Baghdad

Crossposted from Grim's Hall.

The heart of the insurgency may be al-Anbar, but the real fighting is for Baghdad. The city is an important symbol, in much the same way that control of Paris symbolizes control of France.

Insurgents cannot hope to control Baghdad, so they try to show that the Iraqi government can't control it either. Today's attack at a sewage treatment plant did nothing to disrupt the function of the plant, but that is cold comfort to the families of thirty five children killed by car bombs.

The insurgents can't afford photographs of American soldiers passing out candy to smiling children, but the only way they can stop it is with photographs of American soldiers caring for children ripped open by the insurgents' bombs, and US helicopters rushing them to the hospital. This is the fullness of their power: they can kill children to protest that the US is cleaning up Baghdad's sewage.

One would think the monstrosity of these attacks would speak for itself, but it does not. The AP report shows only too clearly the moral blindness afflicting so many:

The day of violence across Iraq, including insurgent attacks and U.S. airstrikes in Fallujah, left a total of 46 people dead and 208 wounded.

There we are then: the insurgents and the United States are equally the enemies of peaceful Iraqis. An insurgent attack on a sewage treatment plant designed to slaughter unarmed people en masse ought, of course, to be lumped in with an airstrike on a terrorist safehouse that was packed so full of ordinance that secondary explosions continued for hours.

Naturally.

Dear Ms Cocco

I understand that CBS (an unreliable source) claims that regarding the draft you're "so concerned she is involved with the organization "People Against the Draft"" and that you've appeared on television helping to promote your anti-draft agenda.

I don't think CBS has any credibility, and I don't watch much TV here so I didn't see the program you appeared on and can't comment on specific details. But if the claim is true I certainly want to salute your efforts and offer you my sincerest thanks. Speaking only for myself, an American serving in uniform in Iraq, there's little I fear more than having the determined, confident, and competent young sons and daughters of our nation that I see here daily replaced by some group of conscripts torn kicking and screaming from their mother's skirts and forced to become something that only faintly resembles the effective members of our armed forces that are currently far from home and risking all for a cause they believe in.

I decline to engage in partisan political commentary here but I do wish to point out that any Americans who are serious about assisting Ms Cocco in averting this disastrous course of action should contact representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and request they withdraw their proposed legislation aimed at restoring that heinous option.

Likewise I suggest Americans note that the Army and Army Reserve will meet their recruiting goals this year as stated here:

The Army's goal was to recruit 77,000 new active Army troops and 21,200 Reserve troops. As of Aug. 31, the Army had 70,479 new recruits and the Army Reserve had 19,642.

The Navy and Air Force are turning people away. Not having seen the CBS program I can only apologize if I've repeated critical facts they've already made clear.

Ms Cocco, it's my understanding that you are a mother of two young sons and you fear their being sent unwillingly to war. Preventing such a course of events is one of the things that motivates me to do what I do, to be here willingly and voluntarily. Many of my fellow members of the Armed Forces have given their all for the freedoms we Americans currently enjoy, and none of us should surrender those freedoms easily. Believe me, I'm determined to do all I possibly can to deny any opportunity for those who would so callously attempt to control your sons' (or any other American's) lives and destinies.

For as I hope I've made plain, such a future is exactly what we are fighting against. It's terror of a different sort, don't you think? Wish us well, Ms Cocco, and rest assured. If our efforts succeed, your sons are safe. And with America united behind us I'm quite sure we will not fail.

And once again ma'am, my sincerest thanks.

A mild Fisking

Joe Gandelman, over at A Moderate Voice, has this interesting post up about how Vice President Cheney changed his mind regarding the utility of taking down Saddam in the years intervening between 1992 and 2002. I should take this time to note that Joe also is member of Dean Esmay's stable of writers.

Using information from this article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he notes that Vice President Cheney is quoted as saying in 1992:

And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth?...

And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq....

For the record, I agreed with him then. And I was on active duty as a combat arms soldier.

Joe next throws up this quote from Mr. Cheney:

All of a sudden you've got a battle you're fighting in a major built-up city, a lot of civilians are around, significant limitations on our ability to use our most effective technologies and techniques.Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq.

Gandelman himself then closes with this:

But the guy who made these comments -- Vice President Dick Cheney -- talks differently today.

And None Dare Call It Flip-Flops.

None dare call it a flip-flop because it isn't.

The mandate for Desert Storm didn't include going to Baghdad. There wasn't a plan to go to Baghdad. There wasn't an intent to go to Baghdad. The Arab allies weren't going to support going to Baghdad. And we, as a military force, weren't very well prepared to go to Baghdad, because it wasn't what our orders said to do. No one expected (nor would we have planned for) the Iraqis to fold after 45 days of combat, only four of those in direct fire contact. All of a sudden the road to Baghdad was open. Remember how hard it was to keep the Third Infantry and Marines supplied on the March Upcountry in 2003? Same thing would have been a problem for going to Baghdad back in 1991... but THAT WASN'T THE MISSION and no one expected that it would be. Had the mission been to depose Saddam, well, sure, it would have been nice and we probably could have gone on - but everybody was short-term happy with the mission accomplishment and wasn't looking for a new mission - and it would have been a much larger force we were trying to sustain over those distances.

As for Saddam being worth the casualties - 9/11 changed that calculus now didn't it?

As someone who spent the latter part of his career in the Army involved in reinventing how we trained and what we trained on, I perhaps can offer some insight.

As an Observer/Controller at the National Training Center prior to Desert Storm, we trained brigades to fight conventional fights in open terrain against conventional enemies. And we did it well. And when we fought the Iraqi Army in a conventional fight in open terrain we turned that Army into mush and junk. Granted, they were poorly led and poorly trained - but in those few places where we did run up against marginally well-led forces, such as 73 Easting, it was still no contest. (N.B. - the 73 Easting link takes a long time to load, but the text is there and you can start reading - and what's the irony of my linking to a paper written by the tanker who stole my first wife away - though in the final analysis, he did me a favor!)

But in examining the war and it's aftermath, combined with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we saw that the near-to-mid term threat environment was changing, and we needed to change with it. "Blackhawk Down" in Mogadishu (really the whole Somalia deployment) really brought home that we didn't have a doctrine for, nor did we adequately train for, urban combat - which was looking to be more and more likely the kind of fight we'd find ourselves in.

No soldier likes city fighting. It's even more messy, chaotic, and dangerous than close-quarters direct-fire combat in open terrain. It's a knife fight that tends to wipe away a whole lot of conventional military tech advantages. In other words, for a mech army, it's an asymetric environment.

We also ran into the bogeyman of Military Government issues, i.e., if you take it, you're responsible for it - but that's a much harder nut to crack and we're busy learning by doing now. Which would be true of any Army trying to do what we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, with the Marines leading the way, with visions of Hue in their minds, we started building MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) training sites, started thinking hard about how to bring our tech strengths to bear on the problem while still keeping our large-scale combat capability, and how to train the individual soldier for the new challenges. Much money, sweat, time was spent reinventing urban combat skills and not just dusting off the old WWII/Korea era TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures). And we started leavening in the lessons we were learning from the Peacekeeping and Enforcement operations in the Balkans - where it became very obvious that the junior leaders, the Company Commanders and below, were really key to success. They had to be soldier-diplomats... and we were training near pure warriors up to Desert Storm. The "Strategic Corporal", where a young man at a checkpoint, 19 years old and an E4 (junior enlisted) could find himself confronted with a situation that could turn into an International Incident because Christiane Amanpour was there with a camera crew - and there was no time to call higher and ask for an answer. The Corporal had to act - and make a good decision right then and there.

Training had to be adjusted to include that kind of situation. With the Joint Readiness Training Center leading the way - role players were introduced into training, actors who would portray all the 'white' elements on the battlefield that soldiers would have to deal with. Mayors, bus drivers, people being evacuated who wanted to bring their dogs with them - and who would get belligerent when the soldier solved the problem by shooting the dog (yes, we put laser engagement system harnesses on dogs so they could become casualties - shooting the dog was not usually the 'best' answer, either). And there is a role-player media person there to report it. And faux-CNN broadcasts are done, and real journalists are brought in to conduct interviews, so senior people can learn how to deal with real journalists - and the effects of all those actions are fed back into the training, so that the 'locals' may well become more hostile. Or they might become very cooperative.

With the change in the battlespace encountered in Afghanistan, the National Training Center in California changed dramatically. The old mines out there were made safe and modified and reopened as cave complexes. Villages dot a once-empty landscape. Actors portray the locals - we even brought in expat Iraqis to help train the role-players. Units have to conduct long convoy movements - and deal with IEDs, ambushes, etc. They have to conduct major military operations in one area while simultaneously conducting SASO (Stability and Security Operations) in the region and move their logistics along routes that might find them having to fight their way through... and the fighters blend back into the local population. In other words, they have to fight the Three Block War.

We've re-learned that while any echelon can lose a war - they are won by companies. And Company Leaders are crucial to combat and SASO success. I've put a Wall Street Journal article in the extended post that illustrates just what I'm talking about.

One of the finest and most compassionate Armies to march on this planet wears an American flag on it's collective shoulder.

So yes, Joe, something changed in the 10 years that intervened. The world didn't get more dangerous, we just learned the hard way that it was dangerous - something our geography had shielded us from.

And the US military was well on it's way to learning how to fight the fight that it didn't want to fight in 1991 - and didn't want to fight in 2003, but found itself with no choice. (I should note that I know OIF was an 'optional' war at the policy level - what I mean here is that no army with a collective brain *wants* to fight in a city!)

So no, I don't see it as a flip-flop. But given how long it just took me to explain why it isn't - do you really wonder why Cheney hasn't bothered? Would the MSM take the time? Especially the visual component, vice the written?

Shoot - how many of my readers got this far?

Hat tip: Jack at Random Fate for the pointer to Joe's piece.
Crossposted to Castle Argghhh!

By GREG JAFFE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL September 22, 2004; Page A1

RAMADI, Iraq -- In the space of four minutes in May, two Humvees in Capt. Nicholas Ayers's unit were hit by roadside bombs. In the chaos, one vehicle was left alone as soldiers, injured and under fire, took cover in a school and radioed for help.

By the time Capt. Ayers arrived on the scene, Iraqis had looted the Humvee's machine gun and high-tech gun sights. Losing equipment to the enemy is a mistake that can ruin an officer's career. Standard Army practice holds that the area should be searched immediately.

Instead, Capt. Ayers, 29 years old, took a risk. He went to the village sheik's house. As a sign of respect, he said, he wouldn't search the village. But he gave the local leader 48 hours to find and return the equipment. "If we don't get the equipment back, I am going to come back with my men and tear apart every house in this village," he recalls saying. If the gear was returned, he promised to reduce patrols in the area.

The gamble ran counter to Capt. Ayers's training, which states that the longer troops wait to search an area, the less chance they'll find what they are looking for. His bosses told him he had made a huge blunder. Two days later, though, the sheik returned every scrap of looted equipment to the Army. Later, he would pay a heavy price for that move.

"I was floored," Capt. Ayers says. "The incident made me rethink the tactics I was using, my relationship with the local sheiks. It made me rethink just about everything."

Fighting the volatile, growing insurgency in Iraq is putting increased responsibility on younger, lower-ranking officers, who are learning through improvisation and error. For the Army, the heavy reliance on officers such as Capt. Ayers is a significant change. As the war in Iraq has turned into a far different kind of battle than the Army expected, it is triggering major shifts in how the service uses and equips soldiers and remaking its historically rigid and hierarchical command structure.

In May 2002, before the Iraq war, a study commissioned by the Army's top-ranking general concluded "the reality in the Army is that junior officers are seldom given opportunities to be innovative, plan training or to make decisions; fail, learn and try again."

Earlier this summer, the same team, led by retired Lt. Col. Leonard Wong, concluded: "Junior officers have become the experts on the situation in Iraq, not higher headquarters." The fast-moving insurgency is forcing lower-ranking officers, who spend more time in the field, to take a more prominent role.

Sharing Knowledge

Captains are sharing lessons via e-mail and on Web sites such as www .companycommand.com. Subjects range from dealing with sheiks to teaching a heavy-armor unit, accustomed to fighting inside 70-ton tanks, how to patrol on foot with rifles. Lt. Gen. William Wallace has told superiors that officers returning from Iraq who attend the Army's elite Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., know more about counterinsurgency than their instructors. The change has forced instructors there to shift from traditional lectures to discussion-oriented classes.

FIGHT FOR IRAQ

See information on casualties since major combat ended and continuing coverage of developments in Iraq.



"This is entirely a bottom-up war. It is the platoon leaders and company commanders that are fighting it," says Maj. John Nagl, third-in-command of an 850-man battalion based nine miles from Fallujah.

It's a shift the Army never made in Vietnam -- the last time it fought an insurgency. In that war, the Army fought essentially as it had in World War II, with large formations commanded by senior officers and lots of firepower. Younger officers in the field advocated a different approach, involving smaller patrols and the training of local forces, but the Army rejected such ideas, says Maj. Nagl, who wrote a 2002 book on insurgencies.

Maj. Nagl concludes the Army was "organizationally disposed against learning how to fight and win counterinsurgency warfare." Recently the Army's top officer, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, gave copies of Maj. Nagl's book "Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam," to all his four-star generals.

When Vietnam ended, the Army didn't significantly change its way of operating. Instead, it was eager to return to its roots and prepare for more-conventional battles against the rigid Soviet Army. In 1987, Col. Robert Leicht, then a professor at the Army's Command and General Staff College, set out to teach a class on counterinsurgency warfare. He visited the Army's John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School in North Carolina, looking for lessons from the Vietnam era. "The old graybeard there told me that in 1975 he was told to get rid of all the Vietnam stuff," Col. Leicht says.

'Pathological Resistance'

Today, some question whether the Army is changing fast enough. Bruce Hoffman, who served as a senior U.S. adviser in Baghdad on counterinsurgency this year, says the U.S. military has shown an almost "pathological resistance" to adapting to the demands of guerrilla fighting. Like many experts, he says the Army's success in Iraq will depend largely on the ability of officers on the ground to come up with new solutions to defeat the insurgency. Battling guerrilla warfare depends less on firepower, and more on human intelligence, cultural sensitivity and reconstruction.

"The big challenge the Army faces is harnessing the experience of the young field officers and incorporating it into training and doctrine," Mr. Hoffman says.

Army officials say the service is adapting to new demands. Gen. Schoomaker says the Army is in the midst of the most wide-ranging changes since World War II, aimed at better preparing it for the kinds of wars it is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I've compared this to tuning a car engine while the engine is running, which is not only a complex task but dangerous as well," he said recently.

In Capt. Ayers's sector, in the heart of the Sunni triangle, locals nicknamed him "Mosool Kabeer" or "Big Chief." In addition to running raids and patrols, his duties have included overseeing a 200-man Iraqi police force and millions of dollars in reconstruction projects. Earlier this year, local guerrillas felt so threatened by him they distributed fliers in town offering a reward for his assassination.

The vast geography of the region is one reason young officers are given such latitude to innovate and make decisions. Capt. Ayers is one of four company commanders who report to Lt. Col. Thomas Hollis, whose battalion is responsible for about 1,500 square miles. In the kind of warfare he was trained for -- using tanks, heavy artillery and air power -- his unit would cover one-tenth of that area.

"I tell my captains you have to understand the inner workings of the communities in your area," Col. Hollis says. "You have to figure out who the key leaders are, you need to know who their relatives are, and what businesses they are involved in."

Capt. Ayers and his peers are far less influenced by the Army culture that has long viewed firepower-intensive, tank-on-tank battles, like the 1991 Gulf War, as the epitome of land warfare. Many of today's captains were in junior high school when the 1991 war was fought. Capt. Ayers, the son of a Vietnam veteran, grew up in Southern California, and went on to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Before coming to Iraq in August 2003, the defining event of his career was his deployment to Kosovo.

In Kosovo, Capt. Ayers was in charge of four small towns, populated by a total of about 4,000 people. Based on his experience there, he knew he had to figure out who was in charge of the area. In Kosovo, that was easy. Each town had a mayor. In Ramadi, there is a confusing network of more than 100 tribes, subtribes, sheiks and subsheiks. Loyalties shifted. "I quickly learned that everyone here likes to say they are in charge," he says.

To get a grip on who was really running things, Capt. Ayers sent his men out with a survey. He asked the locals who their top sheik was and then crosschecked the answers against what the sheiks were telling him.

Capt. Ayers also set out to win over his sector's police force. Because local police know the culture, speak the language and are aware of age-old grudges, they are far more likely to spot the enemy. When Capt. Ayers first asked the Iraqi police to patrol with his men, they told him they wanted nothing to do with Americans. After weeks of fruitless negotiations, he cajoled two patrolmen into his Humvee. Between midnight and 1 a.m. they drove through his sector's empty streets, as Capt. Ayers tried to assure them they could work together.

He met with the police chief, Lt. Col. Mohammed Saleh Taher, almost daily, shared meals with his family and got vehicles, guns and body armor for his men. Soon Capt. Ayers convinced the police chief to fire anyone who refused to patrol with the Americans. Desperate for a paycheck, the Iraqi police climbed into the U.S. Humvees.

Brutal Attacks

The public cooperation drew brutal attacks from the insurgents. In January, they murdered Col. Mohammed and three of his bodyguards at the colonel's home. Two days later, they attacked the police station, killing five more Iraqi police officers.

After the murders, Capt. Ayers handed out crisp $100 bills to the families of Col. Mohammed and the bodyguards so they could bury their dead. Most of the families were poor, some living in houses with broken windows. "Col. Mohammed was a good friend of mine," he said, as he handed out the money and expressed condolences. "We are working to make sure that whoever did this will not get away."

Col. Mohammed's family told him that the police chief's second-in-command had played a role in the chief's murder. Capt. Ayers believed the second-in-command was involved with the insurgency. He felt safer dealing with the third-in-command, Col. Mohammed's brother -- even though locals and other police officers said the brother had a drinking problem and had been extorting money from his men in exchange for promotions.

"I knew [Col. Mohammed's brother] wouldn't have me killed and I couldn't say the same for the alternatives," says Capt. Ayers. Working with Col. Hollis, he arranged to have the second-in-command transferred to a city near the Syrian border. Despite suspicions, there wasn't definitive evidence that the man had been involved with the murder of Col. Mohammed or the insurgency. No one has been arrested for the killings.

The murdered colonel's brother was promoted to chief of police, even though locals complained he continued to extort money from his officers.

"How much corruption is too much?" Capt. Ayers asks. "That's something they don't teach you before you come here."

Capt. Ayers took lessons from his fellow captains. In April, Capt. Jesse Beaudin convinced a friend from the U.S. to send backpacks, notebooks and pencils for schoolchildren. Kids mobbed troops for the goods whenever they went out on patrol. "The kids provided security. No one attacked us when we were surrounded by children," Capt. Beaudin says. After hearing about this tactic at the dining hall, Capt. Ayers's men also wrote home requesting school supplies.

The battalion's captains also worked together to fashion a solution to attacks on supply convoys. In April, the attacks were so severe that some military fuel sites in western Iraq were down to two days' worth of fuel. Units were running low on water and food.

Most of the convoy attacks began with a remote-detonated roadside bomb. The Army had long assumed most of the bombs were laid at night. Capt. Ayers sent out small teams of snipers with night-vision equipment to pick off people planting bombs. They couldn't find any.

Talking with fellow company commanders, Capt. Ayers guessed that the bombs were being laid during the day. He theorized the locals were too scared to stop the insurgents or to turn them in to the Americans. Capt. Ayers asked his boss, Col. Hollis, if he could pull some his troops out of the villages and post them on highway overpasses around the clock. Instead of trying to catch the insurgents, he would try to deter the attacks with an overt presence.

The roadside bombs stopped almost overnight. In May, Col. Hollis ordered his other company commanders to adopt the same approach. Since then there hasn't been an attack on the 38 miles of highway overseen by the battalion -- a huge change from April when the U.S. was losing a service member to injury or death on the stretch every 36 hours.

Although the tactic has been effective, soldiers hate sitting for hours and watching traffic. They worry that cutting back on neighborhood patrols has given insurgents free rein in town.

On a recent day, Capt. Ayers and his troops jumped in their Humvee and raced toward a giant column of smoke rising near the police station. Insurgents in a white Opal sedan had fired into an Iraqi truck that had been hauling equipment for the Americans. When the wounded truck driver pulled over, insurgents set the vehicle on fire.

At the scene, Capt. Ayers picked up the spent shell casings to identify the weapon the insurgents used. He interviewed witnesses and studied the skid marks the truck had left on the road. The Army had never trained him for detective work, but he picked up these skills on the job.

When the fire was extinguished, the charred truck was towed to the police station. The next morning, insurgents launched a rocket attack on Capt. Ayers's base. The barracks' windows were blown open, but no one was hurt. A similar attack in May killed eight soldiers. Later the same day, insurgents lit the charred truck, still parked in the police department's lot, on fire again. The terrified police didn't try to stop them.

Capt. Ayers went back to the police station and confronted the new police chief, Maj. Khalid Ibrahim, who had been appointed by the new Iraqi Interior Ministry. (The previous chief, whose appointment Capt. Ayers had arranged, had been transferred for firing his pistol at one of his officers and demanding money from his officers.)

"How could you let this happen?" Capt. Ayers asked Maj. Khalid, pointing to the still-smoldering truck.

"I am very sorry," the 50-year-old chief said.

"You don't need to apologize to me, you need to do better," Capt. Ayers replied.

The chief promised to step up patrols in the area where the rockets were fired.

Back at his barracks, surrounded by pictures of his wife and two children, ages 1 and 2, Capt. Ayers seemed to be looking for something positive in the day's events. The new chief is an improvement over his predecessor, he said. "Every day that Iraqi police station is still standing is a victory. It is a small bastion of government control," he added.

Last week, after 12 months in Iraq, Capt. Ayers returned to his home in Kansas. He's prepared a tome full of advice for his replacement. In the book are histories of the local sheiks and tribes, their grudges and fleeting alliances. There is a section on funeral etiquette.

He also wrote a section on the sheik who helped him get the machine gun back. A few days after the incident, insurgents, angry that he had aided the Americans, murdered the sheik's son. "I thought if he had enough influence to get the stuff back, he also had enough influence" to protect his family, Capt. Ayers now says. "I was wrong." Capt. Ayers says he advised his replacement to handle the sheik with deference.

Capt. Ayers, who was recently selected by the Army to teach at West Point, has begun to think about how a young soldier could prepare for what he's been through. Before deploying to Iraq, he and his soldiers fought a giant mock tank battle at the National Training Center. It wasn't helpful.

Instead, he says, "I guess I'd drop soldiers in a foreign high school and give them two days to figure out all the cliques. Who are the cool kids? Who are the geeks?" he says. That would be pretty close to what he has been doing in Iraq, he says, with one big exception: There would also have to be people in the high school trying to kill the soldiers.

Write to Greg Jaffe at greg.jaffe@wsj.com

Power of Faith

I've read a lot of idiotic things in the media about George Bush's faith in God. I think it's time for an attitude check. This is my President:

"On our way out of the office we were to leave by the glass doors on the west side of the office. I was the last person in the exit line.

As I shook his hand one final time ... I then did something that surprised even me. I said to him, 'Mr. President, I know you are a busy man and your time is precious. I also know you to be a man of strong faith and I have a favor to ask you.' As he shook my hand he looked me in the eye and said, 'Just name it.'

"I told him that my step-Mom was at that moment in a hospital having a tumor removed from her skull and it would mean a great deal to me if he would consider adding her to his prayers that day. He grabbed me by the arm and took me back toward his desk as he said, 'So that's it. I could tell that something is weighing heavy on your heart today. I could see it in your eyes. This explains it.' From the top drawer of his desk he retrieved a pen and a note card with his seal on it and asked, 'How do you spell her name?'

He then jotted a note to her while discussing the importance of family and the strength of prayer. "When he handed me the card, he asked about the surgery and the prognosis. I told him we were hoping that it is not a recurrence of an earlier cancer and that if it is they can get it all with this surgery. He said, 'If it's okay with you, we'll take care of the prayer right now. Would you pray with me?' I told him yes and he turned to the staff that remained in the office and hand motioned the folks to step back or leave.

He said, 'Bruce and I would like some private time for a prayer.'

"As they left he turned back to me and took my hands in his. I was prepared to do a traditional prayer stance standing with each other with heads bowed. Instead, he reached for my head with his right hand and pulling gently forward, he placed my head on his shoulder. With his left arm on my mid back, he pulled me to him in a prayerful embrace. He started to pray softly. I started to cry. He continued his prayer for Loretta and for God's perfect will to be done. I cried some more. My body shook a bit as I cried and he just held tighter. He closed by asking God's blessing on Loretta and the family during the coming months.

"I stepped away from our embrace, wiped my eyes, swiped at the tears I'd left on his shoulder, and looked into the eyes of our President.

I thanked him as best I could and told him that my family and I would cntinue praying for him and his family. He has a pile of incredible stuff on his plate each day and yet he is tuned in so well to the here and now that he 'sensed' something heavy on my heart. He took time out of his life to care, to share, and to seek God's blessing for my family..."

By his own admission, Mr. Bush hasn't always been the man he is today. He admits to having made some mistakes when he was a young man; to not always having been as responsible as he would have liked to be.

However you feel about God and religion, I've watched this man grow in stature over the last four years. He has been baptized by fire and he has emerged unscathed. His faith has given him a serenity, a calmness and resolution, but above all, a kindness and humanity that (if anything) have been deepened by the trials of a contested election, a recession, a horrific attack that took 3000 lives, and two wars.

Faith can indeed move mountains. It is not something to fear: it's something that should lift us up and inspire us in times of trouble. Perhaps that is what America sees in George W. Bush: not so much the man he was, but the man that, with God's help, he has become.

Thanks to JW for the tip, via Right Wing News

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Bring Your Pen and Courage

This story has a punchline at the end, but don't skip ahead. But while reading ponder this question: is it easier for a GI to write or for a writer to become a GI?

This from theAtlanta Journal Constitution

Four sharp explosions jerk me from my sleep -- incoming mortar rounds cracking the predawn peace of our tent camp.

We are being gassed. My eyes and throat begin to burn as I scramble beneath my cot, feeling for my gas mask with shaking hands. Seconds are ticking. I try to not to breathe.

A minute later I would have been dead -- except that the U.S. Army doesn't use nerve gas during training. It uses pepper spray. Trust me, though; it burns like hell.

Along with three other University of Georgia journalism students, I spent six weeks at Fort Irwin, the Army's National Training Center in California's Mojave Desert.

<...>

Two of us met our doom in the Mojave, kidnapped by terrorists, and gunned down by American soldiers raiding our captors. At INN, we put together a touching piece on our fallen comrades.

The bullets were blanks in our desert, of course, but the situations and attitudes of the soldiers we reported on were as real as they come. It was tremendous training to see talented young men and women pouring energy into rebuilding a hospital or clearing a cave of possible chemical agents. We saw soldiers, soon to be serving in Iraq, fully engaged in their mission to build and maintain peace.

When we saw a busload of voters get "blown up" because a soldier made an honest mistake while protecting his own, we grasped the difficulties of the war. And when we heard men proudly describe how efficiently they and their weapons can kill, and have killed, we understood, as perhaps few civilians do, the callous warrior mentality.

For the soldiers, Fort Irwin was the beginning of a long and arduous period in their lives. For us, it was six weeks of discovery. Now we are walking the vibrant streets of Athens while they patrol some bomb-shelled town.

Maybe one day, one of us will have the courage to go and tell their stories.

Because they can't do it themselves?

By the way, I'm laughing out loud while I write this. Really, people are staring.

Are Blogs Revitalizing Democracy?

Bloggers are playing an important role in the 2004 election, but are they having a more far-reaching impact on society? I believe that by allowing readers to participate in the news cycle, bloggers are revitalizing democracy:

The 2004 presidential campaign has marked the coming of age for Internet 'blog' journals as a cutting edge political tool for raising cash and revving up political support.

These people have strong political beliefs and they share them. In many respects you sign up for a blogger in the political realm because you're interested in their viewpoint and what they're reading. They are, in a sense, an editor on your behalf," Finberg said.

This year, both the DNC and RNC made history by inviting webloggers to attend and chronicle their conventions. Bloggers served up a fresh, often irreverent perspective on official events with plenty of behind-the-scenes commentary not previously available to the average voter. But besides their unique perspective, bloggers have another advantage over traditional media: real-time sanity checking of major news stories fueled by millions of readers who supply tips, stories, criticism, and live feedback. This incredible network allows bloggers to respond with lightning speed to world events and provides real-time vetting of facts, allowing frequent updates as stories develop. These are resources unavailable to traditional media:

The individual blogger is backed by an army of thousands:

The web diarists often see their role as pointing out errors, bias and inconsistencies in the more established press. "There's a lot of good information that's being written on these web logs There's a lot of linking to things that people might not otherwise find," said Finberg.

Bloggers flexed their muscle when they played a key role in exposing documents broadcast in a CBS television program on President George W. Bush's Vietnam era military service as likely forgeries.

"CBS is a prosperous network and it can afford to hire a number of fact checkers, but it can't afford to hire a million fact checkers," he said. "The fundamental fact of the Internet age for people in the media is, your audience knows more than you do."

Moreover, blogs expose media bias and correct the errors of the mainstream media, which in the past has not been good about acknowledging mistakes or correcting the record. Nowhere is this more important than during an election year:

"Presidential campaigning, in which allegations fly fast and furious without always being vetted or substantiated, is the perfect domain for bloggers."

"It's a new accountability tool, and it's going to become more important," said Tapscott, director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank.

So what are the drawbacks of blogs?

Obviously, they're partisan. The mainstream media has made much of this charge, but recent news stories suggest significant partisanship exists in the mainstream media as well. A simple examination of the relative coverage given to the Swift Vets allegations and the Navy's ongoing investigations of John Kerry's medals, vs. the four-year media blitzkreig on the Bush AWOL story and Kitty Kelley's trashy drug rumors (which her main source has vehemently denied) should be sufficient to demonstrate that the media are hardly immune to bias. Indeed, a recent Rasmussen poll showed Americans believe 4 out of 5 of the major news stations are biased in favor of John Kerry. Most voters no longer trust the media; since 1994, ABC, NBC, and CBS have lost approximately 50 percent of their viewers. Brent Bozell comments:

"Fifteen years ago you had about 20 percent of the American people that believed the media were biased. Today that number is 89 percent."

Professional media accuse bloggers of a lack of professionalism. Responding in real time, they often post stories as they happen, which can lead to later retractions:

In tone, blogs are a cross between political newsletter and tabloid tear sheet, using informal and sometimes raunchy language that may turn off some readers. And critics say that, mixed in with the reputable information, blogs often traffic rumor, innuendo, and unfounded accusation.

But here again is one of the major strengths of blogs: if a story is proven false, it's a rare blogger who isn't deluged with emails and comments. Most bloggers will publish an update to correct the story immediately. I would argue that blogs are uniquely accountable to their readers in a way the MSM are not: if we are consistently wrong, our readers stop listening and find someone who can get the story straight.

The article leaves out another important advantage of blogs: posts are supported by links to the sources used to support the story. The more credible blogs use multiple sources to support a post. Readers can follow the links to learn more and evaluate the credibility of the information supplied. This is not possible with the nightly news or daily newspaper.

Strangely, the main advantage of blogs was never mentioned in the article, and it's an important one: blogs make the news cycle interactive. Blogs with comments enabled allow readers to discuss the news, argue policy and trade facts, offer links to related stories, correct false or misleading information, and offer their insights for debate and review by the Internet community.

Even non-commenting blogs let readers participate by emailing the blogger (who more often than not will respond) and by contributing stories. Most readers like to see their names on the screen and many important stories are broken, not by the investigative work of the blogger, but by an intrepid reader with a modem and a thirst for information.

By allowing readers to participate in the news cycle, break stories, investigate rumors, and share their thoughts with a vast network of other readers who care passionately about world events, blogs are revitalizing democracy. People are meeting on the web to discuss the issues instead of on the front porch or down at the corner store. But for the first time in years, they're talking. The once-disconnected and apathetic voter is getting involved in a way he or she hasn't in years, and it's exciting to see.

A more involved and informed electorate is one by-product of blogging that's here to stay, and all the pajama putdowns in the world can't take that away.

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Good News From Iraq

The Whole Picture

This may be a month old, but I don't think it's been seen enough.

Selective Service: No Draft

From the Selective Service web site:

Notwithstanding recent stories in the news media and on the Internet, Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces -- either with a special skills or regular draft. Rather, the Agency remains prepared to manage a draft if and when the President and the Congress so direct. This responsibility has been ongoing since 1980 and is nothing new. Further, both the President and the Secretary of Defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the War on Terrorism or any likely contingency, such as Iraq. Additionally, the Congress has not acted on any proposed legislation to reinstate a draft. Therefore, Selective Service continues to refine its plans to be prepared as is required by law, and to register young men who are ages 18 through 25.

I seem to recall promising to find a commenter some documentation for my statement that President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had made it plain they have no plans to reinstitute a military draft. I always do my best to pay my debts.

INDC Interviews the CBS Evening News

An interview of the anchor, producer and spokeperson regarding the draft story.

Update:

By the way, draftees aren't wanted or needed here, thanks.
GH

Swift Boat Veterans Join Forces With POWs

From a Swift Vets and POWs for Truth press release dated 29SEP04:

SWIFT BOAT VETERANS JOIN FORCES WITH POWs, LAUNCH $1.4 MILLION NATIONAL TV AND MAIL CAMPAIGN

POWs Take Aim At Kerry’s Post-Combat Activities Which Encouraged The Enemy And Prolonged Their Captivity

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a non-partisan, non-profit group representing more than 250 Swift Boat veterans who served with Senator John Kerry in Vietnam, announced today they are joining forces with a group of American prisoners of war who were held captive by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The merger coincides with a new $1.4 million television ad campaign released by the new group Swift Vets and POWs For Truth.

“We welcome the POWs to this battle on behalf of truth, the real truth of who John Kerry is and how he betrayed his fellow veterans. His visits to Paris to meet with the enemy – and his subsequent public endorsement of their so-called ‘peace plan’ – only served to encourage our enemies and prolong the captivity of our POWs,” said Admiral Roy Hoffmann, founder of Swift Vets and POWs for Truth.

“For John Kerry to now claim that his activities were part of an effort to help solve the POW problem is absolutely ludicrous. Kerry encouraged the North Vietnamese to keep us in captivity longer which meant more torture, more lost years and, sadly, more death,” said Vietnam POW Ken Cordier who was held captive for six years and three months and was awarded two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart among other decorations.

The new ad will air in three states as well as on national cable and is the most expensive media buy the group has made to date. The ad features wives of two POWs:

Mary Jane McManus: Three months after we were married, my husband was shot down over Hanoi.

Phyllis Galanti: Paul and I were married in 1963. Two years later he was shot down over North Vietnam.

MCMANUS: All of the prisoners of war in North Vietnam were tortured in order to obtain confessions of atrocities.

Galanti: On the other hand, John Kerry came home and accused all Vietnam veterans of unspeakable horrors.

McManus: John Kerry gave aid and comfort to the enemy by advocating their negotiating points to our government.

Galanti: Why is it relevant? Because John Kerry is asking us to trust him.

McManus: I will never forget John Kerry’s testimony. If we couldn’t trust John Kerry then, how could we possibly trust him now?

Several POWs and their wives will also be featured in a satellite media tour Thursday morning that reaches out to local television stations. The vets will be interviewed via satellite from Colorado Springs where they will be attending the Air Force/Navy football game Thursday afternoon. Swift Vets and POWs For Truth is also launching a direct mail campaign that will reach 1.2 million people.

Swift Vets and POWs For Truth now has over 63,000 online financial contributors to their campaign to get the truth out about John Kerry.

The POWs also released a new 40 minute documentary titled Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, produced by Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award winning journalist Carlton Sherwood (www.stolenhonor.com). The documentary features interviews with many POWs, as well as some of their wives, and details how Kerry’s activities actually further endangered the lives of the POWs. This documentary gives it to you straight from the mouths of the POWs and their wives themselves.

Dan Ra^ther Must Go

Russ Vaughn, who has given us so many wonderful things recently, including "Media Bias? No, By Us," wants you to visit DanRatherMustGo.com and sign the petition to get Dan Ra^ther fired. I enjoyed signing it and know you will too. If you aren't ready to sign it right now, click here, and then go sign it.

Banana Milk

If while in Baghdad someone hands you a yellow carton of milk, go ahead and try it.

It's Banana Milk. At first I hesitated, but I've eaten stranger foods in stranger places.

