Basra: One Year On, the Brits Almost Gone

The Stone Report, March 27th:

Many times I struggle with what I can put in the blog. I know a few things that aren't public knowledge, but are common knowledge around a division headquarters. Often, I'm not sure what is public so I err on the side of not saying anything about certain things. I hope that was ambiguious enough.

Mandatory?

Tom Ricks: "my new book is mandatory pre-deployment reading".

If that's true, then the books are being provided to the troops free of charge. If that's so, then tax dollars are buying them.

If it's not true, then it's just something Ricks said (along with a link to this Joe Klein ad hominem) in response to Peter Wehner.

Wehner responds to Ricks here and Klein here and here.

Of particular note those last two links, wherein Wehner quotes Kilcullen as response to Klein's claim that "my doubts about the surge came as a result of long conversations with members of the Petraeus staff. Key members of the team opposed the operation, including Petraeus's top counterinsurgency adviser David Kilcullen and others, whose names will remain private because our conversations were."

GWoT the Hell is Going on here (II)

This could be useful: The Obama-Matic (TM) Content-Free Euphemism Generator.

I just realized another possible explanation for the percentage of Americans believing we're winning the war on terror dropping from 62 to 46 percent since Obama's inauguration. You can't be winning a war that no longer exists.

Today in Iraq War History

Yesterday, actually, in 2003:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. war plan has "failed," veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett told Iraqi TV in an interview that aired Sunday.

"The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan," Arnett said. "Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces."
<...>
"I'd like to say from the beginning that the 12 years I've been coming here," Arnett said, "I've met unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and cooperation from the Ministry of Information."

Arnett told the Iraqi TV interviewer, who was dressed in an Iraqi Army uniform, that President Bush is facing a "growing challenge" about the "conduct of the war" within the United States.

Mr. Sadr

..is still "residing in Iran for religious studies".

It's been a while. He must be having a tough go at defending the dissertation.

Or maybe I was right: "Based on my experience with college age kids I'll bet he's actually playing Guitar Hero or World of Warcraft when he ought to be studying".

It's been a year since the Battle for Basra pitched Iraqi troops against Sadr's well-armed goon squads in the job the British couldn't do. Now is a good time to re-read this.

Someone hit the hot button

"Until now, the military has relied heavily on inexperienced National Guardsmen to fill out the teams"

That quote in a Stars and Stripes story didn't go over very well with (Afghan/TF Phoenix vet) Bouhammer.

So he emailed the Stars and Stripes, who then deleted the offending passages and emailed him back saying that the quote was actually from John Nagl and first appeared in the Washington Post. But, says Bouhammer, the Post has also "pulled the exact passage about the National Guard from the Washington Post website".

MilBlogs You Never Heard of

This is a good idea. (Note there are two links there, and see both.)

And while at Blackfive, check out this update on the 173d Airborne, whose drop into Iraq six years ago last week made history. Their more recent history was in Afghanistan.

"The most dangerous country on earth"

That's what USA Today calls Pakistan:

What's commonly referred to as President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan is, in reality, a plan for both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Af-Pak for short. And for all the emphasis on the "Af," it's the "Pak" part that might well prove to be the most difficult and decisive.

Meanwhile, at Registan, Joshua Foust seems unimpressed.

Welcome Home: Vietnam Veterans' Day

I'm a day late in getting this up but it is their day. Please take time to Welcome them home and thank them.

From Lake County (California) News:

On Monday, be sure to offer a handshake and a thank you to a Vietnam vet.

On March 24, the US House of Representatives approved House Resolution 234, which declares Monday, March 30 as "Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day."

Military "Life Imitates the Onion" too (II)

Army news, March 29:

Army repositions Soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan

The 100th BSB, an active component unit from Fort Sill, Okla., has the distinction of being among the first Army units to deploy to Afghanistan from Iraq. The move comes as a result of the increased capabilities of Iraqi security forces.
<...>
Lt. Col. Brent D. Bush, battalion commander of the 100th BSB, said he is excited about his unit's move to Afghanistan and appreciates the opportunity to command it.
<...>
Command Sgt. Maj. Bryant D. Williams, the senior non-commissioned officer of the 100th BSB, said he is also excited for the move to Afghanistan.

U.S. Troops In Iraq Excited To Finally Return To Afghanistan

BAGHDAD--Members of the U.S. Armed Forces were reportedly overcome with feelings of joy, nostalgia, and optimism this week after learning they would soon be withdrawn from Iraq and allowed to finally return home to Afghanistan.

"I never thought this day would come," said Cpl. Douglas Robinson, who hasn't seen the barren hills and smoking craters of his beloved Kabul in nearly six years. "Being away from those you left behind, for this long, it definitely starts to take a toll on you."
<...>
"It's going to be great to be surrounded by all those familiar faces again," said Pfc. Shawn Brunner, staring wistfully at an old and faded photograph of the bleak wasteland. "The tribal sheiks, the frightened villagers, all that wonderful rubble near the Id Gah Mosque. When I'm finally back on Afghan soil, I'll probably kiss the ground."

GWoT the hell is going on here?

March 25th:

'Global War On Terror' Is Given New Name

The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase "global war on terror," a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor.

In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "

Reports of the Long War's Death Were Apparently Premature

Administration officials have been insisting that no decision has been made to stop using the term "global war on terror"

Americans express their feelings on war

Rasmussen

The number of voters who say the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror dropped five percentage points over the past two weeks to 46%.
<...>
Confidence that America and its allies are winning the War on Terror has generally stayed between 46% and 53% since last July. It spiked shortly after the presidential election and again following the Obama's [sic] inauguration. In early February, confidence reached a record high of 62%.

What Price Victory for an Afghan ETT ?

Milblogger Vampire 06, in Afghanistan:

There's been a lot in the news lately about what "victory" in Afghanistan looks like. I really don't know, nor do I want to venture an opinion on that one. People at much higher pay grades than mine can figure that one out. All I can speak for is the little piece of Afghanistan that I share with my ANA and the local populace of Bermel.

And small wars and long one's, too.

Military "Life Imitates The Onion" Too

September, 2008: The Department of Defense announced today additional major units scheduled to deploy in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Specific units receiving deployment orders include: 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, N.C.

March 9th, 2009, the "Iraq Drawdown": The coalition forces whose deployments are canceled include the US Army 4/82 Brigade Combat Team.

The Onion, March 20th:

BAGHDAD--Members of the U.S. Armed Forces were reportedly overcome with feelings of joy, nostalgia, and optimism this week after learning they would soon be withdrawn from Iraq and allowed to finally return home to Afghanistan.

The announcement comes ...as the U.S. prepares to deploy as many as 17,500 more troops to Afghanistan to reclaim the U.S. stake in a fight that's languished as the Bush administration focused on Iraq.
<...>
The new strategy will call for an additional 4,000 troops from the 4th brigade, 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., to train Afghan forces, U.S. officials said.

The Plan Unveiled (III)

"The President's plan" for Pakistan and Afghanistan (I think it's important that its established order of priority is maintained - and not only because I concur with it) will be tough to implement without the support of all involved - that's obvious. Loyal, thoughtful, and constructive opposition is expected, but certainly not from some quarters where it's already beginning to appear.

The Plan Unveiled (II)

White Paper of the Interagency Policy Group's Report on U.S. Policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan

Of immediate note: "the core goal of the U.S. must be to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan, and to prevent their return to Pakistan or Afghanistan."

Act Fast

Auctions - including a signed copy of Mike Yon's Moment of Truth in Iraq, ending tonight.

Yes, the profits go to a worthy cause.

We're back

Yes - the web site was down for a bit. I think Mrs G deleted everything in a fit of anger, shame, petulance, and remorse.

But we're back now. So neener neener neener to her.

The Plan Unveiled

I like the stern countenances in the background:

And they should be stern - we're in imminent danger an increasingly perilous situation:

In strikingly ominous tones, Mr. Obama warned -- just as President George W. Bush did repeatedly over the years -- of intelligence estimates that al Qaeda "is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan."

"The situation is increasingly perilous," he told government officials, top military officers and diplomats in remarks at the White House.

I need a photo-opportunity, I want a shot at redemption

Get these mutts away from me
You know I don't find this stuff amusing anymore
- Paul Simon, You Can Call Me Al

It took a while before all the pieces came together on this story, but the puzzle is solved, and here's the full picture.

Love American Style

The lovely and talented (and thick-skinned) Mrs G thought this comment should be elevated to a post of its own:

Mrs. Greyhawk, your love affair with Barack Obama is getting pretty nauseating. I don't plan to bother coming to this website anymore and am erasing it from my bookmarks because being sick at heart and stomach is just not appealing.
Posted by Mae at March 27, 2009 06:58 AM

I guess that's what you earn when you wh*re-blog for a corrupt regime.

Hope it was worth it, Ms Greyhawk. People are dying and getting maimed in part because of your work.

I guess I should have suspected something when I found this in her wallet:

All done!

What Goes on

President Obama is set to unveil "his" Afghanistan plan today. Details, of course, have already been leaked. Among them: 4,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne to train Afghan Forces. (Thus they will be "non-combat" troops.)

Here's coverage from the New York Times (Benchmarks appear! ""The era of the blank check is over," Mr. Obama told Congressional leaders at the White House, according to an account of the meeting provided on the condition of anonymity because it was a private session.") the Washington Post (Funding! ""President Obama's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy will require significantly higher levels of U.S. funding for both countries... "The president has decided he is going to resource this war properly," said a senior administration official of the plan Obama is set to announce this morning.") USA Today (McCain quotes! "Adding the extra trainers is "an excellent idea," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Obama's Republican opponent for the presidency last year. "The Afghan army has to be dramatically increased."") the LA Times (The Taliban! "Afghanistan's former Taliban leader is pursuing a determined effort to reclaim power, U.S. officials said Thursday, a bid they plan to thwart by isolating the most militant insurgents...") and The Economist ("Barack Obama needs to act fast to dispel the idea that he is giving up on his 'good war'").

I'm surprised by that last one, which under the headline "Say You're Staying, Mr President", opens with this:

CT vs COIN

I'm looking forward to meeting Andrew Exum and Small Wars' Dave Dilegge at the milblogs conference, so besides being of immediate informative value I consider this piece by Andrew at Small Wars Journal a read-ahead:

In advance of the Obama Administration's forthcoming review of policies toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, much of the commentary has focused on whether or not the Obama Administration will adopt a long-term, hugely expensive population-centric counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign or whether the administration will instead opt for a lower-cost counter-terror (CT) strategy. Fred Kaplan, in a typically well-informed piece for Slate, framed the debate as an either/or dichotomy in which the Obama Administration had to choose one or the other vis a vis Afghanistan.

The distinction between COIN and CT, however, is poorly understood. For one, there is no hard and fast dichotomy between the two - a fact that Kaplan and other longtime defense correspondents largely understand but which policy-makers must understand as well. If what Kaplan writes is true, and policy-makers are stuck thinking of their policy options as either/or propositions, we are in more trouble in Afghanistan than I thought.

The Unknowns

Mrs G, on Medal of Honor Day:

Can the everyday American (who hasn't been exposed to milblogs) name a Medal of Honor recipient or a single Hero of these wars?

No - because the main stream media does not cover them. Apparently today is not newsworthy. Just Google National Medal of Honor Day in the News, nothing from the MSM.

Unsung War Hero Gets Recognition

Robert Howard was the toughest, bravest cat in the jungle, but he deserved a better war than Vietnam. He was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times for three separate operations behind enemy lines.

But, as CBS News correspondent David Martin reports, when President Nixon finally awarded him the nation's highest honor, the ceremony was actually delayed by anti-war protests. He was a war hero at a time when Americans didn't believe in either the war or its heroes. He was wounded 14 times and has no business being alive.

America loves war heroes. There was Sgt. York in WWI, Audie Murphy in WWII. But in Vietnam, there were only scapegoats. Except Robert Howard...

He can walk through the streets of Manhattan without anyone knowing who he is or what he's done. Until today, when President Obama found out who Robert Howard is. Together, they and 37 other Medal of Honor winners from WWII, Korea and Vietnam laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Robert Howard is an unknown hero no longer.

Rick Rescorla: Above and Beyond

Now this is an honor:

The Above & Beyond Citizen Honors is presented by the less than 100 living Medal of Honor recipients who constitute the Society. These awards will celebrate the best of America by profiling spectacular stories of individuals who demonstrate service over self. The heroic examples of the Medal of Honor recipients, along with the Above & Beyond Citizen Honorees, will continue to inspire long after the presentation ceremony. These remarkable citizens stand to remind each and every one of us that for Americans, anything is possible.

After considering all nominations, a panel of judges consisting exclusively of Medal of Honor recipients, selected one finalist from every state, plus the District of Columbia. From among these 51 finalists, the panel then selected three individuals to receive one of the highest civilian honors, Above & Beyond Citizen Honors. A complete list of the 51 finalists is available on the Above & Beyond website www.aboveandbeyond365.com.

"The Above and Beyond Citizens Honors recipients are evidence that the ideals demonstrated on the battlefield by those who received the nation's highest distinction, the Medal of Honor, are as applicable to civilian life as they are to military life" said David J. McIntyre, Jr., Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation board member and TriWest Healthcare Alliance President and CEO.

"It just doesn't get any better than this, our nation's quintessential heroes lifting up civilians who have also demonstrated exemplary selflessness, courage, love of country and service to their fellow man. Just imagine where our country would be were we all to live by such values," added McIntyre.

You can read details of that day here.

(Via Argghhh)

Anyone for Chess?

It is a tough game for beginners...

The Door in the Sky

Part one is here.

"I knew it was real when they gave us live ammo at the airfield. I knew then that there was no turning back," recalled Pfc. Jerry Allen, Chosen Co. 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne). "I've never seen so many planes in my life," he said referring to the Air Force C-17 Globemasters waiting to take them to war.

Before loading up on the C-17's, the paratroopers were briefed on the conditions of the drop zone. The Kurdish controlled area was expected to be friendly and little resistance was anticipated. The weather called for a pitch-black night, with no moon or stars and there was going to be fresh mud on the drop zone from the heavy storms in the prior weeks.

Once the troopers were rigged with their chutes and rucksacks, which weighed nearly as much as many of the Soldiers, they loaded up onto the lumbering jets lining the Aviano Air Base runway.

If only it was that simple.

As a frontal system brought rain, winds, and dust throughout southern Iraq, its low pressure center was traversing the north. The resulting combination of low cloud decks and rain-reduced visibility meant conditions for a parachute drop were actually below acceptable minimums.

But, as Air Force meteorologist Captain John Roberts later related, "As a low passes through, sometimes you'll get a small clearing behind it."

Air Force forecasters were predicting a possible two hour window of opportunity for the jump. If that actually happened, best-case conditions would be far from optimal, but doable. But that clearing wasn't expected to begin until after take off time for the mission, so with no-go weather still in place over the drop zone, the C17 fleet bearing the 173rd launched near sunset on the 26th.

After the aircraft took off, the paratroopers had ample time to prepare for what lay ahead.

"The mood in the plane was really serious. It looked like everybody had their head in the game," Allen said. "I was concentrating on what I was supposed to do once I got on the ground."

"I was more worried about how long it would take to get there and how long I was going to be sitting there in anticipation," recalled Pfc. David Deaconson, Chosen Co., 2-503rd Inf (Abn).

"Regardless of how long you are on the plane, it gives you a lot of time to think about what your commander has told you, about what conditions to expect. It sounded like a pretty friendly drop zone, but there was speculation that there was going to be resistance. And that little quip alone got people thinking they were going to be dropped into Normandy with tracers flying."

Major Bob Colvin piloted the lead aircraft, call sign VIJAY 10. "En route we checked with theater and headquarters weather," he recalled, "it didn't look good."

Reports from on the ground 45 minutes prior to arrival at the target indicated ceilings at 800 feet and visibility one quarter mile. But the mission pressed forward.

The time for the paratroopers to make their leap into war came quickly. About 30 minutes from the drop zone, the white lights that had been illuminating the cabin were cut off and replaced by red ones, signaling "show time" was close at hand.

"I wasn't nervous until they started going through the jump commands about 20 minutes before the jump," Allen said. "When they turned the white lights off and put those red ones on, it was a rush."

The mission still could have been scrubbed for bad weather - and very nearly was, but as the planes entered Iraqi airspace ground observers reported clearing: "we can see stars". Visibility was up to two miles as the C17s made final approach above Bashur.

The Air Force loadmasters then opened the doors of the aircraft. Wind, dust and anticipation tore through the cabin. The paratroopers hooked up their static lines and did their final checks. Because they were in hostile air and because the drop zone was nestled in a valley, the giant C-17's had to go into an intense, steep dive from 30,000 feet to 600 feet.
<...>
"That is when all fear left me and I just wanted to get out of the plane," Deaconson said. "You get a one-track mind once you see that green light. It's like being at a basketball game with everybody screaming, except everybody is cheering for you to get out of the door."
<...>
It didn't take the troopers long to fall the few hundred feet to the ground below.

"When I first hit, it wasn't a normal landing at all because it was so muddy," recalled Deaconson. "We expected mud but we didn't expect it to be as deep as it was. A lot of people got stuck waist deep when they hit and didn't get to do a proper parachute landing fall."

"It was like watching the Superbowl with two seconds left and they're on the one yard line" Captain Roberts remembered, "I probably aged about five years that night."

