Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty to 15 Months
On Wednesday the Pentagon announced that it would be extending tours of duty for soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from 12 months to 15 months. Longer tours of duty will reduce demand for more manpower, keep experienced personnel in the field longer, and reduce the need to use national guard and reserve forces, all of which should lead to higher levels of effectiveness. Although the reaction among the troops, who have been prepared for this move for some time, has been relatively positive, concerns have been raised that this will put more stress on families and businesses.
Immediate objections were raised by prominent Democrats, dismayed to see another ratcheting up of the war effort in the face of their efforts to promote a withdrawal from Iraq. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented, ''Extending the tours of all active-duty Army personnel is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay." The new deployment plan addresses this by guaranteeing soldiers a year at home before they are redeployed and providing a $1000 a month bonus for any soldier deployed longer than 12 months. During the Vietnam War, tours of duty were a minimum of 18 months for soldiers who were draftees rather than volunteers. A three month increase in the length of tours of duty effectively provides the military with more than 100,000 additional deployable troops.
Fox News, WTOC, Associated Press
Al Qaeda Trainee Arrested in Ohio
On Thursday a 43 year old Ohio man was indicted on charges of supporting and assisting terrorists in planning attacks in the United States and Germany. Christopher Paul is a US citizen who allegedly travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to train with al Qaeda and was in contact with al Qaeda organizers and involved in training potential terrorists in various parts of the world during an 18 year career in terrorism beginning in the 1990s during which he was sometimes also known as Abdul Malek. Paul was the former roomate of confessed terrorist Lyman Faris who was involved in a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge in 2003. Paul was found in possession of manuals on explosives and equipment used to forge documents so that potential terrorists could enter the United States, and most curiously a faxed list of the names and phone numbers of "key al-Qaeda leaders." Paul's indictment is on three counts related to plans to make attacks on tourist destinations in the United States and Europe.
Article comments
1 - Lumpy
I see Nifong as the definition of everything which is wrong with the democratic party and to a lesser extent with politics in general.
He wanted to be reelected, but rather than running on his record and real issues he leapt on an opportunity to stir up racial resentment and ride it like a wave into office. Never mind that he had to manipulate and overlook the facts of the case and ended up having to drop it as he should have montha earlier. It got him the votes to keep his office and that's all he really cared about. Screw his job and the innocent victims and the needs of the public. He got his.
2 - G. Oren
The Duke case is another instance of the liberal thought police riding roughshod over the truth. Wanting to believe the worst about supposedly privileged white college boys - Lacrosse players no less - Nifong and the press had those kids strung up without objectively examining the facts.
We seem to be living in age when sentiment overides any pretense to searching for the truth. That goes for the loopy-left and for many "conservatives" as well.
3 - Dave Nalle
As I mentioned in the article, the case also brought out the absolute worst in academia. Those 81 professors who signed the letter condemning the boys as 'rapists' ought to be booted out of their tenured chairs and be sitting on their asses in the unemployment line. Hell, I know a lot of good, qualified people with graduate degrees who are working in other fields and would love to have a shot at a job at UNC - and they'd respect the students and their rights.
Dave
4 - MBD
Anything less than jail time for Nifong is a travesty of justice.
5 - Clavos
Advocating his incarceration before he's even indicted, and tried, not to mention convicted, is advocating a much greater travesty of justice.
6 - Dave Nalle
Well, a roughly equivalent travesty of justice. But not the right solution. Nifong shouldn't be incarcerated. He ought to be disbarred and impeached and then have his ass sued off.
dave
7 - Clavos
Agreed. The parents of thosse boys should take him personally, and the state (for the deep pockets) for everything they can.
And he definitely should be brought up before the bar.
8 - MBD
Nifong was doing his best to send three innocent men to jail for years. For that he should get jail time. He was a prosecutor who abused the power of the state for personal gain. That's criminal.
And criminals should go to jail.
9 - G. Oren
Dave #3:
You are right about those professors. The sentimentality I spoke of above is heavily evident in academia. The posing and posturing of left-leaning profs. Its a shame that so many in Universities - where tolerance and the search for truth should abound - are the first to rely on their own prejudice and sentimentality.
10 - Dave Nalle
I had to experience it first hand, GO. I spent too many years in academia trying to fly under the radar and keep my political inclinations secret from my supervisors and even colleagues through grad school and then when I was teaching. Ironically in grad school one of the people I got along with best was an open-minded and very politically active socialist prof (he was the faculty adviser for the student wing of the PLO) who is sadly no longer with us, but too many of the rest of the faculty were rigid, doctrinaire marxists whose goal was to turn out another generation of professors just like them.
Dave
11 - MBD
Innocent until proven guilty?
Only when it's politically correct.
12 - RJ
"We seem to be living in age when sentiment overrides any pretense to searching for the truth."
The paraphrase a wise man:
The 18th Century was the century of the Enlightenment; the 19th Century was the century of Empiricism; the 20th (and 21st?) Century is the century of Emotionalism.
13 - RJ
Prosecutors almost NEVER get jail time for abuse of their prosecutorial power.
Just sayin'...
14 - Kate
Those who have commented seem to underestimate the ability of these men to lie about what actually happenned that night. While they may not have raped the woman, she was apparently abused in some fashion and they did hire her as a stripper in their "house." Is anyone actually interested in what they DID do, since they apparently did not rape her (or will not be proven to have?)
15 - RJ
Kate:
Give it up. The three innocent young men have all been saying the same thing for a year now. Meanwhile, the pseudo-victim has changed her "story" countless times. She also has a history of making these kinds of apparently baseless accusations. There is no DNA evidence to support her wild claims. And the other stripper refutes many of her claims. She has absolutely zero credibility. And neither does Nifong.
16 - Dave Nalle
Let's get something straight here. Strippers do college parties ALL the time. The stripping is quite frequently accompanied by willing, paid sex. This is likely a case where the stripper didn't like the 'tip' at the end of the night and decided to make trouble.
Dave
17 - J.J. Hunsecker
Kate, you seem to underestimate the ability of the young woman to lie about what actually happened that night. She not only did a disservice to those men, but to future women who do get raped as their story might not be taken seriously.
18 - RJ
Good points, Dave.
Many strippers are, literally, whores. And oftentimes, they are cocaine and alcohol abusing whores. I don't know if this particular stripper was a whore, or if she was a substance abuser, but what everybody now does know is that she's a liar. A liar who tried to destroy the lives of three innocent young men.
I don't know what her own personal motivation for this horrible travesty of justice was, but a lousy "tip" or a few sarcastic comments might have been all it took to set her off. Perhaps the world will never know...
19 - RJ
"Kate, you seem to underestimate the ability of the young woman to lie about what actually happened that night. She not only did a disservice to those men, but to future women who do get raped as their story might not be taken seriously."
BINGO!
Rape is a despicable crime, and it deserves severe punishment. But women are often afraid of coming forward because they fear they might not be believed. What this vile "exotic dancer" has done is to make it even more difficult for legitimate rape victims to come forward.
For the rest of her life, she needs to remember the harm she has done. And not just to the three young men, but to true rape victims across the country.
20 - STM
"And he definitely should be brought up before the bar"
As long as he buys a few rounds ...