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. Hat Tips to the Dawn Patrol are greatly appreciated.

IRAQ

An Interview with Col. Richard Simcock, Regimental Combat Team 6 -- [ON Point]
As Col Simcock describes, Fallujah is a far different city today :
Q – What’s new in Fallujah since we last talked ?
A – I’m pleased to say that nothing is new. It’s the continuation of good news throughout my AO. We’ve just finished the last part of a ‘swarm’, which is like a small-scale surge into a district of the city, and now the last district in town is under control of the I/P’s.
Last week Gen Petraeus took Katie Couric into downtown Fallujah, and they walked down the street through the market. This wasn’t a John McCain photo op, this was a no-shit walk through the market, and she was absolutely amazed at how normal it was.

Owning the Night"... -- [Jim Spiri - embed in Iraq]
It's early in the morning here in Iraq. 0400-hours to be exact. I'm tired, my feet hurt, I'm pretty dirty and the chow hall is not open yet. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm on the southeast edge of Baghdad. I have just returned from a night air assault mission into perhaps some of the most precarious pieces of real estate in Iraq. I would be part of what is being called "Operation Marne Torch II". It was a very interesting night, as are all the days and nights I've spent on this journey.
There are times I have felt a responsibility to convey to those back stateside the historical accounts of what I've been a part of the past five months.
Tonight is for sure one of those times that I want to be able to explain in words the sights, sounds, smells, and footsteps to all those that are reading this. It is not an easy task. But for the moment, it is my task at hand, and I shall try my best to bring the readers into the experience of traveling with some troops from Ft. Richardson, Alaska, into the most dangerous parts of Iraq, at night. Although I am really tired, I must attempt to write while it is fresh in my mind.

Three Purple Hearts for One Stryker -- [Blog-ah]
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Imagine being a wife at home back in the states with your husband far away in a war zone. You go about your life filling every minute of your day with anything to keep your mind off of the inevitable, when suddenly you get a phone call. The voice on the other end says, “I’m at the hospital. I’ve been injured. Don’t worry I am fine.” Your heart sinks and you are helpless. There is no way to assure yourself that he is ok.
Sgt. Gregory Rayho’s wife has taken that dreaded phone call not once, but three times since July 2006.

Iraq Briefing 26 September 2007

Welcome to Baghdad! -- [Eighty Deuce On The Loose - In Iraq]
...The first dismount these guys even went on would be a night dismount. I had one of the guys from my normal team and one of the new guys. I knew he would need extra attention so I would have to make sure and keep an eye on him. We ended up dismounting and heading back into the alleyways. It was more packed than normal since Ramadan is in full swing and during the day people can't eat or anything, so the night becomes the time for eating, praying and socializing. Fortunately for us, thats all it has consisted of, at least at this point almost 1/2 way through.
Anyways, we were walking through this one busy alley when all of a sudden I see this kid that couldn't of been more than 6 years old come out of another alleyway with a gun in his hand.

The Anatomy of a Betrayal -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
More information has recently emerged about the killing of Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi (also known as Abdul Sattar Abu Risha), who led the Anbar Salvation Front. The Associated Press reported on Saturday:
...I spoke with a senior American military intelligence officer yesterday who filled me in on some of the details emerging from the investigation. He said that al-Barghouti had been in debt to some people in the car smuggling racket in Mosul who were affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The men in the car smuggling racket had a deal with AQI: the terror group would allow them to operate, guaranteeing their security, and in return they would pass information to AQI about who was in debt to them.

