New Year's Resolutions

It's just past midnight in Germany. Happy New Year!

(Of course, the Mudville clock - set to zulu time - still has a few minutes to go.)

But here are President Bush's resolutions.

2005, In Fact

Blogs tend to be focused on the latest news - the here and now. Responding to (or creating) the latest outrage, fanning (or dousing) the flames a bit, then moving on to the next big thing. Nothing wrong with that - in fact, that approach had a noticeable impact on the "news cycle" this past year. Stories that once could have been played for weeks or months in the nation's papers or evening news shows were debunked within days - or hours - if they lacked merit. And one thing that becomes obvious in reviewing the news of the past year is that the outrage of the moment has, in hindsight, repeatedly proven to be not so significant after all.

But, being focused on the latest, we often neglect to look back in review. This, of course, is the time of year for just that. And there's good reason to do so, because the totality of the effort reveals something that the individual parts can not. A single exposure of media bias, or poor reporting, or outright misinformation from any source can be dismissed - everyone is entitled to a occasional mistake, after all. But a year's worth, well, that's a bit harder to ignore.

Recruiting numbers, wounded troops, fictional "fallen heroes", reports from Iraq that were months out of date, newspapers mis-quoting soldiers, newspapers fabricating biographies of "anti-war" types, Senators manufacturing "scandals" involving the military - all of these are demonstrably false. These aren't examples of my opinion being different from the reporters - these are outright factual inaccuracies (to put it politely) we've exposed over the past year. So get set - we're going to review 2005 in Mudville. And this is just the first installment. A year's worth of simple facts from Mudville for starters, we'll review more complex things later. If you're looking for something new, stick around - many of the myths debunked below are still alive and well, they'll probably be back in the year to come (history tends to repeat itself whether you ignore it or not) and we'll be here when they do.

*****

Does the US military intentionally target and kill journalists in Iraq? When CNN's Eason Jordan made the claim it quickly became one of the earliest outrages of the year. Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald joined us for a discussion on that topic. He had reported from the scene during the fall of Baghdad in 2003, and witnessed one of the most notorious examples first hand. The blowback from this event ultimately cost Jordan his job, but much about that has been subsequently mischaracterized: "blogs went after Eason Jordan, and succeeded in claiming his scalp." The reality is that blogs went after the truth - and though no smoking guns were found perhaps that result does indicate what that elusive truth might be.

Other truths aren't quite so elusive - just more obscure. Later in the year CBS reported that Route Irish - the road connecting the Baghdad Airport to the city proper, was one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the world. This once was true - but the CBS report surprised me because just days prior I had noted a Washington Post report detailing how safe the road had become. But CBS had filmed their bit several months earlier, and elected to broadcast it as "news" without any regard for the progress of those months. Read The Road to Victory, where we sort it all out. (Later a CBS producer would acknowledge the failure.)

But perhaps Route Irish is still unsafe for CBS employees - at least, those who "embed" with the terrorists in Iraq. Early in the year a cameraman was wounded by US forces (there's that targeting story again) in a firefight immediately following a car bomb explosion in Iraq. But some of the civilian survivors of the attack exposed him as one of the terrorists to the US Soldiers, and they promptly arrested him. (Side note: those soldiers were part of the Deuce-Four, the unit Mike Yon was with in Mosul.) The cameraman was in possession of video of several such attacks - a few too many to be considered just a lucky coincidence. The military would also reveal that he tested positive for explosive residue. As with the Route Irish story, a few comments would be made, but ultimately the story simply "went away".

CBS could still claim credit for that Abu Ghraib story, of course. At least, as long as all the facts are ignored.

Speaking of Abu Ghraib, here's a telling quote from an Iraqi citizen:

"This might be a part of a political game, like when pictures of prisoners' abuses in Abu Ghraib prison were published, just to harm President Bush's reputation," said Hameed Shabak, 35, a Mosul resident.

The "this" he was referring to was Cindy Sheehan's camping trip in a ditch in Crawford, Texas.

The "Muslim Street" isn't all that gullible, you see. That's one of the reasons why Newsweek's Koran flushing story didn't really last all that long. If that story was designed to incite violence, it wasn't the first.

*****

Of course, some people have been "inspired" by such reports - inspired to violence. The result - more American GIs wounded and killed. But how many? If you listen to some media reports or claims from certain US Senators you may be led to believe that "over 15,000 have returned home mutilated". You would be wrong.

But in addition to physical wounds, there are serious mental scars borne by the troops. You might be surprised by the percentages of returning GIs suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, depression, PTSD, and other anxiety disorders. They are lower than the percentages for society as a whole.

Others, of course, have given the last full measure of devotion. The fallen return home too, and according to a recent report from another US Senator they are shoved unceremoniously into the cargo holds of civilian aircraft, sent home with the luggage and tossed out on the tarmac for their loved ones to claim. Is this true? No - it's another attempt to score political points using dead GIs.

There are two types of Iraq war veterans that have a tremendous appeal to the anti-war crowd - the fictional and the dead. Both types have a common, irresistible trait - others can claim to speak on their behalf.

That's actually from our look at one of the fictional and dead soldiers from the Iraq war. A newspaper in Illinois had been reporting about him for years. A newspaper in Colorado could probably sympathize - they were hoodwinked in a similar scam.

But neither of those stories could top the first bogus news event of the year - the kidnapping of GI Joe by terrorists in Iraq. (Actually, Special Ops Cody.)

Fortunately, MilBlog Commandos were ready!

*****

To their credit, the smaller newspapers involved in those phony fallen hero stories readily admitted they were wrong. Too bad the larger media outlets don't follow that example - instead refusing to budge when exposed for spinning absolute falsehoods about actual soldiers - even when exposed by those very soldiers:

My name is Kathleen Whitney and I am an emergency room nurse and a 1st Lieutenant in the Army reserve. A few weeks ago I was featured in a story on CNN.com.

But for modifying or fabricating quotes, CNN couldn't come close to the New York Times.

Of course, it wasn't just soldiers who were portrayed as something they are not in the major media - the anti-war crowd was too:

The seasoned protesters who organized tomorrow's antiwar demonstration are well-versed in many other causes. They have marched and rallied against police brutality, racism, colonialism and the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

But their message on the Mall tomorrow will be singular: "End the war in Iraq."

Because of that sharp focus, they will be joined by novice protesters such as Patrice Cuddy, 56. Interviewed by phone yesterday, the former public school teacher in Olathe, Kan., said she had to pull off her gardening gloves each time a neighbor interrupted her yardwork to ask about joining the bus she had chartered to go to the nation's capital.

Patrice, of course, had been actively involved in anti-war groups for years. And as for that "singular focus..."

Which brings us to another memorable quote from Iraq:

To achieve their second goal, turning Americans against the war, the mujahideen need to shape their operations "to support anti- war sentiment in the west".

That's advice for terrorists and "anti-war" westerners from Saddam-era Iraqi army "strongman" Colonel Watban Jassam.

We'll do another year end round up just for the anti-war crowd later.

*****

Speaking of quotes from Iraq, here's a third:

"I can tell you in one sentence how my country feels about your country: thank you for coming, now please leave and take us with you."

Which brings us to the Americans and Iraqis in Iraq.

The troops: Who are all these troops in Iraq? And when are they coming home?

The answer to that first question is here. The second is tricky. But if you're interested in what was really said about the troop rotations (Higher? Lower? Who will decide?) before the calls for "bring them home now" rang out loudly once again - see here. Seeing that the troops were about to start coming home, "some" demanded that they be brought home defeated.

And what of the people of Iraq? Here's a look at trends in terrorist attacks there - and one of the results. On that topic, does anyone know what President Bush really said about civilians killed in Iraq?

*****

Given the reality of war one might expect a rough year for military recruiters. Was there? Yes and no.

Looking at the geography reveals that the Northeast is the only region under-represented in recruiting numbers. Media reports focused on over-representation of the south.

We looked at the drop in the number of black Americans joining (a 40% decline) here. The media tried to spin this one as a result of the Iraq war, but the sharpest drop was immediately after 9/11.

A GAO report in October revealed that 58% of age-eligible youths can't meet entry-level standards for health, education, aptitude, and other requirements - and are thus ineligible to serve.

Evaluating the economic status of recruits reveals one of the most amazing attempts at media spin of the year:

Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income.

Interesting phrasing from the Washington Post - but if "nearly half" come from "lower-middle-class to poor households" that means over half of all new recruits come form upper middle class to wealthy households. Wonder why they didn't say it that way?

But the Army did end up short of new recruits for the year - mostly due to end-strength increases called for by congress. In spite of Iraq and other demands of the war on terror, the actual numbers of recruits was similar to previous years:

To put this year's shortfall in perspective, the total of 73,400 people recruited is within 2 percent of the average recruitment each year for the past 10 years. And the Army finished the last four months of the year strongly, recruiting more than 8,000 people each month. The Army also exceeded its reenlistment goals, enabling it to just about make up for the recruiting shortfall.

That re-enlistment number is revealing too - the people who actually know what's going on are re-upping in record numbers, in the active and reserve components. Furthermore...

Nationally, of the nearly 500,000 Guard and reservists deployed since September 2001, only about 76,600 have been called up twice - and all but 2,200 of them volunteered for a second tour, according to the Pentagon.

Here's a look at reasons why

Of course, some folks want to make sure there's a bigger shortfall - or a draft - next year:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and other Democrats proposed Wednesday to increase the size of the Army by 80,000 troops as a way to alleviate what she called a "crisis" in the military caused by lengthy deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking of the Senate...

I'd rather not, but it was rather hard to ignore the outcry there this year as "some" took the claims that they'd been misled into supporting the war in Iraq to new levels.

Here's history the way some seem to remember March, 2003 now:

That attempt a humor is from April 2005. But as usual, what at first seems worthy of ridicule soon becomes the important public debate of the day - as defined by "some."

But history has been re-written - though it didn't begin in 2005. But this year I found two very interesting programs from PBS - both from the news series "Frontline".

Here's the description of the first, from immediately prior to the invasion of Iraq:

With the U.S. apparently within days of attacking Iraq, FRONTLINE draws on its 12 years of reporting on Iraq to chronicle the key moments in the history of America's ongoing confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

But months later, they would remember the build-up as somewhat less than 12 years long:

FRONTLINE traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following September 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war.

For many folks of many differing current opinions, the world changed on September 11th, 2001. But history did not begin that day, neither did the war in Iraq. Our Brief History of a Long War - an effort still in progress - sets that record straight.

*****

As for those politicians, by late November President Bush's approval rating had reached a new low - 34%. A series of speeches would turn that number around before the year's end. But a less reported fact is the identity of the least-respected political group in America as indicated by those same polls - Congressional Democrats. Only 25% of Americans polled gave Democrats a favorable rating in November, compared with 31% in August, one of the biggest dips in approval. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging - might be some useful advice for them.

It is not known whether any American political party has ever ended a year any deeper in the toilet.

Baby Noor's Journey

Baby Noor's trip to America has begun, the first leg of the journey courtesy of the US Air Force:

The C-130 Hercules aircraft here have routinely hauled more than one million troops and 76,000 tons of cargo in and out of Iraq.

But today the mission was not routine.

At about 4 p.m., a C-130 from the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing touched down here carrying Baby Noor, her father and grandmother on their way to the United States for medical treatment.
<...>
The C-130 crew on this mission was from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, and originally had the day off.

“We weren’t scheduled to fly, so to get alerted to fly something like this is pretty darn satisfying,” said co-pilot Capt. Raul Ochoa of the 738th Expeditionary Air Squadron. “We’ve had the opportunity to take part in a lot of missions but this is probably the most rewarding.”
<...>
“We’re just fortunate to be able to fly them out, it was an honor,” said pilot Capt. Craig Hinkley. “I’ve never done a humanitarian mission quite like this.”

U.S. Embassy officials in Kuwait coordinated with the Kuwaiti minister of interior to allow a smooth passage to the U.S.

“They were very helpful, allowing these three Iraqis to transit though without visas,” said Charles Glatz, a consul at the embassy.

While the story of Baby Noor now moves to the United States, members of the aircrew won’t soon forget the flight.

“[This was] one of the best missions I’ve ever done,” said loadmaster Tech. Sgt. Dave Rea. “It’s not often we get to help someone like that.”

Flight engineer Tech. Sgt. Bill Thomas summed it up best.

“[This flight] makes it worth getting up in the morning,” he said. “I was pretty excited to do something this important.”

Baby Noor and her grandmother, Soad, are en route Friday from Baghdad International Airport to Kuwait on a C-130 transport plane. Loadmaster Staff Sgt. Eric Watts, 28, of Gary, Ind., looks on.

Of course, nothing worth doing is easy:

However, once they reached Kuwait, they discovered that the KLM flight that was to take them to Amsterdam was canceled. U.S. Embassy officials rerouted the family on a Lufthansa flight through Frankfurt but because they are Iraqi citizens, they needed transit visas for Germany.

Early Saturday morning, U.S. officials were able to contact the German Embassy in Washington to issue clearance for the family to land in Frankfurt.
<...>
High above the clouds, Delta Air Lines Captain David Damare had something to tell the passengers on Flight 15 from Frankfurt to Atlanta.

All of Delta’s customers were special, he said. But Saturday there was a particularly special person on board. Her name was Noor al-Zahra.

She was three months old and traveling from her native Iraq all the way to Atlanta to receive surgery to correct a life-threatening problem in her spinal cord.
<...>
“We are very excited about this trip,” said Soad. “We are thankful to the people of Georgia.”

Baby Noor smiles at her father, Haider. Noor, who has spina bifida, was determined to be healthy enough for the plane trip to Atlanta for life-saving surgery. She is unable to move her legs.

Previous stories here and here.

Open Post

The Lincoln Group

A look at one of the key players in the recent information operations "scandal":

Officials declined to talk in much detail about the nature of their work or with whom they are contracted. But Paige Craig, a 31-year-old former enlisted Marine who co-founded the company, said it is active in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates and is hoping to make inroads in Africa and Asia.

He said the firm’s goal is to promote commerce in hostile environments by “bridging the cultural divide” between those nations and Western governments and businesses.

Lincoln employs an eclectic mix of former military personnel — a former Special Forces medical sergeant works alongside a former New York University professor — as well as public relations specialists, television producers, business development consultants and research analysts. The company, whose founders pride themselves on being on the ground and in the field, have lost some 18 Iraqi employees since arriving on the international scene two years ago, Craig said.

The company’s vision is rooted in the notion that commerce can flourish if people and institutions have the right tools. In countries like Iraq, there is a hunger for information and entertainment content, said Craig, a bearded West Point dropout who joined the Corps to seek broader international experience.

Perhaps a bit less opaque than some reports on this story would lead us to believe, though there's still plenty of fodder for the die-hard conspiracy theory enthusiast.

For instance, this seems like pure evil:

In Pakistan, for example, Lincoln Group is looking at selling syndication rights to an American teen television program. If successful, young children in Pakistan — a key ally in the war on terrorism — would hear news and entertainment with an American bent.

And then there's this:

The company earlier contracted with the Marine Corps to distribute plastic water bottles imprinted with a friendly message to thousands of Iraqis.

Water - probably flouridated!

MilBlogs on the Beeb

The BBC will have a radio discussion with milbloggers at 1800 GMT (that's 1300 EST - or "one o'clock in the afternoon" for you civilians on the east coast). You can listen here.

Update: Apologies if you, like me, tuned in to discover there were no milbloggers on today. In fact, the audio included none of the topics described on the web page. Don't know why, but if I find out I'll pass the info on.

Baby Noor

Readers here have already met baby Noor, an Iraqi child born with a severe form of spina bifida. Iraqi doctors told the family that Noor would not survive more than 45 days. But soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team met baby Noor when they raided her family's home in Baghdad, and far from terrorizing them, the event may prove an unlikely turning point for the family.

For although baby Noor has a long road ahead, thanks to those soldiers that road may soon be traveled:

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said the senator has been in touch with the American Embassy in Baghdad and that the paperwork for Noor and her relatives should be processed within two days or so.
<...>
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is committed to treating the child at no cost, spokeswoman Jennifer Sinclair said Tuesday night.
<...>
Tears rolled down the cheeks of Noor's mother, Iman. Only two adults could go with her only child: it was decided that her mother-in-law, Soad, the matriarch of the family, would be one; the baby's father, Haider, would be the other. The family thought it was inappropriate for a Muslim woman to travel unaccompanied by a male relative.

"I am happy my baby is going," said Iman, wiping tears. She knew that it could be many months before she would see her baby again. "It's hard to be separated like this. But what else can I do?"
<...>
Charlie Company Lt. Jeff Morgan, a Douglas County engineering inspector, contacted his church back home for help. As the case drew more attention, the soldiers saw that their Christmas wish might come true.

"I am thankful that this child is being given a chance for a normal life, but she still has a long way to go," Morgan said.
<...>
The doctor's visit was happily interrupted by Sgt. 1st Class James Wong of the 48th Brigade's Chicago-based 133rd Signal Battalion, Alpha Company. He burst into the trailer with two beanbag toys for Noor.

"We heard the baby was here," Wong said. "I love babies. I've got two of my own. That's what we're here for — to take care of the kids for the future."

Fournier picked up a can of baby formula the grandmother carried and asked: "Is this the last of it?"

"Yes," Soad replied.

"OK, we'll get some more," said Fournier, writing down the name of the formula: Dieluc. "Can she eat oatmeal?"

His question generated a stream of laughter from both interpreter and grandmother. "No," Soad said. "She is only 3 months old."

Later, at Charlie Company headquarters, Fournier joked about calling in his latest assignment for his soldiers.

"Here's the mission," he said. "Find the baby formula. Stand by for the name."

Staff Sgt. Darryl Clark, of Lula, Ga., Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry, gets the honor of feeding baby Noor after delivering baby formula to her grandmother after their supply ran out at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. Noor, who was hungry and crying, fell asleep in Clark's arms after the bottle.

The rest of the story is here.

Updated here.

Previous story here.

If the unit sounds familiar to you it might be because SGT Mike Stokely was a member of the 48th.

If the story sounds familiar, it might be because it's not the first such tale told.

Open Post

Information Operations (II)

CNN Today:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Construction workers laying a water pipeline in the Iraqi city of Karbala Monday found a mass grave containing the remains of up to 20 people, police in the southern city of Hilla told CNN.

The gruesome find was about 800 meters (half a mile) from the holy shrine of Imam Hussein.

The grave is believed to contain the bodies of people killed by Saddam Hussein's security forces during the uprising of 1991.

This sort of story may become common as Iraq rebuilds. But shortly after the fall of Baghdad CNN's own Eason Jordan explained why many such stories were only rumors in the years prior.

Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

Thus began Jordan's confession, his cleansing of the soul at the dawn of a new day. His piece was a litany of terror inflicted by Saddam, and it remains a difficult read even today. Some of his descriptions were "generic":

The secret police terrorized Iraqis working for international press services who were courageous enough to try to provide accurate reporting. Some vanished, never to be heard from again. Others disappeared and then surfaced later with whispered tales of being hauled off and tortured in unimaginable ways. Obviously, other news organizations were in the same bind we were when it came to reporting on their own workers.

Others were horrifyingly specific:

For example, in the mid-1990's one of our Iraqi cameramen was abducted. For weeks he was beaten and subjected to electroshock torture in the basement of a secret police headquarters because he refused to confirm the government's ludicrous suspicion that I was the Central Intelligence Agency's Iraq station chief.
<...>
I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.
<...>
A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me.

Jordan concluded his brief examination of previously untold truths with an expectation of more to follow:

Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

But the irony is that they aren't - and we can only speculate why. Perhaps doing so might give readers and viewers the non-progressive thought that putting panties on someone's head isn't really torture; that there are worse things than being wrapped in an Israeli flag or smeared with "fake menstrual blood"; that perhaps loud Eminem tracks aren't really a fate worse than some deaths after all. But whatever the reason, there's apparently little space in today's media for those stories that at last could indeed be told freely - there were in fact more stories of Saddam's atrocities before the 2003 invasion than since.

Not for lack of active effort on the part of some to suppress those pre-war tales. Here's Scott Ritter in 2002, explaining why he refused to reveal what he knew about Saddam's now-forgotten children's prisons:

"The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children--toddlers up to pre-adolescents--whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace."

*****

We'll pause briefly now to cleanse our own souls, with these words from John Stuart Mill:

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

*****

To their credit, CNN does report the periodic discovery of mass graves in Iraq.

Forensic experts are investigating a mass grave thought to contain the remains of as many as 1,500 Kurds killed in the 1980s.

The grave, with 18 trenches, is in Samawa, 230 miles (370 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, along the Euphrates River. Most of Iraq's Kurds live in the north of the country.

"We know they're Kurdish victims because of the clothing and artifacts that were found with the bodies," said Gregg Nivala, an attorney with the Department of Justice's Regime Crimes Liaison Office.

Nivala said more than 300 mass graves have been found in Iraq, but investigators have only been able to get to two. It is not clear how many bodies are in any of the other graves.

Given the numbers, many probably assume that the master of information operations - he who cowed the world's media for years - would be on trial for the total of his crimes against humanity.

He is not. Hussein now stands trial for one of his "lesser" crimes - events that followed his visit to the Shi'ite town of Dujayl:

Archival footage from the day, recently discovered and broadcast by Britain's Channel 4, shows crowds running after Hussein's convoy, cheering and throwing sweets as the president enters town. Wearing army fatigues and a black beret, Hussein stood atop a building and thanked the wildly enthusiastic residents for their war efforts.

As the motorcade took its leave, passing thickets of palms, gunfire erupted, many witnesses have recounted. Assassins had been waiting. Hussein's security forces fired back.

"It was a real firefight," said Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor and a well-known former Shiite activist who was imprisoned and tortured by the regime. Several members of the entourage were killed, but the president escaped, as did most, if not all, of the attackers.

The archival footage shows Hussein addressing the crowds again after the assassination attempt. "These few shots won't frighten the people of Iraq and they won't frighten Saddam Hussein. We will find and question [the suspects]. They will turn out to be three, four or five people. But the 39,000 people of Dujayl are with the revolution. We distinguish between the people of Dujayl and a small number of traitors in Dujayl."

The next day, Baath Party and security officials started arresting anyone with a question mark next to his name, anyone linked to the Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, anyone with connections to Dawa, local people say.

"They grabbed people on the street and took them away," Massoud said. "They were forcing them to confess against others. If they couldn't find someone, they would take his wife and children until he showed up."

Iman-Sen Araji's husband, Abbas, then a teacher of Islamic law, was among those arrested. "They didn't knock," the mother of five said. "They pushed through the door and surprised us. They didn't say why he was taken. I didn't dare ask."

Within days, a command center had been set up, according to witnesses, at Baath Party headquarters. Helicopters flew over the orchards and fired rockets at the trees.

Jaffar Ali Mussawi, the farmer's youngest son, was checking on the family's orchards when the 16-year-old was stopped by police. "Someone said, 'Hey, his brother was arrested,' so they arrested him too," the elder Mussawi said.

Several days later, security officers came for Mussawi's third and last son, Hassan Ali, then 22. Mussawi never saw his three sons again.

In all, 1,500 people were rounded up, the mayor said.

Within days of the attack on the president, Araji and her five children were loaded onto a truck and taken to a prison in Baghdad, Araji said. They and nearly 60 other families from Dujayl were placed in a big room.

"They tortured us and beat us with sticks," she said. "They said, 'Confess! Give us information!' "

After 25 days, the residents were told they were going home.

They were packed up and put in vehicles. But instead of home, their destination was the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. There, they said, they were subjected to more beatings and humiliation. Guards paraded husbands before their wives and children as they were being tortured, Araji recalled.

Abbas Araji's sister and mother were the last to see him alive sometime in late 1983 or early 1984, his wife said. He looked emaciated and near death. His execution order was discovered after the regime's fall.

His family's torment continued. Iman-Sen said she and her children were sent along with other families to Nograt Salman, a remote desert outpost of mud huts near the Saudi border.

Hania Mufti, an official with Human Rights Watch, said such forced relocations to camps were common in Iraq throughout the 1980s. Often there were no guards because there was no way to escape. "They were surrounded by nothing but quicksand and scorpions," Mufti said.

"There were a lot of kids at these places. A lot of people died, and they would just throw the bodies out and the wild dogs would eat them."

You could be forgiven for not knowing that - the focus of the media's trial coverage has been on the accused, the presence (or lack) of his chief apologist, and questions regarding the legality of the court.

His guilt, of course, is a foregone conclusion. Thus we don't really need to rehash his crimes, do we? Because, "of course, we all agree he was a bad guy".

Normally another word follows that statement, rendering it the equivalent of "I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me" and "Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace". That extra word dismisses the unspeakable crimes and explains why, when "at last, these stories can be told freely" they are instead told rarely.

That word is "but".

"Of course, we all agree he was a bad guy, BUT..."

Information operations isn't just about the stories you tell; much is revealed by the stories you don't.

Or those some might prefer to keep buried in the sands of Babylon.

Hard to get Good Help These Days

Or: "A year in the life of a working man"

January: You're hired!

August: You're fired!

November: You're hired!

Early December: I quit!

Late December (near Christmas, in fact): I'll be over here if you need me.

Information Operations (I)

Across the country from New York to LA and few points in between, journalists were outraged at the revelation that the US military was paying to have "good news" stories run in Iraqi papers. I couldn't see the problem - but I'm not a complicated man. From my simple perspective the story boils down to this: I have a gun. You have a gun. I can talk you into setting that gun down, or I can shoot you. This, I believe, is the fundamental concept - the moral imperative, in fact - establishing the need for such information operations in a war zone. Of course, people getting shot is what the front page of the paper is all about, so perhaps reducing that number equals reduced sales - and this of course, will fuel "outrage" from those dependent on those sales to pay for the next drinking binge when the pangs of guilt start gnawing into their conscience. But I digress...

When Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) originally demanded an investigation into those stories he labeled the program "a devious scheme to place favorable propaganda in Iraqi newspapers." That investigation is nearly complete, but based on those comments he likely won't be happy with the result:

Iraq Info Ops Review Yields No Wrongdoing, Casey Says

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – A preliminary investigation of alleged improprieties conducted by U.S. military information operations activities in Iraq hasn't found any wrongdoing, the top U.S. officer in Iraq said today.

"We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said from his headquarters in Iraq during a satellite news conference with Pentagon reporters.

Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, was responding to a reporter's question on the status of the two-week-old review Navy Rear Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk is conducting into U.S. information operations practices in Iraq.

The issue had been raised in a recent Los Angeles Times story alleging that articles written by U.S. forces highlighting anti-terrorist and reconstruction successes and mounting anti-insurgent sentiment in Iraq had been improperly planted in Iraqi media outlets.

And Senator Kennedy will likely not be alone in his anger - when that final report is issued there will be more outrage in the American media.

As there was in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime when the media was "outraged" over having been duped by another "skilled" propagandist. From a CENTCOM press briefing, April 11, 2003:

GEN. BROOKS:...I would add that information-wise, the coalition governments have identified a list of key regime leaders who must be pursued and brought to justice. The key list has 55 individuals who may be pursued, killed or captured, and the list does not exclude leaders who may have already been killed or captured. This list has been provided to coalition forces on the ground in several forms to ease identification when contact does occur. And this deck of cards is one example of what we provide to soldiers out -- soldiers and marines out in the field -- with the faces of the individuals and what their role is. In this case, there are 55 cards in the deck...

Q General, Jeff Meade from Sky News... And if I can also ask a second question, your deck of 55 most wanted, does that include the former information minister -- because every pack needs a joker? (Laughter.)

GEN. BROOKS: Well said, Jeff. Well said. Well, there are jokers in this deck, there's no doubt about that. (Laughter.) And that is also there are cards that have "joker" marked on them.

The "joker" was Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf - dubbed "Baghdad Bob" he became a source of comic relief to many. Few will forget his insistence that there were no Americans near Baghdad, a claim delivered straight-faced as US battle tanks rumbled in the background.

But in those claims he was aided and abetted by some in the western media:

Was it true, the Iraqi minister of information was asked at his daily 2pm press conference (11pm NZT) - a routine institution of usually deadly tedium - that the Americans were at the airport?

"Rubbish!" he shouted. "Lies! Go and look for yourself."

So we did.

And, alas for the Anglo-American spokesmen in Doha and the US officer quoted on the BBC, the Iraqi minister was right and the Americans were wrong. But it's a good idea to take these things, if not with a pinch of salt, then at least with the knowledge that there are always two reasons for every decision taken in this violent, ruthless land.

Sure, the Americans had been caught lying again - as they were about the "securing" of Nasiriyah more than a week ago - but was that the only reason journalists were permitted to visit Baghdad airport? We saw no Republican Guards - just as the Americans have themselves somehow failed to discover the 12,000 Republican Guards supposedly facing them.

Indeed, what I found most extraordinary was that there appeared to be absolutely no attempt to block the road into Baghdad from the airport.

Save for a few soldiers on the streets and a police squad car, you might have thought this a mildly warm holiday afternoon.

That's the report from British journalist Robert Fisk, dated 4 April 2003. In fact, the US had taken the airport the day prior, and on 5 April it served as the launch point for the first Thunder Run - a tank excursion through Baghdad proper that proved so effective that plans were changed on the fly and a second attack launched two days later toppled the regime.

At first perplexing - and as noted, a source of amusement to many - the disinformation campaign actually had a purpose. The target wasn't the outside world, it was the citizens of Baghdad who, it was hoped, would be duped into going about their normal routine that day.

Colonel Raaed Faik was riding with fellow Republican Guard officers on a civilian bus thirty-two kilometers northeast of Baghdad that morning, trying to obey an order to rush to Baghdad to join in the defense of the city. They were to help keep Highway 8 open for a counterattack. Faik was a senior signal officer in the Republican Guard, but he was dressed now in civilian clothes. The chief of staff had radioed an order for this division to fight without uniforms in hopes of mounting an effective guerilla war against the American forces on the streets of Baghdad. But some officers had not received the order, and they were still in their uniforms. They bickered with the plainclothes officers over how to dress for the battle.

Faik was disgusted. He took pride in being a member of an elite unit, but now they were like women trying to decide what outfits to wear. They were fools led by imbeciles.

The plan for the defense of Baghdad was a long, bloody seige, fought by soldiers in civilian clothes on streets crowded with actual civilians. With no hope of military victory, the leadership in Iraq wanted to create a global outrage, fueled by media reports of civilian casualties (actual and otherwise) and other atrocities, to the point where the US would ultimately withdraw humiliated. Far from being humorous, the claims of Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf and Robert Fisk - made willingly or witlessly - had a deadly serious purpose: maximize the number of real civilians on the streets along with those soldiers posing as the same. The goal? Photographs of mounds of civilian corpses splashed across front pages and news broadcasts worldwide.

That protracted combat never happened, by the 9th of April the fall of Baghdad would be marked by the fall of a statue in Firdos Square.

But the plan lives on in cities and towns through al Anbar and other provinces, (see Fallujah, April 2004) where "ex-regime loyalists" and former military officers went home from the war to build an "insurgency" that confronts coalition forces - including the new government of Iraq - to this day.

Enemy information operations in those towns may not have the level of organization the government of Saddam Hussein could provide, but in areas where all news is local and communication is mostly by word of mouth there are still effective methods for spreading propaganda:

On July 29, a platoon from the 5th Battalion's Alpha Company entered a concrete block house south of Balad. A 15-year-old girl threw herself at the Americans.

Tugging at their arms, crying and nearly hysterical, she told them through an interpreter that her uncle, who lived in the house, had been plotting attacks against the Americans and beat her "like a dog."

