Siku, a baby polar bear born in early December at a park in Denmark, is a YouTube sensation after videos of the tiny bear were posted online. NBC?s Michelle Kosinski reports.
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WASHINGTON ? Americans probably won't be seeing a huge ticker-tape parade anytime soon for troops returning from Iraq, and it's not clear if veterans of the nine-year campaign will ever enjoy the grand, flag-waving, red-white-and-blue homecoming that the nation's fighting men and women received after World War II and the Gulf War.
Officials in New York and Washington say they would be happy to help stage a big celebration, but Pentagon officials say they haven't been asked to plan one.
Most welcome-homes have been smaller-scale: hugs from families at military posts across the country, a somber commemoration by President Barack Obama at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
With tens of thousands of U.S. troops still fighting a bloody war in Afghanistan, anything that looks like a big victory celebration could be seen as unseemly and premature, some say.
"It's going to be a bit awkward to be celebrating too much, given how much there is going on and how much there will be going on in Afghanistan," said Don Mrozek, a military history professor at Kansas State University.
Two New York City councilmen, Republicans Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo, have called for a ticker-tape parade down the stretch of Broadway known as the Canyon of Heroes. A similar celebration after the Gulf War was paid for with more than $5.2 million in private donations, a model the councilmen would like to follow.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week that he was open to the idea but added, "It's a federal thing that we really don't want to do without talking to Washington, and we'll be doing that."
A spokesman for the mayor declined to elaborate on the city's reasons for consulting with Washington. Ignizio said he had been told by the mayor's office that Pentagon officials were concerned that a celebration could spark violence overseas and were evaluating the risk.
Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said that he has not heard that issue raised and that New York has yet to make a formal proposal. He also said officials are grateful communities around the country are finding ways to recognize the sacrifices of troops and their families.
The last combat troops in Iraq pulled out more than a week ago. About 91,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are in Afghanistan, battling a stubborn Taliban insurgency and struggling to train Afghan forces so that they eventually can take over security. Many U.S. troops who fought in the Iraq War could end up being sent to Afghanistan.
A parade might invite criticism from those who believe the U.S. left Iraq too soon, as well as from those who feel the war was unjustified. It could also trigger questions about assertions of victory.
Mrozek noted that President George W. Bush's administration referred to military action in the Middle East as part of a global war on terror, a conflict that's hard to define by conventional measures of success.
"This is not a war on a particular place or a particular force," he said.
Bush himself illustrated the perils of celebrating milestones in the war, Mrozek said, when he landed on an aircraft carrier and hailed the end of major combat operations in Iraq behind a "Mission Accomplished" banner in May 2003. U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 8 1/2 more years, and Bush was criticized over the banner.
The benchmarks were clearer in previous wars. After World War II, parades marked Japan's surrender. After the Gulf War, celebrations marked the troops' return after Iraqi forces were driven out of Kuwait.
The only mass celebrations of U.S. military activities since Sept. 11, 2001, were largely spontaneous: Large crowds gathered in Times Square and outside the White House in April after Osama bin Laden was killed.
At the same time, Iraq veterans aren't coming home to the hostility many Vietnam veterans encountered. The first large-scale event honoring Vietnam veterans was not held until 1982, when thousands marched in Washington for the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Parades were later held in New York in 1985 ? 10 years after the war ended ? and in Chicago the next year.
"I think we've seen recent history in Vietnam, where that wasn't done appropriately, and we want to make sure we do the appropriate thing by those that made the ultimate sacrifice and risked their lives for us to say thanks," Ignizio said.
At Fort Hood in Texas, troops have returned to welcome-home ceremonies at the post that were attended mostly by soldiers' families. Soldiers in uniform run to hug their loved ones after an announcer yells, "Charge!"
Col. Douglas Crissman, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, said Saturday after one such ceremony that that is as large-scale a welcome as the troops need.
"This is just the right size because it's quick and meaningful and it gets them home to their families," Crissman said.
