Clipmarks | ruralart's 'military' clips

Faces of the Dead

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:38:48 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Interactive NY Times site featuring each US soldier killed to date. I could not get it to clip anything except the headline.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Casualties of War

Tags: iraq, war, army, military, soldiers

Photographs of War... or Not?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:46:47 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: What a complicated issue.... I can see the military wanting to preserve security and honor the memory of their dead; I can see families not wanting to be traumatized by photos of their loved ones; but I think about all we are still learning from photographs of WWI and WWII... and if there are no photos of the Iraq war, where will that leave historians of the future? Most of the WWI and WWII photographs were taken by military photographers assigned to document the actions. I wonder if there are still military photographers documenting todays "wars"?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images

BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.

If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.

It is a complex issue, with competing claims often difficult to weigh in an age of instant communication around the globe via the Internet, in which such images can add to the immediate grief of families and the anger of comrades still in the field.

Tags: war, iraq, military, death, photography

Shoddy work endangering soldiers in Iraq

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:31:42 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Electrical Risks at Bases in Iraq Worse Than Previously Said

Ten buildings were destroyed late last month at a Marine base near Falluja, Iraq, after an electrical fire broke out.

WASHINGTON — Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military’s largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.

Pakistan marble helps Taliban stay in business

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:26:46 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

ZIARAT, Pakistan — The mountain of white marble shines with such brilliance in the sun it looks like snow. For four years, the quarry beneath it lay dormant, its riches captive to tribal squabbles and government ineptitude in this corner of Pakistan’s tribal areas.

in April, the Taliban appeared and imposed a firm hand. They settled the feud between the tribes, demanded a fat fee up front and a tax on every truck that ferried the treasure from the quarry

The takeover of the Ziarat marble quarry, a coveted national asset, is one of the boldest examples of how the Taliban have made Pakistan’s tribal areas far more than a base for training camps or a launching pad for sending fighters into Afghanistan.

as the Pakistani military has pulled back under a series of peace deals, the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach through more of the rugged territory in northern Pakistan

also levy taxes, smuggle drugs and other contraband, and impose their own brand of rough justice,

Dynamic shift in ideology of professors nationally

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:14:12 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Interesting - wonder what this will do to they type of academic discussions held at college campuses?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

MADISON, Wis. — When Michael Olneck was standing, arms linked with other protesters, singing “We Shall Not Be Moved” in front of Columbia University’s library in 1968, Sara Goldrick-Rab had not yet been born.

Together, these Midwestern academics, one leaving the professoriate and another working her way up, are part of a vast generational change that is likely to profoundly alter the culture at American universities and colleges over the next decade.

Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who many of the nearly 50 academics interviewed by The New York Times believe are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate.

At Amherst, where military recruiters were kicked out in 1987, students crammed into a lecture hall this year to listen as alumni who served in Iraq urged them to join the military.

Tuskeegee Airmen to be subject of George Lucas film

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:27:05 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is long past due - great to see! And I did not know that they trained in Walterboro, SC.

Clip Source: www.thestate.com

CHARLESTON — Edward Gibson had just received his wings in the early 1940s when he returned to his hometown of Charleston on leave and ended up in a military police lock-up.

Gibson’s crime was that none of the military police had seen a black man dressed as he was: an aviation cadet and part of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of black fighter pilots allowed into the U.S. Army Air Corps.

“They said I was impersonating something; they didn’t know what it was,” Gibson said recently.

Gibson, 86, and Earl Adams, 87, a Tuskegee Airman in North Myrtle Beach, said they hope to see the group’s achievements abroad and how they were treated at home portrayed as realistically as possible.

Gibson and Adams spent time training in both Tuskegee, Ala., the home of the first “experiments” to see if blacks could fly airplanes, and Walterboro, which also was a site where hundreds of airmen were trained, but it doesn’t get the same recognition.

Tags: tuskeegee, wwii, aviation, military, pilots, bombers, race

The Last WW I Doughboy

Mon, 26 May 2008 13:25:00 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: What a story, what a life!

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and that 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.

The eyes of the last doughboy are still sharp enough for him to be a keen reader, and his voice is still deep and strong at age 107. He must have been a fine broth of a boy when, at 16, persistence paid off and he found, in Oklahoma City, an Army recruiter who believed, or pretended to, the fibs he had unavailingly told to Marine and Navy recruiters in Kansas about being 18.

Widowed in 1999, this man who was born during the administration of the 25th president recently voted in West Virginia's primary to select a candidate to be the 44th.