"If we didn't take her from that house, there was no doubt in my mind she would be killed," said 1st Lt. Joshua Rambo, a 26-year-old platoon leader from Bossier City, La.

The decision ignited one of the 5th Battalion's worst crises. The girl was part of the al-Rafeat tribe, one of the largest in the region. Tribal custom forbade a virgin to leave her house unescorted. "This was unthinkable, for strangers to take come and take one of our women," said the tribal leader, Eifan Muslih Mehdi. "It is a stain on our honor. Take 1,000 men, but never a woman."

Petery was faced with an explosive situation. Keeping the girl would mean certain violence, he believed. But releasing her would be tantamount to a death sentence.

Petery and Mehdi compromised. The tribal leader agreed to take custody of the girl and guarantee her safety. To remove her from Camp Paliwoda, the Americans had to pry the wailing girl's fingers from a doorjamb.

The next day, Rambo's platoon went to check on the girl. They found her not at Mehdi's house but at her grandfather's, surrounded by relatives and wearing a full-length abaya that covered all but her face.

Now in a daze, the girl walked up to the Americans and pulled back her right sleeve, revealing a burn mark that "looked like the width of a bayonet, like somebody could have heated it up and stuck it on her arm," Rambo recalled. "It was a couple inches across the inside of her forearm. She said she had been blindfolded and forced to drink something hot that made her sick. And then she was burned."

Furious that Mehdi had lied and concerned that the girl had been tortured, Petery had her escorted to a Balad hospital.

The girl then changed her story: The Americans, she told her family, had given her a mysterious pill, then assaulted her.

Petery was now convinced the girl had been lying all along. His female interpreter, Thanna Azawi, an Iraqi American from Redford, Mich., said she believed the girl had been tortured by her family and changed her story. Petery said he had no choice but to release her back to her family. He called a meeting and asked Sunni tribal leaders to dispel rumors that the Americans had kidnapped the girl. The Iraqis refused.

*****

John Guardiano served in Iraq in 2003 with a Marine Civil Affairs Group. A reservist, his civilian job is journalist, and this month his work appeared in the Wall Street Journal:

The latest Iraq "scandal" the politicians and the media have discovered is the U.S. military's alleged covert purchase of favorable articles in the Iraqi press. This alleged "propaganda campaign . . . violates fundamental principles of Western journalism," reports the New York Times.

This is not surprising, insofar as Iraq does not yet enjoy "Western journalism." Journalists there are murdered, blackmailed and bribed. They and their families are routinely threatened and coerced by terrorist/insurgents. Newspapers often serve as propaganda arms of various political and religious factions. The widely viewed Arab network Al-Jazeera works diligently to promote terrorism and undermine Iraq by disseminating lies, distortions and misinformation.

In light of this reality, the U.S. military has a choice: It can accept this deleterious state of affairs, play by Marquess of Queensberry rules, and wait decades for the emergence of "Western journalism." The result would be a heady propaganda win for the terrorist/insurgents, a prolonged conflict, and more unnecessary violence and death. Or the U.S. military can work within Iraq's present-day constraints to try to ensure that Iraqis hear the truth about what is happening in their country.

The U.S. military wisely has decided to pursue the latter course of action. But contrary to the Times and other self-anointed paragons of journalistic virtue, this is nothing new. I know because while serving as a Marine in Iraq in April 2003, I volunteered to write newspaper articles and radio and television scripts for dissemination in-country. Yes, I was a not-so-covert Iraqi journalist.

I say not-so-covert because everyone--U.S. Marines and Iraqis alike--knew who I was and what I was doing.
<...>
National Public Radio heard of our efforts and sent one of its reporters to visit us from Baghdad. Ivan Watson and his producer courageously trekked 60 miles to Al Hilla, where Mr. Watson interviewed Lt. Moulton and me. His report aired on "All Things Considered" on Aug. 25, 2003.

"Public relations initiatives," Mr. Watson informed NPR's listeners, "include this TV show called 'Moulton and Mohammed'--or the 'M&M show.' It's a half-hour program on U.S.-Iraqi cooperation, hosted by Lt. Seth Moulton and translator Mohammed Fawzi. The production standards are crude, and yet the show has turned one of the hosts [Lt. Moulton] into a minor celebrity."

Everything we wrote, published, aired and disseminated was factual and accurate. I can tell you that was true in 2003; according to the U.S. military, it is also true today. Iraqis are better informed, not less informed or misinformed, because of U.S. military information operations.

If the media and the politicians have their way, the U.S. military will be denied this key tool of 21st-century warfare. Yet what is urgently needed in Iraq and elsewhere is more and better information operations. What is won on the battlefield today can be lost in the media tomorrow.
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America has one great advantage over the enemy: The truth is on our side. It exposes and weakens them while strengthening and supporting us. Thus, we have no need for dishonest propaganda. We do need, though, to strongly propagate the truth about American intentions, actions and results.
<...>
The U.S. can and will win in Iraq, but only if we win the larger-scale media war. Correcting misperceptions--in Baghdad and Washington, New York and Tikrit--is not somebody else's job; it is the job of the U.S. military. For unless the truth is widely known and shared, no military victory in the 21st century can ever be complete.

The information operations in Iraq may be doomed to failure. But attempting to reduce casualties, even with little chance of success, is not a war crime - indeed, it is a necessity. Again, I have a gun. You have a gun. I can talk you into setting that gun down, or I can shoot you.

I say we give peace a chance.

Every Day Heroes

Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, in USA Today:

Meet Master Sgt. William Calvin Markham, a combat controller from Waukesha, Wis., whom history will record as the first member of the Air Force to set foot on Afghan soil in the war on terror. Just one month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Markham, 37, part of a 12-member military team, was among the first U.S. special operations forces to enter Afghanistan.

“The Taliban would unleash everything at us,” Markham recalls. “We took enormous amounts of fire: small arms fire, tank rounds, you name it. They also had ZSU 23s, an anti-aircraft weapon, and turned them on us, sending what looked like large, flaming footballs at our position.”

Asked how he and his team survived the enemy's wall of fire, the 6'1”, 250-pound Markham replies, “It was the grace of God. It was like we had a bubble over us.”

When the smoke cleared, Markham's Silver Star citation credited him with directing 175 sorties that resulted in the elimination of 450 enemy vehicles and the killing of more than 3,500 Taliban fighters in a little more than a month.

Today, however, his greatest source of pride is the golf tournament he hosts each year, the Whomper Stomper Open, to raise funds for the children of fallen U.S. special operations forces.

When asked whether barbs by the naysayers of the war bother him, Markham says, “When I hear that kind of thing, honestly, it makes me glad because it means those individuals have the freedom to think and say what they wish.”

More here.

Mr Weinberger is co-authoring the book Home of the Brave : Honoring the Unsung Heroes in the War on Terror, with Wynton Hall. The book is scheduled for publication in summer 2006.

Christmas, the Sulu Archipelago

...and elsewhere.

The Southern Philippines:

More than 1,500 residents of Parang town in Sulu received free medical and dental care from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Southern Command, the United States military from the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTF-P) and local volunteers at Parang’s first-ever Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAP) and humanitarian assistance mission recently.

Col. James Linder, commander of JSOTF-P, explains why the US military is in the Southern Philippines: "Our goals here are to provide capacity building to the AFP, together conduct activities in conflicted areas and provide a secure environment so that development and social progress can occur. With our civilian agency and non-government organization partners, we want to plant the seeds of economic growth and provide people with hope and alternatives to the violence and terrorism plaguing much of their region.

"Throughout this country, with the cooperation of the government of the Republic of the Philippines, we will continue to advise, assist and share information with our AFP counterparts to strengthen their hand in the global war on terrorism."

Collectively, the AFP and US military medics treated 1,550 medical and dental patients, and delivered free prescription drugs and preventive care supplies including dental care items, vitamins and education kits.

More than $15,000 worth of medical and humanitarian assistance supplies were distributed to Parang citizens.

A profile of one of the soldiers:

ZAMBOANGA CITY — "Magandang umaga po (Good morning)!" is a simple greeting for many Filipino soldiers, but one not often spoken by a 23-year-old petite, blonde lady US military sergeant.

Speaking in Tagalog during a gift-giving mission to the remote village of San Jose Gusu, Sergeant Kimberly Lasser drew a local Muslim crowd and became an instant celebrity among the natives.

The humanitarian mission was held Wednesday in coordination with the US Joint Special Operation Task Force-Philippines (JSOPTF-P), Mindanao Electronic Institute College (MEIN) and the Kiwanis International.

"Ikinagagalak ko pong mapaglingkuran kayo (I am glad to be of service to you)," Lasser said as she welcomed residents at the grounds of the Mein College. Some 250 indigent families benefited from the program.

Lasser, a certified teacher and fondly called Kim by friends, said she learned to speak Tagalog in the US through her Filipino-American friends who encouraged her to take Tagalog lessons for six months.

Get your news from television or most major American newspapers and you will never hear these stories. You will only hear these stories:

A new study by the Media Research Center reviewing every Iraq story on the evening news programs of ABC, CBS and NBC from January through September found 61% of the stories were negative or pessimistic while only 15% were positive or optimistic — a 4-to-1 negative ratio.

The MRC found that 79 stories focused primarily on allegations of wrongdoing by American forces in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib rehashes, while only eight focused on the heroism of American soldiers or their good works.

And forget about any more than an occasional mention of anything beyond the borders of Iraq.

Though the Sulu archipelago is one of the many fronts of the war on terror, the US mission is there is humanitarian relief, one of several such relatively unknown deployments of the past year. From the tsunami late last year to the earthquake this year, from Darfur to the US Gulf Coast, from hospitals in Iraq to a parliament in Afghanistan, from Kosovo to Korea, from Germany to Japan, in the year 2005 the US military accomplished more than any other group or nation in the history of the world.

All while under fire from armed enemy, attacked or ignored by the press, and declared "defeated" by some politicians back home.

The past two years we've rounded up lists of web logs of deployed GIs and encouraged readers to visit and say thanks during the holiday weeks. This year - as I expected - the task has grown too large to attempt. But you know where they are - because we've been pointing them out through the year, every day has been Christmas in that regard, and we'll continue to do so in the year ahead.

So if you have a moment, scroll down the page a bit, find a deployed blogger or one who's come home, and tell them thanks.

That's not why they do it, but I don't think they'll mind.

*****

Tending Distant Fires

Far from hearth and home, watching
Cold alone but not alone
On distant shore and only wanting
Safe return and little more

What tales we'll tell
When that time comes
When tales can be told

When things grim
Seem far away
When other fires go cold

Some distant sunset, vision fading
Memories remain
And tired eyes gaze 'pon folded flags
While distant drums beat their refrain

Saluting fallen friends whose names
And youth will never fade
Here's to those on other shores,
for them live well, the price is paid

- Greyhawk,
-- Iraq, December 2004

Christmas With Hooker

We introduced James Hooker last weekend when the Grammy Award winner and "one of the 7.62 conservative entertainers on this planet" tipped us to his new song "Hanging Out With the Boys" - his "Christmas Present to the guys and dolls who are up at the sharp end."

James has one of those blogs where once you get started exploring you just can't stop. It doesn't hurt that almost every post has one of his original tunes...

Like his Christmas song for this year. It's called "You Can't do That", and it's dedicated to the folks at the ACLU. James says:

The ACLU has found my very last nerve and I'm fightin' back with this song. Download it. Share it. Link it - The bandwidth is on me!

Sounds like an invite to me. Grab a Guinness and head over to the Christmas Party in Ireland with James Hooker - you'll be glad you did.

Then check out the rest of his Christmas songs here. You won't find any of these on those 4.99 CDs at the Wal Mart.

Of course, you might want to leave him a "Thanks and Merry Christmas" in his comments.

Thank a Soldier Week

Update: Bumping this one up because Thank a Soldier Week has now begun.

Congressman Joe Wilson's words seem especially fitting on the day after the Iraqi elections:

Dear Servicemember,

Teddy Roosevelt once said, "far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

As a member of the United States Armed Forces, your work is making a difference daily in the lives of millions of people throughout the world. You have volunteered to take on an incredible responsibility, and you continue to exceed our expectations.
<...>
Since our country was attacked on September 11, 2001, you have played a critical role in spreading peace through strength. Where a brutal dictator once ruled in Iraq, a new democracy has now begun to flourish. Where women were dominated by an oppressive regime in Afghanistan, they now play a critical role in their country and are enjoying the rights and privileges of democratic societies.
<...>
As a member of Congress, I have had the unique opportunity to visit your battlefields and witness your many successes. Each week, you are capturing terrorists, rebuilding communities, and giving people around the world the chance to experience opportunities that only exist in free nations. Although the media rarely reports your victories, I strongly believe that the American people recognize that you are making tremendous progress.

The threat of terrorism is not temporary and your service will remain essential for years to come. We will continue to stand behind you and to entrust you with the duty of protecting our country and our families. As you resolve crises and destroy the enemies of democracy throughout the world, you reflect precisely why we must prevail in this war. You are the definition of decency, the embodiment of excellence, and the meaning of strength. Your presence abroad is securing our safety at home.

Thank-A-Soldier Week provides Americans with an outstanding outlet to personally express our appreciation to you, the brave men and women who make our freedoms possible. As the father of three sons serving in the military (including one who served for a year in Iraq), I fully understand how important it is for you to know that we support your mission. I am sure Americans throughout the world would agree with me when I say that we have never been prouder of our men and women in uniform.

Although I will never be able to fully express my gratitude, I can guarantee you my unwavering support. As you continue to work for the best prize that life has to offer, never underestimate your contribution or forget how much your efforts mean to the American people.

Congressman Wilson served in the National Guard for over 31 years, and has visited Iraq several times.

Those who wish to add their own words of support can do so at the Thank-A-Soldier Week web page.

The Raptor

Santa always did love the Air Force more! Here's what they're getting this year - apparently they've been very good.

Hugh Hewitt points us to the future of airpower - with emphasis on power:

The Air Force's new F-22A Raptor is such a dominant fighter jet that in mock dogfights its pilots typically take on six F-15 Eagles at once.

Despite the favorable odds, the F-15s, still one of the world's most capable fighters, are no contest for the fastest radar-evading stealth jet ever built.

"The F-15 pilots, they are the world's best pilots," said Lt. Col. David Krumm, an F-22A instructor pilot. "When you take them flying against anyone else in the world, they are going to wipe the floor with them. It's a startling moment for them to come down here and get waylaid."
<...>
"This is what's next," Krumm said. "The stuff that we have is great and it's capable, but this is what's next."

The Raptor, originally designed for air-to-air combat, was expanded to include a ground attack role. Pilots dropped bombs from Raptors for the first time last weekend in training exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
<...>
Military leaders say the plane will ensure American air dominance for years to come.

"In any air-to-air fight out there, it is a hopeless mismatch," Krumm said. "What we are more concerned with are countries that want to deny us air space by purchasing surface-to-air missiles and that kind of stuff. Those are very lethal to the way the U.S. deploys."

The Raptor is designed to be especially proficient at taking out such ground-launched missiles because of its speed and stealth. That's something military leaders say could be needed in a fight against potential enemies including Iran or North Korea.

"We want to kick the door down so the air space is clear for any (aircraft) you want to go in," Krumm said. "Someone could come in flying a Cessna 172 with a pistol if you wanted after we're done."

Find the rest via the link above.

Hugh also links some photos, but I think these are better.

Call For Submissions

As the year draws to a close various round ups of "best ofs" and "top tens" begin to spring up all over. I'm not in favor of competitive milblogging, but I would like to review the past 12 months in milblogs and highlight some memorable posts. This isn't a contest - there won't be any winners or losers, just a list - and I value your opinion. Use the comments to add a link (or links - no limit) to any stand out posts you remember from milbloggers over the past year - great personal accounts, important observations, controversial topics, or just fine prose. If you're a milblogger by all means add your own favorites. Don't be shy, otherwise someone else will define you, or worse yet, overlook you. We'll compile the list and add it to the MilBlogs Homepage.

Great moments in milblogging, 2005 - have at it gang, don't let the classics be forgotten.

Christmas in Baghdad 2006

This Wall Street Journal story on how several GIs are observing Christmas in the war zone includes a few paragraphs on long-time milblogger Phil Carter.

Read it all.

Christmas in Baghdad

(Yes - there will be new posts up this weekend, but for now we're continuing our Mudville Christmas reruns. This one was actually first posted last February, but I think it belongs here...)

What tales we'll tell
When that time comes
When tales can be told...

Looking back at Mrs G's logo collection reminded me of that quote from the Christmas poem here at Mudville. The reference was to the fact that security issues prevent me from writing much about what goes on here at my location. For instance, one day I disciplined some of my troops poorly, and they went out and targeted and killed 12 journalists. That was sure embarrassing! Fortunately my many friends in the blogosphere will make sure no one ever knows.

***************************

Or Christmas day itself - so much went on during that one day that I'm sure I could write a book about those 24 hours. For starters, the worst weather of the year. A cold rain, flooded ground, mud everywhere, missions cancelled, you name it. But as miserable as I was I saw something that reminded me that someone always has it worse. I'd just donned my armor and started for the DFAC. As I splashed past the porta potties I noticed the smell. The team of civilian third country nationals was busy cleaning them, even on Christmas day in the rain. Off to the side stood the escort for the workers. His sole purpose in life was to ensure the guys cleaning the porta potties didn't get up to any "funny business" and plant bombs or steal anything during performance of their doodies duties.

As I walked past the escort, I considered saying one of the following things to him:

"Merry Christmas"

"Hey, this is a Christmas you'll tell your grandchildren about - the year you helped free Iraq!"

or

"Son, if you move over to this side (pointing) you'll notice the wind won't blow in your face off the porta potties any more"

In the end I said nothing, just moved on. Sometimes there's nothing you can say.

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A funny thing about Christmas in Baghdad. Christian, atheist, or other, most folks who grow up in America consider Christmas a great family holiday, a chance to reunite and share gifts and catch up with the widespread relatives. Missing this aspect of the day turned many folks sour - but not those who saw the day primarily as a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In other words, those who knew the real purpose of Christmas actually enjoyed the holiday, while those for whom it was a secular event were rather morose and withdrawn and distinctly more unhappy on the day. Stated differently, the farther from the " real meaning of Christmas" you stood, the more the holiday depressed you - those for whom it meant the least were hit the worst by the day.

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It's been a few years [ed note - it's been a few decades] since the childlike "magic of Christmas" left me behind. By that I mean the wonder of waking up to a pile of toys under the tree after a night of restless sleep. Would Santa come? Would he? And sure enough, the morning came and he'd been to my house. Relief was followed by euphoria, fun was had by all.

Strangely enough, I did have a day like that, a day that recaptured that part of Christmas - but it wasn't Christmas day. It was Sunday the 30th of January, of course. Having gone to bed reasonably sure that my assumptions were right - that we'd knocked the insurgency down to the point they would be ineffective, and that the people of Iraq desired freedom, it was nonetheless a relief to see it happen as expected. Euphoria followed. It was days later that I recognized the feeling for what it was. Christmas in Baghdad.

Here's to many such days to come.

(Original post: 2005-02-08 17:01:56)

More James Hooker

James Hooker has made a video for his song "Hanging Out With The Boys". It took 10 minutes to download on my DSL connection, but it was worth the wait - an outstanding tribute.

Slower connection? Don't fret - here's a song for all the travellers this weekend. Enjoy, and stay safe.

Monique Berkley...

...confesses to her husband's murder.

"The insurance money" is the answer to one of your questions.

"500,000 if he maxed his SGLI" is the other (plus any supplemental, but not many mil types have that). Thats a result of boosts by a congress eager to shower us with tangible evidence of their esteem.

Not complaining on that point, mind you, but back in the day it just wasn't enough of a motivator.

NORAD...

... tracks Santa.

This, of course, is domestic surveillance, and it must be stopped.

Several federal judges are rumored to have resigned in protest.

Update: We've obtained a copy of a note released by an unnamed member of the US Senate, who claims he kept it hidden under his pillow for several years.

Tragedy strikes...

...a man at the pinnacle of success:

Business will go on for the Indianapolis Colts, but it will be anything but normal following the early-morning death of James Dungy, the 18-year old son of coach Tony Dungy.

Dungy and his wife, Lauren, learned of their eldest son’s passing at his Tampa, Fla.-area apartment early this morning. They immediately boarded the private jet of Colts owner Jim Irsay and headed to Tampa.

I'm a long-time Colts fan, and I know few (if any) people who don't at least respect the team - and much of that is due to Dungy, a man respected and admired widely - perhaps without exception.

Milblog Murder Update

Smash keeps us posted:

The story gets more bizarre by the minute: Paul, Monique, Becky, and Zeke (Paul's 18-year-old son) all have weblogs. Police are reportedly combing these weblogs, as well as those of various friends of the family, for evidence.

He tries to sort the whole sordid mess out here.

It's a Jerry Springer train wreck - hard not to look.

Terrorist Walks - For Now

The Washington Times:

U.S. officials yesterday said the killer of a U.S. Navy diver had been released from "temporary custody" in Lebanon but refused to rule out bringing him to the United States by force.

The Lebanese government criticized Washington's request to hand over Mohammad Ali Hamadi, saying the militant already had served a prison sentence for the 1985 murder of Robert Dean Stethem of Waldorf, Md.

Hamadi, a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, was taken into custody upon returning to Lebanon after his release from a German prison Thursday. He had served 18 years for hijacking a TWA plane to Beirut and fatally shooting Petty Officer 2nd Class Stethem, who was 23 when he was killed.

In light of the the latest headlines - CIA prisons, "domestic" spying, etc, etc, ad nauseum, this is an interesting quote:

"What I can assure anybody who's listening, including Mr. Hamadi, is that we will track him down, we will find him, and we will bring him to justice in the United States for what he's done," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We will make every effort, working with the Lebanese authorities or whomever else, to see that he faces trial for the murder of Mr. Stethem," he said.

What would you think if he was "snatched"? What would Senator Jay Rockefeller say?

Here's what happened that day in 1985:

On June 15, 1985 Hezballah Shi'ites brutally beat, tortured and then killed 23 year old Robert Dean Stethem as he was being held hostage aboard TWA 847 commercial airliner. Robert was on his way home after a tour of duty with the US Navy in the Middle East. The terrorists had hijacked the plane with 153 passengers in Athens Greece forcing the pilot to fly twice to Algiers and twice to Beirut during the 17 day siege. The hostages were released after Israel released 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

"When the plane was at the Beirut airport in Lebanon, Petty Officer Stethem was singled out because he was in the US military. After many hours of being cruelly beaten, tortured, and finally killed by the terrorists, they threw his body from the plane in a final disgraceful, cowardly act. The wounds were so terrible that his body had to be identified by its fingerprints.

Throughout the ordeal, Robert Stethem did not yield, and instead encouraged his fellow passengers to endure by his example. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for heroism and bravery. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery."

The Navy's guided missile destroyer USS Stethem is named for him.

Robert Stethem's brother Kenneth is a retired Navy Seal:

"Every time I look at the flag now and for the rest of my life,'' said Kenneth Stethem, "the red will represent the blood he spilled, the blue the beating and bruises he endured, and the white the purity and integrity he demonstrated in sacrificing his life.''

More here.

I had been in the service for just a few months back then - this incident illustrated quite graphically to me the potential price.

Fighting for Life

Mona Basu, a reporter covering the Georgia National Guard's 48th Brigade for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, brings us the story of an Iraqi baby they are trying to save:

Abu Ghraib, Iraq — First Lt. Jeff Morgan watched with concern as Soad Jaffar al-Hasan cradled her precious baby girl, the mother's smile masking the inevitable.

Morgan, a single father of five from Douglas County, knew that in a few months, possibly weeks, Noor, al-Hassan's firstborn, would succumb to a birth defect.

"If no one helps us, the baby will die," Noor's grandmother, Iman Sami Abbas, told visiting soldiers with the Georgia Army National Guard.

Noor, whose name means light in Arabic, was born with a severe form of spina bifida. Iraqi doctors lack the resources to treat her. They sent her family home, telling them the baby had 45 days at most to live. Barring a miracle, the light in their lives would go out.

Noor beat the odds and will be 3 months old Friday. Her time, though, is running out. No one is sure how long she will live in her condition.

But Noor's family might get the miracle they have dreamed of, thanks to soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team's 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment.

If the unit sounds familiar to you it might be because SGT Mike Stokely was a member of the 48th. Read Noor's story here: GIs try for a Christmas miracle - time is growing short, but perhaps you can help.

Every Day Heroes

You know, there are plenty of "safe" careers in the Army, ones where you don't get shot at all the time. Like being a cook, for instance:

Chief Warrant Officer 3 David J. Longstaff, manager of the U.S. Army culinary team, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for rescuing five Soldiers pinned down in an ambush.

Longstaff was serving as Division Support Command food service technician for the 1st Armored Division, when he went on a procurement mission in the Al Rasheed district of Baghdad on Aug. 7, 2003.

It was early afternoon with temperatures reaching 113 degrees fahrenheit. During his first five months in Iraq, Longstaff had participated in more than 150 convoys into Baghdad. This particular mission had proceeded as normal, but while driving through a shopping district along the route back to camp, he spotted a burning Humvee in the center medium.

“The Humvee was hit by an RPG and an ambush was in progress,” said Longstaff. “We just happened to be coming down the road, so we got in there and supported them.”

Longstaff’s convoy included two Humvees and a 5-ton truck. Longstaff ordered two vehicles to secure the rear as the other vehicle, driven by Sgt. 1st Class Richard Bryant, 1st Armored Division, proceeded to assist the five ambushed Soldiers trapped behind a civilian vehicle.

Longstaff provided covering fire toward a building where most of the incoming rounds were shot from. With hostile fire coming from buildings on the north and south sides of the street, he continued engaging the enemy with suppressive fire for 10 minutes, and helped evacuate the casualties away from the area.

“I stayed behind our Humvee, walking as we maneuvered across the street,” said Longstaff. “Once we laid down suppressive fire, they were able to run across the two sections of the street and get back into their area.”

Longstaff also engaged enemy fire from the rear flank with 2nd Lt. Juan Florez, assistant DISCOM S-4..

Longstaff’s quick reaction to the situation allowed the ambushed Soldiers to move out of the kill zone without further injury, according to Bryant. Longstaff volunteered as rear security on the convoy out of the area and the injured Soldiers were evacuated for medical treatment. Longstaff’s team had no injuries.

“His actions are nothing short of heroic and are a true testament of his technical and tactical expertise,” said Bryant.

“I was intrigued that as a cook, I found myself in the middle of Baghdad taking fire,” said Longstaff. “It just goes to show what you can do when put into any situation. So you should just be prepared.”

“Regardless of where you compete in the world of chefs,” Longstaff said, “we are warriors first, and that’s important.”

Navy Diver's Killer In Beirut

This story is developing faster than I can follow it:

Navy Diver's Killer Held In Beirut

U.S., relatives slam Lebanese militant's release from German prison

The Lebanese killer of a U.S. Navy diver was in custody in Beirut yesterday, according to U.S. officials who decried his release from a German prison last week and pledged to bring him to the United States for trial.

Relatives of the victim -- Waldorf, Md., native Robert Dean Stethem -- said yesterday they were "devastated" to learn of the killer's release and urged the Bush administration to demand an explanation from Germany.

"Just to see him free slays us," said Richard Stethem, father of the seaman whose beaten body was thrown onto a Beirut runway in 1985.

Mohammad Ali Hamadi, a member of the Hezbollah guerrilla group, received a life sentence in Germany for hijacking a TWA plane to Beirut and fatally shooting Petty Officer 2nd Class Stethem, but was paroled after 18 years and freed on Thursday.

The United States, which has been seeking Hamadi's extradition since his 1987 capture in Frankfurt, privately expressed anger at his early release, but officials said they were determined to "get our hands on him."

"We are going to make every effort to see that he stands trial here in the United States," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We are disappointed now that he has been released before the end of his full sentence."

Jeff Goldstein has background on the story here. Stay tuned for further developments.

In an unrelated amazing coincidence, a German hostage was freed in Iraq.

More, from Reuters:

German hostage freed in Iraq isn't rushing home

A 43-year-old German woman who was held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks will not immediately return home to Germany, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

"She wants to spend a few days with her daughter protected from the public and so will probably not immediately return to Germany," a foreign ministry spokesman told a news conference.

"We assume however that she will leave Iraq in the near future," he said.

Archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, a convert to Islam who speaks fluent Arabic, disappeared on Nov. 25. She had spent more than a decade working on excavations in Iraq.

Hopefully she'll return "home" soon. It's not clear how many additional terrorists might be nearing the end of their life sentences in German prisons, should the need for more amazing coincidences arise.

Update: More here.

Threefer

Mike Yon reflects on a year that included three elections in Iraq.

By the way, if you've never read Yon's report on the January elections in Iraq, you owe it to yourself. It's a classic, and includes this tale of his visit to a polling place with a CNN crew:

The CNN crew had only three people, including the correspondent. They were to be dropped off and left at the polling station. I stayed with them...

An hour passed while voters stretched out in a line perhaps thirty yards long. A second hour passed, and the line remained steady. No bombs, no RPG attacks...

Three police officers handcuffed a large man. They escorted him with great purpose to an abandoned room of the school. I approached to see what was happening. Did he have a bomb?

The policemen, who had been asking me to photograph them for the last hour or two, suddenly told me to stop taking pictures. Naturally, this caused me to pick up the camera and take pictures.

"What did this man do?" I asked an Iraqi official.
"He was, let's say, misbehaving."
Misbehaving? I hadn’t heard any bombs or gunfire at the polling station (not in the polling station, anyway), nor any commotion. What had he done? The official would not tell me.
"Is he a terrorist?" I asked.
"No."
"Is he a criminal?"
"Not exactly."
"Why did you arrest him?"
"Not important, really not important."
"You have arrested a man who came to vote. This is very important. Why have you arrested him?"
Finally, the official embarrassingly explained that the man had grabbed the backside of the woman producer for CNN.

Open Post

No Dawn Patrol today - sorry but Mrs G has Christmas-related tasks keeping her occupied. So in its place, Open Post! Much tinkering with configurations around here lately, will see if earlier trackback problems have been resolved.

Shedding Light on Torture

If you stumble upon the Baltimore Sun's online letters to the editor page today and scroll far enough down, you'll find this entry from Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita:

Abu Ghraib Abuses Not Part Of Policy

The Sun's article "Interrogation rules for Army held up" (Nov. 16) inaccurately portrayed both the interrogation policies of the Department of Defense and the timing of the release of the U.S. Army's new interrogation field manual.

First, the illegal abuses that "came to light in the Abu Ghraib scandal" had virtually nothing to do with interrogations. With one exception, the prisoners in the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs were criminal suspects with no assumed intelligence value.

In flagrant violation of regulations and policies, they were mistreated as a form of unlawful punishment or amusement by prison guards. Long prison sentences for some of those individuals have been meted out, and there may well be additional sentences for others.

In fact, many of the now-infamous images were from an appalling birthday bash held one night for a soldier who has since been court-martialed.

Second, there was no "planned release" of the Army interrogation manual scheduled for Nov. 17, as The Sun's article asserted, nor was the release delayed by the White House "buying more time."

From the beginning of this process the intention was that the new manual would be issued when it was ready and properly vetted by the appropriate civilian and military authorities, rather than according to any particular timetable.

Lawrence Di Rita, Arlington, Va.

Nice to see someone else willing to set the record straight. That's the most facts I've seen about the Abu Ghraib case in one location since, well, since I compiled them all here.

