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The following is Kerry's latest position on Iraq, as he explained it to Tom Brokaw this past week. Something I saw reminded me of this today:
Brokaw: This week you've been very critical of the president because of the missing explosives in Iraq.The fact is, senator, we still don't know what happened to those explosives. How many for sure that were there. Who might have gotten away with them? Is it unfair to the president, just as you believe he's been unfair to you, to blame him for that?Kerry: No. It's not unfair. Because what we do know, from the commanders on the ground, is that they went there, as they marched to Baghdad. We even read stories today that they broke locks off of the doors, took photographs of materials in there. There were materials. And they left.
Brokaw: The flip side of that is that if you had been president, Saddam Hussein would still be in power. Because you...
Kerry: Not necessarily at all.
Brokaw: But you have said you wouldn't go to war against him...
Kerry: That's not true. Because under the inspection process, Saddam Hussein was required to destroy those kinds of materials and weapons.
Brokaw: But he wasn't destroying them...
Kerry: But that's what you have inspectors for. And that's why I voted for the threat of force. Because he only does things when you have a legitimate threat of force. It's absolutely impossible and irresponsible to suggest that if I were president, he wouldn't necessarily be gone. He might be gone. Because if he hadn't complied, we might have had to go to war. And we might have gone to war. But if we did, I'll tell you this, Tom. We'd have gone to war with allies in a way that the American people weren't carrying the burden. And the entire world would have understood why we were doing it.
As I said, I was reminded of that incoherent ramble today, when I saw this:
A very necessarily empty throne in Baghdad. It's not that hard to understand, is it?
Make sure your neighbors do too.
Today is the last day to double efforts!
As you may know, October marks the Pink Ribbon Challenge at The Breast Cancer Site , where every daily click is doubled thanks to our premiere sponsor, National City. This month, more than ever, telling your friends about a simple daily click will save lives. Our goal is to give 500 mammograms this month and we'll meet and beat that goal with your help. Please tell your friends about the Pink Ribbon Challenge and keep clicking!
According to their goal marker, they have only reached 475 hundred and today is the last day. I'm sure we could help them reach their goal of 500 and then some. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window below or on our side bar). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising, and every click counts double in the month of October!
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
UPDATE: Thank You
Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
- Osama Bin Laden, from his latest video
OK, in reality he's saying things about goats. (I'm sure few people in the world know more intimate details about goats than Osama.) Just in time for Halloween he's come out swinging, one would assume with his best stuff, and lo and behold it's Michael Moore quotes. Ironically following on the heels of Kerry's own desperate plea , this should be a wake up call to the slumbering Left. Jim Geraghty is right, look in the mirror. I'd like to think they'll follow his advice, but the trouble is every time I've thought they would look into that mirror they haven't. When the real wake up call comes they choose to snooze, preferring to delay the inevitable confrontation with the not joking, real-world nightmare.
Will this time be different?
Unfortunately I think not. Because the American Left has never failed to disappoint me. It follows that I think Mr Geraghty is wrong in this statement: "A Bush landslide is now exponentially more likely..." though he chose his words carefully so as not to actually predict said landslide, I'm convinced that the Left that wants to believe that the President of the United States was acting with Saudi royals and Osama Bin Laden on 911 will certainly not stay home or change their votes just because Osama made a campaign video quoting Mike Moore supporting Kerry.
Likewise it doesn't matter whether Cronkite was joking or not when he told Larry King "I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing." Plenty of Americans believe it.
I think all the minds that matter (real voters on both sides) were made up weeks ago, Osama's not a difference maker any more than Guardian Readers were, and bottom line, I'm going to believe the election is close up until the time I see the results.
By the way, the Kerry campaign, via phone polling, has decided to play the Osama video as real, not a Rove plot. They do think he could be a difference maker, and here's how they decided:
Planning and strategy; deciding if it was Rove or Real:
Let me just mention that, as part of that, and we're very cautious about this - we added a question - this poll was intended to be fielded independent of the events - we added a question this morning that was only in the 250 interviews that was conducted on Saturday and I read it just to try to suggest that we ought to be a little bit cautious in interpreting what we think will be the consequence of these events.We read following question:
I'm going to read you paraphrasement about Osama Bin Laden's videotape - this is a poll that was conducted by Democracy Corps, I'm going to read you a paraphrasement about the release of Bin Laden's videotape, please tell me what comes closer to your view: One, it makes me think that George W. Bush took his eye of the ball in Afghanistan and diverted his resources to Iraq; Two, it underscores the importance of George Bush's approach to terrorism
By ten points, 46-36 percent, voters responding to the survey agreed with the first statement, rather than the second.
And (que the candidate), 3, 2, 1... Action!:
"As I have said for two years now, when Osama bin Laden and all Qaeda were cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, it was wrong to outsource the job of capturing them to Afghan warlords," he told a rally in Appleton.
For the record, from my point of view I have a two word response to the Osama tape, it's non-partisan, and its not printable here.
Let's look at more from the venerable Cronkite. His call on the election results comes in a quote that follows immediately after the Rove statement above - so perhaps he remains in a 'tongue-in-cheek' mode:
CRONKITE: Well, I think it's one of the biggest messes we've had in a long time. I believe that we're undoubtedly not going to know the results of this election. I don't want to knock you off the air on Monday night or anything, or Tuesday night. But I suspect that we're not going to know who the next president is, whether it is Bush or the new man, until very probably sometime in the early spring. There's so much controversy that they're planting, deliberately planting at the polls, that there's almost certainly to be a suit going back to the Supreme Court eventually, going through the other courts slowly first.
And later
KING: Do you expect a huge turnout?CRONKITE: What?
KING: A huge turnout?
CRONKITE: Oh, yes, I do. I think so. The only thing that could damage the turnout would be the threats that might be implied, as many of the new registrees are challenged as to their various things. Their spelling of their name and the state where they really come from, whether they're immigrants or not, do they have passports, all that kind of thing. If they are challenged at the polls, as they line up to go into the polls, they may fear having to answer all those questions. Particularly if they do have anything wrong about them and shouldn't vote.
We pause now for this brief reminder:
Do not hit that snooze button.
More to come.
Insurgents in Iraq continue to score victory after victory:
Iraqi officials will meet Boeing executives next week as the government considers whether to go with the company's aircraft or those of Europe's Airbus for a national fleet, Iraq's transport minister said yesterday.
Due to too-few-troops-stretched-too-thin the nation is descending into chaos:
Competition between Boeing and Airbus could heat up in Iraq if the country relaunches its national carrier and secures its airports.Iraqi Airways, which owned a formidable fleet before the 1990 Gulf war, operates several flights a week to Amman, Jordan, and Damascus, Syria, using two used Boeing 737s acquired three months ago.
Most Iraqis have given up hope, in the face of an occupier who has no plan:
"Our plan is to return Iraqi Airways as a leading carrier and for Baghdad Airport to become a regional service center," he said yesterday.
Clearly the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time...
A tip of the hat to the Washington Post for putting this story on page one:
LONDONDERRY, N.H. -- Shona Emery, short and blond, a mother of four whose youngest most often sleeps curled beside her in bed, wakes up at 1:40 a.m. and pads to the computer. She taps out an e-mail to her husband, Jesse."Hey babe."
Jesse's answer pops up two seconds later on her screen. "Hey babe. I am leaving for the airport in 5 minutes."
"Cool. Running a little late?"
"I got delayed already, car bomb near the front gate of the airbase. It's clear now though."
"Great."
"I love you," he writes.
"Love you," she responds. "Be safe."
"I will," he writes, "I will."
Shona's life plays like that now. She drops the kids off at school, hauls groceries at Shaw's Supermarket, and handles the play date and soccer game and breakfast-lunch-dinner regimen. Then she catches a snatch of AM radio or cable news and hears about another soldier killed and she sucks in her breath and waits to hear whether the attack occurred near her husband's base.
<...>
New Hampshire ranks second per capita in the percentage of National Guard members serving in Iraq. These soldiers -- diesel mechanics, auto parts managers and school counselors -- have left behind families in states -- such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- that are divided with almost mathematical precision between Republican and Democrat, hawk and dove, President Bush and John F. Kerry. The families may or may not swing an election. But there is little doubt where most stand. Polls show that two-thirds of them favor Bush.
Shona is no different. She may absorb a grim vision of war in her early-morning e-mail exchanges with her husband, but she remains a ready vote for Bush, even if Jesse does another tour.
"My husband's a hunter and a warrior," she says. "He's totally pro-Bush."
<...>
Shona gave a speech when Bush came to New Hampshire and Pease Air National Guard Base this month. Her view of the war's progress is not as sunny as Bush's -- her man takes too much incoming fire to see victory in the offing. But that's okay.
"People laughed at Ronald Reagan for fighting the Cold War," Shona says. "We won't beat the terrorists in one year."
Jennifer listens and nods. "If it takes three, four, five years over there, get the job done," she says. "I'd rather have my husband fight than my children."
And the rest is well worth reading. Three years into the war on terror and this is the first honest reporting on military families I have ever seen in a major daily.
The U.S. military has agreed to hand legal custody of some suspected foreign fighters to the interim Iraqi government, which has controversial plans to broadcast the men's names and photos on television, American and Iraqi officials said Thursday.The transfer came after Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government demanded to have the prisoners so it could prove to the Iraqi public that security forces have captured foreign militants.
Despite claims by the Bush administration and Allawi's government that Arab Islamic extremists are responsible for much of Iraq's mayhem, many Iraqis remain skeptical. Showing Syrian, Sudanese and other Middle Eastern detainees on television would be a public-relations coup for Allawi, whose image as a strongman has suffered amid bombings and other attacks on his forces.
And because it seem slike a good idea you can bet the UN will condemn it:
International law prohibits the U.S. military, which will retain physical custody of the foreign detainees, from releasing information on inmates. The Iraqi government said public demands to see foreign fighters outweighed human-rights concerns. The government hopes to film the detainees as early as next week.''We are going to show these Arabs on TV,'' said Qassim Daoud, the Iraqi minister of state for national security. ``We are under a lot of pressure from the public regarding these detainees. They want to see them. We are trying to match human-rights standards, but at the same time we need to show these foreign fighters to the public.'
We certainly wouldn't want to violate any foreign fighter's human rights. And if you think (like I did) that 20 is an awfully small number, there's this:
The Iraqi government initially demanded legal custody of all foreign detainees, but the U.S. military has agreed to cede control of only about 20 percent of the 150 or so foreigners in American-run detention centers, said Iraqi politicians and a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
And finally,
Once legal custody is transferred, the detainees will appear before Iraqi judges to face criminal charges, said Nouri Abdulrahim, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry.
Those with longer memories will recall the media outrage over display of images of the captured Saddam and the corpses of his sons.
They live daily with kidnappings and car bombings, but one of the biggest fears among Baghdad residents is a John Kerry presidency.
Lawrence Kaplan in the Wall Street Journal :
We know what John Kerry thinks of Iraq. But what does Iraq think of him? Since he may soon be presiding over a war there, the question merits an answer. Yet, while the press has devoted page after page to the electoral preferences of the French, the opinions of those who count most overseas have received nary a mention.Partly this derives from the simple fact that, as polls show, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis don't care who wins our election. Their concerns run closer to home -- especially how to stay alive. There's an exception, however: the thousands of academics, lawyers, rights advocates, and other educated elites leading the effort to create a new Iraq -- nearly all of whom have hitched their fortunes to our own and nearly all of whom hope that President Bush wins.
Liberal Iraqis repeat the same question: Will the U.S. leave? These, after all, are the Iraqis building institutions, occupying key positions in ministries, and cooperating openly with the U.S. And they're the Iraqis with the most to lose in the event John Kerry makes good on his pledge to "bring the troops home where they belong."
This prospect, once unimaginable, has become very real in Iraq. The fear of abandonment has transformed meetings between Iraqi and U.S. officials, until recently arenas for grievance, into forums for the expression of solidarity. Leading Iraqis stayed up late into the night to watch the presidential debates. "Sophisticated Iraqis are listening closely," Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie says in a telephone interview. "Any discussion of withdrawal worries them." Echoing this, Manhel al-Safi, who recently left his post as an aide in the PM's office for a job in the Foreign Ministry, says, "There's a level of fear -- people in the government are afraid the Americans will leave Iraq." He adds a personal plea to Sen. Kerry: "Mr. Senator, destruction is easy; building takes a long time."
Such fears haven't been spun out of whole cloth. As far as Iraqi elites are concerned, President Bush brought democracy to a land that knew only dictatorship. From Sen. Kerry, however, they hear no commitment to build a liberal state or, for that matter, any state. What they hear instead is a presidential aspirant who complains about "opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in the United States of America," even as his campaign aides dismiss Iraq's prime minister as an American "puppet."
To be fair, not everyone in the country is against Kerry:
Not surprisingly, surveys by the Iraqi Center for Research and Strategic Studies find that, where George Bush garners the most support in the Kurdish north and from Iraq's well-educated urban elites, John Kerry draws his strongest support from what the Center's Sadoun al-Dulame calls Iraq's "hottest places" -- hotbeds of resistance to the U.S. A poll taken earlier this month in Baghdad, for example, finds that while President Bush would win a higher tally in New Baghdad's Christian precincts, Sen. Kerry carries Sadr City hands down.
Kaplan closes with a proposal for how the candidate can restore his credibility on Iraq:
But if John Kerry, who famously demanded that the U.S. "stop this blind commitment to a dictatorial regime" in Vietnam, imagines history repeating itself in Iraq, he really ought to visit the place. Having passed through eight time zones and one looking glass, what he will find is not the reactionary playground of his fantasies, but a country where thousands of idealistic young men and women go to work each day in the hope of creating a democratic society. One of them, Mustafa Al-Khadimiy, who risks his life cataloging the depredations Saddam Hussein inflicted, has this to say: "The terrorists want to destroy everything and we're dying every day. If we're going to have democracy, the Americans cannot leave." Alas, he won't be voting on Tuesday.
No, but thanks to President Bush and the U.S. military he will be voting in January.
You will be voting on Tuesday.
Watch the British media the next few days for the real coverage from Iraq. Without an election looming tons of missing explosives have made barely a ripple in the news pond there. From page one of the London Daily Telegraph:
Iraq's government yesterday offered the leaders of rebel-held Fallujah a "last" chance to negotiate as an American military commander described the city as a cancer that had to be dealt with.Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, indicated that time was fast running out for those who were harbouring insurgents there.
"This chance could be the last," he said in a statement, imploring "the leaders and notables of Fallujah to use it to find a political solution".
But with military preparations at an advanced stage and American officials suggesting a major offensive could begin next week, there appeared little hope of a deal.
"Fallujah is a cancer," said Maj Gen Richard Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division, who would lead any ground attack. "We can't have a sanctuary for the enemy and expect to make progress."
He said he had received no request from the Iraqi government to carry out military operations and offered no opinion on whether a peaceful solution was possible. "I don't know who they're negotiating with."
But he made clear that his men were ready for action in Fallujah. "It's a rats' nest but if we have to go in and clear it out we will." He urged the foreign elements in Fallujah and those loyal to Saddam Hussein's regime to come out and fight.
"We can take these guys on if they show their faces. Not a problem whatsoever. That's why they've resorted to the tactics they have [suicide bombings and landmines] because they know every time we face them we kill them."
The shadows grow long in Fallujah, the day is at it's end.
Whether you side with Mohamed and John or believe George and Tom (That's ElBaradei and Kerry or Bush and Franks, of course) the one undeniable truth on the Al QaQaa story is that it will be weeks or months before truth is known - if ever. This is not RatherGate, (except that both stories illustrate the opposition's misunderstanding of all things military) and despite great efforts from all sides the Blogosphere isn't likely to be a player in this one. In the latest developments, The Washington Times published satellite photos today:
U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained satellite photographs of truck convoys that were at several weapons sites in Iraq in the weeks before U.S. military operations were launched, defense officials said yesterday.The photographs indicate that Iraq was moving arms and equipment from its known weapons sites, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to one official, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, known as NGA, "documented the movement of long convoys of trucks from various areas around Baghdad to the Syrian border."
Defense officials tell us the disclosure this week of the 380 tons of missing high explosives from Iraq was the work of International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei, who is said to be opposed to the United States.Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they believe Mr. ElBaradei, an Egyptian, sought to influence the outcome of the presidential election when his agency called on the new Iraqi government to account for the stored high explosives at Al-Qaqaa.
"There's no question that most people here think the whole [Iraqi explosives] thing was cooked up," one official said.
The IAEA wrote a letter to Iraqi Science and Technology Minister Rashan Mandan Omar, who then had his chief monitor, Mohammad Abbas, write back.
It was Mr. Abbas who claimed that the explosives were looted after the U.S.-led invasion, a claim defense officials dispute.
The Bush administration has been frustrated that Mr. ElBaradei has been slow to deal with the growing crisis over Iran's nuclear program and the refusal of Tehran to halt uranium enrichment in violation of IAEA rules.
Mr. ElBaradei also has not been tough on North Korea, for its rogue nuclear program.
An IAEA spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The speed with which the campaign of Sen. John Kerry exploited the issue also has raised suspicions in the Pentagon that U.S. intelligence agencies helped the Kerry campaign with the story, at least until it began to fall apart shortly after the report appeared in the New York Times on Monday.
Actually there is one other thing that's certain: We'd never have heard of al QaQaa if John Kerry had been running this country the past four years.
Stunning quotes from John Kerry on Beldar’s blog. Don’t miss it.
Brokaw: This week you've been very critical of the president because of the missing explosives in Iraq.The fact is, senator, we still don't know what happened to those explosives. How many for sure that were there. Who might have gotten away with them? Is it unfair to the president, just as you believe he's been unfair to you, to blame him for that?
Kerry: No. It's not unfair. Because what we do know, from the commanders on the ground, is that they went there, as they marched to Baghdad. We even read stories today that they broke locks off of the doors, took photographs of materials in there. There were materials. And they left.Brokaw: The flip side of that is that if you had been president, Saddam Hussein would still be in power. Because you...
Kerry: Not necessarily at all.
Brokaw: But you have said you wouldn't go to war against him...
Kerry: That's not true. Because under the inspection process, Saddam Hussein was required to destroy those kinds of materials and weapons.
Brokaw: But he wasn't destroying them...
Kerry: But that's what you have inspectors for. And that's why I voted for the threat of force. Because he only does things when you have a legitimate threat of force. It's absolutely impossible and irresponsible to suggest that if I were president, he wouldn't necessarily be gone. He might be gone. Because if he hadn't complied, we might have had to go to war. And we might have gone to war. But if we did, I'll tell you this, Tom. We'd have gone to war with allies in a way that the American people weren't carrying the burden. And the entire world would have understood why we were doing it.
Later this:
Brokaw: Someone has analyzed the President's military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.Kerry: That's great. More power. I don't know how they've done it, because my record is not public. So I don't know where you're getting that from.
Hard to believe this race is close.
I'm slow, but eventually I catch on...
Slarrow, who's insightful comments are always welcome here, has a blog , and in this post points to a number of his poems.
I'll steal one verse, for a sample:
Two it takes to make a fight, but one to make a beating.Evil thrills when peaceful lambs come to the slaughter, bleating.
And let you find the rest for yourselves.
100,000 Iraqi ciilains dead. If they weighed an average of 120 pounds that would mean 6,000 tons of Iraqi civilians killed. Undoubtedly though most were babies and all were undernourished because of the sanctions that were working war. Thus 2,500 tons is more likely a good estimate.
More here. Do read, please .
Apparently most of the deaths were in Fallujah. Expect the total to increase to at least 650 billion civilian dead if the Marines take that town. Perhaps more.
As much as they might dislike President Bush or America, more Europeans are realizing a free world defended by John Kerry will not long be free.
It is partly Mr Bush’s character. The perils of war really do demand leadership and moral clarity. It is partly, to be honest, the quality of his opponent. The more you see of John Kerry the more troubling the thought of his presidency becomes. Behind a lifetime of careful, calculated decision-making it is clear that he harbours a deep suspicion about the very idea of moral clarity in foreign policy.It is partly what Mr Bush has done. Afghanistan is an infinitely better and less threatening place today than it was four years ago. Iraq, despite the catalogue of errors, is still heading that way.
But above all, in this oppositional sort of age, when it is often easier to be defined by what one is against rather than what one is for, I have to say it is his enemies who most justify Mr Bush’s re-election.
The list of those whose world could be truly rocked on Tuesday is just too long and too rich to be ignored. If you think for a moment about those who would really be upset by a second Bush term, it becomes a lot easier to stomach.
The hordes of the bien-pensant Left in the universities and the media, the sort of liberals who tolerate everything except those who disagree with them. Secularist elites who disdain religiosity except when it comes from Muslim fanatics. Europhile Brits who drip contempt for everything their country has ever done and long for its disappearance into a Greater Europe.Absurd, isolationist conservatives in America and Britain who think the struggles for freedom are always someone else’s fight. Hollywood sybarites and narcissists, self-appointed arbiters of a nation’s morals.
Soft-headed Europeans who think engagement and dialogue with mass murderers is the way to achieve lasting peace. French intellectuals for whom nothing has gone right in the world since 1789.
The United Nations, which, if it had its multilateral way, would still be faithfully minding a world in which half the population lived under or in fear of Soviet aggression. Most of Belgium.
Above all, of course, Middle Eastern militants. If your bitterest enemies are the sort of people who hack the heads off unarmed, innocent civilians, then I would say you are probably doing something right.
This may sound petty. It is not. This constellation of individuals, parties and institutions has very little in common other than the fact that it has contrived to be wrong on just about every important issue of my adult lifetime.And so, perhaps for the wrong reasons, perhaps less because he has been right and more because those who hate him so much have been so wrong, I want this President re-elected.
Go on America. Make Their Day.
Readers here should know that like so many American military families we're stationed in Germany. These days it's not an unusual situation for an American to leave his family in one foreign country while fighting in another; as tough as that situation might be it's certainly no hardship to be here in this beautiful country. Though it will be good to be back in the USA when the time comes there will be more than a little pain associated with leaving. Especially when I look around now and realize this is my last fall season here. My favortite season.
In local news from here in Germany the nation's largest newspaper has endorsed President Bush. Among the reasons given:
Bush has clear priorities. He sees the inhuman Islamic fundamentalism and the murderous mullahs as the largest danger for the Western world.Bush has learned the lessons of history. Military strength, not pleasant talk, is the only thing that helps against violent fanatics. And with Bush -- unlike with Kerry -- there is no doubt about this.
Bush has learned that America can defeat every country in war, but needs allies in peace. Thus, his second term will be characterized by cooperation with international partners. But he will not depend on how Syria or Libya vote at the UN.
With Bush, we know what to expect. With Kerry, nobody knows what he stands for and where he wants to lead America – and the world.
The Germans have always been a bit more supportive of U.S. efforts than the American press would like you to believe. The country took a decided swing to the left with re-unification and the flood of former East German voters into the electorate, but every day the German Army guards at the American military installations remind us by their presence, since the beginning of this war, that our long-time cold war allies are still with us against this newer evil. I have great respect for them.
Visit Medienkritik for all the details.
REMARKS BY GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS
IN INTRODUCING THE PRESIDENT
AT VICTORY 2004 RALLY
Westlake Recreation Center
Westlake, Ohio
October 28, 2004
GENERAL FRANKS: Well, what a treat it is to be in northern Ohio. (Applause.) Indeed, it's an honor to be standing here today with you. You know, I'm not a politician, but I know what a Commander-in-Chief looks like, and there's only one on this ballot -- that's George Bush. (Applause.)
You know, I would guess by the enthusiasm that I see represented here today that victory is headed our way in just about five days. (Applause.) If you think about character, if you think about courage, if you think about consistency, if you think about honesty, you think about George W. Bush. (Applause.) If you talk about a leader who knows something about the global war on terrorism, it would be George W. Bush, and he knows it's global. (Applause.)
You're talking about a leader who knows that terrorism has been more than a nuisance for more than two decades. (Applause.) You're talking about a leader who does not want to roll back terrorism to the times of Beirut in 1983, Khobar Towers in the mid-1990s, East Africa in 1998, the USS Cole in the year 2000, and doesn't want to roll it back to 9/11/01. Terrorism is not a nuisance. (Applause.)
George W. Bush is a leader who knew that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world and to the United States of America, and removed him from power. (Applause.) George W. Bush is a leader who knows that our troops, as of right now, have cleared 10,000 ammunition and weapons sites in Iraq. He knows that they have destroyed 240,000 tons of munitions in Iraq. He knows that they have under control -- (applause) -- he knows that they have under control another 162,000 tons of munitions in Iraq. We're talking about George W. Bush who knows, who understands that we do not yet have all the facts about 380 tons of munitions in Iraq. And he is a President who will look at you and say, we don't yet have the facts, but we will get the facts. George W. Bush. (Applause.)
In George W. Bush, you're talking about a leader who does not step out every day of his life and make more wild accusations. You're talking about a leader who actually cares about our troops, about their families, and about our veterans. You're talking about a leader who actually respects all those who serve our country with dignity and with honor. You're talking about George W. Bush. (Applause.)