Sixty seconds later, the Globemasters, empty of their cargo, were climbing out of the valley and the Iraqi army had a thousand more American Soldiers to deal with.

And coalition forces had opened a doorway into northern Iraq.

*****

Postscript:

Major Colvin and the crew of VIJAY 10 earned the prestigious Mackay Trophy ("for the "most meritorious flight of the year" by an Air Force person, persons, or organization") for their mission over Bashur.

All done!

The War in the North

In 2003, few details of the war in northern Iraq "made the papers". Unlike units invading from Kuwait, those in the north brought no embedded reporters.

SAD [CIA Special Activities Division] Paramilitary teams entered Iraq before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Once on the ground they prepared the battle space for the subsequent arrival of US military forces. SAD teams then combined with US Army Special Forces to organize the Kurdish Peshmerga for the subsequent US-led invasion. This joint team combined to defeat Ansar al-Islam, an ally of Al-Qaeda, in a battle in the northeast corner of Iraq. This battle was for control of an entire territory that was completely occupied by Ansar al-Islam and was executed prior to the invasion in February 2003. The US side was carried out by Paramilitary Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special Forces Group.

AP notices Medal of Honor Day

Does "unannounced" mean last minute, unplanned? Usually these sorts of things are scheduled well in advance...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama made an unannounced stop at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday to pay respects to recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award.

Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. He was joined by several living recipients of the medal, which was first awarded during the Civil War.

March 25 of each year is National Medal of Honor Day.

The president visited the cemetery after meeting privately with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Death before this honor?

"It is telling that so many Medal of Honor recipients received the award posthumously." The President noted in his National Medal of Honor Day statement (see below). Some would say it's telling us this:

"The system has failed because of this inordinate fear that somebody is going to get the Medal of Honor [and] be an embarrassment," Kinney said. "They decided that the Medal of Honor should go not only to people who are brave, but pure."

Teach Your Children Well...or NOT

Dad: Well, let me ask you this. Some people think we should send a lot of soldiers there [to Afghanistan]. Do you think that would help them [the people of Afghanistan]?

Daughter: N - O.

Dad: Why would, uh, why would sending soldiers to them not help?

Daughter: Because, if you think about it, our last president, who made a big mess ... [inaudible] ... You know, he made a big mess, and so he has this, like, charm. So when he sends troops, he tells the people, "Oh, they're going to go get food for them," and all that. But they're actually going to go and kill them.

Dad: Kill them?

Daughter: Yeah.

Dad: Jiminy Cricket, that's terrible. So you think that's what soldiers do?

Daughter: Um, think about it! Soldiers have very big guns, marching like this. Oh, you think they go to Army School just so they can go there? No. They go there to kill people.

Isn't it great that these little girls and their daddy have the freedom to spew such vile on the very ones who gave them that freedom. However, we cannot blame the girls for idiotic tripe their daddy teaches them. It is unfortunate they will never understand patriotism, or know our heroes.

H/T Hot Air

Re: Medal of Honor Day

I was hoping for some new news on this story today. Did I miss it?

And she shouted out,

"Who killed the Kennedys?" When after all, it was you and me.

"Let someone else have it"

If you don't want it, that is. Such a nice sentiment - it could become a motto for the Obama administration.

An outcry is growing in Alexandria over a prospect no one seems to like: terrorist suspects in the suburbs.

The historic, vibrant community less than 10 miles from the White House markets itself as a "federal friendly zone." But it has turned decidedly unfriendly to news that the Obama administration might move some detainees from their highly controlled military fortress at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Alexandria to stand trial at the federal courthouse.

"We would be absolutely opposed to relocating Guantanamo prisoners to Alexandria," Mayor William D. Euille (D) said. "We would do everything in our power to lobby the president, the governor, the Congress and everyone else to stop it. We've had this experience, and it was unpleasant. Let someone else have it."
<...>
"I've never agreed with people who say 'not in my back yard,' but there are just too many people around here," said Jim Boulton, president of the unit owners association at the Caryle Towers condominium complex, which has been trying to get the government to remove security barriers left over from the Moussaoui trial. "They need to find someplace else."

No where but in a milblog

...could you find a report like this one from Iraq:

Helicopters break. You hope you're on the ground when it happens, but the odds are pretty much against that, as I can *personally* attest.

Our first one broke outside the wire, with student and 'structor on board -- immediately after an in-flight Q&A about the myriad fling-wing engine malfunctions and their associated emergency procedures, the engine malfunctioned, in a manner reminiscent of FuzzyBear Lioness commenting on one of my squid-snarks.

Pthbbbbbppppt.

The appropriate emergency procedure was appropriately performed, and sometime after the (successful) autorotational landing and immediately prior to exiting the aircraft, the student poked the 'structor and pointed outside at the group of AK-armed individuals approaching, saying, "We have an audience."

U.S. Troops In Iraq Excited To Finally Return To Afghanistan

Heh:

BAGHDAD--Members of the U.S. Armed Forces were reportedly overcome with feelings of joy, nostalgia, and optimism this week after learning they would soon be withdrawn from Iraq and allowed to finally return home to Afghanistan.

"I never thought this day would come," said Cpl. Douglas Robinson, who hasn't seen the barren hills and smoking craters of his beloved Kabul in nearly six years. "Being away from those you left behind, for this long, it definitely starts to take a toll on you."
<...>
"It's going to be great to be surrounded by all those familiar faces again," said Pfc. Shawn Brunner, staring wistfully at an old and faded photograph of the bleak wasteland. "The tribal sheiks, the frightened villagers, all that wonderful rubble near the Id Gah Mosque. When I'm finally back on Afghan soil, I'll probably kiss the ground."
<...>
Others reportedly yearned for the day when they would be reunited with their children, many of whom hadn't even been born when their fathers left for Iraq.

"I can't wait to meet my little princess, Badria," Lt. David Shapiro said. "I just hope her mother isn't still angry at me."
<...>
Amid all the fanfare, there was some unpleasant news. Troops in the 11th Marine Regiment were ordered early Tuesday morning to ship off to the United States, a distant foreign land, filled with bizarre customs, strange beliefs, and millions of people they do not know or understand.

The Enemy in the Wind (IV)

(The previous entry in this series is here.)

Staff Sergeant Gerry Thompson then heard a welcome sound - an Air Force A10 aircraft overhead. "That's the most reassuring feeling," Thompson said, "having an A10 come through, and drop bombs, shoot the 30mm gun... once I heard that it kind of made me feel a little better about the situation."

General Michael Moseley, air component commander for the invasion of Iraq, told the Weather Channel that the sandstorm "offered no sanctuary to the Iraqi forces, because you could actually see them. In an interesting twist of irony, I had a much better picture of where the Iraqi forces were than the Iraqi commanders, so it was easy for us through that sandstorm to find them, fix them, and target them."

Rick Atkinson, In the Company of Soldiers:

Other munitions now falling on Iraq had been little more than a brainstorm in the early 1990s. A new generation of smart bombs, such as the relatively cheap and plentiful Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, used global positioning satellites to home in on targets. The dumb, unguided bombs that accounted for more than 90 percent of the tonnage dropped on Iraq in 1991 had been largely supplanted by twenty-two types of guided munitions, which would make up more than two-thirds of the 29,199 bombs that were to fall on Iraq in the next three weeks.

One Month to D.C.

The milblogs conference is now just one month away, and Andi tells us the available seats are going fast. If you haven't done so already, make plans and register soon - we really are looking forward to seeing you there.

National Medal of Honor Day

Today March 25 is the National Medal of Honor Day, a day dedicated to honor our American heroes who have given much to our country

The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Generally presented to its recipient by the President of the United States of America in the name of Congress, it is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Lightning Bear Studios presents "A Hero's Welcome", a documentary film that focuses on John Finn, the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient (99) and the first recipient from WWII.

A dear milblogger friend of Mudville, the late Bill Faith gives us the story from a past post on MOH Bud Day

TSO at This ain't Hell, reminds us of LT John R Fox, (May 18, 1915-December 26, 1944) who was killed in action when he deliberately called for artillery fire on his own position after his position was overrun, in order to defeat a German attack in the vicinity of Sommocolonia. It was almost 38 years later before he was given the Medal of Honor.

You Served directs us to Colonel Robert Howard (ret.), a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam.

One Marine's View points us to Medal of Honor Winner, Ed "Too Tall" Freeman and a challenge issued by a flight attendant during a recent commercial air flight which will leave you frustrated with "the current lack of appreciation of our military heroes."

TankerBabe tells this story about Sgt Walter Singleton, MOH Recipient and reminds us that there are 19 Double Recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Greyhawk gives us the story of Corporal Jason Dunham who was killed in Iraq. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. He immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast.

And this story of Corporal Tibor Rubin who's actions in Korea earned him four recommendations for the Medal of Honor. He was also nominated twice for the Distinguished Service Cross, and twice for the Silver Star.

And Greyhawk reflects on the death of Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss, who refused to carry a weapon but insisted on serving his country, a "conscientious cooperator."

TFW brings us the story of Michael A. Monsoor, a 25-year-old member of SEAL Team 3 from Garden Grove, Calif., who smothered a grenade with his body. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop.

BlackFive met Col Ola Mize: "Colonel Mize's last words to me were, "Someday, Matt, you will have the honor of being led around by a lieutenant. When that day comes, don't be a jackass.""

Stars and Stripes has a great read, written by MOH Recipient, Col. Robert Howard :
Wounded 14 times in 54 months of combat duty in Vietnam, Robert Howard was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, The Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and eight Purple Hearts.

Theodore's World has a great story of MOH Recipient, Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger.

The Corner's Michael Ledeen points us to a letter to his local newspaper, Medal of Honor holder Michael Thornton reminds us of the qualities of such men.

Defense link has a slide-show presentation of all MOH recipients and their stories.

And the Pentagon Channel will have several shows on today focusing on MOH recipients.

More info can be found here, here, here and here

A Medal of Honor Exhibit Opens in Boise - The Idaho Military History Museum will hold a National Medal of Honor Day on Wednesday, March 25.

Update Some thoughts and observations...

There are plenty of links here to learn about our Heroes who have made this country so great.

Can the everyday American (who hasn't been exposed to milblogs) name a Medal of Honor recipient or a single Hero of these wars?

No - because the main stream media does not cover them. Apparently today is not newsworthy. Just Google National Medal of Honor Day in the News, nothing from the MSM.

Search results at the time of this post:

Associated Press

New York Times

LA Times

Washington Post

Washington Times

FOX News

I could keep doing this but it's too depressing. Is it too much to ask to give a mention to those who have served us so bravely?

UPDATE II: Pres. Obama participates on National Medal of Honor day. Guess he felt he needed to make up for this.

The Enemy in the Wind (III)

Part two is here.

The New York Times, after the dust settled:

A few wars ago, the potent dust storm that pummeled American-led forces in Iraq last week would have roared out of the desert with hardly any warning.

This time, the troops knew that it was coming more than five days in advance, allowing commanders to tailor battle plans to the choking, blinding conditions.
<...>
''It's one thing to say there's going to be a big storm, but another thing to say where and when it's going to be sand or a thunderstorm or where there'll be cloud cover and rain,'' said Lt. Col. Thomas B. Frooninckx, who commands the 28th Operational Weather Squadron of the Air Force. The squadron, at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., is the main source of weather forecasts for the forces in Iraq.

''We hit this one pretty darn well,'' said Colonel Frooninckx (pronounced FRAW-nix).

And they did. The New York Times, March 23rd:

For the first time since the war began, American-led forces in and around Iraq will face the fury of a powerful dust storm and sandstorm starting Monday night, meteorologists are predicting.

...the approaching storm system is particularly potent, the forecasters said, and will probably create significant challenges for forces in the desert.

In fact, the forecast was in the news as early as March 21st.

But predictions don't always change results:

A howling sandstorm Monday in the desert of southern Iraq -- rather than Iraqi resistance -- slowed the advance of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division toward Baghdad, a US officer said.

Army meteorologists said bad weather could hamper movements through Wednesday in the four-day-old campaign to unseat Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The division was moving up from the southwest on the left flank of the US Army's Third Infantry Division but was stop-and-go, buffeted by strong winds and hampered by poor visibility.

The dust storm was so strong it blew over a 5,000 gallon fuel tanker, injuring one soldier, officers said. They wanted to send in a Black Hawk helicopter to evacuate him but were unable because of the winds.

"The big sandstorm was even worse than predicted." General Tommy Franks recalled, "Reddish brown dust formed a high dome in the western desert and rolled over southern Iraq -- and over 170,000 coalition troops. Visibility dropped to 10 meters or less. Rain pounded down through the red dust, turning the air to mud."

Whether well predicted or not, as noted in part one of this series, the forecast doesn't always make it to everyone on the ground.

Rick Atkinson, with the 101st:

At dawn on Tuesday, March 25th, the skies began to cloud. By mid afternoon the weather was not only worse than it had been on Monday, it was worse than it had ever been in the long, sorry history of Mesopotamia, or so we preferred to believe. A fierce storm that, like this one, blows out of the south is known as a turab, but everyone in the 101st Airborne Division insisted on calling it a shamal - which is a wind from the north - perhaps because shamal has a plague-of-frogs ring. Begoggled soldiers pulling guard duty sat in burrows with neck gators pulled up around their ears. Helicopters flew briefly before being grounded again, and even vehicle traffic all but ceased as visibility dropped and the odds of getting lost shortened. Except for the grumble of generators, the normal racket of an Army bivouac faded, overwhelmed by creaking tent ropes and the shrieking wind.

If you think that "odds of getting lost" bit is an exaggeration, witness this account from Evan Wright. Embedded with Marines in their push to Baghdad, Wright detailed their experiences in the book Generation Kill:

The shamal grows into one of the worst storms anyone has experienced so far in the Middle East. The sky looks like someone picked up a desert and is now turning it upside down on top of us. Then it rains, which comes down as globs of mud. To top it off, it starts to hail. A junior officer walks a few meters out into into this weather to take a dump and becomes hopelessly lost. A team of Recon Marines is organized to go look for him (and he is eventually found, dazed and sheepish, several hours later).

25 Mar 2003, Iraq --- Marine Staff Sergeant Brian Flaherty of New York, Delta Company of the Second Tank Battalion, directs the refueling of a tank through a dust storm. --- Image by © Cheryl Diaz Meyer/Dallas Morning News

Embedded with the 3d Infantry Division on the road to Baghdad, Jules Crittenden would relate a similar tale:

March 25, 2003

A dusty haze turned into a full-blown duststorm by mid-afternoon. It was like a blizzard, engulfing everything, reducing visibility to a matter of feet. We hunkered down in our vehicles, barely able to make out the tracks just 50 feet away from us.

The air around us was yellow at mid-day, orange in the late afternoon, blood-red at dusk and pitch black when night fell.

None of the surrounding vehicles were visible at all, and except for the radios, we were entirely cut off from each other. When Smitty and I went out into it to share a butt, Smitty was a dim shadow, standing just a few feet away. Grit flew into my mouth and formed a layer of mud on my lips. I looked down, and through my dust-covered goggles, I could make out something darting around my feet. It was a desert rat, eyeballing the open leg of my baggy J-list chemical warfare suit, a dark hole that probably looked inviting. I kicked at it, and it bolted to safety under the Bradley.

Word passed early in the evening that Spec. Terrance Johnson was missing. He had left his tank in the afternoon to go visiting at the next tank 200 feet away, and never showed up. Parties were formed to go looking for him, with their GPS pluggers for guidance and, for those who had them, thermal imaging devices to see through the storm as best they could. They were out all night.

"I was driving around, I couldn't see shit," the XO, Lt. Tomlinson, told me later. "Maybe three, four feet in front of the vehicle with the lights on. When we turned off the lights, closed our eyes and opened them, no difference. We could have driven right past him and never seen him."

(To learn the fate of Spec. Johnson, see Jules' follow up report here.)

An M1A1 Abrams tanks with the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment rumbles down a street near the village of Al Faysaliyah, Iraq, during a dust storm Tuesday. -- Photo by Warren Zinn, Times Staff

"As the night went on it rained mud." Jules wrote, "The wind got colder. Enemy raiders attacked somewhere nearby, and we heard the clatter of small arms fire and booming artillery muffled by the dust cloud."

Ironically, some of that small arms fire could have been from Staff Sergeant Gerry Thompson, an Air Force weather forecaster at the tip of the spear with elements of the 3ID. Thompson would later relate his experiences as part of a Weather Channel documentary on the role of forecasters in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Halted that night with the rest of the division by the storm, Thompson and a fellow soldier were alternating guard duty "somewhere near Najaf".

"I would go out for a while, he would go out for a while... in between we'd try to catch a little cat nap in the vehicle. But the vehicle was shaking because of 40-knot winds."
<...>
Sergeant Gerry Thompson walks the perimeter, suddenly a hail of bullets rip past him.

"It was very chaotic," Thompson recalls, "because you couldn't tell where the shots were coming from. All you could hear were vehicles getting hit, weapons going off..."

Thompson took cover under a humvee and began to return fire.

"You couldn't see who was shooting, where they were shooting from. Bombs were going off around us. I was lucky to have a really good First Sergeant who pointed everyone in the right direction. From the northwest to the northeast we were under attack..."

Part four is here.

All done!

Waxman: Let's Make Military Members pay for a "no-smoking" bill

Henry Waxman is going to enlist service members in his war on smoking - whether they like it or not. Hey, they're all volunteers, right? Besides, he doesn't want them to really do anything but pay for it.