Anyone ever had one of those Banana Bomb Pops from the ice cream truck when they were kids? Banana Milk tastes just like that. I hadn't experienced that flavor in more years than I care to recall. Hadn't even thought of Banana Bomb Pops since then either. One sip of Banana Milk and I was reminded.

Ain't life strange?

By the way, death tolls can only go up, they can't go down. Just wanted to straighten that out. But you're still going to see endless media stories saying that in Iraq the death toll continues to rise

Attacks by insurgents have increased through the summer and into fall, sometimes reaching 100 a day against U.S. and allied forces. Kroll Security International, which provides analysis for the U.S. government and others, said the average now is about 70 per day, compared with fewer than 50 before Allawi took office in June. The death toll for U.S. troops, which passed 1,000 earlier this month, continues to rise.

Emphasis added. It's a bone-headed catch phrase included in most stories on Iraq since the President's carrier speech. It's been intoned mindlessly so many times since that no one ever stops to consider the utter ignorance of the statement.

So here's my debate question, but it's for the media, not the candidates:

"What steps would you take to reduce the deaths in Iraq to less than 1000?"

After they answer I'll say "Thank you Jesus".

Tomorrow will look at the units of measure for "security" and "situations", in order to determine how they "worsen".

But for now that's your lesson from Iraq, where every day the sun continues to rise.

Canada Salutes the Dodgers

The draft dodgers, that is. (You thought Mudville was a baseball blog?)

From the Colorado Springs Gazette (subscription only):

Reaction of U.S. veterans to news of a proposed Canadian memorial to Vietnam War draft dodgers has been so intense that civic leaders in Nelson, British Columbia, have distanced themselves from the project, the mayor of the small town said Tuesday. The Nelson City Council on Monday adopted a resolution to buy newspaper advertising saying it was not involved with the proposed memorial, which is a private venture.

Mayor Dave Elliott said he has received a flood of e-mail and telephone calls since he attended a Sept. 7 news conference announcing the memorial in his lakeside community.

There are threats of boycotts by people in the Spokane area, which Nelson counts on for ski tourism in the winter. The Veterans of Foreign Wars has called on President Bush and Congress to pressure Canada to stop the project.

“The city of Nelson doesn’t deserve this,” Elliott said.

In announcing Our Way Home, a celebration set for July 8-9, 2006, organizer Isaac Romano said the purpose is to honor “the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters and the Canadians who helped them resettle in this country.”

The celebration is to include music, speakers and other events.

A bronze sculpture, showing a draft dodger being welcomed by two Canadians, is to be unveiled at the event.

Romano issued a statement late Monday saying he is reconsidering the project.

“The Our Way Home National Reunion organizing group will be looking broadly for the appropriate setting for the peace monument. It may or may not be located in Nelson,” the statement said.

Romano did not return telephone messages.

Nelson City Council members Doug Jay and Ian Mason say the event could damage the region’s extensive tourist trade with the United States.

“The involvement of the city of Nelson in this would spell certain economic disaster for members of our local business community that trade with or rely on American tourist dollars,” Mason said in a news release.

The story fails to note if he expressed any moral concerns over the issue. Those who oppose the memorial do have moral issues to confront, however:

The VFW supports the right of the Canadian backers to build the memorial but cannot support the message, said John Furgess, the national commander of the 2.4 million member organization.

“This exercise of free expression is an absolute slap in the face to every man and woman who ever served in uniform . . . both in our military and theirs,” said Furgess, a Vietnam veteran from Tennessee.

“To honor draft-dodgers, deserters, people who brought grief to the families they left behind and anguish to those American men who took their place, is an abomination.”

An estimated 125,000 Americans fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. Many settled in British Columbia, especially in the Gulf Islands off Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast northwest of Vancouver, and the West Kootenay, the interior region where Nelson is located.

About half returned to the United States when President Jimmy Carter granted them amnesty in 1977.

Elliott, the target of a petition calling for his resignation, said Nelson has a diverse and liberal population that welcomed the war resisters.

In a related story, the Washington Post reports:

U.S. Ambassador to Laos Patricia M. Haslach has received the remains of two American soldiers killed in Laos during the Vietnam War.

She attended a formal repatriation ceremony on Monday with Laotian Vice Foreign Minister Phongsavath Boupha, the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Vientiane, said yesterday.

The decomposed bodies were discovered in the province of Savannakhet by members of the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Laotian authorities, the embassy said.

More than 370 Americans are listed as missing in action in Laos, and 192 sets of remains have been returned since 1992.

Posted by Greyhawk at 07:38 PM | Comments (1)

Oh Yeah? Well What About Next Year?

Or: "Bias? We don't need no steenking bias..."

Gotta Love that WaPo

The Army and Army Reserve expect to meet recruiting goals this year, largely because nearly half the recruits who signed up last year were not counted until they reported for duty, officials said. But military observers say the picture could be bleaker next year, when that delayed entry pool is depleted.

Maybe next year those "observers" will stop staring dumbfounded and join.

The Army's goal was to recruit 77,000 new active Army troops and 21,200 Reserve troops. As of Aug. 31, the Army had 70,479 new recruits and the Army Reserve had 19,642.

But like the title above says...

And there's more bad news (for some) with less spin from USA Today:

Despite The Danger, Iraqis Line Up For Security Jobs

High salaries, national pride outweigh risk of being killed, many say

BAGHDAD — They leave their homes before dawn, their police academy uniforms jammed in a bag and their laminated police identification cards hidden — often inside the sandwiches they bring for lunch or, if they are women, in their headscarves.

Navigating Baghdad's darkened streets, the police cadets try to avoid checkpoints periodically set up by a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Most have received death threats pinned to the doors of their homes or relayed in whispers by people on the streets.

Despite this, young Iraqis are lining up by the thousands every day for police and army jobs or for positions with multinational contractors. "I can't tell you how many thousands we turn away," said Melvin Goudie, a Scotsman who is director of the Baghdad Police Academy. "I've always thought after the latest attack that no one is going to come back. ... They keep on coming back."

They keep coming back. Read the whole thing. Then read Ali, an Iraqi, responding to something he read in an American Blog:

Allawi’s speech was articulate, impressive and honest and most Iraqis I talked to lately share the same opinion with me, but much more impressive was the reaction of all members of the congress who were there. That was the American people there, the whole American nation not just republicans, standing and cheering not Allawi but what he stood for; IRAQ. They were showing support and friendship to Iraq not Allawi and that was a rare moment in history where the two nations Iraq and America stood as equal friends, no actually it was more like family as one American friend described. Insulting Allawi and Bush and the whole speech, speaking so harshly of that unique moment is an insult not to Bush or Allawi but to both the Iraqi and American nations, and yes that goes for everyone did that.

<...>

I’ll never stop telling what I believe is the truth and won’t stop fighting for that regardless of all the silly accusations and even threats sometimes. I’m not pro-Bush and I’m not pro-Allawi but I stand firmly with the new Iraq and with America.

No link to the sad little American blog in question here - it's typical sewer stuff that plays so well to the Mike Moore crowd, and Ali links it anyway.

And the bottom line is that there's a war, and Ali and I are on one side of it and those folks aren't.

Finally, check this site. A lot of "voices in the wilderness" are making themselves heard over here. And yes, there’s a lot of noise to shout over, and a lot of folks don't want to hear, but the funny thing about truth is that it doesn't run and hide.

And the next time someone tells you it's worse than you think or that we're losing the war, before you tell them they're wrong be sure to ask them which side they're on.

Welcome a New Addition to the Blogroll

Diary from Baghdad Her point of view, as she hears from people living around her and the way they see things here. Not as you hear from the news, but the way they feel and live with and how it affect them.
Go visit.

Daddy's Home

Thanks to Dean Esmay, I read the transcript of Tim Russert interviewing General Abizaid on "Meet the Press":

GEN. ABIZAID: You know, Tim, every now and then in Washington, we need to take a deep breath and we need to look at what's happening in the region as opposed to the reports of one or two journalists that happen to think that everybody in Iraq is in the resistance. If everybody in Iraq was in the resistance, Prime Minister Allawi would not be trying to lead his nation forward to a better future. If everybody in Iraq happened to be part of the resistance, they wouldn't be volunteering for the armed forces. We've got over 100,000 people that are trained and equipped now. That number is going up higher. There is more people that are coming forward to fight for the future of Iraq than are fighting against it.

So the constant drumbeat in Washington of a war that is being lost, that can't be won, of a resistance that is out of control, simply do not square with the facts on the ground. Yes, there is a resistance. Yes, it is hard. But the truth of the matter is that Iraqis and Americans and other members of the coalition will face that resistance together, will through a series of economic, political and military means, figure out how to defeat it and will move on to allow the elections to take place and a constitutional government to emerge. So I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying it's possible.

Oh... By the way, did I mention how awesome this country is? No. I didn't. Because when you look at guys like Abizaid, it's pretty obvious. The guy has a Masters from Harvard. He speaks their lingo. And he led a Ranger Company during the invasion of Grenada.

Remember that movie "Hamburger Hill" ? Well much of that movie was based on actions of the Rangers in Abizaid's company, not Marines. The man's a stud, and he totally deflected Russert's negativity. And he did it the way a good Daddy should: He didn't make fun of Russert. He just let him know what's up.

Hooah.

CORRECTION!

Reader "TheBronze" clarifies below... The movie was "Heartbreak Ridge," not "Hamburger Hill." And only some of the scenes in that movie are taken from what the Rangers did in Grenada, not all. Most of the scenes in the movie come from actual Marine experiences there. And in the movie, as I recall, the officers were mostly irritating and it was Clint's character "Gunny Highway?" who was taking most of the names.

Who's Fred?

Really? The CIA?

The Washington Post has an article today entitled "CIA Pessimistic About Iraq." It is intended as a devastating attack, but it includes not one quote from anyone willing to put their name or future on the record.

Why should this be so? The sources quoted don't all have career interests: "one former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials," for example, who leads the parade of non-named persons and is presented as the primary source. Who are these people, who claim to believe that America is headed for disaster, but aren't willing to risk their lives or careers on setting things right?

The Post realizes it's on shaky ground, and addresses that question late in the piece. In so doing, it actually finds one fellow willing to speak on the record...

National security officials acknowledge that the upcoming presidential election also seems to have distorted the public debate on Iraq.

"Everyone says Iraq certainly has turned out to be more intense than expected, especially the intensity of nationalism on the part of the Iraqi people," said Steven Metz, chairman of the regional strategy and planning department at the U.S. Army War College. But, he added, "I don't think the political discourse that we're in the middle of accurately reflects anything. There's a supercharged debate on both sides, a movement to out-state each side."

That the statements are overheated is clearly demonstrated by the fact that no one will give his name. Once even generals who felt as these folk claim to feel would turn in their shirt rather than carry on with what they thought was a bad policy. Their courage often moved mountains. They were ready to put their country above their livelihood. People noticed and stopped to listen.

Here, even 'former employees who keep in touch' won't put their name to their words. As with "flaming" online, the removal of any possible consequence permits you to vastly overstate the argument. Flamers, though, usually kindly denote themselves with screen names like "Ih8Bush." These fellows are given the honor of being said to represent the institutional opinion of the CIA itself: "CIA pessimistic," says the headline; another anonymous speaker is allowed to represent the opinion of "'not just the agency [CIA]' against the administration on Iraq 'but the State Department and the military' as well."

Yeah? Prove it.

Perhaps they should open blogs, instead of applying for front-page headline news. That is the right forum for anonymous guesswork about the future. On blogs, however, they can expect their assertions to be challenged by people using logic and rhetoric. If they can defend them, rather than merely assert them, perhaps they might change some minds.

That, of course, would require courage, both personal and of conviction. How much easier, to have compliant newspapers pretend you are the voice of thousands, of whole agencies, of the government itself!

The Quiet Americans

(Cross-posted to In Bill's World)

From Russ Vaughn:

The Quiet Americans

In response to a piece I posted at several websites, “I Don’t Know War,” which I did not author but merely passed along, I received a very moving letter from a nurse who operates her own blog in her very limited spare time. She wrote,

“I have a great many men in my family who have been in the military besides my dad. And the piece you sent me really hits the nail on the head. It also nearly made me cry as it made me think of my World War II uncles.”

This lady then goes on to recount her memories of her family’s contributions.

“My Uncle Wayne was in the Army… I do not know what unit or much of anything he did because he never talked about it.”

He went through the Battle of the Bulge and came out with one sock and his dog tags after a bomb exploded near him. He spent 6 months in a hospital in England.”

“We had a family reunion at his home and being a bored teenager I went into his garden shed. I knocked over a cigar box, which spilled out several old medals. I felt very guilty for having knocked them on the floor. Later on the way home I asked my mom about it and why would he keep such important things in a cigar box in the garden shed. It was then I learned that Uncle Wayne had gone through some horrendous things.”

“I also learned why he was a truck driver. When he came home from the war he went back to farming, but the open spaces [were] frightening to him. Certain noises would have him crawling under the hay wagon or tractor. He became a truck driver because the closed in space made him feel safe. I had a great deal of trouble imagining my Uncle Wayne afraid of anything. He was about 6'6", lean and wiry, a handsome man. In my mind he was as close as someone could be to John Wayne without actually being John Wayne. I know he was in many other battles liberating Belgium but never, ever did he speak of these things.”

“Uncle Dick was in the Philippines; I never knew Uncle Dick to work; he was 80% disabled after the war. He had difficulty walking and the malaria he picked up in the Philippines sometimes came back. He was a gentle loving man, with a wonderful sense of humor. He never spoke about the war at all that I can remember, not one word.”

“Uncle Dale was a tail gunner out of England. I knew he had been in the war, but never knew what it was he did until I did my genealogy on my dad's side of the family and contacted a distant cousin in Missouri, who lived up the road from my Uncle Dale and his mother's farm. The only reason this cousin, Sam, knew was because shortly after Uncle Dale died, someone showed up at the farm looking for Uncle Dale. According to this elderly gentleman Uncle Dale had saved his life after a plane had to be ditched, and this gentleman wanted to thank Uncle Dale.”

“Sam took this gentleman to where Uncle Dale is buried, where the man sat on the gravesite and told about his life. For years Sam had lived near Uncle Dale and they had helped one another with their farms; and yet my cousin never even knew that Uncle Dale had been in the war. Uncle Dale stayed in the service retiring from the Air Force, and then working not only his farm, but in the state hospital.”

Uncle Mac fought in the Pacific theatre. According to my grandfather, his brother, Uncle Mac at one point had the man that was in a foxhole with him get his throat slit in the middle of the night, waking to this ghastly site. He hopped from island to island for some two years. Uncle Mac was a practical joker, a tall lanky man who loved to have children around him. I learned Uncle Mac's story from my grandpa.

“My grandpa was a barber for over 50 years, running his own business. He worked five days a week and every other Sunday was reserved to go to the VA and do free haircuts there. When I was about ten, I asked him why he would take his day off to do this, and he informed me that he had not been able to fight in the war because he was flat footed and didn't pass the physical so until he was unable to do so he would use what little ability he had to give to those who had gone to war “in his place.”

“All of these men have since passed away. I never knew my Uncle Dale well because he lived such a distance from me, but all the others were an integral part of my life growing up. All the things I know about them and their time in WWII comes from other family members. It was something that none of the men who were there actually talked about.”

“My Uncle Wayne had 6 boys, one died of leukemia at 4 years old. Out of the others, all but one went into the service. One of those is my cousin Gary Lee. He spent 30 years as a Marine, did two tours of Vietnam and while John Kerry was protesting, Gary Lee was shot, losing part of one lung and some of his intestines. I know that because my mom told me, Gary never talks about it.”

“My mom and step dad have a good friend who is older than they are; Burley is a wonderful guy and loves my children as if they were his own grandchildren. Burley was in the 101st Airborne in WWII. One day I made a comment to my mom about how Burley has such an affinity for my youngest son, who is 8. My mom became very serious and told me a story, the only story that Burley has ever told her about being in war except for that he cannot tolerate being cold after having fought in the Battle of the Bulge with no coat and no way to get warm.”

“At some point while in Belgium the group that Burley was with went through a town that had been bombed and the people had all left. He was rounding a corner to go into a barn when he heard an odd noise. He found a little boy about 5 or so. No other people could be found. The child did not speak English and could not tell them if he had lost his parents or if they were dead or anything at all. The soldiers fed him and did what they could; they kept him with them as long as they could. When they were ordered to the front, they got him as close to another town as they could, gave him all the food they had, and then they had to leave this little boy by himself.”

“Not knowing what happened to this child weighs on Burley's mind every day of his life. My son, the only blond except for my mom in the family, reminds Burley of this little boy. I'm not sure that I can even imagine what emotional pain Burley still carries with him from the war, yet he does not speak of it, even when asked. In the 15 years or so that my parents have been friends with him the only thing he has talked about is the little boy and why he keeps his house about 80 degrees in the winter time.”

“These people, these men are the true heroes. John Kerry is nothing, absolutely nothing. I knew my grandpa, the one who was a barber, to cry only once. That was when we lived in Hawaii and my grandparents came to visit, the only real vacation they ever took. Both he and my dad wept when we went to the Arizonia memorial. As a young girl of 7 years old, it was an amazing event to see both my dad and my grandpa cry, and it made a huge impact on me.”

“I know this is long, and I thank you for reading it. I just wanted you to know what an impact your message had on me. I had great respect and love for the men I told you about, and though my own children do not remember them I make sure they know their stories and what great men they were. In the end they were each ordinary Americans who came off their farms to fight the evil that was WWII, and by doing so they have come to epitomize to me what America is all about: the citizen soldiers that our founders envisioned.”

“To me, John Kerry is a sad caricature of what a true hero is. A man who not only spit on everything I hold dear to my heart, but one who has lived on the largesse of the American citizens and his wives, not someone who has ever worked hard for a damn thing in his life.”

“So thank you again, and I will post your message, it is one that I hope gives many people much to think about as it did me.”

Aside from the enormous contribution this one American family has made in its service to this country, what resonated for me was the self-effacing manner of those who served.  As the italicized quotes demonstrate, these men did not boast of their wartime service or their medals. In fact, most of them spoke of it not at all. Nor did Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole. As those who have served and their families know, real heroes don’t brag.

So what does that tell you about John Kerry?

 Russ Vaughn
 2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

_{Postscript: I have received some criticism for signing my writings with my military credentials. As I have explained previously, I do so not to boast, but to establish my right to question John Kerry’s war record and to let other vets know that I’ve been there, as I know that is one of the first questions that arises in the mind of a reader who has been in combat, “What the hell does he know about it?” Well, as a former combat infantryman, I know enough. Like most who fought in Vietnam, I was just a grunt who did his job, certainly no hero; but I knew and served with heroes. AND NONE OF THEM BRAGGED ABOUT IT. But based on the events that led to John Kerry getting a Silver Star, we should have had several hundred of them awarded in my battalion of paratroopers.}

Russ, I, for one, hope you'll continue to include your military credentials in the things you write and allow others to post. I myself am in no sense a hero (although I am starting to wonder what you aren't telling us), but I also feel my status as a Viet Nam veteran is something that might matter to people wondering about my "standing" to be so pro-G.I., so pro-veteran,  and so  rabidly anti-Kerry. As an additional reminder, some may have noted that I served in "Viet Nam," not "Vietnam." I think the people of The Republic of Viet Nam probably knew what country they lived in.

Bill Faith
14th and 8th Aerial Port Squadrons
PACAF
Viet Nam, 1971-1972

A "Best of Blackfive" collection

Blackfive has posted an If You Are Relatively New To Blackfive... post with links to a number of his best works, including such posts as Taking Chance Home and The Warrior Caste. Please take time to read as many of the items on his list as you can handle. A post he was too humble to put on the list is the must-read "All Things French" Don't miss it, either.

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Update: I shouldn't have mentioned Blackfive without mentioning that he and I both have Gmail invitations available for any active duty serviceperson who'd like one.

A Tribute To Our Troops

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

The Eyes of the Undefeated

The trees sag. I mentioned it to another guy in the truck on the way to the chow hall at another camp, he'd noticed it too.

"It's the heat" He said. "You'd sag too if you stood in that all day."

Droopy trees.

Did I say chow hall? Here's your Iraq Faq of the day (Iraqui Faque Du jour, as the French might say, were they here): It's a dining facility. DFAC, for short, pronounced DEEFAK. Now you too can pose.

I saw it first thing early this morning, headed for the shower tent and noted the droopy state of the trees. One of the first things I noticed in country was the number of trees. Not a lot, but more than expected. Then the droopiness of them.

They look defeated. Maybe they're a good metaphor for a war-torn land. They stand, but they look pathetic in some ways, beaten down. Like you could topple them if you leaned against them. But still they stand, so you respect that. In little oasis groves here and there through camp they stand, now with folding chairs arranged around their bases - the designated smoking areas.

No smoking in the tents of course.

And the tents themselves? Droopy. You need a bit of slack in your tent, it has to give a little, and it's fabric, after all. So it sags.

There you have it, camp saggy. Drooping tents and trees. Standing there for a moment taking it in on the way to the shower tent in the cool of the morning that name occurred to me: Camp Saggy, Iraq.

And hours later driving to lunch I find a couple other guys who noticed that saggy look too. Not everything slouches though, I'll get back to that in a minute.

Because it seems that more than a few pundits in America would have you believe otherwise. I'll summarize their main points here:

"Iraq is a failure, we're headed in the wrong direction, "ground truth" is different then what the current administration would have you believe, the troops are demoralized, it will be impossible to hold elections in Iraq as scheduled..."

On and on, ad nauseam. Now through the elections expect a 40-day relentless barrage of this sort of thing, from many quarters, and from some individuals who should know better. And (que the "insurgents") expect a different sort of barrage to result over here. Everyone I've spoken with does.

Small wonder if the troops that move among these drooping trees, that sleep within these sagging tents, that sweat beneath this burning sun, aren't beginning to droop a bit themselves. Those same pundits would certainly have you believe it's so.

But here's what I noticed in the DFAC today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older (but far wiser and much more mature) than the crowd at a high school lunch room. You can tell without asking what these guys think. They look you in the eye. And if you can stand to look back you'll see into the eyes of the undefeated. There is no quit here, no early out, no cut and run. These are young men with an ugly job, America's finest sent to do our worst and best, and they make me feel old and inspired all at the same time.

So here is the first impression of your fine young sons: They walk straight and tall with heads held high in this war-torn world, in this sagging land. I wish you who can only read of defeat trumpeted in your newspapers or on your TVs could have walked among them and seen this for yourselves.

I read where someone said George Bush and Dick Cheney are the only people in America who think Iraq is going well. That may be so, but I don't believe for a minute they think it's a picnic.

And I saw 300 young Americans in Iraq today who didn't look like quitters.

John Kerry's other salute

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Google says this appeared on 3 or 4 sites I'd never heard of before, but it doesn't seem to have been covered on any of the MilBlogs and I think the time has come:

Kerry's Salute

Russ Vaughn

2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment,101st Airborne Division Vietnam 65-66

It should come as no surprise that the liberal media has ignored the Kerry incident at the Vietnam Memorial, where the presidential hopeful's immature and disrespectful behavior demonstrates once again that he is unfit to be the commander in chief of a nation at war. To be sure, there are numerous puff pieces by liberal reporters oohing and aahing about the Wall being a "touchstone" for Kerry. A less charitable assessment might be that it served more as a soapbox.

This Memorial Day grandstanding from the man who rebuked the very concept of war memorials:

"We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the greater glory of the United States. We will not accept the rhetoric. We will not readily join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars-in fact, we will find it hard to join anything at all and when we do we will demand relevancy such as other organizations have recently been unable to provide. We will not take solace from the creation of monuments or the naming of parks after a select few of the thousands of dead Americans and Vietnamese. We will not uphold traditions, which decorously memorialize that which was base and grim."

- John F. Kerry "The New Soldier"

In truth, I trembled with anger when I read the above quote this morning. We can safely assume from his own words that John Kerry was seeking something other than solace at the Wall; perhaps another photo opportunity to remind voters that he served in Vietnam? What crass hypocrisy for the man who did more to tarnish the reputations of those names on that wall than any other to now callously use it as a mere backdrop for his pious pronouncements.

Most of us were able to return and, by words and deeds, refute the criminal claims Kerry and Fonda and their pseudo-soldiers heaped upon us. But those, those whose names are etched in that long black stone, those brave warriors who gave all, they had no way to defend their honor. John Kerry's very presence at that memorial constitutes a desecration, an affront he further compounded with his adolescent behavior when he gave the finger to Ted Sampley, one of the leaders of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry.

Certainly, Kerry has reason to dislike Sampley; but Sampley merely reacted to Kerry's presence at the Wall as many veterans would: he told him he didn't belong there. Kerry's juvenile response was to give Sampley the finger. For one Vietnam Vet to be giving another the finger on such hallowed ground is disturbing. For the offending veteran to be one who aspires to be Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces is disgraceful beyond belief.

Hear me Brothers: that middle finger conveyed far more meaning than a flash of anger at Ted Sampley. That finger is John Kerry's salute to all of us who served in Vietnam. Combine his words from his book and his behavior at our most sacred site and it speaks volumes as to what this charlatan really thinks of us and our memorial. It also speaks volumes as to his lack of maturity, his poor judgment and, ultimately, his unfitness to lead.

Mr. Kerry, I return your salute, Sir: FJK!

Veterans' Day is coming, Johnny. I understand France is a wonderful place for an extended vacation. Jean Fraud Kerry. <hack> War hero. <spit>

Maybe Kerry is good for something after all.

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Carridine, whose comment I published earlier, sends this additional thought:

And I am grateful to Kerry for his blindness and arrogance, if only that he has allowed the opening and draining of this pus-filled wound HE caused, 35 years ago!

Maybe every dorkdark cloud really does have a silver lining. We're finally having the discussion we should have had over 30 years ago, and I hope it's been as cathartic for a lot of other vets as it has been for Carridine and for me. 2NOV04 truly will be Veterans' Day, and President Bush's 2nd Inauguration will feel like a nation-wide Welcome Home party. Never forget, never forgive, and never, ever, let another generation of warriors be treated like ours was.

What do the Iraqis think about their situation?

This is something I published at In Bill's World back in mid-August. I think it's still a good starting point for getting the Iraqi viewpoint on some things. Since I published this, the two brothers who post at Iraq the Model have formed a political party and are running for office.

Well, I started off with the silly notion that I'd produce a list of all the Iraqi blogs I could locate. A year ago that wouldn't have been too tough. Times have changed! For a little bit I decided I'd settle for just listing the blogs linked to from the ones I read on a fairly frequent basis, then I realized even doing that would be an all-day job. In the end, I decided to settle for just listing the Iraqi blogs I was familiar with before I started my little project and recommending that anyone who's interested check out some of the other blogs on their blogrolls. Be forewarned: Iraqis are writing faster than any one person could possibly read.

Just to show how open-minded I can be, I've put my list in alphabetical order, even though that means the first blog on the list is written by a lady who was well-connected enough under Saddam that she wishes things hadn't changed. -- Read more than just her opinion, please. -- With that said, here's my list:

1. Baghdad Burning
2. Hammorabi
3. Healing Iraq
4. Iraq at a glance
5. Iraq The Model
6. The Mesopotamian
7. The Religious Policeman

You'll have to form your own conclusion about the fact that Riverbend is still posting daily insults to President Bush and the Iraqi "puppet government." The first term that comes to my mind is "freedom of speech."

A Call to my Fellow Bloggers

I call to my fellow bloggers to do what the mainstream media refuse to do, and that is to report the truth about the success of rebuiling Iraq.

During the press conference where the Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the President speak, the President was asked this question by a reporter of the AP, I believe:

Sir, you've been accused on the campaign trail in this election year of painting an overly optimistic portrait of the situation on the ground in Iraq. Full transcript here

Now the President responded directly, then Prime Minister Iyad Allawi reponded, and in his response he called on the responsible media throughout the world, to look at the facts as they are in Iraq and to propagate these facts to the international community.
That's where we come in. Seems the Blogosphere may be the only responsible media left, save a few.

Despite the perception of widespread unrest, most of the violence is confined to a third of Iraq, the so-called Sunni Triangle northwest of Baghdad. But the mainstream media would like to give the impression that it's hopeless.
examples:

Newsweek runs their view It's Worse Than You Think
Time Magazine"Why Iraq's Not Getting Better"
The Washington Post "Grisly Path to Power"
The New York Times "Killings Surge in Iraq, and Doctors See a Procession of Misery"

I could go on and I won't mention John F'n Kerry's rhetoric and the damage he's doing.

You know, my husband is over there and seeing that he may be limited to what he can read, I sure don't want him to read something that makes him feel his efforts are in vain.

And what of the Iraqi People? If all they see and read focuses almost exclusively on the violence without reports of the monumental progresses being made, what will they think? How will they have the courage to fight the insurgents (terrorist) if they have no hope. If you watch the satellite channels from Arab countries you would imagine there's no rebuilding going on at all. This is encouraging terrorists and demoralizing those who supported democracy.

Where does the Blogshere come in? A place to start would be this blog "Chrenkoff", a Polish Australian blogger who compiles a periodic roundup of "good news from Iraq."
Link him, better yet post good news you find on your blog as often as possible, photos a plus. Our soldiers lives and the state of Iraq could depend on it.

UPDATE:

Chrenkoff's "good News from Iraq" is blocked blocked by Websense

UPDATE:
I'v been linked - my first link. I'ts just a warm fuzzy feeling. (Scroll to the bottom of Sept. 28, 04)

I Don't Know War

I didn’t write this piece but I salute the man who did. He has said exactly what so many veterans have been thinking for so long. When I returned from Nam, my roommate in the 82d Airborne was SSGT Charles B. Morris, awarded the Medal of Honor while serving with the 173rd Airborne in Vietnam. I know firsthand it’s true that warriors like Charley are tormented in their dreams and cry out in their sleep as they re-fight their battles; yes that I know from bunking with him.

But one thing I never heard him do was boast.

Not once, not ever.

May your troubled spirit forever rest in peace, Command Sergeant-Major Morris.

Russ Vaughn

I Don't Know War

(author unknown)

UPDATE
The title of this is actually "IF IT DOESN'T QUACK LIKE A DUCK ..."

And THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN FOUNDhereBob Lonsberry

Thanks to an e-mail by an avid reader, who also has this to add:
"My father was in the Army Air Corps as a B-17 waist gunner and was
permanently disabled, and never spoke a word about it. Only found out
about why his hands didn't work from my aunt (his sister) when I was
about 14. (Currently have a couple of son's carrying on the Air Force tradition.)"

I'm not worthy to question John Kerry's war record. Because I don't have one. I spent the Vietnam War in elementary school. And the four years I was in the Army were all behind a desk. My fort was unofficially known as "Uncle Ben's Rest Home."

So I don't know anything about war.

Though I do know a little bit about men who've been to war. I've been around plenty of those. Like my stepfather. He got bunged up pretty bad in France. I know that because I saw him in a swimming suit once.

But he never talked about it. Not once.

If you asked him about the war he'd tell hilarious stories about basic training, or
where the guys he served with were from, or how fun it was learning to fly the gliders,
or the time they stole the ambulance to go into town and get drunk in France,
or a few of the phrases in German he learned. But he'd never actually talk about the war.

Unless he was really drunk.

In which case he still wouldn't talk about it. He'd cry about it. He'd put his head i
his arms in the wee hours of the morning and sob to himself about how the men
around him were broken and torn when the gliders crash landed into the French
countryside.

But that was only once or twice, and that was never about him.

And the little box of medals at the bottom of his footlocker never came out.

It was kind of the same way at the Legion and the VFW. Every day he'd check in at
both places, to sign the book and to have a beer, and I would tag along. All those men
had been in the service, and most had been in combat, but I never heard a war story.
Lots of Army stories, and Navy stories, sure. About guys they knew and leaves they
were on and officers they messed with. But nothing about the war.

It was the same way in the Army.

In my day, it seemed like everybody above staff sergeant or captain had been in Vietnam.
I went in 10 years after the war ended but the guys on the second half of their careers had
all gone.

You could tell when they wore their dress uniforms. But that was the only time.

Men didn't talk about what they'd done in the war. They didn't boast of their accomplishments. They didn't brag about their medals. But if you chanced to see them in their dress uniforms, with the rows of service ribbons, you could read their history there, you could see that those who'd done the most spoke of it the least.

Like one of our drill sergeants in basic training.

Buffing the floor in his office one day we saw the service ribbons pinned to his Class A
uniform on the coat rack. Comparing them to the poster in the company day room we
learned he'd gotten the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. We asked about them and he made us do push-ups for being nosey.

The night before graduation, when he welcomed us as fellow soldiers, we asked him
again, we almost pestered him. Finally he relented and gave us two sentences: "I was
in a war. I got hurt."

And that's all he'd say.

Kind of like a man I know, who received the Medal of Honor. One night he stood in a long line to shake hands with Colin Powell. The man, because of the nature of the event, wore his medal around his neck. As he came to Colin Powell the man said,

"General, it's an honor to meet you."

And Colin Powell responded, "No, sir - it's an honor to meet you."

Anyway, I know this man, and he's often asked to tell his story, of how he earned the
Medal of Honor. And he never does. Oh, he answers, and he talks, and he inspires,
and he talks about the war. But he neglects the part about the lives he saved and the courage he showed, and instead talks about a young Vietnamese man who helped him to safety when his legs were too shot through to hold him anymore.

I don't know anything about war. But I do know a little bit about men who've gone to war.

And none of them act the way John Kerry does.

None of them brag about, boast of, talk about or otherwise try to benefit from their
service. They don't prostitute their time in uniform for personal gain and ambition.

They all modestly and insistently say that they "didn't do anything." They minimize
their contributions and put them in the context of the similarly courageous and noble
service provided by their comrades.

A true hero doesn't boast.

In fact, he kind of keeps his deeds to himself. Which is what makes John Kerry so
different. Which is what makes John Kerry so unbelievable.

I don't know war. But I do know war heroes.

And John Kerry's damn sure not one of them.

So how much is a Soldier's life worth, Mrs. Kerry?

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

From Blogs for Bush

Kerry's Price Cap on Protecting Our Soldiers

It never ceases to amaze what liberals find themselves proud of.

Teresa Heinz-Kerry speaking to a crowd of 600 Democrats in Colorado responded to a heckler questioning her husbands vote against supporting our troops...

During a question and answer session, a young man demanded to know why Kerry voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq but voted against an $87 billion appropriation bill to support the war effort there.

"Is that the kind of thing he would do as president?," the man asked.

Heinz Kerry sharply asked the man whether he had read the legislation that was voted on.

When he said no, she told him that Kerry had supported $60 billion in military appropriations for Iraq, but would not vote for the full $87 billion because he considered it a "blank check." Kerry was one of 11 Democrats to vote against the bill.

Oh, so John Kerry thinks that there should be a cap on how much we spend to protect them in harms way? What is that all about? I didn't realize John Kerry felt that we have to put a price tag on protecting our troops.

Is that the kind of Commander-In-Chief we want - one who believes that there is a price too high to pay to protect our soldiers in combat?

So how much is a Soldier's life worth, Mrs. Kerry?

Update: Keep the barf bag handy while you check out how NBC 9 in Pueblo reported this incident:

Crowd cheers after Heinz Kerry rebuts heckler

[...]

Teresa Heinz Kerry delivered for her supporters when she talked back to a heckler who implied her husband's a flip-flopper.

[...]

Sounds like we have another small town reporter bucking for a promotion to C-BS News. Non?

Upcoming Military Draft - Sick of the Myth!

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Upcoming Military Draft - Sick of the Myth!

On all the forums, I am reading individuals, mainly liberals, trying to scare Americans into believing that if President Bush is elected the Draft will be reinstated. There is argument is that we do not have a large enough military to accomplish the President's agenda. I have found many articles that dispute this argument but one does it best.

Here are some excerpts from this article:

The war is not only not having a negative effect, but it is helping to reinforce the number of people who want to join," said Cmdr. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Navy's Bureau of Personnel.

Even the Army National Guard, which has had 150,000 citizen soldiers mobilized for up to a year, has seen retention rates "going through the roof," said Guard spokesman Maj. Robert Howell.

The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard all met or exceeded their year-end recruiting goals for fiscal year 2003, which ended Sept. 30. The figures continued to climb in the first half of fiscal year 2004, which was reached March 31.

Read the rest of it.

I guess there are some vets who support Kerry after all

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Well! I guess I was wrong! There are some veterans who support Jean Fraud Kerry after all. This was left as a comment on Kerry smeared a hero: my dad.

