi’ites in its own Eastern Province, the center of the oil industry.

Bahraini opposition groups including the largest Shi’ite party Wefaq said the move was an attack on defenseless citizens.

“We consider the entry of any soldier or military machinery into the Kingdom of Bahrain’s air, sea or land territories a blatant occupation,” they said in a statement…

The reports come after Bahraini police clashed on Sunday with mostly Shi’ite demonstrators in one of the most violent confrontations since troops killed seven protesters last month.

After trying to push back demonstrators for several hours, police backed away and youths built barricades across the highway to the main financial district of the Gulf banking hub.

Those barricades were still up on Monday morning, with protesters checking cars at the entrance to the Pearl roundabout, the focal point of weeks of protests. On the other side of the same highway, police set up a roadblock preventing any cars moving from the airport toward the harbor.

Between theocracy and monarchy, there isn’t a whole boatload of progress happening among the United States’ dearest allies in the region.

Oh, did I say “allies”. I meant keepers of the flow of oil from the region to Western industry and transport.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

For more than a week, opponents of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak had the upper hand in Cairo, protesting with near impunity in the face of police and an army that did little to stop them.

That all changed on Wednesday.

The morning after Mubarak dramatically announced he would not run for re-election in September, his supporters waded into Tahrir Square by the thousands, and suddenly serious, prolonged violence reigned in central Cairo.

There were immediate suspicions that the pro-Mubarak demonstrators were not simply average citizens standing up for the man who has led Egypt for three decades — suspicions that proved at least partly founded.

As battles raged between the two sides, some pro-Mubarak protesters were captured by his opponents. Some were terrified to be caught and begged for their lives, screaming that the government had paid them to come out and protest. Others turned out to be carrying what seemed to be police identification, though they were dressed in plain clothes.

Shadi Hamid, a Brookings Institution analyst based in Qatar, told CNN that the use of hired muscle to break up demonstrations “is a longtime regime strategy.”

“There are usually a line of thugs outside a protest who are waiting there,” he said. “They’re dressed in plain clothes, and then they’ll usually go and attack the protesters. Egyptians have seen this for quite some time, and that’s why they were able to recognize what was going on fairly quickly…”

Several CNN journalists heard from pro-Mubarak demonstrators that they worked for the government. Staff from the national petrochemical company said they had been ordered to come and protest…

RTFA. Read lots of articles. Excepting the truly ideological flunkeys, most of the world press identifies the violence now focused on pro-democracy demonstrators as coming exclusively from Mubarak supports, paid or otherwise.

Daily life in Bannu: Selling food originally donated to flood victims
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Eighteen people were killed and 15 wounded when a suicide bomber ploughed his explosives-laden car into a police station in northwest Pakistan Wednesday.

The bomber’s car struck Miryan police station on the outskirts of the town of Bannu and badly damaged a nearby mosque.

District police chief Mohammad Iftikhar told AFP that most of those wounded were police officers and paramilitary personnel. “The target was the police station and the mosque is nearby. Police and paramilitary personnel were praying inside the mosque,” when the bombing took place, he said.

“There are some civilians also but most of the victims are security personnel,” he added…

The attack was immediately claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who said it was to avenge US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt, which borders Afghanistan…

The suicide attack came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Pakistan and delivered a bold message of support for Washington’s key anti-terror ally, telling the country that America is “not the enemy of Islam”…

The United States wants Pakistan’s army to do more to combat extremists on the border, including by launching a ground offensive in the district of North Waziristan, where it says key Taliban leaders reside.
The army has stalled on a ground operation, saying its troops are overstretched.

Looking at this from New Mexico, I don’t see a whole boatload of difference between death in Mexico and death in Pakistan. Sure, there’s a higher standard of living along our own border and the United States hasn’t started firing missiles from the drones we fly around border country [yet]. But, bandits killing almost indiscriminately – with little fear of retribution or capture – have the same look and feel regardless of language and politics.

I guess Mexico retains sufficient democratic infrastructure – and hasn’t the incredibly corrupt secret police like the ISI in Pakistan – but, bandits killing each other, murdering coppers and innocent civilians, still seems to be the same national sport.

The former head of the army today accused Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of letting down British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and described the case for the Iraq war as “most uncompelling”.

General Sir Richard Dannatt called Brown “malign” for failing to fund the armed forces adequately, and said Blair lacked the “moral courage” to make his then chancellor deliver the money that was needed.