Staff Sgt. Troy Rudolph was among the first troops to arrive in Iraq in March 2003 and was in the last combat brigade to leave. Rudolph said that a large-scale ceremony would be nice but that he feels appreciated even without confetti falling from the sky.
"I've had people buy me lunch at airports just because I was in uniform," said Rudolph, who lives at Fort Hood with his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter. "It's emotional because you don't realize what kind of impact you have on people across the country."
In Washington, federal agencies take the lead on planning parades, and so far nothing is in the works. A spokesman for Mayor Vincent Gray said the city would be honored to host a parade but said local officials wouldn't take the lead in staging one.
In recent years, most of the ticker-tape parades in New York have been held for the city's championship sports teams.
"The sports celebrations that we've had in New York for the Yankees and the Mets were amazing," Oddo said. "But these are the real heroes."
___
Gross reported from New York. Associated Press writers Angela K. Brown in Fort Hood, Texas, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APBenNuckols.
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With a practice scheduled for this morning in preparation for Thursday's Champs Sports Bowl, Florida State's football players and coaches didn't have the luxury of spending Christmas at home with family and friends.
Well, most of them didn't.
A handful of Florida State players from Central Florida admitted they were ecstatic when they learned they would be spending the holidays in Orlando.
Junior linebacker Vince Williams, who grew up in nearby Davenport, said the only better destination would have been a BCS bowl. But once that was out of the question, Williams said he started rooting openly for the Champs ? even when the more prestigious Chick-fil-A Bowl was still in play.
If Virginia Tech had defeated Clemson in the ACC Championship game, there was a chance FSU could have been sent to Atlanta for the second consecutive year.
"I was like, 'Man, I hope Clemson kills Virginia Tech. I do not want to be in Atlanta,'?" Williams said, laughing. "It's cold up there."
Of course, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is played indoors at the Georgia Dome, but Williams had bad memories of practicing in the elements.
"I'm like, 'I want to go home and see my family and play in this warm weather,'?" Williams said. "When we were in Atlanta last year, it was snowing at practice. I'm a Florida boy. I don't even like snow. I was like, 'I don't want to do that no more.' It's like Miami or bust, now."
Williams got his wish, of course. Clemson beat Virginia Tech, and the Seminoles got shipped to Orlando, where the temperatures will be in the 70s this week.
Florida State's players reported to the Orlando Hilton for a team meeting Saturday, and they will practice today, Monday and Tuesday to simulate their normal Tuesday-through-Thursday game preparation.
Because Orlando is centrally located for most of Florida State's players, FSU coach Jimbo Fisher allowed them to make their own travel arrangements.
"We've got so many guys (from Florida), it's easier," Fisher said. "If we were (in a bowl game) farther off, I like going as a team."
That suited many of the Seminoles, such as Tampa's Christian Green, just fine.
"That's definitely good ? spend time with some of my family and stuff like that," said Green, a redshirt freshman receiver. "And some of my family will be able to come to the game. That's always good, to be close to home."
Source: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20111225/FSU03/112250330/1103/RSS18
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Washington ? One of the most comprehensive studies of women?s changing role in the US military has found that they are a more racially diverse group than American men in uniform.
They are also less likely to be married and more critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study was released this week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
IN PICTURES: Military women of the world
Though officially banned from jobs that would put them directly in combat, female troops have seen their fair share of fighting. And they return back from war as deeply affected by it as their male comrades in arms.
The ranks of women overall in the military have increased dramatically since 1973, when the United States first established an all-volunteer force. During that time, the number of enlisted women has quadrupled from some 42,000 to 167,000.
What???s more, as the size of the US military began to shrink post-Vietnam, the share of women in the force increased from 2 percent to 14 percent.
Nearly one-third of active-duty women are black. That proportion is far higher than among males, where 16 percent of the troops are black, according to the Pew study. Moreover, only about half of active-duty women are white, compared with 71 percent of active-duty men.
Troops, whether male or female, seem to join the armed forces largely for the same reasons. More than 80 percent of both groups said they signed up to serve their country or to receive education benefits. Some 70 percent said they simply wanted to see the world.