The past three years have been hard years for America. The past three years have been a tough time for our country. I've looked into the eyes of our President, my Commander-in-Chief, and I have seen that character, that courage, that consistency that I just described. It's the courage that it takes to win a war, not tie one. And we have to win the war against terrorism in this country. (Applause.)
Now, I'll tell you, I don't know Senator Kerry's plan for victory. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but I do know -- but I do know that his criticism of military conduct of our global war on terrorism denigrates, disrespects our troops. (Applause.) And, ladies and gentlemen, I also know that he cannot lead troops to victory in a war when he has made it perfectly clear that he does not support the cause. (Applause.)
Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a close election, and every vote counts. Those who wear the uniform of service of the United States of America deserve a Commander-in-Chief, and it's my honor to introduce one -- President George W. Bush. (Applause.)
The moon was eclipsed over Baghdad in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Just prior to setting the disk was completely in shadow, an awesome sight low above the horizon. We knew it would happen, of course, absolutely inevitable and completely predictable, astronomy having come a long way from the earliest days... here in the cradle of civilization.
That full moon marks the mid-point of Ramadan. For all the talk of violence and pre-election attacks the month has been relatively quiet. Certainly not without incident, but nothing like the worst that so many expected. We're half way through the month, so there's another way to look at the situation: there are still a few weeks to go.
But from all indications, this is the key question that should be asked:
"How badly have we crushed the "insurgency"?" If the New York Times is to be believed, the insurgents have some share (if not all) of 380 tons (or if you prefer ABC, 3 tons) of high explosives at their disposal, and have had for over a year and a half. In all that time they have killed a number of captives and certainly captivated a sizable platoon of news reporters but accomplished absolutely nothing in the grand sweep of history.
Now in reality none but the dullest would imagine for a minute these people have 380 tons of high explosive at their disposal, else why are they being ground up in the wheels of the great machine?
And the coalition strategy over the past weeks may prove to be not just decisive, but a textbook example for dealing with such situations. Here's what's coming together, lining up as surely as the Sun, Moon, and Earth to bring an eclipse to the "insurgency":
1. A treaty with Sadr - brought about by overwhelming victory in Najaf and the resulting loss of hope on his part for gaining the support of the population - leading to less concentration of military assets in the Sadr City area of Baghdad.
2. A hugely successful "practice run" in the city of Samarra includes U.S. and Iraqi troops in a coordinated effort, destroying an organized and entrenched opposition.
3. Our British allies agree to move large numbers of troops northward, further freeing American GIs to turn their attention elsewhere. (Side note: this story is largely ignored in the American media, but a big story in Britain where the press is free to state the obvious: any coalition victory is a loss for the Kerry campaign in America. The story there is spun as Blair risking British boys to help buddy Bush but regardless of motive the result is devastating to the insurgents – their American allies are merely collateral damage).
All signs point to go time, and the target is Fallujah. It's not hard to imagine this scenario: all over the country the remnants of the failed insurgency (predominantly regime loyalists with no future and Syrians with less) are crawling to Fallujah, the beacon of death in the desert for their cause. And that death is coming, and all involved know it. If you need any more proof, look at the spin the New York Times has begun to apply in this piece from Edward Wong:
RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 21 - The American military and the interim Iraqi government are quickly losing control of this provincial capital, which is larger and strategically more important than its sister city of Falluja, say local officials, clerics, tribal sheiks and officers with the United States Marines.
"The city is chaotic," said Sheik Ali al-Dulaimi, a leader of the region's largest tribe. "There's no presence of the Allawi government," he added, speaking of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.While Ramadi is not exactly a "no go" zone for the marines, like the insurgent stronghold of Falluja 30 miles to the east, officers say it is fast slipping in that direction.
So see? If Fallujah falls then Ramadi is the real important city and we've lost it.
But the truth is Ramadi's turn will come too. And if you believe differently then you too could be Wong...
But for now its Fallujah that draws the flies home. And from all over the country they are moving, crawling to Fallujah, joining together for an orgy of death, a result as certain as the dawn of a new day in a newly freed nation - the inevitable end of the night.
We may see some brief flicker of the insurgent flame yet, some last-ditch effort before Tuesday. If so it would be a good time to remember this: immediately after Al Qaeda castrated Spain with a few well-placed bombs the organization released a tape claiming the victory. That tape included this phrase: "You love life and we love death,." Anyone who ever served in the US Armed Forces knew the instant response to that, heard George C. Scott quote Patton, establishing the obvious common ground between American Forces and Al Qaeda corpses: "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make the other poor bastard die for his country".
"You Love life, we love death"
The Marines will bring the love to Fallujah.
Oh, and speaking of Spain,
Pennsylvania's Democrat governor Edward "Fast Eddie" Rendell has learned that attacking the US Military can result in a counterattack. His attempt to disenfranchise his states military absentee voters is under assault from an Army Specialist serving in Kuwait and another serving in Iraq:
Two soldiers from Pennsylvania serving abroad filed a motion in federal court yesterday to force the state to accept overseas absentee ballots received after Tuesday's election.Without an extension, U.S. Army Specs. Matthew J. Schramm of Schwenksville, Montgomery County, and Steven J. Reitz of Venango County, probably won't have their votes counted, according to the court petition filed by lawyers with the Republican State Committee.
"With the war in Iraq a major issue in this election, it is especially imperative that the members of the military actually waging that war have their votes counted," according to the motion, which asks the court to extend the absentee ballot deadline until Nov. 17.
Schramm and Reitz, who are serving in Kuwait and Iraq, respectively, become the first faces put on the controversial ballot issue that until now has dealt in the abstract realm of potentially disenfranchised voters.
State election law requires that each county send out its overseas absentee ballots by Sept. 20. They must be returned by Oct. 29 for votes to be counted for all offices on the ballot, or by Election Day for only the Presidential vote. The delays in getting ballots out have been blamed on uncertainty over whether Ralph Nader's name would be on the ballot.
A sad state of affairs when those on the front lines fighting the war on terror have to fight a war on the home front too, but Spc. Schramm and Spc. Reitz have allies in America too.
U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) yesterday threatened to "use my power" to withhold National Guard funds from coming into the state "to support this governor" if any overseas military votes go uncounted. And, at a separate news conference, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) accused Rendell of using "heavy-handed partisanship" in opposing the extension.Rendell was not available for comment yesterday, but last week he said he finds them "personally repugnant."
The battle has just begun, it remains to be seen whether these young American heroes will be able to vote this year. You should have less difficulty.
From my soon-to-be-17-year-old daughter, in response to my question: "Are there any new music CD's you'd like for your birthday?"
Answer: "Just surprise me. If you like it I'll like it".
Fellow parents of teenagers are likely as stunned as I was by that one.
Pigs can fly, hell is frozen, the slipper finally fits,
and Impossible Dreams really can come true.
and my sister-in-law
Here's something easier than going to the polls and voting, and less controversial too. For a long time now we've had a link to the Breast Cancer Site on our sidebar. That link is in place in honor of my mother and Greyhawk's sister, both of whom are survivors. Now I have a message to pass on from the site:
As you may know, October marks the Pink Ribbon Challenge at The Breast Cancer Site , where every daily click is doubled thanks to our premiere sponsor, National City. This month, more than ever, telling your friends about a simple daily click will save lives. Our goal is to give 500 mammograms this month and we'll meet and beat that goal with your help. Please tell your friends about the Pink Ribbon Challenge and keep clicking!
According to their goal marker, they have only reached 400 hundred and the month is almost at it's end. I'm sure we could help them reach their goal of 500 and then some. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window below or on our side bar). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising, and every click counts double in the month of October!
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
The election story you probably haven't heard, from last weekend: Five years after a massive bombing campaign led to five years of UN control, the future of Kosovo remains in doubt, at best. Riots and slaughter left 19 dead and 800 wounded as recently as last spring, gunfights break out between members of the UN contingent , and now a significant percentage of the population has boycotted the elections in fear for their safety.
One of the key post-election priorities in Kosovo should be to ensure more harmonious relations between the province's ethnic communities, UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen said Monday (25 October). Describing Saturday's vote for Kosovo's 120-seat parliament as a "turning point" for the UN-run province, he said it had highlighted the need for a "dramatic improvement" in conditions for Kosovo Serbs.Fewer than 1 per cent of the Kosovo Serbs took part in the province's second parliamentary elections since the end of the 1998-1999 conflict. Citing security concerns following the mid-March riots, Belgrade officials and the Serbian Orthodox Church urged the community to boycott the poll.
Though they successfully buried it, even the AP had a tough time trying to paint this story as anything but bleak:
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -- Britain's European affairs minister appealed to Kosovo's leadership Tuesday to improve security for the U.N.-run province's beleaguered Serb minority, which boycotted the weekend's elections.Dennis McShane urged ethnic Albanian leaders to implement a set of standards created by U.N. officials, including progress in areas such as rule of law and protection of minorities.
U.N. officials have made improvement on such issues a prerequisite for opening talks on Kosovo's final status. Progress is to be reviewed in mid-2005.
"Please move forward on standards," McShane said. "Find a guarantee that no Serb living in Kosovo has to walk in fear, no Serb has to worry about his church being destroyed, no Serb has to worry about his house or feel to be under threat."
There will be few immediate repercussions outside of Kosovo, of course, since "underreported" is an understatement when it comes to the international failure in Europe.
In contrast (in contrast as far as results, since reporting was also somewhat low-key on this one) comes this story from Afghanistan:
HERAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 24 -- President Hamid Karzai has won a majority of votes in Afghanistan's election, clinching a five-year term and becoming the country's first democratically elected president, according to preliminary results released Sunday.With 94.3 percent of the votes counted, Karzai was winning 55.3 percent, or 4.2 million, of the votes cast, enough to avoid a runoff, the Joint Electoral Management Body reported. Any showing of less than 50 percent would have required a runoff between the top two vote-getters, according to the Afghan constitution. Even if all the votes that are currently uncounted went to his rivals, Karzai would still win a majority. An official announcement may be made later this week.
Karzai's closest rival, his former education and interior minister, Yonus Qanooni, conceded defeat. Qanooni was far behind with 16.2 percent, or 1.2 million, of the votes cast, the results showed.
<...>
Qanooni acknowledged his defeat, according to his spokesman, Sayed Hamid Noori, the Reuters news agency reported.
And what of the USA? This story certainly isn't encouraging :
Supporter: I?m just worried there?s going to be riots afterwards.Elizabeth Edwards: Uh.....well...not if we win.
How does one respond to such a bleak pronouncement? Or on related issues, how should any American react to stories of possible intimidation, or fraud at the polls? What is the proper response to Democrat's demands for UN monitors for the US elections? The time for words has passed; there are now two options for action next Tuesday:
Stay home Kosovo style, or vote, like the free people of Afghanistan.
I mailed my ballot from Baghdad. Where's your voting booth?
I may offer more on this topic tomorrow, but for now NZ Bear has the definitive coverage and a fine round-up on the latest news in the NY Times' rather flimsy attack on the capabilities of the US Military.
Hugh Hewitt's point is worth noting:
Throughout the run-up to he war, Frank Gaffney would again and again warn on my radio show that the most telegraphed punch in history was having consequences we could not calculate.
As I said, more on this from me tomorrow. Perhaps.
For now this thought:
One could argue, accurately or innacurately, that the missing munitions are a result of the war, whether they vanished before or after the arrival of U.S. forces on the scene. What's not up for debate is the fact that Saddam would certainly have them without that invasion.
Meanwhile, care to speculate exactly what reason he had them for? National defense is not the answer, because he didn't use them for that purpose when he most certainly had the chance. Assuming they were there, of course. Right?
Anybody?
Bueller?
Now go read.
UPDATE:
Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
UPDATE:
Brett Baer on FNC reports that the Pentagon is reviewing sattelite imagery which reveals considerable truck activity in the days leading up to the Iraq war. The DoD is considering releasing the photographs.
UPDATE:
Oct. 27, 2004 ? Iraqi officials may be overstating the amount of explosives reported to have disappeared from a weapons depot, documents obtained by ABC News show.
UPDATE:
A Power Line reader writes from a .mil address:
I am a reservist stationed at CENTCOM. I did a search on SIPRNET the other day and I came up with a document with the following (unclassified) subject:IIR 7 921 0164 03/DRAGON HUNTER - DUPLICATE U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR SEALS ENABLED IRAQI REGIME TO RELOCATE PROHIBITED MATERIALS.
UPDATE:
At the NRO, Kerry Spot reader R.L. points to the January 27, 2003 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the U.N. Security Council.
No beer here, but from the latest care package from the Mrs we're enjoying this.
Thanks darlin'.
This story seems more significant to me today than missing explosives (or anything else for that matter). I think the signal to noise ratio needs a bit of improvement and offer this in hopes of achieving that goal.
Kenneth Edelle Foster, 51, a retired Army sergeant whose wife lost her life at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, died Oct. 10 at his home in Arlington, Tex., of pulmonary fibrosis and congestive heart failure. He had lived in the Washington area since 1972 and moved back to North Texas, where he grew up, in 2003.A civilian Army policy analyst, Mr. Foster was working in his office in the Hoffman Building in Alexandria on Sept. 11 when he got word that a plane had hit the Pentagon, where his wife, Sandra Nadine Hill, had worked for 25 years. He jumped into his truck and raced toward the billowing black cloud he could see in the distance, going the wrong way on Interstate 95.
He ended up spending nearly two days and nights helping rescue efforts while desperately searching for his wife. Because he wasn't supposed to be there, a woman gave him T-shirts from the Salvation Army and the Red Cross to wear so he could blend in with the rescuers.
Mr. Foster and his wife -- whom he affectionately called Duchess -- had met in 1985, when both worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon. They married in 1991. As a senior management officer with the agency, his wife worked in an office on the third floor of the E Ring, directly in the path of American Airlines Flight 77.
She had left two messages on her husband's voice mail at work that morning. "Something strange is happening," she said in one of the messages.
Mr. Foster told The Washington Post a few days later that she was probably calling to tell him about the World Trade Center attack. He called her back immediately, but he got her voice mail, which was unusual. Then he heard a woman in his office screaming that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon.
Mrs. Foster's body was found at her desk a week later; medical authorities told her husband that she had died instantly. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mr. Foster sank into a debilitating depression after his wife's death. He tried to commit suicide two months later on his favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. After he survived a game of Russian roulette while home alone that day, he sought help and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He then went to counseling twice a week, started reaching out to the many people concerned about him and decided to move back to Texas. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that staying in the Washington area meant he was dying slowly each day as he relived the events of Sept. 11.
He set up a $25,000 annual college scholarship named for his wife, given to a senior girl from a District public school. His wife, he told The Post in 2002, valued education above everything else.
Mr. Foster had planned to travel to Washington on Sept. 16 for the second annual fund-raising banquet in his wife's memory, where he planned to award another Sandra Nadine Hill Scholarship.
He also planned to attend the Monday night Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins game. He was an avid Cowboys fan; his wife was just as devoted to the Redskins. He was going to buy two tickets and leave one seat empty.
He was hospitalized shortly before he was to leave and was unable to make the trip.
Mr. Foster was born in Fort Worth and attended Draughn's Business College there for a year. He joined the Army in 1971, serving in Japan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. A Persian Gulf War veteran, he retired in 1993 and began his civilian position with the Army that same year.
Both Fosters were big basketball fans, and Mr. Foster often coached girls' summer-league basketball. His wife, who played basketball at Dunbar High School in the District, often sat on the bench beside him as his assistant. During the 2000-01 school year, he also worked as an unpaid coach with the girls' junior varsity basketball team at Wakefield High School in Arlington.
Mr. Foster's first marriage, to Paulette Foster, ended in divorce.
Survivors include two sons from his first marriage, Kyle Parrish Foster of Capitol Heights and Kellen Patrick Foster of Landover; his mother, Charlotte Anderson of Fort Worth; two brothers; and a sister.
Mr. Foster's friends and family were fully aware of the seriousness of his lung disease, which got worse after he lost his wife, but they don't believe his illness caused his death.
"He could have got over his physical ailments, I believe," his mother said, "but he just didn't want to live. He died of a broken heart. We all know that."
One of the last things I accomplished before leaving home was a visit to the legal office to update the Will and prepare a Power of Attorney for the Mrs. While there we noticed a rather agitated gentleman who seemed to be having trouble with the legal folks. He was older, a civilian, possible retired, and standing next to him at the reception counter it was impossible not to overhear the issue. Seems he was trying to establish his state of legal residence, having been in Germany for nine years, but he was unhappy with the option he was getting from legal. They were telling him his "home state" was "state A" - the one he lived in immediately prior to coming overseas, while he wanted to be a resident of "state B" - because he did not want to pay the nine years of taxes he would have to pay were he to be declared a resident of state A.
That's all I know of the situation. At this point one of the lawyers appeared and ushered the man off to an office, presumably to do all they could do within the limits of the law to assist him.
Why this man was suddenly eager to be a citizen of a certain state after nine years of living in Europe is up to the reader to decide. Why he wanted to be a resident of a state with no income tax (are there any other than Florida?) seems a bit more obvious. Or perhaps not.
The fact that the Kerry campaign has been making furious efforts to register overseas voters is certainly one possibility. A fellow military blogger in Germany describes some of those efforts here :
The Kerry campaign is sending waves of operatives to other countries to request absentee ballots for ex-patriots, non citizens who were falsely registered as voters due to flaws in the motor voter registrations, and any other absentee voter they can muster. Since I have a personal friend directly involved in this effort, who refused to disclose the source of the funding because of legal questions (both foreign and domestic), I know for sure that this is actively going on in many countries as we speak. This same person showed me the voter registration card of his non-citizen wife, that had been issued to her because she got a Driver's License. The card came to his home long after she had returned to her country of citizenship.
In contrast, I know of no efforts whatsoever by Republicans to rally overseas voters - though some might claim the military's extraordinary efforts to ensure it's people vote this year is a de facto Republican effort.
But not completely. Here's an example, a young man who works in my "shop" who I suspect is a Kerry supporter (he's been known to say things like "I'm voting for Kerry", which leads to my assumption). However, as I was completing my absentee ballot I asked him if he had sent his in yet. Turns out he hadn't. In fact, he was not going to vote after all.
The hell you're not, I explained calmly to him. "You're telling me, standing here in the sands of Baghdad, that you aren't going to exercise your right?"
I was happy to see him later with his completed ballot in hand, headed for the mailbox. Even knowing it was likely going to essentially cancel the vote I had just cast myself.
Some of you may wonder how I could make such a statement. Believe me, the idea of an American GI not voting in this election is repulsive to me. Others might wonder why I never took the time to educate the youngster on his confused ideas regarding American politics. Undue influence is the simple answer. Though I did set the young man straight on the number of grievous inaccuracies in Fahrenheit 911 I would not for an instant attempt to sway a junior troop to my political point of view. I never talk politics with the troops, in fact that's one of the main reasons I use a pseudonym on this site.
So, given that I've now sort of cancelled my own vote, what can I do to ensure Mrs. Greyhawk's nightmare doesn't come true?
Just this: To all you folks who've offered your kind words, thoughts and prayers to me or any of the thousands of Americans fighting the War on Terror, I have this one request. Worth more than any care packages, books, wet wipes, or sunblock you could send us, do not let us down.
It's never mattered more.
Two articles, two sources, one theme: "Not all the news from Iraq is bad." Does this signal a tidal shift in attitude at some media outlets? An acknowledgement that they might have overdone the "we're losing the war / its a quagmire" angle? Is it a response to alternative information sources (ahem)?
Or a cynical attempt to establish "balance" claims for the preponderance of "we're losing war / it's a quagmire" coverage still to come?
U.S. News & World Report starts here:
Targets. On the highways, there is only tension. To soldiers, every broken-down car is a potential bomb; every tumbleweed may disguise an artillery shell set to explode. With dozens of bombs found each week, soldiers have good reason to be anxious. The military has responded by adding armor plating on humvees and many transport trucks. But the improvised bombs have grown increasingly sophisticated; insurgents, for instance, are rigging explosives to highway overpasses to hit the exposed humvee gunners. "It's a matter of getting through as fast as you can," says Lt. Mike Byrnes, an officer with the 10th Mountain Division, who has escorted convoys both inside and outside Baghdad. Insurgents, he says, "are trying to disrupt the supply lines. They hit a big truck full of fuel, ammo, or food--that hurts us. We depend on these convoys. Without 'em, we don't get what we need."In an apparent sign of the stress of such missions, 18 members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, a reserve unit from South Carolina, are under investigation for refusing to make a 200-mile convoy run of fuel trucks to Taji, 15 miles north of Baghdad.
But then goes here:
Small talk. In the village of Salaam, just south of Baghdad, Army Capt. Scott Shaw patrols the streets tasked with the job of preventing insurgents from bringing down an airplane with a rocket. Shaw is a dynamic company commander who seems to genuinely enjoy interacting with Iraqis. "I know this village like the back of my hand," he says. Shaw walks around asking residents about the price of rice and eggs, checking for signs of inflation at the food markets. He relishes taking meals with people in his area. Strangely, it reminds him of home, Little Rock, Ark. "Iraqis eat more okra than anyone I've met," he says. "They have this soup of tomatoes and okra. I could eat that every day." He talks about the upcoming election, quizzing residents about whether they know the location of the polling place. Encountering the son of a local sheik, Shaw exchanges kisses with him in greeting and asks how the new water pump he secured for him is working.
Meanwhile the LA Times starts here:
Last week, the Onion offered a satirical story with a Baghdad dateline: "After 19 months of struggle in Iraq, U.S. military officials conceded a loss to Iraqi insurgents Monday, but said America can be proud of finishing 'a very strong second.' "Not even Michael Moore would suggest that's about to happen.
Yet the reportage from Iraq is almost as bleak. Even as some media gurus accuse journalists of naively accepting officials' positive spin on the war, the sweep of coverage suggests that Iraq's occupiers have turned post-invasion chaos into a hellish nightmare and perhaps a quagmire ? and the consensus is that matters will only grow worse.
Then moves here:
At least a few less-intimately involved observers also glimpse hope amid the televised images of 24-hour carnage, among them Christopher Hitchens, Michael Rubin, Frederick W. Kagan and Gary Schmitt.Hitchens
...On the other hand, there are some unambiguous gains. The Marsh Arabs, former inhabitants of the largest wetlands in the region and victims of an ecocidal assault, have seen their ancient habitat partly re-flooded. Politics has returned to the Iraqi Shiite discourse, which now has a reciprocal influence on the important debate within neighboring Iran. Iraq has been verifiably disarmed (not quite the same as taking Hussein's or Hans Blix's word for it) and the socially devastating epoch of Hussein-plus-sanctions (vamped on by the U.N. in its disgraceful Oil for Blood program) is over.
Democratic voices are being raised insistently, in Syria and Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and though you may say this would have happened anyway, there is no doubt of what ignited the current debate...
Rubin
...Iraqis complain about security but are positive about the future. They reflect optimism not only in polls but also in actions. The new Iraqi currency, issued on Oct. 15, 2003, at 2,000 Iraqi dinars to the dollar, is free of Hussein's image. It is also free-floating, and even at the height of the April uprising and the battle for Najaf, it remained stable, trading between 1,400 and 1,500 dinars to the dollar. If Iraq is in trouble, don't tell the Canadians: The dinar regularly outperforms the Canadian dollar on international markets.
Iraqis also express confidence with investment, which spans the country. Electricity is unreliable, so restaurateurs have invested as much as $50,000 for top-model generators. A new clothing boutique represents a $200,000 investment. There are new hotels in Najaf and Karbala. Cigarette venders have traded pushcarts for tobacco shops. Kurdish investors are constructing a cancer treatment center in Erbil. In the slums of Sadr City, houses cost $45,000, nearly double their prewar value. In the swankier district of Mansur, new houses sell for more than 10 times that amount.
No Iraqi would invest his or her life savings if they feared civil war or perpetual lawlessness.
Freedom matters. Before the war, only the top 3,000 Hussein loyalists could access the Internet. Today, more than 100,000 households have dial-up connections. This number does not reflect the thousands of young Iraqi men who surf the Web (and try to pick up women) at cafes that dot cities, small towns and villages.
During Hussein's rule, 1 out of 6 Iraqis fled the country as refugees. Not only has there not been a mass exodus since Iraq's liberation, but more than a million refugees have returned.
Even at the height of the insurgents' bombing campaign, young men lined up at recruitment stations, not only for the salary but also to make Iraq a better place.
The television cameras do not lie, but they fail to give full perspective. The fiercest critics of the situation inside Iraq are those who have never been there. The coalition has made mistakes, and Iraqis are frequently frustrated at the pace of change. But they do see light at the end of the tunnel...
Kagan
...The operational good news coming out of Iraq was the destruction of the Mahdi army that served the rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. The militia had effectively occupied the holy cities of Iraq, including the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. The conventional wisdom was that the U.S. military would be unable to expel the rebels from their redoubts without causing an explosion of anti-Americanism in the Shiite world. Yet U.S. personnel combined measured force, diplomatic negotiations and skillful deployments to retake Najaf and recover the shrines without inflicting any substantial damage on them. There was no outcry in Iraq or the Muslim world at large, and some Iraqis even took to the streets to protest Sadr's actions. U.S. and Iraqi forces removed a threat to the development of a peaceful and democratic Iraq...
