Mediaboss Marketing

Readers sent these letters to the editor for the July 3 issue of Army Times. Have thoughts you'd like to share on Army Times stories or letters? Send them to armylet@armytimes.com. Include your name, address, phone number and rank. Submissions may be published in print and online. A worthy dress uniform

I've been reading the service and dress uniform debate since 2001. While I'm not in favor of issuing pinks and greens uniforms to the whole Army or even making it optional, I have no problem with Pentagon staff being issued them.

Soldiers today only need a dress blue uniform (Army Service Uniform) for ceremonies and military balls. I would love a change with our current blues.

Many Soldiers are starting to catch on with another uniform that few know of. Soldiers I have shown this uniform love it. I think it would be an improvement over the current blue uniform. It's the Army 1902 Model Blue Uniform (enlisted version).

Could you please bring this uniform into the debate. It would be nice for Soldiers to know there weresharp-looking uniforms before World War II as well.

David Craft Arlington, Ohio

Screening officers for cognitive ability

A problem plaguing part of the Officer Corps in todays military is the low cognitive ability of some officers. There is no doubt that in order to be a successful leader in the military, you need to be an above average individual. This includes possessing an above-average cognitive ability to effectively solve the complex problems the military faces today.

In order to commission as an officer, there are many physical requirements an individual must pass, including a medical examination, and a physical fitness test. The military also requires that an individual be a college graduate. The military accepts that an individual who possesses a college degree also possesses a high degree of cognitive ability, and this is a mistake!

An individual who has a college degree does not necessarily possess the cognitive ability to be a successful officer.

There is a significant difference in academic rigor among todays colleges and universities. The academic challenge that a person faces at a service academy or an Ivy League school is much different than at less prestigious community colleges and state schools. The military, however, does not address this difference and values both degrees as equal when it comes to meeting the requirements to commission.

I am not arguing that individuals who attend community college, or smaller state schools are not capable of serving as officers in the military, I am arguing that because these individuals did not face the same academic challenges as their peers, that it is possible that they do not possess the cognitive ability to perform the job of an officer.

We need to administer a test that measures the cognitive ability of every officer entering the military. We already screen enlistees who are entering the military with the ASVAB, so why do we not do this with our officers? If we continue to associate a college degree with cognitive ability, we will continue to fail the enlisted ranks, as well as the country, by putting individuals in leadership positions that do not possess the tools necessary to succeed.

Capt. Robert Welch Fort Hood, Texas

Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, demonstrate squad movements and room clearance procedures to Iraqi army soldiers with the 75th Brigade, 16th Division, at Besmaya Range Complex, Iraq, April 8, 2015. The demonstration was part of training led by coalition forces under Operation Inherent Resolve to aid the Iraqi army in its fight against the ISIS. Photo Credit: Sgt. Deja Borden/Army Iraq at crossroads

The liberation of Mosul and the wider Ninevah province from the Islamic State group and its brutal Salafist jihadi doctrine is the subject of many Iraqi conversations. To capitalize on the lessons learned from the bloody three-year battle, Iraqis must take stock of the political process.

Liberation is not a solution in itself and fundamental questions need to be asked: Do Iraqis want a united or divided country? What is better, a federal system or a confederation? Should there be a state dominated by the center or decentralized provinces with new and broad powers?

Was ISIS occupation of large swaths of Iraqi territory a sufficient warning of the fragility of the countrys political system, governance and social cohesion? Or do Iraqis (God forbid) need another horrific wake up call that will lead to the end of Iraq as we know it?

Have Iraqi parties failed to learn from the lessons of the crisis? Different factions have used the state to service their own narrow interests, taking advantage of the chaos when Iraq faced its greatest existential crisis.

What are the doses of antibiotics required in the Iraqi body so that terrorism departs for good? This is an urgent question that all Iraqis need to answer.

We shouldnt forget that when the liberation of Mosul is complete, the eyes of the international coalition will turn west toward Syria. Iraq is not immune from what is taking place next door. The government, NGOs and the international community must create a new environment in the liberated areas for social justice and work on a new formula for co-existence.

