Dawn Patrol

Mr President

The President?s Address At Fort Bragg [The Political Teen]
Tonight President Bush will speak about the state of the Iraq war in front of thousands of servicemen at Fort Bragg. The AP has released a few excerpts of his speech with a side of left-wing rhetoric.
VIDEO IN EXTENDED ENTRY

The President's Speech [FullosseousFlap?s Dental Blog]
Flap supports the President?s policies on Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on Terror.
Hey, go over to MoveonPac.com and send your feelings of support for the President using their nice and convenient forms. You can omit their talking points!

Bush: Bloodshed in Iraq Is ?Worth It? [Outside the Beltway]
The Associated Press continues its tradition of reporting presidential speeches that haven't happened yet in the past tense. Mitch Albom was suspended for doing less.
Bush: Bloodshed in Iraq Is 'Worth It' (AP) NOTE: Reported Before Speech

Fake applause; speech numbers [kos]
AMERICAblog:
ABC's Terry Moran just reported that the only time Bush got applause was in the middle of his speech when a White House advance team member started clapping all on their own in order to cajole the soldiers into clapping,...

President's Silence Tonight is Deafening [Kos -Rep Louise Slaughter]
Please Recommend
President Bush spoke tonight and his silence was deafening. If anyone was surprised... if anyone was shocked to see their Commander-In-Chief so divorced from reality, they really haven't been paying much attention. But day by day more Americans are seeing the light.

Leadership 101 [Froggy Ruminations]
In case you missed the President?s speech last night, you missed out on a great example of leadership, strategic vision, and confident discipline. It is unfortunate that it became necessary for President Bush to give this address, but he effectively

Iraq

SPC Roby Vs. IED: The Movie [Armor Geddom]
Well, I promised you guys the movie of SPC Roby blowing up an IED. And here it is. It's my first time, there isn't much cool music or editing so bear with me. I'm no SPC Camp. If the movie doesn't show up as "IED", just hit refresh. SFC Kennedy is in the front seat of the humvee that Roby is in. He is laying Roby's shots onto the IED. You can hear SSG Terry coaching Roby and telling SPC Benton that Roby knows he's shooting short.

Level 4 Body Armor Tested By Air Force [Patriot Voices]
Carried into the Air Force theater hospital, wounded badly in the shoulder and thigh, a servicemember is lucky to be alive.
The body armor he was wearing protected his vital organs but could not stop the bullets from tearing into his unprotected body parts.

A CACHE SEARCH THAT WAS SUCCESSFUL, BUT HOT [dIXIE sAPPER]
We rolled out this morning early to try to get a jump on the heat to search some houses and do some cache searches. It was already real hot when we got moving so we knew it was going to be really hot once we got to the cache part in the open desert. As we were driving in our tanks to the area we were going to search, I saw a cow running and pulling something. At first I didn?t really pay that much attention and went back to looking at the road. When we made a turn, I saw the cow again and this time is was running and I could see what it was pulling. There was a little 8-10 year old girl that was holding on to the rope for dear life and...

Transfer of sovereignty anniversary [Phil and Becky]
Today was the one year anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq, and we expected a spike in AIf activity to commemorate the event.
We have a big map in the TOC of the entire Brigade area of operations, and whenever anything happens, we put a colored sticky tab on the map with a short description of what happened.

Sensitivity Training [Small Town Veteran] MRS G NOTES: Rush's Orange Gitm t-shirts didn't make the list.
From: ComMidEastFor
To: All Commands
Subject: Inappropriate T-Shirts
Ref: ComMidEast Inst 16134//24 K
1. All commanders promulgate upon receipt.
2. The following T-shirts are no longer to be worn on or off base by All forces serving in the Middle East:

It Is About Iraq? [Eric's Grumbles Before The Grave]
I ran across something surprising today. Something I really hadn't known clearly. And something that those who wish to obfuscate the origins of our current conflicts with Islamic extremist tend to gloss over or ignore. The claim has long been..

IRAQ: How Long? [ROFASix]
The web site, Strategy Page, presents an interesting look at how much longer the Iraqi war will continue. Two more years if you believe the Iraqi Prime Minister. That is how long it will take to get those ?damn Sunni's? under control he says. The Sunni, he suggests, are the source of all the insurgent problems in Iraq.