Counterinsurgency in al Qaeda’s last bastion in Baghdad -- [The Long War Journal]
Camp Striker, Baghdad Province: Nine months after the announcement of the Baghdad Security Plan and the subsequent "surge" of US forces, the battle for Baghdad remains engaged. With the effort to secure Baghdad from al Qaeda in Iraq and the Mahdi Army alike, the southwestern security district of Doura has proven difficult to tame. The soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment are currently engaged in a heated battle against al Qaeda in Iraq in a corner of Doura.
Iran Supplies MANPADS to Insurgents
In a story that has some concern to me personally...
US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told reporters in Baghdad that Iran was shifting sophisticated arms such as "RPG-29s, explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs), 240 mm rockets and Misagh-1 surface-to-air missiles" across its borders into Iraq.
Meanwhile back home, people are having discussions over tea with the leader of a nation(the same nation that is giving arms to people who are trying to kill me) that would kill all of them in a heartbeat if he could get away with it.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
Of course there are those that view this story with a skeptical eye, which is easy to do if someone is not shooting these things at you.
Mr. David Axe at the blog Danger Room points out that knockoffs of knockoffs are rarely effective (which is true enough in and of itself), claiming that the Misagh 1 is effectively a knockoff of a QW-1 which is in turn a knockoff of a SA-16.

Marines from Task Force Guardian Patrol Fallujah

Marines from Task Force Guardian patrol to keep the area around Fallujah safe.

A Soldier’s plea -- [Q and O]
We've recently had a spate of soldier written editorials such as the one written by 7 members of the 82nd Airborne Division which essentially supported redeployment.
Here's another sincere article from a National Guard officer who is working with a Provincial Reconstruction Team in the north of Iraq. As you will see, his experience has been tough but encouraging. He obviously understands the amount of work still required of this mission. His conclusion, however, says what needs to be said about as well and as elegantly as it can be said:
The reasons America got involved in Iraq may be suspect. But US forces are here, parts of the country are still broken, and regional security may hang in the balance if we don't stay and help the Iraqis fix it. The effort is succeeding in the north, and it can in the rest of Iraq as well. America's forefathers had help from other nations when the United States was born. Allow us to continue to help Iraq be reborn.

Marines guard Iraq's gradual transformation -- [Matt Sanchez - in Iraq]
In Ramadi, personality sometimes 'more useful than body armor'
HURRICANE POINT, Ramadi – If you head west from this small forward operating base located on Route Michigan, you'll reach a bridge that crosses a peaceful river. It would be easy to spend an afternoon walking along the riverbank, and many Iraqis do.

The Choice -- [Strategy Page]
September 26, 2007: Five months ago, only about 20 percent of Baghdad was considered under U.S. or Iraqi government control. Various Shia and Sunni militias held sway in the rest. Then the "Surge" began, in the form of some additional 10,000 American combat troops sent into the city. By July, about half the city was under control, with militias, gangster and terrorist groups forced into other neighborhoods, or out of the city. Now it's 54 percent under control, as U.S. troops prepare to go after the Shia militias in Sadr City (eastern Baghdad.) The major problem is corruption and a lack of police loyal to the government.

A bipartisan way out of Iraq -- [csmonitor]
Our troops have served our country courageously and brilliantly, but our engagement in Iraq has degraded our security, pushing our Army to the breaking point so that it cannot confront other pressing security concerns at home and abroad.
My military service as a three-star vice admiral – having led an aircraft carrier battle group in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and served as director of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit – convinces me that an inconclusive, open-ended involvement in Iraq is not in our security interests. Ending this war is necessary. But how we end it is of even greater importance for both our security and our troops' safety. These two considerations are the dual catalysts for a bipartisan discussion on this issue.

News of the 1st Division of Foot. -- [John of Argghhh!]
Sergeant Hook - not posting much, because he's been busy. Busy deploying his Combat Aviation Brigade to Kuwait, preparatory to them moving into Iraq.
...CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - For two weeks, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division Families tearfully bid farewell to their Soldiers.
Hours later, those same troops bid hello to Kuwait.
CAB Soldiers benefited from a shipping out procedure the Army has refined over several years. "It was long, but it was pretty well organized. If you've been deployed, it went pretty smoothly compared to previous deployments," said Spc. Brandon Graham, an Apache crew chief with Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment.

AFGHANISTAN

The Franchise -- [Strategy Page]
September 25, 2007: The fighting has killed nearly 5,000 people so far this year. About two thirds have been Taliban, fifteen percent civilians, and most of the rest Afghan security forces. Taliban casualties have grown as the year went on, often reaching a hundred or more dead a week. There have been more cases of Taliban rounding up young children to use as human shields, to aid in escaping pursuing Afghan or foreign troops. The Taliban have two things going for them, to keep this violence going; tradition and cash. For thousands of years, the Afghan tribes have automatically fought any foreign troops, and that includes anyone claiming to be the government of Afghanistan.