Despite all these challenges, Iraqis have shown the rest of the world that they have the strength of character to develop the countrys social and political fabric. Once Iraq has addressed the grand questions of rule of law, governance, revenue distribution and identity, the focus must then shift to defining a new political culture in Iraq and creating a roadmap for a confederation with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the most viable formula for co-existence with the Kurds.

Decentralization has to be accelerated, corruption addressed, a population census long overdue must be conducted for countrywide planning.

It wont be easy, but these are urgent and important moves for the people and future of Iraq.

Governing Iraq after liberation will be the real acid test of Iraqi leadership. The liberation of Mosul must be the start of the nations recovery, otherwise, warlords, camouflaged by different names and fronts, will prevail.

It is important to remember that the presence of ISIS militants in Mosul created a new generation of young supporters. It is necessary to admit that a new mutation of the group will be no less evil and acts of terrorism will continue. The threat has the potential to move inside cities, as well as some areas that remain outside the states authority. Let us not allow the liberation of Mosul to be a stopgap before the next wave of extremism.

Leaders must lead, and not be led.

Lukman Faily Former Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S.

Col. Mohammad Haroon (left), Regional Military Training Center-Kandahar commander, and Maj. Gen. Abdul Hamid (front), 205th Hero Corps commander, inspect Afghan National Army soldiers at Camp Hero, Afghanistan. According to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the U.S. has wasted millions of dollars on an ill-suited woodland camouflage pattern for the Afghan army. Photo Credit: Sgt. Ashley Curtis/Army Controversial Afghan camo

Note: Hundreds of readers commented on Army Times Facebook page responding to new woodland camouflage uniforms costing American taxpayers $28 million, though the camo was chosen by an official browsing online. Heres a sample of the comments:

Some Senator or Congressman should definitely throw a fit about this needless spending! Dear President Trump I just found a way you can save $28 million and it's not by switching to Geico.

Corey L Mclinko

They want to cut benefits to veterans injured in the war, sometimes by the very people we gave the uniforms to, yet we just keep dumping money into this bottomless pit called Afghanistan!!

Larry Hearold

Hey, they Army put me in a pale blue uniform that didn't work anywhere except grandma's couch so why should they have been any more diligent or less wasteful when in came to the Afghans?

Douglas Boyle

At least somebody besides Joe is mad about that stupidity. I love how the inspector explained it. "What if they liked pink uniforms!?!?"

JR Morris

More here:
Letters: Sharp-looking uniform; screening officers for ability; Iraq at crossroads; Afghan camo - ArmyTimes.com

BEIRUT Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that a future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries including Iran and Iraq.

His comments indicated that the same array of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - but not countries - currently fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad could take part in any future conflict with Israel.

Tensions have risen between Hezbollah and its longtime foe Israel in recent months since Donald Trump became U.S. president with his tough talk against Iran. Israel's air force chief said his country would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy must know that if an Israeli war is launched against Syria or Lebanon, it is not known that the fighting will remain Lebanese-Israeli, or Syrian-Israeli," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"This doesn't mean there are states that might intervene directly. But this could open the way for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of fighters from all over the Arab and Islamic world to participate - from Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

Nasrallah has repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Shi'ite group is based, and from where it sends fighters to support Assad against insurgents.

Experts on the group say the warnings are part of a policy of deterrence that has also included revealing some of its military capabilities.

Nasrallah said in recent months Hezbollah's rocket arsenal can hit any military target in Israel, which is Lebanon's southern neighbor.

He said any Israeli war with Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, would be "very costly" and that Israel would not be able to win.

Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah commanders in air raids on Syrian soil. But there has been no major confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon since a month-long war between the two sides in 2006.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam and John Davison; Editing by Gareth Jones)

MARAWI CITY, Philippines Fighting between government forces and Islamist rebels holed up in the heart of a southern Philippine town eased on Sunday as the military sought to enforce a temporary truce to mark the Eid al-Fitr Islamic holiday.

LONDON Britain said 34 high-rise apartment blocks had failed fire safety checks carried out after the deadly Grenfell Tower blaze, including several in north London where residents were forced to evacuate amid chaotic scenes.

Here is the original post:
Hezbollah says future Israel war could draw fighters from Iran, Iraq, elsewhere - Reuters

ISIS, through its news agency, said US warplanes were responsible for the loss late Wednesday of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri and its leaning minaret. US officials told CNN the ISIS claim was "1,000% false."

Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the ISIS act amounts to "an official announcement of their defeat." His military commanders said militants blew the mosque up after troops closed in.

The destruction could amount to a war crime, according to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Such intentional destruction is an attack on the religious and cultural heritage of the Iraqi people -- and the whole world," the UN said Friday. "International humanitarian law clearly prohibits such acts, and perpetrators who target these objects while being aware of their religious and historical character may be held accountable for war crimes."

It's difficult to overstate the symbolic importance of the Old City mosque, whose landmark minaret rose over the city for more than 800 years.

Baghdadi's declaration effectively broke down borders between Syria and Iraq, creating a magnet for foreign fighters wanting to join ISIS' cause. For years, the militant group's black and white flag fluttered from the minaret, a symbol of ISIS' control.

But in recent months western Mosul has witnessed fierce fighting between ISIS militants and coalition forces who are determined to liberate what was the country's second-largest city.

The Islamic complex has been very much on the mind of the Iraqi forces, who believed taking control of the mosque would be a highly symbolic victory. Federal police earlier this year said they looked forward to praying in al-Nuri -- but the resistance continued.

Now the centuries-old mosque complex lies largely in ruins.

Several US officials have told CNN in recent days that US and coalition officials had been observing the mosque in recent days and saw fighters and explosives at the site. The Iraqi military said "ISIS terrorist gangs" blew up the mosque as Iraqi forces were approaching.

The UN children's agency, Unicef, said Thursday that children in west Mosul "are being deliberately targeted and killed to punish families and deter them from fleeing the violence." In less than two months, at least 23 children have been killed and 123 injured in just that part of the city, it said.

About 100,000 civilians remain in the complex battlefield.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of Iraqi counterterrorism, said Wednesday that he was shocked by the destruction of the mosque but it was not the first time ISIS had targeted Iraq's cultural heritage.

"ISIS had prepared to blow it up, they were only waiting to see how far our forces can reach," he said. "We are no more going to drive them out of the Old City, we are going to kill all of them in the coming days."

American military officials deplored the destruction of the mosque.

"As our Iraqi Security Force partners closed in on the al-Nuri mosque, ISIS destroyed one of Mosul and Iraq's great treasures," said US Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top US commander in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said: "I was just in Mosul Wednesday afternoon and close enough to see the mosque and its famous leaning minaret. Little did I know it was for the last time. This is just another example that ISIS is a cruel, heartless and godless ideology that cannot be permitted to exist in this world."

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, said Thursday that ISIS fighters' destruction of the mosque was a "barbaric act" which "shows their desperation and signals their end."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Director-General, Irina Bokova, tweeted that the loss of the mosque was "a cultural (and) human tragedy," adding: "We must protect heritage to protect people."

Bokova also issued a statement deploring the destruction of the ancient structure. "The Al Hadba Minaret and Al Nuree Mosque in Mosul were among the most iconic sites in the city, and stood as a symbol of identity, resilience and belonging.

"When Daesh targeted the mosque and minaret a few month ago, the people of Mosul formed a human chain to protect the site, proving once again that the protection of heritage cannot be delinked from the protection of human lives," she said.

"This new destruction deepens the wounds of a society already affected by an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy, with 3 million internally displaced persons and 6,2 million in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. This calls for immediate and strengthened international mobilization."

Fighters also destroyed Iraq's ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in March 2015.

Earlier that year, militants shoved stone statues off pedestals in the Mosul Museum and took sledgehammers to them and other artifacts. In July 2014, extremists in Mosul also destroyed what was believed to be the tomb of Jonah, a key figure in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in 2015 that it had received reports the ancient Assyrian capital of Khorsabad had been destroyed.

CNN's Arwa Damon, Ryan Browne, Nick Paton Walsh, Paul LeBlanc, Jennifer Deaton and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.

See more here:
US, Iraq say ISIS blew up famous Mosul mosque - CNN.com

WASHINGTON In a highly unusual intervention, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to remove Iraq and Myanmar from a U.S. list of the world's worst offenders in the use of child soldiers, disregarding the recommendations of State Department experts and senior U.S. diplomats, U.S. officials said.