I'm a Vietnamese (South VN) American and I agree with you!! Because of Kerry's hurtful words and actions, my family had to flee Saigon. 30+ years later, I still remember the pain and anguish of his actions. About 5 years, I return to find out, I would have been sent to re-education camp because my parents were part of the South Vietnam elite middle class. I see the pimps and peddlers and think to myself, that could have been me.

Children of the middle class south were prohibited from education past 6 grade. This is not hearsay or rumor but actual legislated fact.

They used Kerry's propaganda speech as part of the emotional torture to even the Vietnamese. My wife (she's VN) tells me they showed his testimony in classrooms to indoctrinate future communist and distill hate toward Americans. The only vets that support Kerry are VC (Viet Cong) Vets!

Vietnamese Americans, if you read this, research your roots and vote against Kerry. Listen to what your relatives in concentration (re-education) camps have to say about Kerry. South Vietnamese patriots also had POWS, see what they have to say.

Ask people who know Madam Nguyen Binh has to say about the Paris meeting with Kerry. There is a lot of information about Kerry's action in VN. Ask you relatives in VN what they know about Collier's International (Kerry's cousin's investments) and raise the issue to the media.

I know 90% of little Saigon in CA is voting Bush/Cheney.

I should never have made the claim that no veterans backed Kerry. I take it back.

9/11 Guilt Money

Jeff Jacoby on why the 9/11 fund was a miserable failure:

To begin with, there was the injustice of having the feds bestow multimillion-dollar jackpots on the Sept. 11 families when countless other families struck by tragedy get nothing. Asked at the Boston forum why the death of an employee in the World Trade Center is more deserving of compensation than the death of a hurricane victim in Florida, Feinberg acknowledged that "from the perspective of the victims," it isn't. There was no satisfactory way, he confessed, to answer the letters that came from other shattered families:

"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my son died at Oklahoma City. Where's my check?"

"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my daughter died in the African embassy bombings in 1997 in Kenya. How come I'm not eligible?"

"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my wife died in the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, committed by the very same people. How come I'm not getting a check?"

"I even got a letter," he recalled, "from somebody who said, `Mr. Feinberg, my husband last year saved three little girls from drowning in the Mississippi River, and then he went under and drowned: a hero. Where's my check?"

I can go Mr. Jacoby one better: ...

"Mr. Feinberg, my son/husband/Daddy died in Iraq/Afghanistan. He was a Reservist/Guardsman: a civilian soldier. He didn't do this for a living. He gave his life to make sure nothing like September 11th ever happens again."

But you're unlikely to hear any of those families pipe up with "Where's my check?" Nor are you likely to hear any Active Duty families clamoring for a piece of the federal pie.

The other day I was trying to decide how I became so snarky. I used to be such a nice person... I think I can trace it back to the first time I heard the Jersey Girls.

How come the media never show us the 9/11 widows who support the administration? Instead, we see a small but vocal group of women demanding to know why terrorists kill innocent people. I expect next they'll demand to know why objects dropped from a 3 foot height inevitably fall down instead of up.

Those ladies still give me nightmares - they were like the midgets at the surreal three-ring circus that was the 9/11 commission. I trace my ongoing sarcasm abuse problems to the moment I witnessed the ghastly spectacle of Kristin Breitweiser and the aptly-named Dick Ben-Veniste on the same TV screen.

There are some tragedies so awful that even millions of dollars in federal disaster compensation cannot heal them.

Pray for me. And on second thought, I'll take some of that money.

Posted by at 08:22 PM | Comments (3)

Not So Unlikely

Colbert King is forced to confront his biases:

Those who dismiss critics of John Kerry's Vietnam service as just a bunch of right-wing Republicans out to advance George W. Bush's cause don't know what they are talking about -- or they are engaged in wishful thinking. Okay, I may have once thought that about the critics, too. But after poring over the large volume of e-mail I received after my Aug. 28 column, "What Matters About Kerry and Vietnam," I don't any longer.

What changed his mind? King received a letter from an old friend: former assistant secretary of the Air Force Rodney Coleman. Coleman is a Democrat:

"When Kerry made those critical statements of the war," Coleman wrote, "my parents, God bless them, went ballistic about their son going in harm's way. My military colleagues in the fellows program who had been there and were shot up were incensed that a so-called military man would engage in such insubordinate actions. At the time Kerry made those unfortunate remarks, America had POWs and MIAs, among them my friend, Colonel Fred Cherry, the longest-held black POW of the Vietnam War. How could a true American fighting man throw away his medals, while thousands he fought alongside of were in the midst of another example of man's inhumanity to man?"

I spoke with Coleman this week about citing his e-mail in a column. He agreed, adding that he was still wrestling with his Election Day decision. His final written words are worth remembering, especially by those in the Kerry high command.

"I served my 13 months in combat. Returned in 1972 with the Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Technical Services Honor Medal to a very anti-Vietnam America. [Harry] "Butch" Robinson, Denny [Dennis] Hightower, and many more that you know did the same. We endured the pain of separation from our loved ones, were frightened when the rockets came in to camp and lives were lost. But we were never unfit for command."

"Kerry still hasn't satisfied me and many others. . . . It's September and I'm still conflicted. Speaking for myself, it is NOT enough that he served!" Those aren't the thoughts of a Republican-funded, right-wing, over-the-top Swift boat veteran. Ignore them, Kerry camp, at your peril.

Prejudice is an ugly thing, Mr. King. I'm glad you're open to rethinking your position, but it saddens me that you were only willing to do so because an old friend, a black man, and a Democrat, was willing to come forward. Many others have said the same thing, but you were unwilling to listen. Because they spoke against John Kerry. Because some of them were Republicans. Because most of them have been white. Had you been willing to listen, you'd have found that many of these vets are Democrats. You'd have found that they are good men, who served their country honorably. Who served complete tours of duty - in some cases, volunteering to go back for a second tour. And who have been shushed up and pushed aside by the liberal media for far too long.

But you failed in the first duty of a professional: to be objective. To be fair. To investigate the facts.

You snootily dismissed thousands of legitimate Vietnam veterans as just a bunch of "Republican-funded, right-wing, over-the-top Swift boat veterans" on no evidence but your own partisan rancor.

But again, prejudice is an ugly thing. No matter where you find it. You -- and the rest of your colleagues in the mainstream media -- owe these men an apology.

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Note To Big Media on Bush AWOL: The Truth Is Out There

For a long time, I've wanted to prepare a detailed summary of the evidence of the many National Guard veterans who have come forward to verify George Bush's service. Most of the evidence is in the extended entry. This item is cross-posted from I Love Jet Noise.

Another National Guard veteran who served with George Bush has stepped forward to vouch for the President, leading me once again to ask: why are the lamestream media unable (or perhaps unwilling?) to find these people? Could it be bias?

Day after day the media repeat the same two or three lame accusations, supported by the same two or three tired, old accusers. But voters only get one side of the story: the side the Kerry campaign wants you to hear. What ever happened to balanced reporting? Exculpatory evidence? There's plenty. Let's look at the accusations -- and the evidence you haven't seen:

1. Bush was a slacker who used his Daddy's influence to get into the Guard and avoid combat. He had no flying ability and shirked his duty:

Retired Colonel Ed Morrisey ought to know about Lt. George Bush: he swore the young National Guardsman in and observed his service firsthand (via Power Line):

"George W. went to pilot training, seated well, being selected to be a fighter pilot, which is at the top of the line in the Air Force selection process. Came back to train in the F-102 at Ellington. He stood alert like anyone else," says Colonel Morrisey.

According to Morrisey, then-Lieutenant Bush more than fulfilled his guard requirements.

Morrisey says in the six years the President served he never failed to meet participation point requirements.

"Bush averaged 176 per year. In no year did he have less that 50," says Morrisey. "He was rated by his commander, Col. Maurice Udell in the top 5 of his pilots."

One of the criticisms leveled at the President is that he sought guard service to keep him from serving in Vietnam.

Morrisey says, "not so."

"The Air Force, in their ultimate wisdom, assembled a group of 102's and took them to Southeast Asia. Bush volunteered to go. But he needed to have 500 [flight] hours, but he only had just over 300 hours so he wasn't eligible to go,? Morrisey recalls.

Despite that, Lieutenant Bush stayed busy.

"He flew in active air defense missions, training missions. Day, night, regardless of inclement weather," Morrisey says.

Colonel Morrisey assured us that to the best of his knowledge Lieutenant Bush was treated like any other officer in the Texas Air National Guard.

Perhaps the media declined to interview Morrisey because he's just another bitter, partisan hack. Like Bill Burkett, for instance...it's so refreshing to see the same standard applied even-handedly, isn't it?

Morrisey says he considers himself to be more of a Libertarian than Republican or Democrat. Nonetheless, Morrisey says he is voting for George Bush come election day.

And then there's Bush's roommate, Major Dean A. Roome. Hardly a household word like Burkett (now discredited) or Turnipseed (an Alzheimer's sufferer misquoted by the Boston Globe), mainstays of the Bush AWOL story. Surely it didn't take the investigative talents of Woodward and Bernstein to unearth Major Roome's story:

"He was one of my favorite people to ride formation with, because he was smooth. He was a very competent pilot," Roome said. "You sort of bet your life on each other in some of those formation missions, and to me it was always a pleasure to fly with George. He was good."

Bush logged more than 625 hours in the cockpit and ranked in the top 10 percent of his squadron, according to his performance evaluations.

"They're saying we're all a bunch of privileged draft dodgers, and that we got in there to get out of Vietnam," Roome said. "But that's not the case. In our unit, we had an average of two people overseas in the Vietnam theater continuously from 1968 to 1970." He says he and other Guard pilots did combat support missions as part of a program codenamed "Palace Alert Southeast Asia."

He recalls Bush and another lieutenant volunteering for the program. "When I left for it, I told him he ought to look into it, and George was interested in it, because he and (ret. Lt. Col. Fred) Bradley went and saw the colonel and inquired about it," Roome said. But they were too late. The program was winding down and not accepting any more volunteers, and Bush didn't have enough flight time to qualify anyway. By July 1970, the overseas F-102 program had been canceled altogether, Roome says.

The accounts of Morrisey and Roome are corroborated by a third officer, Colonel William Campenelli:

A pilot program using ANG volunteer pilots in F-102s (called Palace Alert) was scrapped quickly after the airplane proved to be unsuitable to the war effort. Ironically, Lt. Bush did inquire about this program but was advised by an ANG supervisor (Maj. Maurice Udell, retired) that he did not have the desired experience (500 hours) at the time and that the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers.

"Lieutenant Bush is an outstanding young pilot and officer and is a credit to his unit," Lt. Col. Bobby Hodges wrote on May 27, 1971. "This officer is rated in the upper 10 percent of his contemporaries." Another, written by Maj. William Harris on May 26, 1972, was just as glowing: "Lieutenant Bush is an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer."

But Bush was obviously just a snotty rich kid - of course his officer buds would stick up for him. I'll bet he was a real jerk around enlisted men... always throwing his weight around. Former Staff Sergeant Dan Liles:

...wonders why previous Bush campaigns didn't trumpet his exemplary flying record. "I was surprised when he ran for president that his flying record didn't come out," he said, "because it was pretty good." Liles, who also doubts "any rules were bent" for Bush, says the young Ivy League officer never acted like he was better than anyone else in the squadron. "He was one of the few officers out there who would let you walk along beside him. Most officers, you'd have to walk five feet behind them out on the flight line," Liles said. "But Bush wasn't like that. He was probably the nicest guy out there."

2. Bush went AWOL during the last year of his Guard service:

Several bloggers have analyzed his drill records here, here, and here and have found nothing remarkable. The media, astonishingly ignorant about even active duty military matters, are really lost at sea when it comes to understanding Reserve drill requirements. But surely investigative journalists could scare up a Reservist or two with admin experience to help them interpret these records?

And then there are the eyewitnesses who remember seeing Lt. Bush:

Captain Ed reports that Air Force Sgt. James Copeland, saw George W. Bush report for drill at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL during the period CBS and Democrats claim he was AWOL:

Copeland, who lives in Hartselle, retired from the Air Force on Jan. 31, 1980. He was the disbursement accounting supervisor, a full-time position, for Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery from Oct. 28, 1971, to Oct. 27, 1975. His office was less than 100 yards from the hangar where Bush performed drills.

Rumors say Bush went AWOL while assisting Winton "Red" Blount in an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate focus on 1972 and 1973.

Moreover, Copeland disputes the DNC's smear that Bush levereged his privileged background:

"Maybe the Bush family was well known in Texas, but we didn't know who he was here. He was just another guy in a flight jacket," Copeland said Sunday.

Copeland's account is important, because it corroborates the account of another eyewitness, Lt. Col. John Calhoun:

Copeland, 65, remembers meeting Bush on two occasions. He does not remember the precise dates. On one occasion, Copeland said, Bush and Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun came to Copeland's office with a question about Bush's pay. Copeland is not sure, but he believes the question had to do with where to mail Bush's checks.

Copeland stressed that Calhoun's account of Bush's service in Montgomery would be accurate because Calhoun was in a position to work with Bush during every drill. Calhoun told The Associated Press last week that he saw Bush every drill time, which was one weekend each month.

Not only was Calhoun in a position to know of Bush's service, Copeland said, but Calhoun "was an ethical and honest officer."

Via Bill Hobbs

Calhoun came forward back in February to say he remembered seeing Bush report for drill:

"The truth is George Bush came to Alabama. He asked for weekend drills with us. He was assigned to me," said Calhoun, who was in Florida on Friday for this weekend's Daytona 500 festivities.

"He showed up. He sat in my office. He signed in," Calhoun said. "He was very determined to be there. He was in uniform and he did what he was supposed to do." Calhoun recalled he thought the young lieutenant was "fairly low key" though Bush told him he had been "working day and night" on Blount's Senate campaign. Calhoun asked Bush if he had political ambition. "He said, 'I don't know. Maybe.' "

Calhoun said he sometimes grabbed a sandwich with Bush in the snack bar. Other times, the young pilot would sit on a couch and read flight magazines and training manuals.

A third eyewitness also places the young Bush in the area. Emily Wills Curtis remembers seeing him, too - several times:

"He called to tell me he was coming back to finish up his National Guard duty," said Mrs. Curtis, who now lives in New Orleans. "I can say categorically he was there, and that's why he came back."

She said that he rented an apartment for a two-week stay and that she met him for dinner several times.

"I didn't see him go to work. I didn't see him come home from work," she said. "He told me that was why he was in Montgomery. There is no other reason why he would come back to Montgomery."

Kevin Drum has a sighting too:

Joe LeFevers, a member of the 187th in 1972, said he remembers seeing Bush in unit offices and being told that Bush was in Montgomery to work on Blount's campaign.

"I was going in the orderly room over there one day, and they said, 'This is Lt. Bush,'" LeFevers said Tuesday. "They pointed him out to me ... the reason I remember it is because I associate him with Red Blount."

Is anyone else starting to see a pattern here? In each case, several witnesses have come forth independently, giving the same story and corroborating the same version of events. Personally I question the timing.

Fortunately, the media are not as gullible as the pajamahadeen: that's why they're the pros. They continue to report the misquotation of William Turnipseed, a man with Alzheimer's disease, who says he wasn't even on the base, and therefore could not be sure whether or not George Bush attended drill, as "proof" he was AWOL. And they continue to run the word of a Democratic partisan with a history of mental problems, a man who once swore under oath he did not use improper influence to help Bush get into the Guard, a man who has been implicated in the handling of forged documents, as a credible source. That's why we need to keep news coverage out of the hands of the hoi-polloi, folks.

3. Bush disobeyed orders to report for drill and to take a flight physical:

But in an interview, Turnipseed states that Robinson's reporting of their conversation was either distorted or based upon his misunderstanding of how the military functioned at the time of Bush's service. For Bush to be "AWOL" or "away without leave," he would have had to have been assigned to a unit and under its command.

Turnipseed states Bush was never ordered to report to the Alabama Air National Guard. He points out that Bush never transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama Air National Guard. He remained in the Texas Guard during his stay in Alabama. This was confirmed by the Texas Guard. And Turnipseed added that Bush was never under his command or any other officer in the Alabama Guard.

Turnipseed added that Bush was informed of the drill schedule of the Alabama Guard as a courtesy so he could get credit for drills while in Alabama for his service record in the Texas Guard. There was no compulsory attendance.This was also confirmed by the Texas Guard.

Lt. Col. Campenelli addresses the charge that Bush defied an "order" to take a flight physical:

Another frequent charge is that, as a member of the Texas ANG, Lt. Bush twice ignored or disobeyed lawful orders, first by refusing to report for a required physical in the year when drug testing first became part of the exam, and second by failing to report for duty at the disciplinary unit in Colorado to which he had been ordered. Well, here are the facts:

First, there is no instance of Lt. Bush disobeying lawful orders in reporting for a physical, as none would be given. Pilots are scheduled for their annual flight physicals in their birth month during that month's weekend drill assembly ? the only time the clinic is open. In the Reserves, it is not uncommon to miss this deadline by a month or so for a variety of reasons: The clinic is closed that month for special training; the individual is out of town on civilian business; etc.

If so, the pilot is grounded temporarily until he completes the physical. Also, the formal drug testing program was not instituted by the Air Force until the 1980s and is done randomly by lot, not as a special part of a flight physical, when one easily could abstain from drug use because of its date certain. Blood work is done, but to ensure a healthy pilot, not confront a drug user.

Second, there was no such thing as a "disciplinary unit in Colorado" to which Lt. Bush had been ordered. The Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver is a repository of the paperwork for those no longer assigned to a specific unit, such as retirees and transferees. Mine is there now, so I guess I'm "being disciplined." These "disciplinary units" just don't exist. Any discipline, if required, is handled within the local squadron, group or wing, administratively or judicially. Had there been such an infraction or court-martial action, there would be a record and a reflection in Lt. Bush's performance review and personnel folder. None exists, as was confirmed in The Washington Post in 2000.

Baldilocks finds Campenelli's view of events is supported by her own Reserve experience:

In my reserve incarnation, I was an Aeromedical Services Technician (non-flying), whose primary peacetime purpose was to perform the paraprofessional portion of the physical exam to flying personnel. That entails, hearing exams, vision exams, vitals, blood work, immunizations, other stuff, and, most pertinent to this subject, scheduling the exams.

So I know the colonel?s part about the physicals to be true. We had pilots (and other flight crew) miss physicals all the time, due to a whole range of reasons (like not being on flying status for whatever reason, as was the case with Lt. Bush). The only thing that will happen to them is that they will be grounded, as Col. Campenni says. Not a big deal for a pilot with no aircraft to fly in.

Also, I remember when the random drug test was instituted. At the onset of the new drug-testing policy, they tested everyone in the Air Force. That was the only time in which the test wasn?t random. The implementation of the new policy occurred nine months after I joined the active duty Air Force, in 1981.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

You got nothing. And the mainstream media should be ashamed for its unprofessional and unethical failure to investigate this matter honestly and fairly. Its one-sided coverage of this story amounts to little more than a mindless parroting of Terry McAuliffe's latest talking points.

Media lackwits like Tina Brown have been condescending and needlessly insulting to bloggers... oh, excuse me...Web charlatans:

You'd think "Buckhead," who first spotted the flaws in the documents, is the cyberworld's Woodward and Bernstein. Now the conventional wisdom is that the media will be kept honest and decent by an army of incorruptible amateur gumshoes. In fact, cyberspace is populated by a coalition of political obsessives and pundits on speed who get it wrong as much as they get it right. It's just that they type so much they are bound to nail a story from time to time.

(In other words, we're more fun than a barrel of monkeys banging on typewriters. Thanks for the warm fuzzy, Tina.)

Seems to this web charletan that if a ragtag group of amateurs armed with modems and laptops can find the news in smalltown newspapers and radio stations, it's not too much to expect that professional journalists, with the vast resources of the corporate media behind them, might be expected do us one better. The truth is out there

99% of the game is showing up, guys.

Trying to Win the Florida Vote?

Talon News reports that Bush is to blame for the 'Extreme' Hurrican season.

sigh... They'll try anything out of desperation.

Websense and the Blocking Bandits.

I'm finally using the keys Greyhawk graciously bestowed on me since I have something useful to say!

Regarding the websense issue (see the post below):

I just registered with them and checked their database. All you can do as a registered user is check categorization. The highlights and parenthetical comments are mine.

Here's Blackfive's data:

URL: http://www.blackfive.net Category: Message Boards and Clubs Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

The same is true for my site.

URL: http://www.thedonovan.com Category: Message Boards and Clubs Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

Mudville:

URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com Category: Advocacy Groups (?) Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

SGT Hook:

URL: http://www.sgthook.com Category: Personal Web Sites Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

Hugh Hewitt:

URL: http://www.hughhewitt.com Category: Entertainment Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

Daily Kos (!)

URL: http://www.dailykos.com Category: News and Media (!!!) Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

Chief Wiggles

URL: http://chiefwiggles.blog-city.com/ Category: Message Boards and Clubs Database version: 92098 Database date: 24 Sep 2004 Product used: Websense Enterprise® v5.1

What we have here, is a failure to communicate. The affected blogs should check their categorizations and seek changes. But I'm with the others here... and I think it's whoever is running this for the Air Force is being lazy. And they've blocked a whole category... Message boards and clubs, and Personal Websites? If Greyhawk could check and see if Castle Argghhh! is blocked...

I suspect the real point of entry is with the Air Force and their category choices, Greyhawk! But if you've got a website - ya probably ought to check your categorization, too!

Blogs Off Limits" for GIs Downrange

Looks like many GIs will have to rely on CBS and other such outlets
for their news, since many weblogs are blocked by Websense, a
company apparently selected by the Air Force to keep the troops away from
objectionable material online.

I'm not talking about work computers either, these are in the morale tent,
designed for use by GIs while off duty.

Which blogs, you ask?

Instapundit is blocked, Hugh Hewitt is not. Roger Simon is blocked, LGF is
not. Daily Kos is not blocked.

Blackfive: Blocked.
Sgt Hook: Blocked.
Chief Wiggles (who was publically praised by President Bush for Operation
Give): Blocked.

My guess is Websense determines who goes on "the list" and the Air Force
simply subscribes to a package. Those so inclined are urged to visit the
Websense page here and request these sites be removed
from their list.

Greyhawk

UPDATE: Recieved an e-mail, hope this helps you Dear and others out there.

I was recently posted at Salem and other places in the AOR and I had the same problems with Websense blocking blogs, including yours. I solved it by asking the Comm shop guys to review the pages and unblock them. Every one of them was unblocked at the SC administrator level.
Maj ...
USAFR

UPDATE:

Healing Iraq - blocked.

Iraq the Model - not

Hammorabbi not

Iraq at a glance, not

Mrs Greyhawk

"That's my president, hooah!"

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

From Blogs for Bush

After the pool boarded Air Force One, following the president, it was observed that the Secret Service had not boarded, and we were told that the plane was "waiting." It eventually was learned that we were waiting for the arrival of a "World" airlines charter MD-11 carrying 292 Guardsmen and reservists for duty in Iraq. The plane departed from Ft. Bragg with the 30th Brigade Combat team, a guard unit from North Carolina, the 414th Transportation Battalion reserve unit from South Carolina, and the 230th Area Support Group, a guard unit from Tennessee. There seemed to be a few other units as well, such as the 150th armored cavalry, a guard unit from West Virginia. They are heading to Germany and then to Kuwait, for 18-24 months duty in Iraq. They were obviously excited to see the president, and a few confessed to being down when they had to say goodbye to their families, but they said they were boosted by the president's appearance. They were reluctant to talk about the mission in Iraq, appearing stoic about that. They were all wearing desert fatigues and filled virtually every seat on the 3-engine plane. The officers were seated in business class.

The soldiers mostly had cameras ready to take snapshots of Bush. Several requested autographs. They called out phrases such as "this is awesome." The president put a tie and suit jacket on after the rally and walked down one aisle and back up the other, offering gentle smiles and words such as "I'm proud of you" and "thank you." Pool was not close enough to hear any more than that. As he got to the rear of the plane, Sgt. Wanda Dabbs, 22, of the 230th, called out, "That's my president, hooah!" and there were cheers. At the end of the handshakes on the packed, hot plane, Bush got on the PA system from the middle galley. "I appreciate being president to such fine men and women. May God bless you all. May God keep you safe." Potus took the limo the few hundred yards between the two planes.

Brief interviews with a few of the troops: Sgt. Wanda Dabbs, 230th. On president: "This is very exciting." On the mission: "I'm ready. I'm ready to go 'til the mission is done." Sgt. Shelly Bivens, 230th, Enthusiastic about mission? "I'm excited to serve our country." Master Sgt. Johnny Scott, 230th, a postal worker: "It's unusual, very unusual. It's pretty cool, a good morale boost." Sgt. 1st class Bill Freeman, 230th, a steelworker union member with Goodyear tire in Tennessee, "I think he's the best president of my lifetime? I can guarantee you right now this is the best thing that ever happened to me in my lifetime." Specialist Brian Parker, 230th: "We were down when we left our families," he said, giving a thumbs down. "But then we heard Air Force One was here. It's a good morale boost." Sgt. 1st class Bobby Dailey, 150th, a Fedex worker. Good spirits? "We are now. It's a nice surprise. It ain't every day you land somewhere and the president gets on your plane." Asked if he was a Bush supporter, he said, "We're commander-in-chief supporters." Spec. Sgt. David Spence, 230th, 54, on the election: "I'm still balancing the issues. I'm not sure. I'd like to hear what he (Bush) has to say." A machinist, has one daughter. Specialist E4 Eddie Latham. "I can't believe it's him." 35, factory worker. "I think he's a great leader, but I'm nervous to go to Iraq." Will still vote for Bush. 2nd Lt. Roxana Pagan-Sanchez. 30th brigade,30 yrs, 12 year old son. Bush said he was proud of her. Works at urgent care clinic in Raleigh, army environmental scientist. Voting for Bush. "He told me he's proud of me. I'm so proud of him."

Bush aides knew the plane was on its way here and due to arrive about 5 minutes after AF1 left. "They pushed the gas pedal a little bit," Card said, and AF1 waited. Card said after Bush finished the Bangor rally speech they got word that the logistics would work and Bush gave permission to wait.

The plane's pilot, Mikkel "Mike" Hansen, said that they got word from the World Airways hq that they were attempting to hook up with AF1 in Bangor. "We pushed it about 50 or 60 knots," Hansen said. The Los Angeles based pilot added that they received further instructions from the control tower as well as directly from AF1. "You don't get that every day." Gary Goodpastor, another pilot called a "check captain" because he monitors other pilots, said it was a "thrill."

All the soldiers had been given absentee ballots in the day or two before they departed. Many still had the ballots with them.

Dana Milbank/Washington Post
Matt Cooper/Time

Blackfive has the complete text of a similar but slightly different version of this story, also written by Dana Milbank. Click here.

A Celebration Is In Order

One of our own is coming home.

Y'all know JarHeadDad, faithful MilBlog commenter (and fellow native of the Great State of Georgia). Many of us have been following the exploits of his son, "Da Grunt," during the 2/2 Marines' adventures across al-Anbar and points east.

I'm thrilled to report that Da Grunt is coming home. JHD sends:

[Da Grunt] called on Wed night (Thur morning 0200) and was waiting on a C-130 to fly him and the boys to Kuwait! He's out of it and in one piece.

And we'd best be keeping him and his compadres away from John Kerry for awhile! They are not real fond of him right now considering he threw them under the bus and they spent their last week fighting like hell because, and I quote, "The a**hole has let these %^&$* believe they can win and we're paying the price! Half of everything we worked so hard to do has gone to s**t!". I don't believe Kerry will get the Marine vote! If the new guys survive his rhetoric. Everyone over there will sure feel better when November comes! BTW, there was a huge absentee vote before the new guys went over. Enough politics but I thought y'all should know what the real story about the "quagmire" is and who is getting our boys killed again. Leopard never changes his spots! (In case you didn't notice, I'm really pissed at the crap spewed out this week and so is my son who had to pay a price for it!)

Anyhoo, 2/2 is cooling their heels in Kuwait. Janice and I will pop a bottle of bubbly as soon as I get off the computer!

Over at Grim's Hall I offered our thanks, and a promise of hospitality should he pass through my area. Those of you who know JHD will want to extend him your congratulations, and thanks for raising the kind of boy who grows up to be a US Marine.

What Price Assimilation?

The sad thing about writing early in the morning is that the mind plays strange tricks on you.

Thus, it's quite possible to find oneself in the midst of an article on the tension between European "leitkultur" and the wave of Muslim immigration that threatens to overwhelm it within the next generation, Jonny Lang playing on the CD player and the dog snoring softly over in the corner, when all of a sudden (for no apparent reason) an old Blue Oyster Cult song you haven't heard for years, 'Dominance & Submission' pops into your head like a surreal popup ad from Hell, and you can't get it out. It's hard to keep from laughing when things like that happen. Your train of thought has just gone completely off the rails and its time to call the paramedics.

Erik at NoPasaran has a great post on the pressures placed on Europe by the wave of Muslim immigration:

About nine months ago, Francis Fukuyama, the historian, said that one of the big things distinguishing America from Europe was that, while the United States had staged its great debate on race, Europe hid from dealing frontally with how much Islam it could live with inside its borders.

Now, Fukuyama, author of the celebrated essay "The End of History," has taken this message to the Europeans. In a speech in Germany about two weeks ago, he urged Europe to stop being intimidated about using its right to defend its own humanist culture. He even employed the expression "leitkultur," or leading culture - touchy among Germans because of its supposed elitist resonance - to describe the legitimacy of shoring up a distinctly European identity.

Those wacky Euros - they're so touchy about so many things... as though not talking about it will somehow make the problem go away. Simply avert the eyes at the necessary moment and pretend it doesn't exist. But Europe is clearly showing signs of strain.

It is strange, too, this different attitude to racial and ethnic issues. When the Unit and I were in France for just a few days, we saw no less than three extremely hostile confrontations between native Frenchmen and immigrants: one Oriental, one Black, and one Arab. I have lived in America all my life, moving all over the country and living in both large cities and rural areas, and have never seen this kind of aggression erupt with such frequency. In each case the scenario was exactly the same: traffic altercations where some minor (in two cases imagined) transgression was blown out of proportion by the Frenchman.

We were only there two days.

It's not as though racism does not exist anywhere else - of course it does. But I think Europe suffers more from population pressure and the clash of cultures than from racism. Often people are over-quick to attribute hostility to racism, when in reality the problem is the clash of cultures rather than any antipathy attributable to race or skin color. To be fair, America, which has had to contend with its own overwhelming wave of Hispanic immigration, has had a much easier time of it. There is less of a schism between Hispanic culture and American culture, and we don't have the difference in religion to contend with.

That said, it is Western values that have allowed people of different religions, cultures, and ethnicities to live together peaceably. It was Western mores (and Christian values in particular) that crusaded against slavery, which is still practiced in the Muslim world today. It has become fashionable of late to conflate all cultures, all philosophies, all religions: as though they all can boast the same tradition of tolerance.

This is a dangerous mistake, and one that is perpetrated by an academic elite who are purging our history books of references to Communist purges and eliminating the study of Western civilization: the cornerstone of our laws, our morality, and indeed life as we know it. Without an understanding of why things came to be as they are today, our children will lack the compelling arguments needed to resist changing laws put into place for very good reasons by men who, in turn, relied on the wisdom of those who came before them. Each generation builds on what has gone before. For the first time in history, we are in danger of throwing that all away in a policy of false tolerance or political correctness.

In a conversation here, Fukuyama said it would be a mistake, with dangerous exclusionary overtones, for Europe to hold up Christianity as its sole defining mark.

"There is a European culture," he said. "It's subscribing to a broader culture of tolerance. It's not unreasonable for European culture to say, 'You have to accept this.' The Europeans have to end their political correctness and take seriously what's going on."

Each culture must decide what its core values are to be. This is, indeed, not unreasonable. To do otherwise is chaos, and anarchy. It is core values which allow us the freedom, and ensure the tolerance, needed to live peacefully with people of different faiths and skin colors. Let us hope we choose rightly, and with deliberation - not in some false attempt to be "inclusive". For it is the content of the ideas we choose to model our society upon, not whether they are Muslim, Christian, Western, or Eastern, that matters.

On such depends the future of our society.

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

CHIEF WIGGLES NEEDS YOUR HELP

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

CHIEF WIGGLES NEEDS YOUR HELP to save the life of a 9-month-old Iraqi girl. Follow the link for more information.

Copied directly from Instapundit. Please help spread the word and help if you can.

The Veteran in the Wall

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

My research assistant Mr. Google located a Russ Vaughn piece that apparently hasn't been posted on any of the MilBlogs before. The only place I could find a copy was in a reader comment at The American Thinker. Russ is rapidly becoming known as the poet laureate of the right non-left portion of the blogosphere, and I think this item deserves a wider audience than it has had previously.

A poem from Russ Vaughn, who served with the 2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in Vietnam, 1965-66. ....

The Veteran in the Wall

Here I lay within this wall,

And cry out to be heard.

I committed no crimes

I served,

Purely and simply,

I served,

Bravely and honorably.

I did not serve any political belief,

I served my country.

I gave up every good thing that I had,

And volunteered for this fierce duty,

To do the will of this nation

To defeat an enemy

That threatened our well-being.

So here I lie, moldering,

Close by the oaks of Arlington,

Wondering, wondering,

Will ever my voice be heard?

-Russ Vaughn

Russ, thank you for being the voice of so many who can no longer speak for themselves. November 2nd will truly be Veterans' Day, and you can take pride in having done your part.

Unconquered Men

(With veneration to Ralph Waldo Emerson?s Concord Hymn)

From Swift Boats they did brave the flood,

Their flag to autumn?s breeze unfurled,

Here again, embattled sailors stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

Their foe no longer silence kept,

Believing that the veteran sleeps;

That Time?s assured his treason?s swept

Down history?s stream which backward creeps.

Tween hostile banks of media?s stream,

They fixed the sights of truth?s own gun;

Seeking but their honor to redeem,

And stay the march of Judas? son.

Their Spirit made these warriors dare

To keep their nation?s honor free,

But Time and Nature will declare

Their honored place in history.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

A Suggestion for Military Students

A Suggestion for West Point:

This is a great article on honor and hospitality in Iraq, and how a US Army officer made use of them to achieve his goals. After having two vehicles looted, his training said that he should tear the village apart with search teams:

Instead, Capt. Ayers, 29 years old, took a risk. He went to the village sheik's house. As a sign of respect, he said, he wouldn't search the village. But he gave the local leader 48 hours to find and return the equipment. "If we don't get the equipment back, I am going to come back with my men and tear apart every house in this village," he recalls saying. If the gear was returned, he promised to reduce patrols in the area.

The gamble ran counter to Capt. Ayers's training, which states that the longer troops wait to search an area, the less chance they'll find what they are looking for. His bosses told him he had made a huge blunder. Two days later, though, the sheik returned every scrap of looted equipment to the Army....

Earlier this summer, the same team, led by retired Lt. Col. Leonard Wong, concluded: "Junior officers have become the experts on the situation in Iraq, not higher headquarters." The fast-moving insurgency is forcing lower-ranking officers, who spend more time in the field, to take a more prominent role.

It turns out that the Army knows a good thing when it sees it, even if it takes a few days to sort it out. They've appointed our Captain to West Point:

Capt. Ayers, who was recently selected by the Army to teach at West Point, has begun to think about how a young soldier could prepare for what he's been through.

I have some thoughts about the same thing. They are in the extended entry.

One of the best ways to teach these kinds of skills is to introduce young American soldiers to the heroic literature of the West. Not just the West Pointers, but all American soldiers ought to be taught these tales.

If you want to know how to deal with an Iraqi sheikh, you need to learn to think of yourself as Menelaeus, Lord of the Warcry: a study of the Iliad will teach you a great deal about honor, shame, the great violence they can spawn, and how to make amends.

Or read the Saga of Burnt Njal. It has a great deal to teach about vengeance and violence, and the way that friendships can stand the tests of both. It teaches, also, quite a bit about wisdom amid violence, as it shows both how to make things worse, and how to make them better.

Read the Beowulf, where the horrors of war and the need for strong kings and gift-giving are explored. Being aware of our own heritage makes us able to speak the same language that the Iraqis speak -- the heroic language.

Read the Havamal, and it will teach you everything a hero needs to know, from how to enter a room to how to behave in company, from how to make and keep friends to how to be respected among great men. It is in its way a complete education.

As a bonus, they are great fun to study. There have been some bad translations that have given them a nasty reputation, it is true. There have also been some wonderful translations that are more fun than any novel. For the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Fitzgerald translations -- available in audiobook, which is good as these were poems meant to be read aloud -- are like music.

