Been Away...

The past couple weeks I found myself with a computer but no internet access. Besides watching World Cup on AFN, I passed some time with an old favorite - Civilization II. Best computer strategy game ever. X-Com was a close second.

Re: Milblogs Style Manual

Been on that tip for many months, comrade...

The "Threat"

Many of us who have been in since the "Cold War" remember certain things when we hear the term "Threat" used - I, myself, still see a vast, green clad, red star wearing horde climbing into BMPs and T-72s...

Apprently, a new "Threat" faces us all.

Milblogs Style Manual.

From today's Stand-to:

In dealing with Islamic extremists, the West may be giving them the advantage due to cultural ignorance, maintain Dr. Douglas E. Streusand and Army Lt. Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV. The men work at the National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C.

Okay. So, whattaya mean, fellas?

A case in point is the term "jihadist." Many leaders use the term jihadist or jihadi as a synonym for Islamic extremist. Jihad has been commonly adapted in English as meaning "holy war." But to Muslims it means much more. In their article, Steusand and Tunnell said in Arabic - the language of the Koran - jihad "literally means striving and generally occurs as part of the expression 'jihad fi sabil illah,' striving in the path of God."

This is a good thing for all Muslims. "Calling our enemies jihadis and their movement a global jihad thus indicates that we recognize their doctrines and actions as being in the path of God and, for Muslims, legitimate," they wrote. By countering jihadis, the West and moderate Muslims are enemies of true Islam.

The men asked Muslim scholars what the correct term for Islamic extremists would be and they came up with "hirabah." This word specifically refers to those engaged in sinful warfare, warfare contrary to Islamic law. "We should describe the Islamic totalitarian movement as the global hirabah, not the global jihad," they wrote.

jihadist Hirabah.

Another word constantly misused in the West is mujahdeen. Again, in American dictionaries this word refers to a holy warrior - again a good thing. So calling an al Qaeda terrorist a mujahid legitimizes him.

The correct term for these killers is "mufsidun," Streusand and Tunnell say. This refers to an evil or corrupt person. "There is no moral ambiguity and the specific denotation of corruption carries enormous weight in most of the Islamic world," they wrote.

mujahideen mufsidun. Okay.

I'll be implementing this at Castle Argghhh! (to include, over time, editing the archives).

Read the rest here.

Re: EBO Criticism

Sonny of FX-Based , an Air Force blogger, has a series of posts up in response to Ralph Peters' criticism of EBO. They can be found here , here and here.

As with all good debates, others stepped in and some counterpoints with regards to EBO were made by Kingdaddy at Arms and Influence.

There's nothing like a good, spirited debate, and Ralph Peters (hate him or love him, or somewhere in between) specializes (gleefully I think) in provoking them in public apperances, lengthy essays and even short NY Post columns.

Re: Political Activities and the Soldier

I don't want to rain on anyones parade but -

DOD Directive 1344.10 Enclosure E-3

E3.3. EXAMPLES OF PROHIBITED POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

In accordance with the statutory restrictions in 10 U.S.C. 973(b) (reference (b)) and references (g) and (h), and the policies established in section 4., above, of this Directive, a member on active duty shall not:

E3.3.6. Allow or cause to be published partisan political articles signed or written by the member that solicits votes for or against a partisan political party, candidate, or cause.

What to do about Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)

Working well within the boundries reviewed by ArmyLawyer, it is all rather simple. In a Representative Republic, if you like someone you support their campaign.

If you do not, you support their opponent. Did you know Rep. Murtha has one? Her name is Diana Irey.

Cross posted at CDR Salamander.

Political Activities and the Soldier

Well, it's an election year, and as both of my readers are presumably politically (and militarily) inclined, I, as a truly minor service, figured I'd lay out some of the rules regarding political activity that govern the military.

Ralph Ain't The Only Guy

Peters has effective company with Dr. Milan Vego, who takes EBO and tears a giant gaping hole in it (pdf) for the current Joint Forces Quarterly. Vego is pretty clear about when the EBO idea has value as he sees it, and then lobs ordnance for many pages.

I Wasn't the Only One Ranting at the NYT Today

I SWEAR John & I didn't speak before we let loose on Keller......

Just released, Treasury Sec. John Snow writes a very strong letter to NY Times editor about terror finance surveillance...

Mr. Bill Keller, Managing Editor The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Keller:

The New York Times' decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their money trails.

Your charge that our efforts to convince The New York Times not to publish were "half-hearted" is incorrect and offensive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the past two months, Treasury has engaged in a vigorous dialogue with the Times - from the reporters writing the story to the D.C. Bureau Chief and all the way up to you. It should also be noted that the co-chairmen of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission, Governor Tom Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, met in person or placed calls to the very highest levels of the Times urging the paper not to publish the story. Members of Congress, senior U.S. Government officials and well-respected legal authorities from both sides of the aisle also asked the paper not to publish or supported the legality and validity of the program.

Indeed, I invited you to my office for the explicit purpose of talking you out of publishing this story. And there was nothing "half-hearted" about that effort. I told you about the true value of the program in defeating terrorism and sought to impress upon you the harm that would occur from its disclosure. I stressed that the program is grounded on solid legal footing, had many built-in safeguards, and has been extremely valuable in the war against terror.

Additionally, Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey met with the reporters and your senior editors to answer countless questions, laying out the legal framework and diligently outlining the multiple safeguards and protections that are in place.

You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the "public interest" in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of - even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you've seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available - lawfully and responsibly - to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times.

Sincerely,

[signed]

John W. Snow, Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury

Navy Hornets Collide, One Dead

Two Navy F/A-18 Hornets from VFA-125, stationed out of NAS Lemoore, were involved in a "mishap" today near Jolon, CA (about halfway up the coast between LA and San Fran). One pilot died, and the other ejected and was recovered in good condition. The accident occurred at the Ft. Hunter-Liggett military training area.

No word yet on the cause of the crash, but normally a "mishap" that involves the loss of two planes is a collision. One thing that really impressed me when I was working with the aviators during my carrier tour was how seriously they take their mishap investigations; hopefully they'll be able to figure out what happened here, and keep it from happening again. In the meantime, I'm sure the entire squadron is focused on the loss of their fellow aviator and what they can do for his family. (That was another thing that impressed me about the aviators when I worked with them -- they had the right priorities when it came to dealing with losses like this.)

Ralph doesn't like EBO

He doesn't get a firm grip on EBO (Effects Based Operations), but he gets hold of enough to make a mark.

Oh, and a last note on Effects-Based Operations: Any combat doctrine that cannot be explained clearly and concisely will fail.

Yet, EBO also reflects a recurring American delusion — the notion that, if only we can discover it, there must be a formula for winning wars on the cheap. EBO and other schemes for sterilized techno-wars have surprisingly deep roots in our military culture — the American vines were grafted onto diseased European root stocks.

What Is NATO Up To Today?

7,000 strong in West Africa in a likely preview of the kinds of missions they will face in the next likely battlespace in the "Long War".

Steadfast Jaguar

Exercise "Steadfast Jaguar" is billed as a crucial test for the new NATO Response Force -- a spearhead unit designed for rapid deployment around the world for missions ranging from humanitarian relief to lightning combat strikes.

Although NATO pulls out of Cape Verde on June 28, the two-week maneuvers have highlighted questions about a possible wider role for the alliance in West Africa.

The region is rife with the sort of modern threats that NATO aims to confront -- from the surge in illegal immigration to Europe, to narco-trafficking, regional conflicts and the risk of disrupted of oil supplies from the Gulf of Guinea.

Bill Keller's real justifcation for running the Swift story

The jihadist foe doesn't have access to operational and strategic intelligence. They've got limited budgets, they're always on the move, you just can't get good satellite in a Waziristan cave.

And Bill Keller, editor-in-chief of the New York Times, doesn't think that's fair.

Amnesty

The possibility of granting amnesty to Iraqis who carried out attacks against American troops has created a bit of an uproar - notably in responses from Senators Carl Levin (D-Mi) and John Warner (R-Va) on Fox News Sunday.

Levin's comment seems the most widely quoted:

For heaven's sake, we liberated that country. We got rid of a horrific dictator. We've paid a tremendous price. More than 2,500 Americans have given up their lives. The idea that they should even consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country is unconscionable.

To be fair, after Warner pointed out that Iraqis are running their own country, Levin backpedaled furiously (demonstrating a spinal flexibility bordering on the fluid) - but those additional comments didn't make the soundbites.

Public Service Announcement

Anybody missing a coffin?

TUCSON, June 25 — An empty coffin with a military seal was found in the desert south of Tucson on Saturday, and sheriff's deputies were looking for a body.

"Obviously it had the smell, and there was other evidence that it had been inhabited recently," Deputy Dawn Barkman said Sunday.

Forensic investigators took DNA samples, and a nationwide alert was issued in hopes of finding who had been in the coffin, Deputy Barkman said.

Deputies were called to a desert area near Interstate 10 after two people playing paintball discovered the coffin, Deputy Barkman said. The coffin was metallic silver with a United States Army insignia on it, she said.

"We have a lot of cemeteries, but it could be from anywhere," Deputy Barkman said. "Right now we don't have any concrete information where it came from."

The Reluctant MilBlogger

Bruce Kesler says that he doesn't want to be a Military Blogger and explains why in a column today at The Examiner.

(Much to the chagrin of readers everywhere, my week-long vacation with my family at Disney World is over. Intentionally disconnected for over a week, the hack is back.)

An excuse for a party - with guns.

Public Service Announcement:

Bored with the same old dull, sit-in-chairs-listening-to-bloggers-earnestly-discuss-how-important-they-are kind of conference? (Hey, I was there, I was as self-important as anyone, and lord the Press made sure we knew about YearlyKOS!)

Interested in attending about the most dangerous gathering of bloggers since YearlyKos? The Gunblogger Rendevous! Well, dangerous if you're Sarah Brady, or The Senators SchuBoxerClinStein The pic says it all!. C'mon, Blogs, guns, booze, and gambling. Pretty much what we're fighting for around the globe, ain't it? At least *the bad guys" think so.

SWWBO and I are going to try to be there, too - client willing and the creek don't rise.

H/t to Ride Fast and Shoot Straight for the pic.

Look Who the "Dear Leader's" New Friend Is

Some how I doubt they are talking about an export agreement for kimchi:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States, said Saturday he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Observers speculate that ideas for cooperation between the two countries could include an oil-for-missiles deal.

Chavez, who has mentioned plans to visit North Korea several times, told reporters the trip would be about bilateral agreements in technology and science. He did not specify a date.

Oil for missiles anyone?

North Korean Refugees Adjust to Life in the South

This article from the International Herald Tribune describes the many problems integrating North Korean refugees who have defected from the North through China into South Korean society the past few years. The differences in political and economic systems plus discrimination from South Koreans who look down on their Northern bretheren contributes to the problem of integrating North Korean refugees. This quote from a North Korean refugee best explains their largest hurdle. The change in ideology:

"In North Korea, if you were loyal to the system, you were provided a job and housing, and your needs were met," added Lee, who has held so many jobs in the South that his friends have nicknamed him MacGyver, after the resourceful television character. "But here in South Korea, individuals have to take responsibility and create their own system."

NYT: Soldier's Mom Rant

Grrrr...

To Bill Keller and the New York Times: JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE??

Who died and left you, um, President? You hold no elected or appointed office that allows you to “oversee” anything. It’s why the constitution grants the powers to the PRESIDENT… and the Congress… and the Judiciary. Here's news for you, Bill: newspaper editor is not among those we count on or elect to protect our security.

You should be made to hear the sobbing of the mothers and wives and families of the service members who are out there putting it on the line protecting your right to write the crap you do and know that perhaps the one transaction that was not seen because of your “exposé” bought the bullets that killed their son or husband.

ok, so I'm a bit riled again... at my place...

A South Korean Viewpoint on the Missile Crisis

Here is an excerpt from the leading South Korean daily newspaper the Chosun Ilbo that best describes why South Korea gets highly concerned when US government official start talking about bombing North Korea:

The precariousness of the security situation in Korea is expressed in an op-ed column in the Thursday issue of the Washington Post, written by William Perry and Ashton Carter, who were secretary and assistant secretary of Defense under president Clinton. "If North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched," they said. "North Korea could respond to U.S. resolve by taking the drastic step of threatening all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. But it is unlikely to act on that threat. An invasion of South Korea would bring about the certain end of Kim Jong-il's regime within a few bloody weeks of war, as surely he knows."

Perry and Carter casually mention "a few bloody weeks of war," but that could indeed turn the Korean Peninsula into a "sea of fire." Millions of people in the two Koreas could be killed. It is unbelievable that Perry, who served as North Korea nuclear coordinator under Clinton, could make such an irresponsible remark.

Drum Roll, Please....

Just in time to respond to John Murtha's latest outrage, at long last the top 5 John Murtha Inscription Contest entries are in and listed below. To atone for the tardy announcement, all five entrants below will receive an inscribed copy of Home of the Brave.

And now, drum roll, please....

1. To John Murtha,

Semper Fidelis

Posted by SSG K at 1904Z

2. Dear Rep Murtha:

Shut up and read.

Posted by kat-missouri at 2239Z

3. Mr. Murtha,

Let these stories be a reminder of the bravery of those that defend your Freedom of Speech. You know -- the ones that fight to protect your Right to wrong.

Posted by Some Soldier's Mom at 2208Z

4. To John Murtha,

An unhung zero.

Email entry

5. Dear Mr. Murtha,

" It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

...and it is the soldier, who braves enemy fire to defend freedom, who provides you freedom to fire upon him with political propaganda.

Posted by I. Ronnie at 1434Z

***Winners: email me your preferred mailing address and the name(s) you'd like your book made out to.

Iraq Word Power Quiz

Here's your Iraq media vocabulary quiz for the day. Ready?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's efforts to end terrorist violence in Baghdad are best described as:

a. Bold
b. Belated
c. Effective
d. Draconian

The answer to today's quiz comes from the LA Times:

Khobar + 10

The trick question about the Korean War - one that used to be taught to all newcomers, wasn't "when did the war begin?" It was "when did the war end?" The answer, of course, was "it hasn't - we're in a lengthy ceasefire" (in which American soldiers have died). I'm not sure how many people are aware of that.

Likewise few people are aware that the US Air Force has been involved in a shooting war, quite literally, since 1991.

Another anniversary occured in that war today, June 25 1996:

No one in the 58th Fighter Squadron could go home from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, until all rooms were clean. The contract airliner was to arrive on June 27, 1996, to fly most of the main body of 100 people home to Eglin AFB, Fla. Six of the squadron's F-15Cs would make the hop across the Atlantic, while the others were to join an Air Expeditionary Force exercise in progress.

It was Tuesday evening, June 25. For two days, personnel from the 58th had been swapping desks and packing their personal belongings, preparing to hand over duties to the incoming 27th FS. Lt. Col. Doug Cochran, the 58th FS commander, was scrubbing the bathroom in his quarters in Building 127, where most squadron members lived. Others lived in Building 131, at the north corner of the Khobar Towers complex, sharing it with a rescue squadron from Patrick AFB, Fla., and people from other units.

Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwalier, commander of the 4404th Wing (Provisional), was already packed, ready to leave after the change of command ceremony planned for the next day. Then came the blast. At approximately 9:50 p.m., a truck bomb exploded, throwing the force of more than 20,000 pounds of TNT against the concrete structure of Khobar. By the next day, the Air Force knew the worst. Nineteen Americans had died in the line of duty.

Within weeks of the bombing, the US would launch a "decisive" response - dubbed "Operation Desert Focus" - in which US forces "redeployed" from Dhahran and Riyadh to the remote Prince Sultan Air Base.

At approximately the same time as that "redployment", Osama bin Laden, enraged by the presence of US troops on sacred Saudi soil (there to enforce the UN "no-fly zone" in southern Iraq following Operation Desert Storm) issued a Fatwa...

Remembering the Start of the Korean War

It took 56 years, but at least now we know the South Koreans didn't start the Korean War:

The study published ahead of the 56th anniversary of the Korean War by Prof. Jung Byung-joon of Mokpo National University is titled, "The Korean War: Confrontations at the 38 parallel and the formation of the War." It concludes that the Korean War started indeed as a sudden surprise invasion of the North in accordance with a directive from Stalin. The academic says the Haeju attack had been drawn up as part of regular defensive planning in March 1950 by the Korean Army in accordance with Operation Command 38. The directive ordered a decisive offensive to the north of Haeju to disperse North Korean forces if they attacked in the direction of Seoul but was not an order for a preemptive attack on North Korea.

Saddam Delusional

via Alertnet

But Saddam clings to hope, believing the way out is to become the United States' "last resort; they'll knock on his door," the lawyer said. "The United States will use this sentence to pressure Saddam to save it from its mess."

Saddam even believes the United States might reinstall him as president of Iraq, al-Dulaimi told the Times.

Army Wives Receive Threats From Terrorists

The Telegraph is reporting that the wives of British soldiers are receiving threatening phone calls from terrorists in Iraq.

Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

The "nuisance" calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers' mobile telephones.

The growing number of calls has led to an investigation by the Royal Military Police, which has issued a warning to all soldiers in Iraq to take great care when using mobile telephones to call home.

Apparently, the terrorists are electronically intercepting phone numbers dialed from the cellular phones of soldiers.

The extent of the problem emerged in a restricted Army document issued to soldiers of the London Regiment, a Territorial Army unit, which has soldiers from its ranks serving in Iraq.

The document warns soldiers preparing to take part in operations that insurgents in southern Iraq have managed to obtain the home telephone numbers of soldiers by using electronic intercept devices to hack into mobile phone systems.

It is understood that the threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be killed fighting in Iraq, to verbal abuse. Many of those who have received calls say that they were made by people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent.

The military document states that there have been "many instances in the last weeks of relatives and friends of personnel serving abroad on operations getting nuisance phone calls" from Iraq.

That's one way to really tick a soldier off. Though I'm sure these phone calls are frightening, it's not wise to mess with Army wives, they're a tough lot.

West Point Has a New Cadet

His background is very interesting.

Domestic Spy Case?

Here I posted about a intelligence gathering operation, but obviously did not post about it in the approved New York Times manner. What I should have written:

A large government intelligence collecting operation involving the Defense Intelligence Agency was exposed when a American agent admitted that he had passed sensitive domestic information to government authorities. While the agent denied that he remembered all the information submitted, he did admit that "it included both 'secret'and 'top secret' data."

Once again thie Bush administration is involved in a matter in which information of vital import was passed to agencies that could use that information to the detriment of the well-being of all Americans. Congress should immediately investigate this shocking abuse of power through a clearly illegal and unauthorized program that, it can safely be assumed, was authorized at the highest government levels in callous disregard of the U.S. Constitution.

Of course, the NYT would never cover the story that way.

Especially since the government involved is People's Republic of China and the sensitive information was US military secrets.

Know what I mean?

The Dreaded PCS

I'm out for a while, as I'll be moving out of North Korean missile range to the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Final evaluation on Tuesday, graduation on Wednesday, start driving on Thursday, operational squadron Saturday!

You know, granted this is only my second permanent change of station, I would have thought my summers spent working at a moving company would prepare me for the suck that is the military PCS. I'm oh-so-slowly learning that there's no real substitute for having to navigate the obtuse beaucracy of Air Force outbound assignments and dealing with movers who make my packed clothes smell like a fifty-cent 7-11 cigar.

Will report back sometime next week. Zoom.

Re: A Present

John, great video.

However it was this, uh... music video, which I found in the movies sidebar on your low-level flying vid, to be this morning's choice viewing.

All I know is that I will entertain no more lectures on the superiority of British culture....

A present.

For all the aviators among us.

H/t, Mike D.

Here's a question for you.