The decision, confirmed by three U.S. officials, would break with longstanding protocol at the State Department over how to identify offending countries and could prompt accusations the Trump administration is prioritizing security and diplomatic interests ahead of human rights.

Tillerson overruled his own staffs assessments on the use of child soldiers in both countries and rejected the recommendation of senior diplomats in Asia and the Middle East who wanted to keep Iraq and Myanmar on the list, said the officials, who have knowledge of the internal deliberations.

Tillerson also rejected an internal State Department proposal to add Afghanistan to the list, the three U.S. officials said.

One official said the decisions appeared to have been made following pressure from the Pentagon to avoid complicating assistance to the Iraqi and Afghan militaries, close U.S. allies in the fight against Islamist militants. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Foreign militaries on the list can face sanctions including a prohibition on receiving U.S. military aid, training and U.S.-made weapons unless the White House issues a waiver.

Human rights officials expressed surprise at the delisting, which was expected to be announced on Tuesday, the officials said, as part of the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

A State Department official said the TIP report's contents were being kept under wraps until its release and the department "does not discuss details of internal deliberations."

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, the U.S. government must be satisfied that "no children are recruited, conscripted or otherwise compelled to serve as child soldiers" in order for a country to be removed from the list and U.S. military assistance to resume.

In the lead-up to Tuesday's report, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which researches the issue and helps shape U.S. policy on it, along with its legal office and diplomatic bureaus in Asia and the Middle East concluded that the evidence merited keeping both countries on the list, the officials said.

Officials said that although the report had been finalized there was always the possibility of last-minute changes.

BETRAYING CHILDREN

Human Rights Watch said removing Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, from the list would be a "completely premature and disastrous action that will effectively betray more children to continued servitude and rights abuses."

The decision also would put the Trump administration at odds with the United Nations, which continues to list the Myanmar military, along with seven ethnic armed groups, on its list of entities using and recruiting child soldiers.

"What's particularly astonishing is this move ignores that the U.N. in Burma says that it is still receiving new cases of children being recruited" by the Myanmar military, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Rights groups have long accused Myanmar of using child soldiers. Bordering both China and India, Myanmar is also of growing strategic importance to the United States at a time of increasing encroachment in the region by China, which has sought closer relations with its neighbor.

Iraq, which has received more than $2 billion in U.S. arms and training over the last three years, was added to the State Departments "Child Soldier Prevention Act List"in 2016. However, the flow of U.S. assistance has continued.

Former President Barack Obama handed out full or partial waivers regularly, including last year to Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan and others out of 10 countries on the list.

Last year's State Department report said some militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shi'ite Muslim factions with ties to the Iraqi government and backed by Iran, "recruited and used child soldiers."

The report said that despite the PMF being funded by the government, Baghdad struggled to control all of its factions.

"The government did not hold anyone accountable for child recruitment and use by the PMF and PMF-affiliated militias."

Human Rights Watch said in January that it had learned that militias had been recruiting child soldiers from one Iraqi refugee camp since last spring.

The broader TIP report, the first of Trump's presidency, is sure to be closely scrutinized for further signs that under his "America First" approach there will be little pressure brought to bear on friendly governments, especially strategically important ones, for human rights violations at home.

The Obama administration, while more vocal about political repression around the world, also faced criticism from human rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers that decisions on annual human trafficking rankings had become increasingly politicized.

(Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski in Yangon and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool and Leslie Adler)

CARACAS A man describing himself as a former boss and friend of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday urged an investigation into the killing of his son in anti-government unrest convulsing the OPEC nation for nearly three months.

DUBAI Saudi security forces on Friday foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

Read the rest here:
Exclusive: US list to drop Iraq, Myanmar as worst offenders on child soldiers - Reuters

IRBIL, Iraq With their control of Mosul slipping away, Islamic State militants decided to send a message of defiance: They blew up the 12th century al-Nuri Mosque, along with its famous leaning minaret.

The mosque, destroyed Wednesday night, would have been a symbolic prize in the fight for Iraqs second-largest city. It was from a pulpit in that mosque that the extremists leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate in the lands they had seized in Iraq and Syria in July 2014.