Update: Anyone curious as to the results of Mapes and Hersh's attempts to portray the actions of a few sick individuals as "US government policy" might appreciate this interview with one of the victims of their scam:

You’ve also spent some time downrange. Where were you from January 2004 to January 2005?

Primarily, I was at the Abu Ghraib prison. I was part of the 53-person team — 53 give or take — that set up the first hospital there to treat the detainees. I was there until end of September. Then, I was involved with the travel nursing program of Iraq. I went to Camp Victory. I spent time at Baghdad in the international zone. I spent time at Balad at the Air Force hospital and then spent time at Mosul.

What was it like to be at Abu Ghraib amongst all the controversy, the photos, etc., with so much attention focused on the detainees and their treatment there?

In February, we started setting up at Abu Ghraib, and the stories broke in April, I believe. At that point of course, the frequency of attacks increased. It got bad. We had [mass casualties] of 120 and 109 patients. Mortars landed in the detainee camps. Our primary mission was to treat detainees. It was very frustrating because every news reporter that came through, every VIP that came through from all over these countries, the only thing they wanted to know was what we did with the abused prisoners. We’re like, “We haven’t even seen any abused prisoners since we’ve been here. There are none.” I never saw one the whole nine months I was there … It was very frustrating for my soldiers to have to witness all this, and the good didn’t get out about what we were doing.

That's from Army 1st Lt. Parker Hahn, a nurse at Landstuhl Medical Center, Germany, who was serving at Abu Ghraib when Mapes and Hersh launched their attack.

Sadr City to Tal Afar

The Christian Science Monitor with more news you probably already knew because of the intense media focus:

Racket of rebuilding fills Sadr City as gunfire quiets

BAGHDAD – On the streets of Sadr City where a year ago locals battled US troops, Lt. Col. Jamie Gayton is today a welcome man.

It's not so much that the residents of the sprawling slum, home to more than 1 million mostly poor Shiite Iraqis, have suddenly lost their wariness and suspicions of the American presence. But Colonel Gayton is the man with the money that is being used to slowly bury the open sewers, bring clean water to homes, and illuminate dark streets with new lights.

And because of that, Gayton, a ceaselessly smiling commander of the Army brigade responsible for reconstruction on Baghdad's east side, hears more cheers than jeers as he makes the rounds of completed or progressing projects.

"This is an area that was neglected by the former regime for 30 years, so the people are very grateful for what we are doing," says Gayton. "But at the same time, once they get a taste of some improvement, they can also get a little anxious for more progress or for things to go a little faster."

That description makes Sadr City something of a metaphor for America's reconstruction effort in Iraq. Nearly three years after Saddam Hussein's ouster, and with much of an estimated $21 billion in US reconstruction money spent, improvements are starting to bloom.

Meanwhile, the London Daily Telegraph reports from Tal Afar, a Sunni town near the Syrian border that was recently the scene of some of the most intense combat in Iraq this year:

Iraqis in former rebel stronghold now cheer American soldiers

Visiting the city, nestled near the Syrian border in the north-west of the country, there is no doubt that something has been achieved.

Unlike in Fallujah, another Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold, the storming of which by US marines was the defining campaign of 2004, there is actually large-scale rebuilding in progress.

While many of the citizens of Fallujah still eke out their existence in the ruins of their former homes, in Tal Afar the streets are full of building sites. New sewers have been dug and the fronts of shops, destroyed in the US assault, were replaced within weeks. Sunni police have been hired and 2,000 goats were even distributed to farmers.

More remarkably, the approach of an American military convoy brings people out to wave and even clap, something not seen since the invasion of spring 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

But other than that everything's no doubt going straight to hell. Except for those free elections.

And Kurdish northern Iraq - but that doesn't count.

Oh, and the the southern provinces are fairly quiet. So other than Tal Afar, Sadr City, the Kurdish north and the Shi'ite south it's all going straight to hell.

And some neighboring Arab countries are trending towards democracy...

Things a Good Wingman is Expected to Say

"I'll take the one on the left."

The Year in Freedom

I live in Germany, so I don't see the front pages of US papers - but surely Freedom House's annual survey of global freedom was today's big headline story, right?

The people of the Arab Middle East experienced a modest but potentially significant increase in political rights and civil liberties in 2005, Freedom House announced in a major survey of global freedom released today.
<...>
According to Thomas O. Melia, acting executive director of Freedom House, "The modest but heartening advances in the Arab Middle East result from activism by citizen groups and reforms by governments in about equal measures. This emerging trend reminds us that men and women in this region share the universal desire to live in free societies."

But no doubt you knew this already.

By the way, the US is rated as "free" - some of you may not have known that.

MilBlogger Murdered

Smash alerts us to the death of Navy Reservist Paul Berkley known in the MilBlog community as Legibletrout. He was shot in the head while on leave from Bahrain, the location of Fifth Fleet Headquarters.

Smash is praying for the swift recovery of his widow who was also shot. Me, not so much.

Wife In Fatal Raleigh Park Shooting Charged With Murder

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Police have arrested the wife of a man who was killed after he was shot this weekend at a Raleigh park. Police have also arrested two other suspects in the case.

Paul Berkley, 46, and his wife, Monique Berkley, 26, of Clayton, were shot while on a pathway in Millbrook Exchange Park shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday.

Monique Berkley was arrested Monday and charged with one count of murder. Andrew Deshawn Canty and Latwon Darrell Johnson, both 18, were arrested Sunday and were each charged with one count of murder.

WRAL has obtained a picture of Monique Berkley and Andrew Canty. However, the nature of their relationship is not known.

Paul Berkley, a reservist who just returned from the Middle East on Thursday, died at WakeMed after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head.

Smash has the link to the rest of the story.

More on this later.

22 December update from Smash:

The story gets more bizarre by the minute: Paul, Monique, Becky, and Zeke (Paul's 18-year-old son) all have weblogs. Police are reportedly combing these weblogs, as well as those of various friends of the family, for evidence.

I try to sort the whole sordid mess out here

It's a Jerry Springer train wreck - hard not to look.

Information Operations

Sgt Hook keeps us up to date:

The investigation into allegations that the Army was abusing Iraqi news outlets to “plant” good news articles is nearing complete. A couple of weeks ago, the L.A. Times reported that the U.S. military has been secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

He links the preliminary results of that investigation too. The media types will be outraged.

(More thoughts here later.)

Jumpin' Jack Flash...

...it's a gas.

More claims of chemical weapons use by US forces:

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S lawyer has said that the former Iraqi dictator claims that he was gassed while hiding in his bolthole in an attempt to evade the US troops who captured him two years ago.

Saddam allegedly told Ramsay Clarke, 78, a former US Attorney-General who is one of the lawyers representing him: “I came out of the house where I was hiding by this hole. I went through the trapdoor. I went down the hole, through the tunnel, then lost consciousness.”

Mr Clarke told The Sun: “Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel. He told us he spent maybe minutes in this tunnel, not hours or days.
<...>
Saddam told his lawyer that he had hoped to emerge unnoticed in nearby bushes and then escape on the motorcycle. “I believe I was betrayed. I have been set up,” he added.

According to accounts at the time, Saddam, who was armed with a pistol, crawled out of his hole stating "My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate."

In an unrelated outrage, a court in Jordan has sentenced Abu Musab Zarqawi to death:

Jordan's military court sentenced Iraq insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi and two others to death for the second time in connection with a failed suicide bombing along the Iraqi border a year ago.

Zarqawi and one of the other defendants were sentenced in absentia. A third man, Fahd Noman Suwelim Feheiqi, a Saudi, is in custody.

The military court previously sentenced the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who is believed to be in Iraq, to death for the October 2002 slaying of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley, who was gunned down outside his Amman home.

An un-named spokesman for Zarqawi, who is suspected of beheading Nick Berg because of George Bush, said his future plans include writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning anti-al-Qaeda book for children.

Various "human" rights groups world wide are thought to be preparing statements on both atrocities.

Hanging out with James Hooker

Via email:

Hello Ma and Pa Greyhawk

I'm one of the 7.62 conservative entertainers on this planet. This is my newest song just posted last night. I'm starting today looking for a videographer to do a montage for it. I hope you like it.

"Hanging Out With The Boys"

James Hooker

The song was an instant hit with Mrs G, she sent me over for a listen and I liked it too. Then I read his bio:

The Grammy Award Winning co-founder of "The Amazing Rhythm Aces", was born July 20th, 1948, in Winnsboro, South Carolina. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Brown Sr. He is the divorced father of three daughters.

James began working nightclubs during his 9th grade year. After high school, he lived first in Charleston, SC, then Charlotte, NC. In 1968, he moved to Memphis and started a long period of productive road and studio work. He was a member of the HI Rhythm Section at the old Royal Recording Studio, which was the home of HI Records. At HI, James recorded with: Willie Mitchell, Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson, Donald Bryant, Ace Cannon, and Bill Black's Combo. He took various road gigs while in Memphis, including Eddie Floyd and Al Green. It was with Floyd that he met and recorded with Jimi Hendrix in early 1970; this was before James changed his name from Brown to Hooker. If anyone reading this knows the status of these recordings, please email James at: info@615songs.com. He would love to hear the recordings after 34 years.

In 1971, James pulled up stakes and went to work for Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals Alabama. As a member of the FAME Gang, He took part in many sessions under Ricks tutelage. While at FAME, James first started writing songs with an eye at making a living at it.

At the end of 1972, James moved back to Memphis. This is when Willie Mitchell bought a young guy by the name of Al Green to the studio. James performed on all of Al's albums through "Belle" It was around this time that James was brought on staff at Sam Phillips Recording Studios. While working for Sam and Knox Phillips, a rag-tag bunch of guys from Knoxville stumbled in one day in early 1975. They were to become The Amazing Rhythm Aces and James was asked to join them. He thus became a founding member. (The "Amazing" wasn't even part of the name yet-it was adopted to avoid a conflict with "Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces."

After five years of ups and downs with the Aces, it was over, and James returned to a more sane life.

Then he lost his mind again!

In 1983, James joined Steve Winwood for a European tour. Also in 83-84, he took part in the ARMS concert at The Royal Albert Hall, and the subsequent American tour. In 1986, James joined Winwood again for the "Back In The High Life" tour.

1987 saw James join Nanci Griffith. He's been Nancis bandleader since then. He's having fun. He'll play keys for the rest of his days.

James now makes his home in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Some of the keyboards he plays are computer keyboards - his blog is called "Homemade Sin" and Hanging Out With The Boys isn't the only song he's made available for download there. Check it out.

Espionage

The President:

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks.

This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security. Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends and allies. Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk. Revealing classified information is illegal, alerts our enemies, and endangers our country.

As the 9/11 Commission pointed out, it was clear that terrorists inside the United States were communicating with terrorists abroad before the September the 11th attacks, and the commission criticized our nation’s inability to uncover links between terrorists here at home and terrorists abroad. Two of the terrorist hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon, Nawaf al Hamzi and Khalid al Mihdhar, communicated while they were in the United States to other members of al Qaeda who were overseas. But we didn’t know they were here, until it was too late.

The authorization I gave the National Security Agency after September the 11th helped address that problem in a way that is fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities. The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time. And the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad.

The activities I authorized are reviewed approximately every 45 days. Each review is based on a fresh intelligence assessment of terrorist threats to the continuity of our government and the threat of catastrophic damage to our homeland. During each assessment, previous activities under the authorization are reviewed. The review includes approval by our nation’s top legal officials, including the Attorney General and the Counsel to the President. I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups.

The NSA’s activities under this authorization are thoroughly reviewed by the Justice Department and NSA’s top legal officials, including NSA’s general counsel and inspector general. Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it. Intelligence officials involved in this activity also receive extensive training to ensure they perform their duties consistent with the letter and intent of the authorization.

This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I’m the President of the United States.

Beyond that - see Jeff Goldstein, who, as evidenced by his writing everything I would have on this topic, is obviously spying on me.

Don't let that weak joke fool you - this is serious business. As Jeff notes "Because it is not quaint to reveal our secrets simply because you don’t believe that we are truly at war."

Dawn Patrol - Special Election Edition

The forecast called for rain in Iraq on election day - it didn't happen.

A woman gave birth at her polling place after voting - literal new life to accompany the birth of a new democracy.

Amazing stories from the MilBloggers in Iraq. Today's Dawn Patrol is a salute to them. They respond to the elections there with a mixture of triumph and relief - and a fatalistic expectation that what they've helped make happen will be sneered at by the "some". Others speculate on the future of the emerging democracy they helped build - and they like what they see. In other words, optimistic on winning - but pessimistic on ever having that victory acknowledged.

And as should be obvious from this compilation, they are absolutely plugged in and aware of what's going on there and back home.

Many are about to come home, in fact - and this event makes a fine ending to a long effort. Others will "soldier on" - we can only hope with less opposition on many fronts.

Enough of me; they speak for themselves...

Trevor - The Will to Exist
Today is election day. Iraqis are voting. A mortar just went off in the distance. So what? The insurgents are going to lose and Iraqis are going to exercise free will by voting. Today is a great day and even though I am nervous and wary, I am honored to be participating in this process. History is being made in this nation today, and it will ripple outward from Baghdad across the Middle East and further.

Tsunamis wipe out everything in their path. It is my hope that by being here, I have played a small role in creating a tsunami that will scour Iraq, cleansing it of head choppers, bombers and dictators.

Major K
"Every purple finger is a bullet in the chest of terrorism."
<...>
The enthusiasm today around the Iraqi Headquarters was contagious. As the sun came up, the place was buzzing again with activity. We rolled out two large convoys to go take the Senior Staff and Soldiers to check on the security status of the polling centers in our sectors. While they were there, several of them voted, since they had not done so during the past few days. A few of the Iraqi Officers laughed when I inspected their fingertips for purple ink when they returned to the TOC.

America's Son
It seemed like a city-wide block party. Iraqis came to the polls chanting, waving flags and singing. Bingo and I have been in the city of Ubadie for the past few days conducting explosive sweeps through the girl's school where the voting will take place. Since I have been here in Iraq, I have not heard celebration such as what I witnessed yesterday. It was a surreal atmosphere. At one time, I looked at one of the Iraqi soldiers and asked him "Are they happy?", as a flag waving throng made their way down one of the streets of the city. "Yes. They say 'Long live Iraq' and 'Today is a great day for all Iraq', he responded as he thrust his ink stained finger in the air. It was indeed a great day for all of us.
<...>
As I have said all along, we are doing the right things here in Iraq and yesterday's voter turnout was yet another indication of this fact. "American Success In Iraq"...stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Kerry, Mr. Murtha, Mr. Dean.

Matthew Loggins - Hints... Allegations
Yesterday could not have gone any better..when the only problems we had were over crowding, and running out of ballets...it's a good day..Regardless of what people think about the war..the fact is these people just exercised their right to vote in way larger numbers then we ever have...over 70% of the registered voters, voted...wow.

GIGotti78 - Ask the Soldiers
How do you men feel the elections today, (Thursday December 15, 2005) went down?

What surprised me was the amount of Sunni Arabs that decided to exercise their right to vote. Not only that, but their reaction to reporters asking how they felt about voting.

Sgt. Dan - J Barne's Coffee Shop
Oh an yes, yesterday was election day. My first day back consisted of watching Iraqi families stroll the streets of Habbaniyah. At one point a herd of little kids even gave us the peace sign. Of course all the guys can say how they don't care what happens and how tough and rock solid they are but as soon as a peace sign is flashed by a little kid they all melt.

Kincy - My Days at Division
The Weather Officer forecast rain for today, but clear skies held. That's good news for the millions of Iraqis that got out and voted. They got to make history and stay dry in the process. The results will be some time in coming, but today was an unqualified success. Ignore the stories that lead with "Bombs" or "Explosions". Today was a great day and everyone should be smiling.
<...>
Even Reuters couldn't help but put a positive spin on this (full disclosure: I used to work for Reuters)
<...>
One of the polling centers featured a live birth. I guess mom decided to sneak in a vote beforehand, but junior had other ideas. Mom and son are doing fine.

(Greyhawk notes: it rained the day after) But the weather guy wasn't the only pessimist:

BUCK SARGENT - AMERICAN CITIZEN SOLDIER
Great Moments in Pessimism
Ebenezer Scrooge: "Bah humbug!"
Homer J. Simpson: "If something's hard, it's not worth doing."
The DNC, NYT and CNN: "We can't win! Bring them home! They have no plan!"

Sgt Ron Long - They Call us Doc (just got home from Iraq!)
As I was flipping channels, I saw that Anderson Cooper (on CNN) was interviewing an Iraqi female poll worker, asking her of her opinion of the "occupation" by US forces. She had nothing but good things to say concerning the assistance that the US and Coalition forces were giving to the Iraqi people and I could just feel those at CNN just cringing as they weren't getting the answers that they had hoped.
More fellow 278th cavalrymen echoing my feelings about the historical, Iraqi elections

CPT B - One Marine's View
Anderson Cooper was in a voting facility in Ramadi interviewing Iraqi citizens and appeared to be in the way, blocking the voters from trying to submit their votes while he did his report.
<...>
Like back in Oct, today proved that although still scared, the Iraqi people were fed up with the insurgent intimidation and wanted a change. Now, in Dec the Iraqi Army successfully voted yesterday and today the entire country was able to vote freely and without intimidation.

From the insurgency view, America has not only won the fight in the street but now it has pretty much won the Iraqi people over as well. Insurgents can’t stand to see Iraq become independent and grow. The mere fact that men, women and Iraqi soldiers are voting means the insurgency is on its way out, it reinforces the beginning of their end for the insurgency. We see people coming freely to the voting sites, we see a different Iraqi, one who wants a change and is doing their part to make it happen.

ssgjoseph
Well, the elections pretty smoothly around here. That's a blessing. Now that they're over hopefully we can get mail now! The roads went "black" for 3 days because of the elections, I guess it was deemed too dangerous for US forces to be out on the roads.

Sarge's Space
The elections have come and gone and polling is complete, now we await the long counts. Our area was a resouinding success and we sustained zero casualties and had zero incidents yesterday! That is just great by my book, and should be in everybodies. I expect it is in part due to your thoughts and prayers and we were rewarded by them, thank you all.

TJ - Basic Training
1715 and all is quiet. 8 hours on top of our hill overlooking Baghdad today and no explosions heard and only 1 short burst of small arms fire. Definately a positive sign.

Phil - Phil and Becky
We had a nice quiet day following yesterday's national election. Maybe the insurgents were tired, maybe they decided to call it quits. I'm not a gambler, but I wouldn't hold my breath that it is the latter. :)

We celebrated the end of the election by serving a feast in the chow hall. It was originally scheduled for Christmas Eve, but we moved it to today for some reason.

The Mobilized - a mobilized year
In less than three years, we’ve gone from having a country with a ruthless dictator to one that has a democratically elected, constitutionally based government.
<...>
Over the last decade or so, we’ve gotten used to immediacy. I’m as guilty of this as anybody. I often get impatient if an email that someone just sent me takes more than a few minutes to arrive. And, God forbid if a webpage takes more than a minute to load on my computer. With regard to Iraq, if the best case scenario is not achieved in a quick time period, much of the media will conclude that the sky is falling and we’re heading down that slippery slope.

Phil P - A Soldier's Diary There will be negative people and ignorant idiots who will down play this day, but freedom is on the march! Mark my words, the next year here will be a complete turn around in Iraq. Our troops will slowly start to pull back and the Iraqi Army and Police will continue to be given more and more responsibility. This war is far from over, but this next year will be a year of progress that will show off the hard work and sacrifice of the past three.

Mike the Marine - From the Halls to the Shores
Some Iraqis want to install a hard-line Islamic theocracy in the model of Iran. Some Iraqis are voting simply because they figure if the process works, then the Americans will leave. But most, I think, are voting because they actually give a damn what happens to their country and want a safe environment for their families and children. They want a say in how things run. And even the folks who are only voting as a means to the end of gettin’ us gone… well, that’s fine by me.

Because, you see, they can hate us or they can love us. But as long as they respect us, and love their kids more than they hate us… hell, I’ll call that a win.

I’d like to extend a personal thank you to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for that one. When he and his al-Qaeda shmucks blew up those hotels in Jordan, it wasn’t just the Jordanians who noticed.

StrypGia - All Quiet on the Southwest Asian Front
Doing a lot of preparatory work for the handover to our replacements. Been keeping me very busy. Apologies.
<...>
Things were very calm for Election Day. Just a few IEDs, one on a newly arrived Iraqi Army unit that came outfitted with (of all things) old T-55 tanks. Good gods, those things are clanky, loud, smoke-spewing monsters...Hard to kill with a typical IED, though. The new Police Commandos are also doing some good work in town. This is 'good work' on the Iraqi unit scale, mind, so don't expect any miracles. But its good to have more folks on our sid....er...at least not actively shooting at us?
<...>
I'm happy for the Iraqis having a fairly peaceful election, but when they're happy, that means one thing: Celebratory fire.

What bloody idiot first thought that firing off multiple full magazine AK-47 blasts into the sky was a good way to show you're happy? What goes up, does come down, moron! It's bad when the national team wins a big football match....yeesh. That's why my detail will most likely consist of filling sandbags and placing them on the roofs of buildings to protect against incoming fire.

Mustang 09 - Six more months
This will be my last post from Iraq. In a few days, I will leave this camp to begin the trip home. My office is no longer mine as of this morning, and my internet connectivity will be very spotty from here on out. I will post once I get home, from my living room after hugging my kids and kissing the most important person in my life.

My Darling Wife, Pam.

This year has changed me. Pam and I have talked about those changes, and I know she fears them a little. Physically, my knees hurt more, my hearing is shot, and my hands get numb from the constant weight of body armor. My hair is greyer, the bags under my eyes darker. Emotionally, I have changed too. Don’t worry darling. I am returning home a different man, but I believe a better man. Certainly a man far more thankful for the blessings in my life.

Leadership-In-action

Day by Day:

Holy cow - it's true!

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on the day Murtha offered his plan, "As for Iraq policy, at the right time, we'll have a position."

Take your time gang, you wouldn't want to rush in on something like that.

Meanwhile, over at GOP headquarters, the gleeful Rovian thugs are probably getting ready to produce yet another outrageous commercial...

More Intelligence?

News from The Hill:

Able Danger Officals Will Testify Before Congress

Rep. Curt Weldon’s (R-Pa.) months-long crusade is starting to pay off.

The Pentagon, after weeks of silence, will allow participants in an intelligence cell that a year before the Sept. 11 attacks may have identified some of the ringleaders to testify before Congress. Their testimony could shed light on information that the Sept. 11 commission did not include in its report.

Interesting news, especially coming on the same day as this. The Able Danger project - if what I read is correct - was turned off because of the potential for infringing on the rights of US citizens. In other words, something similar to what the NY Times claims we were doing post-9/11.

But since we're a nation that won't "degrade" a prisoner in order to prevent 9/11 (or the next worse thing) I guess it follows that we'll be outraged over listening in on phone calls too.

For a moment assume each of those linked stories is true. Funny that the one that could have prevented 9/11 gets comparatively little attention - while the one that actually did prevent attacks is screaming from the front pages, and leading off the newscasts. As near as I can tell, sources for both stories have authority of their positions to support their claims, thus barring additional evidence they are equally valid. (Admittedly we only have the Times' word on their guys, while the Able Danger folks have gone public.)

By "funny" I mean not funny at all.

Every Day Heroes

The President:

The work ahead will also require continued sacrifice. Yet we can be confident, because history has shown the power of freedom to overcome tyranny. And we can be confident because we have on our side the greatest force for freedom in human history: the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. (Applause.)

One of these men was a Marine lieutenant named Ryan McGlothlin, from Lebanon, Virginia. Ryan was a bright young man who had everything going for him and he always wanted to serve our nation. He was a valedictorian of his high school class. He graduated from William & Mary with near-perfect grade averages, and he was on a full scholarship at Stanford, where he was working toward a doctorate in chemistry.

Two years after the attacks of September the 11th, the young man who had the world at his feet came home from Stanford for a visit. He told his dad, "I just don't feel like I'm doing something that matters. I want to serve my country. I want to protect our lands from terrorists, so I joined the Marines." When his father asked him if there was some other way to serve, Ryan replied that he felt a special obligation to step up because he had been given so much. Ryan didn't support me in the last election, but he supported our mission in Iraq. And he supported his fellow Marines.

Ryan was killed last month fighting the terrorists near the -- Iraq's Syrian border. In his pocket was a poem that Ryan had read at his high school graduation, and it represented the spirit of this fine Marine. The poem was called "Don't Quit."

When I heard that part of the speech I knew somebody was going to report the rest of the story. The LA Times did so - on page one:

Ryan McGlothlin was set for life: a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the College of William & Mary, a doctoral research fellowship in chemistry at Stanford University, a bright future on the cutting edge of science.

He gave it all up to join the Marines. On Nov. 16, at age 26, he was killed in Iraq.

"My son told us, to our faces, 'I won't vote for Mr. Bush, but I'll take a bullet for him,' " Donald McGlothlin said in an interview Wednesday.
<...>
Upon graduation, McGlothlin won a doctoral research fellowship in chemistry at Stanford. But two years into his doctoral program, after winning a medical waiver for his childhood wheezing, he left Stanford for Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, followed by six months of advanced officer training. He was the honor graduate in his class of 220 second lieutenants, his mother proudly noted.

"As a Marine, he found his niche," she said.

His father said McGlothlin was livid about the Sept. 11 attacks — "just furious that someone had attacked American citizens on our soil." Initially, he said, his son thought the U.S. should have focused its attention on rooting out Al Qaeda in Afghanistan — "cutting off the head of the beast and disabling the beast's ability to come back."

He had entered Officer's Candidate School in Quantico in October 2003 - after the invasion of Iraq.

His unit participated in training exercises in Australia and Egypt before arriving in Kuwait in mid-October and was moved to the Forward Marine Base in Al-Alsad in the Al-Anbar province, Iraq, shortly thereafter. Ryan's platoon took part in Operation Steel Curtain, launched to eliminate the presence of terrorists and insurgents along Iraq's border with Syria. Ryan was killed by small arms fire in the town of Ubadi while he and his Marines were attempting to rescue some of their wounded brothers.

Five days before his death he wrote his parents a letter they received after his funeral:

"I know this war is not the most popular one back home, but people must understand that to pull out before the Iraqi army is fully ready to assume responsibility for the security of their own country is not only irresponsible of us but would ensure the persistence of terrorism," Ryan wrote. "If you walk through these cities and see how terrified the Iraqi citizens are of the terrorists and how thankful they are that we finally came to their cities, you could not possibly consider doing this job incompletely."

His family requested donations to the Marine Semper Fi Fund in lieu of flowers.

A Year at FOB Normandy

Lt. Col. Roger L. Cloutier, a member of Task Force 1-30 Infantry at the Forward Operating Base Normandy in Iraq, wrote this essay for ABC News' "Where Things Stand" series:

At Forward Operating Base Normandy in Iraq, one of the greatest things about our deployment for me and our soldiers was that we lived with the Iraqi army. For 12 months, our base, located near Al Muqdadiyah, in Iraq's Diyala province, was home to both the Task Force 1-30 Infantry "Battle Boars," a battalion-size U.S. Army unit, and the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division "Tigers." Daily, we interacted with Iraqi soldiers at all levels. We lived by the principle that we were friends and brothers first, comrades-in-arms second. For all of us, this turned a yearlong combat deployment into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Our year in Iraq was to be spent training our Iraqi friends and combating a terrorist insurgency. Those things happened, but in many ways they were not the most important. Living, fighting and dying together, we became brothers.

Read it all - and kudos to ABC.

Lack of Intelligence

I thought the Washington Post would take the prize for most pathetic post-election headline/story of the day:

Experts Cautious in Assessing Iraq Election
High Turnout, Low Violence a Positive Step but Not a Turning Point, Analysts Say

But later I caught the New York Times' "bombshell" on the radio via NPR.

NPR noted up front they were talking about a program enacted in the wake of 9/11. Thus my response - so what? My guess is most Americans would be just fine with that on September 12, and most any who would deny it are fooling themselves.

Just ask yourself whether you'll sleep better or worse tonight knowing such things were done - or if it will affect you at all. If you work in a high rise building, ponder it on your next elevator ride up.

Michelle Malkin gives this "scoop" the treatment it deserves, noting that the Times buried the key information 1,110 words deep into the story:

What the agency calls a "special collection program" began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, as it looked for new tools to attack terrorism. The program accelerated in early 2002 after the Central Intelligence Agency started capturing top Qaeda operatives overseas, including Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002. The C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, the officials said.

In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.

Also this bit:

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

If the Times thought they had a real story, they wouldn't have hesitated. I wouldn't doubt they shelved it last year and had forgotten it completely until a brief moment of clarity interrupted their feverish rage at yesterday's elections in Iraq.

But that's pure speculation. Michelle aims her disgust at the folks at the Times - but here's where I part ways with her analysis.I wasn't even going to bother with this story, until I actually read the Times' original. This paragraph was all it took:

Nearly a dozen current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation's legality and oversight.

Was there abuse? Was it out of control? Here's what the Times says:

Some of the questions about the agency's new powers led the administration to temporarily suspend the operation last year and impose more restrictions, the officials said.

Now lets consider this bit again: Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

In other words - if the Times is to be believed - nearly a dozen individuals were willing to divulge information so sensitive that even they decided to delay a year and ultimately not to publish portions in this obvious hit piece. Forget the reporters - we appear to have a sizable group of "government service" people cleared to a high level who are willing to torpedo a successful anti-terror program for motives we can only imagine. (Hint: the story is in the "politics" section).

Now how will you sleep tonight?

*****

The President, earlier this week:

When we made the decision to go into Iraq, many intelligence agencies around the world judged that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This judgment was shared by the intelligence agencies of governments who did not support my decision to remove Saddam. And it is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As President, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq -- and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities.

Please act fast - I'm tired.

Headline of the Day

ScrappleFace last week: Democrats Deny Having Pre-War Intelligence

The Washington Post today: Report: Bush Had More Prewar Intelligence Than Congress

Not the first time Scott Ott has seemed to have intelligence regarding future headlines...

Update: Could this headline be prophetic? "Bush Apologizes for Phone Taps After 9/11"

Two Years Ago...

The Officer's Club remembers an anniversary I'd almost forgotten.

I think we were the first blog to post about that - and it provoked an interesting response. This one is still a favorite of mine.

Update: Almost forgot this interview with the guys who captured him too.

Bring the Boys (and Girls) Back Home?

The Left pretends it's never been said, the Right claims they said what they didn't - before the debate begins anew tomorrow, it might be useful to review their actual words.

Mightier Than the Pen

Tomorrow Matt Pottinger, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, will become Lieutenant Matt Pottinger, USMC:

When people ask why I recently left The Wall Street Journal to join the Marines, I usually have a short answer. It felt like the time had come to stop reporting events and get more directly involved. But that's not the whole answer, and how I got to this point wasn't a straight line.
<...>
A year ago, I was at my sister's house using her husband's laptop when I came across a video of an American in Iraq being beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The details are beyond description here; let's just say it was obscene. At first I admit I felt a touch of the terror they wanted me to feel, but then I felt the anger they didn't. We often talk about how our policies are radicalizing young men in the Middle East to become our enemies, but rarely do we talk about how their actions are radicalizing us. In a brief moment of revulsion, sitting there in that living room, I became their blowback.

Of course, a single emotional moment does not justify a career change, and that's not what happened to me. The next day I went to lunch at the Council on Foreign Relations where I happened to meet a Marine Corps colonel who'd just come back from Iraq. He gave me a no-nonsense assessment of what was happening there, but what got to me most was his description of how the Marines behaved and how they looked after each other in a hostile world. That struck me as a metaphor for how America should be in the world at large, and it also appealed to me on a personal level. At one point I said half-jokingly that, being 31 years old, it was a shame I was too old to serve. He sat back for a second and said, "I think I've still gotcha."

