LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR

It is my good fortune, a blessing, to live in a house on the edge of the forest. A few short steps out the door and I'm in the above picture. The branches of the nearest trees practically touch our home, ever beckoning us into the hundred acre wood.

The scenery is constant yet ever changing, from the riot of spring to the lush green of summer to the spectacle that is early autumn that gradually fades to a mellow late October gold. The leaves lying damp on the ground sparkle then like true gold, and they are indeed riches beyond the counting of most. Then as the bare brown of winter opens the forest to more distant lines of sight, the deer are almost always in view.

A snow of awesome character painted all this white last year. Clinging to everything like frosting on a fine cake; "wonderland" the only word to describe it. Rare beauty.

I had a house with a swimming pool once upon a time. All in all I prefer the forest. Both are great for relaxation; the cares of a chaotic day melt, are revealed for the trivia they are, when you're floating in a pool or walking through quiet woods. But the twelve months a year availability of the forest is just unbeatable.

Pity those who can't see this creation. There's an old story about an artist with a guest at his home admiring artwork on the wall.

"This is a wonderful pen and ink!" Exclaims the visitor upon viewing a picture of a forest.

"Oh that?" Answers the artist, "I accidentally knocked over an ink bottle and it spilled across the paper just like that."

"Impossible." said the visitor.

"Exactly." said the artist.

This forest changes through the course of a day too. Cool morning mist evaporates and soon the brightness of mid day reveals astounding details. But to me the finest time of the day is the evening, as the setting sun shines a moving spotlight on ever changing points, highlighting everything in its turn. Spectacular. Glorious. Bravo. Finally night falls and the moon rises large in the sky. The homeward path glows in pale luminescence.

The dog feels right at home here, of course. The smells are enough and varied to keep him busy forever. Every day they are seemingly new to him, and exciting and different and worthy of his attention, and worth a few impatient tugs on the leash.

BUH-BYE

From Air Force News:

8/27/2003 - PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia (AFPN) -- U.S. officials transferred control of portions of Prince Sultan Air Base to Saudi officials at a ceremony Aug. 26. The ceremony also marked the inactivation of the 363rd Air Expeditionary Wing.

"We came here under difficult circumstances following the Khobar Towers bombing (at Dhahran Air Base),? said Col. James Moschgat, the wing?s commander. ?The mission thrived and prospered here, and I believe our legacy will live on. We are leaving after seven years of friendship and cooperation. It's bittersweet, but it's time to go."

Saudi government officials asked U.S. servicemembers to deploy to Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War. The troops remained to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 688 -- the no-fly zone south of the 33rd parallel over Iraq -- until Operation Iraqi Freedom started March 19. The base here became the center of the U.S. presence in the country in 1997 after the Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 airmen and injured 400 others.

Aircraft here monitored the southern no-fly zone in Iraq. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Combined Air Operations Center and a limited air-refueling mission operated here.

The base was home to about 60,000 coalition forces during the past seven years. At the height of OIF, there were more than 5,000 troops and about 200 coalition aircraft based here.

The decision to withdraw the troops was made by U.S. and Saudi officials during a meeting between Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Saudi defense minister in Riyadh on April 29.

"Today ends more than a decade of military operations in this strategic Middle East nation," said Maj. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., the 9th Aerospace Expeditionary Task Force vice commander. ?The end of (major combat operation in Iraq) and Saddam Hussein's government means the American military mission here is over.?

This ceremony signals a change to the U.S. and Saudi military operational relationship as the countries? militaries continue tactical training and conduct exercises together, he said.

"Closing U.S.-controlled areas of Prince Sultan Air Base ... is a time for reflection,? Elder said. ?But, this won't be the end of coming to Saudi Arabia. We've been working with our friends from Prince Sultan for seven years; we're beginning a new relationship with the royal Saudi air force."

In July, Moschgat returned Coalition Complex, the housing center for coalition forces since 1999, to Saudi officials.

The last Americans will complete the U.S. pullout in early September.

Kind words. Diplomatic, to say the least.

One of the unheralded results of the recent Iraq war has been the end of Operation Northern Watch and Operation Southern Watch, the USAF missions to patrol and enforce the no-fly zones established in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to protect the Iraqi Shia and Kurd populations.

Since 1991 the Air Force has kept a continuous rotation of troops and equipment into locations like Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Air Force men and women have withstood the family separation, heat, and general discomfort of living in modern-day 14th century nations.

An example of the type of things put up with: just last year and only after a legal battle and congressional intervention, the Air Force stopped forcing its female members to wear Burkhas when off base in Saudi. Initially they downgraded "mandatory wear " to "highly encouraged wear", but in this instance no one was fooled as everyone knows the military frowns on those who won't do something they're "highly encouraged" to do. (It's simply a semantic dodge when one doesn't want to issue unpopular orders.) The Air Force was scolded into removing all strictures on female garb off base.

To what end? As of last December, according to CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

Dr. Abdullah al-Lheedan, an associate professor at King Saud University, explains, "If the women go without a veil at all, people will notice and feel offended, and that's why the government here insists that the non-Muslim wears the minimum requirement of hijab to cover the whole body except the face and the hands."

Back at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, the war against Iraq has already begun. U.S. pilots based here are dodging Iraqi fire on an almost daily basis.

Those F-15 and F-16 pilots often wouldn't be in the air over southern Iraq if it weren't for U.S. Air Force Capt. Laura Lenderman. A graduate of Duke University and a 9-year Air Force pilot, she flies KC-135 tankers which refuel warplanes in midair -- a most delicate and dangerous mission.

It's a mission for which she and her fellow service members are prepared. "We are ready," she told me. "This is what we train to do. And we are ready to do it."

Here's the irony: Capt. Lenderman can fly these sophisticated aircraft over Saudi Arabia but off-base, she's not allowed to drive or even sit in the front seat of a car.

That's why the American women serving at Prince Sultan for all practical purposes, hardly ever leave the base.

They don't have to stay on base but they do. We heard that repeatedly. The few who leave the base adhere to local restrictions. One service woman told me, "If we have people that go downtown, they wear burkas or the abeyahs and try to respect the traditions."

A lawsuit filed by U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Martha McSally earlier this year forced the Pentagon to drop the requirement that women in the military serving in Saudi Arabia wear those traditional Muslim garments when they're off base.

Trivial perhaps, in light of the fact that American aircraft were being shot or at least radar-pinged almost daily for over 10 years by Iraqi SAM sites. Or the aforementioned bombing at Khobar Towers. Still, this issue is a good example of the challenges faced daily by troops that perhaps would have preferred to be elsewhere.

Is it ironic then, that the mere presence of these infidels protecting the holy Saudi soil would help inflame the passions of terrorists to the point of murder on an unprecedented scale?

It's over now. As it may well be for our long held bases in Turkey. I've spoken with folks "in the know", and have reliable reports from those who've been there recently. The Turks have a strange relationship with the US; as members of the Muslim world many Turks hate us for reasons all too well known. As a small nation behind the power curve on standard of living many harbor jealous rage at our phenomenal national success. As NATO allies they have benefited greatly from us over the years. They have their own national concerns with the Kurds along the Iraqi border. Still, all in all, they'd like us to leave, but please to not take our money with us.

