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Spot the moonshadow...
Hope the sun shines bright in your world this weekend.
Someone's in for a rude surprise:
In a change to Army tactics, U.S. soldiers will stand and fight instead of shooting and pressing on when their convoys are attacked on Iraqi roads, according to Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va.“In the first two years of Iraq, convoys (under attack) just fired and kept rolling,” said Maj. Roger Gaines, the battalion’s operations officer said Thursday. “That gave bad guys the perception that Americans run away. Now, convoys will stop and engage the enemy.”
The first four women pilots were welcomed into the Pakistani Air Force with a parade of great pomp accompanied by aerobatics. Carrying rifles and dressed in the same blue uniform as their male colleagues — except for a kameez flapping over their navy blue trousers, and one wearing a headscarf — they paraded before hundreds of family members and diplomats, and took the military oath. Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool were among 36 flying cadets who received their wings after 3½ years of intensive training. “I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our country in the best possible manner, as men are doing,” Flying Officer Gul, 22, said after graduating from the elite air force academy in Risalpur, near Peshawar.More from the BBC here
The great game is in full swing.
The United Nations Security Council agreed on a statement demanding that Iran's government curb its nuclear program and assist inspectors, amid concerns from the U.S. that the research is an attempt to produce a bomb.Washington:Iran will be given 30 days to show compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency requirements, including the suspension of uranium enrichment.
The news that the U.S. and Iran plan to hold talks on mutual concerns in Iraq seemed somewhat incongruous, to say the least, coming at the end of a week during which President Bush had reiterated that Tehran was part of an Axis of Evil, Secretary of State Rice had chided Iran as the "central banker of terrorism," and Washington's man at the UN, John Bolton, had spoken of a threat from Iran akin to "9/11 with nuclear weapons." Yet within hours of Iran's national security chief announcing on Thursday that Tehran was open for talks on Iraq, the Bush Administration made clear that it was, too.Tehran:
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The Bush administration had, in fact, some time ago authorized its Baghdad ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, to seek talks with Iran about the situation in Iraq.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Monday expressed outrage at ruthless mass killing of worshipers at Mustafa Mosque in Baghdad and termed it as savage act of terrorism.More from Iran:Asefi said that the reports indicated involvement of US forces in the heinous crime which resulted in the killing of 20 worshipers at the Baghdad mosque.
He called on the international community and human rights organizations to bring those responsible for the mass killing of worshipers to justice.
"US wrong policies in Iraq never helped restore peace and stability in that country and instead caused escalation of tension and crisis there," Asefi said.
Iraqi media said that US forces invaded Mustafa mosque in Baghdad, opening fire on worshipers in which 20 died instantly.
Iraqi premier's spokesman Abdel Razzaq al-Kazemi said that Iraqi government has formed a committee to hold inquiry into the mass killing of worshipers by US forces.
United Alliance of Iraq (UAI) on Monday urged U.S. forces to return control of security to Iraqis after last night's mass killing of worshipers in a Baghdad mosque in a military raid.(Side note: even the Iranians are willing to admit the building wasn't really a mosque.)Issuing a strongly worded statement, the alliance made the demand as angry Shias buried victims of the massacre on Sunday night's military operation by US forces and elements of Iraqi forces working with US troops.
"The Alliance calls for a rapid hand-over of control of security matters to the Iraqi government," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the United Iraqi Alliance told reporters.
The building was not a traditional mosque but a former Baath party compound used by Shia Muslims for prayers and other religious events and was known locally as the Mustafa mosque.
American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted in early January by gunmen in Baghdad, was released to a Sunni Arab political party in the capital Thursday morning after 82 days in captivity.The reader is encouraged to connect the dots on their own - I note that most of the internet-based strategic-level chairborne rangers haven't yet done so. (Hint: for starters, break the players into three main camps: Sunni, Shiia, and American. This over-simplifies things - in most cases. But for this exercise, ponder who gains what from each of the above stories. Stronger hint: what = leverage.)
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Tariq al-Hashimi, the party's secretary general, said in a telephone call at 12:30 p.m. local time that "unknown people" released Carroll to the Iraqi Islamic Party's branch office in Amariyah, in the western part of Baghdad. The party then transported her by armed convoy to its headquarters in the Yarmouk district.
The Iraqi commander during a controversial raid by American and Iraq forces is backing the U.S. version of a battle that left 16 Iraqis dead, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan reports.
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The commander insisted his Iraqi Special Operations troops had to fight their way into the target building where they killed gunmen guarding a hostage and found various weapons including rocket launchers and heavy machine guns."We know this, the building, is used for to capture the civilians, the civilian people, by bad guys and they need money," the commander tells Logan.
A man who claims he was held hostage in the building, says of his captors, "They beat me, they kicked me and they used an electric drill on me. I thought I was going to die."
In March 2004, just as the insurgent movement strengthened, several members of one National Guard unit arrived in Iraq, carrying digital video cameras.Brought to my attention via email:THE WAR TAPES is the movie they made with Director Deborah Scranton and a team of award-winning filmmakers. It’s the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves on the front lines in Iraq.
THE WAR TAPES follows three men: Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi, and Specialist Mike Moriarty. Steve is a young carpenter with a dark, irreverent sense of humor who joined the Guard for college money. Zack is an inquisitive, ironic traveler and university student. Mike is a husband and father of two, driven to fight by honor and redemption. You will see Operation Iraqi Freedom through their eyes.
The War Tapes is premiering on Saturday, April 29th at 3 PM in New York City at the Tribeca Film Festival. We just got a limited number of free tickets for servicemembers and veterans - please tell everyone you know that they can get free tickets so we can make sure we get soldiers & spouses, etc, in the seats first!Service member or veteran who email z@thewartapes.com soon will get two tickets, for themselves and a guest, until we run out, first come, first serve.
We really want those who served be the first to see the film. Let any servicemembers/vets in the NYC area know!
He'll be best remembered as Reagan's Secretary of Defense, of course, but here we appreciate this line from his official biography:
He entered the U.S. Army as a private in 1941, was commissioned, and served in the Pacific theater. At the end of the war he was a captain on General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence staff.And while much of the news coverage will focus on his presiding over the "Reagan buildup" of the military (Star Wars, the B1, and from the story above: "Mr Weinberger performed with gusto the task of persuading congress to spend more than $US1 trillion on arms in Mr Reagan's first term and billions more after that.") I believe this buildup was probably more important to him:
High on Weinberger's agenda to revitalize the armed forces stood the men and women of the services. He felt that the all-volunteer force, adopted in 1973 to replace the draft, was not working. The enlistment and reenlistment rates were too low, only 60 percent of incoming personnel were high school graduates, and the officer and non-commissioned officer attrition rates were too high. Rather than reinstituting the draft, a step both he and Reagan rejected, Weinberger placed high priority on increasing the compensation and support of service members. His initiatives brought about the improvements he sought.I'm one of the people that joined in those days, and the folks that had been around a few years longer would tell you in no uncertain terms the day and night difference between that time and just a few years prior. The post-Vietnam military shook the post-traumatic stress disorder that had virtually crippled it for almost decade.
But more importantly there was another change wrought in those days. It was under his leadership that a corner was turned in what until then had been a very negative slide in public opinion/perception of the institution. Those who lived through the times know what I mean. Truth, there were successes and failures, victories and defeats in those years, and controversy to spare. And with all eyes on the Evil Empire another threat was developing rapidly - that very threat that confronts us today. But regardless of your opinions on the man, his boss, or the times, it was an undeniable turning point in history, in my mind a turn for the better.
Mr Weinberger died about 9pm last night (AEDT) in a hospital near his home in Mount Desert, Maine.For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.He had recently been treated for pneumonia.
"He was just a worn-out guy," his son, Caspar Weinberger Jr, said.
And indeed he had. How fitting that the final legacy from the man described above will be a salute to a new generation of heroes.
Wounded in Iraq, but now back in the USA and recovering, a milblogger returns to blogging.
(Bumped from 2006-03-27 21:36:35 to keep the discussion in comments going)
Just finished an email interview (intended for a military publication), since it kept me from the spare 15 minutes I'd have otherwise spent writing a blog entry I thought I'd just go ahead and post the whole thing verbatim...
When did you start your blog, and why?
March 2003. All the cool kids were doing it...
Seriously, starting a blog about current events is like writing a letter to the editor of your local paper or sounding off in a school board meeting - if something motivates you enough you speak out. In March 2003 blogs were certainly nothing in terms of readership or general familiarity compared to today, but I was motivated to sit down and start a blog.
Where are you now?
Germany - returning Stateside this summer. I've been to Iraq, blogged from Iraq.
What’s your take on the mandatory registration of bloggers?
It's probably the best way possible to put a stop to blogging from theater.
What effect do you think that will have on milblogging?
It's already begun. It's discouraged a lot of folks who are "by the rules" types, the kinds of guys who the Army would most like to have telling the story from Iraq. Some are concerned of inadvertent OPSEC violations, others of being accused of violating OPSEC by an overzealous senior. But the maladjusted, anti-social types who really hate the Army aren't going to play by those rules, so in the end my concern is you'll see fewer milblogs from squared away, professional military types and more from the bitter extremists.
Have you experienced any conflicts over blogging?
None. I play by the rules, never discuss my job, don't even talk about where I am at any given time, make clear my views are my own and don't reflect the DoD etc.
What do you see as a milblog’s most important function?
Whatever the author intends. Mine has been to debunk flawed media reports on Iraq, tell the stories of the everyday heroes in Iraq, point out the things you never read in the papers or see on TV - coalition victories, progress, etc. Others probably see their blogs as simply a place to stay in touch with a lot of far-flung friends. All of us - intentionally or not - paint a picture of what the "real" GI is like for the readers, who primarilly come from that vast majority of Americans who don't personally know anyone actually involved in the war.
What have you learned from the experience?
A lot of html. Otherwise I'm too old to learn.;)
What do you think the future holds for milblogging?
The Navy has a great approach to blogging, can't cite chapter and verse but essentially a simple disclaimer on the site regarding "views expressed are those of the author", no OPSEC or Privacy Act violations, and off you go. If the Army adopts a similar policy (they won't, if for no other reason then it's the Navy policy, and thus reeks of sea air) they will benefit from the best possible PR they could ever hope for (or pay big bucks to civilian PA firms for! - but that's another miserable failure story for another day...) If not, see "more from bitter extremists" comment above.
/interview.
Yankee Sailor knows those Navy blogging rules, by the way. They really aren't any different from rules of conduct that apply across the board to those of us in uniform. Case in point...
Update: Of course, that example doesn't even come close to Jeff Englehart. And when milblogs are outlawed only outlaws will have milblogs - welcome to the future.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:
During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions, adding he was "astounded" at the "hypocritical" reaction in Europe to Gitmo. "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK. "Give me a break." Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don't have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: "If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I'm not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it's crazy." Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq.Not quite what Europeans are used to hearing from Americans. Expect outrage to follow. Or not - either way that will be a barometer of how much people really care about jihaddis in Gitmo.
And regardless of whether he's a Supreme Court Justice or not, having a son in the battle gives him REAL ULTIMATE MORAL AUTHORITY. There's no arguing against that.
The government has dealt a "final blow" to thousands of Gulf War veterans who believe that they have been suffering from illnesses related to their service in the 1991 conflict with Iraq:
GULF WAR veterans suffering from illnesses since the 1991 conflict were told yesterday that, after 15 years’ research, no single cause had been found for their health problems.But that would be the British government:
The final judgment on “Gulf War syndrome”, dismissing it as a recognisable disease, was delivered by scientists from the Royal Society, the leading science academy in Britain.US doctors take better care of their troops:In a study of all the work carried out into the syndrome since the conflict, the Royal Society said that it was time to call a halt. “I believe there is little value in conducting further research into the causes,” Simon Wessely, the co-director of King’s College Centre for Military Health Research, said.
Like thousands of other soldiers, Army veteran Mike Woods said he developed bizarre symptoms after serving in the first Gulf War -- blackouts, chest pain and numbness in the extremities.Nmad.Woods looked to the Veterans Administration for help. He said his VA doctor prescribed him a drug called Obecalp.
"She told me there was this new drug out that would really help me with all of my physical conditions, and my pain. She really wanted me to try it," said Woods.
But when the pill provided no relief, Woods did some research and learned that Obecalp isn't a medicine at all, but a sugar pill. He was shocked to learn the word "obecalp" is placebo spelled backward.
While Canadians rejoiced at the news that two of their citizens were rescued from captivity in Iraq, some were surprised to learn Canadian special forces were involved in the mission and curious as to how many troops are on the ground.It's not unusual for military observers from a "neutral" nation to embed with other armies at war - the US did so in the years prior to joining hostilities in WWII, and European nations sent "troops" to follow the US Civil War.Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters Thursday that a handful of Canadian troops have been stationed in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation, which is still widely unpopular at home.
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Harper did confirm Thursday, shortly after the men were rescued, that an unspecified number of Canadians have been embedded with coalition forces since the beginning of the war.