He has lived through 46 percent of the nation's life

Tags: military, veteran, doughboy, ww i

new prosthetic arm for soldiers

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:20:14 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: I could not get the very inspiring video to clip, but you can see it at http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/82

Clip Source: www.ted.com

Talks Dean Kamen: New prosthetic arm for veterans

Inventor Dean Kamen previews the extraordinary prosthetic arm he's developing at the request of the Department of Defense, to help the 1,600 "kids" who've come back from Iraq without an arm (and the two dozen who've lost both arms). Kamen's commitment to using technology to solve problems, and his respect for the human spirit, have never been more clear than in this deeply moving clip.

Dean Kamen landed in the limelight with the Segway, but he has been innovating since high school, with... Read full bio »

Tags: medicine, military, wounded, soldier, amputee, engineering

Afghanistan - SC troops back medal for Brit troops

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:58:30 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: The camaraderie between the US SC 218th and the British troops is wonderful.

Clip Source: thestatecom.typepad.com

Soldiers of the South Carolina's 218th Brigade Combat Team have lent their support to a London paper's campaign to honor British troops.
As hard as it may seem to be believe, the British military doesn't award a medal to personnel who've been wounded or killed in enemy action.
The Purple Heart, awarded to U.S. personnel, was instituted by the first general of the Army -- George Washington.
The Daily Mirror has taken up the cause to see that British troops receive a similar honor.

Sgt Brian Craft, Colonel Ed Kornish, Sgt Major Andrew Bolt and Major Bill Connor agree that the American Purple Heart medal awarded to US soldiers killed or wounded in action is seen as vital to troop morale and the families of those who die. Sgt Craft, 30, summed up their feelings by saying: "No American soldier out here can believe you guys don't already have a similar medal."

Tags: afghanistan, military, medal, soldier, war, troops, sc, british

Vietnam Hoaxes caused America to bomb its own troops

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:12:37 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is pretty upsetting....

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Report Reveals Vietnam War Hoaxes, Faked Attacks

North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the war.The report was released by the National Security Agency, responsible for much of the United States’ codebreaking and eavesdropping work, in response to a “mandatory declassification” request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said Monday.

On several occasions “the communists were able, by communicating on Allied radio nets, to call in Allied artillery or air strikes on American units,” it said.

But he said that probably the “most historically significant feature” of the declassified report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.

That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson’s sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam.

Post Bhutto future in PakistanBet

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:52:55 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Whatever you think of Bhutto, her death will not help Pakistan move forward. Sad.

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

Bhutto's End Could Mean Musharraf's As Well

Pervez Musharraf

n stepping down as head of the military, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf bet his future on gaining political legitimacy. Following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the chances of that occurring have diminished sharply.

In a nation marked by personality-centric politics, Bhutto’s violent demise Thursday has led opposition leaders to declare that holding parliamentary and provincial elections as scheduled on Jan. 8 would be a farce. Bhutto's longtime rival, the ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has vowed to boycott them.

The military itself is taking a public battering, with speculation high that it may have been involved in Bhutto's killing, perhaps through intentionally lax security.

If Pakistan holds elections on schedule, Sharif will boycott them and Bhutto’s party will be rudderless. Then the pro-Musharraf party [Pakistan Muslim League—Quaid-e-Azam] is likely to win,

Air Force Academy cadets pressured on religion

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:59:52 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Evangelist Video Shot at Air Force Academy Exposed

A video made by a Christian ministry group shows Air Force Academy cadets being pressured to become “government paid missionaries when they leave” the academy, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which released the video this week.

MRFF president Mikey Weinstein says the video is unconstitutional and an outrage.

“This is absolutely out of control. You cannot engage the U.S. government to propel your religion,” said Weinstein.
The video features former Academy Campus Crusade for Christ director Scot Blum saying, “They’re government paid missionaries when they leave here,” referring to graduates of the academy.

Watch the Campus Crusade for Christ video here.

Weinstein, whose organization has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense for violating service members’ right to religious freedom, said the video is one item on a “long menu” of unconstitutional evangelism going on in the military.

Camouflage - it works!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:13:02 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photos, interesting history of the study of camouflage in animals, and how this translated into the development of military camouflage.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Hiding in Plain Sight

A veteran photographer shows the extraordinary knack that some animals have for...disappearing

in a new book, Vanishing Act, he defies conventions to show what he calls "animals' incredible ability to vanish in plain sight."

Ever since people thousands of years ago noted the uncanny trickery of animal camouflage, nature watchers have taken pains to understand it. Some animals’ color matches their favored habitat:

vivid splotches or stripes help protect animals such as zebras and giraffes.

Military camouflage, first introduced in World War I, was inspired by research on animal camouflage.)

Mimicry is the shrewdest disguise.

Some camouflage works in concert with particular behaviors.

The modern study of camouflage began shortly after Charles Darwin proposed, in 1858, that new species arise through evolution by natural selection.

Tags: camouflage, nature, war, photography