But it wasn't that simple. The must-read post of the day.

Elections - Now and Then

CNN International's front-page headline: "Ballots counted in Iraqi election"

Think about how mundane that sounds on one level - and the amazing story it tells for just that reason.

Here's the story:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vote-counting at polling stations across Iraq is beginning Thursday night, after Iraqis turned out in droves to elect their first full-term parliament since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Turnout was so heavy across the country that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq gave provincial governments the discretion to keep polls open an hour past its 5 p.m. closing time. It was not clear where polling stations exercised this leeway.

Polling stations would close after the last person to arrive in line by 6 p.m. votes, IECI spokesman Farid Ayar said.

Also streaming to the polls were Sunni Arabs, who had stayed away from the polls in previous elections only to find they barely had a voice in government.

The high turnout was remarkable, considering curfews, bulked-up security, border closings, road closures and traffic bans across the country. In some cases, voters had to take long walks to get to polls. Many were seen happily thrusting their purple ink-stained fingers at photographers -- the colored fingers a symbol of Iraq's free elections.

If it bleeds it leads, they say. And today it did not. So it's what that story doesn't say that tells you everything you need to know about today.

A salute to the people of Iraq - I can only imagine how you feel.

A salute to my brothers and sisters in uniform in Iraq today - I know just how you feel. I was there in January.

And this seems like a good time to look back at the first of the three elections that have been held there this year. I think the following excerpts from accounts we compiled back then capture the moment fairly well, and it's nice to be able to look back from the perspective of the months gone by, and measure...

progress.

*****

The day before:

The New York Times:

Shiite Faction Ready to Shun Sunday's Election in Iraq

A radical cleric's refusal to endorse the election foreshadowed a less than overwhelming voter turnout in Iraq.

Less than 48 hours before nationwide elections here, Nasir al-Saedy, one of the city's most popular Shiite clerics, stood before a crowd of 20,000 Iraqis and uttered not a single word about the vote.

Sheik Saedy spoke of faith, humility and the power of God. But about Sunday's elections, the first here in more than 30 years, nothing.

For the throngs of Iraqis who had come to Al Mohsen Mosque to listen, the sheik's silence came through loud and clear.

And it foreshadowed a less than overwhelming voter turnout in many parts of Iraq.

The AP:

Insurgents warn Iraqis not to vote

BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents killed five American soldiers in separate attacks Friday in Baghdad and blasted more polling stations across the country, sending a message that if Iraqis suffer deaths and injuries on election day, "you have only yourselves to blame."
<...>
Despite Saleh's assurances, al-Zarqawi's group posted a new Web message Friday warning Iraqis that they could get hit by shelling or other attacks if they approach polling stations, which it called "the centers of atheism and of vice."

"We have warned you, so don't blame us. You have only yourselves to blame," it said.

Sunni Arab extremists have vowed to disrupt Sunday's national elections, in which Iraqis will choose a 275-member National Assembly and provincial councils in the country's 18 provinces. Iraqis in the Kurdish-ruled north will chose a new regional parliament.

Officials fear a low turnout in Sunday's vote — particularly among Sunni Arabs — could tarnish the legitimacy of the new government.
<...>
Those measures, however, have not been enough to stop the violence. A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle Friday in Baghdad's Doura neighborhood, killing four Iraqi policemen. Hours later, another car bomb exploded on the neighborhood's main road, damaging a school where voters are to cast ballots Sunday. No one was hurt.

Elsewhere, insurgents hit designated polling centers in at least six major cities across the country. Gunmen attacked a school to be used as a polling station in Kirkuk, killing one policeman, officials said.

Bombs blasted three more schools designated as polling sites in the city of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. A mortar shell landed on a house close to a school believed to be used as polling site in Ramadi, wounding two women and two children, a hospital doctor said.

Me:

Without a doubt the story from Iraq is a compelling one. And a fundamental example of good vs evil. Those who'd offer excuses or moral equivalency lectures in response to insurgents beheading Iraqis or disemboweling aid workers, mortaring homes or striking at schools with car bombs have clearly chosen sides. Don't blame us if we kill you, you have only yourselves to blame, cries an "insurgent" - and around the world certain heads nod.

Still others might recall this quote from a recent movie:

"A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you *stand, Men of the West!"

Aragorn, of course, from The Return of the King. There have been numerous superficial comparisons made between current events and the Lord of the Rings, and the appearance of the movie at this point in history was certainly fortuitous. Successful films reflect the times, and though no one knew at the time these films were being made exactly what the world situation would be upon their release they've meshed amazingly well. Gandalf's response to Frodo's lament that "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened." seemed extraordinarily fit for 2001: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work, Frodo, than the will of evil.

Or the next year, as the US prepared to go into Iraq, Grima dismissed Gandalf as a warmonger in the court of Theoden. Later, Theoden: I will not risk open war. Aragorn: Open war is upon you whether you would risk it or not. Later still: Aragorn: You have some skill with a blade. Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them.

In spite of the chillingly accurate applicability, it's not the superficial and obvious comparisons that make the real connection to modern events; it's the underlying theme of the books that rings true. For Tolkien's story was much larger, much grander than the trilogy, after all. That tale was of but one battle in an ongoing war, and references to the larger theme gave the books a depth that most imitators lack. Tolkein had fleshed out that larger history before he began his sequel to The Hobbit, it was in fact his true life's work. And that grand story was of the eternal struggle between good and evil, and that's why the books sell today and why the movies have an appeal to a worldwide audience unmatched by anything else. Tolkein tapped into something fundamental that dwells within us all, the conflict of the positive and the negative, of darkness and light, good and evil that struggles in each soul, as it does in the world at large. And that is why the words of the characters have a resonance with us today.

I harbor no illusions about what we're doing, and I certainly don't imagine myself as a warrior at the gates of Mordor. But tomorrow is yet another skirmish in the real world war, the one I've personally been involved in for 20 years now. I'll predict a victory for the good guys.

After all, there are other forces at work, Frodo, than what you read in the papers.

Lefty blog The Daily Kos:

This war is long past lost. Time to pack it in, and save the lives of our men and women in uniform that will otherwise face a barrage of bullets and RPG rounds during their extended stay in the desert.
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But at the end of the day, whether they'll ever admit it or not -- we were right, they were wrong. Reality isn't being too kind to their side.

From the evening before the elections:

Fallujah - where residents were just beginning to return after the November battle that rid the city of insurgents:

Some said they would vote as a protest against the insurgents who used to rule Fallujah, whom many blame for the destruction.

Especially reviled is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who leads an al-Qaeda-affiliated network in Iraq. In a new Internet posting yesterday, his group called polling sites "centers of atheism and vice" and warned that "you only have yourselves to blame" for harm on election day.

Muneer Salman, 39, a factory worker whose home burned down in the November battle, walked the streets yesterday in search of precious gasoline. As he walked, he cursed Zarqawi and said voting was a way to get even with the man who has a $25 million price on his head from the United States.

"Zarqawi isn't worth what I paid for my shoes," Salman said angrily. "Is it legal to kill people for participating in an election? What happened to our families and our homes isn't enough for him? I swear by God if a voting center is close to my house, I'll go."

Baghdad:

Lieutenant-Colonel Mowatassam Hachem al-Jebouri is determined to vote despite living in a guerrilla-infested district of Baghdad. He has devised a plan to do so.

The former Iraqi Air Force fighter pilot has identified ten like-minded families from his neighbourhood. The men of those households will set off for their local polling station early in the morning, hoping that the terrorists will be deterred by their numbers.

If they return unscathed, if they deem the streets and polling station safe, they will send their wives in the afternoon.

Colonel al-Jebouri, 41, the father of two young girls, refuses to be cowed by the insurgents and their threats to kill those who vote. Having suffered 18 months of fear and bloodshed, he insists on his right to participate in Iraq's first free election in half a century. "This is a milestone which will lay the foundations for building a new future in Iraq," he told The Times.

The future of Iraq, and of the wider Middle East, depends on millions of Iraqis, particularly Sunnis such as Colonel al-Jebouri, showing similiar courage.
<...>
He drew inspiration for his plan from a television advertisement produced by the Iraqi Government that shows an elderly man confronted by a group of masked and menacing youths in an alley.

The old man refused to retreat and is slowly joined by more and more fellow citizens until, as a group, they move forward and the thugs disperse.

The message is simple: together ordinary Iraqis are stronger than the extremists.

"We held a meeting. We decided to go all together, taking the idea from the advert," the colonel said.
<...>
The mere act of casting their ballots could cost this group their lives, but Colonel al-Jebouri says that fear is not an election issue. "Voting is just another risk in Iraq," he said. "But this one is worth is taking."

Ramadi:

In the otherwise disappointing story of the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi army's commando unit has been an exception, fighting ably beside American troops in Fallouja.

And now the unit - comprising mostly Shiite Muslims and smaller numbers of Sunni Arabs and Kurds - is taking on the dangerous task of providing security Sunday at polling places in this rebellious city.

Several hundred commandos were given the assignment after all of Ramadi's 1,000 policemen abandoned their posts because of threats against them and their families by insurgents who have carried out kidnappings and beheadings.
<...>
"I believe in two things: God and protecting my homeland," said commando Lt. Ali Stare Tama, 24, of Basra.

The commandos, who earn about $300 a month - a living wage in Iraq - insist that religious or ethnic differences are irrelevant.

"We fight together, like the Americans," Tama said.
<...>
Asked what they planned to do with insurgents who try to disrupt the election, several commandos responded by twisting their foot as if stomping out a cigarette, while others cheered.

"The destroyers are no better than thieves," said commando Hussien Naser Abaied, 26, referring to the insurgents. "We will fight them."

During the battle to oust insurgents from Fallouja, the commandos were among the 2,000 Iraqi troops who fought beside 10,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers. In the early hours of the offensive, Iraqi units successfully fought insurgents for control of two bridges over the Euphrates River and a strategic city hospital.
<...>
"We want people to be able to choose their own leader, for Iraq," said commando Sgt. Major Khald Hameed Khalf, 38, of Baghdad.

Election day, January 30:

The New York Times:

Nearly 22 months after American troops captured Baghdad, lighting a fire of enthusiasm for the freedoms Iraqis had craved so long, it is a measure of how much has gone wrong that Iraqis committed to Western-style democratic ideals can differ so sharply over the best way to secure them. Much of the problem is that the elections are being held under the dominion of the United States.

Many Iraqis, interviews in recent months have shown, do not accept that fundamental choices about the shape of their future political system should be made by a foreign power, particularly one they regard as a harbinger of secular, materialistic values far removed from the Muslim world's.

But questions over the election go far beyond the American stewardship, to issues that touch on whether it was ever wise or realistic to think that Jeffersonian-style democracy, with its elaborate checks on power and guarantees for minority rights, could be implanted, at least so rapidly, in a country and a region that has little experience with anything but winner-take-all politics.

Iraqi bloggers:

Ali - Free Iraqi:

This was my way to stand against those who humiliated me, my family and my friends. It was my way of saying," You're history and you don't scare me anymore". It was my way to scream in the face of all tyrants, not just Saddam and his Ba'athists and tell them, "I don't want to be your, or anyone's slave. You have kept me in your jail all my life but you never owned my soul". It was my way of finally facing my fears and finding my courage and my humanity again.
<...>
A'ash Al Iraq, A'ashat America, A'ash Al Tahaluf. (Long live Iraq, long live America and long live the coalition)

Mohammed and Omar - Iraq the Model:

I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?"? "Model for what?"

Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.
<...>
I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.

Hammorabi - Hammorabi:

Today only we may announce the victory! Today we hit back in the heart of the terrorists and the tyrants! Today is the day in which the souls of our martyrs comforted! Today those who were killed in Iraq or wounded among our friends from the USA and other allies, who helped us to reach this day, are with us again to inscribe their names with Gold for ever!

Today we challenged the killers and terrorists and foot on them with our shoes!
<...>
On the top of our privileged today are those who were killed in their way for voting. Their names should be perpetuated for ever! Their names should be written in Gold in Al-Fordos Square in Baghdad!

Our thanks go to George W Bush who will enter the history as the leader of the freedom and democracy in the recent history! He and his people are our friends for ever!

At this moment the voting closed and we will see the results then!

God bless Iraq and America.

Alaa - The Messopotamian:

I bow in respect and awe to the men and women of our people who, armed only with faith and hope are going to the polls under the very real threats of being blown to pieces. These are the real braves; not the miserable creatures of hate who are attacking one of the noblest things that has ever happened to us. Have you ever seen anything like this? Iraq will be O.K. with so many brave people, it will certainly O.K.; I can say no more just now; I am just filled with pride and moved beyond words. People are turning up not only under the present threat to polling stations but also under future threats to themselves and their families; yet they are coming, and keep coming. Behold the Iraqi people; now you know their true metal. We shall never forget the meanness of these bas****s. After this is over there will be no let up, they must be wiped out. It is our duty and the duty of every decent human to make sure this vermin is no more and that no more innocent decent people are victimized.

My condolences to the Great American people for the tragic recent losses of soldiers. The blood of Iraqis and Americans is being shed on the soil of Mesopotamia; a baptism with blood. A baptism of a lasting friendship and alliance, for many years to come, through thick and thin, we shall never forget the brave soldiers fallen while defending our freedom and future.

This is a very hurried message, while we are witnessing something quite extraordinary. I myself have voted and so did members of my family. Thank God for giving us the chance.

Mrs G had a roundup of other Iraqi and military blogger reactions here.

The day after - me:

Greetings from a land of bent and broken things.

Some of you may have noticed I didn't post my own thoughts on yesterday's elections. My reason is simple: it wasn't my day. I watched through tearing eyes. Yes, this old trooper shed a few tears of joy at what had happened. Like the amazing fall of the Berlin wall, the peaceful "revolutions" that freed Eastern Europe, this was another great victory in my lifetime, and one I felt a little bit involved in. This wasn't George Bush's victory, this wasn't America's victory, this certainly wasn't my victory, this was a victory for the people of Iraq and those who love freedom everywhere. I was an observer, a very close observer, but an observer nonetheless.

I liked what I saw.

Now note the header above. The work has just begun. I see bent and broken, scarred and ruined things here every day. Many were damaged years ago. 1991? 2003? In between? After? It's often hard to tell. Many will be fixed in time, others are beyond repair. Now substitute the word "people" for "things" in the preceding and read it again. Meet a group of Iraqi people and one will tell you how grateful he is that we have given him freedom. He will tell you he lived in fear for his life every day under Saddam. His joy is real, and fundamental, and obvious. Then the next will tell you he lost his entire family in the invasion. He's glad Saddam's gone, but he's paid a price that few would be willing to pay were they given the option.

What would you say to him? "Sorry about that. But cheer up, old boy! Other than that you must admit this freedom thing is pretty great, eh?" No - there's nothing that can be said. He may or may not hate the United States, he may blame Saddam for what happened, but here is a man with the rest of his life before him, and he'll live each day without his family.

The greater good, of course, is served. Many Americans died in this endeavor too; such things temper the celebration. I think Iraqi blogger Alaa offers the right perspective:

My condolences to the Great American people for the tragic recent losses of soldiers. The blood of Iraqis and Americans is being shed on the soil of Mesopotamia; a baptism with blood. A baptism of a lasting friendship and alliance, for many years to come, through thick and thin, we shall never forget the brave soldiers fallen while defending our freedom and future.

I'd add our Coalition allies to that sentiment too.

So amidst the triumph, I saw yesterday as a Memorial Day, of a sort, for those many who fell to make it possible. Some might try and use those deaths for their own ends, or to justify their belief that we should never have walked this path. Such people don't believe in heroes. They can't even comprehend this simple fact; no one is more opposed to war than the soldier. He knows the cost and has seen the carnage. But as I wrote at the top of the sidebar long ago: The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior, who prefers to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day he stands fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.

Today we re-build broken things. Grab a hammer or get out of the way.

Aftermath - Washington DC:

Senator Kerry: "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election.... It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't and doesn't vote."

Senator Kennedy: "While the elections are a step forward, they are not a cure for the growing violence and resentment of the perception of American occupation. ... The best way to demonstrate to the Iraqi people that we have no long-term designs on their country is for the Administration to withdraw some troops now..."

Senate Minority Leader Reid: "We need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there. ... Iraq is clearly important, but there are so many bigger threats to our national security..."

*****

But America just wouldn't listen, and thus we're left with this today:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vote-counting at polling stations across Iraq is beginning Thursday night, after Iraqis turned out in droves to elect their first full-term parliament since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Turnout was so heavy across the country that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq gave provincial governments the discretion to keep polls open an hour past its 5 p.m. closing time. It was not clear where polling stations exercised this leeway.

Polling stations would close after the last person to arrive in line by 6 p.m. votes, IECI spokesman Farid Ayar said.

Also streaming to the polls were Sunni Arabs, who had stayed away from the polls in previous elections only to find they barely had a voice in government.

The high turnout was remarkable, considering curfews, bulked-up security, border closings, road closures and traffic bans across the country. In some cases, voters had to take long walks to get to polls. Many were seen happily thrusting their purple ink-stained fingers at photographers -- the colored fingers a symbol of Iraq's free elections.

Tomorrow, of course, we'll continue to rebuild broken things.

Got a hammer?

Iraq Votes

Iraq the Model:

Muhaisin Bidairy Abdullah who was born in 1900 and I think he is the oldest amongst the voters came leaning on his grandsons and could hardly breathe with tears visible in his eyes…

They're updating throughout the day with reports from correspondents in Baghdad and eight Iraqi provinces - history in the making.

Also available on the Pajamas Media site.

More excerpts:

Baghdad:

Early in the morning the Iraqis flocked toward the polling centers not caring about some mortars that went down here and there, the kids kept on playing soccer in the empty streets, the mosques-Sunni and Shii-were calling and urging people to vote.

There was a little difference in the two calls; while the Sunni were calling the people to vote for the sake of Arab Nationalism the Shia mosques were calling to vote under the Fatwa of Sistani whom being fiercely attacked by al-Jazeera news channel and this made his Fatwa gain more voters.
<...>
Last night was really tough and long because we spent it under the pressure of the Arabic MSM terrifying the people and spreading Zarqawi threats that it would be a bloody day. On the other hand a rumor spread out in the middle of the night telling that the water is poisoned, well I guess the "antihuman" wanted to poison our election day.

al-Muthanna/Samawa:

There were also numerous fixed and mobile patrols and checkpoints on the streets and some streets were closed with concrete block, however this hasn’t stopped the residents of Samawa from demonstrating against al-Jazeera TV in response to yesterday’s irritating show that directed harsh criticism to Ayatollah Sistani.

Much more here.

News from Haider Ajina

Greetings All, I just spoke to my father in Nejaf. He is getting ready to go out and vote in an hour. He said it is very calm outside and the atmosphere is filled with anticipation hope and celebration. Iraqi TV is following the elections minute by minute. He was specially optimistic about all the rebuilding which is going on and all the new projects soon to come. The future of Iraq is bright and glorious filled with challenges and rewards. Iraqis are taking ownership of their country (Arab Sunnis included). The relative calm even in the hot areas is strong evidence of this. Now the enemy is mostly Alqaida in Iraq. This enemy will quickly find Iraq a very inhospitable and harsh place to do business. Here again to all the men and women who have served and serving in Iraq, to all the families of those who have paid the ultimate price to all those who have suffered during their service in Iraq, my family’s and my deepest thanks, gratitude and pride both from the U.S. and Iraq for all the sacrifices, endurance and service for our great country and Iraq and the Iraqis. God bless all of you and keep you safe.

God bless this great country of ours, and God bless our leadership who have the courage and vision to free oppressed people in our times.

Regards
Haider Ajina

From the Front

Powerline:

John Kline, my Congressman and good friend, retired from the Marine Corps as a Colonel after 25 years of service. He fought in Vietnam and commanded all Marine aviation forces in Somalia. He flew Marine One, the Presidential helicopter, and served on a small committee of Marines who planned the Corps’ long-term procurement needs. John’s character and steadiness of nerve were recognized when, during the Carter administration and, more briefly, the Reagan administration, he was selected to travel with the President, carrying the briefcase containing the codes to launch our nuclear arsenal. He was a good choice, too; John might be the least excitable man I know.

Col. Kline brings to his Congressional duties a rare knowledge of military affairs and ability to assess conditions on the ground. He recently returned from his third trip to Iraq, this time as a member of the House’s Armed Services Committee. I had a long talk with him last week, and recorded our conversation so I could quote him accurately. I asked John how this trip compared with his prior visits:

Read it all.

Homecomings

If you've been reading Milblogs for a while you're probably familiar with Marine Lieutenant Colonel Mike Strobl's account from last year of his duties as escort officer accompanying the remains of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps from Dover AFB, Delaware to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming for his funeral. If you haven't read it before, here's the complete story.

And here's an excerpt:

We received a brief covering our duties, the proper handling of the remains, the procedures for draping a flag over a casket, and of course, the paperwork attendant to our task. We were shown pictures of the shipping container and told that each one contained, in addition to the casket, a flag. I was given an extra flag since Phelps’s parents were divorced. This way they would each get one. I didn’t like the idea of stuffing the flag into my luggage but I couldn’t see carrying a large flag, folded for presentation to the next of kin, through an airport while in my Alpha uniform. It barely fit into my suitcase.

It turned out that I was the last escort to leave on Thursday. This meant that I repeatedly got to participate in the small ceremonies that mark all departures from the Dover AFB mortuary.

Most of the remains are taken from Dover AFB by hearse to the airport in Philadelphia for air transport to their final destination. When the remains of a service member are loaded onto a hearse and ready to leave the Dover mortuary, there is an announcement made over the building’s intercom system. With the announcement, all service members working at the mortuary, regardless of service branch, stop work and form up along the driveway to render a slow ceremonial salute as the hearse departs. Escorts also participated in each formation until it was their time to leave.

On this day there were some civilian workers doing construction on the mortuary grounds. As each hearse passed, they would stop working and place their hard hats over their hearts. This was my first sign that my mission with PFC Phelps was larger than the Marine Corps and that his family and friends were not grieving alone.

Eventually I was the last escort remaining in the lounge. The Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant in charge of the Marine liaison there came to see me. He had Chance Phelps’s personal effects. He removed each item; a large watch, a wooden cross with a lanyard, two loose dog tags, two dog tags on a chain, and a Saint Christopher medal on a silver chain. Although we had been briefed that we might be carrying some personal effects of the deceased, this set me aback. Holding his personal effects, I was starting to get to know Chance Phelps.

Finally we were ready. I grabbed my bags and went outside. I was somewhat startled when I saw the shipping container, loaded three-quarters of the way in to the back of a black Chevy Suburban that had been modified to carry such cargo. This was the first time I saw my “cargo” and I was surprised at how large the shipping container was. The Master Gunnery Sergeant and I verified that the name on the container was Phelps’s then they pushed him the rest of the way in and we left. Now it was PFC Chance Phelps’s turn to receive the military—and construction workers’—honors. He was finally moving towards home.

As I chatted with the driver on the hour-long trip to Philadelphia, it became clear that he considered it an honor to be able to contribute in getting Chance home. He offered his sympathy to the family. I was glad to finally be moving yet apprehensive about what things would be like at the airport. I didn’t want this package to be treated like ordinary cargo, but I knew that the simple logistics of moving around a box this large would have to overrule my preferences.

When we got to the Northwest Airlines cargo terminal at the Philadelphia airport, the cargo handler and hearse driver pulled the shipping container onto a loading bay while I stood to the side and executed a slow salute. Once Chance was safely in the cargo area, and I was satisfied that he would be treated with due care and respect, the hearse driver drove me over to the passenger terminal and dropped me off.

As I walked up to the ticketing counter in my uniform, a Northwest employee started to ask me if I knew how to use the automated boarding pass dispenser. Before she could finish another ticketing agent interrupted her. He told me to go straight to the counter then explained to the woman that I was a military escort. She seemed embarrassed. The woman behind the counter already had tears in her eyes as I was pulling out my government travel voucher. She struggled to find words but managed to express her sympathy for the family and thank me for my service. She upgraded my ticket to first class.

After clearing security, I was met by another Northwest Airline employee at the gate. She told me a representative from cargo would be up to take me down to the tarmac to observe the movement and loading of PFC Phelps. I hadn’t really told any of them what my mission was but they all knew.

When the man from the cargo crew met me, he, too, struggled for words. On the tarmac, he told me stories of his childhood as a military brat and repeatedly told me that he was sorry for my loss. I was starting to understand that, even here in Philadelphia, far away from Chance’s hometown, people were mourning with his family.

On the tarmac, the cargo crew was silent except for occasional instructions to each other. I stood to the side and saluted as the conveyor moved Chance to the aircraft. I was relieved when he was finally settled into place. The rest of the bags were loaded and I watched them shut the cargo bay door before heading back up to board the aircraft.

One of the pilots had taken my carry-on bag himself and had it stored next to the cockpit door so he could watch it while I was on the tarmac. As I boarded the plane, I could tell immediately that the flight attendants had already been informed of my mission. They seemed a little choked up as they led me to my seat.

About 45 minutes into our flight I still hadn’t spoken to anyone except to tell the first class flight attendant that I would prefer water. I was surprised when the flight attendant from the back of the plane suddenly appeared and leaned down to grab my hands. She said, “I want you to have this” as she pushed a small gold crucifix, with a relief of Jesus, into my hand. It was her lapel pin and it looked somewhat worn. I suspected it had been hers for quite some time. That was the only thing she said to me the entire flight.

When we landed in Minneapolis, I was the first one off the plane. The pilot himself escorted me straight down the side stairs of the exit tunnel to the tarmac. The cargo crew there already knew what was on this plane. They were unloading some of the luggage when an Army sergeant, a fellow escort who had left Dover earlier that day, appeared next to me. His “cargo” was going to be loaded onto my plane for its continuing leg. We stood side by side in the dark and executed a slow salute as Chance was removed from the plane. The cargo crew at Minneapolis kept Phelps’s shipping case separate from all the other luggage as they waited to take us to the cargo area. I waited with the soldier and we saluted together as his fallen comrade was loaded onto the plane.

*****

Here's another description of the solemn process:

Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag -- greeted by a color guard.

But in reality, many are arriving as freight on commercial airliners -- stuffed in the belly of a plane with suitcases and other cargo.

John Holley and his wife, Stacey, were stunned when they found out the body of their only child, Matthew John Holley, who died in Iraq last month, would be arriving at Lindbergh Field as freight.
<...>
John and Stacey Holley, who were both in the Army, made some calls, and with the help of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, Matthew was greeted with honor and respect.

Several readers pointed me to this story, citing it as an example of how poorly fallen soldiers are treated.

After pausing only long enough to alert the media, Senator Boxer sent a letter to Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey demanding an investigation, noting that she “would like to spare other families from this terrible experience.” That early report claimed that a representative of the Defense Department said she "did not know why this is happening".

But today's news reveals that the Army has already discovered exactly who's responsible:

Shari Lawrence, deputy public affairs officer for Army Human Resources, said military aircraft are prohibited, legally, from providing services already available through commercial flyers, as spelled out in laws governing noncompetition between the military and the private sector.

“We don’t expect everyone to be happy about that,” she said. “We do have families who get upset, and we tell them it’s OK to be mad at us. … But it’s part of public law.”

So, that part is explained. Now if Senator Boxer can discover who's responsible for making those damned public laws...

*****

More:

In a separate statement, a defense official said the practice is “not at all disrespectful” and that commercial airlines “have historically been able to bring our fallen heroes home more quickly than if moved aboard military airlift.”

Lawrence said the bodies of nearly all troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for identification and preparation of the remains, then sent to their final resting place from there.

Defense officials said every body that leaves Dover is accompanied by an escort, either a servicemember or a member of the deceased’s family.

If the family is within a day’s drive of Delaware, the body is usually driven to the appropriate funeral home. If not, the casket is usually driven to Philadelphia International Airport, and a domestic flyer is paid by the department to carry the body.

Lawrence said the procedure mirrors what would happen if a civilian casket was being transported. The military coffin is loaded into a shipping case, and the escort accompanies the body until a family member or a funeral home takes over.

Contrary to popular belief, the Army does not have a formal ceremony for when the bodies of soldiers arrive at the base or when they are delivered to the family, she said.

“If the Army is going to pay its respects, that would be at the funeral or a memorial service,” Lawrence said.

Taking Chance Home - read the whole thing.

By the way, if the military was to transport the fallen all the way to their home towns, they would use the same aircraft they use to bring them to Dover - cargo planes. It's all we've got.

Update: 280 blogs linked that original story, and based on my sampling every one of them fell for Boxer's stunt.

Update two:

Inside a limousine parked on the airport tarmac, Katherine Cathey looked out at the clear night sky and felt a kick.

"He's moving," she said. "Come feel him. He's moving."

Her two best friends leaned forward on the soft leather seats and put their hands on her stomach.

"I felt it," one of them said. "I felt it."

Outside, the whine of jet engines swelled.

"Oh, sweetie," her friend said. "I think this is his plane."

As the three young women peered through the tinted windows, Katherine squeezed a set of dog tags stamped with the same name as her unborn son:

James J. Cathey.

"He wasn't supposed to come home this way," she said, tightening her grip on the tags, which were linked by a necklace to her husband's wedding ring.

The women looked through the back window. Then the 23-year-old placed her hand on her pregnant belly.

"Everything that made me happy is on that plane," she said.

They watched as airport workers rolled a conveyor belt to the rear of the plane, followed by six solemn Marines.

Katherine turned from the window and closed her eyes.

"I don't want it to be dark right now. I wish it was daytime," she said. "I wish it was daytime for the rest of my life. The night is just too hard."

Suddenly, the car door opened. A white-gloved hand reached into the limousine from outside - the same hand that had knocked on Katherine's door in Brighton five days earlier.

The man in the deep blue uniform knelt down to meet her eyes, speaking in a soft, steady voice.

"Katherine," said Maj. Steve Beck, "it's time."
<...>
When a young Marine in dress uniform had boarded the plane to Reno, the passengers smiled and nodded politely. None knew he had just come from the plane's cargo hold, after watching his best friend's casket loaded onboard.

At 24 years old, Sgt. Gavin Conley was only seven days younger than the man in the coffin. The two had met as 17-year-olds on another plane - the one to boot camp in California. They had slept in adjoining top bunks, the two youngest recruits in the barracks.

All Marines call each other brother. Conley and Jim Cathey could have been. They finished each other's sentences, had matching infantry tattoos etched on their shoulders, and cracked on each other as if they had grown up together - which, in some ways, they had.

When the airline crew found out about Conley's mission, they bumped him to first-class. He had never flown there before. Neither had Jim Cathey.
<...>
When the plane landed in Nevada, the pilot asked the passengers to remain seated while Conley disembarked alone. Then the pilot told them why.

The passengers pressed their faces against the windows. Outside, a procession walked toward the plane. Passengers in window seats leaned back to give others a better view. One held a child up to watch.
<...>
"There are moments in this experience that energize you, and there are moments that suck you dry," Beck said. "Those moments are short, but they're so defining.

"And you're about to see one of them."

As jet engines roared around him, Beck looked at the plane. The Marines marched to the cargo hold, toward the casket.

"See the people in the windows? They'll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines," Beck said. "You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home."
<...>
Most people will never see the Transportation Security Administration officials standing on the tarmac with their hands over their hearts as a body is unloaded. They won't see the airport police and firefighters lined up alongside their cars and engines, lights flashing, saluting the hearse on its way out.