The accusations were made in a book, Leading From the Front, which is being serialised in the Sunday Telegraph…

In his book, Dannatt wrote that the evidence for Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction – the official justification for Britain’s involvement in the 2003 invasion – was “most uncompelling” and the planning for the aftermath of war had been an “abject failure”.

While the 1998 strategic defence review (SDR) provided a “good framework” for defence policy in the Labour years, it was “fatally flawed” because it was underfunded by Brown’s Treasury and could not cope with the strains of deploying troops in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time.

“History will pass judgment on these foreign adventures in due course, but in my view Gordon Brown’s malign intervention, when chancellor, on the SDR by refusing to fund what his own government had agreed, fatally flawed the entire process from the outset,” he wrote.

“The seeds were sown for some of the impossible operational pressures to come…”

Sound familiar? Insert the names “George W, Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney” in the appropriate locations and watch the hurried defense of political hacks who specialize in rear guard actions against any responsibility for their political disasters.

True Believers aid as best they can.

Obama at Bagram AFB, Afghanistan
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

A judge has denied a request for President Barack Obama to testify at a court martial for a U.S. Army flight surgeon who refused to deploy to Afghanistan until he saw proof that Obama was born in the United States.

The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, said any evidence or witnesses related to Obama’s citizenship is irrelevant to the charges against Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, who has 17 years of service in the U.S. military.

After failing to deploy with his unit in April, Lakin was charged with missing a movement, disobeying a lawful order and dereliction of duty.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice says the maximum punishment for both offenses — missing his plane and disobeying lawful orders — is a dishonorable discharge and up to two years in confinement. A guilty verdict could also result in forfeiture of Lakin’s pay, which totals $7,959 a month, according to a charge sheet provided by a group sponsoring his defense.

In addition to putting Obama on their witness list, Lakin’s lawyers had asked Lind to order Obama’s official birth records from Hawaii be brought to court for trial.

The prosecutors in the case argued that Obama’s eligibility is not relevant because the officers who ordered Lakin to go to Fort Campbell and then ordered him to answer questions about why he didn’t go were his proper superiors in the military chain of command, and they gave him legal orders. Jensen later conceded that point.

Of course, Doctor Dipshit knew all this. He’s just another fool whose ideology overwhelms reality before his very eyes.

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The Marines marked the end of nearly seven years in Iraq on Saturday by handing the Army their command of Anbar province, once one of the war’s fiercest battlefields but now a centerpiece of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation.

The changing of the guard — overseen by military brass and some of Anbar’s influential Sunni sheiks — signals the start of an accelerated drawdown of American troops as the U.S. increasingly shifts its focus to the war in Afghanistan…

But fears are growing about a possible resurgence in sectarian tensions — fed by the Shiite-dominated government’s plans to blacklist more than 500 parliamentary candidates over suspected links to Saddam Hussein’s regime…

The White House worries the bans could raise questions over the fairness of the March 7 parliamentary election, which is seen as an important step in the American pullout timetable and a way to break political stalemates over key issues such as dividing Iraq’s oil revenue…

As many as 25,000 Marines were in Iraq at the peak of the fighting, mostly in Anbar province. Fewer than 3,000 remain. All but a handful of those will ship out in a matter of weeks.

The Marines’ extended stay in Anbar went against the grain of the Corps’ usual role as a fighting force designed to quickly seize territory and then turn it over to the Army to maintain control from fixed bases…

If all goes as planned, the last remaining Marines will be followed out by tens of thousands of soldiers in the coming months. President Barack Obama has ordered all but 50,000 troops out of the country by Aug. 31, with most to depart after the parliamentary election in March.

The remaining troops will leave by the end of 2011 under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact.

Overdue.

An Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.

The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to female battlefield soldiers who become pregnant and the male soldiers who impregnate them.

Civilians reporting to General Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the guidelines.

An Army spokesman, George Wright, said battlefield soldiers who became pregnant were typically sent home. But it is not an Army-wide policy to punish them under the military’s legal code, he said.

However, division commanders like General Cucolo have the authority to impose these type of restrictions to soldiers under their command, Mr. Wright said…

Under General Cucolo’s order, troops also are prohibited from “sexual contact of any kind” with Iraqi nationals. And they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.

Like most “moral” regulations leftover from 19th Century ideology, this will only be honored by the nutballs who think like the general. Or not.

He’s as backwards as the idiots who tried to prevent GI’s from marrying Europeans – while stationed in Europe. Of course, acting out such heresy between couples of different colors was considered more of a crime.