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No, it's not an insane World Cup score - just an update on our cousins' travels:
Paras Kill 21 Taliban In Fierce Fight Among AlleywaysThe story contains this nod to proper British fighting etiquette - a statement worded specifically for the consumption of the discerning reader: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.Rooooiiight then. Remaining bits are in the extended section, to which I can only say "jolly good show, chaps, what? Simply smashing."
Off you go now. Cheers!
Here's the SOUTHCOM press release on this morning's suicides at Gitmo:
Three Detainee Deaths at Guantanamo BayMIAMI – 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.
###
Three detainees commit suicide at GuantanamoAccording to the story there are "about 460" Gitmo-dwellers still clingng to life.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.
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.
Raids Target Zarqawi GroupIt's been a good week to be Caldwell.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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I'd just like to echo Greyhawk's call to battle, here's the link again.
Help Mike out, please.
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.
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.
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???
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.
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.
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.Read it all.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.)
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.In Islam it's a matter of importance to the faithful that the deceased be interred within 24 hours. While that's not possible, time is of the essence. I think we can help resolve this difficult situation. Comments are open if anyone has any good ideas for the disposal.
<...>
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.
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.The author, Gregory D. Foster, served in Vietnam in the unit responsible for slaughtering as many as 500 civilians at My Lai. His complete and utter ignorance of today's military defies description - if that's what it is. His talking points seem more designed to pander to others whose complete and utter ignorance of the military can't be over-estimated.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.
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.
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...
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)
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?
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.
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.
Though without any entertaining names, this is an awefully close spy case.
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