Scores of Taliban die in Afghan clashes: U.S. military -- [EIN News]
... KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed scores of Taliban insurgents in ... separate battles in southern Afghanistan, the U.S military said on Wednesday. More than 65 Taliban ... reported by the Afghan government and foreign troops, calling them propaganda. Several provincial officials and ...

Meanwhile in Afghanistan -- [Q and O]
Afghanistan has its own set of problems, that's for sure. But a competent enemy doesn't seem to be one of them at the moment
...I bring this up because of a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with one of our generals in Afghanistan who said that the level of competence among the Taliban had been severely degraded by the constant pressure both coalition and Afghan troops had kept on the Taliban. You remember the Taliban's promised spring offensive that never materialized?
That's because CF and the Afghan army went after them all winter
Winning in Afghanistan - [FrontPageMagazine.com]
Earlier this month, greatly underreported by the media but ground-breaking nevertheless, the Taliban signaled its readiness to start peace negotiations with the Kabul government, indicating a setback if not defeat. The Taliban’s preparedness to discuss peace, dropping its long-standing demand that NATO troops must leave the country first, came only two days after Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, said he was willing to hold talks.
“For the sake of national interests…we are fully ready for talks with the government,” Yousuf Ahmed, a Taliban spokesman, was quoted as saying.
This striking and significant breakthrough in the Afghanistan conflict came after last month’s “jirga” (tribal meeting) in Kabul. Described as a “peace jirga” by one observer, this important gathering was made up of hundreds of members of different tribes from both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Operation Chakush - The Royal Welsh Forces Fight In Upper Gereshk Valley

Welsh soldiers have been involved in a task force level operation to drive the Taliban out of the Upper Gereshk Valley, in Southern Afghanistan. Known as the ‘green zone’ in Helmand Province – the area is devoid of civilians, they have left the area knowing that the Taliban fighters are preparing for battle. The objective is to extend the influence and control of Afghanistan’s democratically elected Government as well as enabling vital reconstruction and development projects to gain a foothold in the region.

Warrior -- [One Marine's View]
As Afghan forces were pelting the five humvees carrying American soldiers without mercy, then-Pvt. Channing Moss took aim and fired back with the machine gun fixed atop one of the tanks under fire.
..."I looked down and saw the tailfins of the rocket sticking out of my left pelvic bone," Moss told The Times on Thursday. He had been hit by an RPG that had not detonated upon contact.

(Back) among the Nomads -- [Thomas' Myspace - in Afghanistan]
Following up on a promise we made to their elder last week, our medical team returned to the Kuchi village just west of our base on Tuesday. We came bearing medical care, again, but this time for them and their children, rather than their animals.
Since they had fewer people than animals, this operation was a bit smaller in scale than the one last week. It was also much more chaotic, owing in part to the fewer medical folks we had with us, but also the innate dislike Afghans have for lines or any type of gathering other than a mob.

Angry Wasps in Afghanistan....after explosion...amazing

A fallen rock was blocking a route in Afghanstan and EOD decided to blow it up. Camera captures a nest of wasps that were under the rock....they go crazy

How Can I Explain This? -- [Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure - in Afghanistan]
...We operated from the firebase, meeting up with our Afghan counterparts for the missions that we did with them. We did missions daily with them, many of them now vehicle-borne. On some, we dismounted and patrolled areas as a presence, to gather any intelligence that might be available, or fight whoever wanted to fight.
One patrol took us down to the main town that The Valley is named after. It has the dirtiest bazaar I've ever seen, and until recently the bazaar itself and basically the whole town was under undisputed Taliban control. Major Stone Cold bought a goat, and the guy who sold him the goat also came back to the district Police station and slaughtered it for us.

