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escobar said:

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The United States is shifting more military muscle, including another aircraft carrier, to the Pacific to protect the status quo in a region facing China's growing clout, the Pentagon's second-ranking official said on Thursday.

In coming years, 60 percent of U.S. Navy ships will be in the Pacific, up from 52 percent now, including a net increase of one carrier to six, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told an industry conference hosted by Credit Suisse and McAleese and Associates, a consultancy.

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are also working on stepped-up rotations, "so they'll be seeing more of the U.S. Army in the Asia Pacific region not less," Carter said.

Elaborating on military priorities that President Barack Obama announced in January, Carter said U.S. forces had played a crucial role in preventing conflict in the Pacific region for roughly the last 60 years.

"We don't want that to change. We want to continue to have that role and that's really what our investments are aimed at," Carter said when asked whether the goal was to pre-empt, deter or hedge against China.

Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus, speaking to the conference after Carter, said the Navy planned to achieve the buildup using new ships as they roll out of shipyards.

Beijing in recent years has asserted territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea more aggressively.

In response, the United States is laying the groundwork for a more widely distributed footprint in Asia through strengthened alliances and partnerships, including with Australia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Carter cited a range of upgrades and new programs that he said were directed to the region, including radar sets, antisubmarine warfare improvements and development of a new long-range, nuclear-capable bomber. The programs were largely outlined in a five-year spending request that Obama sent to Congress last month.

The United States also is moving to protect fixed bases in the region, he said. Such installations are increasingly vulnerable to Chinese ballistic missiles, according to the Pentagon.

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In coming years, 60 percent of U.S. Navy ships will be in the Pacific, up from 52 percent now, including a net increase of one carrier to six,

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Schumacher said:

GI Joe goes postal in Afghanistan.

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A US soldier has killed more than a dozen civilians in a shooting spree in southern Afghanistan before being detained, officials say.

A member of the Kandahar provincial council who visited the site of the shooting in Panjwai district told Al Jazeera that at least 17 civilians were killed when the soldier left his base early on Sunday morning and opened fire....................................

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Most people nowadays know that a G.I. is an American soldier and that the term is popularly associated with the Second World War, but few know what the abbreviation G.I. originally stood for or that the term predates WWII by some decades.

G.I. was originally a semi-official U.S. Army abbreviation for galvanized iron, used in inventories and supply records. It dates to at least 1907 and is commonly found in records from the First World War. From a 1917 entry in Col. Frank P. Lahm’s World War I Diary, published in 1970:

[Lympe, England] is a large depot where machines are delivered for forwarding to France. 12 large hangers [sic], brick, G.I., about 75 ft wide by 150 ft long.

It was also used during WWI in the phrase G.I. can, meaning a German artillery shell. From the 24 September 1918 entry in Robert Casey’s The Cannoneers Have Hairy Ears: A Diary of the Front Lines, published c.1927:

At 11 o’clock he started to drop G.I. cans into our woods.

This was often clipped to just G.I. From a poem by Sgt. Albert J. Cook in Paul Bliss’s 1919 History of the 805th Pioneer Infantry:

There’s about two million fellows, and there’s some of them who lie
Where eighty-eights and G.I.’s gently drop.

Also during that war, G.I. started to be interpreted to mean government issue and it came to be applied as an adjective to denote anything having to do with the army. From a caption to a cartoon in the December 1918 issue of La Trine Rumor:

A G.I. Christmas

By the next war, G.I. had acquired the meaning of an enlisted soldier. It was so glossed in a 1939 issue of Bugle Notes:

G.I., n., An enlisted man.1

The term G.I. Joe first appears in the mid-1930s as a term for a generic enlisted man. From the October 1935 issue of the magazine Our Army:

G.I. Joe wants to know if steel wool comes from hydraulic rams.

The term G.I. Joe was made famous by the title of a comic strip by David Breger that first appeared in Yank magazine in 1942.2

Some have interpreted G.I. as an abbreviation for general infantry. This is incorrect. General infantry has never been a term of art, officially or unofficially, in the U.S. Army.

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Officials Condemn Afghanistan Shooting, Offer Condolences

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2012 – President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and International Security Assistance Force leaders all condemned a shooting incident in Southern Afghanistan, and pledged to work with Afghan authorities in fully investigating the incident.

“This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

Panetta spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to offer his deepest condolences and profound regret for the tragic incident in Kandahar province. The incident resulted in the loss of life and injuries to innocent Afghan civilians, including women and children.

ISAF Commander Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, who is here to testify this week, issued a statement today saying he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of the shooting incident.

“I offer my profound regret and deepest condolences to the victims and their families,” Allen said in his statement.

In a Facebook post, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey offered his condolences to the victims of the attack and their families.

“I’m confident that General Allen and his staff are taking the appropriate steps to quickly and thoroughly investigate the circumstances of this incident,” Dempsey said.

Allegedly, an American service member left his base in Kandahar province, entered homes in the area and shot the inhabitants. Karzai said in a statement that the service member had killed 16 and wounded at least five others.