The Washington Post:
Russian officials collected intelligence on U.S. troop movements and attack plans from inside the American military command leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq and passed that information to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, according to a U.S. military study released yesterday.We expect this kind of behavior from the Russians, and all the help in the world wasn't going to keep the 3rd ID out of downtown Baghdad.The intelligence reports, which the study said were provided to Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad at the height of the U.S. assault, warned accurately that American formations intended to bypass Iraqi cities on their thrust toward Baghdad. The reports provided some specific numbers on U.S. troops, units and locations, according to Iraqi documents dated March and April 2003 and later captured by the United States.
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are impossible, and that they have changed their tactic," said one captured Iraqi document titled "Letter from Russian Official to Presidential Secretary Concerning American Intentions in Iraq" and dated March 25, 2003.
But who the hell are these "sources inside the American Central Command"? I've seen quite a bit of coverage of this story, but to my knowledge no reporter has asked that question yet - and it's the one that actually matters. Contrary to the feelings of most media types the Russians aren't a US ally, and aren't privy to our plans.
Update: The New York Times covers the story here. Reporters don't realize the real story is who leaked the information to the Russians? - partly because reporters expect people to leak classified/national security information to them all the time. (And they rarely hesitate to publish.)
More: Rowan Scarborough gets the right story:
Moscow had informants inside U.S. Central Command whose information on the March 2003 invasion of Iraq was relayed to dictator Saddam Hussein days before American troops ousted him from power, according to a Defense Department history released yesterday.Scarborough also offers some other details from the report:
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The report was produced in book form by U.S. Forces Command, which studies "lessons learned" in military operations. This document, however, focused not on American units, but on how Saddam, his regime and military prepared for the March 19, 2003, attack and tried to blunt it. Titled "Iraqi Perspective Project: A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom From Saddam's Senior Leadership," it is based largely on postwar interviews and seized documents. It is in one of those documents that the Iraqis told of spies inside U.S. Central Command, which planned and executed the invasion.
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The Forces Command report offered no information on whether Central Command ever identified and purged the spies.
-The regime planned to restart production of weapons of mass destruction. It continued to hide scientists from U.N. inspectors right up to the time U.N. inspectors left and the war began.Planned or not, when coalition forces arrived in Baghdad the Iraqi Army was ordered to fight in civilian clothes - and civilians were issued guns and orderd to fight, a strategy designed to maximize chaos, casualties, and outrage against the invaders.A seized Dec. 15, 2002, memo, written by an Iraqi intelligence agent posing as a U.N. escort, states, "Inside Bader WMD inspection site, there are Russian and Turkish scientists. When we visited the site, they were forced to hide from inspectors' eyes."
And, Saddam continued to tell his commanders he still had such weapons. "For him, there were real dividends to be gained by letting his enemies believe he possessed WMD, whether it was true or not," the report said.
-The quickly assembled air strike on one of Saddam's residences, Dora Farms, in pre-dawn March 19, 2003, never had a chance of succeeding. Saddam had not stayed there since 1995.
-There was no evidence that Saddam or his top aides planned the insurgency, now in its fourth year; in fact, Saddam was sure the Americans would never advance on Baghdad.
"There were no national plans to transition to a guerrilla war in the event of military defeat," the report states.
This fact helps explain why commanders did not predict, nor plan for, the robust insurgency and al Qaeda terrorists now spreading violence.
When the assignments were made official last month for the 992 members of the class of 2006, 209 were placed as officers with the Corps - the most in the school's 161-year history. . . . Having a surplus of mids who want to be Marines has been a change from the Vietnam era. In 1968, the Marine Corps failed to meet its quota for the first time in academy history.
Forty five graduates were turned away because the Marine's limit was reached.
More:
Naval aviation remains the most popular choice among midshipmen, but a growing interest in Marine duty - in spite of its dangers - has been under way for several years, even as applications to the academy have dropped sharply in recent years, a development blamed by some on the Iraq war.War has always been a deterrent to service among those who desire to join for all the wrong reasons.
That description does not apply to Jake Dove:
The thrill of being in the action in Iraq or in any combat situation is something he and a lot of people think about, said Dove, 22, but it's not the primary consideration."My father was a paratrooper in Vietnam, and talking to him definitely de-glamorizes what happens out there," he said of combat situations. "It's something that has to be done, and I'd like to be the one that does it. I'd like to be the one that leads Marines in a combat environment."
Rescued hostages release first statement - exclusive Mudville audio here.
Maxine Nash, a member of the Christian Peacemakers Team in Baghdad, said that the group is considering leaving Iraq. She conceded that the pacifist hostages had mixed feelings about being rescued by the military.And yes, "Tanks fer Nuttin' would be a better name for the group.“Our mandate is violence reduction, so this was a tough call. Before they were kidnapped, both Tom and Jim had said they didn't want to be rescued,” Ms. Nash said.
The security source who described the schism among the abductors said that the former hostages had denounced the U.S. occupation of Iraq after they were freed. Attempts to debrief them were unsuccessful and no gratitude was offered to the soldiers for rescuing them.
It's not funny though - in fact it's tragic if it's true - information they divulge could be helpful in other cases. But for now that's just another element of the unconfirmed (but published) details concerning the hostage rescue.
On the hostage video, the kidnappers claimed to be from a previously unknown group called the Sword of Truth. But intelligence officers had identified them as members of a Sunni insurgency group, either Jaish al-Mujahideen or al-Jabha al-Islamiya. From intelligence information, they were able to begin making arrests of suspects.More
The British hostage Norman Kember and his two Canadian colleagues owe their freedom to a rift among their Iraqi kidnappers, a western security source close to the rescue operation said yesterday.Update:More from London:The source said their guards got cold feet when more senior and ruthless members of the group turned up at the house in Baghdad and took away a fourth hostage, Mr Kember's American colleague, Tom Fox, and shot him dead.
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The more senior members of the gang responsible for Mr Fox's murder were part of one of the Islamist insurgent groups, either Jaish al-Mujahideen or al-Jabha al-Islamiya. The group made a series of political demands, in particular that the US and Britain release all prisoners held in Iraq. They threatened to kill the hostages if their demands were not met.But the guards holding Mr Kember and his colleagues were part of a cell motivated by money rather than politics. "It's a bit absurd that they consider themselves innocent, even though they were looking for money. They don't see themselves as criminals," the source said. "The guards were involved, which is why it was a soft operation. They played a significant role in allowing the authorities to find the hostages."
He added: "The death of Fox changed the whole thing. Someone higher up the chain took him away. Because the ante had gone up and it had become more serious, it's quite possible that the operation began to open up and they got nervous about the repercussion." He said the "higher-ups" who took Mr Fox did not initially intend to kill him. Examination of his body found dumped by a road two weeks ago did not show signs of torture, as first reported, the source insisted. Nor did he seem to have been killed execution-style. It was more likely that there was a scuffle or an attempt to run away which led to his death.
General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the British Army, expressed the unhappiness of the military last night when he told Channel 4 News that he was “saddened that there doesn’t seem to have been a note of gratitude for the soldiers who risked their lives to save those lives”.And Oh (by the way) Canada...
[Canadian Prime Minister Stephen] Harper did confirm Thursday, shortly after the men were rescued, that an unspecified number of Canadians have been embedded with coalition forces since the beginning of the war.Previous story here, in which we noted that the CPT had indeed appended a belated note of thanks to their original statement. Hopefully the relatives of other hostages will get to say "thanks" someday too.
The hostage rescue in Iraq has certainly made headlines - and the use of the term "released" in those headlines has certainly started some conversations. The CPT has now appended a belated thanks to the soldiers who freed the hostages to their original statement condemning the occupation of Iraq and expressing their joy.
Another aspect of the rescue has been largely overlooked:
U.S. military spokesman Lynch, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, said the operation was put together in three hours after a prisoner being interrogated by American forces pinpointed the location of the hostages.This could cause some embarrassing moments - the CPT's main mission in Iraq has been to help promote claims of abuse of detainees during interrogation by US Soldiers. They may now be obliged to "investigate" the circumstances that led to the rescue.
Of course, "abuse" is a term open to interpretation:
"They looked good and told us they had not been abused or beaten," said Peggy Gish, who visited the men with two fellow Christian Peacemaker Teams activists still working in Iraq. She said the freed captives had lost weight after months of inadequate food.Thus officially eliminating diet restrictions, kidnapping, and murder from the Christian Peacemaker Team's definition of abuse. That leaves a lot of wiggle room.
So it's all good.
Operation Swarmer concluded with 104 suspected insurgents detained and questioned, and 24 weapons caches discovered.
The caches included the following:And Operation Northern Lights began:Six shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles;
More than 350 mortar rounds and three mortar systems;
26 artillery rounds;
A variety of bomb-making materials and other military items;
More than 120 rockets;
More than 3,200 rounds of small-arms ammunition;
86 rocket-propelled grenades and 28 launchers;
Six land mines;
12 hand grenades and 40 rifle grenades; and
34 rifles and machine guns of various types.
All units have safely returned to their garrison locations and forward operating bases preparing for future operations, officials said.In other news from Iraq, elements of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, found five weapons cache sites west of Baghdad yesterday. The caches contained 17 pressure plate initiators, 18 106 mm heat rounds, 400 blasting caps, 20 radios with timers, 40 artillery rounds of various sizes and a large amount of .50-caliber rounds.
About 1,400 Iraqi and Coalition Forces kicked off Operation Northern Lights Wednesday to disrupt anti-Iraqi forces and destroy terrorist caches in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad.And Operation Scorpion began:The joint and combined operation began with Soldiers of the 6th Iraqi Army Division, and U.S. Marines of the 1st Marine Regiment moving to blocking positions by ground. 10th Mountain Division Soldiers then air assaulted onto the objective to conduct a cordon and search.
By late afternoon, Soldiers from the 6th Iraqi Army Div. discovered five weapons caches containing a machinegun, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and grenade, AK-47 assault rifles, thousands of PKC and .50 caliber machine gun rounds, two boxes of gunpowder, an Iraqi police jacket, tank and artillery rounds, blasting caps, pressure plate initiators, and 20 Motorola radio initiators. They also detained a suspected terrorist near one of the caches.
At another cache site, terrorists wounded one Iraqi policeman and a child with small-arms fire. Iraqi soldiers returned fire, wounding and capturing one terrorist. Coalition personnel treated the wounded.
The combined forces continue to search for terrorists and bomb-making materials. So far Iraqi and Coalition Forces have detained two persons of high-value and 16 suspected terrorists. The operation is based on intelligence including local tips.
KIRKUK , Iraq – Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division are conducting combined offensive operations in and around Kirkuk March 24, simultaneously searching five villages in the region for suspected terrorists.Bill Roggio notes:The operation is being supported by 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
Operation Scorpion began at 4 a.m. with Soldiers from 1st and 5th battalions of the Iraqi Army's 2nd Brigade systematically moving through the villages, searching for selected targets based on Iraqi-generated intelligence. 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment is supporting operations at each of the five villages.
The operation was developed and planned by Maj. Gen. Anwar, commander of the Iraqi 2nd Brigade, and his staff.
This is the second major operation developed and conducted by the Iraqi 2nd Brigade in the past two months.
The operational tempo in central and northern Iraq has increased. Scorpion is the seventh multi-battalioncounterinsurgency operation launched in the last ten days, and follows Swarmer (Samarra, March 16-23), Raging Bull (Haditha Triad, March 21), Normandy (Ramadi, March 21), Iron Strike (Salman Pak, March 21), Northen Lights (Abu Ghraib, March 23), and an unnamed operation near Balad (March 18-23).
WWII Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss passed away yesterday. He was 87.
Doss refused to carry a weapon but insisted on serving his country. Read the details here, it's a story you won't soon forget.
Doss resisted efforts to publicize his story, but recently participated in the documentary film "The Conscientious Objector". A theatrical film version of the story may follow.
A statement released by church officials said, “Doss never liked being called a conscientious objector. He preferred the term conscientious cooperator.”
When first heard his story I was struck by the contrast to current events. There are few (if any) men alive today of comparable character, but I believe that was also true 60 years ago.
Perhaps less so.
Buck Sargeant:
Heading into its fourth year, the Iraq War has now lasted longer than most celebrity marriages.Yeah, I wish I'd written that.
And this:
It has been said that the Vietnam War was lost on television, and that was when there were only three channels on and they all screamed: RETREAT! But soldiers don’t watch the news, we make it. That is why the MSM refuse to tell our story, that is why they continue to poison the well back home, and that is why soldiers have taken it upon ourselves to “tell it like it is” on the internet.You already know you're going to read the whole thing, so there's no point in my adding that it's a tribute to Specialist Casey Sheehan (KIA Iraq, 4 April 2004) and includes video produced by the author - a milblogger in Iraq.
Because you're already there. WHAT CASEY SHEEHAN DIED FOR
(And as you watrch that video, think about what abandoning Iraq would mean. You get a hint in the final frame.)