Occasionally, a planeload of passengers is briefly exposed to the hard reality outside the cabin.

"They're going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives," Beck said, looking back at the passengers. "They're going to remember bringing that Marine home.

"And they should."
<...>
"There's no way that doing one of these funerals can't make you a better person. I think everyone in the military should have to do at least one."

Still, it doesn't end at the cemetery.

"People think that after the funeral, we're finished," Beck said. "It's not over. It's not over at all. We have to keep taking care of the families."

More here. (Via Lex)

Open Post

And don't forget to vote for Soldier's Angel Holly Aho.

(Mudville too, if you've time. I'm astonished at how we've kept up with the big dogs.)

Smash Sez:

THEY HOPE you're not paying attention.

You've got no time for politics. Christmas is coming. You're not done shopping yet. You've got to wrap up all those projects at work before the end of the year. The kids will be out of school soon. The weather is getting colder. Hey, look -- football!

It's the perfect time for an ambush.

"Congress has reached a tipping point on Iraq. Over two-thirds of Americans want an exit plan to bring our troops home from Iraq. To make sure Congress gets the message, we've launched the Bring The Troops Home petition drive. On December 14th, MoveOn members will gather outside their representative's office, speak about the need to end the war, and then deliver the petitions to congressional staff."

For the past week, the anti-victory forces have been calling, writing, and faxing Members of Congress, urging them to endorse MoveOn's Cut & Run Plan for Iraq. They are hoping that by inundating Capitol Hill with their defeatist message, they can unify the Democratic Party under the White Flag, and perhaps intimidate a few Republicans into adopting a quick and easy "exit strategy."

In short, they think we aren't paying attention.

They're wrong.

Read the rest here.

Big Numbers

Anyone remember the incident resulting in the largest loss of life suffered by the US military over the past two decades?

Here's a reminder:

Today is the 20th anniversary of the plane crash in Gander, Newfoundland, that claimed the lives of 248 soldiers -- all members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division heading home to Fort Campbell, Ky. -- along with eight crew members. The soldiers had just completed peacekeeping duties as part of a multinational force assigned to patrol the Sinai Peninsula. They arrived in Gander on an Arrow Air charter DC-8.

Upon arrival, many dashed to pay phones in the terminal for a quick phone call home. They would all perish shortly after takeoff just a few minutes later. None survived.

For the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles, Dec. 12 is a dark day indeed. More U.S. soldiers died at Gander in 1985 than in other single incident involving U.S. forces over the last two decades. More died there than at the Marine barracks in Beirut two years earlier, for example. It was the worst single air disaster in history for the U.S. military, and it was Canada's worst air disaster as well.

That was yesterday's Washington Times. I'd have noted this yesterday, but time flies...

I was on active duty back then, too, and I remember the event. They were returning from a peace keeping mission in the Middle East. An odd thing that, from a day when our real foe was Communism. There were still plenty of people in the military who had fought Communism in Vietnam.

I remembered it too when less then two years later I went on a mission to Egypt, and stopped at Gander. Then spent some time in the desert, on a base that featured notable landmarks such as the burned out shell of a Russian aircraft to break the otherwise unremarkable plains of sand. We were exercising with the Egyptians, but the Russians had their ties with them too. We had to be closer, to stem the tide of Communism.

Here's the latest on Communism:

"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin," said Ronald Reagan. "And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

In the future, understanding Communism may not require dusting off an old copy of Das Kapital, but instead merely visiting the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C.
<...>
"We hope to have it dedicated in the fall of 2006," says Lee Edwards, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which was established by an act of Congress in 1993. "But there's still a little more work to do."
<...>
Suffice it to say, the experience demands forests of paperwork and mountains of patience. "It's all on behalf of the 100 million people who were killed in Communism's wars, revolutions, and purges," says Edwards.

That's a conservative estimate. According to some sources (see also definition here) the number could be as high as 260,000,000. For simplicity we could just round to a quarter billion.

From 1945 to 1987 the communists in Vietnam killed between 720 thousand and 3.6 million citizens - most in the purges following the overthrow of the South. They were pikers compared to the Soviet Union, whose estimated death toll is somewhere between 28 and 128 million - about half of those deaths occurred in "camps".

Reagan called them an "Evil Empire", and many sneered.

By 1990 I was fighting Communism more directly - in Korea, one of the last places we could really toe the line after the Soviets imploded. While there I saw the Berlin Wall come down - on TV - and the world rejoiced. But the North Korean propaganda we picked up assured us such would never be the case there.

The estimated number of deaths in Korea due to the communist regime between 1948 and 1987 were between 710 thousand and 3.5 million - since you asked.

But in the summer of 1990 I wasn't actually in Korea. I was sent away for Professional Military Education. For those unaware, those of us in uniform, regardless of branch, are periodically sent for training to prepare us for the next level of leadership we're expected to achieve. And that's where I was when Saddam invaded Kuwait.

"The greatest single threat we face in the world today," I distinctly recall an instructor telling the class, "is Communism."

The Soviet Union had fallen, freedom was breaking out all over Europe, and Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait. I recognized that it takes a while to update the approved syllabus for these types of courses, so being young and foolish I spoke up.

"I'm sure that's the answer, if we see that in the form of a written question somewhere," I noted, "but don't you think there might be other, greater threats now?"

"The greatest single threat we face in the world today," I distinctly recall the instructor repeating to the class, "is Communism."

And that's all he had to say about that. He was wrong, but it's hard to get past those big numbers.

By the way, it wasn't on the test.

*****

In my two years in Korea I was never once personally thanked by a citizen of that land for helping prevent the southward spread of Communism. But that's okay.

The fact that they can do this without fear of death in a gulag is thanks enough:

About 4,500 demonstrators, according to police estimates, rallied outside the Pyeongtaek train station to protest the American plan to move forces to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. A group called The Pan-Korean National Task Force Against Expansion of U.S. Bases in Pyeongtaek organized the protest.

But wait, there's more:

In a show of support for the U.S. military Sunday, the Korean Veterans Association and Songtan Chamber of Commerce held a rally that drew a crowd police estimated at about 4,000 outside the main gate of Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek’s Songtan section.

The veterans urged support for the U.S. military’s presence on the peninsula and its planned relocation of forces to Humphreys. They also denounced the anti-American activist movement in South Korea, which they said imperiled their country’s security.

*****

On my way back from school to Korea in 1990 I spent some time at the airport in Tokyo. I was flying commercial because all the military transport aircraft were busy flying GIs to Saudi.

Between 3 and 10.5 million, if you were wondering the death toll caused by Japan between 1937 and 1945 - that excludes military deaths during combat. (see also here) My father and uncles helped bring an end to that (and also this) back in their day, and a few were still serving in Vietnam.

In WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, approximately 500,000 Americans died fighting totalitarian regimes.

*****

In the 3+ years I've been in Germany, I've never once been personally thanked by a local for protecting them from Communism.

And that's okay.

Some fine day I may return to Iraq. A peaceful and prosperous Iraq. Few will thank me - and that's okay too.

But that's for the future. This is now

A number of scholars and former government officials take strong issue with the administration's warning about a new caliphate, and compare it to the fear of communism spread during the Cold War.
<...>
The notion that Al Qaeda could create a new caliphate, he said, is simply wrong. "There's no chance in the world that they'll succeed," he said. "It's a silly threat."

Good - we plan on keeping it that way. And now back to Communism:

Dear Cary,

I'm a philosophy student in grad school. This is my first year in graduate school, and I left a large metropolitan city in the South in order to come to a small, isolated city in the mountainous Northeast. I really love grad school, and feel I am doing well... This is not an alienated job to me, but rather it is the work of life; what Marx meant when he called labour a "living, form-giving fire."

But I feel guilty... I haven't done any activism work since coming to grad school, despite the fact that I was a committed activist before grad school. And I am not sure how that will change, for there is just no time. Sleeping, cooking and making love are luxuries that one somehow steals in between teaching and researching here in grad school. And I will be here for at least six years, if not longer. And after that?

...The only academics in America who seriously shape the country are scientists, neocons and economists. So I feel stuck, both deliriously happy with what I am doing and at the same time wracked with guilt over what I am not doing.

- Academic Who Would Be a Revolutionary

Dear Academic Who Would Be a Revolutionary,

You are to be commended for trying to show your students what courage and personal commitment are required of those who would fashion themselves radical philosophers. Though I do not know what school you are teaching at, I imagine that few of your students have much experience fighting police. It is not one of the extracurricular activities one's parents urge one to engage in while in high school, in order to highlight it on college applications.

And yet fighting police can be crucial to understanding what power really is -- as hearing the clang of a metal door can be crucial to understanding what confinement is. And thus it can be educational. One must know and accept the consequences of one's ideas.

At a certain point in the near future, if the current oligarchy cannot be removed via the ballot, direct political action may become an urgent and compelling mission. It may then be necessary for many people in many walks of life to put their bodies on the line. For the moment, however, although pressing and profound questions have arisen about whether the current government is even legitimate, i.e., properly elected, there still remains a chance to remove this government peacefully in the 2008 election. (Or am I living in a dream world?)

I do think this regime's removal is the most urgent matter before the country today. And I do think that at a certain point the achievement of that goal might take precedent over our personal predilections for writing, teaching and the like. We might be called upon to go on general strike, for instance. We might be called upon to set up camp in the streets for weeks or months, to gather and remain in large public squares as the students in Tiananmen Square did, and dare government forces to remove us or to slaughter us in the streets.

...So what do I advise you to do? I advise you to stay in your position for now. For now, you are where you are supposed to be; you are doing what you are supposed to be doing; you are telling your students what they need to know.

*****

"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin," said Ronald Reagan. "And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

Coincidently, I almost forgot to mention the shape of the memorial to the hundreds of thousands of dead caused by these people:

The current plan calls for a 10-foot-tall bronze statue based on the "Goddess of Liberty" figure erected by the martyred Chinese students of Tiananmen Square.

*****

And to the 248 Soldiers whose peacekeeping mission ended at Gander:

Today, near the crash site, a memorial plaque lists the names of those killed. A monument of three figures has been erected there, too. It sends a clear message. A lone soldier holds hands with two children. One child's hand extends an olive branch.

Blessed are the peacemakers - we've always got an olive branch in one hand.

Mike Yon's Photo...

Of Maj Dave Beiger cradling the Iraqi girl, Farah, has been nominated for Time Magazine's "peoples choice" photo of the year. You can vote for it - details here.

Instant Urban Legend?

Yesterday:

Q Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I'd like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed. And by Iraqis I include civilians, military, police, insurgents, translators.

THE PRESIDENT: How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq.

Today's headlines? "Bush says 30,000 Iraqi civilians dead in war"

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that voting has begun in Iraq

Voting started on a day that U.S. President George W. Bush gave a rare estimate of the number of civilians killed since U.S. troops invaded in 2003, acknowledging that 30,000 civilians had died in the violence.

We're sure corrections are forthcoming.

Update: Political Teen has the video.

Update 2: The Chronicle has altered their original headline - and the text in the story claiming 30,000 civilian dead.

This sort of stuff is why I always screen capture this sort of stuff.

At least for a while you'll be able to Google the original headline.

The Reuters story is unchanged - but that's likely to be on several web sites now, so no quick "fix".

Australian news sites are all over the 30,000 dead civilians story too.

More: And CNN is getting the headlines from Australia wrong. Guess we're even - and we all lose.

The World Speaks...

... does anybody listen? A quick round-up of key quotes on Iraq, from all over the world this past week. Some made headlines, others went mostly unheard.

December 4, USA, Senator John Kerry:

Kerry: Let me--I--first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush's policy right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he's doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn't been working. We all believe him when you say, 'Stay the course.' That's the president's policy, which hasn't been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don't agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you've got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You've got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis.

And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not--

Schieffer: Yeah.

Kerry: --Iraqis should be doing that.

December 5, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller

Denmark: We're Staying The Course In Iraq

HELSINKI -- After a U.S. commander said that Denmark might be able to bring its 230 troops home from Iraq next year, the Danish foreign minister responded in true “stay-the-course” fashion.

“Danish soldiers are in Iraq for a strategic military purpose and will stay there until we are requested to withdraw them by the Iraqi authorities,” Per Stig Moller told the Danish legislature Nov. 28.

Moller said his government is cautiously optimistic about a 2006 withdrawal, but that “our presence entirely depends on the terrorist situation and whether stability and the democratic rule of law can be established.”

Moller was responding to remarks made by U.S. Army Gen. George Casey, the commander of American forces in Iraq, to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on Nov. 22.

“The probability of Danish troops leaving Iraq and returning to Denmark in 2006, at this point in time, are good,” Casey told the newspaper. “This situation has been made possible because Iraqi security forces are beginning to take the lead in operations against insurgents, [and] with our support, we can let them take over.”

Denmark, which was the only Scandinavian country to throw its full political support behind the American-led invasion, has sent a total of 1,600 troops to Iraq. They have served in the roles of infantry and various specialties, including mechanics, technicians and computer-center personnel, under British command in the southeastern sector of Iraq.

Casey told Moller on Nov. 21 that Danish troops would likely be able to return home in the second half of 2006, as Iraqi forces assume more of the leadership and burden of fighting insurgents.

But Moller sounded less convinced the situation would be improved enough by then.

“The security situation in Iraq remains tense and volatile. We can see this from our intelligence reports,” the minister told lawmakers.

He restated government policy that Danish troops would remain in service in Iraq for as long as Iraqi officials believed the security situation there warranted: “Any request to withdraw must first come from the government of Iraq, with whom we are in dialogue.”

Moller said his Iraqi counterpart told him Nov. 4 that Iraq would continue to need the presence of foreign troops throughout 2006. “Even if a withdrawal happens in 2006, we expect that Denmark could be called on by NATO to lend support to the fledgling Iraqi forces.”

In any case, Moller said, the public discussion of exact withdrawal dates would help the enemy.

“Airing such details and security matters in public would merely serve the cause of the insurgents,” he told the lawmakers.

December 5, USA, Democrat Party Chairman Howard Dean:

"The idea that we're going to win this war is an ideal that unfortunately is just plain wrong".

December 5, Japan, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari

Iraqi Premier Asks Japan To Extend Troop Mission

TOKYO -- Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari called on Japan to extend its controversial military deployment to the war-torn country which is set to expire next week.

Despite growing calls in the United States for a pullout, Japan is all but certain to extend its largely symbolic mission of 600 troops in the relatively safe southern Iraqi city of Samawa into next year.

Japan is reportedly hoping to pull out sometime in 2006 with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi telling Jaafari that Japan could help Iraq more as an economic rather than military partner once security improved.

Jaafari, paying a brief first visit to one of his government’s main financial backers, said Iraqis “appreciate” the Japanese troops, who are on Tokyo’s first mission since World War II to a country at war.

"I know the mission of the Self-Defense Forces will expire on (December) 14th. I deeply hope you extend it,” Jaafari told Koizumi, according to a Japanese official privy to the talks.

"We believe it’s too early for the Self-Defense Forces to exit Iraq,” Jaafari said. “Extending the deployment would be investing in Iraq’s future.”

Koizumi said that the praise would “encourage” the Japanese troops.

"I recognize your high regard for the Japanese troops and your request to extend the mission,” Koizumi told Jaafari. “I will take it into account when we make our decision comprehensively.”

December 7, USA, President Bush:

Democracy can be difficult and complicated and even chaotic. It can take years of hard work to build a healthy civil society. Iraqis have to overcome many challenges, including longstanding ethnic and religious tensions, and the legacy of brutal repression. But they're learning that democracy is the only way to build a just and peaceful society, because it's the only system that gives every citizen a voice in determining its future.

Before our mission in Iraq is accomplished, there will be tough days ahead. Victory in Iraq will require continued sacrifice by our men and women in uniform, and the continued determination of our citizens. There will be good days and there will be bad days in this war. I reject the pessimists in Washington who say we can't win this war. Yet every day, we can be confident of the outcome because we know that freedom has got the power to overcome terror and tyranny. We can be confident about the outcome because we know the character and strength of the men and women in the fight. Their courage makes all Americans proud.

This generation of Americans in uniform is every bit as brave and determined as the generation that went to war after the attack on our nation 64 years ago today. Like those who came before, they are defeating a dangerous enemy, bringing freedom to millions, and transforming a troubled part of the world. And like those who came before, they will always have the gratitude of the American people.

Our nation will uphold the cause for which our men and women in uniform are risking their lives. We will continue to hunt down the terrorists wherever they hide. We will help the Iraqi people so they can build a free society in the heart of a troubled region. And by laying the foundations of freedom in Iraq and across the broader Middle East, we will lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.

December 8, USA, Howard Dean:

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday his assertion that the United States cannot win the war in Iraq was reported "a little out of context," saying Democrats believe a new U.S. strategy is needed to succeed there.

Seeking to clarify a statement in a Texas radio interview that Republicans harshly assailed and some Democrats questioned, Dean said, "They kind of cherry-picked that one the same way the president cherry-picked the intelligence going into Iraq."

December 8, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia:

Joining the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq has brought real military and diplomatic benefits that help offset the cost in blood and treasure, top officials from three East European allies said in interviews this week.

"We supported the war in Iraq and have our troops there now not because we felt threatened directly by Saddam Hussein," said Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski.

"We are there because of our investment in a strong U.S.-Polish relationship. We want to show the United States we will be with them when we are needed," he said. "To that extent, we have done what we hoped to do."

But Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko said his country's decision to deploy nearly 1,600 troops to Iraq in 2003 helped establish a "sphere of trust" with the Bush administration, even as the government of President Viktor Yushchenko prepares to bring all but a few Ukrainian troops home.

"For us, it has been a successful deployment, and our withdrawal has been fully coordinated with our American, Iraqi and coalition allies," he said. "We are not leaving in the middle of the night, as some others did."

Mr. Hrytsenko said security in the south-central Iraqi region overseen by Ukrainian forces was good, and noted that Ukrainian troops had been able to train a 2,700-strong brigade of Iraqi troops to assume control of the sector.

Ukraine also will leave behind a sizable cache of military equipment for use by the Iraqi security forces. Mr. Yushchenko has announced that a detachment of 50 Ukrainian soldiers will stay on after the larger force withdraws.

"We are leaving the Ukrainian flag in Iraq. We will still be part of the coalition," Mr. Hrytsenko said.

In Georgia, perhaps the most pro-U.S. country in Europe, the Iraq mission has provided excellent real-world training and a means to showcase Georgia's military prowess as it applies for membership in NATO.

"It has been very good for our capabilities and our experience," said Giorgi Baramidze, former defense minister and now Georgia's state minister for Euro-Atlantic integration.

He said Army Gen. George W. Casey, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, told him U.S. Marines came to prefer staging missions with Georgian soldiers "because our troops are so enthusiastic."

Unlike Poland and Ukraine, Georgia's 900 soldiers in Iraq, some stationed with U.S. troops in the violent Sunni Arab heartland, will remain with the U.S.-led mission indefinitely, Mr. Baramidze said.

All three ministers said their Iraq commitments have come with costs. Nineteen Polish troops and 18 Ukrainian troops have been killed in Iraq. Georgia's casualties have been limited to one seriously wounded soldier, who is being treated at Washington's Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Poland's Mr. Sikorski said the Iraq commitment has damaged his country's relations with other powers in the European Union and with some Arab states.
<...>
Mr. Sikorski said that Iraqi civilian casualties in the Polish-run sector were the lowest in the country and said security was improving daily.

"If the rest of Iraq looked like our zone, the country would be in pretty good shape," he said.

December 8, USA, Senator John Kerry:

The United States needs to reduce its forces in Iraq by "at least 100,000" by the end of 2006, sending a message to the Middle East that Americans are not interested in maintaining a permanent military presence in that country, Sen. John Kerry said Thursday.

He conceded "you're going to have to see where you are. ... I would not do it on a fixed automatic table. It has to be results coordinated."
<...>
But the Massachusetts senator also took aim at his colleagues in Congress.

"Never in the 21 years that I have been in the Congress ... have we seen as dysfunctional an institution as the Congress is today," he said. "Almost every great issue facing our nation is not being genuinely discussed."

December 9, Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi:

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Thursday that his government had authorized extending the SDF deployment to the end of 2006, although the troops could be withdrawn earlier depending on conditions there.

His Australian counterpart, John Howard, said shortly afterwards that Australian forces would in that case remain on too, in line with Japan's decision.

"We'll continue to work with our Japanese friends, we'll continue to provide security," he said.

"It's important that Japan retains a presence in Iraq and we intend to be part of that continuing presence."

"The United States highly values Japan's leadership in reconstruction efforts in Iraq," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday.

December 9, USA, congress:

Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, offered the fiercest comments from his side, referring to "the president who lied" and "the lying administration." Scolded by other members, he refused to back down. "They misled and lied; I'll say it again," Mr. Ackerman said.

The Republican committee chairman, Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, fired back by reading from The Congressional Record remarks by Mr. Ackerman in October 2002 before he voted in favor of the Congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, "We cannot simply hope that U.N. inspections will rout out Saddam Hussein's weapons of terror."
<...>
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, declared that some Democrats "do not want us to win in Iraq" for fear that it would give the administration a political victory. When his turn came, Representative Donald M. Payne, Democrat of New Jersey, said he was "shocked" by her accusation.

"That is probably one of the most dastardly statements I ever heard a member of Congress make," he said.

December 11, USA, Representative John Murtha (D-Pa) :

Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who roiled Washington by calling for a quick troop withdrawal from Iraq, refused Sunday to back away, despite disagreement within his party.

"The majority of people in Iraq are in favor of us getting out now," he said on CBS. "We have become the enemy."

December 11, Iraqi people:

An opinion poll suggests Iraqis are generally optimistic about their lives, in spite of the violence that has plagued Iraq since the US-led invasion.
<...>
The poll by Oxford Research International was commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and other international media organisations, and released ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq.
<...>
The BBC News website's World Affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, says the survey shows a degree of optimism at variance with the usual depiction of the country as one in total chaos.

The findings are more in line with the kind of arguments currently being deployed by US President George W Bush, he says.

However, our correspondent adds that critics will claim that the survey proves little beyond showing how resilient Iraqis are at a local level - and that it reveals enough important exceptions to the rosy assessment, especially in the centre of the country, to indicate serious dissatisfaction.

Interviewers found that 71% of those questioned said things were currently very or quite good in their personal lives, while 29% found their lives very or quite bad.

When asked whether their lives would improve in the coming year, 64% said things would be better and 12% said they expected things to be worse.
<...>
When asked to choose a priority for the new government due to be formed after this week's elections, 57% wanted to focus on restoring public security.

Removing US-led forces from Iraq came second with 10%, while rebuilding the country's infrastructure was third.

It's the Caliphate, Silly

Elisabeth Bumiller enlightens us in the New York Times about Republican fear-mongering:

WASHINGTON--Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said it in a speech last Monday in Washington and again on Thursday on PBS. Eric S. Edelman, the under secretary of defense for policy, said it the week before in a round table at the Council on Foreign Relations. Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said it in October in speeches in New York and Los Angeles. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, said it in September in hearings on Capitol Hill.

Vice President Dick Cheney was one of the first members of the Bush administration to say it, at a campaign stop in Lake Elmo, Minn., in September 2004.

The word getting the workout from the nation's top guns these days is "caliphate" - the term for the seventh-century Islamic empire that spanned the Middle East, spread to Southwest Asia, North Africa and Spain, then ended with the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. The term can also refer to other caliphates, including the one declared by the Ottoman Turks that ended in 1924.

Specialists on Islam say the word is a mysterious and ominous one for many Americans, and that the administration knows it. "They recognize that there's a lot of resonance when they use the term 'caliphate,' " said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and now a scholar at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, said that the word had an "almost instinctive fearful impact."

So now, Mr. Cheney and others warn, Al Qaeda's ultimate goal is the re-establishment of the caliphate, with calamitous consequences for the United States. As Mr. Cheney put it in Lake Elmo, referring to Osama bin Laden and his followers: "They talk about wanting to re-establish what you could refer to as the seventh-century caliphate" to be "governed by Sharia law, the most rigid interpretation of the Koran."

Or as Mr. Rumsfeld put it on Monday: "Iraq would serve as the base of a new Islamic caliphate to extend throughout the Middle East, and which would threaten legitimate governments in Europe, Africa and Asia."

Honestly, they're worried about the Dark Ages, for Pete's sake. What will the rubes fall for next? Others warning about al-Qaeda's goal of re-establishing the caliphate include, well..., um..., al Qaeda. But resisting that plays right into their hands, and people worried about the caliphate are just plain silly:

Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, said Al Qaeda was not leading a movement that threatened to mobilize the vast majority of Muslims. A recent poll Mr. Telhami conducted with Zogby International of 3,900 people in six countries - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon - found that only 6 percent sympathized with Al Qaeda's goal of seeking an Islamic state.

The notion that Al Qaeda could create a new caliphate, he said, is simply wrong. "There's no chance in the world that they'll succeed," he said. "It's a silly threat."

In fact, resisting them actually makes them stronger:

On the other hand, more than 30 percent in Mr. Telhami's poll said they sympathized with Al Qaeda, because the group stood up to America.

Of course, their goal is the Caliphate - whether they can reach it or not, it's what they're doing to achieve it that we're fighting. But that's certainly no reason to stop the sneering.

The Boys Of Baghdad

With elections in Iraq drawing near, the New York Times looks at three politicians with Baghdad-style old school ties:

Boys Of Baghdad College Vie For Prime Minister

The three men are now flag bearers for three very different visions of Iraq's future: Mr. Allawi for a secular state, Mr. Mahdi for an Islamic-style democracy, and Mr. Chalabi for a program that would purge Iraqi society of those associated with Mr. Hussein's rule. Hard feelings have erupted at times, in particular between Mr. Allawi and Mr. Chalabi, who struggled bitterly in the 1990's over the leadership of the Iraqi exile movement.

But what unites the three former schoolmates could prove more important than what sets them apart.

Clashing banners and personal ambitions aside, Mr. Allawi, Mr. Chalabi and Mr. Mahdi say they are ready to strike political deals that might involve tossing aside some ideological differences. Mr. Mahdi and Mr. Chalabi say they aim to form a "national unity" government with Iraq's main political leaders, presumably including Mr. Allawi.

Mr. Allawi, among others, says that is highly unlikely. Even so, the ties that go back to childhood and to the musty corridors of Baghdad College suggest that the hard clashes that lie ahead in this polarized land may yet be softened by three men who grew up together.

"Ahmad was a year ahead of me, and we used to go swimming together," Mr. Allawi said. "Adel and I were friends, our families knew each other. He was a good basketball player."

"Politically we are very different now," he said. "But those were nice days then."
<...>
For men now in their 60's - Mr. Allawi is 60, Mr. Chalabi is 61 and Mr. Mahdi is 63 - memories of that time are sometimes hazy. And although the three men attended Baghdad College at the same time, because of their differing ages they did not attend the same classes.

But the memories are fondly held. During separate interviews last year, Mr. Chalabi and Mr. Mahdi volunteered that they had gone to high school together, and each man walked over to his bookcase to pull down his yearbook.

"Adel was always bullying us," Mr. Chalabi joked about the soft-spoken Mr. Mahdi, with whom he remains close. "Ayad was taciturn."
<...>
Mr. Chalabi boasted that he had received the highest marks in school, a boast that was not disputed by Mr. Allawi or Mr. Mahdi.

"I was ahead of Chalabi, but he was so intelligent he was jumping classes," Mr. Mahdi said.

Ignoring nostalgia, the London Daily Telegraph offers some forward looking thoughts from one of the three:

Allawi Predicts A 'Bloody Chain Of Evil'

Iraq is likely to descend into civil war, unleashing a wave of "evil forces" around the world, if the current government is returned to power in this week's elections, the former prime minister warned yesterday.
<...>
Dr Allawi is heading a secular list for the elections on Thursday to choose the country's first full government since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.
<...>
Dr Allawi believes this is the last chance to prevent Iraq collapsing into fiefdoms run by sectarian militias. There are strong signs that this is already happening, with the police being infiltrated by militias linked to parties in the ruling Shia Muslim coalition.

"If Iraq continues down this route, Iraq will dismember and fragment," Dr Allawi said at his guarded home in Baghdad.

"When it fragments, God forbid, it will be quite bloody. Not only for Iraq. It will trigger a chain in the whole region, and perhaps beyond, which cannot be controlled, and this will unleash evil forces throughout the world."

It's not clear whether those pronouncements are strictly for the foreign press or if they are also contained in his campaign literature. If so, they're not gaining much domestic traction

An opinion poll suggests Iraqis are generally optimistic about their lives, in spite of the violence that has plagued Iraq since the US-led invasion.
<...>
The poll by Oxford Research International was commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and other international media organisations, and released ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq.
<...>
The BBC News website's World Affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, says the survey shows a degree of optimism at variance with the usual depiction of the country as one in total chaos.

The findings are more in line with the kind of arguments currently being deployed by US President George W Bush, he says.

However, our correspondent adds that critics will claim that the survey proves little beyond showing how resilient Iraqis are at a local level - and that it reveals enough important exceptions to the rosy assessment, especially in the centre of the country, to indicate serious dissatisfaction.

Interviewers found that 71% of those questioned said things were currently very or quite good in their personal lives, while 29% found their lives very or quite bad.

When asked whether their lives would improve in the coming year, 64% said things would be better and 12% said they expected things to be worse.
<...>
When asked to choose a priority for the new government due to be formed after this week's elections, 57% wanted to focus on restoring public security.

Removing US-led forces from Iraq came second with 10%, while rebuilding the country's infrastructure was third.

Although Allawi's view may not reflect that of the majority of Iraqis, it can't be denied that he's embraced a Democratic perspective.

Update: Speaking of Democratic perspective:

Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who roiled Washington by calling for a quick troop withdrawal from Iraq, refused Sunday to back away, despite disagreement within his party.

"The majority of people in Iraq are in favor of us getting out now," he said on CBS. "We have become the enemy."

Via email:

Signed "Patrick"

Thank you for helping influence my decision to enlist in the US Army. I just last week signed on the dotted line and enlisted for four years as a 91W. "Health Care Specialist" (I know what it REALLY is. :P)

You, among other military bloggers and real-life acquaintances, were a part of my decision to enlist. You helped me see through the perceived reality of military life to the real core of it. Past the initial training, past the media-foisted view of an order-following hell. I made a large part of the decision on my own, but the milblog writers definitely contributed heavily.

so anyway, thanks again and wish me luck. I ship out to FLW January 11th.

Awesome.

Vote!

Another MilBlogger in another category - Resurgemus is here. (And check out his great blog (with photos) from Alaska.)

And thanks to those of you who've supported Mudville here - don't stop now!

Take It From Someone Who Knows

Do you have a son or daughter, or even a spouse who is about to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan and you're riddled with questions on how and what to do? Well where better to get that information, than from someone who's been there, and done that.

Some of you may already know her, but if you're new here let me direct you to a Soldier's Mom. It has been our good fortune to meet this wonderful woman, although the circumstances were not so wonderful.

She's been a milblogger for about about a year now, as a matter of fact her 1st blogoversary is in two days. This is an endeavor she started when her son was sent to Iraq. It was when her son was injured by an VBIED attack that set our paths to meet. Her son Noah was sent to Landstuhl, Germany. We happen to be stationed near by and wanted to make sure Noah had someone there for him until his mother could be there and to asure his mother as best as I could with any information available.. She and her husband did get here and in spite of circumstances we had a fine time. That was a few months back - and Noah is recovering well.