And they miscalculated tremendously when figuring how much we needed them in the current gulf war. Content with the protective umbrella provided by the American Air Force enforcing Operation Northern Watch, the government, in a misguided attempt to show strength, appease the masses, and pocket a few quick bucks, made ridiculous monetary demands for their services as an ally against Saddam. In thinking we had no other options they were wrong. The Bush administration spurned their offer, and a massive airdrop and airlift replaced the Turkish land route for opening a northern front.

So now ends ONW and OSW. And forgive me for noting that those who would complain of lengthy deployments and demand the return of the troops are about 10 years behind the times. We leave the Saudis with a state-of-the-art command and control center. We leave the Turks too. Using the end of those seemingly eternal operations, those endless deployments, those months in the sand, as official justification. The cessation of the seemingly magic American cash flow through the gates of Incirlik will make a not too minor blip on the local economy. But then again the Turks will no longer need to smile and feign friendship when the infidel enters their shop.

And now stay tuned, as the drawdown in Germany, promised from the day the wall fell, inevitable and perhaps overdue since the break up of the evil empire, at last begins...

COOL NEWS: OPERATION AIR CONDITIONER BACK ON

FINAL SCORE: AMERICA 1, UNNAMED POST OFFICE BUREAUCRAT 0

Some GI's in Iraq will get to cool off a bit in spite of US Postal Service attempts to deny them that simple pleasure as Operation Air Conditioner has been aided by an unlikely duo:

Limbaugh helps air conditioner operation

Operation Air Conditioner will resume sending more units to troops in Iraq this week after getting a boost Monday from a cargo firm and conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

Frankie Mayo of Bear, whose son is with the army in Iraq, had sent about 500 air conditioners for $38 apiece before U.S. Postal Service officials halted her shipments two weeks ago. They said the units could not be shipped by any mail carrier because international postal agreements ban their coolants as hazardous.

After a New Jersey-based company, DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, learned of Mayo's situation, the firm determined that, as a cargo carrier rather than a mail carrier, it was not subject to the same coolant ban and would be able to handle the additional 520 units. And, the officials said, as a military subcontractor, it could deliver the stockpiled units to Baghdad.

The downside was that it would cost more than $71,000.

Enter Limbaugh. His Monday show focused on the Bear homemaker's effort, which has drawn national attention since she sent the first unit to her son, Army Cpl. Christopher Tomlinson, in July.

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has been working to get free military transport for the units, Limbaugh noted.

After the show, Mayo said, Limbaugh's wife, Marta, told her and DHL officials that she had made arrangements to cover half the cost. DHL officials said late Monday they received that payment and plan to transport the air conditioners this week.

Donations from across the country would cover the rest of the cost, Mayo said. She still hopes Biden will get planes to take more units, but said she could not wait while soldiers struggle in desert heat.

She also said she is not surprised that Operation Air Conditioner is gaining support from people with as varied political stances as Biden and Limbaugh.

"This isn't about politics at all," she said. "It's about our sons and daughters in Iraq."

Meanwhile,

Air conditioners to fly out of Dover

An agreement has been reached for planes from Dover Air Force Base to carry air conditioners collected by a Delaware woman to troops in Iraq, Sen. Joe Biden said Wednesday.

The first shipment will be sent Sept. 4.

Biden, D-Del., said the first shipment from Dover was finalized Wednesday after about a month of talks with Department of Defense officials, who could not be reached for comment.

The Air Force is the second alternative shipping option to come through this week.

Mayo's stockpile is set to start its trek to Iraq on Friday, courtesy of a cargo company and talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who broadcast a segment Monday about her project.

He arranged for payment of half the $71,000 cost for New Jersey-based DHL Danzas Air & Ocean, a cargo carrier and military subcontractor, to take the air conditioners to Iraq. Mayo paid the rest from nationwide donations to www.operationac.com.

Mayo said Limbaugh listeners have donated more than $36,000.

The unusual pairing of supporters for Operation Air Conditioner is noted.

Now, if you would like to help support this worthy cause, I encourage you to visit Operation Air Conditioner here. They have a Paypal donation button waiting for you (in case anyone has ever wondered where the Mudville Gazette Paypal link is, consider it there.) along with some great reading about the project, the hurdles they've faced, and the attitudes of the folks involved. Uplifting stuff, and absolutely worth a few minutes of your time.

And here is the Baghdad forecast.

911 REMEMBERED

According to The New York Post

August 26, 2003 -- WITH the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only three weeks away, TV networks have planned nearly no special programming to commemorate the horrible events of that day.

Which leads Rachel Lucas to note:

I don't get it. I don't get it. I. Do. Not. Get. It.

And the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. I remember seeing "specials" about Princess Diana on the anniversary of her death for a few years. In primetime. The networks will devote entire two-hour blocks to stupid crap like that, crap that means absolutely nothing, but here we are 24 months after September 11, fer crissakes, and they have nothing particular planned besides the re-airing of an interview with Bush and other similar crap on the regular news shows. ABC seems to be the exception, but even their coverage will apparently be focused on how much Bush sucks and how much money we've spent fighting back.

However, not everyone has forgotten,

A group operating openly in Britain that regards itself as a front line for global Islamic conquest, is planning a conference to celebrate the anniversary of America's "comeuppance" on Sept. 11, 2001.

Two years after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, "Muslims worldwide will again be watching replays of the collapse of the Twin Towers, praying to Allah … to grant those magnificent 19 Paradise," says the group, Al-Muhajiroun, on its English-language hatesite.

The group said Muslims will celebrate Sept. 11 this year, rejoicing the U.S. got its "comeuppance for atrocities" it has committed, "and indeed continues to commit, against Muslims."

Afghanistan and Iraq are the most recent examples, the statement said.

"With thousands of innocent Muslims still in captivity under barbaric conditions in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. inquisition against Islam and Muslims shows no signs of subsiding," the group said. "In contrast, the operations being carried out by the Mujahideen against the occupiers in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya and in Afghanistan have also been stepped up to meet the menace led by the U.S. and UK regimes."

And as Misha helpfully points out:

Yet here, in the country that was attacked, our blowdried talking heads can't find it in themselves to "waste" a few minutes of their essential Kobe Bryant coverage in order to commemorate our fallen heroes.

What more can I say?

Teach your children.

Peace be upon you.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

V

TUESDAY MORNING IN SEPTEMBER, BARKSDALE AFB, LOUISIANA

A small projector on a platform suspended from the ceiling shines images from a computer onto a large screen on a wall; near real time data from state-of-the-art Doppler radars, high resolution geostationary satellite imagery, and output from complex computer-generated models of the atmosphere. A far cry from hand-applied ink on cardboard using 2-3 hour old data that was "high tech" just a few years before, this same information is available in the most remote tent city in the world.

The briefing concludes and the commander addresses the room.

"You're all professionals. Today I need you all to get out there and focus on the task at hand."

A little over dramatic, I'm thinking. We're in the midst of a major exercise and the B52's are all prepped and ready to go; loaded for bear and ready to crush an imaginary foe. In this case, as with all exercises, the scenario is based on hypothetical bad guys launching an unprovoked and brutal attack against a make-believe ally of the United States. Exercises almost always begin with that premise, for it would be unrealistic to have the attack actually directed at us. Still, the script calls for us to respond in such a way that the hypothetical bad guys will suffer grave consequences for their crimes.