According to Iraqi officials, the destruction of the landmarks indicated that IS defenses are crumbling and the campaign to retake Mosul launched more than eight months ago is in its final stages.

They knew that the battle had been decided in favor of the Iraqi forces and they knew that we were going to enter the mosque in only a few hours, said Iraqi special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, adding that his troops were only 50 meters (yards) from the mosque site.

Thats why they exploded it, he said.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted early Thursday that the mosques destruction was an admission by the militants that they are losing the fight, calling it a formal declaration of their defeat.

Inside western Mosul, residents were still reeling from the loss of the iconic structure that was blown up during the celebration of Laylat al Qadr, the holiest night of the year for Muslims.

The Night of Power commemorates when the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during the holy month of Ramadan, which is in its waning days. The minaret that leaned like Italys Tower of Pisa had stood in Mosul for more than 840 years and was known as al-Hadba.

It is a shock, a real big shock, Amir al-Jumaili, a professor at the Archaeology College in Mosul, told The Associated Press.

Mohammed Tariq al-Bayati recalled growing up next to the mosque.

I was in my grandfather house. I remember we used to play under its shade, al-Bayati said. After learning of its destruction, he said he felt like his childhood had also been demolished.

It is the citys icon, I can say that Mosul has died, the longtime resident added.

An IS statement posted online shortly after the destruction of the landmarks was reported by the Ministry of Defense blamed a U.S. airstrike.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition rejected the claim. U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dillon told the AP that coalition planes did not conduct strikes in that area at that time.

IS fighters initially tried to destroy the minaret in July 2014, saying the structure contradicted their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Mosul residents converged on the area, however, and formed a human chain to protect it.

The destruction of the mosque and the leaning minaret is only the latest in a long series of priceless archaeological and cultural sites that the militants have ravaged across Iraq and Syria.

In addition to pillaging hundreds of treasures and artifacts, IS fighters have damaged or destroyed dozens of historic places, including the town of Palmyra in Syria, home to one of the Middle Easts most spectacular archaeological sites; the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra; and the nearly 3,000-year=old city of Nimrud in Iraqs Euphrates River valley.

Earlier this month, Mosul residents reported IS fighters had begun sealing off the area around the al-Nuri Mosque. They said the militants ordered families to leave the area, likely in preparation for their final stand.

This is a crime against the people of Mosul and all of Iraq, and is an example of why this brutal organization must be annihilated, U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, the commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, said in a statement.

Patrick Martin, a research analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, suggested the move may have more to do with optics than a sign of an imminent defeat.

This robs Iraqi security forces of a symbolic victory, Martin said.

Iraqi security forces capturing the building where ISIS announced the caliphate would have been a huge media win and message to Iraqis in general, so destroying the mosque robs them of that, he added.

The destruction also feeds into the IS narrative that the United States and the coalition is inflicting massive destruction as they try to retake Mosul, Martin said.

The mosque sat at the heart of the Old City, the last IS stronghold in Mosul. Iraqi forces launched a push into the Old City earlier this week, but progress has been slow as the last militants there are holed up with an estimated 100,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Jan Kubis, said the destruction is a clear sign of the IS groups imminent collapse.

This latest barbaric act of blowing up a historic Islamic site adds to the annals of Daeshs crimes against Islamic, Iraqi and human civilization, Kubis said in a statement, using another acronym for the group. The destruction ... shows their desperation and signals their end.

While the destruction of the mosque demonstrates how much the security forces have achieved, Martin said, we dont want to lose sight of the fact that there is a lot more work to be done. Thats a reference to the pockets of IS-held territory in Iraq and the work that lies ahead for government security forces to hold the terrain retaken from the extremists.

Formally launched in October, the fight for Mosul has displaced more than 850,000 people. While Iraqi forces have had periods of swift gains, combat inside the city has largely been grueling and deadly for both security forces and civilians.

Al-Jumaili, the archaeology professor, said he long feared the destruction of the mosque and minaret was inevitable.

It was the last icon for the historic city of Mosul and a valuable symbol, he said. I am sure Mosul residents could not sleep last night. (AP)

See the original post here:
IS militants destroy 12th century mosque in Iraq's Mosul - The Philadelphia Tribune