the moral imperative of the United States

Jordan's King Abdullah spoke to Congress about the Middle East (what else?)...

In a room with a number of pro-Israeli politicians, the king devoted his speech to discussing an end to the conflict in the Middle East, but he focused primarily on the needs of the Palestinians and suggested that Israel was holding up the peace process.

At no point did he discuss the role of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that is the majority partner in the Palestinian government. Hamas has refused to recognize Israel or change its charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he was "disappointed" in the king for not mentioning the "principle undermining factor in getting to peace," namely, Palestinian terrorist organizations, as well as Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.

At two points in his speech, Abdullah spoke of how peace would also help Israel to be part of the regional neighborhood and free of suicide bombers, but the king offered no substantive advice on how to make it happen, saying only that it's the moral imperative of the United States to take the lead.

So now we have the "moral imperative" to bring "equality and respect and universal justice" to the region? Does the rest of the ME know this?? I presume this is the realm of damned if we do... damend if we don't school? I looked for the transcript of today's address to see if he even mentioned other areas of conflict -- perhaps Afghanistan or Iraq, but the transcript's not available yet...

Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.

Some brief thoughts and observations about Kapisa Province, which has been in the news due to civilian casualties.

Joint Security Stations

via Bill Roggio at the Weekly Standard

On the Baghdad front, there are now 23 Joint Security Stations (JSS) open in Baghdad.... While about 35 to 40 JSS were planned initially, the concept has yielded positive results. The Iraqi government and Coalition are now planning on opening over 70 Joint Security Stations inside Baghdad.

Don't Be a "Gurlie-mahn"

It's humiliating when you're caught.

A tale of two Generals

LTG Kiley and BG Weightman showed us two very different flavors of Flag Officers at the Walter Reed hearings. As is my nature, I couldn't get over the Heisman like comments by LTG Kiley. When you read the WaPo story though, you come away feeling a lot of respect for BG Weightman.

Everyone from the Junior NCO to a senior FOGO should read and ponder when it is time to know your place in things - and the fact that your words mean things - even though something totally different may or may not be in your heart. No one knows what is in your heart - but they do know what comes out of your mouth. Nice, real-world lesson - methinks.

Re: Updated: Re: Delusions and Paint

Watch out for these guys:

That's "Yeoman" on the left, and Zoltan on the right. They're two of the growing cast of characters in the ongoing "War Machine vs the Daffodil Princesses" saga. Yeoman looks like a wuss, but he's got a sling that launches epoxy studded with broken glass.

(Those who don't ever read comments are missing out on the fun.)

Speaking of comments, there's a YouTube video of the Seattle protest online. It's a pretty sad, despirited group, really - and in spite of the lack of a crowd, the cameraman fails to catch a single instance of the police actually making any of the four arrests . And if that's "several dozen" in the crowd, then 1.8 = "several".

But it only took one of them to shout this brilliant line at the troops: "Do not listen to your sergeant! He's a douche bag!"

Save up a quarter and buy a clue, dude.

"bring some paint"

FOUND on DC Indymedia, a post by "A":

Anti-authoritarian bloc on the 17th?

About the demo on March 17th:

People who are planning a black bloc, youth bloc, SDS bloc or something like that should announce it so more than 10 people can join in and make it worthwhile.

And this reply, by "dylan":

bring some paint so we can spray the wall.

For those who haven't been following along, the demo "A" refers to is ANSWER's "March on the Pentagon."

And the wall "dylan" wants to spray paint is the Vietnam Memorial.

Sadr City, Day Two

B-roll footage from day two of joint operations in Sadr city (hat tip: the Mrs.)

It's actually pretty quiet. I hope it stays that way.

"Finally we feel there is security, it's better" said a man who brought his daughter outside to see the US soldiers.

- from an NBC News report from Sadr City.

Hardball

Hardball host Chris Matthews is deeply concerned that the Walter Reed story might be hurting troop morale: "Is it clear that the people feel that we're letting them down at home?" He asked NBC anchor Brian Williams - who's in Iraq. Williams rather straightforwardly stated that's not the case. That discussion opened Williams' visit on Matthews' show, but the conversation then turned away from politics to Iraq. (You might be surprised at what followed.)