You can read about his unit in Time Magazine (it's the Special Issue: The Year in Medicine issue). There's a story starting on p.42 ("Symptoms of Withdrawal") but on p.44 there is a box story on 2/69AR A Co. -- and Noah's 3rd (Blue) Platoon.

I am honored to call her my friend and learn from her insight every time I read her blog. You should make it your daily read as well.

Iraq and A-Stan

Instapundit has a new Afghanistan correspondent.

Glenn also points us to this Popular Mechanics (yep) article on Lessons From Iraq. It's by Bing and Owen West - a father/son/Marine team who are writing the script for an upcoming movie of the battle for Fallujah.

It's a brutal schooling, but American forces are learning how to combine new technology and old-fashioned combat skills to root out a tenacious insurgency. Former Marines Owen West and his father Bing West, who was a front-line witness to Iraq's fiercest urban battle, detail the key concept: adaptability.

I've briefly mentioned Bing's book No True Glory : A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah - a must have for anyone interested in an honest account of the campaign to eliminate the insurgency in that city. Hopefully I can get a around to a more thorough discussion of that soon. (Meanwhile, buy the book - highly recomended.)

Owen once contributed a story of the battle for Fallujah to Mudville.

On one side of the doors stood men who believed they would be judged how they lived. On the other lay men who believed they would be judged on how they died. How these two groups of men, who were more alike than different as boys, had traveled tens of years and thousands of miles to kill each other was best answered by the professional philosopher. For a professional warrior like Carver, combat was the natural culmination of moral divergence. A murderous enemy had infected Fallujah. Politicians could not excise them. Marines and soldiers could.

Read 'em all.

No-Shows at the Showdown

According to this story there was to be a meeting between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chariman Gen. Peter Pace, and a few Republican and Democrat lawmakers. The topic? Iraq.

The meeting was planned by Rep. Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania Republican, after he led a congressional delegation to Iraq from Nov. 27 to 30 that included Democratic Reps. Adam Smith of Washington, Kendrick B. Meek of Florida and Tim Ryan of Ohio.

One problem - the representatives from the "D" Party didn't even show up.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived on Capitol Hill yesterday expecting to meet not only with Republican supporters of the Iraq war, but also with Democrats highly critical of his post-Saddam Hussein decisions.

When Mr. Rumsfeld arrived with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace at the meeting place, the office of Rep. Jack Kingston, Georgia Republican, three invited Democrats did not show up.

Perhaps they had more important matters to attend to. Mr Meek (yes, that's his real name) explained his no-show thusly:

"I've been a member of the House Armed Services Committee for almost three years, and I thought it was strange that Secretary Rumsfeld would now suddenly want to meet with me on Iraq -- and invite the national media, too -- when for all these years he never showed any interest in my views.

Do you suppose that national media presence was a bit too intimidating? They do well in press conferences - perhaps it was the group setting that they wanted to avoid.

E-mails of Thank You's to our Troops

The email address of these fine folks have been removed by me in order to respect their privacy.

Greetings and Salutations!

My name is Edward L. Daley and I am the owner of the Daley Times-Post, an on-line journal for current news and conservative political opinions. A few days back, I decided to add a message board to my humble website for the exclusive purpose of allowing the folks here at home to post words of appreciation for the fine fighting men and women who make up our beloved armed services.
So far, 30 messages have appeared there, and I would like to take a moment now to relay them to you. Feel free to make copies of this letter and share them with your comrades in arms.

----------------------------------------------------------

Name: Carol
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Miami
Comments: MERY CHRISTMAS, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR I HOPE YOU'ALL WILL BE HOME IN 206 WITH YOUR JOB SO VERY WELL DONE, i HAVE READ A BUNCH OF OF THE NOTES TO YOU IT SHOWES WE ARE ALL BEHIND YOU AND THANK YOU WITH EVERYTHING WE have, we will all be saying a prayer for you on christmas, so even if your over there you will be here with us too. TAKE CARE AND GOD BLESS YOU!

Name: James Helton
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Santa Cruz, California USA
Comments: Thank all of you for fighting for our freedom. We, the American people, appreicate your sacrifice and are very proud of you. All of you are doing a fine job. God bless you and keep you well. Thank you very much.

Name: Samantha
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Canada
Comments: I just wanted to send a note to tell you Im thinking about all of you. Its got to be hard being away from home for the Holidays. Thank you for everything you are doing. Take care.

Name: SFC Tim Sumner, US Army (ret)
Homepage: http://www.911familiesforamerica.org
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Pennsylvania
Comments: Thank you for your service to our nation. We will never forget.

Name: Suzi & Hugh O"Neil
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Garnerville, NY
Comments: WE LOVE YOU ALL!! SUPPORT & BLESS YOU ALL & TO YOURS!! THANK YOU FOR OUR FREEDOM, & PROTECTING US HERE & ABROAD!!!

Name: Owens Family
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: U.S.A.
Comments: Wishing all our Service People a Merry Christmas, and thanking all of you for what you do for our country.

Name: Lisa
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: USA
Comments: My regards to all of you serving our country. Thanks to you all.

Name: Katie
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Luxembourg (Europe)
Comments: Just wanted to express my support and encouragement to the brave American soldiers.

Name: Bevie Moran
City/Country: Saratoga, USA
Comments: Thank you for fighting for my freedom! My dad did some very tough duty fighting for our freedom in the Navy in WWII, and now you are fighting for his freedom, and all of ours. You are our heros!

Name: Roy
E-Mail: Removed for PrivacyCity/Country: Dacula, GA, USA
Comments: I really do appreciate what you guys are doing over there, and wish I could be with you all, but I'm getting old, and did my time in Nam.

Name: Carol Feiler
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Miami, USA
Comments: To all our great men and women serving our country, please know all of us back home have you'all in our prayers every second of the day, we stand with you now and forever, your the best of the best, when my nephew came home safe I was so happy and prayed all the rest of you will be home safe soon too just keep in your minds and hearts we love you. Without you America wouldn't be the great country we are, we know you are there for the people that must live free here at home and any where else in the world. God bless and keep you.

Name: Pam
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Dallas, Texas
Comments: I am a Navy Veteran, 1978 to 1983. My son is now serving with the Air Force. Where to start expressing my feelings, how to put them into words? I feel immense respect, gratitude, and awe for your selfless sacrifice and service. The liberal left, although enjoying the very freedoms you protect for them, fail to understand why you cannot leave until the job is done. They bury their heads in the sand, and think if we just go away, the Islamic terrorists will just calm down and go away, because it's just our occupation of their lands that is what is causing the insurgency and homicide bombings. How soon they forget 9/11, when 3000 innocent people died, by the hands of those who had been planted here, planning these deaths for years. They were the insurgents. I know you all will continue to represent the United States of America with courage and dignity, and show the world that regardless of their opinions, we will never waiver in our belief that every human being, no matter what race, or religious belief has the right to live in freedom, without fear. To quote our Commander In Chief: God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Name: Don A
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Texas
Comments: Im not good at these things I can never think of what to say? Except to say that I believe our actions we have taken, namely Iraq and Afganistan were just, Democrats would have done what amounts to nothing, 3000 died in the 9/11 attacks and Democrats would have have taken a legal avenue on this, gone on the air to tell the American people that they are working behind the scenes on apprehending the individuals responsible for this.... and at the most would have launched a few Tomahawk missiles destroying some asprin factories delclareing the perpetrators, terrorist, dead and the matter closed now on with domestic issues like raiseing peoples taxis! Democrats are pretty keen on TomaHawk missiles the only part of the military they seem to like :-) more than likely we would have been attacked again!, but with us right in there backyard im sure they are more concerned with us being in Iraq and Afganistan than attacking us at home. Also id just like to say there`s no way the we canoose! it all depends on what one is willing to do and how much your willing to give, it was the antiwar protestors that lost Vietnam and they want to do the same here. Anyway take care, hope your in good spirits and Merry Christmas Happy New Year.

Name: Kevin Pryor
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: St. Louis Mo. USA
Comments: Thank you all, for the great job you're doing!!!!! We APPRECIATE you all!

Name: Muppetmel
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Toronto, Canada
Comments: My heartfelt thanks for your service to the USA and all of us who benefit in a free society.

Name: Cathy Williams
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Midland, TX USA
Comments: It has to be difficult for all of those serving, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It warmed my heart to see a front page picture of our military in Iraq making the best of it during this holiday season. What you are doing is extremely important; please know that you have the gratitude of a grateful nation! God bless each and every one of you, and keep watch over you. Thank you.

Name: Bill Schulz
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA
Comments: Freedom’s Warriors,
There are no people who enjoy freedom and democracy that was paid for by mere words or kind thoughts about those who would enslave them or rule them by tyranny. It is by the deeds and sacrifices of Freedom’s Warriors that freedom rings in many nations around this globe. Planting the seeds of freedom and democracy is an extremely expensive proposition for a nation's sons, daughters and treasure yet freedom and democracy cannot flourish on kind words and thoughts alone for evil would consume them before they could ripen and bear fruit. It has not been the free and democratic nations that have spawned the forces of terrorism and therefore the mission to promote freedom and democracy in the midst of lands favorable to nourishing terrorism is a mission that serves not only that region but also the defense of those whom terrorism targets. Many who unwittingly or wittingly oppose your mission will in the end benefit from it. We fight and serve for the right of such opposition to disagree openly with that, which makes them free, the missions of freedoms warriors. From the sweet land of liberty, to every mountainside and every city in every land, let freedom ring, surely not everywhere by the sacrifices of Americans, but certainly by the inspiration of Americans who are Freedom’s Warriors.

Name: Cindy
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Waterford, Michigan, USA
Comments: Merry Christmas and God Bless you all over there. Hope you can come home soon!!! Thanks for all that you are doing over there.. its appreciated more than you'll probably ever realize. Stay safe so you can return home to your families soon.

Name: Thomas Kral
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: San Antonio Texas
Comments: Don't know how to thanks all the men and women in the military who are willing to do what it takes to make us safe for the evils of of terrorism. I pray for each and everyone of you daily for your safe return. Please ignore the vile rhethoric from the liberal politicians as they have invested all their political capital in losing the war. Most Americans believe you are winning and love you for your efforts. Your are all heros in my eye. Stay safe.

Name: Chas
Homepage: http://forums.delphiforums.com/breakingnews1/start
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: USA
Comments: Thanks for the sacrifices you are making for all of us and for all the good things you've accomplished. We appreciate you very much. We are also mindful of your loved ones who also serve by supporting you and who await your return to the US. We appreciate their contributions as well. Hang in there!!

Name: Michael Rose
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Cleveland, Tennessee USA
Comments: I do not know how well you are being kept up to date on what is happening back in the states. There is a growing debate about how soon we can had our troops back home, we want you back as soon as possible. People on both sides of the isle want you home and there is a fight to draft and commit to an exit strategy. Personally I feel we should finish what we committed ourselves too.

Name: Carl Zimmerman
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Teaneck/USA
Comments: Fight and win!

Name: Nana
Homepage: http://Bateman
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Flora--USA
Comments: Pay no attention as to what you hear from "the hill".
We love you and are praying for the safe return of each and everyone of you.
Keep the faith and your eyes upon JESUS and HE will keep HIS EYES upon you.
GOD Bless you and may HE bring you all back safely. Never let anyone tell you that we don't appreciate you, that it's a worthless war. You are fighting to keep that scum out of your/my country and to keep all the nations of the world free of people, the likes of which we, here in the states, have never seen nor would want to. Again, GOD Bless you and we love you and thank you for keeping us, over here, safe from them over there. Love to you all IN CHRIST, Nana.

Name: Sarah
Homepage: http://I hang out at Breaking News on Delphi.
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: USA
Comments: Hello Troops... Your country loves you and misses each and every one of you..God Bless you for your service to our country and for defending the freedoms we love so much. Words cannot tell you how much I hate that you have to endue such hardships nor can they express how proud of you we all are. We love you all and are keeping you in our thoughts and prayer's daily..stay safe, your country waits for your return. Happy Holidays!

Name: D. Cruise
Homepage: http://www.harvesttimeministry.org
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Houston - USA
Comments: Thank you all for your hard work and your sacrifices. You're appreciated so much more than you can know, despite what the media reports to the contrary. We support ALL of our troops and are grateful for every one of you.

Name: Ron Groves
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: El Paso, TX
Comments: Back in 1991, just before getting on the plane to return from Saudi, I told my troops that someday our sons and daughters would have to finish the job we started. I wish I was wrong. But you guys and gals have done and continue to do an excellent job. America is proud of you all.I wouldnt trade one of you for all the negative nay sayers and anti american freeks in the media and college campuses. The cowards are not worthy of or capable of walking in your boots. May the Supreme Being watch over you and bring you back home safe and sound. Respect.

Name: Don Delio Mir
Homepage: http://www.deliointeriors.com
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Naples ,FL / USA
Comments: BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!! SUPPORT AMERICA!!
SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS...." May God bless you today in very tangible ways as He reveals His love for you. And may you know His love personally which is the greatest blessing of all!

Name: Ed Sanchez
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: El Paso, TX
Comments: Thank you to our troops for the job you're doing. We couldn't have what we have back home without the efforts of men and women like you.

Name: Michael West
Homepage: http://westworldwide.us
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: San Rafael CA U.S.A.
Comments: Thank You

Name: Brian Mora
Homepage: http://cornerbarforums.com/forum/index.php?webtag=RAW
E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Joplin, MO
Comments: Many thanks to the soldiers sailors and airmen fighting for our freedom and security. Real Americans appreciate your efforts. Your successful liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan from totalitarian rule are shining successes in the War On Terror. More than fifty million people in both countries appreciate your establishment of freedom and liberty and your efforts in rebuilding both shattered nations.

----------------------------------------------------------

I sincerely hope that these simple words of thanks will help to lift the spirits of every troop who reads them, and I encourage anyone in uniform to reply to the folks who've left these messages, either by posting on the board from which they came, or via e-mail.

VIEW - http://htmlgear.tripod.com/guest/control.guest?u=ed_daley&i=1&a=view
SIGN - http://htmlgear.tripod.com/guest/control.guest?u=ed_daley&i=1&a=sign

By the way, I myself have posted a few words on the message board to you as well...

E-Mail: Removed for Privacy
City/Country: Thomaston, ME - USA
Comments: All of you who wear the uniform of one of our nation's military branches, and defend freedom around the world, are my personal heroes. Each one of you has done more for our country than most other Americans, myself included, ever will, and I pray for your safe return home from those far-away fields of battle upon which you now stand. May God watch over you and keep you safe, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.

Yours truly,

Edward L. Daley

All he wants for Christmas is ...

...to win the Weblog Awards. So go vote for this young guy's blog in the Best of the Rest category in the Weblog Awards.

Did I mention he's the son of a MilBlogger?

Call to Arms

Smash wants you.

Come back here later.

Open Post

Note: some of the problems with trackbacks may be that some posts are linked to too many other posts. In short, if a post you write has several links in it, the number of trackbacks you send will overwhelm your server, and many of the trackbacks will fail.

And don't forget to vote today.

Is it Raining?

President Bush addresses the troops on the war in Iraq. Sound outrageous? No - but Fox News reports that "some" feel the President shouldn't be discussing "politics" with the GIs:

WASHINGTON — Speeches by President Bush in recent weeks before military audiences about the Iraq war debate have raised questions about partisan issues being brought up in front of U.S. Armed Forces.
<...>
"This is a very bad sign," said retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, who led Central Command in the early 1990s and is an administration critic. "This is the sort of thing that you find in other countries where the military and political, certain political parties are aligned."

James Taranto takes it from there, offering a fairly comprehensive round-up of Democratic attacks on the military over the past few days. (And spare me the " we support the troops" line - there's an old saying, "don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining" that applies.) My disgust with the Dems is centered on the fact that as a member of the US Armed Forces, subject to be deployed in harm's way, I want a loyal opposition to the administration - and they've failed in that responsibility. (Has any other American political party leader in history ever declared that the US was destined to lose a war we were involved in?) The approach indicated in this Fox story (they're positioning themselves for the inevitable backlash - see also here for a somewhat sane response) is yet another example of that failure - bash the military until they completely loose faith in you, then bash them for supporting your opposition. For the special "Democratic" touch try to incite a little fear in the electorate; give a mental image of "other" countries (nudge nudge wink wink, you know - "other" countries).

Pathetic.

How bad is it? Read this:

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, increasingly isolated in his own Democratic party because of his strong support for the Iraq war, today called on the White House and congressional leaders to form a special "war cabinet" to provide advice and direction for the war effort.
<...>
"It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more years," the senator said. "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."
<...>
He cited the mood after Bush's speech last week in Annapolis, where the president laid out a war strategy.

Instead of reasoned dialogue, Lieberman said, there were angry press conferences questioning the administration's tactics. But look more closely, he said, and "there is broad bipartisan agreement on the goals. There are disagreements about the tactics."

Lieberman cited historic figures like former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and former U.S. Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, whose call for bipartisanship after World War II helped the Allied effort to rebuild Western Europe, and tried to summon their spirit.

"We can't tolerate the kind of division that current exists in our country," the senator said. "Why are we fighting among those who have the same goals?"

First, three cheers for Senator Lieberman. But consider this: the situation has deteriorated to the point that he has to suggest a new organization that can do what the US Congress was once expected to do in time of war. (By the way, that story is several days old - had you heard about it? As Kathleen Parker notes, the news for weeks now has been Murtha, Murtha, Murtha, Murtha, Murtha, Murtha, (Lieberman), Murtha, Murtha, Murtha.) But before you start thinking there's still hope for them yet - his fellow Dems have already shot the idea down.

And now back to Senator Murtha:

"Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists."

So why are a large majority of their attacks on Iraqi civilians? I mean, with all due respect sir, why the #%$^ are a large majority of their attacks on Iraqi civilians?

BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide bomber detonated explosives Thursday inside a packed bus bound for a southern Shiite city, killing 32 people and wounding 44, police said. The blast pushed the three-day death toll from suicide attacks in the capital to at least 75.

Meanwhile, a statement posted on the Internet in the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed to have killed an American hostage.
<...>
The bus attack occurred two days after a pair of suicide attackers wearing explosives belts killed 43 people and wounded more than 70 at Baghdad's police training academy. Most of those dead in the academy and on the bus were believed to be Shiite Muslims. Most of the insurgents are Sunnis.
<...>
At least 1,819 Iraqis have been killed in suicide attacks since the new government took office on April 28, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Once more, for effect:

Speeches by President Bush in recent weeks before military audiences about the Iraq war debate have raised questions about partisan issues being brought up in front of U.S. Armed Forces.
<...>
"This is a very bad sign," said retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, who led Central Command in the early 1990s and is an administration critic. "This is the sort of thing that you find in other countries where the military and political, certain political parties are aligned."

Retired generals bashing the administration or tap dancing en masse across the stage at the Democratic National Convention disturb me much more deeply than do the 90% of GIs who support a sitting Commander in Chief. We can make up our own minds - and know when it's raining.

Heroes of the Air

...seems to be today's theme, and 'twould be a crime to leave the Navy out of it.

Especially when Lex brings us an amazing first hand account of the real story of Bridges of Toko-Ri.

And where else but to a Navy man could we turn for the perfect comment for Pearl Harbor, 2005?

Where Eagles Dare

Following our UAV update it's only fair to present a story of an Air Force mission that won't be done by remote control any time soon:

Standing in the sand-swept desert near Kharbut, Iraq, the smoking remnants of his CH-47 Chinook somewhere in the darkness behind him, Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Steve Froeschile wondered if help would ever come.

“It seemed like one of the longest nights of my life,” Froeschile said Monday at the Pentagon, recounting the April 16, 2004, crash and his subsequent rescue along with four fellow crew members.
<...>
Back at Balad air base, north of Baghdad, the crews of Capt. John Bryan Creel’s Jolly 11 and Capt. Rob Wrinkle’s Jolly 12 combat search and rescue teams were on duty, prepared to respond to any air-related emergencies.

The crew members belonged to the Air Force’s 38th Rescue Squadron and 41st Rescue Squadron, both of Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Their airframe was the HH-60G Pave Hawk, one of the most sophisticated helicopters in the U.S. military.

The rescue the two crews would perform that night, conducted in near-zero visibility while avoiding ground fire from insurgents, earned them one of the Air Force’s most prestigious awards, the 2004 Air Force Clarence MacKay Trophy.

The MacKay Trophy is awarded annually by the Air Force and the National Aeronautic Association for the most meritorious flight of the year by an Air Force person, persons or organization.

Read the rest for the details.

Update: More on the MacKay Trophy and past winners here.

The X-45

The Seattle Times on the next-generation UAV:

Boeing displayed its vision of the future of air warfare Tuesday, a batlike model of a small fighter craft that exudes silent menace.

Sitting in a parking lot inside Boeing's research complex across from the Museum of Flight, the craft has a 49-foot wingspan and measures 39 feet from nose tip to tail. Smart bombs hang down below the wings.

But it has no windows. And its profile is flat, four feet from top to bottom. At the front, where the cockpit should be, there's a gaping hole for engine air intake. The Boeing-designed X-45 is unmanned.

The airplane is "piloted" by someone watching a computer screen in a fortified trailer that can be deployed near a war zone. "This is fly by mouse," said Dave Koopersmith, X-45 vice president and program manager. The aircraft's sensors identify and approach targets autonomously. The remote pilot gives consent to strike with a mouse click.

This will be cause for concern among science fiction fans and fighter pilots alike. It will be interesting to see if those who are motivated purely by "concern for the troops" to call for withdrawal from Iraq would be willing to embrace long distance, remote controlled warfare as an alternative.

Lest you think this is something for the future, Time Magazine has a story on the currently operational Predator - whose missions in Iraq are flown by pilots at Nellis AFB.

Six days a week, Shannon Rogers kisses his wife and two young kids goodbye and wheels his battered 1989 Chevy Cavalier out of the driveway of his suburban Nevada home. The houses here are cookie cutter, done in beige stucco. Like most of the other dads and some moms in this traditional middle-class community, Rogers heads down Interstate 215, toward his job near Las Vegas, using the 30-minute drive to make the mental transition from family man to workplace professional. But Rogers will end up in a place far different from that of his fellow commuters: when he arrives at work, he will be at war in Iraq.

Rogers, an Air Force major and experienced fighter pilot, is part of an élite group of U.S. troops playing a crucial role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the U.S.'s most notorious playground. From Nellis Air Force Base, outside Las Vegas, Rogers controls a Predator, a flimsy drone that has been transformed from a spy plane into one of the wars' most lethal weapons.

Update: Via commenter Tim Oren, several videos of the X-45 in action here.

Brogonzo on MTV

MilBlogger Brogonzo on MTV - they're covering him for his real job - not his blogging hobby. Nice to see some positive coverage like that from MTV.

By "see" I mean "see" - follow the links for the video segment.

Quick Note

Working on site issues. Will have some new items up shortly.

Comments are curently enabled, but require approval before posting, so ther will be a delay between posting a commment and seeing it appear. Will have a different method soon, but for the time being this is the only way to deal with the spam comments that roll in at about the rate of 150 per hour. Apologies to all actual human beings who comment here - this has nothing to do with you. We've always had the most liberal commenting policy possible, but most likely fully "open" comments are a thing of the past.

Damned if you do...

... damned if you don't. Couldn't help but notice this pair of stories.

First up, one from Stars and Stripes:

Illinois lawmakers will consider a bill to keep protesters at least 300 feet from military funerals after a series of noisy and obscene protests in that state.
<...>
The move comes in response to the actions of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, whose members in November picketed several military memorials for troops killed in Iraq.

The group, which has protested at servicemembers’ funerals nationwide, claims veterans “have no honor” because “the nation and the military have been taken over by [homosexuals],” according to its Web site.

Next, the Los Angeles Times:

Military Recruiting Bans Seem Doomed

The high court frowns on law schools' claims that free speech and gay rights would be violated.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices signaled Tuesday that they would uphold the military's right to recruit on college campuses and at law schools, despite its policy of excluding openly gay people from its ranks.

The Westoboro "Baptist Church" is the product of the deranged mind of former Democratic poilitician and fundraiser Fred Phelps. Previous mentions of him here:

Fred Phelps

Disturbing the Peace

Many Funerals

Task Force Omega

And if you're considering responding to Fred and family, read this first.

Birds of Baghdad...

..is the latest from Michael Yon.

I know those birds all too well. Have got some "home" movies of them in fact.

He sends this bit of intel along too: There is ongoing gossip in the tabloids about a movie deal with Bruce Willis. Nothing is set and all parties continue to examine the options. Most important is that the story of the soldiers who fought in Mosul be told with accuracy and respect. I'll post news about this if and when it happens.

Open Post

A Brief History of a Long War (Iraq, 1990-2003) / 1999

Previous:

Introduction (1990-1991)

1991-1997

1998

*****

(Note on sources: Reports of US aircraft attacks on Iraqi positions in this timeline are from US Department of Defense press releases. We include them here verbatim as part of the historical record, the reader should infer no judgment on our part as to the accuracy of the statements. We acknowledge these are one-sided reports.

Excerpts from newspaper articles included here are also simply for the historical record - this was the news of the day. Later events may have proved some information false or cast doubt on some claims, this, however was the news of the day.)

1999

Although no UN weapons inspectors are in Iraq, both humanitarian (oil for food) and military operations continue, with air strikes on Iraqi positions or other incidents in the no fly zones occurring almost daily throughout the year. But in the wake of US and UK attacks in Operation Desert Fox, rifts begin to widen in the UN Security Council regarding sanctions on and monitoring of Iraq. France and Russia break away from the long held consensus position while the US and UK call for continued sanctions - with some modifications. The UN will struggle for a solution throughout the year. In the US, a policy of "containment plus" is the official position, and Iraqi expatriate groups begin to seek aid under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. But even as the rate of air attacks on Iraq increases dramatically military intervention in other areas of the globe dominate the headlines. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Saddam Hussein begins to echo the radical Islamic sentiments of Osama bin Laden. Some media sources begin investigating possible connections between the two.

By early February the stage is set and most of the major players are positioned for events of 2001-2003. One undisputed fact is that the Iraqi people are suffering after nearly a decade of sanctions, internal struggles, and now seemingly endless air attacks from the US.

January 4, 1999: Iraq declares it will not accept any humanitarian workers from the US or UK, and demands the UN withdraw those currently in Iraq, stating they can not guarantee their safety following the December attacks.

January 5, 1999: The UN refuses Iraq's request to withdraw US and UK aid workers.

Saddam Hussein delivers a fiery Army Day address to all Arabs. His speech echoes Osama bn Laden's call to jihad, urging Muslim youth to rise up and overthrow their governments who are supporting the infidel invaders:

We and you are aware that some of those who rule over countries in our nation were brought to office by the foreigners, who also brought their fathers and some of their grandfathers also in accordance with these foreigner's conditions and interests, particularly Britain and the United States, joined by the evil racist Zionism. Therefore, the talk about the possibility of reforming them, now that they have been immersed in evil and have no desire to abandon this evil, is a waste of time. It will give them a chance to further deceive the people and nation. <...> Look to see how he who did this is attempting to remove the quality of holiness from the land of your holy places by turning it into a field for the foreigner from which he attacks faithful believers and their land, the land of Abraham, and the land of holy places and good prophets, as well as a great, patient, and mujahid people who are afflicted with them because they reject falsehood and tell the truth.

O male and female Arab youths, O faithful believers of the sons of our faithful nation in places of worship, factories, fields, houses, streets, and the armies of Arab and Muslims, look around you to see how the unjust ones exceeded all limits. Rebel against falsehood and its people. Tell the truth in a loud, firm, and lofty voice. Raise your voices louder to resound in the name of God and the nation. By God, there is nothing more honorable than a stand where right overweighs falsehood and where the people of right defeat the people of falsehood.

O Arabs, Muslims, and believers from various faiths, your Jerusalem is a humiliated captive. The Kaaba in Mecca and the prophet's tomb in Medina are injured by the presence of the foreigner and his spears. 0 people of Mecca and Medina and Najd and Hejaz, 0 Arabs and Muslims, your holy places are being insulted. The aircraft of the aggression took off and its missiles were launched and are being launched against your land, people, and holy places in Iraq, from the water, airspace, and the land of the Gulf.

O sons of Arabs and the Arab Gulf, rebel against the foreigner, his army, and armies. Chase them and expel falsehood and its representatives. Take revenge for your dignity, holy places, security, interests, and exalted values. Rebel against falsehood and its people. Great Almighty God will hear your voice.

The idol rulers will be forced to hear you or depart so as to give chance to the people to say their opinion and adopt their stand. Allahu Akbar [God is great]. Damned be the unjust and infidel ones. Allahu Akbar. Long live our glorious Arab nation, long live Palestine, free, lofty Arab. Allahu Akbar and ignominy to the lowly ones.

In two separate incidents, two F-15s and two F-14s fire a total of six missiles at four Iraqi MiG-25s over the southern no-fly zone. None of the missiles find its target, but Pentagon officials state that one Iraqi aircraft may have run out of fuel and crashed during the battle. This is the first clash between US and Iraqi war planes since 1992. The US also claims eight additional no-fly zone violations involving up to 15 Iraqi planes.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin:

QUESTION: As you've said many times, the fundamental policy of the United States is to - one of the fundamental tenants of the policy - is to contain Saddam. Do you think that this has been further complicated by the absence of inspectors on the ground?

MR. RUBIN: Our policy is a mix of tools to achieve an objective. The policy is to contain the threat he poses plus to promote change in Iraq through working with opposition leaders in as an effective way as possible. On the containment side, as opposed to the change side, there are various tools and each of them has different weight at different times. Certainly the no-fly zone tools remain strongly in effect, and we've seen how effective they are by today's action, which is that when Iraq tries to break out of that part of the box they have to turn tail and go home.

On the inspection side - let's remember that containment isn't just about the weapons capability themselves, but it's also about deterring the threat of using them. What was extremely important was that by using military power last month, the United States provided the kind of credibility to our threat to respond to Saddam's action that can only be provided by action. What he saw was, despite a lot of suggestions around the world or his own suspicions about what we would or wouldn't do, that if he pushes the situation too far, the United States will respond and respond decisively. That is a key component of the credibility of containment that needed to be weighed as against the advantages of having a UN inspection team there.

We have said the best way to deal with the discovery and the destruction of weapons of mass destruction is through UNSCOM. Another way to deal with that is through disarmament by force. That was done to a certain extent and to an additional extent, the credibility of our threat to use force if he were to use such weapons, move to the north, threaten his neighbors, was bolstered in a way that can only be done by that kind of action.

QUESTION: But is the US at all concerned that by saying that sanctions cannot be lifted so long as inspectors aren't on the ground to verify whether or not weapons of mass destruction exists or not, that sanctions will remain in place in perpetuity is a policy that will be difficult to maintain over the long-term?

MR. RUBIN: On that point, let me simply say that that is not our choice; that was his choice. Saddam Hussein made a decision to make UNSCOM ineffective by refusing to cooperate with it. UNSCOM was always a tool that required Iraqi cooperation. UNSCOM was never a tool that could, without Iraqi cooperation, force its way into disarming and discovering weapons of mass destruction. It always required Iraqi cooperation.

The fact that Iraq has decided not to cooperate is a decision we don't have control over. But having done so, they have thrown away the key to unlocking the sanctions regime.

As far as international support for that regime is concerned, we do not see evidence or any significant change in the international support for the sanctions regime. As I indicated yesterday, although we see writing and commentary suggesting that the support isn't there, I've never, in all the years that I've followed this - including four in New York at the Security Council - seen any Security Council member propose an easing of the sanctions regime in the absence of UNSCOM declaring their work completed.

