Grumpy Editor

Inquiry clears Gen. McChrystal, clouds Rolling Stone

After much print/broadcast coverage was given to last June’s Rolling Stone magazine article on Gen. Stanley McChrystal, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan at the time, supposedly making disparaging remarks about members of President Barack Obama’s national security team, the Pentagon has cleared the general of wrongdoing --- with much less coverage, notes Grumpy Editor.

It’s similar to a newspaper burying a correction under some ads.

The Rolling Stone story led to the dismissal of McChrystal by Obama who declared he had fallen short of “the standard that should be set by a commanding general.”

A Defense Department inspector general’s report finds available evidence does not show the general had violated any applicable legal or ethics standards. 

The report also concludes not all events happened as reported by the magazine.

An interesting element, however, is why it took 10 months to announce results of the probe.

Rolling Stone, founded in San Francisco in 1967, says it stands by the article, terming it “accurate in every detail.”

On April 12, four days after the inspector general’s report was finished --- but before findings were made public --- the White House selected McChrystal to head a new advisory board to support military families.

 

U.S. readies order to buy 21 helicopters --- from Russians

Amid loud cries to create more U.S. jobs, Grumpy Editor finds there has been scant media coverage of last Friday’s news that the U.S. Army plans to award a “sole source” contract to a Russian firm for 21 Mi-17 Russian-produced helicopters to be used by Afghan military forces.

The order is slated through Russia’s state arms trader Rosoboronexport which, until last year, was under sanctions that prohibited the U.S. government from dealing with it following its transactions with Iran.

Left out are helicopter manufacturers in the U.S., including Boeing Co., Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Robinson Helicopter Co.

The Russian firm’s sanctions were lifted last year as part of a White House push “to patch up relations with the Kremlin,” mentions The Wall Street Journal, which ran a story on the helicopter deal Friday.

The basic Mi-17, with a crew of three, is used for military, police and civilian purposes.  In military use, it can carry up to 30 troops.

The latest action follows eyebrow raising by six members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation five months ago in writing to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on a U.S. Navy decision to purchase a similar quantity --- 21 --- of Russian-made helicopters, also for Afghan’s military.

They wrote:  “Particularly in light of the great commitment the United States is making to Afghanistan, rather than procuring Russian helicopters with unclear reliability and cost, we believe it is only prudent to consider proposals from U.S. manufacturers, employing American workers, with a history of providing the Defense Department with the best equipment at the best value to the U.S. taxpayer."

 

Restrictive rules hamper U.S. troops in Afghanistan

Restrictive rules of engagement are making things difficult for U.S. Army troops and Marines in Afghanistan --- resulting in a solid blow to morale --- and not much is being reported about that in media, finds Grumpy Editor.

Being handcuffed by restrictive procedures makes it difficult to grab a foothold and gain ground in a combat area.

If such strict regulations in combat with bad guys existed in the 1941-1945 period, the U.S. would still be involved in World War II, with no end in sight.

One wonders what is going on at the Pentagon.

So it was interesting to note the observations and quotes from U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan contained in a Washington Examiner article yesterday, written by Sara A. Carter, the newspaper’s national security correspondent.

With a Kandahar, Afghanistan, dateline, Carter gathered morale-jarring quotes from the frustrated troops.

Keep in mind, enemy combatants wear no uniforms or dog tags in that strange war zone.  They hold no rank like corporal, sergeant or captain and bear no serial numbers. 

Their garb blends in with what civilians wear.

But the enemy carries weapons, fires mortars, plants bombs and maims or kills U.S. personnel.

Among quotes Carter obtained from U.S. troops in the area:

•  "If they (the enemy) use rockets to hit the (forward operating base) we can't shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village.  If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can't shoot back.”

•  “We have to take down our (watch) towers because it offends them and now the Taliban can set up mortars and we can't see them.”  (Watch towers surrounding the base were going to be dismantled because Afghan village elders, some sympathetic to the Taliban, complained they were invading their village privacy, explained Carter.)

•  "I'm sick of people trying to cover up what's really going on over here.  They won't let us do our job.  I don't care if they try to kick me out for what I'm saying --- war is war and this is no war.  I don't know what this is."

•  "Everyone dies for their own reasons but it's sad to think that our friends, the troops, have given their lives for something we're not going to see through."

Questions raised on Army leaker of classified reports

What’s interesting about the Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified material, including more than 76,900 secret Afghanistan war records, to the WikiLeaks Web site is how this could be carried out by a private first class for so long without being observed, notes Grumpy Editor.

The alleged leaker, Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, of Crescent, Okla., marks three years in the Army in October.

He is being held in the brig at Quantico, Va.

Apparently no print or broadcast reporter has inquired how a 22-year-old enlisted man got the sensitive position working in intelligence operations in Baghdad when, according to a news report, his jobs prior to joining the Army in October, 2007, included working at a pizza parlor and a guitar store.

Army enlistees’ civilian work is considered in assigning them to specialized positions in the military.  Civilian truck drivers become Army truck drivers, civilian cooks become Army cooks, etc.

That doesn’t always work out, of course, and it isn’t unusual for a civilian commercial photographer to wind up as an Army cook or a civilian newspaper reporter to be placed as an Army medic.

Perhaps with the guitar store work background, someone matched that job with specialization in military intelligence with access to secret files.

And continuing to hold a private first class rank (that’s one stripe on sleeves) in a highly specialized and sensitive position also should raise eyebrows.