As far as I can tell, everything about this is stupid.

To pay for a government smoking prevention bill, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., wants all government employees to be required to enroll in the Thrift Savings Program -- including all military service members.

The forced enrollment in the government's version of a tax-deferred savings plan doesn't sit well with the lawmaker who is responsible for opening the program to the military. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel panel, said some service members may not want their money tied up in the TSP because they receive no government match for their contributions, as federal civilian employees do.
<...>
Under complex congressional budget rules, requiring mandatory TSP enrollment would trigger a temporary increase in mandatory spending, which Waxman would tap into to pay for his anti-smoking bill.

I thought about using some word other than "stupid" for the lead in, but quit upon realization that Waxman's plan is just plain stupid.

That doesn't mean it won't happen, of course. This is 2009 - we're all about the stupid.

(Hat tip to our friend Lisa in D.C.)

A Rose by Any Other Name

Would still smell sweet:

The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase "global war on terror," a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor.

In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' "

The memo said the direction came from the Office of Management and Budget, the executive-branch agency that reviews the public testimony of administration officials before it is delivered.

And is it just me, or is there a story every few months about changing the name of the Global War on Terror? Whatever the case, the Pentagon still hands out Global War on Terror medals to those who deploy on overseas contingency operations.

In other news:

Pentagon To Show Softer Side To The World

Washington - After seven years of war, American foreign policy has become nearly synonymous with the brawny side of its military. But the US armed forces may now be moving to show a different face to the world.

Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended an admiral better known for humanitarian and diplomatic initiatives than for muscle-flexing to assume a critical command post in Europe.

Adm. James Stavridis is an unusual choice to fill a job usually held by the Army. In his two years overseeing US military operations in South and Latin America, he has built a reputation for running a different kind of command - deploying hospital ships and soccer teams while contending with drug trafficking and corruption.

Stavridis may be able to bring that balance to Europe, where deliberations over Afghanistan over the next few years will be critical to that mission's success.

Toby Nunn

...proud to be a Canadian. (And I'm proud to know Toby Nunn.)

Didja know: Besides being a member of Bad Voodoo, Toby was with the Strykers in Mosul back in 2004. You can read about that in his book,

The Road to Baghdad

He originally posted them in 2007, but now is an obvious good time to review Jules Crittenden's account of the 3ID's march on Baghdad in 2003. Jules was embedded with the Third all the way, and ultimately entered Baghdad at the "tip of the spear". His day-by-day reports begin here.

Of course, if it's news you want, Jules is good for that, too.

The Enemy in the Wind (II)

Part one is here.

Once on the ground at Shell, Atkinson learned what Petraeus' cryptic remark just prior to the dust storm had meant.

Referring to Colonel Greg Gass, who commanded the Apaches scheduled to attack the Medina Division's 14th Brigade that night, Petraeus added, "Destiny Six may have that same look in his eyes as some of those guys you write about in the early days of the North Africa campaign."

I barely had time to wonder what he was talking about - wasn't the 3rd Infantry Division more than half way to Baghdad? Why should Gass be unsettled just because the 11th Regiment had lost a couple of helicopters the previous night?

The 11th's mission, in fact, had been a disaster. Atkinson:

Wallace had arranged for his pilots from the 11th Regiment at Rams to to discuss [with pilots of the 101st Airborne], in a conference call by satellite phone, their star-crossed mission the previous night.

General Franks described a planned

...deep attack by the Apache gunships of the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment (AHR) on the artillery and armor of the Medina Republican Guard division north of the narrow Karbala gap. These units were the strongest Iraqi blocking force between the advancing V Corps and Baghdad.

The operation was rated a moderate risk, but it had the potential of a high payoff if the gunships could cripple the Medina division in one fast, hard-hitting blow.

Atkinson:

Sixty Apaches had flown 230 miles from Udairi to Rams on Sunday afternoon to stage for the attack that night. Their ambition was to shred three Medina brigades and the division artillery, expediting the 3rd Infantry Division's drive past Karbala into the southern approaches to Baghdad. U.S. intelligence had a precise count of Iraqi equipment - eighty-seven guns in the Medina artillery, and 291 combat vehicles in the three brigades, of which half were to be destroyed - but rather sketchy notions of how that equipment was arrayed northeast of Karbala and south of Baghdad... The attack therefore required what the Army called a movement to contact - groping for the enemy - rather than the deliberate attack preferred by marauding helicopter units.

Franks:

The headquarters phone beside my bed jolted me out of sleep. It was just past 0320 hours. For one disorienting moment, I couldn't remember where I was.

"Bad news on the 11th AHR's deep strike, sir," Gene said.

Bad news was an understatement.

The 11th AHR had been late reaching its refueling point in the desert and there hadn't been enough fuel, so some gunships had to be eliminated from the attack. The staging area was ankle-deep in talcum-fine dust, which became a blinding pall as rotor blades beat the air. And as the mile-long line of helicopters, maintenance trucks and fuel tankers stood in the dust cloud, a bunch of Iraqi civilians -- some undoubtedly fedayeen -- appeared through the haze and disappeared just as quickly.

These intruders had witnessed 36 Apache gunships, loaded with missiles, fueling for a mission. There was only one direction they would fly -- north toward the enemy formations above the Karbala gap.

And there was more. The Apaches were behind schedule. Due to poor communications, the fighter-bombers that were due to suppress enemy air defenses returned to their bases before the gunships departed for the attack.

When the long columns of fast, low-flying Apaches crossed the Euphrates they encountered another nasty surprise. The aviators had planned routes to avoid the villages and towns on their tactical maps. But the maps did not show the network of farmhouses and large farming compounds, all brightly lit, which spread uninterrupted all the way northeast to the bright city glow of Baghdad.

The intensity of this ground lighting maxed out the pilots' night-vision goggles, rendering them useless. Just as seriously, it illuminated the Apaches as they sped north.

Almost as soon as the advancing gunships entered this farm country, entire blocks of lights blinked out for several seconds, then snapped on again -- a signal to perhaps thousands of Iraqi soldiers and fedayeen hiding among the adobe sheds and date groves.

The aviators met a virtually solid wall of small-arms fire. One after another the Apaches were hit. Several crewmen were wounded. Some of the aircraft were forced to abort. Others pressed ahead but the battle damage accumulated.

Atkinson:

U.S. intelligence eavesdroppers had detected fifty cell-phone calls made by Iraqi observers as the helicopters moved north...

Senior U.S. commanders had considered bombing the Iraqi power grid, but ultimately chose to leave the lights burning in an effort to minimize reconstruction requirements. On this mission, the decision backfired. As the Apaches arrived overhead, all of the lights in a large area - including the towns of Haswah and Iskandariyah - were extinguished simultaneously by a master switch. Two seconds later, the lights came back on, a signal for hundreds of Iraqis with small arms to fire into the air. The helicopters flew into a wall of lead...

In the Apache known as Palerider 16, Lieutenant Jason King was shot through the neck; his crewmate in the rear seat could hear breathing over the intercom, but King was unable to talk with a throat full of blood.

Fire came from "all directions, front, back, left, right. We detected no emitters whatsoever," another voice added, which meant that no sophisticated air-defense radars had been employed, just formations of unguided "iron sight" fire from rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and simple anti-aircraft guns. Pilots in the back seat, using the Apache's thermal night-vision system, which revealed heat-radiant objects such as tanks and humans, could not see the Iraqi tracers. Those tracers were all too visible to copilots in the front seat, wearing night vision goggles that amplified the ambient light; only the back-seaters, however, controlled the 30mm chain gun, so the front-seater had to laboriously direct the back-seater's gun onto the target with instructions over the intercom.
<...>
Gunfire had erupted from rooftops, cars, balconies, alleys, backyards, and trees. "They're suburbs are not like our suburbs," one pilot said. Another added, "The volume of fire intensified with each subsequent troop cycling in, and it got heavier the farther north we went. Most of it came from housing areas." Some pilots had been reluctant to fire back for fear of killing civilians. "But after a few hits," a pilot later said, "you get less reluctant." Several Iraqi buildings had been destroyed, including one believed to be a school. "But that's where the fire was coming from."

Franks:

In the end only one Apache unit reached its objective, a long oasis where 30 T-72 Republican Guard tanks were dug in. But the ground fire there was so intense that the gunships had to withdraw before firing a missile. Not one tank or artillery piece of the Medina division was damaged in the attack.

Thirty Apaches had launched from the refueling point; 29 made it back with some degree of battle damage. But one had its hydraulics shot out and made a hard landing in enemy territory. Its two crewmen were taken prisoner. It's a blessing we didn't lose the whole battalion, I thought.

Atkinson:

Apaches limped back to Rams, some without functioning navigation equipment or sights. At least two narrowly avoided a midair collision. Of the twenty-nine aircraft that returned safely, all but one "sustained some damage." "The sun came up and it was eerie," one captain later recalled. "You had never seen helicopters so muddy, so many canopies with holes in them." Stunned pilots sat slumped in the cockpits or on the Apaches' stubby wings. On average, each helicopter had fifteen to twenty bullet holes; one took twenty-nine hits. Sixteen main rotor blades and six tail blades were damaged enough to require replacement, along with six engines and five drive shafts. Forty-six other blades needed repairs.
<...>
Gass thanked Colonel Wolf for his time and signed off. "All right Greg," Wolf replied, "lots of luck to you. Out here."

The 101st pilots filed out of the ACP. No one said much. The wind howled outside.
<...>
If this was bad for the 11th Regiment, in some ways it was worse for the 101st, boding ill for a division that had staked much of its combat reputation in this war on the lethality of deep attacks. Wallace had concluded, as I eventually learned from Army documents that recorded his reactions, that "deep operations with the Apaches, unless there's a very, very, very clear need to do it, are probably not a good idea." Plans to have the 101st clear a zone around Baghdad's international airport were now, in Wallace's words, "in the trash can."

Franks:

I looked back over the past 24 hours. The fedayeen. The maintenance troops killed, wounded and captured. Now this disaster with the Apaches. And I couldn't forget the weather forecast. Within 24 hours we would have no helicopters and no Predators in the air.

We were in for a difficult period, but I had no doubt of the outcome. We would win this fight.

But between Baghdad and the 3ID, the Medina Division waited, intact.

Part three is here.

All done!

In The Company of Soldiers

If you're quick you can score a bargain priced copy of Rick Atkinson's In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat at Amazon.

The book is Atkinson's account of his embed with the 101st Airborne during the invasion of Iraq, with much focus on the Division's commander, then-Major General David Petraeus.

The Enemy in the Wind

(A Mudville eighth anniversary special...)

The media's first chance to declare American defeat in the Iraq war came only a few days after the launch of the March, 2003 invasion:

Jim Wilkinson didn't like the secrecy. "I'm taking a beating out there," he said, pointing toward the press center. "They're filing stories that we've lost the war."

"Good," I said. "We couldn't ask for a better deception."

"Damn, general," Jim said. "We should tell them something."

As you might guess from that excerpt, reality and reporting had already diverged. The Enemy in the Wind (first published here in March, 2009) tells the story behind the story of the most effective exploitation of weather in warfare since the D-Day landings.

Anyone who has been to Iraq for any significant amount of time has pictures like this one:

The sun near its zenith, obscured by dust. That's one of mine, one of several. As is this one:

If you spend any time reading milblogs at all you've seen it before. No one can resist posting pictures of their first dust storm, they are mind boggling, and the photos hardly do them justice.

Such photos were less familiar in 2003. But we knew they were coming:

A powerful storm is likely to pummel military forces in and around Iraq with blinding sand and choking dust starting on Monday night, meteorologists predict.

The dust storm would probably be nearly twice as strong as the one that grounded helicopters and limited troop movements in Kuwait on Wednesday, the forecasters said.

General Tommy Franks:

Just as I was checking the latest message traffic before turning in, Gene Renuart was called away from the war room. He returned a few minutes later. "General, we're getting an update on the weather."

It was the most ominous weather forecast I had ever sat through. A strong cold front would cut across the region like a giant scythe, bringing gales from the west-southwest, thunderstorms and blowing dust -- a classic shamal sandstorm.

The young officer reporting on the video link from combined air operations command in Saudi Arabia added: "We'll see the wind increase around 1800 local tomorrow, sir. It will be peaking out with 50-knot gusts by late tomorrow night. The dust load will be major. Our models call for zero-zero conditions."

Zero visibility. Zero ceiling.

"And how long will this storm last?" "Current models call for 72 hours of marginal conditions, sir."

Down the table someone muttered, "The mother of all sandstorms." Nobody laughed.

Still, some apparently didn't get the memo.

In March, 2003, Rick Atkinson was embedded with the 101st Airborne on the "march" northward, and was traveling with the Division Commander, then-Major General David Petraeus to a newly established Forward Area Refueling Point (FARP) curiously code named "Shell" - a trip he would later recount in his book In the Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat

Petraeus watched as Exxon quickly receded until it had been swallowed by the desert expanse.
<...>
"I'm really proud of what we've done at Exxon, the fact that they did it as effectively as they did. That's an achievement," he said. "I really do think this thing is overstretched. But to be fair, they didn't expect this kind of resistance. " Referring to Colonel Greg Gass, who commanded the Apaches scheduled to attack the Medina Division's 14th Brigade that night, Petraeus added, "Destiny Six may have that same look in his eyes as some of those guys you write about in the early days of the North Africa campaign."

I barely had time to wonder what he was talking about - wasn't the 3rd Infantry Division more than half way to Baghdad? Why should Gass be unsettled just because the 11th Regiment had lost a couple of helicopters the previous night? - when the fair weather abruptly vanished. Dust thickened and within five minutes the helicopter seemed wrapped in cotton batting. The pilots slowed down, picking their way.

At 11:30, Petraeus radioed the D-Main at New Jersey, using his call sign, Eagle Six. "Get hold of Destiny and Thunder," - his two aviation brigades - "and tell them not to launch any more aircraft west. The winds are picking up and conditions are marginal."

Peering out the left window, I thought his description was generous. The sun floated above us like a gold lozenge in the haze, but the world below had become vague and opaque. An occasional smear of green drifted past, only to be swallowed by the relentless brown.
<...>
At 11:45, the chief pilot, Marc Daniels, told Petraeus over the intercom that we had reached the point of no return. The Blackhawk had sixty-five minutes of fuel remaining. Shell lay thirty-three minutes ahead at our current pace. If we were to return to Exxon, - flying into the wind - we had to do it right now. Petraeus wiped the window again, and advised the crew to push on.

"Roger. Bad enough to scare, but not bad enough to make yourself turn around," Daniels said with remarkable sangfroid. Visibility now was perhaps a couple of hundred feet. Daniels climbed to three hundred feet, following an azimuth and relying on instruments. The door gunners, Sergeants Christopher Marchand and Patrick Croff, leaned out of the bay, watching for other helicopters, as well as uncharted hills and power lines. I tried to block out an insistent image of the Blackhawk cartwheeling across the desert in a cataclysm of broken blades and burning fuel. My palms were moist and my pulse had quickened. Petraeus was very quiet, and I wondered if he felt as unsettled as I did. From his seat in the forward bay, Fivecoat fiddled with the Blue Force Tracker screen, which showed our position relative to Exxon and Shell.

More radio reports came over the corps network. At Rams, visibility was under a quarter mile. A protracted gunfight had occurred at Nasiriyah, the Euphrates River city not far from Exxon and about two hundred miles south of Baghdad. Iraqi forces had ambushed the 507th Maintenance Company, a support unit traveling by convoy at the rear of the 3rd Division. At least fifteen soldiers were missing - among them, as we later learned, Private First Class Jessica Lynch. Survivors reportedly had taken refuge at Tallil air base, where they were said to be "looking for their parent unit." Three Iraqi artillery pieces had been spotted in Nasiriyah "250 meters from a children's hospital. " We heard Wallace ask for grid coordinates. After plotting them on a map, the corps commander advised, "That is a legitimate target. Use as precise a munition as possible."
<...>
Visibility had dropped to fifty feet. Petraeus wiped his window.The pilots eased Warlord 457 up and down, climbing when they glimpsed ground through the blowing dust, then easing back down when the ground vanished.

At 12:23 P.M. I spied a rectangular patch of green, then another and another. Tents. Vehicles, FARP Shell. I felt a sweeping sense of salvation, and gratitude to our crew as the pilots settled the helicopter into the first available spot. The thin sand crust gave way beneath the wheels and the helicopter lurched sharply to the right. The engines died as we scurried out into the warm wind...

"That may have been the worst flight I ever had," Petraeus told me. He smiled.

(Unsourced photo)

Warlord 457 was among the few helicopters to get through to Shell this afternoon. More than a dozen others had been forced down by the weather, and two more made emergency landings after running low on fuel. Blackhawks and Chinooks littered the southern desert... Several helicopters sling-loading equipment had been caught by high winds, and the pendular effect had threatened to bring them down. A couple managed to set their loads onto the desert floor, but one crew had simply cut loose a large crate of Apache spare parts. No one knew where the container was, or whether any of the equipment had survived the two-thousand-foot fall.

"The next good weather is sixty hours from now," Fivecoat reported.

"We're not doing an air assault for at least seventy-two hours," Petraeus said. "Call Exxon and tell them not to launch anything else out of there."

Part two is here.

*****

All done!

Running Guns

Glenn Reynolds:

If rocket launchers and grenades are making it into Mexico from the United States, it's because they're being sold out the back door of military and police armories, since civilian gun stores don't sell them. I think it's more likely that they're coming from elsewhere, but any member of Congress who really thinks this is a problem should be demanding audits of those facilities posthaste.

