Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world. 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.

IRAQ

Faces in the Crowds -- [Acute Politics - in Iraq]
Every time I get into a conversation about Iraq with someone back home, they ask me what the kids are like, or what the people are like, or what the women do. Normally, the only time I see given to the Iraqi people in the news is for the numbers of the dead, and the rantings of radical Muslims. I can look around me as I go on patrol and see faces everywhere that belong to neither group.

"Tell the American people we need the U.S. Army here:" -- [INDC Journal - in Iraq]
An Interview with the Jundi
As outlined in my analysis of the Military Transition Team (MiTT) mission, the story of the Iraqi Army in Fallujah is a mixed bag. The "Jundi" (Iraqi Army soldiers) are aggressive and some units are quite competent, but training is ongoing, the quality of their leadership varies, and logistical and pay issues significantly hamper operations. Observing some IAs on a mission and meeting with others at Forward Operating Base Castle in northeast Fallujah reinforced almost all of these assessments initially voiced by various Marine and Army MiTT members.

Bombs strike again but hope remains. -- [Iraq the Model - Iraqis in Iraq]
...Although attacks happen here and there, the general feeling is still closer to hope and appreciation of the plan than pessimism. More families are returning to the homes they were once forced to leave, and we’re talking about some of the most dangerous districts such as Ghazaliya and Haifa Street.
Al-Sabah reports that yesterday alone 327 families returned home and that the scene of vans loaded with furniture of refugees leaving Baghdad is no more.

A Baghdad Homecoming -- [IraqPundit - an Iraqi in exile]
...They’re back in their own home now. The man called the other day to give us all the welcome news. The kind of thugs who had been terrorizing Sunnis, at least in my relatives’ part of town, have been forced to disperse as a result of the crackdown, and they no longer decide who can stay and who must go. My relatives were welcomed warmly by their old neighbors, who wanted to see this return as a sign of increasing normality.

Violence, progress mark 2006 in Iraq -- [MNF-I]
The year 2006 was a complex time, marked in Iraq by violence, often of the sectarian variety, but also by progress.
The past year was one of inclusiveness, as Iraq’s elected government functioned with representatives from nearly every sect and tribe. The year also saw major strides in security operations, as Iraqi Security Forces took the lead in law enforcement and anti-insurgent activity.

Odierno outlines Iraq accomplishments, reflects on way ahead -- [MNF-I]
The problems facing Iraq are complex and stem from a combination of insurgent activity, sectarian violence, governmental dysfunction and corruption. Despite these obstacles, members of Iraq’s military and government have shown a commitment to achieving a secure Iraq and a stable government, Odierno said.

“The bottom line is [Iraqi forces] are working extremely hard. They are being injured along side of us. They are being killed along side of us. They are standing and fighting, and they are dedicated to their country being successful,” Odierno said.

Michael Moore's Minutemen Detonate Chemical Weapon -- [Jawa Report]
Chemical weapons? A chlorine bomb? What chemical weapons? Don't you theeeeocons know that Bush created those chemical weapons, or something?

Jawa Exclusive: Released Gitmo Detainee Arrested En Route to Iraq -- [Jawa Report]
He seemed to think that going to Iraq via Yemen was a good route. Maybe catch a flight on Yemenia.

Weblog -- [1016th - in Iraq]
It’s mid February here in Iraq, the temperatures are rising and the day count is falling away. With all the work we still have and more coming, we could stay busy for another year though I hope not to be here too much longer. I have seen a lot of personal growth in the last 11 months. Many promotions for my friends and now my leaders. Life long friendships have formed, many aquaintences made. Courage and discipline have been tested and struggles with some I now consider brothers. All of us have experienced exhaustion at least in the last year... for most, a new scene or two being away from home for the first time, aside from Basic Training.

Film To Be Made on Saddam the Hero -- [MEMRI Blog]
Preparations are under way to produce a new film about the life of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The film, which is likely to be financed by a Libyan company, will portray Saddam as a hero who was a victim of the new leaders of Iraq, who ordered his execution.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghan Forces Retake Town Briefly Held By Taliban -- [Radio Free Afghanistan]
February 20, 2007 -- Afghan security forces backed by NATO troops are reported to have retaken control of a small town in western Afghanistan that was briefly seized by Taliban militants

Canadian Soldiers on Patrol in Afghanistan Marked as: Mature -- [Live Leak]
Soldiers explain morning routine while on armoured patrol in the Panjwayi desert.