SBS In Daring Afghan Rescue - [Rogue Gunner]
British special forces have taken part in a daring raid to rescue two Italian hostages in Afghanistan.
Operatives from the Special Boat Service became embroiled in a fierce firefight during the operation.
They flew in on board four Lynx helicopters and struck as the kidnappers left their compound in the province of Farah.Read It Here

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Military brains plot Pakistan's downfall -- [Asia Times - Syed Saleem Shahzad]
...The aim of the takfiris now is to extend the current insurgency against the establishment in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas of Pakistan into a large-scale offensive to bring down the central government or force the government to support their cause.
The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Pakistan's post-September 11, 2001, about-turn into the camp of the United States led to a marriage of convenience among the flag-bearers of Ibn Taymiyyah's ideology, zealots of al-Qaeda and experts in Giap's guerrilla strategy - former officers of the Pakistani armed forces who were upset with Pakistan's policy reversal, which included abandoning the Taliban.

RE: Former Pakistani Military Officers Aid Guerilla Efforts -- [The Tank - Steve Schippert]
Daveed directs readers to the always well-connected Sayed Saleem Shahzad's report on former Pakistani military officers aiding the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance inside Pakistan. Since Daveed mentions the topic, I should share with interested readers of The Tank that I published this morning a somewhat broader analysis on the accelerating al-Qaeda insurgency in Pakistan and the Information Operation campaign against the Pakistani Army soldiers that helps inspire the current rash of Pak military defections.

Lee Bollinger's Case for War Against Iran -- [Weekly Standard]
Samantha Sault has an excellent round up of the reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinehad's appearance at Columbia, and Lee Bollinger's introduction of him. But watching Bollinger's comments make me wonder how the Columbia president can be anything other than a strong proponent of forceful and aggressive action against the Iranian regime. Heck--he makes the case for war with Iran more forcefully than Norman Podhoretz:

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

Terrorist Lawyer Lynne Stewart to Teach Legal Ethics -- [Stop the ACLU]
She faced up to 30 years for conspiring with a terrorist and got a slap on the wrist of 28 months in October of last year. So how is it that she is able to teach a class now? The judge said Stewart could remain free while she appeals, a process that could take more than a year. Is this still going on?
And of all things, she will teach a law school about ethics? What ethics?

Accused Swedish Militant Extradited to the U.S.-- [The Blotter]
A suspect sought by the United States for allegedly plotting to establish a terror training camp in the northwest United States was extradited from the Czech Republic to the United States, where he arrived today.
Oussama Kassir, a Lebanon-born Swedish citizen who is an alleged associate of Abu Hamza al Masri, the radical cleric currently jailed on terror-related charges in Britain, was arrested on Sunday in the Czech Republic after a court ruled there was no reason to refuse a 2006 U.S. extradition request.

Why Is New York's Governor Inviting Terrorists to Get a NY Drivers License? -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
You cannot control illegal immigration purely at our borders, but must also create an inhospitable environment for illegal aliens who succeed in entering and making their way to the interior of the United States. The immigration laws of our nation are clear that anyone who induces aliens to enter our country illegally or reside in our country in violation of law or conspire to do so are violating our laws. Section 1324 of the Immigration and Nationality Act is quite clear on this issue:

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Publishes List of Tribal Leaders It Intends to Assassinate Before 'Id Al-Fitr -- [MEMRI Blog]
The Islamist website http://www.elshouraa.ws/vb, hosted by SoftLayer Technologies Inc. in Texas, USA, has published a list of names, some with photos, titled "Pictures of the Infidels and Apostates Wanted by the Islamic State of Iraq." The message accompanying the list praises the September 13, 2007 assassination of Al-Anbar Salvation Council head 'Abd Al-Sattar Abu Risha by the ISI,[i] and threatens other tribal leaders who oppose Al-Qaeda: "We killed your leader and sheikh on the first day of Ramadan, as we promised you. You should know that the ISI will prevent most of your [other] leaders from offering up their holiday prayers [on 'Id Al-Fitr at the end of the month of Ramadan]. You will never see 'Id Al-Fitr, because [the jihad fighters] have turned [this] Ramadan into a grave for the apostates. [Abu Risha] is the first... dead hypocrite of this month – [the month of] jihad and mujahideen – and will be followed by many others."