Damian wanted to know what I thought about this. (Alan, you'll like the beer ad in Damian's post, I think)

I told him. I find a definition so broad that it includes me is meaningless. Another guitar smashed against the wall.

I can cherry-pick all of the arguments about any war ever undertaken. I feel his oh-so-strongly-felt angst. And where was he during Kosovo, and what were his opinions then? I find that instructive, usually. And I find any definition of chickenhawk that can stretch to include me to be ludicrously broad. I smash his guitar against the wall. But I'm tired and grumpy.

And that dam'ed nerve in my neck is killing me, so I can't get the gumption to work up a proper rant. So I'll default to my last rant on the subject, which did not meet universal approval, either...

What do you think?

(Crossposted at Castle Argghhh!)

Al Qaeda intelligence service revealed

What kind of sophisticated intelligence network does al Qaeda maintain? Now we know:

What else would they need?

Cross posted.

Key Alquda Kills

via State Dept

Key Kills
June 4: Abu Yazid - foreign fighter facilitator/operational planner (al
Ameriyah)
June 7: Abu Musab al Zarqawi (AMZ) - AQIZ leader (Baquba)
June 7: Sheikh Abd al Rahman - AMZ spiritual advisor (Baquba)
June 8-9: AMZ follow-on operations kill five additional terrorists and detain
multiple others (Baghdad)
June 11: Nazir, Aysar, Abu Thawban - foreign fighter facilitators (al
Ameriyah)
June 16: Abu Abdullah - foreign fighter tied to Sheikh Mansur (Northwest of
Baghdad)
June 16: Sheikh Mansur and two other terrorists (Yusifiyah)
Key Captures (names withheld)
June 8: An AQIZ military cell leader in Baghdad (Baghdad)
June 9: A senior AQIZ foreign fighter network facilitator (Fallujah)
June 10: A senior Ramadi-based AQIZ leader (Yusifiyah)
June 18: A senior AQIZ Taji-based terrorist cell leader (Yusifiyah)

When the party's over

When the party's over, all the guests split.

The destroyers may be getting ready to fall in line behind the last ship in the middle column, USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO 199), for a quick top off.

Is that heading MAG or TRUE?

Who cares! I look great in my new ascot!

What a dork. Ruined a prefectly good shot. How can we hold off the Chinese if we can't hold station.....

War equipment headed home

via AP

BALAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military has begun sending thousands of battered Humvees and other war-torn equipment home as more Iraqi units join the fight against insurgents and American units scheduled for Iraq duty have their orders canceled.

In the last four months, the Army has tagged 7,000 Humvees and 17,000 other pieces of equipment to be shipped to the United States to be rebuilt.

"This is all a byproduct of Iraqi forces accepting battle space and U.S. forces being displaced, which has allowed our government to decide not to send more forces," said Col. Jack O’Connor, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command’s sustainment brigade in Iraq.

Giving the North Koreans What They Want

Recently there has been much talk and speculation about the US conducting a pre-emptive bombing of North Korea in order to prevent their missile test. I tend to believe that a pre-emptive bombing of North Korea would be giving the North Koreans exactly what they want and should be the last course of action for the US to pursue.

The North Koreans have a tendency for brinkmanship to get what they want and this current missile test is no different. The North Koreans have tried continuously over the past few years to get the Bush administration to agree to direct talks in order to meet their current demands. However, the Bush administration, rightfully so has continued to tell North Korea that all talks will only be handled within the six party framework which includes North Korea's neighbors in the negotiation process and not one on one talks. Simultaneously the US has vigorously been cutting off the Kim Jong-il regime's sources of financing through money laundering, drugs, and weapons deals. Kim is backed into a corner, strapped for cash and is now pushing the envelope, but he has pushed the envelope before.

Re: Lastest NY Times Secret Revelation

via FInancial Crimes Enforcement Center dot GOV

SUMMARY: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) are reviewing the threshold in the rule requiring banks and nonbank financial institutions to collect and retain information on funds transfers and transmittals of funds. FinCEN is reviewing the threshold in the rule requiring banks and nonbank financial institutions to transmit information on funds transfers and transmittals of funds.

Must Reads

Time to refocus on Iran.

Austin Bay posts on a change in focus from Iraq to Iran, and references Wretchard at The Belmont Club. Bay and Wretchard both remark on recent talk of amnesty as “a new peace feeler” from the Iraqi government to Sunni holdouts. Bay agrees with Wretchard, that the Iraqi "insurgency" is dying, gangs and militias are a growing threat, and Iran is shifting its strategy of relying on proxies Hezbollah and Qods in southern Iraq.

Wretchard in his post goes on to remark on the possibility of a shifting US strategic focus:

The recently announced Iraqi government peace proposal to the Sunnis was in all probability already known to both Rumsfeld and Casey when they gave this briefing. If I were to guess, and I emphasize guess, it means that the US is now in the process of shifting its strategic focus from al-Qaeda and Sunni threats to Iran.

Maliki’s amnesty looks very similar to the program Allawi wanted to implement. The difference is Maliki has the political power of a democratically-elected national unity government behind him. The Sunnis holdouts have also suffered another two years of defeat. The old Sunni line in Iraq was “the Shia are sheep.” The Saddamists running the Sunni insurgency thought they could terrorize the Shia into submission. They also banked on “the Vietnam syndrome” to get the US to leave– set off bombs, rely on the global media to magnify the bombs, and slowly erode US national will.

Bay accurately gauges the Sunni insurgency, what they were counting on as a central tenet of their strategy. Note how completely it’s failed on all fronts. The Shia reacted not with fear, or violence and reprisals, but steadiness, restraint, and no small amount of courage. So the current American Administration and its military have . The only effect that Sunni holdouts and their erstwhile Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist conspirators was the last, that of global media eroding US national will, at least as can be surmised from the recent bottoming out of the President’s poll numbers, Democratic caterwauling, or polls showing US public increasingly demoralized over the course of the war, which US and Iraqi security forces are winning handily.

Cross-posted at Dadmanly)

No Time for the Times

Please, please, please, please.

If you currently subscribe to the New York Times, cancel your subscription. Don’t buy it, discourage anyone you know from buying it. It is the primary mouthpiece of sworn enemies of the United States, and happy to be so.

If you care about the national security of the United States, cancel your subscription.

If you think Americans need to be Americans first before we start yielding our freedoms to those in the world who hate and despise us, cancel your subscription.

If you think America is just about the most free place in the world, if you value our freedoms, cancel your subscription.

If you are afraid of what the US would become if we fell under the control of the UN, Europe, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, CAIR, or others who think we are the biggest security problem in the world, cancel your subscription.

Because the Editorial Board of the New York Times thinks only the Editors at the Times can decide what are national security secrets, and what aren’t.

It isn’t about legal or illegal, separation of powers, checks and balances, it’s what a few, unelected, self-appointed Protectors of the Public Interest think the way things should be.

They don’t care about laws, they don’t care about America, they don’t believe we are a good people in a good nation, which is the beacon of liberty and freedom in the world.

They believe only their own misguided philosophy and deranged delusions, in which the US is run as a Fascist State by an Evil Religious Extremist, supported by an entire Political Party of Nazi Sympathizers and Racist Corporate Barons, and therefore should be fought against with every means at their disposal.

Al Qaeda and the terrorists are their friends, they sympathize with their hatred of America and our American President. They want to help them, and they do.

Anything that hurts our efforts in the Global War on Terror, that they will do.

If you currently subscribe to the New York Times, cancel your subscription.

(Cross-posted at Dadmanly, with added links.)

Hunger strike?

This is a story I haven’t seen anywhere else, Saddam and his aides went on a hunger strike a couple of days ago to protest the killing of his lawyer. It lasted all of one meal.

Amidst all this serious stuff...

...how about a continuance of the Interservice Intramurals, Army Version?

Friday News o' Afghanistan

Please come and read the news.

Cracks Behind The Facade Of The SCO

For those who are interested in the ongoing evolution of the SCO (China & Russia's new "security" organization of sorts), Stephen Blank has an important read for us to consider. Taking a long view of the future of Central Asia and America's options, he notes that differing visions of what the SCO should become could offer rich opportunities for the US to wreak havoc in, frustrating the efforts (especially of China) to turn it into a lasting coalition against American interests in Asia.

Prior to 2005, Russia did not take the SCO so seriously, tending to see it as Beijing’s creature. But with the sudden turn of events in 2005, which saw the United States lose its military base in Uzbekistan, while China pursued bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Russian interest in the SCO rapidly increased. Moscow found itself determined to breathe new life into the SCO and advance its own agenda for the organization. Russia favors a US withdrawal only from Central Asia, not the entire Asian continent. Keeping a US presence on the Korean Peninsula, for example, would serve as a check on China’s growing power-projection capabilities. Russian officials worry that without a US presence in East Asia, China would establish itself as the dominant partner in the SCO and other multilateral groupings -- an unsavory prospect for Russian elites.

Thus, behind the shared anti-American feelings, China, Russia and the other SCO members and observers harbor serious differences of opinion. Given these, it is unlikely that the SCO can develop anytime soon into an anti-NATO-like grouping along the lines of the Warsaw Pact. The SCO’s consensus is a negative one, in which the parties agree only on what they don’t like.

(Hat Tip Foreign Policy Passport Blog/

Duh Moment

Someone's surprised that military folks are not politically monolithic. Hat tip Instapundit.

ﻫ <==That's, if I typed it right, the Arabic letter "heh". Didn't know Instapundit was everywhere...

Terrorist Bloopers

Oops....

The assistant to Al Qaida's new network chief has been killed in a foiled insurgency strike.

Iraqi security sources said a lieutenant of Al Qaida network chief Abu Ayoub Al Masri was found killed in a car on its way to an insurgency strike. The sources said a bomb inside the car blew up prematurely and killed the lieutenant and three other Al Qaida operatives.

What a pity.

Nice move, Iran, you've even irked the Canadians

Iran, showing its usual deft sense of diplomacy, manages to select as a UN "human rights delegate" a man implicated in the death of a female Canadian photographer as reported here:

Canada expressed "disgust" on Wednesday at Iran's decision to send Tehran's chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, as a delegate to the new United Nations human rights council, saying he was implicated in the death of a Canadian photographer.

"The presence of Mr. Mortazavi in Iran's delegation demonstrates the government of Iran's complete contempt for internationally recognized principles of human rights," Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement.

"The government of Canada expresses its disgust at the fact that Iran would choose to include such a person in its delegation to a new U.N. body intended to promote the highest standards of respect for human rights."

Canada's relations with Iran have been frosty since 2003, when photographer Zahra Kazemi -- who held dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship -- died in detention after being arrested outside a Tehran prison.

Canadians are usually hard to get riled, but Iran seems intent on sticking a finger in the Canadian eye.

Dolts and clods seem to be in charge in Tehran now.

Cross posted.

National Review Online Interview

Just returned from a family funeral, so I'm catching up on emails and getting back to doing interviews for the book.

My interview with National Review Online (NRO) ran yesterday. I was feeling kind of saucy that day, ergo pull quotes like this:

“If the MSM can find space to report on Ashlee Simpson’s nose job, or who Paris Hilton is dating this hour, surely they can find a few minutes of airtime and drops of ink to inform us about the incredible heroism and bravery of the guns in the fight,” says Wynton Hall.

Oh well, there goes the Ashlee Simpson/Paris Hilton demographic.
Full interview can be read here.

Slogans and Inconvenient Truth

I know we're not all politically oriented here. But we are all Patriots. So I'll cut to the chase, and leave more of the political discussion back at home, for those so inclined.

I've linked to Peggy Noonan’s fine critique in a nutshell; I should have paired it with a companion piece for James Lileks’ latest Pig-in-a-Screedblog.

I like Lilek’s slogan for the GOP: “Fight and win the War on Terror by blowing up more bad guys real good.” The Republican Candidate for President in 2008 would do well to have it put on party worker T-shirts.

Not the Democrats. They don’t want to fight today’s wars. They lost in 2004 by fighting the Vietnam war redux. They don’t object to wars per se, but they have to be small, tidy, sound-bite compatible and not at all involving anything that requires a political price of admission, as noted by their disgraceful clamoring for retreat, then voting in large numbers against the cut and run they say we need.

As I said, more hyperventilation of a political kind back at home.

The Savages

From an Opinion Journal of the Wall Street Journal

The Savages: A barbaric enemy disqualified from the Geneva Conventions

Combatants who fail to obey those laws--by not wearing distinctive military insignia or targeting civilians--are not entitled to its privileges. If they were, the very purpose of the Convention would be rendered a nonsense. And this is why the U.S. has refused Geneva privileges to the enemy combatants at Guantanamo, which we hope is an argument heeded by the Supreme Court as it decides the Hamdan case.

Especially so given the kinds of combatants the U.S. and the rest of the civilized world now face in Iraq. Privates Tucker and Menchaca were not simply ambushed, taken prisoner and killed. "The torture was something unnatural," said Major General Abdul Azziz Mohammed Jassim of Iraq's Defense Ministry, hinting at the state of the soldiers' remains. The corpses were so mutilated that they could be positively identified only through DNA testing.

Here, then, is the enemy we face in Iraq: not nationalists or extremists or even fanatics, but something like a band of real-life Hannibal Lecters for whom human slaughter is both business and religious fulfillment. Following the killing, an Internet statement said to be from the Mujahadeen Shura Council praised Abu Hamza al-Muhajir--who is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's successor as head of Al Qaeda in Iraq--with "the implementation of the sentence." Note the legalistic pretensions: This is the kind of "justice" Iraqis could expect should the insurgents come to power. And it is the enemy that might well come to power if the U.S. left Iraq prematurely, as many Senate Democrats urged yesterday

Well, and I got a little riled at my place...

Acts of War

The other two legs of the Axis of Evil eagerly await the results of the impending nuclear-capable, intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Watch it unfold, and ask yourself. Will the same sniggering critiques that thought President Bush some wild eyed, Strangelovian cowboy, acknowledge how precisely President Bush identified the threats we face, back in 2003?

It might have been Saddam, too, eagerly watching that test, waiting to get into serious negotiations to get him some. But we took care of that threat, didn’t we?

Update: VA Information Theft

Today, the VA announced that it would be bidding for credit watch services for all veterans and active duty personnel whose personal information was compromised in the theft a few weeks back. From the announcement on C-Span covered earlier today, all those who received the first letter notifying them of the theft of information will receive a letter in August detailing the program. (That assumes that someone can write the RFP (request for proposal) and receive and analyze the bids, write, negotiate and execute the contracts and write and mail letters by then... (heh).

As part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continuing efforts to protect and assist those potentially affected by the recent data theft that occurred at an employee's Maryland home, VA announced on June 21 that the agency will provide one year of free credit monitoring to individuals whose sensitive personal information - Social Security Number (SSN) - may have been stolen in the incident.

VA also announced on June 21 the Department is soliciting bids to hire a company that provides data breach analysis, which will look for possible misuse of the stolen VA data. The analysis would help measure the risk of the data loss, identify suspicious misuse of identity information and expedite full assistance to affected individuals.

Find the Q&A on this information HERE

And while the original letter from the VA warned individuals to guard against "phishing" efforts and telephone solicitations asking for personal information, I received an email from the Mom of one of my favorite Marines (hey, Taco!) that there is an actual phishing scheme out there -- SO BE CAREFUL.

RO-IRMs and ISOs: The Philadelphia Network Support Staff is seeing increasing reports of users receiving email from the address abuse at vba.va.gov asking them to check an account by clicking on a link.

This email is a phishing scam, an attempt to gain personal information. The email address abuse at vba.va.gov is fake and the link in the email is to a web site in Asia.

Please notify all users of this phishing scam and instruct them to delete this email if they receive it. DO NOT OPEN the email.

Leaks and Announcements

This Insta post has a transcript from congressmen who want to tell you something but are not doing so because the information is classified; they've been working to release what can be released and had a press conference announcing the current results.

This is as it should be.

I do wonder, however, if the information they are presenting includes the IEDs we found last year made of artillery shells with sarin in them, or the ones with mustard. Those were enemy mistakes, clearly; you don't expend valuable sarin on a roadside bomb emplaced in such a way as to blow up the vehicle like a normal artillery round would.
(crossposted)

Friendly Fire.

Sheesh - the Navy is so busy feeding on itself that I can't get a good Army fight going at my place. I hadda import a Canadian and a Marine to get anything started..

Sgt. Dan is HOME from Iraq!!!

Welcome Home, Sgt. Dan! I'll bet you're glad to leave that tank behind!

Stop on by Military Mom's site and leave a welcome home greeting for Sgt. Dan!!!

Honey, someone from the FBI is here to see to you...

Combine the power of the internet, war, and less slack for phonies - and at last the Federal Government (really good men in the Gov'munt) are going after the Poseur Wannabees.

Retired Marine Corps master sergeant Fred Montney III and others turned to admire Gerard Smigel, 52, in his dress blue uniform and wearing the rank of lieutenant Colonel. "He was in his element. He enjoyed it," says Montney, who sat at Smigel's table.

As the night wore on, Montney noticed little flaws. Smigel would excuse himself to go to the "latrine." Marines call it the "head." Smigel wore one award, a Combat Action Ribbon, upside down. "When I asked him questions, he would get somewhat fuzzy" about details, Montney recalls. He snapped a photo of Smigel, smiling next to his wife, and later called the FBI.

Smigel pleaded guilty this month in federal court to illegally wearing the uniform and medals. He was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $3,000.
...
The FBI has investigated 58 cases of people allegedly wearing fraudulent military decorations since 2001. Assisted by military researchers and the Internet — where hoaxes can be quickly tracked and exposed — the FBI could end up investigating more cases of medal fraud this year than in any other previous year, Cottone says. He says he gets one tip a week.

"I call them gutless creeps," Montney says of frauds

Neither Sympathy Nor Quarter

Two must reads at NRO:

Hue Again (and Again), by James S. Robbins. Excerpt:

By rights these incidents should demonstrate that we are better than our enemies. We are civilized, they are barbarians. What we are fighting for is objectively superior to what they are fighting for. Our struggle is legitimate, theirs is not. There is no room for moral relativism in this war. Certainly those who view torture and beheading as acts of piety have no problem seeing it as a black and white conflict. And when faced with extremism of this sort, we should take it at face value.

Those who say that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter should be asked how they define freedom. Those who compare terrorist or guerrilla leaders to George Washington or other Founding Fathers should explain when it was exactly that they ordered the killing of innocents as a method, or even as a matter of expediency. And especially when they ever sought to invoke God’s approval for inflicting agonizing deaths on helpless captives.

So exactly how are Islamic terrorists faring on Geneva’s “Do unto others” scorecard?

Well, the treaty’s provisions call for protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Al Qaeda targets civilians for mass murder and intentionally destroys civilian infrastructure.

The provisions call for membership in a regular military force which carries its arms openly. Al Qaeda’s idea of a weapon in open view is a hijacked jumbo jet in the seconds before it crashes into a building. Otherwise, it favors roadside bombs or high explosives concealed in vans burrowed in underground garages beneath bustling civilian skyscrapers.

The provisions call for wearing uniforms in order to distinguish members as authentic soldiers. Al Qaeda’s jihadists dress and conduct themselves ostensibly as civilians — the better to hide from real armies and lull actual civilians to their deaths.

The provisions call for treating captured enemy soldiers with the dignity and respect accorded to honorable prisoners of war: accounting for them, keeping them safe, allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross access to ensure their proper treatment.

Al Qaeda tortures and slaughters them.

Moral equivalency is as oxymoronic a term as I can identify. It would be bad enough if critics who think this way actually tried to perform two way comparisons, suggesting “AQ did this because the US did this, the US did this because AQ did that.”