However, the Pew study found one key difference among the groups, which points to the more precarious economic situation of women in America. Roughly 40 percent of female veterans say they joined the military ?because jobs were hard to find,? compared with only one-quarter of men. While 12 percent of military women are single mothers, just 4 percent of men are single fathers.
When it comes to marriage, active-duty women tend to be less likely to have spouses than their male counterparts (46 percent of women are married, versus 58 percent of men).
The choice of spouses differs between men and women. While almost half of those women who are married selected spouses who are also in the armed forces, only 7 percent of married men are paired with military women.
Once they leave the service, women veterans tend to be considerably more critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than their male counterparts. When asked whether they thought the wars were ?worth fighting,? 63 percent of female veterans say Iraq was not, versus 47 percent of male veterans. Ditto the war in Afghanistan, at 54 percent versus 39 percent.
This is a gender gap, the Pew study notes, that is not particularly apparent among the general public.
Though they see less combat, women suffer from post-traumatic stress in numbers similar to their male colleagues, according to the Pew researchers. Some 45 percent of female veterans say they frequently feel irritable or angry, and 50 percent say they have experienced strains in their family relationships (versus 47 percent and 48 percent of men, respectively).
Yet when it comes to views of their own service, male and female troops tend to agree: They value the experience that accompanied their service. More than 90 percent of women say their military service was useful in helping them ?grow and mature as a person.? Three-quarters of both groups say they would advise a young person close to them to join the military.
IN PICTURES: Military women of the world
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Source: topics.nytimes.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011
Among teams with local ties, undersize but feisty Marquette looks to be the horse to ride come tournament time. ...
>>> there is the candidate who as former governor of massachusetts is the frontrunner in the next contest. in his part-time home state of new hampshire . nbc's chuck todd talked to mitt romney today one on one and is with us tonight from ashland, new hampshire. part of the news is you got to talk to mitt romney who had been pursuing a strategy of not talking to the media largely.
>> reporter: yeah. we were able to sit down with him a couple of times today. he's been the off and on frontrunner all year long but there is no state that's more make or break than new hampshire. this three-day bus trip is part of a strategy to make romney more available to voters and the press including two interviews with nbc news today. he's no less cautious and wouldn't take sides on the payroll tax cut. he was dismissive of its effect on the economy.
>> this is not going to turn the economy around. it's a very helpful feature for families.
>> reporter: romney struggled to persuade republican primary voters that he's conservative enough.
>> coming from massachusetts people begin with an assumption that perhaps you are not as conservative as they are. as they get to know me and look at my record they will recognize, no, i'm conservative.
>> reporter: there is a health care mandate in massachusetts is a conservative situation.
>> there were oh two options in my state. one was to continue to allow people without insurance to go to the homt and get free care. the alternative to that was to say people who can afford to buy insurance themselves should do so at personal responsibility. it's more conservative in my view than something given out for free by government.
>> reporter: he says his opponents are wrong when they accuse him of being a persistent flip-flopper.
>> obviously the change was most significant with regard to abortion. have i become more conservative in 20 years? absolutely.
>> reporter: he said republicans need to be clear about wall street reform.
>> we talk about deregulation. people assume we mean getting rid of all regulation. that's not the case.
>> reporter: when walking into romney 's part of the bus first you notice a campaign banner for his dad george.
>> my dad was a man of unquestioned integrity. he said exactly what he believed regardless of the consequences. i want that to with be my model.
>> reporter: he acknowledges the mormon faith he learned from his father could be a liability.
>> i don't know the reasons i lost iowa. for some my faith is an issue.
>> reporter: of course, brian, i did ask him about the gingrich complaints about all these negative ads and the super pacs. he said the heat from obama's kitchen will be hotter. gingrich responded harshly saying, quote, i'll tell you what, if he wants to test the heat i'll meet him in iowa next week, one on one, 90 minutes , no moderator. and so it goes.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45758450/
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