The Military

I noted with little interest the cheap shot here today by Cheri Jacobus of the first lady, Michelle Obama. This is how hyperpartisan Republicans spend the Christmas season! How sad. There they go again.

This does give me a reason to applaud the great work our first lady is doing to help American military families. She has made support for military families a priority, and I applaud her for it.

Michelle Obama is one of countless Americans helping those who serve our country, and they all deserve our praise and support.

Suppose we here in the Northeast, citing the foibles and earthy prejudices of the gnarly red-clay heartlanders, decided not to send ours to Congress or the Supreme Court or any court until they became more refined, like us. Congress might then consist of senators exclusively from Baylor and Southern Methodist and the Supreme Court of justices from Liberty University and the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

That is what we have done with the refusal to allow ROTC to recruit on Ivy League campuses. To become an American military officer, you would have to go to another college. Without a doubt, it has influenced foreign policy, including our current missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we in Boston suffer the most. Gone is the memory of Joshua Chamberlain, and although the tourist bus makes its first stop on Boston Common at the monument to the historic Black Civil War Regiment, Robert Gould Shaw, who died and was laid to rest with his men, is likewise lost to our collective memory. Barney Frank, Bart Simpson, Bob Dylan: This is what we are today. This is what we have become since the Vietnam period.

Saturday's historic vote on “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was a big day for President Obama and the base of the Democratic Party — disappointed by the tax-cut package signed into law Friday, but triumphant over the long-sought repeal on the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
 
Eight Republicans crossed the aisle to support a repeal of the DADT policy the Pentagon had asked the Congress to undo. While it nearly died many times, and ultimately could not be passed by attaching it to the "must-pass" defense authorization bill, a clean up-or-down vote brought out more support than even proponents knew they had.

Hey, something we all need is the ability to have our medical records are around when- and wherever we need them.

For vets, they can do this now via the Blue Button program.

Of the 1.1 million users of My HealtheVet, more than 233,000 veterans have upgraded (identity-verified) access to data from their VA medical record via Blue Button. During the first two months following Blue Button’s launch on Aug. 28, 2010, about 100,000 veterans asked to view their personal health data using Blue Button, and more than 150,000 PHRs were downloaded.

It’s time that President Obama fire Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos for insubordination.

Amos is way out of line in his opposition to repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

After all, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs says it’s time to end the policy. So does the secretary of Defense. And the commander in chief. That’s not just official administration policy, that’s official military policy, which Amos is bound by oath to obey and follow.

There are reasonable views on both sides of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy debate. The Pentagon is advocating repeal of the 17-year-old law since a recent study suggested the effect of repeal would be positive, mixed or have no effect at all. Opponents are concerned not only about opposition to repeal from those serving in combat units, but also question why the study the Pentagon conducted on this issue not only did not ask whether men and women serving in the armed forces support repeal (only whether it would be disruptive) and why its findings are based on a 28 percent response rate.
 
At this point there may not even be enough time to debate DADT, with the tax cut debate unresolved and the Obama administration's push to prioritize the ratification of the new START treaty before other legislative business. Yet the GOP leadership still got 42 signatures on a letter this week promising to filibuster anything until the tax cut question is resolved. Fine. But when that is over, the U.S. Senate owes the military a vote on DADT. Why? Because the Department of Defense is asking for it.
 

OK, we're hearing a lot of good stuff (today) on Veterans Day, but what's really needed is real stuff to support vets every day.

Here's a lot of effective stuff.

Focus on the real down-to-earth stuff, like jobs for vets, better support for PTSD and TBI, and building a network of veterans' service organizations (VSOs).

I should have realized, when our pilot warned of “moderate turbulence” as we flew into Halifax, Nova Scotia, for an international security conference, that our white-knuckle flight was only the beginning.

That was on Friday. On Saturday, a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators flew into town, having been forced to spend the night in Bangor, Maine, because of the strong winds buffeting Halifax. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) marched into the first panel of the day and kicked up his own storm by urging President Obama to “neuter the regime” in Iran. Read more...

Andrew J. Bacevich’s publisher should send a copy of his Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War to President Obama, so important is his message and so authoritative his brief. His realistic and reflective thesis is that during the past half century and to the present day the United States has pursued a flawed foreign policy based on a triad of questionable premises — the need for global presence, the projection of power, and the need for self-determined interventionism. Rationalized upon varying claimed provocations — the Cold War, dominoes of creeping communism in Asia, international terrorism — this triad invariably has led us into failed and very costly misadventures. The triad has been propagated by the military officer corps, the permanent foreign policy establishment in government and in think tanks, and their complementary corporate contractor sponsors. It has governed Republican and Democratic administrations, conservative and liberal governments, and has cost the country dearly in lives and treasure. This good versus evil policy — like evangelical religious crusades — has afflicted humankind in the names of peace and democracy. Packaged as righteous patriotism that makes critics appear weak and faithless, this credo has monopolized modern presidents, most recently inhibiting President Obama’s ability to fix Cleveland and Detroit rather than Baghdad and Kabul, to use Professor Bacevich’s metaphor.