But they don’t even try to do so, because they are all about the US being bad and wrong, and our enemies being poor unfortunates who can’t help themselves in reacting the way they do. Rather than evil men who are lower than scum, who deserve neither sympathy nor quarter.

(Cross-posted at Dadmanly)

Lex Joins In

Sir--

Weren't you earlier sighing heavily at the intraservice rivalries?

Heh, I say.

re: Perfect Vision Helps & Hurts The Navy

I dunno: Finish four years at the pressure cooker on the Severn, only to head down to another year and a half’s skull-packing at Nuc Power School, only to join a group that not only gleefully feasts on their young but requires the almost monastic devotion - strike that, monks aren’t quite so devoted - of a two-year CHENG tour as a prerequisite to wearing the command pin that more and more seems to be attached with explosive bolts, or…

Or dance “the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”

Which of these things?

Robust Endorsements

The Associated Press today notes the “robust endorsement from European leaders for his tough approach to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.” Tough talk and intimations of touch action to follow from the US towards Iran and North Korea, and the Europeans are on board. That’s of interest.

Look, the Europeans -- even the French – have been comparatively rock steady when it comes to Iran seeking to enter nuclear puberty, if they have been somewhat less the worried adult when it comes to North Korea. Still, like the Democrats here in the US, European Leaders continue to watch polls for guidance on how their foreign policy stands will play with their publics. I don’t have any empirical evidence, but merely suggest by way of hypothesis that these “robust endorsements” of our European partners seems a bit 11th hour posturing. And I wouldn’t think there’s much evidence to suggest that they do so to curry favor with the US.

The political situation in the US is symptomatic of somewhat different forces, where a predilection towards avoiding difficult decisions, and knee-jerk turns toward appeasement generate diverse political responses. What goes around, though, comes around, and it will be fascinating to watch the Democrats as we spin around to the beginning of our National Security dance, this time with Iran and North Korea.

(Funny that we are seeing a heating up of rhetoric and urgency –on both sides of the political divide – over the latter two legs of the supposedly mythic Axis of Evil. You’d think President Bush might have been prognostic of something when he coined the phrase for our most worrisome threats in his 2002 State of the Union Address to the Nation.)

As we walk down this road all over again, and the politics, foreign and domestic, runs its course, I can’t help but wonder.

Will the President’s political opponents say he lied about the threat? Will they say he exaggerated the threat? Will they say he acted unilaterally, without world consensus or support of a meaningful or real coalition?

Will they say they were misled into voting to approve tough action?

More commentary back at home.

Murtha@Home in the District.

Here's some troops who may not be voting for Diana Irey.

And a few who will.

Perfect Vision Helps & Hurts The Navy

I'm not a submariner nor a pilot... certainly not an Academy graduate... but this piece about the unforseen "manning" effects of Academy grads getting PRK vision improvement surgery was rather interesting.

Expanding the pool of potential pilots and members in the Navy Seals was the original goal of making the surgery available, Commander Pasternak said, but it has become increasingly popular with marines, who say it eliminates concerns that their glasses will be damaged or clouded in dust storms during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We get at least five times as many requests every year as we can keep up with," said Commander Pasternak, a 1984 Naval Academy graduate who said he nearly left the academy after learning his eyes were not good enough to allow him into flight training.

The growing number of aspiring pilots has also made it harder to find candidates to become "back-seaters," officers who serve as navigators and weapons officers on planes, Navy officials say.

The failure to produce enough submarine officers, though, is the source of greatest worry to academy officials and the Navy as a whole. This year the academy's quota was 120, but only 88 midshipmen chose to go into submarines, according to academy records.

Operation Together Forward

via Defenselink

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's security crackdown is having its effect. Attacks within Baghdad have fallen to levels not seen since February, Caldwell said.

The Art. 32 is over beginning. (That's a military Grand Jury)

And the "Camp Pendleton 8" will get their day in court.

Hopefully the Trial by Courts Martial will go better than the Trial by Media has.

Update: D-oh! Commenter Craig is correct. The Art. 32 has begun - so there is still room for a Pantano result.

As for my sloppy reading skillz, no excuse, sir.

Re: The Lady And The Dalai Lama

Thanks for pointing that out Grim.
The intimidation and disinformation campaign waged against the Dalai Lama by the Chinese government is embarassing but tragically effective.
Not that its that difficult to browbeat the South Korean leadership into silencing the voices of oppressed in Asia.... not only do they have an abysmal record on both the Dalai Lama and Burma, President Roh of South Korea is North Korea's best ally in pushing the plight of millions of starving, oppressed North Koreans further into the shadows.

Here's a great way to embarass him into action:
Got A Camera, A Piece Of Paper & 30 Seconds?

What a single comment can do.

After reading this comment yesterday, I had to take a several hour break from the blogs. "Rusty" was chiding a commenter upthread that was engaging in a bit of moral gymnastics.

The last part of the comment really hit home:

You have no idea who those boys were. You have no idea what their motivation was for joining the military. Every man and woman over there knows what the dangers are. They know what they risk everyday. Their deaths don’t belong to you. By claiming moral outrage at their sacrifice you trivialize the lives they lived, the honor that they bought themselves. You sacrifice nothing.

Their service to their country is over. They belong to their families now.

A Solitary Birthday For The "Lady"

Real heroes are far and few in the realm of politics, especially in the modern era.

Aung San Suu Kyi is without a doubt the most prominent of them. She is under house arrest, suffering quietly the indignity of being a democratically elected leader whose supporters were massacred before her own eyes by the ruthless and paranoid military junta that continues to ruin Burma to this day.

She turned 61 yesterday, and I just wanted to point out that America has admirably done a great deal diplomatically to bring relief to the oppressed in Burma. We can do more, primarily in getting Asian powers like India & China to be more active about the issue, but this is more about our State Dept. adjusting to a multipolar world than anything else.

Burma deserves its moment in the sun though, and I want to offer one tidbit from months of deep thought and study of the situation there: Burma could well be the best opportunity for the US to improve Asian security by fostering a cooperative peacekeeping/peacemaking effort led by the US & China, with a serious infusion of talent and manpower from India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other nations in the region. The situation in Burma could become so chaotic and desperate in the near future that such an intervention could become more than just mere fantasy but an ad hoc reality. We shouldn't shy away from that challenge but instead should embrace the opportunity it offers.

Re: The "Lady"

Happy birthday to Aung San Suu Kyi, who does indeed deserve recognition and a return to liberty.

She is not forgotten, however -- unlike another Nobel Peace laureate, whom his fellows are doing their very best to forget.

These Nobel Prize winners have always got one thing or another to say against the US, but if you want to intimidate a whole conclave of Nobel Peace Prize winners into silence, ask them to say anything at all about the Dalai Lama.

China is not as forgiving as we are.

A military spouse responds to Lieutenant Watada

1LT Watada,

I read your letter in the Honolulu Advertiser and, as a military spouse whose husband is set to deploy in the next few weeks to do the job you so conveniently have chosen not to do, I feel it is my duty to point out a few discrepancies in your arguments. I would not want you to go to trial with such a lacking defense. You might find yourself with a one way ticket to uptown Fort Leavenworth and that would be unfortunate.

Your assertion that your responsibility is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States is correct. However, you cannot pick and choose what articles or amendments you wish to protect and defend. You must protect and defend all of them. And that includes Article I, Section 8 which states that Congress has the power “To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;” At this point in time, United States forces are currently in Iraq according to the mandate set by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1637 which was passed unanimously and considered at the request of the Iraqi government. Our troops are in Iraq in full compliance with both international and domestic law.

As an officer in the United States military, you do not have the authority to decide what is legal and what is illegal. And your DUTY, with regard to unlawful or illegal actions or orders is to report up your chain of command or to JAG. Have you done either, sir? Last I checked the media is not in your chain of command. Last I checked the media is not the entity that will decide what is lawful and what is not. Your DUTY was to take your concerns to your chain of command or the JAG. To do otherwise is to shirk your responsibility as an officer of the United States military.

You argue that the war in Iraq is “unlawful and immoral” and that there was “never any just cause”. I beg to differ Lieutenant. If you will refer to the Coalition Provisional Authority’s webpage which discusses UNSC Resolution 1546 (http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040609_UNSCR_Text.html) you will read “Following is the text of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546, adopted unanimously June 8, which endorses the new interim government of Iraq, allows the multinational force to provide security in partnership with the new government, sets out a leading role for the U.N. in helping the political process over the next year, and calls upon the international community to aid Iraq in its transition:

Recognizing the request conveyed in the letter of 5 June 2004 from the Prime Minister of the Interim Government of Iraq to the President of the Council, which is annexed to this resolution, to retain the presence of the multinational force,

Recognizing also the importance of the consent of the sovereign Government of Iraq for the presence of the multinational force and of close coordination between the multinational force and that government,

Welcoming the willingness of the multinational force to continue efforts to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq in support of the political transition, especially for upcoming elections, and to provide security for the United Nations presence in Iraq, as described in the letter of 5 June 2004 from the United States Secretary of State to the President of the Council, which is annexed to this resolution,

In addition, our current presence in Iraq is legal in international terms based solely on Saddam Hussein’s failure to comply with the armistice agreements made following Desert Storm back in 1991 and his repeated and continued violation of FOURTEEN separate UN resolutions over a twelve year period. Never any “just cause”? I don’t think so.

Whatever your argument against our mission in Iraq and its legality, those statements should smooth your moral fiber and allow you to return to work immediately. Otherwise, what you are doing is illegal and my hope is that, while my husband does the duty he was sworn to uphold and that you are refusing to do, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Sincerely,
HomefrontSix

Word.

Re: Snerk

Just to be the know-it-all jerk here: that looks like an Aries target missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

The give away isn't the missile, it's the terrain. Only other place that launches sorties resembling that bird is Vandenberg AFB in California.

Vberg launches the Minuteman III, Hawaii launches the Aries.

But Vandenberg has a rockier coastline than what the Reuters photo is showing.

I can tell you all about it, seeing that I damn near cracked my head surfing there recently. Air power!

Will Iraq Soon Ask Americans to Leave?

Richard Armitage thinks so.

THE level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.

"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."

Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.

And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

DoD Announces Units for Next Operation Iraqi Freedom Rotation

The Department of Defense announced today additional major units scheduled to deploy as part of the next Operation Iraqi Freedom rotation. This announcement involves several combat brigades and headquarters elements consisting of approximately 21,000 service members. This is a follow-on announcement to the Nov. 7, 2005, press release identifying eight other headquarters, combat and combat support units for deployment. The scheduled rotation for the forces identified in this announcement will begin in late-2006.

Force levels in Iraq continue to be conditions-based and will be determined in consultation with the Iraqi government. Deployment decisions are made by the secretary of defense at the recommendation of military commanders in Iraq. Based on ongoing assessments of the conditions on the ground, changes may be made that could affect units now being identified and advised to prepare to deploy.

This rotation continues the U.S. commitment to Operation Iraqi Freedom, yet is flexible and adaptable in order to meet the evolving requirements for the mission in Iraq.

For Operation Iraqi Freedom, the major units announced today include:

III Corps Headquarters, Fort Hood, Texas
II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
1st Cavalry Division Headquarters, Fort Hood, Texas
2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska
2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

The individual services will announce the smaller, supporting units for this rotation.

In consultation with the Iraqi Government, commanders continue to assess the situation to ensure sufficient forces levels to best support the Iraqi government. The U.S. force rotations may be tailored based upon changes in the security situation. Iraqi security forces continue to develop capability and assume responsibility for security in Iraq.

DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as they are identified and those units are alerted.

Brutalizing Our Soldiers

Donald Sensing predicts trouble.

I predicted two years ago that if terrorists in Iraq started beheading American military captives,

… the terrorists will learn something else: they have made the war personal. When that happens, the American experience of war shows that our troops will shed the veneer of restraint like a snake’s skin. And for every American head Zarqawi severs, he will soon find three of his own men’s heads.

America has proven over and over again that she does have limits. Woe be to those who strain them.

Unreported War News

Michael Ledeen posting at The Corner compiles some news from Iraq otherwise unreported by mainstream news media.

I am sure we can expect a veritable news tornado over these shocking details:

Several women and children were present at the raid sites, officials said. None was harmed, and all were returned to their homes once the troops ensured the area was secure, they added.

Coalition forces in Iraq killed 15 terrorists and detained six other suspects and a senior terrorist leader during raids yesterday and today near Baqubah, military officials reported today.

Arriving to a planned raid today, coalition forces came under immediate small-arms fire from a rooftop, officials said. The ground force returned fire, killing nine armed terrorists on the rooftop, and supporting fire from coalition aircraft killed two more armed terrorists firing on coalition forces from beside the building.

Following this initial contact, officials said, coalition forces found 10 AK-47 assault rifles, a shotgun, a pistol and a crate of explosives.

One supporting aircraft was damaged when it hit utility wires during the engagement, and was forced to make a controlled landing. There were no injuries to the crew and the ground force immediately secured the site, officials said. Supporting fire from another coalition aircraft killed three armed suspects as they attempted to attack the downed aircraft.

After securing the aircraft, coalition forces moved to assault the building that several terrorists had fled to following the first contact. A coalition sniper killed one terrorist as he attempted to engage the troops from the nearby rooftop.

The force cleared the buildings, detaining three terrorists who were found hiding among nine women. None of the women was injured. One detained terrorist was wounded at the initial target building after he engaged coalition forces, officials said.

Officials said the suspected senior al Qaeda in Iraq member captured in yesterday's raid is known to be involved in facilitating foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq, and is suspected of having ties to previous attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces. Troops found an AK-47 with several magazines of ammunition and destroyed them all on site.

But when there's a completely gratuitous reference to US military deferential and protective treatment of women and children, why that's not only NOT part of "all the news that's fit to print," that's "all the news that's fit to suppress."

As only our objective, non-biased, and citizen of the world media can provide...

Snerk.

Izzit me, or is this the possibly most well camouflaged Aegis cruiser ever? Can you find the USS Lake Erie in this Reuters-reported photo? You skimmers - isn't that awful inshore for an Aegis?

Sex. Football. Race. Poor leadership.

Yep, you know where this is all leading. All the nightmares from the PCO pipeline. From the latest fetid tides of "As the Severn Flows:"

The first student court-martial in the 130-year history of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy began Monday with the cadet pleading not guilty to charges of rape, extortion and assault.

Attorneys spent the morning questioning potential jurors, all Coast Guard officers, about their views on premarital sex, discrimination, contraception and religion.
...
Cadet Webster Smith, 22, is on trial facing seven sex-related charges stemming from accusations made by three women, as well as charges of disobeying an order, unlawful entry and being absent without leave.

Pretrial testimony in the case has centered on several nights of heavy drinking, including one in June 2005 in Annapolis, Md.

The Road Home

via WaPo

Editorial written by Iaqi National Security Advisor

Thus far four of the 18 provinces are ready for the transfer of power -- two in the north (Irbil and Sulaymaniyah) and two in the south (Maysan and Muthanna). Nine more provinces are nearly ready.

We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.

RE: Valiant Shield Vanity Show

All I kept thinking about watching this whole she-bang from the KH's fantail and hangar bay 2 was how utterly unimpressed the Chinese and North Koreans have to be at this moment. Props to PACOM for inviting 10 Chinese officers, though I wonder if they will return the favor for any of the SCO war games.

Dry Cleanup, Aisle Five

Oh dear. Unhappy skimmer in the comments.

Missing Soldiers Found Dead

Breaking news from Reuters:

Senior Iraqi Defence Ministry official Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed said the bodies of Privates Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23, were found near an electricity plant in Yusufiya, the area in which they were abducted.

He did not say when the soldiers were killed nor when their bodies were found. Fox News Channel said the bodies showed signs of torture, citing reports to Iraqi Defence Ministry officials by civilians who found them.

Let's hope this isn't the beginning of a new trend.

El-Tee Noonan motivates me...

...to expand on his point below, regarding El-Tee Watada.

Yeah, and I suspect the Nazis weren't pumping sizable portions of their treasury into rebuilding the Polish ghettos either.

Let's run with John's point, shall we?

The problem for Lieutenant Watada is that no competent authority has ruled the war illegal under US law. And that is the governing law here, and that is what will get him less-than-honorably discharged and possibly sent to live with us here in beautiful uptown Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The opinions of Constitutional Scholars are just that. Opinions. Did I miss the Security Council resolution calling for the withdrawal of US troops? Oh, I've heard opinions from members about it, just as I have heard opinions of members of Congress on the issue. Yet still, the majority of Members of Congress, and sizeable ones at that, continually vote to reauthorize the expenditure of funds and the deployment of the soldiers. And none of them do it under the duress that may have been experienced by members of the Reichstag in Hitler's Germany. The opinions of individual members are just that, until expressed as law. Ramsay Clark has opinions, too. So do I. Both have equal validity in this issue. I.e., none.

Lieutenant Watada should take a look at *who* went in to the dock at Nuremberg. Nary a Lieutenant among 'em. Or a Captain. Or Colonels. Some Field Marshals, yes.

The only officers of his stripe that found themselves in the dock found themselves there - not for going to war on the orders of competent authority - but for engaging in or allowing specific acts and orders contravening the laws governing warfare. Only for those acts, specific and in context, were they put on trial.

Just as we have tried our own for the same thing in this war. And may yet try some more.

Therein lies the difference, Lieutenant Watada.

If what you provided is going to be your defense, and I'm on the panel, all the prosecution has to do is enter your words into evidence and sit down.

But I'll give you this - you're standing up for your beliefs, and you're going to get run over for them.

And you should.

BECAUSE ABSENT VERY SPECIFIC CONDITIONS, NONE OF WHICH APPLY HERE, WE WHO CONTROL THE INSTRUMENT OF THE STATE'S RIGHT TO LEGITIMATE VIOLENCE DO NOT HAVE THE OPTION OF CHOOSING WHICH ORDERS WE WILL FOLLOW. PERIOD.

Believe it or not, Lieutenant, were you to be upheld in your assertions, it would set exactly the wrong precedent. The one where the soldiers (worse - the Officers) decide what is right and good in their employment. Exactly one of the things the Founders feared, regarding a large standing Army.

At the end of that path, at it's extreme, lies military dictatorship. We can barely manage ourselves. Just *imagine* how badly we'd fark up the nation.

It's not hard - look at Central and South America for lots of examples.

Your actions are unwise and actually dangerous in their ability to set up Unintended Consequences.

Except I know we aren't going have any precedents like that set in this case. Not unless you've got a *lot* better a defense than that.

Therefore, once again, I am forced to smash your guitar against the wall.

Come visit, we can chat about it.

New Ad Thanks the Troops

I'm sure this somehow violates Mrs. G's bandwidth policy, but since I suspect the Greyhawks are in the middle of a PCS, I'm going try and sneak it under their radar screens.

Courtesy of the fine folks at Move America Foward. Well done guys.

13+ Acres Of Sovereign American Territory

Seen yesterday in the Philippine Sea:

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) steaming in formation at the start of Exercise Valiant Shield. A much larger version of this picture is available at the Navy NewsStand. (Air Force guys might also like this picture, since it features a B-2 flying above the fleet.)

The Navy NewsStand is also apparently branching into comedy, as seen from this article on how easily USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) "firmly established herself as an ASW expert" by sinking five simulated hostile submarines [compliantly played by USS Houston (SSN 713) and USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705)] during the "first few days of the exercise". Apparently they used our new super-secret "time travel" weapons system to do this, since the article is dated today, which is the first day of the exercise.

Either that, or it's just a standard Navy surface fleet propaganda piece to make themselves think that they could actually do ASW in a real world environment against capable submarines...

Deserter Diatribe

An embarassment to "El-Tees" everywhere , here are some choice comments from 1st LT Ehren Watada:

The responsibility of an officer is to evaluate the legality and truthfulness behind every order. We cannot blindly accept every order, especially one to go to war, based on faith and what our "political" leaders tell us. Many Germans went along with the Nazi's idea of racial superiority or because they were afraid of prison or execution if they didn't. Real leadership means first realizing what's wrong, finding everything there is to know about it, and finally acting upon it.

Forgive me if I'm wary of this guy's leadership advice.

Maybe it's just me, but I just can't understand how Watada can walk around base and see Nazi stormtroopers instead of his fellow soldiers.

Uncle Jimbo, on the other hand, is trying to figure out that Nazi example in its entirity:

...Because all those jack-booted thugs obeying orders are simply getting oil to fire up the furnaces. Hey wait, I thought the Jews were running things, who are we burning?

Yeah, and I suspect the Nazis weren't pumping sizable portions of their treasury into rebuilding the Polish ghettos either.

What about Iraq did you think challenged my loyalty to the country?

Colin Powell gave an extraordinarily candid interview this month...

Here's a few teasers...

Let me point out that the same intelligence I provided that's subject to so much controversy—that's the same intelligence that the Senate and House used four months earlier to vote for a resolution. It's the same information the President thought was accurate after his director of intelligence told him it was a slam dunk. And it was the same kind of intelligence that President Clinton used to bomb Iraq in 1998.

and this

So the only part that kind of annoys me is "Well, did you lie? Or were you misleading?" No, I didn't lie, and I wasn't misleading. If I was lying and knew what the truth was, which has to be the basis of a lie—you know the truth—we wouldn't have sent 1,400 people wandering around Iraq looking for the stuff. They didn't find it. So the intelligence was wrong. And that's all you can really say about it.

and this little exchange..

Q: Many people wonder, once you knew the intelligence was wrong and we were already in there, why did you stay? Where do you draw the line between being a good soldier, loyal to your superiors, and true to your own beliefs and values?

A: Why would I have quit? Because we had bad intelligence? If I had been lied to, that would be different.

More over at my place...

Marines and Iraqis test 'push-button' 9-1-1 system for Iraqi convoys

CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq (June 18, 2006) -- Iraqi soldiers took another step closer to independent operations when they completed testing and evaluation of a new tracking and communications system for their convoys.

Iraqi soldiers, from the Iraqi Army’s 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, finished a three-day course designed to familiarize the jundi, or Iraqi soldiers, with Mobile Tracking System Lite, a system similar to the Blue Force Tracker. This system, however, is simplified and unclassified. The jundi were tested on how to employ the system, forcing them into scenarios where they would need assistance and had to work through their own solutions without U.S. forces immediately available.

Re: On Patriotism

Can I get me an "amen"? Maybe a vote?

On Teaching Patriotism

It won't surprise you to learn that I have also written about patriotism this week, Lex. The post is here (I can report that FbL liked it, at least), and it adopts exactly the opposite position from the one you advocate.

I don't think patriotism is learned. I don't think it can be taught. I know that Maines has to have encountered at least two of the most powerful examples of trying to teach or explain patriotism that have ever been composed -- a woman in her line of work can't have missed them.

Rather, patriotism arises naturally in the soul. Love of country is, I said in the piece above, like the love of your mother -- it isn't something you're reasoned into.

It also isn't something you can be reasoned out of. That is what your daughter has encountered -- an attempt to reason her out of it. You mention the 'eye for an eye leaves the world blind' plaudit that her teachers have schooled into her.

Notice that it breaks, like a spiderweb, at the first touch of argument. It is not that the reason you offered was enough to overwhelm their arguments -- it is that the arguments themselves were like the web, insubstantial things. They only appear to bind you. Arguments are not the right stuff to bind up patriotism. Reason can bind reason, but it cannot bind love. The first thrust of that vital force, and all reason flies apart.

Anti-patriots aren't people who didn't learn to be patriots. They're people whose souls are damaged. Like a child whose mother hurts him, or spoils him, they have been for one cause or another broken from that natural love. They can only hate mother, or country, with that same force that they ought to have used to love her. It is a wound in the soul.

Pandering vs. Patriotism

Something one of my commenters wrote about the latest Dixie Chick insipidity set me to thinking about patriotism:

These are the birthrights we were taught to know, those our forefathers bled for and died for and handed down to us in trust, those we were supposed to stand up for and defend ourselves when called to, lest we be proven faithless and unworthy: A government of the people and for the people; a system of laws, not men; freedom, justice and democracy - big ideas, and in the course of human history, by no means inevitable ones.

Those are worth defending, I think. Values worth teaching, too. More at my place.

Blogs Change the World

Even some places you wouldn't think of, like Malaysia, where opposition leaders and new-fangled cyber journalists alike take down an old despot. Mahathir Mohammed ruled with an iron fist for decades, but these days:

Bloggers like me would have been toast prior to Oct 31, 2003. Instead of sitting in an air-conditioned office and flying premium class, I would be in an adjacent cell from [famous Malaysian journalist, once imprisoned by Mahathir] Steven Gan, working out what details to pen in our memoirs about our time in Kamunting.... So pray do forgive me if I am slightly slow in understanding this thing called Freedom of Expression. I grew up during Dr. Mahathir’s time.”

North Korean Missile Launch?

Late Night Musings has some South Korean wonderings about a U.S. Navy ship that might or might not be off the North Korean coast, maybe waiting for something to happen.

Previous discussion here and here,

(Hat tip to Stop the ACLU)

My a$$, boyo.

Mother Sheehan goes to Canada to give aid and comfort to deserters.

Otay. Nothing remarkable about that.

Then I stumbled across this hero:

About 20 former U.S. soldiers, referred to as war resisters, have applied for refugee status in Canada. Organizers estimated there may be as many as 200 soldiers in the country who have not yet sought formal protection.

"They say we're traitors, we're deserters," said former Marine Chris Magaoay, 20, of the Hawaiian island of Maui. "No, I'm a Marine and I stand up for what I believe in, and I believe the Constitution of the United States of America is being pushed aside as a scrap piece of paper."

Hmmmm. Former Marine? No. "I'm a Marine." Um, well, yes, technically, until discharged by competent authority.

Deserter? Yep. That's the label. You're a deserter, Lance Corporal Magaoay.

That sums it up. Sign me up as one of "they," who call you deserter. It's not hard. It's what you are.

But wait - there's more.

This link may invite guests with an attitude, but here we find a *great* quote that displays the deep strategic and moral thought of Lance Corporal Magaoay.

Our hero is of the Lieutenant Ehren Watada School of Military Law:

“I am not against war as a whole,” he said. “I am against the war in Iraq. It was a war of aggression, which was not sanctioned by the United Nations, therefore making it illegal.”

Ah. So, even though there has been no such finding by any competent US authority which might give him cover, LCpl Magaoay has decided the United Nations (several UN resolutions and Congressional resolutions notwithstanding) trumps all relevant US law and statute and relieves him of his obligations.

In other words, he gets to choose which wars he will fight - as a uniformed member of the armed forces, *he* will determine which wars are legal and appropriate, and he seemingly doesn't appreciate that his opinion in this matter is not held in high esteem.

LCpl Magaoay, you're a fool.

Leave aside you joined to go off to war a year after the war started.

Once you swear the oath, you lose your veto in that regard. Those decisions, like it or not, rest in the hands of the elected representatives of the people.

If you feel strongly enough to defy that, then the only honorable course is not to flee to Canada, and whine like a weasel when people call you deserter all the time you assert you're a Marine. No, the only honorable course, if not necessarily one with a happy ending, is to take the path of Lieutenant Watada - who at least is taking his Quixotic quest on a path of greater honor than yours.

You are an oath-breaker. No more. No less. You are faithless. By your own words you condemn yourself - and reveal the shallowness of your thought.

I take your guitar, and I smash it against the wall.

Now, that done, Pinto, where's my beer? And where is everybody today? It's getting lonely in here.

The Last Project Valour-IT post for a while...

From Fuzzybear Lioness of Fuzzilicious Thinking (the drive behind PV):

Valour-IT Blogburst Wrap-up

Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the impromptu, low-pressure fundraiser to help Valour-IT get through our tight spot. Here are some of good things happening because of it:

Total raised: $18, 265--That's 2.5 times more than the goal!

Even better, that total does not include at least one new sponsor and six additional laptops that have been donated.
Laptops distributed since August 2005: 500.

Because of the exposure for Valour-IT the blogburst created, we have prospects both for much wider press coverage in the near future and for gaining the attention of some people who have expressed an interest in offering Valour-IT significant assistance.

People in a position to help with a Fall fundraiser are already offering their assistance.
Thank yous are hard for me--not because it's hard to be grateful, but because it's hard to express the depths of my appreciation and amazement at the way people keep coming through for Valour-IT. We sounded the alarm in hopes of getting 7 to 10 thousand, but ended up with over $18,000! And when I was laid low with illness, others stepped right up to the plate to lead (thank you so much!!).

From Patti Bader - the Soul of Soldier's Angels:

You cannot see me but I am giving each and every one of you the BIGGEST hug in the world. Thank you so much ,this is HUGE. Many a hero will heal just a little bit better, a little bit faster because of your caring.

You have my heart and eternal gratitude of a wounded hero. You might not know their name but I bet you know their smile. I am honored to stand with each and everyone of you.

You can read the rest (and you should) here.

Hmmm. I wonder if we could get the Capitol Hilton in on this... as penance?

Two things... both aviation oriented.

1. Standing there quietly stirring the fire, Aviator Edition.

2. All you auld helocapeter pilots and crewchiefs: Bill the Rotorhead has posted a poser - a bit of helo kit that he thinks we can't identify.

Thus far, he's right.

Come prove him wrong?

Our Man in Basra Sees the Sights

A fresh report from our Man in Basra.

View image

We've REALLY Done it Now...

We decided to give our friends over at RealClearPolitics an exclusive excerpt from Home of the Brave's
"spirited" afterword, "Have the Mainstream Media Ignored Our Heroes?"

As Andi pointed out, our friends over at the Media Research Center have now provided empirical evidence that further buttresses our argument.

Happy Father's Day!

To all fathers who have (and had) an answer when their kids ask, " What did you do in the war, Daddy?" --

Happy Father's Day!

And thanks!

U.S. Senate Democrats want vote on Iraq withdrawal

via Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - Democrats plan to offer a resolution in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday seeking a timetable for a phased withdrawal from Iraq, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said on Sunday.

They just voted here 93-6

The Senate couldn't agree that 2+2=4 by a 93-6 margin.

The 2500

Much has been made these past few days about the “milestone” of the 2500th service member to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I don’t want people stuck on the number. I want them stuck on the names.

Names like Michael and Miguel. Rasheed and Solomon. Tommy and Tamario. Kemaphoom, Jose, Noah, David.

Every ethnicity, every religion, every race, every creed is represented in these names.

Each of these names represents a son, a daughter. Some were husbands, some wives, some fathers, some mothers. Most importantly, each was a volunteer. Each left those they loved to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They are a part of history. All are Heroes.

HONOR THEM. REMEMBER THEIR NAMES.

I have posted all the names HERE.

Happy Father's Day

Last year I posted some about Father's Day. Seems relevant today too.

Eagle's On Fire This Week

Eagle 1's been posting some incisive commentary on Middle East/Pacific maritime security, and has some observations that are spot on about the Northern Arabian Gulf which are little mentioned anywhere else.

Back From Beyond

Be very afraid...

Bill Whittle is back. Nothing there yet, except for an announcement that may well prove interesting.

The last time he wrote, his essays went all over the world. Can he hit the mark on this outing?

A Guest Blogger

Over the past couple of hours, I've had the honor of dining with Robert Stokely. Right now, I'm going to get out of the way and let Robert talk to the MilBlog community.

It is an honor to have been so supported by all of MilBlog world and to see such kindness shown my son, SGT Mike Stokely. I just left Mike's grave a little while ago (he is buried 70 miles from where I live). I was up there most of the day, spending time with two of his best growing up friends, who also served in Iraq as part of GA's 48th Brigade. It was a a great day that included a parade in their honor, and I was privileged to be in the parade walking in Mike's place - I carried a full size photo of him. Then, I went by and spent some private time with him at his grave - I am proud to call him son, and to claim the title of Dad on this father's day - my first since he died. I am very fortunate to have his brother and sister with me tomorrow to celebrate, but of course, I will miss Mike.

As I caught a glimpse of the news today, I saw congress members debating the war, particularly Murtha. I am proud to stand and say that Mike Stokely served while others debated; he stood for what he believed in, living life full of purpose in his 23 years, boldly committed and very willing to give his life. How lucky I am to have had a son who sought his purpose and lived life so fully. How lucky I am to have two fine children to continue sharing life with. God has blessed me greatly. And, as part of that blessing, I consider my friends in MilBlog World a true blessing that came into my life after Mike died. Thank you again for your support and kindness - I shall never forget it.

Robert Stokely
proud dad of SGT MIke Stokely
KIA IED 8/16/05 Yusufiyah Iraq

Robert is incredibly proud of his son. After meeting Robert, I'm quite sure that Mike is just as proud of his father.

Project Valour-IT Wrap up - but don't let that stop you...

...from trying to score Grim's Stetson!

Well done!

The totals are in - $18,265

Not bad, not bad at all for spur-of-the-moment, low pressure effort!

More importantly, we scored some intriguing opportunities to pursue on the celebrity and near-celebrity front, so that's cool too.

We didn't beat National Review Online, ($19, 550 when I hit "post") but I don't know what their last night at midnight total was, either.

In other words - all y'all done good! We eliminated the backlog of 11 laptops, and have money (and in-kind laptop donations) to handle the new needs that will inevitably pop-up.

And it's all due to your efforts - as bloggers and as contributors!

For those who scored cluebats, we'll probably start production on those next week, and I'll be hitting you up for snail-mail addresses if I don't have them already.

Of course, we're taking donations 24/7 should you suddenly find a wad of cash you don't know what use to put it to! Just click the graphic below!

Feel free to join us! And those of you who already have - thank you ever so much!

(Feel free to swipe the roll-code)

(If you are a supporting blog and aren't listed - drop me a note!)

Re: JAG Readout Pt III (or is it IV now?)

I am working off the same news reports that everyone else is, so I can't comment to the substance of what's contained in any investigation or confinement order. I haven't seen the paper trail. All I am going by is what is required by the RCM and presuming that such steps have been followed.

So as to what warranted this change in "status," I can't say. Might the June 15 review (removal of shackles) have been done in light of political/public pressure? Maybe. Maybe not. I can't find anything that precludes a periodic review of previously authorized and reviewed pre-trial confinement. It might have been a simple case of "hey, let's look at this again."

As for what to expect--who the H-E-double hockey sticks knows. ;-)

Re: Can I Get a JAG Readout?

Good point. What I don't understand is that there are two unusual things happening here--the treatment of the prisoners, and the publicity of the crime for which they are accused--and those seem to be connected more closely than perhaps it should be.

You've got a good corrective admonishment there, and a good ability to look at both sides. What's bothering me about what I'm hearing is that beneath the shrillness of the arguments there's inconsistent actions that seem to be going on. It seems to me that public comment is driving things more than the law--unless the correlation is accidental.

Since I've only had visibility on a couple of homicide/manslaughter cases, you likely have the experience I don't. Walk me through this, if you are able due to the ongoing nature of this case--is the change in prisoner status due to a bad decision or corrected decision, or changed situation? Is there a precedent you can point to which might give us operator types an expectation of what we'll see throughout the story arc of this incident?

Re: Can I Get a JAG Readout?

Just thought I'd raise something that seems to be getting lost in the discussions re the "Camp Pendleton 8," and that is while those confined seem to be getting a LOT of the benefit of the doubt, there seems to be none for those on the military justice side of the field.

Remember that it is other servicemen making these decisions and determinations. Those that are imposing these restraints, reviewing these confinement orders, and making these determinations are also serving their country, and as such, might be entitled to at least a presumption of good faith.

Rep. Murtha plays the bully

All due respect to Rep. Murtha and all, but I am sorry; just because you served does not give you the right to play bully-boy with those who have not.

Sure, it is OK, sometimes, if you are backed into a corner to pull out your DD214 if someone who never served is talking about Tactical issues and is smearing and/or sending out bad gouge, etc; but when it comes to Strategic issues, I am sick of the "You haven't served, you can't disagree with me. My opinion cannot be questioned." way of avoiding the core issue.

That is so old, tired, and foolish. Prime Minister Thatcher never served, however it can be argued that she is easily in the Top 5 civilian leaders who "Got it." Should she have caved to the opinion of some Old Labor defeatist who thought they should give the Falklands to the Argentineans, or unilaterally disarmed in the face of the Soviets just because he spent the mid-1940 fighting his way up Italy? No. The Chickenhawk habit is way past Chicken$(%t. Here is the video. It says it was posted by ”Nancy Pelosi”, and most of the video "she" has is pro Left. Maybe it is just me, but I don't think this had the desired effect.

Happy Birthday Hospital Corpsmen!

The US Navy Hospital Corps was created on this day in 1898:

"I solemnly pledge myself before God and these witnesses to practice faithfully all of my duties as a member of the Hospital Corps. I hold the care of the sick and injured to be a privilege and a sacred trust and will assist the Medical Officer with loyalty and honesty. I will not knowingly permit harm to come to any patient. I will not partake of nor administer any unauthorized medication. I will hold all personal matters pertaining to the private lives of patients in strict confidence. I dedicate my heart, mind and strength to the work before me. I shall do all within my power to show in myself an example of all that is honorable and good throughout my naval career."

Terrorist Defeatism

Leave it to Ralph Peters to cop the best quote about the media's defeatism...

After Zarqawi They're Losing:

Desperate, Zarqawi's butchers laid out a program to try to regain the initiative they'd lost. Here's what the terrorists hoped to do:

* In their own words, "use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance." That is, exploit the prejudices of the Western media, the terrorists' last allies.

* Infiltrate Iraq's army, which was pinning them to the mat (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

* Unify the resistance - which was falling to pieces amid squabbles over tactics, over turf and even over who was the real enemy.

* Most ambitious, the terrorists hoped to spark a war between the United States and Iran, to "create a second front" that would take pressure off them. To that end, they planned to implicate Iran in staged terrorist events and to provide disinformation about Tehran's having ties to terrorist groups targeted by the United States.

* Just in case that didn't work, the terrorists also hoped to ignite civil wars between Sunni and Shia, Americans and Shia, Shia and Shia, Kurds and Shia - and even between different Sunni factions. A Vietnam-era U.S. officer was ridiculed for saying, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it," but al Qaeda is willing to destroy all of Iraq in order to save it for a fanatical vision.

The internal document portrayed the terrorists as lying on the ropes, speaking of their "current bleak situation." Their self-evaluation was wildly at odds with the interpretation of events foisted upon the American people by left-wing elements in our media and by the leadership of the Democratic Party. Those who called for us to quit Iraq would have handed a broken terrorist movement a strategic victory.

Can I Get A JAG Readout?

If they're removing the shackles from the guys they have in custody without charges, what changed? Does this mean there is now less command influence, or more? Does this mean there is a reaction to pressure of some sort, and if so was there pressure in another direction before that?

With stuff like this, and some of the things the defense lawyers are claiming, I smell a rat. Is this one of those things where the one small group gets the beat down just because of pressure and a TIME cover story?

What in the world is going on with this thing?

2 U.S. Soldiers Missing in Iraq

Reports coming in...but not much yet.

damn. damn. One of my [many] nightmares...

CNN

FOX News

ABC News

MSNBC

A Stetson for VALOR IT

Taxes being due yesterday, I've nothing to offer the pot right now -- but I am willing to make a personal sacrifice for Project VALOR IT.

If you think you'd like to own one of Grim's own Stetson hats, follow the link.

Re: New MCPON

Chap -

"He also graduated from the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy in May 2003 and completed the Command Sergeants Major course. " So at least we know he has been trained well, right?

Oh, and he has an Army Commendation Medal too.

Good choice, I should think!

Sad Wags and Bad Wagers

Victor Davis Hanson today in NRO suggests that Betting on Defeat in Iraq is far from a safe bet, however many war opponents make the wager.

Here are the problems with those who want to recant earlier support of the more – or take less ambiguously negative positions vice earlier, less definable stances:

Reveries of 'Nam

Michael Barone penned an excellent essay about media-enabled left-wing nostalgia. Barone notes how those of a certain political persuasion, and their friends in the media, have had a pretty bad couple of weeks. Recent events don’t just represent losses with political implications, but threaten to soundly discredit their Vietnam and Watergate déjà vu reveries.

Barone identifies the Democratic loss in the California 50th District, the killing of Zarqawi and the completion of the Iraqi government, and the non-indictment of Presidential Advisor Karl Rove as the possibly mortal blows against their reactionary self-image.

What resonated most with me (okay, smacked me upside my head) was how Barone managed to so precisely indict the media for creating and sustaining these illusions of the left, while at the same time chastening the press with bygone examples of the journalist as “American Citizen First,” in contrast to today’s “citizen of the world.” All without saying so explicitly:

In all this a key role was played by the press. Cries went up early for the appointment of a special prosecutor: Patrick Fitzgerald would be another Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski. Eager to bring down another Republican administration, the editorialists of the New York Times evidently failed to realize that the case could not be pursued without asking reporters to reveal the names of sources who had been promised confidentiality. America's newsrooms are populated largely by liberals who regard the Vietnam and Watergate stories as the great achievements of their profession. The peak of their ambition is to achieve the fame and wealth of great reporters like David Halberstam and Bob Woodward. But this time it was not Republican administration officials who went to prison. It was Judith Miller, then of the New York Times itself.

Interestingly, Bob Woodward himself contradicted Mr. Fitzgerald's statement, made the day that he announced the one indictment he has obtained, of former vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby, that Mr. Libby was the first to disclose Ms. Plame's name to a reporter. The press reaction was to turn on Mr. Woodward, who has been covering this administration as a new story rather than as a reprise of Vietnam and Watergate.

Historians may regard it as a curious thing that the left and the press have been so determined to fit current events into templates based on events that occurred 30 to 40 years ago. The people who effectively framed the issues raised by Vietnam and Watergate did something like the opposite; they insisted that Vietnam was not a reprise of World War II or Korea and that Watergate was something different from the operations J. Edgar Hoover conducted for Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy. Journalists in the 1940s, '50s and early '60s tended to believe they had a duty to buttress Americans' faith in their leaders and their government. Journalists since Vietnam and Watergate have tended to believe that they have a duty to undermine such faith, especially when the wrong party is in office.

Which means, we are an essential part of the Government that the media so mistrusts, and the faith in which they duty-bound to undermine. Especially, as Barone says, “when the wrong party is in office.”

Joe Wilson: Military Strategist

Joe Wilson on Iraq.

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife was at the center of a CIA leak case that led to the indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide, argued Wednesday that the U.S. needs to bring Iraqi insurgents and their "foreign patrons" to the conference table for negotiations.

During a panel discussion at the liberal Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C., Wilson said diplomatic efforts to establish Iraq as a democratic power in the region should also include "the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Iranians ... the Turks, probably some leading powers from Europe and Russia, all of whom have interests at stake."

Thanks, Joe. You've left me clamoring for more....

The New MCPON

The new senior enlisted for the Navy is a hospital corpsman wth a surface warfare pin and an FMF badge. He's currently command master chief at JTF-Gitmo. Bio is here. Pac guy, was CMC on Cable which is a hard hard job. Master's in National Security and Strategic Studies.

I like the sound of it already. Let's see how long he gets to work on real things before uniform issues pop up...

Napalm Sticks to Kids

The funny thing about dark humor is that it's so over-the-top outrageous, so unexpected, that you can't help but laugh. It's the same type of thing that turned Howard Stern into a phenomenon, but with a military twist.

Once upon a time, military recruits would sing "jodies" with unrepeatable lyrics while running in formation. Some were sexual in nature, while others told tales of blood and gore. One popular jody was titled "Napalm Sticks to Kids."

To be clear, these are not meant to be taken literally. We don't actually do these horrible things. It's a self-charicature. That's why it's funny.

More here.

It's Friday, so Afghanistan News must be up?!

"Get in there men, I hear the News of Afghanistan is up!"

Looky what I found...

...while cleaning up in the Arsenal!

Ain't it grand having a wife that lets you own things like this? And a government that lets you ship it as Professional Books and Equipment? Gotta have that Military Historian tag on your MOS, but hey - ya shoulda seen the look on the movers face when he hadda move these.

And that shot didn't include the 175mm and 8" rounds. Yes. All inert, btw. Put the phone down. All legal where I live.

Oh, and to answer the question about the wife? Why yes, yes it is.

Just remember - that nice portly bearded fellow moving in next door to you could be... me.

To further refine my statement under cross examination: that nice, portly, graying, bearded fellow...

Like Chap sez - It's Payday!

So shave off a little green to Project Valour-IT!

From yesterday:

Weekend 2214.11
Monday 2475
Tuesday 3801
Wednesday 5850.00
Thursday 2080

Total $16,420.

Interesting note: As of the time of that update, we were ahead of National Review Online and their week-long fundraiser. This morning, as I hit "post" on this, they're at $16,915.

So - for those of you who like a little competition - how about we set our goal to *Beat* NRO's fundraising totals? Just for the bragging rights? Something I can drop in Jonah's coffee tomorrow morning?

Please?

It's not like it's not for a Good Cause.

So, the fundraising for Project Valour-IT continues today - and ends tonight in terms of blogging it - until the Big Push this fall. This was just a raid to warm everybody up and refine the TTPs.

Please click on the graphic below - and give up a little beer/winecooler/pack of cigarettes/movie rental money (or more, like Blackhawk!) to help the wounded re-connect to their wired lives. At this point - I'm just wanting to stay ahead of NRO!

Feel free to join us! And those of you who already have - thank you ever so much!

(Feel free to swipe the roll-code)

(If you are a supporting blog and aren't listed - drop me a note!)

Re: Durka Durka

Phibian --
I think the reason that not many of us are having fun with the "Hadji Girl" kerfuffle is that we know from bitter experience what's going to happen next -- the MSM, having found out that people in the military sometimes sing inappropriate songs among themselves for entertainment, will start crawling around to find more examples of this "scandalous" behavior, and all of us know we're vulnerable. I can just imagine the story some enterprising reporter will file:

"It's not only Marines who sing culturally insensitive tunes; even submariners revel in chanting horribly sexist songs abusing people called "skimmers" (probably slang for a down-trodden minority group), and this reporter even found one song in which the lyrics imply that 97% of the sub's crew intends to commit sodomy with one oppressed woman. As early as boot camp, recruits are indoctrinated that it's OK to physically assault civilians (specifically someone named "Jody") who may be dating their old girlfriend -- clearly an example of misplaced sexual aggression."

We Got Zarqawi!

Okay, I'm a week late and a million dinars short on this one, but gimme a break, I've just spent a week atop what I believe is the tallest point in Iraq (approx. 5,000 ft) helping provide additional security for some commo guys. (Basically, Antenna City).

I don't even have my laptop with me, which is torture considering I'm so bored I've already resorted to multiple games of Battleship conducted over two ICOM handheld radios. But I do have a Tom Wolfe novel along for the ride, my only saving grace.

Okay people, this is on borrowed computer and satellite internet time. I better skedaddle before the commo pukes wake up and kick me off so they can download Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Sabrina the Teenage Witch or whatever it is those candyasses watch.

Out.

Hey, It's Payday

Makes paying up for Valour-IT a little easier for some folks.

You know where to click.

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad

I am back to the world of private broadband, was looking for the Michelle Malkin has it wrong link from Eddie, and have discovered that, well, no one here is having fun with Cpl. Joshua Belile and The Sweater Kittens.

There is so much here. First of all, watch it on HotAir (with subtitles), or YouTube first.

Now read what is being written at Reuters, the German-American Bund...err...CAIR, and round it up with an update by Allah.

My favorite quote is;

"I cannot say if there is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice or the law of armed conflict. Lawyers have looked at it and they're kind of scratching their heads, which is why we're doing this preliminary inquiry," said Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman at the
Pentagon.

Just read/watch and bask at the world’s only SuperPower pick at its navel - and the miracle that our women aren’t in burkas already..
UPDATE: My bust. Uncle Jimbo had it two days ago over at BLACKFIVE. Well, you can get an update today from him today as well..

Iraq - Senate Votes "No" to "Cut and Run"

via Senate

Motion to Table(Defeat) Amendment To require the withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq and urge the convening of an Iraq summit.

Vote Counts: YEAs 93
NAYs 6
Not Voting 1

The Stable, Multi-Party Democracy Of Somaliland

Why doesn't the State Dept. recognize its independence? With the rest of Somalia seemingly going to the Horn Of Africa chapter of the Taliban, this would seem to be a good idea.

Curzon of Coming Anarchy has more on Somalia's mess.

This Just In

James Lileks uncovers some transcripts, previously unreported, from key Al Qaeda leadership in Iraq (as they are identified).

Apparently Jihadis in the know have great fun at the expense of whoever is identified as the new “Al Qaeda’s #1 man in Iraq.” One of the recent office folders even made this complaint, and called for restraint on the part of his fellow Jihadists:

Making a whistling sound with a descending pitch in my presence was funny the first time. We all had a good laugh. It is hereby forbidden.

Finally, patience is our ally. We need not defeat the Americans, only outlast them. Have they not abandoned every battlefield they ever entered? Besides Germany, Japan, Korea, Kosovo and Afghanistan, of course. But just as they left Somalia when their “Democrats” took power, so will they leave Iraq when the criminal Zionist Bush regime is replaced by a slightly less criminal, albeit equally Zionist, Democratic regime. The Democrats wish to quit the war and return to their important issues, such as permitting men to marry, have a child with the cloning of cells, and then abort it. Such a people cannot fight; they can only beseech the United Nations to send Danes to frown from great distances. And I need not remind you that no one was ever killed by a 226 kilogram laser-guided Dane.

Read the whole thing. It’s good.

Milestones of LIfe and Hope.

Since we're all about milestones today... here's one for you.

Is there a need for Project Valour-IT?

You tell me.

That's $330,000 of assistance, folks. A goodly chunk of that raised via the Milblogs and blogs who support us.

I.e., you guys.

More importantly - it's 500 severely wounded soldiers we've helped.

That's a battalion. 1/3rd of the combat strength of a Brigade.

Milestones.

Pat yourselves on the back.

Go ahead.

You deserve it.

Thank you.

Milestones of death

As long as someone is keeping track of death tolls, during the period from 2003 to 2006, over 120,000 Americans will have been killed simply trying to get from Point A to Point B.

In 2005, some 16,972 of those traffic deaths were alcohol related. So, about 48,000 in 3 years killed in preventable, alcohol-related traffic accidents.

Just thought you might like to know.

The End(s) of Al Qaeda

Rumors have circulated about what erstwhile Jihadi compatriots might have tipped off Jordanian Intelligence and US forces about Zarqawi’s whereabouts prior to the aristrike that killed him. Several have also suggested that Al Qaeda leadership – whoever is left in leadership roles, who direct Al Qaeda elements to do their bidding -- might have increasingly viewed Zarqawi as more liability than asset.

A BBC Report, covering comments by Iraq’s National Security Advisor, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, may unintentionally have shed light on who might be those behind-the-scene Master of Al Qaeda.

The BBC reports that al-Runaie stated that ""We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Great news, likely true. But this last part caught my attention:

One of the documents showed Zarqawi planned to widen the rift between the US and Iran by carrying out attacks on US interests falsely attributed to Iran, the prime minister's office said.

But targeting US interests, and causing the US to blame Iran for these attacks? (Which we often do, for good reason, as Iran has been waging war against our interests for years, in one clandestine or proxy manner or another.)

I don’t know that analysts claim to understand the exact relationship between Al Qaeda and Iran. Iranian Intelligence and operatives have been busily at work in Iraq. Clearly, there share common interests and oibjectives, but how much do they coordinate their activities?

Could it be that Iran had been using Zarqawi, in an official capacity as the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, or in some manner of cooperation based on confluence of interests, all along? And it was Iran who reached the conclusion that Zarqawi was hurting their interests, more than helping?

If Rubaie’s statement is true, that Zarqawi planned to carry out attacks on the US and try to have these (falsely) attributed to Iran, and thus widen the rift between the US and Iran, that would have come at a time very critical to Iranian national interests. Would it be too coincidental that this occurs on the eve of what has widely been described as the US “backing down” on a more aggressive Iranian nuclear program? When Iran seems to be gaining the carrot without risk of a stick?

Maybe Zarqawi, as arguably the more doctrinaire among the Jihadi compared to Iran’s Mullah’s, viewed Iranian attempts to play their diplomatic brinksmanship as having too much traffic with the Great Satan, and wanted to keep pushing the US towards crossing that brink, against Iran’s desired objectives?

Could it be that Iran decided Zarqawi was more useful dead than alive? And decidedly easier to control that way.

(Excerpted from a post at Dadmanly, with more excerpts from the BBC Report.)

Impact? You want some impact?

...for your Project Valour-IT donation?

I heard from the sister of a severely wounded Marine how much it helped her brother's rehabilitation to have one of our Valour-IT laptops. He lost use of both arms temporarily due to burns, so the laptop was an incredible blessing to not be isolated. Last word was that he was far ahead of the expected progress for his rehabilitation (I think he lost one or both feet too it was a very severe injury).

Read the rest here.

Press Manipulation

Max Borders conducted a very enlightening interview with former Marine Sergeant and syndicated news reporter J.D. Johannes, with the results posted at Tech Central Station.

An excerpt:

Borders: Nobody is going to want to read the story about the soldiers who were in the dessert getting sunburned. But what other kinds of things will they want to read about and that the mainstream media is missing?

Johannes: The daily successes. The Marines would joke about this. Their MOS [military operation specialty] was in 0311 or 0352 is 0350 as in infantry police officer. You gather Intel. You set up ambush and bait-and-kill operations. You track down a bad guy when they were bringing in a bad guy every other day. Finding a weapons cache every other day in the area... But those weren't the things making the headlines.

Capturing a wanted, low-level terrorist in Amiriya is a big success in that area. Would there ever be a story on it? No. One reason is there wasn't a reporter there when the individual was captured. Even though there was a compelling story in how they gathered the Intel, tracked the person, conducted a raid on the suspect's home, captured them, etc. A big success not covered in the media. What is covered is a car bombing in Baghdad. What happens on aggregate is you get a distorted view of the war that shows only car bombings and few successes, when there are successes every day -- little successes that add up.

Borders: So it sounds to me like this phenonomenon is a mix of an urge to find "real" stories -- something that can actually get into print -- and reporters' ideological baggage. Do you believe that objectivity in journalism is even possible with those kinds of dual pressures on journalists?

Johannes: Journalists are human beings. I mean, we come into everything with our own personal views, which are formed by our experiences; how we're brought up, the way we view things. It's impossible to say that people can be blank slates.

One of the biggest flaws in the media -- and I wouldn't exactly always put it on individual reporters themselves -- the problem is in the structure of the overall media coverage. You just have a handful of reporters covering a major conflict in a large country. The pressure comes in the various complexities of covering Iraq.

Case in point: I get a call (about a month or two ago) from a TV news director who had known what I had done in Iraq. He was hoping I was still there so he could hire me to go out and do what I had done in the past because there was a reserve unit from their area being deployed. But the parent affiliate said: "nope, we don't leave the Fortified Hotel -- ever." So a lot of the employers aren't willing to bear the risk. And that is the structural program that really tilts the war.

Also, and this is probably the most disturbing part, many journalists have not figured out that they're being targeted by the enemy on purpose to help shape the coverage of the war. The insurgents don't want the reporters out and about running around. They're completely satisfied with the "balcony" report and some video shot by a stringer of the daily car bomb. That's the message that the insurgents want to get out. They don't realize that warfare is both the kinetic and non-kinetic. And, therefore, they miss how they're being played by the insurgents. I wish more reporters realized that.

This is a bit embarassing.

Fort Sam Houston threatened with utilities cut-off... because they're deadbeats?

Ahhh, the joys of how the Federal Budget works, and Congress and the Executive fiddling while the lights go out.

A problem not specific to either party being in power.

Project Valour-IT update.

Youse guys is grand! Act vice bloviate, indeed!

Stuff this in your pipe and smoke it, WW!

From yesterday:

97 donations since Friday Weekend 2214.11 Monday 2475 Tuesday 3801 Total: 8490.11

Nice trend, too!

Last night, Fuzzybear Lioness provided this update:

58 Donors today: $5,850.00

Including $1000 from someone we believe is an orthopedic surgeon. I think that's particularly cool because he would recognize the need for and impact of this program. Pretty cool, huh?

[sound of shoes being removed and mumbled counting going on]

Lessee, that's $14,340.11 Which was more than NRO had raised as of last night in their fund-raiser.

Plus....

Today we also had someone who will be adopting a soldier and paying the entire cost of his/her laptop. We also have someone who will be donating a top-of-the-line new laptop.

Catch it all up at Fuzzy's place.

So, the fundraising for Project Valour-IT continues. Please click on the graphic below - and give up a little beer/winecooler/pack of cigarettes/movie rental money (or more, like Blackhawk!) to help the wounded re-connect to their wired lives. At this point - I'm just wanting to stay ahead of NRO!

Feel free to join us!

(Feel free to swipe the roll-code)

(If you are a supporting blog and aren't listed - drop me a note!)

al-Reuters Jumps the Gun

UPDATE: Soldier's Dad points me to this official DoD page, updated 10:00am EDT, which shows that the total of U.S. fatalities is now 2,500.

TAKING THE LEAD from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Reuters has now reported that the U.S. death toll in Iraq has surpassed 2,500.

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S. and allied foreign forces locked in a struggle with a resilient insurgency.

Reuters may have some inside sources, but the Pentagon has not made any such public announcement.

RE: Suspected Terrorist Op Ed

I was glad to see John Noonan jumping on this story over at Newsbusters, following up on an outrageous postscript to the New York Times awarding a terrorist gang family member a guest editorial (aka propaganda piece).

I noted yesterday how the Benchellali Family’s attempt at gaining sympathy from the Times was successful, and that Jihadis get as good a reception at the Times as they likely receive from Al Jazeera.

This from the AP report, carried by CNN:

In handing down sentences, the court followed the prosecutor's office by giving the maximum 10-year term to the group's alleged chemicals expert, Menad Benchellali. However, Menad's father, Chellali Benchellali, an imam, or prayer leader, in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, received only an 18-month suspended prison term -- far lower than the prosecution's demand for six years behind bars.

The court convicted 24 defendants of criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a broad charge used by France to sweep wide in bringing terror suspects to justice. One other was convicted of using false papers.

The Benchellali family was at the center of the case, with Menad's mother, Hafsa, and brother, Hafed, also on trial for roles in the plot to carry out an attack in France.

As I stated yesterday:

It really can’t be possible that the New York Times doesn’t know that long-suffering, despairing MOURAD BENCHELLALI was a member of a reputed Jihadist family (make that gang), on the eve of the French conviction of large numbers of said “family.” A Terrorist propaganda press release, from a member of a family on the eve of their convictions for support for terrorism, and association with a busted terror plot against France.

(Cross-Posted at Dadmanly)

An Ungovernable Quagmire? (No, not Iraq...)

Funny how this contrast to Iraq doesn't get much play... And I won't even mention Somalia.

No Tears Here

CBS is in a hurry to get rid of Dan Rather.

Marine May Call Murtha As Witness

By Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times

A criminal defense attorney for a Marine under investigation in the Haditha killings says he will call a senior Democratic congressman as a trial witness, if his client is charged, to find out who told the lawmaker that U.S. troops are guilty of cold-blooded murder.

Re: Unlawful Combatants

In a worthy comment to my thread about DOD rolling back its changes to the interrogation manual and rules Grim notes:

OK, fine. But can we please reassert that there remains a difference between real POWs and these unlawful combatants?

Despite my misgivings over how many people who've been in Gitmo aren't terrorists but just folks in the wrong place at the wrong time (or enemies of someone who then told coalition forces they were "terrorists"), I somehow feel this will be the law of the future after terrorists attack America and inflict enormous damage again. In addition, I feel this is what should already be in place for war criminals like the Janjaweed (Dar Fur), Hutu Power (Rwanda), the Lord's Resistance Army (Uganda), the leadership of North Korea and Burma, etc etc.

Sanction Four is a punishment meted out by the Multinational Forces in John Birmingham's Axis of Time novel Designated Targets.

Under the rules of engagement of January 15, 2021, Sanction Four is authorized against enemy forces who have committed atrocities against civilians and military Prisoners of War. The condemned are led (or dragged) to a large trench, where their hands are cuffed together. A Multinational Force member announces that they have been convicted of a "crime against humanity". No last rites are performed. The prisoner is then executed with a single shot to the back of the head by a member of the Multinational Force selected for field punishment duty (medical personnel can ask for exemption from this detail).

New York Times Opens Op-Ed Page to Suspected Terrorist

My latest is up at Newsbusters. Piece discusses the anti-Gitmo op-ed from suspected terrorist Mourad Benchellali, published in yesterday's New York Times.

Newsflash

It's been six days since Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike, and the world is still glad to be rid of him.

Anti-War Mom Proudly Serves Her Country

Cindy Sheehan, take notes.

UPDATE: Tragic Milestone Watch

They even scheduled a protest in DC to commemorate the yet-to-be-reached "tragic milestone:'

In response to the death of the 2500th soldier in Iraq, participants in the Take Back America Conference (http://takebackamerica.org) will honor the keynote speaker Barack Obama’s closing statement—“Go Out and Fight for Change”—by taking to the streets to call for an end the unjust Iraq war. Hundreds are expected to gather outside the Hilton Hotel at Connecticut and T Streets carrying coffins, banners and signs. (Procession route: Connecticut Avenue South, East on K Street and South on 16 th Street through Lafayette Park to the White House)

Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll in Iraq remains stalled at 2497, where it has been since shortly after Zarqawi was killed.

(Aside: note the location of the Take Back America Conference.)

Anybody Know Our New Commandant?

Joint Staff's J3 has been nominated for another star and an interesting new job.

Hey, John!

At work and unable to see the photo. I'm sure I know what it is. Yeah, that's it.

In any case, I've got yer game right here.

Michelle Malkin: Righteously Wrong

Michelle Malkin has a column on the "Camp Pendelton 8," seven Marines and a Navy Corpsman being held in confinement on suspicion of kidnapping and shooting a man in Hamandiya, Iraq. Michelle intros her article thusly:

Did you know there are seven young Marines and a Navy Corpsman sitting in a military brig right now in leg and wrist shackles — despite the fact that they've not been charged with any crime?

Her article continues along these lines with the following:

These men — our men — may be innocent. They may be guilty. Charges may or may not be filed this week.

...

Not a peep heard yet from the American Civil Liberties Union. The website of the self-anointed crusaders for individual rights contains hundreds of articles on the rights of al Qaeda suspects and an indignant press release on the suicides of Guantanamo Bay detainees. But no mention of the Camp Pendleton 8.

There's just one small problem: Malkin is dead wrong.

UPDATE: FY2007 Defense Authorization Bill

From Military Officers Asssociation of America

Lautenberg TRICARE Fee Amendment Approved
We're pleased to report that, on June 14, the Senate approved Sen. Lautenberg's (D-NJ) amendment to bar any copay increases for drugs obtained through the retail pharmacy for FY2007. Thank you to our members for your willingness to support MOAA's legislative alert on this issue. One important reason this effort was successful is that MOAA members sent nearly 12,000 messages to their senators within hours of receiving a special e-mail alert that was sent yesterday to subscribers MOAA’s Legislative Update.

Concurrent Receipt Votes this Week?
In a striking reversal from last year’s delays -- and contrary to speculation in recent weeks that it could be delayed again -- Senate leaders now plan prompt action on the FY2007 Defense Authorization Bill (S. 2766). Debate is scheduled to begin Monday, June 12, with votes on amendments following through the rest of the week, and maybe longer.

We expect the Senate to consider a number of amendments on issues of importance to MOAA members. Key among these will be two amendments sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

The first Reid amendment would authorize combat-related special compensation for disabled members whose combat wounds forced them into medical retirement before attaining 20 years of service. Under current law, a 10% combat-disabled retiree with 20 years of service can receive combat disability compensation in addition to retired pay, but a 100% disabled member forced out of service by combat wounds at 19 years, 11 months has his full VA disability compensation deducted from his earned, service-based retired pay. MOAA believes strongly that combat-disabled servicemembers whose wounds force them from service should be "vested" in their service-earned retired pay (2.5% of pay times years of service).

The other amendment would end the "disabled veterans tax" on military retirees deemed "unemployable" by the VA. These members are certified as being unable to work because of their service-related disabilities and compensated by the VA at the 100% disabled rate. But unlike all other 100% disabled retirees, they still have a large share of their VA disability compensation deducted from their service-earned retired pay. Last year, Congress agreed to end this unfair practice - but not until 2009. Fair is fair. They deserve their full earned retired pay now.

Send your senators a message urging them to vote for the Reid amendments. HERE (with suggested email text).

Tragic Milestone Watch

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, at yesterday's "Take Back America" Conference:

The President continues to say that the situation in Iraq is improving. But just because he wishes it does not make it so. This week, we have reached the tragic milestone of having lost more than 2,500 of our brave troops. This is in addition to more than 18,000 of our troops who have been wounded, more than half permanently, and that doesn't even count the mental health needs that our troops will have. Improving? I don't think so.

The current U.S. death toll in Iraq has been stalled at 2497 since June 9, the day after terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was "martyred" by two 500lb bombs.

Pelosi may be impatient us to reach this particular "tragic milestone," but wishing doesn't make it so.

Someone you should know.

Colonel William Bernhard - someone you should know. Meet him here, at the Heartless Libertarian.

Profile: Vets Again

Some readers may be familiar with the Profiles I've written of National Guard soldiers who deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I've published a new Profile, one long overdue, about the three Vietnam Veterans who were part of our National Guard unit when we were mobilized for deployment to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). While I’ve written about these soldiers before, I have been negligent in not including them in my Profiles series.

I can't imagine what Deployment for OIF must seem like to them. A world apart from what they experienced in Vietnam, I'm sure. Both in country, and their reception on return. Not that they talk about it much, that's not their way. It occurs to me that that's a post in itself, but not this time around.

Rather, the impression they made on us, having done the combat time many years before most of the rest of us were toilet trained (or born).

So here it is, for those interested, Profile: Vets Again.

For a background on these profiles, and why I write them, go read An Introduction to Dadmanly's Profiles.

Hey, Chap!

Want to play... a game?

Pentagon Rethinking Interrogation Manual Changes

The NYT gloats, but for once, I'm not disgusted. This is the type of weak, short-term policy thinking driven by political expediency and wishful thinking rather than cold, hard consideration of public impact and lasting legality, careful study to learn from 5 years of dreadful mistakes and the application of the ever necessary "clarity".

The Defense Department is also expected to drop a plan to have one set of interrogation methods for detainees that the military considers "unlawful combatants," like detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and another set for traditional prisoners of war captured on the battlefield, the officials said. Some military officials and top aides to Vice President Dick Cheney have insisted it is essential to have a secret set of techniques and to leave ambiguous just how far American interrogators could go to extract information from terror suspects. But lawmakers from both parties, State Department officials and human rights organizations argued that detainees would eventually disclose the secret interrogation techniques and that keeping them secret would only reinforce the perception abroad that the United States condoned torture as an interrogation method.

A Full Press Assault

Tom Bevan posts about The Assault on Our Troops today at the RCP Blog, and highlights two other must reads for today: his companion column at RCP, and a Guest Editorial in the Chicago Tribune by the Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr.

Harris’ comments have been so widely vilified, by the New York Times and others, it’s a wonder that he withstands such unwarranted criticism with professionalism, at all. He submitted a very professional explanation of our efforts at Gunatanamo, describing how detainees are treated, and the numerous military safeguards, and international inspections that have been conducted by the International Red Cross, with favorable results.

One can credit the Chicago Tribune with giving him the space to rebut the Times dedicated campaign against Guantanamo with this essay. That’s more than many of their mainstream media (MSM) cohorts would do.

Why would the Times be resurrecting it’s overtly hostile and inflammatory campaign, just at this moment?

It couldn’t have anything to do with good news out of Iraq, a collapsing of politicized witch-hunts against Karl Rove, the “Culture of Corruption” that so far has only evidenced cash flowing into the hands (and freezer) of a Democrat. It couldn’t possibly be in response to other more aggressive efforts by President Bush and his administration to counteract incessant drumbeats of “Bush Bad” from the MSM. Or to attempt to revive the tattered “Republicans Looming Disaster in ’06,” which somehow doesn’t translate into any uptick for Democrats, either as a party or for particular candidates.

So for the Times, it’s time for another squirt of Gitmo Gas: Let’s see what THIS ignites. Just wait and see. Trouble is, if they keep up with the Jihadis in Despair tripe, they’re likely to be as successful as they (and the Democrats) have been with the “Please don’t spy on Terrorists” Campaign.

Enough snark. Go read the whole of Harris' essay. Cross posted with excepts from Harris' essay back at home.

Securing Baghdad

via The White House (Hattip commenter DJ)

The President will provide, through the Commander, MNF-I, 12 battalions (approximately 7,200 troops) of Coalition forces in Baghdad to support 36 battalions of Iraqi Army forces (approximately 26,000) and nearly 23,000 Iraqi police who will work together to secure the city.

Happy Birthday, Army!

From the Journal of the Continental Congress, Wednesday, June 14, 1775:

Resolved, That six companies of expert rifflemen, be immediately raised in Pensylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates...

Happy Birthday to all American Soldiers!

Project Valour-IT update.

I'll avoid a sense of tartness, given the *tens* of thousands of readers of the participating blogs (even allowing for a huge overlap) - but the 97 (as of yesterday evening) of you who've donated thus far - You Rock, Baby!

The goal was at least $7260 to clear the current backlog of laptop requests.

We're there!

Fuzzy reports:

97 donations since Friday Weekend 2144.11 Monday 2475 Tuesday 3801 Total: 8420.11

Nice trend, too.

But of course, we aren't done. Why? Because, well, there's a coupla thousand of you who haven't availed yourselves of this opportunity, of course.

And it's the Army's Birthday. And Flag Day.

It's also the anniversary of...

1936 Oranienburg Concentration Camp opens
1940 Nazis open a concentration camp at Auschwitz

Something the Army, along with all the other services and our Allies, helped to disestablish, at no small cost to all concerned As we did Saddam. And Milosevic, Noriega, et.al. And no, it wasn't always easy, nor fair, and certainly not perfect.

But, while we've raised enough to meet the immediate need, this war is still a hot one, the casualties are still coming. This request (above and beyond the 11) arrived yesterday from Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston:

Female army SSG with hand injury (we've only had two or three female requests). Two fingers amputated. As Chuck can testify, that means additional damage to the hand and months of limited use.

So, the fundraising for Project Valour-IT continues. Please click on the graphic below - and give up a little beer/winecooler/pack of cigarettes/movie rental money (or more, like Blackhawk!) to help the wounded re-connect to their wired lives.

And join these fine people, who are all doing their bit, too.

(If you are a supporting blog and aren't listed - drop me a note! And feel free to swipe the roll-code.)

Oh, and CPT B - talk to me, baby!

RE: HAD ENOUGH

John of Argghhh! & everyone else
You want a piece of this to promote Valour -IT???? A nice full page ad in NY Times with Valour IT logo on it might bring some love from about a million readers.............this goes for anyone else who has a logo to use to support the troops HAD ENOUGH Ad!
Let me know

Britain Cancelling Aircraft Carrier Purchases?

Are budget constraints forcing Britain to cancel its major defence purchases and shift funds towards homeland security?

Remember, the enemy of Her Majesty is not in Berlin or Moscow anymore so much as in Manchester and Liverpool....

All the more reason for Rep. Hunter's proposal to be followed through and formally discussed with NATO.... and sell the JFK (or the Kitty Hawk in 2008) to NATO.

Hat Tip: Lexington Green of Chicago Boyz

Navy Officer Drawdown: The Game Show

While the Army is having a hard time retaining company grade officers, the Navy is finding itself in the opposite situation -- needing to find creative ways to get rid of excess O-3s and O-4s. As described in this Navy NewsStand story, the Navy earlier this week issued a NAVADMIN detailing how they plan to get rid of officers in "over-manned" communities. These communities include not only most of the Special Duty Officer designators, but also Surface Warfare Officers, pilots, NFOs, and submariners.

The funnest part of the whole process, though, is that officers will get to "bid" on how much money they'll take to get out, and the community managers will get to decide if it's "Deal or No Deal". I snark about the program much more over at my home blog.

HAD ENOUGH?

Are you tired of hearing the media badger the military? Do you want to send a message to all of the service members fighting the war on terrorism?
READ MORE HERE

In Times of War

The Editors of the New York Times began a supremely dishonest and partisan editorial on the suicides at Guantanamo with this lead paragraph:

The news that three inmates at Guantánamo Bay hanged themselves should not have surprised anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the twisted history of the camp that President Bush built for selected prisoners from Afghanistan and antiterrorist operations. It was the inevitable result of creating a netherworld of despair beyond the laws of civilized nations, where men were to be held without any hope of decent treatment, impartial justice or, in so many cases, even eventual release.

Do these fools have a clue?

Boycott Car and Driver

My letter to HFM:

Dear HFM:

I have long been an auto enthusiast and have purchased Car and Driver magazine for at least a decade - usually at Borders. I am also a military veteran and owner of the military blog Blackfive.net.

I am writing in response to your (1) misuse of the photo of Major Bieger and little Farah who was killed by insurgents which is owned by Michael Yon and (2) your feeble attempts at avoiding responsibility for said misuse. You took a heart-breaking and poignant photo and twisted it to fit your own political agenda. Mike could have benefited from that photo many times over by selling it to outfits like you seeking to undermine our success and change history. Mike has something that you obviously don't value.

Honor.

You have grossly misunderstood the reaction that your blatant disregard for the rights of Michael Yon has caused.

At this moment, I am writing a post on my blog calling for a boycott of Car and Driver. My blog will reach a hundred thousand people by the time you read this letter. I am going to send a few thousand emails as well to military veterans. As you might know, veterans tend to be very motivated people. They'll forward it on...this will go viral. I'll make sure of that.

I'll make sure to discuss your conduct on New England's number one talk radio station this weekend, WRKO - if you get this letter in time, be sure to listen. If you miss this Sunday's broadcast, just tune in the next week. I'll keep at it.

And that's just for starters...

Then, I'm going to boycott your advertisers and ask everyone to do the same.

I don't think you quite understand what you have done. If you think that your fight is with Mike, you're mistaken. There are already thousands of people involved. By tomorrow, there'll be thousands more. We're not in this for money. We're going to fight you for honor and honor alone.

We're in for the long haul.

All the Way,

Matthew

[and, yes, it was difficult to write without calling them "cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys"]

Re: Border Troops Scare Away Illegals

Mexico might be broken, but the list of countries with 100 Million plus population doesn't include many that would make "nice quiet neighbors". I might be naive, but somehow I think Pakistan,Bangladesh or Nigeria would pose a somewhat more challenging border problem.

Border Troops Scare Away Illegals

Sometimes a bad reputation can be a good thing:

"Some migrants have told me they heard about the troops on television and, because the U.S. Army doesn't have a very good reputation, they prefer not to cross," Loureiro said, referring to reports of abuse in Iraq. Others have been discouraged by smugglers' fees that have nearly doubled to more than $3,000.

How long before they learn that the Guard is unarmed, and not authorized to make arrests?

Regardless, this is just a band-aid solution. The problem isn't our immigration laws, or even lax enforcement. The real problem is that Mexico is broken.

Counter Terrorism In The Media

How does a military operate effectively against terrorists when they use tactics like this successfully? Sure, the Israelis have performed their probe and found serious evidence the deaths of 8 Palestinian beachgoers was not at the hands of an Israeli explosive, but that's days after the initial flood of sympathetic media dispatches across the world. It boggles the mind considering how to stem this or counteract it, and despite the best efforts of esteemed thinkers, writers and policymakers, we still don't have an effective strategy. Will we ever?

This issue has been discussed vigoriously on Mil Blogs, especially in light of the rush to judgement over Haditha. Yet are we thinking about the biggest problem of all, which is not the US media, but the global media?

Even if in the near future the US government was somehow able to steer the national press towards a more responsible line, the global media enjoys a far larger audience and is increasingly out of our influence in the "war on terror" (a useless piece of drivel that needs to be replaced ASAP). The onset of citizen blogs and alternative media will help to an extent, but the larger questions remains... how do you wage an effective counter terror campaign in the shadow of a hostile media that willingly spreads your enemies' propoganda but heaps scorn upon even your most serious actions and efforts?

Fighting a war of ideas with BOTH hands tied behind our back (our other main problem being the easy to spread charges of hypocritic policy considering our lukewarm support for democratic reformers in the MENA area who aren't the rarest breed of all, i.e. liberal academic types, our intelligently pragmatic and necessary support of considerably less than democratic regimes from Pakistan to Jordan, our strong support of Israel and India; the great "oppressors" of Muslims in Palestine and Kashmir, etc etc) does not seem very promising.

Project Valour-IT.

Blackhawk sez:

Receipt: XXXX-7103-XXXX-6672: $500

If I can't get over there myself, I can at least support those who have,
and have paid a high price.

Blackhawk is an active duty soldier. Can I get like a *HUGE* Hoo-AH! for Blackhawk?

Acting vice bloviating, indeed!

RE: Anti-Military Pity

I am late in following up on this post by Greyhawk, but oddly enough, this weekend I was working on a piece about the Vietnam veterans who mobilized with us for deployment to Iraq, and couldn't get this done earlier.

Greyhawk tipped us off Friday to the Guest Op Ed at the Chicago Tribune, written by a Gregory Foster, former commander of the unit responsible for the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

You know the Op Ed is out for blood with the title, “The specter of command cowardice.” You can also likely anticipate the general tenor of the piece just knowing who wrote it, one of the commanders most immediately responsible for the local command indiscipline that allowed My Lai to occur.

Fortunately, one of our own Milbloggers, Cdr Salamander has had prior experience with the windy and over-intellectualized Foster. He linked to a Powerpoint presentation by Foster that includes a slide titled, Path to Perpetual Peace. I’d say anyone who even envisions such a concept, short of the Rapture, can safely be discounted as a non-credible military analyst. (Chicago Tribune, are you open to a rebuttal from a credible military analyst?)

Keeping it light

An escalation in sticker application at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Kabobs, mmmm.

RTO Trainer is back at Camp Phoenix (his second deployment!)

Bush in Baghdad

AFP/Getty

President Bush is making a surprise visit to Baghdad, to visit Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone.

The World's Megacities

Now that CDR Salamander has us thinking about modern day Goths & Huns , there is a good, informative piece from Foreign Policy regarding the perils threatening some of the world's megacities . Of course, from an operational POV, Lagos and Mexico City are two decaying mega cities that could be seeing US/NATO interventions in the future, and I don't mean in future renditions of the Ghost Recon videogame series.

What’s the problem? Sanitation and waste. Lagos is the world’s fastest-growing megacity—and the dirtiest. In 1950, Lagos had only 300,000 residents. Today, it has more than 10 million, a number that is likely to double within five years. A largely unplanned city, waste is a perennial problem. Lagos has no sewage treatment facilities, and nearly all garbage is dumped either in the city streets or in a lagoon just outside town.

Can they handle it? Unlikely. The government has attempted to implement a series of sweeping, but impractical and poorly administrated reforms to rid the city of its waste. A 1985 sanitation drive, for instance, required all residents to participate in trash cleaning days. But the waste they collected was never picked up by the city and left to rot in the streets. More recently, the Kick Against Indiscipline, a new paramilitary environmental protection group set up by the government, has busted some of the illegal dumps in town that are run by gangs. But the group has been accused of corruption and targeting the government’s political opponents. Bureaucrats saw this coming; they moved the capital across the country to the cleaner city of Abuja.

Project Valour-IT

Consider your young soldier of today. Wired. Connected. So used to using keyboards they can thumb-type faster than I can type in a regular way - and I'm pretty good, actually.

Then take away a hand, or the use of it. Or both. Or her eyes.

Then you've got that sullen fellow sitting in that chair up there.

Or, you can give a little of yourself, just a tiny bit - a 6 pack worth of beer is fine. Or soda if you don't drink. If 130 of you who read this space regularly (vice those who've given already this time 'round, natch) give $5 each - that's a voice-activated laptop. The Cluebat Clique (8 people who gave $100 and counting) have already funded one.

How 'bout you make this possible for another wounded warrior of any service to get connected again? Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss was a deployed milblogger who nearly lost his hand in an IED attack. Project Valour-IT, brainchild of Chuck and Fuzzybear Lioness, let Chuck blog again.

Chuck's much better now, and can use a regular computer - but his voice-activated laptop helped him along the path to recovery.

Think I'm blowing smoke? While milbloggers don't cite the BBC approvingly all that often - that makes this story all the more interesting.

C'mon. $5. Tax-deductible.

The Arsenal of Argghhh! will give a "Cluebat of Argghhh!" to the first 10 people who produce a receipt for a donation of $100 or more to Project Valour-IT.*

Cluebats: For those with deeper pockets, there's only 10,9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 0 bats left! (by the way, you don't have to leave the receipt in a comment - email contact is fine for those who prefer to keep things to themselves) to qualify for a Castle Argghhh Cluebat Clique membership! If you want credit for your donation (perhaps not publicly, but you want your bat) drop a note in the comments of this post. My email address is available on the site, as well.

Donate here, or click the graphic up top.

And I'm gonna harass ya until I get those last two Cluebats spoken for.

All original ten have been spoken for. But... since the laptops cost $660 with shipping, and we've come up with $1000 for readers of Castle Argghhh!, I'll put up three more - so we can get *two* with some change left over. Thanks guys!

Just sayin'.

Update: AFSis sez "My post is up today... and yes, I've made my donation. It's not "cluebat" worthy, but it's all I could spare."

I say - If you gave all you could spare, you gave more than most!

Here's a list of those blogs supporting this drive (that we know about - if you aren't listed, lemme know!)

[sound of sledgehammer and saws, and the occasional curse while yahoo-farkled links are fixed]

There! All better!

Mudville Gazette
The Armorer at Castle Argghhh!
Blackfive
Smash
Da Goddess
BloodSpite
Boston Maggie
Small Town Veteran
Righty in a Lefty State
Homefront Six
One Marine's View
A Rose By Any Other Name
Echo9er
AFSis at My Side of the Puddle.
The Countervailing Force
Thoughts by Seawitch
The Cool Blue Blog
Dadmanly
High Desert Wanderer
Silent Running
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Blue Star Chronicles

More on recent North Korea threats & activities- with a twist

Spook86 has a follow on to previous posts on the recent activities and threats of the North Koreans here, in which he refers to a 2003 incident of DPRK interception of an RC-135 and suggests:

One final (albeit remote) possibility is that the potential TD-2 launch is a giant ruse, designed to lure U.S. collection platforms to the area, and (possibly) attempt a forced landing in North Korean territory.

Steely-eyed sailors prove their mettle

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Many months of preparation, including hours upon hours of diligent study and practical application rehearsals, and a grueling four hour oral examination were finally rewarded here June 12.

Four Navy corpsmen assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5’s Regimental Aid Station were awarded the Fleet Marine Force Warfare Specialist designation. Even better, they were pinned by RCT 5’s commanding officer, Col. Larry D. Nicholson.

The awardees were Navy Petty Officers 3rd Class Orlando. A. Soriano, John W. Harper, Andrew W. Tuohy and Seaman Bounmy Meunsy, all hospital corpsmen.

The designation authorizes the sailors to wear the FMF insignia, commonly referred to as the ‘FMF Pin.’ It signifies they achieved a level of proficiency in Marine Corps war fighting.

“The FMF pin gives the corpsmen instant street credibility with the Marines, and that’s pretty damn important,” Nicholson said.

Any Navy personnel serving in the “Fleet” can earn this pin. The four corpsmen mastered 20 different subjects – from Marine history and organization to communication procedures and infantry weapons.

A two-part written test – one for basic topics and a second that’s specific to their command – was part of their test. In their case, the RCT-5 corpsmen focused on ground combat.

The sailors passed both portions before going before an oral examination board.

The end result, though, was wearing their pride on their chest

What'cha doing in 2012-2018?

Well by any measure, if RADM Chris Parry, RN is right - you will be kissing your U.S. passport and wondering when you are going to be recalled. Eddie, here is a Brit who has no problem saying stuff in public.

ONE of Britain’s most senior military strategists has warned that western civilisation faces a threat on a par with the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Roman empire.

In an apocalyptic vision of security dangers, Rear Admiral Chris Parry said future migrations would be comparable to the Goths and Vandals while north African "barbary" pirates could be attacking yachts and beaches in the Mediterranean within 10 years.

Europe, including Britain, could be undermined by large immigrant groups with little allegiance to their host countries — a "reverse colonisation" as Parry described it. These groups would stay connected to their homelands by the internet and cheap flights. The idea of assimilation was becoming redundant, he said.

Parry predicts that as flood or starvation strikes, the most dangerous zones will be Africa, particularly the northern half; most of the Middle East and central Asia as far as northern China; a strip from Nepal to Indonesia; and perhaps eastern China.

He pinpoints 2012 to 2018 as the time when the current global power structure is likely to crumble. Rising nations such as China, India, Brazil and Iran will challenge America’s sole superpower status.

This will come as "irregular activity" such as terrorism, organised crime and "white companies" of mercenaries burgeon in lawless areas.

The effects will be magnified as borders become more porous and some areas sink beyond effective government control.

Parry expects the world population to grow to about 8.4 billion in 2035, compared with 6.4 billion today. By then some 68% of the population will be urban, with some giant metropolises becoming ungovernable. He warns that Mexico City could be an example.

NPR and Daniel Schorr

Sometimes, the two of them? In combination? They drive me nuts. A sample:

“From Guantanamo to Haditha, the administration’s war on terrorism occasionally reveals some stark contradictions. I am still trying to understand how a squad of US Marines could kill up to 24 civilians in Haditha, including women and children, and then claim they were following normal rules of military engagement. One wonders what kind of rules of engagement cover house to house shooting and hand grenades."

I disagree with Mr. Schorr, at length. My place.

Re: Ignorance of the (Military) Law is No Excuse

AL, I just posted a response to that very same article at Op For.

While I was a little easier on Umansky than you were, I admit I don't have your legal background to fall back on.

My problem with the Slate piece was the premise in which it was based. Umansky was upset that it took so long for an investigation to be launched into the civilian deaths in Haditha, so he decided that the military legal procedure -as a whole- needs "improvement."

I don't want to write the same response twice, so here's part of what I wrote at my place:

The fact that the military considered Haditha a legal engagement prior to Time magazine politicizing the situation should be telling. But while the military is still trying to ascertain exactly what happened at Haditha, Umansky has already taken the next step, saying, in essence, that "there was a massacre, and shame on the military for taking 4 months and the prompting of a magazine to launch the proper investigation."

I don't like the whole implication of guilt that Umansky is selling.

Ignorance of the (Military) Law is No Excuse

Slate's Eric Umansky has a fairly drippy piece today titled "JAGged Justice" (get it? Because we're JAGs! *sigh*) Anyway, the piece argues for...an independent prosecutor(?) for the Army. Aside from the default reaction of WTF, let's delve a lil deeper into GEN Umansky's proscription for all the ills facing the military justice system.

Cluebats available.

But there's only 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 left.

The Media is Allergic to Heroism

Most of us are fully aware of the allergic reaction the mainstream media have to heroism, but when you read it in terms such as this...

While ABC, CBS and NBC have chosen to highlight this potential scandal [Haditha], a new Media Research Center study finds those same networks have given far less attention to the heroic deeds of the 20 members of the U.S. military who have received the highest recognition for bravery since the war on terror began. In fact, 14 of the country's top 20 medal recipients have gone unmentioned by ABC, CBS and NBC.

***

ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to mention the heroism of Marine Captain Brian Chontosh, who led his men out of an ambush during the drive to Baghdad in March 2003. "I never wanted a medal. I just wanted to save my Marines," Chontosh told the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle in 2004. Nor have they reported on Marine Sergeant Scott Montoya, who ran into a hail of gunfire to save five wounded Marines. Later, Montoya told the Orange County Register that all he could think of was the Bible verse: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

...it's apparent that a cure is badly needed.

Nearly every surviving medal recipient has told their story publicly, and many are recounted in Home of the Brave, the last book by former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, just published. There's no question the media must not hide bad news from the public. But can't they balance the portrait with true stories of America's newest heroes?

Read it and weep. Absolutely shameful.

Re: North Korean Missile Test

A NK missile launch may be an excellent time for us to run a test of one of our Alaska/California based missile interceptors.

Imagine the message it would send for us to knock one of North Korea's test missiles right out of the sky.

Conversely, imagine the message it would send if we missed.

Another threat from North Korea? Missile launch, anyone?

This time, it may be a missile launch, as noted here based on this.

Kim J Il is so "ronery."

Update: More news here and more info on the TDP-2 here with this wonderful quote:

The Taep’o-dong 2’s major use is as a weapon of international blackmail. Easily equipped with a nuclear weapon, it is the first direct threat to the United States from North Korea. It will likely be used as a threat of nuclear escalation in response to any American intervention during a second Korean war. Just as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Lt. Gen. Xiong Guang Kai stated that Americans “care more about Los Angeles than they do Tai Pei,” North Korea will likely rely on American unwillingness to lose cities rather than withdraw from Korea. In addition, it will likely be used to blackmail wealthier countries for energy and food, similar to how the North Korean nuclear program has been used. It is also a major income generator as an item for export.

Ramadi Offensive?

The Los Angeles Times (consider the source) is reporting that an Iraqi/MNF offensive to expel insurgents from Ramadi may be imminent.

I'm skeptical, myself. Not sure why, just doesn't smell right to me.

Counting

via WaPo

McCaffrey said on NBC's "Today" program that the United States has 17 brigades in Iraq now but that "in my view, we can't sustain more than about 10 brigades in the long term. So we've got to start coming out."

If I count a rotational overlap in Ramadi I can only find 16 brigades, actually 15 brigades + 3 battalions of Call Forward Force, unless a unit gets extended, it will be 14 Brigades + 3 battalions of Call Forward Force shortly. It really would be nice if the "Experts" would actually update their notes.

Re: Greatest Western of All

Eric Blair and I had a long debate about this one day. I think we decided that Shane was the quintessential Western, but that High Noon might be the greatest. The two films were made at roughly the same time. Shane captured everything that had gone before in the Western film, and distilled it into its classic forms.

High Noon then took those same forms and shattered them against each other which -- like atoms splitting -- released a tremendous energy. Because of High Noon, we got The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and even Rio Bravo, which its director made because he rejected the premise of High Noon. John Wayne also hated it.

That list of things inspired by High Noon is also a short list of competitors for the title of "Greatest Western of All," I'd have to say. Eric would want me to mention the John Wayne cavalry films, too, which I'm glad to do. Still -- in terms not only of the film's power, but also its ability to inspire, High Noon would have to remain my choice.

RE: Project VALOUR-IT

We need a hook for this to get donors excited, some sort of challenge.

The inter-service rivalry thing has already been done, to great effect. Maybe this time, we could each sponsor one or more individuals requesting computers, so for every $660 raised we would have a success story to share.

Thoughts?

Greatest Western Of All?

Is "The Searchers" the greatest Western of all or am I just getting sentimental because it finally got the majestic DVD treatment it richly deserves (along with the buildup from waiting 2-3 weeks for it to work through the maze of US military mail)?

Re: Cost of Armor

The question I've had with the HUMVEE for quite some time is not whether the Up Armoring etc was worth the tradeoffs, but whether it is the right vehicle for the job to begin with?

Would it not be a wiser decision to double or triple production of Strykers(or other vehicle)rather than having endless upgrades and add ons for the HUMVEE?

IMHO - The Humvee was never envisaged as an Urban Combat Vehicle.

The Cost of Armor

The Dayton Daily News over the weekend published a lugubrious hit piece about the US Military’s up-armored HUMVEE. (I reach for the million dollar word if only because you will rarely find a better example in print of what the word means.)

They center the product of their “six-month Dayton Daily News examination” on grieving military families that lost loved ones in HUMVEE roll-overs. More on the overall tone of the DDN piece later.

CNN clamors atop the HUMVEE story, publishing an Associated Press wire story, evidently based on the DDN report, and involving the same sources:

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Thousands of pounds of armor added to military Humvees, intended to protect U.S. troops, have made the vehicles more likely to roll over, killing and injuring soldiers in Iraq, a newspaper reported.

"I believe the up-armoring has caused more deaths than it has saved," said Scott Badenoch, a former Delphi Corp. vehicle dynamics expert told the Dayton Daily News for Sunday editions.

The Culture Of Caution

Simon Jenkins is primarily discussing the ineptitude of British politics and government officials, but he might as well be describing American homeland security efforts as well.

Ministers should say openly that the public must accept some danger so as to maintain freedom of speech, movement and civil liberty in Britain. They should take the public into their confidence by speaking the language of proportionality.

Better safe than sorry is a cliché, not a guide to policy. Carried to its present conclusion, it means that nobody will believe what politicians say and people will stop trusting the police. The only winner is the terrorist. .

Bounty Hunting

An interesting new counterinsurgency strategy is appearing in Thailand, which has been facing a stiff insurgency in its southern, Muslim-majority provinces. Short form: the government, long attached to the idea of gun control, has decided instead that citizens should protect themselves -- and that they may pay cash rewards to anyone who does so successfully.

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,
If I ever hear airmen griping and complaining, I jump into them pretty quickly, now. Most people over here have nothing to gripe about compared to Marines. Marines are different. They have a different outlook on
life.

One Marine Private was here for several days because he was a lower priority evacuation patient. He insisted on coming to attention and displaying proper military courtesy every morning when I came through on
rounds. He was in a great deal of pain, and it was a stressful to watch

READ MORE HERE

It's time to act - not just type. Well, if you're a blogger..

We'd like you to type, too.

In a comment thread over at Greyhawk's place, Milbloggers got hammered because we were perceived as not being authentic "milbloggers", because we weren't properly spouting off about every bad thing that was going on in and around the military. Leaving aside the fact most of us exist to *counter* all the bad news, which is more than adequately covered elsewhere, I made another point - that instead of just bloviating, we *act*.

The time has come, ladies and gentlemen, to *act*.

The Arsenal of Argghhh! will give a "Cluebat of Argghhh!" to the first 10 people who produce a receipt for a donation of $100 or more to Project Valour-IT.*

Now I'll let Fuzzybear Lioness run with the tale.

Valour-IT has run out of funds again. Right now we have a waiting list of eleven wounded warriors who need our help, and the list is still growing.

Marine Lt. Gen. Amos recently said:

When we send them off to do the nation's bidding in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq and they're wounded, we're not returning the same individual... When we send them back wounded there is a piece of me that says I haven't kept my bargain. What's left for me to do is to continue taking care of them. [source]

It's left to more than generals to continue taking care of them. It's left to all of us. And part of how we take care of the wounded is by helping them reconnect and rediscover their self-sufficiency in a way that supports their recovery. A voice-activated Valour-IT laptop is a huge part of that support.

When I shared the article about Lt. Gen. Amos with someone who has a great deal of expertise in leadership and management, her instant reply was, "What a leader!" Yes. And like any good leader, Amos is leading by example. Will you follow?

"It's a function of loyalty," the 59-year-old general said. "In Marine speak, it means fidelity. It's a wonderful word not used very often - except in the Marine Corps. It means faithful. It implies faithful almost to a fault...

"I owe it to them."

So do we.

-- FbL

How To Make John Of Argghhh Cry

Put him in charge of this.

(Via email, apparently from EHOWA, a site way not safe for work)

True Words Indeed

Said the guy on watch, this one time, at band camp: "Nothing good ever happens at three o'clock in the morning."

Baby Noor Rescuers Get Anne Frank Award

Something to warm the heart on a Sunday evening:

Baby Noor Rescuers Get Anne Frank Award

By Moni Basu

They followed their Christian principles and helped save a Muslim baby.

Now a humanitarian organization upholding the legacy of a famous Jewish girl is honoring the Georgia Army National Guard soldiers who shuttled Baby Noor out of the slums of Abu Ghraib for medical treatment in America.

"That's the way things ought to be," said 1st Lt. Jeff Morgan, a Douglas County engineering inspector who is one of eight soldiers who will receive the Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award in New York on Monday. "It's a very special thing.

"Normally National Guardsmen would not get such an award," Morgan said. "It's an honor."

The Anne Frank Center decided to recognize the Georgia soldiers because their actions were in line with the legacy of the Jewish girl who perished at the Bergen-Belsen death camp under Nazi Germany, said the center's development director Mary Geary.

Unwanted Product Placement

This NY Times story demonstrates that "product placement" isn't always a good thing:

HIBHIB, Iraq, June 10 — In the ruins of the palm-shaded home where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi spent his final moments lay the scraps of a life.

There was a leaflet from the Council of Holy Warriors, the militant organization that Mr. Zarqawi's group, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed to have joined.

A page from an Arabic edition of Newsweek magazine, dated May 2, fluttered in the dirt. A flattened carton of Crown pineapple juice lay nearby. A half-used tube of Deep Heat balm offered "Fast Relief From Muscle Aches and Pains."

The bits and pieces scattered Saturday through the ruins in Hibhib were the remains of the American airstrike that killed Mr. Zarqawi and five others Wednesday, when a pair of 500-pound bombs obliterated the brick house and left a crater 40 feet wide and deep.

"A big hole, sir," said Sgt. Maj. Gary Rimpley, 46, of Penrose, Colo., who reached the scene shortly after the bombing.

Meanwhile North Korea threatens

North Korea (DPRK) threatens US "spy planes" as noted here.

Back in 1969, the DPRK shot down a U.S. EC-121 as remembered here. This was preceded by the attack and capture of USS Pueblo (AGER-2) in 1968 as remembered here. And by the DPRK here.

War of Attrition

Rear Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the commander at Guantanamo, on three inmates discovered to have hanged themselves using their clothing and sheets to fashion makeshift nooses:

"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

Threat Deflation, The Perils Of....

