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Site contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com
AMMAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday his government's forces would be able to take over security command from U.S. troops by June 2007 -- a move which could allow the United States to start withdrawing.
"I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007," Maliki told ABC television after meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan.
First, let us qualify "take over security command". It would mean carrying out the daily manpower intensive tasks of patrolling and searching. The US would still provide Mitts, Logistics Support and Quick Reaction Forces.
Has al-Maliki taken one two many hits from the crack pipe, or does he know something the MSM doesn't...let's see.
Greyhawk,
I think it is going to be worse than we thought. Cliff May was an advisor, and he has put out a War Warning about what is waiting.
I’ve been a member of the “expert” advisory group of the Baker/Hamilton panel. The frustration I and a few others faced: We thought our task was to develop options to move forward in Iraq. Most of our colleagues thought the task was to develop options to move out of Iraq.I hope his report is wrong - but I doubt it. Sigh.
...
They were unconvinced by the case that I and a few others were making: That if the U.S. mission in Iraq sinks, it won’t just be Captain Bush and his neo-con crew that will drown. America will have a lost a key battle in a serious global conflict.
"The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday."
It's a big turn. In fact, the new direction in Iraq looks like it's going to be 360 degrees off from the one we've been going in - that's as big a turn as you can make.
As Army Lawyer noted below, the UN concurs.
There’s a new website poking fun at the Navy from the inside called GearAdrift. I guess you could say this is our version of the Air Forces Chairforce only most of the stuff isn’t written by a cranky Airman called Joe the Fat.
Check them out, I think the site has some good potential.
Plus check out their plans on refurbishing our carrier fleet!
Will the real Ramadi please stand up?His answer at the link."The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq [Al Anbar Province] or counter al Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report," began a front-page article in yesterday's Washington Post by Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks. It concerned the so-called "Devlin Report," a five-page document allegedly filled with gloom and doom. It contrasts completely with my article Return to Ramadi, in the Nov. 27 Weekly Standard, in which I write that the largest city in the province is slowly being reclaimed from al Qaeda. By coincidence, the day my article hit the stands the Times of London published an extensive article coming to the same conclusion as mine. But for the timing, you'd practically think one of us had plagiarized the other.
Why such different conclusions between our articles and the Post's and whom to believe?
You know that guy Jesse MacBeth? Allah does...just scroll to the bottom past the four hundred pound fake Marine...
Just saw John Kerry on Larry KIng (transcript not yet available as of this posting) claim that our own generals are saying that our military presence in Iraq is making the situation worse. I've heard numerous generals state the exact opposite - that our presence is the only thing keeping it from becoming worse, but I'm not sure which generals Mr Kerry is quoting here, and he didn't provide names.
Anyone have some specific quotes? These would have to be actual quotes - not claims made by others about what generals said. Otherwise, looks like deja vu all over again.
Update: Here it is:
KING: You met with the Iraq Study Group, I believe, on Monday.Any inclination as to what they're going to say?
KERRY: I think it's important for them to say what they're going to say and I don't want to violate that.
But I will tell you point blank, I said to them what I have been saying publicly consistently, which is that the American presence, according to our own generals and to our best experts, is making the situation worse.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.
Noble Americans,
We have so much in common. Both our nations are God-fearing, truth-loving and justice-seeking, and both seek dignity, respect and perfection.
Both greatly value and readily embrace the promotion of human ideals such as compassion, empathy, respect for the rights of human beings, securing justice and equity, and defending the innocent and the weak against oppressors and bullies.
We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings.
So why can't we acknowledge these universal values, and come together against our common enemy, the filthy Jews?
Somehow, the Washington Post has managed to distort the conclusions of a secret intelligence assessment on the situation in Anbar so grotesquely as to somehow morph Marine Corps Colonel Peter Devlin's recommendations for smashing al-Qaeda in Iraq into a fantastical military mea culpa, instead concluding that Devlin insists that it is impossible to defeat al-Qaeda or the insurgents.
Please forgive the self-reference, but in Distorting Marines As Martyrs, an attempt has been made to initiate a vigorous defense of Colonel Devlin, who in fact asserts that with another division (15k - 20k troops) and the Fallujafication of Ramadi, al-Qaeda can be defeated in Iraq.
One must conclude that, as a responsible commander of Marines, Colonel Devlin was not making the recommendation as a means to a more dignified and glorious death and certain defeat.Yet, the Post’s opening sentence states that, according to Col. Devlin’s assessment, “The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda’s rising popularity there.” Why then a recommendation of an additional 20,000 troops if the “U.S. military is no longer able to defeat” al-Qaeda and the insurgency? Marines are not in the martyrdom business. If the open can be this wrong, what ensues in the rest of the article is surely a literary minefield with cherry-picked sentence fragments strewn about in order to support an article that opens with its (flawed) conclusion.
The Post writers almost certainly agree - with a great many others - that fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is a proper fight. They also clearly believe that the United States should withdraw from Iraq. To that disjointed logic and those who share it, I offer that "Those who advocate fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan yet would opt not to engage them in Iraq exhibit a logical disconnect and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the enemy and the jihadi fight he brings."
Colonel Devlin is in Ramadi and clearly understands the nature of the enemy. And he deserves a vigorous defense in the face of leaks and wild distortions in Washington.
1) http://www.operationhomelink.org
- Free computers for spouses or parents of deployed soldier in ranks E1- E5.
2) https://store.primediamags.com/soldier2/service_member_pg.html
- Free magazines, up to 3 choices, for deployers.
3) http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/2/prweb106818.htm
- Free mail/gifts sent to children of deployed soldiers.
4) https://www.operationuplink.org/
- Free phone cards.
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday."To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks -- it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse," Obaid said.
News is starting to trickle out of the NATO Riga summit. Neither a full victory for the "can we be a grown up Alliance" crowd, but not a defeat either. Some movements on caveats, some new equipment and troops.
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed the relaxation of "caveats" on deployment in Afghanistan.The sad thing is, some major troop holding nations are still willing to let better nations do the fighting and dying.He said about 20,000 of the 32,000-strong Nato force were now more usable for combat and non-combat missions.
"We have made real progress on caveats," he said.
...
Those agreeing to ease the restrictions on deployment against the Taleban include the Dutch, Romanians and smaller nations such as Slovenia and Luxembourg.
...
The summit also saw several countries offer additional troops and training teams, while France agreed to send more helicopters and aircraft.
France, Germany, Spain and Italy have said they will now send help to trouble zones outside their areas, but only in emergencies."Emergency" subject to definition. Baby steps.
UPDATED: Some of you emailed that you were having trouble with the Paypal link. Link has been fixed, see below.
Operation Santa/Bethesda & Walter Reed, a project designed to bring some Christmas cheer to our wounded troops who will be confined to a hospital bed over Christmas, is in full swing. Click here for background. Quantico-based Marines, and their families, have been generous in their support of this worthy project. Quantico will become home base for stuffing hundreds of stockings, which will be delivered to patients at the hospitals on Christmas. As of today, we're only $2,130 away from our goal. Please consider a donation, no matter how small. Your donation will support a worthy cause, and it's also tax-deductible.
Click here to donate (use the pink Operation Santa button), and (very important) be sure to note that your donation is for Operation Santa Bethesda & Walter Reed in the "payment for" field.
If you prefer to mail a donation of money or gift cards, you can use the following address:
Marine Corps Family Foundation
Operation Santa - Bethesda & Walter Reed
4000 Lancaster Drive- Suite 57
Salem, OR 97309
Thanks for your support. It's never fun to be stuck in a hospital, but less so during the Holiday season.
I'll post more info in the extended entry section.
...for the Iraq Study Group to guide us to victory. Might be a long wait.
Members of an independent commission on Iraq policy could not reach a consensus Tuesday on how many or how long U.S. troops should remain in Iraq, forcing the group to return for a third day of debate, according to an official close to the panel's negotiations.
I see at the Castle that John Donovan is a Dungeon Master. Having met him at I MBC, I find this not at all surprising.
Actually, I'd imagine (if it were possible to study it) that role playing gamers are overrepresented in the military. Let's say you grew up imagining what it would be like to be a hero -- well, now you're 18. Would you rather pursue a degree in accounting at the local college, or JOIN THE MARINES?
I once made a passing comment about Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. on the blog, which got an immediate response from former Marine Doc Russia. He wrote in the comments, "Holy Smokes! I used to play that game when I was a kid. I used to play it a lot."
Well, naturally.
UN council extends U.S.-led force in Iraq one year
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously renewed the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq through the end of 2007, granting a request from the Baghdad government.
...
The resolution authorizes the Iraqi government to terminate the force's mandate at any time over the next year if it so chooses.
Good news. No word if the resolution contemplates a US decision to terminate the mandate by withdrawing.
The operative elements of the resolution:
In light of the exposure of a significant amount of questionable - if not fraudulent - recent reporting from Iraq, it's worthwhile to acknowledge that there is a bloody battle ongoing there. I know folks here are well aware of that, but I'm actually surprised that so far Sadr's goons haven't retaliated in force for the attack last week - while it's possible Maliki might actually have him under a bit of control (they reached some agreements a couple weeks ago, and this attack was probably designed to derail that process) - that may be still to come.
In fact, it may be coming soon.
A couple points on Sadr - one, I don't think he's as much "in control" of his goon squads as many believe (I've mentioned this before), and two, I'm not convinced he won't chose a political solution to resolve this current situation. Given item one, I'm not sure item two matters all that much anyway.
...then I usually tolerate in a blog post. Work safe (no photos) but not for kids.
Information war, that is.
Patterico has an update on his Ramadi story here, and an apologetic letter from CENTCOM here.
Meanwhile, that Flopping Aces post we've been following this past weekend has attracted so much attention he's gone to a back-up site. CENTCOM has demanded a response from AP on that story - full text at Flopping Aces.
Brief excerpts from each CENTCOM letter below the fold. You'll want to read them.
Sailors from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, are every bit a part of the Fleet Marine Force, and they have the badges to prove it.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Donald A. Shenck, a 44-year-old hospital corpsman from Harrisburg, Pa., Petty Officer 2nd Class Richard S. MacPartland, a 23-year-old hospital corpsman from DeKalb, Ill., and Seaman Joe T. Caruso, a 24-year-old hospital corpsman from Norwell, Mass., all with Headquarters and Service Company, were awarded the Fleet Marine Force pin Nov. 18.
"Adrenaline rush" doesn't describe what it's like to stand next to a tank as it fires. It's as if Thor, Norse god of thunder, got his Viking shorts in a bunch because someone makes a noise louder than him, so he grabs hold of the adrenal glands and squeezes for all he's worth.
Here's the first Spirit Spot I've seen for this year's Army-Navy game. Has anyone else seen any others flying around the 'net?
Rangel's proposal to revive the military draft is a sick joke. Nobody in the military wants the draft. Rangel's fellow Democrats are embarassed by his antics. His proposal has less chance of passing the House than the Washington Redskins do of winning the Stanley Cup. And even if it did, President Bush would veto it without a second thought. It's hardly worth mentioning.
Indeed, I wouldn't have mentioned it at all, if Rangel hadn't regurgitated the tired old slander that only those with "the least opportunities" volunteer to serve in the military.
Why don't we give our SS the same lov'n? We don't come even close to a mythology like this. We don't have a song anything like it.
Anyway, everyone loves the Beautiful Loser....and the German U-boats and their men were, professionally, beautiful.
John, thanks for that post. The new structure and refurnishing of U-505 is a great exhibit, and the docents do a good job of trying to explain what it's like on a diesel boat--they even got most of the smell out. Too bad they couldn't have popped your ears when they simulated launching a torpedo, and let kids move levers and things!
The first time I saw U-505 was in enlisted 'A' school, when U-505 was at the museum with sold out tickets...and USS Silversides, an American WWII boat, was moldering on a pier downtown, supported by vets and a few visitors. Silversides eventually left Chicago (lack of interest, maybe?), which is a pity.
We tend to forget our own, sometimes. USS Requin in Pittsburgh has a good exhibit built around it as part of a science museum, and Bowfin is an attraction to Pearl Harbor visitors to the Arizona memorial, but more often it's more like the poor USS Marlin, on blocks in Omaha at some distant place and locked up (due to bums relieving themselves and sleeping there in the winter) and behind a locked fence (a squabble with the park owner and the city has closed the exhibit such that I've never seen it open).
Put visually and overstating the case, here's how we memorialize the Nazi sub, with a big building and exhibits and tickets in the middle of Chicago:
and here's how we memorialized USS Bullhead, a WWII boat that has a park named after it in Tampa in the bad side of town, unimproved since the seventies as far as I can tell, with a couple of Mk-14 torpedoes on sticks and a brass listing of the dead mounted on flaking painted concrete:
Of course I overstate the case, but sometimes we don't do so well at remembering what's important.
I took advantage of the 4 day weekend to take the kids to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. While there, I made sure we went to see the new hall for the U-505
Darn hall is as dark as I imagine a sub pen to be...
Various news agencies are throwing the word "Civil War" around.
I wish such an innocuous description of Iraq could be correct.
IMHO The war in Iraq is a regional proxy war.
The fear should not be that it somehow morphes into a full fledge civil war.
After all, if it is merely a civil war, then eventually the Iraqi's will either tire of killing each other, or there won't be any Iraqi's left. Either way, the impact on the comforatable lives of the American tribe would be limited, and US Congressman only care about the comort of those that can vote in US elections.
Nope, the danger in Iraq is that the two prominent regional powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, will end up going nuclear.
(The Saudi's have money and oil, if they wanted to be a nuclear power, it would merely be a matter of signing some oil contracts and writing a few checks with the Chinese ,North Koreans or Pakistanis)
If we are going to toss terms around and talk about such things as "strategic redeployment", then we should toss another term around.
Armageddon
At Tarin Kowt, the 11 members of U.S. Special Forces A-team 574, with a few dozen Afghani fighters, called in airstrikes to defeat a convoy of hundreds of Taliban forces on their way to attack the village where Hamid Karzai was based. It was a pivotal battle, and a crushing psychological blow for the Taliban. Team Captain Jason Amerine tells the story and Lt. Col. David Fox analyzes the battle's significance.Five years ago. Another "made for Hollywood" movie that we will not see. Abu Ghraib, sure! Tarin Kowt? Nosomuch.
What is it with the 1968 mythology mindset lately? See what I mean here.
Because spelling is a tool of the imperialist warmongers.
(via Powerline)
After reading the excellent work by bloggers Patterico and Flopping Aces, this lead from AP stringer Bassem Mroue set off a few mental alarms:
Mortars Set Fire to US Base in Iraq (AP) --
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, setting it on fire, police and witnesses said. A large cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Baladiyat, a predominantly Shiite area of capital, at about 3 p.m.Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that "indirect fire rounds" had landed in the vicinity of the coalition forward operating base, but he refused to describe the results of the attack, saying that would allow "the enemy" to assess its effectiveness.
The fact that there is indirect mortar fire in a war zone barely qualifies as "news-in-brief" material, yet the AP floated this as today's top story. Think of it this way. Mortars are used at the squad and platoon level, the basic warfighting elements in our combat infantry units. They are a scant step above heavy machine guns as far as warfighting tech goes. To a servicemember, running this story at the top of the fold is the rough equivilant of the Washington Post frontpaging a story on Cletus and Gilbert discharging shotguns in the Washington National Forest. It simply does not make sense.
Triggered by the work of Patterico and Flopping Aces, I ran a quick search into Mr. Bassem Mroue. I wanted to know why he felt this was earth-shattering news. Sure enough, Mroue's less-than-even journalistic practices were exposed earlier this summer by the blogosphere's ever-alert media watchdogs.
Here's short list of bloggers who have covered Mr. Mroue's agenda-driven reporting.
NRO Media Blog
My Pet Jawa
Newsbusters
Now whether or not anti-Israeli bias translates to anti-American bias is subject to speculation. In my experience, it usually does, particularly when you're talking about Arab stringers. But the question in itself segues into another important topic: the credibility of blogger critiques on MSM reporting.
While chatting informally with a journalist -a pro, so to speak- about the upcoming 2007 Milblogging Conference, the reporter groaned "oh man, this isn't going to be 3 days of trashing the media is it?"
Caught a bit off-guard, I stammered out a "well, yeah. I suppose that'll be part of it." Integrity counts. The inadequacies of the media were discussed at length during 2006's conference, pretending like the topic wouldn't be a part of next year's event is would have been dishonest.
What bothered me about the reporter's question was the reflection of how the MSM views bloggers (and to a smaller extent milbloggers). To the media elites, we're just a bunch of armchair quarterbacks who are constantly telling them how poor they are at their jobs. Which is somewhat ironic, in that I felt the same way about journalists and the military. Still, that perception blinds reporters to the very real, very specific grievances that milbloggers have leveled against media giants regarding their coverage in Iraq, issues that should be seriously considered instead of callously dismissed.
During the 2005 conference, I never heard a panelist throw out an ambiguous, hazily phrased critique of war reporting. Instead I heard laser-focused grievances: "reporters never leave the Green Zone," or "they are employing stringers with ties to the insurgency."
These are valid complaints, and are most certainly directly related to the plummeting popularity of MSM rags and rising popularity of independent embeds like Roggio, Yon, and Totten.
Bassem Mroue's case alone should be a blazing red flag to the AP. When indirect mortar fire in a war zone is headline news, something is wrong. When the Pentagon is forced to stand up an entire unit dedicated to fighting reporting inaccuracies, something is wrong. When a major news network airs enemy propaganda thinly disguised as a story, something is wrong. Breathing in all of that foul air at once leads me to believe that something is rotten.
Doctored photos, suspect stringers, slanted reporting, all of this helps the enemy. If military bloggers don't have a dog in this fight, then who the hell does?
(I suppose I could call this post "Another Re: CENTCOM...)
A sidebar to Patterico's and Flopping Aces' stories we've been following here - both bloggers have received input from military PAOs on the ground.
This is a damn good sign. And they aren't getting "happy happy joy joy" responses. Flopping Aces has a list of recently media-quoted "MOI [Iraq Ministry of the Interior] spokesmen we are tracking since the middle of November and trying to verify" - an acknowledgement of the complexity of the "information war" and the engagement of PAOs therein. It's not a short list.
But "engaged" is the key word, and it's great to see that bloggers are being recognized as key allies (perhaps "weapons" is a better term) in the battle.
Update: For the Record is still going strong too. (And if you haven't read all three links in this post, I encourage you to take a few minutes and do so.)
...to the Anbar Salvation Council :
Al Qaeda attacks Al Anbar tribeThis is big. Remember al-Qaeda's threat to kill the "renegade" Sunnis after Ramadan? Since the tribes "have given their men to the Ministry of the Interior to serve as Iraqi Police" and the coalition has given significant resources in support, they're going to have a tough time delivering.