Iraq Casualities Review: a powerful perspective [CDR Salamamder]
This is the best visual description of the cost of the Iraq war. It is all visual, takes little broadband moment to get going. Read into it what you will, but there is something here for both right and left brained folks.

Thank You Mr. Congressman [IRR Soldier - in Iraq]
There was an order put out today by my Brigade that says all E-7s and above and Officers will receive Bronze Stars for being here. It doesn't say all E-7s and above and Officers will receive a Bronze star for something meritorious, but just that you will receive one because you're an E-7 or above. Not only do I think this is ridiculous for the obvious reason that it wasn't earned, but because it cheapens it for anyone who received it before.

Jihad Manual [Watch Your Six]
One of my sources tells me that the "jihad manual" that the Marines found last week contains, among other things, moral justification for killing innocent Iraqis. The manual basically said that there is no problem killing innocent Iraqis to further the cause of jihad.
My source said that this manual will be released to the press this week.

Do we have the will to win? [Air Force Pundit]
A confluence of events now lead me to wonder whether we as a people still have the strength of character to see this through, even as far as we have come, and as much blood and treasure as we have spilled. It is not just the ceaselessly and reflexively pessimistic way in which the news media spins events in Iraq and Afghanistan through a defeatist lens. Read, for example, the way the Washington Post covered the smashing of Taliban remnants as they massed in formations large enough to potentially be combat effective:

Afghanistan

28 June 2005 0152z [Hoike - in Afghanistan]
It's funny how things tend to come full circle. As quickly as this all began, this is all starting to come to a close. I find myself once again in tent city this morning. I hopped onto a chinook flight a few hours ago to get here. With some luck, that'll be the last one I take in a while.
As I was waiting for the bird to arrive last night, I took one last look at the night sky with my head propped up against my duffel bag as I lay there in the sand. I remember the first time I saw that same view a year ago.

Military Issues

The *Other* Quagmire [Argghhh! ]
Remember Bosnia? We had no exit timetable there, either -- just a set of conditions that had to be met before we decided that we were no longer needed in the Peacekeeping role. Those conditions were fulfilled and the last SFOR

Women in combat [JammedGun]
I had posted about the issue of women in combat a few days back. Now here is another piece on the same topic that just appeared in NewsMax.
Folks, igoring this topic will NOT make it go away: There is something about the sight of a woman with a broken or maimed body with injuries sustained in a combat environment which weighs heavily on the consciences of those of us who are devotees of the Judaeo-Christian Tradition

Between the Lines [baldilocks]
As it turns out, there was a senate junket to Gitmo. However, Senators Kennedy and Durbin weren’t there, for some reason. Two Democratic senators just back from reviewing U.S. detention facilities and interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said

Support Our Troops....for Real

Support the troops AND our wishes [Conservative Thinking]
Everyone says they support the troops. But, I'm starting to notice that a lot of people are not supporting what they are doing around the world today. I'm in the Air Force and when I start noticing that my morale is slipping because of the lack of support from US citizens in the Global War on Terrorism and Operation Iraqi Freedom things are getting bad. There is a minority of Congress that wants us out of Iraq yesterday and a large number of liberal voters that support that sentiment.

The Media

Reporters Who Get It Right [Iraq War News]
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was not a fan of reporters, to put it mildly. "Now to every army and almost every general a newspaper reporter goes along, filling up our transports, swelling our trains, reporting our progress, guessing at places, picking up dropped expressions, inciting jealousy and discontent, and doing infinite mischief."

Politics

Rove hypnotizes Kos
The new headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Karl Rove, is having a strange - some would say magical - effect on liberals. This from Kos:
Democrats must ride that wave [of growing anti-war sentiment] into 2006, and can do so in ways where they don't sound like hippy retreads.

Bwahahahaha - This is too funny! [View From Tonka]
Freestar Media, LLC
I think this news release will speak for itself!
For Release Tuesday, June 28 to all other media
Weare, New Hampshire
(PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

When Should We Abandon Freedom?
In the long course of struggles, it is not without precedent that humankind begins to dispair over the cost of the struggle; the pain of loss and sacrifice, the uncertainty of the outcome. One has cause to wonder if the course we have set, the cause we have supported cannot be won. In every heart, the darkness comes and tries to wipe away the memory, the reason for which we started this course.

