666cast episode 49: ugly (behaving) citizens, celebrities and soldiers, cowardice vs bravery and MORE!

In this week’s episode: ugly people doing ugly things, on Twitter, YouTube and representing America abroad (lovely).  PLUS: why bravery is better that cowardice (I *think* I made my point—not sure now…)  Listen and let me know what you think!  Thanks!

666cast episode 49 is hosted at Archive.org.

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#WTFObama: #DontBelieveTheHype: US Mil "withdrawal" from Iraq just a rebranding--56k will stay.

US Withdraws Last Combat Brigade from Iraq, But 56,000 Troops Remain

The US has officially withdrawn its last designated combat brigade from Iraq, two weeks ahead of a deadline for the withdrawal of some 14,000 troops. In a surprise announcement, the Pentagon said the last combat brigade crossed over into Kuwait earlier today. Although the withdrawal has been hailed as a major milestone in the Iraq war and an end to combat operations, most of the remaining 56,000 US troops are still trained in combat and will continue to carry out armed attacks. The Obama administration also plans to double its private military force in Iraq to an estimated 7,000 contractors. According to the New York Times, the bulk of the private military force will be deployed at five compounds across Iraq, where they’ll perform duties including operating drones, deploying reaction forces and operating radars to detect militant attacks. In an interview on Democracy Now! earlier this month, independent journalist Jeremy Scahill said the Obama administration’s withdrawal plan amounts to a rebranded occupation.

Jeremy Scahill: “What is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces. The State Department is asking for MRAP vehicles, armored vehicles, for Black Hawk helicopters and for these paramilitary forces. So, yes, you can say that officially combat has ended, but in reality you’re continuing it through the back door by bringing in these paramilitary forces and classifying them as diplomatic security, which was Bush’s game from the very beginning.”

via democracynow.org

Sadly, this is what I was expecting.  I’m sure anyone paying attention isn’t surprised by the fact that we’re leaving a huge stack of troops behind.  What’s next from the O-man? A giant “Mission Accomplished” banner and an aircraft-carrier-based photo-op?

More On the Status of Posse Comitatus in the US

I've blogged on US Army troops serving on American soil before (here: http://thepete.com/…-inside-us and here: http://thepete.com/…de-the-us/ ) and on Tuesday of this week (here: http://www.democracynow.org/…it_will_be ) Democracy Now covered the topic as well. They had a mini-debate on the topic of the Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Team serving under US Army North, which, Amy Goodman explained, is "the Army service component of Northern Command". She had on Army Col. Michael Boatner, future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM, and Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine to discuss the issue.

The transcript does make for good reading and, to be fair, Boatner does assuage some fears about a unit of active duty soldiers functioning on American soil. However, what the debate doesn't discuss is the slippery slope argument. There's another phrase that can describe the danger more accurately: Mission Creep.

This is when your mission is to achieve one goal, but along the way you see something else you can do so you just do it, rather than getting permission or get any other feedback about it. This is fine if you're doing chores around the house, but when you're a soldier trained to kill insurgents (and have just came back from doing exactly that) I don't think even an inch of mission creep is acceptable.

In the Democracy Now segment, Boatner assured us that soldiers wouldn't be bringing their "heavy weapons and combat vehicles" with them on this domestic service but that "They would bring their individual weapons, which is the standard policy for deployments in the homeland."

Now, think about this--do you really want to have some guy with an M-16 patrolling the streets during a disaster? What if he makes a single mistake and mis-identifies someone as a threat who really isn't one? During Katrina I remember members of the press identifying black people wading through flood waters with garbage bags in their hands as looters. Meanwhile, white people wading through the water with suitcases were identified as refugees.

Any human is capable of this kind of mistake. What makes this mistake even more dangerous is when someone trained to defend themselves with a gun makes it.

US Army Troops Have Begun Serving Inside US

So, while we're all watching the stock market's ride to hell, we may be missing another important story.

Back on September 23, 2008, I posted (here: http://thepete.com/…de-the-us/ ) about how Democracy Now was reporting that US military troops would begin training for domestic duty here, inside the US on October 1. This, in theory, violates the Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the use of the military as any type of law enforcement. From the Wikipedia article on the PCA (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/…itatus_Act ): "The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act."

Yet, the following comes from the CNN.com article (original here: http://www.cnn.com/…index.html ) I screencapped above:

They will be based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, and focus primarily on logistics and support for local police and rescue personnel, the Army says.

Huh, so guys who have been trained to fire automatic weapons at enemies are now going to provide "logistics and support" for police and local rescue? Seems like the police should just hire more people for that--that is unless the soldiers will be doing more than just providing support.

It's a little bit like hiring a professional sniper to shut your kid up during dinner. Obviously inappropriate overkill.

But there's more from the CNN article of interest:

The plan is drawing skepticism from some observers who are concerned that the unit has been training with equipment generally used in law enforcement, including beanbag bullets, Tasers, spike strips and roadblocks.

That sounds suspiciously like law enforcement duties...

And more from the article:

That kind of training seems a bit out of line for the unit's designated role as Northern Command's CCMRF (Sea Smurf), or CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force. CBRNE stands for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive incidents.

Isn't that adorable? They're trained to deal with chemical. biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive incidents and they're called "Sea Smurf"!

Hrm... that sounds way worse than just Army soldiers trained to kill supporting cops. If they've been previously trained to deal with all that heavy crap, it means they're *paranoid* Army soldiers trained to kill.

Do I even need to say how not cool that is?

Funny how this is happening right on top of a huge economic crisis. Is the USG expecting other things to go wrong, too?

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