Or "saying" - they aren't likely to "do" anything - at least, nothing that limits any flow of guns or money. (Though it seems they are working hard to make American money as useless as possible. That could help.)

Coming Home

Sad news:

Illinois National Guard Sgt. Christopher Abeyta will return home Thursday.

Abeyta, 23, was killed by an explosion March 15 in Afghanistan.

His body will be flown to Midway Airport and driven through his hometown on the way to Hickey Memorial Chapel, 4201 W. 147th St., Midlothian. His wake will be from 2 to 9 p.m. March 27 at the funeral home.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. March 28 at St. Christopher Catholic Church, 4130 W. 147th St., Midlothian, followed by a procession to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery near Elwood.

A small ceremony for the public will precede a private burial.

The Abeyta family has requested donations be made to a fund for the family of Spc. Norman Cain III, 22, who died with Abeyta in the same explosion and left behind a wife and two children.

A third soldier was also killed in the same explosion, his name was Sgt. Robert M. Weinger.

Sgt Abeyta blogged his earliest days in Afghanistan. More details (including addresses for donations or condolences to families) at Blackfive.

Update (via JP), meet Mike, an Air Force Staff Sergeant blogging at A Year in the Sandbox:

On 15 March 2009 on our way back to the FOB from assessing a future school site in Kot, the lead vehicle of our 4 vehicle convoy (I was in the 4th truck) struck an IED. The truck was occupied by SSgt Timothy Bowles, SGT Christopher Abeyta, SPC Robert Weinger and SPC Norman Cain, four great guys. Two of them were killed instantly and the other two passed shortly after being medevac'd out.

For the Record

If you get the guys at Blackfive and the guys at Vote Vets pissed at you, you have truly effed up.

And for the record, the guys at Mudville think you suck, too. (And yes, I've seen the apology.)

Too bad Gutfeld & Company never got to meet Erin Doyle.

Jimbo interviews Adam Kokesh

...video here.

Yes we Twitter

Don't you?

Petraeus in '12?

Andrew Breitbart votes "yes":

The last time I felt this hopeless was when the Democratic Party and its cohorts in the media sold us on the false premise that we lost the war in Iraq. In the process, they also sought to demonize the very man that led us out of our peril.

His name is Gen. David H. Petraeus.

Less than two months into the Obama presidency, which appears to be lost somewhere in the Mojave Desert, I have decided to try to soothe my anxieties by placing my hope in a political surge.

In the election of 2010, Republicans should run heroic veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom who exhibited the will and fortitude to defeat the enemy and to rebuild a torn nation, even while too many of their fellow countrymen wrote them off.

And in 2012, the man President Obama's staunchest allies called "General Betray Us" should come in with guns blazing and defeat the man whose only weapon to lead us to victory is a teleprompter.

Speaking of failure talk, there's none here:

Another Anniversary

As a result of her actions on 20 March, 2005, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester became the first female soldier to be awarded the Silver Star Medal since World War II:

Sergeant Leigh A. Hester is cited for conspicuous gallantry in action against an armed enemy of the United States while engaged in military operations involving conflict with anti Iraq forces (AIF) as a team leader for Raven 42B, 617th Military Police Company, 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne) stationed at Camp Liberty, Iraq on 20 March 2005, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The team's mission was to assist Raven 42 in searching the Eastern Convoy Route for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and provide additional security to sustainment convoys traveling through their area of responsibility.

While patrolling Alternate Supply Route (ASR) Detroit, Raven 42B was shadowing a sustainment convoy consisting of 30 third country national (TCN) semi-tractor trailers with a three vehicle squad size escort, call sign Stallion 33, traveling from LSA (logistics support area) Anaconda to CSC (convoy support center) Scania. The weather for this ASR patrol was 75 degrees and sunny with a 10 knot breeze from the southwest. While traveling on ASR Detroit approximately 50 AIF ambushed the convoy with heavy AK47 fire, RPK heavy machine gun fire, and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) from the southwest side of the road at 1140 hours. The AIF were utilizing irrigation ditches and an orchard for the well planned complex attack. The AIF had cars combat parked along a road perpendicular to the ASR with all doors and trunks open. The AIF intent was to destroy the convoy, to inflict numerous casualties, and to kidnap several TCN drivers or U.S. Soldiers.

The initial ambush disabled and set on fire the lead TCN vehicle, which effectively blocked the southbound lanes of ASR Detroit, stopping the convoy in the kill zone. The squad leader, SSgt. [Timothy] Nein, directed the squad to move forward, traveling on the right shoulder and passing through the engagement area between the enemy and the convoy. Sgt. Hester directed her gunner to provide heavy volumes of MK 19 and M240B fires into the field where an overwhelming number of insurgents were executing a well coordinated ambush on the convoy. Raven 42 elements were outnumbered five to one. SSgt. Nein ordered the squad to flank the insurgents on their right side.

The squad continued to come under heavy machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenade fire when Sgt. Hester stopped her vehicle, the middle vehicle, at a flanking position enfilading the trench line and the orchard field where over a dozen insurgents were engaging the squad and convoy. She then directed her gunner to focus fires in the trench line and the orchard field. Sgt. Hester dismounted and moved to what was thought to be the non-contact side of the vehicle. She ordered her gunner to continue to fire on the orchard field as she and her driver engaged insurgents in the orchard field with small arms. Sgt. Hester began engaging the insurgents with her M203 in order to suppress the heavy AIF fire.

Sgt. Hester followed SSgt. Nein to the right side berm and threw two well placed fragmentation grenades into the trench eliminating the AIF threat. Sgt. Hester and SSgt. Nein went over the berm into the trench and began clearing the trench with their M4s. Sgt. Hester engaged and eliminated three AIF to her front with her M4. They then made their way to the front trench and cleared that as well. After clearing the front trench cease fire was called and she began securing the ambush site. The final result of the ambush was 27 AIF KIA (killed in action), 6 AIF WIA (wounded in action), and one AIF captured.

Arizona Memorial

An anniversary marked in Phoenix:

Hundreds of people are expected to gather today to honor the late Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa beneath the north-central Phoenix peak that was renamed in her honor.

The sixth annual memorial service for Piestewa will recognize fallen military personnel, their families and veterans. Special guests include Piestewa's friend Jessica Lynch and other members of the 507th Maintenance Company.

On March 23, 2003, in the first week of the war in Iraq, Iraqi troops ambushed the 507th Maintenance Company. Eleven soldiers were killed, including Piestewa. Survivors were held prisoner and later released. Lynch was rescued.

Consecrated Ground

Joe Galloway, on ceremonies at the parade ground at the new National Infantry Museum at Ft Benning, Ga:

Douglas Hamilton, a fifth-generation descendant of Alexander Hamilton, sprinkled soil gathered from the decisive battlefield of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War.

Former Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, a great-grandson of Pvt. Charles Kempthorne of the Union Army's 3rd Wisconsin Infantry, and Henry B. Pease Jr., a descendant of Henry Lewis Benning, the Confederate commander at the Burnside Bridge, spread soil from the blood-soaked Civil War battlefield of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, as Gen. Benning probably called it.

Soil from World War I battlefields in France was spread on the parade ground by George York, son of the legendary Sgt. Alvin York, and Samuel Parker Moss, grandson of Samuel Parker of the 28th Infantry. Both York and Parker earned the Medal of Honor during World War I.

World War II was represented by soil collected from the beaches at Normandy and those of Corregidor and Guadalcanal in the Pacific.

Theodore Roosevelt IV, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who earned the Medal of Honor on D-Day at Normandy, and Kirk Davis, son of Charles Davis, who earned the Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal, spread soil from those battlefields.

Two legendary warriors from the Korean War -- Col. Ola Lee Mize, who held Outpost Harry against overwhelming odds and earned a Medal of Honor, and Gen. Sun Yup Paik, who at age 30 commanded both a division and a corps in the South Korean Army -- sprinkled soil from their war's battlefields.

Then it was time to honor the infantrymen who fought in Vietnam, and two legendary old soldiers marched onto the field wearing their black cavalry Stetsons. Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley carried jars bearing soil collected at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley and on other Vietnam battlefields.

In the stands, a dozen or more Ia Drang veterans and other 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) veterans, most wearing the same black hats, stood at attention as Moore, 87, and Plumley, 89, carried out their mission and then saluted them.

Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, the senior enlisted adviser to Gen. David Petraeus at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, spread soil collected from battlefields in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan during Operation Desert Storm and Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Actor Sam Elliott, who portrayed Sgt. Maj. Plumley in the movie "We Were Soldiers," narrated the ceremony. (Full disclosure: The movie is based on a book that Gen. Moore and I wrote.) The program began and ended with some spectacular flying demonstrations using helicopters of the Vietnam War era, and Fort Benning once more heard distant echoes of the blades of Hueys, OH-6s and Cobra gunships.

The National Infantry Foundation web page is here. Yes, you can make an online donation, or "visit" the museum.

Bomb disposal experts are a different breed

How one soldier cheated death:

"There was a sensation of being airborne, that kind of suspended-in-midair feeling when you know you're not touching anything solid. Then there was that sickening crumple when we landed again," Leith said of his Sept. 28, 2006 encounter with the improvised explosive device.

Unlike the 63 other Canadians who have died from roadside bombs, Leith lived to tell his story - an experience for which he will be awarded with the Star of Courage.
<...>
"His courageous actions enabled the reopening of a vital route for coalition forces," his commendation reads.

Leith feels overwhelmed by the recognition for something he says soldiers had dealt with before he arrived in Kandahar and will be dealing with as long as Canadian troops are deployed to Afghanistan.

"It's just part of the job.

"It's just part of the job, is a common saying among the Heroes of these wars.

Read the full story of what theses guys do as "part of their job here:

A New Year in Afghanistan

Deployed Teacher is a blog featuring "Observations from a Special Ed. teacher deployed to Afghanistan." Here's what was observed there this past weekend:

Happy New Year
And yet again, the Afghan translators have invited me to their company party (I think I've been officially adopted) to help celebrate the new year, 1388! That's right, 1388.

And now for some news that might impact Afghanistan this year. First, from NATO:

Turkey could block Denmark's prime minister from becoming the next NATO chief given concerns over his past stance on Turkey and a row over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, a Turkish official said on Sunday.
<...>
"The cartoon crisis has a larger dimension than just Turkey. At a time when NATO is going to assume added responsibility in Afghanistan and Pakistan, having a secretary general with such an objectionable approach to billions of Muslims is not the right approach to the Muslim world."

The cartoon row erupted in 2006 after a Danish newspaper cartoon depicted the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban were reprinted across the European media.

Rasmussen refused to apologise for the cartoons, which sparked riots and attacks on Danish embassies in several Muslim states, but which Western governments defended in the name of freedom of expression.

Appeal for Redress: Astroturfing

Another Mudville anniversary blast from the past - this exposure of an "astroturf" campaign actually first appeared at MilBlogs in October, 2006 at the time of the roll out of the campaign. This version - unchanged from the original - first appeared here at Mudville in February, 2007, as CBS television's "60 Minutes" program prepared to launch an "in-depth" infomercial on behalf of the effort.

But in her "Reporters Notebook" video (at the link) Lara Logan describes Appeal for redress: "It's basically a grass roots movement amongst active duty, serving members of the U.S. military." And "We were very careful to look thoroughly at the group, and to look into their military backgrounds, and to make sure that this wasn't... people with something hidden in their past or some reason that wasn't the stated reason to be involved in this."

Wrong in every way - and either the most pathetic attempt ever at "investigative journalism" or absolute willing participation in an effort to hoodwink the American public, no other explanations are available.

With that introductory note complete, here's our story...

ABC Polls Iraqis...

...and discovers many unsurprising things.

Among the exceptions (click for larger):

Full results (pdf) here.

The Salute

I concur with Donald Sensing - there's no there there. Those who claim the salute was a gaffe really only expose their own lack of knowledge on the topic of salutes.

For instance, the higher rank you hold, the more people you will salute on a given day - The General being the guy who has to salute everybody. Most people don't realize that.

Vaguely related tale from the Iraq days: the walk from Division HQ on The Big FOB to the DFAC (which I thankfully took only occasionally as a visitor) at lunch time was an amazing (some might say absurd) example of customs and courtesies run amok. Groups of three to five people of various rank strolling in both directions at about 15 foot intervals all along the @3/4 mile route.

Group "A" comprised of a major, a senior NCO, and a pair of E5s passes group "B" heading in the opposite direction consisting of two warrant officers and a lieutenant. The E5s/SNCO initiate the salute when six paces separate the groups, group B returns fire, then the major completes the action. Five paces behind group B a colonel and a captain pop into view. All members of group A render a snappy one at approximately the same moment as the captain (who is simultaneously returning the salutes of the enlisted and saluting the major), returned promptly by the O6. About twenty feet behind them an all-enlisted group passes, saluting the major. He salutes back as his enlisted companions start and stop to bring their hands to hat brims. The senior NCO, meanwhile, is squinting at the next guy approaching, trying to determine whether that's a lieutenant colonel's oak leaf or a specialist's rank he's seeing. It's an E4 - but three paces behind him a captain, who gets a salute...

And so on to the DFAC. And then the return trip. The simple solution would be to declare the route a "no salute" area. This never happens.

God and War at Abu M

An interesting argument for a Sunday:

Personally, I think chaplains should exist to a) perform religious services for professing believers, b) counsel soldiers of faith and c) do little to nothing else.

Israeli Soldier Says Military Rabbis Framed Gaza Mission as Religious

A soldier involved in Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip said in published reports Friday that the military's rabbinical staff distributed material characterizing the operation as a religious mission to "get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land."

Ultimately that led me to wonder exactly how many Chaplains we have in Iraq or Afghanistan. I'd be surprised if the number in either country were in triple digits, but I couldn't find any definitive answer online.

I did discover this sidebar to an excellent series of stories on Chaplains in the Christian Science Monitor:

There are more than 3,800 military chaplains serving in the US armed forces. The largest of the services, the Army, recognizes 120 endorsing bodies - faith organizations that sponsor chaplains. The endorsing bodies with the most chaplains across all three services are the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Methodist Church. These churches endorse 30 percent of chaplains across all three services.

The remaining 70 percent of endorsing bodies include many denominations, the bulk of which are evangelical Christian churches. These evangelical chaplains, as well as the handful from such faiths as Judaism and Islam are represented in percentages larger than the percentages of service personnel who identify themselves as part of those faiths.

For example, explains an Army chaplain spokesman, Muslim imams make up 0.4 percent of that branch's chaplaincy, while 0.3 percent of Army personnel overall identify themselves as Muslim. Meanwhile, Buddhists are a recent addition and are still not proportionately represented in the chaplain corps while other faiths, such as Wicca, are recognized by the military but have as yet no representation in the chaplaincy.

The "Spring Offensive"

Long War Journal:

Scores of Taliban fighters and several Afghan officials were killed in fighting throughout Afghanistan. The violence marks the opening of the spring fighting season in Afghanistan as the Coalition and the Taliban surge forces for what is expected to be the toughest year of fighting since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Hill blocked on Hill?

Hmmmm...

Brownback to block Iraq nominee
Senator says Christopher Hill misled him

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas threatened Thursday to take advantage of a Senate rule to block the confirmation of Christopher Hill as U.S. ambassador to Iraq on the grounds that Mr. Hill misled him in promising to raise human rights in talks with North Korea.

"I am going to be doing everything I can to hold up this nominee," Mr. Brownback told The Washington Times.

Mr. Hill is to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

The threat raises the prospect that the Obama administration will go without an ambassador in Baghdad for a prolonged period at a sensitive time.

The post has been vacant since Ryan C. Crocker left in January.

In a rare comment on a diplomatic nomination, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday that it was crucial that the position be filled promptly.

"It is vital that we get an ambassador in Baghdad as soon as possible," he told The Times. "Not because the deputy chief of mission and the rest of the staff isn't doing a very good job, but because there is no substitute for having the president's envoy, the U.S. ambassador, in place and on the job."

Although Mr. Crocker helped finish a status of forces agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain in Iraq through 2011, long-term leases for U.S. military bases have yet to be negotiated. The status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk also remains unresolved with Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen pressing their claims. And the United States is steadily withdrawing forces while trying to maintain security in Iraq.

Mr. Brownback is vowing to take advantage of a gentleman's agreement in the Senate that gives any member the authority to effectively veto nominations with what is known as a "hold." Sometimes anonymous, these legislative maneuvers can endure as long as the senator responsible wishes.

Where have all the flowers gone?

In case you were wondering, IVAW hasn't gone away - just their media coverage. Protests on the anniversary of the Iraq war (or any other time) that once would have made world-wide headlines are now covered only by small conservative news outlets:

Kokesh and other members of the IVAW gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to call on Obama to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also launched a 24-hour vigil/demonstration called "Operation No Change" to mark the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War (March 20, 2003).

"In some ways, Obama is worse than Bush," Kokesh told CNSNews.com. "Bush wasn't proposing a surge in Afghanistan - and Bush was talking about a quicker timeline for withdrawal than Obama."

"That's why we called this 'Operation No Change,'" said Kokesh. "What Obama is doing with our foreign policy on a fundamental level is not change. Though we are going to re-label the troops 'non-combat troops,' they are still out there, and clearly they are still fighting for American interests."