Sunday, 26 November 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20061126-01
Nov. 26, 2006Al Qaeda attacks Al Anbar tribe
Multi-National Corps – West PAOAR RAMADI, Iraq – Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the Abu Soda tribe in Sofia Nov. 25. In response, Coalition Forces provided support to the Abu Soda’s fight against Al Qaeda.
“The American’s have come to the aide of the Abu Soda tribe. They have understood the dire situation [that the Abu Soda are currently battling the Al Qaeda], because [the Americans] see it as a fight against a common enemy,” said Sheikh Ahmed, Sheikh of Abu Resha.
After establishing positive identification, Coalition Forces conducted air strikes and fired artillery at Al Qaeda forces attacking the Abu Soda Tribe.
Al Qaeda forces attacked through a tribal area check point and engaged the Abu Soda in Sofia. Al Qaeda burned homes, and killed members of the tribe using small arms fire and mortars.
There were no reports of Coalition or Iraqi Security Forces casualties during this fight. Both Al Qaeda and the Abu Soda suffered casualties but the exact numbers are unknown at this time.
According to Sheikh Ahmed, “The Abu Soda tribe that is being led by Sheik Jassim and supported by Sheikh Abbas from the Abu Mahal have given their men to the Ministry of the Interior to serve as Iraqi Police. Al Qaeda has decided to attack the tribes due to their support. The terrorists have gone to a neighboring tribe and have brought fighters to attack the Abu Soda.”
The Abu Soda and Abu Mahal are both members of the Sahawat Al Anbar (Awakening Council) started by Sheikh Sittar of the Abu Resha tribe.
But the significance of it will likely be lost on Western media, where you might see it depicted as Americans taking sides in Iraq's Civil War. (That would certainly be the POV for some "stringers".) Even if that characterization is accurate, I'd have to agree with Glenn Reynolds: "I don't know if we can pick winners, but we may be able to pick a couple of losers"
Update: Earlier this month, in Washington, Senator McCain called for more troops.:
Sen McCain: Would it make sense to say it might be well to get both Baghdad and al Anbar province under control...?Perhaps he'll understand this one then.Gen Abizaid: ...You can't have a "main effort" everywhere... the preponderance of military activity needs to go into the Baghdad area.
Sen McCain: I don't understand that tactic, General.
Welcome to MilBlogs, Instapundit readers - there's a lot of news from Iraq this weekend, and a lot of military bloggers commenting on it here. If your interested in a look beyond the headlines from folks who know the business, start here and scroll.
Iran says will help U.S. if it quits Iraq
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran was ready to help the United States and Britain in Iraq but only if they pledged to change their attitude and withdraw their troops.
This offer is like when you are at a party and your girlfriend is drunk and she wants you to run to the store for something but you don't want to leave her alone. And the only person around is that guy you kind of know, but don't really trust because he's all sorts of shady and kind of a scumbag, and he says "No man, go ahead, I'll keep an eye on her for you."
Her name is not usually thought of in nautical terms, but World War I North Sea mines couldn't sink her, she took shots at the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
Her follow-on helped clear mines off Japan after WWII.
Details here.
OPFOR's resident Foward Air Controller is also calling shenanigans.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMuch more at Flopping Aces, who is communicating with CENTCOM on some aspects of the story, and has yet another appearance by the Association of Muslim Scholars.
RELEASE No. 20061125-09
Nov. 25, 2006One Mosque Burned in Hurriya
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAOBAGHDAD — Contrary to recent media reporting that four mosques were burned in Hurriya, an Iraqi Army patrol investigating the area found only one mosque had been burned in the neighborhood.
Soldiers from the 6th Iraqi Army Division conducted a patrol in Hurriya Friday afternoon in response to media reports that four mosques were being burned as retaliation for the VBIED attacks in Sadr City on Thursday.
The Soldiers set up a checkpoint near the Al Muhaimen mosque at approximately 2 p.m. and found the mosque intact with no evidence of any fire at the location.
While investigating the Al Meshaheda mosque, the patrol received small arms fire from unknown insurgents. The patrol returned fire, and the insurgents broke contact and fled the area. A subsequent check of the mosque found the mosque intact with no evidence of a fire.
At approximately 3:50 p.m., a local civilian reported to the patrol that armed insurgents had set the Al-Nidaa mosque on fire by throwing a gas container into the mosque. The patrol pursued the insurgents but lost contact with them.
The Soldiers called the fire department and set up a cordon around the mosque. Local fire trucks responded to the scene and extinguished the fire at approximately 4:00 p.m. The mosque sustained smoke and fire damage in the entry way but was not destroyed.
An alleged attack on a fourth mosque remains unconfirmed. The patrol was also unable to confirm media reports that six Sunni civilians were allegedly dragged out of Friday prayers and burned to death. Neither Baghdad police nor Coalition forces have reports of any such incident.
Note that Iraqi soldiers went into harm's way in response to bogus media reports - and were attacked. Hopefully the media will extend the courtesy of covering this debunking with the same intensity they devoted to the original.
'Military denies mosque attacks' is probably the best we can hope for.
Update: Corrected original to properly identify soldiers involved.
In case you haven't had enough conversation with the home folks this weekend, from Glenn Reynolds
I don't know if we can pick winners, but we may be able to pick a couple of losers, which may be good enough. (Seeing that the right people lose is important, after all). The Sunnis seem to have picked themselves as losers, and to be doing their best to ensure that they'll be driven out of the country in response to their campaign of terror.My part of the conversation here.UPDATE: I don't think that what's happening to the Sunnis is a good thing; I just think they've brought it on themselves by foolishly stirring up a civil war that they can't win. They haven't been as canny as I'd hoped. What's going on now is a political, not a military problem -- we'd rather it were a military problem because we're better at military matters than politics -- and it will require an Iraqi political solution. The Sunnis, however, seem to me to have ensured that it will be a solution that they don't like.
USA Today factoid:
Iraq war about to equal time U.S. spent fighting WWIIOf course, we haven't left Germany or Japan yet either. (Or Korea, for that matter).The Iraq war is about to reach a benchmark that puts it on par with World War II by one measure: Sunday, it will have lasted the same number of days — 1,347 —that the United States fought the Axis.
On a related note, at the current rate the US military death toll will surpass that of the 1.5-year long Mexican War (13283) in another 10 or 12 years or so. I'm not going to do the math on how long it will take to equal WWII's U.S. death toll (the comparison is ridiculous, and only an idiot would make it) but we've already had more killed than on D-Day. Eclipsing the month-long battle for Iwo Jima could happen soon though - maybe another 4 years or so.
A better comparison might be the Phillipine's war (1899-1902) - 4300 American dead, and loads of accusations of imperialism and torture too. Of course, we have left the Phillipines, so that war appears to be over for now.
In the 3rd Grade, Mrs McCann made me stand in the corner, facing the wall for an entire day.
In the 11th Grade, the teachers handed out so many assignments in the last 2 weeks of school, I had to work thru the night to complete them. I don't even want to mention the cruelty of finals week in University.
Apparently, these acts have reached into the highest offices of Government
via Reuters
MADRID, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq..."The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorised these specific techniques."
A look back at press coverage of the aftermath of the Samarra Shrine bombing.
Violence? No doubt. Exaggerated? Probably, but false reports and rumors do as much to fan the flames of "sectarian violence" as do actual attacks, especially when those reports are carried without qualification by a supposedly legitimate media source. Is that going on now? Who knows. A direct attack on Sadr's home turf will (perhaps ironically) likely spawn more violence than the attack on a revered shrine. But as the LA Times has more recently demonstrated, unlikely claims will be reported as facts without question.
AR RAMADI, Iraq – Iraqi soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Division, conducted a census and security operation in western Ramadi Friday.The operation sets the conditions for the 2-1-7 IA to assume the lead and take responsibility for their portion of the city. Once the area of operations is officially transferred to 2-1-7 IA, they will be the third and final battalion in the 1st Brigade, 7th IA to own an area of operation in Ramadi.
Patterico offers a great example of why you can't believe everything (or anything, for that matter) you read in the papers. The LA Times says there was a U.S. airstrike in Ramadi in which "at least 15 homes were pulverized " and "30+ people, including women and children" were killed. Patterico got responses to his own questions on the issue from a PAO In Ramadi and a CENTCOM spokesperson - both stated there was no airstrike at all. The Times had no comment from anyone in DoD, and hasn't updated their story.
Read the whole thing for good reasons to believe the military claims on this one.
I'd add that if it were true, this might be the largest air strike ever in Iraq, requiring multiple platforms to achieve that much devastation. A lot of other nearby structures must have been damaged too. It would be awfully gutsy of DoD to deny that any air strike occurred that day at all, since absolutely no one in the city (including the Reuters reporter Patterico cites who did not mention the incident - and every US military member there) would be unaware of it.
John of Argghhh could tell us how much ordnance his boys would have to lay down to take out a city block - Lex or John Noonan might be able to clarify whether we could (or would, I should say) level that much ground in one shot from above. Can anyone explain why the LA Times can't even balance their story?
While the Marines in Ramadi and an officer at CENTCOM took time to respond to Patterico, the LA Times would not - beyond this:
As I mentioned above, Moore never responded to my e-mail, which I sent out Monday morning. I copied it to the Readers’ Representative, who sent me her own response, which is fairly summarized as follows: “The answer to all your questions is right there in the article.” Of course, it wasn’t — which made the response even more amusing.Update: Here's Lex.
Last year when "Our Guys" were still in the Sandbox, I couldn't go into any store it seemed without hearing "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and it broke me up every time... Seems that's likely again this year because there are plenty of our Guys still there...
So I thought I'd take this opportunity to gently remind everyone as we go about shopping for the holidays, to remember to fill a box or two for our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen.... or be sure to drop by Soldiers' Angels Holiday for Heroes and make a donation to their efforts to be sure that No Soldier Goes Unloved... I've put up my annual list of suggestions if you're stuck for ideas over at Some Soldier's Mom with a link to the mailing dates...
And revenge attacks for that...
Angry Shi'ites Muslims launched reprisal attacks on a Sunni mosque, political headquarters and several Baghdad neighborhoods, a day after a series of blasts and mortars killed more than 200 Shi'ites. And a powerful Shi'ite bloc has threatened to pull its support from parliament if the prime minister meets next week in Jordan with President Bush.More:
Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the previous day's attack on a Sadr City slum.The straw that breaks the camelbacks? Stay tuned.
Update: The bottom paragraphs of the second linked story:
Also Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 22 insurgents and an Iraqi civilian, and destroyed a factory being used to make roadside bombs, during several raids north of Baghdad.During three of the coalition raids, soldiers killed 10 insurgents near the city of Taji, which is 12 miles north of Baghdad and home to a major U.S. air base. An Iraqi teenage boy also was killed and a pregnant Iraqi woman was wounded in the crossfire, the military said.
U.S. aircraft were called in to destroy a factory being used to make roadside bombs, and soldiers searching the area also found hidden caches of rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons and pipe bombs.
Many U.S. soldiers are killed and wounded in Iraq by powerful roadside bombs used by insurgents.
"Coalition forces strive to mitigate risks to civilians while in pursuit of terrorists. It is always a shame when terrorists hide among civilian women and children, putting them in harm's way," the U.S. military said.
In another area north of Baghdad, coalition forces attacked three vehicles carrying 12 insurgents, including one they were searching for because he allegedly was involved in the manufacture of car bombs, the coalition said.
The soldiers opened fire on the cars when they ignored warning shots, and all the militants were killed, the military said. The coalition declined to give the exact location of the incident.
I am thankful for the News!
Whatever mess you find yourself in, enjoy!
Take a look around you... remember to be thankful for those you have and what you have -- especially your freedoms. Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving (and safe travel to those of you traveling!)
I am thankful for more... you can read it at Some Soldier's Mom
Wherever you are and whoever you are in this big ol' world, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Civ II players will appreciate this. I thought of it as soon as I saw the picture...
If you don't know the game, I can't really explain. Suffice to say, this sucks.
THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD
A Buck Sargent Epilogue
While it’s "Stryker this," and "Stryker that," and "Strykers go around," But it’s "Please to stay behind, sirs," when there’s trouble on the ground.
My long time readers know all about Dadmanly Profiles, but I want to alert readers to the start of another fine, and related series, under development by one fine Command Sergeant Major (CSM).
As SGT Hook explains in his original post, he recently undertook what has been the most challenging mission of his career, standing up a new Battalion from scratch as the senior noncommissioned officer (NCO) for the unit, the CSM. I’m flattered that, in the course of his reflections on leadership, SGT Hook had found inspiration in my Profiles:
Then, while reading the ever eloquent Dadmanly today, I found his collection of Profiles of key leaders, and was quite impressed. Add my recent reflections on past duty assignments, and I was suddenly inspired to put my own thoughts to paper (read blog) on defining just who/what a squad leader, platoon sergeant, etc. is in the Army.Hook’s a lot kinder than my own CSM. Eloquent would not have been the word he used, rather a less polite synonym for “verbose.” Who, when he (often) reached a point where I had said too much, used to say I made his brain hurt. I think it was more often exposure – to the elements for sure, preferring the Mohatma Ghandi hairstyle, but possibly also to unpleasant news… Listen, if you want more on him, read it here.
CSMs, I suppose come in all shapes and sizes, but almost all with a max decibel voice and what seems like a 10 foot standard issue frame (at least when he’s in your face). For those who don’t quite understand how the Army is organized, if the NCO Corps is the backbone of the Army, then CSMs are the spinal cord within the backbone of the Army.
I’m pleased to announce that SGT Hook has indeed commenced his profiles, with the first two installments. In the first, The Army Organized, Hook helpfully offers a primer on Army organization. I want to excerpt it in its entirety, if only because I am finding myself explaining these structures to the uninitiated – or listening to Little Manly do so, I think he’s got it down pat now!
Go check out Hook, and his first installment of The Squad Leader.
(Cross-posted with excerpts at Dadmanly.)
The "Golden 13 " were the first African-American Naval Officers, commissioned in 1944.
The last of these 13 pioneers has died, and honors are somewhat belatedly paid here.
It seems a simple enough question. To civilians living in societies where elected leaders run the show, it is a somewhat meaningless question. In a region of the world where military coups are more common than free elections , it is THE question. When the regional commander of the most powerful military in the history of the World speaks, serious people in the Middle East listen.
John Abizaid, Commander of Central Command, speaking at Harvard for 1 hour and 18 minutes on the "Long War" here.
Who in Korea approved her entry into South Korea?:
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan visited a village near Camp Humphreys on Monday night in a show of “solidarity” with local residents opposing the installation’s expansion.Sheehan was part of a group of about 20 activists from the United States who are in South Korea this week to oppose the expansion project and a proposed South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
The camp is set to triple in size in coming years and become the U.S. military’s main installation on the peninsula.
Some local residents backed by South Korean anti-US activists have been resisting the expansion since 2005.
What does Cindy Sheehan know about South Korea? Absolutely nothing. She can’t even make up her own signs. This picture is absolutely priceless.
Nimitz in a pond?
Explanation at Murdoc Online
...is now "at the lowest levels since the government was formed in May".
But you probably already saw that as the lead story on CNN or the big banner headline in the New York Times, right?
JULAYBA, Iraq - Third-degree burns now scar the face of a two-year-old Iraqi girl.
When insurgents shot a rocket-propelled grenade, initially aimed at a combat outpost occupied by the Marines of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, it veered off and struck a wall where the child was playing.
"She was at her house, which is behind our house, and when the blast hit the wall she was burned by the heat of the blast," said Lance Cpl. Jon Wier, a team leader with K Company.
The girl screamed in agony, said the 22-year-old machine gunner from Orange County , Calif.
Her parents ran to their front yard to get her, Wier said.
Michael Fumento writes of his return to Ramadi, posted at his site, and also appearing in the latest Weekly Standard.
Not to take away anything from Fumento’s must read account, but here’s his take-away on the significance of Ramadi:
People always ask how the Iraqis feel about Americans and the war in general. I respond that they just tell you what they think will prove advantageous to them, a combination of complaints and praise for Ameriki (America). Non-embedded American reporters run into the same thing. I asked one of the north Ramadi farmers through the translator if he thinks Ramadi is getting safer. He starts out with a few complaints, such as lack of water from the Euphrates for his fields because of rationing, and then tells me: "But safety is 100 percent better now that the Americans have come along." Baloney. Things got a lot more dangerous when we first came along. They may or may not be safer now than a year ago, but this guy isn't going to tell me. None of them will tell me.Fumento’s impression bears stark contrast to the prevailing “conventional wisdom” reported by mainstream media (MSM): that Iraq is a “mess,” that we can’t possibly win, that we are making no progress, that things are getting worse all the time, or that our only recourse is to salvage symbolic accomplishment and organize our withdrawal.Soldiers also give different accounts of the extent of progress in Ramadi. A Cougar driver told me nothing had changed since his last deployment, yet the very fact that he was driving into Ramadi in a convoy of just four trucks indicated otherwise. Another told me Ramadi is now "a thousand times better." Ultimately each was simply another blind man feeling his part of the elephant. With my three embeds in Anbar, I'd like to believe I've felt quite a few parts of the elephant.
Ramadi is not Baghdad, with its roiling sectarian violence and militias. As we've come to learn, Iraq probably cannot find peace until those militias are disbanded and suppressed. But neither will it find peace if the insurgents and terrorists of the Sunni strongholds like Ramadi continue to ply their trade; and despite the media focus on sectarian killings in October, Sunni insurgents still accounted for more than 80 percent of American military deaths in Iraq that month.
Put it all together--the Forward Observation Bases, new Combat Operation Posts, new Observation Posts, tribal cooperation, ever more Iraqi army and police, better intelligence, and public works projects. There's no "stay the course" strategy here; the course changes as necessary and it's continually changed for the better. I believe we are winning the Battle of Ramadi. And if the enemy can be beaten here, he can be beaten anywhere.
The real story, the entirety of the elephant to which Fumento alludes, is far more complicated, and perhaps more hope-inspiring.
Iraqis may not like the presence or predominance of American forces, they may not like or trust their government, they may fall under the sway of factions or militias, but they darn well despise the bitter-enders and their foreign terrorist interlopers.
We need more reports like these, and more on-the-ground and in-the-action reporters like Fumento. Else, we stand little chance of ever seeing more than a few square inches of elephant hide, and may think it something else.
(Cross-posted at Dadmanly)
Castle Denizen Fuzzybear Lioness has a post up that I thought should get a wider readership, so I'm cross-posting it here with her permission.
Jules Crittenden's provocative column, "Quitting a Worthy Fight Would Be a Great Mistake," has created some interesting discussion on his blog. The issue of "supporting" the troops but not the war came up in the context of the reception Vietnam veterans received upon their return home.When the U.S. military went into Afghanistan, I had a powerful personal reaction to thoughts of what was being done on my behalf. It was a reaction of overwhelming sorrow and humblest gratitude. At a level that was as yet inarticulate, I understood I was inextricably linked to what happened on the battlefield and that the aftermath of those events created in me and every other U.S. citizen a response born of moral obligation and a debt that would never be repaid. And so from that day I knew at a deeper level than ever that support for our military and its goals was my obligation now that the fighting had started.