The boss continues, and he's really hamming it up. The look on his face is dead serious. "There's little information available right now but this we know: an aircraft has crashed into one of the towers of the world trade center."

Damn. That, I know, was not in the script.

The commander leaves as the room is called to attention, the day shift quietly exits the briefing room and crosses the hall to the operations center. There on the wall another giant screen has been given over to live news coverage, and indeed one of the towers has been transformed into what looks like the world's largest candle.

At numerous work stations around the room shift change is now ongoing, tired midshift workers start the trudge home. "Looks like you might not be sleeping much today." I remark to a friend passing by on his way to the door.

"Huh?" He says. I point to the screen. "Oh that. The TV guys say it was probably an accident."

I don't think so. What are the odds? This guy is doing a great job of convincing himself that he'll be able to sleep. I would be hoping for sleep too. At the end of a mid shift it's all you can think about. If you can think.

He leaves. The day crew is on duty and focused on the task at hand. Professional. Time for me to get to work too. I've got an office down the hall and I'm about to head for the door when the images of the second plane hitting the second tower are burned forever into my memory.

The commander is at my shoulder now. The ops floor is getting crowded. "That's a hell of a degree of realism for an exercise." Someone quips.

And we don't know it yet but the President of the United States is inbound.

AN EARLY SUMMER SATURDAY NIGHT IN AMERICA NEAR THE END OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

Home on leave! A strange thing happens on these rare visits; years melt away and I'm back with old friends. It's bittersweet to be sure, because the reality is that they've enjoyed a life in place with roots and lifelong friends and kids who are growing up together.

No time for that kind of thinking now though...tonight it's just the guys, the guys I used to cruise with, now in a buddy's basement, drinking at his bar. (Twenty years earlier we were in his parents basement, drinking from their bar. We've come a long way.) And we're talking about old times and where we are now. Careers, successes, failures, life, glory days...

"Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days"
--Springsteen, Glory Days

Glory days...

These guys knew me with a different haircut. In pre-military days yours truly was a lead guitar player in a local bar band, back when summer was endless and life was good. Rock and Roll was all that mattered; not just the music, the life.

The military is full of ex-rock stars. Show me one hundred random military guys and I'll find a full band. And they'll be good, too. Small wonder that we've even found tactical uses for rock music.

Rock and Roll. The tip of the cultural spear. It's been said the US has never fought a war against a country with a McDonalds; once you've got our culture you'll love us for sure. And Rock and Roll, flowing free through the radio waves for all the world to hear, is the first and only bit of that culture that many will ever know.

Again the guy on the road to Baghdad: Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy? If it was a question, this is my answer: "Rock and Roll."

I hardly ever see the guys from the band anymore, but sometimes back with the guys from high school someone will put a guitar in my hands and its go time, baby. I can Rock and Roll with a Stratocaster and a Marshall stack or with an M16, whatever it takes. Tonight though it's just an acoustic guitar and a few songs before something on TV catches my attention. Stops me completely.

The Russians have moved into Kosovo.

"Hey, you still got it man" someone says but I'm preoccupied with the news. He's just being nice anyhow; the guy that plays for a hobby is nowhere near as good as the guy that played for a living.

Then someone else suggests we go check out the band playing at this place up the street. Which sounds like a good idea to me but I want to hear the news first.

"Hang on, just this one story" I say and now some others have their eyes on the TV.

"Kosovo? Is that part of Bosnia?"

"Yeah you guys are bombing them or something aren't you?"

Or something. We've been bombing Yugoslavia constantly for nearly three months. And we've been in the Balkans for years now. Not too many folks were too aware of the situation at the time, a handful of years later and even fewer remember it as more then the name of a place where something happened with the military.

At first I'm a little disappointed that the guys have little knowledge of what's going on, but maybe its better this way. No protesters, no complications... the US acts to protect the downtrodden wherever they may be, right? No favoritism, we're even defending Muslims in Europe against the Christians who would massacre them.

The US military has been deployed to more places and seen more action during the 1990's then any decade before. Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Watch, Southern Watch, Korea... Small wonder perhaps that our most warlike president in history is not well liked amongst the troops, (Add in personal conduct that would bar him from military service or result in court martial and it quickly becomes apparent why officers were constantly reminded they were forbidden from making disparaging remarks about the commander-in-chief.)

Still, whether as a result of our success and public approval post-Gulf War or because they worship our CinC like a god, the media doesn't paint the grim picture they did pre-Gulf War for any of these myriad conflicts of the 90's. That's good, a unified America is pretty unbeatable. But perhaps it's also bad; given the rate of deployment one wonders if all these trips are necessary...

And my buds, once inseparable High School friends together and now representing several different walks of life, don't know Kosovo from Kokomo.

And if they can sleep well at night I guess that's probably a good thing.

In a few months a new millennium will begin, and if it's not the end of the world predicted by a lot of Y2K doomsayers, maybe it will be a little less busy for the boys and girls in the uniformed service.

"And now with a look at your weather here's Ted." The TV goes off. "Let's hit the road!" someone says, and we go catch a really hard working rock band, the type that lights up the night in bars all over America, and for a while all is right with the world.

Democracy Whiskey Sexy? Rock and roll, baby, rock and roll.

"...Seventeen has turned thirty-five
I'm surprised that we're still livin'
If we've done any wrong
I hope that we're forgiven
Got a few kids of my own
And some days I still don't know what to do
I hope that they're not laughin' too loud
When they hear me talkin'
Like this to you

That's when a sport was a sport
And groovin' was groovin'
And dancin' meant everything
We were young and we were improvin'
Laughin', laughin' with our friends
Holdin' hands meant somethin', baby
Outside the club"Cherry Bomb"
Our hearts were really thumpin'
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah..."
--John Mellencamp, Cherry Bomb

TUESDAY IN SEPTEMBER

How blue was that sky on that day?

Images are beamed into the ops center; the towers are smoking like chimneys over the furnaces of Hell. Damaged but not yet fallen. No one knows and everyone suspects what's going on. Osama Bin Laden is not unknown to us; he drew first blood long before this day.

"It's the UN Summit thing" Someone says, "we refused to condemn Israel as a racist state and this is the result."

"That may be a final kicker, but there's definitely more motive behind this attack."

"Well sure, it goes back to the founding of Israel..."

"No, it goes back to the days of the Bible..."

"Well, yea, but I mean as far as modern times..."

"The Palestinians?"

"Hey don't forget Oklahoma. We don't know yet who did this one..."

I need a break from this scene and there are a few things I need to get done, so it's down the hall to the office. When I get there the guy I share the office with is hanging up the phone; he was talking to a buddy at the Pentagon.

"Learn anything?" I ask him.

"He hung up...he said 'I've gotta go, the whole building just shook'... and he hung up."

Damn.

Down the hall again to the Ops Center. News reports are conflicted now, rumors are flying, something about a bombing at State Department headquarters... the "fog of war" is thick on this one. No surprise there.