The Supreme Court's decision in Kelo got you down? [WILLisms.com]
Cheer up. Texas Senator John Cornyn is on the case. He has introduced legislation to protect the private property rights of Americans, rights which were eroded by the Court's controversial 5-4 decision.

Massachusetts Democrats On Water Rescues [Balance Sheet]
Two summers ago, Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney was at his New Hampshire lake home. He heard screams coming from the water where he had just noted a boat drifting by. He and his sun drove their WaveRunners to the shipwreck and started ferrying the passengers to shore.
When the story was published in the Massachusetts newspapers, a spokeswoman for the loyal opposition members of the Democrat party indignantly said...

The MSM Reports

Among Soldiers And Families, Applause Mixes With Doubts (New York Times)
Specialist Nicki Worrell said that she was not bitter or burdened with regrets about her service in Iraq and that the leg and arm wounds she suffered in August 2003 when a roadside bomb blasted the Humvee she was driving had mostly healed.

Bush's Repetition Leaves Questions Unanswered (Philadelphia Inquirer)
On May 24, President Bush talked about life as a communicator: "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

The War Is Over, And We Won (The American Enterprise)
Your editor returned to Iraq in April and May of 2005 for another embedded period of reporting. I could immediately see improvements compared to my earlier extended tours during 2003 and 2004

W's War Pleas In Last Throes? (New York Daily News)
President Bush made the sale last night - but only temporarily. His pitch for the Iraq war was about as good as it could be, but not good enough to hold broad public support for very long.

In Memory

Farewell, Mr. Foote [Jump Blog]
Well now. What to say of Mr. Foote? He was most widely known for his appearance in Ken Burns epic documentary ?The Civil War?. He was included in that documentary for two reasons: he had written the definitive three volume history of the American Civil War, and he was incredibly engaging on camera. His unabashed Southern-ness poured out of television screens onto millions of living room floors all across America. People loved him instantly. I myself was instantly taken with the thought that one didn?t have to cover a Southern accent to seem intelligent.

Godspeed John Walton [BLACKFIVE]
John Walton, mostly known as the 11th richest man in the world, died yesterday piloting an experimental aircraft. Wal-Mart Heir John Walton Dies in Crash By

Congrats

Happy Birthday to me. [doubleplusgood infotainment]
The big 36, baby!
I'm going to take it easy on the posting today.

Blogging

Online from the front lines (Boston Herald)
Avid GI bloggers draw followings on Web sites such as mudvillegazette.com, which hosts dozens of the soldiers' stories.
...One popular blogger, Army Capt. Charles Ziegenfuss - who commands a tank company and posts his writing at tcoverride.blogspot.com - was injured by a roadside bomb while on patrol last week. According to a blog post from his wife, Ziegenfuss is in intensive care at a German hospital, set to return to the states this week.

Before the injury, he talked to the Herald via e-mail about why he blogs:...

This might get interesting [Watch your Six]
No sh*t, there I was...
... standing in the line at the commissary. I saw that the new Army Times was out. On the front page, the tagline read "Tracking Bloggers: War-zone web loggers ordered to register."
I wondered if Joe Chenelly had quoted me in his article, so I bought it. Sure enough,...

Army Times: OIF MilBloggers Must Register [Jack Army]
Here are my questions and answers to the email interview:
First, let me give you a few of my thoughts about Milblogging and what it is. The idea of blogging is wonderful because it is so vague. Blogging can be simply a journal or diary or it can be an amateur attempt at journalism. The blog gives an average person, or Soldier, the opportunity to communicate thoughts, ideas, and events in a manner that is extremely fast, far-reaching, and interactive. The idea that I, as a Milblogger, can communicate what I'm doing (within guidelines), thinking, feeling and post photos and links to support all that is amazing. Finally, there is the direction a blog takes, which is limited to the imagination of the blogger. I'd like to think that my blog is a forum with my posts as a starting point for discussions.