Schmitt
What's gone right in Iraq? Start with the obvious: Hussein is gone. Whatever the problems in Iraq, they pale in comparison with the history of Hussein's tyranny. Thousands upon thousands were persecuted, tortured and executed. Neighboring states were under threat and, twice, invaded at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties. Hussein spent massively for his own pleasure and weapons, while allowing the welfare of Iraq's citizens to deteriorate.
Nor, as the recently released Iraq Survey Group report makes clear, was Hussein a problem of the past. The sanctions regime was collapsing, and the former Iraqi president had every reason to expect he would soon be free again to rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
Waiting in the wings were Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, two predators equally involved in supporting their father's reign of terror, domestically and internationally. No, as Arizona Sen. John McCain has put it: "The years of keeping Saddam in a box were coming to a close?. Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat..."
I've only posted brief excerpts of these "good news" reports - but the entire collection is well worth the read.
Still while I'm glad to see some small mention of the truth in reporting from Iraq, why do the good news stories from this country, at least when reported in mainstream media, require several careful paragraphs explaining that it's an exception to the rule? That chaos is actually the order of the day?
And why is the above piece (surprisingly headlined "What's Going Right In Iraqi") in the Opinion section?
They are hot and cool days :
Students hold protests and sit-ins, sign petitions, and go on marches - all new activities since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Last week, students from al-Mustansiriya University protested the use of dormitories by Iraqi national guard officers, saying the space should be reserved for students.Debates are steeped in religion. Most universities have only two major political student associations: a Shiite Muslim group and one for Sunni Muslims. Each group advocates a different style of university life, and has a different view of how much religion should shape it.
Should women be required to wear head scarves, and should they be allowed to wear pants? May students put up posters of favorite candidates, or would that offend others? Can a Shiite student be treated fairly at a school administered by a Sunni president, and vice versa?
Politics has become so pervasive that the Higher Education Ministry has posted signs on all campuses that inform students of their rights, such as: "The freedom of opinion expression is a guaranteed right to the entire academic society, under the rule that this does not interfere with a student's education."
<...>
There are 20 public universities in Iraq, and the four in Baghdad have more than 70,000 students among them. During Hussein's rule, there was only one political party on campuses - his Baath Party. The government made decisions about university life, and students were forbidden to express themselves.
There were no courses on democracy; instead, Iraqi nationalism courses were required. Those have been replaced by courses on democratic governments and human rights. Some campuses have even dedicated departments to such topics.
Nadhum al-Abadi is an engineering professor at al-Mustansiriya and general secretary of the Green Crescent association at Baghdad University. That group advocates human rights and peaceful dialogue between students and professors.
"When the change happened, Iraq was like a big prison cell that suddenly opened, and people were finally free and able to express themselves," Abadi said. "It was like a pressure pot that exploded. With time, it will calm down."
If this sounds a little different from the typical news reports from Baghdad these days it might be because we skipped the first three paragraphs containing the obligatory exhortation to ignore all that follows because this country is going straight to hell. Here they are:
BAGHDAD - Within the relatively safe confines of Baghdad's university campuses, a picture emerges of what democracy could look like throughout the country if worries about security hadn't trumped everything else.It's not pretty. It's messy, uneven, and at times angry. Students and professors are still learning what democracy is and are debating how to execute it on campuses - or discussing whether universities are ready for such debates at all.
Like American universities, Iraqi campuses provide a haven for open political thought. The discussions are much more progressive than they are off the grounds, in large part because campuses are among the few places that are not overburdened by security problems.
Though its nice to see the facts making something of a comeback it would be even better if the media could split the opinions and editorials into a separate section from the fact-based news. Of course, if American media hadn't abandoned that model we wouldn't have blogs, would we?
The naked facts from the NY Post:
The Pentagon is investigating an Internet porn site that is publishing nude photos of what it claims are three female GIs in Iraq, The Post has learned.
One would think if they were naked it would be obvious if they were females, but perhaps I've missed the point...
An inquiry began last Friday after Army personnel officials were informed that several provocative photos of the three women were posted on a Web site that specializes in "amateur pornography," and that the women were identified as soldiers serving in Iraq.An Army spokesman said officials have not been able to confirm that the women on the Web site are actually GIs. He added that until that can be established, all other questions on the issue are "hypothetical."
But wait! There's more:
The women involved may also be victims. Wilson admitted that the photos on his Web site appear to have become public without their consent or knowledge.He said one set of photographs was sent by a lonely female GI to her boyfriend or husband back home over a computer that is shared by other soldiers at their base in Iraq.
But as we learned from media coverage of Abu Ghraib, there's no way those fellow soldiers could have known that nudity would embarrass the victims, so obviously they were encouraged from the top. Clearly no one knows what's going on yet, but expect immediate demands for Rumsfeld's resignation and an apology from the president to follow.
Careful if you get phone solicitations from this group: it's different in name only:
An Internet statement Saturday said an Iraqi group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has changed its name.Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad has become Tanzim Qaedat al Jihad fi Bilad al Rafidain, which translates roughly as Qaeda Organization for Jihad in Iraq, said the statement posted Saturday on several sites used by Islamic militants.
On Tuesday, a statement was posted on one website giving a similar change of name for the group.
It was not possible to verify that either statement was true.
And meanwhile, in a related story, the LA Times has changed it's name to the "Newsletter for the Qaeda Organization for Jihad in Iraq"
But seriously folks, there must be big PR problems behind this one - these types of changes are not to be undertaken lightly. The cost in updating official letterhead alone deters most organizations from even considering the option.
Then there's this sort of thing to consider :
Brian: Are you the Judean People's Front?Reg: ____ off!
Brian: What?
Reg: Judean People's Front! We're The People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front, ___!
Rogers: Blighters...
Brian: Can I...join your group?
Reg: No, ____ off!
But never fear, here in Mudville we always look on the bright side of life.
Update: Position open with aggressive, recently re-organized religious organization. Apply immediately; if a free and democratic Iraq is something you don't want to see join now and we'll guarantee you'll never see it.
The Mrs emails: "I had a nightmare last night..."
I'm thinking, Uh-oh, here it comes, signs of stress. Sure, I'm in Iraq and she's in Germany handling the kids and the house and the cars and the dogs and the bills...
Here's what I'm expecting: "I had a dream and you were hurt" or killed or whatever. You tell people it's not that bad and they want to believe but they keep getting bombarded by slanted news stories and just because it's not that bad doesn't mean it's without danger and what about those rockets and it's Ramadan and I read in the paper where the troops were mutinying and refusing to complete their missions and...
But the Mrs. isn't one to let that stuff get to her. At least on the surface, or at least if she does she won't let me in on it because even though it's not that bad I've got my own issues to focus on, know what I mean? And if she wasn't tough enough she wouldn't have been doing this for the past 20 years.
So don't worry about me. Know what the worst thing to happen to me today was? I watched the movie "Stepford Wives". The new version. People deserve to be punished for that movie. I'd like to ask the presidential candidates what they can do to ensure America never again has a movie that bad shown in its theaters. Seriously, I'm on board for that campaign. This movie is not so bad it's good, it's bad. Is this klunker out on DVD yet? The version I saw was pirated, the local markets are famous for this stuff. Low rent movies, usually two to four films per DVD, usually selling for less than five bucks American. Anyhow, this one was actually a video shot in the theater where the movie was showing. The camera was so out of focus at the start that the credits were illegible. Unfortunately the focus improved. I say unfortunately because if not for that I would have stopped watching, instead I wasted an hour and 44 minutes of my life on this chunk of junk. Since this was a video of a showing of the movie you could actually hear people laughing at it in the theater. At least during the early part, before they all went home.
Pathetic.
No wonder so many in Hollywood are opposed to the emancipation of Iraq. One: There are people in Hollywood responsible for this atrocity of a film. Two: GI's in Iraq are picking up copies of much of Hollywood's best work at approximately the fair market value; four movies for five bucks. I have access to a shared hard drive with approximately 200 movies on it. How's that grab you, Hollywood? We await the arrival of your best lawyers. Send Epstein and Liebowitz right over.
Okay, that was a cruel joke, but so are most of the 200 movies on that hard drive. Many are copies of those same low rent pirated videos anyway. But some of those pirated DVDs aren't bad. I saw one the other day with Spiderman I and II on one side and Shrek I and II on the other. I thought about buying that one, but really it's worth it to wait for the real thing, high quality with all the special features. For instance it would almost be worth a few moments pain to hear the director's apology excuse explanation defense commentary for Stepford Wives.
Some of the video pairings are more interesting. I saw one with Scream I, II, and III along with Mystic River. No idea how that combo came about. But today in a store I saw one that really made me laugh: Fahrenheit 911 paired with Fahrenheit 451. I never would have made the connection. There are similarities; one's a chilling look at a make-believe totalitarian world where truth is suppressed while the other is one of the best works of sci-fi of the 20th century.
I've heard that Ray Bradbury, easily one of America's finest authors, is none too happy over his pale imitator's choice of title. Who would be? I certainly hope he never sees what I saw, his nightmare story of censorship on the same DVD as a "documentary" unworthy of a trash heap. I wonder if George Orwell would be comfortable with the irony of it?
I call Moore's film garbage but like Bradbury I deplore censorship in all its forms. Truth usually wins out, at least in the minds of those seeking it. Those who want to be deceived are certainly beyond my help - you can hardly blame Moore for having the key to their wallets. If you want to be victimized by those who are willing to abuse free speech so be it. On the other hand folks genuinely looking to explore the issues could use some balance, and what's needed here in Iraq are copies of Fahrenhype 911 and Stolen Honor to go on that big shared drive with 'heit 911. If anyone wants to spearhead a campaign to get some over here I'm with you. Contact info is in the upper right corner of this web page.
Moore has a new book out featuring letters written to him from GIs who are attracted to his brand of 'patriotism'. Many of those troops discovered the rotund one via copies of his movie over here. In fact I met a guy just the other day who wrote one of the letters to Moore. He's a sharp young guy, and I haven't read his "essay" (as he described it) but I'm not too concerned. This young man is a product of a Poli Sci program of an American University. Eventually that will wear off, he'll begin thinking for himself again and some day he'll make a fine American. It's probably not hard to have a piece published in Moore's little book, and this guy is fairly well spoken, but he just arrived in country a couple weeks ago, and given that his bit was written some time back I'm not sure what sort of first-hand credibility he offers on the war on terror to Moore.
In fact I'll never know, since I don't have time to read that book in this lifetime. I have absolutely no desire to peruse something more pathetic than Stepford Wives, real-life versions of whom I'm sure are reading that book in Hollywood and elsewhere in America, and pondering whether to vote next week...
Oh, speaking of wives, I was discussing my wife and her nightmare email, wasn't I? Here's what she said:
"I had a nightmare the other night. I dreamt John Kerry had won the election."
And without me there to offer comfort. I'm sorry baby, I'll be there when I can.
Truth, Lies & Common Sense " is the 100th member of the MilBlogs Ring.
When this started I thought there might be twelve or fifteen. Welcome to the MilBlogs Ring!
Congrats to our pal Scott Ott for ScrappleFace winning the Class Clown category in the Washington Posts Best Blogs contest.
It might be due to stuff like this.
Chrenkoff's Good News From Iraq round ups are getting longer every week. (You might have to do them more often Arthur.)
Also, Defend America has an enormous list of the reconstruction done in Iraq.
Greetings from Baghdad. I'm pleased to report that plans for this year's Grand Halloween Cotillion are really moving along. The refreshment committee has announced the caramel apples will be available in green and red variety (thus heading off that fearsome debate that was developing between the Army and Marines) and the decorations committee has declared that they found a few of the pumpkins that survived those damned insurgents smashing party last week - so jack-o-lanterns will be available. Those who volunteered to help carve are reminded to bring their bayonets to the bingo tent Thursday night at 1900 hours.
In case you folks at home are wondering about the popular costume choices, most of the guys are coming as GI Joe, but I'm going to be Steve Prefontaine.
And yes - that's a joke. There is no Halloween Ball, though with dress and appearance guidelines being what they are (we can only wear DCUs or PT gear) on Halloween and every other night we will indeed be GI Joes or famous track stars.
There is some flexibility in uniform wear though. Make all the rules you want and people will still find ways to express their individuality. This go 'round it's all about how you wear the famous boonie hat.
This from the "local guidance":
Floppy hats must be worn with the brim flat and the drawstring under the chin, behind the head, or tucked inside the hat. The floppy hat will not be worn ?cowboy? (hung around the neck with the hat on the member?s back) or ?Aussie?style (brim rolled up).
But the younger troops found the obvious option: weaken the brim so it droops downward rather than staying somewhat parallel to the ground. The result, a hip hop style bucket hat that makes a subtle contrast to the "cowboy style" I've mentioned before.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the other senior folks have noticed the option being exercised. Maybe I'm a bit more keyed in to the environment; whatever means by which the style is spread it's not an information chain I'm in. It's no big deal, and as you can see above, the rules don't say you can't do it. So I'm inclined to let them have this one. Like I said, people find ways to express themselves...
I won't point out their proud Gilligan / JJ Walker heritage either. I'll just smile and wish them a fine day as I walk on by.
Speaking of make believe, you know what's fun to do on a slow day? Speak French to an Iraqi. When he looks confused explain to him there are thousands of you here but the deal is you get to wear U.S. uniforms, 'cause it's on le down low'. Man they get pissed, especially the "former regime loyalists" who thought they had a deal.
Hah - I'm kidding again!
I kid the French. I live near there, when I'm not liberating people. I visit all the time and enjoy the visits. I live near this too:
The Porta Nigra, the Black Gate in Trier, Germany. Trier boasts the largest collection of Roman Ruins north of the alps. Rome civilized the western world through strength in the first centuries AD, then for a number of reasons weakened and fell, leaving the world in a centuries-long dark age. Unless you've seen the ruin up close you really can't fully appreciate the majesty of what once was, and how far it fell, and how long it took to recover.
But like it or not America is going to be Rome for Halloween this year. What's unknown as of yet is whether we'll be the Rome of the first century or that of the fifth.
Trick or Treat.
When I read this story I imagine a Monty Python voice doing the news:
LONDON, England (CNN) -- A devil-worshipping sailor in the Royal Navy has become the first registered Satanist in the British Armed Forces.Chris Cranmer, 24, a technician serving on the Type 22 frigate Cumberland, has been officially recognized as a Satanist by the ship's captain.
That allows him to perform satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a non-Christian Church of Satan funeral should he be killed in action.
A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defence told CNN Sunday that it had a duty to allow members of the forces to practice their religion.
He added that the MoD was an "equal opportunities employer" which did not stop anyone having their own religious values.
There's more. Too much more.
This is for Greyhawk. Close your eyes, imagine the smell of the crisp cool air with a whiff of burning leaves in the distance and the sound of the leaves rustling as the wind gently blows and the village church bells ring. Now open them.
As beautiful as it is, it's not as spectacular as last year, but maybe the leaves just havent peaked yet.
Who said it?:
"I don't care what they feel about the truth of this war. If John Kerry thinks this war is a mistake and if the United States of America elects him president, the troops are going to have to live with that. And they know better than anyone else whether it was a mistake or not."
and
"I don't care if they're demoralized. They have to go to war and be prepared to live with the debate that goes on in the United States about whether it's right or wrong."
Answer here.
Update The Daily Recycler has some video you might enjoy
A cool dawn in Baghdad this morning as the temperature fell below 60. Since that's 50 degrees lower than our highs a couple weeks ago it feels cold. Caught a bit of the news on Armed Forces Network TV, delivering via satellite a national news show from CNN. The weather is on, and there's a Doppler radar map of the US, the whole country's weather on display in real time. We're years away from that in Iraq, of course (they're years away from that in Europe for that matter) so for now all we have is it feels cold (rare) or it feels hot (usually) or sometimes I can't see my hand for all this blowing sand... or I sure hope that 'boom' was thunder... (It usually isn't.)
That's our Doppler weather radar.
Speaking of chill, an IED (Improvised Explosive Device, for the slow kids) was found on the road between here and there the other day. I know this because an announcement came over the public address system: "Attention in the camp, until further notice travel to there is not allowed." No further explanation was offered, but we're in the loop in my little corner of here, so we knew why.
Earlier we'd sent some troops to there - before the boom boom was discovered. We'd later learned they were caught in the traffic jam on the return trip. During the wait they familiarized themselves with Iraqi radio ("Their beats are as up-to-date as ours", I'm informed by way of de-brief). They had plenty of time to make an informed decision as the device was safely removed and taken elsewhere for analysis and eventually a controlled detonation. That's the fate of the majority of IEDs - discovered, de-fused, destroyed.
A fact I'm sure all Americans are as familiar with as they are the state of Baghdad's hip-hop scene. "Another IED Fails to Kill Anyone" being such a common headline above pictures of smiling Iraqi school kids these days. I'll link an example when I find one.
All day every day we hear distant booms. Nine times out of ten (make that 99 times out of 100) it's a controlled detonation of captured or surrendered ammunition. In Sadr city the truce and arms turn in has been (from first indications) a massive success. Ordnance is being removed by the truckload, and it's the real deal, not junk. All this means that either Sadr is serious about "going straight" and pursuing a political route to power or that he has so much stuff laying around that he can afford to hand in a couple tons.
But even collecting the stuff has it's dangers. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's recent visit to Sadr City was preceded by a mortar attack - and the round actually landed in the football stadium where the collected ammo was stored.
Lt Dave Swanson of the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division, surveying the items that had been given back in return for cash, said: "These are RPG rounds. These are 60, 82 and 120mm mortars."Looking at it I would give an estimation there are about 300 anti-tank mines here. I wouldn't play with those."
He added: "Just one of these mines can blow up a tank so you can imagine what would have happened if a mortar had hit a pile of them. That's why the prime minister is not coming to look at them himself."
Is it safe? Good question. No is the only answer. Mortar rounds fired at piles of surrendered mortar rounds pretty much captures the madness of the situation. This might be good advice: If an 'insurgent' surrenders his grenade make sure the pin is in before you accept it."
Meanwhile, probes and jabs continue in Falujah:
The U.S. military has arrested a "senior leader" in the network run by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with five others during overnight raids in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, officials said Saturday.
So Ramadan has thus far been relatively quiet. Attacks on ING forces, Iraqi Christian churches, and a couple of explosions in the International Zone being notable exceptions. And of course, one event is sufficient escalation if it involves you - ask Questing Cat about Ramadan and you'll get the answer from his perspective,
You want to know the most terrible moment of a disaster? It is that split second when it begins. When all of a sudden there is a bright flash, that is nothing special except that it is the big break with reality to the f----d up world you are about to begin. A split second of bright light, and for the briefest second, there is no thought in your head, everything in you braces for....for what?
Which is exactly what everyone's trying to be ready for here - for what. But the truth is the month has not lived up to expectations - yet. Is this just the calm before the storm? Who knows. But there's an eye on the calendar and tension in the air, an alert readiness that leads to discovery of IEDs and survival of wounded troops and captures of insurgents and peace treaties with would-be messiahs negotiated at the point of a gun.
The bad guys could be saving their best shots for those final few days before the elections in the States. I've seen more than a few stateside pundits tired of the political campaigns counting the days 'til November 3rd, but I think no one would like to see the occasion pass more than the Iraqi citizens and American GI's waiting for that one brief flash...
A First person account from The Questing Cat, who describes a close encounter with a VBED (Pronounced VEE-Bed) - a vehicle-Borne Explosive Device (aka car bomb) and the aftermath of the attack. Warning: Realistic GI language follows:
My day started off so normal. I was attached as security detail to the civil affairs team as they toured the little town nearby and see how Ramadan was changing things. We walked the streets, talked to some people. Very rarely does any shit go down in this town. It is quiet and we like it that way. Our officers were in a meeting with local leaders, and after making the rounds we went into the building and started to relax a bit. Our Bradleys were outside pulling security, lots of ING around. I took off my Kpod and tried to get a little bit of air.You want to know the most terrible moment of a disaster? It is that split second when it begins. When all of a sudden there is a bright flash, that is nothing special except that it is the big break with reality to the fucked up world you are about to begin. A split second of bright light, and for the briefest second, there is no thought in your head, everything in you braces for....for what?
John Leo takes a few sharp jabs at a certain Big City newspaper.
Leo makes several good points here. Like most of the sharper legacy media pundits he seems to be relying heavily on blogs for material these days.
I stumbled across this site and thought it should be seen by more. Awesome photos and interesting discussions in the forums.
UpdateMore awesome photos here and check out this page with list of all reconstruction being done
The American elections are no doubt the hottest current event and will remain to be so for the coming few weeks. so I thought you might be interested in taking a look on how people in Iraq and other Arab countries think of this grand event. My source this time-like in some previous occasions-was an Arabic forum from the BBC. The forum was discussing this question: If John Kerry is going to win, will the American strategy in Iraq be changed?The majority of the commentators seemed to agree that whoever's going to be elected, he won’t change the strategy of the USA in Iraq and the region. Most of those were supporters of different conspiracy theories while some believed that democracy and the sharing of power and decision making in America was the reason. One of the most adopted conspiracy theories was the “Zionist lobby domination over the government of the USA”, some readers were even more ‘original’ in their beliefs!, and while the majority of Arab posters showed their distrust in the American system as a whole, a small portion favored John Kerry and a lesser portion favored George Bush.
Iraqis on the other hand were less bitter, although conspiracy theory can be seen in many comments. However, those who still fear the “Zionist lobby” seem to separate it from America’s plans in Iraq and have more hope in her. Few posters had a clear stand favoring one candidate. Most of those supporting Kerry were Arabs, while supporters for Bush where mainly Iraqis.Go read what the commenters say at Iraq the Model
Posted at 1802Z
Bill Faith says:
There were no parades when my generation came home from the war. We snuck back into society quietly, afraid to attract attention to where we'd been, for fear of the consequences it might have for our families
<...>
When you meet a Viet Nam vet, or discover that you've known one for years, by all means say "Thank you for your service" if you're so inclined. But if you only say one thing, please say "Welcome home." We were robbed of that, and it still matters.
Bill Faith is asking us to thank John kerry for his role, here's how.
Thank you for your service Bill and Welcome Home.
OIL FOR FOOD APATHY [Tim Graham] For anyone who wants to quibble with the notion that the media favor Kerry, consider this: Since January 1, 2004, here are the number of morning and evening news stories and interview segments the networks have devoted to uncovering the growing United Nations Oil for Food program bribery scandal: four. NBC aired three: a January 15 report by Myers, a July 20 report from Andrea Mitchell, and a Myers story on October 6, when the Duelfer report came out detailing the scam. ABC aired only one this year: from investigative reporter Brian Ross on April 21, the day the UN announced its own internal probe into the scandal. But we found CBS has not aired a single story on the scandal, even when using a list of different search terms in the Nexis search engine trying to find one. Maybe they were hip-deep in phony documents. Why isn't this a major scandal for the major networks? Despite the nine ongoing probes, the networks would rather chase anti-Bush angles. ABC, CBS, and NBC have combined for more than 75 stories on George W. Bush's National Guard Service, more than 50 stories on "skyrocketing" gasoline prices, and hundreds on prison abuse at Abu Ghraib. All year, Kerry has touted a greater UN and European role in Iraq. Now, those players look like what liberals called "the coalition of the bribed." And the anchormen are keeping quiet.
Here's a great site to find signatures of famous athletes.
No segment of the population supoorts the President more than the members of the US military. As for the other candidate for Commander in Chief, even the NY Times can muster only a pale attempt to depict some sort of support from the ranks for the best friend North Vietnam ever had:
Despite the risks, United States combatants in Iraq are largely supportive of Mr. Bush, if interviews with about 40 soldiers stationed in Baghdad and in several provincial towns to the north are anything near representative. But in the discussions, in heavily fortified bases in Baquba, Balad and Tikrit, and in the midst of a three-day battle for control of Samarra, there was also widespread pessimism about the war, and about how long American troops will be needed here, though it was mixed with a deep desire that the war be seen as noble and justified.This reporter, once embedded with United States forces, was given unrestricted access to the troops, who were free to speak without supervision. Yet some soldiers said they felt uncomfortable expressing criticism of their commander in chief or expressing a preference for Senator John Kerry, Mr. Bush's Democratic challenger, particularly because the military is, and has been for decades, predominantly Republican. Others said they believed that Mr. Kerry would fare better among the troops than a Democrat normally might, a reflection of the growing sense among soldiers that there is no end in sight to the conflict here.
Nevertheless, when asked who was to blame for what many saw as a deteriorating situation, soldiers were much more likely to cite Iraqi civilians or restrictive rules of engagement than Mr. Bush's policies.
And not a single soldier interviewed - even those who were most gloomy about the war - would say that it was a mistake to come here or that the war was a result of dissembling or miscalculation by Mr. Bush, which has been a common Democratic refrain in the campaign.
<...>
Although exact figures are unavailable, most campaign scholars agree that members of the military have tended overwhelmingly in recent decades to vote Republican for president. But Democratic strategists suspect that continued violence in Iraq might drive more soldiers, especially those in the lower ranks, to support Mr. Kerry.