This will teach our soldiers what they need to know to relate to the sheikhs, and indeed many other cultures abroad. But it also does the soldier a great kindness, as it makes him an educated man. These are exactly the things you need to know to comprehend the Western tradition. With these as your base, nothing in America's history is forbidding. Both Plato and Aristotle are far simpler if you know Homer first. Should you choose to become a lawyer, the writings of the Norse and Anglo-Saxons are a window into the origins of our laws.

Should you choose to study literature, the great works all reference these.

Should you choose to study business, the same lessons about honor and shame, how to enter a room and look like a hero, these lessons will stand you well. Nothing, in fact, could stand you better.

The Feeding Frenzy Begins

The worm has turned...

This is almost as good as Survivor: Vanuatu. Bill Burkett, Official Unimpeachable Source to the Stars^TM, is dishing on Dapper Dan. He now maintains he warned Rather the memos would be challenged, advising they be validated by experts. Uh-huh. And oh...by the way... 'that creep Lockhart' tried to get his mitts on the memos, putting poor Joe in the running to be voted off the island. And thus the back-stabbing begins...

Burkett said he agreed to a taped interview with Rather on Monday as suspicion about the memos mounted, putting the network's reputation at stake. He said key portions of the interview were never aired.

"He snipped it apart to cover them," he said. "That's all that that evening news was - to find a fall guy. And it was me." He added, "By his action and inaction, Dan Rather ruined my reputation in front of 70 million people."

Well that can't have been too difficult... But wait! it gets even juicier:when Burkett passed the memos to CBS, he was informed his contact info would be provided to Kerry campaign adviser Joe Lockhart. Burkett then relates this quote, taking this year's Grammy for Unintentional Irony in a Major Media Scandal:

"I was absolutely and clearly told that that was as far as anyone could go without crossing the line of (journalistic) ethics,".

Burkett then had a phone meeting with Lockhart, during which he shared some strategies for defeating Bush.

In return, he said, Lockhart tried to "convince me as to why I should give them the documents."

Preceding via Bill at INDC Journal, thanks to JW for the tip. Of course, as Captain Ed points out, Burkett has about as much credibility as .... well, as a bitter partisan with a history of mental problems who has already been caught lying at least once.

But the Kerry campaign still has quite a bit to explain too, as does the media. During the Swift debacle, the press concocted a tortuous web of connections involving ex-wives, bi-sexual hamsters and campaign volunteers to allow them to refuse to examine the 60-odd sworn affadavits on file. Here they have high-level campaign officials of a Presidential candidate making phone calls to Burkett and including footage of a 60 Minutes crocumentary in a campaign video the day after the show aired - that spells collusion at the highest level. You have allegations the campaign spoke with the contributor of the memos and even (although I'm not sure they're credible) allegations the campaign asked for the memos.

And the point must be made: there is an estoppel argument here. Having maintained Burkett was a credible and unimpeachable source in the first place, can the DNC really turn around and argue now that he is not?

I believe the old saw, 'hoist on their own petard' applies.

Cross posted from I Love Jet Noise

Another despised vet speaks out

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Reader "Carridine" left the following comment on my  Kerry smeared a hero: my dad post. I think he speaks for a lot of veterans and his story is another that needs to be told:

I served VietNam ERA, doing almost 3 years in Korea, on mountaintops just south of the DMZ, 1964-68; I was hand-picked by NSA to cover the follow-on to the USS Pueblo, being a Korean-linguist and all...

But none of this mattered to the 'peace protesters' flinging bags of [feces] and spitting on me as I returned from Korea ("Babykiller!" splat!) at Sea-Tac [(Seatle-Tacoma)] Airport...

No one said 'Thank you' and there were no parades. We were scorned, reviled and abused.

I wear that abuse as a Badge of Service, for my beloved America. Kerry's scurrilous, cowardly and mean (small) attacks only serve to distinguish, clearly, Americans from the gutless few who would twist the American dream into 'The Root-Cause of All the World's Suffering'

Kerry has not the power to make ME suffer! America is bigger than he will EVER know, and Americans are stronger and more honest than he can fathom!

I've thought about this a lot, recently. I post as Carridine, and sell anti-Kerry songs and pro-American ditties and commentary at www.cdbaby.com/cd/kdean1 because years ago my Air Force father and his loving wife named me Kerry Dean, not realizing those names would be hijacked by leftists intent on vilifying Americans in these days!

The link in his comment leads to some music you might enjoy, but I hope you'll also check out his personal memories at http://www.tw3.wethai.com/.

Thank you for your service Carridine, and a belated "Welcome home."

John Kerry Does it Again

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

This Article Forwarded By: http://Vets4Bush.com

John Kerry Does it Again
by Cal Thomas

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has achieved something that may be unique in the history of our country. He has managed to oppose two wars while they are being fought, undermine the objective of the nation and give aid and comfort to those who are killing American soldiers and kidnapping American civilians.

In a speech at New York University on Monday, Kerry questioned President Bush's judgment in ordering American troops to topple Saddam Hussein, saying the president had exchanged a brutal dictator for "chaos."

(Continued in the extended section)

While acknowledging "there has been some progress, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our soldiers and civilians in Iraq, (and) schools, shops and hospitals have been opened, (and) in parts of Iraq, normalcy actually prevails," Kerry claimed that "most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives. So they're sitting on the fence . . . instead of siding with us against the insurgents."

Kerry is an expert at fence-sitting, having sat on one most of his life. He has taken both sides in the war and tried even in this speech to distinguish between granting George W. Bush authority to wage war and reserving his right to micromanage the war the president wages if it doesn't immediately produce victory.

It wasn't long after Kerry returned from Vietnam that he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He slandered his fellow soldiers, calling them indiscriminate killers and comparing them to Genghis Kahn.

Returning prisoners of war said their North Vietnamese captors played excerpts from Kerry's congressional testimony in an attempt to break their morale and convince the POWs their country had abandoned them. Sound bites from Kerry's NYU speech could be played in certain mosques to persuade the insurgents and other Muslim extremists that all they have to do is step up the killing between now and the U.S. election and victory for them is assured. They have seen America cut and run before. Kerry's address may again provide aid and comfort to America's latest enemy.

Kerry claimed President Bush has offered "23 different rationales for this war." Even if that were true, he is still far behind the number of flip-flops committed by Kerry on the war and a long list of other issues.

Kerry once again returned to his pledge to seek help in Iraq and against terrorism (as if the two can be separated) from America's "allies," despite statements from many European leaders indicating that they will not become involved in Iraq no matter who wins the November election.

Kerry criticized the president for "colossal failures of judgment - and judgment is what we look for in a president." So is decisiveness, and Kerry fails on both counts. There is nothing in his Senate record, in his pronouncements during this campaign, or in much of his life story that gives voters confidence that this is a man with strong principles whose judgment and vision can be trusted. Instead, Kerry's life has been one of self-promotion and self-indulgence. As with the Vietnam War, he doesn't talk about victory, or America's unique place in the world to which free people, and those yearning for freedom, can look.

Terrorism didn't begin on September 11, 2001. It started earlier than the Beirut barracks attacks in 1983. It began in the hearts of evil men who preached about an angry god intent on wiping out his enemies through violent acts. That disease spread, and whether it found a host in Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, the virus exploded into a worldwide plague. Sen. Kerry's remarks were not about finding a cure to the plague but about surrendering to it, or taking diplomatic placebos hoping the disease will go away.

It won't go away, even if America withdraws from Iraq tomorrow. Had we not gone there in the first place, terrorism would still be around.

The objective should be victory. It was a word absent from Kerry's speech, because it is a concept foreign to a man who has demonstrated his preference - first with Vietnam and now with Iraq - to help America's enemies in times of crisis far more than helping his own country.

We're on to you, Jean Fraud. Veterans Day falls on November 2nd this year. Enjoy it. We will.

John Kerry: Channeling Clinton

I used to give John Kerry the benefit of the doubt. It took me a long, long time to endorse Bush. But reading the transcript of Kerry's reaction to Iyad Allawi's remarks yesterday really proves the democrats aren't serious about winning the war on terror, they aren't serious about presenting a real alternative to George Bush, and their leader is an angry, stupid, bitter little man who presents no positive message, no real plan of his own, and thinks that shrill assertions are an adequate substitute for facts. I encourage you to read the whole thing, in particular this little gem:

Yesterday I read the report of a deputy director of the Provisional Coalition Authority. He's now returned to the United States. And his report was really pretty devastating. He wrote that we are losing the peace. He wrote that we are not getting the reconstruction aid out, that only 5 percent of the money has been spent. He wrote of the levels of unemployment and of the difficulties of people who are earning money throwing grenades at American soldiers.

Yeah. It's the economy, stupid. I saved a screenshot of the web page, for when the NYTimes "clarifies" Kerry's remarks. You know, because they were always so circumspect in cleaning up Bush's gaffes.

The screenshot is over at my blog, in a crossposted entry, because I don't want to burn up Greyhawk's bandwidth.

Who's Fred?

SBVT Mail you should read

I just received the following mail from "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" I want you to know about:

Dear Friends,

Tonight [23SEP2004] at 7pm Eastern, tune into MSNBC’s “Hardball” where host Chris Matthews will debate John O’Neill, member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and author of “Unfit for Command,” the #1 New York Times bestseller.

In other news, the SwiftVets’ newest television spot makes public a secret meeting between John Kerry and enemy leaders of North Vietnam. According to the Kerry campaign, the clandestine meeting occurred in Paris in May 1970.

(continued in the extended section)

“Kerry’s meeting with leaders of North Vietnam came at a time when our men were still in prison camps,” said Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann, founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. “Kerry’s meeting gave credibility to the communist regime’s wartime propaganda efforts and extended the imprisonment of our POWs by two years,” said RADM Hoffmann.

"Our newest ad highlights a continuing pattern by Senator Kerry of placing his personal ambitions above the interests of our nation,” said Mr. O’Neill, author of Unfit for Command. “When he secretly met with the enemy in 1970, he did so at great detriment to his fellow sailors, to our POWs, and to our nation. He undermined our war effort, giving the enemy greater resolve and determination.”

“More recently, his announcement to withdraw troops in Iraq commencing in six months is caused by that very same political expediency and has the very same effect. All he has done has given terrorists the resolve to stick with it for another six months,” said O’Neill.

The new message is a $1.3 million advertising blitz reaching Americans in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Nevada and New Mexico.

You can see the new ad at SwiftVets.com.

On Leaving

I awoke in the quiet watches with my youngest in my arms, wondering what I might say to her and her brother and sister and their mom and knowing I was done with sleeping for this night.

Here is why: Some must go to fight the Dragons. And if you think such things don't exist then it must be I read you the wrong sorts of stories when you were young.

If you ask only why I and not some other than I can tell you this;

Listen

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

The President of the United States said that when I was very young. Now some will tell you that such thinking is out of fashion these days and that the causes we turn our energies to are unjust. I can tell you only that I don't think so, and that I'm quite certain the dragons themselves would raise such concerns were we to give them voices.

This is for us all: Have faith, not fear. Trust God. Stand fast, be strong.

For me the time is here to leave precious things behind for just a while, and that cost is not too great to bear. After all, what things could be called precious if not worth any price?

For you it's simply time to be brave, as so many of your friends have. Think about this: Without bad there could be no good. Hard times pass. Be kind to one another in every possible way; lift the burdens that others bear and I think you'll find your burden's lighter too.

Worrying helps nothing, try not to do it. Don't feel bad when from time to time you do. And please do fun things and enjoy doing them - you owe me nothing more than that.

And never tell me anything's too hard.

Take pictures.

Write.

Smile.

See you soon.

A request from Russ Vaughn

(Cross-posted in slightly modified form from In Bill's World)

Infidel Cowboy just posted a letter he received from Russ Vaughn, noted author and poet. I'm sure Greyhawk will receive a copy of it, but I'm not sure when he'll have time to post it. The sooner it's posted the sooner you can start helping Russ, so here it is:

Bill O'Reilly just told James Carville, tonight, that if John Kerry would just apologize to Vietnam vets all this Swift Boat stuff would just go away.

That statement clearly demonstrates the O'Reilly never has had a grasp of the problem that Vietnam veterans have with John Kerry and still does not. O'Reilly is in over his head on this issue but refuses to admit it. He claims he's been fair to all sides but I was watching the night he dismissed the Swiftees as smear artists.

We need to let O'Reilly know what value we place on a meaningless apology from a serial liar. Please contact Bill at: oreilly@foxnews.com and let him know what veterans think about his opinion that our thirty years of anger can be assuaged with more lying words from a turncoat traitor. Go Troops!

Airborne and God bless America.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

We're with you all the way on this, Russ.

Chapter 7: MEETING WITH THE ENEMY

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Chapter 7 of Unfit for Command is now available for online viewing at no cost. I haven't been able to locate it in .html format yet, so you'll have to be patient enough to read it as a .pdf file.

[Update: Chapter 7 is now available in .html format at http://www.learnedhand.com/kerryunfit7.htm]

S E V E N

MEETING WITH THE ENEMY

Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer to defect to the West, spoke out in June 2004 about the KBG intelligence operation that he believed was the basis for the assertions of war crimes and atrocities at the heart of John Kerry’s 1971 testimony to the Fulbright Committee.

For Pacepa, the case was clear. John Kerry’s 1971 accusations of war crimes in Vietnam sounded to him just “like the disinformation line that the Soviets were sowing worldwide throughout the Vietnam era.” The KGB had as a top priority the damage of American credibility in Vietnam. To this end, the KGB spent millions producing “the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements throughout Europe.”

[...]

The chapter goes on to discuss Kerry's activities in Vietnam Veterans Against the War and his clandestine 1970 meeting with the North Vietnamese delegation in Paris. Go read the whole thing. Don't forget to take your blood pressure medicine first.

Update: tbrosz's comment has reminded me that not everyone may know where to find the other free chapters on the web. Here's a list from a post on my site:

• Unfit For Command
  • Chapter 3 -- 'The Purple Heart Hunter'
  • Chapter 5 -- 'More Fraudulent Medals'
  • Chapter 6 -- 'A Testimony Of Lies'
  • Chapter 7 -- 'Meeting With The Enemy
  • Chapter 8 -- 'Kerry's Antiwar Secrets'

Reading on the road:

This, because the author sent an autographed copy. (Along with other things - more later.)

Ever start eating then realize how hungry you were? I needed a break from current political non-fiction and realized it only when I'd flown through the first 100 pages of this.

This looks good too:

It is odd how American journalists are not reporting this war from the side of American strategic officers and American frontline units, whose officers and men are now enjoying their own professional capacities and daily successes.

Reading the blogs of our own military guys in the field is infinitely more satisfying to intellectual curiosity than reading (or hearing) the ordinary empty droning of journalists. Compared to bloggers in America, American journalists seem like amateurs; compared to military professionals on the battlefield, journalists (whatever their age) seem like undisciplined college kids. When one compares these professions as professions, the military profession to journalism, journalism really is dropping fast — and not only because of Dan Rather.

Though I'm not sure "odd" is the right word in that first paragraph, unfortunately. And though I'm leery of all predictions for the future of the Middle East I say go and read the whole thing, via Roger's.

Opposites Detract

We are at war, that is true. It is a war physically brought to our shores and our collective psyche on a bright September morning three years ago.

But it is a two front war.

The other war is right here at home. The seeds planted during the Vietnam conflict are bearing fruit now. This bitter harvest of myopic appeasers, acolytes to a god of socialism and personal unaccountability, Perhaps reached their zenith with the Clinton Presidency. But the seeds were spread far and wide. Media outlets the professional word crafter increasingly allowed their editorial stance to flavor their reporting of events. Hollowed halls of learning became less a place of enlightenment and more a center of indoctrination of political correctness, at all levels of education.

And why be accountable. If the state should control all, and in doing so takes personal responsibility away from you, be it in the raising of your children, the smaller paycheck; "because the government knows best in how to distribute your monies for the greater good of all", the constant availability of lawyers in order to seek redress due to the very real likely hood you will be a victim at one time or another, and the list goes on. So if you have no control over your life and most of the important aspects of it, it should follow you would have no real responsibility, and thus no accountability.

So you have a large or at least very vocal portion of the American populace which has bought into this. They support those who will promise to give this kind of *utopia* to them.

And you have the rest of us.

We want less government in ALL aspects of our life, business, public, and private. The government does NOT know what is best for me, and unless it pertains to the overall safety of my community at large, has no right in dictating what I should choose to ingest, wear, write, read, watch, or take part in. as long as it does not (potentially) endanger or physically/mentally abuse anyone other than (possibly) myself.

We want a strong defense, and have the ability to bring the hammer down on any group or nation which poses a threat against us. There is no longer a luxury waiting for a belligerent state or group to strike first. The technology exists to cause to great a wound, to think in any other fashion.

We want strict adherence to the Constitution as was intended by the founding fathers. And to have all branches of the Federal Government to conform to the boundaries as stated in said Constitution. It *is* just that simple.

As mentioned in a wonderful essay by Mrs du Toit in which she states in one part , "We have always been a nation of Live and Let Live.."
but have grown tired of groups with agendas being forced upon us. And to be expected to accept their point of view or lifestyle as being part of the main stream of society. It is one thing to work toward removing roadblocks that prevent any American from being able to exercise their rights as a citizen. It is quite another to force society to accept change when it either isn't ready for that change or has no real desire to incorporate said change regardless of the reason.

and the list goes on for our side as well.

Were is this heading, this gap between those who would sell this country out for thirty pieces of Euro silver, and those of us who, while not looking to make trouble for any one group or country, will pay any price to insure our country is secure from all enemies foreign and domestic.
I hope all major differences may be resolved with reasoned discourse. I am feeling in my gut this is becoming nothing but wishful thinking. The fact is the bad seeds for the most part do not have the ability to understand the errors of their ways. And most of us will not be pushed any farther then we already have.

I believe we are in what Robert A Heinlein called "The Crazy Years." I hope our *crazies* turn out better than his did.

And that we remain who and what we fought so hard to become 227 years ago.....Americans.

(cross posted at Snugg Harbor )

The Mysterious Ms. Ramirez

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

DNC internal memo

111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron
P.O. Box 12345
Houston, Texas 77034

21 September 2004/1972

MEMORANDUM TO ALL WRITERS

SUBJECT: New Word settings

Effective immediately please ensure that all documents produced with Microsoft Word for "Lucy Ramirez" are left justified and use Courier 10 as the font. Also, please run all documents through a photocopier a minimum of 15 "generations". And no more of that little "th" thing!

Jerry Killian
Lt. Colonel

 

(More in the extended section)

 

CBS internal memo

111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron
P.O. Box 12345
Houston, Texas 77034

21 September 2004/1972

MEMORANDUM TO ALL STAFF

SUBJECT: Mary Mapes' going away party

Although it is clear that Ms. Mapes will be leaving us shortly, we have not yet announced the date for her going away party. Please expect the date to be announced within the next 7 days on The Drudge Report. It is likely that her party will be followed immediately by similar parties for Dan Rather, Andrew Heyward, Richard Katz, Bill Glennon, Mary Beth Cahill, John Edwards, John Kerry, and Terry McAuliffe - in more or less that order.

Jerry Killian
Lt. Colonel

 

I'm sitting here wondering: Has anyone ever seen Lucy Ramirez and Mary Mapes in the same place at the same time? Does that make you wanna go "Hmmm?"

Kerry's Stand: Let Someone Else Do It

Today is David Brooks day. Any man who makes me laugh when I'm raking the ground with my hoof while steam pours out of my ears deserves his own Day:

Yesterday John Kerry came to New York University and did something amazing. He uttered a series of clear, declarative sentences on the subject of Iraq. Many of these sentences directly contradict his past statements on Iraq, but at least you could figure out what he was trying to say.

First, Kerry argued that Iraq was never a serious threat to the United States, that the war was never justified and that Bush's focus on Iraq was a "profound diversion" from the real enemy, Osama bin Laden.

This last, ladies and gentlemen, made me spit coffee out my nose yesterday morning, followed by my very best Linda Blair imitation, in which I levitated from my office chair, turned an interesting shade of green, then watched my own head spin around 180 degrees in a most unnatural fashion while I uttered vocabulary words heretofore unknown even to R. Kelley.

As though John Kerry would know an enemy if he saw one. Recognizing an enemy presupposes that one has a spine ideals. But wait... there's more good news...

...Kerry argued that we are losing the war in Iraq. Casualties are mounting! the insurgency is spreading! and daily life is more miserable!

Where had I heard this before? I started having flashbacks - it was deja vu all over again. Gunga John plowed ahead manfully:

"The principles that should guide American policy in Iraq now and in the future are clear: we must make Iraq the world's responsibility, because the world has a stake in the outcome and others should share the burden."

Really. How novel. I don't suppose Mr. Bush ever thought of that in the years since 9/11. I wonder what he's been doing during that time? Perhaps you might suggest it to him?

I can't help but notice that Kerry hasn't changed his tune in over thirty-three years. From his halcyon days at Yale, giving interviews to the Harvard Crimson, where he distrusted the military and wanted to dispatch our armed forces only under the direction of the United Nations to Winter Soldier, where he argued that our soldiers were committing atrocities on daily basis, but it wasn't really their fault.

Mind you, in his 4 months in country he hadn't seen any atrocities. How a CO managed not to view a single atrocity, when they were, according to his testimony, 'daily occurrences committed with the full knowledge of all levels of command' is mystifying at best. How a commissioned officer could argue that grown men were not responsible for raping and torturing helpless civilians also boggles the mind.

Every military man is taught these things are wrong. That they do not have to: indeed they have a duty not to, obey unlawful orders.

But in Kerry's world these things, like Iraq, are always "someone else's responsiblity". And if "someone else" fails to take responsiblity? Well... that just can't be helped, can it?

It's a nuanced world we live in, and responsiblity is such a slippery concept.

Who can say who is really responsible in the end? Certainly not John Kerry.

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Kerry smeared a hero: my dad

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

If posting pictures is really a waste of Greyhawk's bandwidth, he's just going to have to forgive me this time.

The Soldier in the picture is Sgt. Jack Gell. The baby is his daughter Carol. That was the last day his family saw Sgt. Gell alive. Care to guess how Carol feels about John Kerry's bid for president? Here's a little taste:

[...]

I don't blame Kerry for my father's death, and I don't much care if he shamelessly chased after medals. But I do care that when he returned from Vietnam he gave aid and comfort to the enemy while our soldiers were still dying. I care that he smeared my father and a generation of our armed forces with false charges of war crimes while posing himself as a hero. I care that Kerry's false charges encouraged our enemy who was pressuring our POWs in inhumane ways to confess to imaginary war crimes. I care that he went to Paris to meet with the Viet Cong in 1970 while still an officer in the Navy Reserve, returning to publicly advocate for their position and against America's position.

This isn't about politics. It's about honor and betrayal and protecting our country. And for me it is deeply personal, as it is for countless vets. Thirty-nine years later, my mother still cries on Nov 14. Thirty-nine years later, we miss my father every day. Thirty-nine years later, Kerry poses as a hero. As children of Vietnam veterans, many of us feel an unwelcome emotional strain as the arguments about what really happened in Vietnam are tugged back and forth, often by people who were not there. We deeply resent the suggestion that our fathers were war criminals as that theme inevitably seeps into the argument.

[...]

As long as I have breath and Kerry seeks the office of president, I will speak out against him. Others like me are too many to count.

Go read the whole thing. Please. You'll have to go through a painless registration process to get to it, but it's worth it. Trust me.

Hat tip: Kerry Haters

The Eclipse of Legalism

(Cross posted here)

This piece in The New Republic is worth the fifteen seconds it'll take you to register:

Perhaps the greatest danger in fighting terrorism is the polarizing effect such a campaign can have--not just internationally, but domestically. To avoid this pitfall, a strong political consensus for military action is necessary. That means the president must actively reach out to domestic opposition. But American leaders must also heed Sharon's other lessons. That means an ability to endure criticism from abroad and even to risk international isolation, a willingness to define the war on terrorism as a total war, and a commitment to focus one's political agenda on winning, not on divisive or extraneous concerns. Fulfilling those conditions does not guarantee success. But it does make success possible--as Israel is, at great cost, showing the world.

The piece is a bit sloppily written, but not without merit. Go ahead. Indulge me. My own view is that Sharon probably is a war criminal, but that he's saving lives, and that his critics are often pseudo-intellectuals posing as legalists -- legalists who John Keegan castigates in The Telegraph for their opposition to Tony Blair:

It is difficult to understand the motives of those who are making life difficult for the Prime Minister. Some are legalists who continue to insist that the war was launched without justification in international law and wish to punish those responsible for their transgressions.

They belong to that tiresome but increasingly numerous tribe who seem to think that men are made for laws and not laws for men. In any case, their arguments are contested, since many (including the Attorney General) hold that UN Resolutions 678, 687 and 1441 do in fact provide justification for the taking of military action against Saddam.

The rest of the Keegan piece isn't a must read. It's mostly a rehashing of arguments a lot of you went over in the runup to the war during February and March of '03. But it seems to me that there's a pattern here. We have Sharon winning against the legalists at home and abroad. We have Keegan winning the debate against the legalists on behalf of Tony Blair. And we have Dubya up in the polls against a democratic ticket, one half of which is a hugely successful trial lawyer.

Tort reform, anyone?

Who is Fred?

Update -- Reader Walt Kraslow comments:

In "The Eclipse of Legalism," you write:

"My own view is that Sharon probably is a war criminal...."

As an avid reader of your Web site, finding out that you subscribe to this canard of the left is disappointing, so much so that I have no desire to argue with you and cite all the authorities to the contrary. (At worst, Sharon was negligent or perhaps even derelict in his duties at Shatilla, but those are not war crimes.)

If Sharon is a war criminal, alas, so is Bush, and all his supporters complicit in his crime.

I expect better from this Web site, as do, I suspect, most of its readers.

I respond:

Walter,

The point I was making is that it's dangerous to rely on terms like "war criminal," because while all bad men such as Stalin, Hitler, Saddam and Pol Pot were war criminals according to the legal definition, not all "war criminals" are bad men. Can the case be made that b-29 pilots firebombing tokyo were war criminals? Perhaps, if the standard in judging war criminals is whether or not they make war specifically on civilians as a strategic goal. But they were still good, brave men by my standard.

What I'm saying is, Sharon and Bush are good men, too. They are doing what they need to do to protect their people. Us. You and me. Unfortunately, we have a body of international law that will sometimes interpret their actions as criminal.

Again, my point is, legalism -- or excessive legalism such as that practiced by Sharon's accusers over Sabrah and Shattila -- isn't very useful in the war on terror. As Keegan says:

They belong to that tiresome but increasingly numerous tribe who seem to think that men are made for laws and not laws for men.

I hope this clarifies my position. The law is a guide, but we need to have enough common sense, as Americans, to know when to trump legal arguments when there are obviously stronger moral and/or utilitarian arguments around.

And if we still disagree, then please don't judge Greyhawk or his Mudville Gazette on the basis of my pretentious blatherings.

p.s. -- I've had my own frustrations with "canards of the left." Imagine leaving the Army, working your butt off at a Junior College to get into a 4 year college, and then once you get to that 4 year college you find yourself in a class with Joel Beinin. Imagine that Joel is lecturing about how the United States deserved to have 200+ Marines killed because of our support for Israel in the wake of Sabra + Shatila? Imagine if you needed to get his stamp of approval on your degree. Well, I didn't get a degree and now I'm a hulldiver.

Thank You, Greyhawk

Well, our server situation has finally normalized and we have settled in with our new hosting provider. We'd like to thank Greyhawk again for giving us the privilege of guest-posting here for the past few days while things literally went up in smoke for us at RatherBiased.com.

We'd also like to thank Hugh Hewitt, Allah Pundit, The Media Drop, and INDC Journal as well as any other blogs who helped get the word out about our temporary move.

And thanks to you, Mudville Gazette readers, for giving us a few minutes of your time. We hope you'll join us at our permanent home while continuing to visit this fine site. Things will still be a bit rough in the next couple of days as we adjust to our new web hosting provider, but we hope get things worked out ASAP.

For your viewing pleasure -- Can't Rummy keep these people under control?

When Greyhawk passed out guest keys to The Mudville Gazette he expressed some reservations about running up his bandwidth costs with a lot of pictures. I don't think linking to images that aren't stored on his server would be a problem but to be safe I'm going to refer you to my home blog to look at some things there. I followed a link from Cassandra's post, then followed a link in the comments on the page that took me to and found some more things I enjoyed and think you will. Please see my post for a taste of what I found, then follow the links from there for more.

McAuliffe Lapses Into Self Parody

Traditionally, fisking involves some sort of point-by-point refutation, but I don't think that's really necessary in this instance:

Washington, D.C. - In response to false Republican accusations regarding the CBS documents, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe issued this statement:

“In today’s New York Post, Roger Stone, who became associated with political ‘dirty tricks’ while working for Nixon, refused to deny that he was the source the CBS documents.

“Will Ed Gillespie or the White House admit today what they know about Mr. Stone’s relationship with these forged documents? Will they unequivocally rule out Mr. Stone’s involvement? Or for that matter, others with a known history of dirty tricks, such as Karl Rove or Ralph Reed?”

Crossposted here

Who is fred?

Viacom Board as Liberal as Dan

Many lefty critics often say that because the media are owned by corporations, that makes them conservative. While there are some negative effects that corporate media ownership produces, being conservative is not one of them. Particularly at Viacom where eight of the 13 chairmen of the board donate primarily to Democratic candidates. Two of them have held cabinet positions in Democratic administrations.

Given that kind of background, it's no surprise that the Viacom board has not discussed Memogate at all, according to The New York Sun.

Don't expect Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone, 80, to support drastic action, either. Over the past few years, Redstone has given $50,000 to Democrats and just $2,000 to Republicans, both of whom serve on committees related to Viacom's business.

More Memogate cartoons

Memogate is truly the story that keeps on giving, at least in the view of the nation's editorial cartoonists.

We posted a large collection of editorial toons on our official site but since that time, America's parodists have been at it again. See the extended entry for 18 more Memogate cartoons.

Timeline of Memogate

We've been meaning to do a timeline of the events leading up to CBS's false report of Sept. 8 but it looks like the folks at PoliDock.com have beat us to the punch. They've set up a flowchart/timeline based on all the publicly available information about the scandal. Check it out.

In The Jetstream

Rumsfeld issues stern warning on sex trafficking.

I may have more to say on this later. Jerome Corsi has come out with a statement that Kerry's latest position (it changes daily) on Iraq is virtually identical to a speech he made before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 33 years ago. This is a point I've made in prior posts - I've pulled out quotes from his Winter Soldier testimony, the profile the Boston Globe did on him, and the Harvard Crimson article and contrasted them to his present positions to show that his core philosophy (when he doesn't have his finger in the wind, or he isn't focus-grouping) hasn't changed a bit since before he went to Vietnam.

Oooooh....more macho posturing from the Fab Hair Duo: this time the gloves are really off. And he really means it! I've got goosebumps.

Shocking image of American barbarism in Iraq. As a military wife, I'm just sick about this...

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded recently that al Qaeda ? fearing its credibility is on the line ? is moving ahead with plans for a major, "spectacular" attack, despite disruptions of some operations by recent arrests in Britain and Pakistan.

Officials said recent intelligence assessments of the group, which is blamed for the September 11 attacks, state that an attack is coming and that the danger will remain high until the Nov. 2 elections and last until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20

"We're trying to kill each other, not slaughter each other." Glad we got that straight. For a minute I thought you were just uncivilized.

The Navy has started a 2nd probe into John Kerry's Silver Star award:

Word of the second Kerry medals probe comes as complaints escalate over the top Democrat's refusal to authorize the release of his full military file.

I didn't say anything about the Navy's dismissal of Judicial Watch's first two complaints. It didn't surprise me much - I figured they weren't going to do anything except quietly correct the record. The Navy wasn't about to throw a sitting Senator and presidential candidate in jail. It is disturbing, however, that the Navy continues to ignore evidence that Kerry's own journal states he was not under fire for his first Purple Heart, especially since there are signed affadavits from other officers contradicting his version of events. There are also suggestions that there are missing after action reports, and Kerry has not shown that all the proper documents have been filed. I still doubt the Navy will completely investigate this affair, but we'll see. In the long run, like Kerry's meeting with the North Vietnamese in Paris, it's probably more damaging politically than legally. No one wants to dredge up 30-year old business.

Via FreeRepublic.com: Saddam planning to run in Iraqi elections? Some fools never learn.

Apparently the judge felt there could be only one...

It's all in how you define poverty.

The Rad-Fem crowd must be so proud of themselves. I'll bet it gets a big thumbs-up from Lydie England, too. From the American Spectator, via ifeminists.com:

...the FBI's Crime Index for violent crimes shows that the arrest rate for American girls soared 103 percent between 1981 and 1997. During that same period the arrest rate for boys rose a mere 27 percent. Reporter Marisa Trevino found that during the last decade the rate of girls under 18-years-old arrested for aggravated assault rose by 7 percent. Among boys such arrests fell 29 percent. The most dismaying finding, Trevino suggests, was a 46 percent rise of females who were a party to forcible rape. Among males, the figure fell by 28 percent.

More recently, Richard Heikes, a principal for a Texas alternative education center, told Women's E-News, that he began noticing this shift in gender dynamics in middle school two years ago. "Right now, in my (alternative) middle school we are 50-50, males and females. It used to be 70-30 or 80-20. The girls are offending just as badly as the boys."

Another study from the November 1999 Psychology Today involving 460 female murderers and all but ignored by the alternative aggression researchers, showed that women are growing more stereotypically male in their reasons for murdering, and concludes that for the first time in recorded history girls are altering their pattern of aggression from the traditional female form of hidden aggression to the as*-whupping male variety, the inevitable result being that more and more of America's sweethearts are beginning to resemble Jerry Springer's butt-kicking trailer brides.

The Ra^therGate Conspiracy

BREAKING NEWS... Dapper Dan has scored another major coup for professional journalism. C-BS has broken the startling news that the Killian memos were not... repeat... NOT AUTHENTIC.

Just remember folks: this is why we leave this stuff up to the media. The last thing we need is to have a bunch of pajama-clad amateurs muddying up the waters with their irresponsible guessing-games. We MUST leave the vetting process to the Pros.

You're all probably wondering why it took C-BS so long to break this story.

Well, you'll be glad to know that during the past week the intrepid and dedicated band of journalists at C-BS has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into just how this sinister fraud could have been perpetrated on the upstanding and ever-vigilant press. And now the results are in: in a rare and generous gesture of conciliation and sexual emotional healing, Mr. Rather has allowed a lowly blog to tell his story. The Great Man actually took a rag-tag crew of pajama-wearing bloggers under his mantle and let them learn from him, as we jointly investigated the twisted tale of Right-Wing skullduggery that led to the decline and fall of one of the greatest network news organizations the world has ever known.

And now the world will know The Real Story of the Ra^therGate Conspiracy...

How it all began...

Cross-posted from I Love Jet Noise

The Strange Tale of Bill Burkett

The Memogate story keeps getting stranger by the day. As the latest publication to enter the fray, USA Today has an article with an exclusive interview with Bill Burkett. Turns out he provided the paper with copies of his six documents right after the "60 Minutes" story aired on CBS.

Burkett tells the paper that he lied to both CBS and USA Today in saying that he'd obtained the documents from George Conn, a former Texas Guard officer who is in Europe working for the Army. Amazingly, CBS decided to run its Sept. 8 report without contacting the alleged source of its hot documents. USA Today did manage to track him down; he denies knowing anything about a "personal file" that his former colleague Jerry Killian might have kept.

Also of note in the article: Burkett claims he was called up one day after appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" by a woman named "Lucy Ramirez" who called him in March of this year saying that she had some incriminating documents about President Bush's Air National Guard service. Later that month, Burkett says he went to a livestock show where instead of meeting up with "Ramirez," he was handed the documents by an unknown man.

The article also notes that Burkett has some sort of disease causing him to have periodic seizures.

The New York Sun adds that Burkett may be preparing to launch a lawsuit against CBS for "defaming" him.

Cross-town at The New York Post, television reporter Don Kaplan reports that rumors are circulating that CBS News president Andrew Heyward will be replaced by Susan Zirinsky, the current head of CBS's tabloid show "48 Hours Investigates." CBS, as you might expect, denies it.

Elsewhere online, Slate press critic Jack Shafer has some thoughts on the whole affair that are worth reading.

UPDATE: Baseball Crank has a commentary (and link) about another exclusive interview that Dan Rather gave to CBS's New York affiliate. He correctly notes that Rather appears to be blaming his staff for lying to him about what CBS's document "experts" said about the forged Killian memos. Incredibly, Rather also said that "any open-minded person who would sit down with him" would consider Bill Burkett a reliable source.