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

The Phony Peace -- [Strategy Page]
February 20, 2007: The latest North Korean disarmament deal is similar to the one in 1994, the one that North Korea violated the terms of, while accepting most of the goodies. But this time it's different. The verification routines for the new deal are stricter, and the U.S. has partners (China, Japan, South Korea and Russia). The main component of the bribe (worth up to half a billion dollars) is oil, to be delivered by South Korea.

Chinas Rapidly Evolving Air Force -- [Strategy Page]
February 20, 2007: China announced that it plans to have an air force equipped with a about a thousand modern aircraft (J10A, Su27 and Su30 and J8F) within three years. Currently, China has about 400 Su27 and Su30 aircraft, a few dozen J10As, and not many more J8Fs (an attack aircraft). Currently, the Chinese air force is mostly some 2,000 locally built copies of Russian MiG-19s (J6) and MiG-21 (J7). There are also several hundred bombers, mostly Russian knockoffs. The Chinese announcement might have been largely for morale purposes, as actual number of Chinese aircraft are state secrets.

Time to Come to Grips with Russia's Real Agenda -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
Secretary of State Rice seems baffled by Vladimir Putin's recent speech denouncing the United States in some of the harshest terms possible, as Anne Applebaum eloquently points out in the Washington Post.

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

N.Y. Businessman Indicted for Terrorist Financing - Some Interesting Connections (updated 2/19) -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, a.k.a. "Michael Mixon," a businessman and self-described "peace advocate" in New York, was indicted yesterday on multiple felony counts, including financing terrorism, material support of terrorism, and money laundering. You can download and read the entire indictment from here. With respect to the terrorism charges, Alishtari was indicted of sending $152,000 to Pakistan and Afghanistan to support a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan by funding the purchase of night-vision goggles, and of laundering $25,000 from a New York bank through a bank in Montreal as part of the funding scheme.

India Releases Sketches of Suspects... J & K Terror Group Implicated -- [Gateway Pundit]
Indian officials are looking into leads that implicate a Hizbul Mujahideen terror cell for the deadly blasts yesterday on the "friendship train."

The Others -- [Strategy Page]
February 20, 2007: While most of the terrorism committed these days is carried out by Islamic radicals, they have found allies in existing radical leftist groups. For example, in Okinawa, a group calling itself the "Revolutionary Army" set off three pipe bombs in the last week. The same group claimed responsibility for similar attacks in 2002. Leftist radicals have been around for over a century. The most successful were the anarchists, a 19th century movement that killed several heads of state, and hundreds of other officials, before being wiped out my the more bloody minded communists before World War II.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Improvements Already Being Made at Walter Reed -- [Andi's World]
Updated. Scroll down for more.
As a result of Sunday's Washington Post Walter Reed story, some improvements in living conditions at Walter Reed are already being made.

Warrior Foundation Aids Wounded Troops -- [GX Online]
2/19/07, Washington, DC — With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan underway, the San Diego-area community was looking for ways to help wounded Service members returning to the area. So in 2004, community members started the Warrior Foundation, an organization that reaches out to wounded troops and their families.

Wounded and waiting -- [Air Force Times]
A slow medical evaluation process leaves many injured troops in limbo
...when it was time for the Army to take care of him, one of its wounded warriors, Van Antwerp gave up before he even began. Rather than fight for a higher disability rating, he quietly signed for 20 percent — and no medical benefits — saying he knew he couldn’t do better. He inherited his father’s stubbornness, he said, and refused to ask anyone to pull strings based on his dad’s rank. Then his first medical board counselor, the person who would help him make his way through the medical evaluation board system, left. The second, he said, “wasn’t on the ball.”

“The Army is trying to give you the lowest amount of money possible,” he said. “A lot of people are appealing, but I’ll be going to [the Department of Veterans Affairs]. I want to go home.”

MILITARY

Official BoD's Position on the Gathering of Eagles -- [Patriot Guard Riders]
This is the official response of the Board of Directors of the PGR in response to the Gathering of Eagles scheduled to take place on 17 MAR 07 at the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
We urge our members to follow their conscience and participate in this event if that is your desire as an individual. In regards to your PGR gear, that is yours, wear it proudly and as you see fit. It is not our place or desire to dictate what our members wear - nor where they wear it.