A poll of active-duty soldiers and their families by the National Annenberg Election Survey in early October found a clear preference for the president, with 69 percent placing greater trust in Mr. Bush as commander in chief and 24 percent favoring Mr. Kerry. Of those surveyed, 43 percent identified themselves as Republican, 27 percent as independent and 19 percent as Democratic.
A recent survey of the 31,000 subscribers to the monthly publications Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Times and Air Force Times showed the president trouncing Mr. Kerry, 73 percent to 18 percent. The survey was unscientific. Subscribers, who tend to be older and higher-ranking than the average soldier, were sent an e-mail message and asked to respond, and 4,165 did so.
It is, nevertheless, a large margin.
And it was borne out by the interviews of soldiers in Iraq, creating a climate in which some Kerry supporters said they felt uncomfortable voicing their preference too loudly.
Because, you know how timid US military personnel are. Fortunately we've got the courageous reporting of the NY Times to help them speak truth to power. (/sarcasm)
There's an old military expression about everyone being out of step but you that could apply here. Still, Kerry supporters will likely find fewer antagonistc fellow service members in January if the Senator from Massachusetts is the one taking the oath of office.
The other day I caught a portion of a Chris Matthews interview with former president Jimmy Carter here on Armed Forces Network in Iraq. I had a hard time believing what I was hearing, then today I found this transcript on Powerline, with additional commentary (italics below) from Hindrocket
Reader William Holl alerted us to this unbelievable interview of former President Jimmy Carter by Chris Matthews on Hardball. Given that Matthews once worked for Carter, one might have expected the interview to be "Softball." In fact, it can only be described as "Screwball." It's hard to say who's nuttier, Carter or Matthews. Here are a few highlights, with my editorial comments:MATTHEWS: [A]s an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force. Do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?
CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War more than any other war until recently has been the most bloody war we’ve fought.Combat deaths, Revolutionary War: 4,435. Combat deaths, Civil War: 184,594. Combat deaths: World War II: 292,131. Combat deaths, Iraq war: 793.
I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war. Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial’s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a non-violent way.
That's just the first of many stunners. You can argue for eternity on the merits of various presidents, but Carter's presidency is the only one in my lifetime that can be legitmately termed a failure - a fact that Democrats should be first to admit. Carter brought America from a post-watergate/post-Vietnam malaise in which it semed no Republican would ever again inhabit the White House to the dawn of the Reagan era in only four years.
Four very painful years.
Oh, and here's Jimmy's quote made true, with one simple word change:
"Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War more than any other war until recently has been the least bloody war we’ve fought.
We first reported this last July...
...the United Nations has been unable to secure enough troops to protect a U.N. contingent headed to the country to help with elections and rebuilding.When the U.N. Security Council voted six weeks ago to authorize a protective force, it expected contributors to step forward. But countries have balked at taking part in a force expected to include 1,000 troops and several dozen bodyguards. Diplomats said many nations were hesitating because of the dangers ? including a wave of kidnappings ? and costs as well as the continuing unpopularity of the U.S. invasion.
But now, months later, Daniel Aronstein, "The Astute Blogger", alerts us to breaking developments:
When the going gets tough in Iraq, and a few new forces are needed to protect to small UN contingent, who steps up to the plate?The French? NO. The Germans? NO. The Russsians? No. ANYBODY FROM OLD EUROPE, OR NATIONS SERVING ON THE UNSCR?
NO.
Fiji.
>From the BBC:
The United Nations says Fiji's government has become the first to agree to provide troops specifically to protect UN officials in Iraq. The 35 UN officials in Baghdad are currently protected by troops from the US-led multinational force. But the BBC's Susannah Price at the UN says there are fears that this could make them more of a target. The UN is very worried about the safety of its personnel after the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters last year.
... on Wednesday UN spokeswoman Maria Okabe announced that 130 Fijians would provide security details for senior UN officials and a guard unit to protect UN facilities in Baghdad. "These contributions are critical to the UN's efforts to strengthen the security arrangements for its personnel in Iraq," she said, quoted by the Associated Press news agency. "This would make it possible for the United Nations to consider expanding its activities in Iraq as circumstances permit."
No Kofi Anan quotes on that, but I'm sure he's appreciative - not to mention busy. We do have an Anan quote in this story from Claudia Rosett:
Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, finds it "inconceivable" that Russia, France or China might have been influenced in Security Council debates by Saddam Hussein's Oil for Food business and bribes. "These are very serious and important governments," Mr. Annan told Britain's ITV News Sunday. "You are not dealing with banana republics."
I for one wish we weren't dealing with them - but I don't think that's exactly what he meant.
But our topic was Fiji, not oil for food. I'll try to stay focused.
Fiji is a small South Pacific island nation, population 880,000, and here, courtesy of the online CIA factbook, is their flag.
Mmmmmm... Bananas.
An actor who decides to do something about Iraq, instead of criticize it and an author who put her own personal battle aside to help those in need.
Actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) announce the launch of "Operation Iraqi Children", a program that will enable Americans to send School Supply Kits to Iraqi children.
And here is the finest endosement you could ask for.
Also,
To anyone in Iraq or in touch with people on the ground in Iraq, you should send your ?good news? story to Linda Vester at dayside@foxnews.com. She is doing a daily segment of good news stories. Together, we can be a positive force in this effort to promote the outstanding accomplishments being done everyday to help the children in Iraq.
Check out the whole site here
You'll likely see more than a few quotes from various media sources over the next couple weeks regarding the "root causes" of the Abu Ghraib torture case.
If you notice any references to investigations placing the blame at high levels in the DoD you're being had.
Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence Di Rita sets the record straight in the Washington Post
The Oct. 15 editorial "Remember Abu Ghraib?" repeated an incorrect assertion that "policy decisions about interrogations . . . led directly to the abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq." Several investigations into the situation at Abu Ghraib found that this was not the case.Former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger led an independent investigation and stated on Aug. 24 that "there was no policy of abuse" that led to the activities at Abu Ghraib.
Another panel member, former defense secretary Harold Brown, noted that same day that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "was extremely careful about the issue of treatment of prisoners during interrogation."
A third panelist, retired Air Force Gen. Charles A. Horner, added, "If there's something to be commended on this whole operation, it's the way the secretary of defense has approached the investigations."
Additionally, the Army's investigation into the role of intelligence activities at Abu Ghraib, led by Gen. Paul J. Kern, concluded: "No policy, directive or doctrine directly or indirectly caused violent or sexual abuse. . . . Soldiers knew they were violating the approved techniques and procedures."
The record shows that the Defense Department acted promptly and appropriately in investigating allegations of abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. The U.S. military -- not journalists -- first publicized the facts of the abuses at Abu Ghraib in January. It was the military's subsequent investigations that unearthed almost all of the disturbing details and photographs used by critics to castigate this department.
Investigations continue, and more information will be disclosed, but thus far these investigations have determined that no responsible official of the Defense Department approved any program that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as seen at Abu Ghraib.
Today a GI in Iraq read your blog. Enjoyed the visit too.
By the way, blogrolling blogrolls are invisible to me here (I assume it's java settings over which I have no control) so referral logs and trackbacks are now my way to find new blogs.
Steven Moore, who introduced us a few days back to his "Truth about Iraq" web site gets some 'ink' in today's LA Times:
Is Iraq Better Off? Ask The IraqisBy Steven E. Moore
John Kerry is playing the prophet of doom in the most important foreign policy initiative of our generation. In Pennsylvania, Kerry described Iraq as "the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time." In New York, he opined that murderous cleric Muqtada Sadr "holds more sway in suburbs of Baghdad than Prime Minister [Iyad] Allawi." In Columbus, Ohio, the senator claimed to have a more accurate perspective on the situation in Iraq than did the interim prime minister, whose favorability rating of 73% among Iraqis, it's worth noting, is higher than Kerry's 48% favorability rating among Americans in the latest polls. Kerry, of course, has never set foot in Iraq.
I was there from July 2003 to April 2004, conducting about 70 focus groups and a dozen public opinion polls and advising L. Paul Bremer III, then the civilian administrator, on Iraqi public opinion. Whatever you might hear from Kerry, Michael Moore, the mainstream media and anyone else to whom defeating President Bush is more important than the fate of the Iraqi people, those who know best what's going on in Iraq — the Iraqis themselves — are optimistic about the future.
Iraqis consistently say in nationwide polls that the situation in their country is improving. In polls over the course of the summer, for example, more than half of Iraqis said their country was on the right track. The vast majority of Iraqis — 72% — see the same benefits in democracy as Americans do: the hope for peace, stability and a better life. Most polls show that 75% of Iraqis want to vote for their leaders rather than have clerics appoint them.
In a recent speech, Kerry charged that Saddam Hussein's brutality "was not, in itself, a reason to go to war." Iraqis disagree, as should any supporter of human rights. Nearly 55% of Iraqis say that toppling Hussein was worth the price of the current difficulties. These figures are easy to understand when you look at another set of numbers. In an Op-Ed article circulated this year among the more than 200 independent newspapers now published in Iraq, an Iraqi democratic activist observed that Hussein tortured and killed as many as 750,000 of his own people. Iraqis don't understand the debate about whether Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. To them, Hussein was a weapon of mass destruction.
Please do read the rest.
And here's a picture from Steve's web site, that I just had to borrow. If you haven't read the Truth about Iraq yet now might be a good time.
Few (if any) military Bloggers have been online longer than Andrew Olmstead, who recently marked his third anniversary. Congratulations to a "pioneer".
I got tickets for an early screening for the new movie from the South Park guys. Rather than carboard cutouts, like South Park, the movie uses puppets -- marionettes, actually.The apparent goal of the movie was to make it a satirical jab at every facet of the "war on terror". Problem is, I think our side got the worst of it.
Not since "screw them" has Kos has so clearly declared his position on the war.
(Via Smash )
The sidewalks of my dusty town are made of wood and blood, rising up above loose sands to ease the burden of walking armored from point A to B. Here where the sidewalk ends a man not long ago a boy stands vigil in a slapped-together shack; at the sound of heavy boots on wood he rises and renders greetings. Return that greeting with a smile and present your bona fides, nod and sincerely wish a good day as he waves you on.
On my town's streets and sidewalks armored cowboys stroll; gunslingers in the literal sense, inheritors of the tradition.
Elsewhere many have compared Iraq to Vietnam, or to other conflicts or places or times, but they miss the real analogy: the American west. You can even see it in our manner of dress, boots and vests and hats and loaded weapons. Here is violence and opportunity, the land of hard edges and harder lessons, and here the brave from all over the world can find fortune, while the timid seek what they can elsewhere. "Back East" as the cowboys said. Back in the big cities, in the softer places.
Back in the World.
Here too are Indians, in the fearsome cliché sense, but they too are invaders here and though they lack the courage of the legendary masters of the plains they have this in common: their fate is certain. But no reservation awaits those who struggle tooth and nail against the inevitable return of civilization to this desert landscape - they are seekers of paradise and many are willing to help them along. They are to be swept away, and how you feel about it matters about as much as how you feel about the return of high tide to your favorite shore.
Indeed we're far from paradise in this unforgiving land. Relentless and dangerous now, but as the danger subsides and the land is made safe for wimmen an' young'uns and men of less bold nature so too will opportunity fade and great rewards become elusive. Then inevitably a day will come when those who never saw it will nonetheless rewrite it all, denying good but naming bad guys on both sides, bemoaning the fall of the noble savage and pointing out the ruin that modern living brought to the land. The groundwork for those stories is being laid today; the wooden frames on which those versions of truth will rise are being slapped together now by writers in sequestered cloisters and their editors "back east".
And yes, then others will complain of the pacification, wail in futility that they were born too late, that the soft edges have come and brought the death of all adventure here. So be it. Truth is that I'd love to live to see that day. To tell my grandchildren tales of how it really was, and wonder would they think me the doddering old fool...
Speaking of days when the sidewalks of my town were made of wood and blood.
Sometimes the re-writes don't take long. Even before sundown on the day of the rule of the gun there were ruthless men made heroes of a sort; in dime novels, penny dreadfuls and Buffalo Bill's Wild West those who once claimed scalps as prizes paraded to cheers and jeers. Now a new face of evil appeals to that same something in that same certain segment of the population, offering confirmation that they were right to spurn opportunity and remain in some small comfort in distant shelter. These new icons of fear are in the ring at the 21st century Barnum's, and you can find them from where you are now with a couple twitches of your hand, courtesy of those 'hero-makers' in their distant towers back east.
Towers that stand as small reminders of greater things that once were there above the rivers of stone, paved like free streets everywhere with the blood of heroes and dreamers and fools.
You know, my husband thinks that there's probably one of these for every candidate, but somehow, I doubt it. Well maybe one other candidate. The search is on.
Update with aauuudiooo
The Guardian posts responses to it's letter writing campaign.
Not sure if it's due to the editors choices or because the paper attracts a semi-literate readership, but the comments section at Tim Blair's provides much more interesting feedback.
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space station's newest astronaut will cast his ballot in the presidential election from 225 miles (360 kilometers) up, with NASA's help.<...>
U.S. astronauts, most of whom live around Houston, won the right to vote from space under a Texas bill signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Our final bit of news from London , where the Defence Secretary is expected to announce that 650 British troops will be relocated closer to Baghdad, freeing American GIs to assist in an attack on insurgents in Fallujah.
Seems a reasonable enough idea to move the troops to where they are most effective in hastening the end of the conflict. However,
As the Tories and anti-war Labour MPs questioned the motives for moving 650 soldiers to the US-controlled sector, No 10 tried to defuse the row by insisting that decisions would be taken for military reasons alone.<...>
Two of Mr Blair's allies reacted angrily to suggestions from Nicholas Soames, the shadow defence secretary, that the troops were to be sent as a gesture of solidarity between Mr Blair and President Bush, whose campaign for a second term is under threat from the resurgent Democrat, John Kerry.
Mr Soames wrote to Mr Hoon: "I am fully aware of the importance and the timing our American friends and allies attach to the Fallujah offensive and the urgent arrest of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Alan Milburn, Labour's election co-ordinator, condemned the remarks and similar comments by anti-war Labour MPs.
"People will look pretty askance at those who are saying somehow or other there is some sort of tawdry political deal," he said. "The allegation is that this is about Britain acting in American political interests. It is not about that at all.
"All of these decisions are taken on an operational basis. They are done in full consultation with the people on the ground."
John Reid, the Health Secretary, said that talk of a political motive "diminishes the effort that has been made by our soldiers".
In Washington, the allegation of a political deal was greeted with bafflement.
A senior official said: "It is preposterous to believe that somehow the American populace is going to know that there are 650 British troops fighting in a different location in Iraq and that that will somehow make a difference to how they vote."
True at face value, but also wrong. Unlike the Guardian's Ohio letter writing campaign the fact is that this move might actually influence the American election, by resulting in gains in the war that reflect negatively on the Kerry campaign.
The only real timing issue here is Ramadan; the decision is to bring the noise to the enemy before he brings it to us. Our allies are doubtlessly motivated by military, and not political concerns, but the fact is the two overlap in this instance.
And therein lies the truth that is an unfortunate and unspoken part of this story, at least the truth as seen by our cousins in the British Isles: the Kerry campaign loses if we are even perceived as gaining in the war. Our forward progress brings his failure, in our victory lies his defeat.
Did it have to be this way? Certainly not, he could have supported his country's efforts in Iraq and eliminated the debate (and simultaneously discouraged some enemies here in Baghdad) and campaigned on domestic issues. He could have even offered more benefits to veterans along with his full support of their efforts and appreciation of their sacrifices and perhaps won the military vote. He didn't.
Water under the bridge, as they say.
I've already voted, by the way, via absentee ballot, postmarked Baghdad.
I voted to win the war on terror.
Okay, really these are "anti-war" protestors (for background info, see Powerline and LGF ) who've foolishly allowed themselves to be set up for my photoshop work. Hint to the terminally stupid: Don't seek out 14-year old girls in chat rooms, and never! never! never! put your picture on the internet holding a sign!
Hindrocket: "I do think I can predict how our troops will respond, however. I think they'll share my contempt."
Contempt? How's this: Is there some sort of distortion in this lens? Because this group has a real carny/midway freakshow quality about them. I've seen these people before, memory isn't clear if it was at a carnival or just on an episode of Jerry Springer. The Mrs says Judge Judy but I don't think heronner does class action stuff.
Hey, wait, is the bearded lady on the left smiling? Zere isn't suposed to be zee smilink!
See, here's a better prepared peace cluster:
Somehow I don't think they needed prompting to get that constipated-and-my-dog-just-died look on their faces "Frown everybody. Okay? 'Dead baby' on three! One... two... three... 'dead baby'! Thank you." Or this surefire frownmaker for those of every political stripe: "Okay on three, Kerry '04!"
Morons.
Here's a post from Alaa at The Mesopotamian they might enjoy ignoring:
...For us Saddam and his regime were in themselves, the most lethal WMD that cost our people hundreds of thousands of victims not to mention the destruction of the economy and the very fabric of society in our afflicted country... Saddamism is a cancer that we have yet to recover from. Western intervention lead by the U.S.A. was a God send to us, despite all the pain and misery that accompanied the operation and the repercussions that continue to rock the process of recuperation and rebirth of the nation. The U.S. soldiers are bravely standing in the thick of the turmoil and contributing with their blood and sweat not to mention the treasure of their land, towards curing us from the remaining ulcers of the disease after having performed the main surgery which no one else even dared even to think of.... And without the slightest hesitation, we hail with Love and Gratitude our giant U.S. friend and his allies, standing with us shoulder to shoulder, braving the elements, braving death, calumny and hatred, shedding blood; to help us heal, to help us reach the shores of safety. And make no mistake, the campaign is winning and will achieve its objectives. Make no mistake; you have already created an allied nation in the very heart of the M.E. despite all appearances, which will produce all the long term benefits and consequences so many times reiterated by President Bush, to the ridicule and insults of the profoundly mistaken, of the profoundly hating.
America, stay the course - God, Decency, Honor, Hope and everything that is virtuous and right is on your side, beside the majority of the Iraqi people. America do not waiver, for you have never waged a more noble and just campaign in your entire history. America, we are winning, God’s willing, and Victory is coming sooner than many might think.
And some Americans choose to send exactly the opposite message to Alaa. Yes, there's a war going on, but while Alaa and I are on one side, some Americans are on the other. They're treasonous, but I can't rule out this explanation: "The left is poorly educated, exceedingly gullible, and easily led."
And where some see treason I see opportunity.
Join the fun! Send your version of one of these (you'll find the originals here)
or send us a link to your own post with a modified 'protest' shot.
Given that I'm in Iraq, it occurs to me that more people here will see these modified photos then will see the originals. In fact, I'll guarantee it.
And remember, never! never! never! put yourself on the internet holding a sign.
Update 1 Tim Blair reviews the fool collection.
Update Living Room Section has more
Update: Apology accepted.
Update More here from Sean Gleeson (and even more here And here's one from Wizbang
Update here's one from RightWing Sparkle
Update Random Nuclear Strikes
UpdateHeres anotherand Here
UpdateIntoperable Terran
Continuing today's theme of news from Iraq via London, this story of an amazing visit this past weekend:
Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, became the first leader of his country to visit the Shia slum area of Sadr City yesterday, arriving minutes after a mortar attack that killed three people.<...>
After Dr Allawi held meetings with tribal leaders and representatives of Sadr, who is still wanted for the murder of a fellow cleric, he emerged to pose for photographs with the local football team. As they passed a group of men shouted, "Long live Moqtada".On his way to the local council offices, taken over by Sadr's insurgent Mahdi Army earlier this year, Dr Allawi was driven in an armoured Chevrolet with darkened windows, accompanied by a convoy of three decoy vehicles and eight American Humvees.
Declaring the visit a success, an aide said that things were improving all the time in Iraq.
"Saddam Hussein oppressed this place for 30 years but he never came here. These people need to have confidence that now they will be listened to."
Certainly there's a long road ahead, but this is an amazing step, and even more so coming less than one week after the cease-fire went into effect.
Yes - but it's not the story you're thinking. I guess the American papers are too busy with upcoming elections and other matters to report the real news from Iraq today. Here's our third in a row from a British media source:
Up to 20 people suspected of taking part in an operation to free the British hostage Ken Bigley have been murdered in a purge of the terrorist group headed by Iraq?s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it was claimed yesterday.A senior Iraqi resistance source in al-Zarqawi?s stronghold of Falluja said two Syrian guards had helped the 62-year-old Liverpool-born engineer to escape after he was held at a mosque on the edge of the city.
Their car was halted for routine checks by insurgents with links to al-Zarqawi?s Tawhid and Jihad group before they could reach the safety of an area under American control.
According to the resistance source the Iraqis recognised Bigley, who was disguised in Arab dress.
Al-Zarqawi is said to have been incensed that his group had been compromised and ordered the insurgents to behead Bigley.
Not a "good news" story by any means, but certainly fissures in the bond holding the Zarqawi group together are worth noting. There are hints that some amongst the mujahadeen may have found a motivation stronger than paradise with virgins - but don't think for a minute their motives were pure:
A western military intelligence source said MI6 had paid a network of local Iraqis for information in the hunt for Bigley, but insisted that the principal aim had been to kill or capture al-Zarqawi.
And, in a shadowy guest appearance:
Much of the secret information-gathering work against al-Zarqawi is being co- ordinated by the Iraq Survey Group, whose intelligence experts were originally focused on the vain search for weapons of mass destruction.The group is using agents seconded from the CIA and MI6, while the main force on the ground involved in raids on militant hideouts is the US 10th Mountain Division.
The bottom line being that we are making inroads from several directions, and there's good reason for Zarqawi's band to sleep a bit less peacefully these days, as "paradise" looms ever closer.
Canadian soldiers attached to the Afghan National Army (ANA) [have] "discovered" a huge Soviet ammunition dump a few kilometres from Camp Julien with the potential of obliterating the camp, as well as most of Kabul.That may sound like hyperbole, but I was with the Canadians who discovered the cache ? soldiers ? who are training and working with the ANA ?
Go read the whole story
Hat tip to our EU brothers in the Blogosphere-No-Pasaran. Be sure to visit, we always like to know what the Europeans are thinking.
They called it ?Spectre baiting?. Sergeant Craig Brodie, 33, sensed his men?s nervousness in the grim little joke as their Warrior armoured vehicle crawled down a darkened street in the southern Iraqi city of Amara. They were keyed up for action and concentrating for all they were worth.Lurking in the shadows ahead was a group of rebel gunmen from the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi?ite cleric. Brodie?s job was to lure them into the open so an AC-130 Spectre gunship overhead could destroy them with its cannons and howitzers.
The rebels would show themselves only if they were attacking the British Warrior, so it was no surprise to Brodie that the atmosphere in the vehicle was tense.
By contrast, the American voice in his earphones could not have been cooler. ?Steel rain on call,? drawled the controller of the US special forces gunship circling in the starry night sky and waiting for the moment to strike.
There was a pause as the Warrior edged forward. Then the controller, codenamed Basher 75, came back on the radio. Six to eight armed men had been spotted with the Spectre?s night vision equipment. They were preparing to ambush.
?Any foxhounds out?? asked the controller, checking that there were no dismounted soldiers who needed to get back inside Brodie?s vehicle fast.
It was just as well the answer was negative. The Mahdi militiamen were now less than 100 yards away and the Spectre was about to swing into action.
Colonel Matt Maer, of the Princess of Wales?s Royal Regiment (PWRR), had given special written authorisation for the Spectre to open fire even if his own troops were within the potential blast area. This was to be the first such ?danger close? engagement signed off by a British commander since the Korean war.
Brodie locked down his hatch and stared through his night-sights at the Mahdi militiamen. ?We were in so close we watched them laughing and joking,? he recalled. ?Basher then announced, ?Rounds on the way,? and at the same time I engaged with my cannon.
?The strike was an awesome sight. There was no flame, just a big puff and then hot metal shrapnel flying in all directions. In three or four seconds the smoke cleared and there was nothing there at all. The militia had been vaporised.?
The battle that began that night ? August 10 ? was codenamed Operation Hammersmith and became the biggest fought by British troops since the invasion of Iraq last year. More than 100 engagements would follow in 48 hours.
Yea, you know you want it.
This could get interesting. From the London Sunday Telegraph:
American prosecutors are preparing charges against Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil for food programme, who has been accused of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from Saddam Hussein's regime.Congressional investigators examining alleged corruption in the programme disclosed that Mr Sevan's diplomatic immunity would not prevent an indictment being issued. Mr Sevan has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
"We have tried to find out what part he had and we've been working to lift the lid on what he did," said one official on the US Congress International Relations committee. "My understanding is that we can indict him without lifting diplomatic immunity. That's what we did with Noriega."
Gen Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian leader, was indicted in 1988 by a federal grand jury in Miami for drug trafficking. He had allowed the Medellin cartel to launder money and build cocaine laboratories in Panama.
Former officials in Iraq's state oil company, Somo, have alleged to investigators reporting to the International Relations committee that Mr Sevan was "sacked" on Saddam's orders in 2001 for failing to keep promises to campaign on ending sanctions.