But ten minutes later the first "unconfirmed reports" from the Pentagon are broadcast.

Damn damn damn.

Strangely enough I have a dentist appointment, made weeks before. On a military installation you do not miss a dentist appointment. And there's a distinct and new possibility that I may be away from home for a while, with no immediate access to professional modern dentistry. So with nothing else hot to do I head for the dental clinic.

And there's a TV in the waiting room. And discussion of who is doing this. And very professional attitudes to the people going about their business. Until the towers fall. And then the world changes. And everything ratchets up about ten notches.

I reschedule my appointment. Looking at the date on the new appointment slip I wonder if I'll actually be here in two weeks.

Who has done this thing? We know him.

We know him well enough that we call him by his initials. His full name is inconvenient to us, perhaps scorn and contempt make those three letters all he is worthy of.

OBL.

We do not fear him. And if he never existed some other would have stood in his place. He is inevitable, the product of a culture of five thousand years of hate. He is just the latest incarnation, the current personification of a lengthening line of sheer evil.

WHY?

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, and who is willing to destroy his own heart?"
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

September 5, 1972: Eight Palestinian "Black September" terrorists seized 11 Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. In a bungled rescue attempt by West German authorities, nine of the hostages and five terrorists were killed.

March 2, 1973: U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo A. Noel and other diplomats were assassinated at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum by members of the Black September organization.

"So long as there are men there will be wars."
-- Albert Einstein

"Only the dead have seen the last of war"
-- George Santayana

"It may be that at some time in the dim future of the race the need for war will vanish: but that time is yet ages distant. As yet no nation can hold its place in the world, or can do any work really worth doing, unless it stands ready to guard its right with an armed hand."
--Theodore Roosevelt

June 27, 1976: Members of the Baader-Meinhof Group and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine seized an Air France airliner and its 258 passengers. They forced the plane to land in Uganda,where on July 3 Israeli commandos successfully rescued the passengers.

"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it."
--General Douglas MacArthur

"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum."
--"Epitoma Rei Militaris" by Vegetius.
(Therefore, whoever wishes for peace, let him prepare for war.)

November 4, 1979: After President Carter agreed to admit the Shah of Iran into the U.S., Iranian radicals seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 American diplomats hostage. Thirteen hostages were soon released, but the remaining 53 were held until their release on January 20, 1981.

"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."
--George W. Bush on Iraq, Iran, and North Korea

"I think it will take years before we can repair the damage done by that statement."
-- Jimmy Carter on George Bush's use of the phrase "Axis of Evil"

October 6, 1981: Soldiers who were secretly members of the Takfir Wal-Hajira sect attacked and killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a troop review.

September 14, 1982: Lebanese Prime Minister Bashir Gemayel was assassinated by a car bomb parked outside his party's Beirut headquarters.

April 18, 1983: Sixty-three people, including the CIA's Middle East director, were killed, and 120 were injured in a 400-pound suicide truck-bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

October 23, 1983: Simultaneous suicide truck-bomb attacks were made on American and French compounds in Beirut, Lebanon. A 12,000-pound bomb destroyed the U.S. compound, killing 242 Americans, while 58 French troops were killed when a 400-pound device destroyed a French base. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
-- Colin Powell

March 16, 1984: The Islamic Jihad kidnapped and later murdered Political Officer William Buckley in Beirut, Lebanon. Other U.S. citizens not connected to the U.S. Government were seized over a succeeding 2-year period.

June 14, 1985: A Trans-World Airlines flight was hijacked en route to Rome from Athens by two Lebanese Hizballah terrorists and forced to fly to Beirut. The eight crew members and 145 passengers were held for 17 days, during which one American hostage, a U.S. Navy sailor, was murdered. After being flown twice to Algiers, the aircraft was returned to Beirut after Israel released 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

October 7, 1985: Four Palestinian Liberation Front terrorists seized the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, taking more than 700 hostages. One U.S. passenger was murdered before the Egyptian Government offered the terrorists safe haven in return for the hostages' freedom. Years later the leader of the hijackers would be discovered in Baghdad following the liberation of Iraq.

November 23, 1985: An EgyptAir airplane bound from Athens to Malta and carrying several U.S. citizens was hijacked by the Abu Nidal Group.

March 30, 1986: A Palestinian splinter group detonated a bomb as TWA Flight 840 approached Athens Airport, killing four U.S. citizens.

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."
-- Samuel Adams

April 5, 1986: Two U.S. soldiers were killed, and 79 American servicemen were injured in a Libyan bomb attack on a nightclub in West Berlin, Germany. In retaliation, U.S. military jets bombed targets in and around Tripoli and Benghazi.

February 17, 1988: U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. W. Higgins was kidnapped and murdered by the Iranian-backed Hizballah group while serving with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization in southern Lebanon.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
--John Stuart Mill

"The Bush doctrine of preemptive war is wrong for America, and sets a dangerous precedent. So many who supported the war now say that they are opposed to the doctrine of preemption. Then why did they vote for this preemptive war? I opposed the President's war on Iraq, I continue to stand against his policy of preemption, and on my first day in office I will tear up the Bush doctrine and rebuild a foreign policy consistent with American values."
--Howard Dean

December 21, 1988: Pan American Airlines Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb believed to have been placed on the aircraft in Frankfurt, West Germany, by Libyan terrorists. All 259 people on board were killed.

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
--Patrick Henry March 23,1775

"Stop this war before it starts! Bring home our troops..." (said to chants of "Stop this war! Stop this war!")
--Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Oh)

January 18-19, 1991: Iraqi agents planted bombs at the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia's home residence and at the USIS library in Manila.

February 26, 1993: The World Trade Center in New York City was badly damaged when a car bomb planted by Islamic terrorists explodes in an underground garage. The bomb left six people dead and 1,000 injured. The men carrying out the attack were followers of Umar Abd al-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who preached in the New York City area.

April 14, 1993: The Iraqi intelligence service attempted to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait. In retaliation, the U.S. launched a cruise missile attack 2 months later on the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

March 8, 1995: Two unidentified gunmen killed two U.S. diplomats and wounded a third in Karachi, Pakistan.

November 13, 1995: The Islamic Movement of Change planted a bomb in a Riyadh military compound that killed one U.S. citizen, several foreign national employees of the U.S. Government, and more than 40 others.

"My friends, this rush to war does not benefit the American people..."
--Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun

"It's looking more and more like a case of mass deception... There was no imminent danger, and we should never have gone to war."
--Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)

June 25, 1996: A fuel truck carrying a bomb exploded outside the U.S. military's Khobar Towers housing facility in Dhahran, killing 19 U.S. military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 U.S. personnel. Several groups claimed responsibility for the attack.

February 23, 1997: A Palestinian gunman opened fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland, and France before turning the gun on himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claimed this was a punishment attack against the "enemies of Palestine."

August 7, 1998: A bomb exploded at the rear entrance of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 12 U.S. citizens, 32 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), and 247 Kenyan citizens. About 5,000 Kenyans, six U.S. citizens, and 13 FSNs were injured. The U.S. embassy building sustained extensive structural damage. Almost simultaneously, a bomb detonated outside the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing seven FSNs and three Tanzanian citizens, and injuring one U.S. citizen and 76 Tanzanians. The explosion caused major structural damage to the U.S. embassy facility. The U.S. Government held Usama Bin Ladin responsible.

"Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, then he went to Sudan. And we'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start meeting with them again. They released him. At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America."
-- Bill Clinton explains to a Long Island, N.Y., business group why he turned down Sudan's offer to extradite Osama Bin Laden to America in 1996.

"The only thing needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke

October 12, 2000: In Aden, Yemen, a small dingy carrying explosives rammed the destroyer U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. Supporters of Usama Bin Ladin were suspected.

"The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them."
-- George W. Bush

"The architects of this wickedness will find no safe harbor in this world. We will chase our enemies to the furthest corners of this Earth. It must be war without quarter, pursuit without rest, victory without qualification."
-- Rep. Tom Delay (R-Tx)

"I say to our enemies: We are coming. God may have mercy on you, but we won't."
-- Sen. John Mccain (R-Az)

“I am saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war”
--Tom Daschle (D-SD)

"I have absolutely no regret about my vote on this war. The cost in human lives. The cost to our budget, probably $100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less."
--Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca)

"Today's Western society has revealed the inequality between the freedom for good deeds and the freedom for evil deeds. A statesman who wants to achieve something highly constructive for his country has to move cautiously and even timidly; thousands of hasty (and irresponsible) critics cling to him at all times; he is constantly rebuffed by parliament and the press. He has to prove his every step is well founded and absolutely flawless. Indeed, an outstanding, truly great person who has unusual and unexpected initiatives in mind does not get any chance to assert himself; dozens of traps will be set for him from the beginning. Thus mediocrity triumphs under the guise of democratic restraints."
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"What we need now is not just regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need regime change in the United States...I don't think [world leaders] are going to trust this president, no matter what. I believe it deeply, that it will take a new president of the United States, declaring a new day for our relationship with the world, to clear the air and turn a new page on American history."
--Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

September 11, 2001: Two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Soon thereafter, the Pentagon was struck by a third hijacked plane. A fourth hijacked plane, suspected to be bound for a high-profile target in Washington, crashed into a field in southern Pennsylvania. More than 5,000 U.S. citizens and other nationals were killed as a result of these acts.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty."
--John F. Kennedy

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
--Thomas Paine

"In war there is no prize for the runner-up."
-- General Omar Bradley

"These terrorists...we have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."
-- George W. Bush

BARKSDALE AFB, LA, SEP 11, 2001

"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended. I want to reassure the American people that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save lives and help the victims of these attacks. Make no mistake, the U.S. will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. I've been in regular contact with the vice president, secretary of defense, national security team, and my cabinet. We have taken all security precautions to protect the American people. Our military here and around the world is on high status. And we've taken the necessary security precautions to continue functions of your government. We've been in touch with leaders of Congress and world leaders to tell, to assure them we'll do whatever is necessary to protect Americans. I ask the American people to join me, to thank all those fighting hard to rescue victims and join me in saying a prayer to victims and families. The resolve of our nation is being tested ... but make no mistake we'll show the world, we will pass the test."

Better speeches will come later.

The man beside me as these words are spoken is scheduled to retire. His household goods already picked up and shipped, his new life all but begun. Now all of that is uncertain, but in the end his 26 years of service will be sufficient, by virtue of that shipment of household goods he will be allowed to retire while others not so far along in the process will have to wait a few extra months for more settled times.

Still, I think, it was a tough decision for him. But an honor for me as a few weeks later I will get to narrate the ceremony, an emotional conclusion to a distinguished career spanning the better part of three decades. His wife and daughter in the crowd with a room full of other guests, but one noticeable absence; his son will miss this great moment in his father's life, as he is among the first to get his boots in the sand with our new allies, the "Northern Alliance" in Afghanistan.

Family tradition is a powerful thing.

But on September 11, 2001 that future was absolutely uncertain. Then I gazed through a window in time to see a motorcade drive back towards the flightline. Vehicles bristling with mounted machine guns.

And looking down from that window I can't get this image out of my head: those who chose to jump or who fell from the flaming towers. Turning and twisting in the grip of gravity for reason they would never know. The image of that fatal dance is fixed in my memory alongside the image of celebratory dancers in the streets of a far off land; ululating cries of triumph rising from their toothless grins. A different force gripped them; twisted them into supplicant dancers, arms upraised in praise of that all-consuming force they found irresistible. A force as invisible but no less real then gravity, and for some more immutable: malevolent hate. Malevolent hatred of all that we who value civilization hold dear.

I have words for you dancers; listen. I do not return your hate. I do not feel your fear. I feel tethered rage, and a cold and certain focus. You are nothing to me.

I hear a fife and drum. Shall we dance?

Here then, is America on the cusp of the millennia; star-spangled glory and the hope for the free world. Battered and bleeding, cut and scarred, a nation still rising from a barbarous past and now forced to deal imperfectly but as best and completely as we can with barbarism many thought long gone from the world. The time for denial ended as aircraft ripped the sky above New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania...

Our perhaps misguided faith in fellow man renders us attractive to friend and vulnerable to foe. Our fantastic success as a nation, summed up for some perhaps by the concept of Democracy Whiskey Sexy, is seen as absolute failure by others. Our ability to worship as we choose is an intolerable evil for many.

And in spite of those who would deny, who would cling to a world that ended that day, and those misguided and vocal few who would oppose us from within, we are indeed willing to fight to preserve those many things, those blessings of liberty, for ourselves and our posterity.

We appear to be ready to attempt to turn the tide that has seemed so inevitable over the past couple of decades.

Now even the most intensely hate-blinded adherents to the religion of peace must come to grips with the fact that their actions have ended forever our indifferent attitude to their lives. They have gained our full attention. We are now quite obviously a force to be reckoned with in their world, a role forced upon us and a mantle worn uneasily.

That this may cause some discomfort for people on both sides of the aisle in this country is certain, and healthy, and another sign of our fundamental goodness. We will not establish an empire. George Bush is not Caesar. The American people are not the Germans of 1937.

Pax Americana? We are Rome and not Rome. We are right and wrong, we are the best and the brightest and the worst of the world today. We are not half measures. We are frequently extreme, and here voices of temperance are often shouted down.

We are imperfect. We are not to be underestimated.

We are the last dangerous hope for the future of mankind.

The motorcade reaches the runway. There, wingtip to wingtip, the B52 fleet sits, fueled and loaded for real, for an exercise now cancelled. Think about it. The first thing he saw when he got there and the last when he left, firepower the likes of which few can imagine, and his finger on the "trigger". The images of the fallen towers, a smoking hole in the Pentagon, and a crater in Pennsylvania fresh in everyone's mind. Shock and quiet rage prevail nationwide. Restraint? You better believe it, and thank God (and I mean it, thank God) the right man was in charge. Rush to war? Not then, not now, not ever.

And later that night I would get home and hug the wife and kids and be thankful that I could.

And beg forgiveness from my God for that which I might have to do.

For it is not in His name.

Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy?

Let's Roll.

More to come...

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

BRING ME MEN!! AND WOMEN!! AND GIRLS AND BOYS AND SHEEP...AND A PIZZA!! NO ANCHOVIES!!! AND....A SHRUBBERY!