But yesterday at Crittenden's blog, a commenter finally gave me words for what I knew in my heart five years ago. He articulated exactly why it's not only incorrect to say one can support the troops without supporting their goals, it's morally reprehensible.
I had first written in comments (in part):
...[Vietnam veteran] soldiers who came home and were told their service was either dishonorable or useless (due to us giving up) had a harder time coping with the psychological and physical aftermath of that service. Humans can bear an amazing amount of suffering if they believe it is a result of [in service of] something noble or admirable, but being told they suffer for nothing good can literally make it harder to cope.
The response from commenter NAMedic:
As a combat medic and Vietnam Veteran who is 100% disabled due to PTSD, I can confirm the general point you make. It was not until five or six years of therapy, peeling away all the layers of horror from the war, that the final root of my problems was revealed. The worst trauma was in coming home, by far, and by far it was the hardest to see, and the most painful to admit. [snip]A nation cannot ask normal human beings to engage in warfare unless that nation, top to bottom, validates what they have to do in such extremities. Normal human beings cannot remain psychologically whole, believing that their behavior was immoral - and all warfare is internally recognized by any soldier as profoundly immoral unless it is validated by a "higher power" outside the individual soldier.
Yes, it is our obligation to fight a wrong policy with every ounce of our strength before it is implemented, particularly when it involves issues of life and death. But war is a very special case, for so many lives hang in the physical and psychological balance. Once a war has begun, there can be only one course of action. To do otherwise than embrace the soldier for what he does for you is a kind of pernicious evil that takes the selfishness of one's natural desire to avoid the ugliness of this world to a new low [quote continued from above]:
This is also why the whole pose of "support the troops but oppose the war" is so insane and naive, if not deliberately and hypocritically self-serving. The "support" that counts, the only support that counts, is moral validation. If you oppose the war, you are withholding that very validation. You are destroying the soldier’s soul.Yes, this is a democracy and you have every right to think your soldiers are on a fool's errand. But once it's been started, shut the hell up! Let them do what they must to win so that the duration is shorter and the suffering is less.
With the military power we possess, we have the capacity to win any conflict (it simply matters how much damage we want to inflict), so you cannot argue that a war we are engaged in is fundamentally unwinnable. It simply comes down to whether or not you want to pay the cost. If you don't, or you think that the prosecution of that war is a bad thing, then fine. But the only other option to winning is losing. So face up to it and admit that you want our soldiers to lose, you want them to believe they are doing immoral things for no moral reason, you want their death and suffering to be in vain, and that you are (in the words of someone who has "been there, done that") "destroying the soldier's soul."
Don't you dare stand there and clothe yourself in the rightousness of being "anti-war!" For your actions are not only prolonging the conflict and increasing physical suffering (on both sides), but they are robbing your fellow citizens of the healing they require for what they have done in your defense. And no, short of taking up citizenship in another country, you cannot repudiate their gift to you. It is always there, staring you in the face whether you pick it up or not. And frankly it's a defining moment for your philosophy and and relationship to humanity: are you going to pick it up and embrace the giver in sorrow and gratitude? Or are you going to try to simultaneously kick aside his gift as stupid at best and try to tell him that walking the darkness with the demons was wasted on you as you assure him you "support" him?
This is why what Code Pink did in the beginning months of their protest at Walter Reed ("Maimed for a Lie," etc.) was so evil. This is why military support volunteers do what they do. This is why a wounded senior NCO at WR once said to a friend of mine: If it wasn't for y'all [the volunteers here], half these boys would be suicidal.
War is not something that happens to others on a distant shore. It happens to all of us, and all of us have an impact on how it plays out and what happens to those most directly involved. What's your impact?
If you haven't yet, please read NAMedic's entire comment at Crittenden's; he has important things to say.
{oops! Forgot to turn on comments, sorry!]
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon review of Iraq has come up with three options — injecting more troops into Iraq, shrinking the force but staying longer or pulling out, The Washington Post reported Monday.The newspaper quoted senior defense officials as dubbing the three alternatives "Go big, go long and go home."
Those who haven't been mucking around on the fantasy side of the blogosphere this weekend probably missed all the discussion about how the Navy is about to attack Iran with the Eisenhower and Enterprise Strike Groups -- it got so bad, it even infected Hugh Hewitt's site. All of them seem to have missed that the Enterprise, rather than getting ready to attack Iran, pulled back into homeport this weekend after a very successful deployment.
Also, former Gary Hart military advisor William Lind is an idiot. We're not going to attack Iran before Christmas, no matter how many people think President Bush is a warmongering dictator. More here.
Re the Tennessean article (standard caveats apply: we've only got one report, first reports are always wrong and always believed, more going on than we know, remember my extended explanation of the promotion process for another LT who didn't make LCDR, etc.):
Lex has some good thoughts...
Thus the conundrum: In attempting to satisfy the laudable intent of simultaneously increasing the quality and diversity of our workforce, planners found themselves inadvertently sidestepping into an accession policy that was racist in effect.Understanding how we got here and why the policy was flawed is important even though it was rescinded in a matter of a few weeks. But it’s also important to know that young officers can challenge what they believe to be - and what were later proved to be - illegal orders without fear of professional consequence.
- no, we are talking about a desire to look so much like the photographs on their glossy propaganda sheets they will short change a smarter child of a Bosnian war refugee in favor of the son of a Grenadian-American New York investment banker for a scholarship strictly on the basis of the color of his skin.
By the way, turns out the guy is a writer (link is for a table of contents, a Proceedings article with the tagline "There is a difference between managing people and leading personnel. The Navy needs to focus on leading instead of managing."). This should get interesting.
Pat Conroy wrote, among other things, The Great Santini. I remember he was on the radio talking about his new book a couple of months ago--something about his old basketball team. Turns out there's a little more there to it than what I heard on NPR:
...It was that same long night, after listening to Al's story, that I began to make judgments about how I had conducted myself during the Vietnam War.
In the darkness of the sleeping Kroboth household, lying in the third-floor guest bedroom, I began to assess my role as a citizen in the '60s, when my country called my name and I shot her the bird. Unlike the stupid boys who wrapped themselves in Viet Cong flags and burned the American one, I knew how to demonstrate against the war without flirting with treason or astonishingly bad taste. I had come directly from the warrior culture of this country and I knew how to act.
But in the 25 years that have passed since South Vietnam fell, I have immersed myself in the study of totalitarianism during the unspeakable century we just left behind.
Conroy, if Santini is any indication, grew up damaged, and there were tough decisions to make as a young man in the era of Vietnam. He's living with his decisions, and is not shirking from a tough part of a tough life. I hesitate to make this next comment, and in any case I've never met the man; seen one way it's not my business. In another way, though, it definitely is.
If Mr. Conroy feels this way, it's certainly riveting writing to reveal it, and not easy to admit, I'm sure. However, the world hasn't stopped and totalitarianism is still around. We've still got the Phelps desecrators and A.N.S.W.E.R. and Code Pink, and still have guys making the hard choice to do something they think is essential. Now that Mr. Conroy's revised some of his thinking, what action is he taking now--if not to make amends, then to continue down a better path? Maybe it's presumptive of me, but we need help here, and I know the enemy we're up against is as bad as anything Conroy would rail against. Christopher Hitchens, Adam Michnik, Vaclav Havel, and others maintained their soixante-huitard ideals and sided with us, breaking lifelong attachments and the comfort of elder statesman status in the Left to do so--sometimes confronting or revealing new internal conflicts with previous decisions. Some of these Brits are thinking a bit like I am on this, too.
Any of you Vietnam-era folks have any insight on this?
I wandered over to technorati to see how many blogs they are tracking now. Looks like they've given up on counting, but there is a quote at the top of the page that implies 55 million. Rumsfeld wanted to credential them all, but Shinseki told him it would take too many troops. At least, that's what my CENTCOM contacts say.
Speaking of 55 million blogs, here's one you might not have heard of:
The U.S. military is proud of its history and strength as a top-down organization, with a clear chain of command. In fact, you can’t talk to anyone in military public affairs (the equivalent of private-sector public relations) without hearing the inevitable phrase “chain of command” in response to a question.I expect his reasons for leaving ran a bit deeper than that, but Field's new blog (The D-Ring: Where the military and new media collide) is here, and looks promising.And that’s the problem for the military, when it comes to new media and bottom-up messaging: How can it join the communications revolution when it can’t organizationally grasp the democratization of media with blogs, online video and podcasting?
That’s why one Pentagon public affairs specialist Steve Field (pictured above) recently left his post for a job at Edelman PR. Field, 24, had been writing a fascinating blog about new media and the military called D-Ring PR, a literal reference to the Pentagon ring where he had worked. But in late October, he left the military after three years because he knew it would take a Herculean effort for the military to really “get” new media.
Can I come to CENTCOM's defense here?
I've generally had a warm relationship with PAOs since I've started blogging. Officials from both CENTCOM and SOCOM send me stories regularly, as do a handful of other public affairs officials. The Navy is by far the best at this, I get press releases from three different fleets (which I consolidate simply by reading Eaglespeak regularly). I'm not trying to toot any horns and say "hey look at me! I'm important!" here, just pointing out that there are some elements of the military who understand the importance of media battlespace, and that there are some who don't.
I suspect Patterico's case is an isolated incident, probably from a guy who lacks vision beyond his reg books.
Unless of course milbloggers carry more weight with the DoD than civilian bloggers, which I suppose would make sense.
If you aren't keeping an ear on what Afghanistan is bringing out of the Quebec City summit getting ready for Riga, you should. NATO is growing up.
...others though...
NATO is about solidarity and sharing burdens and risks, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, urging NATO parliamentarians to lift restrictions on their soldiers so they can assist Canadian, British and U.S. soldiers who are fighting the toughest battles in southern Afghanistan against the Taliban.I won't start the blame game, Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said. You will not hear me mentioning names and blaming allies in public.
The corridor talk here was pointed. Parliamentarians from France, Italy and Germany were repeatedly asked why they would not lift so-called caveats that limit where and when their troops can operate.Poland brought some focus to the talk though.
...
Some soldiers are told by their governments they cannot fight at night.Others are not permitted to fight at all, but simply to stand guard in safe areas.
And there will be no restrictions. No caveats. Our commandos will fight the terrorists, Polish delegate Ryszard Gorecki said.Ahhhh.....
Lately, CENTCOM has been doing some good things with respect to the information war (finally). I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks. However, stuff like this makes me want to scream.
I spent much of the weekend chasing down a story about the L.A. Times’s misreporting of an incident in Iraq. As part of my investigation, I corresponded with the press folks at CENTCOM. We ended up exchanging a few e-mails, as I tried to obtain a clear and unambiguous statement that I could use. (You’ll likely be reading more about this in the next 2-3 days.)The final e-mail I received began this way:
Sir –
Thank you for your support for the troops; we appreciate your attempts to set the record straight on your blog; which by the way is very impressive and does have quite a following. However, this forum is reserved for credentialed media outlets. If we stop to answer every blogger in world who has a question we will be inundated. Our first priority is getting the credentialed media the correct information as quickly as possible so that they can present a balanced story. That in itself is quite a challenge, as you can imagine, in the fog of war and with intricacies of this mission. I hope that you will not take offense and understand, but please refrain from contacting the Press Desk unless you can provide media credentials.
Translation: “Let me say this politely. You are just a blogger and we have real media to deal with.”
To be fair, Patterico says this experience seems to have been an isolated incident.
On the bright side, this appears to be an isolated incident. Other bloggers have put me in touch with press officers who have been excellent in providing context and additional information. The military needs more of that.
Yeah, yeah - I know, it makes sense for CENTCOM to grant priority to the "traditional media" rather than bloggers because of the reach and readership/viewership disparity. I'll give you that, makes sense. However, as we've all seen, credentials on the part of the mainstream media mean very little. In fact, the credentialed set routinely use their credentials to undermine the War on Terror. So given that, is CENTCOM's strategy working?
Perhaps one of you creative types can come up with a graphic for MilBlog credentials and Greyhawk can issue them. I suppose they would mean about as much as any other media credentials. Or maybe not.
By the way, only "credentialed" milbloggers will be allowed to cover the MilBlog Conference (joking, unfortunately.)
H/T Malkin
As Matt says, it's Time for Spiritual Warfare, ladies and gentlemen.
Three weeks ago, Marine Lieutenant Andrew Kinard was on patrol in Iraq and was hit by an IED (three other Marines were hit, too). Apparently, before shock set in, Kinard established security and asked about his men, then passed out. The damage to his body was extremely severe. I don't know who the hospital corpsman was who assisted Lt. Kinard, but I know that Kinard went into cardiac arrest twice and lost most of his blood - whoever that corpsman is, he is a miracle worker. Andrew was flown to Al Asad (by that time had used 67 units of blood), then Germany and now Bethesda. He has lost his right leg above the knee, the left leg at his pelvis, and he has lots of internal damage to his intestines, kidneys, etc. He's on a ventalator. He is fighting infections. He's been awake only a few times since his injury.Once he recovers, he'll be moved to Walter Reed for rehabilitation.
So, if ever there was a case for your faith, prayers are needed for Lieutenant Kinard, especially that he may have strength in his kindneys and pulmonary system to survive long enough to have surgery to fix critical functions and survive a kidney transplant.
At the apex of his need, please keep Lt. Andrew Kinard in your daily prayers.
As we approach the holiday that is Thanksgiving, I will stand at my family's table and profess simply that I am thankful for men such as this. We are all indebted to his sacrifice and the sacrifices of those like him, not the least of which are the Navy corpsmen and their often unheralded service, first responders of the most heroic sort. (Video here.)
Semper Fi and Godspeed, Lt. Kinard.
Spread the word...
I think The First Lady may have already posted this (when she wasn't busy talking about "global orgasms", that is) but I'm going to repost anyway.
Military.com has a new blog, Kit Up!, that's dedicated exclusively to military gear. Don't confuse it with Defense Tech, this place is targeted exclusively at grunt level toys.
I've already found a most excellent new piece of camping equipment that will be accompanying me on my next trip to the Snowy Range, an old German mess kit from the second World War.
German engineering at its finest. I can't wait to try this sucker out.
...sent to me via email:
It - or something like it - may have helped launch a political career, and inspired a famliar phrase...
A plan for a "Seaplane Striking Force" and an unusual idea for refueling at sea.
Details here.
Okay, it looks like my heterosexual blogging partner Charlie has officially set up the OPFOR foward command post, although he hasn't revealed his location yet, so neither will I.
The First Lady knows , but Andi is so tight lipped about things the secret is probably safer with her than with me.
Anyway, go read Charlie's post, which is more gooey than a batch of homemade brownies. He got all "man on the wall" on me.....which I think means that he's in for a loooong deployment.
Meanwhile I'll continue to sleep peacefully under that nice warm blanket of freedom that Charlie keeps telling me about.
I mentioned this before the elections, but no one was listening.
By the way, Rangel also mentions raisin taxes. I'm not sure what these raisin taxes are, but sounds like they'll be discussed a lot next year too. Fortunately, I don't like raisins.
Video here.
Update: Rangel's goal, of course, is to create a military that (he thinks) no one would dare ever use, and he believes he's got a compelling argument: "I don't see how anyone can support the war, and not support the draft."
For the record, my thoughts on the draft from my days in Baghdad.
See, this is what happens when non-lawyers review legal books. Michiko Kakutani (well known in legal circles for...) writes of John Yoo:
One of his favorite tactics in this book is to create a ridiculous caricature of administration critics’ views and then dismiss them. For instance, he writes: “A Geneva Convention POW camp is supposed to look like the World War II camps seen in movies like ‘Stalag 17’ or ‘The Great Escape.’ But because Gitmo does not look like this, critics automatically declare that detainees’ human rights are being violated.”
That's not a caricature you dingbat. That's precisely what the GC requires.
The Geneva Convention on POWs lays out remarkably restrictive rules for treatment of prisoners of war. Including such antiquated restrictions as prohibitions on requiring officers to perform manual labor. (Art 50). And regardless of whether they work or not, you have to pay them (Art 60)--with enlisted soldiers getting eight Swiss francs a month and general officers getting seventy-five a month.
So yeah, the GC POW rules are rather...ummm...unique to major European power war which the GWOT doesn't easily compare. Accordingly, Kakutani's "review" is less a review of the book than an angst-driven schoolgirl Facebook rant.
Via Instapundit, a nasty little dustup involving Navy recruiting, racial preference policies, self-identified whistleblowers and potential long term institutional retaliation.
Note, also, that it showed up in the Tennesseean long before the Naval Enquirer got to it. Guess they were too busy sending their reporters to cover the latest New Uniform Proposals or something.
Update: Lex is way ahead of me.
Former Bush adminisration lawyer John Yoo's "War by Other Means" gets a review today in the New York Times review of books. The review gets a review over at my place.
...as a result of the decision to abandon Vietnam may not be dead yet.
Update: Insight into one editor's approach to covering those who fall. It's a tough thing to do, but turning away would consign them to mere lists or brief notices. The easy route is rarely right.
One of the legacies of the Clinton-era military may soon be gone:
Two leading House Democrats said yesterday that they intend to reverse the 13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and lesbians in the military when Congress comes under Democratic control in January.Let me offer a couple "politically incorrect" observations:
<...>
The military is stretched thin and scrambling to fill the ranks during wartime, and studies suggest that the sexual orientation policy is depriving the armed forces of people who have much-needed skills -- including the ability to speak foreign languages. And a study backed by the University of California, Santa Barbara showed that the Pentagon spent $363.8 million to train and replace the nearly 10,000 people it discharged during the policy's first decade.
1. No way to prove this, but I suspect that most folks discharged under the policy were simply using it to get said discharge. I know of one such case myself - a guy who got orders to Korea back in the mid-90s and decided to "come out". They'd need to find a new reason now.
2. It would be interesting to see the various educational institutions who've banned (or attempted to ban) military recruiting because of this congressional policy respond.
By the way, I've served with numerous guys who could be described as (ahem) very feminine over the years, and some gals who couldn't. This has nothing to do with homosexuality, of course (see Hudson, Rock) just seems to me if there was really a concerted effort to track such folks down and give 'em the boot it's a miserable failure.
Update:
I ran into irrefutable evidence this weekend.
What with all this talk about USAF recruiting ads, I figured I'd clue everyone in on the latest Army recruiting poster.
In other news: I received a letter today from US Army JAG recruiting offering me a chance to join the largest law firm in the world.
I’ve heard a bit about this “JAG Corps”–it sounds like a good fit. I’m considering it.
Sort of a linky updater on Somalia here, spurred by a Counterterrorism Blog post and Bill Roggio's fine work.
