Dawn Patrol

IRAQ

Scum [Who's your Baghdaddy? - in Iraq]
Early yesterday morning there was an insurgent attack to the north of our base camp. This in and of itself is not unusual, but the nature of the attack serves to illustrate the level of depravity of these sumbags.

In the morning hours there was a funeral procession traveling along the main highway that eventually leads into Baghdad. As the procession was moving it came under insurgent attack, which resulted in a few dead and several wounded civillians. Subsequesntly, an Army Military Police unit was notified of the attack and moved into the area to provide support. Once they arrived and secured the area it appeared the insurgents had left the scene so the MP unit began treating the civillian wounded. Unbeknownst to them, ...

Not bombers or insurgents, they're terrorists. [Iraq the Model - an Iraqi in Iraq]
More than a hundred victims was the result of yesterday's barbaric attack that targeted civilians.
All that death doesn't seem enough to wake some people up from their illusions and selfishness.
This is terrorism?and it brings nothing but death.
The government here announced Wednesday a national mourning day in solidarity with the families of the victims of the latest two massacres in Iraq.
But we hear nothing from our Arab "brothers" not even a word of consolation, rejection, condemnation; no nothing.
Even Annan condemned the attacks with a few words while the secretary of the Arab League, Amr Mousa didn't utter a word.

Nervous in Baghdad: Bay in The Weekly Standard [Austin Bay]
Perhaps the title ought to be, ?Nervous in Washington.? Here?s a link to my latest Weekly Standard article.

Losing It [Ghraib Danger - at Abu Ghraib in iraq]
A soldier died today. Many soldiers died today in Iraq, Afghanistan, and soldiers from other countries in other locations. But the specific soldier I speak of died in the courtyard our office shares with the FOB hospital. This afternoon, while processing files because we're always processing files, we all heard an explosion, ... a loud explosion, the second loudest explosion I've heard since I've been here. It was ...

I Will Fear No Evil [Wayne's World - in Iraq]
When I woke up yesterday morning, my Inbox was flooded with news alerts from Karbala, Iskandariyah and Babil.
Before I went to bed last night, I read Kevin Kelly?s calming answer to Lauren?s question why we had not heard from Wayne as scheduled:(pics)

The IED report we like to get [Phil and Becky - Phil's in Iraq]
Earlier this month, I posted about some insurgents who blew themselves up while driving with a car full of IEDs. This afternoon, we received a report of another Darwin Award worthy insurgent.

The report was sketchy at first, as always. An IED detonated along one of the routes in our area of operations with one civilian killed, but the incident was curious because there were no coalition forces in the area at the time of the blast.

Yes, I know I am a Nerd... [Ma Deuce Gunner - in Iraq]
I am a giant gun nerd. Not as much as Kim Du Toit, but a nerd nonetheless. Today I got to hang out for a while in the arms room of the local IP SWAT team...and being the nerd I am, I had to get photos of me with their more exotic weapons. So, check out the gallery below. (pics)

A River Runs Through It [365 and a Wake Up - in Iraq]
If there is one single feature that separates Baghdad from the rest of this hellish desert it is the sinewy curves of the Tigris River. There are no promenades along its shores, just a sharp band of grey, rough hewn rock separating burnt soil from cool water. In the areas where the sand flows into the river you will see the most obvious works of man - the lithe curves of wooden boats and the artless shimmer of mass produced aluminum runabouts. Although the shores are dozens of degrees cooler then the hive of Baghdad?s neighborhoods the supercharged sun still beats its bright hammer on the boats ? all of them ...

Hussein charged for his crimes: [Balloon Juice]
The Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein said in a statement today that Mr. Hussein and three others will be referred to criminal court on charges related to the killings of about 150 Shiites in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982. The tribunal said that investigations into millions of documents and the questioning of thousands of witnesses have been completed...
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Good. Now watch Democrats shoot themselves politically by running around saying things like "Sure Saddam Hussein was a bad person but was it worth _____________."