From Air Force News:

Academy seeks new slogan

8/19/2003 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) -- The U.S. Air Force Academy's Association of Graduates is seeking a new slogan to affix to the ramp leading into the cadet area here.

"Bring Me Men" was the previous slogan. It was based on an 1894 poem by Sam Walter Foss, which reads in part, "Bring me men to match my mountains, Bring me men to match my plains," and was put in place in 1964. The academy became co-ed in 1976, but the name remained until earlier this year.

The words were removed from the ramp March 28 as part of cultural changes, according to officials. The words will be replaced by a statement representative of the aspirations of the entire cadet wing and the of core values of the Air Force.

For the interim, the ramp is now known as "The Warrior Ramp." It remains the site where basic cadet trainees mark their transition from civilian to military life.

The Association of Graduates is now accepting suggestions from all academy supporters. Suggestions may be submitted via e-mail, to: editor@aog-usafa.org.

Democracy Whiskey Sexy

Expect a new entry in this series posted early thur morning. Thanks to those who have been following along. The current entry marks the beginning of the final chapter. Hope you have enjoyed.

CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES

Carnival of the Vanities is up at Outside the Beltway this week.

It's a good one, sports fans. Enjoy.

THIS ONE'S GOT ME A BIT FIRED UP...

First read this or this.

Then this Washington Times link From Susan Serin-Done, long time ScrappleFace commenter, Mudville visitor, and 3ID '72-'78:

Frankie Mayo has a mission ? to cool the air for as many U.S. soldiers in Iraq as she can by sending them as many as air conditioners as she can lay her hands on. What started with a single air conditioner sent to her son at the end of June has grown into Operation Air Conditioner, with tons of units being sent to the troops. It is more than just providing them a touch of comfort or a taste of home, it is about helping them avoid heatstroke and providing them comfortable sleeping conditions. But, Mrs. Mayo had 302 new air conditioners waiting to go on Friday, when the U.S. Postal Service pulled the plug.

... at 4:50 Friday afternoon, Mrs. Mayo was told by a bureaucrat in an air-conditioned office at Delaware's Wilmington Distribution Center that it would no longer ship the air conditioners because they contain freon, which is listed as a class 2 compressed gas.

If you're like me you need a few minutes to get your chin off the floor.

Let me summarize: Mother of GI starts organization to send AC units and other supplies to troops in the sand box (Click here for Operation Air Conditioner homepage, soon to be a permalink on this page!) but is temporarily stymied by interpretation of rules regarding shipment of a gas that Al Gore and others feel could cause global warming. Okay, got it.

(Quick note on mail to overseas servicemen & women: Most mail is sent to a stateside location (APO) where USPS turns over to the military. Military then ships to overseas location where member receives mail in a box in a post office on base/post that looks a lot like your post office. UPS, FEDEX, etc, do not or can not deliver to the APO - though they can ship to an actual overseas address if military member has one. Price vs post office delivery usually eliminates this option. But when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. the US Postal Service pretty much has no competition.)

If this is okay with you then by all means do nothing. If, however, this makes you unhappy you can contact Postmaster General John Potter (202/268-2020, fax 202/268-5211 or e-mail click on consumer feedback) or his ultimate boss at the White House. (Oh wait, I forgot, we're his ultimate bosses.)

And then on a positive note see what you can do for Operation Air Conditioner.

More to come on this one, I'm sure.

29 Aug: Update here. The good guys win this time.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

IN THE DESERT...

Thor, a deployed soldier in Iraq, is taking a bit of crap from a few commenters in his blog after posting that he doesn't fully appreciate the efforts of "anti-war" protestors in the States. Some encouraging words would probably be appreciated, if you have time. Soldier's Paradise.

Meanwhile, an all too rare example of the potential that blogs (no, expand that: the Internet) seem to rarely realize: Salam Pax, citizen of Baghdad, and Moja, Soldier in Iraq, interact via their respective blogs. Simple human communication. Awesome.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

New to the Platoon

Another military Blogger checks in. Dave, an Air Force guy, runs "Better Living Through Blogging" from his place in Montana. Welcome to the Blogroll.

Meanwhile, expect the next entry in Democracy Whiskey Sexy tomorrow (13 Aug) at noon. (If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise and no new worms crawl through the web...)

WORM ALERT!

I spent part of yesterday battling this little worm (lesson learned on not keeping current on updates) without knowing the enemy. I noted a distinct decrease in the numbers of folks cruising blogs too. Then today I found the following helpful links at Right Wing News. If you haven't yet done so my advice is stop what you're doing now and follow this procedure immediately.

The W32/Blaster-A Worm is affecting XP, NT, or Windows 2000 OS computers that lack the current security patches. Computers infected by this worm are constantly being knocked off the net & forced to reboot.

The fix for this worm is this patch from Microsoft. After installing you can remove the worm with this tool from symantec.

If you're on XP & are unable to download the patch before you're knocked offline, go here for instructions to keep the virus from knocking you offline. That should enable you to get the patch and removal tool.

BLOG AWARDS

John Cole at Balloon Juice says:

It is August, and other than some flatulence from Al Gore and some chaos in California, news is slow. Thus we are going to have some Blogger Awards. You, my friends, get to participate. All you have to do is cut and paste the awards into an email to me, jgriffincole@hotmail.com, send it to me by Monday, 18 August, and I will tally them and put them up. Please include the url of the bloggers you are voting for in your email with "BLOG AWARDS" in the subject line, as well as your blog name (if you have one). Winners will be rewarded with permalinks for a month. If I don't get 50 submissions, I am not going to bother tallying them. Here are the categories:

You'll have to visit Balloon Juice for the rest. (And if you haven't been there before I think you're in for a good time. Enjoy.)

OOGLAY HUSSEIN'S DIARY

Well hello America, land of the free, home of the infidel, may you die choking on the fumes of your SUVs! A thousand other curses upon you from Ooglay, heir to the throne of Baghdad. "Hey, Ooglay," you are saying "now you are please to be taking some time to tell us of the mood in Baghdad. How is your Arab streets?" And I am gladly telling you this truth: everybody there hates you and also wants you to die but only because of georgebush so nothing personals.

"Hey Ooglay," you say, "glorious and beloved son of the light of the world, sword of Allah, trumpet of the prophet, why do you say 'there?' Are you no longer in your wondrous homeland? Are you not even now dipping your heated toes in the cooling waters of the Euphrates?"

No, I am telling you the will of Allah is a strange and wondrous thing, and I swear by my mother's purity I think sometimes I am moving about more then my father, who must sleep each night in a different house on the Champs-Elysees. Now as I am typing on a keyboard of a computer in California once again.