One quote from the CT Blog post to set the tone:
However, Tehran et al are providing support for the Islamic Courts Union and that is worrisome. Besides the possibility of access to uranium deposits in Somalia, influence in Somalia gives Iran a foothold on the strategic Horn of Africa. This, combined with Iran's dominant position on the Staits of Hormuz, gives Iran leverage over two crucial shipping channels. Somalia is already a haven for piracy, and with professional help, this piracy could become a major international problem.
The vilest of bastards are liberals who proclaim their love for "Freedom of Speech"...and back it up with this:Apologies to anyone who was "offended" by the video below.
This video may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.To view this video, please verify you are 18 or older by logging in or signing up.
But I'm curious - does the video appear in the entry below? If you click it does it play without a "warning"? Viewed at the YouTube site you do have to acknowledge you're over 18 - which is absurd.
Number of times Afghanistan was mentioned by a Senator during this week's 4.5-hour Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Current Situation in Iraq and Afghanistan: 2.
Which is why I'm glad you're keeping us up with that story, Major T.
My buddy James Hooker's video on you tube:
More Hooker tunes available on his blog.
Looks like he's got a new album out too. (Ya see kids, back when I was young, we called 'em albums...)
Update: I dedicate Georgia Moon to the folks of the 3ID, who made the list today.
Smoke and whiskey, boys. Rock of the Marne.
So, it's USAF recruiting video day eh? (Look - even B5's getting in to the act)
But here's one you might not have seen...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate on Friday said Robert Gates should win speedy confirmation to lead the Pentagon as he promised the Iraq war would be a top priority.Gates met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill 10 days after voters angered by the Iraq war swept Republicans from control of the next Congress.
"If I am confirmed .... clearly, one of the highest priorities, if not the highest priority, will be looking at the situation in Iraq," Gates said in his first comments since being picked by President George W. Bush as the next defense secretary.
Let's play "Spot the Typo" (SECRET HINT I've included a subtle hint for folks born yesterday):
Nancy Pelosi has managed to severely scar her leadership even before taking up the gavel as the new speaker of the House. First, she played politics with the leadership of the House Intelligence Committee to settle an old score and a new debt. And then she put herself in a lose-lose position by trying to force a badly tarnished ally, Representative John Murtha, on the incoming Democratic Congress as majority leader.Did you catch it? They spelled "highly decorated former Marine and Vietnam veteran Representative Jack Murtha" wrong.
Update: In fact, now that I think about it, How dare they question his patriotism!!!
More here.
And here.
The Department of Defense announced today the first of the major units scheduled to deploy as part of the next Operation Iraqi Freedom rotation. This announcement involves one Army division headquarters and five Army combat brigades consisting of approximately 20,000 service members. The scheduled rotation for the forces identified in this announcement will begin in early 2007.Force levels in Iraq continue to be conditions-based, and are determined based on the recommendations of military commanders in Iraq and in consultation with the Iraqi government. U.S. force rotations will be tailored based upon changes in the security situation. Iraqi security forces continue to develop capability and assume responsibility for security in Iraq.
This rotation continues the U.S. commitment to the stability and security of Iraq, yet is flexible and adaptable in order to meet the evolving requirements for the mission.
For Operation Iraqi Freedom, the major units announced today are:
3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, Fort Stewart, Ga.
4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Ks.
4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wa.
3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.
1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C
173rd Airborne Brigade, Vicenza, Italy
The department also alerted approximately 27,000 active duty and 10,000 reserve component troops in combat support and combat service support units smaller than brigade-size elements for deployment beginning in 2007.
DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as they are identified and those units are alerted. The individual services will announce the smaller, supporting units for this rotation.
My son's brigade is on this list. I'm not ready. I'll never be ready. I am a soldier's mom... just some soldier's mom, but I am not ready.
The Department of Defense announced today that the 218th Brigade Combat Team, South Carolina Army National Guard, will deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to train the Afghan National Security Forces. The scheduled rotation will begin in early 2007, and will include approximately 1,500 service members as presently envisioned.
The department also alerted approximately 6,200 active duty and 600 Reservists in combat support and combat service support units smaller than brigade-size elements for deployment beginning in 2007.
This deployment reflects the continued U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. Force levels in Afghanistan continue to be conditions-based, and are determined based on the recommendations of military commanders in Afghanistan and in consultation with the Afghan government. U.S. force rotations will be tailored based upon changes in the security situation. Afghan security forces continue to develop capability and assume responsibility for security in Afghanistan.
DoD will continue to release major unit announcements as they are identified and alerted. The individual services will announce the smaller, supporting units for this rotation.
Over at my place.
Captain (P) Dave Baer on winning:
If you want to win in Iraq, you have to take the gloves off like we did in OIF I and OIF II. We were aggressive and violently kinetic. It worked and the bad guys were deathly afraid of us and the people of Iraq respected us. Now we use kid gloves and the bad guys walk all over us and the people of Iraq don't think they should support us because we may pack up and leave and then they would be the object of reprisals. It's the hard right (lots of offensive action and firepower and not afraid to use it in a city) or the easy wrong (the kinder, gentler approach to dealing with terrorists to try and avoid casualties).
You can read the rest here.
Fort Leavenworth had its first official casualty this week (vice soldiers from the area). Colonel Tom Felts of the School of Advanced Military Studies was killed in Iraq on Tuesday. Details here.
A new blog debuts, and its sole focus is on items that you couldn't have done without during your military career. Beyond Standard Issue. Check it out.
29th installment of the News is up.
"29? Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that Major John started at this..."
That is too bad. Made models of Nighthawks when I was a kid. And the F-117 was the star of one of the best armed forces recruiting ads ever.
Personally I say we should sell em on the cheap to Israel, and let the Iran nuke crisis work itself out that way.
Just sayin, is all.
Whatever happened to, "We've Got the Votes."
Looks like someone can't count too well.....
Okinawa Jack smacked down. Reported here:
Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi 's handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January.Jack, an island in the Pacific needs you. Now. Hurry.A Marylander and 25-year veteran of Congress, Hoyer defeated Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania in a vote of 149-86.
***
"I didn't have enough votes and so I'll go back to my small subcommittee I have on Appropriations," Murtha said after the vote.
You can drop him a few bucks here.
Nice way to leverage the craptastic coverage we're getting over there. What's the embed count now? 9? Sheesh.
Lex, back at his home-base, also noticed a quote on the JROTC story that made me want to start pulling big chunks of hair out of my head.
“We don’t want the military ruining our civilian institutions,” said Sandra Schwartz, of the American Friends Service Committee, an organization actively opposing JROTC nationwide. “In a healthy democracy … you contain the military. You must contain the military.
This intellectual gem was graced with my full attention at OPFOR, the shortened point being that in a true "healthy democracy," the military is integrated with the citizenry. Not isolated from it.
Couldn't help but to invoke the Gipper:
It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
Love to hear you guys weigh in on Miss Schwartz's sniffy lecture on democracy, particularly in light of the fact that they don't seem to be practicing it in the Bay Area.
JROTC, San Francisco school districts and
preening, morally supercillious, smugly self-satisfied pinch-faced shrews who are convinced that nothing should be permissible unless it is compulsory.
At first I thought this was about the Army Times - of which I was once a subscriber - by virtue of a "gift subscription" provided gratis by a military professional society on completion of a certain military preofessional development course - one of those periodic beer fests in which some of us watch others of us chase wood.
(Via G da man)
Jules Crittenden - Milblogger? I think you'll find Jules is no stranger to blogs in general, or MilBlogs in particular.
Great to see him blogging. I don't know how many editors for major dailies have their own blogs - but even if they all did I think Jules' would be one of the few worth reading.
Of course, back in the day, the attempted knock against blogs was that they didn't have editors. The counter argument was that said "limitation" is what made blogs great. My poor little head is now just a spinnin' trying to figure out what that means in the case of Crittenden's blog.
Grrrrrl power anyone?
Picture is of a scuffle between Citadel knobs (freshman) and VMI cheerleaders. Looks like the cheerleaders came out on top!
Brings a tear to this old VMI man's eye...
...to take a look at what Al Gore created.
I happened to find it pretty fascinating. Al's a genius!
There’s a new blog in town, Forward Movement, authored by Jules Crittenden.
Jules regularly “columnizes” (I like that) Sundays at The Boston Herald; I’ve linked to several of his columns. He writes aggressively, and knowledgeably on military matters and Iraq, having first hand experience via a tour as an embed in Iraq.
I recently posted on Jules review of the Alessandro Barbero’s The Battle, “A New History” of the Battle of Waterloo, review courtesy of Norm Geras. A great introduction to Crittenden’s writing, although his kickoff post Swimming with Anvils reads well too (aided by a highly effective metaphor).
The object of Jules post is Tony Blair’s recent foray into the “new direction for Iraq” debate. Yesterday I observed that “wayward Tony Blair” showed poor timing – or perhaps was intentionally sandbagged by several leaks, on Iranian influence on Al Qaeda, and AQ plans for a nuclear attack on the UK.
Jules’ objections with Blair’s plan run along the same lines as mine, and summarily dismisses Blair’s two key points: negotiating with Iran and Syria when these countries are primary sponsors of Iraqi violence; and tying the Israel-Palestinian problem to Iraq:
Peace between Israel and the Palestinians has nothing to do with Iraq. Its pursuit is a goodwill gesture that theoretically gets everyone else in the region on your side and puts pressure on the recalcitrants, but in fact is unlikely to bring over anyone who wasn't there, or headed there anyway. That conflict has long been a convenient cause of grumbling in the Arab world, a bloody shirt to wave, but peace in Israel tomorrow would have no effect whatsoever on the ambitions of Iran, Syria, or their proxies in Iraq. The Israeli-Palestinian war existed for decades before our present difficulties in Iraq, and the trouble there will no doubt continue long after. Pinning hopes for peace in Iraq with peace in Israel makes as much sense as using an anvil as a swimming aid. At a minimum it complicates matters, and it is more likely to drag you down than help you get to shore. On the other hand, Lebanon and Israel might be aided by peace in Iraq, if that peace is achieved by neutering Syria and Iran as regional meddlers. That will not be achieved by talks unless those talks occur in concert with forceful action in Iraq and a credible threat of action against the regimes themselves.You’d almost think the guy’s a MILBLOGGER, no? Hey, it’s like he’s embedding as a MILBLOGGER! We’ll have to see how the rest of the MILBLOGGERS take to that.
(Since starting this intro on Jules, he’s since alerted me to a somewhat less serious introductory post.)
Best of luck to Jules, he’s as pro-Victory as the best of us, and a serious critic of the critics. Can’t have enough of those, as we have all too many first order critics, and too few second order ones.
(For a rambling recollection that Jules inspitred, completely off topic, check back at Dadmanly.)
The local Fox affiliate, WXXA Channel 23, this morning graciously invited me on for a live on air interview for an Iraqi Veterans perspective on the recent midterm elections and current events in Iraq.
The interview is posted online at the Daybreak website.
I framed my response in terms of the Media War, which Al Qaeda and their sponsors think has gone rather well for them, in terms of manipulating western mainstream media (MSM). I view these kinds of appearances as offensive operations in the Media War; I’ll leave viewers to decide how effective they prove.
(More details at Dadmanly.)
I am not a regular watcher of CNN... but I do try to catch Glenn Beck. Tonight, Glenn is airing a special, "Exposed: The Extremist Agenda". Glenn will be showing video and other information from the Arab media... If you want to see the truth about what the extremists think (surprise: it's not "let's sit down and talk this out")
I understand that it is riveting..
The program airs at 7PM (ET), and replays at 9PM and midnight (ET).
xposted at Some Soldier's Mom
Forgot to post this last night.
News re the 2007 MilBlog Conference can be found here.
More thoughts on Koh-e Safi and Gul Zaman - by our good CSM.
Another group of fighters supporting our warriors. Back on a hill top in Afghanistan at 12,000 feet I enjoyed a nice cigar from a fellow warrior, a special warrior, a Doc. Out of the service now but still taking the fight to the enemy he sent me a couple boxes of cigars. These weren’t your average cigars because they had a picture of us on the bands of the cigars.
One year out...
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) November 14, 2006 -- Blogging , the increasingly popular form of online communications, will assume a new level of importance in the business community next year with the launch of the inaugural BlogWorld & New Media Expo, slated for the Las Vegas Convention Center, Nov. 8-9, 2007. The event, which will combine elements of the corporate communications world with the needs of active, individual "bloggers" will be the first gathering of its kind.Of course, us military folks ain't too fond of Vegas. It's a regular den of iniquity, from what I hear. (Actually sounds more than worthwhile, but personally I might be otherwise engaged, as I think I've hinted before.)
<...>
Many of those same categories form the core of the audience that will attend this first-ever blogging industry trade show and conference. Durfee said while BlogWorld is open to all active bloggers, it will target several key segments, including: business, technology, politics, sports, lifestyle and culture, general news, and "milblogs" (active duty and retired military personnel who blog)."This will be the first opportunity for many of the companies in the field to enjoy a face-to-face relationship with the end-users who ultimately can play a significant role in a brand’s acceptance in the blogging community, " said Durfee.
But DC in May, that's another matter...
Update: Hey, there's a Vegas Hilton (warning: audibly annoying web page). Anyone who goes can boycott it.
...you can keep your foot out of your mouth during the campaign, you'll get to walk with the big shots.
If not, you get stuck in the back.
("During the campaign" being the key - just ask the Assistant Majority Leader.)
...the Hilton.
('round these parts, we aaaaall love the Hilton)
"...a combination of blurring and smearing" - Mary Mapes describes her preparation of the CBS story that "broke" the Abu Ghraib scandal.
I couldn't resist using that for the title of two-part look at Abu Ghraib. But this one doesn't approach the issue of what happened there, instead it focuses on how the story found it's way into America's living rooms, and the impact of that on the war in Iraq. I think you'll find some interesting - if obscure - details, some of which I've added since first posting these earlier today.
If I ever get around to writing a book on this topic - which I probably should, this will probably be the core of chapter 1.
Michael Fumento: Military Unfairly Blamed for Embed Problem.
Meanwhile, BillBloggers Bill Roggio and Bill at INDC Journal announce they'll be embedding.
I've "embedded" too - and probably will again. ;)
Hey, sometimes you need a distraction. In line with the "new tone," I will offer up a little understanding of the other man/women's POV.
The Telegraph reports on Iranian influence on Al Qaeda, based on leaked intelligence:
Iran is seeking to take control of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror network by encouraging it to promote officials known to be friendly to Teheran, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.Somehow I think this is more merger than hostile takeover. Bottom line – literally at the bottom of the article – up front:According to recent reports received by Western intelligence agencies, the Iranians are training senior al-Qa'eda operatives in Teheran to take over the organisation when bin Laden is no longer leader.
Any increase in Iran's influence over al-Qa'eda could have potentially devastating consequences for international security. Al-Qa'eda has made no secret of its desire to acquire weapons of mass destruction — including "dirty" nuclear bombs.You’d almost think there’s an Axis of Evil or something, that we’re in some kind of Global War on Terror. Must be a Rovian plot, damn those Republicans for making us so fearful!Intelligence experts believe that Iran will soon have the capacity to develop its own nuclear weapons and Teheran is also known to have developed a highly effective chemical weapons programme.
"We are looking at a Doomsday scenario here where al-Qa'eda finally fulfills its ultimate goal of acquiring weapons of mass destruction," said a senior Western intelligence official. "And unlike other terror groups, al-Qa'eda is perfectly willing to use them."
Bad timing, all this, for wayward Tony Blair, who picks this auspicious moment to suggest with diplomacy with Syria and Iran:
(More of Tony Blair, what he proposes, and some optimism from of all people Gregory Djerejian over at Dadmanly.)
My War Diary on the Military Channel and on Discovery. You assume that someone vetted these personally made films for OpSec (I know, first rule: never assume.)
Army Lawyer, They have regulations on blogging from theatre... are there similar regulations on filming in theatre?
Guess I'll have to tune it....
A milblogging buddy, Combat Doc and author of the blog A Candle in the Dark, had an essay he wrote and read aired by NPR’s “This I Believe”. Now you might not think that this is a big deal but Bill Gates, David Copperfield, Tony Hawk and Albert Einstein (yes it's been around for a while) have all read pieces placed on this program. Quite a group of people and Ernesto is the first Milblogger to make it.
The pieces are sharp biting and whatever their views are, honest. Ernesto’s piece is called Untold Stories of Kindness. His writing goes to show you that there is such things as an atheist in a fox hole and contrary to stereotypes, enlisted men can be intelligent and observant and maybe the path to peace isn’t a battle to be won by the government but by a change in vision of the people.
Great essay Ernesto and I'm proud to be in the same line of work as you.
Cross posted at Doc in the Box
Levin and other Democrats called for some troops to come home right away
CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- After 16 months at war, Alaska's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team heads home from Bahgdad later this month with its 3,500 troops expected back at Fort Wainwright by mid-December.
"We need to redeploy," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on CBS' "Face The Nation."
That decision should be made by military officers in Iraq, he said. "And I think it should start within the next few months."
American commanders are now hoping for a spring transfer, General Mixon said
..or just a lovely couple?
(Andi started it!)
The "Army Times" (Military Times etc.) is bugging me for a survey!
In past years when we conducted this poll, the results were quoted in scores of news articles and broadcasts. People pay attention to your opinion. Please take the 10 minutes needed to help make this poll accurate and meaningful. Complete results will be in the Military Times papers that will go on news stands Jan. 1, 2007, and will appear online at www.militarycity.com.Finally, though the view of retirees, reservists and others are important, this is a poll of those on active duty only. If you are not on active duty, please do not fill in the questionnaire. If you also received a paper version of this poll in the mail, please respond to only one version of the poll.
Heh.
At least both sides of the aisle are starting to talk about the future. It is getting to the point that the media is just making a mockery of themselves. Another case in point. CBS just finished an interview with outgoing Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General Hagee. If those who claim to be all focused on success, if they are, would expend half as much time thinking about how to get there......
The hack interviewer, David Martin (or the editor of the interview) remains scope-locked on .... wait for it ... yes "Phase IV" of OIF. Have these people not read anyting but Fiasco? (yes, I am reading it again so you don't have to). I have the links here, make sure and watch the whole interview. What a lost opportunity.
Josh Manchester (who blogs at Adventures of Chester), writing today at Tech Central Station, reacts to the James Carroll piece from last week in the Boston Globe. This was the Editorial, readers may remember, in which Carroll suggested that Americans might best look upon failure and defeat in Iraq as a necessary prescription for what ails. We lost our honor in going into Iraq, and it’s too late to worry about losing any more by turning tail, Carroll concluded.
I responded last week with considerable anger, thinking Carroll’s question an easy one “for any fool in Boston to ask, since the lives of many brave men and women In Iraq would be the objects of his answer.”