Saddam's trial update. [Iraq the Model - an Iraqi in Iraq]
The latest announcement from the special tribunal in charge of suing Saddam and his aides was on air a few minutes ago.
The announcement was read by 'interrogation judge' Raed Juhi who considered this announcement as the actual beginning of Saddam's trial.
Juhi stated that investigations are going on according to the schedule and the deadline will not be exceeded.
He added that investigations will

Out of Focus: Selling the War in Iraq, Saddam's Regime Corruption, and Weapons of Mass Destruction [Bobby's World - in Afghanistan]
Just over two weeks ago, I noted the tragic analogy between the Truman Administration's decision to pursue a vigorous anti-subversive crusade at home in order to support his anti-Communist agenda abroad, and the Bush Administration's decision to use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) as the practically exclusive justification to invade Iraq in our greater Global War on Terror. The tragedy of...

Home Sweet Home [My vacation in Iraq - just left Iraq]
Made it home yesterday at about 1 pm. Been kinda busy so I haven't been able to post but I just thought I would write and say that I am home; and how sweet it is.

MSM REPORTS ON IRAQ

Weekend Of Slaughter Propels Iraq Towards All-Out Civil War (London Times Online)...James Hider
IRAQ is slipping into all-out civil war, a Shia leader declared yesterday, as a devastating onslaught of suicide bombers slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them Shias, around the capital at the weekend.

U.S. Says It Did Not Carry Out Plans To Back Iraqis In Election (Washington Post)...Dafna Linzer
...A U.S. official who was heavily involved in preparing for the vote said U.S. officials ultimately offered a variety of less organized Iraqi parties support in the form of "cell phones, printing billboards and pamphlets and poster bills advertising the electoral choices. That is what we eventually opted for, and the truth is, the effort ended up not helping the parties that we wanted to help most."

Protecting Iraqi Security Forces (Washington Times)...Adriana Lins de Albuquerque and Michael O'Hanlon
In his recent speech to the nation on Iraq, President Bush said "a major part of our mission is to train [Iraqi security forces] so they can do the fighting, and then our troops can come home." This aspect of administration strategy makes eminent sense. But what does not make sense is the mediocre way we are now helping to keep those forces alive.

Iraqi Boy's Journey To Erase The Scars Of War (New York Times)...Jeffrey Gettleman
...Mr. Reilly used his influence to get Ayad into the United States, where the boy joined a small but growing circle of Iraqi children who have been airlifted to the country for medical help.

TV Goes To War In Iraq (USA Today)...Bill Keveney
...Uncertainty ? ratcheted down several notches ? is a watchword for Over There itself, the first TV series to depict a war while fighting goes on. The drama is tangled up in potentially explosive questions: Is it too soon or too much? Is it believable? How will it be received by a divided public?

Some Veterans See 'Good'; Some See 'Misperceptions' (USA Today)...Unattributed
A group of Iraq war veterans offered a review of FX's Over There (premieres July 27): It's a good show, but a number of details are inaccurate.

Media Too Free For Some Iraqis (Dallas Morning News -subscription)...Tod Robberson
...In little more than two years, Iraq has gone from three tightly controlled television stations and fewer than a dozen newspapers to 29 domestic television stations and about 170 newspapers, according to Iraq-based media-monitoring groups. Satellite receivers now bring hundreds of international television channels into Iraqi living rooms.

Sordid Images On TV Repel The Kurds, But They Raise Some Skepticism, Too (New York Times)...James Glanz
Sheik Zana has said that he was closely affiliated with extremist Islamic terrorist groups in Iraq, and that much of what he did was a kind of training program intended to produce ruthless killers.
The programs, distributed to television stations by Kurdish intelligence and security services, are intended to expose terrorist recruiting tactics and punch holes in their religious sales pitch.
Even in a heavily edited format that has cut out the most explicit acts, the images of gay sex are vying with those of beheadings in attracting the attention, and revulsion, of viewers. Nadia Mohamad, 49, a government employee who was watching the program with her husband and children while having dinner at the Sky Cafe in downtown Erbil on Thursday night, said the beheading of a terrified youth on the first program - shown before the sex scenes began appearing - had literally sickened her...