Key quotes follow.
Sevan:
"These people are digging, digging. That's nothing to do with me," he said from his five-star hotel. "Cyprus is my home. I'm here because I want to be here. I've made my statement and stand by it. It's not for me to comment on anything else."
The prosecution:
A spokesman for the Southern district of Manhattan's federal prosecutor's office said it was "too early" to comment on its indictment efforts over Mr Sevan. Officials are, however, examining the diplomat's extensive property portfolio in the United States.
And this from an "official":
A second Congressional official said that the US hoped to recover some of the funds allegedly siphoned off from the now-defunct oil sales programme, which was designed to alleviate shortages of basic goods in Iraq as a result of sanctions.He said: "Our priority is to recover as much money as we can for Iraq, for various reasons, because they need the money and every dollar they have is a dollar we don't have to put in there."
The plot thickens indeed; do the American papers have this story yet?
When asked whom they would trust as commander in chief, people in military service and their families chose President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, by almost a 3-to-1 margin.
<...>
Those in the military and their families have a more favorable view of Bush than Americans generally, and they take a more optimistic view about Iraq, the economy and the nation's direction
go read the full report
Captain Ed posts letters from his buddy Mike, a former Navy Seal who's been in Iraq for the past several months. Designed to explain the situation to his young kids, the letters could also be useful to some of the 'slower on the uptake' members of the flower power generation - if only they would read them.
Letter one here,
two here
and three here .
Enjoy.
Dear Mr & Mrs GreyhawkOn Saturday, 9 October, for the fifth time in my life I went into a polling station and cast a vote in Australian federal election. The same day, but several hours later and on the other side of the globe, millions of people were exercising their democratic right to vote for the first time in their lives.
In my earliest political memory my father and I are hunching over a radio set, listening with the sound turned down to Radio Free Europe and the news of armed resistance against the Soviet invaders springing up around Afghanistan. The year is 1979, I am 7 years old, and this is the first time I'm hearing about the mysterious and romantic mudjahedin and their struggle against the Red Army - the topic not surprisingly absent from Poland's communist media. Over the next few years we would continue to follow the events in Afghanistan with somewhat mixed feelings; the unspoken support and sympathy for the brave Afghans fighting against communist occupation, but at the same time sadness for the fate of the Red Army troops, most of them unwilling conscripts forced to fight somebody else's war in a faraway country. There but for the grace of God goes I, thought my friends' older brothers of the draft age.
Recalling this story as I came out of my Australian polling station made me realize that for most of my life, and certainly all the time I have been conscious of world events, Afghanistan has been what many would colloquially - and unkindly - call a basketcase; a harsh and impoverished land, forever doomed to be riven by war and suffocate under foreign or domestic oppression.
Yet finally, after a quarter of a century, Afghanistan is getting better.
...The first democratic elections - and plenty more... Available from:
Thanks for your help in spreading the good news.
Best regards
Arthur
The pleasure is ours, Arthur!
Chicken John
Yes now we know how low they’ll go,
These Johns who want to lead us.
Desiring to pander, they slickly slander
While contrived compassion they feed us.
She is “Fair Game” that Cheney dame;
Yes, that’s Miz Cahill’s call.
So why feel shock at their sordid schlock,
Aren’t they lawyers after all?
It’s no surprise that these two guys
Are true artists at their easels;
Using words as paint they trickily taint,
Paired Picassos of sleaze, these weasels.
So no one’s now a sacred cow,
Since the Liberals tossed the rules.
There is no blame they’re all fair game
Go after the family jewels.
Get under their beds, inside their heads,
There’s no limit on taking pelts.
Thus we’ve no shame in our dubious claim
John loves chickens in garter belts.
For that you see solves the mystery
To the question that so begs:
How Carvillian Kerry, who outted Mary,
Learned to lay such perfect eggs.
Russ Vaughn
The Muslim calendar is lunar, the start of a month is marked by the appearance of the crescent moon that symbolizes the faith.
This Cheshire cat grin was the last crescent of the vanishing moon of Shabat, the month before Ramadan, traversing the pre-dawn sky as I made my way across camp that morning.
A moonless evening the winds came and lifted the sands. You'll not get the full impact in the still shot above; the trees are frozen in time, they were dancing in the dust this night, but the halo of light was visible to the eyes too.
And now Ramadan, this the third moon of the month, above camp. I walked from my tent to this sight, drew the camera quickly and shot.
Peace be with you all.
In the e-mail:
You may recall a blog about six months back "The View from Baghdad," written by an anonymous guy working with budding democrats in Bagdad, that disappeared suddenly in April. It posted a lot of photos and gave personal accounts of what was going on with every day Iraqis. Well, I am back and no longer anonymous. I was in Bagdad for nine months, from July of last year through April of this year, doing about a dozen polls and seventy focus groups, advising Ambassador Bremer on Iraqi public opinion. Check out my new website "The Truth About Iraq".I came back from Iraq in May, and got disgusted with how the media was portraying events in Iraq, and thoroughly nauseated by Michael Moore (who has never been to Iraq) and the lies he is propagating, so I started The Truth About Iraq.org I've decided to use the polling information from Iraq to debunk some of the myths that have been created by the media.
Since more than 7 million people watched Dan Rather last night, and Fahrenheit 9/11 has sold some 13 million tickets, I figure the only way to counter such massive disinformation is through paid television commercials.
We are airing the attached commercial http://www.thetruthaboutiraq.org/media/Truth.mov starting on the 16th.
I'd appreciate it if you could help get the word out.
Thanks.Steven Moore
Founder
The Truth About Iraq.org
The Truth about Iraq Homepage is here
And the blog is here.
They need our help to put out an awesome commercial that'll make America Proud
A press release from the Fraternal Order of Police , the world's largest organization of law enforcement officers:
Today Chuck Canterbury, the President of the nation's largest police labor organization, called on John Kerry to stop making misleading statements regarding his support from the law enforcement community. Both on the campaign trail and in Wednesday night's debate in Tempe, AZ, Senator Kerry has alluded that he has the support of the majority of these brave men and women."As the elected leader of the largest organization representing America's Federal, State and local law enforcement officers, I believe it's important to point out yet again that we do not support his candidacy for President," Canterbury said. "And to be perfectly frank, the groups which do support him actually share the same membership rolls and, taken together, probably comprise less than one-quarter of our nation's police officers."
Canterbury further noted that unlike the organizations which Senator Kerry touts, F.O.P. members as a whole decided that the Fraternal Order of Police would endorse the reelection of President George W. Bush. They based their decision, he said, on the record of the Bush Administration in supporting America's first responders-including helping to secure passage earlier this year of H.R. 218, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, the organization's top legislative priority. Bush also successfully fought to greatly enhance the benefits for the families of officers killed in the line of duty.
"While Kerry was flying around the country campaigning and leaving the actual work of the nation to his colleagues in the Senate, the President was out there working on our behalf," Canterbury said. "Senators Kerry and Edwards have missed so many crucial votes this Congress that I was beginning to believe there were only 98 members of the U.S. Senate."
Canterbury also said it was the height of irony that Kerry would use his position on the reauthorization of the assault weapons ban as a reflection of his support from police. "First, if a police officer is killed by an AK-47, Kerry would oppose the death penalty for the killer," Canterbury said. "In addition, where was he when this issue was being discussed in the 108th Congress? Where was he when we were working to pass H.R. 218? When it came time to help push for final passage of legislation important to law enforcement, Senator Kerry was regrettably A.W.O.L."
"Given the facts, I would greatly appreciate it if Senator Kerry would refrain from making similar whimsical assertions regarding his support from the law enforcement community," Canterbury said. "The real majority of my fellow officers are standing behind President Bush, because he has been there for us."
The Fraternal Order of Police is the nation's largest law enforcement labor organization, representing more than 318,000 members.
hat tip to Jim Walker
Found in referral logs. I have a top 40 hot post in the blogosphere.
And this is it.
My post is the 31st top hot post!
I'm blushing. Must of been the handsome photo.
Neither, says former SEAL Matthew Heidt
UBL went out running for his life like a coward. He is dead. His remains are turds shat by scavenging animals in the mountains of Afghanistan blown by the wind and stomped on by US troops.
That makes at least two of us voting for the "dead" option, and I like Matthew's additional reasoning. I've speculated that Kerry knows the president isn't going to spring captured Osama on the American public any time soon, and Matt's theory would explain why the Senator fron Massachusetts can toss his charges around without concern for being exposed. Do read it, good stuff.
is such that you can rarely replace one by any means other than military.
Shouted by young anti-Mike Moore demonstrator at a personal appearance. Few (perhaps none) individuals have made more money from the death and destruction in Iraq then the corpulent filmmaker. The linked post contains additional examples of youth vs Moore. I know our kids certainly don't like him - partly because they're members of a military family, but mostly because they've been raised to think for themselves.
Fox News is almost never linked as a source in the blogosphere - from the left or right.
There are exceptions to the rule, but see memeorandum (daily archives available) for empirical proof.
Certainly by now most everyone's familiar with the Guardian's rather naive attempt at American voter outreach. More certainly the well-informed electorate of Springfield Ohio knows, thanks to Michelle Everheart at the Springfield News-Sun:
Readers of a British newspaper have been invited to write Clark County voters with the aim of persuading the undecided to vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.
Either? Hopefully the readers of the News-Sun can see through that - a claim that the Guardian is merely concerned with the participatory aspect of the democratic process itself, and not with the outcome? That one sentence implies more ignorance on the part of the county's voters than the entire Guardian piece.
The News-Sun piece does note in paragraph 15 (after the jump) that
The Guardian, a traditionally liberal newspaper, makes no attempts to hide that it would like Bush out of office. British newspapers, unlike those in the United States, generally are openly partisan and tailor news coverage as well as editorials around their ideological preferences.
However, comma,
For the letter-writing campaign, however, the editors and reporters tried to craft the message as neutrally as possible, Katz said. The web site is careful to state that each letter-writer is free to support whichever candidate he backs, while noting a poll it conducted showed 47 percent of Britons back Kerry and 16 percent support Bush.
For what it's worth, I suppose this example from John Le Carr;é; could influence voters towards Bush, but credit that unintended result to his naiveté, senility, or both:
Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for re-electing George W Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions, and answer for his own lies, rather than wish the job on a Democrat who will then get blamed for his predecessor's follies. Probably no American president in all history has been so universally hated abroad as George W Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal of international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of other nations and cultures, his contempt for institutions of world government, and above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war - and now anarchy - upon a country that like too many others around the world was suffering under a hideous dictatorship, but had no hand in 9/11, no weapons of mass destruction, and no record of terrorism except as an ally of the US in a dirty war against Iran.<...>
But please don't feel isolated from the Europe you twice saved. Give us back the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you.
Of course, Le Carré "made a name for himself" writing novels of spies and double agents, so it's not completely illogical to think this is a well crafted pro-Bush diatribe, better perhaps then some of the CIA's best efforts on their Democratic Underground site.
These days, who knows? ;)
HughHewitt's site features a brief segment of the transcript of the Cheney/Edwards debate. Hugh's purpose is to point out that Edwards' use of Cheney's daughter as campaign fodder preceded Kerry's. But buried in the comments from the contender was this eyebrow-archer:
EDWARDS: Yes. Let me say first, on an issue that the vice president said in his last answer before we got to this question, talking about tax policy, the country needs to know that under what they have put in place and want to put in place, a millionaire sitting by their swimming pool, collecting their statements to see how much money they're making, make their money from dividends, pays a lower tax rate than the men and women who are receiving paychecks for serving on the ground in Iraq.
Edwards certainly knows about millionaires, but has a lot to learn about the military.
Lesson one: As an American GI serving in Iraq my income is tax free.
Lesson two: I haven't seen a paycheck in years, I'm paid via EFT. I think his use of "paycheck" was figure of speech, but note lesson one.
He was right about there being men and women serving in Iraq though, I'll give him that one.
Found this site in referrel logs. Looks interesting, has an awesome collection of "support the troops" links and it was started by this GI and his girlfriend.
Oh - and he's looking to rename his blog, and requests suggestions.
The Mrs. writes
So tell me, without violating OPSEC, what's it really like there?
And I can read the worry in those lines, and don't need to violate OPSEC - it's not that bad. For me it's nothing like this:
FORWARD OPERATING BASE EAGLE, Iraq ? There's no shortage of dangerous, austere and just plain miserable military postings in Iraq, but the U.S. soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division bunking at this base just outside Baghdad's Sadr City slum might have drawn the shortest straw of all.Since March, insurgents have flung more than 800 mortar rounds at Eagle, turning a walk to the mess tent into a life-and-death proposition. On patrol, the soldiers routinely encounter roadside bombs, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
But hopefully this past week's agreement with Sadr will hold, and the troops at Eagle will get a break.
But this next bit threw me for a bit of a loop:
The Dirty Bird, as Eagle is unaffectionately known, has none of the lounges, movie theaters, bicycle fleets and other amenities that U.S. soldiers enjoy at other camps across Iraq.
Let me assure anyone imagining 18-screen multiplexes when "movie theaters" is mentioned that I haven't seen anything like that. Remember M*A*S*H on TV, the movie tent? I do have that option. But there's no pool here, and who the hell has bicycle fleets? And where do they go on them?
"You hear people griping about how the swimming pool isn't working, the chow hall is too small, and I'm like, 'We get mortared every night. What are you talking about?'" Pfc. Jeremy Chapman said.
It's a funny thing about troops in Iraq, many are convinced they're at the absolutely worst, most God-forsaken corner of the nation, and that everyone else is in a palace, living in luxury and safety and style. I think that's a tradition carried forward from every war, but as far as that safety in the base camp areas it's also one that no longer holds true:
In a brazen attack that punctured any illusions of a safe haven in the capital, five people, including three American civilians, were killed today when two separate explosions were set off inside the heavily controlled Green Zone in central Baghdad.
"...punctured any illusions of safe haven..." must refer to the reporters' illusions, because the story goes on to detail the lack of such illusions on anyone else's part:
In recent weeks, the sense of security inside has been fraying. Last week, a homemade bomb was discovered inside the Green Zone Restaurant and defused.There have been reports of recent attempted kidnappings, muggings and stabbings. One Air Force officer said a homemade bomb was found a couple weeks ago in a parking lot, and that she felt more vulnerable inside the Green Zone than inside Camp Victory, a large American military base by the airport.
The military had been expecting, and the insurgents have threatened, an upsurge in violence as Ramadan approached.
But I'm not in the "Green Zone" either. (Point of fact, no one is, since apparently unknown to the Times crew the Green Zone is now called the "International Zone", and, as long as I'm nit-picking "Camp Victory" is now "Camp Liberty" - but why quibble over facts?)
Where I am is quiet, and has been for a little while. And once again there are thunderstorms just over the horizon. Really, on this eve of Ramadan I can see them, though they are too distant to hear the thunder.
But what will the next weeks bring? If two hundred are killed in this country tomorrow in a long planned "insurgent uprising" will that mean that conditions are getting worse? And what is the unit of measure of conditions? I know that temperature is gauged in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit, distance can be measured in miles or kilometers, and sound in decibels, but what about "conditions"?
Here's the final line in the linked Times article:
"Dexter Filkins contributed reporting in Baghdad for this article. Edward Wong reported from Baghdad and Terence Neilan from New York."
What was Terence's contribution? I imagine Terence "frames" articles, then sits back and waits for numbers, names, or minor details from Iraq, then he passes the story on. But that's just me imagining things - and I'm not really there. And anyway, since most of the next few weeks' stories are already framed it's too late to agree on a fair unit of measure for "conditions"; but it sure would be nice if we could have such a consensus.
For although that might ruin a cherished avenue of complaint for a lot of GI's I could at least answer the wife.
Update: Linked NY Times story has been altered extensively since original post.
Yesterday's big news was that Germany might send troops to Iraq.
Today's is that they will not, under any circumstances, send troops to Iraq.
Clearly a resounding endorsement of John Kerry's position in the war on terror.
An update to this
The left-wing Guardian newspaper of London is encouraging non-American readers to directly participate in the campaign through a "democratic toolkit" that links them to an individual voter in a key Ohio county.
This bit from the story on the Ramadi mosques raid
The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group suspected of links to rebels, condemned the mosque raids as an example of alleged American hostility toward Islam.
reminded me of a quote from another recent Iraqi/American success story, this one in Samarra:
But if the Americans were pleased with their success, not all Iraqis were. In Baghdad, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which represents more than 3,000 Sunni mosques around the country, denounced the military operation and accused American and Iraqi troops of widespread atrocities in Samarra. The clerics, who spoke at a news conference in Baghdad, said the military action would undermine any support in the area for the elections."The hospital is full of bodies, children are buried in the gardens, and there are bodies filling the streets," said Muhammad Bashar al-Faidhi, one of the members of the group in Baghdad who said he was basing his accusations on witness accounts. It was impossible to independently verify his claims.
"These policies will increase the anger of the Iraqi people," he said, "and if the government insists on resolving the crisis in this horrible American way, then we expect that the Iraqi people will not cooperate in any forthcoming election or any other political program."
Note the London Times doesn't lavish ink on declaring the credibility of the group, and mentions the suspected link to rebels, a point the NY Times was ignorant of or ignored.
But since this Iraq the Model post came out in between the two, perhaps the Gotham Fishrap can be forgiven:
Last Monday, while I was in Basra watching TV in the afternoon, Al-Fayhaa channel broadcasted a film they said it was sent to the station via e-mail. I have to say that the credibility of the film is questionable but since I found that no one in the media, whether inside or outside Iraq commented on it, I decided to tell you about it and perhaps we could together find some answers.The film was taped on July 11 this year as written on the screen and it showed six young men, all Iraqi as there looks and accent showed, and they were reading written confessions about attacks they launched against Iraqis and coalition troops.
All those six men (the youngest is 21 years old) mentioned that they were given orders from the ?Association of Muslim Scholars? to perform certain operations against ?Iraqi collaborators?, multinational troops and some moderate She?at clerics. One of the men said that he received (350 000 ID) from a member of the association to assassinate a She?at cleric and when the first attempt failed, he was ordered to try again as he stated.
Go read the whole thing. And watch for more on this group in the coming weeks.
I'm hoping we give them reasons to cry.
I like this entry from Smash for this quote:
Regarding the timing of military operations, a wise man once said:Those who talk, don't know; those who know, don't talk.
Yup.
He's referencing a LAT piece from 11 October claiming the US wouldn't undertake any major offenses in Iraqi hot spots until after the November elections.
I also like this story from the London Times, which could lead one to believe the LA Times was being played
Today Mr Allawi told Iraq's interim national council: "If Zarqawi and his group are not handed over to us, we are ready for major operations in Fallujah."<...>
More than 1,000 US and Iraqi troops launched two simultaneous raids around Baqouba, 35 miles (57km) North-east of Baghdad, to clear the area of insurgents. Several people were detained.
In Ramadi, US troops sealed off streets and searched buildings after days of clashes, residents reported. Yesterday coalition forces raided seven mosques in Ramadi, detaining four people and seizing bomb-making materials.
And though this story is encouraging :
Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.
I like this story best of all.
If there aren't enough troops fighting terrorists in Iraq one reason might be the number we've got dedicated to fighting lawsuits:
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to decide whether the Pentagon is constitutionally obligated to give news media access to U.S. troops during combat.The court, without comment, rejected the appeal by Larry Flynt, the self-described smut peddler who publishes Hustler magazine. He was challenging a lower ruling earlier this year that the First Amendment does not shield journalists from government interference in gathering news from the battlefield.
?During war or other times of armed conflict, press representatives play a unique role in providing the American people with an independent source of information concerning the government?s actions ... in a setting where the vast majority of Americans do not have personal access,? Flynt stated in his legal filing.
Flynt sued the Defense Department after officials declined his request to have reporters accompany the first wave of U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Defense officials then said only a small number of troops were in Afghanistan and that ?the highly dangerous and unique nature of their work make it very difficult to embed media.? They also noted that the media was given access to other aspects of military operations.
In their legal filing, government lawyers also argued that a First Amendment right of access does not extend to ?government property or information that is not open to the public.?
In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with Pentagon officials, concluding there ?is nothing we have found in the Constitution, American history, or our case law to support? the claim that reporters have that constitutional right.
The case is Flynt v. Rumsfeld, 04-33.
Lets repeat the key bits for any who missed them the first time: ?the highly dangerous and unique nature of their work make it very difficult to embed media.? Really, that's not a neocon lie.
Now once more into the breech, my band of... uh... brothers?
A national organization of gay Republicans filed suit in Los Angeles federal court Tuesday seeking to overturn the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy governing homosexuals in the military.The Log Cabin Republicans claim in their lawsuit that the policy violates the rights of gay service members to freedom of speech, due process and equal protection under the law.
Under "don't ask, don't tell," gays are allowed to serve in the military provided they do not disclose their sexual orientation and do not engage in homosexual conduct.
Since it was implemented by the Clinton administration in 1994, nearly 10,000 military personnel have been discharged for violating the policy, according to the lawsuit.
A quick injection of truth, then back to the news: prior to the Clinton administration policy, potential recruits were simply asked if they were gay, and barred if they said yes. Crafty and determined homosexuals would occasionally deny their leanings, and later if discovered would be expelled from the service for making false claims. When 'don't ask don't tell' became the policy, the question was no longer asked, and the military was forced to expel homosexuals for being homosexual - thus offering a misleading statistic to those opposed to the policy: "more homosexuals were booted out after don't ask don't tell then before." Not arguing for or against any policy here, just providing facts. Now back to our story:
Though previous legal challenges have failed, the gay Republicans' suit says that any legal rationale for the policy has been undermined by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.The lawsuit cites a Supreme Court ruling last year that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to engage in private, intimate sexual conduct without interference by the state.
Those who thought Lawrence v Texas was not the beginning of a slippery slope are encouraged to nod wisely here. But those who envisage a flood of Queer Eye-types helping the National Guard meet its recruiting goals for '05 had best note the story's final line:
The policy has also had a disproportionate impact on women in the armed forces, according to the suit.
So forget those fears of massive uniform re-designs.
Hey, wait a minute...
This is what Slarrow was talking about:
U.S. forces have exhumed a mass grave site in northwestern Iraq and uncovered the remains of scores of people.Many of the bodies found at the site near al-Hatra are believed to be the bodies of Kurdish women and children thought slaughtered by the Saddam Hussein regime.
<...>
Crews have excavated two grave trenches, and officials say there could be as many as 12 in the general area. Kehoe said the bodies were apparently bulldozed into the graves.
"Unlike bodies that you've seen in many mass graves -- they look like cordwood -- all lined up," he said. "That didn't happen here. These bodies were just pushed in."
The first trench contains the remains of women and children, and the second contains the remains of men only. More than 100 bodies have been found from the first location and a similar number from the other.
Officials say it is enough to determine a pattern for the killings.
Kehoe said the victims appear to be Kurds, based on the dress and the personal belongings found.
He believes they were probably killed in early 1988, though it might have happened in late 1987.
Many of the victims wore multiple layers of clothing and carried small personal items like jewelry and medication. One child was found with a ball in his hand.
The women -- four or five of whom were pregnant -- and children appear to have been killed with a single small caliber gunshot to the head.
Some of the women were blindfolded, but Kehoe says 95 percent of the men were blindfolded and had their hands either tied to the man next to them or tied behind their back. Al-Hatra is in Nineveh province, the location of Mosul and Tal Afar.
A lawyer, Kehoe also spent five years working on the Balkans War Crimes Tribunal.
Kehoe said that most mass graves in Bosnia largely contain men of fighting age. Graves near Hatra included many women and children, he said.
<...>
Human rights groups believe about 300,000 people were killed during Saddam's 24-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003.
Roger asks for more. I'll oblige, as best I can. Last summer my niece and nephew and a group of their friends visited us in Germany then embarked on a tour of Europe. They returned to haus grauhawk weeks later, and reported generally good treatment throughout the continent with one notable (and to me unexpected) exception: London. The locals were rude, they reported. I speculated that it may just be that lacking a language barrier London was the only place where they knew the locals were rude. They assured me otherwise.
Now, reading this, I see they weren't exaggerating.
Exactly one month ago today, I was traveling on a London bus when a well-dressed woman boarded with her equally-respectable son in his school uniform. Ahead of her was an elderly American woman, who said, ?I beg your pardon, I didn?t mean to bang into you.? This prompted a tirade from the Englishwoman -- let?s call her Lady E -- that resembled a verbal assault by a brownshirt against a hapless Jewish pedestrian in 1933. The American -- call her Mrs. A -- sat down and cowered as the tirade continued: ?I rejoice every time I hear of another American soldier dying! You people all deserve to die in another 9/11. You are destroying the world.? Mrs A fought back: ?I personally am NOT destroying the world.? This only provoked Lady E more, and as the bus driver and passengers laughed, she screamed into the American?s face ?I wish every one of you would leave this country and not set foot in it ever again,? and Mrs A began to wince, crying. ?Thank you for ruining my day and my trip.? At this point Lady E lunged at the American and began to shake her. I jumped up and shouted at the top of my voice for the driver to stop and for her to leave the woman alone, prompting Lady E to come over to me and grab me. ?Another bloody American accent! You come here and think you can strut about, well, you are scum.? Thankfully, the woman next to me pushed her away. I left the bus as the American woman sat sobbing.Did I imagine this? No. Was the Englishwoman a crazy? No.