Carroll went further, admonishing his fellow Americans that, “can we acknowledge that there is something proper in the way that hubristic American power has been thwarted?”
Carroll says we lost our honor in how we got to Iraq, and have no more to lose, now. I’ll say again:
(To preclude my repeating myself here at MILBLOGS, read the rest at Dadmanly.)
The New York Times waits until after the midterm elections to observe that, so far, the Democrats have offered slogan and criticism and little else to help Iraq.
Well, sure, we wouldn’t want an editorial perspective to get in the way of accomplishing the mission, right?
At considerable expense to my nerves – and digestion – I sat through a couple of press outings by Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi this weekend.
Quite astonishing, watching them fumble their way through scripted attempts to sound knowledgeable and responsible about military planning for Iraq.
I can’t remember which interview, Rep. Pelosi I think stumbled through a bland and utterly familiar list combining military and diplomatic initiatives. Not one item on her list suggested one hair’s worth of deviation from what the US military and the Bush Administration have already been doing in Iraq, nigh on 3 years.
That will be one heck of a plan for Iraq, I should observe.
“Keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing, great job and all. Meanwhile, we’ll be busted our humps trying to get you out of there as soon as we can! Oh, and remember, this is all George Bush’s fault!”Shame on us for thinking the Democrats had no plan. They have a plan, it’s called “Whatever, Get Out Now.”
With Democrats, it’s all about who’s and what’s in the closet. If Republican Gays are in, they want them out. If the military’s out, they want them safely tucked back in, where they can’t get hurt.
Welcome to the Mommy Party. It’s all about cleaning the closets!
(Cross-posted at Dadmanly)
A careful read will reveal that while the President does not definitively argue for "stay the course", Dr Dean is not arguing for "cut and run". Democrats - with an increased say in US policy, are now confronted with the very real fact that they could be perceived as architects of defeat - as opposed to the pre-election "Cassandra" position they no longer enjoy. Still, they've promised "change" - an amorphous concept that is actually a near-daily reality in Iraq, and has no significant current Republican opposition. But while U.S. politicians move slowly towards a new, improved, compromise definition of "change", al Qaeda is able to act fast in declaring victory.This fits in with another aspect of that "media invasion" - divide and conquer America. Sap the will of half the people, and the other half will not be able to confront a (seemingly) distant enemy while being obstructed on the home front. Until now that split has been defined by political party affiliation. But any upcoming "compromise" will likely have the interesting impact of alienating half of Republican voters and half of the Democrats -each for different reasons, of course, but this promises a potentially interesting variation from the pre-election partisan separation.
News from Haider Ajina - I received this one late on Veterans Day.
Greetings,
The following is my translation of a head line and article which appeared in Iraq Alkhadcon November 12.
'Iraqi Forces Success in its War Against Terrorist Gangs
Those who kill our people are now in the hands of those who protect our people'.
'Ninewa police announced Saturday that Iraqi military killed two terrorists and arrested eight during clashes in Telaafar. Two Arabs (non-Iraqis) were arrested in Mosul. A group of terrorists arrested near Baqubah, had weapons and fliers in their position. During a search and seizure operation West of Baqubah, Iraqi forces and multinational forces arrested 18 terrorists including eight Arabs (non-Iraqis), five carried Sudanese papers, and three carried Egyptian papers. Mohamed Alaskari speaker for the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced the killing of an Alqaida Emir (Commander) in Western Ramadi. The interior ministry announced Thursday that Iraqi security forces have killed 90 and arrested 73 suspected terrorists during the first week of November'.
Haider's comments,
While most of the news focuses on the car bombs and killings in certain areas of Baghdad, North and North West of Baghdad. Our military and the Iraqi security forces (who we trained) are working hard combating the perpetrators of most of these attacks. Many Iraqi papers are referring to the terrorist as the Baath-Alqaidans, further reflecting the continued alliance between the Baathists and Alqaida in Iraq. We must not forget that the Baathists are still ruling Syria, and they are backing the Baath Alaqida activities in Iraq such as IEDs, snipers and kidnappings. We do not hear about the arrest and killings of these terrorists. All we read and hear is sectarian killing. While the Baathists ruled Iraqi they killed and maimed hundreds of thousands Iraqis and no one was calling it sectarian killing then. In fact, hardly any one condemned what Saddam and his regime was doing then, particularly other Arab rulers. Now Mubarek of Egypt says Sadam should not hang for his crimes. Dictators in the Arab world are watching their future as they see Sadam on trial for his crimes against the Iraqi people. This of course makes dictators fearful and nervous.
Today, we honor our military veterans and those in the military who are serving our country, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we honor them, they are doing their duty for our country by combating terrorist in Iraq and Afghanistan. To all the men and women who have served and serving in Iraq. To all the families of those who have paid the ultimate price. To all those who have suffered during their service in Iraq. My family’s and my deepest thanks, gratitude and pride both from the U.S. and Iraq for all the sacrifices, endurance and service for our great country and Iraq and the Iraqis. God bless all of you and keep you safe.
Regards
Haider Ajina
McKinleyville CA
(Thats today's news from the military side. Haider also reveals some under-reported Iraqi civil successes here.)
Did you say "over"?
Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard]
the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[runs out, alone; then returns]
What the [bleep] happened to the Air Force I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to donate, Bluto." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...
How can you guarantee a counseling session from a superior and a minor shytestorm? Post a video on YouTube of you and your buddies duct taping a female servicemember to a pole that gets linked on the frontpage of Drudge to which an unidentified Pentagon official is quoted as saying "I am not laughing."
Yeah, this will really make the DOD more receptive to blogging in its varying forms. (and no, I don't think the video is a big deal, but my opinion doesn't count)
Now for the fun: How will this video be argued as further proof of our "failed policy" in Iraq? I vote something along the lines of "if our soldiers weren't goofing off, they'd realize how immoral and horrible this war is." Or something.
A few short months ago, Murtha Madness broke here at MilBlogs.
Fast forward to today:
“Your strong voice for national security, the war on terror and Iraq provides genuine leadership for our party, and I count on you to continue to lead on these vital issues,” Pelosi wrote Murtha Sunday in a letter obtained by The Hill. “For this and for all you have done for Democrats in the past and especially this last year, I am pleased to support your candidacy for majority leader for the 110th Congress.”…
How's Okinawa this time of year?
...as they say, but has it ocurred to anyone else that the replacement of Donald Rumsfeld was already decided before the Army Times ran (or even wrote) its editorial calling for just that?
I'd note that Karpinski was *not* busted for Abu Ghraib. She was busted for not reporting a shoplifting apprehension on her vetting paperwork.
In fairness, I should note the shoplifting charge was not pursued, and certainly, the only reason they went through that paperwork was because of Abu Ghraib... still.
More interesting to me is this bit from the Taguba report that Greyhawk cites:
"14. (U) During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with BG Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony. What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers. (ANNEX 45 and the Personal Observations of the Interview Team)
I bit the bullet and read the Colonel's autobiography - so you wouldn't have to.
Here's my review. Suffice it to say, she *still* suffers from a:
complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its soldiers
You can read my review here, where I use her own words to let her twist slowly in the wind.
Ex-General and former leader of the Abu Ghraib porn squad commandos, "retired" Colonel Janis Karpinski oozes back into the news.
You know the theremin? That weird wavering electronic sound used in science fiction movies to let you know something odd is going on... Well, cue it up for a tale of a vanished ship, an odd captain (long johns, a bowler hat and a cane for late night bridge visits) and go here for Cyclops.
Oh, did I mention the Bermuda Triangle?
My husband and I attended a reception for veterans today. We spoke with many veterans from many conflicts. To a person, they were modest about their service and their heroism, just like this soldier:
My oldest son is the young man in uniform, in the last picture below. The man in the photo with him is a survivor of Mogadishu, Somalia ('Black Hawk Down'). Both warriors are Bronze Star winners. I am proud to say that my son has two Bronze Stars. I am sure that he would be embarrassed to know that I have mentioned that. In fact, he didn't tell me. I had to get that, by looking at the ribbons he is wearing in the picture.
Read the post and view the photo here.
I just discovered an Afghan security official I worked with was killed. Damn.
According to this account, there are 15 living American WWI Veterans today.
When I was a kid I remember seeing the Spanish-American War vets in parades - of course each year there would be fewer.
Update: A story on Ohio's last WWI vet here.
More: Should you find yourself in Kansas City...
On Dec. 2, that museum will open as the first American and only national museum dedicated to World War I. With some 49,000 artifacts, its collection is second only to Britain's Imperial War Museum. Most of those artifacts - posters, uniforms, weapons, artillery pieces and many vehicles that were taken from battlefields - have remained in storage over the years. Only about 5 percent ever have been on public view.
The USS Wasp is docked... the sailors with new babies were off first... but the Sailor Son is Home. Safe.
Bravo Zulu, Son!!
More at Some Soldier's Mom
I've uploaded a video clip I've made onto You Tube of the Marines I take care of.
It's also the anniversary of the launch of the MilBlogs Ring - 3 years strong!
A message from France dated Novmber 11, 1918, delivered to me 86 years later in Baghdad, Iraq.
and cheese fries! Reflections on Armistice Day/Veteran's Day.
Salutes: At the Castle, at my place, At Andi's World, at Bubblehead's, at Hook's (link to an outstanding music video).
A brief clip of Secretary Rumsfeld at Kansas State:
More here.
A question I'd suggest as an alternative:
Assume two years of "stability" seeking will be the rule. Project what you think the world will look like in that time.
Now, here's the question: what preparations should you personally be making for that world?
With Robert Gates tapped to head DOD--he of the toothless white paper advocating vague "increased dialogue" with Iran without consequences--being strongly in the realist foreign policy mindset; questions regarding his role in convincing Bush I of abandoning the Shiia in 1991; and being part of James Baker's Iraq Study Group (contemplating new and unique ways to surrender) the question becomes:
Who's next to be thrown under the bus of "realism" and that all consuming quest for "stability?"
A student op-ed from the Universty of Wisconsin's Badger Herald:
I stopped getting my daily news fix from CNN, Fox and MSNBC. Instead, I recently have been turning to other sources of news such as the Associated Press and BBC to get a different view of the world. Looking around on the Internet, I also have started exploring other types of websites for news about Iraq. As a crusty old war vet (as I have been accused by some of the younger undergrads), I have been unsatisfied with the coverage of Iraq since returning from my trip to the desert.
<...>
Life for Iraqis, Afghanis and those who are trying to provide stability for them is not simple or orderly. Instead it is complicated, charged with emotion and often difficult to understand. Reading military blogs (or “milblogs”) provides a vastly different picture of life in the Middle East and Central Asia. Daily life in Iraq or Afghanistan does not center on death or trials. Not every building in Kirkuk is in ruins, and not every deployed soldier has been hit by an IED this week.The first-hand accounts in milblogs show an Iraq and an Afghanistan that is not what is shown in Fox News or CNN.
...on two of those auctions, and a little more on the other. (Scroll down)
Time to prepare those winning bids...
Heh, my reply.
Valour-IT under Greyhawk Leadership, 2005:
Navy - $23,831.76
Army - $23,652.57
Marines - $19,607.00
Air Force - $11,114.11
Valour-IT under Noonan Leadership, 2006:
Navy- $45,775.00
Marines- $42,878.85
Army- $35,267.
Air Force- $29,272.72
At least I was able to narrow your margin some from last year :)
**Update** Donation button added in hopes that my team doesn't feed me to the wolves.
...turns on Noonan!
Rumor has it that retired USAF General Tony McPeak will make a strong statement condemning Bush's Noonan's handling of the war fundraiser later today. A jubilant Ralph Peters will provide full coverage.
Donate via team USAF!
Send your donation by mail to:
Soldiers' Angels
Project Valour-IT Fund
1150 N Loop 1604 W, Suite 108-493
San Antonio, TX 78248
Ever wanted to see and hear Afghanistan from the other side? I have a couple of links here to some BBC audio and video from a BBC reporter riding along with a Taliban commander. A few things to pick at, but you should watch and listen.
If you act fast, you can win this collection of USAF Tunderbirds memorabilia. Proceeds go to support the USAF Valour-IT team.
More auction items: Signed copy of Marines in the Garden of Eden and Gulf War Chronicles.
After a strong start, the USAF team looks likely to finish in fourth place (again), but it ain't over.
So, last year's goals were met, and the first month of the new fiscal year saw goals met too.
However, comma, in addition to Dadmanly's post, here's some more food for thought. (Via Instapundit.)
My take, I think those who believe the Dems are going to pull us out of Iraq any time soon are setting themselves up for serious disappointment. But perception to the contrary - or even general uncertainty - might factor in to recruiting and retention in the next few months. A few key Dems could counter that perception with some forceful clarifying comments - but anyone expecting to hear those any time soon will be disappointed too.
And that draft talk is just silly, right?
The Democrats win big in US midterm elections, the President reaches out to Democrats, while immediately announcing the replacement of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Meanwhile, certain elements of the old liberal guard rise from the near dead to offer assistance.
Not surprisingly, there are indications that many in the military are very uneasy about this week's events.
Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters links to a piece in the UK Times Online about rank and file Army unease about the elections and the pending replacement of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The first few paragraphs of the Times report says it all, and echoes considerable anxiety on my part:
Half of America and the upper echelons of the US military may be cheering Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation from the post of Defence Secretary, but there was no rejoicing yesterday among those most directly affected by his decisions: the frontline soldiers in Iraq.Quite telling that the Times then quotes an anonymous Army Colonel who sees things differently. Contrast this career officer’s preference for anonymity, versus the openly stated concerns of enlisted soldiers who didn’t mind taking personal responsibility for their opinions:Troops expressed little pleasure at the departure of the man responsible for their protracted deployment to a hostile country where 2,839 of their comrades have died.
Indeed, some members of the 101st Airborne Division and other troops approached by The Times as they prepared to fly home from Baghdad airport yesterday expressed concern that Robert Gates, Mr Rumsfeld’s successor, and the Democrat-controlled Congress, might seek to wind down their mission before it was finished.
Mr Rumsfeld “made decisions, he stuck with them and he did what he thought was right, whether people agreed with it, liked it, or not”, Staff Sergeant Frank Notaro said. He insisted that Iraq was better off now than before the war.
Staff Sergeant Michael Howard said: “It’s a blow to the military. He was a good Secretary of Defence. He kept us focused. He kept the leaders focused. It’s going to be hard to fill his shoes.”
But one US army colonel, who did not want to be named, said that such positive views were uncommon in the higher ranks of the US military. “We are the ones closer to the problem. We are the ones who have the broader picture,” he said.The exalted Powell Doctrine. Only use overwhelming and mass amounts of military force in situations when a competent squad of US Marines would probably have sufficed. Surely the Powell Doctrine is supremely suited to the Democrats, as the logical and inescapable consequence of such a doctrine, is to always make any serious military response prohibitive: if there’s risk, or we can’t be certain of winning, we won’t fight. We’ll negotiate the cost of war avoidance, otherwise known as the terms of surrender.
The colonel criticised Mr Rumsfeld for sending too few troops to Iraq, and for refusing to listen to the advice of his generals. He noted that General Eric Shinseki, the former US Army Chief of Staff, was dismissed for demanding more troops, while General John Abizaid, the commander of Central Command, was the sole general to have differed publicly with Mr Rumsfeld and survived.
(More commentary, more links, more uneasiness, posted over at Dadmanly here and here.)
The President announced today he will award a posthumous Medal of Honor to Marine Corporal Jason Dunham.
Semper Fi!
Looking at the Valour-IT meter for the Navy, I see the Navy has exceeded its $45,000 goal and for that, thanks!
However, I also see that another part of the DON needs some help. It being their birthday and all, may I suggest shifting fire and making some donations to the Marines?
Just hit the Make a Donation button on the Marine Corps Valour-IT thing below and help out our Devil Dogs!
Or, donate to one of the other services -we're all in this together! Army, Air Force.
Thanks!
The hardest part of a long war for a democracy isn't keeping the bullet and tank factories running. The hardest part is maintaining public support. In the next few weeks and months various politicians will trot out various magical solutions to the Iraq problem. They all know the end solution involves time.
In a utopian world, the day after the vote to invade Iraq, every politician that voted yes, would have dedicated every breath to maintaining public support. We don't live in a utopian world however, if we did, there would be no purpse in having a military to begin with, and there would be no votes for war.
The realities of partisan poltics however mean that the public is constantly bombarded with "My plan is better than his plan" and "that mistake was his fault".
I have written a number of times about my family's and friends' connection to the military: My Dad was Airborne... my husband was career Navy... our oldest and youngest sons are active Navy and Army, respectively, the third son was Navy, a sister was a Marine... a nephew is active Air Force... a high school chum was career Coast Guard... others that were Army and a few that were Navy, our neighbor on one side is a Navy vet (a corpsman from Korea), and our neighbor two doors down the other side has a son-in-law in the Marines. Through the blog and other family support sites, we now have many more dear friends that are current or veteran military.
We have been fortunate given the number in our family "circle" that have served or are serving. My Dad lost his left arm above the elbow at the end of WWII. Those of you that are regulars of my blog will remember the terrifying night we got the "your son has been wounded by an IED" and the weeks and months that followed. These men and women have served and do serve this Nation well.
More than 2,000 brave men and women have lost their lives in the war on terror and over 20,000 have been wounded. This is a sobering reminder of the risks our soldiers face every day and the tremendous sacrifices they make for our country. Despite these great sacrifices, Congress recently tried to slash the budget for the VA’s traumatic brain injury care centers so many of our wounded troops are counting on. And there are insufficient resources for the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of veterans and soldiers that do need or will need mental health services for post-traumatic stress and other mental health needs.
Our veterans should not have to fight for the high quality healthcare they’ve earned.
Congress needs to know that anything short of fully funded healthcare and benefits for our veterans is unacceptable. Especially when VA claims backlogs have reached a record high of over 800,000! Those claims represent hundreds of thousands of veterans and their families who are waiting for the healthcare and benefits they need to survive. These are real people who did their duty for our country. But, unfortunately, the country is not holding up its end of the bargain… We owe them a debt that can never be re-paid in full... but there is something that you can do.
The VFW has launched Healthcare for Our Heroes, a month-long Veterans Day campaign to demand full funding of veterans healthcare and benefits. Join the campaign today by signing the Healthcare for Our Heroes Petition to Congress and help the VFW reach their goal of gathering 20,000 signatures to deliver to Congress by Veteran’s Day.
Let us honor the men and women who’ve served our country by calling on Congress to fully fund healthcare and benefits for our veterans.
Sign the Healthcare for Our Heroes petition today. Filling in a few blanks generates and sends a letter to your Senators and Congressional representative.
Cross-posted at Some Soldier's Mom
We will be very upset if you don't read the News!
Angelina Jolie is even in this week's installment...
Send a free e-card to a veteran.