Semper Paratus

Most only think of them as a group, often times made up of auxiliary members, who go after over zealous powerboaters on our lakes and rivers. Or acting as cops on the water, speeding after skippers who have had a tad too many bloody marys prior to shoving off on the nations waterways. Or the ones who instruct on boating safety as well as inspect your boat or ship for compliance with current maritime regulations.

Some would also know they patrol the nations waterways and coastlines. Searching for downed aircraft, answering distress calls from ships of all makes and nationalities. Inspecting ships, as warranted, which enter our coastal boundaries. Fewer know they are a key part of the on going war on drugs. Placing their lives on the line while helping to stop the flow of illicit drugs and other contraband from entering the country.

In peace time, they are under the Department of Homeland Security, but during times of national crises, as directed by the President, or during time of declared war, They fall under the Department of the Navy.

They are by many, the forgotten branch of the armed forces.

"They" are the United States Coast Guard.

The United States Coast Guard, one of the country's five armed services, is also one of the most unique agencies of the federal government. We trace our history back to 4 August 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of the federal revenue. Known variously as the Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service, we expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew.

These added responsibilities included humanitarian duties such as aiding mariners in distress. Our law enforcement functions also continued to expand. Congress tasked us with enforcing laws against slavery, piracy, and enlarged our responsibilities to prevent smuggling. We were also given the responsibility to protect the marine environment, explore and police Alaska, and chart the growing nation's coastlines, all well before the turn of the twentieth century.

The service received its present name in 1915 under an act of Congress when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the Life-Saving Service. The nation now had a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation's maritime laws. We began to maintain the country's aids to maritime navigation, including operating the nation's lighthouses, when the Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1939. Later, in 1946, Congress permanently transferred the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard, thereby placing merchant marine licensing and merchant vessel safety under our purview.

source US Coast Guard

I thought it would be fitting to remember them. The men and women who serve with pride, in the Coast Guard, have some of the toughest and unheralded jobs of any of the services. They traditionally get the smallest appropriations, are asked to do more with less, long before it really gets hard for the other branches, and are tasked with an ever changing and demanding set of challenges.

And I am as guilty as any for cracking the usual "Coastie" joke about having to be 6' tall in order to become one. But you know what? It's true. Every man and woman in the Coast Guard is six foot tall (or more)in spirit, drive, and guts. With shoulders wide enough to carry any load given them. And that they do...with pride, and professionalism. For on a moments notice the Coast Guard may have to answer any thing from a call for help, to a nations call to action... and in doing so rightfully earn their motto "Semper Paratus".

This was also cross posted to my regular home on the web, as I feel they deserve to hear "thanks" from as many sources as possible.

Killian's Family Demands Apology

Knight Ridder reports that the family of the deceased military commander whom CBS had previously accused of writing memoranda impugning President Bush's National Guard service during the Vietnam War.

"Do I take it personally? Yes," says Jerry Killian the son of the deceased commander. "I think, first of all, CBS and Dan Rather owe my deceased father and my family an apology. [...] I don't accept that this was an innocent mistake. I think it confirms what a lot of people already think: that there is a hidden agenda among some of the media."

CBS Asked Lockhart to Call Burkett

The Associated Press, which until now had been on the periphery of Memogate, has a huge scoop: CBS News producer Mary Mapes asked former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart to call up Bill Burkett shortly before CBS ran its story questioning President Bush's military record.

"Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. 'She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you,' Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records 'that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said.'"

Lockhart is the second high-ranking national Democrat to have had direct contact with Burkett. Earlier, former senator Max Cleland of Georgia admitted that Burkett had called his personal mobile phone and peddled his memo story.

Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt.

UPDATE: A commenter points out something we forgot to add: Joe Lockhart is one of the key advisers of the John Kerry for President campaign. Looks like the editors of PoliDock.com will have to update their "Web of Connections" graphic.

UPDATE: USA Today reports that Burkett told the paper that he refused to give CBS the forged documents until it gave him a direct link to a top Kerry campaign adviser. This is a huge development, folks. Mapes was willing to directly help Burkett with his political agenda in order to pursue her own political agenda.

Lockhart is obviously toast and now, it's certain that Mapes will be fired. The real question is, now, what did Dan Rather know and when did he know it?

UPDATE: It's worth pointing out that Lockhart was not officially on the Kerry staff at the time of his conversation with Burkett. Cleland was, however.

Burdens and JFK

John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage -- and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

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, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge -- and more.

John Forbes Kerry:

We should also intensify the training of Iraqis to manage and guard the polling places that need to be opened. Otherwise, U.S. forces will end up bearing that burden alone.

If the president would move in this direction, if he would bring in more help from other countries to provide resources and to train the Iraqis to provide their own security and to develop a reconstruction plan that brings real benefits to the Iraqi people, and take the steps necessary to hold elections next year, if all of that happened, we could begin to withdraw U.S. forces starting next summer and realistically aim to bring our troops home within the next four years....

The principles that should guide American policy in Iraq now and in the future are clear. We must make Iraq the world's responsibility, because the world has a stake in the outcome and others should have always been bearing the burden.

We shall bear no more price; we shall shirk any burden.

Crossposted at Grim's Hall.

White House Wants Schieffer Out

Drudge is reporting that that at least one "senior Bush official" wants Bob Schieffer, the host of CBS's "Face the Nation," not to be allowed to host one of the presidential debates.

Currently, he is scheduled to be a moderator at the third presidential debate in Arizona.

UPDATE: Drudge has posted his story.

Why RatherBiased?

Lester Holt, host of MSNBC's Lester Holt live, reported on air today (online version not available at this time) that retired Texas Air National Guard Major General Bobby Hodges, is calling for an apology from CBS for himself, the family of the late Lt Col Jerry Killian, and National Guard members across the America, all of whom had their reputations tarnished in the developing Rathergate scandal. General Hodges, who was originally quoted by CBS as verifying the accuracy of the content of the Rather forgeries, later stated he had been misled by the network, adding that their only contact was a brief phone conversation in which he was led to believe they had hand written documents from Lt Col Killian.

This development underscores an overlooked aspect of the Rather forgeries - fabricated claims falsely attributed to a deceased military officer. As noted here previously, this was certainly not the first incident of Rather or CBS attacking military members (or using lower ranking military members in their attacks on their leaders) - a trend perhaps explained in part by the fact that Rather's journalism career began only after he was booted out of the Marine Corps as unfit after a 4-month "military career".

It should be obvious to the reader why, upon noting problems with their hosting and servers, (and recognizing my own limited ability to post as I prepare to deploy "downrange") I offered the good folks at RatherBiased the opportunity to post their information here. This coordinated effort between MilBlogs and RatherBiased seems a perfect way to say "Thanks Dan, for the years of coverage you've offered the men and women who proudly serve their nation in the US Armed Forces".

Welcome aboard, RatherBiased, glad to be of service to you.

Meanwhile - I continue to prepare to deploy. Expect an update on that topic soon. The many other guest bloggers will continue to keep Mudville lively. My thanks to all, and to all who stop by and make the whole effort worthwhile.

Micah Wright Update

(Cross-posted here)

I was visiting one of the bookstores on Fourth Street in Berkeley the other day and saw a copy of Micah Wright's book, the one full of remixed propaganda posters from World Wars I and II. I picked it up to see if the preface is still in there -- the preface in which he fraudulently claims to have been an Army Ranger, and to have jumped out over Rio Hato during the Panama invasion of 1989.

It still is.

I remember Soft Skull Press issuing a press release shortly after the story of Micah's fraud broke, claiming that the fraudulent preface would be removed from future printings. But clearly, it was front and center of the version I read -- so either Soft Skull is lying, or I was still reading from the first edition. I'll assume the latter, since it provides me the comfort of knowing Wright isn't making any more money than he has to.

Anyway, it so happens that I was writing a book about that same invasion of Panama last year, and that during the course of my research I had asked Mr. Wright for an interview. He was somewhat obfuscatory with his replies. With hindsight it's easy to understand why. So, to loosen him up and let him know I wasn't super-hooah, I sent him some stuff from the beginning of my book -- which I'm almost ashamed to admit, he enjoyed. He sent me the following email:

I just went back and dredged up all that shit recently as well for the intro to my book "Back The Attack." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1583225846/ qid%3D1039690590/sr%3D8-1/102-3721915-3266552

I really didn't want to, but my hippy faggot editor was all "gee, man,
don't you see that it's perfect? You've been there, man, you've been In
The Shit and now you're against war!" I was torn between sticking my
thumb into his eye or telling him that I'm not against war, I'm only
against wasting our time fight a pissant caveman army in Iraq when we
should be issuing decapitation strikes on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and
Pyongyang North Korea.

Plus I just wanted to push my elbow into his throat for saying "In The
Shit, man!" like we stepped out a movie about Vietnam or some crap.

My intro is 4000 words about my funtime jump experiences in Panama,
filtered and washed through a milksop filter. Seems that the only
people buying my book are the kind of people who'd normally spit in my
face for being a baby-killer and we wouldn't want to offend the little
nancies, so let's take out all the descriptions of PDF bodies split open by LAW rockets, steaming in the moonlight, smelling all the world like a Fourth-of-July cookout. My left-wing publishers were so horrified by my first draft that they could barely manage to give me
notes on it. Most of the notes seemed to be of the "can we tone down
the violence?" type. I told my editor, "gee, man, I thought you wanted
me to tell it like it was there In The Shit. Right? To put the reader
there IN THE SHIT, MAN!?"

I guess not.

But yeah, it was worth it just to hear them calling from NYC with those
"uhms" and "well's" as they tried to figure out how to tell me that
they wanted a Grim and Gritty but not Too Bloody depiction of what
combat was like. "People are too traumatized from the WTC, no one
needs to read lurid descriptions of a guy with no head, Micah!"

Whatever, I said, You're paying the bills, hombre.

I'm glad you're writing a weird schismed "I was there and I hate you"
piece rather than some "then the sergeant looked at a flag and felt a
wellspring of righteous justice fill his heart: He was here to Free the
Panamania People!" cock-toss book. Your description of the average
military-fiction fan made me spit onto my keyboard when you were
talking about sinking the k-bar into Mohammed's quivering flesh
pockets. I decided long ago that everyone who reads Tom Clancy looks
just like him: i.e. a fat 50-year-old ex-insurance salesman with
coke-bottle glasses and a lust for reading about the adventures of men
braver than themselves, men who might someday get angry enough to rape
them and oh, wouldn't that be nice?

You summed it up nicely, though I think you put those Military-Fiction
guys on top too much... I think most of them really want to ride bottom
underneath Mack Bolan and his hard Tec-9 inches of man-steel.

So, anyway, what did you want to talk about re: Panama? Like I said,
I'm pretty Panama'ed out.

Ah yes. Well, I'm sure he was "pretty panama'ed out" at this stage of his lie, which apparently kept growing and growing out of control. We've all been there, right? Well, I have. But that's a different story. At any rate, Micah was somehow able to draw on some last reserve of energy to email me later with an electronic version of his fraudulent 4000 word preface, full of his notional experiences down in The Panama -- a preface which I hope at least some of you will find amusing:

So I’m sitting amongst a crowd of sixty-four hot, sweaty, extremely agressive men who are tweaking on adrenaline and gripping loaded automatic weapons with their itchy fingers. We’re crammed inside of a vibrating metal tube nine feet wide and thirty feet long and racing along at 300 miles per hour, 750 feet above the treetops of Panama.

See, I’m here on December 20, 1989 because—ha ha, Merry Christmas, Micah—it’s some brilliant politician’s idea to invade the place, and since those politicians sure as Hell aren’t going to do it themselves, it falls to myself and my buddies around me: the cream of the U.S. Army’s combat infantry, Charlie Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion/75th Ranger Regiment. We are the vanguard of Operation Just Cause, the “Liberation” of Panama. Unbeknownst to us, we’re about to participate in the twelfth U.S. invasion of Panama since 1903.

Our mission is to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and attack the Panamanian Defense Force’s Rio Hato Military Base, 65 miles west of Panama City. We’ve been told Rio Hato contains a large airfield and is home to two Panamanian Defense Force (PDF) companies: the 6th Mechanized Rifle Company, equipped with 19 armored cars, and the 7th Rifle Company, an elite counterinsurgency force known to be loyal to Noriega and trained by Uncle Sam at the School of the Americas (the college to which every self-respecting Third World Dictator sends his troops in order for them to learn how to torture and kill their own citizens).

Our mission is to destroy the PDF forces and seize the airfield for follow on missions. The total number of PDF forces is estimated to exceed 500 men; these units, particularly the 7th Rifle Company, are expected to offer stiff opposition to our 400 or so Rangers.

Anyway, I’m squatting in this shuddering tin can of a plane with 200 pounds of equipment strapped to my 180-pound body and I’m staring at the Red Light above the closed door and praying. “Sweet Jesus,” I pray, “Please open that goddamn door and let in some fresh air. I’ve been trapped inside this bottle with these 64 guys for 6 too-long hours and the smell of their fear sweat, panicky acid stomach belching, and constant farting is about to make me throw up on myself and these guys will never allow me to forget that, so please Jesus, open that damned door.” Jesus is listening; the Jump Master opens the two side doors to the plane and Panama’s hot, humid night air whips through the cargo bay. We’re given the five-minute warning. We all attempt to stand, but our knees are lifeless after six hours in the plane. We finally make it to our feet and clip our parachute static lines onto the anchor cable.

Everyone’s reciting things to themselves: the religious ones mutter Hail Marys, the hardcore cheeseballs are reciting The Ranger Creed at the tops of their lungs like a bunch of kids at summer camp. A guy in front of me is muttering the Boy Scout Oath for some stupid reason. The words to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” are running through my head when suddenly above the steady vibrating thrum of the C130 cargo plane’s four giant Rolls-Royce turboprop engines, a sound rings out, reminiscent of my childhood in Texas: summer rain smacking into a corrugated tin roof. I look around, puzzled, trying to figure out what the new sound is when suddenly the floor under my foot jumps. The Jump Master leans out the door, observing the upcoming Drop Zone. He pulls himself back in with a terrified look on his face and shouts “The jump zone is hot!” and I suddenly realize that the Panamanians are shooting at our plane. Neato. I hope your Christmas is shaping up as well as mine is, Mr. President.

Yes. Micah Wright is one of the masturbators I mentioned at the end of this post. Normally I would consider staging an intervention with some of his comic-book friends, but the homoeroticism evidenced by his writing leads me to believe he'd just mistake it for a circlejerk, with me as the referee.

Rather, Burkett on Memogate

Transcript coming soon. Dan tries to make Bill Burkett a patsy, says that CBS came to Burkett, not the other way around. But Burkett seems like he will not go quietly into the night.

UPDATE: Transcript is up in the extended entry. Please note that it's still a rough transcript and will be corrected momentarily.

UPDATE: Everything has been corrected. Dan did indeed say that Burkett was in the "Texas Air Guard," which, as one commenter points out, is an incorrect statement.

UPDATE: The video has been posted, along with a pic of Dan.

DAN RATHER: Now, news about CBS News, and the questions surrounding documents we aired on this broadcast and on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" on September 8. The documents purported to show that George W. Bush received preferential treatment during his years in the Texas Air National Guard.

At the time, CBS News and this reporter fully believed the documents were genuine. Tonight, after further investigation, we can no longer vouch for their authenticity. The documents were provided to CBS News by a former commander in the Texas Air Guard [sic], Bill Burkett. He did not come to us, we went to him and asked him for the documents. Burkett is well known in National Guard circles for a long battle over his medical benefits, and for trying, for several years now, to discredit President Bush's military service record.

Burkett initially told CBS News he got the documents from a fellow guardsman. But when we interviewed Burkett this past weekend, he changed his story, and told us he got the documents from a different source, one we cannot verify. Why did Burkett tell CBS News something he now says is not true? We put the question to him.

(from interview)

Why did you mislead us?

BILL BURKETT: Well, I didn't totally mislead you. I did misled you on the one individual. You know, your staff pressured me to a point to reveal that source.

RATHER: Well, we were trying to get the chain of possession.

BURKETT: I understand that.

RATHER: And you said that you had received them from someone.

BURKETT: I understand that.

RATHER: And we did pressure you to say, well, you received them from someone. And that someone was who--

BURKETT: Yes.

RATHER: And it's true, we pressured you. Because it was a very important point for us.

BURKETT: Yes. And I simply threw out a name. That was basically, uh, it was, I guess, to take a little pressure off for a moment.

RATHER: Have you forged anything?

BURKETT: No, sir.

RATHER: He you faked anything?

BURKETT: No, sir.

RATHER: But you did mislead us.

BURKETT: Yes, I misled.

RATHER: You lied to us.

BURKETT: Yes, I did.

RATHER: Why would I or anyone believe that you wouldn't mislead us about something else?

BURKETT: I could understand that question. I can. That's going to have to be your judgment and anybody else's.

RATHER: Burkett still insists the documents are real, but now says he was in no position to verify them.

BURKETT: I also insisted when I sat down with your staff in the first face-to-face session, before I gave up any documents, I wanted to know what you were going to do with them, and I insisted that they be authenticated.

RATHER: The failure of CBS News to do just that, to properly, fully, scrutinize the documents and their source, led to our airing the documents when we should not have done so. It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward has ordered an independent investigation to examine the process by which the report was prepared. The results of that investigation will be made public. This was an error made in good faith as we tried to carry on the CBS News tradition of asking tough questions and investigating reports. But it was a mistake.

Now, some reaction to our revelations today. It comes from a spokesman for President Bush, Scott McClellan.

SCOTT McCLELLAN (White House Spokesman): Obviously there are still a number of questions that need to be answered, and we look forward to seeing the results of the investigations that other media organizations have undertaken, and that the CBS says that they are now undertaking. And we appreciate the fact that they have said they deeply regret it, but we still want to see those questions answered.

RATHER: And Scott McClellan repeated the the White House insistence that President Bush fulfilled his obligation to the National Guard and he noted again the president was honorably discharged.

The Web Reacts

The word on the web has come in on Dan Rather and CBS's statements from earlier today. National Review's Jim Geraghty has a roundup of responses CBS affiliates are sending to his readers. Allah Pundit doesn't buy CBS's claims to have acted "in good faith." INDC Journal doubts that Bill Burkett was the only one involved with passing on the forgeries to CBS. Worth noting is that Ben Barnes apparently came forward to CBS before the network had obtained its phony documents. How could that have happened unless Barnes had some knowledge of them independent of CBS? David Frum argues that the Kerry campaign would not have been so stupid as to pass off such obvious fakes. We're inclined to agree, although that does not exonerate Texas Democrats. Michele at A Small Victory thinks Burkett is just a patsy.

The Spoons Experience points out a number of flaws in Dan's apology, as does Stefan Sharkansky. Andrew Sullivan thinks Rather should resign. Dean Esmay thinks CBS hasn't apologized sufficiently. Cori Dauber at Ranting Profs thinks that CBS needs to apologize for its arrogant posturing after critics began pointing out the many flaws behind its story.

Josh Marshall wonders why CBS ran the story to begin with, if CBS believes the documents could not be authenticated, although that seems to us like a bit of ex post facto reasoning. Oliver Willis, meanwhile, can't help himself from bashing FNC in a story about CBS's blunders. Nick Confessore thinks bloggers shouldn't gloat. Kevin Drum takes a just the facts ma'am approach. Kos has nothing to say about the matter.

Jay Rosen thinks CBS could have saved itself a lot of trouble had it paid more attention to online publications and blogs. The Media Drop has links to CBS's official statements here and here.

Ace of Spades has two top ten lists on the matter: "Top Ten New CBS News Slogans," and "Top Ten Dan Rather 'Folksy Texas Sayings' About What Went Wrong." Also see Dave Konig's parody of tonight's "Evening News."

UPDATE: Fox News reports that Dan Rather says he "feels like hell" after the Memogate debacle.

UPDATE: The Freepers of FreeRepublic.com, the site that first questioned CBS's Sept. 8 report, are running a live thread during tonight's "Evening News." Meanwhile, their rivals over at Democratic Underground are having a hot debate over the Memogate controversy.

CBS Apologizes

We're glad that CBS News finally said today what it should have said a week-and-a-half ago. But CBS must still be fearing the FCC since it refused to utter the f-word--forgery.

The network needs to apologize for relying upon a man with known mental problems and a history of lodging false, partisan accusations against President George Bush. To call such an individual--who once spoke of the need for "blood on the field" of politics--an "unimpeachable source" demonstrates a severe lack of judgment. That CBS would trust the unreliable word of Bill Burkett when other news organizations had not found him credible is another thing the network needs to apologize for.

The entire Memogate debacle will go down as another in CBS News's long history of being willing to lower journalistic standards when it comes to reporting negative information against Republicans.

In truth, CBS News was not tricked by a lone madman but was a willing participant in Bill Burkett's disinformation campaign, ignoring the testimony of its own experts and refusing to interview anyone with direct knowledge of the falsity of his charges out of fear that they would be "too pro-Bush."

It is hard to see how everyday Americans can trust CBS News unless every major player involved in the original report is dismissed considering that all of them have perpetrated a major violation against the CBS News Standards, a firing offense.

From the CNS manual:

"Anonymous sources should be used only when it is determined (1) that there is no other practicable way to obtain and report the information; (2) that the information is factual and of sufficient newsworthiness to warrant its use despite the fact that we cannot disclose its source; and (3) that the source and his information are highly reliable in the particular instance."

"Where the use of an anonymous source is necessary, as much information as possible about the nature [underlined] of the source should be provided to the audience, assuming, of course, that this information would not lead to disclosure of the source. Where the source may have a vested interest in the matter to be reported, it is especially important that information be provided as to the nature and/or motivation of the source."

In order to restore its credibility as a journalistic enterprise, CBS News needs to fire those who violated its own cardinal rules, be they anchorman, president, or producer.

RatherBiased.com Temporarily Moves In

Thanks to Greyhawk for providing us with an account here to post updates. Right now, our server is down because of a fire that our incompetent hosting provider allowed to break out. We are in the process of leaving our current company and moving to a better one.

We hope to have things fixed by the end of the day.

CBS 'FESSES UP!

CBS has admitted they can't vouch for the authenticity of the memos the used to slander Lt Col Jerry Killian and Commander in Chief George Bush on a recent newscast.

CBS News said Monday it cannot prove the authenticity of documents used in a 60 Minutes story about President Bush's National Guard service and that airing the story was a "mistake" that CBS regretted.

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the original story, apologized.

[...]

I have some thoughts about how important this could be at "Did Dan Rather just hand George Bush a landslide?" but they aren't really Mudville fare. Read them if you'd like, but definitely re-read Greyhawk's "Why Dan Rather Hates Me" post to understand the extra significance this has for military people and those who care about them.

Marine Corps Moms

Deb Conrad writes:

Parents of deployed Marines are never far from a phone. I sleep with my cell phone and have been known to stop in at a phone store to beg for a quick recharge when I'm away from home and my phone battery runs low. My students know that I do not turn my phone off during class and if my son calls, we take a break until he's done talking.

If you know the parents of one of our deployed servicemen who doesn't yet read Marinecorpsmoms -- send them a link. And if they aren't too good with computers or the Internet, hers would be a great place for them to start out.

Terrorism: Coming To A Streetcorner Near You

The Mother of all paranoid conspiracy theories: what if neo-Nazis and extremist Muslim fanatics allied to destroy Israel? This may not be as far-fetched as it sounds: the two groups have a common goal. Insight Magazine reports that this may actually have happened. Moreover, the investigation ties Saddam Hussein to a web of financing that supported al Qaeda:

Senior investigators and analysts in the U.S. government have concluded that Iraq acted as a state sponsor of terrorism against Americans and logistically supported the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States - confirming news reports that until now have emerged only in bits and pieces. A senior government official responsible for investigating terrorism tells Insight that while Saddam Hussein may not have had details of the Sept. 11 attacks in advance, he "gave assistance for whatever al-Qaeda came up with." That assistance, confirmed independently, came in a variety of ways, including financial support spun out through a complex web of financial institutions in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and elsewhere. Long suspected of having terrorist ties to al-Qaeda, they now have been linked to Iraq as well.

The official says the United States uncovered the key "money-laundering operation" in the months following Sept. 11, 2001, when authorities raided the homes and offices of two Arab bankers, Youssef M. Nada and Ali Himat, principals at Nada Management (formerly al-Taqwa Management). Himat, Nada and the names of both companies are all listed on the U.S. Treasury Department's roll of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists." The lawyer for the two Arab financiers, Pier Felice Barchi, has confirmed to the Swiss press that his clients will be questioned again in coming days. He added that they "have nothing to fear and nothing to hide," although he confirms that authorities seized thousands of pages of documents. Insight's source, who has seen many of those documents, confirms that they detail financial relationships between al-Taqwa and Iraq. The official says the records show al-Taqwa was formed by Nada, Himat, Ahmed Huber and Mohamed Mansour.

In other terrorist news, the Terrorism's Global Impact Summit in Tel Aviv was just full of cheery news:

AL-QA'IDA'S new torchbearers are on the march. The next generation of Islamist leaders is more determined, more ruthless and far more dangerous than its predecessors. And the world is just getting to know them. The chilling prophecy was delivered last week by a panel of the world's leading counter-terrorist experts, who have, since the events of 9/11, watched al-Qa'ida shift like sand dunes in a desert storm. "What they have in store for us is probably more than any of us could bear," one security official told a closed session of the Terrorism's Global Impact summit in Tel Aviv.

And here I thought perhaps they were planning on giving us all a nice, warm fuzzy... something along the lines of a big bear hug with kisses...

"The new generation of leaders are more violent and will drive this campaign in ways that are difficult for us to imagine," says Rohan Gunaratna from Singapore's Defence and Strategic Studies Centre.

Well, that would be the nature of 'surprise' attacks... that they are, well... surprising. Otherwise, what's the point?

"Al-Qa'ida has become an ideology of empowerment," says a former senior CIA officer, who did not want to be identified. "People want to identify with the power symbolised by the brand. The best thing bin Laden could do is to die. It would be the last step in the casting of his legend."

Good God. No wonder he didn't want to be identified. Don't you love the jargon that comes out of these conferences? "Ideology of empowerment?" What the heck does that mean? And now Al Qa'ida (I guess that's how we're spelling it this week) is a brand? They've gone totally corporate on us - they've sold out. I suppose they have a logo and everything. Next thing you know, Osama will have lost that fire in the belly. He'll be sporting Nike gear and working endorsements into the next thrilling video from whatever cave in Afghanistan he's currently hiding in. I can just see it now:

"And the Blasphemer Cheney and his Master, the Great Satan Boosh cannot hide from the wrath of the Jihad. The Armies of Allah will crush the Impure Ones and restore the Garden of The Prophets, which shall last for 2000 years. No Fear: Just Do It."

Cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Monday News

Whoever said Kerry was a girlie-man? Oh baby, oh baby.... Excuse me while I go spritz myself with Evian water.

Vote swapping anyone?

You can now arrange to trade votes with a voter in another state.

Today, a group called VotePair.org will start hooking up Kerry voters in "safe" Democratic or Republican states with third-party voters in hotly contested states. The goal: to get would-be third-party voters to vote for Kerry in swing states, in exchange for Kerry supporters voting for Nader or Green Party candidate David Cobb in secure states.

That way, third-party candidates would get as many popular votes as otherwise, while Kerry would maximize his votes in states where they matter most. For instance, a voter in "safe" New Jersey could agree to vote for Nader, in exchange for a voter in "swing" Ohio agreeing to vote for Kerry.

It's the bias, stupid:

...since 2000, the number of Americans tuning into Fox News has jumped from 17 percent to 25 percent, while other cable outlets' audience shares were flat at best.

The summer's Republican convention marked yet another milestone for Rupert Murdoch's "fair and balanced" network. For the first time, more convention viewers watched Fox than tuned into any of the three major broadcast networks.

John Kerry has repeatedly said he would do a better job of getting "allies" like France, Germany, Russia, and China to contribute arms and troops to the WOT. Of course, they were already contributing arms...to Saddam. That's why they opposed us in the Security Council: I believe I've pointed this out on more than one occasion. Now the Washington Times has come out with a report saying that France was selling arms to Saddam. Good on the Times.

In another shocking development, IAEA, UN accused of being asleep at switch. Nice speech from Iraq's new foreign minister. It begins:

"One year ago," Zebari said, "this Security Council was divided between those who wanted to appease Saddam Hussein and those who wanted to hold him accountable. The United Nations as an organization failed to help rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years, and today, we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament to that failure.

"The United Nations must not fail the Iraqi people again," he said.

It was clear to whom Zebari was referring: France, Germany, Russia and China, among others in the world body, fought U.S.-led efforts to end Saddam's bloody dictatorship. But the organization's failure was far more significant than failing the Iraqi people. The United Nations had failed in its founding purpose: to preserve peace and international security.

No kidding.

John Edwards...he's vague... he's fresh...he's funky...he's boisterous... and he'll CRUSH al Qaeda. All without fear mongering, excessive spending, or that pesky back-door draft.

What a guy.

Cross-posted at I Love Jet Noise

The Mamamontezz/SlagleRock Letter Project

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

This post is reproduced in it's entirety from Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room:

You all remember how torqued-off I get when people disrespect military personnel? You remember how that inspired me to write an open letter to the troops that started out like a snowflake and snowballed and ended up starting a drive for letters at Slaglerock's Slaughterhouse? Remember?

Well, after collecting about 300 of these letters, Slagle and I built a site for them and he has been posting them all online. We thought that having a site where our men and women in uniform could go anytime they needed a pick-me-up or a warm message from home was a good idea. No politics, no advertisements, no pressure, just letters from appreciative people.

I want to direct you to The Letter Project, the outcome of our brainchild and of the gracious goodwill of the many many people who cared enough about our troops to take the time to send a letter for posting.

If you know anyone who is serving, whether they are deployed overseas or not, pass along this link. If you want to post a letter to the letter project, you can do so at any time by contacting me at mamamontezz(at)sbcglobal(dot)net. I will make sure it is posted.

Expect this site to evolve over time as we find better ways to get the letters up. And if you have any suggestions for sites to include in the gutter, support sites or humor sites, as long as they are not political, let us know.

I'm proud to say that I made a small contribution to the original letter project with my Let Our Troops Know You Care and An Open Letter posts and I 'm pleased to be part of the effort to get the word out about its latest incarnation.

Slaglerock is an active duty Air Force NCO and a MilBlogs member. Mamamontezz is a Friend of MilBlogs. Correction: Mamamonezz and Slaglerock are both MilBlogs Members. Sorry, Lila, I don't know how I got confused about that.

If you didn't write a letter the first time around please do it now.

(Yet Another) Guest Blogger Introduction

Greyhawk is busy defending us, and has asked me to help keep this blog interesting. He didn't give me too much guidance, except to say "don't be shy."

But what niche will I try to fill? According to Bill's positioning statement:

If I read this right, Cassandra's the "spouse", Grim's the "Marine", navvett55 is the "retired Navy guy", and that leaves me to be the "Vietnam era Army vet."

What does that make me? Well, here's my bio. I was a paratrooper during the mid-nineties. I went to college, dropped out, and decided to try to become a novelist. I support myself with hulldiving, and live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm pro-choice, pro-gun, pro-gay marriage, pro-war, pro-marijuana legalization, and plan to vote for George Bush in the upcoming election because my number one issue is the war on terror.

I'm not going to sit here and say that George Bush hasn't made mistakes, but I believe his mistakes to have been errors of commission rather than omission. Say what you want about the man, but he has a strategy, and he's following through on it. He's stayed loyal to the troops and to their commanders, and he has given them most of the latitude they need to be successful in killing those who would kill us. And while I'm open to the idea that Kerry is an intensely cerebral fellow who might be able to find a subtler, less costly way of defeating Islamofascism, I'm not willing to give him the chance. Because strategy is execution, as the business-school nerds say, and because an average strategy followed through to the end beats a brilliantly nuanced strategy followed through the polls.

I'm 32 years old, but most of my friends only recently left college. I have a wonderful girlfriend that I'd like to marry, but don't feel financially secure enough to do so yet. If I could one day make my living as a novelist, that would make me happier than winning the lottery. I don't know where I'll end up, but I'll try to figure things out along the way. I'll post a little mini-essay, though, about something I do believe in, truncated from an earlier post on my blog:

Today's young men don't get a chance to be warriors, to define themselves. Women can be CEO's, lawyers, firefighters, police officers and so on, yet they can still have babies. We have no roles left that are uniquely male. Except one: Military service in the combat arms. And for a long time there was no case being made that military service was noble.

Increasingly I think this generation of young men feels lied to. We were told that military service is for saps. That only losers join the military. That the right thing to do is neuter ourselves by going to college and getting jobs and listening to lactating liberal college professors talk about a world they see through pink-tinted sunglasses.

I don't want to rent a baseball park and have some kind of a Robert Bly style man-hugging get together. And I don't think that watching sports and masturbating to Internet porn is a good substitute for emasculation. But I think the Vietnam generation lied to us. They told us it is good to hate our daddies. They said it is bad to love ourselves and our country. Because they wanted to justify their own behavior in the sixties. To explain why their choice to spit on soldiers was the true hero's way, and why those soldiers were the real cowards. That the soldiers were wrong for risking their lives in Vietnam just because their country -- led by men who were elected by their mothers and fathers -- called them to serve.

It's true that our military did some stupid things in Vietnam, but we were well-intentioned and it's unfair to judge our involvement there without looking through the cold-war-communism-containment lens. But right now our military is doing something truly wonderful in Iraq. Whether or not you believe in the neo-con strategy, you have to realize there are 24 million people in the world better off today than they were 18 months ago. This is, indeed, our generation's World War II. And for today's young man -- who has been lied to about service -- there will be increasing pressure to reinforce that lie. To say that removing Saddam was somehow wrong. Because yes, no matter how you argue against Bush over Iraq, what you're really saying is: The world would be better off with Saddam in place.

And that's simply not true.

Today's young man has a choice. He can continue masturbating, or he can support what we're doing in Iraq. Anything else is a ticket down a road he doesn't want to travel. One that ends with a paramedic pulling a live gerbil out of his ass after his landlord finds his body in the basement, cold, stiff and naked -- except for a pair of assless chaps and a belt around his neck.

So what's my positioning statement? I'll let you all decide.

The Few, The Proud -- Norfolk Marine tells story of rooftop fight in Iraq

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

NORFOLK — Outnumbered, low on ammo, perched on a rooftop for hours in a battle against Iraqi insurgents, [Marine Cpl.] Lonnie Young figured his number was up.

It was April 4, 2004, and the war had entered its deadliest month for Americans. Days earlier, four contractors passing through Fallujah had been ambushed, killed, and strung from a bridge.

[...]

Next, Young dashed across the camp to Blackwater’s ammunition supply room, strapped about 150 pounds of bullets to his body, and sprinted back to the roof.

[...]

“I just felt like we were losing ground, and I thought, 'If I’m going to die, I’m not going down without a fight.’ I knew we were seriously outnumbered. They were coming at us with pretty much everything they had. We were seriously struggling to keep our ground.”

[...]

When a group of U.S. Army military police officers joined the fight, Young used his experience as a weapons instructor to talk them through it. Conserve your ammo. Slow and steady before you squeeze. Adjust your sites for range and distance. Take breaks so your gun barrel doesn’t melt.

[...]

Even if he gets out, and puts his degree in design engineering from Eastern Kentucky University to use, Young will never forget how he got to be a sniper, medic, ammunition supplier, weapons coach, and communications specialist – all on the same day.

Said Young: “I’d always wanted to be a Marine.”

Go read the whole thing. Where do we get such men? Where would we be without them?

The Parable of the Walls

In one of his many books, Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton wrote:

Those countries in Europe which are still influenced by priests, are exactly the countries where there is still singing and dancing and coloured dresses and art in the open-air. Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground. Christianity is the only frame which has preserved the pleasure of Paganism. We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.

This was in praise of walls. America has such walls, walls which have protected her from war and poverty, and provided a space where wealth and pleasures such as the world has never known are now commonplace. Indeed, they are the stuff of everyday.

But there is peril in such walls, too. They must be defended, both by men who walk atop them, and by men who go forth beyond them. And, today, we fight in defense of these walls, while the clamor of war -- but no accurate sight of the war -- reaches those who remain protected within.

It is natural for such a person to look around and see only safety and pleasure, and to call out to his brother: "Come back inside! You should not be out where there is violence and misery, when you could be in here with me!" It is natural for such a person to be horrified by the sound of the violence, and to think of their fellows suffering while they wait protected inside.

That is why those who stand atop the walls are needed. They must convey a true sense of the danger to the protected within, but also a sense of the hope for victory. It is their job to explain the need for war, to encourage the frightened, and to embolden the valiant.