More details on 'Posse Comitatus' story

More details from CNS:

Geneva County (Ala.) Sheriff Greg Ward tells CNSNews.com that he was the one who called in U.S. Army troops from Fort Rucker, Ala., on the night of March 10 - during one of the bloodiest murder sprees in Alabama history.
<...>
"You've got to understand, there was so much going on at one time - we had so many crime scenes over a 20-some odd mile stretch. It was determined that we might be going way into the night on some of these crimes scenes - and when I say crime scenes, I mean people still laying on porches, or the side of the road or whatever, dead."

Former Samson, Ala., resident Michael McLendon shot and killed nine people in Samson and a 10th victim in a nearby community before killing himself on March 10.

"I called my dispatcher if she could contact the lieutenant colonel and ask him, 'Could we get assistance from them, with up to 25 military police to simply come in and be able to relieve our officers on barricades where traffic was being deterred, to allow our officers to get something to eat and take a break?'
<...>
Ward said he didn't ask the troops to do "police work."

"There was one group that did stand at one of the biggest crime scenes, with the biggest number of bodies, that was pretty much our eyes and ears, because traffic needed to keep flowing - and also we had a lot of trouble with the news media, unfortunately," he said.

Army Creates Surviving Family Members Advisory Board

From Robert Stokely:

Wanted to share some good news of the honor and privilege of being appointed by General George Casey Army Chief of Staff to serve on the Surviving Family Members Advisory Board. This board advises General Casey on how the Army can serve the needs of the families of the fallen with a particular focus to meet General Casey's goal of keeping them as connected to the Army family as the family of the fallen would want to be. I am the first parent appointed as well as the first representative of the National Guard fallen to be appointed to serve on General Casey's advisory board. I realize I have sent the attached pictures to you previously but included them again because it was during the "chat" at the conference table that he asked me to think about serving and I did for about two seconds before saying yes. However, I wanted to wait to share this with you until General Casey had actually made the appointment official a week or so after my visit with him at the Pentagon February 19, 2009.

I wish I didn't have a reason, and thus this opportunity to serve. But, I didn't get to make the choice whether Mike died 0220 hours 16 Aug 05 near Yusufiyah, but I did get to make a choice how I would handle it. At the moment I met the notification team in my driveway, knowing why they were there, but before they could speak I asked "is my boy dead?" to which I heard these words "We regret to advise you...." In the instant it took to bend double and forward, leaning back against my car, feeling like a vacuum hose was sucking all the air out of me, unable to breathe or cry, it was an initial instinct to want to be bitter and blame. But, in those first few seconds of being unable to make a sound or move, I thought of Mike and how much I loved him and how proud I was of him. My mind raced as I thought "what do I do, what do I do..." trying to figure out what was I supposed to do. And suddenly in those seconds that seemed an eternity, I made a choice - I would Remember With Honor the life my son lived, and gave for his family, his friends, America and the cause of freedom. Suddenly, I raised up, and started asking questions - "who was with him, who else got killed?" Mike was the only one killed by the roadside bomb, but two were seriously wounded I was told and I responded "keep them alive, do whatever it takes to bring them home alive to their families; do not let their parents bury a child; get me their names so I can call their families; I want to know where they are at, where they are going and how they are doing and I want to know as soon as possible." In that first response to the words of Mike's death, I reacted instinctively to the words Mike said to me when he told me of his decision to turn down the exemption to go to war and stay home and recruit. "they are my guys and I can't let them go it alone..." I owed it to Mike to not let his wounded guys and their familes go it alone.

I do not have the military training, stamina or fighting will my son had and that of his "guys" and I never will. As I told General Casey that day in response to him asking me to serve on the advisory board, if I could go fight in my son's place I would, but it is past my time, but I will serve United States Army in any way I can and the guys my son loved so dearly.

I am also privileged to serve as the Family Readiness Co-Chair for Bravo 2 / 121, now located in Newnan / Coweta County GA where I work and live. This unit is now comprised of Mike's old E 108 CAV (which was folded into Bravo shortly after their return from Iraq in 2006). This combined unit sustained 12 of the 26 KIA the Georgia 48th Brigade had in Iraq, with nine, including Mike coming in a three week period. Bravo will soon be deploying to Afghanistan and I will be here to serve their families and do what I can to put my son's guys mind at ease as they go to serve America and the cause of freedom. I just wish my "boy" Mike were going with them.

But as I said, I didn't get to make the choice whether Mike lived or died that morning near Yusufiyah. I just get to choose how I handle iit.

Robert Stokely
proud dad of SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 AUG 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
USA E 108 CAV 48th Brigade GAARNG

In the Agora

Wikipedia: "The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history (900s-700s BCE), free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council."

There won't be a ruling king at ours - but there will be councils, and you can be a part. Just come to the MilBlogs Conference:

Panel Announcement: New Media Agora

We're pleased to announce another panel...

New Media Agora: What is the impact of the "new media" on issues concerning national security, military doctrine and concept development, training, education, and lessons learned? A discussion of the issue by those at the frontlines of the debate.

Moderated by: Greyhawk

Dave Dilegge (Small Wars Journal)
Andrew Exum (Abu Muqawama)
Bill Roggio (Long War Journal)

(I mean, you aren't agoraphobic are you?)

"Coasters"

Remember the 25 DVD Giftset? "Geesh," said a local blogger at the time, "I hope they were encoded for region 2."

As it turns out, nope:

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen.

British Secretary of Defense John Hutton will visit Frank Buckles, the last known living American veteran of World War I, in Charles Town, W.Va., today. Hutton will present Buckles, 108, with a painting paying tribute to the close relationship between U.S. and U.K. troops.

This Week in Iraq War History

A previous entry in this series here.

Events of March 14-21, 1999: Unacknowledged in the United States, the war in Iraq continued.

14 March, 1999, CENTCOM:

COALITION AIRCRAFT RESPOND TO SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE FIRE

MACDILL AFB, FL - At approximately 2:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Air Force F-16CG "Fighting Falcon," and British Royal Air Force GR-1 "Tornado" aircraft enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone struck two Iraqi military communications sites using precision guided munitions in response to surface-to-air missile fire directed at coalition aircraft.

The strikes were conducted near As Samawah, which is approximately 150 miles southeast of Baghdad, and near Ad Diwaniyah, which is approximately 100 miles south of Baghdad.

US WAR PLANES TAKING OFF FROM A NATO BASE IN SOUTHERN TURKEY POUNDED IRAQI DEFENSES SUNDAY IN THE NO-FLY ZONE OVER KURDISH-CONTROLLED NORTHERN IRAQ. FROM ANKARA, AMBERIN ZAMAN HAS THE DETAILS.

A SPOKESMAN AT THE INCIRLIK AIRBASE SAID THE AMERICAN PLANES MADE AN UNSPECIFIED NUMBER OF ATTACKS AFTER IRAQI ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY TRACKED THEM WITH RADAR. HE SAID THE BOMBINGS WERE CARRIED OUT FOR DEFENSIVE PURPOSES.

COALITION AIRCRAFT RESPOND TO NO-FLY ZONE VIOLATIONS

MACDILL AFB, FL - At approximately 1:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today, U.S. Air Force F-16CG "Fighting Falcon," and U.S. Navy F/A-18 "Hornet" and F-14 "Tomcat" aircraft enforcing the Southern No-Fly Zone struck an Iraqi radar relay site 200 miles southeast of Baghdad near As Salman, and a radar site 290 miles southeast of Baghdad in the vicinity of As Shuaybah.

The strikes were in response to Iraqi aircraft violations of the Southern No-Fly Zone. These hostile acts were the latest of more than 135 Iraqi provocations in the southern no-fly zone since Operation Desert Fox.

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AFPN) -- For the third day in a row, coalition forces have attacked Iraqi ground sites that posed a threat to aircraft patrolling the northern no-fly zone.

Between 11:45 p.m. and 12:15 p.m. Iraqi time March 16, Operation Northern Watch aircraft detected Iraqi radar posing a threat to coalition aircraft. Responding in self-defense, Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on several antiaircraft artillery sites northwest of Mosul.

All coalition aircraft departed the area safely.

Since the war's end in 1991, U.S. and other allied coalition pilots have enforced U.N.-mandated no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq. The zones protect Kurds in the north and Shi'a Muslims in the south from Saddam Hussein's aggression. Along with U.N.-imposed "no-drive" restrictions, the no-fly zones also prevent the Iraqi dictator from marshaling forces to invade neighboring states.

Until mid-December, U.S. and British air patrols encountered little resistance, but in the wake of Operation Desert Fox, Saddam declared the zones invalid. Iraqi aircraft began violating the zones regularly, and Iraqi forces began targeting coalition aircraft with radar. Iraqi fighters tried to lure coalition patrols into surface-to-air-missile ambushes.

At first, U.S. and coalition planes struck back only in self-defense. As Iraqi challenges persisted more or less daily, U.S. defense officials expanded the rules of engagement. Pilots began striking Iraq's integrated air defense system, not just specific sites. A further expansion in February now gives military leaders even more targeting flexibility, allowing strikes on command and control and communications facilities.
<...>
Morale among the American airmen in Kuwait is high, Harvey noted. He attributed frequent contact with home as part of the reason.

"E-mail is the best thing that ever happened to the United States Air Force," said the fighter pilot, whose wife, Connie, and daughters, Anne, 15, and Sarah, 12, live in Columbia, S.C. "We are able to chat with our loved ones back home on a daily basis. That has just been phenomenal for morale. That's the best thing they've ever invented."

Air Force Master Sgt. Eric Farr, also with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing in Kuwait, attributes the high morale to the wing's real-world mission. The 23-year veteran airman from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., is a first sergeant with the wing's logistic squadron.

He said the Southern Watch mission provides realism and an awareness that's nearly impossible to achieve during training alone.

"No one likes to see war or be a part of a war. There's no joy in bringing destruction on anyone," Farr said. But putting 10 or 20 years of training to actual use is a kind of validation, he noted. "We've trained hard, and now that training's paying off."

The Destroyer

Defense Cuts:

Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the officials said.

Murtha Awarded the Department of the Navy 'Distinguished Public Service Award'

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman John P. Murtha, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, was presented this week with the Department of the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award. The award, granted by the Secretary of the Navy, is the highest form of public service recognition bestowed by the Department of the Navy for a non-employee. It consists of a gold medal, miniature medal, lapel bar, rosette, and a certificate signed by the Secretary.

Maybe they'll even build it at the Johnstown Docks.

Elsewhere:

Salamandar apologizes.

Blackfive

Sweetness and Light

At war with the evil doers

Okay - the make the vets pay for health care issue has died a twitching and painful death. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to fall - to discover what exactly the administration really wanted all along.

But maybe what they really wanted all along was to make insurance companies pay for veterans' service-related health care:

The president pushed back during the meeting on Monday, telling the groups that the private insurance companies were getting a free ride.

The president was sympathetic to the needs of veterans, Gorman said, but insisted that the insurance companies are getting away with not paying for anything.

"The vets are paying premiums to insurance companies, and that is a free ride that needs to stop," Gorman said in describing the president's message to the group.

Although I'm still waiting for that other shoe.

An FYI/didja know on veteran's demographics:

Special health care and compensation benefits are available to the 2.6 million men and women who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975, only 3,300 of whom remain in uniform today. Those discharged during that period are the largest group of veterans receiving VA health care and monthly compensation.

Posse Comitatus

Bama:

The commander of the Alabama Bureau of Investigation office in Dothan, Ala., told CNSNews.com that neither he nor his agents called for U.S. troops to come to the scene of murders in Samson, Ala., on the night of March 10 -- but he was very glad they came.

"I don't know who called them," Lt. Barry Tucker told CNSNews.com. "I didn't. I didn't have time to call anybody."
<...>
"I received calls from just about every law enforcement agency in southeast Alabama wanting to know how they could help," Tucker said. "A lot of them, in the case of Fort Rucker, just showed up."
<...>
Tucker had high praise for the soldiers, and said that everyone at the crime scene - local residents and law enforcement alike - seemed pleased the MPs were there.

"I myself am a retired lieutenant colonel in the MPs," Tucker said. "I understand about Posse Comitatus and how that works and how the line is drawn for MPs from an active duty base working a law enforcement mission outside of the base.

"I know where the line is - and I didn't see that line crossed," he said.

Tell 'em, John

If they won't listen to eleven veterans' organizations, the U.S. Congress, and every man woman and child in America, maybe they'll pay attention to you:

Today's Day by Day is a good one, too. Thanks, Chris!

Mrs G's Update: I guess Obama watches the daily show.

Obama backs off plan to alter vets' healthcare -- [The Hill]

The White House on Wednesday backed off a controversial plan that would have dramatically altered the way the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) handles insurance claims, after veterans groups staged an all-out fight against such a proposal.
President Obama will not pursue a proposal that would have allowed the VA to charge private insurance companies for the treatment of veterans with service- and war-related injuries.

The Rest of the Story

Music unites the world! Buck says: "I spied an Iraqi teenager doing some fancy finger pickin' on that guitar of his while driving around in sector so I made our patrol pull over so I could get my gee-tar fix for the year.

"If you've never tried to rock out in full battle rattle on a third world instrument while squished into a plastic chair on a sidewalk after a six month hiatus from playing, well, you don't know what you're missing."

A pretty cool moment captured in video here - where you can also welcome Buck home.

Hallowed by War: More Than 100 Years at Walter Reed

I mentioned this in the DP last week but wanted to highlight it again as we get closer to the date.

WRAMC turns 100 years old next month.

Located on 113 acres in Washington, D.C., it serves more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military. The center is named after Major Walter Reed (1851-1902), an army physician who led the team which confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct contact.
Since its origins, what is now the WRAMC medical care facility has grown from a bed capacity of 80 patients to approximately 5,500 rooms covering more than 28 acres of floor space. WRAMC will be combining with the Bethesda naval hospital by 2011 to form the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

Walter Reed Army Medical Center will kick-off a weeklong celebration in late April in honor of the medical center's 100 years of care for America's service members and their families.

Dover Debate Continues

Via LA Times

My favorite excerpt:

One acquaintance, favoring privacy, said that if the worst were to happen to her husband and someone wielding a camera dared to elbow in on her family's grief, she'd "open up a can of Army wife whoop-ass." The image of the modern military spouse is half-frontier wife, half-Care Bear -- by turns stoically able and cooingly comforting. But when it comes to acting on behalf of our kin and the larger military family, make no mistake: Wives are warriors too.

Wives are warriors too, HOOAH!

UPDATE: Thunder Run asks, Tell Me Mr. Gates....How Can You Lift the Ban After This?

McKiernan: Afghanistan "will be won"

The quote struck me because it's the first sign of any optimism whatsoever I've heard from that theater of operations.

MARGARET WARNER: Gen. McKiernan, thanks for having us. Do you think the war is winnable in military terms?

GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN [Commander, International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan]: Well, it’s “the war’s winnable.” Let’s not put it in military terms because it’s going to take security, it’s going to take governance, and it’s going to take socio-economic progress – all three of those in a comprehensive way. But this campaign is absolutely winnable and will be won.

Full video here.

Torture is Wrong

Tom Ricks says he thinks "more than ever that we need a truth and reconciliation commission -- not to punish the low-level guys who inflicted torture, but to set the record straight on who thought it was a good idea to make the use of torture U.S. national policy."

I respond:

Reuters: Exclusive: Lawyer says Guantanamo abuse worse since Obama

In fairness, that's a purposefully sensationalist headline. The lawyer in question even acknowledges that the abuses aren't administration policy, but are actually the actions of a few bad apples: "He stressed the mistreatment did not appear to be directed from above, but was an initiative undertaken by frustrated U.S. army and navy jailers on the ground."

So now that torture is no longer official American policy and is just the actions of a few bad apples, will it ever be appropriate to punish the low-level guys who inflict torture? If so, when?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there. In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”

Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials, claiming constitutional violations by such officials. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”
<...>
The Rasul lawsuit is aimed at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ten military officers — six generals and four lower-ranking officers. The prisoners claimed systematic torture and abuse, including disparaging their religion beliefs and practices.

On TV

Taking Chance is available for pre-order on Amazon

There's a nice video interview with Mike Strobl and Kevin Bacon at the Amazon link.

It's already HBO's "most-watched original movie in five years" - maybe we'll see it climb the Amazon charts, too.

And Paul Reickhoff sends this note:

This Wednesday, March 18th, MTV will be airing a special episode of "The Real World", featuring IAVA.

One of the cast members this season, Ryan, served a tour with the Army in Iraq. Then, during Veterans' Week in November, Ryan spent some time with IAVA. He visited our New York office, marched in the Veterans' Day Parade with our member veterans, and attended IAVA's Second Annual Heroes Gala with his roommates. Now, on Wednesday, March 18th, the episode showing it all will air on MTV.

As the sole veteran in the cast, Ryan had the courage to speak out about the challenges he faced during his transition back to civilian life. And he does it in front of an audience of millions. His pride in his service and his loyalty to the military leave a lasting impression.

The Slow Boil Begins

The American Legion describes some potential problems with the newly proposed Obama/Shinseki "F#$k the Veterans" program:

The Legion argues that, depending on the severity of the medical conditions involved, maximum insurance coverage limits could be reached through treatment of the veteran's condition alone. That would leave the rest of the family without health care benefits. The Legion also points out that many health insurance companies require deductibles to be paid before any benefits are covered. Additionally, the Legion is concerned that private insurance premiums would be elevated to cover service-connected disabled veterans and their families, especially if the veterans are self-employed or employed in small businesses unable to negotiate more favorable across-the-board insurance policy pricing. The American Legion also believes that some employers, especially small businesses, would be reluctant to hire veterans with service-connected disabilities due to the negative impact their employment might have on obtaining and financing company health care benefits.