A few weeks before, I had attended a party at which I was lambasted, intimidated and mocked by a group of people I had known for some twenty-odd years. It reminded me of a comment made to me by an American expatriate shortly after 9/11: ?Now I know what the Jews felt like in pre-war Germany.?
My family is merely American; In the eyes of many Ms Gould is guilty of the twin sins of being American and Jewish. She gives numerous examples of the sort of things such a person is subjected to in merrye olde Londonne Townne, and I'd be inclined to dismiss her account as a unique if not for the traveler?s reports I got last summer.
However, as Ms Gould stipulates:
I have lived in Europe for all of my adult life and from the day I arrived as a youngster have been aware of an oft-blatant anti-Semitism and resentment of Americans amongst colleagues, teachers, social circle and neighbors. What is significant about this rage is that it emanates not from the great unwashed but from the educated and intellectual classes.
This giving me hope that among those "unwashed" a shred of tolerance for others remains intact, leading me to believe that the problem isn't London, and reminding me that "educated" can also imply "poorly educated" - as in "the vast majority of leftists on both sides of the Atlantic are poorly educated, exceedingly gullible, and easily led.".
Which is how the American media once defined the American religious community. Building on that foundation, here's how the Euroleft describes it now:
Another mantra thrown at me daily these days is the news that the United States is one giant Fundamentalist Christian nation peopled by raging Bible-thumpers on every street. I have had otherwise enlightened colleagues tell me that the USA is ?running wild with religious extremism that threatens the world far more than bin Laden.?
Ironic then that they believe this without question.
Still, recognizing the disease is the first step to the cure; though hints of denial eek out in her writing the author still dances with the idea of recovery, here noting a possible cause:
I hesitate to blame my own profession, the media. However, the ?Guardian? ran a lead article by Faisal Bodi in January 2001 entitled ?Israel Simply Has No Right to Exist,? and on a daily basis Robert Fisk, whom my British friends and colleagues think is God, runs an ?Independent? piece brutally critical of the United States and Israel. I have stopped attending meetings of my trade union, the National Union of Journalists, because I cannot listen to incessant vitriol about the crimes of my native country, the United States and of Israel when we should be dealing with the problems unions are supposed to address.
Hesitate? Ah, to see someone on the edge of the slippery slope of truth, trying valiantly not to fall. It's not London, it's not the Brits, it's a morally bankrupt global left - and that's nothing new. The chains that bind you to your old alliances are imaginary. Slide Ms Gould, there are those who will catch you, and you've nothing to lose but your 'friends'.
"You did say that the poets are welcome at Mudville, so I thought I'd throw this out. I wrote it for Poets For The War before this whole thing began, and it has to do with sand. You might find it appropriate, especially now that you're pouring the blood of the wicked instead of the innocent back into the old sands. Thank you for your bravery."
Sands of Babylon
We are the land and the dream of the land.
We have grown drunk on the power of kings.
We are the ancient sands of Babylon.
We tasted the knees of the proud laid low
And laughed to scorn our foes’ demands
And slumbered long under the heavy sun.
We have drunk deeply of rain and sun,
We have drunk deeply of blood and loss,
We have drunk deeply the woe and dismay
Of conquerors that we shift and swallow.
But newly our draughts are poison to us,
And a sour substance sickens our sands.
The blood we drink has no sweet savour
Of proud or wicked or righteous death.
We taste innocents, babes, our murdered own.
We are roused, roused, ready and watching,
Scouring the garden to shake out the snake.
Someone has entered us, given us poison,
Find him out, root him out, swallow him deep!
We thirst now for blood, blood of the wicked,
The life of the tyrant, murderer’s soul!
Feed us injustice! let justice remain.
Death to the wicked is our poison’s cure.
Restore the new Babylon! then may we sleep.
We are the cleansing sands of Babylon.
Russ Vaughan has a new post at Blackfives
And visit Hugh Hewitt who has a mother of a Paratrooper call in.
Iwo Jima, if covered by media today
A lot of folks suggest drinking games for the debates; take a drink each time Kerry mentions he's a Vietnam veteran, or declares Iraq or Afghanistan a failure, etc. I can't really watch the debates here - the time difference being one problem; another is one participant's relentless assaults on what we're doing. In form and substance it's beyond my capacity for tolerance.
I hear NotBush has a new campaign slogan: notthesandsofIwoJima. I look downward, and indeed its sand I see, but the sands of Iraq, so once again a completely irrefutable and useless fact is logged by the anti-American faction in this war. Not-the-sands-of-Iwo-Jima indeed.
There is commonality though. The sands of both locations have drunk their share of American blood.
There is no still no close comparison, of course - over 6,821 Americans died securing that tiny island, 19,217 were wounded. Sixty years ago Americans faced an enemy desiring to kill us in large numbers; a foe willing to die in suicide charges, committed to a fanatical religious belief. But for 60 years generations of Americans have dedicated themselves to ensuring no nation or group, regardless of it's desires, could inflict casualties upon us in those numbers again. The result? NotthesandsofIwoJima. They were so successful that other Americans labeled them war mongers and war profiteers for their efforts.
So yes, notthesansdsofIwoJima contains American blood, and though these sands aren't quite drenched in that blood the way the sands of Iwo Jima are it's because we've learned, and these sands are no less deserving for our amazing success. Tragically it's in spite of the best efforts of many that this is the case. More tragically, that group is represented by a significant number of Americans.
Lighten up: Here's a drinking game we play here, let's call it "Jolly Roger": monitor the radio chatter; with every utterance of "roger" you take a drink. "Roger that" requires downing the bottle. Sadly we have no beer, so when I return to Germany I'm obligated to consume 4,627 pints. I should stop listening to the radio now.
Now, truthfully we really don't play that game at all. Here's a game we do play. To the best of my knowledge, all Americans in Iraq participate. Rocket Bingo. Here's a round-a-bout explanation.
Ever had one of those moments where you missed something by a mere instant, or something happens to someone near you? Ever heard one of those stories where someone misses their plane then that plane crashes? Ever wondered what turning left as opposed to right at some point does to impact your life? In a way, that's sort of the concept of Rocket Bingo. Every once in a while nottheJapanese launch a rocket or mortar into one of our camps. It's not a guided weapon, so who knows where it might fall. It's often a dud, so it often doesn't matter, but sometimes it's not. The result? Rocket Bingo.
Going to lunch? Rocket Bingo. Staying at work? Rocket Bingo. Doing laundry? Rocket Bingo. The only rule is you have to play. Stay in your bunk all day - Rocket Bingo.
But the fact that you're playing just stays in the back of your mind. You leave work with a buddy, "Hey, wanna go to the gym?" "No - gotta do laundry." And you imagine yourself later saying "Damn - he should have come with me" - or imagine him saying the same.
Rocket Bingo.
Compared to the odds of walking uninjured off of Iwo Rocket Bingo ain't that bad.
And you know what makes it possible to play at all? The absolute and resolute courage of everyone else playing. They know they do so for a purpose, even if that purpose is scorned by some. Just as every Marine on Iwo knew the way home was through victory, every American in Iraq (and the vast majority of Iraqis too) knows the way home is a democratic Iraq. No, that won't solve all our problems, but it is another island on the road to victory in a war on terror.
And those of you who swore you'd vote for a lamp shade over President Bush certainly have an opportunity to prove your sincerity this November, though personally I'd rather you stayed home, playing drinking games.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don?t know who they are, but the obvious unspoken point is that lunch and dinner are only the second and third most important meals. I?m used to two meals a day, honestly. But I hope once I'm home the wife doesn?t mind getting up early from now on to cook me sausage bacon ham eggs pancakes and French toast. That is, if the Air Force has a plane big enough to airlift my fat ass home.
It was a long day here, full of action and excitement. I did laundry. While waiting for the dryer to finish I wandered a bit and found the camp library. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the titles were fiction.
Then I returned to the laundry and found the dryer was done tumbling, but the heating element had failed. I put the load into the next dryer and wandered a bit more. And saw an awesome sunset. Hustled to the tent for my camera and returned, a bit too late for the best of it, but now I've got the location and the timing.
By the way, did I say French toast? I meant freedom toast.
Good night America how are you?
In the wake of the Australian elections, Tim Blair points us to opposition quotes. First this from the Sydney Morning Herald:
While John Howard was showered with compliments from allies worldwide following his election victory, some of Australia's Muslim neighbours worried the result would strengthen his aggressive stance in combatting terror.
Was the editor sober?
Then this quote from Alan Ramsey:
How on earth could we have put this scheming, mendacious little man and his miserable claque back in office for another three years? Worse, how could we have brought them to the very brink of absolute control of the nation's entire parliamentary process and authority?Very easily, as things turned out, to the cost of the rest of us and our national self-respect.
For almost nine years this Government, incompetent in most everything except mediocrity, debauched its word and the people's trust, along with voters' gullibility, their ignorance, their taxes and, in the end, their greedy self-interest.
Stupid voters. And finally this:
According to Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett, this is "a disaster for democracy."
All of which I'd like to see repeated in the American press in November.
You know what must especially gall the American loony bin - Howard has a slimmed down Dick Cheney-sort of look to him, don't you think?
John Howard - apparently nobody liked him but the people.
Everyone loves Tim though. Stop by and celebrate with him.
"And flip the finger to, the Taliban", as Toby Keith sings so well.
Free elections in Afghanistan - I know how Sgt Hook must feel. I look forward to the same here in Iraq.
I can only imagine (Via Instapundit) how the opposition camp must feel - under that descending pall of gloom at Democratic Party headquarters as the free people of Afghanistan voted this past weekend.
Evoking Gerald Ford?s 1976 comment, ?there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,? George Bush said yesterday that the ?Taliban is no longer in existence,? underscoring the point that he isn?t being straight with the American people about his wrong choices in Iraq and Afghanistan.BUSH?S FANTASY WORLD:
?That's why I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan: Get rid of al Qaeda; see, you're harboring al Qaeda. Remember this is a place where they trained -- al Qaeda trained thousands of people in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, I guess, just didn't believe me. And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence.? [Bush, 9/27/04]
THE WORLD THAT THE REST OF US LIVE IN:
Taliban is Resurgent: ?Nearly two years after their defeat? the Taliban has re-emerged as a growing security threat?? [United States Institute for Peace, 3/04]
<...>
And up to 90% of Country is Under Taliban Control
<...>
Taliban Violence Threatens Elections: The pre-election period has been marred by repeated attacks against voter registration workers and facilities, mostly carried out by Taliban forces. The Taliban has vowed to sabotage the election -- the first national poll in Afghanistan in three decades of war and turmoil, and the country's first-ever presidential election.
All topped by the ever-popular body bag stat:
Violence Against Americans in Afghanistan is Increasing: More than twice as many Americans have been killed in combat already in 2004 than in all of 2003.
But here's the World Afghanistan is in
The Taliban vowed to turn the Afghan election into a day of bloodshed, but the rebels mounted only a smattering of small-scale attacks on police and civilians and a larger clash that left many of their own dead.After months of what proved to be empty threats, military commanders and ordinary Afghans said Sunday the vote was a serious setback for the holdouts of the hard-line Islamic regime that was driven from power by U.S. bombs almost three years ago for harboring Osama bin Laden.
"Yesterday was a big defeat for the Taliban and a huge defeat for al-Qaida," Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press. "It shows that the political process is overwhelming any influence they may have."
Voters also said the Taliban had been exposed as weak.
Though they'd humbly refuse it, more than a little credit for what has happened in Afghanistan most be given to the American soldier - Pat Tillman is just one example among many whose sacrifices made this possible. Contrary to some claims, America has not turned its back on Afghanistan, to say otherwise is an unforgivable insult to those who served there and those who are serving now.
Hook is there now, and I like his perspective:
So, instead of discussions about deadly attacks on voting centers or assasination attempts on candidates, we debate about purple ink that some say washed off. Welcome to democracy Afghanistan, isn?t it grand?
Slam dunk Hook - slam dunk.
Some Americans might fail their GIs, but American GIs don't fail. Go read it all.
After hearing this I cried. Having one of my daughters have a similar horse accident, with a fractured neck and in a coma for days, but recovering fully, I always thought how lucky she was.
He will be missed
In the midst of madness, Scott Ott makes me laugh and laugh again.
And you have only til the 15th to vote for ScrappleFace in the WaPo best blogs contest. Do your duty!
My husband isn't the only one - our friend Chrenkoff has more good news from Iraq.
Last night the flashes on the horizon were lightning, the rumbles thunder. Tonight the sky is nearly clear, I think it's something else. I saw precision demonstrated in the land of chaos today - and some other time I'll tell you more but for now be proud to be American, you who are, and know that sometimes something other than cold can send shivers down a spine. It was nothing, really - if you're the sort that feels pride in his heart and tears in his eyes when our national anthem plays then you likely understand anyway, and need no more explanation, and if not you have my pity.
On another note, I was close enough to hear the booms again, but far enough to only imagine the screams that must have followed. Amazing that this story would be used to bury this one:
On Saturday, a breakthrough peace initiative to end battles in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City was announced by Iraq's interim government and militia loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.Attacks on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and almost daily U.S. airstrikes have been going on for weeks in the sprawling slum, which is populated by 2 million people.
Under the plan, al-Sadr's Mehdi militia will hand over medium and heavy weapons during a five-day grace period beginning on Monday.
Thousands of weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and mortars will be handed in at various centers controlled by police, the National Guard and City Council officials, according to Iraq's interim government.
And in the process, Iraqi security forces, backed up by U.S. forces, will take control of the area.
They would be allowed to conduct weapons searches and operations against those who oppose the initiative.
Interim National Security Adviser Kasim Dawood called the plan a "breakthrough" deal and a "big achievement" toward consolidating national unity in Iraq.
What we have here, IMHO, is a guy loosing support for his "insurgency" as casualties mount. Suddenly, the lightbulb comes on - he can achieve power through Democratic means!
Too good to be true? Perhaps. We'll see. If it is true, it's momentous, and it's inexcusable to bury such a story.
But this means nothing to foreign fighters or others who await the fate that Allah wills them in the Sunni triangle. But it does mean more Americans and Iraqis will be free to deal with them when the time comes.
And as I said, the flashes and booms on the horizon tonight are happening for reasons other than nature's fury, though certainly there's fury none the less.
Speaking of fury, look how unhappy these guys are, posing with the man who sent too few of them to do the job right (/sarcasm):
The Muslim calendar is a lunar one. Early tomorrow the crescent moon will rise, a scant bit over 10% of full disc. Soon it will be gone.
Soon it will be Ramadan.
We?d be remiss in not noting another historic election: Afghanistan. Like the Australian elections or the possible peace deal with Sadr I?m not seeing much American media emphasis on the events in that war-torn land.
Too bad. A lot of people gave their lives to make this happen.
And who, on September 11th 2001 would have thought this would happen so soon? Who thought it wouldn?t happen at all?
Fortunately Instapundit has a correspondent there ? with a camera.
Amazing. A cheer for the unconquered people of Afghanistan. Freedom suits you, wear it well.
You'll find precious little coverage of the Australian elections in US media, which helps explain why American press is in lock step on this one:
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Like almost every previous Australian poll, Saturday's national election was decided on voter perceptions of economic management.For the 13 million voters, the Australian economic landscape is one of record share prices, strong jobs growth, low interest rates, high domestic consumer confidence and surging global demand for Australian commodities.
Together, they add up to an economy that is growing at about 3.5 to 4 percent a year.
Boring numbers (yawn) - good for them. But rumor has it Australia has troops in Iraq, (that would explain the Australian troops I've seen here in Iraq) but the above story doesn't include the word Iraq. Draw your own conclusions.
Bottom line, I agree with Glenn: "If Howard had lost, however, I suspect it would be getting a lot of attention, and advanced as evidence that the war was going badly, Bush can't keep allies, etc., etc."
But lose he didn't, so celebrate with Chrenkoff, another of our good friends down under.
This looks interesting. If it truly is an unbiased look from the people of Iraq (as it appears to be) it will certainly merit viewing. This was the participant's guidelines.
I'm looking forward to it.
UPDATE:
Since my link went bad for some reason I'll post what info I have:
Voices of Iraq: >From the People, By the PeopleNew, Innovative Film Shows Quirks and Blemishes, Laughter and Anger, Grief and Hope
Washington, D.C. - October 8, 2004 - VoicesOfIraq.com, which provides a "sneak peak" at a new documentary through which the Iraqi people candidly discuss their hopes and fears of life in their turbulent, post-Saddam country, went live today.
The documentary, entitled "Voices of Iraq," was filmed and directed by the Iraqis themselves -- thousands of them, from all walks of life, all over their country. The producers, who distributed more than 150 digital video cameras across the country, condensed more than 400 hours of footage into an unprecedented, and startling, look at life in a war zone.
"Distributing 150 cameras throughout the country opened a window on Iraq that has never been seen," said producer Eric Manes. "Events that we have previously seen on U.S. newscasts, we now see through a different perspective."
The Iraqi filmmakers give us a peak at places that are off-limits to mainstream journalists: into the kitchens and cars, cabs and caravans, and hearts and memories of a people who have lived under great oppression but still laugh, learn and hope.
After 24 years of silence under Saddam Hussein and the news media's inability move far beyond Baghdad's "Green Zone" Iraqis take advantage of their new freedoms to tell us exactly what they think of Americans, democracy, jobs, war, and Abu Ghraib. They ponder women's rights, the role of religion in government, mass graves, Arnold Schwarzenegger and their future. The Iraqi filmmakers chose whom to talk to, interview, film and capture unawares.
The film makes evident that American opinions - whatever they might be - are based on filtered and occasionally faulty information about the Iraqi people.
Former MTV producers Eric Manes and Martin Kunert partnered with actor and Gulf War vet Archie Drury to distribute the more than 150 digital video cameras across Iraq. Beginning amidst the Falluja uprising in April, going through the marshlands in the South and Kurdish communities in the North and ending in September of this year, thousands of ordinary Iraqis became filmmakers to reveal the richness, complexity and emotion of their lives.
"Iraq is at a crossroads," said Drury. "In the run up to historic elections in January, the vast majority of Iraqis see the choice they will have to make: toward Iraqi democracy or toward separatism and violence. This is a film about the choices Iraqis desire for themselves."
With a theatrical release planned for later this year, "Voices of Iraq" will be screened in October for select audiences in New York City, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.
Go visit Sarah at Trying to Grok She got to know him just enough.
Wow - I just finished this book and now this one is available.
Can't wait!
Steak an Shrimp at the chow hall for lunch yesterday. When I saw it I realized it was Friday. Not until that moment had I thought about what day it was. I have weekly reports due on Friday. Other than that, Friday doesn't matter much - Saturday's another day at the "office". Sunday, on the other hand..., well Sunday is another day at the office too.
Today though I replaced my cot with a "real bed". There's a sign of permanance. Guess we're not leaving soon...
Watching on TV: 50 First Dates. Early on I'm thinking "Didn't I already see Groundhog Day?" - which of course reminds me of my life right now. But that's not a bad thing. (He said, eyeing the moon as it waned towards Ramadan...)
I recognize that the whole day after day sameness I'm living right now might contribute to my dislike of the movie, but for whatever reason I really wasn't interested in it. But I wasn't the only one in the room, so the movie wasn't my choice. So it goes.
In the desert politeness rules. You watch what others want to watch. Face it, you've got to live and work together for a while, and you need them to get the mission done, and well, everyone has loaded weapons...
So yeah, politeness is a good thing.
Here's a scene from one of the hundred or so movies that make up my top ten:
MARTY: Now, during the Flower People period, who was your drummer?
DAVID: Stumpy?s replacement, Peter James Bond, he also died in mysterious circumstances...we were playing a...
NIGEL: Festival...
DAVID: Jazz-blues festival, where was that?
NIGEL: Blues-jazz really.
DEREK: Blues-jazz festival...
NIGEL: It was in the Isle of, it was in the Isle of....
NIGEL + DEREK: Isle of Lucy.
DEREK: Isle of Lucy.
NIGEL: Isle of Lucy.
DAVID: Isle of Lucy...jazz-blues festival...
NIGEL: And....it was tragic really...he exploded on stage.
DEREK: Just like that...
DAVID: He just went up...
NIGEL: He just was like a flash of green light...and that was it, nothing was left...
DAVID: Look at his face .... it?s true, this really did happen.
NIGEL: Well, there was a little green globule on his drum seat.
DAVID: Like a stain, really.
NIGEL: More of a stain than a globule, actually, and...
DAVID: You know several...you know dozens of people spontaneously combust each year, it?s just not really widely
reported.
NIGEL: Right.
From This is Spinal Tap, of course.
The reason I bring it up is because I think the "Stain or Globule" option is a valid response to the question "How would you describe Osama Bin Laden"
Anyone see that one coming?
Some time back a lot of folks were delusional with conspiracy theories about an "October surprise" - but hearing John Kerry hammer on the "failure at Tora Bora" (Over Tora Bora? No - I'll never get over Tora Bora.. whoops, that's another movie) I conclude the man is fairly certain there won't be one. Imagine the blow to his campaign hopes were it to happen now. Using "where's Osama" as a hammer against your opponent certainly seems risky unless you're awfully sure he's not gonna turn up.
Plus I'm inclined to agree with Roger, who notes regarding Osama (not Kerry) that "A narcissist of that magnitude could not resist parading his phiz on television."
I'm thinking stain.
Time for bed. A real bed.
Sweet.
PRIME Minister John Howard has claimed victory in the federal election that returned him to office for a fourth term in a vote that saw surprise gains for the Coalition across the country.
"We are joyful that the verdict has been given by the Australian people but never forget the fact that governments are elected to govern not only for the people who voted for them, but also for the people who voted against them."
Great job, good on ya
We Americans are totally stoked and Grinning like a shot fox.
We'll never forget our fellow diggers
Now we need GW to win 'cause that Kerry is a real ocker of a bloke.
G'day mate
Update: My husband reports from Iraq that he's right glad the Aussies aren't leaving, and directs readers to our old pals Slatts and Tim for the story from the source.
They are recovering from pre-election gloom. Visit, read, they thought the good guys didn't have a prayer.
Now it's up to us yanks to stick with them
Remember SGT Jack Gell? I’m not going to let you forget about him yet. I’m pulling something together that I won’t risk having tarnished by questions about its timing -- Please visit this site on November 14 for a post I hope you’ll think is as important as I do –- but for now I have something related to pass on.
Mark/Urthshu is close to some members of SGT Gell’s family and sent me something I’m excerpting here:
Hello, Bill-
This was a letter published in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Sunday, Jan. 16, 1966. It was part of a letter to [SGT Gell’s] wife Rebecca Gell, dated Nov. 1 1965, [13 days] before Sgt. Gell was KIA.
Much of it is personal to them as a couple. It was 8 pages long in total, but they published some snippets. It was striking to me on several points:
A correction from the Washington Post :
An Oct. 7 article and the lead Page One headline incorrectly attributed a quotation to Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq. The statement, "We were almost all wrong," was made by Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Jan. 28.
So the Post was almost all wrong about that.
Meanwhile Paul Bremer says he was selectively quoted (much as the ISG report was selectively quoted):
In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context.
On the other hand, I'm not aware of any clarification of Peter Jennings comment on ABC's World News Tonight on 7 October . Introducing a segment including video of combat in Iraq, the anchor said:
PETER JENNINGS: The war in Iraq has been going on for 18 months now and it is not very often that we see actual combat. It is usually a matter of luck, a camera person or a reporter being in the right place at the right time.
Ooooo... combat! What luck. "Hey GI, smile for the camera!"
Actually, although I find "lucky" the entirely inappropriate term, given that this nation has supposedly fallen into chaos, shouldn't such opportunities be abundant? Just curious.
But you've seen the last ever combat video from Iraq if NPR's advice to the military is taken seriously. In the wake of the smashing success in Samarra Renee Montagne notes on Morning Edition that destroying the enemy will only make them stronger:
RENEE MONTAGNE: U.S. and Iraqi forces are now conducting operations against insurgents south of Baghdad following the recent retaking of Samarra north of the capital. Still to come are expected larger campaigns in the densely populated Sunni rebel strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah to help make way for elections in January, but there’s risks that those operations could result in large numbers of civilian casualties and prompt a backlash that only boosts support for insurgents.
Hopefully the commanders here in the field will pause to consider the dire consequences of backlash before rushing in willy-nilly to crush those "insurgents". Hopefully they'll proceed with caution, so more TV news crews can still "get lucky".
In summary: A correction, a clarification/refutation, an almost certainly inadvertent and unfortunate remark, and an utterly ridiculous and pointless piece of posturing.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was a cross section of today's MSM coverage of Iraq. Have a nice weekend.
Eighth grade daughter writes (spelling errors intentional):
Dad
well nothing's been goin on so there's not much to tell you about. uuummm..oh yeah we got a new dog.
sike!!
so wuts it like there? do you hear bombs?
- your daughter
Dear daughter
Only the ones that go off real close to me.
Sike!!
