Outside the wire

...that's where I am, in a sense. Trav'lin' about and posting via PDA.

But note that new blog ad to the right. Click through and you'll find a great DVD at a great price. (So buy one for your local Senator, too.)

Murtha Criticizes Pentagon Leaks; Pot and Kettle Both Explode

Granted, it's nothing as sexy as accusing Marines of a massacre, but Jack Murtha is not above giving veiled threats to the Pentagon when it suits his purpose:

Murtha said he is convinced the Pentagon has been leaking information about the possibility that Pelosi would use large military planes to make her look bad. But he said, "They're making a mistake when they leak it because she decides on allocations for them,'' referring to the Pentagon budget.

Classy.

From stalwart hawk to get out fast

The WSJ Opinion Page has an interesting look at the history of Mz Clinton's position/s on Iraq through her Senate career... Good heavens! Looks like a "I was all for it before I was against it... " Just nice to see what we all know in a larger forum...

Starting here:

October 10, 2002. Mrs. Clinton addresses the Senate on the use-of-force resolution. "The facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt," she declares, citing Saddam's record of using chemical weapons, the invasion of Kuwait, and his history of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors. "As a result, President Clinton, with the British and others, ordered an intensive four-day air assault, Operation Desert Fox, on known and suspected weapons of mass destruction sites and other military targets," she continues, adding that Saddam "has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members."

All the way through to

January 27, 2007. On the campaign trail in Iowa, Mrs. Clinton demands that President Bush "extricate our country from this before he leaves office." And she promises that, if elected, she will end the war quickly.

But I liked this part best:

All politicians change their minds about something at some point, but what's troubling about Mrs. Clinton's record on Iraq is that it tends to follow, rather than lead, public opinion. When the war was first debated, and she couldn't easily walk away from her husband's record against Saddam, she was a solid, even eloquent, hawk. Then for a time she laid low and avoided the antiwar excesses of John Kerry and others.

But now that the war has proven to be difficult, and her fellow Democrats are outflanking her on the antiwar left, she is steadily, even rapidly, moving in their direction. So in the space of merely 14 months and as the Presidential campaign begins in earnest, Mrs. Clinton has gone from advocating a new plan to "win" the Iraq war, with "honor," to vocally opposing President Bush's new strategy to try to do precisely that. And, oh, yes, she now wants the "surge" to be in Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

The question we'd ask is whether this is the kind of stalwart drift that Mrs. Clinton would bring to the Oval Office?

I think we know the answer...

Read the whole thing HERE

And don't miss Daniel Henninger's "Snake Eater" in WSJ Wonder Land

This is a story of can-do in a no-can-do world, a story of how a Marine officer in Iraq, a small network-design company in California, a nonprofit troop-support group, a blogger and other undeterrable folk designed a handheld insurgent-identification device, built it, shipped it and deployed it in Anbar province. They did this in 30 days, from Dec. 15 to Jan. 15. Compared to standard operating procedure for Iraq, this is a nanosecond.

Update: The ever working Bill Roggio (in a timely email) advises you can check the status of this project HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, Back in Iraq

A Sadr loyalist is arrested

Iraqi forces on Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused in alleged corruption and infiltration of the ministry that has funnelled millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said.

The raid was the latest action in a crackdown on al-Sadr's militia, coming a day after the chief U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said a security sweep to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.
<...>
The military statement did not name the official, but a ministry spokesman said earlier that U.S. and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, a supporter of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, from his first-floor office in northern Baghdad.

The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funnelled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.

The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for "sectarian kidnapping and murder," the military said.

Joint U.S.-Iraqi forces stormed the Health Ministry compound early Thursday, causing all the employees to flee, spokesman Qassim Yahya said.
<...>
Baghdad's streets have been electric with tension as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armour rushed through streets and Iraqi armoured personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.

New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters were in the air over parts of the city where they hadn't been seen before.
<...>
Caldwell said Wednesday, that the much-awaited Baghdad security operation was finally underway but would be implemented gradually.

MNF-I press release here.

Will the "Baghdad security operation" be reported as anything other than "increasing violence"? We'll know soon enough. But it may be difficult to tell when operations kick into high gear, as even though rarely reported, operations throughout the country have never ceased.

More news from the past two days in Iraq - see if you can identify the one story that represents the only sort that would continue if the U.S. were to withdraw:

Dissent at the Times

Via NewsBusters; New York Times Baghdad reporter John Burns talks Iraq with Tim Russert:

He's on dangerous ground - another Times reporter was recently publicly humiliated after committing a lesser thought crime.

Bummin'

The past month was not a good one for my morale, as an individual. Some of my friends and contemporaries [I enlisted 22 years ago and later got a commission] are starting to put in their paperwork to retire, and it has me down. And though I can't blame them, I don't like it one bit.

The Crash in Iraq

Earlier today I heard on the news that a CH-46 went down in Iraq and everything stopped as I searched the news for details. My first trip out to Iraq, I flew in 46’s flying CASEVAC and it’s a small community, if you do it long enough, you get know everybody. With 7 deaths in the crash, it wasn’t likely a troop transport run which means was probably a CASEVAC mission.

Word’s not out yet with names or the unit the aircraft belongs to and that won’t happen till the families notified. I’m selfish, hoping that I don’t know any of the dead, saying goodbye is one of the hardest things to do. This one hits way too close to home, it could have me a dozen times over. Six crashes in 18 days, it's troubling news to myself and other corpsman who I work with. We're all part of the Marine aviation community and chances are, we will be heading back out there again before too long.

Cross posted at Doc in the Box

Re: Striking

That exchange b/w Reid and McCain was...interesting.

Reid is wrong on the "they'll lie to McCain because he's important" bit. But he IS right when he says that "those that talk to me tell me something different."

I've tried to make this point before: people will talk to those they are already inclined to agree with.

When a Sean Hannity goes to Iraq and talks to troops, he can truthfully say that all those soldiers he talked to believe and support the mission. When a Pelosi and Kerry visit Iraq, they can probably truthfully say the same thing. (it's inverse rather). I mean, there ARE troops that object to the war and see no conflict b/w opposing the mission and supporting the troops (though the logical gymnastics one must go through to get to that position leave something to be desired).

It's the same reason why for every "Troops Still Believe in Mission" news story you see, you will see a similar "Troops See Mission as Hopeless." Just depends on whom you are talking to on any given day.

The issue of course is whose statements are more representative of the whole?

AP Reporter Inadvertantly Writes Truth

via AP

The streets became nearly deserted well before nightfall, a surprising sign of fear among a population that has lived through wars for much of the past 25 years.

Oops....

Striking, I Guess...

You know what stands out to me in this video clip? The empty room.

I wish I could hear the rest of Reid's comments. I know what the troops think, I'd like to hear what he had to say about it.

But given the empty chairs, that tree fell in a very distant forest.

Update: Well, boo effing hoo.

There's a broadening bipartisan "uprising" to ditch the longer workweek among both lawmakers and staff, especially in the Senate, said a top Democratic Senate aide.

"It's a grind," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who enjoys one of the easiest commutes to the Capitol from his home in Northern Virginia. "It's a lot more stringent than people originally thought it would be."

A visibly annoyed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., agreed: "I just told (Reid) I won't be back by 4:30" for the vote Monday, "even though I'm catching a 1:55 flight."