More evacuation vessels

[Eagle1]

Additional ships to perform NEO as posted here.

Include a Saudi Ro-Ro ferry and an Italian ship.

Oliver Stone goes All-American

[CDR Salamander]

A year ago when I heard that Oliver Stone was making a movie about what started it all, 911 and the World Trade Center, well, I about had a cow. I was wrong. Details and video trailer here, but this is a bit from Cal Thomas

I have a long list of favorite patriotic movies, including "Victory at Sea," "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Sands of Iwo Jima," but Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" is right up there with the best of them. It is one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-faith, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see.
...Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This is one of his best. It deserves an Oscar in so many categories. It also deserves the thanks of a grateful nation. Go and see it beginning Aug. 9 and make him a large profit so he might consider inspiring us again, as his predecessors so often did during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Now, if we could just get him to make on of the U.S. Light Horse in late 2001....

Oops.

[John of Argghhh!]

"Hey, Viper! Is the bomb release the *white* knob or the *red* knob?"

"Red, why?"

"Oh, nothing. Just curious."

B-52 mistakenly drops bombs on nearby lake

Associated Press
KANOPOLIS, Kan. - Corey Armstrong and his friends got some company while swimming at Kanopolis Lake on Wednesday - nine practice bombs dropped by accident from a passing B-52 bomber.

"I just saw them, when they hit, it was four splashes pretty much at the same time," said Armstrong, 16, of Salina. "The bomber started flying in circles after that."

Lt. Col. Jeff Jordan, commander of the nearby Smoky Hill National Guard Range, said the bomber dropped the bombs by mistake while on a training mission. He said the plane is based at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

Jordan said the bombs, all of which apparently hit the water, were filled with concrete, not explosives, and didn't pose a threat to the public.

He said the base in investigating why the bombs were released.

H/t, Larry K, who lives in the shadow of the Guns of Fort Riley.

Meanwhile, In Iraq...

[John of Argghhh!]

From CENTCOM:

IRAQI ARMY, MND-N SOLDIERS LAUNCH OPERATION GAUGAMELA

Release Date: 7/20/2006

Release Number: 06-07-02P

Description: KIRKUK, Iraq (July 20, 2006) – Thursday morning, Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division and Bastogne Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division simultaneously surrounded and entered the cities of Hawija and Riyadh, just west of Kirkuk, searching for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists as combined Operation Gaugamela (gaw'guh-MEE-luh), gets underway.

The ongoing operation, requested by local Sunni Arab leaders, follows a series of terror attacks in the area, and comes as there are reports indicating the presence of al-Qaeda terror cells in the area. In the past five weeks, 31 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in terrorist attacks in the region and just three days ago six policemen were killed in Hawija.

In Hawija, Bastogne Soldiers and Iraqi Security Forces surrounded the city, blocking off escape routes, as another combined force air assaulted into the market in the heart of the city. The units are cordoning off the area and searching for terrorist forces. Meanwhile, Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces surrounded the village of Riyadh, approximately 10 miles away, and are also searching that city.

Operation Gaugamela is named for the battle in which Alexander drove the Persian army from the city of Gaugamela.

They understate it a tad.

Gaugamela:

Alexander:
7,000 cavalry
40,000 infantry

Darius III: Approx. Various estimates are given... The size of Darius's force is not accurately documented - estimates range from 45,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry to 200,000 cavalry and 800,000 infantry with around 200 scythed chariots and 15 war elephants.

Outcome:

Alexander: Around 150 infantry and 1,000 cavalry killed and wounded.

Darius III: Depending on who you read - just about everybody. 300,000 is a figure tossed around a lot (which makes that low estimate of troops for Darius a bit troublesome unless there was some double-counting going on...).

If you want some more detail on the original Gaugamela, try Wikipedia. Be nice if we could split Iran.

You've Got to Hand it to Them...

[Wynton Hall]

If the MSM spin any harder they'd screw themselves into the floor.

Incredible.

NEO: America Has Spoken

[Greyhawk]

CNN is all over it:

Despite complaints that the effort to evacuate many of the estimated 25,000 American citizens in Lebanon is moving too slowly, 53 percent of poll respondents said they believed the United States has done a good job evacuating its citizens. Twenty-nine percent said the job was poor, and 18 percent were unsure.

I think the question itself is absurd.

Other interesting results:

The Enemy of My Enemy is NOT My Friend

[Soldier's Dad]

via NY Sun

CAIRO, Egypt — One of Saudi Arabia's leading Wahhabi sheiks, Abdullah bin Jabreen has issued a strongly worded religious edict, or fatwa, declaring it unlawful to support, join or pray for Hezbollah, the Shiite militias lobbing missiles into northern Israel.

Interesting times.

Moving Americans out of Lebanon

[Eagle1]

U.S. builds capacity to move people out as noted here. Recurrent press theme: "Why did it take so long?"

Part of the answer:

Responding to criticism that the Pentagon has been slow to organize the evacuation of up to 25,000 Americans compared with the evacuation of Europeans by their governments, Whitman said the emphasis has been on security. American citizens are tempting terrorist targets, and the operation -- which got underway Sunday when the State Department requested the insertion of an 18-man planning team -- takes into account safety "first and foremost," he said.

"The goal here is a safe, orderly organized disciplined evacuation of American citizens," he said.

Another part is that logistics, especially involving ships, takes time. I'll bet that not all of the Americans being evacuated in arrived in Lebanon on the same day. And the U.S. doesn't keep empty ships bobbing about waiting for refugees...

DoD photo of USS Nashville (LPD-13) by Chief Petty Officer Dave Fitz, U.S. Navy.
(cross posted)

UPDATE: Australia has had some trouble getting its people out:

All Australians will share their relief and hope that the thousands trapped in Lebanon can soon be rescued. Until now, the rescue mission by the Australian Government had been chaotic. A ship that was supposed to be chartered by Australia had been "double-booked". This sequence of events, however, cannot be blamed entirely on the Government. It was after all, as Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, a war zone. But surely, given that acknowledgement, more could have been done earlier.

It's my understanding that the Canadians outbid the Aussies for the "double-booked" ship. A relatively clear statement of the situation is set out here:

The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the failure so far to get a chartered ship in shows just how hard it is.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: And it's complicated by a number of factors. First of all, the whole issue of chartering ships is reasonably chaotic, secondly even when you charter a ship it's very hard the ship into the port. And that's partly because the security situation sometimes is bad and the Israelis recommend against using the port at certain times. And secondly the port's facilities have their limitations.

LOUISE YAXLEY: But he's not giving assurances that any of the ships Australia is trying to charter will steam into port.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: We have chartered, we have contracts to charter ships to arrive in Beirut on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and if all of those ships are able to get into Beirut, and that a very big qualification - if they are - we will have enough capacity to take out around 6,000 people. And that will probably be more than we need, but we're not sure that we will get these ships into Beirut.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Downer says he understands the frustrations, but says all nations are facing the same problems.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Some nationals have got out, but the same controversy, I'm afraid, has erupted in every country. It's just very, very difficult to get people out. I mean, some people have got out, some haven't.

Send in the Marines

[SMASH]

Elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Group have landed in Beirut to provide security for noncombatant evacuation operations.

Now we just wait for the complaints from the evacuees that the Marines "took too long to get there," or "were scaring the chlidren with all their guns."

Speaking of the Fairy Godmother Dept...

[John of Argghhh!]

Simply.amazing.

My bookings were always handled by the Practical Joker Dept. If this is where all that karma went.... good.

October 23, 1983

[Andi]

A fateful day in Beirut, Lebanon. One Marine, Clayton Smith, remembers.

I lost a friend LCpl Johnny Copeland on that day in 1983, I retired from the Marine Corps in 2002 and there is seldom a day goes by that I do not think what would have become of Johnny, if he would have retired from the Corps, Who he would have married what he would have named his children. I imagine these feelings are multipied 241 times by friends and family of all those brave men, the Marines, Sailors and Soldiers who lost their lives to the first mass terrorist attact against America, please let's not forget...

There's a way you can help honor the victims of that terrorist attack. Click here for details.