- your dad.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, fight house-to-house during Operation Baton Rouge, in Samarra, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Johancharles Van Boers.
[John of Castle Argghhh!, guest-posting]
These soldiers don't qualify for a badge at least equivalent to, if not, the Combat Infantryman's Badge?
Explain, if you will, how these soldiers, fighting in this way, don't qualify, while 11-series MOS soldiers a block over do *exactly the same thing* do qualify?
Is it time for a re-think on 'combat badges'?
I'm not dissing the CIB or the medic's equivalent, the Combat Field Medical Badge. Both are earned by sticking your relatively unarmored self into the crucible of direct fire combat right out there on the field where, as the Germans said, "The Iron Crosses grow."
But the picture above is of Armor crewmen fighting as Infantry. Not incidentally dismounting their Steel Steeds to chase some errant RPG gunner, or some such. Not checking out a house as a place to sleep for the night, incident to resuming some nice mechanized combat on the morrow.
We can find similar pictures of Artillerymen - fighting as infantry. And not because they are defending a position incident to their primary duties - but because they are being EMPLOYED AS INFANTRY.
This is a war being fought more like our pre-mechanized combat wars were fought, albeit we bring to it a whole lot of tech. The CIB was developed back when the artillery had developed range that pushed the guns back, off the line of battle. Back when tanks ruled just about any battlefield they appeared on, if they were competently handled.
But the war now is truly an infantryman's war. And since we don't have enough infantry, and don't need as many tanks, or artillery - we've rediscovered the manly virtues of soldiering - and the fact that in some manner, every soldier is an Infantryman.
No disrespect to the essential craft of the Infantry. But, if I slog through Samarra hip-to-hip with you, fighting just as you fight, taking exactly the same risks you take - well...
Just a thought.
In the extended entry are the thoughts of an Infantry Major on the subject. He was a Captain when he wrote the piece - but I asked him if I could use it in conjunction with this post... and he stands by what he said here.
I say it's time for a re-look. And I throw my vote behind Chris's approach as a basis to start the discussion.
What say you?
Cross-posted to Castle Argghhh!
(He authorized release; names have been changed):
DadSorry I didn't email you sooner. There hasn't been much to talk about.
You remember the conversation we had about the xbox, and having some way to lan over the internet? Well I found such a thing. Steve and I spent a night trying it out. It involved me taking the 10/100 card out of the downstairs computer and putting it in the Gateway. From there the computer would synthesis the lan connection. The only drawback is there is about 1 second of lag. So if I pull the trigger the animation of me firing would take place a second later and the bullet would hit where I was aiming a second before I shot. Not quite what I was hoping for.
Went paint balling the other day. Went pretty well. I only got shot once in the finger and in the hip. However Steve looked like the target dummy on a shooting range. There was one guy there named Bruce (Almighty) who is like 2nd in the country with his team. After each match you would see over half the people covered in his paint. On the castle siege course he was against me and making a strong push on our flank. He pined me in the tower ( One wall in front of me to my right and one behind ) To my knowledge there were two of us left against four of them. I was down to only a few shots. I kept my eye on a tear in the seams between the back and right wall and saw Bruce creeping forward. I popped my barrel through the tear and shot at him 3 times. I didn't know if any of them had broke ( marked him ) and I knew one more guy was close behind. I yelled over to my remaining team mate and told him we should make a run to a better defilade. This would keep us safe from attack from behind. We made a sprint out and made it safely. Now we had two others shooting at us from the left side and one on the right who was unaware of where we were at the time...which didn't last long. The one man on the right moved up behind the fort and pined us in an ugly position. I shot my remaining shots at the guys on the left and said I would try and safety kill them (get too close for shooting and claim a kill ) I ran in front of the fort and saw Bruce walking off to the side OUT! I found one more teammate in a crater about 5 feet in front of me and the two attackers on the left made a fast retreat when they saw me running. They turned and shot my partner in the hole and I was left without someone to cover me on my suicide run. We lost but the true victory was killing Bruce Almighty. That was the only time in his six hour day there that he died.
School news: I am working on my last Essay for english and it's a 9 pager. It's a research essay on cloning ( my choice of topic ). As for the java class I have maintained my steady easy streak and haven't had any trouble yet.
As I am writing this ( just after the rerun of the vp debate ) there was an interview between to big blogs ( one lib and one con ). Wonkette Didn't know if you've heard of it. and Powerline. I didn't see a place to leave comments. I wonder how websence categorized it.
Till next time,
Thanks son, looking forward to more. By the way Websense categorized Powerline as "Message Board/Chat and it's blocked (Especially ironic for a blog without comments.) Wonkette is not.
The soundtrack to this post is the Stones' Gimme Shelter. Don't know why it plays in my mind while I write this but it does. That voodoo sound at the start always sent shivers down my spine though...
How many times has this happened to you:
You're flying into Baghdad on a C130 along with a lot of other GIs and some members of the Iraq Survey Group whose report will soon be released and while waiting for the plane engines to fire up (after which point conversation becomes impossible) you say: "So what's the bottom line?"
And one responds: "He didn't have stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but he could have reconstituted his programs in a matter of months."
Which is exactly what I've thought for quite a while (ahem) please see my April 6 2003 post here. Really, it's short, go read, and note that the Thunder Run was ongoing at that time, but the media spin had already begun. But given the myriad reasons why the time was right for ending the Hussein regime it's an issue of only minor importance to me - more significant as political strategy than military - but what do I know?
I did know on hearing that ISG response that many in the media would ignore the second part entirely, and miss only the "stockpiles" part of the first half. Such is life. Sitting here with my feet in the sands of Iraq the question seems of little importance. I feel about as disappointed as I did when the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union was revealed to be not as advanced as we once thought - was the cold war therefore a waste of time?
So now you have available to you the Iraq Survey Groups full response, or the one-sentence condensed version above. What's new? Well, Oil-for-Food tie-ins and some other things that NY Times readers will certainly not be confronted with any time soon. It's a worthwhile read, and for your entry port into it I'd recomend this post from LGF.
Because if I told you any more I'd have to kill you.
Hah! Surely I'm kidding, right?
Enjoy.
Bill Faith has been a great help during my travels, as should be obvious to all who visit here. And he never brought any one's attention to this post which he put up on his blog at the start of my journey. I found it by pure chance (or by something else) and I ask you all humbly to please go read and consider helping this man in a time of real need.
This post stays on top today.
You and yours are in our prayers Bill.
The Cocco kids are safer tonight, thanks to house Republicans, who destroyed Democrat Charles Rangel's bid to weaken the military by adding conscripts to the ranks. Rangel's bill to reinstate the draft was demolished, 402-2:
"We're going to put a nail in that coffin," said the House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas. He accused Democrats of generating opposition to President Bush - especially on college campuses - by raising the idea that the draft might be re-established after the November election to provide troops for service in Iraq
I'll be sleeping easier in my tent tonight, thanks. But the Dems were quick to condemn the Republicans for exposing their fraud:
Democrats were outraged at the tactic, charging Republicans with a cynical political ploy on a matter that merited more thoughtful hearings and debate. The Democrats originally introduced the measure early last year as a way to protest the war, even before it began, and to spotlight how low- and middle-income Americans shoulder much of the burden of serving in the military.
Actually, patriotic Americans quite willingly shoulder that responsibility with pride - the above paragraph is just another example of the NY Times (and others) complete inability to comprehend the core strength of the all-volunteer force, and that's not a topic to debate.
But the next paragraph in the story offers the ultimate in deranged sputtering, combining delusional comments from the bill's sonsor with what had to be one of the most agonizing lines ever sweated by an editor in the Times:
"It is a prostitution of the legislative process to take a serious issue and use it for political purposes on the eve of the election just to say they are against the draft," said Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, the author of the bill, who ended up voting against it.
If anyone can provide a rational translation of that paragraph please do so in comments. Like dialogue in a Jerry Lweis film, it's too ridiculous to ridicule.
But shortly after, the Times story returns to "real journalism" by claiming three non-related anti-war talking points are crucial draft facts:
Some Democrats said it was the administration's loss of credibility due to the failure to find chemical and biological weapons in Iraq and its mishandling of the aftermath that was to blame for worry about the draft. "The president's foreign policy is scaring the kids of this country," said Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio.
A quick search of the story finds that Bush stealing the election in 2000 was not mentioned - a massive failure on the part of the usually sharper Times staff.
Honestly, they may have been trying to balance the Republican talking points which were included in the story, and that was just the best the opposition could do. But sometimes a simple "not available for comment" works best, especially in response to statements like these:
"The reason we are doing this is to expose the hoax of the year, which has been needlessly scaring young people," said Representative Duncan Hunter of California, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.Administration officials including Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have said they have absolutely no plans to restore the draft and believe that the all-volunteer military is the proper way to field troops. Both of them have reiterated that position in recent days.
"We will not have a draft so long as I'm the president of the United States," Mr. Bush said to applause from a crowd in Iowa on Monday.
"We do not need a draft," Mr. Rumsfeld said during a radio interview with Sean Hannity. "We've got, you know, 295 million people in this country and we have an active force of about 1.4 million and we are having no trouble at all attracting and retaining the people that we need to serve in the Armed Forces."
But instead of "no comment" we get this (attention South Dakota voters):
Senate officials said they had no intention of acting on a similar proposal, but the Democratic leader, Senator Tom Daschle, said he doubted the House vote would put the matter to rest."I would expect you're going to continue to see debates about the viability of a draft as we move forward," Mr. Daschle said.
Yea, okay. Bring. It. On.
A story about local Marine 1st Sgt. Fletcher Armstrong III that appeared in The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC) front page on Sunday. The story is written by a local staff reporter and is not a wire service report so it may not get wide play, but it surely deserves it.
To summarize, 20 year marine and OIF vet was on vacation in Dominican Republic when Hurricane Jeanne hit. The resort was flooded and 500 guests stranded. What this guy did to save guests and get them evacuated is incredible. He deserves to be recognized
...AND A DAMN VACATION
This just in from Steve Taylor
"But I can do a better job of protecting America's security because the test that I was talking about was a test of legitimacy, not just in the globe, but elsewhere
Update:
This explains it! He's ButMan!
Update:
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC): "I'd say if you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you've lost your mind."
Cheated at the debate? Yea, saw it. So the guy who probably trumped up his own medals, left Vietnam early, accused his fellow vets of atrocities, met with the enemy, voted against funding the military at war, and probably approved the CBS forgery story, might be inclined to cheat at a debate? Shame on him!
But they say that was a pen. I'd have claimed it was a box of Skoal Bandits and wooed the imaginary Nascar voting bloc, but what do I know.
Still, I think "not just in the globe, but elsewhere" is a great quote, though obviously more appealing in some parsecs than others. But I they want I'll give them an escape from that one too, every bit as good as "it was a pen":
"By 'elsewhere' he meant 'up in heaven, where Bush made baby Jesus cry'".
That'll play well to the base.
When it comes to the Oil-for-Food program Roger Simon has hit the nail on the head
Speaking of media willing to report that we're winning the war, how about this headline from Ralph Peters in the NY Post: The Army Wins. Yes, he's inviting scorn from the cross town rivals, but what a great contrast this makes with the NY Times insipid coverage of Samarra, as seen here yesterday. Enough of that loser attitude, here's the real story, from the Post (some bold emphasis added):
In a remarkable display of skill, elements of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division and newly trained Iraqi national forces drove the terrorists from the city of Samarra last week. Killing over 100 of freedom's enemies and capturing many more, our troops lost a single soldier.The two-day sweep through Samarra incorporated lessons learned on the ground over the past several months ? especially the need to win swiftly in urban settings. Our soldiers performed flawlessly under difficult conditions. Iraqi commandos, backed by our Special Forces, liberated two key mosques before a hostile media could intervene on terror's behalf. The city's population is glad that their oppressors are gone.
Has Sen. Kerry acknowledged the performance of our troops? Has he thanked them? Of course not. The senator and his posse of defeatists resent American victories in the final weeks before our presidential election.
We're supposed to lose, you understand.
There's an enormous and troubling disconnect between the situation on the ground in Iraq and the portrait of disaster hawked by Kerry & Co. ? abetted by the media. The victims of this disinformation campaign are our soldiers, the American people and the law-abiding citizens of Iraq.
Indeed, the Dems have declared defeat so loudly and insistently that they've convinced much of the world that freedom's cause is lost in the Middle East.
But let me tell you who isn't convinced: Our soldiers. Last week, I was privileged to speak to ? and listen to ? hundreds of U.S. Army officers and enlisted soldiers at the Land Combat Exposition in Heidelberg, Germany ? the headquarters of our ground troops in Europe. Even I was surprised by the complete absence of griping. I did not hear a single criticism of our engagement in Iraq.
Now, soldiers complain. It's a hallowed tradition. Yet, not one of the troops with whom I spoke suggested we were losing in Iraq. Those soldiers, from generals down to the junior enlisted ranks, are the ones who pay the bills that come due in blood. And they were proud to have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many were getting ready to go back. They believed in what their country asked them to do.But the most inspiring exchanges I had weren't with those in uniform. It was the military spouses, left behind while their loved ones went to war, who really got to me.
I recall two splendid young women whose husbands serve in the same infantry battalion ? the most dangerous of assignments ? in Iraq's Sunni triangle. They went out of their way to let me know that they supported their husbands proudly and without reservation
Yet who might be asked to pay a higher price? When protesters pretend to represent the best interests of our troops, how dare they speak for those young wives who risk so much because they, too, believe in our country and its calling?
I was fortunate to hear Maj.-Gen. Marty Dempsey, commander of our 1st Armored Division, share a rigorous analysis of the challenges faced by "Old Ironsides" during the unit's recent tour of duty in Iraq. There was no nonsense in that briefing, no self-glorification ? just an appreciation of what American soldiers can achieve and a determination to do everything possible to help them.
Gen. B.B. Bell, our Army's senior commander in Europe, has the job of preparing his troops for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan ? along with other wide-ranging strategic responsibilities. A charismatic leader, Bell is determined to capture the knowledge bought with blood on Iraq's battlefields so that our doctrine is worthy of our soldiers. What I saw, at every rank, was a level of professionalism and dedication that shames my own generation of Cold War-era soldiers.
We've never had better troops in our nation's history ? and they're winning under very tough conditions.
What do we hear on the home front? A presidential candidate appears determined to provide aid and comfort to the enemy, while encouraging the terrorists to resist with all their might until he's elected.
Kerry and his acolytes revel in reciting casualty figures ? even though Kerry realizes full well that our losses in Iraq, painful though they are, are lower than those from one minor Civil War battle. And the stakes in Iraq are higher by far than any of the senator's supporters can admit.
Our Army deserves better. As do our Marines, who are readying themselves for the job of retaking Fallujah in cooperation with revamped Iraqi forces. How on earth have we sunk so low that a man who would be president is willing to undercut those in uniform, while encouraging our enemies to believe ? against all evidence ? that they're winning?
As this column long has maintained, our troops can perform the mission in Iraq. All they need is stalwart support from our nation's leaders. President Bush has wavered now and then, but last week's win in Samarra suggests that the administration has regained its nerve.
What could our troops expect from a President Kerry? Must we accept that the lives and limbs lost have all been squandered in vain?
When terrorist bombs inevitably go off in the streets of Samarra again, the Kerry crowd will insist that the blasts mean that retaking the city was useless. But the senator, who has seen war firsthand, knows better. Military operations under such conditions are complex, often-lengthy affairs. There is no such thing as a flawless victory.
But there is such a thing as victory. Last week, in a superb lightning operation, Maj.-Gen. John R. S. Batiste and his Big Red One gave the Iraqi people and America a significant win.
Wouldn't it be lovely if Kerry could summon up the decency to thank them?
Thank you sir.
Spread the word: the good guys will win.
In a story headlined "Support Grows For Troops" (apparently they understand the issues) the London Times reports (subscription only; similar story here):
PUBLIC support for Tony Blair?s policy of leaving British troops in Iraq for as long as necessary to produce stability has increased over the past three months. This is despite the high level of killing and the kidnapping of Kenneth Bigley.<...>
Support for keeping British troops in Iraq ?for as long as it takes to make sure that Iraq is a stable democracy? has risen by 7 points to 49 per cent since July. At the same time, the number calling for the withdrawal of troops ?as soon as possible even if Iraq is not completely stable? has declined from 51 to 42 per cent.
But how about the younger voters, those of age to serve. Where do they stand?
Men (60 per cent), professionals and managers (58 per cent) and 18 to 24-year-olds (53 per cent) are more strongly in favour of British troops staying than any other group.
A tide is turning in the war on terror - the good guys have been winning, but increasingly reporters are willing to admit it.
Don't let Meredith Fuchs fool you into thinking otherwise, she's motivated by some kind of freaky kick she gets from from looking at flag-draped coffins:
A lawsuit filed Monday seeks to force the Pentagon to release photographs and videotape of coffins of service members killed overseas and brought back to the United States.The suit, filed in federal district court in Washington, is based on the Freedom of Information Act, not the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press, said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel of the National Security Archives and one of the lawyers involved in the suit filed by a journalism instructor.
"These are the kind of documents that directly serve the core purpose of FOIA. . . . Everyone says a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, the pictures have an impact and help people understand what war is really about in a way that nothing else does," Fuchs said.
The "National Security Archive" is not a government agency - in fact even a cursory look at their website will reveal it to be an anti-government agency - at least as far as the American government goes (Or at least Republican ones). And the whole thing's a frivolous suit, of course, because as anyone not consumed with lust for the dead well knows, numerous photos were released earlier this year, as evidenced by the examples on display at the "National Security" Archives home page and their bragsheet on the suit.
And the Pentagon has valid concerns - the families of the deceased. Apparently though, for some folks lust conquers all.
The Pentagon says it's a long-standing policy to withhold such images and limit access to the Dover, Del., Air Force base that serves as the East Coast military mortuary. It says the reason is to protect grieving families' privacy.Earlier this year, a furor erupted when the Air Force provided an Arizona Web site operator with 361 photos in response to his FOIA request. Those photos of ceremonies and flag-draped coffins were subsequently published in newspapers and shown on television. Officials called that a mistake and have made no further releases.
A furor indeed, but the photos didn't "turn anyone against the war" then and aren't likely to now. On the contrary, the response was more the opposite - a reminder that Americans are risking all for true national security (the grown-up sort that can't be delivered from university campuses) and deserve nothing less than all- out support from home. But the same thinking that leads some (generally folks who are poorly educated, intensely gullible and easily led) to believe that national security involves attacking your country's leaders and that war protestors are war heroes also leads to this sort of miscalculation.
Ralph Begleiter, a journalism instructor at the University of Delaware and former CNN correspondent, said he was motivated to seek the images after discussions in a class he taught last spring on global media and international politics. "I think the public has a right -- and maybe even a responsibility -- to be aware of them," Begleiter said."Because the impact of war images on the public can affect any decision by United States officials to engage our military in combat, the public's reaction to photographs such as those taken at the Dover AFB mortuary has been called 'the Dover Test,' " the court filing states.
Not sure exactly what public Begleiter thinks is ignorant of the war on terror and it's cost; but no doubt the same ignorance level wouuld be required to believe his efforts are meant to "honor the dead".
Begleiter and Fuchs, ghouls for the 21st century.
In the world I grew up in, astronauts were heroes. Sure, they still are, but back then there were so few, that you knew them by name (though I never knew Col Cooper's first name was Leroy 'til today). And they all came from the military ranks – where else would you find such men? Air Force Colonel Gordon Cooper was one of the Original Seven – he never landed on the moon but he helped make it possible. He was an American hero, and he died this week at age 77, and I checked the date on my watch and saw there it was 2004 now. Damn.
It may be a while before we return to the moon – the program had a large share of detractors, and their main complaint was that there were problems to be solved on earth first. Such thinking will ensure we never return to the moon, but indeed there were and are such problems that demand our immediate attention.
Consider this: As America planted its flag on the moon, a medieval death cult was gaining a stronger foothold on parts of earth. Likely the very moment moon rocks were brought to earth someone was being stoned to death for the crime of being raped. And almost coincident with the last manned mission to the moon we saw our first act of global terrorism at the Olympics in Munich – coincidental, to be sure.
I referenced President Kennedy's challenge to America to reach the moon in my post about leaving home for Iraq. That speech represents an inspiration that we seem to lack in America today, not from our presidents, but from within, individually. Today’s challenge is before us; crisis equals challenge equals opportunity. Some men in their day were able to go to the moon. Facing down that death cult has twice the opposition and none of the same glamour, but we don’t choose the times we’re born into, Frodo.
But have we lost something more along the way? Col Cooper's NASA biography lists the Boy Scouts of America among his organizational ties. In certain circles they're now one of the most despised organizations in the country - representatives of the group were booed off the stage at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. The Colonel's bio also lists the following hobbies: Treasure hunting, archeology, racing, flying, skiing, boating, hunting, fishing. Back in the day that sort of information inspired young boys to become treasure hunters, archaeologists, etc.
What do America's heroes of 2004 inspire kids to be?
Here's a possibility: Kobe Bryant says Shaq paid off women to keep them from talking.
Colonel Gordon Cooper. Rest in peace.
Remember how the lamestream media played it up when the Crawford TX paper, which may reach almost a thousand daily readers, endorsed John Kerry for president? Don't hold your breath waiting for C-BS to tell you about this.
Here's just a taste.Endorsement: George W. Bush for president
It's about national security. That's the key issue on the minds of Americans planning to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election. They must decide whether Republican President George W. Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry, a Democrat, can provide the leadership to safeguard America from foreign terrorism.
What might a lesser leader have done, faced with the daunting task of deciding America's course against withering, partisan attacks from Democrats, media propagandists, disingenuous U.N. officials and disloyal White House operatives selling their souls for profit during a time of war?
A lesser leader might have caved in. President Bush has stood his ground.
John Kerry, on the other hand, has all the attributes of the shape of water when it comes to telling us what he believes and what he'd do for America. Like incoming and outgoing tides, Kerry is content to go with the flow. In a dangerous world infested with sharks, Kerry would be chum at America's expense.
We in Massachusetts know John Kerry. He got his first taste of politics 32 years ago in the cities and towns of Greater Lowell.
Go read the whole thing.
(Also posted in slightly modified form at In Bill's World.)
Interview with Swift Boat Vet, Van Odell over at Deans world
Don't miss it
Yes, that's right, Chistmas is right around the corner, and this time of year can be very hard on our troops. Let's lift their spirits with gifts of love. Please help by donating a stocking and an AT&T phone card so all our military members may call home and share the holidays with their families.
And close to my home. Christmas is coming to the wounded Heroes at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany? and YOUR help is needed to make it special!!!
Also, Angels are needed to sew blankets for the wounded.
And some children need some shoes to go with their stocking, Operation Shoe Fly, is making that happen.
But stills needs help.
And last and very urgent, lets help out Chief Wiggles, so a little girl will still be here for Chirstmas
UPDATE: Via e-mail -
Thank you so much for your service and for your blog. It is due to you that I am a Soldier's Angel and now have an adopted brother serving with the Strykers in Mosul. He has become a member of my family and my only brother.
Wishing you and all the other brothers and sisters out there my very best,
Wendy Sessions
Pawleys Island, SC
Thank you Wendy, we need more like you
Via reader email (thanks Moss), here's one about some more American-style crisis management, a story about two GIs who found a way to help wounded Iraqi citizens:
Staff Sgt. Chris Cummings, a member of the Army Reserve's 478th Civil Affairs Battalion from Miami, ran a prosthetics company before he was mobilized.Now, to help Iraqi amputees in Baghdad, Cummings has combined his background in prosthetics with Capt. Steve Lindsley of the Mississippi-based 112th Military Police Battalion. Lindsley is a certified prosthetist with the Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Monroe, La. The two Soldiers have identified more than 60 Iraqi amputees, many of them children and teenagers, who would like to have new limbs.
"Captain Lindsley came up with the idea of starting a free prosthetics clinic in Iraq for local people regardless of age," Cummings said.
"Captain Lindsley's civilian boss, Chris Wallace at MRC, has been very supportive with materials," Cummings said, "and the Army has been supportive by providing us with time and a place to help people in need."
The two Soldiers are working almost every day at the Grey Wolf Forward Operation Base in Baghdad's International Zone, taking measurements for the construction of new limbs for Iraqis in the program. Work is also performed on bracing limbs that cannot support themselves.
Cummings was scheduled to go home in early October, but he has chosen to stay and help more Iraqi amputees.
"I promised a lot of people I was going to help them - I can't go back on my promises," Cummings said. "I am extending to keep those promises. We hope to have new arms and legs for people starting in mid-October of this year."
(Editor's note: Information provided by Sgt. 1st Class Clarence Kugler, 478th Civil Affairs Battalion to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command News Service.)
UPDATE: Apparently we have a bad link, so I provided a cached link.