Welcome Home, Buck

"JAMming in Jamia: Strumming the West Baghdad Blues and bringing it to Jaish al Mahdi with some SRV northwest of the IZ."

Enjoy the video, and welcome Buck Sargent home!

Drama For Obama

Holy s--t, Batman, the danger is imminent:

Barack Obama, the US president, is to be told that to avoid a repeat of the devastating 9/11 attacks on America or Britain he must dramatically step up aid to Pakistan.

A team headed by Bruce Riedel, a former CIA Middle East expert, asked to overhaul US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, has concluded that stabilising Pakistan is now the higher priority, a source familiar with the discussions has revealed.
<...>
Recent "apocalyptic" intelligence on the situation in Pakistan has sent shockwaves through the upper echelons of the Obama administration and convinced Mr Riedel's review team that radicals trained in Pakistan are the greatest threat to Western security.

One White House aide emerged from an intelligence briefing on Pakistan three days after Mr Obama's inauguration to exclaim: "Holy s--t!"

Most Britons don't buy their government's argument for keeping a military presence in Afghanistan, a poll published Monday shows.

A BBC-commissioned ComRes poll showed that 60 percent of Britons don't believe their leaders have made the case for keeping troops in the war-torn country.
<...>
The poll also showed that nearly three-quarters of Britons believe there should be an official inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq once Britain removes most of its remaining forces from the country there in July.

Afghanistan won't be winning American Idol this week either. USA Today:

Afghan war hits peak of disfavor
In poll, more call action 'a mistake'

WASHINGTON — American support for the war in Afghanistan has ebbed to a new low, as attacks on U.S. troops and their allies have hit record levels and commanders are pleading for reinforcements, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.

In the poll taken Saturday and Sunday, 42% of respondents said the United States made "a mistake" in sending military forces to Afghanistan, up from 30% in February. That's the highest mark since the poll first asked the question in November 2001 when the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban government that sheltered al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The price of success

...is sometimes failure:

The actor best known as "Borat" tricked the Alabama National Guard into allowing him onto a post, giving him a military uniform and briefly letting him train -- all, supposedly, for a German TV documentary.

The ruse, which included comedian Sacha Baron Cohen exposing his thong underwear while changing clothes, was going well until a young cadet recognized Cohen and notified older officers who weren't familiar with the actor.

Then again, given the free publicity, perhaps this goes into the "success" column, too.

Footage from the visit could be included in Cohen's upcoming movie featuring his character Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion writer. The reported title is "Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America For The Purpose Of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable In The Presence Of A Gay Foreigner In A Mesh T-Shirt."

Pushing the Big Red Button

...marked reset:

Russia supports US operations in Afghanistan and is ready to contribute to stabilising the country, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published Monday during his visit to Kabul.
<...>
"At this stage the presence in Afghanistan of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), uniting basically the US military contingent and NATO allies, is a factor restraining terrorism and in this regard is in Afghanistan's interests," Lavrov said according to the transcript.

"On this basis Russia decided to allow the use of its territory for over-land transit of non-military supplies to ISAF," he said.

Update:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011.

Mr Medvedev said the primary task would be to "increase the combat readiness of [Russia's] forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces".

Explaining the move, he cited concerns over Nato expansion near Russia's borders and regional conflicts.

Last Call for Cooks

Today is the last day to turn in those prized recipes for the MilBloggers Cookbook. Details Below:

Honor Their Service, inc , the home of such great projects as Operation Fresh Air and Operation Santa at the Hospitals, is putting together a Milbloggers' Cookbook.

They need submissions from milbloggers and commenters alike in all catagories If you have a favorite recipe they'd love to put it in the book.

We need submissions from milbloggers and commenters alike in all catagories (appetizers, sides, salads, soups, main dishes, desserts, drinks, etc.) If you have a recipe (or two) that you are particularly proud of, we'd love to put them in the book.
In addition, you can submit pictures if you like. I ask only that you don't submit pictures of people in speedos. Speedophobia is not a joking matter, people.

We will also be featuring favorite recipes as well as memories from some Gold and Silver star families. These folks, as well as our active duty (Blue star) folks, are the very reason why Honor Their Service exists.

Send your recipes (and any questions you might have) to HTScookbook@yahoo.com.

They are accepting recipes from today until March 9th 16th (extended).

I included a few of my humble recipes how 'bout you share some of yours.

And So We begin Year Seven...

Having reached six years today, which in milblog terms is ancient indeed. (But I don't feel a day over three, I swear.)

My personal favorite post of all time? Probably this one I wrote in Baghdad in October, 2007, reproduced here in its entirety:

We've won the war.

And while not everything worth mentioning will be important and under appreciated, we'll strive to find those things that are in the upcoming year, too.

Hey, nobody's perfect...

Should the US Ambassador to Iraq speak Arabic? Should he have Middle Eastern experience? Should he have deep background in working with the military in counterinsurgency operations?

Would two out of three "yes" answers be enough?

How about zero for three?

"I get the sense that the Department of State has never really switched on to the Iraq War." Says Abu M in something of an understatement. "And I worry about a fundamental difference between the way the military and policy-makers in Washington see Iraq and the way the Department of State sees it."

That will be less an issue in Afghanistan, where the President "nominated Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, who served in Afghanistan twice, including an 18-month tour that ended in 2007 as commanding general, to be ambassador in Kabul."

Update: - counterpont from an anonymous commenter at Abu M: "Hill's experience in the Balkans and with complex, multiparty negotiations presumably will be useful in helping to get the political process moving in Baghdad. The reality is that the nature of the Iraq War and our influence has changed. The SOFA is not going away and the emphasis now needs to be on bringing together competing factions and convincing them to build on the foundation provided by the surge. Hill's past background suggests he should be able to do this...

"By all accounts, he's had a very successful diplomatic career. He could happily retire to the private sector. Instead, he's agreed to do this-in the face of a bunch of people who will, undoubtedly, blame him for the entire failure of the Iraq War if he does not deliver results."

Taking Chance: HBO's "most-watched original movie in five years"

Wall Street Journal:

It's been widely observed that movies about the Iraq war have tended to bomb at the box office. One newspaper report speculated that films like "Home of the Brave" and "Stop-Loss" failed because "the audience might prefer a longer interval before viewing events as troubling as war."

"Taking Chance" refutes this notion. When it debuted February 21 on HBO, it became the network's most-watched original movie in five years, drawing two million viewers -- especially impressive given that it aired on Saturday, traditionally not a big TV-watching night. An HBO spokesman estimates that another 5.5 million have watched subsequent airings of the film, and that doesn't count DVR viewers.
<...>
"Taking Chance" does not glorify the war. It takes no discernable position on whether America should be in Iraq, although a few people Colonel Strobl meets along the way express their view, pro and con. But almost without exception, the Americans he encounters are respectful, patriotic, grateful for his service and for Private Phelps's. If Hollywood wants to make war movies that appeal to a broad audience, it could do worse than to take in "Taking Chance." The Americans who show Colonel Strobl such reverence as he makes his way west are the very audience Hollywood wishes it could reach.

If we could be heroes

Yes - Andy Rooney is at it again:

We don't have many heroes these days because there isn't much opportunity to be a hero and most people aren't usually heroic anyway.

"In World War II we had a lot of heroes because there were a lot of opportunities to be heroic" writes Rooney, but as for now "we all must have the same attributes we've always had but I guess people don't have the opportunity to be heroic in peace as they do in war."

And if you're tempted to shout that we are indeed at war today - save your breath. I said "at it again" because Rooney dismissed today's soldiers as potential heroes back in 2004:

Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it....

We pin medals on their chests to keep them going. We speak of them as if they volunteered to risk their lives to save ours, but there isn't much voluntary about what most of them have done. A relatively small number are professional soldiers. During the last few years, when millions of jobs disappeared, many young people, desperate for some income, enlisted in the Army. About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home.
<...>
We must support our soldiers in Iraq because it's our fault they're risking their lives there. However, we should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them. Most are victims, not heroes.

Memory Fails

Andy Rooney bemoaning a lack of heroes today:

One of the best stories I ever had to write was about a hero named Maynard Smith. He was called "Snuffy" Smith because he had an undistinguished personality and no one thought there was anything at all heroic about Snuffy until the day he saved the lives of six of the men on board his B17 after it was hit by German fighter planes.

Sergeant Maynard Harrison Snuffy Smith had a reputation for being a less-than-circumspect soldier. In his 1995 book My War, Andy Rooney recalled:

"In addition to being known as 'Snuffy,' he was known to everyone as a moderately pompous little fellow with the belligerent attitude of a man trying to make up with attitude what his five-foot-four, 130-pound body left him wanting. He posed part time as an intellectual and loved to go to the British pubs in Thurleigh, the small town near the base, to argue with and lecture to the British civilians who frequented. From the time he entered the Air Force he had been in some kind of trouble over one petty matter or another. 'Snuffy' was, in fact, known by the fourteen other inhabitants of his Nissen hut by an Army phrase for which there's no socially acceptable replacement. He was a real ----up."

In his own book Mr. Rooney made no attempt to mask the common expletive that well-defines a kind of soldier who never fits in, who shirks his duty, and ignores authority.

Honor

A coincidental point / counterpoint that unintentionally reveals why so many newspapers are failing.

Aught six

Take a quick look at the two entries from 2006 we've reposted here this week - reports originally presented almost seven months apart - and you could be forgiven for concluding they represented isolated "good news" stories in a year otherwise filled with disaster in Iraq. But the truth is they are merely two points on a timeline, and neither was close to the beginning or the end. If you'd like to see that line segment in its entirety time has provided a vantage point where it can be done.

Just Words on War

Defense news :

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009 – President Barack Obama used the dedication of a hall on one of the nation’s oldest military installations today to talk about the new threats confronting America.

Obama dedicated Abraham Lincoln Hall, a new building on the campus of the National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair here.

“From this fort, which was founded to defend the city of Washington against invasion, you could stand on Sept. 11, 2001, and watch the smoke from the Pentagon billowing up across the Potomac,” the president said. “The attacks of 9/11 signaled the new dangers of the 21st century. And today, our people are still threatened by violent extremists, and we’re still at war with terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan who are plotting to do us harm.”

Swift Justice

VOA: “The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush during a farewell visit to Baghdad has been sentenced by an Iraqi court to three years in prison.”

Soldiers’ Angels and Brothers at War

Swiped from Soldiers' Angels LA

Soldiers’ Angels is partnering with the acclaimed new documentary Brothers at War to help tell the stories of America’s warfighters and their families. Directed by civilian Jake Rademacher, who followed his two military brothers to document their combat deployment and return home, the documentary is an intimate portrait of a military family during wartime. It is currently screening in a number of cities across America, and Soldiers’ Angels volunteers will be in attendance at each screening location to invite viewers to bridge the military-civilian divide by actively supporting service members and families like those portrayed in the documentary! If you would like to participate, please scroll down for more information.

As Patti points out, this a great opportunity to connect average Americans with those who protect us. “Fewer people serving in the military means fewer Americans have personal knowledge of the sacrifices and challenges of military life,” she says. “Brothers at War helps bridge that divide. The story of these heroes needs to be told, and our soldiers need to know their service is appreciated and that they are not forgotten.”

A winner at the 2008 GI Film Festival, Brothers at War has been receiving rave reviews from military supporters, veterans and military families. Angel and military spouse Greta had a chance to preview the film and was very impressed. “No other footage since Bad Voodoo’s War has portrayed anything so real and unbiased about the war and the soldiers who serve in it,” she wrote.

Soldiers’ Angels encourages all Angels to spread the word about this tremendous documentary across the country and to attend a screening near their homes.

Screening Locations (showtimes and location details to be announced; email cvink@soldiersangels.org if you would like to assist the Angel activities at a screening near you):

Greta has the details and you can listen to her interview Jake Rademacher, the director of Brothers at War here.

"If you teach them well, they will come back."

Teacher, Student Reunite in Warzone

I had a reality check of sorts the day before yesterday. A former student of mine, Pfc. Johnny Cunningham, a combat engineer with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division has kept in touch with me through the years after his graduation from North Shore like many others have. He joined the Army after high school. Back when he was in 7th and 8th grade, he joined a new program that I started at North Shore Middle called LOTC (Leadership Officers Training Corps). It was like JROTC for middle school.
I taught it using Army basics with lessons in D&C for parades/formations, the Army values to build character, learning what leadership and the styles people use when they apply it, how to be a good follower, land navigation and orienteering, platoon team-building activities, armed drill team, unarmed drill team, color guard, and cool field trips to round it out. On the left is my group marching during a pass and review back in 2003. All of those kids are in college now.
Johnny was one of the 1st in that group that had swelled to well over 1000 kids that participated in the program during the seven years that I taught it. He was my first commander for the boys' drill team before drill team was merged into one group.
About a week before we left the states he emailed me telling me he was here at Camp Liberty and he was looking forward to running into me when we got here.
Well, the day before yesterday he emailed me telling me that his vehicle (an MRAP)was attacked, hit with an EFP (explosively formed penetrator). It's a thick, copper cone-shaped plate that is placed on a charge and when fired, melts, forms, and then can penetrate just about anything. When it hits armor, it can turn that into projectiles too because it melts. The vehicle pictured is one version of an MPAP.
So, I'm reading his email and I freeze until I get to the words, "I'm ok." He was the driver and escaped with torn-up fingers and some shrapnel in his leg.

A pretty cool story to read, go check it out.

Where Have The Heroes Gone?

...Andy Rooney asks.

We don’t have many heroes these days because there isn’t much opportunity to be a hero, and most people aren’t usually heroic anyway. Being heroic means doing something that risks your life while saving someone else’s.

Ahem, I know quite a few right here

David Marron of Thunder Run has the Story

Soul Searching

"My youngest son, who is 19, recently told me that he was thinking about leaving college and joining the military." Says Courtland Milloy in an essay in the Washington Post.

My research has turned up a number that would give any parent pause: 72,900. No, it's not a war casualty count. It's the amount on a huge check posted in the window of an Army recruiting office I visited in Oxon Hill.

If my son enlisted, the Army tells me, he could receive as much as that for college, plus an additional $65,000 to repay college loans and, on top of that, $4,500 a year in tuition assistance while serving.

It's enough to make you forget about war -- at least for one dreamy moment: Kid leaves college after two years, eases stranglehold on parents' crumbling bank account, then gets paid by Uncle Sam to go back to school.

"They come to serve their country, but we stay on their behinds to make sure they get an education, too," an Army recruiter told me. Not a bad hook. Now the catch.

The Pentagon announced Monday that 4,255 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq and 589 killed in and around Afghanistan. And I still don't know for what.

On the other hand, there have been roughly 2,400 homicides in the Washington area since 2002. And I don't know what that's all about, either, other than that most of the killing is concentrated in the District and Prince George's County, where I live, and involves mostly young African American men, like my son.

Statistically speaking, he'd probably be safer in Baghdad than in parts of our nation's capital.

Is that a rationalization, or has this tanking economy caused me to lose my mind?

Re: Making Veterans Pay

John of Argghhh on the Shinseki comments re: veterans paying for health care. (I yield to his experience and expertise.)

Fire Bad!

Registan: The Army’s Woeful IT Policies Poison the War Effort:

BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN — In January, when I first arrived here, I made an alarming discovery about the state of IT in the Army. Practically all of the blogs and other online tools I use to stay informed and connected to my colleagues (see here, for example) did not work.

Given the great strides forward the Army has made in embracing blogs and blogging I'd be a bit surprised at this report - but I'm not.

Here's why: Air Bases are run by the Air Force, not the Army. And the Air Force has been looking at blogs with fear and superstitious dread from the day they first heard about them. (And I also can tell from the websense screencap that you can see at Registan that it's an Air Force block - that's the service the USAF is paying to determine what sites are "bad" and should be kept away from USAF eyes.) Imagine a tribe of cavemen eons past whose neighbors had discovered 'fire' or 'sharp sticks' and who were worried they might be scorched or poked in a confrontation with those neighbors and therefore decided "fire bad" and you'll have a good idea of the Air Force policy on blogs (or the internet in general). Imagine what the future held for those who ran from fire and you'll have a good idea of the future of the Air Force, too.

Surely it can't be that bad? You might ask. Surely it can:

Airmen may still access information sources outside official Air Force outlets, but only "primary, official-use sources."

"Basically," said Maj. Henry Schott of the command’s plans and requirements section, "if it’s a place like The New York Times, an established, reputable media outlet, then it’s fairly cut and dry that that’s a good source, an authorized source."

So here's some good news from the New York Times - they've figured out how to lower the defense budget: "We would start by killing off the Air Force’s F-22 fighter":

Cutting weapons programs takes political courage — that is why so many have survived so long after their military rationales evaporated. President George W. Bush was not willing to face down industry lobbyists and their carefully cultivated Congressional allies. The F-22 program, backers claim, sustains more than 25,000 jobs in 44 states — jobs that will be fiercely defended in the current economic environment. But cutting unnecessary programs is essential to help pay for more critical defense needs and more cost-effective economic stimulus.

All done!

Journeys Home

Those of you that have been reading the Dawn Patrol should be familiar with MilBlogger, Ken Hillas of 'Hillas' History'. A Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader based in Al-Hillah, Babil Province. He blogged during his deployment in Iraq

Kenneth is on his way home from Iraq, however he was delayed a bit. His wife, Barbara, emails why, another Soldier also needed to be taken home.