So no country is in favor of easing sanctions right now, because UNSCOM's work is so obviously not completed. So the support for the sanctions regime that has been there - that doesn't mean that everyone likes it. We don't like the fact that we have to put sanctions on Iraq, and we try to ameliorate the effect it has by the oil-for-food program. But we don't see any signs of significance that the sanctions regime is eroding.

January 6, 1999: The Washington Post reports that UNSCOM may have provided intelligence on Iraq to the United States. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan denies having received any credible reports supporting this accusation, and further denies reports that he is seeking the resignation of UNSCOM Chief Richard Butler. The US also denies the allegations.

The US denounces Saddam Hussein's destruction of villages of the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq

January 7, 1999: At approximately 11:20 a.m. Iraqi time, Saddam Hussein’s regime locked a surface-to-air missile radar on to coalition forces. An Air Force F-16CJ acted in self defense, and fired a high-speed anti-radiation missile (HARM) at a Roland surface-to-missile site 15 miles northwest of Mosul after being targeted by the site’s radar to suppress the offensive site.

CENTCOM Commander General Anthony Zinni answers questions regarding the US position on Iraq:

Q I'm Halab Masul (ph) with the Middle East News Agency. There have been several calls for a change on the U.S. policy towards Iraq, either from the far left, by lifting economic sanctions and keeping only military, or from the far right, by overthrowing Saddam Hussein. As the commander of the U.S. forces in the area, do you think that the current containment policy is feasible and sustainable, or do you think changes are in order now, and (where to?)?

GEN. ZINNI: I think, Halab, if you take it from my position, obviously I have responsibilities in the region, military responsibilities. I see our role militarily as one of stability. I would not be in favor of anything that destabilizes the situation in the region.

I think when we look toward a post-Saddam Iraq and one in which the Iraqi people would regain the position they've held before, I would want to see anything that occurs be done in a way that the territorial integrity of Iraq is maintained, that whatever government follows would be one that would be representative of all the ethnic and religious groups in Iraq. And I think that any efforts in this direction should keep those kinds of principles in mind, because the stability of the region is critical here.

And I view our role in this containment, although obviously it's very (difficult?) and it could take time and it does involve at times events like we've seen in Desert Fox in eight years of these kinds of events, it's important that we do it in a way that ensures the stability of the region. We shouldn't only focus on Iraq, but we should focus on the effects and how it affects everything in this region.

This is an important region. The United States and all the countries of the world have vital interests in this region, many of them. And I think we ought to take a regional perspective. And for that reason, I think these principles ought to be kept in mind in anything we pursue in the way of looking at a post-Saddam region or change.
<...>
Q Given that, how long can the U.S. put up with these sort of cat-and-mouse games that are going on right now that could, you know, end up with fatalities in a worst-case scenario? I mean, do you see the U.S. striking air fields or taking some sort of action to make him stand down?

GEN. ZINNI: Well, first of all, obviously every time we fly or have flown into Iraq, either in the north or in the south, for now a period that stretches from 1991 in the north and '92 in the south, we have sent our planes into that area assuming it was a hostile area. We have adequate rule of engagement that allow us to defend ourselves and enforce the no-fly zone.

We go in with the kinds of aircraft, packaged in certain ways, the tactics we use, where we fly, the kinds of procedures we use that are designed to make sure that our pilots are well-prepared for any eventuality. And throughout the past seven or eight years, we have had instances before. We have made adjustments based on this situation -- adjustments in tactics, adjustments in procedures, in the way we do things. I won't go into detail on that, because obviously there's operational security issues involved.

We feel we can handle what we're facing right now. I think that's been evident. You are correct. It is dangerous. Any time we go up there, we assume the risk and danger because of the unpredictability. We do have contingency plans to react if that decision were made to a number of possibilities, and I believe the chairman made that point the other day in his testimony before Congress.

When a decision is made to take further action, of course, that's the president's decision. We feel confident that we're prepared to handle what we have. But I think your point is a good one. This is risky for our pilots. And we do everything to minimize that risk and to make sure they're well-prepared and have everything they need.
<...>
Q Just a follow-up with one short one. Could you capsulize, summarize, the long-term strategy? There's a good bit of criticism inside the Beltway that it hasn't been effectively articulated. Could you, in 25 words or less, just summarize where it is where we're going with this?

GEN. ZINNI: Yeah, I think I can do it in less than 25 words. You know, my mission is to maintain stability in the region. My mission is to ensure the hegemons in the region, including Saddam Hussein, not be allowed to pursue their hegemonic designs. And that can be described in their ability to punish their own people, no-fly, no-drive zones; their ability to threaten their neighbors, move forces to the Kuwaiti border; develop weapons of mass destructions and delivery systems and shoot them.

My mission out there, is to ensure that energy flows, we have access to the region, that our friends in the region are protected and enjoy the stability that we're there as long as there is a threat to preserve.

And what it takes to do that, you know, we are prepared to do it. Is this a short-term, one event, one-threat kind of mission and solution? I think not. I mean, I think that this is an important region of the world. I think we have important friends in this region. I think there's global reliance on things like energy and the markets and access. It is the hinge point of three continents. This will be important for a long period of time.

There is not just one threat out there, or one potential threat. I mean, we see the terrorist and extremist threat out there. We still are wondering which way Iran is going, whether there's moderation or not. I mean, I know you know all the issues and concerns.

Our job is stability. It's easy to look at Iraq, and look at one problem, and look at a short-term solution. And, as you said, everybody in this town and elsewhere in the world, has a short-term solution, which is about one paragraph and sounds easy on paper. As the guy that might have to execute it, it ain't that easy. And containment is hard. It could be long term. But if in the end it's stability and it keeps all the global interests in there protected, and our friends protected in the region, and the people in the region protected, then I think it's worth the price.
<...>
Q Hi. I'm Tony Capassio (ph) with Bloomberg News. When Desert Fox concluded, you and Secretary Cohen said that the preliminary evidence showed that the U.S. set back Iraq's capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction by about a year.

General Shelton yesterday or two days ago, said it was now two years, it looked like. What evidence have you developed in the last couple of weeks, that allows you to make that extension, in terms of the damage?

GEN. ZINNI: Yes. That's a good question, and we have actually upped it from the one to two years. And we've done that by, again, through our intelligence, looking at the assessments of the missile production facilities, the machinery that was destroyed, the kinds of unique capabilities he had that were in the onesies or twosies that we were able to eliminate. And now we have evidence of destruction or significant damage.

The infrastructure damage, and the time it will take to repair and rebuild that -- again, the unique kinds of facilities that he would have to replace from outside Iraq, that don't exist in duplicate somewhere else, and could be easily reestablished.

So, in doing further, more detailed analysis of all these sorts of things, we made the estimate that the initial cut had been one year, and now we feel it's more one to two years.
<...>
Q Campion Walsh (sp), Dow Jones. There have been a number of stories recently on the relationship between U.S. intelligence on Iraq and UNSCOM. Can you say if data gathered through UNSCOM was used in selecting sites to be in the military strikes?
<...>
GEN. ZINNI: On the first part of your question, on the issue that is now in the press about UNSCOM spying, I have no personal knowledge of anything like that or anything that's going on. The targets that we used and the intelligence we used to gain on these were from a variety of sources, fundamentally our own. Obviously just in UNSCOM's routine work we are aware of what UNSCOM does, I think as much as anybody else on the Security Council is aware of what UNSCOM does and goes and what they do and what they attempt to do. Could any of that been part of the targeting? I can't say that it has been directly, but I wouldn't want to say that everything UNSCOM has ever seen or does we have completely no knowledge of. Just by following UNSCOM like any other members of the Security Council we certainly do.
<...>
Q Haran Kazazi (sp) from Turkish Daily News again. General, you eloquently express your objective to the answer of my VOA colleague. My question is: professionally do you honestly believe all that wonderful objective can be achieved from the air? Don't you think at one point there is some kind of ground troops needed to do something -- not necessarily from America, but some kind of ground troops? Obviously they cannot do it all by themselves what they have to do.

GEN. ZINNI: I didn't want to give the impression that I thought something could all be done by one means -- by air or ground or sea, whatever. As a military man I need all those dimensions in my AOR. I mean, I -- and I could bore you with all the different component parts of everything we do there and how it involves all these forces. We are very careful to state what our capabilities are and very careful to state what our mission is and our tasks are and how well or how not so well we may achieve that. We have emphasized that through these attacks, air attacks, that we could degrade and diminish. We never said words like "eliminate." We've been very careful to say that these attacks, the mission was not, nor could I make any guarantees that through an airstrike you could change a regime or anything like that, although people have tried to infer that or tried to push us to at least even implying that. We have been very careful not to say that. There are limitations on military power, and there's limitations on certain parts of military power. There are certain types of military capabilities that bring more to the table. I think anyone who studies the military art knows that to achieve certain things you might have to walk the ground and be there -- you have to occupy ground and you have to control the situation directly, and you might not be able to do that indirectly through the air.

So from my professional view I am always careful to give the limitations and make sure that when I am given a mission that I interpret that into military tasks that are achievable, and that my political masters understand certainly what I can achieve and what I can't achieve. I would not make the case for any one kind of capability achieving anything, and I would not overstate what that capability could achieve.

January 7, 1999: The Senate formally begins the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

January 8, 1999: UN weapons inspection chief Richard Butler says reports that his commission knowingly helped the United States spy on Iraq are false.

January 10, 1999: The Iraqi Parliament issues an official statement criticizing Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, holding them responsible for the December air attacks on Iraq.

January 11, 1999: US Secretary of Defense William Cohen responds to the statement of the Iraqi Parliament by noting that the United States had over 24,000 troops within striking distance of Iraq should that nation decide to move against its neighbors.

At approximately 10:45 a.m. Iraqi time, an Iraqi SAM radar began tracking Northern Watch aircraft and coalition aircraft were illuminated by multiple Iraqi surface-to-air missile systems. The aircrews acted in self-defense and suppressed one ground-based missile launch site because it posed a threat to coalition forces. A flight of two U.S. F-15Es launched two AGM-130s at an SA-6 site near Mosul and an U.S. F-16CJ fired a HARM at an Iraqi radar site a short while later.

(Media) Newsweek (see also here):

IN THE NO-FLY ZONES OF northern and southern Iraq, Saddam Hussein's gunners blindly fired surface-to-air missiles at patrolling American and British warplanes. In Yemen, terrorists seized a group of British Commonwealth and American tourists, and four of the hostages died in a shootout. In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy abruptly closed down after receiving a terrorist threat. Perhaps it was just a typical week in the Middle East. But in a region where no one puts much faith in blind coincidence, last week's conjunction of Iraqi antiaircraft fire and terrorism aimed at the countries that had just bombed Iraq convinced some that a new conspiracy was afoot.

Here's what is known so far: Saddam Hussein, who has a long record of supporting terrorism, is trying to rebuild his intelligence network overseas--assets that would allow him to establish a terrorism network. U.S. sources say he is reaching out to Islamic terrorists, including some who may be linked to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last summer. U.S. intelligence has had reports of contacts between low-level agents. Saddam and bin Laden have interests--and enemies--in common. Both men want U.S. military forces out of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden has been calling for all-out war on Americans, using as his main pretext Washington's role in bombing and boycotting Iraq. Now bin Laden is engaged in something of a public-relations offensive, having granted recent interviews, one for NEWSWEEK (following story). He says ``any American who pays taxes to his government'' is a legitimate target.

Saddam's terrorism capability is still small-time, according to senior U.S. officials. ``He's nowhere close to the level of the Iranians or Hizbullah,'' says one.

Though it was too early to know for sure, the CIA suspected that bin Laden had a hand in the abduction of 16 foreign tourists in Yemen last week. Four of the hostages--three Britons and an Australian--were killed when the police intervened, and two others, including an American woman, were wounded. Most kidnappings in Yemen are strictly cash-and-carry affairs, in which tribal desperadoes raise money without harming their captives. But these kidnappers, who came from a Yemeni group calling itself Islamic Jihad, demanded that the authorities release two of their leaders, who have ties to bin Laden. And they said they were protesting Western "aggression" against Iraq.

The idea of an alliance between Iraq and bin Laden is alarming to the West (what if Baghdad gave the terrorists highly portable biological weapons?). Saddam may think he's too good for such an association. Jerold Post, a political psychologist and government consultant who has profiled Saddam, says he thinks of himself as a world leader like Castro or Tito, not a thug. "I'm skeptical that Saddam would resort to terrorism," says a well-informed administration official. "He can do a lot of other things to screw with us." But Saddam is famous for doing whatever it takes to stay in power. Now that the United States has made his removal from office a national objective, he knows he is fighting for his life. "The worst thing you can do is to wound him, let him know you meant to kill him, and then let him survive," says an Iraqi Shiite leader in London. As his own people know only too well, Saddam is quite capable of fighting dirty.

January 12, 1999: Five Iraqi jets violated the southern no-fly zone and two entered the north, bringing the total violations in both zones since Desert Fox to more than 70, Pentagon officials said.

January 13, 1999: Iraqi SAM systems tracked and fired on coalition planes over northern Iraq. During the morning, coalition aircraft were illuminated by several Iraqi surface-to-air missile systems. The aircraft were fired upon by at least one surface-to-air missile. The aircrews acting in self-defense suppressed the ground-based missile launch sites because they posed a significant threat to coalition forces. A flight of four U.S. Air Force F-15Es fired two AGM-130s, and an F-16CJ and U.S. Marine Corps EA-6B each fired a HARM against a SAM radar. The incident occurred near Mosul. The two AGM-130s were direct hits on the Iraqi SAM sites.

White House press briefing:

Q: There's now -- we have daily skirmishes now with Iraq. Is the United States effectively at war with Iraq?

LOCKHART: No, the United States is continuing to follow a policy they followed since the end of the Gulf War (inaudible) containing the threat of Saddam Hussein.

Q: I mean, we're having these daily --

LOCKHART: My first answer was really good.

Q: I didn't hear it.

LOCKHART: Okay. Trust me. Let me go through the answer and then you can follow up. We've had a policy of containing Saddam Hussein since the end of the Gulf War, and that policy is based on crippling economic sanctions that have cost him $120 billion at least since the end of the war; degrading his ability to threaten his neighbors and to reconstitute or deliver weapons of mass destruction. And that's the policy we're going to continue to pursue until we see some positive change and some indication that Saddam Hussein is willing to disarm.

Q: But we're seeing it going in the opposite direction, aren't you? Every day he is sort of escalating what is -

LOCKHART: Well, I think the policy towards Iraq has moved back and forth over the last six or seven years. That doesn't mean we're any less resolute. There's a credible and robust threat of force in the region; should we determine that that needs to be used, where our pilots vigorously enforce the no-fly zone and take the necessary steps in order to protect themselves to do that -- it's important work that they do in the region; it's important to the neighbors that are threatened by Saddam Hussein, and to his own people, and we'll continue to do it.

Q: You're going to continue this back and forth where they shoot at a plane, we fire back -- you're going to let that go on without taking any further action?

LOCKHART: You can fully understand why I'm not going to get into what options may or may not be available to our force there. But what I will say is that we will continue to pursue a policy that contains the very real threat in the region and to the world of Saddam Hussein's regime.

January 13, 1999: France submits a proposal to the UN Security Council calling for looser inspections and gradual lifting of sanctions against Iraq

January 14, 1999: The US submits a counter proposal eliminating the ceiling on Iraqi oil exports, provided the proceeds are used for humanitarian relief.

January 14, 1999: During the morning, an F-16CJ fired a HARM at an Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system that posed a threat to coalition aircraft over northern Iraq. In a separate incident, an F-15E launched an AGM-130 precision guided missile at a surface-to-air missile system that threatened coalition forces.

January 15, 1999: Russia submits a proposal to the UN Security Council eliminating UNSCOM, establishing a new inspection body less objectionable to Iraq, and lifting the oil embargo. The US rejects the proposal, saying that UNSCOM must be allowed to carry out its duties.

January 17, 1999: "Mother of all Battles Day" in Iraq - thousands of Iraqis take to the streets of Baghdad on the 16th and 17th shouting anti-American slogans on the anniversary of the start of the Persian Gulf War. Iraq issues a demand for sanctions to be lifted and no-fly zones ended immediately.

January 19, 1999: The Clinton administration identifies several opposition groups that will be eligible for US aid under the Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998.

January 21, 1999: US military reports Iraqi planes violated the no-fly zone, but no US aircraft were nearby and no shots were fired.

January 23, 1999: At approximately 1:15 a.m. EST, U.S. aircraft flying in support of Operation Southern Watch dropped laser-guided bombs at two Iraqi surface-to-air missile systems that posed a threat to coalition forces in the area.

An editorial attributed o Saddam Hussein appears in Iraqi newspapers condemning Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for keeping the price of oil too low.

January 24, 1999: Between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Iraqi time, coalition aircraft were again targeted by Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems near Mosul. An EA-6B Prowler and two F-16CJs fired HARMs in self defense. The aircraft responded to being targeted by Iraqi radars used to guide anti-aircraft artillery. Another F-16CJ fired a HARM at an Iraqi surface-to-air missile system. Earlier in the day, an F-15E Strike Eagle scored a direct hit on an Iraqi SA-3 SAM site with an AGM-130, which posed a threat to coalition forces in the region.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister storms out of a meeting of the Arab League, referring to his fellow ministers as traitors and US lackeys in response to their statement calling on Iraq to cease provocative actions aginst its neighbors.

January 25, 1999: The UNSCOM Executive Chairman submits a report (S/1999/94) to the President of the Security Council on disarmament and monitoring.

Between 1:57 and 2:30 p.m. Iraqi time, coalition aircraft were again illuminated and fired upon by Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems in several incidents. An F-15E was fired upon by an anti-aircraft artillery system. Two F-15Es then dropped one GBU-12 each on the system. In another incident, an EA-6B launched a HARM at an SA-2 SAM site that posed a threat to coalition forces in the area. An F-16CJ launched a HARM at a different SA-2 SAM site that posed a threat to coalition forces in the area. Coalition forces observed an Iraqi SAM launch in the vicinity of coalition aircraft. Coalition aircraft departed the area and continued operations.

Iraq's news agency says one of the missiles struck a crowded market in Basra, killing civilians. General Zinni says "There is still a need to review the strike. It's possible that we did a have missile that didn't perform as expected."

January 26, 1999: Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister says Iraq no longer recognizes the legitimacy of the country's border with Kuwait.

"We have analyzed yesterday's information and found that an AGM-130 did miss its target and exploded in a residential neighborhood several kilometers away from its target" -- Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon.

National Security Advisor Sandy Berger announces that President Clinton has changed the rules of engagement for US aircraft operating in Iraq, giving them much more authority to attack any part of the Iraqi air defense network. DoD news briefing with spokesman Ken Bacon :

Q: When was this change made, by the way?

A: I think it was made about three to four weeks ago.

Press release: Between 1:25 and 1:50 p.m. Iraqi time, coalition aircraft were targeted by Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery systems in three separate incidents near Mosul. An EA-6B Prowler, acting in self defense after being targeted by Iraqi radar, launched a HARM at an Iraqi radar site. An F-15E dropped a GBU-12 500-pound precision-guided munition in response to an anti-aircraft artillery system which posed a threat to coalition aircraft. In another incident, two F-15Es fired one AGM-130 each at a radar site which had targeted coalition aircraft. In another incident between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Iraqi time, coalition aircraft were again targeted by anti-aircraft artillery systems near Mosul. Three F-15Es, acting in self defense after being targeted by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery systems, dropped GBU-12 500-pound precision-guided munitions.

Press conference with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan:

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary-General, could you please elaborate to us on your position concerning the position of Iraq for non-recognition of United Nations Security Council resolutions and its borders with Kuwait. The second question: what if the Palestinian authority proclaimed a State next May? What is your position, Sir?

The SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think Iraq is obliged to comply with all Security Council resolutions. All the efforts we have made in the past year or so was to get them to comply, not only with the disarmament aspects but also with the other aspects of the resolutions, including missing Kuwaitis and return of Kuwaiti property. There is a whole range of issues that Iraq must comply with and that has to be done. There has been no change in that. I would still urge and hope that they will do it. I was surprised by some of the latest statements in the press. There seems to be a sense of desperation setting in. But I hope we can find a way of bringing things back. I know the Arab States are trying, and we are trying in New York, and I hope the Iraqis will also be thinking about the way forward.

QUESTION: Sir, the humanitarian situation in Iraq is deteriorating continuously because of the United Nations sanctions and according to your former assistant, Dennis Halliday, these sanctions are causing genocide. In your opinion, will these sanctions with their humanitarian results ever end, assuming the current Government remains in power. Or does Iraq have to be disarmed as you recently wrote in the world press, neglecting to specify if this meant weapons of mass destruction or total demilitarization of Iraq?

The SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let me start with your last point. The Security Council resolutions are clear. We are dealing with weapons of mass destruction. The Security Council does not call for total disarmament of Iraq. Iraq is allowed to keep some defensive weapons, but not so lethal as the types that we are seeking to destroy. Even in missiles, they can keep missiles up to 150 miles but not beyond. And so we are not seeking total disarmament, we are seeking to strip Iraq of weapons of mass destruction to ensure that it is not a threat to its neighbours. On the question of your other sanctions, I cannot argue with the fact that the sanctions have had a negative impact on the conditions of the Iraqi population. I think the Council itself, realizing that sanctions are a blunt instrument, immediately offered oil-for-food hoping that it will help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people. It has not been a perfect scheme and there are discussions going on now, as you know, on the proposals on the table, some are suggesting that we improve the humanitarian oil-for-food scheme considerably, others are suggesting we lift the sanctions. What has also made matters worse is the price of oil which has dropped perhaps to its lowest level in many many years and also the fact that the Iraqi oil industry is in a state of disrepair and has not been able to pump up to the 5.2 billion dollars worth that it is authorized. So one is looking at all these things and looking at ways and means of helping the population and avoiding the kind of suffering they are going through which you refer to.

QUESTION: My question is, recently we have seen the unilateral action by the United States and the United Kingdom in Iraq. Now we see preparation of the NATO Organization for unilateral action in Kosovo. Does it mean, in your opinion, that we are assisting the beginning of the end of the system of international governments established after the Second World War and the end of the role of the Security Council as the global council which is the final instance in the question of the global security?

The SECRETARY-GENERAL: Well I think that conclusion or judgement would be a bit of an exaggeration. Let me say that on Iraq, obviously there are differences in the Council, the United States and Britain maintain that they have the authority on the existing Security Council resolutions. We also know the views of the other Council members, including Permanent Members. So the best one can say here is that there is a difference of interpretation and I hope the Council will overcome this, find this unity and move forward.

On Kosovo, force may be used as you have indicated. I do not know whether it will come to that or not, but I think this is a question that has exercised quite a few of us. If the Council were to be fully faced with the issue, I am not sure whether there would be vetoes on the table or not. But we have to understand in recent history that wherever there have been compelling humanitarian situations, where the international community collectively has not acted, some neighbours have acted. Here for example I have in mind Viet Nam in Cambodia. And that did not destroy, I hope, the international system, and I think given the nature of the regime and what was happening there, the international community came to accept it. I am not making an analogy of implication here, but what I am saying is that those in the middle of the Kosovo conflict should listen to the appeals that are being made and we should not be placed in a situation which you have referred to where the international community may be divided. In my earlier appeals, I indicated that we should find a way of working together and that when we stand together, and put collective pressure, we almost invariably succeed, and I hope we can in this way.

January 27, 1999: US Secretary of State Madeline Albright:

"Our policy toward Iraq is based on hard experience and sound principle. We seek compliance not confrontation. But Iraq's questioning of Kuwait's sovereignty and call for the overthrow of Arab governments are just the most recent indications that Saddam Hussein seeks only to make trouble.

The United States, the Arab nations and the international community have no choice but to continue to contain his potential aggression. At the same time, we will do more to help the Iraqi people get the food and medicine they need through the oil-for-food program."

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, I know we're here talking about Iraq but if I can just switch the subject for a moment to Kosovo, and ask you about a proposed American plan to try to bring about a negotiated settlement in Kosovo. What can you tell us about any momentum that might be developing now on the political and military front, perhaps even within NATO, to issue, reissue the threat of force if Slobodon Milosevic does not comply with the October agreement?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Let me say that we obviously have been concerned about the deteriorating situation in Kosovo and a need to act quickly. We have been working to try to quicken some political solution here and also keep in mind what can be done through military pressure and the threat of the use of force.

I have spent some time while I was in Moscow talking to my fellow foreign ministers, to try to have some combined action here in terms of a political settlement which would, in fact, be something that would come about rather quickly because I think we are concerned with how long this has been going on and the necessity for coming up with an early solution. We are looking at a variety of ways to make that happen: To try to get the various places into place and to see how actions at NATO with the Contact Group can be combined, but I have not yet made any final decision about attendance to the Contact meeting.

QUESTION: Last question, please. Why is the U.S. destroying the Iraqi defense system while the U.S. declines to interfere in Kosovo? Which means that the U.S. has two criteria over estimating things.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, there are a number of different situations in the world that require a different approach. We have believed, for now seven years, that Saddam Hussein poses a threat to his neighbors and to us, ultimately our forces, and he has acquired and has used weapons of mass destruction against this own people. That is an entirely different situation than an inter-ethnic struggle in the former Yugoslavia and we need to deal with situations in different ways.

I've just described how we intend to be more involved in trying to get a political settlement in Kosovo, again, as we've said before, the potential threat of the use of force. But these are two entirely different situations. The United States is involved in some form or gathering in many situations. If we would (approach) them all exactly the same, we would be considered naive and not useful at all in the way that we operate.

That same day the US announces it endorses a proposal by Canada to create three UN panels to study the Iraq situation.

The proposal by Canada -- one of 10 non-permanent members of the 15-member council -- calls for panels on disarmament, humanitarian issues, and POWs and missing Kuwaiti property and archives, each under the chairmanship of the current council president, Ambassador Celso Amorim of Brazil. Those three panels would provide an expert assessment of the current situation in Iraq which council members would then use in deciding how to move ahead.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Minister warns that US warplanes stationed in Turkey are not allowed to take offensive action against Iraqi targets.

January 28, 1999: At approximately 3:45p.m. Iraqi time, two F-15Es observed fire by an anti-aircraft artillery site located north of Mosul. In self-defense, the two F-15Es dropped a total of three GBU-12s on the anti-aircraft artillery site.

US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger in the Washington Post:

If sanctions were lifted, the international community no longer could determine how Iraq's oil revenues are spent. The oil-for-food program would have to be disbanded, not expanded. Billions of dollars now reserved for the basic needs of the Iraqi people would become available to Saddam to use as he pleased. The amount of food and medicine flowing into Iraq most likely would decline.

In contrast, under the current program, we prevent Saddam from spending his nation's most valuable treasure on what he cares about most -- rebuilding his military arsenal -- and force him to spend it on what he cares about least -- the people of Iraq. From Saddam's point of view, that makes the program part of the sanctions regime.

Indeed, Saddam already has rejected our initiative to expand it. He knows that every drop of oil sold to feed the Iraqi people is a drop of oil that will never be sold to feed his war machine. Oil for food means no oil for tanks.

January 30, 1999: At approximately 3 p.m. Iraqi time, coalition aircraft were targeted by Iraqi radars near Mosul. A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle responded in self defense by launching an AGM-130 at the radar site. A second incident occurred shortly after 3 p.m. Iraqi time. A group of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles acting in self defense after being targeted, dropped two GBU-12 precision-guided munitions on an Iraqi Skyguard surface-to-air missile site. In a third incident at about the same time, F-15Es acting in self defense dropped two GBU-12 precision-guided munitions on an anti-aircraft artillery system and its associated radar which threatened coalition aircraft. The fourth incident occurred close to 3:30 p.m. Iraqi time, when F-15Es acting in self-defense dropped GBU-12s on another anti-aircraft artillery site. In a fifth incident at approximately 4:30 p.m. Iraqi time, a U.S. Marine EA-6B Prowler fired a high-speed antiradiation missile in response to being targeted by a radar-guided anti-aircraft artillery system. Finally in the sixth incident a minute later, F-15Es responded defensively by dropping GBU-12s on a separate anti-aircraft artillery site.

The UN Security Council approves the three-panel studies in hopes of achieving forward progress on the deadlocked Iraq issue.

January 31, 1999: Iraq rejects the UN three panel reviews, saying they will take too long and amount to continued sanctions.

At approximately 3:20 p.m. Iraqi time today, a U.S. Air Force F-16CJ Fighting Falcon acting in self defense launched a high-speed antiradiation missile (HARM) at a radar system north of Mosul.

Martin S. Indyk, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, visits Kuwait:

The Clinton Administration has developed a new approach to Iraq, which Indyk called "containment plus regime change." This policy, he said, follows two basic principles: the change must come from the Iraqi people themselves and from inside Iraq and the U.S. will maintain its commitment to the territorial integrity of Iraq.

The Iraq Liberation Act, which became law this past fall, has brought about a change in U.S. policy, Indyk said.

"Our objective is to work for the day when there will be a new government in Iraq. The Congress is going to work with the Administration to try to achieve this objective. Now there is a unique situation," he said. "The Congress and the Administration will be working hand-in-hand in this effort."

February 2, 1999: At 2:20 p.m. Iraqi time, two U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles dropped two GBU-12 precision-guided munitions on an anti-aircraft artillery battery in response to being targeted by Iraqi radar near Mosul. In a separate incident approximately 15 minutes later, two additional F-15Es, also responding after being targeted by Iraqi radar, dropped GBU-12 precision-guided munitions on the same anti-aircraft artillery site. In a third incident at approximately 3:15 p.m. Iraqi time, a U.S. Marine EA-6B launched a high-speed anti-radiation missile (HARM) at an SA-2 radar site. In a fourth incident at approximately 3:20 p.m. Iraqi time, F-15Es dropped GBU-12 precision-guided munitions on an anti-aircraft artillery site. Finally, in a fifth incident which occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. Iraqi time, F-15Es dropped GBU-12s on another anti-aircraft artillery site.

February 6, 1999: (media) The Guardian:

Thus the world's most notorious pariah state, armed with its half-built hoard of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, tried to embrace the planet's most prolific terrorist. It was the stuff of the West's millennial nightmares, but United States intelligence officials are positive that the meeting took place, although they admit that they have no idea what happened.

This was not the first time that President Saddam had offered Mr Bin Laden a partnership. At least one approach is believed to have been made during the Saudi dissident's sojourn in Sudan from 1990 to 1996. On that occasion, the guerrilla leader turned the emissaries away, out of a pious man's contempt for President Saddam's secular Ba'athist regime.

But this time round Mr Bin Laden's options have been rapidly diminishing. His hosts, the hardline Taliban militia which rules Afghanistan under Islamic auspices, have vowed publicly to stand by him. But they are at the same time discussing with his worst enemies - the Saudi monarchy and the American government - his eventual departure from Afghan soil.

Mr Bin Laden must surely have felt the noose begin to bite when he heard the news of the Taliban's meeting this week with a US assistant secretary of state, Karl Inderfurth, in Islamabad.

But the most wanted man in the West may be at his most dangerous when cornered. And the increased pressure makes the prospect of a Saddam Hussein-Osama bin Laden alliance, once an improbable marriage of opposites, seem a more credible threat.

And

Saddam Hussein's regime has opened talks with Osama bin Laden, bringing closer the threat of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, according to US intelligence sources and Iraqi opposition officials.
The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq.