"Ooglay.." you say and I answer, "Shut up and listen or I cut out your wagging tongue!" And even as I am relating this story I know you are looking upon me with great anger in your squinty, beady eyes. So be it! Hear my story:

After filing my latest stories about the living Hell you have made of life in Baghdad I ordered a round of cool drinks to be brought to me at poolside in my luxury hotel. I was considering returning to the air-conditioned bar as soon as I finished downloading my e-mail to my laptop via the sat-link. Now there are many in Hollywood who know my e-mail address from the times I spent there shortly after the ending of the hostileness in my beloved homeland. Mostly I just delete these because they are "oh please come back I love and miss you Ooglay" type letters that I delete without looking upon because most of your stars are not so good looking when they are not in makeup with computer re-touching and most of the letters are from men stars and Ooglay is not that way. But one from Jewish girl I lived with for a while is catching my eye:

Dearest Oogie, Help! We need you! The Republicans have attacked our beloved Governor, much as they attacked your sainted father, and they are once again planning a regime change. You proved your abilities as a big-draw money maker at some of the fundraisers at my place this past spring, and we desperately need some of that fabled "Hussein Golden Touch" if we're to have any hope of averting this crisis. If our time on the beach at Malibu meant anything at all to you then I know you'll be here soon. Help me Oogie won kenoogy, you're my only hope! XXXOOOXXXBabsy P.S. Of course, you'll get expenses, a generous stipend, and 15% of the take. I've checked with the Times, charge airline tickets to their account.

Well to me this mostly makes no sense but you should know I am a heroic man of action who can't say no to a damsel in distress with a 7-figure payout involved. So before you can say "Allah be praised" I am flying Damascus to Paris first class and then to America.

But listen: It was all a big lie to get me here! Big money-maker scam! I tell you she meets me at airport and helps me bypass security and says "Thank God you've come! We sold out every plate at the dinner tonight and a special show at mi casa manana is also SRO"

I have no clue what she is saying but soon I am in Limo, jet lagged and dizzy though I am. "We're going to a studio." She says "The enemy is planning a big televised debate. Normally none of the TV execs would touch a Repub debate with a ten foot pole, but these guys are big draw. Arnie's still A-list, though God knows why. Probably for Maria's sake." She might as well be speaking Yiddish. All I am thinking is that nose on her would make a good hiding place for my father, his gold, and a pair of his most over-fed doubles.

Okay, soon we are in spotlight booth high above studio soundstage. Below is furious activity. I see men in suits on cell phones she says they are "talking to New York about ad time, this will be close to Superbowl money" whatever this means, while below are group of men arguing about their spot on stage and camera angles.

"What is this?" I say "These are not your enemy leaders?"

"Yes" she says.

"Okay that one is surely bodyguard for one other?"

"No that's Arnie. He's a frontrunner."

"Okay, at least he's not candidate. So there beside strongman, kicking him in shin, who is African midget? Who is old cranky man in wheelchair grabbing midget by collar and lifting him in air? This is good idea to have circus on TV with your debate. My father would televise executions the night before Iraqi elections."

And now is when I am thinking she is putting me on. "Oogie," she says, "these are the candidates."

And then I am laughing so loud that everyone stops and looks up for hearing me. "Come on, we gotta scoot!" She says and drags me out. She punches my shoulder as we run down the stairs "Quit laughing!" She says through clenched teeth.

"I can't help it" I say, wiping tears from my eyes, "this is first time I have actually seen your American Democracy that georgebush would impose on my people. The Kurds and Shia deserve it!" Then I am laughing out loud but just before we go out door I see man in suit sitting in corner on floor crying softly.

"Are you candidate too?" I ask, but he just starts crying loudly as Babsy smacks me with small clutch purse.

"Idiot, that's Darrell Issa." She answered, and pulls me out the door.

Never heard of him. California! What a country!

The complete works of Ooglay Hussein can be found here.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

The woes of blogging for truth

From GOPUSA:

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In May, former Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD) filed a $5 million lawsuit against a website operator who included him among a group of "traitors." The website, www.ProBush.com, lampoons liberals from the entertainment industry and politics who have been vocal in their opposition to the war in Iraq or critical of President George W. Bush.

Some of the others on the list are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as well as actors George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, and Janeane Garafalo and the country music group, the Dixie Chicks.

While the website disclaimer states that the list is a parody and is not to be taken seriously, Abourezk claims that he has been defamed. In his lawsuit he states that ProBush.com's statement "is intended to injure" his standing in the community.

The operator of the website is Mike Marino, a 20-year-old web designer from suburban Philadelphia. He believes that Abourezk's lawsuit against ProBush.com is without merit.

Read all about it at ProBush.com.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

WAR STORIES GALORE FROM THE BLOGOSPHERIC VFW HALL

My recently updated blogroll contains several new links to fellow active duty military bloggers. And here they are, listed in alphabetical order, for your enjoyment:

Chief Wiggles
Chrome Dome
Sgt Hook
A Minute Longer - A Soldier's Tale
The Mudville Gazette
Phantom 491
PontifexExMachina
Primary Main Objective
Lt Smash
Soldier's Paradise
Sgt Stryker
Turning Tables

This list is approaching platoon strength, and I'm sure there are others. If you are or know of an AD military blogger not on this list leave me a comment or drop a line. (Another list for pink and blue cardholders to follow.)

Most of the guys on this list are currently deployed to a great big beach with no ocean nearby. This post from Chief Wiggles (and just about all the posts on Soldier's Paradise) might give non-military types a feel for what that is really like...and you might be surprised by what I mean.

Ed Gadziemski is a big fat idiot

I'm not overly obsessed with the numbers count for visitors to my Blog, but for various reasons I do like to know who my referrers are. On a recent check I found this link had sent a number of visitors my way.

Following it I found a forum section for "The Code Project. Your place for free C++, C# and .NET articles, code snippets, discussions, news and the best bunch of developers on the net."

In a side-bar discussion on WMD, in response to a post by someone relentlessly beating this long-dead horse, an obviously enlightened individual posted a link to an early June entry on this Blog. (Along with this link to a column by the incomparable Mark Steyn.)

Revisiting my post I found a new comment had been added.

"A GI's thoughts on the right's refusal to stop lying...

I know it's a sad thing to find out one's president is a big fat liar. I was disappointed when I learned of Clinton's fabrications. So, I do understand why you don't want to admit that Bush is a big fat liar who led America into war under false pretenses. However, it's time to get over it. He's dangerous and immoral and deserves to be turned out at the next election. America deserves a president who's not a big fat liar."
Posted by: EdG at August 5, 2003 03:40 PM

Ed G would appear to be Ed Gadziemski, the originator of the discussion. (Or perhaps someone trying to make poor Ed appear more of a dolt then he actually is - in which case sorry, Ed.)

My reply:

Ed,

Thanks for expressing your interest in our national defense.

Please note that
1) Posting contrarian comments on two month old discussions of whether or not an issue is obsolete but won't be treated as such by the opposition is somewhat self defeating. Let me simplify: I said I thought this was a dead horse issue but that people like you would continue to beat it. You came along two months later and proved my point.

2) Your main point (repeated three times) is that Bush is a big fat liar. I've seen the man in person and he is neither big nor fat, this is verifiable and casts significant doubt on the verity of your third adjective.

3) Claiming to be a GI when you are not is contemptible. GI's are out making history while you sit and whine about it. A freedom you have because of our defense thereof. I even permit your whining on my own webpage. Enjoy.

You may also enjoy this post from March, the second ever entered on this Blog.

And please consider cutting down on the caffeine, Ed.

Welcome to the world of Blogs, Eddie.