AFGHANISTAN

The Long Ride Home [Fire Power Forward - just left Afghanistan]
A couple of weeks ago, just after my last entry, I found myself sitting in one of the canvas seats that lined the side of the C-17. Thirteen other people sat to my left and right and thirteen others sat in the seats on the other side facing us. Uncharacteristic of a flight headed out of a combat theater, there was no laughing or joking. All the normal yelling and good natured taunts were replaced with a stoic silence as we gazed at the two rows of caskets between us, each meticulously covered with an American flag. The plane leveled out, and some began to shift in their seats to get comfortable for the long ride. One of the two Slovakian soldiers on the other side stared at the casket nearest him with an expression that was not irreverent but seemed to indicate that he couldn?t comprehend something...
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...what we did know was that a formation of Apaches, Blackhawks, and Chinooks were traveling up a mountain valley north of Asadabad near the Pakistan border. As they approached their landing zone, the smaller Blackhawks slowed to allow the Chinooks to move ahead. A Blackhawk Crew Chief looking from his side window as the ill fated Chinook moved ahead saw the smoke trail of an RPG from the trees below then the explosion as the round hit the rear of the Chinook.

MSM REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN

Report Criticizes U.S. Approach In Afghanistan (Los Angeles Times)...Halima Kazem
Washington's short-sighted approach in Afghanistan has put warlords in power and allowed U.S. military forces to engage in prisoner abuse and criminal activities, a human rights report released Sunday said.

MSM REPORTS ON TERRORISM

Ties To U.S. Made Britain Vulnerable, Report Says (Washington Post)...Glenn Frankel
Britain's position as a subordinate ally of the United States has been a "high-risk policy" that has left it vulnerable to terrorist attacks such as the recent bombings of London's transportation system, according to a briefing paper released early Monday by one of the country's most prominent foreign affairs research groups

MILITARY ISSUES

GITMO and Abu Ghraib [John Holdaway-Intel Dump]
The results of another investigation came out this week (a busy week for those keeping score on detainee operations scandals). The most interesting analysis came from Josh White in the Washington Post.

Mr. White tries to make ...

Some Ga. troops blister tattered desert uniforms [The 48th Goes to War - in Iraq]
Soldiers in the 48th Brigade Combat Team were thrilled to be the first to march off to war wearing the Army?s new mint-green, digital camouflage uniforms.
But after almost two months in the sands of Iraq, the reviews on the new duds are decidedly mixed.

MSM REPORTS ON MILITARY ISSUES

Durbin Abuse Case Not Verified (Washington Times)...Rowan Scarborough
Military investigators did not substantiate major charges of prisoner abuse contained in one FBI agent's e-mail that was read on the Senate floor by Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin as an example of U.S.-sanctioned torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

RE-ENLISTING

Why Return to Service? [NEW MilBLog Ring Member! -Medic 119 - Far From Perfect]
First off, go read this. This Marine says almost exactly what I am feeling. He just beat me to the punch by a few hours. In fact, he forced me to to re-write my article into a pale version of the original in order to avoid accusations of plagarism.
I know there is probably more than one of you wonder what kind of crazy person goes back into the Army, especially after being out for eight years!? Its not an easy thing to decide to be sure, and there were many factors and reasons behind it.

MSM REPORTS ON RE-ENLISTING

Soldiers Re-Enlist Beyond U.S. Goal (USA Today)...Dave Moniz
Soldiers are re-enlisting at rates ahead of the Army's targets, even as overall recruiting is suffering after two years of the Iraq war...

