My bet is they pull out of as many population centres as possible & just 'protect' oil infrastructure, for the Iraqi's own good of course.

Many would fight to defend their country, but many do not want to die in an insurgency against occupiers. Most military and foreign policy experts saw it coming, but those at the pentagon refused to believe in. Plus the reasons for the war and occupation change frequently, and that has to be disheartening to the troops. Survivable injuries include many more very serious types, and many who would have died in previous wars are left to live their lives as amputees and brain-damaged veterans.

There is no credibiity or honor in the White House or the Pentagon these days, and that too, will continue to help de-populate the "all volunteer" U.S military forces. The insurgents try to make the GI's as nervous and trigger happy as they can, so they will shoot and kill civilians and friends. They seem to be suceeding as evidenced by the recent shooting of an Italian reporter and intelligence agent, and a Bulgarian soldier. It's morbidly humorous that they call it "riendly fire."

I served stateside in a military hospital during the first years of the Viet Nam War, including assignment on the psychiatric wards. I believe that there will be many psychologically scarred vets of this war that will put a burden on many segments of our society.

It's obvious that many young men and women are weighing the issues,
and deciding that the military is neither a good option nor a fighting for a just cause these days.

Will Bush and Rumsfeld be forced to consider a draft? Will the children of the wealthy and connected be exempted? Interesting times lie ahead.

Dave

CMU to build Marines unmanned ground vehicles

Friday, February 11, 2005

Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium and Arlington, Va.-based United Defense have a $26.4 million Department of Defense contract to develop an unmanned ground vehicle for the Marines. The Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle is to be used in remote combat tasks, including reconnaissance and surveillance, while the operator remains concealed at a distance. The contract, announced Thursday, includes calls for six of the vehicles to be built at the United Defense facility in Lemont Furnace, Fayette County, along with armor samples and associated data. The project is expected to be complete by July 2007. Officials say as many as 200 of the high-tech vehicles could be built in Fayette County.

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., was awarded on Feb. 7, 2005, a $26,433,460 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (TUGV). The initial increment of funds being obligated is $12,400,000. The effort will include design, development and delivery of six tactical unmanned ground vehicles, armor samples and associated data. Work will be performed in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is expected to be completed by July 2007. Contract funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured, with two proposals solicited and two offers received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity (M67854-05-C-1030).

If an unmanned/robotic technology is developed for military application, it's not long before the question is asked, "Can we stick a gun on it?". In this case, the answer was a resounding "Yes".

By engaging robots that offer more efficient ways to kill, are we disengaging ourselves from humanity?
...
David L. Ulin is the author of ''The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith.'' This article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

Reinstatement of the draft is likely soon, despite what the politicians say

By info@NoDraftNoWay.org
Contact: 39 W. 14 St., #206, New York, NY 10011 · (212) 633-6646

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

We must begin NOW to build a movement to stop the draft before it starts.

The U.S. military is in a quagmire in Iraq, facing a national popular uprising against the occupation. Although the U.S. has 138,000 soldiers, supplemented by as many as 20,000 mercenaries, in Iraq, this force is not sufficient to defeat the uprising. According to the Associated Press, military officials have recently admitted that the resistance numbers more as high as 20,000 and has enough popular support among the Iraqi people that they cannot be militarily defeated. Nevertheless, President Bush is committed to trying to maintain the occupation, and is threatening to launch new wars against Iran, North Korea, and Syria.

Soldiers are dying every day. A report issued in January, 2004 by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College, said the Army is "near the breaking point." The Pentagon has been forced to issue repeated "stop loss" orders and recall soldiers who had retired or otherwise returned to civilian life.

Out of 10 Army Divisions, part or all of 9 of them are either deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Twenty-one out of 33 regular combat brigades are on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, or the Balkans. That's 63% of the Army's combat strength. This means the Army is extremely overextended. Military experts agree that in order to maintain long-term mobilizations, an army needs twice as many soldiers at home as deployed. That means the U.S. Army is more than 100,000 soldiers short. The Bush Administration has been trying to fill the gap with Reserve and National Guard troops, but this is a temporary fix at best.

Meanwhile, official U.S. foreign policy is now the doctrine of "pre-emptive war" and "regime change" wherever a leader runs afoul of U.S. corporate interests. An invasion of Iran, Syria, Korea, or Cuba -- all of whom are on Washington-and-Wall Street's list of targets -- would require tens or hundreds of thousands of new soldiers.

Enlistment rates not even able to maintain current force levels, much less provide troops for new invasions and occupations. All four services missed their enlistment quotas last year, and enlistments in the Reserves, National Guard, and regular military are at a 30-year low. Many current members of the armed forces plan to get out as soon as their current enlistment ends. According to a poll conducted by the military newspaper Stars & Stripes, 49% of soldiers stationed in Iraq do not plan to re-enlist.

The President has given the Selective Service System a set of readiness goals to be implemented by March 31, 2005. As part of these performance goals, the System must be ready to be fully operational within 75 days. This means we can look for the Draft to be in operation as early as June 15, 2005....<snip>

The President has given the Selective Service System a set of readiness goals to be implemented by March 31, 2005. As part of these performance goals, the System must be ready to be fully operational within 75 days. This means we can look for the Draft to be in operation as early as June 15, 2005....<snip>

You guys are still buying into the whoel draft thing?
Jesus.

You cannot defeat people anyway that are willing to blow themselves up. Period.

What happened to the Japanese in 1945?