Chap has a great point when he notes the perils of threat deflation (as well as threat inflation). One needs to find a balance of analysis when considering what path to take strategically and tactically with regard to a relationship with China. So the flip side to the military industrial complex’s thirst for a new “peer competitor”/Cold War would be the businessmen who see no wrong in China whatsoever and only want to proceed full speed ahead with China, outright ignoring and/or stifling concerns about human rights (especially religious and ethnic rights), rule of law, environmental devastation, China’s disturbing proliferation regime, unexplained arms buildup, endemic corruption and China’s avoidance of a stakeholder role in the current globalization system.
Interestingly though, right after these two sides, you have the human rights advocates who blindly push for a Chinese democracy without any real concept of what it would be, how it would work and what kind of effect it would have on inflammatory nationalism, ethnic cleansing and capitalism unhinged.
Most people seem to ignore the fact that China (much like India) is an empire.....

Arguments

My attempt at constructing a chronological look at coverage of the Haditha incident is ongoing. I'm not opening comments there until it's complete, but I offer these two excerpts for feedback from anyone who'd care to comment here.

Much has been said about a Reuters cameraman being in Haditha at the time, focused on the lack of original massacre reports from that source. However, the Reuters story says "the town has been virtually shut down for the past two days as US and Iraqi forces try to impose order", indicating limited mobility for that cameraman. Claims that the "bodies in the street" quote is inconsistent with other reports are also mistaken - there were several attacks in Haditha that day and even in this case it's known that several Iraqis were shot by coalition forces in the streets. Additional reports that this cameraman had previously been detained by coalition forces have no apparent bearing on this story.

A December report on the Iraqi elections quotes a member of the Hammurabi Group discussing voter turn out. Several reports have questioned why the issue of the Haditha incident wasn't raised by this individual at that time. However, as should be obvious, lack of reference to that event in the election story is no evidence that he did not attempt to do so.

But feel free to convince me I'm wrong (or right). That's why I put these here.

Re: Marine's Accounts

I've got some analysis here.

Our friend Allah offers a bit more than quotes from the story too.

Noted, Quoted

Linked in Steve's entry below, but worthy of more exposure:

ABU DHABI — The US troops in Iraq do not carry out target killing of civilians in the war-torn country, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi Foreign Minister, has asserted.

‘The US forces do not kill civilians. Yes, civilians got killed in Haditha and other places but it is the terrorists who target civilians in Iraq,” said Zebari, to a question posed by Khaleej Times on measures adopted by his government to protect civilians.

Z.A.S.=Zarqawi Avoidance Syndrome

The formative years for me were a large part taken up by the mid-to-late 70s and the national nadir that all represents. As a young’un I remember seeing “The Wind and the Lion” and wishing that we could be THAT America (invented as it was), and not the Carter America that seemed, to me at least, the worst possible reaction to just about everything. National security, music, clothing, cars…what? Tell me there was anything of any use to that time but the Farrah Faucett poster?

Anyway, I think we may be getting close.

Members of an armed Fatah militia which claimed to have kidnapped an Israeli Saturday transferred the individual in question, a U.S. citizen, to the custody of the Palestinian Authority before dawn Sunday.

The PA security forces subsequently handed the American over to the Israel Defense Forces. Defense officials believe once the militants discovered the person was indeed an American citizen, they took steps to end the matter quickly.

“Apparently, the kidnappers did not want to end up like Zarqawi,” a defense official said.

Marines' Accounts of Haditha

Front Page of Sunday's Washington Post. Read it all here: Marine Says Rules Were Followed. Credit to the Washington Post for the front page coverage. My first question:

Puckett said that while Wuterich was evaluating the scene, Marines noticed a white, unmarked car full of "military-aged men" lingering near the bomb site. When Marines ordered the men to stop, they ran; Puckett said it was standard procedure at the time for the Marines to shoot suspicious people fleeing a bombing, and the Marines opened fire, killing four or five men.

"The first thing he thought was it could be a vehicle-borne bomb or these guys could be ready to do a drive-by shooting," Puckett said, explaining that the Marines were on alert for such coordinated, multi-stage attacks.

Iraqis in the Haditha neighborhood interviewed in recent weeks said the vehicle was a taxi carrying a group of students to their homes and that the driver tried to back away from the site, fleeing in fear. One account said that the Marines shot the men while they were still in the car.

It's 7:15 in the morning. The bomb has just went off. I don't know Iraqi culture, but do students take taxi's to school? Second thing, why would students be in a taxi going "to their homes" at 7:15?

More here and here. See the Update with the Iraqi FM's words on US forces and civilians.

Paras 21, T-ban 0

No, it's not an insane World Cup score - just an update on our cousins' travels:

Paras Kill 21 Taliban In Fierce Fight Among Alleyways

The first significant encounter between soldiers of the Parachute Regiment and the Taliban involved close-quarters fighting among alleyways and mud buildings.

It was an early indication of the challenges facing British troops recently deployed in southern Afghanistan.

Within 10 seconds of disembarking from their Chinook helicopters outside the village of Nauzad, the troops came under heavy fire from insurgents hidden in houses and behind walls.

As machinegun bullets and rocket-propelled grenades cut through the air, the Paras ran for cover, returning fire only when they could identify the enemy, Major Will Pike, commanding the 100-strong A Company, told the BBC.

Off you go now. Cheers!

Re: Gitmo Suicide

Here's the SOUTHCOM press release on this morning's suicides at Gitmo:

Three Detainee Deaths at Guantanamo Bay

MIAMI – Joint Task Force - Guantanamo announced that three detainees died of apparent suicides early this morning. Two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards. Medical teams responded quickly and all three detainees were provided immediate emergency medical treatment in attempts to revive them.

The three detainees were pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted. The names of the deceased are not being released. The State Department notified and is in ongoing discussions with the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The remains of the deceased detainees are being treated with the utmost respect. A cultural advisor is assisting the Joint Task Force to ensure that the remains are handled in a culturally and religiously appropriate manner.

The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has initiated an investigation, per standard operating procedure, to determine the cause and manner of death.

Detainees are held at JTF-Guantanamo because they are dangerous and continue to pose a threat to the U.S. and our allies. They have expressed a commitment to kill Americans and our friends if released. These are not common criminals, they are enemy combatants being detained because they have waged war against our nation and they continue to pose a threat.

Additional briefings will be forthcoming.

###

Well, Gosh Darn

Three detainees commit suicide at Guantanamo

Washington — Three detainees have died at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in what the U.S. military said Saturday was likely a joint suicide protest. They were the first reported deaths at the detention centre for suspected terrorists.

Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells" early Saturday, according to a statement from the U.S. Southern Command.

Attempts were made to revive the prisoners, but failed.

Re: Good News Overdose

GH, I picked up a copy of the LAT this morning and was immediately drawn to the same story. Unusually optimistic for the Times, although the violence in Sudan claimed a more prominent spot on page 1's layout.

Barnes, Moore, and Miller did a thorough job writing the story. Good pick.

At the risk of good news overdose, here's the Los Angeles Times, page one

Raids Target Zarqawi Group

U.S. strikes dozens of sites, hoping to weaken Al Qaeda in Iraq. Cities brace for retaliatory violence after the terrorist leader's death.

BAGHDAD — The United States conducted at least 56 raids against targets connected with Abu Musab Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq organization in the 48 hours after his death, seeking to capitalize on the killing by disrupting his network of fighters, military officials said.

After killing Zarqawi and five others Wednesday by bombing his hide-out, U.S. forces conducted 17 raids in Baghdad and at 39 additional sites Thursday and Friday, said Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Haditha

I'm reconstructing the past few month's developments in the Haditha case here - adding bits through the day. Lots of stuff floating around, but I don't think anyone has put it all in one place yet.

Not butting in to the investigation, of course, just tracking the media reports. The situation is fluid, obviously, and we all know what nailing Jello to the wall means, but I just love to hammer.

If nothing else, should be a useful resource for future efforts.

Quick work

Guess who was on the front cover of this week's Economist magazine?

I wonder who else they've got "in the can" - just in case.

Re: Feeding the Enemy

The AP is just trying to make me feel happier.
Zarqawi being beaten to death sounds much more satisfying than an instantaneuos death via bombing.
(Yes mom, I know, we should treat monsters with love and compassion)
But alas, potentially life saving chest compressions would almost certainly look like "a beating" from a distance.

Surprise Surprise

Murtha to Run for House Leader if Dems Win

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he`ll run for House Majority Leader if the Democratic Party wins control of the chamber in the November election.

The announcement by Murtha, an Iraq War proponent turned critic, has set up an internal struggle with Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., currently No. 2 in the House Democrat`s leadership chain, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Certainly explains why Murtha would risk embracing the solidly anti-war Democratic base while representing a majority Republican district. Posturing for a national Democratic seat these days takes, first and foremost, a stringently defeatist attitude on Iraq.

Wonder if he's speaking at the Kos Konvention?

Yon vs. Shock

I'd just like to echo Greyhawk's call to battle, here's the link again.

Help Mike out, please.

Why the Left Rejects the Military and its Heroes

Yesterday I asked: What explains the genesis of anti-military bias that we so often cite by those in the MSM?

Cap and I offered our answer to this question in our controversial afterword to Home of the Brave. Our argument is that the Left's animus toward the military, and the use of aggressive force more broadly, is inextricably linked to the Left's love affair with moral relativism. Allan Bloom, of course, was one of the first to sound the alarms with the publication of his conservative classic, The Closing of the American Mind, which is easily in my top 15 books of all time. But Cap and I contend that ultimately the Left rejects the military for a simple reason: the use of aggressive action necessarily implies that one is fighting a moral and just cause. However, once you believe that it is impossible to bifurcate between right and wrong/ good and evil, you cede all grounds upon which to justify the use of lethal force.

Here's how Cap and I put it in Home of the Brave's afterword, which is titled "Have the Mainstream Media Ignored Our Heroes?" [ten bucks says you can guess which side we come down on]

If you believe, as many in the mainstream media seem to, that concepts like "good" and "evil" are subjective and up for interpretation, then the word hero is meaningless. And that's the problem.

Many in the media find words like hero too black and white, too judgmental, too certain of our nation's purpose and essential goodness. In a world where there is no distinction between good and evil, by definition, heroes cease to exist. That's why the earlier quote from the head of Reuter's News Service, one of the largest and most powerful news organizations in the world, is so revealing. It illustrates that reporters of such ilk draw no distinction between the terrorists and our own soldiers. "After all," they reason, "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist." And since accounts of military valor do not comport with the strong liberal bias found in many media organizations, you can be sure these stories of valor and heroism will not be retold, at least not by the mainstream media.

The Left rejects the military--and the lethal force it represents--because the military follows a code of black and white, us vs. them. As one of the heroes Cap and I profiled in the book explained, in a moment of mortal danger there is little room for second-guessing or moral equivocation; it's kill or be killed. At base, therefore, the Left rejects the moral certitude that necessarily animates the American soldier, sailor, airman, or marine. And it is this predisposition that, in part, explains the Left's perennial opposition to the guns in the fight.

Oops.

Once again, the Recruiters (and those gullible recruits haven't absorbed it in 3 years, either) are not reading their DU/Kossack instructions.

The regular Army signed up 5,806 new recruits last month, compared with its target of 5,400, and the Army National Guard and Army Reserve also exceeded their May goals, according to statistics released by the Pentagon.

All the other services met their goals, too.

Feeding the Enemy

Rather than focus on the evil context of a man who no longer exchanges oxygen, such as orchestrating the intentional bombing of Iraqi children in Baghdad as they gathered to get candy from US troops, the Associated Press decides to grab one man's tale and headline it with "Witness Says U.S. Troops Beat Al-Zarqawi After Bombing."

An Iraqi man who was one of the first people on the scene after an airstrike that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told Associated Press Television News that he saw American troops beating a man who had a beard like the al-Qaida leader.

The witness said he saw the man lying on the ground, badly wounded but still alive. He said U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him. His account cannot be independently verified.

So, if the report cannot be independently verified, why is it being headlined?

I think we know the answer to that question.

Who, precisely, is the Associated Press associated with? Why the constant witchhunt against the US military when the murderous civilian targeteers are on prominent display every day?

I am gritting my teeth in anger and disgust and have no other words suitable for publication. Ernie Pyle, where are you???

Re: The Perils Of Threat Inflation

First, I must apologize if I made it seem I am a 4GW acolyte. In truth, I feel most of the time most trends in the world (including Chinese ambitions and how to deal with them) fall somewhere in between the diametrically opposed worldviews of 4GW/Global Guerrilla acolytes and Pentagon's New Map true believers. Thus, China is neither a nation teetering on the edge of inner and outer turmoil nor is it a rapidly progressing member of the global power elite.

How then to deal with China? First, a post (beyond Lind) about threat inflation, as well as an implicit acknowledgement of the difficulties of bridging the budget gaps between the needs of today's "Long War" and the possible "war with China" of the uncertain future.

Re: The perils of threat inflation

The historical status of Formosa/Taiwan/The Republic of China is substantially grey. Taiwans history includes being a Dutch colony, Spanish Colony, Japanese Colony, French Colony(for about 9 months) and most recently, a colony of the Government of China in Exile, in the form of Cheng Kai Shek.

Yon V Shocked - the Next Round

It ain't over:

A deal is only good if both parties adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the terms. Within days of announcing that we’d reached a tentative settlement agreement with HFM, the French publishing conglomerate, for their unauthorized use of my photograph on the cover of their inaugural issue of SHOCK magazine, we learned of the first instance of HFM already violating the spirit of the proposed settlement. Now, on Friday of the same week that began with both parties announcing having come to potential agreement, and before final signatures could be affixed to the legal documents, it is clear that HFM has broken faith with the deal.

The manner in which this behemoth has conducted the negotiations raises questions about whether it ever intended to act honorably in the first place.

Mike's also set up this page, where you can find even more information. I actually am shocked at the list of stores where this rag is sold. (There are several near you.)

Zarqawi: The Stain

The AP wonders where are we going to bury the trash.

ZARQA, Jordan - The family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said yesterday that it wants to bury him in his hometown, but Jordan vowed that the terror leader who killed Jordanians in a triple hotel bombing would never "stain" the country's soil.
<...>
Zarqawi's brother, Sayel al-Khalayleh, said "I and all members of our family want [Zarqawi] to be buried in his hometown of Zarqa."

"Everybody must understand that his place must be near his family," he said by telephone. "He is a martyr and should be treated as such."
<...>
A top Jordanian security official said yesterday that the government would not allow Zarqawi "under any circumstances" to be buried in Jordan and "stain Jordanian soil." He pointed to the suicide bombing against hotels in the capital, Amman, in November 2005. Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq organization carried out the attack, which killed 60 people, most of them Jordanians.
<...>
After the Amman bombings, Zarqawi's family and his broader clan, the Bani Hassan, took out newspaper ads publicly renouncing their ties to him. But with his death, many in the town were calling him a martyr in sympathy with his cause, if not all his actions.
<...>
The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment on where Zarqawi's body was or whether it would be returned to his family for burial.

Re: Anti-Military "Pity"

From today's guest op/ed in the Chicago Tribune:

...military troops today must be more disciplined, mature, emotionally stable, morally sound and intellectually astute than ever before.

Unfortunately, these are traits the military fails to nurture or reward adequately. Instead, an unsettlingly pervasive drumbeat of Pattonesque, chest-thumping, rabble-rousing rhetoric about the virtues of "warfighting," "warfighters" and "warriors" fosters a climate far more conducive to intolerant aggression than to the stoic self-discipline that urban warfare in hostile foreign lands demands. This testosterone-laced climate provides tacit, subliminal license for troops to choose the undisciplined moral low road in the face of stress, fear and fatigue.

By the way, his central point is that military officers, except for those retired Generals who attacked Rumsfeld, are cowards.

Update: Sorry, Salamander, didn't realize he was a friend of yours.

Zarqawi was Framed

Details here.

Re: Not A SEAL, But A SWO

I posted this at my home blog before I saw Wynton's post below; it should be noted that the "manny" in queston only wanted to be a SEAL, but he had too many Academy demerits -- he actually became a skimmer surface warfare officer before he took up the really dangerous Hollywood stuff.

One More Reason to Become a Navy SEAL

Navy SEALs: Britney's hiring.

I know I'm only a civilian, but I gotta figure being called a "manny" can't be considered terribly cool among one's brothers-in-arms.

But I digress...

They Pity Us

Wynton asks: what explains the genesis of anti-military bias that we so often cite by those in the MSM?

I wouldn't call it an anti-military bias per se. Rather, I think most of the MSM is just so unfamiliar and mind-numbingly ignorant with the military, how it functions, the very fact that it HAS an ethos, etc, that they simply CAN'T report accurately.

For example, when we launched Operation Swarmer, there were more than a few reports mistaking the "largest air assault of the war" for "dropping buttloads of bombs" rather than the AA operation that it actually was. Multiply that by a few thousand more examples and it'll sure LOOK like intentional bias...

Compounded with that (willful?) ignorance is the fact that for much the MSM, the only frame of reference they have is the Vietnam era, which ain't the most mil-friendly reference point.

Are there some that genuinely dislike the military? Of course. But for the majority, if you asked them, would probably sincerely deny it and claim that they support the military. But that "support," such as it is, tends to come from a very paternalistic place. It's the view that most are just ig'nant white trash with nothing better to do than go where this dastardly government sends us.

Call it the "you poor thing" mentality, they support us to the same extent they "support" a retarded kid struggling with a Rubix Cube--with pity.

As to whether liberalism is incompatible with the warrior ethos, we'd first have to figure out what constitutes modern liberalism. As soon as the actual liberals figure that one out, let me know...

(cross posted to Army Lawyer)

The Essence of Anti-Military Sentiment

During a recent radio talk show interview for Home of the Brave, a host asked me whether I thought there was an anti-military "conspiracy" among the mainstream media. Despite Cap Weinberger and my spirited critique of the MSM, for good or for ill I'm preternaturally wired to reject most conspiracy theories. Thus my on-air response reflected as much.

But here's my question, especially for those who have or do wear the uniform: what explains the genesis of anti-military bias that we so often cite by those in the MSM? To say that liberals dominate the MSM is to state the obvious. I'm asking a much deeper question; namely, are the tenets of liberalism simply incompatible with the warrior ethos?

Peter Beinart's recent call for a "muscular liberalism" seems, to some, a contradiction in terms, oxymoronic to its core. I'd be interested in what others think about this. Moreover, what would "muscular liberalism" look like in practice, assuming such a posture is even possible?

Haditha: More Inconsistencies

Something happened in Haditha, and while this compilation doesn't prove that nothing happened, it certainly does raise questions about what did.

In the extended section you'll find a different example of an "insurgent information operation" from late last year.

Human (Un)Intelligence (HumUnt?)

Mike Tanji swears It’s like we’re trying to lose. I have to agree.

While you're there, check out this Oldie but Goodie.

Based on the last two posts, you'd think I was making a commission from Mike for pushing GroupIntel. I'm not. He's cheap.

But he's a stand up guy and his young blog has become one of my favorites in short order. Figured maybe there are a few around these parts not familiar with it yet. He always seems to find a good nugget or two splashed with professional insight. And, as the former proprietor of some obscure blog called "The Word Unhead", I am predisposed to nuggets and burried information treasures.

Check GroupIntel out, see what you think.

RE: Spy Case

Though without any entertaining names, this is an awefully close spy case.

Re: The Perils Of Threat Inflation

Eddie, you've not convinced me with that quote, from that guy.

I'd worry about both threat inflation and threat deflation. The risk of the former is wasting resources; the risk of the latter is rather different, eh?