Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs, other blogs, and the mainstream media. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list. (We have a daily "Open Post" too, if you have something on another topic you can link there.)

IRAQ

No Tears in Heaven -- [Sgt Hook]
The four Soldiers sat around an olive drab painted footlocker playing cards. Actually, the group was comprised of three Soldiers and one Marine, all wearing desert camouflage uniforms, their blouses removed exposing brown t-shirts, not because they were hot, rather it was just more comfortable to have them off.

...“Damn.” Captain Williams said, throwing his cards down onto the makeshift table after being set by the younger team. His partner grinned slightly, knowing the young officer had bid bigger than he had in his hand.
...Devlin Thomas then slipped into his reporter persona asking harder hitting questions of the young private, “Why are you here? Is it worth it? Aren’t you angry?” Private First Class Velleux refused to answer.
“Angry?” Sergeant Washington asked, confused by the question. “Why in the hell would I be angry? I’m here so that they can live safely there. I want my kids to grow up tasting, smelling, and breathing freedom, not misery, not oppression, not shackled. I’m happy that I’ve helped to make that happen for them in my own small way.”

Devlin Thomas seemed to take offense to the answer, angrily arguing, “But you’ll never see them again! They’ll never see you again! You’re ...

Iraq Progress Report -- [Boots in Baghdad]
Below is some information from USAID as to what has been accomplished in Iraq since the Coalition invasion. This does not include the fact that Saddam Hussein has been detained and removed from power and is currently standing trial for his actions, that there is an independ Iraqi Army and Police Force standing tall next to Coalition forces protecting Iraqi citizens, and Iraqi nationals have been elected by their peers to govern various provinces. It has been three years. We won the war against Saddam Hussein and are now fighting a war on terrorism. You won't find any of this in the mainstream media. If you ask me, for three years, we are fast tracking!

The 4-2-4 IA's first independent op -- [An independent look at Iraq - independent journalist embed in Iraq]
This is one of the changes that I talked about earlier: the arrival of an Iraqi army battalion, the 4th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi army Division, from Kirkuk.
Most of the soldiers in the 4-2-4 IA aren't Arab. They're a cross section of the ethnic mix that make up northern Iraq. Kurds, Assyrians and Turkoman. One of the company's is made up of Arabs.
The operation I went out on was the battalion's first independent op. Some Americans were out there but the vast majority of troops were junedi.

Combat Tour...ism -- [bandit.three.six - in Iraq]
...I managed to convince an Iraqi Army Soldier to let me pose with his AK-47. One of the unique aspects of the IZ is the presence of Iraqi Army and Police. These are the guys who are the ones to be admired. They're the ones that are going to be here after we leave and they've made their decision to support the democratic effort. The Iraqi Soldier who let me pose with his weapon and those like him who wear the Iraqi uniform deserve as much support as you can give them.

Sorrow of the Past in Today's Exhibition -- [Treasure of Baghdad - an Iraqi in Iraq]
...In the fortified blast-walled Green Zone, the foundation held its largest cultural and artistic exhibition on the third anniversary of the fall of Saddam’s dictator regime. As Rammah continued narrating her miserable life under the former dictatorship, 24 Steps to Liberty and I were gazing sadly. Our eyes were filled with tears strong enough not to fall down. Suddenly, 24 left the room. I followed leaving our American colleague, whom we accompanied, watching the interview. What we were watching was enough to remind us with how tough old days were. I couldn’t continue following him. He needed to be alone. He needed to smoke and compensate himself by himself.

What Took You So Long Guys? -- [24 Steps to Liberty - an Iraqi in Iraq]
It didn’t take us long. A few minutes of driving and here they are; tanks with foreign soldiers on the top waving back to people who waved white flags at them [a sign of piece.] I wanted to personally wave to one of them. I did. He or she waved back. Then we kept driving in the streets and see where the “visitors” were and how they look like. At the end of the day, I felt I did my part. I thanked them for launching this war to help me have a better future. I was waiting for this future to come, or at least to appear in the horizon. And when they came, I believed it would be the first step. I am still waiting!

Iraq by the Numbers -- [Celestial Junk Blog]
Civilian Tolls
The Washington Post: Disseminating Balderdash
One of the convoluted realities of debating the Iraq conflict, is that the left has turned it into a numbers war. Right from the start, before the first Coalition bombs fell, socialist utopians in the media, DNC, and from most of Europe were spewing forth numbers; numbers of kids made sick from spent uranium bullets, numbers from Oil-for-Food starvation, numbers from coalition casualty estimates, and numbers of dollars to be spent. The war of words, was one of numbers.

The Glass Factory -- [Skull Nation in the Sandbox - in Iraq]
Our base is behind this complex. That is the Euphrates river in the foreground. This is where the Iraqi Police recruiting drives have been held in our area. Just outside the base and this factory is the most violent city in Iraq. It needs a military solution much like Fallujah as playing nice is not working (my opinion). This place is a magnet for "undesireable" types, and may be the last bastion for organized insurgent cells. I think if Ramadi could be purged of terrorists and insurgents, it would break their collective back and would jumpstart the political process here.

Iraqi Liberation Week at Families United -- [Iraq War News]
Dear friend: I'm sure that you heard recent news reports about a car bomb in Baghdad or a kidnapping in Fallujah, but did you know that our American soldiers volunteer to help disabled Iraqi orphans?
I'm not surprised if you haven’t heard this story, but I know it's true and I'm enclosing a few pictures so that you can see it with your own eyes.

'They're not going to stop us' -- [USA Todayn Dispatches from Iraq - journalist embed in Iraq]
HAWIJAH, Iraq –- Tucked in the middle of Forward Operating Base McHenry is a 100-foot by 200-foot metal building filled with blaring hip-hop music and a gang of military mechanics keeping 101st Division’s 1st Battalion, 327 Infantry Regiment’s patrols on the road...

Brown Water Navy -- [Neptunus Lex]
In the spirit of “if you want a new idea, read an old book,” the same folks who brought you Swift boats and John Forbes Kerry’s Purple Hearts are now preparing to trot out a new riverine patrol capability
At this time next year, about 200 sailors will fill up small boats, man .50-caliber machine guns and watch for trouble along the waterways of Baghdad.
“We’ve got sailors lining up at the door,” Capt. Michael L. Jordan, commodore of the riverine force, said during an interview at his half-finished headquarters. “The problem is, we’ve got no experience to draw from.” The Navy has not seen this type of action since the Vietnam War, so it is calling river veterans, the Marine Corps and the special warfare community for advice.

Declining Jaafari -- [The Fourth Rail]
Sistani, Talabani and Sunni parties call for an end to the political deadlock for the selection of the Iraqi Prime Minister
Pressure on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to withdraw his nomination as the United Iraqi Alliance candidate as the next prime minister increases, this time from some very influential quarters. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most respected and influential Shiite religious leader in Iraq, has reluctantly entered the fray. This indicates the gravity of the situation, as Sistani does not wish to become the arbiter of Iraqi politics. Kirk Sowell reports:

Found out why Hajj-Mart closed. -- [Sappersgt - in Iraq]
Seems that the Hajjs were slowly moving more and more folks into it and none of them were leaving. Apparently there were some 40 folks living in the plywood shops we had set up. The guys who were authorized to be there were told to get rid of the rest, they didn't, they all got closed down. The plan is to build a new Hajj-Mart in a more visible location, near the gate, and make all the Hajjis leave every day.

Moving into my new home away from home -- [Doc in The Box - in Iraq]
We're moving into our permanent barracks this afternoon which happens to be the same building I lived in on my first deployment 2 years ago. Wonder how much it's changed since then? We've been living in tents, waiting for the prior unit to leave. The tents were actually nice, 3 heating/cooling units per tent, real mattresses, porcelain toilets and hot showers. The barracks we're going into has fewer showers and we have to use port-a-johns but it is more secure from things that could fall out of the sky and go boom.

Preparing to go home hard work -- [AJC Blog, 48th goes to War - journalist embed in Iraq]
After a yearlong deployment in the Middle East, the 48th Brigade begins returning home in a couple of weeks with virtually all the soldiers due home by mid-May.
Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, the 48th commander, said his staff has been working around the clock to get the 4,400 soldiers safely back to Fort Stewart and reunited with their families.
“Folks don’t realize what it takes to move this many people,” Rodeheaver said.

This and that -- [Across the Pond - in Iraq]
...It still doesn’t tell us when we are leaving but you know it isn’t much time left. I am sure the “brass” know a round-a-bout date but they are not putting it out yet which I personally understand. When you are in a combat zone, you don’t want information like troop movements, or troop withdrawals being loosely talked about. So I figure we will find out about 14 to 30 days out our official date, and that will change 5 times before the move.

MSM REPORTS ON IRAQ

Iraq War History In Utahn's Hands -- (Salt Lake Tribune)...Matthew D. LaPlante
And having come of age during the war in Vietnam, Fleek understood that warfare, after all, repeating past mistakes is a sure way to fill body bags.
And the man who sent Fleek on a recent fact-finding trip to Iraq said he had no interest in a favorable but inaccurate report.
"I didn't bias this story," says Jim Crum, Fleek's boss at the federal Project and Contracting Office. "I told him, 'Capture what you see, the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak, so we can learn from our experiences there.' "
So what, then, accounts for Fleek's apparent disinterest in painting history with the colors of insurrection, violence and futility?

In Iraq, Brave Troops And A Noble Cause -- (Philadelphia Inquirer)...Maj. Kevin Kelly
I have seen many incredible sights living and flying in Iraq the last two months. Two things, the bravery of our soldiers and the importance of completing our mission and building a free Iraq, prompt me to write today.

A Path To Success In Iraq -- (Los Angeles Times)...Zalmay Khalilzad and George W. Casey Jr.
Three years after U.S. Marines and Iraqis toppled the huge statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square, Americans and Iraqis can be proud of what our common efforts and sacrifices have achieved since that day, even as we acknowledge that challenges remain to reaching the goal of a stable and democratic Iraq.

Murtha tells City Club the war is lost -- (The Plain Dealer)
...Troops are undermanned, underequipped and dying at rates higher than during World War II and the Vietnam War. "I visit the [veterans hospitals] every week. The troops don't know what their mission is any more." And 8,500 of them have returned with shattered bod ies or brains and the permanent "shadow on your soul" that fighting a war creates.

Misplaced Blame -- (Washington Times)...Michael O'Hanlon
Throughout the Iraq war, the Bush administration has complained about the tenor of media coverage in Iraq. Paul Bremer did so during the first year of the American presence there, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as well as Vice President Dick Cheney make the point repeatedly. The complaint that we see only the bad news, not the good, has become increasingly prevalent within the U.S. armed forces as well.

Vietnam's Forgotten Lessons -- (Washington Post)...Richard Cohen
...We all know the cliche about generals fighting the last war, but in Iraq it is not the tactics that were duplicated -- certainly not compared to the Persian Gulf War -- but the tendency of the military to do what it was told and keep its mouth shut. Shelton, who retired in 2001, cannot be blamed for this and maybe no one but Donald Rumsfeld can, but the fact remains that the United States fought a war many of its military leaders thought was unnecessary, unwise, predicated on false assumptions and incompetently managed. Still, no one really spoke up.

Cutting and running in Baghdad -- (Asia Times)...Robert Dreyfuss
Too late the urgency of the crisis in Iraq and the sheer ugliness of its civil war seem finally to be dawning on the Bush administration. As usual, President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their stalwart secretaries of state and defense are Johnnies-come-lately in their ability to understand how far gone Iraq is.

American troops back on patrol in Baghdad -- (Newsweek)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - American soldiers have again hit the streets of dangerous neighborhoods in western Baghdad that had been handed over to Iraqi forces, trying to ...

IRAQ: AL-ZARQAWI GROUP BOASTS KILLING CHRISTIAN -- (AKI)
The Mujahadeen Council, a leading insurgency group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, has announced the killing of a Christian in Mosul "for offending the prophet Mohammed." In a statement posted to the Internet, the group, whose military arm is still headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said that on Tuesday it "eliminated" a Christian in Mosul. "We eliminated him, because this impure crusader offended our noble prophet Mohammed. We killed him in the al-Tahir quarter of Mosul" it read.

Sunnis And Kurds Stand Firm On Opposition To Jaafari As Iraqi Prime Minister -- (New York Times)...Kirk Semple
Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders on Monday rejected a last-ditch attempt by Shiite leaders to corral support for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and urged them to settle on another nominee to lead the next government, officials said.

In Stock Market, the Bears Gnaw at Iraq's Confidence -- (New York Times)... EDWARD WONG
If stock markets are any measure of a nation's confidence, then the numbers at the nascent Iraq Stock Exchange show that faith in the country may be at its lowest.

AFGHANISTAN

More from the JAF -- [AfghaniDan - in Afghanistan]
...Supposedly a former Soviet bathhouse, this sits off the dirt trail surrounding the airfield. There is a reason for its location, as some hot springs bubble in the marshy pit alongside it. All I know is to stay the hell away on Thursdays...

Just Chillin' in Charikar -- [Miserable Donuts]
Not Lazy Muncie, but maybe Relaxed Charikar... "Straight out of Charikar, Province of Parwan, we start our day off with a little bit o' jawin'..." Ok, maybe not.

What a long strange trip its been... Sunday, April 09, 2006 -- [The Last Full Measure - in Afghanistan]
...I’ve spent countless hours in the cold, with briar bushes covering my position lying in wait. I’ve almost eaten RPG rounds, rockets and bullets, sheltered behind my rucksack and set off claymores that weren’t on the range. I’ve crawled through tunnels with only a flashlight and a pistol, and earned myself a bounty large enough they’ve heard about it in the states. I’ve been there and done that, earned the scars but none of the recognition or medals. Only the boys that I fought with and the men in my platoon know about it, and care, but that’s all that really matters. Medals don’t hold the prestige they used to.

MSM REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN

Rocket Blast in Afghanistan Kills 6 Kids -- (AP)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A rocket exploded in the middle of a packed school in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing six children, police said. The rocket landed in the yard of Salabagh School in Asadabad, close to a U.S.-led coalition base, said Mohammed Hasan, a police commander in the city in volatile eastern Kunar province, near the Pakistani border.

In Canada, A Cautious Debate On Afghan Role -- (Washington Post)...Doug Struck
Canadian lawmakers joined Monday in a show of patriotic support for the nation's troops in Afghanistan, tiptoeing around public opinion polls that show deep division over the increase in the force there and distrust of involvement with the U.S. military operations.

Taliban Waging A War Of Fear, U.S. Forces Say -- (Philadelphia Inquirer)...Amir Shah, Associated Press
Increased insurgent violence in Afghanistan is proving "very hard to combat," the U.S. military said yesterday, as separate attacks killed two police officers and a truck driver delivering food to coalition forces in a former Taliban stronghold in the south.

Afghan Bombers 'Ready For UK Troops' -- (London Daily Telegraph)...Thomas Harding
British forces in Afghanistan will be met by a tide of suicide bombers, roadside explosions and ambushes when they arrive in strength, the head of the American troops said yesterday.

US AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

A couple of Kiwi academics are tearing down one of New Zealand's great heros: -- [TigerHawk]
A ruse that helped to win a soldier the Victoria Cross during the Second World War was a "war crime" and New Zealand should apologise to the families of the snipers he killed, it was claimed yesterday.
...The Western academy is so morally confused that it is finding ways to condemn its national heroes 60 years after the fact.

Family Letter -- [Home of the 4th Provisional Security Co. - in Djibouti, Africa]
4 th PSC Friends & Family,
It's difficult to believe that we have only been here approximately three weeks. The Marines are adjusting to the conditions in the Camp very well and they are not letting the humidity or the unique Djibouti smell get them down. They always seem to be in good spirits when I visit them on post and hopefully we can keep up the morale level through the future summer months! One reason for the continued good spirits of the Marines is that we have started to receive mail.

Kacanik: Guarding The Dead -1999 -- [Kosovo: A blur of chaos]
Not to many people can say that they have sat next to a mass grave and enjoyed breakfast. Unfortunately, I can. Maybe the word enjoyed is not the right word. We were tasked with three hour guard rotations on the cemetery. No one was to go near the grave until some big wigs from the War Crimes Tribunal investigated the decomposing death pit. Booby traps and landmines were another factor. The KLA commander in the area said that a few of the locals watched a group of Serb soldiers setting mines a few days ago. He also stated that they could have just been digging up old ones. Serb soldiers doing a good deed for the people of Kacanik, highly unlikly.

Finally Some Common Sense Talk from the Korean Media -- [GI Korea - in S Korea]
The Chosun Ilbo's Kim Dae-joong really hits the nail on the head regarding how the Korean government should approach relations with the US in his latest editorial

MSM REPORTS ON US AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Whose Memorial? -- (Newsweek)
Almost five years, after 9/11, construction has finally begun on a World Trade Center memorial in New York. Still, not everyone is happy with the plan. A video report on the controversy.
April 10, 2006 - On March 13, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation officially broke ground on the World Trade Center Memorial. But despite nearly 4½ years of proposals and revisions, not everyone is happy with the memorial, especially its location below street level.

U.S. Committed to Diplomacy on Iran -- (AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Administration officials say they remain committed to a diplomatic solution to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. But they won't rule out military action as an option, even as they try to tamp down talk about military planning. "I know here in Washington prevention means force," President Bush said Monday.

A credible threat -- (Los Angeles Times)
FOR THOSE STILL INCLINED to take him at his word, President Bush dismissed on Monday as "wild speculation" reports that his administration has intensified ...

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

9/11 Victim's Family Channels Grief Into Treatment for Terrorism Victims -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
The ongoing Moussaoui trial, with its gripping testimony and videos of the September 11 attacks, reminds us that the survivors and the victims' families still live with the impacts every day. I had the privilege of escorting several of them around Capitol Hill recently to discuss continuing legal issues with Congressional staff and Members. Among them were a dedicated couple, Dr. Stephen Alderman and his wife Elizabeth from Westchester County, NY, whose son Peter died at the WTC "Windows on the World" restaurant.

Trouble in the Tri-Border Region -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
Last week the New York Post reported that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau had shut down a "massive terror-finance pipeline in which a whopping $3 billon in profits from drug deals and other crimes flowed through a major New York bank to Middle East fanatics." Turns out, according to senior government officials, the bank is the Bank of America. Morgenthau is pursuing possible penalties, but it is not at all clear the bank did anything knowingly wrong. No criminal charges have been filed.

MSM REPORTS ON WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

Military: Slay Plot Foiled In Lebanon -- (Boston Globe)...Joseph Panossian, Associated Press
Military intelligence has arrested a group of terrorists who planned to assassinate the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Lebanese military official said yesterday.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Mother's Day Cards -- [Soldiers' Angel - Holly Aho]
It may not seem like it's that close, but Mother's Day is little more than a month away. I bring it up, well, because it may still seem to be in the distant future for most of us, but planning ahead is needed if we want to help our troops during this holiday. I'm sure it seems obvious, but Hallmark hasn't yet set up shop in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many soldiers will be left without a means to buy a card for their wife, mom, grandmother or other special woman in their life. With the time it takes for mail to reach our troops, or for their mail to reach home, thinking in advance is a must.

Weekend at Kleber -- [Soldiers Angels Germany]
After a busy Friday bringing backpacks to the Liaisons at Landstuhl and visiting inpatients, it was back to our "home away from home" at Kleber for the weekend to work in our storage room and look after the outpatients.
...The soldiers here are outpatients and certainly in much better physical shape than the hospital patients... but when I think about all they're been through just getting here -
...They fly all the way here in a medevac plane, are driven from Ramstein AB in a bus to the hospital where they are processed through DWMMC and their Liaison office. Then they are driven over to Kleber. The whole time they are dragging around their gear - packs, body armor, etc.
I've seen guys so tired they were standing in this hallway at Kleber wearing their body armor. They simply couldn't carry it any more. I've had to uncurl their fingers from their packs and put them on the floor and then remove their body armor for them.

Are they forgotten? -- [Life of a Redleg Wife - husband in Iraq]
...I feel even more blessed that I am married to a man and know many people who are capable of something so special and extraordinary -serving their country.
Bryan was right though. They have been forgotten.
Since Bryan went on active duty and even more so since we've lived in Germany and he's been deployed, we've learned who cares. We have been delighted at the people who have reached out to us, but we have also been disappointed by those that we thought cared about us. The latter significantly outnumber the former. This isn't a pity party about the people we've lost touch with or the people who have hurt us. This is a small view of a bigger picture. Some people we thought would be there and support us haven't been. Thank goodness for our family and friends that have been. What about the soldier that has no one outside his Army "family"? Who's there supporting him? Who's remembering him?

142 -- [Life of a Redleg Wife - husband in Iraq
During the last deployment, some of my friends had tribute pages for their husbands. Since Bryan is now "up north" I thought I could finally get away with doing one for him. I know he wouldn't have let me before. A Rhode Island newspaper site, The Providence Journal, was so awesome to make a section of their site specifically for tributes to the troops. I made a tribute for both Bryan and his whole battery. If you would like to post a message, it's VERY easy.
Here are the two links:

MILITARY

Marine Wives - Always Faithful -- [Villianous Company]
Six or seven weeks ago, a very old friend called me on the phone. We've been stationed together a million times over the years. Her husband was finally retiring from the Marine Corps after over 30 years of active service and she was calling to say goodbye.
...To tell the truth, I don't miss some aspects of military life: some of the politics, and the silly disagreements which are inevitable in any close family. But what I do miss - a lot - is the selflessness and dedication shown by Marine wives to each other. I miss the camaraderie. I've seen and heard some amazing things in my over twenty years in the Corps.

Spinning the Army's retention rate -- [TigerHawk]
Two stories this morning look at the Army's retention program, one seeing success notwithstanding the obvious politics of the author and the other characterizing a return to normal conditions as an alarming failure.
"Army surpassing year's retention goal by 15%"

More on Monday's C-5 Crash at Dover -- [Dude Where's The Beach]
A friend of a friend sent me these pictures of the C-5 Crash out at Dover AFB that were taken immediately after the incident. If you look closely at a few of them you can see the left wing with what appears to be fire damage over where an engine once was, which may have been the source of the initial emergency that necessitated the immediate return to the field and subsequent crash.

1945 vs. 2005 -- [MREater]
I got the following in a email, but thought it is worth sharing. Hat Tip to 1SG J.B. Head for sending it to me.
1945 - NCO'S had a typewriter on their desks for doing daily reports.
2005- Everyone has an Internet access computer, and they wonder why no work is getting done.

1945 - We painted pictures of girls on airplanes to remind us of home.
2005 - Do it now and see what happens

MSM REPORTS ON MILITARY

Fighting Strength Of Army Improving -- (Letter) -- (San Jose Mercury News)...Francis J. Harvey
Joe Galloway draws the wrong conclusions from a seriously flawed study about the Army's transformation program by the Institute for Defense Analyses (Op-Ed, March 31).

Army Exceeds Lowered Target For Recruiting Through March -- (USA Today)...Tom Vanden Brook
The Army is ahead of its midyear goal for signing up new soldiers, the Pentagon said Monday. Through March 2006, the first six months of the government's fiscal year, the Army had attracted 31,369 new soldiers, compared with a goal of 30,300.

At 41, Off To Basic Training -- (Philadelphia Inquirer)...Edward Colimore
Jerry Giordano was turned down when he tried to join the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was 36 then. The limit for military recruits was 35. Now the resident of Vineland, Cumberland County, is 41, and the Army has decided to welcome him into the ranks.

POLITICS

Not All Latino’s For Illegal Immigration -- [Random Thoughts Of Yet Another Military Member]
According to this:
Contrary to scenes of hundreds of thousands of united Latinos marching across the country in support of immigration reform, a sizable number of the ethnic group opposes the marches and strongly objects to illegal immigration.
Welcome to the silent majority, the Americans of Mexican descent (I am not Mexican-American, I am a American first and foremost!) As you can see, I am not the only one who shares the opinion. Most of us who do, do not go out and protest, threaten to boycott work.

The Message I Understand, The Oath I Swore -- [Subsunk@BlackFive]
Subsunk here. A couple of folks have brought this to my attention. Some things in our country seem confused right now. How politics plays out in our national defense has always irritated me a bit, but I recognized there was not much I could do about it. Besides, my Pentagon job had lots of discussions about "posse comitatus" reviews and I had become educated a small bit by this to realize our military plays almost no role in defense of our country inside the 50 state boundaries.

Teddy on Immigration circa 1907 -- [Truth, Life, and Political Honesty]
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907:
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.

MSM REPORTS ON POLITICS

Huge Crowds March for Immigration Rights -- (AP)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of people demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants took to the streets in dozens of cities from New York to San Diego on Monday in some of the most widespread demonstrations since the mass protests began around the country last month.

NSC Deputy Has The Right Stuff For This President -- (Philip Dine, Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau)
WASHINGTON -- J.D. Crouch's office is unpretentious, even hard to spot unless you know where to look. Much like the public persona of the man himself.

THE MEDIA

Fairy Tales at War -- [Strategy Page]
April 10, 2006: American journalists and politicians, who are hostile to American operations in Iraq, are pushing a story that the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons for an attack on Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. They offer no proof, and no explanation of how an American president would hope to survive the diplomatic fallout from using nuclear weapons for the first time since 1945.

Tell The Media To Tell The Truth -- [Euphoric Reality]
I am reprinting this letter from the Chairman of the RNC with permission:
Some things are more important than politics. Honoring our troops and their heroism in winning the War on Terror is one. Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission is a grassroots coalition of military families and Americans proud of the men and women in uniform and who are dedicated to honoring them.

Public Diplomacy: Restore Radio, use the Internet -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
By coincidence, two completely separate valid criticisms of the US Government’s Public Diplomacy efforts emerged today, one focusing on a traditional media and the other on the newest way of communicating.
In her column printed in today’s Washington Times syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer sharply criticized the Bush Administration’s decision to suspend most of the Voice of America’s English language broadcasts

MILBLOGGING / BLOGGING

Bloggers join the mainstream -- [The Will to Exist]
Bloggers take note:
A syndication service that delivers commentary from 600 bloggers for use by newspaper publishers is set to launch on Tuesday, further blurring the lines that divide blogs and mainstream media.

Blackfive on Pundit Review -- [BlackFive]
You can go to Pundit Review to listen to my segment from last night's broadcast. Feedback is encouraged and appreciated.

CONGRATS

In Today's News - Monday, April 10, 2006 -- [Iraq War News]
Quote of the Day
Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to me
--Pam

"Word On The Street Is": Cav Tanker Edition -- [Tanker Brothers]
Oh, that's right...y'all didn't hear: Cav Tanker went to the Promotion Board and got recommended for promotion to the rank of Sergeant.

HUMOR / SATIRE

Brokeback Mountain 2 -- [Dude Where's the Beach]
I'll be camping out in front of the theater a few weeks ahead of it's release for the best tickets.

Bush Leak Raises Chain-of-Command Questions -- [ScrappleFace]
Official Washington is abuzz today about news that Lewis ‘Scooter‘ Libby may have had permission from President George Bush to release previously-classified information about Saddam Hussein’s efforts to buy uranium. According to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Vice President Dick Cheney sought and received permission from the president to allow Libby to leak part of a top-secret National Intelligence Estimate. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said today that the new evidence is “alarming.” He called for an investigation to “find out exactly when Bush began telling Cheney what to do.”