President Bush says read more blogs.
We'll try to make that easy...
The kind of progress that we and the Iraqi people are making in places like Tal Afar is not easy to capture in a short clip on the evening news. Footage of children playing, or shops opening, and people resuming their normal lives will never be as dramatic as the footage of an IED explosion, or the destruction of a mosque, or soldiers and civilians being killed or injured. The enemy understands this, and it explains their continued acts of violence in Iraq. Yet the progress we and the Iraqi people are making is also real. And those in a position to know best are the Iraqis, themselves.Mudville readers - they're everywhere! ;)One of the most eloquent is the Mayor of Tal Afar, a courageous Iraqi man named Najim. Mayor Najim arrived in the city in the midst of the al Qaeda occupation, and he knows exactly what our troops have helped accomplish. He calls our men and women in uniform "lion-hearts," and in a letter to the troopers of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, he spoke of a friendship sealed in blood and sacrifice. As Mayor Najim had this to say to the families of our fallen: "To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls [are] hovering around us every second of every minute. They will not be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life." America is proud of that sacrifice, and we're proud to have allies like Mayor Najim on our side in the fight for freedom.
The kind of progress that we and the Iraqi people are making in places like Tal Afar is not easy to capture in a short clip on the evening news. Footage of children playing, or shops opening, and people resuming their normal lives will never be as dramatic as the footage of an IED explosion, or the destruction of a mosque, or soldiers and civilians being killed or injured. The enemy understands this, and it explains their continued acts of violence in Iraq. Yet the progress we and the Iraqi people are making is also real. And those in a position to know best are the Iraqis, themselves.Mudville readers - they're everywhere! ;)One of the most eloquent is the Mayor of Tal Afar, a courageous Iraqi man named Najim. Mayor Najim arrived in the city in the midst of the al Qaeda occupation, and he knows exactly what our troops have helped accomplish. He calls our men and women in uniform "lion-hearts," and in a letter to the troopers of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, he spoke of a friendship sealed in blood and sacrifice. As Mayor Najim had this to say to the families of our fallen: "To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls [are] hovering around us every second of every minute. They will not be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life." America is proud of that sacrifice, and we're proud to have allies like Mayor Najim on our side in the fight for freedom.
Of course, there's another veteran's group that calls itself non-partisan too...
We introduced Sgt Mark Seavey to you here, as he introduced himself to Congressmen John Murtha and Jim Moran:
"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)Mark Seavey was talking about guys like Marine Lt Wade Zirkle, Navy Corpsman Joe "Doc" Worley, and the men of Pale Rider 3"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."
LT. WADE ZIRKLE, PLATOON COMMANDER: Some people, they ask me, if you had to do it over again, would you join the Marine Corps after everything you have been through? I look at them and I say, without a doubt.Capt. Christopher P. Niedziocha, USMC:ZAHN: The platoon commander, a squad leader.
SGT. BILLY CONARD, SQUAD LEADER: Combat is combat. If you have never been there, you are never going to really experience what it's like.
ZAHN: And the platoon's medic. This is the story of their war and of the men they left behind. Their journey follows the evolution of the war, from the initial invasion to the chaos in the streets of Falluja, the elusive threat of suicide bombers and roadside explosives.
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ZAHN (voice-over): Labor Day of 2004 and the men of Pale Rider 3, just a month from coming home, were on patrol. Over all those hours in Humvees, the men had grown close, especially the more senior Marines, Conard, Zirkle, and Corporal Mick Nygard-Bekowsky.Back home in Concord, California, Mick's parents, Brian and Joan, were making plans for their son's return, less than a month away.
B. BEKOWSKY: We were talking about going fishing and riding motorcycles and just talking. He was he was gearing up to come home. He was ready to come home and live a little bit.
ZAHN: The Marines were well aware of the danger of thinking too much about home, smelling the barn, they call it. But nothing short of blocking the busy highway could have prevented what happened next.
CONARD: We were going to relieve 1st Platoon. And we were just -- just like we had always done, we loaded up, headed out in the area. And, boom, that's when it happened.
ZAHN: As Pale Rider 3, 45 Marines, including the drivers, drove along in a convoy of three 7-ton trucks and a Humvee, an Iraqi suicide bomber drove a small pickup alongside the lead truck, where Wade Zirkle was riding, and detonated a massive bomb.
CONARD: I looked down. I had a radio. And I was making sure the handset was screwed in nice and tight. And about the time I looked up, I just saw this huge fireball ahead of us. And it was -- you are -- kind of shock and awe. You're like, wow, it all just happens.
I told myself on the way up there I'm going to see some things I figure I need to prepare myself for, some things I won't like. And it was just utter chaos. We got up there and the truck was just pretty much obliterated. It was -- for a big truck, it was just looked like someone had taken a can and just crumpled it.
ZIRKLE: I remember the initial pop that I heard. And then I was unconscious for I guess about a minute when I get thrown out of the truck. A huge explosion had gone off. And I couldn't really see very well, but I could tell that I'd probably lost some Marines. And it turns out there were seven Marines that were killed in the bomb.
ZAHN: Zirkle was blown out of the truck, his hands severely burned.
CONARD: I remember coming out and I saw him laying outside of the truck. And I was -- I was kind of stunned, because I saw him laying there. He didn't have any of his gear on. I guess it was blown off in the blast.
ZIRKLE: My corpsmen, Doc Santos (ph) and Doc Worley, ran up and started treating the Marines that were injured and saved -- I know for sure saved one life of a Marine and definitely, definitely...
ZAHN: Only five of the 12 Marines in the truck survived. Doc Worley, traveling in a truck behind, sprinted to the scene.
WORLEY: And you can't really touch anybody, because you have to literally run around every single person and see, get a general quick, quick -- I couldn't even touch them, really -- as quick assessment of how bad everything was and who I needed to start on, because there were things -- running around left and right saying, you know, Marine, come over here. Put your hand here. If I don't see you putting every bit of pressure you can on this, I'm going to come over and hit you.
Lay your head near his nose about every 10 seconds. And if this guy stops breathing, you scream for me so loud that there's no way I can miss it.
And you just run off. And you come back to them whenever you can.
ZAHN: Among the dead, Mick Nygard-Bekowsky.
J. BEKOWSKY: And my mom called me on my cell phone to tell me to rush over, to come over to her house. And I heard it in her voice. I didn't realize it, what was going on. I thought there was another issue that I had to go handle. Maybe she fell.
B. BEKOWSKY: I did the same thing. You tell yourself that it's got to be some other thing.
J. BEKOWSKY: Well, I thought to myself, it was another thing. I never even thought about Mickey (ph) until we were driving home or driving to her house. Then it dawned on me, this is what I may be coming into. But, you know, there were two Marines at her door. And it was -- it was really bad for my mom. It was hard for her.
ZAHN: As the Bekowskys prepared to bury their son and Wade Zirkle was evacuated to Germany, Pale Rider 3 was disbanded, its surviving members sent to different platoons. They had lost too many men to continue as a unit.
Doc Worley and Billy Conard were transferred to another platoon. And a short time later, they were hit again by an improvised explosive device, a roadside bomb.
CONARD: I watched the whole thing happen. I was on the radio. He was running. Then, all of a sudden, there was an explosion. And when it cleared, he was just laying there. So, instantly, I thought he was killed, also. So, I called it in. We had another KIA.
And I looked away and I looked back and I saw him sit up. So I called back that he was still alive. And about that time, the Marine was making his way to him. So, at that time, Doc Worley, I hollered at him, asked if he was all right. He said no. He was started to put his own tourniquet on, take care of himself. Then he had the other Marine assist him a little bit. Then he got the morphine, put a little morphine in him to ease the pain. And they put him in a vehicle.
ZAHN: Doc Worley's war was over, his leg gone, many painful operations ahead, but a profound appreciation of life, friendship, and God.
WORLEY: God gave me the strength to just roll over and just start working on myself and put a tourniquet on my own leg and save my own life. That was something that God gave me the strength to do. And I have come away from Iraq with some of the greatest friends I could ask for and just about Job's faith in God.
ZAHN: Faith, love, grief and pride, the emotions they carried home.
BEKOWSKY: I know the Marines that they are fighting for their country, they're fighting for our freedom. And I have been told the only way for a Marine to die is on the battlefield. So, these Marines died doing what they loved. And that's how it makes it easy for me to deal with. The worst part for all of us was knowing that six families, seven families, were going to get notified that they had just lost a son.
ZAHN (voice-over): In Falluja, a field memorial, seven Marine boots lined up next to the three of the Iraqi special forces killed. And, in California, Mick Nygard-Bekowsky came home. He was buried in his hometown.
ZIRKLE: Doctor.
WORLEY: How are you doing, sir?
ZIRKLE: What's going on? How are you?
WORLEY: I'm doing great.
ZAHN: In Doc Worley's hospital room in Washington, D.C., Zirkle and Worley reflect on their experiences.
WORLEY: All these people taking care of me. I have got -- I can do 1,000 different jobs coming out of this if I wanted do, where people -- people are so awesome.
I mean, I am convinced that I can get a job on a marathon team and they would give me the job, just because they have so much love and respect for their -- the veterans, that they would give me a job. I would sit on the bench all the time, obviously, but, by God, I would be there wearing the shirt. And, you know, there's just almost too much support to ever acknowledge. It's been awesome.
ZIRKLE: Some people, they ask me, if you had to do it over again, would you join the Marine Corps after everything you have been through? I look at them and I say, without a doubt.
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JOAN BEKOWSKY, MARINE'S MOTHER: He died with pride. And I'm very proud of my son. I miss him. I wish he didn't go. I wish he didn't die. But I am very proud of my son.BRIAN BEKOWSKY, MARINE'S FATHER: I want people to remember that these kids, these boys and girls, these high school students, barely out of high school, are willing to go and do anything that we ask them to do, not because of politics, not because they are going to get any kind of fame out of it, not because they are going to get money, just simply because we ask them to do it. I want people to ask themselves what have I done today worth somebody giving their life for me?
ZAHN: The men and women on the front lines as well as their families are the real story of this war.
A Marine from King of Prussia received the military's third-highest medal yesterday for "gallantry in action" in Afghanistan.Staff Sergeant David BellaviaCapt. Christopher P. Niedziocha, a 1996 graduate of Upper Merion High School, was presented with the Silver Star during ceremonies at the Naval Weapons Station in Norfolk, Va.
Niedziocha, 27, was a platoon commander with the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit when his convoy was ambushed in June 2004 near the village of Sandabuz, Afghanistan.
"Under heavy rocket and small arms fire, he aggressively guided the convoy through the ambush, and then led a small unit of Marines in a counterattack up steep terrain," according to a Marine Corps statement. "The Marines dislodged the enemy fighters and neutralized remaining enemy forces with direct fire and close air support."
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Niedziocha, who joined the Marine Reserves in high school and went through officer candidate school while getting his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University, was sent to Afghanistan in February 2004.Four months later, Niedziocha, then a first lieutenant, was leading his platoon on a patrol when they were fired on by members of the Taliban from steep, rocky hills on three sides of the Marine column.
"We just pushed right through the fire - we went right into the kill zone and ambush," Niedziocha said.
Jumping out of their humvees, he and his men returned fire. Three Marines were wounded. After checking on them, "I started to grab Marines... and we started heading up the mountain."
In the fight that followed, Niedziocha said 23 Taliban fighters were killed and two were wounded and captured. And if it weren't for body armor and some very near misses, "we could have had four or five Marines killed that day."
So Staff Sergeant David Bellavia returned for his third tour of duty - this time in Iraq. Last November - on his 29th birthday - his brigade was searching homes for insurgents in Fallujah. Fierce gunfire broke out, his superior officers were killed, and David found himself in charge. He killed six Iraqis - keeping his unit's casualties to three wounded. His bravery was chronicled in Time Magazine.And now Mark Seavey emails that he, Wade Zirkle, "Doc" Worley, David Bellavia, and Christopher Niedziocha, along with Knox Nunnally and Owen West have formed a group called Vets for Freedom.“I think it's very difficult to stand here and say I'm a hero when I'm standing on my own legs and I can hug my own wife and pat my son on the head and give him a big hug and kiss with my own arms,” said David. “My son means everything to me, and the men I was privileged and honored to serve in combat are my surrogate kids. When I hear them cry and I hear them scream out in pain it's really difficult to take and it's really hard.”
Bellavia's tour of duty is over and he's home for good, but as far as he's concerned, his responsibility to his men isn't over.
“I'm gonna’ try to help out my brothers at Walter Reed right now with no legs,” said David. “The wives that left their husbands over in Arlington Cemetery and explain to some of these kids when they're old enough what their daddies did that they're patriots and they're heroes, and I miss 'em every day.”
Wade Zirkle says:
The Global War on Terror is being fought on two fronts. Our troops are performing magnificently in Iraq fighting a tough and dirty enemy. We are winning in Iraq through a combined military, political, diplomatic and economic effort . However, we are losing the war for the will of the American public to see this conflict through because of the distorted means by which it is too often portrayed.Inaccurate or politically inflamed media reports and policymaker statements based on rumor, speculation and even nonexistent events place an almost singular focus on negative aspects of the conflict versus any attention to many successes that take place almost daily. Those of us from the frontline have a much different view, but for reasons beyond our understanding, our perspective has been largely ignored. Vets for Freedom seeks to change this environment, providing viewpoints both positive and negative on what will be needed to achieve victory.
Read more about their mission here. Join the team.
There are some new additions to the Milblog Conference Panels. First, Deb from Marine Corps Moms will be a panelist on the Milblogging Family Style Panel. Also, Colonel David Hunt, FOXNews Military Analyst, will moderate the Blogging From Theater panel. Two great additions.
Pundit Review Radio marks the 3rd anniversary of OIF with an interview with Mike Yon..
(And this is Monday's Open Post)
In which we attempt to answer the question: If you put a group of reporters in a room and explain Operation Iraqi Freedom to them very, very slowly and carefully using very simple terms, will they attain any level of understanding?
Read Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli's briefing from the second day of Operation Swarmer and you'll find a great illustration of the press disconnect from ground truth in Iraq. After an opening statement updating the misreporting of the "civil war":
...the press was actively tracking and reporting every single mosque attack, but the vast majority of the reporting was off the mark. I recalled reports of hundreds of mosques attacked and 30 mosques burning in Baghdad in one night. These reports were terribly inaccurate....the General outlined progress and explained plans for the upcoming months....We received 81 reports of mosques being attacked from sources other than our subordinate units. Of these 81 mosque reports, 17 had light damage, such as bullet holes or broken glass, and six had medium damage, repairable within six months. Only two mosques were completely destroyed, and none were burned.
Following that came questions and answers, and Operation Swarmer was foremost on everyone's list. Bear in mind that this is only the second day, no one has had time to read the full (280+ words!) press release, and reporters are still confused about the nature of the operation. They think it's a massive air attack on a city somewhere - but it's really a search for weapons caches and insurgents in a one hundred square mile desert area:
Q General, this is Bob Burns from AP. I'd like to ask you a question about Swarmer. Is there a reconstruction, economic development piece that goes hand in hand with this operation or is it strictly an offensive operation?You have to appreciate that the General is now trying to frame an answer about the "economic development piece" that doesn't make the reporter look like an uninformed buffoon, and that he in turn might not fully grasp the fact that the reporters are convinced a new version of "shock and awe" is ongoing:
GEN. CHIARELLI: There's a -- we work all lines of operation in every single operation we conduct, and I think Swarmer will be no different from any other one. We consider that an essential part of what we're doing. And I think you can tell by Swarmer it was conducted in the desert, for all practical purposes, in an area about 10 miles by 10 miles. It was a large operation consisting of Iraqis and U.S. forces. Again, it's one of those changes that has taken place since I came back to Iraq. Had we tried to accomplish a mission like this 11 months ago, it would have been primarily U.S. forces. But in this case -- I think you've all seen the numbers -- is we have primarily Iraqi forces supported by U.S. and coalition forces. And I can tell you that we will work all lines of operation, including reconstruction, in support of the Iraqi people in that area at the completion of the operation.But the next questioner on the topic didn't catch that bit about this being an operation in the desert:
Q General, this is Joe Tabet with Al Hurra Channel. Would you please give us more details about the Swarmer operation? What kind of resistance are you facing in Samarra?So the General tries to explain once again:
GEN. CHIARELLI: First of all, Swarmer was an operation out in the desert. It really marks a change, and it marks an evolution -- our ability to get outside many of the large metropolitan areas and begin to do and conduct operations based on intelligence we receive both from U.S. sources, from Iraqi sources in areas where we think insurgent networks are operating. And that's really why the size of the operation was the way it was, is that it was a huge area -- 10 kilometers by 10 kilometers (sic) [10 miles by 10 mile]. We had intelligence that -- we had anti-coalition terrorists and foreign fighters working in that area, and it took a lot of Iraqi soldiers and U.S. support to get into the area that we wanted to work.Moments later the third reporter to ask a Swarmer question still hasn't caught on to the fact that the operation is taking place in the desert:
We'll be in there for a couple of days searching for caches.The amount of resistance we had was very, very light. I think the last count I had is that we have 31 individuals that we have detained, but we found caches of just about everything that you find, everything from 120-millimeter rockets to 107-millimeter rockets, 130- millimeter projectiles, mortars, some SA-7 components, and munitions. So we found what you would expect to find and what we expected to find out there. We'll continue to look for caches and any other terrorists and foreign fighters that might be in the area.
Q This is the other Lisa, Lisa Meyer, from AP Radio. I've got two questions about Operation Swarmer. I'm wondering if you could describe what the composition of the leave-behind force will be once the operation is completed, whether it will be Iraqi or American, both; whether it will be police commandos, whatever. And also about the timing of it. Could you explain to us -- there are some people that say that there's a political subtext here, and I'm wondering if you could describe whether in fact there was a long period of time that transpired between conception and execution.And by this time the General must be wondering if his mic is working:
GEN. CHIARELLI: I really can't -- I can't figure out why people did the analysis that they did. I think that anybody's who's been on the ground -- and there are a lot of folks that have been on the ground -- I think today we had some people up there -- will see that this is a largely uninhabited area that is 10 miles by 10 miles; it is a huge area where we had some direct intelligence but where we felt what we needed to do was really look through that entire area, look for these caches. There's a science to hiding this stuff, and we went out there with that in mind.Or maybe it's April Fools? Because that could explain how the fourth questioner missed that subtle hint about the operation occurring out in the desert:As for stay-behind forces, again I don't want to comment on follow-on operations. I can tell you we'll be working in there for a number of days, and we'll continue to work in there again at a later date if intelligence indicates that we need to go back in there. But we will be working with the people, the small population that is in there, to work some of the non-kinetic lines that I mentioned earlier.
But there was no attempt on anybody's part back here to time this to anything other than the intelligence that was coming in. It was an operation that we had been working for a couple of months. And quite frankly, one of the biggest problems I have over here sometimes is -- all the days seem the same -- is remembering what day of the week it is and also the actual date. But I do remember today's St. Patrick's Day.
Q General, Al Pessin from Voice of America. I wanted to follow up on the second Lisa question. When we heard about the series of operations in northern Iraq last year, the idea was that you were leaving Iraqi forces behind to secure the areas. Are you not doing that this time? I understand it's at least the second time that this particular area's been assaulted. So are you planning to then leave it and perhaps end up having to do this again?The general then tries one last time to explain that as we turn over the cities to the Iraqi troops you'll see more rapid deployment of US and Iraqi troops to more remote locations (the desert, for instance) in hopes of catching some of the bad guys who have been driven from the towns:GEN. CHIARELLI: I'm not going to comment on what forces we're going to leave or any kind of operational matters of what we're going to do in the future. The issue is that we had good intelligence so we needed to go out in this area. We needed to look at this area. We needed to conduct operations in this area. Some focused on very specific targets. Others focused on targets that we saw throughout that 10-mile by 10-mile area, and we conducted those operations. There's -- I can tell you there's not an intent to stay out in all 10- miles by 10-miles, but I'm not going to comment on exactly where we're going to be at the conclusion of this operation -- just that we're not going to leave until we've done everything we need to do out in that particular area of operations.
MR. WHITMAN: (Off mike) -- last minute right now. Perhaps I should turn it over to you to see if you have any last thoughts that you'd like to make before we run out of time here.
GEN. CHIARELLI: It's a great opportunity. I think operations like Swarmer are operations you're going to see more and more of as we turn over more of the large urban areas to Iraqi forces. We're going to get out into some of these areas -- they're very manpower intensive -- to take a look and to look at intelligence that we've gotten, areas that we may not have been able to get to before, areas that the Iraqis are particularly, given their capabilities, good at moving into and helping us find the kind of things we found on Swarmer -- that we'll continue to do these kinds of operations.So there you have it, a general trying his best to explain that this operation - initially involving 1,500 US and Iraqi troops - is designed to check out a 100-square mile desert area where some insurgents were holed up, while a few hundred thousand other coalition forces are holding the cities. In short, what we've been planning on doing all along.
And here's the next evolution:
This is also the year of the police, where we are providing police training teams and unit partnerships and mentoring to help develop the capability of the police force, much as we have with the army. Once trained, these police forces will take responsibility for securing urban areas, allowing the army to move out of the cities for more of a focus on national security.But if you ignore all those facts, numbers, and plans you can make a good "whack-a-mole" story:
Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the operation casts "serious doubts" on U.S. policies in Iraq and said it was "another version of Whack-A-Mole."Because it fits on bumper stickers.
And of course, if you ignore everything the general said about operation Swarmer, then go check it out for yourself, you could be disappointed to discover he was telling the truth.
Meanwhile, something else from Lieutenant General Chiarelli's briefing almost went unnoticed:
As I left Iraq -- I can only speak of Baghdad. And in fact, I think Baghdad was the only location in Iraq in March of 2004 where we had actually turned over battlespace to Iraqis. We had a brigade headquarters and two battalions inside Baghdad. I come back to Iraq with what you all see every day -- us turning more and more battlespace -- it's hard for me to even keep track of it on a daily basis -- over to Iraqis to the point where by this summer, about 75 percent of Iraq will be in -- that battlespace will be owned by Iraqi units.President Bush recently announced a much more humble "goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006" - making him much more pessimistic about our progress then his commander on the ground.
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Q It was about the -- you said 75 percent that the Iraqi security forces would be controlling by summertime -- do I have that right? And could you give a more precise timetable, if you have one?GEN. CHIARELLI: Yeah, if I said summertime, I meant the end of summer. That's currently when we're looking at that occurring. That is kind of that mark.
I think that all indications are we will make that. But again, I don't want to be so precise as to put myself into a box. These are individuals, these are units that we're training. We're doing a very, very good job, and the Iraqis are doing a great job moving forward. But I think the end of summertime is about as far down as I can nail that.
I wonder how the press missed that disconnect. You'd think they'd be all over it...
Back to that Swarmer story, I was wrong when I said no journalists went out on day one. Bill Putnam was there:
Anyway, I was the only embedded journo out there for the op's first day. I embedded with a squad of junedis and another of American Grunts. We -- along with 1,400 soldiers and junedis who flew or drove to other spots -- flew out in Blackhawks to an isolated Landing Zone way out in the desert.He also says:
I just returned from the field after a few hours. My dispatch might get posted late tonight or early tomorrow. If not... then I'll run the photos and video I have so far.That would be here.There is no indication when this will end. The guys are hoping soon. Of course, they're tired from lack of sleep and the extreme variance between the heat of the day (it is definitely getting warmer) and the cold of the night (the constant wind doesn't help).
So look for something here tonight about Op Swarmer.
Here, yesterday, in discussing why the media was disappointed by Operation Swarmer:
MNF-I issues press releases all the time; soldiers discover weapons cache, Marines conduct cordon-and-search operation with Iraqi troops, VBIED found on roadside, hospital refurbished, school reopened, etc, etc. If ever considered otherwise, this is now seen as the unglorious yeoman's work of Operation Iraqi Freedom - the nuts and bolts of rebuilding a nation. The press wants something headline worthy - a mosque bombing, US troops accidentally shooting an elderly grandmother, or a report that someone in an Iraqi police uniform dragged somebody else off to nowhere in the middle of the night.The Philadelphia Inquirer, page one today:But this time something in that press release caught somebody's eye: "...largest air assault operation since Operation Iraqi Freedom I."
...they read "large air assault" and they expect corpse photos, pain and suffering, death and destruction, and all those things that merit a Pulitzer Prize.
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But on day two the first reporters are brought in. Perhaps some with visions of dead babies, crying grandmothers, leveled houses, and white phosphorous raining from the sky.
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Instead they find...Well, I'll be damned - Iraqi and American soldiers conducting the unglorious yeoman's work of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
And that just pisses them off.
The story:
An Iraqi police document accuses U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, after a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.Page one.
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The case involves a U.S. raid conducted, according to the official U.S. account, in response to a tip that a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq was at the house.Neighbors who were interviewed agreed that the al-Qaeda in Iraq member was at the house. They said he was visiting the home's owner, a relative. The neighbors said the homeowner was a schoolteacher.
According to police, military and eyewitness accounts, U.S. forces approached the house at around 2:30 a.m. and a firefight ensued. By all accounts, in addition to exchanging gunfire with someone inside the house, U.S. troops were supported by helicopter gunships that fired on the house.
But the accounts differ on what took place after the firefight.
According to the U.S. account, the house collapsed because of the heavy fire. When U.S. forces searched the rubble they found one man, the al-Qaeda suspect, alive. He was arrested. They also found a dead man they believed to be connected to al-Qaeda, two dead women and a dead child.
The report filed by the Joint Coordination Center, which was based on a report filed by local police, said U.S. forces entered the house while it was still standing.
"The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men," the report said. "Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles, and killed their animals."
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A local police commander, Lt. Col. Farooq Hussain, who was interviewed in Ishaqi, said autopsies at the hospital in Tikrit "revealed that all the victims had bullet shots in the head and all bodies were handcuffed."
Wish I could predict NCAA brackets that well. Some days it really sucks to be right.
"In the Middle East, you get further with a tank and a kind word than you do with just a kind word."
An interesting comment from this interview with Col. Douglas Macgregor (U.S. Army-Ret.) :
We rip through Afghanistan in whatever it was, four weeks, and start heading inevitably, inexorably toward at least serious planning for war in Iraq. What role do you play in the preparation for that war?Two of the most often uttered claims of poor planning in the Iraq war are that we had too few troops on the ground, and we shouldn't have "disbanded" the Iraqi military. Macgregor's plan would have used even fewer US forces than we actually did, and counted on a functioning Iraqi army securing the nation after the fall of the Hussein government. If Rumsfeld was the all-powerful authority many would have us believe he is, this likely would have been the script for OIF.There was no real enthusiasm at all at high levels in the Army for this idea. Again, this is consistent with Army culture. ... And I was suddenly called -- this is the first week in December -- to a meeting with a representative, a personal representative, of the secretary of defense. And it was a very nice meeting. They served excellent coffee. They brought me in and said: "We're looking at Iraq. The chief of staff of the Army says it will take at least 560,000 troops." Well, of course I burst out laughing immediately, because those are more troops than we have in the active component. Secondly, the Iraqi enemy was always so weak. Why would you want that many forces?
When I burst out laughing, the representative said, "That's interesting, because that was Secretary Rumsfeld's reaction, and the secretary would like to know what you think." Well, I was rather surprised. Why does he want to know what I think? And he said, "He's read your book, Breaking the Phalanx, that you published back in January of '97," in which I have a chapter that talks about intervention in Iraq in response to Iraqi moves and activities, and the whole thing is over in two weeks, and we use fewer than 50,000 troops to do it.
Well, he said, "What do you think?" And I said, "Fifty thousand troops," assuming that we are going to go in from a standing start, or what later was called a cold start, and we can rapidly reinforce as necessary. But I said: "The real emphasis has to be on getting rapidly to Baghdad on a couple of axes and using mobile armored forces for that purpose. And once we get there, we remove the government, but we don't want to fight with the army, because ultimately the Iraqi army's going to have a key role in the postwar environment. They're going to have to maintain security, and there are many Iraqi army generals, based upon my experience, once again, in '91, who would be delighted to cooperate with us and could form some sort of interim government."
I said: "Bottom line is, the secretary's right. The enemy's very weak. This will not take very long," at which point in time I was told: "Well, great! Can you put together a plan?" And I said: "Sure. How soon do you want it?" He said, "Well, could you get it to us in the next two or three weeks?" I said, "Of course," and I went back, and I worked, and I put together a briefing. And that briefing was delivered on New Year's Eve, 2001.
All water under the bridge now, but an interesting point of departure for "what if" speculation.
Or: "So long, and thanks for flying Air Assault"
A recent check of top internet news searches reveals Operation SWARMER has caught enough public attention to make the list. That's a rarity at this point in the Iraq saga; most such actions pass with little notice. Generally CENTCOM offers a press release, and the media yawns and mentions the coalition effort somewhere near the bottom of a long wrap up of news headlined "Bombs Kill 10 in Baghdad". But not this time.
Here's the original press release:
TIKRIT, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces and their Coalition partners launched the largest air assault operation since Operation Iraqi Freedom I today in southern Salah Ad Din province to clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra.A dramatic start, especially if you're not familiar with military jargon - but those who actually made an effort to read to the bottom of this press release might find justification for yawning this time:Operation Swarmer began this morning with soldiers from the Iraqi Army’s 1st Brigade, 4th Division, the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team and the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade conducting a combined air and ground assault to isolate the objective area.
The operation is expected to continue for several days as a thorough search of the objective area is conducted.Named after an exercise, practice for bigger things, searching for days, already did another area near by...Operation Swarmer follows closely the completion of a combined Iraqi – Coalition operation west of Samarra in early March that yielded substantial enemy weapons and equipment caches.
The name Swarmer was derived from the name given to the largest peacetime airborne maneuvers ever conducted, in spring 1950 in North Carolina. Soon after this exercise, the 187th Infantry was selected to deploy to Korea as an Airborne Regimental Combat Team to provide General MacArthur with an airborne capability.
MNF-I issues press releases all the time; soldiers discover weapons cache, Marines conduct cordon-and-search operation with Iraqi troops, VBIED found on roadside, hospital refurbished, school reopened, etc, etc. If ever considered otherwise, this is now seen as the unglorious yeoman's work of Operation Iraqi Freedom - the nuts and bolts of rebuilding a nation. The press wants something headline worthy - a mosque bombing, US troops accidentally shooting an elderly grandmother, or a report that someone in an Iraqi police uniform dragged somebody else off to nowhere in the middle of the night.
But this time something in that press release caught somebody's eye: "...largest air assault operation since Operation Iraqi Freedom I." If you're a military insider you hardly notice the phrase. Why? Let's take a few words at a time - starting with "air assault". To many that means bombing campaign - and the comparison to OIF-1 brings immediate visions of Shock and Awe in Baghdad. To the most ardent members of the "anti-war" faction that iconic imagery epitomizes the capitalist aggressor's vicious assault on the people. And even the most ardent supporter of regime change in Iraq can acknowledge that bombs over Baghdad make a sobering visual: Here, this is what you wanted. Happy?
Wrong vision. Shock and Awe was an assault from the air, but was not "air assault" as defined by the US military. "Air assault" means the troops were inserted via helicopter; no more, no less. And if you think the language barrier between English-speaking peoples contributed to confusion, imagine for a moment how the various translated versions of the story read in the foreign press.
Now let's think about "largest since". The 101st was in on the initial invasion. Months later they rotated home. Without air assault units in Iraq we weren't launching air assaults. But now the 101st has returned to Iraq, therefore we are launching air assaults - it's what they do. But without that crucial piece of background knowledge the choice of phrasing makes it sound like something else altogether: escalation.
So this time the press release (that probably caused yawns throughout CENTCOM) got a markedly different reaction in the rest of the world. Let's spread the blame for this a bit. When military public affairs offices issue press releases they use phraseology the military understands, as explained above. But the press isn't on the same wavelength; they read "large air assault" and they expect corpse photos, pain and suffering, death and destruction, and all those things that merit a Pulitzer Prize. With that kind of pulse punding lead you can hardly blame them for not reading the whole thing. So what we have here is a failure to communicate - and sender and receiver can both do better next time.
But this time the phrase "launched the largest air assault operation since Operation Iraqi Freedom I" apparently touched off the largest round of TV coverage since OIF-1. Even last year's operations in Tall Afar - the largest of 2005 and perhaps the most spectacularly successful of the past three years - attracted relatively scant media attention. (Disclaimer: I don't live in America - my sense of the coverage is admittedly based on what I read about the coverage.) And with no reporters along for the initial ride (seating being at a premium and mission being the focus) apparently some of that coverage was a bit dramatic. Left on the sidelines for day one, a reporter's imagination could run wild.
But on day two the first reporters are brought in. Perhaps some with visions of dead babies, crying grandmothers, leveled houses, and white phosphorous raining from the sky. Maybe others with fond desires that they may capture a few heroic photos on par with blogger Mike Yon's.
Instead they find...
Well, I'll be damned - Iraqi and American soldiers conducting the unglorious yeoman's work of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
And that just pisses them off.
Just another day in paradise.
Thanks for flying air assault.
Memories:
The invasion -- three years ago today -- was a blur, pulsing with excitement and wired on Adderall. Invasion vets remembered villages of blank-faced Iraqis lining the roads as the armor sped past, and ranks of empty Iraqi tanks bombed out in the desert, and busloads of men in civilian clothes suddenly opening fire, and a sandstorm so thick they could hardly see their hands in front of their faces.That's from this page one Washington Post story:Arriving in Baghdad, "I had an Iraqi citizen come up to me," said Lance Cpl. Daniel Finn, a Marine infantryman. "She was a female. She opened her mouth and she had no tongue. She was pointing at the statue" of Saddam Hussein. "There were people with no fingers, waving at the statue of Saddam, telling us he tortured them. People were showing us the scars on their backs."
Over the past year, The Washington Post conducted in-depth interviews with 100 of the more than 500,000 veterans of the war. They included men and women, officers and enlisted, active-duty and reserves, combat and support troops. The questions were open-ended. The intent was to hear from them, in their own words, what the experience was like.You would need a much larger space to capture the totality of the experience, but this is a fine glimpse.
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Iraq was bad, nearly all of them agreed. "Not knowing day to day what was going to happen." "Hard to figure out who the enemy was." "Never being able to relax." "The rules are that there are no rules."But it was not bad in the ways they see covered in the media -- the majority also agreed on this. What they experienced was more complex than the war they saw on television and in print. It was dangerous and confused, yes, but most of the vets also recalled enemies routed, buildings built and children befriended, against long odds in a poor and demoralized country. "We feel like we're doing something, and then we look at the news and you feel like you're getting bashed." "It seems to me the media had a predetermined script." The vibe of the coverage is just "so, so, so negative."
<...>
With a few exceptions, the veterans described a highly professional, almost spartan force, characterized by resilient morale and good discipline. "I didn't touch a girl or alcohol for seven months, and that was tough," said Sgt. Christopher Johnson of the Marine Reserve. Many said they were ready to return to Iraq.
And let's not forget these voices:
Mom & Dad,Matine Captain Ryan Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill., was killed March 20 2003 in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
Well if you are reading this, then things didn't go well for me over in Iraq. I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you because of this. Please do not be upset with the Marine Corps, the military, the government, or the President. It was my choice to go into the military. The President and my higher commanders were just doing what they thought was best. Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself. There is a paragraph that I read from time to time when I lose focus. "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stewart Mill Now there is a little Marine Corps bravado in there, but I do believe in the basic premise. I want you to know that I could not have asked for better parents, or a better family. ..... I'll never forget that one of my friends in elementary school said that if he could trade places with one person, he'd trade places with me because of my parents and home life. I truly feel that I've had a blessed life thanks to you two. Please give my love to Alyse & Ryan, Kari & Matt & the girls, Chris & Brandy, and everyone else in the family.
All my love,
Ryan
And this is from Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams' final letter home:
...I know I am here to do a job that not everyone can handle or they just choose not to do. I can't help but wonder what God has in store for me and for us. God knows I live to love and would die to give just one person a chance for life in a peaceful world. My weakness in life just might be my willingness to sacrifice my life for the good of this world we live in.I am not trying to make you worry about me, but only to know that I am here because I want to be here and that I believe God has given me the chance to help the people who have helped me, and also the people I have not even met yet. I love you Heather, and I want to spend my life with you, but God has called me to do this first. There is a phrase the Marine Corps adopted, it is "Semper Fi." It means "Always Faithful." To God, my country, my family I will always be faithful. You are now part of my family. When all of this is over, God will have revealed his plan for me being here ..... For now, I belong to my country, when I come back, I am yours.And Marine Sgt. Michael E. Bitz wrote:
Dear Mom:Bitz, 31, of Ventura, Calif., and Williams, 31, of Yuma, Ariz., were killed March 23, 2003 in Nasiriyah by Iraqi soldiers who pretended to surrender, then opened fire when Marines approached.
This is the largest battle group the US has set up since the Korean War. The only difference is that we have the means of doing much more damage today than we did back then. Honestly, between God, you and I, I would rather go back home with my wife and kids. Janina and all the other wives were able to come out to the beach and stay for three hours the night before we splashed our Assault Amphibious Vehicles out to the ship. ..... That last five minutes was the hardest of my life. We both were full of tears. It was easy for Joshua cause he was asleep at that time. But I am sure that he woke up the next morning wondering where Daddy was. ..... Well Mom, that is enough about me. I love you very much and now your young warrior is to be going now.
Love, your son,
Michael
How terrorists raise their children:
TERRORISM: VIDEO SHOWS IRAQI CHILDREN PLAYING WITH REMAINS OF U.S. SOLDIERActually the children have a good old time playing with the leg for quite a while before they get around to trampling it. Follow the links at the link and you can watch.The children climb down into the crater left by an explosion and start picking up scraps of twisted metal. "Allah is great!" they shout before the camera hones in to show what one boy is holding: torn fabric, the colour of the camouflage fatigues worn by US troops. The next scene shows the same children holding aloft a human leg, shreds of the same camouflage fabric hang from it and the foot is clad in a military-style boot. The children trample the leg and kick it around in the dust.
"Today the Americans came to these parts and the buried bomb blew up their Hummer vehicle," says a teenage boy, adding, "if Allah wants it, the mujahadeen will win."
This grisly footage, purportedly shot in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, has appeared in the form of a three-minute video on the Internet. It marks the latest attempt by Jihadist militants to exploit children for propaganda purposes.
The story is wrong on one point though - the uniform is Iraqi, not American. So for what it's worth, the kids are apparently playing with the severed leg of an Iraqi soldier.
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me and you
Is if the Russians love their children too
- - Sting, "Russians"
The battle lines in Iraq are now clearly drawn for the world to see, and there is no middle ground. Transforming a country that was ruled by an oppressive dictator who sponsored terror into a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror will take more time, more sacrifice, and continued resolve. Terrorists will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated.President Bush, this week:
The battle lines in Iraq are clearly drawn for the world to see, and there is no middle ground. The enemy will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated. The stakes in Iraq are high. By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will deny the terrorists a safe haven to plan attacks against America. By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will gain an ally in the war on terror.The New York Times, this week:
But while he predicted victory, he made clear the consequences of defeat. "The enemy will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated," he said, allowing for a possibility he had not before discussed.Except for when he said exactly the same thing before. Which is why the online Times story now carries this correction:
An article on Tuesday about a speech by President Bush in which he defended his policies on Iraq misstated the precedent for his assertion that America's enemies would emerge from Iraq either "emboldened or defeated." He used that phrase last August in a speech in Nampa, Idaho; this was not the first time he had discussed such a possibility.
And in the year ahead, we will continue handing more territory to Iraqi forces, with the goal of having the Iraqis in control of more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006.President Bush, this week:
As more capable Iraqi police and soldiers come on line, they will assume responsibility for more territory -- with the goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006.The Washington Post reports on this week's speech
President Bush vowed for the first time yesterday to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence.The first time unless you count the time he said exactly the same thing before. The Post corrected by "disappearing" the entire article, substituting another, and blaming the White House:Bush, who until now has resisted concrete timelines as the Iraq war dragged on longer than he expected, outlined the target in the first of a series of speeches intended to lay out his strategy for victory.
A White House spokesman told The Washington Post on Monday that it was the first time Bush had set such a goal. But officials corrected that yesterday, noting that the president used the same language in a January speech, although it went virtually unnoted by the news media at the time.Perhaps the Post could launch an "Investigative Journalism" department, and use it to notice what the President says?
These aren't minor points in the war on terror - and I'm not assigning motive here, but if you're getting your information about Iraq from US newspapers you are getting it from people who aren't really paying attention.
The United States plans to withdraw four Air Force fighter jets and a rescue helicopter squadron from its military base in Iceland by September, a move that will leave the island nation with virtually no military defenses and that has caused diplomatic tension between the two NATO allies.While they are more vulnerable to the communist horde, this actually might lower the threat to Icelandic racial purity:Bush administration officials told Icelandic leaders this week that the United States would remove the F-15 fighter jets and several helicopters from Keflavik Naval Air Station, a base that has provided for Iceland's security since 1951 as part of a bilateral agreement. The base was first used as an air bridge to Europe during World War II and later played a role in deterring the advance of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, when the U.S. military patrolled Icelandic airspace and conducted anti-submarine missions in the North Atlantic.
The 1951 U.S.-Icelandic Defense Agreement paved the way for a permanent U.S. military presence at the Keflavik base in Iceland, an outpost that played a crucial role in U.S. strategy during the Cold War. The article explores two gender-related aspects of the U.S.-Icelandic Cold War relationship: the restrictions on off-base movements of U.S. soldiers, and the secret ban imposed by the Icelandic government on the stationing of black U.S. troops in Iceland. These practices were meant to “protect” Icelandic women and to preserve a homogeneous “national body.”Watch for the Cod War to heat up again too.
Three years ago today the Mudville Gazette went "on the air".
Our thanks to all who've stopped by, left a comment, hit that paypal button, bought something through our Amazon link, or visited an advertiser. This effort still remains a labor of love (or passion, perhaps - the pay would make a sweatshop owner blush) but your feedback makes it more worth the while.
The Washington Times picks up last weekend's story from the Telegraph:
BAGHDAD -- Insurgent groups in one of Iraq's most violent provinces claim they have purged the region of three-quarters of al Qaeda's supporters after forming an alliance to force out the foreign fighters.If the story is accurate, many of those who fled may have landed in Baghdad:If true, it would mark a significant victory in the fight against Abu Musab Zarqawi, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq, and could partly explain the considerable drop in suicide bombings in Iraq recently.
"We have killed a number of the Arabs including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis and Jordanians," London Daily Telegraph quoted an insurgent representative in the western province of Anbar as saying.
Security in Baghdad has drastically deteriorated recently and reached its latest spike with the multiple bombings of yesterday.Although Mohammed also notes that
Looking at the time pattern of violence escalations we can notice that spikes in attacks curve coincide with the sessions of Saddam's trial which indicates that followers of Saddam are still strong and active inside Baghdad and it seems that those are isolating themselves from the developments in the Iraqi scene even with regard to their politician friends and public base so to speak as the latter had changed their methods and switched largely to political means of opposition.Meanwhile, Omar isn't convinced the stories from Anbar are completely true. And he makes a convincing case for who may be responsible for the latest wave of killings in Baghdad.
You are just as dangerous to Iraq as Saddam was or al-Qaeda is.Elsewhere, Hatem J Mukhlis, M.D., secretary-general of the Iraqi National Movement and a member in the Iraq interim transitional assembly writesI worked in Basra for a whole year, and I was the only secular person in town of 50,000 devout Shia. They didn't hate me, they didn't hurt me and I never felt afraid of being there. On the contrary, there was a great deal of mutual respect between me and the locals I was in contact with.
Al-Qaeda was already murdering Iraqis back then but Iraqis knew who the bad guys were and they didn't alienate or generalize the term 'terrorist' over an entire portion of the community.
It's you and hateful thugs like you who got us to this point….God damn you.
Fundamentalism, especially the Islamic type coming from our neighboring country, has wreaked the necessary havoc to retard development of democracy in Iraq.The common thread? You've just read reports from Iraqis who are more than tired of those who would bring violence to their country - and they know who those people are.Iranian hegemony over Iraq was best achieved by denying others the right to freely compete and get what's rightly theirs. The strong religious convictions of Middle Easterners were fully exploited for this purpose. Let's not overlook the fact that those fundamentalist theocrats would stop short of nothing to reach their goals. Exporting terror is a tool to preserve their power. A Newton style reaction is in order. The People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran could provide the missing link in this phenomenon.
Recognizing that fundamentalism, expressed through state-sponsored terrorism, is the first step toward finding the solution for all the problems in Iraq.
This is perpetrated by Iraqis but actually pushed by Iranians. Civil liberties and democratic options can only thrive when these radical activities are discontinued.
The PMOI has steadfastly confronted Iran's oppressors for more than 27 years. They are staunch Shi'ites and strong believers in genuinely democratic foundations of Islam. Women stand tall in the organization's structure and hierarchy. This makes the PMOI a unique, democratic entity worthy of enabling support to combat the Iranian terror in Iraq.
It is especially interesting to note the danger posed by export of terrorism sanctioned in the Iranian constitution. The constitution states the Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (RGCI) are not only charged with protecting the country's borders but also with an ideological duty to crusade and expand God's rule around the world.
Another part of the preface to the Iranian Constitution states that the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran paves the way for continuing the revolution inside Iran and abroad. It also allows and calls for expanded relations with other popular movements with similar goals. This per se serves as an umbrella to support all forms of fundamentalism.
The Iraqi ship that has been rocking violently amid raging waves of the Middle East ocean will one day settle ashore. Those who have helped it safely reach that shore will be well remembered, thanked and rewarded.
(Updated)
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here I am. Send me!" —Isaiah 7:8
The above is the opening to a Newsweek story: "On Call in Hell"- "He left a desk job for the front lines of Fallujah—and a horror show few doctors ever see. How Richard Jadick earned his Bronze Star":
Richard Jadick was bored. The Navy doctor was shuffling paper while Marines were heading out to Iraq. Once, many years before, Jadick had been a Marine officer, but he had missed the 1991 gulf war, stuck behind a recruiter's desk. Now he was looking forward to leading a comfortable life as what he called a "gentleman urologist." Jadick, with a Navy rank of lieutenant commander, was 38—too old, really, to be a combat surgeon.The Mrs found it for the Dawn Patrol, it's very much worth your time.But then a medical committee searching for help came knocking on his door.
On a somewhat related note - don't forget send a get well to a fellow milblogger who was wounded in Iraq.
Update: In comments, David M says:
Great story...only one thing I need to nitpick...it is not Isaiah 7:8 but rather Isaiah 6:8 from which that quote comes form. But I wouldn't be suprised that Newsweek wouldn't know anyhting about the bible, and whats actually in it.He's right.
Meanwhile, Chuck Simmons had Newsweek scooped.
It's like an army of Davids...
(This is the Monday Tuesday Open Post - join the army below.)
(Bump from 2006-03-13 22:22:07)
The Mayor of Tall Afar, interviewed in the New York Post:
March 13, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - An Iraqi mayor says he was motivated to write a letter praising the performance of U.S. troops in his city because he believes the American public is not getting the full story about the "heroic" work they are doing.Rest here.In an exclusive telephone interview with The Post, Tal' Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah Abid al-Jibouri said he wants American policymakers and the public to know there is real progress taking place in Iraq.
"I'd like American citizens not to trust everything that is being said in the media because, unfortunately, most of the media is talking about negative things and about the problems," al-Jibouri said, speaking through a translator.
"They are not telling good stories about the U.S. Army's good job here in Iraq. I would like American citizens to concentrate on the pictures that show the children of Iraqis and how happy they feel when they see or meet American soldiers."
It's been nearly two years since USA Today interviewed Jeremy Staat, Pat Tillman's college room mate:
"Pat was always about pushing himself to the breaking point, and then going beyond that," says Jeremy Staat, who played with Tillman at ASU and is now with the Los Angeles Avengers arena football team. "To know him is not to be able to describe him."We caught up with Staat yesterday - he's now a Marine.Their bond was brotherly. As Tillman was deployed, he asked his agent to check on Staat. "Here he's going into a war, and he's making sure someone is going to check on me," Staat says.
The two buddies were "headstrong, confident and arrogant," Staat says. This led to heated discussions that "were almost physical." This always impressed Staat, who at 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds towered over his 5-foot-11 pal. But Tillman never backed down.
Staat says he has mixed feelings about sharing his thoughts, but "I also feel he needs to be remembered," he says.
He describes a casual college kid who kept his mattress on the floor until Marie persuaded him to spruce up the place with a bed frame. A guy who would be contrary just to spice up a conversation but also have your back on the field the instant you needed help.
And then there is a recollection of a keepsake, treasured long before today's climate in which national hearts often are worn on sleeves. Though Tillman was a football standout with a 3.84 GPA, the only trophy on his apartment wall was a small piece of paper with childlike artwork.
"It was a hand-drawn American flag. That's all that was up there," he says. "Nothing about himself or what he'd accomplished. Just that flag."
There were certain reasons for joining that went beyond the passing of Pat Tillman, according to Staat.But even this former NFL defender found Marine training tough to tackle:“The big reason was because I was just really disgusted with the amount of money entertainers get and what they pay troops overseas,” said Staat. “It didn’t seem right that we pay all those entertainers millions to catch a football and we pay our Marines pennies to a dollar to catch a bullet,” said Staat.
Determined to leave, Staat spoke with a recruiter and left as soon as possible.
“I came in two months early, like ‘Let’s get it on,’” said Staat. “I wanted to be a part of something that is going to live forever instead of getting trophies. What are trophies good for – collecting dust? Most trophies get thrown in the garage. Who knows where they go after that?”
Arriving at the depot, Staat did what he could to keep his past under wraps, but within five hours of his landing, his secret was out.
Staat said a drill instructor asked the 77-inch stack of muscle if he played football. “I played a little in college,” said Staat, who enlisted to become a machine gunner.
Since entering recruit training, Staat realized he wasn’t used to the strenuous environment.At least he got a chance to prove himself - most American youth never will. Yesterday's story also brought about a discussion on "lowered standards" for new Army recruits, and today the AP offers a very timely story on that topic:“I’ve run three miles four times in my life, once at (Military Entrance Processing Station), and three times here,” said Staat.
<...>
Staat said he found it amusing that people pay for the training that Marines are paid to complete.“They train you to keep in shape. They put you on a diet,” said Staat. “People pay to do that.”
Staat recalled a day during training when his company ran the obstacle course. There are a number of high walls, logs and bars to get over throughout the course including the rope, which is strung from a high beam of wood to the ground. Staat attempted to climb the rope but failed. He was trained on the proper techniques, he got a second chance.
Staat’s senior drill instructor told him to climb the rope again. One of the many things that are stressed during training is bearing, but when Staat climbed to the top of the rope, he broke his bearing and smiled.
“I asked him what happened the first time and he smiled and said, ‘This recruit didn’t have the technique down, sir,’” said Staff Sgt. Miguel R. Saenz, senior drill instructor, Platoon 1065.
“I was just happy,” said Staat. “I had never climbed a rope before.”
"Uncle Sam wants you," that famous Army recruiting poster says. But does he really?For a more detailed look at standards, read this. (And links to recruiters have always been available in the "Join" section of our sidebar.)Not if you're a Ritalin-taking, overweight, Generation Y couch potato -- or some combination of the above. A tattoo also can be grounds for rejection.
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The Census Bureau estimates that the overall pool of people who would be in the military's prime target age has shrunk as the U.S. society ages. There were 1 million fewer 18- to 24-year-olds in 2004 than in 2000, the agency says.The pool shrinks to 13.6 million when only high-school graduates and those who score in the upper half on a military-service aptitude test are considered.
Other factors include:
-The rising rate of obesity. About 30 percent of U.S. adults are considered obese.
-A decline in physical fitness. One-third of teenagers are thought to be incapable of passing a treadmill test.
-A near-epidemic rise in the use of Ritalin and other stimulants to treat attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADHD). Potential recruits are ineligible for military service if they have taken such a drug in the previous year.
Other potential recruits are rejected because they have criminal histories or too many dependents. Subtract 4.4 million from the pool for these people and for the overweight.
Others can be rejected for medical problems, from blindness to asthma. The Army estimate has subtracted 2.6 million for this group.
That leaves 4.3 million fully qualified potential recruits and an estimated 2.3 million more who might qualify if given waivers on some of their problems.
The bottom line: There are a total of 6.6 million potential recruits from all members of the 32 million-person age group.
In the budget year that ended in September, 15 percent of recruits required a waiver in order to be accepted for active-duty services -- or about 11,000 people of about 73,000 recruited.
Most waivers were for medical problems. Some were for misdemeanors such as public drunkenness, resisting arrest or misdemeanor assault -- prompting criticism that the Army is lowering its standards.
And of course there are "others" who will never serve - waivered or not. Teddy Roosevelt once described them as "...those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are."
But as TR also noted, "It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.""
60 Minutes covers Tall Afar. Read it all. Included you'll find two video segments - the first is an excerpt from the program including footage from before and during the battle, along with interviews of Col H.R. McMaster and Time Magazine's Michael Ware. (Ware shot the aforementioned video.)
The second segment is a "reporter's notebook" from Lara Logan. Don't miss them.
And read the text portion too.
Michelle Malkin has an additional video segment - one that shows the aftermath of the battle.
Then have another look at this. And this.
Well the big protest in Germany with Cindy Sheehan was pretty much a bust. The 400 expected to turn out dwindled to approximately 25 - 30. And Cindy was a no-show.
She claims injuries due to Police brutality sustained during her arrest at the UN kept her from attending. However, I suspect it had more to do with restictions on flying to a foreign country while out on bail. (What kind of birds don't fly? Jailbirds!)
When the four of us. Missy Beattie, Rev. Patricia Ackerman, Medea Benjamin, and I, were arrested the other day, I was singled out for federal police brutality. The other three ladies were picked up, noth gingerly, though, and I was dragged across the pavement and treated very, very roughly—having both arms wrenched out from beneath me. I looked to my doctor as if I had been beaten. My daughter, Janey, asked if I had been resisting arrest, I told her if one considers going into a fetal position and saying, "Please don't hurt me anymore!" resisting, then I guess I was.This isn't the first time she's claimed police brutality.
But apparently Cindy didn't feel it was vital to inform those who were expecting her to lead this vigil that she would not be coming to Europe.
...Refering to your earlier mail and concerning the cancallation you were mentioning: the groups in our area (Kaiserslautern, Landstuhl, Ramstein) have not received any cancellation.
Neither Elsa Rassbach nor AVA have sent us information about this! Our last information is, that Cindy confirmed. But right now, we even do not know, if any of the other witnesses will arrive. This is a very unsatisfying situation.
I therefore kindly ask you to forward me the official cancallation that you have received. Thanks you very much in advance for your help.
I have no official cancellation and just knew that she did not make the plane I was planning on meeting, therefore I would not be coming your way. Which is why I informed you of same (re sleeping place, etc.) I think/hope! that you have been in touch with Elsa since this mail was sent and have received more specific information, as hers is the central office on this.And:
According to the following article posted in Stars and Stripes, Cindy can't come to Europe because her doctor "forbade it". I find it extremely unfortunate that we should find this out from a newspaper article. But it looks pretty clear now.According to Elsa Rassbach of American Voices Abroad:
Because we have no first-hand information, and only contradictory information, it does not seem like a good idea to put out a press release or statement, as there is nothing definitive that we can say. I discussed this late yesterday afternoon with our contact at the European Parliament, and the MEPs leading this project there do not think it appropriate to issue a press release or statement at this time.Well regardless if it was political repression, police brutality or bail restrictions that kept Cindy from fulfilling her commitment the demonstration went on without her. As MaryAnn and I approached their camp for photos, I thought that with all the rainbow flags I was watching a gay pride event. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
I understand that, If Cindy starts feeling better, she could still use her flight ticket to Europe.
I wish I had more to report. She missed one event, in Aachen, and she was not planning to come to Landstuhl in any case, but it does not mean she will necessarily miss other events.
We should all remember that, if it turns out that Cindy cannot come, it will be due to the political repression in the U.S. This means that it is all the more important to carry out our events here in solidarity with Cindy.
The AVA (American Voices Abroad) has hailed this event a success:
Congratulations, Elsa on the well done successes of of the Landstuhl event; A conference of locals, politicians, and activists from, other parts of Germany and the world who were brought together to highlight the continued occupation of Germany at Landstuhl by American troops. The occupation that makes all other occupations possible. I learnt a lot and am grateful for all the wonderful people I met.I met Steve Mraz, reporter for Stars and Stripes, and Raymond, a photographer, and they seemed like a couple of stand up guys who stay unbiased and reported exactly what occurred. Not sure what this guy's problem was with Steve's article.
Thanks for the article, Jazzin Eva, but Screw Stars and Stripes. That's their heavily interested opinion. Isn't S&S that military mouthpiece rag that Klinger and Hawkeye used to use to wipe their latrines ( I didn't know it wasn't fictional)? The right wing press, let alone a military propaganda joint, always try to pull defeat from the mouth of victory when it comes to struggles of this sort..
In spite of the bad weather, those of us who were rallying in support of our troops and our German-American partnership enjoyed meeting each other - many for the fist time. I was able to meet MaryAnn of Soldier's Angels Germany, Dr. Stefan Prystawik, and a few college students from a local university.
Kudos to the Polizei - no doubt they had better ways to spend their weekend, but they were extremely professional and very courteous.
We've lived in Germany for several years now, and have found the people here to be wonderful. We'll always have fond memories of our time here and the friends we've made. But I never expected to be part of a rally organized by Germans to counter a protest organized by Americans!
ScrappleFace - now with audio for every post. Twice the laughs.
Someday I might try podcasting. Until then, here's the only known recording of my voice on this web site...
(This is tonight's open post.)
Jim Hoagland in the March 2nd Washington Post
The Bush administration has made increased Iranian influence in the south a self-fulfilling prophecy by misunderstanding and mishandling Shiite nationalism. The normally adept U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, continued that pattern by publicly threatening the Shiites directly with the halt of U.S. aid to Iraq if they do not agree to a "cross-sectarian" -- code word for Sunni -- interior minister in the new cabinet.Zalmay Khalilzad in today's Washington PostThat was overreaching, as the turmoil ignited by the demolition of the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra last week quickly demonstrated. The blast was apparently carried out by professional sappers in another attempt to provoke the "civil war" that has thus far been avoided -- at least in the headlines and presidential statements, if not in fact.
In discussions with Iraqi leaders and in comments to the media, I always emphasize the need for nonsectarian appointments in the formation of an Iraqi government. Yet in his March 2 op-ed column, "Face Iraq's Past," Jim Hoagland asserted that my statements mask a demand for the appointment of a Sunni to the Interior Ministry. This interpretation of my comments does not reflect what I have stressed for months.The risk you take when putting words in someone's mouth is that they will call you on it.My statements are clear: The defense and interior ministers must be nonsectarian, broadly acceptable and have no ties to militias. A Sunni who is sectarian is as unacceptable as a Shiite who is sectarian. Perhaps most important, many Iraqi leaders -- Sunni, Shiite and Kurd -- have made this a key point in their negotiations for a new government.
Iraqis are working to overcome sectarian tensions heightened by terrorist attacks. We are investing billions to recruit, train and equip security forces in both the ministries of Defense and Interior. How the ministers of these departments are perceived by the Iraqis is critical to their success. The ministers must be unifiers, not polarizers. And the security ministries are only one piece of our commitment to building a unity government that fairly represents all Iraqis.
ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Baghdad
The Navy's venerable bird is dropping from the skies and landing in the pages of history. I immediately looked to Lex for comments on the end of the era (he is a Navy Fighter Pilot, after all).
He covers his deep and profound sadness well:
It was a rough, ungainly beast and I will not miss it. And as for backseaters? Any pilot who needs one should have one.Clearly a man in despair.
Courage man, there will come another. As the old sailor said, there's plenty o' fish in the sea...
Jeremy Staat was a college roomate of Pat Tillman. Like Tillman he moved on to an NFL career, playing defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the St. Louis Rams.
Like Tillman, he's decided to play defense for America:
Staat said he was felt compelled to join the military after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but Tillman, who was his roommate at Arizona State, advised him to stay with professional football until he qualified for retirement benefits.PFC Jeremy Staat, USMC, graduated from the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Friday."He told me, 'You're a good player, you need to get good play.' Then four months later, at his wedding, I learn he's going to the Army," Staat said.
Tillman's death gave him "more motivation" to enlist, Staat said.
The Army Guard said Friday that it signed up more than 26,000 soldiers in the first five months of fiscal 2006, exceeding its target by 7 percent in its best performance in 13 years. At this pace, Guard leaders say they are confident they will reach their goal of boosting manpower from the current 336,000 to the congressionally authorized level of 350,000 by the end of the year.The Washington Post attributes the turn around to bonus money ($2,000) offered to members for recruiting others into the service."Will we make 350,000? The answer is: Absolutely," said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
The rebound is striking because since 2003, the Army Guard has performed worse in annual recruiting than any other branch of the U.S. military. The Guard was shrinking while it was being asked to shoulder a big part of the burden in Iraq. Together with the Army Reserve, it supplied as many as 40 percent of the troops in Iraq while also dispatching tens of thousands of members to domestic disasters.
Today, the Guard is surpassing its goals and growing in strength -- a welcome boost for an all-volunteer Army stretched thin by unprecedented deployments. In recent months, the Guard enlisted nearly as many troops as the active-duty Army, even though it is a much smaller force. Indeed, the Army Guard, present in about 3,500 U.S. communities, will launch pilot programs this year to recruit for the entire Army.
"We're seeing quantum leaps," said Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard. "We should probably be America's recruiter for the Army."
Enlistment figures for all branches for February:
DOD: All Active-Duty Branches Exceeded February Recruiting GoalsOn the other end of some military careers, desertion rates continue to plummet, a trend that continues from 9/11.The Army achieved 102 percent of its goal with 6,114 recruits; the Navy, 104 percent of its goal with 2,696 recruits; the Marines also got 104 percent of its goal with 1,734 recruits; and the Air Force made 101 percent of its goal with 2,375 recruits, the figures show.
Of the reserve components, the Air Force Reserve made 117 percent of its February goal with 573 recruits and the Army Reserve made 101 percent of its goal with 6,583 recruits, the figures show
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The Navy Reserve made 81 percent of its goal with 710 recruits; the Marine Corps Reserve made 86 percent of its goal with 469 recruits; the Air National Guard made 88 percent of its goal with 680 recruits; and the Army Reserve made 97 percent of its goal with 2,279 recruits, the figures show.
WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Desertions from the all-volunteer U.S. military have dropped to half the number faced at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a report said.More:The 2005 desertion rate was 0.24 percent of the 1.4 million members of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. In 2001 there were just over 9,500 desertions from all services, while last year there were just over 4,900.
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Vietnam-era desertions were far higher. In 1971, the U.S. Army had more than 33,000 desertions, a desertion rate of 3.4 percent.Some 8,000 U.S. military members have deserted since the start of the war in Iraq in the fall of 2003 -- the vast majority while still in the United States.
Desertion numbers have dropped since 9/11. The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marines showed 1,603 deserters in 2001. That declined by 148 in 2005.Oddly, USA Today offers two versions of this story online - with two different headlines:The desertion rate was much higher during the Vietnam era. The Army saw a high of 33,094 deserters in 1971 — 3.4% of the Army force. But there was a draft and the active-duty force was 2.7 million.
Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.
