 |  |
 
October 2012
August 2012 July 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003
     |
 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! December 9, 2003 December 7th, 2003...By GreyhawkJohn Roberts is apparently stunned that not all Republicans think exactly alike; that some are willing to express their own opinions on things. I'm not sure why freedom of thought is so hard for the media to grasp. From Face The Nation, CBS TV, DECEMBER 7, 2003, Interview with Andrew Card JOHN ROBERTS: And welcome to the broadcast. Bob Schieffer is off this morning. Joining us now from the White House is White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Mr. Card, good morning. In his hard-hitting crusading journalist style, Roberts then attacks the security measures in place in Iraq, comparing it to the oppression his Palestinian comrades' experience under the boot heel of the evil Jews: MR. ROBERTS: You're being accused in some parts of Iraq for lack of a better word barbwire diplomacy, ringing entire villages in razor wire. Making people pass through checkpoints. Detaining family members of suspected Iraqi insurgents. Destroying buildings that the insurgency has been using. Some people in Iraq are saying this is very much like the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. And I'm wondering is this the way to win hearts and minds in Iraq? But I have a suspicion you'll see more from Al Jazeera and CBS on that comparison. MR. ROBERTS: All right. The Chief Civil Administrator there, Paul Bremer, said recently that he expects attacks are going to increase as you make this transition toward severty (sic). That these hold outs - these dead enders will try to stop the process by stepping up attacks. Do you agree with that assessment? Time out: Are there any American's out there that need that warning? Do you really think, Mr Roberts, that some Americans are that stupid? MR. CARD: Well the president has said all along that this is a difficult task, but it's one that can be met. And he is very supportive of the work that is done by our troops and you should be supportive too because they are carrying out the most important mission and that's to help rid the world of a horrible regime and create hope and opportunity for democracy. But first, this quick summary from me. Mr. Card's key points: What we're doing, where we're headed: The president has as his goal first of all to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein. And we've done that. The second thing is he is working to bring democracy and hope to the Iraqi people and all around Iraq there are dramatic signs of improvement in life. Schools are open. Small businesses are working. Security: We have to do more work on the security front, but it's really limited to kind of the Tikrit, Mosul, Baghdad area and we're working hard to address that problem. But we're making significant progress. Iraqis are part of the security solution in Iraq and they are part of the governing structure in Iraq. We're making progress, but we are going to work to secure their communities and we'll have to work hard to do that as they build their own security forces. The more and more that the old Baathist regime loses their authority the more they're going to fight back. I think that we will find that the security situation is still a challenge, but the good news is the United States is up to that challenge. Our determination: Things are going better than they could have been expected to go at this time and we're making great progress. More has to be done and we are committed to staying there until it's done right. The president has said all along that this is a difficult task, but it's one that can be met. And he is very supportive of the work that is done by our troops and you should be supportive too because they are carrying out the most important mission and that's to help rid the world of a horrible regime and create hope and opportunity for democracy. Okay, sounds realistic to me. A tough road, but we'll stay the course. Got it, now back to you, John: MR. ROBERTS: And with us now is New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Good to see you this morning. Thanks for coming in. I'm not sure, but does this mean that anyone expressing hope for anything other then complete American failure in Iraq is "painting a rosy scenario?" Posted by Greyhawk / December 9, 2003 5:20 AM | Permalink 3 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
Comments (0) |
|
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Uh...lessee...and her husband's administration was Camelot, right? We got entangled in the Balkans soon after Bill took office, and we are still there.
And things are going well in the Balkans because it is not a war zone, Clinton is no longer in office and because we bombed the Chinese Embassy.
In other news, China has access to our most sensitive secrets, courtesy of the teflon coated one, and she was totally ignorant of her husband's affairs once he took office. I want to see the bug eyed outraged Shrillery we all know and intensely dislike.
"I want to see the bug eyed outraged Shrillery we all know and intensely dislike."
Anything for you, Cricket! Hillary was on every Sunday "news" show. I'll post more later.
Well, hey, I mean...
We're all America-loving adults here, aren't we? Hillery loves America enough to champion the very unpopular position that America 'really should get out of Iraq, and stop supporting self-determination, and give the Islamo-fascists whatever help can possibly be given...'
Because its OBVIOUS that Mr Card can't possibly be in the same Real World as Hillery, can he? I mean, if America is really helping Iraqis, and Iraqis are really glad to be rid of Saddam and the thought-paradigm he represented, with its state rapists, industrial human-shredders, mass-graves, tongue-rippers and obfuscating prevaricators for front-men, THEN Hillary would have an untenable, unrealistic position rant after rant, wouldn't she?
And THAT can't POSSIBLY be true...