In Medias Res -- [Castle Argghhh!]
The sun was just rising, so the temperature was only about 110F as I slogged along the PSP taxiway bordering the North Swamp. I passed a Scout pilot single-mindedly preflighting a Loach in the Cav revetments and loosened the underarm fasteners of my chicken plate to let some of the heat out. I wanted a drink of anything cold and wet, and I wanted a shave and a shower to get rid of the night’s accumulation of sweat, dust, blood, jet fuel, gunpowder residue, grease and hydraulic fluid -- aka, Vietnam Helicopter Pilot Flight Funk.

Sequel As Prequel -- [Castle Argghhh!]
The Time: 0730 on the morning of a day three weeks prior to the vignette I recounted yesterday.
The Place: Flight Operations, 162d Assault Helicopter Company.
The Cast: The 164th Combat Aviation Group S2, three Copperhead Aircraft Commanders (gunship guys) and an Air Mission Commander (me) from the 162d, a Mission Commander from the 9th Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam and his US counterpart.

POLITICS

IF WE NEED THIS KIND OF REALPOLITIK IN THE WHITE HOUSE, I guess we'd better vote Democratic: -- [Instapundit]
The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: Lloyd says this. Dick says that. Gore laughed and said, "That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass."

War of the "Advocacy" groups -- [QandO Blog]
The left has MoveOn.org, the well financed and effective advocacy group which has been integral to advancing the "progressive" and anti-war agendas. Now comes the "Victory Caucus" led by conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt

Senator John McCain: “Donald Rumsfeld, Worst Secretary of Defense In History, Deserves Deepest Gratitude And Respect” -- [GunToting Liberal]
Folks, this is just Senator McCain in a nutshell for you: untrustworthy, shifty, doubletalking, NEOCON extraordinaire. THIS guy makes fellow Senator John Kerry seem solidly partisan… and that is saying something…
For the war before he was against it. Against torture before he was for it. For gay marriage before he was against it. Against flag burning amendments before he was for them. For former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld before he was against him.

Murtha “running the show” -- [Hot Air]
Send to a Friend | printer-friendly Time to take our medicine, kids.
It’s fun to make fun of the clownish, obviously foolish Jack Murtha, who among other things thinks it’s possible to fight a war in Iraq from Okinawa. But we’re all jabbing him from far outside his power base. Robert Novak explains what’s going on inside Murtha’s anti-war command post...

Apogee -- [Smash]
DID YOU FEEL IT?
At some point in the past few weeks, a shift occured. Maybe it started back in November, when Congressman Jack Murtha lost his bid to be House Majority Leader.

Heroes And Cowards -- [NY Sun]
...The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That's 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who's counting?

THE MEDIA

AP: Claiming Small Towns Taking 'Disproportionate' Numbers of US KIAs -- [NewsBusters]
Talk about creating a false dichotomy geared to discrediting a policy! The AP has generated a doosie in theirs titled "Rural America bears scars from Iraq war" and subtitled "Nearly half of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq came from a small town".
Their main thrust is that small towns are somehow seeing their sons fall on the field of battle in "unfair" numbers.

New York Times: Then and Now -- [ArmyLawyer- MilBlogs]
The NYT on 19 FEB 2007: Making Martial Law Easier
...Now I seem to remember a LOT of caterwauling around the time of Hurricane Katrina about the slow federal response and why National Guard troops weren't more quickly utilized (even though they did outstanding work while there). And lo and behold:
The New York Times on 3 SEP 2005: Katrina's Assault on Washington

HUMOR

Hillary Shaves Head to Grab Limelight from Obama -- [ScrappleFace]
(2007-02-20) — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, whose presidential campaign has been overshadowed in recent weeks by charismatic rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, today walked into a K-Street beauty salon in Washington, D.C., commandeered the clippers and shaved her head down to the bare skin.

A Scary Hillary Joke -- [Seaspook's Rants]
Here's a Hillary joke that is not the least bit funny because it represents the reality of Hillary:

(Need more? The previous Dawn Patrol is here.)