February 11, 1999: Between approximately 12:15 and 12:30 p.m. Iraqi time, a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle flight observed Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fire and was also illuminated by an Iraqi radar system near Mosul. Acting in self-defense, one F-15E dropped; GBU-12s on an Iraqi surface-to-air missile communications site. Two F-15Es launched an AGM-130 and dropped GBU-12s on an Iraqi surface-to-air missile system. At 1:32 p.m. Iraqi time, a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle dropped GBU-12 precision- guided munitions on an Iraqi surface-to-air missile site west of Mosul. Two minutes later, a U.S. Air Force F-16CJ Fighting Falcon launched an AGM-88 high-speed antiradiation missile at an Iraqi radar site northwest of Mosul. Close to 1:38 p.m. Iraqi time, a U.S. Air Force F-15E dropped GBU-12s on a surface-to-air missile communications site east of Mosul.

February 12, 1999 At approximately 1:30 p.m. Iraqi time, an F-15E enforcing the Northern no-fly zone over Iraq was fired upon by an anti-aircraft artillery site north of Mosul. The F-15E dropped a GBU-12 in response to this hostile act.

President Clinton is acquitted of charges in the US Senate.

*****

(This is a work in progress - more to follow.)

Next:

2000-2003

*****

Iraq - New ROE

A couple must-reads for insight into the complexity of the "resistance" in Iraq. First, Michael Ware's Time Magazine report speculating on possible splits in the insurgency.

But a TIME investigation, based on dozens of interviews with military and intelligence officials as well as Iraqi leaders inside and outside the insurgency, reveals that Iraqis are reclaiming the upper hand, forcing al-Zarqawi to adjust. Differences between Baathist insurgent groups and al-Qaeda are driven by discomfort with al-Zarqawi's extreme tactics and willingness among some Iraqi commanders to join the political process. U.S. officials in Baghdad confirm to TIME that they have stepped up their efforts to negotiate with nationalist insurgents and the Sunnis they represent. "We want to deal with their legitimate concerns," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad tells TIME. "We will intensify the engagement, interaction and discussion with them."

Second, this report from the Associated Press:

SAMARRA, Iraq -- After keeping their distance for months, Iraqis in this Sunni Arab city suddenly began cooperating with U.S. troops, leading them to insurgents and hidden weapons caches. The reason: anger over a local tribal chief's assassination by insurgents.

Allegiances shift as rapidly as the sands, but signs of progress are evident.

If we don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And speaking of Rules of Engagement - like Grim, I was a bit disturbed by this story claiming new restrictive R.O.E. essentially tied a soldiers hands if under attack, though it seemed too bad to be true. And according to this follow-up post it is.

Surprise!

That Dawn Patrol you see below was a complete surprise contribution from Holly - very cool. Another good reason to go vote for her in the Best New Weblog category.

If you've got time you can vote for Mudville here too.

Just for Grins

Because who doesn't need a chuckle on a Wednesday? I'll let the following stories speak for themselves.

The Washington Post front page, November 20, 2005:

Iraq War Debate Eclipses All Other Issues
GOP Flounders as Bush's Popularity Falls; Democrats Struggle for a Voice

After largely avoiding the subject since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lawmakers are suddenly confronting the issue of President Bush's handling of the war. The start hasn't been pretty.

Political stunts by both parties have created an air of acrimony that is infecting the parties' entire agendas. The bitterness reached a new high -- or low -- on Friday when House Republicans forced a late-night vote on a resolution for immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The resolution failed, 403 to 3, but only after members nearly came to blows when a GOP newcomer suggested a veteran Democratic military hawk was a coward.

"Iraq is now a cloud over everything," said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst specializing in Congress. "It's the 800-pound gorilla in the room."

"I feel like every morning, I wake up, get a concrete block and have to walk around with it all day," said first-term Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who came to the Senate with an ambitious agenda to overhaul Social Security and the tax code. "We can't even address the issues."

The Washington Post letters column today:

The Nov. 20 front-page article "Iraq War Debate Eclipses All Other Issues" quoted me as saying, "I feel like every morning, I wake up, get a concrete block and have to walk around with it all day." Unfortunately, the wording of the article made it appear I was speaking about the war in Iraq. I was not.

I believe we must win in Iraq because it is vital to the safety of all Americans. The concrete block I referred to is the Democratic Party, whose obstruction and distortions on the war on terrorism are hindering progress.

JIM DeMINT

U.S. Senator (R-S.C.)

No word yet on what Rothenberg meant by "cloud" or gorilla".

Nineteen Twenty

Below is a repost of last year's birthday post when our son celebrated his 19 birthday while Greyhawk was in Iraq. A year later Dad is home, and my son is leaving. We'll be sending him off to the states soon to finish college, something that pains me dearly.

I do hope this isn't the last birthday of his that is celebrated in the house of Greyhawks. I know it is time to cut the cord and let him fly or fall. I've done my motherly job to the best of my abilities. I think I might have done an okay job.

He's turned into a fine young man with a good head on his shoulders. He's a cautious driver. No run-ins with the law, not interested in drugs, hates smokers (not personally, just the habit), tried alcohol, as it's legal for him here in Germany, didn't like it. His hairs a little on the long side but that's his "soccer hair" and the girls love it.

So I think he's going to be O.K., me on the other hand, ...well I'll gulp back my tears and smile with pride.

Whether he decides to pursue a career in the military or in the civilian world will be left to him. I wish him the best in his future endeavers and will support him in any way he needs it.

Except for that money thang. ...Son, it's time to get a job.

However, when we finally get back to the states, you can bring your laundry over anytime, and have dinner too ;-)

XOXOXOXOXOX
Love Mom (Mrs G)

***************************************************

Dec, 06, 2004

Eighteen - what a great age to be - Alice Cooper even wrote a song about it. And 20 - another milestone year! Then 21, what more needs said about 21?

Which of course leaves 19, that odd year in the midst of all those others. Waay to old for all the birthday sorts of things for kids, waaay to young for the full on adult dread of the passing of another year, nineteen is still a great age to be.

Unless it's your son - there is no way my kid could possibly be that old is there? I'm only a few years older than that myself. But wait, I'm so old I know who Alice Cooper is...

Ahh well, just kidding, I've gotten used to all that. But some years ago I once mentioned to my mom that 30 sure seemed old to me, this being said on the occasion of my 30th birthday. "Thirty's not old..." she assured me, "unless it's your kid."

So the bottom line, son, is I'm okay with the big college tuition checks and such, but please, think about what this aging thing is doing to mom and grandma...

Aww forget it. You're 19. The world is yours. Happy Birthday from the guy who put the 'dad' in Baghdad.

gh

________________________________________

Yes. I remember when I could hold your tiny body in my arms and comfort you when you'd cry.

Now it seems you hold my tiny body and comfort me while daddy's gone

Happy birthday, my not so little baby.
Mrs.G

Weblog Awards

The 2005 Weblog Awards are under way.

The Best Military Blog category is here.

You'll likely notice some notable blogs missing - but check some of the other categories.

Our great friend and Soldier's Angel Holly Aho is in the Best New Blog category.

Mike Yon is in the media/journalists category.

Smash is carrying the milblog banner in the Best of the Top 250 category.

Baldilocks is in the 250-500 group.

And Mudville is damn proud to represent milblogs here.

More as I find them. Huge thanks to Kevin at Wizbang who knows exactly what he's getting into having done this for a few years now. It ain't no bed of roses.

The Angel's Call...

...to help support the wounded and their families at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Thank you all for thinking of our wounded, Here in San Antonio we have a wish list for Santa, will you help?

Assorted board games.. Hasbro or others.. like monopoly, battleship, trivial pursuit, scrabble, chess, clue.. etc.. these are over 32 years old now.. and can be replaced..

Pool sticks ( we have dozens of tables)

Ping pong balls and paddles

Electronic dart boards

2-4 new Game Cube video games .. sports or battle ones

2-4 new X-Box games.. same as above

personnel hygiene products.. almost anything.. There is always a use..

Adaptive sports equipment... Bikes, wheelchairs ( for basketball) etc

Presents for family members of soldiers staying at the guest house and Fisher houses.. I didn't get any specific requests.. but I could find something..

10 children (1-5 yrs)... half boy and half girls
9 children (6-11) 8 boys, 1 girl
3 (13, 14 15) teens (2 girls and one boy)

Presents for family members of soldiers staying at the guest house and Fisher houses.. I didn't get any specific requests.. but Iit is the thought that counts,
Plush stuffed animals... the more patriotic the better.. (my stock is exhausted.. 10-50).. they make a nice soldier/sailor/marine/air-men stuff animal they sell at the Army-USAF exchange for about 20.00 if you want me to buy.

Christmas Wrapping paper
Bows
Christmas Decorations

Thank you to all who help our heroes.
Please mail items to:

James Riley
3222 Falling Brook
San Antonio Tx 78258

Soldiers Angels thanks each and everyone for their support of our troops, all donations are tax deductible and it just makes you feel good.

We can mail up to the 18th, May No Soldier Go Unloved

Soldiers Angels
626 398 3131
Patti Bader

May no soldier go unloved
May no soldier walk alone.
May no soldier be forgotten,
Until they all come home.

SoldiersAngels.org

Conversation...

... with a burrito. A loaded burrito.

Milblogging at it's... er... Lexiest.

After that, read his personal reflections on a certain fighter pilot/sailor who fell from grace with the (political) sea - and landed in the headlines. (Hint: his name rhymes with Randy "Duke" Cunningham.)

Or just start at the top and scroll...

(But really, don't miss the burrito.)

Mudville Readers...

...will "get that one" - and appreciate it too. (Along with the rest of the story.)

Forward Progress on Haifa Street

I can imagine a scenario where various media outlets "divvied up" the President's speech at Annapolis, each claming a critical passage to do their best to discredit. This didn't happen, of course, but it's not hard to picture them printing the speech, cutting it into sections, and throwing them into a hat from which they each drew their assignments. CNN/Time-Warner got the part about Iraqi forces taking the lead in Tal Afar, and the very next paragraph in the speech went to the LA Times.

Here's that paragraph:

As Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead in the fight against the terrorists, they're also taking control of more and more Iraqi territory. At this moment, over 30 Iraqi Army battalions have assumed primary control of their own areas of responsibility. In Baghdad, Iraqi battalions have taken over major sectors of the capital -- including some of the city's toughest neighborhoods. Last year, the area around Baghdad's Haifa Street was so thick with terrorists that it earned the nickname "Purple Heart Boulevard." Then Iraqi forces took responsibility for this dangerous neighborhood -- and attacks are now down.

Here's the headline the LA Times came up with: Baghdad's Haifa Still No Easy Street
Violence has ebbed on the road once known as Purple Heart Boulevard since Iraqi soldiers took over, but there is still cause for anxiety.

And here's their thesis:

The potholes have been filled, and the twisted car chasses are gone. On Thursday, Iraqi soldiers drove by in pickup trucks and conducted foot patrols without incident.

But a brief visit to Haifa Street also provides a reminder that "safe" remains a relative concept in Iraq.

Then Times Staff Writer Ashraf Khalil drew the short straw, and had to confirm it.

Note this paragraph from the story:

Haifa Street was developed in large part during the reign of Saddam Hussein. He handed out apartments for free to Baath Party cadres, intelligence officers and hundreds of Palestinian and Syrian immigrants — which meant by definition that almost every resident was a Hussein loyalist.

We'll return to that Times story shortly, but first with that paragraph in mind let's look back at a year on Haifa street.

Last November we "met" SGT Rowe Stayton, US Army, on Haifa street:

An Air Force Academy graduate and former F-15 fighter pilot, then-Major Stayton left the Air National Guard 17 years ago to run his civilian law practice in Denver and rear his six children. But his life changed not long after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when he enlisted in the Arkansas Army National Guard in what he says was an act of patriotism.

Now Sergeant Stayton, 53, is leading three other soldiers young enough to be his sons on an infantry fire team that regularly runs combat patrols in the Haifa Street section of Baghdad, one of the riskiest missions in the Iraqi capital. More than a third of the 119 soldiers in his Guard unit, Company C of the First Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment, have been awarded Purple Hearts for being wounded in action since they arrived here in April.

Stayton's unit had the unenviable task of patrolling one of the worst streets in Baghdad. How bad was it?

BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 19, 2004 — A brazen daylight attack in the heart of Baghdad with rebels executing election workers in cold blood served as a chilling reminder Sunday of the deteriorating security situation in the Iraqi capital with just more than a month before crucial parliamentary elections.

A series pictures taken by an AP photographer show three pistol-wielding gunmen, who had earlier stopped a car carrying the election officials and dragged them into the middle of Haifa Street in the midst of morning traffic.

And while bloggers would question the (ahem) luck of that AP photographer, the pictures would earn a Pulitzer Prize.

Meanwhile, those Arkansas Guardsmen soldiered on, as I discovered in my interview with JR Shultz (Iraq Unplugged)

GH: What was your mission in Iraq?

JR: I was pulled from my squad to join a team of cadre who were responsible for training an Iraqi National Guard unit. At the beginning of our deployment, we were conducting training drills inside the perimeter of our FOB, and by the end we were accompanying elements from the ING unit on operations in the Haifa St. area of Baghdad. I can't speak for any other unit, but these guys made a lot of progress in the year that we worked with them.

Indeed - by February the Iraqis had responsibility for the street. And according to the New York Times, this was Haifa Street in August 2005:

An American-Iraqi military campaign, begun last year to retake the street, seemed to bear fruit as insurgents were captured, killed or driven out of the area. On Feb. 6, the American command handed over a cut of north-central Baghdad, including Haifa Street, to the 1st Brigade, 6th Division, of the Iraqi army.

This transfer made the 1st Brigade the first and only Iraqi army unit to control its own battle space, putting it on the leading edge of the Bush administration's plan to have Iraqi forces take responsibility for the country's security.

The good news for American officials is that the Iraqi troops have not lost ground on Haifa Street. Since the 1st Brigade took control, there have been only three insurgent attacks along the street, and those came in the first three weeks, commanders say.
<...>
Pro-Iraqi army graffiti has begun to appear on walls that for months had been adorned exclusively with anti-American slogans. Residents now socialize outside their buildings and say they feel safer walking along the street. People who fled their apartments have started to trickle back, and pedestrian and vehicular traffic, while still thin compared with other major thoroughfares, is slowly returning.

Although no one questioned the NY Times report last summer, the President's bold claim that "attacks are now down" has launched an investigation by the LA Times.

Reporter Khalil notes that because of "lasting associations" with the name of the street, the op would be "deep cover":

Still, the name carries lasting associations, and a visit by a Western journalist required an even greater-than-usual level of security planning.

Bringing a translator would be too conspicuous, so my flawed Egyptian-accented Arabic would have to do. No English would be spoken anywhere and no mention made of America, but a guard would accompany me.

But that wouldn't fool the Iraqi security forces:

During the interview with Akram, he took note of my mongrel Arabic, narrowed his eyes, and said: "He's not Egyptian. That's a lie."

Of course, this is exactly what we would hope an Iraqi officer would do to protect this volatile street from visits from al Qaeda, but Khalil fails to give him credit for the catch. Instead he notes cryptically that "For outsiders, though, the dangers remain real."

More from Sgt Akram:

Now, he boasted, his soldiers can sit in coffee shops without fear.

"The Americans with all their heavy weapons couldn't control this area. It took Iraqi minds and experience," said Ali, who complimented the U.S. training they received.

Akram said Iraqi soldiers and residents had since found their comfort level and that soldiers who used to come to work with their uniforms in a bag now hail taxis from outside the base.
<...>
The interview ended on a positive note, with Akram giving us apples for the road. But we left the scene quickly after the driver, who had watched with mounting alarm, called our attention to two dubious figures on the edge of the crowd who were pointing at our cars.

Rattled, our two-car mini-convoy sped off, as the neighborhood started to feel like enemy territory.

Total time spent on Haifa Street: maybe 75 minutes. It felt a lot longer.

Possible pointing was the most violent act he encountered that day. But check that headline again: "Baghdad's Haifa Still No Easy Street - Violence has ebbed on the road once known as Purple Heart Boulevard since Iraqi soldiers took over, but there is still cause for anxiety."

Indeed. Pointing - that's rude. They used to point at people on Haifa Street last year too:

No progress at all...

Related posts: The Road to Victory and Rolling on Down the Road

In the Lead

In the wake of President Bush's speech at Annapolis it appears a battalion of journalists has been dispatched with marching orders to discredit his claims of progress in Iraq. We applaud the efforts of true fact checkers - those who keep our politicians honest. Unfortunately, most of the current efforts of the media "quick reaction force" are a discredit to those who do consider non-partisan efforts at bringing the truth to the American public an important service.

Frequent commenter Wilson Kolb brings to our attention one such example. Under the headline "Embedded TIME Reporter: Bush Lied In Speech Yesterday About Iraqi Security Forces" the political website Think Progress details what they believe is an example of fraud in the President's speech.

First, here's the passage they question:

The progress of the Iraqi forces is especially clear when the recent anti-terrorist operations in Tal Afar are compared with last year's assault in Fallujah. In Fallujah, the assault was led by nine coalition battalions made up primarily of United States Marines and Army -- with six Iraqi battalions supporting them. The Iraqis fought and sustained casualties. Yet in most situations, the Iraqi role was limited to protecting the flanks of coalition forces, and securing ground that had already been cleared by our troops. This year in TAL Afar, it was a very different story.

The assault was primarily led by Iraqi security forces -- 11 Iraqi battalions, backed by five coalition battalions providing support. Many Iraqi units conducted their own anti-terrorist operations and controlled their own battle space -- hunting for enemy fighters and securing neighborhoods block-by-block. To consolidate their military success, Iraqi units stayed behind to help maintain law and order -- and reconstruction projects have been started to improve infrastructure and create jobs and provide hope.

One of the Iraqi soldiers who fought in TAL Afar was a private named Tarek Hazem. This brave Iraqi fighter says, "We're not afraid. We're here to protect our country. All we feel is motivated to kill the terrorists." Iraqi forces not only cleared the city, they held it. And because of the skill and courage of the Iraqi forces, the citizens of TAL Afar were able to vote in October's constitutional referendum.

And here's the statement Time magazine reporter Michael Ware made to CNN's Anderson Cooper - which they feel effectively debunks the above:

COOPER: You know this is not one of the shows where we take sides. I really try to just look at facts on the ground, and the President in his speech talked about the battle of Tal Afar. And in his speech today, he said that it was led primarily by Iraqi security forces, eleven Iraqi battalions, backed by five coalition battalions providing support. He used this as compared to the battle of Fallujah as an example of how much better the Iraqis are doing. Earlier, I talked to Time Magazine’s Michael Ware, the Baghdad bureau chief who was embedded during the entire battle. I want to play you what he said about the Iraqi units he saw.

WARE: I was in that battle from the very beginning to the very end. I was with Iraqi units right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda. They were not leading. They were being led by the U.S. green beret special forces with them. Green berets who were following an American plan of attack who were advancing with these Iraqi units as and when they were told to do so by the American battle planners. The Iraqis led nothing.

First, note that Ware acknowledges the placement of Iraqi forces in the battle - "I was with Iraqi units right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda" - this statement is all that's needed to confirm the President's account. Anyone thinking the President meant anything other than that by "in the lead" is fooling themselves.

But Ware's problem is with the Special Forces advisors; their presence indicates the Iraqis aren't ready to go it alone. But the "argument" boils down to this: the President says progress is being made towards a goal where Iraqi forces can carry the battle themselves, and his detractors counter that it isn't true - because they haven't yet reached that goal.

But let's really "think" about "progress", because Ware (perhaps unwittingly) confirmed the other quoted paragraphs of the President's speech too.

Three years ago Iraqi forces didn't exist.

Two years ago they broke and ran at every opportunity - this is certainly true of the April '04 battle in Fallujah, when one Baghdad-based Iraqi unit mutinied on the road to Fallujah and refused to join the battle (see Bing West's outstanding book No True Glory : A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah - highly recomended.)

Last November they fought in Fallujah - clearing and holding immediately behind the front line US troops, and none have broken and run since.

Now as the clear and hold operations extend to other towns in al Anbar those units are in the lead. As Ware notes, they have Special Forces advisors with them, calling the shots, directing, etc. That is why the advisors are there. To assume they would not do so is patently ridiculous.

His argument that they were not "in the lead" because they had Special Forces advisors with them "right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda" is equally ridiculous - and an insult to the courage and resolve of Iraqi troops and the Special Forces. No one - certainly not the president (who, if you want to be mince words, actually said "The assault was primarily led by Iraqi security forces") is claiming the Iraqis are ready to go without our help. This is the whole reason we're still there. Ware has invented his own definition of what the President meant by "in the lead" - and it's not one the President shares. How can I be sure? Because as the President has made clear, when the Iraqis are ready to go without Special Forces advisors is when we come home - victorious.

Ware didn't mean to confirm everything the President said - but in fact he did. That's the danger of attacking rapidly without a well thought out plan.

Shocked! Shocked I Tell You!!

Knight Ridder, fresh on the heels of their exposure (ooops - scooped by the Los Angeles Times!) of efforts by the Bush administration to plant favorable stories in the Iraqi press, has discovered the latest outrage perpetrated by the US government. Sit down before you read this shocker - the State Department is allegedly making efforts to ensure that before an American citizen is sent overseas to represent the US government, that person must support the US government!!!

Congratulations to those of you who are still reading - obviously you expressed your outrage by smashing something other than your computer screen. When will the Bush administration learn that it has no business supporting its policies? Ruthlessly suppressing your opposition by refusing to fund or endorse them is certainly not "the American way".

Just look at the depths to which "our government" is prepared to sink to ensure its not paying for its opponents to criticize them on foreign soil:

Current and former officials involved with the State Department's overseas speakers program said potential candidates were vetted - via Internet searches, for example - for any comments or writings that criticized White House policy.

And no wonder why those "officials" aren't named - they live in fear of brutal retaliation from the Bush camp:

He and others agreed to discuss the State Department practices only on condition of anonymity, saying they feared retaliation for exposing them.

Americans in the 21st century, forced to live in fear!

We at Mudville call on Democrats in congress, the media, and other neutral non-government agencies to demand that a massive, non-partisan investigation into these charges be launched immediately - its the only way these sorts of oppressive government witch hunts can be stopped. Not since the brutal suppression of US communists during the cold war has such an outrage been inflicted by a government on its own people. This is a clear affront to the minority of patriotic Americans who voted against the president in last year's US elections, and proof positive that Secretary of State Condi Rice is, uhhh...

Nevermind.

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Bill Putnam - An independent look at Iraq

The Mrs pointed out one of her Dawn Patrol finds to me - Bill Putnam at An independent look at Iraq. He's an independent photojournalist blogging from Iraq.

Like this

Later that day we’re sitting on Bayji’s Market Road in front of a bank. Capt. Adam Lackey, Abu Company commander, was in the bank with some civil affairs officers. I decided to hang out on the street.

I had an uneasy feeling being out there. I lighted another cigarette and watched people walk home from shopping. One lady didn’t want to walk past us. Someone said “maku mishkala” to her and her friend encouraged her to get over her fears.

Strange, I thought. I snapped photos of this going down.

Then I noticed there were no kids around. Kids are around us all the time here. This was different. No kids mean something is going to happen.

More here. Get there before the rush.

News From Iraq

A vision of post-war Iraq: peace, prosperity, and a population grateful for the freedom and opportunity given them by the United States. A prewar neocon pipedream? No - it's the reality of the country's northern provinces.

The fact that you rarely see news from northern Iraq is an indicator of the phenomenal success there - it runs counter to the carefully crafted "failure" narrative regarding the rebuilding and future of that land. But Kevin Sites is now in that Kurdish north, and provides a detailed look (with video) at the Peshmerga (translation: "those who face death." ) - the Kurdish militia. Don't miss it.

The situation there is peaceful, prosperous, and historically complex (as evidenced in our look at the events of 1991-97) and two opposing Kurdish factions (who previously fought against each other, with one side supported by Hussein's government and the other backed by Iran) are coexisting, while dealing with the daunting issues of integrating with their southern neighbors and coping with the Turks to the north and Iran to the east. (Portions of both countries are ethnically and historically Kurdish.)

But the result is a peaceful and prospering area of Iraq, as we reported here with a follow-up here. Can this work for the remainder of the country? Many of the Kurds are optimistic. Sites quotes Maj. General Sarwad Qader Barzingy, commandant of a Peshmerga military academy: "As Kurds we don't care much about the past," he says. "We are confident now and need to move forward."

His facility is one of the signs of hope for the future Iraq:

The academy, which was created in 1991, just after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces, now has been integrated into the Iraqi army. Here both Kurdish and Arab cadets are put through an abbreviated one-year program to commission them as second lieutenants in the new Iraqi army.
<...>
Currently the academy has 105 Arab cadets. Ironically, all were admitted to the Iraqi army's military academy in southern Baghdad during the regime of Saddam Hussein. They are sons of Baath Party members who weren't able to finish their studies because of the war. Now they are here, training in the mountains of east of Sulaymaniyah. Barzingy says things don't always go smoothly.

Indeed, but as any member of the US military can tell you, integration is fundamental to success of such a diverse organization. And none will deny that success takes time and effort.

Perhaps more for some than others. Generale Barzingy is a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) as is Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. If Sites has captured the situation correctly, sentiment among the opposition Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) is less favorable to the Arabs:

But Pesghmerga soldiers at the KDP Brigade all openly voice their desire for separation.

"We prefer independence," says Hakim Kadir Tagarny. "We also know the reality, but if there is persecution again we will fight for our independence."
<...>
"We don't want the Arabs in Kurdistan," says Ramazan Muhammad Hussein Ali. The dozen or so others gathered in the hallways all nod their heads in agreement.

But that view may be a minority. Earlier this week Sites was in Irbil, a city that in 1996 was a battleground in the fighting between KDP and PUK forces. Saddam Hussein dispatched Iraqi forces to aid the KDP, and his military incursion sparked Operation Desert Strike, one of several cruise missile attacks on Iraq ordered by President Clinton.

Today, the city prospers:

ERBIL, Iraq -- It's Friday at dusk. People are strolling through the gardens, lounging on the grass, reading, eating snacks and chatting near the refreshment stand.

Zirar Abdullah poses his young son and daughter on the playground spinner, then snaps their picture in the perfectly diffused golden light.

"I come here with my family every Friday," Abdullah says. "I feel very secure. I feel free to do what I like."

One of the greatest concerns is finding people to work in the shops:

The growth has also created a labor shortage. Furniture store owner Zana Aziz says people used to beg him for jobs at $50 a month. Now he has to pay $200-$300 a month and he still has trouble keeping the 10 workers he needs to run his business. The problem, he says, is police recruitment.

"I've lost so many workers to the police force," he says. "They sign up and make 400 or more dollars a month and only have to work a few days a week. I see many of them sitting in the coffee shops or the marketplace."
<...>
Many businesses have started hiring Arab workers who have traveled to the Kurdish areas from central and western Iraq, but Aziz says he's not ready to take that step.

"I'm not sure I can trust them," Aziz says. "You hear so much about suicide bombings and, also, I could be abducted. I'm afraid to do it."

But such events are things you only hear of in the Kurdish reagions. Although Sites quotes one resident who expresses concern for the tone of the cut-and-run crowd in the States.

"The day the Americans leave," he says, "on the next day the Arabs will attack us. When the Americans go we will go with them," he says, only half-jokingly.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that those interested in helping the rebuilding of Iraq should move fast towards the Kurdish region, where oil is beginning to flow:

The Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls a portion of the semiautonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, last year quietly signed a deal with Norway's DNO to drill for oil near the border city of Zakho. [*See Update 2 below] Iraqi and company officials describe the agreement as the first involving new exploration in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Seemingly great news - but according to the Times, the project was launched without the approval of the central government, "raising a potentially explosive issue at a time of heightened ethnic and sectarian tensions." But their story admittedly relies on second hand reports - which they apparently quickly passed on to the proper officials:

Drilling began after a ceremony Tuesday, during which Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish northern region, vowed "there is no way Kurdistan would accept that the central government will control our resources," according to news agency reports.

In Baghdad, political leaders on Wednesday reacted to the deal with astonishment.

"We need to figure out if this is allowed in the constitution," said Adnan Ali Kadhimi, an advisor to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari. "Nobody has mentioned it. It has not come up among the government ministers' council. It has not been on their agenda."

An interesting development, but not half so much as the one described in this Reuters report:

JERUSALEM, (Reuters) - Private Israeli security firms have sent experts to Iraq's northern Kurdish region to give covert training to Kurdish security forces, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth said that over the past year and a half the Israeli companies had set up a secret training base in northern Iraq as part of a multi-million dollar project with the Kurdish regional government.

It said dozens of Israeli specialists had been sent to teach Kurdish forces "weapons training, self-defence and counter-terror warfare".

Israel's foreign ministry voiced doubt over the report. "As far as I know there are no Israelis whatsoever in Kurdistan," ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "As there is a formal state of war between Israel and Iraq, it is illegal for Israelis to visit Iraq."

Israel and Iraq have no diplomatic ties, and Iraq is one of a number of Arab countries with which the Jewish state is still officially in a state of war. Israel has peace treaties with only two of its Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan.

Such a story has elements of a disinformation campaign, designed to discredit the Kurds in the eyes of the Arabs. But in a volatile region these sparks can start large fires.

But the Kurds are likely quite capable of taking care of things themselves, as 90,000 Peshmerga troops tend to discourage "outside influences" from spreading violence in their provinces. As I've noted before, the Kurdish region isn't Iraq without Americans, it's Iraq without terrorists.

Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq:

In recent weeks Iraq has passed three important milestones. The constitutional referendum on Oct. 15 was a powerful demonstration of Iraqis' desire to establish democracy and save a country still recovering from its disastrous history. Two days later the remains of 500 of my kinsmen were returned from a mass grave in southern Iraq for reburial in Iraqi Kurdistan. Another 7,500 of my kin are still missing after "disappearing" from a Baathist concentration camp in 1983 in the first phase of the genocidal Anfal campaign, which caused the death of 182,000 Kurdish civilians during the 1980s. Then, on Oct. 19, Saddam Hussein finally went on trial.

None of this would have been possible without the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, an operation in which Kurds were proud partners. After the U.S. armed forces, our pesh merga was the second-largest member of the coalition. Today the security forces of Iraqi Kurdistan remain highly capable and reliable allies of the United States. By consistently working with the United States and reaching out to our fellow Iraqis, we have been at the heart of a political process based on equality and inclusion, on consensus and compromise.

Above all, we have taken the path of engagement because, like the United States, we need Iraq to succeed and avoid a repetition of the horrors of the past. We have therefore been engaged in Iraqi national politics and governance.
<...>
The United States has never wavered in its quest to help Iraqis build a democracy that rewards compromise and consensus. The ever-generous American people have paid a tragic price, the lives of their finest men and women, to advance the banner of freedom and democracy, a sacrifice for which we are profoundly grateful. We all know that democracy is the only solution to political problems, the only method by which grievances can be addressed. In this war and for these principles, the Kurds are true friends of the United States.

I'd bet on success for the Kurds.

Update: A look at Kurds in Iran and Turkey via a blog and a website. Quite an interesting war report, illustrated, even. (Via Mrs G's Dawn Patrol)

Update 2: The LA Times - as expected - has corrected their initial report:

An article in Thursday's Section A said the Kurdistan Democratic Party had signed a deal with Norwegian company DNO to drill for oil in northern Iraq. The deal was signed by the Kurdistan regional government.

Their initial report was attempting to question the legitimacy of the deal, this admission changes the story significantly. A good lesson for those who are over-eager to deny progress in Iraq - and for those who consider newpapers an unquestionable source of accurate or unbiased information.

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