POLITICS

political pornography [BobKrumm.com]
?Republicans want to kill us . . . They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit . . . That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."
These are the words of former Clinton Advisor Paul Begala from a recent speech to the first-ever Campus Progress National Student Conference.

MSM REPORTS ON POLITICS

An Empty Apology (New York Times)...BOB HERBERT
President Bush has been as devoted as an acolyte to the Republican Southern strategy, which, racist at its core, still lives.

THE MEDIA

The Love of Truth [Hurl's Blog - in Iraq]
For years I have watched - and marveled - at the efforts so many people make to believe lies and make up new ones. I thought that at some point the lie would be so absurd, so obvious, so insane, that the truth would finally burst forth and the liars would be exposed and terribly ashamed. I no longer think that. Oh sure, the lies are getting obvious and absurd, but those who believe them simply make up new ones to justify the previous lies. They have no shame. They become caught in their own web of make believe and held there by pride and prejudice. Such is the way conspiracy theories are born.

Guardian Columnist Islamic Extremist [Outside The Beltway]
The Guardian is standing by columnist Dilpazier Aslam even after revelations that he is a member of the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Moreover, they allowed him to write on the London bombings without disclosing that affiliation.

Richard Cohen, Stop Lying [Villainous Company]
No, Mr. Cohen, the real outrage is that you insist on spreading lies.
I am so tired of this. When is it going to end? Are you illiterate? Can you not read? Journalism is your business.
I am a former housewife, for God's sake. If I can Google a source, why can't you summon the basic competence to get the facts right?

Just the Facts Sir [Right in Raleigh]
The N&O continues their tradition of dragging out every issue that might damage the Bush administration by running a Rove story for the 4th day. This one chooses to not mention some important information.
The article states: Wilson, on a mission authorized by the CIA, went to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was seeking uranium for nuclear bombs in Africa. He reported that there was not evidence to support that suspicion.
Now how hard would it be to clarify 2 issues. First

BLOGGING

Blogger Under Death Threat [Eric's Grumbles Before The Grave]
Chris of Anarchangel has had a Fatwah issued against him and his family according to conversations he has had with the FBI in recent days. The FBI says that the fatwah is a credible threat and is because of Chris' blog posts on the doings of Team Infidel.

A New Milblogger... [Jack Army]
worth your time and encouragement. I'd prefer everyone keep our AH64D Longbow pilots happy!

My pleasure to introduce Outlaw 13 at Guidons, guidons, guidons!

Korea, A Nation of Bloggers? [GI Korea - in Korea]
According to this Blogcount article Korea is a nation of bloggers:
"It is asserted that there are 11.9 million bloggers in South Korea, a country with a population of around 50 million people. This means that over 20 percent of the people in the country, including old ladies and babies, are bloggers. This is a laughable and needy assertion. IBM cannot even muster 0.1 percent of its employee base, and Korea manages over 20 percent of its entire population? This is how delusional the blogging-crowd members have become about their hobby. And, frankly, I don't get it. Everyone has to conform. It's the 'everyone must become a blogger because I am one' mentality."

RECOVERING BLOGGER

Update 16 July [From My Position - recovering at Walter Reed]
Chuck has made many great strides this week. Wednesday he sat on the edge of his bed and stood up, briefly, but he was able to finally stand on his own two feet. Thursday he got out of bed (with assistance) and sat in a recliner chair that PT brought into his room. He said he sat there for a few hours. He was so excited to finally be out of bed! Friday he walked across his room, unassisted, but w/ a PT close by... and Alice and I were probably too close, but we were being very protective! Then today, Saturday, he walked down the hall!!! He walked unassisted, but had the PT close behind. He even got to open a door in the hallway and breathe in some fresh air. It was so wonderful to see the smile on his face and watch him walk. He moves very slowly, of course, but he is able to support himself on his own two legs. I could see it in his face... how good it felt not just to stand up, but to walk w/o anyone holding on to him. The last four days have been amazing.