You can read it here at her blog

Very moving. Remarkable care is always shown and taken by those who come in contact with the remains of our fallen soldiers at each stage of their journey.

And if you haven't seen the HBO Movie Taking Chance I suggest you do and you'll see what I mean. Godspeed to our fallen.

You can see 'Taking Chance' on these scheduled dates:

Thur. Mar. 12 5:00 PM HBO
Fri. Mar. 13 2:45 AM HBO
Sun. Mar. 15 12:30 PM HBO

Now go welcome Ken home.

UPDATE: Here another soldier journeys home

"Merciless Retaliatory Blows"

North Korea's military has gone on full alert and threatened "merciless retaliatory blows" just hours before US and South Korean forces began annual military exercises.

Pyongyang has also warned of war if what it calls a satellite launch - but what intelligence analysts believe is cover for a long range missile test - is shot down.

"A war will break out if the US imperialists and the warmongers of the South Korean puppet military hurl the huge troops and sophisticated strike means to mount an attack."
<...>
On Sunday, KCNA accused the Americans of being "arch criminals prodding the North and the South into armed conflict".

And even al Jazeera knows this: "Pyongyang regularly accuses the US and South Korea of hostile intentions before the annual exercises, which have been held for years without major incident."

Shinseki: Obama administration considering making vets pay for health care

...for service-related injuries. He was told by Sen. Patty Murray (D Wa) that the plan would be "dead on arrival" if sent to Congress.

Yeah, and if he wants to make them all wear berets, f#$k that too.

I'm sure it's all a big misunderstanding that will be unsaid and forgotten tomorrow.

Update: "less than we’ve given AIG since September "

Update 2: John of Argghhh - a man with experience on this issue - comments here.

Rabbit's bad day

Vampire 6, from Afghanistan:

They look at me and I them across the valley; a distance of about 2 kilometers. We stare at each other through binoculars for a couple of seconds and then they move into a bunker. They seem unconcerned because of the valley separating us believing it keeps them safe. Oh, silly rabbit but I have two F-15s.

MRS G's UPDATE:

VAMPIRE ETT Wants YOU!
Now’s your chance to become an honorary VAMPIRE and support Soldier's Angels. They have recently purchased Unit t-shirts and have convinced the t-shirt designer to donate $5.00 of every t-shirt sold to Soldiers’ Angels.
"You can own a T-shirt, designed by a Veteran, made by Veterans and sold to support and organization doing incredible things for Veterans. "

T-shirts can be purchased here

Okay, Greyhawk adds a dedication: (below the fold)

World War Two

...the simple version. (Via Abu M).

(Hint: an image you might have to magnify. Took me a minute to realize that wasn't a decorative border.)

Morning Calm

Wish I could show you these actual size.

Taken by the youngest (who isn't very) somewhere on the Atlantic coast.

Some Other Firsts

Given the popularity of some of the posts below It occurs to me that some additional background might be needed for folks who might not have been following the Iraq story very closely over the past several months due to the fatigue and the economy. Hopefully I can help get you up to speed.

Senator Obama, when he was contending for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, was emphatically clear on his Iraq policy - as stated on his web page: "Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."

After he secured the nomination, he was surprised to discover some people were accusing him of changing that position, so he clarified it on his web page: ""The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month -- which would remove all of them in 16 months."

Even so there are still some people (and news reporters) confused by this.

But the important thing was the Status of Forces Agreement, which President Bush was pushing through without even consulting with Congress, as candidate Obama made clear on his web page:

"Obama and Biden believe any Status of Forces Agreement, or any strategic framework agreement, should be negotiated in the context of a broader commitment by the U.S. to begin withdrawing its troops and forswearing permanent bases. Obama and Biden also believe that any security accord must be subject to Congressional approval. It is unacceptable that the Iraqi government will present the agreement to the Iraqi parliament for approval—yet the Bush administration will not do the same with the U.S. Congress."

Obama and Biden believe it is vital that a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) be reached so our troops have the legal protections and immunities they need. Any SOFA should be subject to Congressional review to ensure it has bipartisan support here at home.

And here we are.

Another First!

If at first you don't succeed, push the "reset" button and have another first!

The Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, March 8 -- The U.S. military announced Sunday that 12,000 American soldiers would withdraw from Iraq by September, marking the first step in the Obama administration's plan to pull U.S. combat forces out of the country by August 2010.

Oh wait, here it is, further down in the same Post story:

Obama last month ordered two combat brigades scheduled to replace forces in Iraq be deployed to Afghanistan instead.

Oh well, soon enough they will all be gone away anyway:

A U.S.-Iraqi agreement negotiated last year requires all U.S. troops to depart by the end of 2011, a deadline that Iraqi officials reiterated Sunday. "The Iraqi government has no intention to accept the presence of any foreign troops or bases after 2011," said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman.

But according to the Washington Post, that doesn't matter either:

But long before then, the posture of the U.S. military will have changed dramatically. Under the U.S.-Iraqi agreement, American troops must leave Iraqi cities by the end of June...

In other news from Iraq:

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said that continuing the fight against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul might lead to U.S. troops remaining in the city past a June 30, 2009 deadline for all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities, but only if the Iraqi government made such a request.

No matter what.

Get Your News Around the World

The Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world is up.

The Difference (IV)

A couple of comments from previous entries in this series.

One:

I think my introduction to milblogs (blogs in general, actually) were Mudville Gazette and the Indepundit. So, I guess I have you to thank/ blame for distracting me at work.

Posted by malclave at March 6, 2009 04:10 PM

Two:

Greyhawk,

The question asked by Dave for us to write was regarding social media and the surge. I decided not to write about YouTube or other mediums besides blogging, primarily because blogs were the only social media medium that I was influenced by in regards to the surge. We were also asked to keep our comments short; I could have probably written 3000 words on the subject to be honest.

One paragraph I removed before sending my comments to Dave was how social media connected me to an understanding of events on the ground in Iraq, and in particular I was thinking about conditions and morale. I wrote specifically about Dawn Patrol, and how my pattern of following news from Iraq included reading your wife’s comprehensive listing of information. When one considers the disconnect between reports from journalist in the US and the first hand insights through milblogging, it seems to me that new media became the network link that not only connected the disconnected points of view, but explained why the views were different in context. In hindsight, observing the various comments of others in Dave's collection, I wish I would have included that angle into my contribution.

Which brings us back to the question "what is a milblog"?

I didn't invent the term, but I did offer the first definition of it over five years ago in forming the MilBlogs Ring: "any blog operated by a current active duty, guard or reserve member of the US military" along with "veterans, spouses, or other close relatives ...IF a significant amount of their content is devoted to military issues" and some "sites devoted to military issues but not operated by people in the above described categories".

A pretty wide definition, I think. As for any further consideration of content,

Members are aware of the likelihood of difference of opinions between fellow members, and although we may not agree with each other on everything we say we will fight for the rights of each other to say it.

We mean that literally.

Oddly enough, the term "milblog" has (in some quarters) somehow been declared synonymous with "right wing" or even "Republican". (Something that might cause Phil Carter - an early Ring member - to chuckle. Or not.)

Diversity

Just an aside - after reading the comments here and here I've come to the conclusion I'm an Obama loving Obama hater. There's really no other explanation for it. (Though some might accuse me of being an Obama hating Obama lover, I suppose...)

Unless... I call 'em like I see 'em?

It's the sixth anniversary of the Mudville Gazette this week. I think we're off to a fun start, with more to follow.

Diversions (IV)

A couple (among many) of interesting comments from the previous post:

I'm a soldier in 4/2, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in. The way things are being explained to us is that if we want most of the combat brigades gone by 31 Aug 2010, 4/2 had to deploy ASAP in order to fit in a 12-month deployment before the deadline. Not going to get into the political bit for obvious reasons. We just got back from Iraq in June 08 so it's a tough time for a lot of families, so keep us all in your thoughts. This is our job and we're proud to do it.
Posted by Blaise at March 9, 2009 02:15 AM

As my son is 5-2ID SBCT and took those Arabic Class's and, trianed his ASS off for Iraq. I could power a nuclear plant just by dipping my kiester in the water. Gotta think Geobbels would be proud of our media. Rick (Doc) Wright EX 82nd 1/05 Posted by Richard Wright at March 8, 2009 07:31 PM

Milblogs Conference Registration Opens

Details here. We'll be back in D.C. this year, hope to see you there. Many great things planned - even beyond the panel sessions.

Diversions (III)

Remember the Iraq drawdown you heard about last month? The one where a Brigade originally scheduled for Iraq was going to Afghanistan instead? Well, a funny thing about that...

Last weekend we noted this obscure bit of news from ABC:

Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago. That means that he will continue to maintain the current level of two Stryker brigades in Iraq.

While that story might be obscure, it's anything but insignificant. The diversion of the Stryker Brigade (one of two that were then scheduled to replace the two currently in Iraq) to Afghanistan made headlines as the President appeared at Camp Lejeune to announce his Iraq drawdown and Afghanistan "surge". As noted here at the time, that followup report - if accurate - "exposes everything you've heard about troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two weeks as an absolute hoax on the American public."

Read the first entry in this series for details of the preparations made by the Stryker Brigade for an Iraq deployment - 10-month Arabic language schools being just part of the training rendered useless by a reassignment to a country where the locals don't speak it.

Of course, "intensive, 10-month Arabic language training" and "exercises... where they had to help their commanders negotiate with native-speaker role players" were now useless - but if they were no longer needed in Iraq, so be it.

But they were needed in Iraq - just not as badly as the Obama administration needed to make it appear that troops initially slotted for Iraq were going to Afghanistan instead - seemingly making good on a key campaign promise. So with much fanfare the Iraq drawdown (consisting entirely of the Stryker Brigade)/Afghanistan surge (Strykers plus a Marine unit) was announced, and subsequent polls indicated Americans were wildly enthusiastic about the idea.

And a few days later no one would notice the bombshell reported by ABC: "Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago" - perhaps because within 24 hours of reporting that news they changed it to this:

ABC News has also learned that Gen. Odierno will continue to maintain a Stryker Brigade presence in Iraq through the upcoming elections as he had requested. There are currently two Stryker Brigades in Iraq. When their tours end later this year, only one of those departing brigades will be replaced by an incoming Stryker Brigade.

Not only was there no explanation of the "correction", there wasn't even an acknowledgment of the change on the site.

But wait... there's more...

I don't like conspiracy theories - I suspected that ABC's initial report was due to some sort of simple misunderstanding and that the corrected version was in fact correct. But to confirm that I sent a simple email to them:

Greetings Just linked this in a post, but subsequently discovered the line "ABC News has also learned that Gen. Odierno will receive a Stryker Brigade to replace the incoming replacement brigade diverted to Afghanistan just a week ago" has since vanished without explanation.

What happened?

Even though it was the weekend they were kind enough to reply:

That was updated.

Clearly. But that's rather a dramatic change to make without explanation, don't you think? The original version indicates the entire narrative of diverting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan is a fraud perpetrated on the American public. The later version is hardly newsworthy.

Aren't corrections of that magnitude worthy of an appended explanation?

Specifically, last Monday the DoD announced:

The Department of Defense announced today that 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based in Ft. Lewis, Wash., will deploy in the fall of 2009 to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The brigade consists of approximately 4,000 personnel and will deploy as a replacement unit for a formation currently operating in Iraq. Its deployment will provide commanders in Iraq the flexibility to maintain the appropriate level of effort based on their assessment of the security situation on the ground.

The next day's Tacoma News Tribune would report:

A Fort Lewis Stryker combat brigade will deploy to Iraq this fall, several months ahead of the original schedule, Army officials said Monday.

When the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division departs, all three Stryker brigades based at the Army post will be simultaneously deployed to combat for the first time. Each brigade has about 4,000 soldiers.

Editor's Note: Over the weekend, additional information led us to rework this article. We have restored the original wording as additional reporting reconfirms the information posted Friday night.

Gen. Odierno will maintain a two-Stryker Brigade presence through the rest of this year even though a replacement Stryker Brigade had been redirected to Afghansitan [sic]. The Pentagon's announcement Monday that the 4th Stryker BCT, 2nd Infantry Division will head to Iraq in the Fall means both brigades currently in Iraq will be replaced by Stryker Brigades. In shorthand, the 4th SBCT/2nd ID will replace the 1st SBCT/25th ID and the 3rd SBCT/2nd ID will the 56th National Guard Stryker Brigade.

Kudos to them for reporting it, but they fail to connect the dots - removing a Brigade from Iraq (or from the schedule to go to Iraq) and replacing it with another Brigade is no way to accomplish a "drawdown" (except in newspaper headlines).

Let's recap the salient points here:

1. In September, 2008, the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) - after months of preparation - is ordered to Iraq. (One of two SBCTs that were then scheduled to replace the two currently in Iraq)

2. In February, 2009, President Obama announces his Iraq drawdown/Afghanistan surge - the 5th SBCT will be diverted to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

3. March, 2009, the DoD announces the 4th SBCT will deploy to Iraq this fall, several months ahead of the original schedule replacing the 5th SBCT in the rotation in order to maintain two Stryker Brigades in Iraq.

For the record, I'm in favor of commanders on the ground getting the forces they need to get the job done. I have no doubt that two Stryker Brigades are needed in Iraq, and others in Afghanistan.

I'm deeply concerned when I see troop rotations "adjusted" in what appears to be an effort to fool the American public. But I appreciate that the Obama administration can do that in plain sight, even providing press releases detailing exactly how they're doing it.

I'm even more concerned that those efforts - and the ramifications thereof - are obvious to an American media assumed to be independent of the Executive Branch but apparently unconcerned about reporting its activities. Item two above was headline grabbing/TV news lead story material - item three indicates it was a fraud.

One year ago that would have been a hell of a story, don't you think?

More: Diversions (IV)

Boom Frequency

Stars and Stripes:

Bagram attacks highlight security concerns

At least four rounds of indirect fire hit or struck near Bagram Airfield on Thursday night, with one round hitting the detention facility on base.

As of Friday morning, officials said no injuries were reported on base and that “all personnel and detainees in the facility are safely accounted for.”

The U.S. military said it was not known if any civilians living near the base had been hurt in the attack, the second against the base in a week.

On Wednesday, an attacker set off a car bomb and a suicide vest device near a base gate. Only the bomber was killed, though three contractors were injured in that incident.

The attacks against the base highlight the security concerns that have stretched even to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Though the Taliban and other insurgent groups are strongest in the south and east of Afghanistan, the fighting has spread throughout the country.

"Here?" He replied, "Not bad. No where near as bad as we had it in Baghdad."

Your results may vary.

Barry very busy

Some reasons the President is too busy for gift shopping:

U.S. cyber security director quits

Washington -- The head of the nation's cyber security center has resigned amid persistent turf battles and confusion over the control and protection of the country's vast computer networks and systems.
<...>
In a blunt letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom complained about a shortage of money for the center and a clash over whether the National Security Agency should control cyber efforts. The role of the NSA in protecting domestic computer networks has triggered debate, particularly among privacy and civil liberties groups who oppose giving such control to a U.S. spy agency.
<...>
As a candidate, Obama criticized President Bush's cyber security efforts and suggested that as president he would have a cyber advisor who would report directly to him.

It was not known whether that is still the plan. On Thursday, Obama named a federal chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, to work in the White House. Kundra is to have a role in overseeing the ability of computer systems to speak to one another and the security for the federal government's vast information databanks.

Gift exchange gone wrong

Don't you hate it at Christmas when someone gets you a a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa, a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria, a first edition of Martin Gilbert’s seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance, and all you have for them is a DVD set?

Yeah, me too.

Geesh, I hope they were encoded for region 2.

Update: As I said in comments at Lex's, while it's possible that the President, caught unprepared, simply re-gifted an unopened Christmas present from an ardent admirer out Hollywood way, I'm certain that reality is that the White House keeps a large stock of DVDs from all regions (and PAL, SECAM, NTSC formats) on hand for just these occasions.

After all, exposing the works of great American artists like David Lean (whose Lawrence of Arabia was mentioned as included by the NPR subject) to an international audience is a fine thing indeed.

I can only hope that Hitchcock feller was included, too.

And certainly some warrior movies.

Okay, now that I think about it some more, this begs a question Mudville readers can answer: if you had a big supply of Region 2/PAL DVDs to give to a visiting foreigner, what war movies would you include?

I'll start: Mel Gibson's "The Patriot"

Going Down

Another point worth noting from the New York Times story below: "American military headquarters in Baghdad is expected to announce this weekend that two brigades scheduled to rotate home this summer will not be replaced. That will reduce the number of combat brigades left in Iraq to 12."

Haven't seen an announcement confirming that on MNF-I's page yet, but I did find this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RELEASE No. 20090306-04
March 6, 2009

1st BCT transfer authority of Rashid to 2nd BCT

Multi-National Division – Baghdad

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said farewell to Multi-National Division – Baghdad leaders, Iraqi Security Forces counterparts and local leaders of the Rashid district during a transfer of authority ceremony at Forward Operating Base Falcon March 4.

The 1st BCT transferred authority for their area of operations to Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, during the ceremony.