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Homes for Our Troops -- [A Soldier's Perspective]
We got an email recently from a patriot and friend who is also a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, Melanie Warwick, that I would like to share. Hopefully, there is someone within our readership that is in the area and able to lend a hand (or knows someone who can):
Thank you so much for your support of Homes for Our Troops and the Veterans we serve. In the past few years we have grown by leaps and bounds and it is in thanks to you. To date we have built 16 homes and have 20 more in various stages of construction all over the country. We have several corporate and repeat sponsors that help to make it so much easier to give to the Veterans who have given so much for us.
We are currently working on a home for SPC Fair in Coraopolis, Pa.

MESSAGE FROM HOME (WIVES DEDICATION)

by Lonestar

OPERATION: LOVE FROM HOME 2007 -- [Yikes]
OK, here we go again..... time to collect cards for our Heroes overseas!! Last year, thanks to all of you working together, over 20,000 (yes, that's TWENTY THOUSAND) Christmas/holiday cards were shipped to our troops in harm's way. Let's do it again this year! I know we can!!! Our heroes need us now more than ever -- let's show them our love & appreciation!

Durbin, Obama want VA to explain deaths at Marion hospital -- [Boston Globe]
CHICAGO --Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama want the secretary of Veterans Affairs to explain how a surgeon with a history of malpractice complaints in Massachusetts was hired at a VA medical facility in Southern Illinois.

MILITARY

San Francisco "just says no" to the Marines -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
The City of San Francisco sure doesn't seem to have a problem closing off city streets to accommodate protests and demonstrations, but don't ask for permission to film a recruitment commercial for the Marines. The filming would have required one lane of California Street to be closed for a few minutes at a time during the morning rush hour on the anniversary of 9/11.

Terms of Art -- [Major Andrew Olmsted - in Iraq]
By popular request, a brief glossary of military terms and acronyms. This post will be updated as necessary as I think of additional terms.

Guess The Owner Of This Building
The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air.
The four L-shaped buildings, constructed in the late 1960s, are part of the amphibious base at Coronado and serve as barracks for Seabees.

WELCOME HOME

Nostos -- [Desrt Flier- home from Iraq]
...Saturday morning landing in Cherry Point, North Carolina. The cheers and clapping bring the plane to a roaring good touchdown. Flight crew laughing and clapping right along with us. After un-loading and loading our gear several more times on the flight line, we board buses for the hour ride to Camp Lejune. Families are there waiting. We coordinate to make sure new Dads get off the buses first. And there we are: exhausted, soaked in sweat, and smelling up the bus like a petting zoo.
Nobody cares. Buses roll up. Wives are holding their cheeks, crying and trembling in their beautiful summer dresses. Dads rush off first with laughing and running children jumping into their arms. Moms join the fray. A few parents make it too, and they stand patiently in the back waving little American flags. I hang back a minute or so on the bus, just taking it all in. A Rockwellian moment comes to life outside my little bus window. And right here/right now: all somehow seems right in the world.

POLITICS

Hey there fellow Bigots! -- [MilBlogs - CDR Salamander]
I guess we have all failed to live up to all the Diversity training we take. At least, that is what Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) thinks.
On the Senate floor just a few minutes ago, Kennedy said a hate crimes amendment should be attached to the defense authorization bill because members of the U.S. military commit a significant number of hate crimes.

United in Defeat -- [Dadmanly]
In commentary published in the Christian Science Monitor, former three-star vice admiral and now Congressman, Rep. Joe Sestak (D) of Pennsylvania declares that ending the war in Iraq is necessary, as it has “degraded our security” and pushed the Army “to the breaking point.”
Rep. Sestak’s not the only pro-Dem military figure who’s spoken out against our efforts in Iraq, but he surely constitutes the most clearly partisan and political.

Whom Do You Trust? -- [Powerline]
No one, apparently. The Center for Media Research reports on a survey recently carried out by BIGResearch, which asked about the "trustworthiness" of various institutions; click to enlarge:
...At under 3%, Congress's "trustworthiness" standing is astonishingly low. It is noteworthy that bloggers edge out "the media," whose standing, at under 5%, is only slightly higher than that of the Congress. Alone at the top, with a lofty 14% trustworthiness rating, is the President.

