Troop

A Harford County boy might earn Scouting's highest honor with a community project thousands of miles from his home in Jarrettsville. Life Scout Alex Griffith, 15, knows the criteria for the rank of Eagle involve service to the community, a school or church. Alex, adopted in 1994 by Dwight and Jenny Griffith, lived the first year of his life at a hospital for abandoned children in Krasnoyarsk, a city in the Siberian region of Russia. He wants to give the children living at Hospital No. 20 a playground.

The other day I heard a radio news reader describe an attack in Afghanistan in which "a troop" was killed. Now troop  is a word with a good deal of elasticity in it, but you can stretch it too far.  A core meaning of the word in the singular is a military unit.* A cavalry troop  is a group or particular detachment of soldiers.   In the plural, it can mean the military collectively, as in the Our Troops Over...

The other day I heard a radio news reader describe an attack in Afghanistan in which "a troop" was killed. Now troop  is a word with a good deal of elasticity in it, but you can stretch it too far.  A core meaning of the word in the singular is a military unit.* A cavalry troop  is a group or particular detachment of soldiers.   In the plural, it can mean the military collectively, as in the Our Troops Over...

The United States has not won a war since 1945. We have been involved in numerous conflicts and our military has performed magnificently — considering the political interference and (mis)direction endured.  This interference has caused us to lose (as in the case of Vietnam) or come to a draw (as in the case of Korea) or had victories given away (as we are now witnessing in Iraq). We are following the same formula of failure in Afghanistan. Never in the past 66 years have we come to the political point where we could claim the capitulation of an enemy.  The result of this has been an erosion of international respect that has negatively affected our ability to use international coalitions or the threat of military action as effective suasion.

- Congressional opponents of the war in Afghanistan forced a debate Wednesday on the floor of the House of Representatives on a resolution to bring U.S. forces home and end the eight-year-old war. The measure ended up losing, 356-65, a margin that had been expected. Nonetheless, anti-war representatives welcomed the debate as a chance to express pent-up frustration with the continued troop buildup in Afghanistan, and to express their view that the original mission of U.S. forces, defeating al-Qaida, had been lost.

Drew Lovell, of Troop 973, sponsored by St. Mary's Episcopal Church, in Abingdon, completed his Eagle Scout project Oct. 8 at the Humane Society of Harford County, 2208 Connolly Road, in Fallston. His project involved building a brick paver walkway and platform at Rebel's Dog Park to be used by dog owners as they let their dogs play off leash in the park. His project also included landscaping the surrounding ground to divert rain water runoff which previously made the area muddy. Drew's project involved months of planning and fundraising.

Listening to the speech of the president about the "war" in Afghanistan, which is in reality a brutal occupation, we have to realize that torturing and killing people under any pretext is inhumane. It gets us also in great danger, and it is very expensive. It is so stupid! Bringing the "boys home" means establishing an enduring occupation. We have to withdraw all military from foreign countries. And in countries as Afghanistan and Iraq, we must try to repay the immense destruction we caused.

The local Cub Scout troops invite old members and new friends to Back to School Night on Thursday. Leaders of the local dens will be available to sign up new members and renew old friendships that night at area schools.Dave Czaplicki is the contact person for Troop 62 at Forest Ridge. His number is (301) 725-1076. Lisa Maloney of Troop 345 out of Laurel Woods can be reached at (301) 725-4750. Tanya Lewis of Troop 513 at Guilford Elementary can be reached at (410) 381-5785. Joseph Owens of Troop 606 at Hammond Elementary can be reached at (301)

Washington. -- Whenever a war or protracted crisis ends, Gen. John R. Galvin said here the other day, we expect that "paradise" will quickly follow. This flies in the face of both American experience and the post-Cold War world outlook, said the top military leader of the Western alliance, but the hope won't seem to go away."

WASHINGTON -- The Boy Scouts of America, already putting on a full defense in court of its ban on homosexuals, now finds it has to defend that policy within its own ranks, too -- especially among groups that sponsor Scout troops.The future of the ban depends heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Scouts have appealed a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that struck down the exclusion of gays as youth members or adult leaders.Signs of Scouting's internal debate over the ban are expected to emerge anew next week when a group of troop-sponsoring organizations reportedly plans to line up on the opposite side in that case.

It was ridiculous to read that the Maryland National Guard is being sent to Texas to patrol the border ("Md. National Guard to aid patrol of Mexican border," April 19). The only people coming over the southern border are the very poor who are desperate for some semblance of a decent life. If the Maryland Guard is in need of work, I think a better use of its members would be to go after the corporate tax cheats. For example, the guard should be arresting the CEO and the board of Wells Fargo.

U.S. troops may be heartened to know that a Belcamp, Md., company is using some of the latest technology to check, double-check, and triple-check the efficacy of their body armor and helmets. Chesapeake Testing, of Belcamp, Md., bought the $1.2 million CT scanner a few months ago and is just starting to incorporate it in their testing of body and vehicle armor, helmets, projectiles and other equipment used by the U.S. military and law enforcement. The 40-plus person company operates a independent lab for testing personal protection equipment made by manufacturers.

Where is Afghanistan policy headed at this crucial moment? As the nation's excellent if unsung war commander, Gen. John Allen, testifies on Capitol Hill this week, and as Republican presidential aspirants continue to attack President Barack Obama from both the left and the right on the subject, these questions are especially timely. Will the president soon be tempted to say that with Osama bin Laden dead (on the positive side), but with the Afghan and Pakistani governments still very hard to work with and the insurgency still resilient (on the negative side)

Every time we invade a foreign country, it makes the people mad as hell. In no time at all, they start tossing bombs and killing our soldiers. So please, let's stop this audacious insanity and bring the troops home now. Daniel K. Hays Towson

Life Scout Matt Rafferty, a member of Boy Scout Troop 328 at Timonium United Methodist Church, is hard at work on his Eagle project, which involves collecting used musical instruments, in any condition, to benefit the under-funded music programs of Baltimore City Public Schools. Matt reports that the schools are happy to have all band instruments, from recorders to tubas, as well as any and all brass, woodwinds, percussion, strings, guitars and electronic keyboards - but no pianos, please!

Max Obuszewski's letter expresses the general consensus of the American public against the overseas wars we are fighting ("America can't afford to wage endless war," Feb. 27). Yet there is now talk of extending the war in Afghanistan beyond 2014, and also starting another one in Iran. Does public opinion mean nothing to the warmongers? It seems to me that the recent attacks by Afghan soldiers on American troops in Afghanistan would support the idea of our getting out of there sooner rather than later.

The members of Boy Scout Troop 216 don't tell stories around the campfire or go on 50-mile weekend hikes. It may take two years of work to earn a citizenship merit badge, and it's unlikely that anyone in this troop will make Eagle Scout before the age of 40. But few Scouts wear their uniforms more proudly. Created 24 years ago to offer Scouting to the disabled, Troop 216 gathers twice a month in the Knights of Columbus hall on Ritchie Highway. There, volunteers pass on Scouting's practical skills and timeless values to the 19 Boy Scouts who range in age from 16 to 65. Many have Down syndrome.

Few things matter more to George Baker than making a difference in the lives of boys."I believe we were put here for God's will," said the scoutmaster of Ellicott City's Troop 874. "To set a godly example and set them on the road to manhood."That dedication has earned the Owen Brown resident a Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor bestowed on adults in scouting."He's kind of the heart and soul of the group," said Donald Rascoe, Troop 874's committee chairman. "He works extremely well with boys."

Nobody wishes for peace more than a veteran. As someone who deployed to a combat zone and knows what it's like to endure deep pangs of family separation and be awoken at 3:30 a.m. because there's a large group outside your post who is trying to kill you, I would love nothing more than to see every American come home. And that is precisely why we must do everything we can to keep Iran from developing military-grade uranium. America is not an imperial country. We have only ever asked other countries for enough land to bury our dead.

SYKESVILLE — Other teens may have seen Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a day off school, but David Kreinar, a Boy Scout in Troop 719, tapped the philosophical meaning of the day to create "A Day Of Service," on Monday, Jan. 16. Following on the quotation from Coretta Scott King that the holiday should be, "a day on, not a day off," the event gave opportunities for people to donate their time to help local charitable and outreach causes....