The Red Pill (III)

"The main mission has instead shifted almost entirely from combat to stability operations, from fighting insurgents to rebuilding Iraq’s services and shattered economy in a way that could offer a better chance for the country to succeed, making America’s exit more like a victory than a retreat."
- - The New York Times front page, on Iraq today

MAHMUDIYA, Iraq — As he returned to base here after a day patrolling a place once called the Triangle of Death, Capt. Landgrove T. Smith of the First Battalion, 63rd Armor, summarized the war in Iraq in a way that would once have been unthinkable.

“We’re in the endgame now,” he said.

Moot

CNN - 'Enemy combatant' ruling goes administration's way

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted the Obama administration's request to dismiss the appeal of an accused enemy combatant held on U.S. soil.

The decision "to dismiss the appeal as moot" came in a brief order from the nine justices Friday.

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been in military custody since 2003, and was challenging the president's unilateral authority to detain him indefinitely and without charges. The court's order is a defeat for him on the larger constitutional issue.
<...>
At issue was whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force -- passed by Congress after the September 11, 2001, attacks -- gave the president the power to order the indefinite military detention of an accused terrorist seized on domestic soil.

The spy lawsuit tests whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress, as President George W. Bush did, and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. Bush acknowledged the spy program in 2005, and Congress ratified it in July.

The classified data the administration is threatening to withdraw from the spy case shows that the U.S. government eavesdropped without warrants on the 2004 telephone conversations of two lawyers for a now defunct Saudi charity called the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation that the United States had designated as a terror group.

Without the classified documents, the aggrieved lawyers cannot establish a legal basis to earn them a day in court.

The eavesdropping evidence in the al-Haramain case came to light after the Treasury Department accidentally disclosed it to the plaintiffs in the case. The evidence, which the Bush administration and Obama administration have declared a state secret, has never been made public.

Missed Anniversary (II)

(Previous entry - covering 1991-1998 - here)

Within a few days many will mistakenly mark the "6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War". They will be 12 years too late.

A brief look at a events (and media coverage) from late February/early March 1999, as the eighth year of the war in Iraq ended and the ninth began.

February 6, 1999: The Guardian:

Thus the world's most notorious pariah state, armed with its half-built hoard of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, tried to embrace the planet's most prolific terrorist. It was the stuff of the West's millennial nightmares, but United States intelligence officials are positive that the meeting took place, although they admit that they have no idea what happened.
<...>
But the most wanted man in the West may be at his most dangerous when cornered. And the increased pressure makes the prospect of a Saddam Hussein-Osama bin Laden alliance, once an improbable marriage of opposites, seem a more credible threat.

Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to US intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials.

The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq.

IN THE NO-FLY ZONES OF northern and southern Iraq, Saddam Hussein's gunners blindly fired surface-to-air missiles at patrolling American and British warplanes. In Yemen, terrorists seized a group of British Commonwealth and American tourists, and four of the hostages died in a shootout. In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy abruptly closed down after receiving a terrorist threat. Perhaps it was just a typical week in the Middle East. But in a region where no one puts much faith in blind coincidence, last week's conjunction of Iraqi antiaircraft fire and terrorism aimed at the countries that had just bombed Iraq convinced some that a new conspiracy was afoot.

Here's what is known so far: Saddam Hussein, who has a long record of supporting terrorism, is trying to rebuild his intelligence network overseas--assets that would allow him to establish a terrorism network. U.S. sources say he is reaching out to Islamic terrorists, including some who may be linked to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last summer. U.S. intelligence has had reports of contacts between low-level agents. Saddam and bin Laden have interests--and enemies--in common. Both men want U.S. military forces out of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden has been calling for all-out war on Americans, using as his main pretext Washington's role in bombing and boycotting Iraq. Now bin Laden is engaged in something of a public-relations offensive, having granted recent interviews, one for NEWSWEEK. He says ``any American who pays taxes to his government'' is a legitimate target.
<...>
The idea of an alliance between Iraq and bin Laden is alarming to the West (what if Baghdad gave the terrorists highly portable biological weapons?).

...Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, the popular leader of the Shia Muslims of Iraq, got into his car to drive to his house, as he did every day, from his office on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf near the Euphrates, southwest of Baghdad. With him were his two sons, Mustapha and Mu'ammal, who acted as his chief assistants, and a driver.

They never reached home.

The Difference (III)

What is a milblog, anyway?

Search wikipedia for an answer and you'll learn about "the warblog Wonkette, which began as a pro-Rumsfeld warblog and has since expanded to become a general-interest military weblog."

Missed Anniversary

I missed the anniversary:

February 24, 1991: The ground portion of the war in Iraq begins. On February 26 Iraqi troops began retreating from Kuwait, setting fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they flee. One hundred hours after the ground campaign started, President Bush declared a ceasefire; Kuwait had been liberated.

Eighteen years and still going.

Another missed anniversary - from the end of the second year of the war:

February 26, 1993: World Trade Center bombing. Later (Feb/March 1995) Ramzi Yousef, "mastermind" of the attack, is captured in Pakistan and extradited to the United States. A search of his former residences leads investigators to believe he is financially linked to Osama bin Laden. Also, he had stayed at a bin Laden financed guest house while in Pakistan. Bin Laden himself would neither confirm nor deny a connection when asked in a 1998 interview, stating only that he did not know Yousef prior to the event.

Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die (for my country gene pool) Rag

"Your tribe is more likely to live if you are willing to die":

...with about five seconds thought one can easily arrive at an evolutionary advantage associated with a belief in eternal life, and accordingly an evolutionary explanation of it.

Tribes of ancient humans often battled each other to death – literally to death, the losers being completely wiped out – and in these battles, a willingness to die might be the difference between victory and defeat, between your gene pool spreading, and your gene pool being wiped out.

Tons of stuff has been written about the prisoner's dilemma associated with infantry battles. If you all stand together and fight, your side has its best chance of winning. Anyone breaking and running exposes all others to annihilation. Etcetera. Military cultures ancient and modern were and are suffused with ideas of honour and courage and self-sacrifice, all of which resulted and result in everyone in your army standing firm and holding the line.

In such a world, a belief in some kind of Valhalla of dead heroes is pretty much a certainty. Even now, effective military units do everything they can to ensure that their heroic dead-in-battle are treated with tremendous solemnity and never forgotten, giving them eternal life of a limited kind, and pour encourager les autres. Such notions have even greater force if eternal life is literally what everyone in the front line of battle believes in. I am amazed, absolutely amazed, that any academic could be unaware of such notions, or if aware, then unpersuaded.

And one wouldn't have to express any particular view of the truth of religion or the accuracy of that theory to extrapolate it a bit (beyond any point the author was making) to incorporate an understanding of why members of a military culture might look with suspicion on those who would profess with great solemnity to share that desire to ensure the "heroic dead-in-battle are treated with tremendous solemnity and never forgotten" - or to ban religion from the military altogether.

WASHINGTON — Terry Bradshaw stared intently into the camera, his eyes moist, as the interviewer asked him if his faith in God had helped him through his bouts with depression.

"Oh, yeah,” answered Mr. Bradshaw, the Hall of Fame quarterback. “Well, I’m a Christian for one thing so, yeah, I’d been praying.”

The viewers of this video were military personnel who were watching an official military production dealing with depression, suicide and “the importance of faith.”

The screening of the suicide-prevention video and other recent incidents are reviving questions that the Pentagon had hoped to put behind it years ago: what the proper role of religion should be in the military and whether a pro-Christian culture permeates the armed forces.

The Difference in Afghanistan

Two (among many) enlightening reports from Afghanistan via the Dawn Patrol.

Registan:

I’ve become almost permanently uninterested in reporting on Afghanistan. Reading these accounts describes a country and a people I have never visited or met… and I am there right now, spending time outside the wire.

Ok… I can’t take it anymore. Surge this, surge that. Whatever. Ever since the surge of 2007, as the Battle of Baghdad was raging, the media has had a penchant for this word and it is making me dizzy.

Let us get this straight because history needs to know what is, and what isn’t, a military surge. God knows, the media is back with this darling of a word and I’m going to get them to make this right.

Different Presidents

For your viewing pleasure, the Revo has combined two videos into one
HT: Jim Wrenn

Obama spoke to the troops at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on Iraq but never once mentioned victory.

Okay, Greyhawk weighing in: I can't see the video right now, but I'm concerned it might be one compiled to give the impression that the current President of the United States lacks the support from the military his predecessor had. That is not the case, and to imply otherwise is an insult to the integrity of the US military, and in my mind reflects both wishful thinking and ignorance on the part of anyone making the claim.

Again, I can't see the video, so it might not be the sort of petty, small minded, contemptuous cheap shot that I worry it might be. But here's one of then-Senator Obama visiting deployed troops last summer. I said it then, I'll repeat it now: "you can tell these guys love him".

And more: Okay - now that I've had a chance to see it I can say it's worse than what I thought. The first video above is the cheapest of cheap shots. Marines in the Obama video have been clearly called to attention, and are standing at attention when he enters. Whooping it up for the Commander in Chief therefore is not an option. Period. As for the fadeout, cheers can be heard (and they aren't 'tepid') until the audio is cut to go "back to the newsroom".

The Difference (II)

"I long ago stopped thinking of myself as milblogger, if ever I did." Says Lex (hold your astonished gasps a moment, please...) "At least in the sense of someone reporting from the brawls overseas, penetrating through the mist of mainstream reportage and lending insight into the fight."

He's linking to this entry from Jules Crittenden, a late response to Dave Dilegge's call for paragraphs on the new media and military.

And for background on part of what Crittenden's talking about, read this.

But the careful reader will note that neither Crittenden nor Dilegge used the term "milblog" - although many thought that was what they meant.

Did they?

Matthew Kinney awarded Silver Star

I linked a story a couple days ago in the Afghanistan section of the Dawn Patrol regarding a story about SSG Matthew Kinney being awarded Silver Star for saving patients, soldiers and medevac crew.

MaryAnn at Soldiers' Angels Germany has more details on the story with links to video.

UPDATE: Matthew Kinney comments at MaryAnn's

I found these excerpts very telling:

Kinney got an e-mail once from one of the soldiers he pulled out of Wanat. The soldier told him it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen, the way they had come for them.

However Kinney does not think so...

"In my mind, I've done a lot of stuff throughout my Army career, and I don't feel like I should be awarded [the Silver Star]," Kinney told Army Times on Feb. 19 after his award ceremony. "It's like I'm not deserving of the award. I was just doing my job."

The heart of the humble soldier willing to give it all, with no reward except to know he is serving the country he loves.

Calling All Cooks!!!

Honor Their Service, inc , the home of such great projects as Operation Fresh Air and Operation Santa at the Hospitals, is putting together a Milbloggers' Cookbook.

They need submissions from milbloggers and commenters alike in all catagories If you have a favorite recipe they'd love to put it in the book.

We need submissions from milbloggers and commenters alike in all catagories (appetizers, sides, salads, soups, main dishes, desserts, drinks, etc.) If you have a recipe (or two) that you are particularly proud of, we'd love to put them in the book.
In addition, you can submit pictures if you like. I ask only that you don't submit pictures of people in speedos. Speedophobia is not a joking matter, people.

We will also be featuring favorite recipes as well as memories from some Gold and Silver star families. These folks, as well as our active duty (Blue star) folks, are the very reason why Honor Their Service exists.

Send your recipes (and any questions you might have) to HTScookbook@yahoo.com.

They are accepting recipes from today until March 9th 16th (extended).

I included a few of my humble recipes how 'bout you share some of yours.

A tribute by a son to his father

My Father Asks For Nothing, a WWII vet who only wanted one more chance to connect with the past before it was too late.

We went along the side of the plane, creeping along at the pace my father goes, my father assiduously avoiding walking between the fuselage and the props -- a habit sixty years old and more -- and he saw his chance. He ducked down and crept into the bomb bay.

Down came the hands. No one needed to be told who that man was, or why he was there. Everyone behind paused to wait patiently and respectfully, and everyone within reach helped me pick that old, frail, brave man up to look on the nuts and bolts of that totem of his distant life. And they thanked him, and they asked him questions, and marveled at him.

Godspeed sir

No Time for Tea

Glenn Reynolds has been following the "Tea Party" story since the beginning, so it's not surprising he noted Playboy's "astroturfing" accusations, along with the subsequent disappearance of same (though the original is captured here) because (says Glenn, referencing this AP report) "the story wasn't true". (More here and here.)

But even after the vanishing,

At last count there were 130 stories on Google News claiming some type of controversial scripting of events, from the likes of the Tribune and the New York Times, and 75 stories actually covering the event, from the likes of the Chicago Daily Observer and some increasingly relevant blogs.

It does strike me that perhaps some of the people who linked the article without wondering about its weak sourcing just couldn't quite believe that ordinary people would be moved to protest a gigantic government spending package. They don't think of that as something one protests about. War, yes, taxes no.

I'm certainly in favor of "big media" exercising its watchdog responsibility and ensuring Americans aren't duped or manipulated by fake "grass roots" movements. But in this case I'm struck by the contrast between the current example and one from the fall of 2006. A few weeks before the elections that year several media outlets were invited by a major public relations firm to the roll out of a "grass roots" movement by American military members who had spontaneously and on their own initiative started a movement and created a web site for their fellow troops to join in denouncing the war in Iraq. Some might 'question the timing' of the launch of such a movement so close to elections wherein Iraq was a major issue. In fact, one might think the involvement of the PR firm alone would be enough to invite skepticism on the part of the reporters, perhaps even get them motivated to investigate if any other well funded organizations were backing the effort. One would be wrong.

Keith Nolan

Dear Greyhawk:

I remember that you had a very interesting exchange with Vietnam historian Keith Nolan awhile back. [Here and here]. As I recall, you treated his views with a lot of respect, despite any disagreement.

So I thought you might want to know that Keith passed away on February 19. Here's an article, and a memorial website set up by VN vets.

It's clear he'll be missed by many.

Best regards,

"Skylark"

Keith is to the history of the Vietnam War as Vietnam is to hot and humid. He published his first magazine article on Vietnam as a teenager, his first book at nineteen. All told, he wrote 10 books on the war. It didn't make him rich or famous, but it did fill him with purpose. Needless to say he was a great and eager resource.

The first time we met, Keith explained that his publisher was eager for him to write books on "popular" wars. He told me that they loved his writing, but Vietnam simply didn't sell. "Why not write about the Civil War", they said. I asked too. What Keith said is seared into my consciousness. We were in the living room of his small house waiting for the camera crew to set up. He looked me in the eyes and said, "If I don't do it, who will?" He went on to reveal feelings very similar to my own: That the veterans of that war deserve better and he was unwavering.

The Difference

Thoughts on the “New Media” at Small Wars, wherein Dave Dilegge says:

Andrew Exum’s post / review of Tom Ricks’ The Gamble several weeks ago at Abu Muqawama got me thinking (once again) about the impact of the “new media” on issues concerning national security, military doctrine and concept development, as well as lessons learned. As one part of this new media I’m not sure I fully grasp our influence – though I am often told we are, quote – “making a difference”. Here is the excerpt from the AM post that got me thinking about this...

Such interaction (crossfeed of point and counterpoint, support, refutation, restatement, clarification, or expansion of ideas) defines the potential strength of "New Media". If there has been any diminution of that strength over the past years (or failure to reach above a level attained some time ago) it's been coincident with a decline in that more or less congenial interactivity. Obviously the topic "do we matter?" is one to invite such discussion. Are there others?

Part two here.

CNN Polls Americans

...and discovers that

...only 47 percent favor the war in Afghanistan, with 51 percent opposed to the fighting that first began soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
<...>
"Democrats oppose the war in Afghanistan by nearly 2 to 1. They're asking, 'What's our strategy there? We don't want another Iraq,' " said CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.

Listen Up

A bit of a public service announcement here - and the intended beneficiary is you.

Heard about LibriVox yet?

LibriVox: free audiobooks

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net for free. All our audio is in the public domain, so you may use it for whatever purpose you wish.
<...>
We get most of our texts from Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive and ibiblio.org host our audio files (for free!).

Our annual budget is $0, and for the moment we don’t need any money.

The youngest daughter is benefiting from the audio book version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (shhh.. don't tell her English Lit teacher...) on the long ride to and from school. (And while simultaneously doing homework and housework.) Her dad, on the other hand, enjoys other less serious diversions during his daily commute.

For those who need a milblog angle in anything, here are two versions of Sun Tzu.

Rapidfire

Baghdad men seek Hookahs: "Before, government employees made $3 a month. They couldn't afford to come here," Khadam said. "Now they make 3 million dinars [about $2,600] a month! You have some drivers who make that much now."

Skating away on the thin ice of a new day?

Mr Miliband said: "The message that I got from the Nouri al-Maliki (the Iraqi prime minister) was 'make sure given all the sacrifices that you made and we made that you don't miss out on this because it has all been for a purpose and that is to build up Iraq'. He said 'get your skates on' - and I think that was a good message.

Q: Would you stay for his entire first term?

Gates: That would be a challenge.

Bonus quote: "Secretary Gates has indicated that President Obama has made clear that he would stop the withdrawal if necessary if conditions on the ground deteriorate."

You don't say? "The word ''algorithm'' comes from the name of Mohammed ibn Musa al Khwarizmi, a mathematician who lived in Baghdad from about 780 to 850."

I see that. Except for the 'gorithm' part.

Matthew Bogdanos, today's Washington Post:

No one wants everyone to think and act alike. Diversity is a major source of our nation's strength. But this diminishing shared experience leaves us ill-prepared against global terrorism. As the British general Sir William Butler warned a century ago, "A nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards."