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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.
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.All of us I'm sure can understand how major news media might hesitate to report these other details out of the report from the Multinational Force Iraq news releases:
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.Sure, we all can see how none of that is news.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...
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?
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.Just part of the summer Carnival of Courts Martial. A lot of nasty stuff is coming into the light here about the cancer in our institutions building leaders. It has nothing, BTW, to do with women. It has everything to do with strong leadership; IMAO, yet respectfully submitted rant. Take some time to read the imbedded links because it covers Cadet Smith, MIDN Owens, LT Black, and a lot of folks trying to get to their PRD with their careers intact. Ignored problems never get better; that goes for everyone.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.
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.
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.
Oh dear. Unhappy skimmer in the comments.
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.
...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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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