Sign the Veterans' Bill of Rights.
View Donald Rumsfeld's final Veterans Day speech as Secretary of Defense.
Sign the Healthcare for Heroes Petition.
Click here for excellent information regarding Veterans Day.
Army exceeds most recruiting, retention goals
The US Army exceeded most of its recruiting and retention goals for October, the service said, even as it launched a new television and radio ad campaign dubbed "Army Strong."
The strong recruiting numbers were the latest sign that the army has managed to surmount difficulties of enlisting fresh troops in the middle of an unpopular war.
The possibility that the war might not be so unpopular among those signing up seems not to have crossed AFP's mind.
Of course, maybe people are just really itchin' to see Ft. Riley, Kansas...
Kudos to the Navy - who blamed their early slow response on a certain ex-Navy guy's mouth...
Still time to bid on some auction items too.
Via email from the author, a Veterans Day message, from Robert Stokely to America
People say freedom isn't free, yet everyday most enjoy freedom at no cost to themselves. But for the American Soldier and their families the cost is great.Robert first wrote me about his family and his son Mike here.Some bear physical wounds and scars while others bear emotional wounds that never heal.
Some lose irreplaceable time with their children for events like birth, each birthday, winning homerun, first place at band competition and many other daily events can't be adequately captured by video, even in real time.
Some come home so changed, that they can't re-adapt to what they left, nor can those at home adapt to the person who came home.
Some face grave financial hardship which alters family prosperity for a lifetime.
In the end, all who serve and their families pay a price for freedom.
I have been asked what I thought the real cost of the fight for freedom was. Mike Stokely would have made a great dad, granddad, and uncle, for he was a great husband, son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin. 144 years and six generations before Mike Stokely's death, William G. Stokely died as a prisoner of war in the Civil War. There will be no 144 years and six generations from Mike Stokely, for he had no children. The sound at Christmas, birthdays, vacations, and holidays will not hear the happy cries of children saying watch me daddy or hey uncle Mike. Mike Stokely will never be asked "who gives this woman in marriage"? Mike Stokely will not even get to grieve and shed a tear at the grave of his parents. For Mike Stokely and our family, the cost of freedom is a lifetime of love.
Soldiers do not serve for money, fame, or future. Soldiers are the few who care enough to sacrifice some or all of their life so that the majority do not have to.
Remembering them one day a year is little enough to give back. To the Veterans who lived to come home, thank you for serving and thank you for living. To the fallen, especially my son, I can never thank you enough for what you have given and the best I can do is to remember and honor your sacrifice.
Robert Stokely
The Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and leaders of major veterans organizations called on America's veterans to help kindle a new spark of patriotism on Veterans Day by wearing the medals they earned during military service.
"We are announcing a Veterans Pride Initiative to remind Americans of the pride and honor in the hearts of those who have served," Nicholson said. "We expect Americans will see our decorated heroes unite in spirit at ceremonies, in parades and elsewhere as a compelling symbol of courage and sacrifice on Veterans Day, the day we set aside to thank those who served and safeguarded our national security."
For information about the campaign and how to display and/or replace medals, please visit the VA Web page,
Nicholson, in speaking about a visit to Australia for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day said,
One of the things that stood out during the day-long ceremonies was how all of the veterans and surviving family members wore their medals and campaign ribbons. It focused public pride and attention on those veterans as individuals with personal histories of service and sacrifice for the common good.That is why I am calling on America's veterans to wear their military medals this Veterans Day, November 11, 2006. Wearing their medals will demonstrate the deep pride our veterans have in their military service and bring Veterans Day home to all American citizens.
Veterans, wear your pride on your left side this Veterans Day! Let America know who you are and what you did for freedom.
PASS THE WORD!
The fog of war?
In a remote and dangerous corner of Afghanistan, under the protective roar of Apache attack helicopters and B-52 bombers, special agents and investigators did their work. They walked the landscape with surviving witnesses. They found a rock stained with the blood of the victim. They re-enacted the killings - here the U.S. Army Rangers swept through the canyon in their Humvee, blasting away; here the doomed man waved his arms, pleading for recognition as a friend, not an enemy."Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" he shouted, again and again.
The latest inquiry into Tillman's death by friendly fire should end next month; authorities have said they intend to release to the public only a synopsis of their report. But The Associated Press has combed through the results of 2 1/4 years of investigations - reviewed thousands of pages of internal Army documents, interviewed dozens of people familiar with the case - and uncovered some startling findings.
Full article here.
Veterans Day is almost here. And the Project Valour-IT push to raise $180,000 for specially equipped laptops is drawing to an end - it's time to make that final push to take the project across the finish line- just click on "Make a Donation" the Project Valour-IT box below and offer up $10 or $20 or $100 or whatever to move us across the goal. Some wounded Veterans will be able to use the voice activated laptops even if they can't use a standard computer right now. All the money goes to the cause.
Veterans of Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines are engaged in a friendly competition to raise money for their fellow soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen. My link is to the Navy Team. If you can't bring yourself to help the Navy, here are some other links for the other services:
Army: Castle Argghhh!
Air Force: Op For
Marines: Villainous Company
Navy: CDR Salamander or at EagleSpeak
Or, if you want something Navy-related, you can go to the Navy auction page and bid on some stuff.
But please do something!
“While I was in that house, I made three life or death decisions,” Kasal said. “I never thought I would live through any of them, but I did what I did to help the other Marines.”
Remember the warrior who kicked butt in Iraq after getting shot seven times while he raised hate and discontent among insurgent scumbags??? Well the USA Today does and will have him on the front page on the Marine Corps Birthday, Nov 10th!
Semper Fi and here is a cigar to you now SgtMaj!
to Niles and the men of the 173rd Airborne... 8 Nov. 65
Details HERE...
Thanks, Matt.
and be sure to check out the story behind the song HERE (hat tip to Karl B over at Matty's)
"We got our country back tonight," U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said at a Democratic election party in Bellevue.
Dictators own countries. I'm glad Senator Murray has cleared up my confusion.
Not that I could, even I wanted to. It's just that lying bastard Johnson...
I don't know what's gotten into me with the essays recently.
PS- on Gates, he briefed the missile combat crews at Whiteman. True to life SAC warrior.
Man, does anyone else miss the Cold War?
When the election season started, there was a lot of noise about so-called "Fighting Dems" -- dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, almost all running for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and almost all fed up with how those wars were being run. "The party leadership is calculating that candidates who wore the uniform [could] offer a credible counterpoint on national security to Republicans who have dominated the debate from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill," the Washington Post reported back in February. And with forceful, articulate candidates like double-amputee Tammy Duckworth attracting national attention, it seemed like the calculus was paying off.Running in strong Republican districts, they were always expected to be sacrificial lambs "taking one on the chin" for the party.But something strange happened last night, amid the Democratic sweep. Almost all of the Fighting Dems lost.
One race involving a "Fighting Dem" that did go blue last night was the Ohio Senate seat. But the Dems threw vocal "anti-war" activist Paul Hackett under the bus early on this one, in favor of ultimate winner Sherrod Brown.
...books by Robert Gates.
Here's a publication of interest to those desiring insight to our next SecDef (pending Senate approval). From 2004, Iran: Time for a New approach:
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have positioned American troops along Iran’s borders, making the United States and Iran wary competitors and neighbors who nonetheless possess overlapping interests. Meanwhile, questions continue to be raised about Iran’s nuclear program and its involvement with terrorism. Clearly, contending with Iran will constitute one of the most complex and pressing challenges facing future U.S. administrations. This informative report, which sparked sharp debate in Washington and extensive coverage by U.S. and international media, offers a timely new approach.You can buy a copy of the paperback for 15 bucks from AmazonRejecting the conventional wisdom that Iran is on the verge of another revolution, the report calls for the United States to reassess its long-standing policy of non-engagement with the current Iranian government. The product of an independent Task Force chaired by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser, and Robert M. Gates, director of central intelligence during the George H.W. Bush administration, the report highlights several areas in which U.S. interests would be better served by selective engagement with Tehran, and breaks with current U.S. policy by encouraging a new strategy.
This report focuses on developments inside Iran, tapping into the Task Force members’ extensive expertise on Iranian politics and society. It includes a comprehensive chronology of important dates in U.S.-Iranian history, economic and demographic facts about Iran, and reference materials on Iranian state institutions and governance.
, but 'cause I love you, man, you can download a pdf here for free. (Remember though, it's from two years ago...)
This looks like an interesting read too: From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
More here.
Blackfive spoke of this. I opened my e-mail today and saw ...
and
Good work, Blackfive.
Enough of this light heartedness. On to serious business.
Rumor mill going that Rummy is going away. I have always been a fan of Rummy - have the bruises to prove it. That being said, on the POL side of the POL/MIL brain - when a Cabinet member becomes more of a story in a national election than the CINC, and a bad one at that, it is perhaps time to get rid of the distraction.
Lov'um - but 6 months too late.
Clearing datum.
UPDATE: Looks like Bob Gates. Go Aggies (or whatever the Cow Univ cheer is)!
Effective immediately. Can't find a link yet, but it's being reported (and confirmed) on FOXNews.
Update: Link here.
Update: President Bush confirms. The President wants Bob Gates (former CIA chief) to become the new SecDef.
Gates Wiki profile here.
Personal thought: Confirmation hearings should be interesting, no matter when they occur.
President Bush describes the "cumulative effect" of the election results as "a thumpin'" I'll say.......
President taking questions from reporters now. This reminds me of one thing I'll miss about Rummy. He sure knew how to manhandle the press corps.
Vietnam discussion ensues. Of course....
"If you had any do-overs to do....what would they be?"
President Bush replies, "When you look close at the results....No question Iraq had an impact..." President Bush goes on to discuss how difficult it is to win in the write-in states.
At least nine Iraqi provinces will be under sovereign Iraqi control.
At least eight Iraqi divisions will own their battlespace.
The Iraqi Army will have more than 150,000 members.(WIth plans to grow by 5,000 a month)
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior will have more than 200,000 members.(With plans to grow by 3,000 a month)
The 10th and Final Iraqi army combat outpost will be in place and manned in Ramadi.
The 34th ID and 1st BCT of the 1st Armour Division will be looking forward to going home.
Speaker Pelosi will unveil her Grand Plan to reduce the number of brigades in Iraq from 15 to 13.
So for a new congressman I bet there's a staff opening or two coming up for this new guy from Pennsylvania. I think I've heard of him from somewhere.
Anybody on this blog applying for the job?
More tomorrow. My opinions on the elections (before the results were in) here.
Here's my post-'04 election essay, written in Baghdad. Tomorrow will be about the same for the troops there now.
An "independent":
Bernie voted against the $87 billion that the President requested for Iraq. Given where we are right now, Bernie believes that the United Nations and the international community should take the lead in stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, and that American troops should be withdrawn as soon as feasible.His opponent, Republican Richard Tarrant
I'm not a military expert, but it is time for the United States to work out a redeployment strategy that gives our military strike force capability while at the same time allowing the Iraqi military to take the lead in securing their country.
But Iraq doesn't make it on to his issues page.
Update:Found it
Our country needs a plan for bringing U.S. troops home, starting with the National Guard.But Byrd voted "no" on pulling troops out of Iraq by July 2007.
<...>
Our troops are not trained for urban warfare and policing missions like those they have been forced to undertake in Iraq.
Republican Conrad Burns
Recently, America has been vigorously debating the Administration’s exit strategy for Iraq. I maintain my support for our troops deployed in this dangerous area, and I support the Administration’s plan for success. I agree with the President that our troops should not remain in Iraq a day longer than is necessary, but we cannot afford to pull out too early, or we will leave Iraq in shambles. Only when Iraqi security forces are adequately trained and equipped will it be possible for the U.S. to decrease military operations. In the meantime, our troops need every ounce of our support as they continue to fight an active and lethal insurgency. I assure you I will continue to do everything in my power to bring our troops home safely, while ensuring the future of a stable, free Iraq.
Democrat Jon Tester
Montanans deserve a senator who’ll demand the President present a clear plan to give the Iraqi military control of their own country and bring our troops home.He also pledges to "ask the tough questions".
Claire knows we cannot occupy Iraq indefinitely. We cannot train Iraqi police and military forces indefinitely. And we must tell the Iraqi leaders it is not our intent to remain indefinitely.Uhhh... okay.America must set the agenda for peace and stability in Iraq. In order to do so, Claire believes we must engage our traditional allies as well as the neighboring countries in the region who have an interest in a stable Iraq and an end to the conflict. Moving forward we must have a responsible strategy that is not "cut and run" or "stay the course." Changing the course is essential so that our national security cannot be held hostage to Iraq's inability to make the difficult political choices and compromises necessary to form a credible government.
We must establish benchmarks for the formation of a government. During the next two years, we need to transition to a multinational security force and redeploy our troops to best protect our long term national security interest. Such action should give the Iraqis the time to create a stable country.
Republican Jim Talent: Iraq does not exist on Talent's issues page.
Wait - here's more on his official Senate page:
I support President Bush's decision to take military action in Iraq. Much tangible progress has been realized despite the efforts of insurgents. I had the opportunity to travel to Iraq and our service personnel are nearly unanimous in their belief that they are making a positive difference in Iraq.Going to have to assume he supports the current plan.
Who says:
We need to fix our strategy in Iraq so we can get the job done and bring our troops home. We should have gone in with more troops. Going forward, I want to ensure we listen more closely to our military commanders on the ground and make sure they have all the tools and support they need to succeed. A successful Iraq strategy should:Establish security first, focusing on hotspots, like Baghdad;
Weaken and disarm private militias (like the Mahdi Army);
Allow Iraqis to draw their own internal borders, not dictate the map from Washington;
Continue training Iraqi forces to boost their numbers and capacity, so that more than just several thousand at a time are capable of fighting at a level similar to that of U.S. forces.
Sen. Kyl (R) re-elected, Cong. Renzi (R) re-elected... Napolitano (D) re-elected Gov.. Mitchell (D) defeats incumbent Cong. J.D. Hayworth (R)... and it looks like Graf (R) will win as well for Cong.
as for those proposals, the effects of illegal immigration in this border state were clearly on voters' minds: proposition to make English AZ's official language won 74% of the vote; punative damages for illegal immigrants are now prohibited (they can still sue in court and receive compensatory (actual) damages; state programs and benefits (like in-state tuition rates) for people here illegally are now prohibited, and if you are in the US illegally and you commit a felony, you will no longer be eligible for bail/bond regardless of the offense.
meth users will no longer be eligible for probation for 1st or 2nd convictions
state legislators will NOT get a raise to $36,00 from $24,000
the minimum wage will be raised from $5.15/hr to $6.75/hr. Jan. 1
all bars and restaurants will be smoke-free (and the tobacco comapny sponsored "smoke free if the owner says so" legislation was defeated)
condemnation of private property by eminent domain will be restricted
farmers will now be required to provide enough space for animals to stand and turn around
there will NOT be a $1 million lottery for voters
the AZ constitution will NOT be amended to define marriage (the law already prohibits same sex marriages)
all in all, a pretty good day in Arizona (and the weather was quite lovely today as well)
Ran without Democrat opposition.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar has commenced a series of letters to his fellow Members of Congress to “strive to elevate our debate by studying thoughtful sources of information and embracing civility in our discourse.” Each letter will be made public on this page.Quote:
The idea, somehow, that civil war means that we leave is a non- starter, because Iraq’s physical integrity is important.
Fox.
Kyle (R):
Some senators, understandably expressing frustration with the expenses and mistakes we have incurred in Iraq, have argued for a specific date for withdrawal. That would be, we believe, a serious mistake. America has unfinished business in Iraq, and our troops cannot leave yet. … When the U.S. puts its prestige and its military on the line, there is only one exit strategy possible: victory.”Pederson (D)
I would push the administration for a plan that establishes measurable goals for stabilizing the country and concrete conditions to bring our troops home. There should be no permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
In the meantime, we need to get our troops off the streets and out of the way of the IED's. We have to make the Iraqis take responsibility for policing their communities. That means concentrating our forces in forward operating bases around the country where they can safely train Iraqi security personnel and respond to any serious crisis.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, capitalizing on voters' discontent with President Bush and policies she says have been bad for Michigan, won re-election Tuesday over Republican challenger Mike Bouchard.
Stabenow does not have an "issues" page - but she does have an "agenda". Iraq is not on her agenda.
More:
Q: Any limit on time for our involvement in Iraq?She voted against H.J.Res. 114; Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, but more recently voted against a timetable for redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007. (See link.)
STABENOW: Most challenging situation. It's our job to give them everything they need. I've been to Iraq, met with Ministers. We are not there forever. The Iraqis need to shore up so our people can step back. We're doing excellent training of their people.
Allen (R):
In Iraq, our troops have done a tremendous job helping Iraqis build a democracy in a formerly oppressive, terrorist-friendly dictatorship. Immediately withdrawing our military from Iraq would be forfeiting to the terrorists, and I disagree strongly with those who suggest that we should leave precipitously."Webb (D):
There is no end in sight to the conflict in Iraq...Webb's Iraq comments are the longest on any candidate's "issues" page....we need to straighten out the mess in Iraq.
<...>
First and foremost is Iraq. Iraq is in a crisis that we must address now in order to make progress on all other security matters.
<...>
The key question facing us is how long we should be expected to occupy Iraq. Someday we are going to leave.
<...>
For more than two years, Jim Webb has been proposing a formula that might lead to the end of our occupation of Iraq. The first step would be for this Administration to say unequivocally that our country has no desire to occupy Iraq in the long term... In the short term, we could move our troops out of the country but within the region – strong possibilities could be Jordan and Kuwait. This would give us the ability to contain the terrorist threat within Iraq without continuing our occupation. From there, we could then bring them home when we’re sure the withdrawal is working.The second step would be for us to begin immediate discussions with those countries that are culturally and historically invested in Iraq, and arguably aligned with us, to become overtly involved in a diplomatic solution, taking responsibility at some level for future stability among Iraq’s competing factions. This is do-able.
<...>
We must forego the slash and burn political tactics that have marked the last six years, and reach for a true solution to the war in Iraq and the chaos in the Middle East."
The exit polls showed that 42 percent of voters called corruption an extremely important issue in their choices at the polls, followed by terrorism at 40 percent, the economy at 39 percent and the war in Iraq at 37 percent.The relatively low importance of the war might explain why so many candidates who actually support the President's position (or at least mirror his talking points while declaring their opposition to the man) are being elected to the Senate by people who oppose it.Nationally, 57 percent of voters said they disapproved of the war in Iraq, while only 41 percent approved.
That, or Americans don't listen to what their candidates say. It's entirely possible that many "anti-war" folks are going to be a bit disgruntled next year - unless a lot of these Senators-elect go against their word once they get to Washington. (Heh)
We'll see how the "referendum on Iraq" line plays tomorrow.