“I condemn such violence and am shocked and saddened that a U.S. service member is alleged to be involved, clearly acting outside his chain of command,” Panetta said. “I told President Karzai that the American people share the outrage felt by President Karzai and his fellow citizens. This tragic incident does not reflect the commitment of the U.S. military to protect the Afghan people and help build a strong and stable Afghanistan.”

“I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity,” said British Lt. Gen. Adrian J. Bradshaw in a written statement. Bradshaw is deputy ISAF commander.

The service member is in ISAF custody and will remain there as ISAF and Afghans conduct an investigation, Allen said. Those wounded in the incident are receiving care from ISAF medics. “I am absolutely dedicated to making sure that anyone who is found to have committed wrong-doing is held fully accountable,” Allen said.

Panetta gave Karzai his assurances that U.S. officials will bring those responsible to justice. “We will spare no effort in getting the facts as quickly as possible, and we will hold any perpetrator who is responsible for this violence fully accountable under the law,” he said in his statement.

The incident happens just weeks after rioting over the accidental burning of Qurans at Bagram Air Field.

Both Allen and the American embassy spoke of the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan.

“This deeply appalling incident in no way represents the values of ISAF and coalition troops or the abiding respect we feel for the Afghan people,” the general said. “Nor does it impugn or diminish the spirit of cooperation and partnership we have worked so hard to foster with the Afghan National Security Forces.”

An embassy statement reiterated that the United States is committed to “an enduring partnership with Afghanistan to obtain greater peace and security in the region, which is our common interest. We deplore any attack by a member of the U.S. armed forces against innocent civilians, and denounce all violence against civilians. We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice.”

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Panetta Discusses U.S. Focus on Pacific, Middle East

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2012 – The Pacific will be a growing focus for the American military in the years to come, but the Middle East also must remain a priority, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said in Hawaii yesterday.

The secretary is in Honolulu to preside at today’s change-of-command ceremony for U.S. Pacific Command. Navy Adm. Robert F. Willard will pass command of the largest U.S. combatant command to Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III.

In a meeting with local reporters, Panetta addressed the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to the United States, but also fielded questions on Iran and Syria. “As we emphasize and focus on the Pacific and the region, this will remain a very important command and base, and we will continue to emphasize this region,” the secretary said.

Panetta also emphasized that this is a historic time for the Defense Department.

“We’re at a turning point after 10 years of war,” he said. “We’ve ended the mission in Iraq, and we’ve turned a corner in Afghanistan. We still have a war there, but I think we are on a better path toward transition in Afghanistan.”

U.S. forces participated in NATO operations that removed Moammar Gadhafi from power in Tripoli and gave Libya back to the Libyan people, he noted. “On terrorism,” he added, “we’ve scored significant success against the leadership of al-Qaida, although terrorism itself remains a threat.”

These successes must be viewed through the prism of economic difficulties, Panetta said. The United States is facing severe budget problems with record deficits and record debt, and Congress has mandated cutting $487 billion from the defense budget over the next 10 years.

“This happens at a time when we face some significant threats in the world,” he said. “We’re still fighting a war, we are still confronting terrorism. We have threats from Iran and from North Korea. We have the Middle East in turmoil, we have rising powers in the Pacific, and we have the threats of cyber war.”

President Barack Obama directed the Pentagon to develop a new defense strategy, Panetta told reporters, and leaders used this new guidance to make budget decisions. The strategy is the basis for building the force needed for the future, and the shifting of focus to the Pacific, he said. And the strategy puts the military on the right path while still doing the Defense Department’s part to solve the deficit crisis, he added.

The military will become a smaller and leaner force, Panetta said, but it will be more agile, quickly deployable and technologically advanced under the new strategy.

“Part of our strategy was to emphasize our presence in the Pacific and the Middle East,” he said. “We are a Pacific power, and we will remain one.”

The United States maintains forces in the Pacific “because we believe this is an important area economically, militarily, strategically and in terms of the allies that we have in this region,” the secretary said. But even in the middle of the Pacific, the Middle East still is a concern, he added.

Reporters asked Panetta about U.S.-Israeli cooperation on Iran. U.S. and Israeli leaders have discussed Israeli missile defense, and the two countries continue a very close military relationship, he said. U.S. and Israeli leaders held a series of discussions in the past week, the secretary noted. Iran obviously was a matter discussed at the highest levels, he said, and the United States understands Israeli leaders must make decisions they believe are in their country’s best interests, and America will do the same.

“When it comes to Iran, we have common cause against Iran, [and] we have the same concerns as Israel with regards to [Iran] obtaining a nuclear weapon,” the secretary said.

The United States has made it clear that a nuclear Iran is not acceptable, Panetta said.

“We are going to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Panetta said. “We are also going to ensure they are not going to close the Straits of Hormuz.”

U.S. leaders believe sanctions against Tehran are working, the secretary said. “We think diplomacy and holding the international community together to apply that pressure needs to continue and that’s the right way to go right now,” he added. “We hope Israel will continue to be part of that international effort.”

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