Once the journalist was the man upon the wall. Ask Ernie Pyle or Bill Maudlin.

Where are such patriots today? Where is the man who will use his place on the wall to encourage his brothers, rather than to urge them to despair?

Who will man the ramparts? Who will carry the word and hope of victory to those sheltered within?

The Road Less Graveled

(A down home message for Dan Rather in the colorful Texas idiom he so loves)

Y'all know what we all been thinkin? out here in Texas, Dan, since you started all this foolishness? We think y'all been pissin' down our necks an' tellin' us it's rain for so long that you boys done got to believin' it yourselves. Heck, we think maybe you been back East so long you got yourself thinkin' us folks out here couldn't hit sand if we fell off our horses; couldn't hit water if we fell outta the boat. Danged if you ain't been treatin' us like you think we got squirrels swimmin' in our gene pools or sumthin'. You need to remind yourself that a tree don't ever get too big for a short dog to lift his leg on, Dan.

Bout them documents bein' genuine; well, hells-bells, Danny Boy, Grannie's glasses are so thick, when she looks at a bare wall she see's folks wavin' at her, an' even she can tell them memos are bout as phony as hips on a rattlesnake. We're startin' to think your brain done got harder than a woodpecker's lips if you can't see that. As far as that story bout George an' his National Guard duty, looks to us like you're tryin' to put wheels on a cow an' call it a dairy truck. Then you go pokin' up her butt hopin' you're gonna find ice cream. Besides, ever time you durn fools put that picture of young George in his flyboy outfit on the TeeVee, ol' Jane Fonda loses another herd of her Vagina Voters. Hell, Charlene says that sweet boy's purtier than my new tangerine metalflake bass boat.

Well, Danny, you still ain't lost all your redneck habits; you boys took one pickup load to the dump an' come back with two. Dadgummit, Dan, where you gittin' all this stuff? You been callin' some kinda mystery numbers that ol' boy, whatsisname, Kenneth, is bringin' you offa bathroom walls at truck stops? Somethin' you oughta be worryin' about, Danny Boy: you know how the boys say when you go on a hunt always make sure to save a round for your huntin' guide? Like if he don't find nuthin' else for you to shoot? You suppose any a them rich, fancy-shmancy, New York dudes you work for ever been on a hunt and heard that, Dan, hmmm?

You know how you always been fond a sayin' you feel like a long tailed cat in a room full a rockin' chairs? Well, seems to us like you're startin' to look more like the ground floor tenant in a two-story outhouse. Yeah, for sure you ain't lookin' like the tallest hog at the trough no more. Why, we bet you got yourself wired so tight right now that if we stuck a chunk a coal up your butt it'd come out a diamond in about five minutes. Last time we seen you on TeeVee your smile looked like Charlene's little ol' chihuahua dog that time he bit down on one a them ol' yeller-jacket wasps; you know, kinda like that look a feller gets when he squats with his spurs on.

An' about your boss, that city slicker fella, Johnnie Klein, the one said somethin' bout all us sittin' out here in our long johns? Well we're gonna give him some advice so good he can take it out back an' bury it in a Mason jar. You see, the fact is, Danny Boy, now that all us earthworms is gittin' guns, you big birds is gonna have to be more careful bout where you're peckin'. Somebody needs to tell that dude, Klein, that his cage may still be turnin' but his squirrel's done died. Course, maybe the boy can't help hisself; it might run in the family, you know, generic. We heard tell when he was born his ol' momma carried the little feller around upside down for a whole year wonderin' why he only had one eye.

Yeah them ol' boys up there at Power Line done gone an' slapped you dudes nekkid an' hid your clothes. Them blogger cats watched you fellers jump in that ol' litter box an' they just flat covered you up, quicker 'n slicker than WD 40 on a doorknob. Yeah you boys done gone skinny dippin' in a pond full a snappin' turtles. Looks like them broadcastin' geniuses at CBS done let them yeller-dog Democrats talk you inta sellin' your mule so you could buy a plow. When you crawled into the sack with little Miss McCauliffe you done got yourself a real ugly bed partner there, Dan, like a real three-bagger, I mean. You know the drill: one bag over her head, one over yours and one over the dog's so's at least he'll have some respect for you come mornin'.

Before all y?'ll up there at CBS go tryin' to saddle up another hog for a quarter horse race, you need to think about this: us ol' boys out here know a keyboard ain't where you hang the pickup keys and a byte ain't what Bubba's pit bull did to Cousin Billy; we know modem ain't what we did when the weeds got up to the porch and digital ain't countin' on our fingers, least not any more. Yeah, we done got ourselves a dog in this fight, a bloggin' pit bull, Dan Boy, an' he's justa slobberin' for another big ol' bite of Liberal blubber butt. Didn't your ol' daddy ever tell you that you ain't never gonna be the brightest bulb on the tree if you go huntin' bobcats with a BB gun?

But cheer up, Dan, maybe one a these days all you pointy-headed, liberal, media fellers will see the light. Course, seein's where y'all seem to be keepin' them pointy heads, it'll prob'ly be one a them there things the doctors use.

Whatcha call 'em, proctoscopes?

Russ Vaughn

A Texan

P.S. Charlene says to yell you don't even think about comin' back to Texas. Way folks out here feel, you'd have to tie a pork chop around your neck just to get a dog to play with you. Well, and maybe Mollie Ivins.

Micah Wright

(Note: This "Best of Mudville" entry was originally posted on 2 May 2004)

Mudville readers may think the following pictures look familiar, but look closely.

They're the work of Micah Wright, who takes old WWI and II propaganda posters and transforms them into modern day anti-war posters. I first discovered him while googling for examples to use here.

Clever, isn't he?

The posters reproduced along the right side of this blog (see main page if you're not viewing from there) are original, unaltered propaganda from the same period. I use them for several reasons, one of which is to annoy lefties like Micah.

And I've done some poster modifications myself, so I certainly can't complain about that. Here's an Army Air Force poster from WWII, along with my version of it, and Micah's.

He spent a bit more time on his, but it's really something anyone can do with time and software. Because of the utter simplicity of it I was somewhat surprised to learn that Micah had gained some minor fame (a book of his work with a forward by Kurt Vonnegut and mainstream media coverage) for his efforts. But part of his inexplicable (to me) appeal may be due to this (his own words):

I was an Army Ranger with the Second Ranger Battalion (3rd Plt, C Co 2/75). My MOS was 13F, Forward Fire Observer/Fire Support Team, Skill Level 20, SQI of "V" for being Airborne & Ranger qualified. My clearance was Secret. I graduated from Ranger School in the class of 13-87. If you look online, I am clearly to be seen in the back, third row, on the right. I served in the Ranger Batt for a little over two years. I spent almost four years total in the Army. I got out as a Sgt. E-5. I truly enjoyed the camaraderie and espirit de corps that I found in the military. It was the most fun period of my life until I participated in the 12th American invasion of Panama and saw what we did to that country (burnt it to the ground) just to avoid having Manuel Noriega expose President George Herbert Walker Bush the Third's involvement with Noriega's drug dealing (when Bush served as the Director of the CIA in the 70s, Noriega was on the payroll of the CIA and was simultaneously sending tons of cocaine north to the USA... but now we're supposed to believe that the CIA didn't know their man Noriega was a drug dealer.

Some people, including ex-servicemen, don't like to hear me say such things, but oh well. I'm not going to live my life to make hate-filled people happy.

The left loves an ex-military guy who turns against his country (see Kerry, John). It gives them "credibility" they think is lacking in so many non-military supporters of the war (see Lautenberg, Frank). And in some minds it validates these:

Censored by yours truly, but clever, as I said. And lefties can pretend he's only spoofing an outdated sort of patriotism and ignore the fact that he's creating propaganda that favors our enemy's cause. I've said this before: attack one guy in a two-person fight and it doesn't matter if you call it helping the other guy or not, you're helping the other guy.

But confront Micah with that and he'd spout this sort of stuff (quotes again, obscenities edited):

Another West Point Butterbar who can't read my bio page and figure out that while he was playing Mario on his Super Nintendo, I was shooting people for George Herbert Walker Bush the 3rd. Been there, done that, newbie. Lecture me after you've seen piles of dead people who stood in the way of a Bush President.

For the last time, I'm a (expletive deleted) veteran. None of these posters mock the men and women in uniform. How is it that people are so stupid that they can't look beyond the image and understand the message?

Now, I'm an active duty military guy, and I sure don't subscribe to any theory that says you have to be a veteran to have an opinion on war. In fact, outside of the Democrat party I've never met any GI or vet who feels that way (and the dems do so based on situation/administration).

I do, however, have a big problem with people who claim to be military or veterans, but aren't. And that's what Mr. Wright has been doing all along. Not only has he never been a Ranger, he's never served in any branch of the armed forces. A brief period in ROTC (he claims) turned him off on all that.

You can go read the rest at Michele's – do it, there's a lot of additional fun details. But I'll leave you with one more example of a modified propaganda poster.

Micah's version, then mine:

And this final point for Micah:

Say whatever you will about the war, war is a brutal endeavor and no one desires peace more than the soldier. Say what you will about the president, by virtue of birth in America you have the freedom of speech that so many GIs have died to give you. But don't you dare claim brotherhood with me, and don't presume to speak on my behalf, or on that of any imaginary GI you believe thinks like you do.

I won't speak for anyone else either, but I assure you they will let their opinions be known.

Oh, and by the way, you're a gutless, treasonous coward.

Update: Michele credits Jim Treacher with starting this story through the blogosphere. Andrea Harris makes a very good point here.

Michele's update today links a must-read Washington Post piece that details how the WaPo outed him - it wasn't a moment of deep personal remorse brought on by the death of Pat Tillman. This is also noted in the WaPo:

Seven Stories has canceled publication of Wright's next book, "If You're Not a Terrorist, Then Stop Asking Questions," due out in two months. It also will remove from future printings of the first book his detailed and wholly fictional account of parachuting into Panama under fire during Operation Just Cause. Wright's book of satirically "remixed" World War II propaganda posters was a minor success, selling more than 20,000 copies. It carried endorsements from two WWII vets, novelist Kurt Vonnegut and historian Howard Zinn.

So, instant collector's item.

But Micah's already paying a bit for his crimes. And if you'd like to take a shot at him (legally), Michele and I are announcing a little contest. You'll want to enter at her place as my mid-shift status will likely leave me minimum time to post entries, but feel free to link your entries in the comments here if you've posted them elsewhere. I suggest doing so via the URL tag.

And it seems Mr. Wright has "Kos'd" his original lame apology, and replaced it with a sincere tearjerker. Of course, he's not a blogger, so he's certainly not bound by our unwritten rules.

2004-05-02 13:08:55

Col. Staudt goes public

I just posted this as a comment under Why Dan Rather Hates Me but it's big enough that I want to make sure everyone who saw that post sees it. I believe it's relevant enough to that post to belong here:

Col Buck Staudt has gone public to tell ABC news that:

1) He was the one who selected George W. Bush for admission into the Texas Air National Guard, and no political pressure was involved.

2) He did not apply pressure to Lt. Col. Killian to sugarcoat Lt. Bush's evaluation:

"There was no contact between me and George Bush ? he certainly never asked for help," Staudt said. "He didn't need any help as far as I knew."

He added that after retiring he was not involved in Air National Guard affairs.

[...]

Update: I've copied a couple of questions from the comments into the extended section and done my best to answer them.

Reader "Ridolph" asks in the comment section:

I'm just wondering 2 things now that Staudt is talking:

- Was there a waiting list for the Texas Air National Guard? Some bloggers are saying not, but various sites say there were 500 people on the list.

- If there was no politics involved, then why take Bush, who had scored low on the entry exam? The various sites make him sound substandard.

This is a separate issue from the "sugarcoating" accusations, but Ridolph probably isn't the only one wondering about things like this. They're answered in the ABC News article my post on my site, excerpted above, draws it's information from, but I know not everyone follows every link in every post they read so I'll address the questions here as well. (I tried to email Ridolph but got a "no such address" response.)

After reading Col. Staudt's statement and some other things I now wish I'd bookmarked, I'm satisfied there was no waiting list for pilot slots. Flying F-102's was a dangerous job. From my personal knowledge of life in those days I feel pretty sure there was a waiting list for enlisted slots. The key point that a lot of people seem to be missing here is that receiving a commission and pilot training required a college degree. (The Army trained non-degreed men to fly helicopters, which may have added to the confusion for some people.) For men who chose not to go to college, the National Guard was a popular way to avoid Viet Nam without breaking any laws, and not every one who applied for an enlisted position in a Guard unit was accepted. If there's any basis at all for the waiting list claims, I'm sure that's it.

"The various sites" may claim that George Bush scored low on the entrance exam and "make him sound substandard", but that doesn't necessarily make it true. Again from the ABC article:

During his time in charge of the unit, Staudt decided whether to accept those who applied for pilot training. He recalled Bush as a standout candidate.

"He was highly qualified," he said. "He passed all the scrutiny and tests he was given."

Ridolph, I hope I've clarified things a little.
Bill Faith
(SSgt USAF 1970-1974)

A new veteran-written blog

Vietnam-era veteran Sergeant America, whose Johnny Four Months blog Greyhawk spoke highly of in a recent post, has started a second blog with a broader scope. Please check it out. I think you'll enjoy it.

Mail from home, the hard way

(Cross-posted from In Bill's World)

Blackfive has posted another must-read letter to remind us that Iraq isn't the only place we still have brave men and women sacrificing for our country every day. Greyhawk is keeping pretty quiet about the details of his out-of -town business, but if you can read Blackfive's post without wondering whether the writer crossed paths with SGT Hook and some of his Soldiers, you haven't been reading enough MilBlogs.

THE FOUR-ENGINE C-130 Hercules descends toward total darkness above Tarin Kowt in the plains of central Afghanistan, 70 miles north of the ancient capital of Kandahar. Its wheels finally bite into an unmarked dirt airstrip. The aircraft brakes hard, then taxis along the strip. Billows of dust engulf us. The rear door yawns open, and we trundle down the tailgate onto an eerie, empty landscape lit only by the brightness of the moon. As I step onto the runway, my boots sink into six inches of powder, so fine and dry that it might be talc.

[...]

Why Dan Rather Hates Me

And I Don't Care

Blackfive came to the same conclusion I did. You'll find we're both offended by an element of the Rather Forgeries that seems to have escaped many others notice: a deceased officer's honor has been called into question. Many civilians won't comprehend this issue, but to military people honor matters.

An illustration: Suppose my commander wants widgets made of a cheaper material than the current composite. He wants them from his brother's company, manufactured with plastic. I know these widgets are inferior and mission failure will result. I'm duty bound to tell him the problem. He listens and then tells me to mind my own damn business. It is now my duty to move up a level in the chain of command. Ultimately I will find someone who will act. Under no circumstances would it ever be okay for me to simply write a "CYA" memo and wash my hands of the issue. That would be a gutless move. (In fact, the very term "CYA" is repulsive. Even hearing it uttered in my presence will sound alarms in my head.)

Now say we're disagreeing about something less earth shattering. He wants the duty day to begin a half hour earlier and end a half hour later. Perhaps I don't see the need. I'll tell him what I think the impact on morale will be - and maybe that only if he asks. I'll try to anticipate conflicts that will arise. But ultimately, he's the commander and I'll support the decision. I'll pass it on to my junior troops without a hint of anything other than my total support for the program. Once again, the gutless move would be to write a memo detailing my reservations with the new duty hours.

I can imagine no scenario where the "CYA memo" would be a viable option.

That's one problem with whoever forged those memos - they imagined such things were done. They aren't - not by any military member with a sense of honor. The idea that someone would reach Squadron Command without that degree of sense of honor is beyond remote. The memos are self-defeating in that regard - why would the sort of low life slug who would write such a thing actually care enough to write such a thing? Get the logic?

Back to the point: The honor of an officer has been soiled. A man of honor, a man of undeniable courage has been depicted as a craven coward by these memos. An F-102 Fighter Squadron Commander without the guts to stand up for what he believed in? A man responsible for multiple millions of dollars in aircraft and equipment, the lives of his pilots, and the defense of a large sector of American air space was in reality a wimp who couldn't stand up to the slightest pressure from above?

Hopefully you get the point. Dan Rather's message to military folks everywhere was this: Lt Col Jerry Killlian, Texas Air National Guard, was a gutless wimp.

Can CBS's front man actually think that?

Armed Forces Network broadcasts one hour of Rush Limbaugh's radio program each afternoon here in Germany. I was surprised recently to hear Rush quoting directly from the book Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History, especially because it was a passage from the book I had just read and planned on discussing here. I still will:

"I think I was one of the highest trained, underpaid, eighteen-cent-an-hour assassins ever put together by a team of people who knew exactly what they were looking for," said Steve Southards, a Navy SEAL who told Rather he had escaped society to live in the forests of Washington state. Under Rather's gentle coaxing, Southards described slaughtering Vietnamese civilians, making his work appear to be that of the North Vietnamese.

"You're telling me that you went into the village, killed people, burned part of the village, then made it appear that the other side had done this?" Rather asked.

"Yeah," Steve replied. "It was kill VC, and I was good at what I did."

A description of an Interview Rather conducted for his special CBS Reports: The Wall Within, touted by CBS as telling the true story of Vietnam through the eyes of six of the men who fought there.

More:

Steve arrived home "in a straitjacket, addicted to alcohol and drugs" knowing that "combat had made him different," Rather intoned. "He asked for help; that's unusual, many vets don't. They hold back until they explode."

Rather then moved on to suicidal veteran named George Grule, who was stationed on the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga off the coast of Vietnam during a secret mission. Grule described the horror of watching a friend walk into the spinning propeller of a plane, which chopped him to pieces and sprayed Grule with his blood. The memory of this trauma left Grule, like Steve, unable to function in normal society.

Neither could Mikal Rice, who broke down as he described a grenade attack at Cam Ranh Bay, which blew in half the body of a buddy, "Sergeant Call." "He died in my arms," Rice tearfully recalled. Rice described how the sound of thunder and cars backfiring would regularly trigger his terrible memories.

Most horrific of all were the memories of Terry Bradley, a "fighting sergeant" who told Rather he had skinned alive 50 Vietnamese men, women, and children in one hour and stacked their bodies in piles. "Could you do this for one hour of your life, you stack up every way a body could be mangled, up into a body, an arm, a tit, an eyeball . . . Imagine us over there for a year and doing it intensely," Bradley said. "That is sick."

"You've got to be angry about it," Rather replied. "I'm suicidal about it," Bradley responded.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, drug abuse, alcoholism, joblessness, homelessness, suicidal thoughts: These tattered warriors suffered from them all.

Rivetting stuff - hard hitting investigative journalism, with just one problem - all lies.

"Sixteen -year-old Navy Seal" Steve Southards? An equipment repairman stationed far from combat who spent most of his time in the brig for repeatedly going AWOL. George Gruel was on the Ticonderoga when a propeller accident resulted in the death of a sailor, but Gruel wasn't a witness and the ship was on a training mission off California at the time.(Gruel receives $1,952 a month from the Veterans Administration for "psychological trauma" related to the event.) Mikal Rice spent his tour as a guard with an MP company at Cam Ranh Bay and never saw combat. Terry Bradley was an ammo handler in the 25th ID and spent nearly a year in the custody for being AWOL.

Team Rather's statement when confronted with the truth about their "victims"?

As angry Vietnam veterans began calling CBS to complain about the factual inaccuracies of The Wall Within, Perry Wolff, the executive producer who wrote the documentary, claimed that "No one has attacked us on the facts."

Sound familiar? Here's honest Dan commenting on the latest forgeries he foisted on what he thought was an ignorant American public:

Those who have criticized aspects of our story have never criticized the major thrust of our report -- that George Bush received preferential treatment to get into the National Guard, and once accepted, failed to satisfy the requirements of his service. If we uncover any information to the contrary, that information will also be reported.

That bird might not fly this time Dan-o.

The quotes on Limbaugh's show, by the way, were actually from Anne Morse's NRO story on Stolen Valor, which draws heavily from the text of the book. But she stops short of a crucial passage that could explain Rather's deep seated resentment of those who defend the country:

Rather certainly has experience with the military. During the Korean War, when men could be drafted out of college, Dan Irvin Rather joined the Army Reserves while attending San Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, thus avoiding the possibility of being drafted. On graduating in 1954, well after the Korean War was over and the killing had ended, Rather quit the reserves and enlisted in the Marine Corps. (This is the same national broadcaster who, night after night during the 1988 presidential campaign, hammered Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle for avoiding Vietnam by joining the National Guard.) Although the press often refers to Rather as an "ex-Marine," he did not finish Marine recruit training. He joined the Marines on January 22, 1954, but was discharged less than four months later, on May 11 for being medically unfit.

He never got over that early failure of his manhood; fifty years later and Danny Four Months still can't even stop for a second to verify the most outrageous forgeries ever presented, because they help him restore himself - they help him"prove" he's a better man than those who found him unfit all those years ago. Think Dan's petty bitterness is reserved to the institution of the military and doesn't exend to the rank and file? If so - he sure has a strange way of showing it - never hesitating to disparage and insult the veterans of so many generations.

That's where holding a grudge will get you, by the way. Rather has turned into Gollum, seeking to restore his precious, but ending up a consumed, a bitter twisted wretch, worthy of scorn and not pity, having missed an untold number of opportunities to turn away.

There's a lesson here kids. Remember it well.

Update: Hugh Hewitt wants LotR analogies for Rathergate - I made my Gollum comparison without knowing that.

12 Questions for John Kerry

With the debates coming up, here are several questions I've posed to Senator Kerry in previous posts on Jet Noise. I've included a few from Peter Kirsanow's excellent articles in The National Review:

1. On Meet the Press, President Bush said he would release his military records. He has done so. You made the same promise, but to date at least 31 pages of your records remain unreleased and they pertain directly to allegations made by the Swift Vets. Since your medals are currently under investigation by the Navy, can you explain to the American people why you still refuse to sign a Form 180? You called for the President to release all of his records - why should you be exempt from the same scrutiny?

2. President Bush ran on his record as a two-term governor of the second-largest state in the country. You spent 19 years in the Senate. What do you consider the 7-10 most important bills you authored during your Senate career? How many were signed into law?

3. During the past two years, you've missed 87% and 67%, respectively, of Senate votes due to your run for the presidency. Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey called upon you to resign, saying you have failed the people of Massachusetts. 2 USC ? 39 states that your salary is forfeit, yet you continue to collect it. How can you accuse George Bush of being AWOL from the TANG when you've been AWOL from the Senate for two years?

4. You claim you would do a better job than George Bush on the economy and on supporting the military, yet several independent organizations have rated your 10-year voting records on small business and national security issues at 13.5 and 11.8 out of 100, respectively. Do you think this is a strong record?

5. [From Peter Kirsanow] During your eight-year tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee you missed more than three fourths of all public meetings. It's also been reported that you have skipped or delayed receiving intelligence briefings during the campaign. Why should the public believe that you're serious about this issue?

6. [From Peter Kirsanow] In a speech before Drake University Law School you characterized U.S. allies in the war in Iraq as "some trumped-up so-called Coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted,..." Do you maintain that Great Britain has been bribed, coerced, bought, or extorted? What about Italy? Japan? Poland? Please specifically identify those members of the Coalition that have been either bribed, coerced, bought, and extorted and the officials who were bribed or bought.

7. You have repeatedly implied you would be more successful than President Bush in getting "allies" (France, Germany, Russia, China) who did not join in the coalition to contribute troops and money in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given that France in particular withdrew from the military portion of NATO long ago and all four nations have a long history of refusing to cooperate with the US, explain in detail how you would succeed without bartering away vital US interests.

8. [From Peter Kirsanow II] In your convention speech, you stated that every terrorist attack would be met with an immediate response and you've also stated that you would emphasize a law-enforcement approach to the fight against terrorism. This is identical to the pre-9/11 U.S. approach to terrorism. Could you please explain how a pre-9/11 approach to terrorism will prevent another 9/11?

9. You have characterized the DOD's callup of the IRR as a "backdoor draft", even though you know, as a former commissioned officer and as a Senator who served during the time this modification of the total force structure was implemented, that every single military person is obligated by their contract to serve if called. Such a statement can only be beneficial to our enemies and demoralizing to our armed forces. Why do you persist in making such a misleading, inflammatory, and irresponsible statement in time of war?

10. You have repeatedly said the White House has questioned your patriotism and service (they have not - this is a lie) as a means to open the door to attack the service of Dick Cheney and George Bush. You criticized Cheney's deferments, yet you yourself applied for a deferment and were denied. You have stated you went to Vietnam because you wanted to defend your country, yet you are on record as having opposed the war in several interviews before you left. You stated you volunteered for dangerous Swift duty, yet the Swift boat mission was not a combat mission at the time you volunteered. Is it possible that you're accusing Cheney of draft-dodging and Bush of being AWOL to distract voters from the fact that you met with the North Vietnamese in Paris during time of war? Come to think of it, have we seen your drill records, Mr. Kerry? h/t D. Mendoza for the CNS article.

There is widespread misunderstanding in the media about the nature of drill obligations and whether Mr. Kerry would have been subject to the UCMJ during that time. While I am not a lawyer, it seems to me that he most likely would not have been: he was neither in training, nor was he on active drill status at the time he traveled to Paris. He was unlikely to have been wearing the uniform.

I have not read the laws referred to in Corsi's article, so I cannot pass judgement on that issue, however it raises an interesting question as to Kerry's judgement and loyalties. Whether or not he broke the law technically is almost irrelevant in my mind. Obviously if he did break the law, that is bad. But even if he did not: do we really want a man serving as President who, after serving in our Armed Forces, traveled to Paris, met with the enemy during time of war when we had POWs in captivity, then returned to this country and openly advocated the enemy position? This is not only a betrayal of his comrades and country, but a declaration of principle that is alarming in the extreme. Combine it with his statements about Communism in his Winter Soldier testimony, and you have something that should give any serious voter pause:

I think that politically, historically, the one thing that people try to do, that society is structured on as a whole, is an attempt to satisfy their felt needs, and you can satisfy those needs with almost any kind of political structure, giving it one name or the other. In this name it is democratic; in others it is communism; in others it is benevolent dictatorship. As long as those needs are satisfied, that structure will exist.

Keep in mind that Kerry was a Yale-educated, 27 year old man, not an unsophisticated child. He appears to have thought that Communism was as good as any other system of government. In other places in his testimony, he states that Communism was not a danger and that the South Vietnamese could not tell the difference between Communism and democracy. Tell that to the Boat people or the S. Vietnamese army. Or the thousands who were slaughtered when Saigon fell.

Regardless of whether a law was broken, going to Paris to talk to the North Vietnamese seems an incredibly foolish thing to have done.

By comparison, it makes the furor over whether George Bush missed a flight physical and a few drill periods (and if one knows anything about flying, this is hardly remarkable - what is the point of taking a flight physical if one knows one is transferring to a non-flying billet?) look silly.

11. [From Peter Kirsanow II] In several speeches before black audiences you've stated that a million African Americans were disenfranchised and had their votes stolen in the 2000 presidential election. There are no official or media investigations that support that statement. What evidence do you have to support the statement and if you believe a million blacks had their votes stolen, why haven't you called for criminal prosecutions and congressional investigations?

12. In the Senate, you made your focus Congressional investigations rather than legislation. The Winter Soldier hearings you were a part of in 1971 were a fraud. Subsequent investigation by NIS revealed that several of the men you testified were "highly decorated Vietnam vets" were neither "highly decorated" nor "Vietnam vets". In fact, some were coached by the Nation of Islam. Why after 33 years, have you refused to retract your testimony, which you now know to be based on false witnesses? What do you have to say in response to the affadavit of Steve Pitkin that he was coerced by you into testifying?

There are many more good questions for John Kerry in Kirsanow's two articles, but these are the ones I'd like to see him answer during the debates.

MilBlog Roundup

Per Greyhawk's request, I'll try to post a couple of good links to Milbloggers on a regular basis. Promoting the MilBlogs is a proud Mudville tradition, after all.

Here are a couple of things that caught my eye today:

IraqNow has an article on Air America, and how it's affected one Milblogger and Florida voter.

The Signaleer provides an update on a Coalition partner's help and contributions to the war. It'll make Mark Steyn proud, once he picks his jaw off the floor.

If you're a MilBlogger or Friend of the MilBlogs and you post something good, drop me a line. That's what the roundups are for.

And last, but not least... Holding the hand of that dying Marine

Cross-posted from In Bill's World. A reminder you don't have to carry a gun serve.

What can I say? Just go read it: The Things That Were Good And The Things That Were Not Good

I've linked to BlackFive in the past, but I've never mentioned the number of great letters from our troops that find their way to his site. Go there and just keep scrolling.

I loved that "It was the Soldier" part of Zell Miller's speech, but I wish he'd mentioned our Marines, and Sailors, and Airmen, and all of the other fine, brave people overseas protecting our country. And you know what? That Marine didn't wait for French permission to throw himself on that grenade, ... or to die.

Update: Blackfive added a comment to this post that I think I'll pull into the body of the post to avoid confusion. He wrote:

Thanks, Bill. Looks like this letter is going to get published in the Naval Institutes Monthly Magazine.

And, for the record, it is about holding the hand of Corporal Jason Dunham, not Chance Phelps. I've gotten a few emails that have referred the letter in relation to Phelps.

Both are amazing heroes.

After I saw that I commented:

If anyone doesn't recognize Blackfive's Chance Phelps reference, please check out Greyhawk's Flag Draped Caskets? post, which links to Blackfive's "Taking Chance Home" post and to Chance's father's tribute to his son.

Posted by at 11:35 PM | Comments (2)

It's still Sept. 12, and it will be for quite a while.

I posted this on my blog four days ago. Just a reminder of why Greyhawk's letting some other people help with his site for a while.

It's September 12th. For some of us, it will be for a long time to come. For other's, it was September 10th again before the WTC even quit smoking. If you're back in that September 10th world, here are some links I hope you'll click to refresh your memory.

Read how Lila remembers that day.

Read how Greyhawk remembers it.

Read about young Sara's grasp of the situation.

Did you see the poster Michele and Lisa put together? Look at it again.

Maybe Charles Johnson's slideshow will refresh your memory.

Or how about a short movie?

Didn't enjoy that one? How about this one?

Things Remembered

The old adage of "The more things change the more they remain the same." had me thinking, in light of recent events. Is that really true?

You go back forty years ago or so, and what was the standard back then?

CBS news was indeed, the standard against which all others were measured. The home of Ed Murrow was respected. Cronkite was a trusted member of the household, visiting every night around dinner time.

You had NASA and the thousands of men and women working to put men into space. Pushing our technology to its limits, demanding nothing less then the best from its people. And we, as Americans expected nothing less.

The President was charismatic to be sure. But he *was* a war hero, and not only a gifted speaker, but noted author as well. Though not perfect, he had a vision for America. And asked us "not to ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Would that even be mentioned in passing today? By a Democrat of all things??

That brings us to the here and now.

The Democratic candidate is but a shadow of an FDR, Truman, or the original JFK. As for asking America to sacrifice to the greater good of the nation? They need a clearly defined agenda in order to even begin to suggest that. The Democrats are hopelessly mired in the politics of appeasement, be it to rabid self important special interest groups, or foreign policy through international consensus.

The Republicans are little better on the domestic agenda, though their special interests are less inclined to be frothing at the mouth. At least their foreign policy is much more clear headed, and in these trying times, is the single most important issue to be concerned with.

NASA is but a shell of its former self. Somewhere over the last four decades it has lost its vision for the future. The smart young engineers have for the most part retired. The single goal of a man on the moon, replaced with a number of smaller and to be fair important projects, but nothing with the grand national call to greatness we had in the sixties. The shuttle stands down awaiting safety checks and paperwork completion. And where do we go from here?

And finally, CBS the tiffany network, has become tarnished over the years. Now it seems to be on the verge of melt down. The once honored guest at the nations dinner table, at best, now peeks through the kitchen window. Journalists, who once would have had personal bias checked at the door of fact checking and verifiable legitimate sources, now are blinded by their own agendas. Instead of reporting the news of the day, they sit in imperial splendor, giving the "great unwashed" the correct point of view as they see it. Instead of a three minute editorial spot at the end of the evening news, we have thirty minutes of it.

I wish some things had remained the same. Perhaps we need parts of our collective history to repeat itself. As for me, I will set out a plate at the dinner table for someone who I can trust, to come and sit down.

Heroes: The Untold Stories

"Uncommon valor was a common virtue"
- Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, speaking of the Battle of Iwo Jima

I know everyone's preoccupied with Ra^therGate right now, but many others are covering the story ably. I see no reason to duplicate their efforts. In my usual contrarian fashion, I have a bee in my bonnet about something else. Not too long ago, Jessica Lynch's name and picture were plastered over TV screens and newspapers worldwide. Meanwhile, the faces of some rather remarkable Americans remain virtually unknown - most of the lamestream media show no interest in covering their stories. In fact, I routinely have to go looking for accounts of men who commit acts of uncommon valor on a daily basis.

Some receive medals. Others rest in flag-draped coffins or come home strapped to hospital gurneys. Many quietly return to duty, with little or no notice taken of their actions. Today I hope to remind you of all three kinds of heroes.

The story of Jessica Lynch was well publicized, but the story of the Marines who came upon her unit's position an hour after the ambush, and the hellish battle those Marines endured that day, isn't as well known.

One Marine who was there on that day was recently awarded the Navy Cross. This is unusual: the award is second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. But this Marine doesn't think of himself as a hero. With typical understatement, he plays down his actions:

"There are heroes in life, but we are not it. We're just Marines," Lehew, company first sergeant, Company C, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), said after recalling the events of a dreadful day over a year ago.

Read more...

Over at Marine Corps Moms, a young Marine half a world away writes home to his Mother:

Dear Friends and Family,

Growing up in a middle class upbringing as I did, you are in a way shielded from the horrors of life and death in war. Such innocence and ignorance is almost apart of your skin. Yeah, you hear of countries with oppressed people, the unfair justices, and deaths of many in the wars of the past. But you never get to experience or see the effects of it all. Well, today I finally had my first experience.

On September 5th, 2004, at 1630, the ceremony for the deaths of PFC Nicholas M. Skinner and LCPL Alexander S. Arredondo was held. Walking to the formation, feeling the punishing heat and the combination of sand and rocks below my feet, I was not prepared for the display...

In what is perhaps my favorite war movie, General Robert E. Lee counseled Pete Longstreet:

We do not fear our own death, you and I. But there comes a time... we are never quite prepared for so many to die. Oh, we do expect the occasional empty chair, a salute to fallen comrades. But this war goes on and on, and the men die, and the price gets ever higher. We are prepared to lose some of us, but we are never prepared to lose all of us.

The bravery of those who fight, who are wounded, and those who are left behind to wait and hope, is something that never ceases to amaze me. And then there's the third kind of hero: the kind who commit acts of valor every day: undecorated, often unrecognized, never expecting anything but the satisfaction of a job well done. This post is dedicated to our Armed Forces and to my good friend Maureen, and Jarhead Dad, and Deb over at Marine Corps Moms. All three have sons serving in the WOT. Thanks for all you do to support your sons and the military. And thanks to all our military families for giving this country such fine young men and women. Their quality reflects your own.

America owes all three kinds of heroes a debt we can never fully repay. Last Sunday I stood on the Senate lawn with a crowd of veterans who fought in Vietnam. When they returned, we never thanked them for their service. We never really acknowledged the sacrifices they made on our behalf. We stood silent when John Kerry blackened their good names and called them criminals, rapists, and murderers. When he called the cause they were so proud to fight and die for a mistake.

Let's not make the same mistake this time around. Please pray for their safety now and their speedy return home. And if you see them on the street, remember to say, "Thank you." And, "Well done."

Well done.

This entry is cross posted at I Love Jet Noise

Clausewitz & The Triangle

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: war is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst. The maximum use of force is in no way incompatible with the simultaneous use of the intellect.

The author of these words was a Prussian military office named Carl von Clausewitz. He is regarded to this day as one of history's most brilliant military thinkers.

Everyone has noticed the recent escalation of the insurgency in Iraq. We also saw this week General Officer of Marines James T. Conway giving a sharp rebuke to the politicians who meddled with the operations of I MEF in Fallujah.

What follows is a very long piece. It argues that much that is commonly understood about guerrilla war and the state of things in Iraq is wrong. If the claims it begins with seem outrageous to you, consider them in light of Clausewitz's military theories. They may change how you think about the trouble in the Triangle.

We will consider the situation in Iraq according to four of Clausewitz' concepts: friction, the "fog" of war, culimnating point of victory, and the "fascinating trinity of war."