Pelosi pops a cork:
Democrats will have a net gain of at least 15 seats to take the House when all votes are counted, CNN projects.Pelosi on Iraq:"We are now tonight on the brink of a great Democratic victory," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is in line to become the first female speaker of the House.
“General Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, confirmed this morning that staying the course – no matter what slogan this Administration chooses to attach to it – means it will be another 12 to 18 months before the Iraqis will be able to provide security for their country. With the war in Iraq now more than three and a half years old, Iraq engulfed in chaos, and U.S. casualties continuing to mount, this is simply unacceptable.General Casey says 12-18 months and we win, but "this is simply unacceptable"?
Two-term Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the chamber's third-ranking Republican, has conceded to Bob Casey Jr.
The situation in Iraq has no easy solutions. Our troops are doing an outstanding job in battling insurgent forces.And admittedly offers no solution himself:
Too many Washington politicians continue to shirk their duty to press the hard and necessary questions about our involvement in Iraq. Bob Casey will push for a clear exit strategy and real plans for the Iraqi forces to take care of their own security, and development of a government structure that is widely seen as legitimate among Iraq's various ethnic groups. This year should be a year of transition for the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own security and governance.My sympathies to Pennsylvania - you've elected a bumper sticker.
(Accordng to CNN projection)
Democrat, staunch opponent of the war:
Ben Cardin parted with most of his colleagues in Congress and voted against the war in Iraq. He has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war and he believes that we need a change of course, and we need it now.Cardin's desire:
Ben Cardin supports a plan that will rotate all American combat troops out of Iraq by the end of 2007 and will bring the National Guard units home first.That National Guard home first part will be tricky.
Ben Cardin has called for 2006 to be a year of serious transition in Iraq and has sponsored an amendment requiring President Bush to present Congress with a plan to bring our troops home.Couldn't find that exact amendment, but a similar amendment sponsored by Representative Lynn Woolsey, [D-CA] failed 128 - 300.
Update: Not so fast! This call from CNN
Democrats have retained two of their Senate seats that were considered competitive, with incumbent Bob Menendez winning in New Jersey and Ben Cardin taking Maryland, CNN projects.has now magically vanished from their story.
Update 2: It's back.
...who sez:
Senator Menendez believes we must change the course of events in Iraq and begin the phased redeployment of forces this year. President Bush and the Bush Congress confused military might for moral strength. It is an arrogance that has cost us our bravest and a conceit that has lost our nation the ethical high ground that has earned us admiration around the world since our nation was founded. It has also hampered our pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda terrorists.But...
Even though Bob voted against President Bush’s misguided war in Iraq, he supports ours troops – both at home and abroad.His opponent, Republican Bob Kean, offers no opinion on Iraq on his campaign issues page.
..can be read here, by the way. Excerpts follow:
OUR NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ:On troop levels:
Helping the Iraqi People Defeat the Terrorists and Build an Inclusive Democratic StateVictory in Iraq is Defined in Stages
Short term, Iraq is making steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions, and standing up security forces.
Medium term, Iraq is in the lead defeating terrorists and providing its own security, with a fully constitutional government in place, and on its way to achieving its economic potential.
Longer term, Iraq is peaceful, united, stable, and secure, well integrated into the international community, and a full partner in the global war on terrorism.
<...>
Our Strategy for Victory is Clear
We will help the Iraqi people build a new Iraq with a constitutional, representative government that respects civil rights and has security forces sufficient to maintain domestic order and keep Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists. To achieve this end, we are pursuing an integrated strategy along three broad tracks, which together incorporate the efforts of the Iraqi government, the Coalition, cooperative countries in the region, the international community, and the United Nations.
Q: Mr. President, you've often used the phrase "stand up, stand down," to describe your policy when it comes to troop withdrawals from Iraq -- as Iraqi troops are trained and take over the fight, American troops will come home. The Pentagon now says they've trained 294,000 Iraqi troops and expect to complete their program of training 325,000 by the end of the year, but American troops aren't coming home, and there are more there now than there were previously. Is the goal post moving, sir?THE PRESIDENT: No, no. The enemy is changing tactics, and we're adapting. That's what's happening. I asked General Casey today, have you got what you need? He said, yes, I've got what I need.
We all want the troops to come home as quickly as possible. But they'll be coming home when our commanders say the Iraqi government is capable of defending itself and sustaining itself and is governing itself. And, you know, I was hoping we would have -- be able to -- hopefully, Casey would come and say, you know, Mr. President, there's a chance to have fewer troops there. It looked like that might be the case -- until the violence started rising in Baghdad, and it spiked in June and July, as you know -- or increased in June and July.
And so they've got a plan now, they've adapted. The enemy moves; we'll help the Iraqis move. So they're building a berm around the city to make it harder for people to come in with explosive devices, for example. They're working different neighborhoods inside of Baghdad to collect guns and bring people to detention. They've got a "clear, build and hold" strategy.
The reason why there are not fewer troops there, but are more -- you're right, it's gone from 135,000 to about 147,000, I think, or 140,000 something troops is because George Casey felt he needed them to help the Iraqis achieve their objective.
And that's the way I will continue to conduct the war. I'll listen to generals. Maybe it's not the politically expedient thing to do, is to increase troops coming into an election, but we just can't -- you can't make decisions based upon politics about how to win a war. And the fundamental question you have to ask -- and Martha knows what I'm about to say -- is: Can the President trust his commanders on the ground to tell him what is necessary? That's really one of the questions.
In other words, if you say, I'm going to rely upon their judgment, the next question is, how good is their judgment; or is my judgment good enough to figure out whether or not they know what they're doing? And I'm going to tell you I've got great confidence in General John Abizaid and General George Casey. These are extraordinary men who understand the difficulties of the task, and understand there is a delicate relationship between self-sufficiency on the Iraqis' part, and U.S. presence.
And this is not a science, but an art form in a way, to try to make sure that a unity government is able to defend itself, and at the same time not be totally reliant upon coalition forces to do the job for them. And the issue is complicated by the fact that there are still al Qaeda or Saddam remnants or militias that are still violent. And so to answer your question, the policy still holds. The "stand up, stand down" still holds, and so does the policy of me listening to our commanders to give me the judgment necessary for troop levels.
CNN: Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown over GOP incumbent Mike DeWine.
We need to listen to our military leaders closely and work with them on specific goals in Iraq so we can bring our troops home.Another Bushbot!
(Note: I'm not bothering to post the "No plan, Bush lied, no armor" statements of any of the candidates - just what they really say about when the troops should come home.)
CNN projects Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse will win the Rhode Island Senate race, defeating Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee.
I support a rapid and responsible withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. To do that, we need to make it clear to the Iraqis and to other nations that we are in withdrawal mode. Iraqis must understand that very soon they will assume responsibility for the security, governance and administration of their country. We need to do this for our country and for our troops.
This is the closest thing I could find to a "position" on Iraq on Senator Chaffe's campaign web page:
As the situation in Iraq, as well as US engagement in the region, evolves, Senator Chafee maintains constant focus on the political climate of that war torn nation. Senator Chafee has visited Iraq twice, most recently in 2005, when he met with the American Ambassador to Iraq, military officials, members of the Iraqi political council, and Rhode Island service members. By remaining in touch with political leaders and with the men and women 'in the trenches,' Senator Chafee gets the best information in order to continue playing a vital role in the development of country and regional strategy.But
Chafee, the 53-year-old son of the late Senator John Chafee, one of the last of the Rockefeller Republicans in Congress, was the lone Republican senator to vote against the war in Iraq, and he has bucked President Bush on numerous issues, including abortion rights, the environment, and the legalization of gay marriage.
...will retain his Senate seat over Republican challenger Katherine Harris.
Nelson "believes we cannot leave Iraq until the Iraqi security forces are fully trained and the Iraqi government is both stable and representative."
I'll continue posting projected winners and their positions on Iraq until I grow tired or bored. Others are hereby invited to join in, via comments or posts. Please include supporting links.
...Kennedy maintains his Massachusetts seat. Apparently his close ties with John Kerry didn't hurt him after all. Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
But seriously folks, in the one lesson that shoud be taken to heart by any and all political pundits: Lieberman will continue to represent the people of Connecticut. This result, more than any other, says a lot. Is it repeatable elsewhere? Probably not - so don't expect too many to listen.
Kennedy has no discernable position on Iraq. He declares it a "quagmire" and states "it’s time for the President to listen more carefully to the advice of those who disagree with his misguided policy." But this is his closest approach to a position: "Iraqis must begin to take responsibility for their own future, so that we can begin to reduce our military presence in the country." Which is a more forceful re-statement of the President's position.
It is no surprise to my colleagues that I strongly supported the war in Iraq. I was privileged to be the Democratic cosponsor, with the Senator from Virginia, of the authorizing resolution which received overwhelming bipartisan support. As I look back on it and as I follow the debates about prewar intelligence, I have no regrets about having sponsored and supported that resolution because of all the other reasons we had in our national security interest to remove Saddam Hussein from power – a brutal, murdering dictator, an aggressive invader of his neighbors, a supporter of terrorism, a hater of the United States of America. He was, for us, a ticking time bomb that, if we did not remove him, I am convinced would have blown up, metaphorically speaking, in America's face.His opponent favored a 12-18 month deadline for withdrawing troops.I am grateful to the American military for the extraordinary bravery and brilliance of their campaign to remove Saddam Hussein. I know we are safer as a nation, and to say the obvious that the Iraqi people are freer as a people, and the Middle East has a chance for a new day and stability with Saddam Hussein gone.
We will come to another day to debate the past of prewar intelligence. But let me say briefly the questions raised in our time are important. The international intelligence community believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Probably most significant, and I guess historically puzzling, is that Saddam Hussein acted in a way to send a message that he had a program of weapons of mass destruction. He would not, in response to one of the 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions that he violated, declare he had eliminated the inventory of weapons of mass destruction that he reported to the U.N. after the end of the gulf war in 1991.
I do not want to go off on that issue. I want to say that the debate about the war has become much too partisan in our time. And something is happening here tonight that I believe, I hope, I pray we will look back and say was a turning point and opened the road to Republican and Democratic cooperation, White House and congressional cooperation, to complete the mission.
Update/correction: Lieberman's Democrat opponent, I should specify. I forgot he had a Republican challenger too - but so did Connecticut voters.
I'm sure I don't need to remind those that stop by Milblogs to vote...
Here in AZ we have 19 ballot propositions in addition to electing a Congressman and one Senator, 9 state offices, 2 county offices, 2 local offices (Justice of the Peace and Constable, no less!!) and 7 judicial offices... our sample ballot is 6 pages -- each 8.5 x 18 inches in 8 pitch type. In two languages. Of course, we're one of the states that is being overrun with out-of-state celebrities and special interests. The mudslinging and negative ads have been nauseating for weeks. We are also being beset by hundreds (perhaps thousands) of out of state lawyers 'cause AZ voters decided a few years ago that you had to bring two forms of ID with you to prove you're entitled to vote here. One court said, "strike that", but a higher court thought it a reasonable (and legal) requirement.
Our research is complete (the State provided two books totalling almost 400 pages describing the candidates, their views on various issues, the propositions and statements of any citizens and groups willing to pay a few bucks to have their statements for/against each proposition included); our sample ballots are filled out and ready to transfer to our ballot or voting machine (our preference), but we are heading out at o'dark:30 because we know most people will come to the polls unprepared and with many of the propositions being quite lengthy (having been wrtitten by lawyers) they will take quite some time to read... which will make the lines long by midday.
After all of this, I am honored to say that I am grateful and humbled that there have been so many that have gone before to ensure that we have this right... and to defend this right... this priviledge... and I am saddened to realize how many in the world can only wish for the chance that so many Americans pass up... and am determined to particiapte because I know that there are those that would murder and kill to keep us from having a voice. (Perhaps we should all dip one finger in purple ink to remind everyone how precious this gift is...)
On this Election Day, I'll leave you with this:
...if you haven't already, and read Grim's comments on Dadman's post. (Grim, bro, you really need to put these up as a stand-alone post.)
Take a longer moment to read the latest from Whittle, too. We've sorely missed ye, Bill.
Read both - back to back.
Are you disappointed with media coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom? You're not alone.
U.S. media coverage of Iraq was so gloomy that during a recent visit to the U.S. the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan wondered whether the situation had deteriorated to such a degree during his absence that he should stay away."CNN International and [Arabic television network] al-Jazeera are equally bad in their coverage of the situation in Iraq," Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani was quoted as telling a visiting group of Americans on Monday.
"When I was in the United States recently and read the negative news in the Washington Post, New York Times and in the network TV broadcasts, I even wondered if things had gotten so bad since I had left that I shouldn't return," he said.
Barzani was speaking during a meeting with a group of Americans who have lost sons during the conflict in Iraq. The group is in the country, according to the trip organizers, to learn for themselves what their loved ones died for.
The Plank asks the question
Why is it that the polls released today (WaPo, Pew, USA Today) show a smaller margin for Dems, while the polls released yesterday (Time and Newsweek) show a larger margin?All the polls begin either Wednesday or Thursday and extend at least through Friday evening. Which is to say, they would all appear to coincide with the prime Kerry-fallout days. But both Time and Newsweek stop polling on Friday, while WaPo and Pew poll through Saturday, and USAT polls through Sunday. That suggests part of the discrepancy has to do with polling on Saturday.
James Carroll writes a deeply offensive column in the Boston Globe.
Comparing our efforts in Iraq explicitly to Vietnam, Carroll asks, “This time, can we accept defeat?”
An easy for any fool in Boston to ask, since the lives of many brave men and women In Iraq would be the objects of his answer.
Did that get you angry enough? How about this (emphasis mine):
It is one thing to feel uneasy about your nation's war, or even to move to a position of outright opposition. It is another to face the harsh fact that the only way out of the war is to accept defeat. The goal of "peace with honor" assumes that the nation's honor has not already been squandered. During Vietnam, for all the widespread opposition to the war, the American public was never ready to face the full truth of what had been done in its name, and so the martial band played on. And on. The war ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, with the United States whining that somehow it had been the victim. Not incidental to the present disaster is the fact that the men dragging out that shameful last moment of Vietnam, when our nation's abject defeat was made plain for all the world to see, were Ford administration honchos Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.Better intellects than I, and much calmer voices, have explained in great detail how flawed is Carroll’s interpretation of Vietnam.Rumsfeld and Cheney are prepared to do it to their nation again. The question now is whether America will let them? The general uneasiness with the war in Iraq is mostly tied to how badly it has gone. Tactical and strategic planning have been bungled at every level, and the elusive enemy is yet to be understood in Washington. If the Democrats take power with the elections tomorrow, congressional hearings will have a lot of such questions to consider. But what about the moral question? For all of the anguish felt over the loss of American lives, can we acknowledge that there is something proper in the way that hubristic American power has been thwarted? Can we admit that the loss of honor will not come with how the war ends, because we lost our honor when we began it? This time, can we accept defeat?
But I can say something about how much more flawed Carroll is about our efforts in Iraq.
We did not lose our honor by acting on behalf of the United Nations Security Council and their 17 resolutions against Saddam Hussein, and acting to remove a brutal tyrant who actively supported and sponsored terrorism, and sought weapons of mass destruction.
We did not lose our honor in helping the Iraqi people conduct three successful elections with majority participation that greatly exceeded participation rates in any US elections.
We certainly have not lost our honor in the face of dishonest, manipulated, propaganda media campaigns launched by our sworn enemies and willingly, knowingly, and enthusiastically supported by “journalists” such as you.
You speak of Honor? You never knew what the word meant.
(Cross-posted at Dadmanly)
And just in case you think I'm being harsh in calling the guilty party trailer trash, the stolen material was found during a drug raid on....well, a trailer.
Nuclear Lab Breach Could be "Devastating"
The recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory was very serious, with sensitive materials being taken out of the facility -- possibly including information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons, officials tell CBS News.
Luckily the security on our nuclear arsenal is double and triple redundant. Still, if this info was exchanged with a third party, it would peel away a level of protection on our bombs.
The woman believed to have taken the information -- the owner of the trailer -- worked in three classified vault rooms across Los Alamos:• Safeguards and Security (relating to strategic nuclear material control and accountability)
• X-Division (top secret)
• Physics P-Division.The woman had top secret "Q-clearance" with access to all the U.S. underground nuclear test data. Additionally, she had "Sigma 15" clearance, which allows her access to info on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons.
For example, if a terrorist steals an American nuclear weapon, he could not detonate it due to the special access controls. This woman is authorized to read the reports that tell how to get around those safety controls.
I don't know what the hell a "Q-clearance" is, but it sounds important.
I think I might have heard this somewhere before... just maybe not in the Washington Post...
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SYKES, Iraq, Nov. 5 -- For the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, the war is alternately violent and hopeful, sometimes very hot and sometimes very cold. It is dusty and muddy, calm and chaotic, deafeningly loud and eerily quiet.The one thing the war is not, however, is finished, dozens of soldiers across the country said in interviews. And leaving Iraq now would have devastating consequences, they said.
With a potentially historic U.S. midterm election on Tuesday and the war in Iraq a major issue at the polls, many soldiers said the United States should not abandon its effort here. Such a move, enlisted soldiers and officers said, would set Iraq on a path to civil war, give new life to the insurgency and create the possibility of a failed state after nearly four years of fighting to implant democracy.
"Take us out of that vacuum -- and it's on the edge now -- and boom, it would become a free-for-all," said Lt. Col. Mark Suich, who commands the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment just south of Baghdad. "It would be a raw contention for power. That would be the bloodiest piece of this war."
The soldiers declined to discuss the political jousting back home, but they expressed support for the Bush administration's approach to the war, which they described as sticking with a tumultuous situation to give Iraq a chance to stand on its own.
and this ...
"Pulling out now would be as bad or worse than going forward with no changes," Modlin said. "Sectarian violence would be rampant, democracy would cease to exist, and the rule of law would be decimated. It's not 'stay the course,' and it's not 'cut and run' or other political catchphrases. There are people's lives here. There are so many different dynamics that go on here that a simple solution just isn't possible."
Read the whole WaPO article here
Blackfive also covered this story line, but he has more soldier responses straight from his email... HERE
Seems a lot of folks are interested in our elections.
Everybody has an opinion about next Tuesday's midterm congressional election in the U.S. – including senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND who say they hope Americans sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawing from Iraq, a move, as they see it, that ensures victory for the worldwide Islamic resistance.
I find this quote particularly enlightening:
They rejected statements from some prominent Democrats in the U.S. that a withdrawal from Iraq would end the insurgency, explaining an evacuation would prove resistance works and would compel jihadists to continue fighting until America is destroyed.
More than being a political statement, I think these comments illustrate the persistence of our enemies. "Cut and Run" is a recipe for disaster. But if you want a political statement, "a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades" made one when he said, "Of course Americans should vote Democrat."