Kyl-Lieberman Iran Amendment Passes By Huge Margin -- [Election Central]
The Kyl-Lieberman Iran amendment -- which ratchets up the confrontation with Iran by calling for the designation of its Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization responsible for killing U.S. troops -- just passed overwhelmingly, 76-22.
Of the Dem Presidential candidates, Hillary voted for the measure, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd opposed it, and Barack Obama missed the vote. On the GOP side, John McCain missed the vote.
The bill's backers had tried to mollify its critics by taking out some of its most incendiary language, particularly the idea that "it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies."

THE MEDIA

General Criticized Media Bias and Paper Proved Him Right -- [NewsBusters]
The definition of ironic? A media outlet that omitted positive information about Iraq...from an article that criticized the media for doing just that.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which is stationed in Iraq, spoke to reporters while on leave in the US. He denounced the media habit of omitting or downplaying positive news coming out of Iraq and then gave an example of the kind of news that is usually downplayed or omitted by the media (thnx NewsBusters reader).

Fallen Soldier Shuster Used for 'Gotcha' Game With GOP Rep. Blackburn Did Not Live in Her District -- [NewsBusters]
NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein reports that the MSNBC reporter condemmed a GOP congresswoman for not knowing that fallen Army Pvt. Jeremy Bohannon lived in her district. Shuster threw it in her face as he defended MoveOn.org's Petraeus ad.
Trouble is, Pvt. Bohannon was from a neighboring district!
It now turns out that Army Private Jeremy Bohannon had not, contrary to Shuster's claim, lived in Rep. Blackburn's congressional district. As blogger Conservative Belle brought to NB's attention, and as she has written about at
her site, Private Bohannon lived in Bon Acqua, TN. Checking his nine-digit zip code reveals that he in fact lived in Tennessee District 8, represented by John Tanner, a Democrat.
SOURCES TELL NEWSBUSTERS THAT MSNBC WILL BE CORRECTING THIS MAJOR ERROR.

Couric weighs in on Iraq, Rather [The Examiner - Yeas & Nays]
— Her take on the news — Speaking at the National Press Club Tuesday evening, CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric pulled back the curtain on her personal views of both the war in Iraq and former "Evening News" anchor Dan Rather.

Iraq: Winning, Disconnecting From the Matrix -- [Kat - Denizen of Argghhh!]
...In this war, history is still being written by the media. They create a narrative that equates to the knowledge of the masses and trickles down to the polls. Yet, somewhere amongst the narrative is the true story of the war, written in "0" and "1" bytes on the world wide web. It was hidden except to the few who knew that the narrative on the air waves did not match the whispers of communications from the front. And we searched for the real story among the bytes, flashing around the world at the speed of light.

The media's free ride in Iraq -- [WND - Matt Sanchez - in Iraq]
The New Republic published entries from the "Baghdad Diarist," a soldier who was supposedly reporting on the realities of being in Baghdad. The "diarist" was proven to be a fraud, while the liberal media claimed even if the story was fake, it could have been true and that's what counts. Discerning facts from fiction is an obstacle the media trips over daily.
If the media are the eyes, ears and voice of a democracy, our nation is currently deaf, dumb and blind.
The conflict in Iraq is complicated, and yet the media has dumbed-down that complexity by communicating in flashy breaking-news banners with "expert analysis" that is, in fact, amateur opinion given by activist glamour correspondents whose names are synonymous with their news programs.
Take the main issue in Iraq:

NPR Snubs Interview with the President, So It Airs on Fox News -- [NewsBusters]
Does National Public Radio have a nose for news? Or a nose that's offended by the scent of President Bush? NPR news boss Ellen Weiss has snubbed an exclusive interview opportunity with President Bush. Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz reported Wednesday that the White House offered NPR’s Juan Williams an interview on race relations, but NPR didn’t want it on its airwaves. So it aired on Fox News instead.

HUMOR / SATIRE

Day By Day

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