Friction

"Friction" remains a core concept for American warfighting (and not only American). The National Defense University has devoted a great deal of time and effort to examining and explaining it. We will be brief here.

Friction is Clausewitz's term for the difficulties that arise in executing war. These include: competition between officers, or camps of opinion (e.g., the State / Defense Department split we've had to endure, now further complicated by the addition of an Iraqi state government); the weather (e.g., sandstorms that hamper operations or ruin gear); misunderstanding of orders by lower-ranked soldiers; the length of time it takes to get battlefield intelligence to the commander, and then his orders back to the people who have to execute them. These are all parts of "friction," which complicate the fighting of war.

The Coalition suffers from several sources of friction, some of which have been named above. We have also some international pressure, as Coalition members respond to political events at home; a few language difficulties between international units; and some of the poorer countries in the Coalition do not have the right gear to participate in joint operations, which limits their usefulness.

However, the Coalition's front line fighters -- such as I MEF -- have the lowest level of friction in human history. Operations between services are integrated more completely and successfully than ever before. The military has invested heavily in what is known as C4ISR technoloty (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillence, and reconnaissance). The US military has also pushed decision-making down the chain of command to an unprecedented degree. We have all the advantages in ability to get battlefield intel to the people who need it, have informed decisions made, and get orders that are understood. Frequently the people giving those orders are there on the spot.

The Coalition's friction arises almost entirely from the levels above the fighting forces (we will get to government's place in war in the section on the trinity). As LTGEN Conway said:

"When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the consequences of that are going to be and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that," he said. "Once you commit, you got to stay committed."

Noting that six Marines were killed and six wounded in those first three days, he added: "We were quite happy with the progress of the attack on the city. We thought we were sparing civilian lives everywhere and anywhere that availed itself to us. We thought we were going to be done in a few days. That's the Monday morning quarterbacking."

The damage done in Fallujah was done by the friction of the higher levels. The fighting forces were repeatedly ordered to do things that they did not wish to do, attacking before they had laid the groundwork (e.g., the "information environment") according to political pressure, and then being forced to back off before they had finished their execution due to political pressure.

If we are serious about winning in Iraq, the answer is clear: the levels that produce this serious friction must be removed as much as possible from the decision making in Iraq. The business should be left to the Marines and soldiers on the ground, with the politicians clearly instructed to stay out of it. In that way, friction on our side will be reduced to only that low level that the military has not succeeded in eliminating, and we shall have every advantage over the enemy.

Friction is not all on one side, however.

The Fog of War

In his most famous work, On War, Clausewitz wrote:

all action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which, like fog or moonlight, often tends to makes things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.

This is never truer than in guerrilla warfare. One of the primary tools of the guerrilla is the ruse of appearing more dangerous than he really is.

Hit and run attacks, sniper attacks, bombings and the like give the appearance of a foe who is everywhere, when in fact his numbers are limited.

They give the appearance of a foe who has the ability to command the battlefield, when in fact he must hide.

They give the appearance of a foe who is invunerable, when in fact his casualty rates are likely to be very high. Guerrillas suffer casualties at much greater rates than conventional soldiers.

The regular "drumbeat" of attacks also, by hitting you with repeated sensory input of being hit, can mask the fact that your losses are not very high. You become focused on the regularity of the hits, to the degree that you don't notice that the hits do little damage. The United States military mourns every lost solier, but the focus on the mourning causes American citizens not to realize that the combat loss rate in Iraq has only been between one and two percent in more than a year of sustained combat, depending on which factors you calculate.

The fog of war frequently causes you to overestimate the enemy's strength, just as it did when pundits calculated that Baghdad would not be taken without Stalingrad-style losses. The fog of war is never more potent than when fighting guerrillas, who rely on the mystique to appear dangerous.

In fact, the guerrillas also suffer from friction, much more than our forces do. They lack C4ISR technology better than radios. Whereas I MEF can rotate home, replaced by a fresh unit of trained warfighters, the enemy must deal with continued exhaustion. They can recruit from the populace, but have little time and no safety for training their replacements. Supplies must be scavanged from Saddam-era ammo dumps, or smuggled in at substantial risk. And their casualty rates are high, far higher than our own. Every aspect of war is more difficult for them.

The guerrilla relies in very large part on the fog of war to present an illusion of power. Orwell wrote that, "Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue." The guerrilla desperately needs people to believe in his power, and that his strength will grow forever, that his success is inevitable.

In fact, current trends cannot continue. The difficulties the guerrillas face on the battlefield are tremendous. The Marine Corps can manage operations at this level indefinitely; the guerrilla must expand, or collapse. It is important not to lose sight of that fact. Our enemy is weaker than commonly believed. The very act of fighting us creates powerful friction for him. He cannot fight this way forever, nor even for very long.

Culminating Point of Victory

But, the objection will be raised, he will not have to carry on forever. The sentiment in the country will turn against us, as people grow angry at American raids and the destruction wrought by our forces. This rage will ensure the wrath of the people, which will flood guerrillas with willing recruits, and cause them to expand like a virus through the country until there is nowhere safe for us.

Clausewitz recognized this dynamic, not limited to guerrilla war, which he called 'the strategic aspect of defense.' This article explains:

However strongly an offensive may start out, it inevitably weakens as it advances from its original base. The need to provide garrisons, to maintain the lines of supply and communications, the greater physical strain on troops in the attack, all degrade the aggressor's force. Meanwhile, the defender falls back upon the sources of his strength. Every offensive, however victorious, has a "culminating point." If the defender has enough time and space in which to recover (and Russia offered an excellent example, which Clausewitz noted long before Napoleon's disaster there in 1812-13), the aggressor inevitably reaches a point at which he must himself take up the defense. If he pushes too far, the equilibrium will shift against him. The aggressor, in his own retreat (often through devastated territory), cannot draw on the defender's usual sources of strength -- physical or psychological.

Moreover, public opinion is more likely to favor the strategic defender, since significant conquests by one contender will threaten the rest. Eventually, the conqueror will reach a "culminating point of victory" at which his successes provoke sufficient counteraction to defeat him.

The essence of the defense is waiting: waiting until the attacker clarifies his own intentions; waiting until the balance of forces shifts; waiting for any improvement in the defender's situation, whether from the culminating process described above, from outside intervention, from mobilization of his own resources, or from some chance development. Time is almost always on the side of the defender.

Waiting, however, does not imply mere passivity, and a passive defense is not at all what Clausewitz was describing. His vision of any effective defense was profoundly active. If the defense functions essentially as a shield, it is best "a shield made up of well-directed blows." Defense must shift at some point to the offense, the "flashing sword of vengeance." Thus it is easy to find in On War isolated quotations which seem to glorify the offensive. It is nonetheless the interaction of the two forms that concerned Clausewitz.

That dynamic is what the enemy is counting on. It needs to present itself as the army of vengence -- it need not prevent American incursions, nor even resist them, so long as it can bill some later atrocity as a punishment. The hope is that the populace will turn to them, support them, and uphold them.

Indeed, it often does work out that way in wars of national liberation. While we were fighting the Ba'athists in Iraq, which is to say the tribes of the Sunni Triangle, it was the core danger. That situation has now changed.

Our current foe is not the Ba'athists, but the Islamists. For all the worrying about the things we do that might turn the populace against us, it is rarely remembered that the enemy can turn the populace against it too.

There is cause to think that it is doing so.

Consider this: the Sunni Triangle, as mentioned, is largely tribal in culture. People who grew up there are strongly attached to the tribal system, which to them seems as natural and morally right as the sun rising in the east and the moon waxing and waning. The enemy of the tribe is your enemy -- and it is not our side that is wrecking the tribal strength.

An anti-war piece by paleoconservative site Lewrockwell illustrates this:

Last spring, the Marines made a deal with the Baath Party in Fallujah: Keep the place quiet and we?ll let you run it while keeping our hands off it. As has so often been the case in the history of war, it was the right move, too late. Throughout Iraq, the balance had already swung away from the Baath and any other forces that might have been able to re-create an Iraqi state, to non-state, Fourth Generation elements. The experiment in Fallujah was worth trying ? the only other option was destroying the city in order to save it, as we recently did in Najaf ? but the Baath was by then already a fading force. Of its Fallujah Brigade, the [New York] Times writes:

The Fallujah Brigade is in tatters now, reduced to sharing tented checkpoints on roads into the city with the [Islamic] militants, its headquarters in Fallujah abandoned, like the buildings assigned to the national guard. Men assigned to the brigade, and to the two guard battalions, have mostly fled, Iraqis in Fallujah say, taking their families with them, and handing their weapons to the militants.

Instead of the Baath, what we now face in Fallujah is a genuinely dangerous opponent. Its idol is not Saddam, but Allah. The Times reports that:

The militants? principal power center is a mosque in Fallujah led by an Iraqi cleric, Abdullah al-Janabi, who has instituted a Taliban-like rule in the city?with an Islamic militant group, Unity and Holy War [Tahwid and Jihad -- Zarqawi's group -Grim], that American intelligence? [has linked] to al Qaeda?

By invading Iraq, the United States in effect took Fallujah and much of the rest of Anbar Province from Saddam and gave it to Osama bin Laden... From the standpoint of our forces in Iraq, the main problem the third stage in the war there presents is that we have no one to talk to, no one to make deals with. As we saw in Fallujah in April, it was possible to make a deal with the Baath ? a deal the Baath genuinely wanted to carry out, though it proved unable to do so.

We all remember how the Taliban was scorned by the average Afghan -- how men rushed to shave their beards, women to go forth into the sun. We remember how many of the men impressed into service with the Taliban surrendered at first chance to the National Alliance, who embraced them like brothers and then summarily killed the "foreign fighters" who were there.

It is the guerrillas in Iraq who are undoing the tribal structure, scorning the traditional authority, and bringing chaotic change to the Sunni Triangle. The US military has negotiated with tribal leaders, not only in Fallujah but constantly. Had the assualt on Fallujah been completed, we would have emplaced tribal leaders over a town secure enough for them to control, instead of one that still contained a large enemy force. We would not have occupied it ourselves, any more than we have occupied Najaf.

The scorning of the tribes is an offense to the natural order in the minds of many Iraqis. Some will join, heart and mind, with the guerrillas -- they will accept that the tribal order was wrong and deserved to be overturned, in favor of Allah's divine sha'riah. Most will not, though while the guerrillas are present in numbers and with guns, they will be silent. Even the Afghans, a well-armed and fiercely independent people, did not toss out the Taliban, though they were very glad to see the back of them. The guerrillas in the Sunni Triangle, likewise, are their own worst argument.

That is another way of saying: American arrogance, for all we hear about it, does not match the arrogance of the guerrillas. We overthrew a national government that enjoyed some broad support in the Sunni triangle, but we did not try to overthrow the tribes. The insurgents are doing just that, turning the order of daily life upside down. If we allow our forces to defeat them on the battlefield, without turning aside from the horrible face of violence, the people of Iraq will not arise to defend them.

"Inkblots"

"Friction" arises here as well. We have heard the complaints that the United States has not adequately reconstructed Iraq. Fair enough; but how much reconstruction will these guerrillas do? How much can they do? How many electricians, plumbers, and masons do they have? We have heard that security is a problem for our reconstruction efforts -- how much security do they have to operate?

The Newsweek article we opened with included this fearful analysis:

Another ominous sign is the growing number of towns that U.S. troops simply avoid. A senior Defense official objects to calling them "no-go areas." "We could go into them any time we wanted," he argues. The preferred term is "insurgent enclaves." They're spreading. Counterinsurgency experts call it the "inkblot strategy": take control of several towns or villages and expand outward until the areas merge.

There are several things to be said about this. The first is that it is wrong.

Inkblot strategy developed in the Vietnam war, under the hand of Marine General Charles Krulak (later the Commandant of the Marine Corps in the early 1990s). It was based on two generations of USMC experience, which had been distilled into a publication called "The Small Wars Manual."

The strategy requires something more than creating a "no-go" area, which the Marines can enter whenever they want but inside which they don't stay. It requires taking and holding territory, so that life in that area can be stable and pleasant for the civilians. By reducing their exposure to the horrors of war, you help prevent the "culminating point of victory" for guerrillas -- the populace will not support the guerrillas, as it sees no need for vengeance, and regards guerrilla violence instead as an unwelcome disruption of order.

Newsweek has mistaken a counterinsurgency technique for an insurgency technique. Once again, the mainstream media's failure to comprehend any aspect of military science has caused them to portray the insurgents as stronger and more dangerous than they are.

What is happening in the Triangle is not an attempt to reduce civilian exposure to violence so that they can live the lives they want to live, the way they want to live them. What is happening is an attempt to remake the order of society and force people to live in a Taliban-style arrangement. It is not only plumbers they lack, however. They are not equipped to govern.

Although this piece is about the Sunni Triangle, a moment's digression to Najaf is useful. Many of the same arguments about the guerrillas in the Triangle were also offered about al Sadr's forces in Najaf. Yet when the city was cleared of them at last, what Iraq discovered was that their "courts" had involved mass graves. They do not have the resources or the stability for prisons; they can only kill their opponents. Just as "American arrogance" masks the fact that the guerrillas employ far more offensive arrogance, the worries about American bloodshedding mask the fact that the guerrillas employ far more horrifying bloodshed -- horrifying to the Iraqis, particularly.

The guerrillas must try to regulate the regions they now control. They are not set up to do it even in peacetime, and the friction challenges they face complicate the situation greatly. They will not win the hearts and minds of the majority of people in the Triangle.

Clausewitz's "culminating point of victory" is not available to them.

The Trinity of War

We have established that the guerrillas will not be able to exploit the culminating point, and that the American military can fight them to best effect if the politicians stay out, so that friction is reduced to a very low level. Politics and government, however, have a place in war. This is explored in Clausewitz's Trinity:

War is more than a true chameleon that slightly adapts its characteristics to the given case. As a total phenomenon its dominant tendencies always make war a remarkable trinity--composed of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force; of the play of chance and probability within which the creative spirit is free to roam; and of its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to reason alone.

The first of these three aspects mainly concerns the people; the second the commander and his army; the third the government. The passions that are to be kindled in war must already be inherent in the people; the scope which the play of courage and talent will enjoy in the realm of probability and chance depends on the particular character of the commander and the army; but the political aims are the business of government alone.

These three tendencies are like three different codes of law, deep-rooted in their subject and yet variable in their relationship to one another. A theory that ignores any one of them or seeks to fix an arbitrary relationship between them would conflict with reality to such an extent that for this reason alone it would be totally useless.

Our task therefore is to develop a theory that maintains a balance between these three tendencies, like an object suspended between three magnets.

One thing to recognize, in achieving this balance, is that the rational aspect of war -- which is "likened" to government -- is not government as we understand it. The rational aspect is the thing to be balanced and preserved, not the politics. Friction is an enemy of rationality, as it takes rational decisions and distorts their effect. By yielding control of military operations to the front-line forces, the government chooses a very rational course: their policy goals are more likely to come about. The military can more effectively impose its rationality on the field. The government need only be clear about the end state it desires.

The real danger of defeat in Iraq comes not from the insurgency's effect on the Iraqi people; it certainly does not come from the guerrillas effect on our soldiers. As explained above, the Iraqi people are likely to be driven to hate the insurgents far more than us. The real danger of defeat lies in the irrational aspects of the American people, including both her voters and her political class.

The irrational aspects are out of balance because few Americans have the background to evaluate war in a rational way. The military science is absent from teaching at the high-school level, and taught to only a minority of college students. Americans in general do not know what to do with the information they get from the media, and so they are especially vunerable to fear, anger, anguish, and worry -- the irrational aspects.

This dynamic is worsened because the media presenting those facts has no grasp of the military science. Not only do Americans not know how to evaluate the information they are getting, but the people conveying that information don't understand it either. They can tell you what happened, but not what it means.

Not only do they not understand how to achieve victory, or how to evaluate how close or far we are from victory, they also do not understand the price of failure.

Briefly, it is this: we are now engaged in a ground war against al Qaeda's allies and fellow-fighters. Al Qaeda grew as strong as it did because of the perception that it could beat America. If it actually does beat America, due to a failure of the national will to win, al Qaeda and groups of its sort will grow to an order of magnitude never imagined. If we lose Iraq, we lose the war on terror: or, at the very least, we will turn it into a kind of war far worse than anything now possible.

If we focus our mind on that, we find rationality beginning to reassert itself. Now it is not simple horror at all the violence: now we understand we have a cause to be there. We have a reason to fight, and a need to win. How do we get from here to victory?

Conclusion

We get there through military science. We get there by bringing the magnets back into balance.

Rationality demands these things:

1) That we commit to winning at any cost.

2) That we fight to destroy the enemy, remembering that their own brutal and extreme behavior will lose more hearts than any warfighting on our part.

3) We reduce friction, by laying into our politicians to stay out of the military's way. Call and write your Congressmen and other officials. Your message: Let the Marines and soldiers win this one.

The war will end sooner, with fewer overall casualties for all sides, if we fight with maximum force. Suffering of civilians and noncombatants will be reduced to the greatest degree possible by vigorous military action to destroy the insurgents in the field. We must be bold, and we must be absolutely steadfast.

We must also remember the words of Clausewitz with which I began:

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: war is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.

Kindness is a virtue, and a sweet one. But true kindness to the people of the Triangle is ending the war, destroying the insurgents, and returning order to the land.

The road before us is now mapped. We must ride forth.

See BS

- From reader Steve Taylor, (who also gave us this gem.)

Greetings From Greyhawk

I'm not gone yet.

I sent Glenn Reynolds a note saying I'd made my last substantial post for a while at Mudville and his subsequent link may have sounded like I was out the door - not quite, but any confusion is my fault. Like the President's thanksgiving or the turnover of power in Iraq, my exact movements are best left quiet.

In fact, maybe I have left.

But there are a few odds and ends I've got to finish up.

There will be periods of days where I will maintain "blog silence" - one of these periods will be during travel. However, I've also written some generic posts that might or might not appear here when I'm actually travelling. Ultimately my whereabouts will once again become known.

In the meanwhile - lots of guests will wander on and off the blog. Hope you enjoy - thus far you've heard from a spouse, a Marine, a retired Navy guy, and a Vietnam era Army vet. More are coming. Once the whole thing really gets rolling it should be quite an intersting place for a while - think of the Pentagon, where representatives of every branch of service sit around talking about why the Coast Guard shouldn't get any real money and why General Powell never stops by any more and you should have an idea.

Actually I have no idea what to expect, I refused to give any guidance to anyone I invited over. Hopefully they will take themselves serisly and always chck there spelling, otherwise anything could happen.

I've got a post about Dan Rather to finish. More later.

Update: By the way - I'm linked today by both Michelle Malkin and Michele Catalano - could any man be happier? Has this extremely harmonic convergence ever ocurred before?

Can't be the uniform - I never wear it while blogging.

Greetings From The Distaff Side

In a fit of madness (could it be he's secretly a Sensitive, New Age Guy?) Greyhawk inexplicably included me in the list of guest-bloggers. I've been posting as Cassandra over at I Love Jet Noise for about 7 months now. My Dad was a career destroyer man in the Navy, so we moved almost every year growing up. Taught to aspire to greater things in life, I married a Marine when I grew up. *rimshot* As you can see, my experience of military life is as a Navy daughter and Marine wife of 25 years.

Politically I lean Republican but have voted Democrat on occasion: frankly character and integrity mean more to me than ideology as I find both parties are becoming more centrist with time. I write about anything concerning Marines, the election, Kerry, media bias, the economy, the WOT, education, and political correctness/First Amendment issues, not necessarily in that order.

Which brings me to my first post. I've been quite critical of the media at Jet Noise. They seem determined to report only one side of the news. So when I find a reporter who is actually friendly to the military, it seems like a miracle.

Our wounded military vets have no better friend than Boston Herald reporter Jules Crittenden. Mr. Crittenden was an embedded reporter with US forces. Now back in the States, he follows the stories of these oft-forgotten heroes. In July he wrote about Marine Lance Cpl. James Crosby, who was wounded after only one month in Iraq. The 19 year-old is now in a wheelchair, but is facing rehab and the battle to walk again with grit and determination:

"My father was a Marine. All my life, I said, I want to do it,'' he said. Now Crosby said he is beginning to fully understand what it is to be a Marine.

"They made me into a person who demands success,'' he said. "I'm still a Marine. I'm obligated to do the best that I can.''

The other day Mr. Crittenden sent me another story, this time about a career soldier, Sgt. James Lathan Jr.,and his family:

Lathan, an Omaha native, was a chopper mechanic at Baghdad International Airport. It was the Fourth of July, and he had only 13 days left to go in Iraq.

"I was just coming back from chow, going to watch a movie in the rec tent,'' Lathan said last week. "As I was getting to the tent door, that's when the mortar came down, or rocket, or whatever it was.'' He was hit in the neck.

"I wasn't able to breathe. I couldn't scream for help. The soldier next to me was screaming for help. I was trying to scream. I couldn't move,'' Lathan said. He figures someone got to him quickly, because he's alive today.

We're used to thinking of courage on the battlefield: the active kind you see when adrenaline is pumping and bullets are flying. But what of the quiet courage it takes to face a wheelchair? Or months of pain, disfigurement, or physical therapy? What of the grace, faith, and amazing strength of our military wives and mothers, who must deal with all the hardships of deployment: bills, the absence of a husband and father, loneliness, depression...and face all these things with a smile because their loved ones look to them for support? Reporter Jules Crittenden was awed by what he saw in the Lathans, so he does what he can to help spread the word:

We only have a couple of guys here, as the badly wounded usually stay at Walter Reed or Bethesda. So we try to get them some publicity, so people know what it is about and vets can check in with them. Sgt. Lathan's wife is solid as a rock and handling this well, as is Lathan himself. As heartbreaking as these situations are, it is also heartening to see the strength people display in extreme situations.

And the Lathans, who might well feel sorry for themselves these days, show not a trace of self-pity:

"You go on with life, get in the chair and learn how it works, or you stay in the bed,'' James Lathan said. It does no good to pity yourself. I've got my wife and all the people around me. I know there's a lot of other people, they may have all their limbs, but they still are not satisfied with their life. To me, it's keeping your outlook positive.''

Amy Lathan said, "He's the same person he was. Physically, it's more challenging. But he's strong enough to get through anything. He's a fighter. He's as blunt as he always was.''

Amazing.

- Cassandra

Ra^thergate: All over but the hangin'?

A suggestion (only, obviously, but I think one of us need to make it) to my fellow guest-bloggers:

The Ra^thergate story is all over every major site on the web, to the point where no one is going to find time to read a tenth of what's out there. I think we should agree that none of us will mention it on Greyhawk's site while he's gone -- Not that it isn't entertaining, even if it is all over but the hangin', but because we could easily end up putting up 3 or 4 nearly simultaneous posts containing the same information. This will be the last you'll hear from me on the subject and I'll take the absence of posts by anyone else as agreement to my suggestion. Alternatively, if one of you wants to put up a post saying "I'll cover it thoroughly" I'll promise not to interfere. Opinion?

(As I recall, it's always been proper military protocol for the junior person present to state their opinion first, followed by the second-most junior, etc, so that no one's stated opinion is influenced by something someone more senior says. Based on what I know so far of the guest-blogger list, I consider myself "junior", so I trust y'all will forgive me for being the first one to speak up.)

Reporting for duty </snark>

Since I've been honored with an invitation to help hold down the fort while Greyhawk is busy with other things, please allow me to introduce myself. My name's Bill Faith. Normally I post at In Bill's World. Politically, I consider myself pro-American, pro-G.I., anti-Kerry, and pro-Bush, in pretty much that order. My voter registration card doesn't list a party affiliation, but I tend to find myself agreeing with Republicans and Libertarians a lot more often than Democrats. You can learn a little about how I got to be who I am today from my "More than you ever wanted to know about me" post, or settle for a couple of excerpts:

[...]

In the spring of my sophomore year at The University of Illinois, President Nixon sent U.S. troops into Cambodia, the Ohio National Guard murdered 4 students at Kent State, people were marching around with signs saying "If you aren't part of the solution you're part of the problem," and school just didn't seem "relevant" any more. So, I enlisted.

[...]

I was supposed to be on a C-130 that no one walked away from at Kontum, a damned site closer to Cambodia than John Kerry's ever been, but God didn't want me and Satan wasn't ready for me.

[...]

I didn't choose a military career, opting instead to return to school after one hitch, but, like a lot of other veterans my age, if I'd been younger and healthier I'd have been standing in line outside a recruiting station on September 12, 2001. Since I'm not able to help that way, I use my blog to do my best to steer other people's thinking in the direction I think is best for my family and our country.

I'm placing one of my favorite posts from my blog and portions of another one in the extended entry section. I'll be back every day or two with more, possibly things previously posted on my blog and definitely some new things.

Update/Full disclosure: I just posted this as a comment to Greetings From Greyhawk, but I'm going to add it here too -- I don't want any confusion about who I am and who I'm not:

I'm not usually one to quibble over details, but you've cast me in a more glorious light than I deserve and I shouldn't allow that to stand. If I read this right, Cassandra's the "spouse", Grim's the "Marine", navvett55 is the "retired Navy guy", and that leaves me to be the "Vietnam era Army vet." Actually, I enlisted in the Air Force to avoid carry a rifle through the rice paddies and didn't see nearly as much of the war as a couple of my cousins, or nearly as much as 3 guys I knew who didn't make it back. I did volunteer for Viet Nam, then I volunteered again for a risky job during my last 90 days in-country, but I never fired a shot in anger and the only thing ever aimed my way was "Chinese fireworks" (122mm rockets). There were too many genuine heroes in that war, and other wars before and since, for me to claim that status for myself.

I can't think of Viet Nam without remembering Barry Cullison, a kid who made my life miserable for years. In 1964 Barry chose me to be his "favorite freshman." For the next three years his favorite expression was "Hey, Faith! Look embarrassed!", usually followed by "There, that's a good job." Barry, I'm still embarrassed. I'm here, and you and aren't. But you aren't forgotten.

btw, there's a complete list of the names on The Wall, complete with home town info, rank, etc, at http://grunt.space.swri.edu/thewall/thewallm.html.

(The extended section hasn't changed)

The following post originally appeared on my blog on August 18, 2004:

Just Dumb Ol' George

1) Click the pictures to learn the stories behind them.

2) Compare and Contrast: George W. Bush, Jean Fraud Kerry.

Kerry would have been too busy consulting the French to bother with a lowly Sgt. and would have reminded young Miss Faulkner he'd been to Vietnam.

Hat tip: Louisiana Conservative for reminding me about the picture of the president with Sgt. McNaughton.

Update: Check out Infidel Cowboy's related post.

There's also a list of important links I update as I find new things on another of my posts:

• Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ads: 'Any Questions?', 'Sellout', 'Never in Cambodia', 'Medals'
• Unfit For Command -- Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 8
• Free "The New Soldier" downloads: FreeKerryBook.com, JohnKerryTheNewSoldier.blogspot.com,
  Daily Pundit
• StolenHonor.com
• WinterSoldier.com
• 1971 Kerry Senate Testimony video and audio
• VVAW Flyer
• SwiftVets open letter to John Kerry
• Republican National Convention speeches
• ImageShack - Hosting :: 60minbusted.swf

I'll be back.

New Squid on the Block

"The old navvet walks around the deserted hanger deck. The morning was crisp and clear, with only a hint of fall. The line crews would be out and about soon, giving selected squadron aircraft a quick once over before preflight crews begin their procedures.

He steps into the maintenance control office. Dust and cobwebs, mute sentries of times army, offer only token resistance, cause his memories to surrender, returning him to the here and now.

Was it that long ago, when Naval aviators, ground crews, and a host of others, gathered here with a mission? When F-4 "Phantoms" thundered down the runway, belching smoke as they shot toward the heavens?"

Yes, it was "that long ago". It was a different Navy back then. At least the first ten years were much more along the lines of "we work hard we play hard". When you crossed the equator you were a 'wog"...at least until you "kissed the baby". "The Chief" *was the final word ON EVERYTHING (that went for junior officers too). Back then, you could still "tack on" a crow. Do I miss it? Yes, yes I do. Would I put on the uniform today if country called, even though it is a kinder more sensitive Navy? Yes I would, in an instant.

But who is this interloper wondering round the 'Gazette? I answer to any number of things (just ask my better half). But Navvet55 works as good as anything.

As for me, well, I was an aviation electronics tech. Yeah we were called "Tweets", or "airdales" by the surface Sailors (or just admired for our tans by the "bubbleheads"). Spent a couple of tours working directly on the radios/navigation aids, down to component level. Other tours saw me working Squadron level maintenance on some of the last C-117's (converted DC-3's) in the Navy's inventory, as well as older model anti sub patrol aircraft (P-3's). Later, just north of Malibu, at one of the nicest duty stations we had, I was into the wonderland of electronic countermeasures. And found a home in QA as well.

As luck would have it, I also pulled a tour as a Navy Recruiter.....as I was an honest recruiter, I soon found myself working at the district as a Youth Programs Co-coordinator and Assistant Public Affairs Officer. *That* really was a challenging tour. If you can deprogram an 18 year old from all the left leaning propaganda they have gathered over the years from both parents and our "outstanding public school systems". Then get them to see what valid opportunities exist in the military, you can sell ice to Eskimos.

My last command was with a group on the east coast. I was eventually pronounced fit to become a pilot....granted it was piloting UAV's, but that was as demanding as real time aircraft environment would have been. Situational awareness counted as much for us as it does for those who physically strap themselves in to the multi million dollar beasts. We could lose an aircraft or cause a mission to abort just as easily by not paying the proper attention to details.

Well, that is about it. Hope I didn't bore you to tears. Left out lots of sea stories and such. But there will be other times. I want to thank Greyhawk for the opportunity to pop in here from time to time, and toss my two cents on the counter. If you have any questions, concerns, comments, please feel free to give me a shout and I will try to get back to you ASAP. you can reach me at navvet55-at-gmail-dot-com.

Update
Oh, and as this is new and all ...ok, with only 5 active braincells, and three of them on TAD status, I forgot to add my own little piece of the net is Snugg Harbor. Come on by an drop in. I am also a MiliBlogger.

Mao and McPeak

As mentioned below, I intend a series on military science and Iraq. About a week ago, I posted thoughts on what Mao Zedong would think of Kerry's Iraq plan, and also on what Kerry's military advisor thinks of it. You may wish to read those as background to what follows, which will be a post on Von Clausewitz.

The Long Ships, Ashore

W泠H次

I will give my name as Grim. Greyhawk, like Vortigern, has foolishly invited me to occupy liberate defend his home while he is away. I gather he has asked a few others to perform the same duty, though I do not know whom as yet.

While here at the Mudville Gazette, I plan a series applying military science to the question of Iraq.

We'll also highlight other MilBloggers. Consider Doc Russia, Marine and medical student, who has composed a proposal for health care reform. He asks for your comments on his thoughts.

Wretchard said that "Who goes there?" is a question that has returned to fashion. For those who wish to know more about me, there is a short introduction in the extended section.

I've been blogging for a little while now, both at Grim's Hall and FreeSpeech. You can visit either place if what follows isn't enough for you; I suspect, though, that this is probably more than most of you will care to know as it is.

I was born in the great state of Georgia, and lived most of my life in the North Georgia mountains. I am a Zell Miller Democrat, which where I come from is called a James Jackson Democrat, Zell (a former Marine) being just one of the latest of us.

Jackson's fiery temperament made him a political lightning rod. Never one to back away from a fight, his political career was studded with duels and bloody street brawls. Jackson's appreciation of the land hunger endemic to Georgians and his willingness to put his life and reputation on the line to control it made him the "colossus" of Georgia politics.

See what I mean?

After watching the towers fall one too many times, I resolved to return to the Marine Corps. I spent a year and a half trying to get back in, and I finally did manage to settle certain medical questions that were keeping me out. Unhappily for me (though not for America), patriotism had spurned such a recruitment frenzy that, by the time I had the paperwork in order, there was no room for me before I turned the dreadful age after which you are no longer readmitted to the Corps.

Since I could not serve in a traditional way, I went looking for another. I ended up joining one of those shadowy "Defense contractors" that you've doubtless read about. My current contract has me based in the D.C. area, but it ends in six weeks; after that, who knows.

Those of you who have read Grim's Hall before probably remember it from this post, when a certain blogger sneered at dead American "mercenaries." Well, I am one of them, though I reject the label; doing my best to do my duty for my country in her time of need, such as I can, such as I am.

Now you know enough to get on with, as Tolkien would say.

AWOL

A great update of the latest news on the Bush/AWOL story. Not to be confused with the Rather Forgeries story - the AWOL story is the "deeper issue" we're supposed to confront as a result of the forgeries. Get it?

On Blogging

Glenn Reynolds with a must read essay on the blogosphere. The Professor stays on the good side of the line betwen self analysis and self indulgence, and the result is exceptional.

Glenn made legal analogies rather than academic comparisons that cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, but it occurs to me that posting a blog entry is akin to submitting a paper for peer review. Since the feedback is faster and more encompassing (and often less compassionate) it may even be a superior system for fact checking, etc.

Pajama Party

RatherBiased reports developments in memogate:

Talon News reports today that CBS spokesperson Kelli Edwards confirmed to it that Mary Mapes was the CBS representative who obtained the disputed documents that allegedly give details of George W. Bush's National Guard service.

CBS producer Mary Mapes is a controversial figure who has made headlines in her own right.

<...>

Ms. Mapes is also responsible for CBS's reporting on the Abu Ghraib pictures, a story she helped break. According to TV reporter Gail Shister, "The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by 60 II producer Mary Mapes." In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mapes described how hard she worked to find the incriminating pictures:

"We ended up chasing it, chasing it halfway around the world and back again. Trying not just to chase the rumors of it, but---but to find out what the reality of it. And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone, and we were able luckily to narrow that down and get our hands on the pictures which really gave us our first real hard proof that this was real."

Oh really? Looks like it's time to revisit the Abu Ghraib Timeline. Some highlights (note: additional links in original):

Dec 03 (implied various sources): A soldier, recognizing the behavior at Abu Ghraib as criminal, reports it. Army CID investigates the allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib and establishes the case against most of the currently accused, including Army Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II.

Jan 14: SSG Frederick began writing his journal on Jan. 14, only a few hours after Army authorities fetched him for questioning and searched his quarters at 2:30 a.m. that day. He mailed copies to his mother, father, uncle and sister, and decided not to send it by e-mail for fear that the Army would see it first.

26 Jan CNN reports:

The U.S. military's criminal investigation into potential abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. soldiers at Abu Gharib prison in Iraq now includes reports from soldiers that military police took photographs showing soldiers hitting detainees, CNN has learned.

Earlier, several Pentagon officials who declined to be identified by name confirmed to CNN that investigators were looking into the reports -- all coming from fellow soldiers -- of photographs showing male and female detainees with some of their clothing removed.

Lets review: "..And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone,..."

Is the CNN report the whispered account? Bear in mind this is still three months before CBS broadcast Frederick's "home spun" porn collection.

Late Feb: A fifty-three-page report, the result of the January investigation (later obtained by The New Yorker), written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba was completed in late February.

20 March CNN reports:

Six U.S. soldiers have been charged with offenses related to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at an Iraqi prison, the U.S. Army said Saturday.

Multiple sources said the allegations involve soldiers who took photographs of Iraqi prisoners in late 2003, including pictures that show the prisoners partially clothed or physical contact between soldiers and detainees.

<...>

One source said "less than two dozen detainees" were subjected to the alleged abuse, which was reported by U.S. Army soldiers who witnessed it.

Note: The same CNN reporter has been following the story from the start. Time to toss that "whispers" part of the storyline into the category of "lies CBS has told in conjunction with memogate" But how did Ms. Mapes get her hands on the porn squad snaps?

Mar: SSg Frederick's uncle William sent an e-mail message to retired colonel David Hackworth's Web site. The NY Times describes Hackworth as "a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on the military establishment." That e-mail message would put Mr. Lawson in touch with the CBS News program "60 Minutes II" and help set in motion events that led to the public disclosure of the graphic photographs and an international crisis for the Bush administration. The Times reports on 8 May:

The irony, Mr. Lawson said, is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about the case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted Mr. Hackworth's Web site out of frustration, leading him to cooperate with a consultant for "60 Minutes II."

"The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes," he said. "But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.'s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case."

So according to the NY Times story, the suspect's uncle "cooperated with a consultant" to 60 Minutes II; investigative reporting at it's finest. I suspect that consultant was someone other than Ms Mapes, but I'll refrain from further speculation. There's an interesting issue of timing to evaluate:

On April 9th, an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury, in which evidence is presented, witnesses are called, and the decision to pursue court martial is made) in the case against Sergeant Frederick. In addition to a military lawyer, SSgt Frederick retains the services of Gary Myers, one of the military defense attorneys in the Vietnam-era My Lai case. After the hearing, the presiding investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convene a court-martial against Frederick.