We report, you decide (slogan added to guarantee that trolls will be thrown into a frenzy).
We interrupt our regularly scheduled MilBlogging to bring you this warning from the inventor of the internet:
The Internet is in danger of being corrupted by fraudsters, liars and cheats.Consider yourself warned.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
In the spirit of the political season, I have been contemplating gasbags.
Purely in a Naval sense, of course.
Cross posted at OPFOR. I'm not usually one for essays, that's my boy Grim's department, but in this case I felt one was warranted.
Election day for me actually came a few weeks ago, I voted absentee in the Virginia Senate election.Bottom line up front, I voted for George Allen. Here's why.
Since 9/11, my political views have become laser focused on security. I don't hate Democrats and I don't think that they're bad folks. I've even voted for a few of em, like Mark Warner and his successor Tim Kaine for Governor of Virginia.
But this election, like in 2004, my vote went to the party that demonstrated the highest committment to the national defense. Democrats, for all their passion, seemed to have lost their way in national security. Their opposition to the President has taken a higher priority than defeating our enemies, a political shift that I find inexcusable.
I cannot entrust my vote to a party that I cannot entrust with the protection of the American people.
Looking back, it wasn't Democratic opposition to the Patriot Act or their calls to withdraw from Iraq. It wasn't their demands that the NSA cease and desist their monitoring of Al Qaeda communications into the United States or their fight to shut down our detainee facility at Gitmo. It wasn't even their insistance that we grant trials in US courts to terrorists captured in Afghanistan. It was their abadonment of Joe Lieberman that hammered the final nail into their coffin.
There's still a fighting spirit in the Democrats, the moderate pro-victory camp does exist. The problem is that the current balance of power lies in the hands of the folks who abadoned Lieberman soley for the sin of supporting the war in Iraq.
That makes me nervous, and nervous is an emotion that I shouldn't be feeling when it comes to defense. Especially in this brave new world. I challenge all voters on Tuesday to ask themselves: can the Democrats do better? With the economy and the defense? If so, what exactly will they do different? A vote for a Democrat is a for what?
Make the right decision on Tuesday folks, too much lies in the balance.
Also went off on a little historical segue in the post, but I think this satisfies my basic point. In short, I'm the type of voter that Democrats should be fighting to embrace, yet they're pushing me away. I sincerely hope another electoral defeat with force them to look inward, instead of blaming voting machines and Karl Rove.
Saddam sentenced to hang; celebrations erupt in Baghdad.
Ever need a flight suit? Or one of those snazzy coin thingies, or a poster, or a signed copy of Lex's "Rhythms" serial?
The auctioning is going hot and heavy, and Navy's section is here. We're donating the stuff, and it's all for a good cause. Might be more items to come, too.
Michelle Malkin has an update/recap on an apparent "stolen valor" story we've mentioned here before.
All credit to Gateway Pundit for the real work on this one. Check out his post on a real hero, too.
The Left fell for Jesse MacBeth, they fell for Jonathan Hutto, they've fallen for Josh Lansdale, too.
It's called gullibility - that's what really happens when you don't study hard in school.
More: Dan Kennings, Jeff Englehart, Jeremy Hinzman, Jimmy Massey, Micah Wright, Janis Karpinski's dead soldiers
As for how real soldiers are treated by leftists: dead soldiers, wounded soldiers, living and dead soldiers, still more soldiers...
The rest, of course, are all uneducated thugs committing atrocities.
A commenter says:
I'm surprised this august forum--which professes to speak for all the armed services--has failed to note the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times, and the Marine Corps Times have all called for Rummy's resignation.They are all the same paper, of course. But over all, I'm unimpressed, and had commented on the topic elsewhere.
This humble little blog does not profess to "speak for all the armed services" either - the concept is absurd.
Update: "The National Enquirer of our military" - I've heard that expression used frequently.
Update 2: The DoD responds to the Military Times here.
Update 3: Heh - I think Tony Snow reads Instapundit.
50 years ago today,Nikita Kruschev sent Soviet tanks to crush a Hungarian Independence Uprising.
27 years ago today,Iranian Militants took American Embassy workers hostage.
26 years ago today, a man named Reagan was elected. (ed. it would be another 11 years before the last of the Soviet Tanks left Hungary.)
One of our milbloggers recently ran into someone famous. Nice pic!
...whether you're having fun or not.
Today is the 27th anniversary of the Tehran embassy hostage crisis.
Of course there will be bloodshed. There will be a lot of AKs firing in the air, too...
Lawyer hints at "bloodshed":
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces were on alert and a curfew was expected to keep Baghdad locked down on Sunday when Saddam Hussein hears the verdict in his trial for crimes against humanity.(Via Pajamas)If convicted, the ousted Iraqi president could be sentenced to hang.
Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said on Friday Saddam believed the verdict was timed to boost President George W. Bush before mid-term elections on November 7, and urged a delay. He warned of bloodshed if Saddam is sentenced to death.
Surely no one would take that topic seriously, would they?
(I'm opposed to it - but I'm not in congress. Where do your candidates stand?)
TEHRAN, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Iran's judiciary has declared an ethnic Arab party illegal on charges of instigating unrest and opposing the Islamic system in the southern city of Ahvaz, Iranian news agency said on Saturday.Iran has blamed Britain(ed. it wasn't the Great Satan or the Joooos ?)
"The activities of that party is focused on opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran and instigating unrest and tension among Arabs and non-Arabs," the statement said.
Let's start the weekend with a laugh...
Obviously they got the plans from that sonofabitch Johnson.
My first reaction to that is that any disincentives we thought were in place, aren't.
THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology. The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.
The poor, poor Iranians. They won't be the only nuclear power in the Middle East...who to target...Israel...Iran..Iran..Israel...those Arabs are so unpredictable. Someone could make a mistake!!!
Do you think they know that MoveAmericaForward is SELLING t-shirts with their picture on it? HERE
I'd only buy one if the money was going to Project VALOUR-IT... Army, of course!
For more of these go to The Professional Cartoonists Index...
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has shut down a website featuring documents captured from the Saddam Hussein regime after alert New York Times reporters discovered that some of the documents might reveal sensitive information about how to build an atomic bomb.
You know, like the nuclear weapons that Saddam wasn't pursuing before we invaded in 2003. Because he wasn't a threat to anyone. Just a pussycat, that Saddam (yes, this is the same Saddam who is expected to be sentenced on Sunday by an Iraqi court on for murdering thousands of his countrymen).
I, for one, would like to thank the New York Times for alerting the government to this dangerous breach of national security.
JIM GERAGHTY has more.
Unique? Why? Well, it features Hamid Karzai's new website!
"Next thing you know, I'll be blogging!"
Was done by David Brooks. Another idea, better written and grounded. Chewable.
Partitioning the country would be traumatic, so after the election it probably makes sense to make one last effort to hold the place together. Fire Donald Rumsfeld to signal a break with the past. Alter troop rotations so that 30,000 more troops are policing Baghdad.But if that does not restore order, if Iraqi ministries remain dysfunctional and the national institutions remain sectarian institutions in disguise, then surely it will be time to accede to reality. It will be time to effectively end Iraq, with a remaining fig-leaf central government or not. It will be time to radically diffuse authority down to the only communities that are viable — the clan, tribe or sect.
A muscular U.S. military presence will be more necessary than ever, to deter neighboring powers and contain bloodshed. And the goals will remain the same: to nurture civilized democratic societies that reject extremism and terror.
But the boundaries may have to change. The war was an attempt to lift a unified Iraq out of its awful history, but history has proved stubborn. It’s time to adjust the plans to reality.
By the way, for an introduction to some of Hersh's methods used in fabricating the Abu Ghraib story, read this (to inlude the links).
I need to update this some day soon. Much more information has come to light since then (some of which we've seen here, or some near here), information that makes the actions of Hersh and Mapes even more disgusting in hindsight...
When Seymour Hersh writes, he uses facts (albeit selectively and sensationally). Here's an example regarding an incident alleged to have occurred at Abu Ghraib:
His book Chain of Command would deliver the authoritative Seymour M. version: “An attorney involved in the case told me in July 2004 that one of the witness statements he had read described the rape of a boy by a foreign contract employee who served as an interpreter at Abu Ghraib,” Hersh wrote. “In the statement, which had not been made public, the lawyer told me, a prisoner stated that he was a witness to the rape, and that a woman was taking pictures.”
What we have here is third hand information about a horrifying (if true) event. But Hersh probably isn't lying when he says "an attorney involved in the case" told him he had read a document in which "a prisoner stated that he was a witness to the rape" of a young boy by "a foreign contract employee".
But when Seymour does a public speaking engagement, he tends to (ahem) expand. For instance, here's how he described the event to the annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union:
Admit it. Like the nutty, over-caffeinated guy you always see either in the parking lot or at the command picnic - you know you like to hear what Ralph Peters has to say now and then. I'm sorry though, he has lost me here. Anyone have a handle on what he is doing? Need more network time or something?
There are some who have thrown in the towel whose opinion and perspective I may not agree with, but I respect. With all due respect Ralph, this makes no sense.
...we can’t win... Arab societies can't support democracy as we know it... it's their tragedy, not ours... comprehensive inability of the Arab world to progress in any sphere of organized human endeavor... the United States wouldn't be weakened by our withdrawal, should it come to that. Iraq was never our Vietnam. It's al-Qaeda's Vietnam... Iran embark on an orgy of bloodshed, the harsh truth is that we may be the beneficiaries... Our military is now being employed for political purposes...I find Ralph's timing interesting as well. This is just too much for me though. Like an old boss used to say, "He is dead to me now."
(Now that would make a good name for a grunge band.)
For all our friends here, you might be interested in knowing that a certain group of brave Minnesotans -- you may have seen some of their handiwork at Drudge (Thanks, Andi) -- are represented online. I'm been very proud to have the occasional link or two, they're big MILBLOG supporters.
I have been in contact with contributors to the site, and apparently they are under the scope of certain Public Affairs Office (PAO), who don't appreciate their efforts.
Perhaps you can stop by, and show your appreciation.
There's an old saying, Army [insert branch] Wife: The Toughest Job in the Army. Military spouses/families serve their country too. We keep the homefront going so that our warriors can focus on their mission.
Last weekend, the SpouseBUZZ authors, many of whom are also milbloggers, traveled to Ft. Hood for a day of conversation with local milspouses. It was the most powerful experience I've ever had as a milspouse. You can read some of the accounts here, here, here, here and here.
November is Military Families Appreciation Month, and SpouseBUZZ is kicking off a new contest today which coincides with that theme. Milspouses, click here for details.
I think I've seen this before.
(No decoder ring required. Go here and do the right thing)
A great write-up about a day in the life of a Navy Corpsman and his Marines. Also a good perspective on prayer and faith; especially comming out of the NYT group.
He turned, faced a reporter and spoke loudly again. "In situations and times like this, I am bound to start yelling and shouting furiously," he said. "Don't think I am losing my mind."There are thousands of stories like this that the NYT could have run over the last half decade about the nature of those who serve - and how they serve. I'll take what I can get - but more please. Give it a read.
By their very nature, some groups attract unusual members.
Fire departments attract arsonists, though the vast majority of fire fighters are not.
The military attracts some violence prone, sadistic individuals - though the majority of those serving are not.
The priesthood attracts some individuals with various sexual proclivities, though the majority are following a dedicated calling.
The "news business" attracts those who would use the platform for "getting their message out" or advancing a cause rather than simply reporting news .
The examples cited for the first three groups are the exceptions, not the rule. But I'm not sure whether or not the last profession I listed has passed a tipping point in that regard.
Robert Elegant was a reporter in Vietnam. This is from his 1981 retrospective How to Lose A War: The Press and Viet Nam:
Not even the "old hands" were necessarily well qualified to cover the conflict—who could have been? Arthur Waley?—but, considering our divergent backgrounds and political convictions, the old hands' general agreement about the nature of the war was remarkable. Most deplored the ineffectiveness and the corruption of successive South Vietnamese governments, but judged native (i.e., Southern) disaffection incapable of mounting an armed rebellion without direction, reinforcement, and weapons from the North. Most concurred with the thesis Robert Shaplen advanced in The Lost Revolution (1966), agreeing that ineffectual leadership had failed to foster latent nationalistic and reformist enthusiasm in the South, by default ceding those dynamic forces to the North. We did not deceive ourselves that the South enjoyed even marginally good government; but we believed that Northern rule would be much worse for the mass of the people.13 We knew that the North and the South, though not necessarily two separate countries, were distinct entities because of the strong regional feelings of the Vietnamese. Although most of us had opposed major U.S. involvement, we saw no way the United States could withdraw unilaterally.And down in the footnotes:
13. Worse in every way, economically as well as politically, although there were those—from Messrs. Tom Wicker and Seymour Hersh to Mmes. Frances Fitzgerald and Mary McCarthy for the New York Review of Books—whose steadfast ideology led them to believe that Revolutionary Liberation would mean Social Progress. They had a vision of the Viet Cong future, and it would work.Not "anti-war", you see, just on the other side. (Apparently any side other than ours will do for at least one member of that crew.)
Hey can someone please explain to me why John Donovan is advertising for Team Air Force at The Castle?
Just curious is all.
Do you mean that the opposing side was preparing to surrender until they watched Walter Cronkite/NY Times et al declare the war unwinnable?
Many have made the comparison. Some are hoping for a similar outcome. Sy Hersh, for one.
If Americans knew the full extent of U.S. criminal conduct, they would receive returning Iraqi veterans as they did Vietnam veterans, Hersh said.“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.”
Before you judge your response simply on the quote above, I encourage you to read the entire article, then come back here and tell us what you think.
Hat tip: Reader Bill
Update: Someone in the comment section has challenged my belief that Hersh believes OIF Veterans deserve to be treated in the same manner as Vietnam Veterans. While it's true that Hersh doesn't state it quite that clearly, I think a fair reading of the article would lead most reasonable people to the same conclusion.
More reaction at Free Republic and Hot Air.
JOHN KERRY has issued a written statement, which he is calling an "apology":
As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop.I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.
It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.
This doesn't feel like an apology to me; it reads more like a tactical retreat. And after his "I apologize to no one" remark from yesterday, I'm having a very difficult time swallowing it as genuine.
Continue reading "John Kerry's Non-Apology"
via Census.Gov(pdf)
Minorities
41 Million Hispanic/Latinos
37 Million African-American
24 Million Living Veterans(old enough to vote)
I might not be smart, but I can count.
Vice President Dick Cheney will bring the house down later today, with this:
Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn’t get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it.
HEH!
...anyone was wondering what our troops think about Kerry's joke-gone-bad:
Courtesy of Drudge, which means tens of millions of people have viewed this photo.
JOHN KERRY is now calling his insulting remarks a "botched joke."
Kerry said the comment in question was “a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops ... and they know that’s what I was talking about.”
But we all know who the real "botched joke" is, don't we?
I remember this. No comfortable 76 average for these kids.
The North Korean spy scandal in South Korea continues to get interesting as the Korean National Intelligence Service Chief who resigned in the wake of the spy scandal is accusing the ruling Korean government of trying to influence the investigation of the North Korean spies:
National Intelligence Service chief Kim Seung-kyu said the case involves long-serving North Korean spies. “I suspect this case is about a North Korean spy ring,” he said. "It is shocking to see.” Kim, who resigned Thursday, said an intensive one-month investigation confirmed the charges raised against the five already arrested. “We are investigating additional suspects in the case”. Asked who will succeed him, Kim told the Chosun Ilbo it was “very important” who becomes the next NIS chief. "Some of the candidates are unsuitable due to concerns that they tend to do what [politicians] want them to do. Considering the presidential election next year and the operations of the NIS, the right candidate would be politically neutral and have a global view and knowledge,” he said.
The former NIS chief's comments has drawn a strong reaction from President Roh Moo-hyun's Uri Party:
The book seems to be relevant today. It discusses reactions to soldiers, fake heroes, fake scandals involving vets, fake and manufactured impressions of vets. One example of this kind of thing happening again is over at Gateway Pundit:
Josh Lansdale has done a lot talking this past year about his time in Iraq.
And... Not a word of it is true!
Besides the articles written about Josh describing his days in Iraq, in September, Josh made a commercial for democrat Claire McCaskill against the Missouri Veteran's Administration and and Senator Jim Talent (Ad Here). Josh blamed Senator Talent for waits he endured at a VA Hospital. When asked, however, to justify those claims with appointment records, Josh became indignant and disappeared. Now, Josh is filming more angry veteran commercials, this time for votevets.org, a democratic anti-Iraq War organization headed by Wesley Clark. The ads are airing throughout the country in an effort to take down Republicans.
I was watching the News tonight. NBC I think it was.
The National Security Correspondent was blahtering on about all the horrible things that would happen if the Iraqi's decided to expand their Army. I'll hit a couple of points.
Supposisition -"We will need more trainers"
The Iraqi's have been running their own training facilities for a while, we set it them up, run the first few batches of Iraqi soldiers thru, then some patriotic Iraqi pays attention, and duplicates our work.
Supposition - 'We will need more Mitts"
Once a battalion goes in the lead, the Mitt's are at battlion level, whether the battalion has 500 soldiers or 1000 soldiers doesn't affect how many Mitts one needs.
You jokers can't bust on the Air Force if I get there first.... Another installment of "tomorrow's poster today."
Join the dark side. We'll teach you a thing or two about acquisitions.
...about that kicking down doors, terrorizing women and children bit.
(But Scott forgot the "Ghenghis Kahn" quote.)
...please stop. I can't help myself...
But seriously folks...
At first I intended to point out that Kerry's remarks would no more impact an election for House or Senate in another State than the Foley story would. But having seen a few Democratic strategists try to spin control this thing (that damn Johnson!) I'm not so sure.
Note to Democrats: This is not salvageable. Please stop. John Kerry is not running for anything this year. He will win in a landslide when next the Massachusetts voters go to the polls. Stop. Now. Repeat: Stop. Now.
This is what you sound like.
By the way, I believe Andi's original post on this last night was the first in the blogosphere. But she credited Free Republic, which was also the site where Rathergate story broke. Coincidence? Or something... else? (Que Halloween organ music.)
My final non-partisan message for the night: do this, or dead people will for you:
The Journal identified dead people on the voter rolls in all 62 counties and people in as many as 45 counties who had votes recorded after they had died.One address in the Bronx was listed as the home for as many as 191 registered voters who had died. The address is for the Hebrew Home for the Aged.
Democrats who cast votes after they died outnumbered Republicans by more than a 4-1 ratio.
Ohio.
That’s what it came down to in 2004. A few ten thousand voters in Ohio. If they’d have gone the other way, this guy would be commander-in-chief:
“You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.” — John Forbes Kerry
This from a scion of privilege who attended the world’s most elite private prep schools and turned that advantage into being a C-student with 1100 SATs, and who in turn married his way into “doing well.”
Simply breathtaking.
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