I'm stationed in Baghdad, and we are a National Guard Unit from Kansas. I must say that our troop morale is much higher than I ever expected it to be. When I was on active duty, stationed at Ft. Sill, OK, the unit morale was in the toilet. We worked late nights and through lunch and it drove morale down even more because we didn't see the point in it. When this unit deployed I thought that I had seen the highest that our morale would be for the next year. However our morale only seemed to go up. Once we got to Kuwait we were anxious to get to Iraq. The low point of the deployment so far was at Kuwait where the training seemed tedious and redundant. Once we got to Baghdad our morale only went up from there. After being here for 9 months our morale is still high. Just today there was a group of us on the bus headed back to our Hooches (trailors) and someone got a package. The package contained a funny hat, a stick on mustache, and a bouncing balloon with the rubber band on it. Suddenly a song came on the AFN (Armed Forces Radio) station and just like that it became a party bus. The balloon was being bounced all over the bus everyone was dancing, and joking and singing along. There isn't one day that goes by that someone doesn't do something to make everyone laugh and smile. I can't speak for every unit, but as far as this unit goes we are very much a family. We count on each other for every thing. Especially our good spirits.
Robert D. Truitt
SGT
U.S. Army
No one here will be surprised:
An unscientific survey of U.S. military personnel shows they support President Bush for re-election by a 4-to-1 ratio. Two-thirds of those responding said John Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam make them less likely to vote for him.
"Patriotism" was likely another frequent response. I'd guess the Swift Vets had a bit more cred with the GIs than ol Mike Moore did.
In the survey of more than 4,000 full-time and part-time troops, 73% said they would vote for Bush if the election were held today; 18% said they would vote for Kerry. Of the respondents, 59% identified themselves as Republicans, 20% as independents and 13% as Democrats.The survey was conducted Sept. 15-28 by the Army Times Publishing Co., which distributes the weekly newspapers Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times.
The Kerry camp was quick to insist the results were wrong, and that the military loves their boy:
Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade called the Army Times Publishing effort "an inaccurate e-mail survey" and said that Kerry has "the vision and values to keep faith with military families and America's veterans."Of survey respondents, 65% of active-duty and 67% of Guard and reserve troops said that Kerry's activities after Vietnam made them less likely to vote for him. Kerry served in Vietnam as a naval officer and was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. He protested the war after returning home.
Only 12% of active-duty troops and 16% of Guard and reserve troops said Bush's actions in the National Guard made them less likely to vote for him. Bush received a coveted pilot's slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the height of the Vietnam War and missed a number of mandatory drills after he stopped flying fighter jets in April 1972.
Described as historically "Republican and conservative" as a block, the story also notes that it's estimated that military personnel favored Bush over Al Gore 2-1 in the 2000 presidential race, meaning Kerry doesn't have the support the former VP did among GI's.
The story concludes: Military personnel who responded to the survey said they were generally happy with their jobs: 73% said they would re-enlist.
No word on whether that's contingent on any future developments.
UPDATE:However, comma, the French support Kerry 9 to 1. Where do you stand?
The Beef Steak MRE has a Slim Jim in it for a snack. Now that's Beefy Maybe too beefy. You ever eat a steak and think "If only I had a Slim Jim chaser my life would be full"? No - that thought never occurred to you. And the same meal comes with beans as a side.
Cowboy up.
From the NY Times story on America and Iraq's smashing success in Samarra: Marines unable to get a foothold in Fallujah. In the same sense that Patton was unable to take Moscow, a failure that ranks right up there with MacArthur's failure to take Beijing.
The Army took Samarra? U.S. and Iraqis together? Well, what about Fallujah?
Recruiting and retention goals met this year? Well, they won't be next year.
But back to the MRE thing: What the cowboys didn't have is a magic heat pouch. We didn't even have them a few years back. Put the food pouch in the heat pouch and just add water and presto! Heat. But the heat pouch isn't really designed to hold two food pouches, so with beans and a steak, what are you gonna do? You see the kind of things I'm confronted with daily. It's a hardship.
Like when sometimes something goes boom and you have to drop to the ground and if you didn't have them on already you put on your cowboy vest and helmet real cowboy fast.
Anyhow, I'm glad to report you can fit both the steak and the beans into the pouch. One's not going to get quite as hot as the other, and neither will get as hot as one alone, but you can do it. Like I said, the cowboys never had it so good.
Now here's something useful in your beefsteak MRE: Tootsie Roll. Mmmmmm tootsie roll. Solid. Dependable. Just chocolate. Since 1896 (the cowboys were still on the range in '96) and I'll bet you haven't had one in forever. You want one now though, don't you?
Really if you see a bunch of guys standing around in boonie hats, flak vests, and boots that's the image that comes to mind, cowboys. Add a slung M-16 and you've got the full 21st-century cowboy look. Wasn't it during Reagan's term that the media decided that "cowboy" was a term worthy of worldwide scorn?
Hey, if you're skipping the MRE and going to the DFAC for lunch here's a hint: the little yellow packages that look just like mustard are taco sauce. I had an unexpected taco burger just the other day. But hey, I'll bet cowboys had those back in '96, don't you think?
If someone wants to make a movie some day a few years out about OIF they can use a cowboy theme. In fact they can just remake the classic cowboy movies with a modern setting. There's a lot of old west around here. We've got forts. We've got Cavalry. And yea, we've got shootouts.
We've got a cast of characters from around the world come seeking their fortunes in a dangerous land.
We could use a saloon though.
I walked into a stall in the latrine the other day and shut the door behind me a little too hard. "Bang" - and the guy in the next stall shouts "What the hell was that?" with a note of panic. "Just the door, man. Just the door."
He can be forgiven for being a bit nervous. There are shrapnel holes in the latrine walls.
Not too far off is a small arms range where the Iraqis train day and night. The firing is virtually non stop, and sometimes bigger things go boom over there. Other spots nearby are used to detonate captured or found explosive ordnance. Usually there's a heads up before something blows.
So most things that go boom are expected. But like I said, sometimes something goes boom and you have to drop to the ground and put on your cowboy vest and helmet real cowboy fast. Sometimes it's detonation of captured ordnance. Sometimes it's training. Sometimes it's a couple dozen children slaughtered by a car bomb at the opening of a sewage treatment plant.
I don't think that ever happened in Abilene.
This from the NY Times article on Samarra again (emphasis added):
But if the Americans were pleased with their success, not all Iraqis were. In Baghdad, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which represents more than 3,000 Sunni mosques around the country, denounced the military operation and accused American and Iraqi troops of widespread atrocities in Samarra. The clerics, who spoke at a news conference in Baghdad, said the military action would undermine any support in the area for the elections."The hospital is full of bodies, children are buried in the gardens, and there are bodies filling the streets," said Muhammad Bashar al-Faidhi, one of the members of the group in Baghdad who said he was basing his accusations on witness accounts. It was impossible to independently verify his claims.
"These policies will increase the anger of the Iraqi people," he said, "and if the government insists on resolving the crisis in this horrible American way, then we expect that the Iraqi people will not cooperate in any forthcoming election or any other political program."
It was impossible to independently verify his claims.
Based on the story byline (Samarra) and the photos I'd have to guess the reporters were with the troops in Samarra. But they were unable to verify the claims. Which I'm sure is true, but different from stating "they saw no evidence of atrocities".
In fact, this is what they described:
As though a bell had been rung, people began to emerge from their homes on Sunday, gathering in small numbers on some market streets and waving warily at passing convoys of armored vehicles. Here and there, people passed along the hot, dusty streets with white flags waving over their heads.
Nothing about fresh graves in the gardens.
In contrast here's a description of the aftermath of the Baghdad kiddy bombers' work :
Iraqi health officials said 35 of the 42 fatalities from Thursday's blasts were children."What really hurt me was that most of the killed or injured people were children," said Moyad Ismail, 25, who saw the U.S. soldier handing out candy minutes before the second explosion. "The children were making a ring around the soldiers."
The disaster sent panic through the neighborhood. By Thursday afternoon, nearby Yarmouk Hospital was overrun with parents roaming the hallways and makeshift emergency rooms, looking for their children.
At the morgue, stunned mothers and fathers left with only body parts to take home and bury.
And I don't remember the Association of Muslim Scholars speaking out about the children who died for the sin of wanting MRE Tootsie Rolls. Unless it's what they meant by crisis: "...if the government insists on resolving the crisis in this horrible American way, then we expect that the Iraqi people will not cooperate in any forthcoming election or any other political program."
This horrible American way you know...
Cowboy style.
More from in-country, the two bloggers at the Questing Cat are a daily must-read.
Like Mudville and Able Kane, these are sites you're not likely to see covered in MSM stories any time soon
From the 1 October 04 Swift Vets e-Newsletter:
In a new petition the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth are calling for Senator Kerry to set the record straight and come clean about his fallacious Senate testimony and postwar radicalism. In calling for Kerry to tell the truth, the petition asks Kerry to produce evidence for his claims about war crimes and atrocities committed by American soldiers in Vietnam.
If Kerry wants to become Commander in Chief he needs to clearly explain to the nation what he meant when he said he participated in war crimes and how he could justify working with a foreign government at war with the United States.
He must also acknowledge the damage his activities did to POWs in Vietnam when he was safely on American soil and apologize to our POWs for the harm he causes them.
Kerry's entire chain of command and the overwhelming majority of those who served with him refuted his version of his conduct in Vietnam. Yet Kerry refuses to respond himself. The burden lies with Senator Kerry to set the record straight.
(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)
On Kerry's Diplomacy: Batting 1000
"I think we need a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table and to do what's necessary to make it so America isn't doing this alone."French Foreign Minister Barnier:
Even though Nato last week overcame members' long-running reservations about a training mission to Iraq and agreed to set up an academy there for 300 soldiers, neither Paris nor Berlin will participate.SDP of Germany's Gert Weisskirchen:Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said last week that France, which has tense relations with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, had no plans to send troops "either now or later".
"I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president."John Kerry:
"I know I can do a better job in Iraq. I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies, something this president has not yet achieved, not yet been able to do to bring people to the table."French Foreign Minister Barnier:
France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal, thus complicating the planning for a meeting that has drawn mixed reactions.John Kerry:Paris also wants representatives of Iraq's insurgent groups to be invited to a conference in October or November, a call that would seem difficult for the Bush administration to accept.
"I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test [Iran], see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes."Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Asefi:
[I]t would be "irrational" for Iran to put its nuclear program in jeopardy by relying on supplies from abroad. "We have the technology (to make nuclear fuel) and there is no need for us to beg from others.... What guarantees are there? Will they supply us one day and then, if they want to, stop supplying us on another day?"
"I'm going to immediately set out to have bilateral talks with North Korea."Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing:
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, standing at [Colin Powell's] side, said the "entire international community" agreed that the six-nation approach was the best way to deal with the problem.Still more in the extended entry...
The recent bombings in the streets of Baghdad may have been an even more heinous crime than first reports indicate:
For many Iraqi children, a car bombing or mortar strike isn't a tragedy. It's the biggest excitement of the week.They are drawn by billowing smoke, police sirens and the certainty that journalists will soon arrive to interview witnesses. The children flood to the scene, pick through debris, wave to television cameras and interact with the U.S. troops who show up to clear the wreckage.
So it was Thursday when scores of children rushed to the site of a suicide car bombing in the working-class Amal district of Baghdad. They marveled at the crater left by the bomb, practiced their English on troops and rode bicycles around the American tanks. They accepted candy from a soldier.
Then a second suicide bomber barreled down the street toward the U.S. and Iraqi forces — and the children who surrounded them. And then a third. The children were no longer observers of the attack, but its victims.
In other words, the first attack was a lure to bring additional victims to the scene, and the attackers knew those victims would be children.
"I saw dead bodies scattered like sheep," said Rashid Salih, 67, describing the scene where his grandson was killed.Children's shoes, clothing and crumpled red bicycles decorated with feathers littered the street.
Iraqi health officials said 35 of the 42 fatalities from Thursday's blasts were children.
"What really hurt me was that most of the killed or injured people were children," said Moyad Ismail, 25, who saw the U.S. soldier handing out candy minutes before the second explosion. "The children were making a ring around the soldiers."
The disaster sent panic through the neighborhood. By Thursday afternoon, nearby Yarmouk Hospital was overrun with parents roaming the hallways and makeshift emergency rooms, looking for their children.
At the morgue, stunned mothers and fathers left with only body parts to take home and bury.
Did Chechnya leave people immune to the horror of such stories?
I'd say more but I've got to go study for my global test.
Here's a great story from the Strykers. There's nothing desirable about being wounded in war, but there's something heroic about those who are, and their stories are too seldom told. Don't miss this one.
(Cross-posted from "In Bill's World")
Vet's View
October 2nd, 2004Vets’ View
The thing to judge in these debates
Is what you’re truly hearing;
Do you hear what George, god bless ’em, states,
Or John boy so endearing?The Cowboy tells you it’s hard work,
Not for the faint of heart,
But manicured John, that elitist jerk,
Does a global view impart.We hear the pundits say John won,
And shake our heads and wonder;
How they disregard this Judas son,
Who made our nation sunder,
Here's an email we received from a Korean war vet:
In the debate Kerry made a snide remark about the truce signed in Korea in 1952. As all of us who were there clearly remember the date of the cease fire was 27 July, 1953.Rog Neilson, USMC Ret
The Senator of course, is more familiar with the war in Cambodia.
And with the Paris peace talks.
This:
Congressional investigators say that France, Russia and China systematically sabotaged the former United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq by preventing the United States and Britain from investigating whether Saddam Hussein was diverting billions of dollars. . . .<...>
The paper suggests that France, Russia and China blocked inquiries into Iraq's manipulation of the program because their companies "had much to gain from maintaining'' the status quo.
Plus this:
Add to this the recent bizarre phrase from French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The head of the Figaro press group went to see him about the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq; Raffarin assured him they would soon be freed, reportedly saying, "The Iraqi insurgents are our best allies."
Plus a lot of other things equals this:
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I'll continue to work with our allies and the international community -- but I will never submit America's national security to an international test. (Applause.) The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France.(Applause.)
Not generic "foreign countries", not unspecified "other governments", but France.
Sudan President Says U.S. Trained Rebels
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The United States helped train and arm rebels from western Sudan who rose up against the Sudanese government last year, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir, the Sudanese president, said in remarks published in an Egyptian newspaper Thursday."Who else than the United States is behind this? . . . They took rebels to Eritrea and set up training camps for them, spent money on them, armed them," Bashir told the Al-Ahram weekly when asked about foreign involvement in the region Darfur.
A State Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the charge. "The whole purpose of the U.S. policy is to end the violence in Sudan," the official said. "We are not funding, training, providing armaments to, supporting in any way, shape or form the rebels."
The United States has labeled the violence in Darfur genocide, blaming the Sudanese government and the Arab Janjaweed militia, which Khartoum has been accused of arming.
Not sure if this claim will pass the "global test" but sadly, "Lt General President Bashir" probably enjoys significant credibility in some parts of the world.
Hot on the heels of the Samarra story :
U.S. Eyes All-Out Offensive To Subdue Fallujah RebelsThe U.S. military is on a course to try to subdue terrorist-infested Fallujah by force before the first national election in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq in January, according to U.S. officials.
U.S.-Iraqi Raids Target Insurgents In Heart Of Baghdad
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided suspected insurgent hide-outs in the heart of the capital Wednesday, sparking clashes along a central Baghdad thoroughfare.
Hear the footsteps? I imagine the "insurgents" aren't sleeping well tonight.
And from that violence, this:
In this second school year since the United States deposed Saddam Hussein, Iraqi education officials have twice put off the start of classes, citing instability in the provinces.<...>
Despite the late start, education officials were optimistic about the new curriculum and changes that are moving through Iraqi schools, which, in the years that Mr. Hussein ruled Iraq, had delivered ever poorer education. A rigid system of control forced out teachers who were not members of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party. Students paid bribes to improve their grades. A course called National Education required students of all grades to memorize Baath Party achievements.
<...>
The much-despised course of National Education is gone. In its place is a course that is a mix of civics and home economics, and teaches everything from electricity usage to respect for human rights and the opinions of others.
It was a welcome switch for Vian Said, a 16-year-old in Baghdad whose least favorite subject had been National Education. Her mother, Nifal Armagani, said she hoped computer and science courses would be added. Education had so deteriorated in the time of the Hussein government that on an average day, Ms. Armagani spent four hours tutoring her children after school.
The decline was due in part to the decline of the teachers themselves. The generation of teachers who began their careers under the Hussein government were given inadequate training that emphasized absolute loyalty to Mr. Hussein, and not depth of knowledge, explained Mr. Said, of the ministry.
"You can't depend on them to teach students," said Sardar Muhammad Said, another assistant to the curriculum director, who graduated from a teaching academy in the 1960's before the Baath Party established absolute control over the schools. "They were brainwashed. Most don't know their subjects."
So this summer teachers took refresher courses in how to teach and how to behave toward students. The training included lectures about students' rights and teachers' duties. Over the past several months, teachers from primary, secondary and high schools - in all about 326,000 - were scheduled for the training.
As for Vian Said, it was enough to be free of memorizing Baath Party accomplishments. She expressed her joy at being free of it by chiming into a mocking chorus when her sister and cousins chanted the former morning school salute as they sat in the living room of their central Baghdad home: "Long live Saddam Hussein!" they shouted, through smiles.
John Kerry: "This president has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment."
Death Sentences In Attack On Cole
CAIRO, Sept. 29 - A judge in Yemen sentenced two men to death and four others to prison terms of up to 10 years on Wednesday for the deadly attack in 2000 against the American destroyer Cole. The convictions were the first ones stemming from the maritime suicide bombing, which provided an early glimpse of the brazen nature of Osama bin Laden's global terror network.
<...>Mr. Badawi said he would appeal his death sentence, and the five other defendants are also likely to seek to have the sentences overturned. They can take their cases to the Court of Appeals and eventually the Supreme Court. In addition, all death sentences, which are carried out by firing squad, need confirmation by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In previous political cases, the president has either annulled or reduced sentences and even pardoned some individuals, Mr. Allaw said, but he added that the president's ability to dismiss judges prevented them from making independent decisions.
Some how I get the feeling, those that are to see the firing squad, won't and those that are sentenced 'up to' 10 years, won't see 10 years. But let's hope that I'm wrong.
Greetings.
Most of you are no doubt aware I've been traveling. For now that travel is complete - I suppose I never really said as much but hopefully you all caught on.
During that period immediately prior to departure and while moving from point to point I relied heavily on some great friends to keep things going here, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them.
Bill Faith
Grim
Cassandra
Fred Schoeneman
Navvet55
John Donovan
Russ Vaughn
Fine bloggers all, and I hope if you're a reader here that you found some new favorites to visit.
Thanks largely to their efforts September was the biggest month ever here with over 180,000 page views and 140,000 visitors. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers who linked and all of you folks who stopped by.
Finally, my thanks to those who sent me off with prayers and well wishes. Please keep all of America's sons and daughters in your thoughts and prayers.
For October and after I'll do my best to bring you glimpses and tell you stories of the front. Most of us think we're in for an interesting month here, with America's elections and Ramadan coinciding.
I sincerelly hope I'm wrong.
Via Cox and Forkum, the worlds and (sometimes) pictures of yet another "American Hero", was brought to light. His name is Joe, and he is a Navy Chief Journalist currently stationed in Iraq. He is also a blogger, and after reading a couple of his posts, I submit the following, in order to get the full flavor of the man and and his work.
Yesterday's News, from Long Island Newsday, September 29, 2004:
Insurgents Put On Show Of StrengthInsurgents kept up their blood-soaked campaign against the U.S. presence in Iraq yesterday, staging a show of defiance in Samarra and striking twice with deadly force in Basra.
Dozens of masked gunmen loyal to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi drove down the main street of the central city of Samarra carrying automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in a show of strength.
The militants stopped some cars, asking the occupants to hand over music tapes in exchange for ones with recitations from the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
Samarra has been under insurgent control and a virtual "no-go" area for U.S. troops since May 30.
More than 4,000 American and Iraqi soldiers mounted a military assault on this insurgent-held city here Thursday night, in what appeared to be the first major operation to retake areas from guerrillas before the January elections. An American soldier from the First Infantry Division was killed, the military said in a statement today.A spokesman for the First Division, Master Sgt. Robert Powell, told The Associated Press that 96 insurgents were believed killed during today's clashes, but a coalition spokesman in Baghdad said those figures could not be confirmed.
In a later statement, the military said that members of 36th Iraqi Commando Battalion secured the historic Golden Mosque, a sacred Shiite shrine, to safeguard it from insurgents. They also captured 25 rebels the mosque with weapons, the military said.
Four battalions of American troops from the First Infantry Division, backed by two battalions of Iraqi soldiers, began moving toward the city this evening under cover of heavy fire. As midnight passed, the bang of exploding shells could be heard nearly two miles outside the city limits.
A statement released by the American military early today said that American and Iraqi forces had succeeded in entering the city and securing government and police buildings. The statement said the forces were acting "in response to repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces."
"Unimpeded access throughout the city for Iraqi security forces and multinational forces is non-negotiable," the statement said.
So much for "no go".
Oh, and tomorrow's news will be here too.
Lt Smash says despite his honorable service in Vietnam, Kerry should refrain from critiquing military strategy, specifically the Afghanistan campaign --
because he doesn't have a clue.
![!cid_image001.jpg@01C4A7A8[1]](http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/images/!cid_image001.jpg@01C4A7A8[1])
President Bush and Senator John Kerry square off in the first debate of the Presidential campaign, an event sponsored by the Mudville Gazette. Each candidate was clearly a frequent reader, as they made several references to the war in Iraq. However, in an "off mic" moment one of the contenders was rumored to have referred to the website as the "wrong blog in the wrong war at the wrong time"
What Greyhawk's nephew is doing:
When it became likely that Hurricane Ivan would threaten to land in or near Mobile, Alabama, the crew of the Caribbean Mercy quickly secured the ship to sail to safety.
"Prospect of combat no deterrence"
Rowan Scarborough offers more reasons why I don't worry about the Cocco kids showing up here any time soon:
The U.S. Army, which has done some of the toughest and longest fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, has met its recruiting and retention goals for active-duty soldiers in the fiscal year that ends today.The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps also achieved those goals at a time when the 1.4-million-person armed forces is under intense deployment pressures because of the global war on terrorism.
Scarborough even offers insight to some of the National Guard's problems:
The Army did suffer setbacks in the government's fiscal 2004. The National Guard will miss its recruiting goal of 56,000. It had signed up only 43,827 by Aug. 31. Critics say frequent call-ups and 12-month deployments are driving prospects away, but the Army cites the fact that more soldiers are being kept on active duty, which means they are not available for Guard recruiters.
Both reasons are likely equal factors. A significant number of "new" recruits to the Guard and Reserve come from those folks leaving active duty. As less people are doing so (by choice and by stop loss) the pool shrinks. The Navy faces a similar problem, without stop loss:
The Navy will meet its marker of 39,700 enlisted recruits, as it has for every year in recent memory, except 1998. The branch might miss the goal for 11,000 new naval reservists, partly because active duty retention rates are so high the pool of available recruits is shrinking for certain skills.
Elsewhere
The Marine Corps, whose amphibious units have fought in Afghanistan and patrol the notorious Anbar Province in Iraq, says it is on track to meet a goal of 36,773 recruits this fiscal year.The Air Force three months ago exceeded a goal of retaining 55 percent of first-termers, garnering 68 percent. In fact, the branch is 20,000 over its budget-authorized personnel strength and is transferring some airmen to the Army.
<...>
Edgar Castillo, spokesman for Air Force Recruit Services at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, said the branch actually is slashing accessions from 34,080 this year to 24,000 next year.
"There are people right now that want to join that we can't accommodate," Mr. Castillo said.
Which will likely result in some going to the Army.
Fresh from the past year's numerous failures to predict success, several media sources are already predicting disaster for next year .
To bad they're not here with me. It's always good to have someone around who can keep a fire burning with little to no fuel.
(Excerpted To be cross-posted to "In
Bill's World" when I get around to it.)
I started to just put this in the comments Of Greyhawk's
Dear Ms Cocco
post, but then I decided everyone needs to see it. I'm copying part of an
Instapundit
post I think
all
Mudville Gazette readers everyone should see:
UPDATE: Some thoughts on the draft from a serviceman in Iraq. [Greyhawk's post -- BF]
ANOTHER UPDATE: The New York Post: "Dan does it again."
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader sends me a copy of this email he sent to the anti-draft crusaders interviewed by Rather:
Our 22 year old son is a US Marine, SpOps. His Btn just returned from the al Anbar region of Iraq. They have the unfortunate distinction of having taken the most casualties of any Coalition unit in Iraq (33 KIA 200+ WIA, sent home). However, they - in the proud tradition of US Marines, and specifically the 7th Marine Regiment - killed over 3,000 of the enemy bringing peace to the region o which they were assigned. They took on an area where there was murderous errorist activity on a daily basis and today, it's as safe as most of Philly.
A new greatest generation is emerging -- in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in the other, less-publicized battlegrounds of the War on Terror.
Focused on the U.S. political cycle, America's press elites are missing the extraordinary story of the 19-through-35 year olds who are winning this war. The detailed history of this new cohort of American and Free World leaders -- the people who will shape the 21st century -- is being written by themselves, chiefly on the Internet, via email or web logs.
My heart swells with pride.
This guy is a reserve colonel just back. He's got more good stuff here