Opposition to the war prompts a small fraction of desertions, says Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins. “People always desert, and most do it because they don't adapt well to the military,” she says. The majority of desertions happen inside the USA, Robbins says. There is only one known case of desertion in Iraq.
Most deserters return without coercion. Commander Randy Lescault, spokesman for the Naval Personnel Command, says that between 2001 and 2005, 58% of Navy deserters walked back in. Of the rest, most are apprehended during traffic stops.
"Fewer troops desert since 9/11"
or...
"8,000 desert during Iraq war"
That second one may be designed to appeal to the "reality-based" community.
But that's service - its all a matter of choice.
Update: More here.
Anybody seen The Unit?
It's not on AFN yet - a big oversight on somebody's part, but I hear good things about it.
CBS told me they were sending a review copy of the pilot episode, but never followed through. [Obligatory facetious editor's note: Maybe they searched your site for references to CBS?] This doesn't diminish my hope that it's every bit as good a show as I've heard.
From their email:
The series was inspired by the book Inside Delta Force, written by Command Sergeant Major, USA (ret.) Eric L. Haney, the series’ technical advisor, producer and writer. Award-winning author David Mamet makes his television debut as executive producer alongside Emmy-nominated Executive Producer Shawn Ryan.
Update: Hook likes it. That's a strong endorsement.
This is also the weekend's Open Post.
Yes, that's Iraq, the one with the "Q" - not Iran.
It's not satire - but it ought to be:
Iraq Seen Likely To Still Seek WMDsI truly hope that unbeknownst to us all, somewhere in the US government there's a super-secret agency that actually employs dedicated professionals to do intelligence work.WASHINGTON - A former top CIA official said yesterday that despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is likely to be looking for weapons of mass destruction within the next five to 10 years.
Paul Pillar, who until last year was in charge of intelligence assessments for the Middle East, said the CIA warned the Bush administration before the Iraq invasion in 2003 that a change of regimes would not necessarily solve any WMD problem.
<...>
In his speech, Pillar said Iraq is serving the same purpose that Afghanistan once did, as an inspiration and a base for radical Islam.
Or do I mean intelligent work?
Either way, pretending that it may be so helps me sleep at night.
Update: Read More CIA Incompetence? at The New Editor.
Sunni Insurgents 'Have Al-Zarqawi Running For Cover'More details at the link.Insurgent groups in one of Iraq's most violent provinces claim that they have purged the region of three quarters of al-Qa'eda's supporters after forming an alliance to force out the foreign fighters.
If true, it would mark a significant victory in the fight against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'eda in Iraq, and could partly explain the considerable drop in suicide bombings in Iraq recently.
"We have killed a number of the Arabs, including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis and Jordanians," said an insurgent representative in the western province of Anbar.
The claims were partly supported by the defence ministry, which said it had evidence that Zarqawi and his followers were fleeing Anbar to cities and mountains near the Iranian border.
It is this move that is believed to have prompted a statement a fortnight ago from the insurgent groups in the central city of Hawija that they were declaring war on al-Qae'da.
See also:
...everywhere a sign. Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind..."
When David Kelley deployed to Iraq, his wife Stacey put a "Support the Troops" sign in their yard.
To the 24-year-old who watched her husband leave in November, it was about keeping a promise.But...David Kelley had asked her to post a "Support Our Troops" sign in front of their house in Westchase in northwest Hillsborough County.
Westchase deed restrictions prohibit residents from posting signs in front of their homes unless they are "for sale" or "for rent" notices. Exceptions are made for signs from home security companies.But...The association's board of directors voted unanimously Thursday night for the sign's removal despite being barraged by scores of negative telephone calls and e-mails earlier in the day.
When told her refusal to take down the 2-foot sign would result in a fine of $100 a day, Kelley, a normally quiet Army wife not used to the national and even international spotlight, had a simple message for the homeowners association directors.Rest here."Bring it on," she said.
(Hat Tip: SgtMgr, via comments)
Update - Here's your sign:
Almost missed this news story:
Iraq hanged 13 insurgents Thursday, marking the first time militants have been executed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein nearly three years ago, the government said.(More at Roger's)
There are many things that terrorists don't want in Iraq - among them are Christians and peace. We salute the courage of conviction exhibited by those who would venture forth to confront such animosity, recognizing that this may be the inevitable result:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American hostage Tom Fox -- who was kidnapped with three other Christian peace activists in November -- has been found shot in the head with his body showing signs of torture, Iraqi emergency police told CNN Saturday.An excerpt from the Christian Peacemaker Teams response:
In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done. In Tom’s own words: "We reject violence to punish anyone. We ask that there be no retaliation on relatives or property. We forgive those who consider us their enemies. We hope that in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening nonviolently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.”The LA Times saysEven as we grieve the loss of our beloved colleague, we stand in the light of his strong witness to the power of love and the courage of nonviolence. That light reveals the way out of fear and grief and war.
Through these days of crisis, Christian Peacemaker Teams has been surrounded and upheld by a great outpouring of compassion: messages of support, acts of mercy, prayers, and public actions offered by the most senior religious councils and by school children, by political leaders and by those organizing for justice and human rights, by friends in distant nations and by strangers near at hand. These words and actions sustain us. While one of our teammates is lost to us, the strength of this outpouring is not lost to God’s movement for just peace among all peoples.
At the forefront of that support are strong and courageous actions from Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world for which we are profoundly grateful. Their graciousness inspires us to continue working for the day when Christians speak up as boldly for the human rights of thousands Iraqis still detained illegally by the United States and United Kingdom.
Christian Peacemaker Teams has been in Iraq since late 2002. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it has been investigating allegations of abuse against Iraqi detainees. In a statement Tuesday, it said 14,600 Iraqis were "detained illegally by the multinational forces."The Washington Post profiles Tom Fox here
Those who knew him say Fox had prepared himself for the possibility he would not return from Iraq. He even wrote about it on his Web log when he first arrived in Baghdad in October 2004.We can find no reports on the progress of the formation of the Islamic Peacemaker Team. We'll keep searching."I am to stand firm against the kidnapper as I am to stand firm against the soldier," he wrote. "Does that mean I walk into a raging battle to confront the soldiers? Does that mean I walk the streets of Baghdad with a sign saying 'American for the Taking'? No to both counts. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life and if I lose it to be as forgiving as they were when murdered by the forces of Satan."
Fox worked with incarcerated Iraqis, often serving as the only link between them and their families on the outside, said Slattery.
Fox also escorted shipments of medicine to clinics and hospitals and worked to form an Islamic Peacemaker Team.
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In an appeal for her father's life issued through Christian Peacemaker Teams after his capture, Fox's daughter Katherine described him as a wanderer, an outdoorsman and a listener. He also was a gifted musician, a former clarinetist with the Marine Corps Band in Washington, she said."My dad wasn't a Marine, he was a musician," Fox wrote.
Fox had traded in his fatigues for a life of pacifism.
And our thoughts and prayers are with the family and colleagues of Tom Fox.
Related story: Marla Ruzicka
Other thoughts:
Dr Roy Eappen, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Cindy Sheehan in her latest comments on her Germany protest:
“If I am there, I won’t be anywhere near the air force base ... or participate in the march,” wrote Sheehan on Wednesday. “I was brutalized in New York the other day by the NYPD (New York Police Department) and I need to go to the doctor today (Wednesday).”But here's her original comment on the subject, from when it was first announced last month:
“I don’t know anything about the visit,” she wrote. “It is being arranged by some people in Germany.”Looks like Cindy never got the memo - or perhaps a bit of false advertising on the part of the organizers.
Who are carrying on:
“We’re just going ahead because we think it’s correct,” said Elsa Rassbach with American Voices Abroad, which has assisted in organizing events for Sheehan’s visit.The support the troops rally is also still on. A Mudville reporter assures me we'll have full coverage here.
What's new in your world?
We first met Mike Stokely via an email from his father, who now sends this message:
On another note, as a beautiful day passes by, we are fortunate to be one day closer when our soldiers return home and are reunited with their families. While this moment will be bitter sweet for those of us who lost our loved one, it is none the less, for me, a moment to rejoice, for my son, SGT Mike Stokely, would be happy his "guys" and I am sure he beams in heaven at this coming moment for them.He added this story from the local newspaper (in archives click "news" on left of screen, March 6 file.)
Robert Stokely
Legislation offered to name highways in Coweta, Walton for fallen soldierYou can read Mr Stokely's original email to us here.By ELIZABETH RICHARDSON
"All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women of our armed forces who risk their lives in the defense of freedom and to secure the blessings of liberty for this nation and other peoples of the world," Senate Resolution 639 and Senate Resolution 864 proclaim in honor of the late Sgt. Mike Stokely and all of the others willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Senate Resolution 639 would dedicate a strip of roadway to the fallen soldier. The portion, which would bear the name "Sgt. Mike Stokely Memorial Highway," would stretch from U.S. Highway 54 from the Fayette County line to its intersection with U.S. Highway 16. The resolution has been passed by Georgia's Senate and is currently pending in the House.
Resolution 864 would dedicate a span of highway to Stokely from U.S. Highway 81 in Walton County from its intersection with U.S. 78, which runs straight through Mike's hometown of Loganville, to the Newton County Line.
"To my knowledge, two separate highways have never been named for one person," said Coweta County's Solicitor Robert Stokely of the ongoing accomplishments of his son six months after he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq at the age of 23.
Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg), sponsor of SR 639, suggested the dedication idea to Stokely about two weeks after Mike's death Aug. 16, 2005.
"At first I had to think about it and talk to Niki [Mike's widow] and the family because I was worried that it might take on the wrong appearance, and Mike didn't serve and do what he did to get a highway named after him," said Stokely.
After considering it from Mike's perspective, he decided that it would at least "call attention to the service of others that continue to make the daily sacrifice," he said.
It was Sen. John Douglas, who represents Newton and part of both Henry and Walton counties, who worked together with Seabaugh to propose the resolutions.
Stokely and his family are now waiting for the resolution to be passed in the House and be signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue. They have no timeline beyond the possible acceptance or any idea what to expect for the potential dedication.
"I would like for it to be sometime in early summer when his fellow soldiers and immediate platoon can attend. This needs to be as much for them as it is for the Stokelys. They didn't get to see what was done for us and for Mike, and I want them to have the opportunity to come and see what Georgia does for its fallen soldiers. I also want them to have a chance for people to clap for them the way they have for Mike Stokely."
Both of the strips of highway that may soon bear Mike's name have special meaning to his family.
The strip on Highway 54 holds a special place in Stokely's heart because one day in late November 2004 the entire family visited the Line Creek nature trail for some family photographs. It is the spot where the picture of Stokely was taken that has now been distributed nationwide.
"When I cross Line Creek, I always think about that day," said Stokely. "I hope others will think about the sacrifice of all the soldiers."
The second strip of highway runs by Corinth Cemetery in Loganville -- Mike's final resting place.
"These last six months my family and I have spent an awful lot of time up there; when I travel that road now I think about this time or that time with Mike and wonder how I went from a car seat to a casket in 20 years."
Niki now owns and operates a tanning salon in Loganville that sits on the highway that might be named for her late husband in the near future. Her business is also coincidentally within walking distance from Mike's grave.
"This resolution points to the dangers our soldiers must face, and Coweta has gotten roughed up in this war," said Stokely.
"It will take some getting used to -- to ride down the road and see a sign with a Stokely name. But those two signs and a grave are the period at the end of the sentence. We're in re-runs now for the rest of our lives; and, for me, that will never be enough."
Harris Poll Shows Military Still Most-Admired U.S. InstitutionBy Jim Garamone
American Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, March 7, 2006 – The military continues to be the most admired institution in America, according to the latest Harris Poll.
A total of 47 percent of Americans said they have a "great deal" of confidence in the military. Some 38 percent of Americans said they had "only some" confidence and 14 percent said they had "hardly any" confidence in the military.
The military was followed in the poll by small business - a new category in 2005 - with 45 percent of Americans saying they had a great deal of confidence; colleges and universities, 38 percent; the Supreme Court, 33 percent; and Medicine, 31 percent.
At the bottom of the survey, released March 2, were law firms at 10 percent, Congress at 10 percent, organized labor at 12 percent, major companies at 13 percent and the press at 14 percent.
Anchoring the middle was organized religion at 30 percent, the White House at 25 percent, public schools at 22, the courts and justice system at 21, and television news at 19.
The military has done well in the poll since the mid-1980s. The first poll, conducted in 1966, had the military at 61 percent approval rating. The next poll, conducted in 1971 showed the corrosive effect of the Vietnam War on America. Only 27 percent of Americans had confidence in the military then.
The public confidence in the military climbed after the 1970s and by 1989 the military was the most-trusted organization in the United States.
Harris Interactive, based in Rochester, N.Y., conducts the poll without sponsors. "We do this on our own," public relations coordinator Kelly Gullo said.
Gullo said Harris Interactive pollsters canvassed 1,016 U.S. adults via telephone. She said the sampling error for the survey is plus or minus 3 percent.
Via email:
.