Carnival of the Vanities

Carnival of the Vanities is up at Across the Atlantic. I may be wrong but I think this is the first one with a picture of a three-breasted whore. (What's a carnival without a sideshow, eh?) But I read it for the links, okay, not the pictures!

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html

NEW WEBLOG SHOWCASE

Commiewatch,

Tasty Manatees,

The S-Train Canvass,

Intellectics,

and Oni Blogger

all get my votes in The New Weblog Showcase. Good luck to all.

FRIENDLY FIRE?

Near the end of today's Brickyard 400 a multi-car crash eliminated seven drivers from the race. Mike Skinner, driving the #01 car, appeared to have successfully made his way through the carnage, a skilled bit of driving to be sure, coupled with incredible good fortune.

But just as it seemed he would put the mess in his rearview and continue to race, Ricky Rudd, spinning out of control in the #21 car, collided with him and ended his race.

Skinner's sponsor is the US Army. Rudd's, the Air Force.

Draw your own conclusions.

DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, SEXY?

Place holder. Post moved here http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/000561.html...

HUSSEIN FAMILY UPDATE

Ooglay posted below. Here's an update on the rest of his family.

DAD:
CENTCOM has released digitally enhanced pictures detailing what Saddy might look like now. None appear to address the possibility (perhaps remote) that he is already a corpse, a scorch mark, a stain, or a well-dispersed cloud of pink vapor floating somewhere downwind of Baghdad. Hopefully soon. Until then, these should keep the photoshop kids happy for a while. Go to it, guys. Heck, have a contest to see who can make the best "Saddam Today" picture.

The Bros:

TIKRIT, Iraq-- Saddam Hussein's two sons and a grandson have been buried in their tribal homeland, hours after the U.S. military handed their bodies over to the Iraqi Red Crescent, which in turn gave them to members of their tribe.

Their tribe? Whatever. I say let the Army build a latrine over the site.

Sisters:

AMMAN, Jordan— Saddam Hussein's daughters, in interviews Friday, expressed deep affection for their father but said they don't know where he is and last saw him a week before the Iraq war started.

"He was a very good father, loving, has a big heart," Raghad, wearing a fashionable white headscarf showing part of her light brown hair, told CNN. Asked if she wanted to give a message to her father, she said: "I love you and I miss you."

"He had so many feelings and he was very tender with all of us," Rana said in the same interview. "Usually the daughter is close to her mother, but we would usually go to him. He was our friend.

The two daughters had lived private lives and were seen by some as victims of Saddam, who ordered their husbands killed in 1996.

Did you single guys catch that? The girls are available.

Raghad (how do you pronounce that?) Saddam Hussein and Rana Hussein, who received sanctuary a day earlier in Jordan, appeared relaxed as they spoke with CNN and the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya at a royal palace in Amman, where they are staying with their nine children.

Nine children? That might cut down on the number of suiters. Wonder how many will end up in college in the US? I'll bet any number of schools would offer free tuition. For the diversity, you know.

Also note that (for what it's worth) Saddams daughter is his namesake.

I think this is the key quote from the story though: ...Raghad, wearing a fashionable white headscarf showing part of her light brown hair... because it appears right next to a picture that simultaneously confirms it and renders it needless to say.

But maybe the point is there will be a new fashion accessory amongst the Fembots of the American Left this fall.

Now go make those Saddam photoshop masterpieces.

Mysterious Mystery Here...

This has had me wondering for a while. Okay, near the top of my referrels list (over on the right side of my page below the blogroll) is this entry:

BlogRolling - Sidebar

Clicking it just brings the actual blogroll from the blogrolling.com site, with still no clue as to whose blogroll this is.

I appreciate anyone who sees fit to blogroll me but I'm not at all sure who this is. (Or I know but I don't know that I know, know what I mean?) Whoever you are you are one of my top referrers, so I would sure like to say thanks.

An email to greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com if you're too humble to leave a comment, please?

OOGLAY HUSSEIN'S DIARY

Okay may a thousand cursed greetings be showered upon your pig dog American infidel heads. Once again I am Ooglay in Baghdad, which you have rendered pre-Babylonian with your so-called smart bombings.

Have you heard of my new recording career? Here is the story in my very own newspaper.

"We must not let things slip away and our situation become desperate"... this is my favorite line of the whole thing. I thought it up myself.

Soon my other nine new employers who are wanting to rule your country as some kind of Junta if I am correctly understanding things will be making their speeches of agreements with this. I have heard through sources though that Mr Howardean is going to jump ahead of the others though and not only be first but also will insult the others for not saying something sooner.

"This is just our greatest fear become reality" He will say "because of Georgebush's actions Saddam Hussein is once again going to be the leader of the Iraqi people! This is just humiliating"

I wrote that line for him myself. The "humiliating" part is for my Arab brothers. We are hating humiliation more then anything except jews, you know. So this statement is a show of great weakness among your people and will be giving some new strength of purpose to us in our battle with you infidel dogs.

Speaking of humiliation, here is a humiliating story. I am traveling with photographer for New Yorks Time newspapers. We are almost out of film for the many pictures he is asking me to take of him "Please Ooglay take my picture with palace in background...please Ooglay to be taking my picture with this relic like I am stealing from museum...please Ooglay take my picture with hunk soldier..." so we go into little store with Fuji Film sign in window and guess what? It is store from my first day of war adventures! No! You are saying. Yes, I am saying, and same peasant shopkeeper! So the pig takes a minute to remember me and just before I am about to tell him I will be taking film without paying he is shouldering old standby Republican Guard issue FAMAS G2 and pointing the shaking business end at me!

Now is when I am running like the glorious wind sent by Allah to cool my Fabled Father's sweating face on the hottest days of Jamadi-Ul-Awwal. And blessed be the will of Allah for the shakiness of the untrained shopkeeper who blasted holes in the glass window just before I hurled myself through it into the street, and thankful as I am for the soft landing it provided I do wish it was something other than camel dung that awaited me in the gutter.

Or perhaps I am hoping that it wasn't something other then Camel dung. Better I never know, though the smell is truly haunting me to this day.

And fool of a photographer is shooting pictures! Then the shopkeeper is pointing rifle at him and pulling the trigger but again by the will of Allah who apparently cares for infidel fools too the cheap French popgun jams. Still the cameraman is apparently having some sense because he is by now stepping through the gaping Ooglay-shaped hole in the window and moving quickly out of the possible field of fire. I however, am recognizing opportunity and grabbing swiftly and left-handedly a heaping scoop of offal from the collar of my newly tailored counterfeit Brooks Brothers and hurling with much velocity in his general direction.

Then I too am running on the heels of the photographing heathen, and tripping him for fun as I pass him by.

"A thousand pardons" I explain "I certainly did not mean to cause harm." Picking up his camera though I "accidentally" open the back and expose the roll of film. He makes a crying noise.

"Again I beg for pardons, but I am not wise in the ways of these machines. Is this bad?" And I am stretching the film out as far as I can as he is standing to his feet. He is starting to say something but the ricochet of bullets from the pavement at our feet is telling me that the cursed shopkeeper is once again seeking to send me off to join my brothers in paradise. I toss the camera to the photo boy hoping to slow him enough that he will become the likely