Check out this article on how Bush has fared as Commander-in-Chief.. It takes decades to develop new weapons systems and doctrines, and it takes years to train each professional soldier. Now the US military, in particular the army, is stretched thin, maybe too thin.
The stress of war has hit all the services, but none harder than the Army. The crucial shortfall is not in money or machines, but in manpower. Of the Army's 500,000 soldiers, almost 140,000 are in Iraq, and they are supported by another 30,000-plus in Kuwait -- on top of continuing Cold War commitments to Germany and South Korea, and to Clinton-era peacekeeping in the Balkans. The Web site maintained by GlobalSecurity.org called "Where are the Legions?" counts 15 of the Army's 34 active-duty combat units (brigades and regiments) as currently deployed. That means that nearly as many units are abroad as at home, when historical experience shows that a long-term commitment, as with the British in Northern Ireland, requires three or four units recuperating and training for each one deployed.
If the war in Iraq continues, and it is not really an obvious end in sight even as sovereignity is being transfered, this tear and wear will have long term consequences, militarily and economically.
A related article from OxBlog shows that relying more on American's allies in Europe is futile. Nato countries (apart from the British, and they are as stretched as the US if not more) have neither the military muscle nor the political will to contribute anything to large scale warfare.
An interesting short history of the Secular Society of Britain in the 19th century, mostly concentrating on the legal battles it had to fight, the number of officials imprisoned for blasphemy, and how atheists were prevented from taking seat in Parliament even when elected.
Nader accuses the fat guy of abandoning principles, friends
Ralph Nader writes a scathing, or bitter, depending on your perception, open letter to Michael Moore. He accuses the filmmaker of having sold out to the two-party system.
Now there is Michael Moore the Second. Last night he hosted the Washington, DC premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11, and who was there? The Democratic political establishment, the same people whom he took to such mocking task on the road with us in campaign rally after campaign rally in 2000. Who was not there? His old buddies! Not personally invited, not personally hung out with.
Nader also gets personal, mocking Moore's weight:
Your old friends remain committed to blazing paths for a just society and world. As they helped you years ago, they can help you now. They are also trim and take care of themselves. Girth they avoid. The more you let them see you, the less they will see of you. That could be their greatest gift to Moore the Second—the gift of health.
There is more money in being a hired goon (sic) for the democrats, Nader. You were useful to Michael Moore while it lasted.
The Church of Scientology, the late L. Ron Hubbard's nasty sect of scifi quackery, is now being probed by the city of Los Angeles for its controversial anti-drug programme. Known as Narconon, the detox therapy unit of the church is considered useless and even dangerous by experts, and alleged "documentation" for its efficiency has been exposed as fraudulent.
Teachers are now warned against the quack methods, which includes saunas to help drug users 'sweat out' the drug addiction. Like everything else the extreme sect does, the objective of this programme is to recruit new converts and raise money, in this case by exploiting drug addicts and alcoholics.