Unknown date (14 Apr?): CBS obtains photos of prisoner abuse along with the Taguba report. Seymour Hersh, a writer who broke the story of the Vietnam-era My Lai case, also obtains a copy of the Taguba report.

At the Article 32 hearing, the prosecution would have presented the evidence in the case - the pictures, among other things. This suggests two possibilities:

1. This was the first time the photos had been returned to Frederick (and his legal team) after initial confiscation for the investigation. They immediately handed them to Frederick's uncle who contacted Hackworth who contacted CBS and ultimately the photos made it to 60 Minutes II and to Seymour Hersh - who in an amazing coincidence had an established relationship with the defense attorney.

or

2. The defense gave the prosecution a deadline (perhaps unspoken or merely hinted) to drop charges at the hearing; when their "expectations" weren't met they released the photos.

The Washington Post reports:

CBS News delayed for two weeks airing a report about U.S. soldiers' alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, following a personal request from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. Richard B. Myers called CBS anchor Dan Rather eight days before the report was to air, asking for extra time, said Jeff Fager, (note: remember this name) executive producer of "60 Minutes II."

Myers cited the safety of Americans held hostage and tension surrounding the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Fager said, adding that he held off as long as he believed possible given it was a competitive story.

With the New Yorker magazine preparing to run a detailed report on the alleged abuses, CBS broadcast its report Wednesday, 28 April, including images taken last year allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by U.S. captors at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Let's revisit Mapes claim:

"The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by 60 II producer Mary Mapes." In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mapes described how hard she worked to find the incriminating pictures:

"We ended up chasing it, chasing it halfway around the world and back again. Trying not just to chase the rumors of it, but---but to find out what the reality of it. And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone, and we were able luckily to narrow that down and get our hands on the pictures which really gave us our first real hard proof that this was real."

Not sure how much world travel went on before the handover, but it certainly seems like much of that above quote can be addedto the rapidly growing list of "not quite correct comments" associated with the Rather Forgeries.

Sometimes, when you're in a hole, it's a good idea to quit digging.

Remember the name Fager? Here it comes again:

On April 28, "60 II" was first with the shocking photographs of Americans abusing Iraqi prisoners. The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by "60 II" producer Mary Mapes, Fager said.

"We knew we were sitting on a bombshell," he said. "None of us could have predicted the kind of impact it would have on the direction of the war, or that it would become a kind of symbol."

It certainly did - but CBS, rather than being the first to report, was merely the first to attempt to pass the buck up to the Pentagon and the White House, with illustrations. They were hoping that heads would roll. Credit where due: they were right on most counts. The war did change, and heads did indeed begin to roll, as has been noted here. But in the end, SSg Frederick couldn't be saved, his photos were undeniable evidence of his own crimes, their repeated broadcast evidence not of "60 Minutes greatness" but of nothing more than a twisted frenzy that sometimes poses as journalism in America, the denial of which is but one more sign of the fading of legacy media as an arbiter of truth.

Uncle Bill again: "...they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case."

He meant the Army, of course.

Since that day in April , Ivan Frederick sits in prison, the war goes on, and CBS makes news. Not sure exactly which result Team Rather is most proud of here.

Why does it matter now? The Opinion Journal reports on CBS's (specifically Jonathan Klein, a former executive vice president of CBS News) current defense of the Rather forgeries:

Mr. Klein didn't directly address the mounting objections to CBS's story. He fell back on what high school debaters call the appeal to authority, implying that the reputation of "60 Minutes" should be enough to dissolve doubts without the network sharing its methods with other journalists and experts. He told Fox's Tony Snow that the "60 Minutes" team is "the most careful news organization, certainly on television." He said that Mary Mapes, the producer of the story, was "a crack journalist" who had broken the Abu Ghraib prison abuse story.

There you have the state of mainstream American media 2004 - having a stack of damning photographs handed to you by the unwitting defendent in a criminal trial constitutes "crack journalism"

More from Jeff Fager:

Fager, ever loyal to the newsmagazine he launched in July '98, said "60 II" was the right venue for the prison-scandal story, despite "60's" larger audience.

"60 II" is not a minor-league player. It's an important, serious broadcast that has broken stories from the get-go, and will continue to do so.

Indeed. Thanks, and we will continue to watch.

Vets in DC

Cassandra reports from the Vietnam vet's rally in DC. Lots of photos included.

Note

Lots of thank you notes to write - looks like Mudville's not going to vanish any time soon. I've also been inspired to a new project that might get laptops and cameras into a lot of hands over there - more on that later.

Lots of updates to the post below. Big things coming. I'm not gone yet - more later.

Picture above: recent High School graduation, on-base American school in Germany. From that booth in the back the event is being televised live to parents in Iraq.

Each kid with a deployed parent got to stand and look at the camera and wave. One really stood out as he shouted out "Hi Mom!" in a loud and proud voice.

The Rather Forgeries

I've spoken with people who have no information on "Memogate" other than mainstream media reports. Anyone relying on that source for information is not going to get it. If you've only heard about this from traditional media sources, or if you just need an update, this compilation from Hugh Hewitt is a good place to start. Read it and follow the links he provides. The evidence is overwhelming, and no one of sound mind can possibly support the authenticity of the 60 Minutes II documents.

Not much has yet been made of the fact that this fraud has been perpetrated in the name of a deceased military officer, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian of the Texas Air National Guard. CBS's claims actually besmirch the reputation of a man who served his country nobly and well, a man whose opinions (by all accounts of those who knew him best - his family) were the exact opposite of those expressed in the Rather Forgeries. A man who after spending a lifetime defending his country is no longer able to defend himself.

And yes, the Rather forgeries. Perhaps he didn't do them himself, but we're not likely to hear from him any time soon who did. The appropriate sendoff for this sloppy partisan hack will be to have his name become synonymous with shoddy journalism, unreliable reporting, unethical behavior, and criminal acts.

Update: Another must read here.

Update 2: See also here, here, and here, for those with lingering doubts, or any who want a very quick but overwhelming demonstration of why "forgeries" and "criminal" are applicable here.

Update 3: Because Mudville is a fair and balanced news source, here are links to claims that the Rather Forgeries are authentic. In fact, they've been verified not only by unnamed sources, but also by ol' whatsisname. You know, whoever.

Update 4 If it's true that Bill Burkett is the source of the forgeries, then Rather ought to be angrier than granny when they locked the likker cab'net. As a military vet Burkett would be familiar with the proper document formats - formats that were ignored on the Rather memos. Further, having some vague familiarity with the blogosphere he should have known the manner and speed in which this story's artificial legs were going to be cut out from under it.

Face it, CBS ran with this scissors story without any real verification of the documents, which indicates they had 1) a tremendous amount of faith in the source, to the point they assumed truthfulness or 2) either no concern whatsoever for authenticity or knew they were fake - either of which indicates a tremendous amount of ignorance about the ignorance of their audience.

"Sloppiness" isn't really the right answer here - nor is "CBS was tricked."

Authentic

I got this from an undisclosed source. It's been authenticated by experts. A six-year-old girl did this with crayons. This is undeniably the best, most compelling reason I've ever seen to vote for John Kerry.

Update: See comments

Update 2: The Pajama crowd has begun to question the comments. Certain internet sites have claimed the folks in the discussion below may not be who they say they are. I will maintain that comments are accurate, at least the first 28 or so. After that someone else... I mean I'm sure about the first 28 or so. Some of which were faxed in and probably degraded.

Nothing Funny

This 911, both sides offer nothing to laugh at:

Cartoons in "right wing" blogs.

Cartoons in "left wing" blogs.

Winds of Change

Days like these it's most strange to be on foreign soil. We went out to eat; small German restaurant in Landstuhl village. The town was packed, some roads were closed, parking was not to be found. A Wine Festival, an Oktoberfest, the Mrs said. She forgot about that. We didn't join. We enjoyed a quiet dinner, with everyone else partying in the streets we had the little place to ourselves. Followed up with a movie at the English language theater a block or two away.

Meanwhile, on top of a hill a stone throw away, the most grievously injured in the war on terror recovered at the now famous Army medical center.

An amazing collection of 911 links here. Visit, remember.

On Days

Sep 10

Sep 11

Sep 12 and onward?

It's important that people remember what we're about here. But those who want to forget (those who are part of what Andrew Sullivan, back in September of 2001, called a "paralyzing, pseudo-clever, morally nihilist fifth column," plus those who are just tired of the war, or those who just naturally live in the eternal present) will forget -- or already have forgotten -- and the rest of us don't need a lot of reminding.

For those who might be "tired of the war" I offer no respite, but those who'll travel with me over these next few months may find tonic here. The time is fast approaching to leave precious things behind for just a while, and that cost is not too great to bear. After all, what things could be called precious if not worth any price?

"Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes, it'll on'y be one."

Ma Joad, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath

Honor the past.

Welcome to the home of September 12 and Onward

Unsafe at Any Speed

From our department of curiously timed stories comes a gem from CBS. In the wake of their exposure for using forged documents in their recent attack on President Bush's guard service, the 'Tiffany Network' asks

Kerry Campaign: What Went Wrong?

But certainly not everything has gone wrong for the Democrats, as they recently succeeded in assuring that US Soldiers in Iraq who are Florida citizens will not be able to vote for Ralph Nader for president.

Less than 11 hours before Secretary of State Glenda Hood is supposed to certify the ballots for 67 counties - which signals elections supervisors to mail thousands of ballots to Floridians overseas, including troops in Iraq - (Leon County circuit Judge Kevin) Davey ruled that the Reform Party is no longer a real political party. Therefore, he held that Nader's certification as the Reform candidate did not meet Florida laws, which require a presidential candidate to get nearly 100,000 voter signatures or be nominated by a national convention.

"I don't want to disenfranchise anybody, especially those folks who are defending us overseas," Davey said, stretching and stifling a yawn after a seven-hour hearing in which attorneys for Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox and two Reform Party members squared off against lawyers for Hood and the Reform Party of Florida.

Nader responds: "This is nothing more than a judge responding to the political imperatives of a nervous and corrupt Democratic Party."

I respond: I'm a Florida absentee voter, as are my wife and son. I haven't seen anything this reprehensible since... well, Gore 2000.

But wait - there's more. If I weren't getting ready for a long trip I'd do my duty as a blogger and explore the following in more detail. But since time is short I'll simply quote and link a fellow American in Germany:

The kerry campaign is sending waves of operatives to other countries to request absentee ballots for ex-patriates, non citizens who were falsely registered as voters due to flaws in the motor voter registrations, and any other absentee voter they can muster. Since I have a personal friend directly involved in this effort, who refused to disclose the source of the funding because of legal questions (both foreign and domestic), I know for sure that this is actively going on in many countries as we speak. This same person showed me the voter registration card of his non-citizen wife, that had been issued to her because she got a Driver's License. The card came to his home long after she had returned to her country of citizenship.

I have no first hand info to add to that, so I'd "Rather" not speculate further. But I do know the Kerry campaign has sent folks to rally the absentee voters, though I certainly assume they mean legal ones.

But as I noted in comments at David's Medienkritik on the topic, I'm curious as to why Munich over the Kaiserslautern military community - since the largest population of Americans outside of America (40k) reside here. Suppose Kerry prefers Bayern Munchen to the Rote Teufel?

J4MOS

Johnny Four Months is worth visiting for the soundtrack alone (give it time to load).

I'm going back over to read now.

Update: Soundtrack has changed, but is still worth hearing.

Rather Replaced at CBS?

(Mudville exclusive: must credit Steve Taylor for following!!!)

From reader Steve Taylor:

Bush is a snake in the desert. We will roast the stomach of the infidel president in hell at the hands of CBS.These documents are authentic, typed in Microsoft Word 1972. 60 Minutes has inflicted many damages on the villain Bush. Lying is forbidden on CBS. Dan Rather will tolerate nothing but truthfulness as he is a man of great honor and integrity.

Update: Don't laugh, as RatherBiased reports the contents of a CBS memo to its affiliates:

For the record, CBS News stands by the thoroughness and accuracy of the 60 MINUTES report this Wednesday on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. This report was not based solely on recovered documents, but rather on a preponderance of evidence, including documents that were provided by unimpeachable sources, interviews with former Texas National Guard officials and individuals who worked closely back in the early 1970s with Colonel Jerry Killian and were well acquainted with his procedures, his character and his thinking. In addition, the documents are backed up not only by independent handwriting and forensic document experts but by sources familiar with their content. Contrary to some rumors, no internal investigation is underway at CBS News nor is one planned. We have complete confidence in our reporting and will continue to pursue the story.

MilBlogs on Wall Street

MlBlogs in the Wall Street Journal - a picture of CB and some details of what's been going on with his blog - all under a slightly misleading headline.

I have a tough time writing headlines too.

Gripe: Would it have killed the WSJ folks to put a hyperlink in the text? If so, couldn't they have at least put the url for My War? Watch:

http://cbftw.blogspot.com/

Both at once!

Meanwhile An American Soldier notes that he too was mentioned without a link.

But here: http://soldierlife.blogspot.com he can speak for himself.

On a positive note, this story should put to rest any lingering fears anyone might have that the Army is "cracking down " on military blogs.

Update: The linked story is no longer available on WSJ. Here are some excerpts, in which I've changed the references to blogs to links (I would also change the headline to "Army Supports Blogs", but oh well...):

Soldiers' missives haven't been routinely expurgated since World War II and the days of "Loose Lips Sink Ships." The Pentagon doesn't prescreen soldiers' communications, whether print or electronic, assigning the job of policing soldier-journalists to commanders in the field. There are restrictions against divulging references to specific troop locations, patrol schedules or anything that might help the enemy predict how U.S. troops might react to an attack. But commanders in Iraq rely on the honor system and soldiers' common sense to enforce restrictions. Infractions are in the eye of the beholder, difficult to define but easy to recognize in practice.

Censorship that does occur usually comes after the fact. Earlier this year, Army investigators were forced to go stateside to track down reams of snapshots of Iraqi prisoner abuse that Abu Ghraib guards disseminated by e-mail or sent home on computer disk. In July, an Army captain was reassigned and stripped of his leave home after writing an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, says blogs, like other forms of communication, are tolerated so long as they don't violate operational or informational security. "We treat them the same way we would if they were writing a letter or speaking to a reporter: It's just information," he says. "If a guy is giving up secrets, it doesn't make much difference whether he's posting it on a blog or shouting it from the rooftop of a building."

Still, many bloggers, some operating in obscure corners of Iraq where traditional reporters are scarce, appear to be flying under the Pentagon's radar. There's "American Soldier," a diary compiled by an Army reservist currently preparing for his second call-up, who describes himself in an e-mail as "p -- ed, frustrated, happy and sad at the same time." A site called "Boots on the Ground" is heavy on detail about U.S. armaments. "Just Another Soldier," a National Guardsman's account, is available only by e-mail request, the author says, after his command, citing security concerns, asked him to dismantle the site.

<...>

In an e-mail exchange, Col. James says the Army was concerned about a possible security breach on Spc. Buzzell's blog, but had no desire to muzzle him. "I counseled SPC Buzzell along with his Platoon Sergeant on these points and ensured that he understood that anything he was unsure about should be reviewed by his chain of command," Col. James says. Spc. Buzzell has "performed gallantly" as a soldier, he says.

But Spc. Buzzell's trouble with the command continued. A few days later, after leaving a mocking message on his blog to the military intelligence officers he now assumed were reading along, Spc. Buzzell was ordered confined to camp. He was returned to regular duty and posted a few more times, but he recently removed all of his archives from the site, and new postings are now sporadic. He says it just isn't as fun to write, now that he has to submit everything to his platoon sergeant prior to publication. "I was never edited before," he says. "Now I am."

Spc. Buzzell said he hasn't decided whether to permanently stop posting. He says he received scores of e-mails when "My War" went silent and even got some subtle nudges from his command to continue. Indeed, Col. James seems nostalgic for Internet accounts of his men. "To be candid, I believe the widespread popularity of his writing came as a bit of a shock to him and he was uncomfortable with the attention," Col. James said in an e-mail. "Personally, I think he is a talented writer and a gifted storyteller and should pursue his talent."

Update 2: Buzzell's latest post is... well, you figure it out. I'd add that if you're being censored then "I'm being censored" is an interesting statement for the censors to ignore.

More here.

Update 3: It's worth noting that the WSJ story was included in the Early Bird - the Pentagon's collection of news stories designed for the top brass and available to any troop anywhere with internet access. Those who are able will find it in the 9 Sep. compilation. Bottom line: please forget that "under the radar" bit, okay?

Update 4: For the benefit of new readers here, the MilBlogs page has lots of previous posts on this topic, along with loads of links to other military bloggers. Since you are here I assume you have an interest in such things. Continuously updated, the MilBlogs page is probably something you'd like to bookmark, add to your favorites, or blogroll. (Or use one of these banners to link to; be a "Friend of MilBlogs")

Rallying the Troops

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, addressed the world via Al-Jazeera:

"The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a matter of time, with God's help," he said.

"Americans in both countries are between two fires. If they carry on, they will bleed to death -- and if they pull out, they lose everything."

Wearing a white turban and glasses, al-Zawahiri said American forces are hunkered down and afraid to respond to advances of the mujahedeen.

John Kerry was quick to agree. In remarks to the Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention yesterday the devoutly pro-abortion candidate stated:

Of all George Bush's wrong choices, the most catastrophic one is the mess he's made in Iraq. It's not that I would have done one thing differently in Iraq, I would have done almost everything differently. It was wrong to rush to war without a plan to win the peace. It was wrong not to build a strong international coalition of our allies.

The junior senator from Massachusetts has maintained for several weeks that he has a secret plan to win the peace that he will reveal if and only if he is elected president.

More later, for now I've got to get back to packing.

Note

I'm aware of problems with the Amazon Honor System pay option and have sent an e-mail to the site. Thanks to the folks who've alerted me to the problem. (If anyone knows an alternate method of contacting customer service there please e-mail me that info.)

Rick Rescorla post below is from last year, re-posted for what should be obvious reasons. Any one with current info on the status of that medal please e-mail me.

Thanks to all who've donated to Mudville this week - I'm beginning to think of bigger and better things I can make happen while over there. More on that later.

Slightly off topic, kudos to all my fellow bloggers who helped expose the guard document forgeries. I'm convinced of this: Truth will out in the blogosphere - printed lies can not stand the scrutiny of a million eyes. It's not my main mission but I'll be proud to be a blogosphere 'reporter' from down range the next few months.

The world is different now. The information revolution is in full swing.

Update: Thanks to the good folks at TheCapitol.net for signing up for blogads. I think Mudville may have been the last blog of its size to make them available.

You can now support Mudville by visiting my advertisers; please do so. If you're in the market for blogads, I'm keeping the introductory rates in place for a very few more days. I don't think the readership at this site is going to decrease any time soon.

Greetings

So I'm in the Exchange checking out the supply of laptops and a guy overhears me mention to the salesman that I'm headed for a sandy spot. Turns out he just got back from over there and was full of useful advise.

Moments later another guy asks me where he can get a cup of coffee. Turns out he's just back too.

Young guys back from two different places. "How's morale?" I asked one. He gave me the thumbs down. "It's boring over there." He replied.

Boredom was his main complaint.

I know it's not that way everywhere - or anywhere all the time.

There's a bit of some feeling I can't explain associated with getting ready to deploy as the anniversary of 911 draws near. Perhaps an extra edge to the resolve, maybe something that makes it a little easier to talk to the kids (from my perspective at least, nothing lessens their burden).

The post below this one is from the archives. I wrote it some time last summer. The title a simple question, the post a simple answer.

I think the question could be asked of me now - has in fact. And I realize the answer still works.

Busy days - will try to get something new up soon.

Quick

Unfit for Command made it's debut at the Exchange Book Store today. Note: it was in the non-fiction section. Thus the Army and Air Force Exchange Service has declared the book to be true. ;)

And the individual who donated $9.11 - well done. Seems to me to be a fine amount. Thanks to all who've contributed thus far, my resolve to bring you the unvarnished front line truth is firm, and you are making it possible.

At your service,

Greyhawk

Choices

Packing the bags for the deployment downrange, deciding what goes in. There's only room for so much.

As I do, consider this.

A. Useful information from someone who was there

Globally we confront two enemies, and I have seen both of them in Iraq.

Despots and autocrats are the first enemy. The despot, with an arrogance that comes from never being held responsible for his crimes, believes his iron resolve eventually will trump the spineless advocates of democracy. Despots -- like the Saddamist holdouts fighting in Iraq -- believe all they need to do is keep killing until everyone is cowed. Why not? It's worked for them before. The arrogance only ends when a Green Beret -- or, with increasing frequency, an Iraqi cop -- blows his head off in a raid.

<...>

The second enemy we face feeds off the unfortunate victims of the first. The second enemy is the Islamist religious extremist. I have many Muslim friends, and they are the first targets of the bin Ladens and Zarqawis. Is this enemy a "death cult"? Not really -- note that the top dogs aren't suicidal. This enemy is an aggressive, imperialistic, violent sect that, in one guise or another, has plagued Islam for centuries.

<...>

If there is one mistake I think we've made in fighting this war, it's been the way we've soft-pedaled the ideological dimensions. This really is a fight for the future, between our free, open political system and the unholy alliance of despots and Islamo-fascists whose very existence depends on denying liberty.

Iraq -- long plundered by despotism -- should be a wealthy country. It has water, an agricultural base, a source of capital (oil) and people willing to work. It is the best place to begin to reform the dysfunctional political systems that shackle and rob the vast the majority of Middle Easterners. The lesson of 9-11, three years on, is that liberty must sustain a focused offensive if it is to survive.

B Something else altogether:

George W. Bush's wrong choices have led America in the wrong direction in Iraq and left America without the resources we need here at home. The cost of the President's go-it-alone policy in Iraq is now $200 billion and counting. $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children. $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans. $200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford to keep the 100,000 new police we put on the streets during the 1990s.

Well we're here today to tell them: they're wrong. And it's time to lead America in a new direction.

When it comes to Iraq, it's not that I would have done one thing differently from the President, I would've done almost everything differently. I would have given the inspectors the time they needed before rushing to war. I would have built a genuine coalition of our allies around the world. I would've made sure that every soldier put in harm's way had the equipment and body armor they needed. I would've listened to the senior military leaders of this country and the bipartisan advice of Congress. And, if there's one thing I learned from my own service, I would never have gone to war without a plan to win the peace.

I would not have made the wrong choices that are forcing us to pay nearly the entire cost of this war - $200 billion that we're not investing in education, health care, and job creation here at home.

$200 billion for going-it-alone in Iraq. That's the wrong choice; that's the wrong direction; and that's the wrong leadership for America.

While we're spending that $200 billion in Iraq, 8 million Americans are looking for work - 2 million more than when George W. Bush took office - and we're told that we can't afford to invest in job training and job creation here at home.

As I pack my bags this request: More A, please. And a lot less B. A is useful information, while B seems to be sending the loud and clear message - "hang in there, help is on the way!" - to the people described in A.

Back to business. Gas mask? Check. Kevlar? Check...

Generation Giap

Okay Chap, I see your 24-year old and raise you one 19-year old:

BAGHDAD -- An 18-year-old private earned the first Silver Star medal awarded to a soldier from the 1st Cavalry Division serving in Iraq after he helped fight off a deadly guerrilla ambush in May that killed two of his comrades and wounded five.

Pfc. Christopher Fernandez of Tucson, Ariz., received the Silver Star from the division's commander, Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, on Aug. 13. The Silver Star, the military's third-highest combat medal, is given for uncommon valor in combat.

Then, without even leaving Chicago:

With 4 inches of plaid boxer shorts visible above sagging jeans, Tony Mihalo fit almost perfectly into the teen crowd idling away the night in a Naperville bowling alley. Only a tight haircut hinted that he was different.

On Tuesday, the beefy 19-year-old will board a flight to San Diego, where, by nightfall, he will be chin-deep in the caldron of Marine Corps basic training at Camp Pendleton. That is the initial stop on what he expects to be a path leading to infantry duty in Iraq.

Mihalo enlisted in December as a senior at Naperville North High School but chose to delay his entry until fall, after graduation. That has given him a final summer at home, three golden months of movies, road trips and late-night sessions playing video games.

<...>

Naperville is a wealthy town where children are expected to go to college. Few enter the Armed Forces--only 10 of the 788 students in Mihalo's graduating class enlisted--and some sense a prejudice against those who do.

"If ... I say I have a son going into the military, all of a sudden, it's like, `Oh, you're letting him do that?'" said Mihalo's mother, Debbie Wolfe. "They look at him as though he's not educated."

And all ye gathered here will of course want to read them both in their entirety - a new generation of heroes walks among us.

Then go watch the MTV video of John Kerry, he who would be Commander in Chief of these fine men, and hear his message for the youth of today.

Thanks and a Welcome!

Some time very soon (in fact, more likely in the past as you read this) the 500,000th visitor will click in to the Mudville Gazette. Thanks for stopping by.

In a related note: Blogads are now available on this site, at a special introductory rate (see sidebar link).

Big things are coming to Mudville, but as I've noted, my future travels require gear, if I'm to continue to report the goings on in my shifting corner of the world. I'm not seeking profit, just trying to stay online.

For all those who've contributed via a donation or a link or just by being a reader my humblest of thanks. Your generosity is noted and won't be forgotten.

911

And other numbers.

Look, here's Michele and she's not doing her 911 remembrance site this year. I think I understand. It was different last year; this year certainly no one has forgotten, but... perhaps we've had all the pain we can bear.

With six hundred dead in one day in Russia, or a thousand fallen heros in Iraq, perhaps we really can't take too much more right now, thanks - and perhaps we're all busy soldiering on in our own way and perhaps some years from now...

Glenn Reynolds says Lileks did a great Labor Day post.

Of course he did. But it's not really a Labor Day post - unless bringing home the horror is what Labor Day is all about. But James like so many others of us was thinking about what it would be like to send his daughter off to school. I sent my two younger ones off to school one morning this week and they came home and I was glad. I mean, of course I was glad, but perhaps I didn't quite take it for granted.

Of course they came home.

One day soon I will say good bye to them for a while and I will go and not be back for a lot of school days.

Look, here's Lileks, last year, about this time:

At work I was talking to a colleague about a story I’d read, a piece on a man who perished in the towers. He was the solider on the front of the Vietnam history “We Were Soldiers.” The piece has been going around the blogosphere, and even if I could find the link the site’s bandwidth has been exceeded for a while so I’m not sure a link would be helpful today. Anyway. I’m relating the tale, how the man helped to evacuate everyone in his office, and cheered them with lusty old British war songs - and at that point I couldn’t talk anymore. That was it. You make some gestures to indicate you’ve lost your handle for a moment; you turn away and get your grip. Didn’t happen when you read the story; didn’t happen when you thought about it the other day; but it’s happening now.

The day is full of moments like that. The day is bristling of sharp pikes, and you’ll snag on one of them before it’s over.

Here's that link, James.

Where do we find such as these?

Such Heros

Chapomatic asks:

'Hawk,

Twenty four year old kid gets a Silver Star. He was an E-2 at the time! Where do we get such heroes?

I don't know, but generation after generation there seems to somehow be a few available when needed.

By the way, don't miss the comment thread at Chap's (linked above).

The Troops Get Even

John Derbyshire in The Corner on AF Gen Merrill McPeak,

Here, Here, Here

Any others out there with fond memories?

Cracks in the Axis

Scarcely one week after Russia, Germany, and France agreed to do something undetermined about Iraq

The London Times has an interesting piece (subscription only) that starts here:

In the past three years, the world has been adjusting to the consequences of 9/11. That one event has dominated American politics and policy. It has divided the Nato alliance, with France and Germany taking one line and the United States and Britain another. In both America and Britain it has been the central issue of political debate. It has been a major influence on the increasingly unstable world market for oil. It has been the crucial event in the growth of Islamic terrorism.

Then finishes here:

Strategically, Beslan pushes Russia, which is a major power and a nuclear one, towards working with the US against terrorism and in the Middle East. China and India have similar motives and a similar fear of terrorism. Europe remains as doubtful as ever, but becomes less important. Objectively, as the Marxists used to say, the Chechen separatists have strengthened Mr Bush; they have pushed Russia towards supporting his policy and they have helped him to win re-election.

With a lot of well-worth-reading stuff in between. The headline? Beslan Is Russia's 9/11: It Will Change The World.

Will it?

That bit about working with the US is an interesting line, and if you think it far- fetched consider this stunner from the Washington Times:

Israel Will Aid Russia In Fight On Terror

Russia is turning for help against terrorism to a country with long experience, signing a memorandum with Israel yesterday pledging the two countries will work more closely in fighting the scourge.

The increased sophistication of the terrorists in Chechnya and growing signs of an Arab role in last week's school attack in Beslan, Russia ? where 120 victims were buried yesterday ? appear to have overcome Moscow's concerns about offending its Arab allies by cooperating with Israel.

Funeral processions jammed the rain-filled streets of Beslan on the first of two days of official mourning yesterday, while other anguished parents searched for missing children. At least half of the more than 330 dead in explosions and a shootout Friday at the school are children.

(Note: I believe Logic and Sanity translated this Russia/Israel connection from Russian sources before the American media reported it.)

Other reports have the gravediggers of Beslan preparing 600 sites. Pausing here before reading on for brief prayer is encouraged.

Now then, how about that wake up call, Europe?

Italy:

Italian diplomats say that France was behind forged documents which at first appeared to prove that Iraq was seeking "yellow-cake" uranium in Niger - evidence used by Britain and America to promote the case for last year's Gulf war.

They say that France's intelligence services used an Italian-born middle-man to circulate a mixture of genuine and bogus documents to "trap" the two leading proponents of war with Saddam into making unsupportable claims.

They have passed to The Sunday Telegraph a photograph which they claim shows the Italian go-between, sometimes known as "Giacomo" - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - meeting a senior French intelligence officer based in Brussels. "The French hoped that the bulk of the documents would be exposed as false, since many of them obviously were," an Italian official said.

"Their aim was to make the allies look ridiculous in order to undermine their case for war."

France:

PARIS -- As France awaits word on two journalists being held hostage in Iraq, officials have made it clear that they expect to benefit from their stand against the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. "France has always pleaded for the sovereignty of this country and supported its people," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said last week as the crisis unfolded.

The safe return of the journalists, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, would not only end a crisis that has gripped the country but would also ratify the value of French opposition to the Bush administration's Iraq policy, political observers said.

In lobbying for the captives' freedom, the observers said, France had gained support from governments in the Middle East, Muslim religious leaders and even the Hezbollah guerrilla group, which has used kidnappings in its fight against Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

"The French diplomatic effort has been impressive. If the hostages are released, it is a plus for French foreign policy," said Guillaume Parmentier, a political analyst and expert on U.S.-French relations.

Which leads us back to the London Times, where we find this:

Iraqi Prime Minister Slams Delusions Of 'Pacifist' French

By Hala Jaber, Baghdad

THE Iraqi interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has accused France of deluding itself that it was immune from terrorism because of its opposition to the war on Iraq and of taking a pacifist role in the war on terror.

In an interview last week, Allawi urged European governments, including the French, not to be ?half-hearted? in combating terrorism and to close ranks with his country in its battle against the ?evil forces? undermining security.

?No civilised country can draw back; the campaign against terrorism must be a global one, because the challenge is global,? the prime minister said.

?The French, like all democratic countries, cannot let themselves be satisfied with adopting a passive position . . . Governments that decide to stay on the defensive will be the next terrorist targets.?

Allawi said the kidnapping of two French journalists showed that ?neutrality doesn?t exist?. ?Even though France was against the war, it will not be spared. Hiding away from confrontation is not the way . . . The French will soon have to fight against terrorists.?

The prime minister made his comments as France worked feverishly to secure the release of the journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, kidnapped by Islamic militants 16 days ago.

On Thursday a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece for Allawi?s party, the Iraqi National Accord, said President Jaques Chirac must share responsibility for the kidnappings because he had opposed international initiatives aimed at restoring Iraq?s security.

A second editorial complained that France was proud not to have helped topple the regime of Saddam Hussein and had remained silent while ?terrorist attacks were being carried out against the Iraqi people and infrastructure . . . Now France can?t sit still. Its envoys are everywhere, including in Iraq, calling on all Iraqis to intervene to free their citizens?.

Allawi appealed in his interview for more European help in training Iraqi security forces and providing them with technical assistance. His country also needed to exchange information on the movement of terrorists, he said.

He revealed that he was holding private meetings with Iraqi insurgents in an effort to persuade them to accept the offer of a government amnesty in return for laying down their weapons. The meetings, some of which have taken place at Allawi?s home, represent the most significant effort yet to curb the insurgency through political rather than military means.

The prime minister said meetings with representatives of insurgent groups from the restive cities of Falluja, Ramadi and Samara began shortly after he took office in June, but had yet to produce any agreements.

?I am talking to the people there and we are reaching out to them, to tribes, to guys who were in military and security (services),? he said.

?I am telling them there is only one thing to do: respect the rule of law. If you want to use violence, we will face you violently and suppress you and we will bring you to justice.?

The Americans had made mistakes, said Allawi, but ?this is no excuse to behead people?. In any case, he refused to accept that an anti-occupation resistance movement existed in Iraq.

As far as he was concerned, all the fighters were ?terrorists, criminals, thieves, ex-regime still at large and foreign fighters coming from abroad such as Egypt, Jordan and Iran?.

I believe he speaks for free peoples everywhere.

Including Germany:

BERLIN ? A German government minister came under criticism Friday for labeling the Iraq war "a true crime."

Germany's conservative opposition urged Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to reprimand Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, minister for economic cooperation and development.

Wieczorek-Zeul said in a speech late Wednesday that the Iraq war had caused terrible human suffering.

"That is a true crime," said the left-wing member of Schroeder's Social Democrats, known as the SPD.

Leaders of the opposition Christian Democrats, or CDU, who supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, called on Wieczorek-Zeul to retract the remarks and for Schroeder to silence her.

"The chancellor needs to put a muzzle on Wieczorek-Zeul and her anti-American attacks," said Christian Ruck, a CDU deputy.

Government officials and SPD deputies defended Wieczorek-Zeul's remarks.

Schroeder had criticized U.S. steps against Iraq right until the war started. In his 2002 reelection campaign, he said an attack on Iraq would "set ablaze" the Middle East.

But wait - there's hope, as David's Medienkritik reports on elections in the German Republic of Saarland - located approximately one kilometer west of Haus Grauhawk:

Yet another state election in Germany has resulted in a major loss for German Chancellor Schroeder and his ruling Socialist SPD party. The Saarland elections, held in a small western state bordering France, resulted in a massive drop of over 13 points for the SPD since the last election in 1999. The other major parties in the election all gained between 2 and 4 points.

By the way, did you know the horror in Russia occurred on the 65th anniversary of the start of World War II in Europe?

More MilBlogs

The Stryker Brigades point us to an article on military blogging from the military's perspective. This may help end some of those "they're cracking down on MilBlogs" stories I've seen here and there about the web.

Dog bites man?

How many times have you seen it: young guy, about 19, crashing presidential candidate's appearance to argue his side of the political debate, speaking truth to power in favor of his choice while angry white-haired lady rather loudly opposes in favor of hers.

However many times you've seen such a thing, go see it again. You'll be glad you did.

Update: Bush supporters drunken dirtbags! Well, that explains it. But you know, if that were so, the Democrat's new Bush is a drunken dirtbag argument might not gain them much ground...

Update 2: Key Kerry supporters respond:

Greg Marmalard.

Dean Wormer.

Wrong Wrong Wrong...

John Kerry: 'Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time'

Me: Thanks - I'll keep that in mind on the flight over.

Update: By the way, if everyone who wanders by here would see fit to hit that paypal button for a modest (really, 5 bucks would be great) donation this site will continue to provide you with the insights and diversions that I hope are your reasons for visiting. Honestly, if not, it will likely vanish within a few short weeks. That's not a threat, it's just an unavoidable truth.

And whether you contribute or not, I'll take this time to note that if you don't vote this year I will find you on my return to the states and personally kick your ass.

Thanks for stopping by.

Update 2: I would consider it a great favor if fellow bloggers would kindly link this post. Thanks.

Update 3: I suppose I should point out I'm going on a trip (ahem) and without some proper gear will be unable to continue updating this site - just to clarify. Said gear is not cheap, (think laptop and digital camera) and I think you might be interested in my reports from my destination.

Thanks to those who've chipped in thus far.

Good to "See" you Again...

My War is back.