Sen. Webb: my Eisenhower trumps your Eisenhower

Did ya'll catch Sen. Webb's Eisenhower quote during his response to the SOTU?

As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.

We have yet to complete the job, he so well advanced at such great cost; for victory in war is barren until a secure peace has been established. Young men who have not yet done their share must now come forward to help bear the burden. May the memory of what the fighting man accomplished inspire in us a high resolve to see the job through.

Franco Harris... a Great Football Player...

...and a gracious human being. Franco Harris - yer a good man.

Lots to Discuss...

...at the 2007 MilBlog Conference.

We're getting close to making some announcements, see here for the latest.

Re: Hitchens, Steyn

TruePunk over at InstaPunk takes off on themes set out in the Hitchens piece plus a Benny Morris look at the next holocaust and looks for accomplices here.

It should be read in its entirety, but a small sample:

These are the "liberal" candidates for everlasting guilt when the next holocaust occurs:

-- All you "supporters of our troops" who root for the insurgents because American deaths will embarrass Bush and all you "supporters of Israel's right to exist" who root for Hizbollah because Israeli deaths will embarrass Bush; you are both treasonous to your home and treacherous to your friends. There is no lower place in the human condition, whatever your religion, faith, or philosophy. The suffering you deserve will come.

Congressional military families

An article (very incomplete) in McPaper yesterday had me doing a little digging about who in Congress actually has a family member serving in the military. You wouldn't know it by the WaPo and NYT, but Senator Web isn't the only one. I think I figured out why the Marines do so well when it comes to Congressional issues. Look at the breakout: Total count 10 USMC, 7 Army, 3 Navy (+ 2 at Annapolis). 0 Air Force. 0 Coast Guard.

More details below the fold.

Poll Me

A look at results from that Military Times poll.

Some results from other topics below the fold. Lesbians and feminists will be particularly disappointed.

Iran and North Korea Collaborate on Nuclear Weapons

The last two members of the Axis of Evil are at it again:

North Korea is helping Iran to prepare an underground nuclear test similar to the one Pyongyang carried out last year. Under the terms of a new understanding between the two countries, the North Koreans have agreed to share all the data and information they received from their successful test last October with Teheran's nuclear scientists. North Korea provoked an international outcry when it successfully fired a bomb at a secret underground location and Western intelligence officials are convinced that Iran is working on its own weapons programme.

A senior European defence official told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of last October's underground test to assist Teheran's preparations to conduct its own — possibly by the end of this year. There were unconfirmed reports at the time of the Korean firing that an Iranian team was present. Iranian military advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests.

Now the long-standing military co-operation between the countries has been extended to nuclear issues.

Some how I don't see the UN, Europeans, or the Democrats doing anything to stop the obvious violations by Iran of the UN sanctions placed on North Korea last year because of their ballistic missile and nuclear weapon tests. Could it be that the Iranians are trying to speed up their nuclear weapons program because they feel a US or Israeli attack is imminent?

You don't deploy an extra carrier group and PATRIOT missiles to the Middle East to fight an insurgency.

Hitchens on Steyn

The Corner tipped us off to a most valuable confluence of thoughtful analysis and serious attention to the threat of Islamist terrorism, over at City Journal. For there, Christopher Hitchens reviews what he (or the editors at City Journal) characterizes as a welcome wake-up call, in Mark Steyn’s America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.

I’ve just finished Steyn’s scrappy call to arms. I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone with a serious concern about militant Islamic theology, Islamic inspired terrorism, and the global propaganda networks that spread hate and violence to a world-wide audience.

Hitchens, though appreciative of Steyn’s cultural analysis and equally alarmed about the threat in general, faults Steyn for what he sees as an inadequate comprehension of divisions and “conflicts of interest” within the Muslim community, as well as overly simplistic (perhaps jingoistic?) prescriptions for what we ought to do about it, once we acknowledge the danger.

I am a big fan of both these writers, and account them both among the most important voices among those who see the threat for what it is, and advocate an aggressive Western response to that threat. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their differences.

(More of Hitchens review of Steyn's great book over at Dadmanly.)

Get Some

WaPo:

ABC newsman Chris Cuomo narrowly escaped harm in Iraq yesterday when a roadside explosion crippled the armored Humvee he was riding in but the shrapnel failed to fully penetrate the vehicle.

"I got very, very lucky," Cuomo, 36, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. He praised "the greatness of the soldiers" involved, saying: "I know if I had been there with any other group of individuals, I would not be able to have this conversation."
<...>
Cuomo, the news anchor of "Good Morning America" and the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo, was embedded with a U.S. military police unit in Baghdad when his convoy of four Humvees responded to a report of a burning Iraqi police car. On the side of the road, the unit noticed some bodies, which turned out to be booby-trapped with an improvised bomb. The device exploded with massive force.

"It rocked the entire vehicle, blew out the tires on two of the vehicles, destroyed much of the glass, rocked the vehicles in a very, very big way," Cuomo said on "Good Morning America." "A piece of shrapnel was barely stopped by this armored door. It came within fractions of an inch of going through the entire vehicle."

The unit came under heavy small-arms fire, and Cuomo was trapped inside his disabled Humvee. He said another military unit arrived and provided cover while his and another crippled vehicle were towed to safety. No soldiers were wounded in the incident.

A hubcap-size piece of shrapnel broke the glass of one of the Humvees, creating a five-inch indentation in the armor, Cuomo said. He said his vehicle had less armored plating and that the situation could have been "catastrophic" if it had been hit by shrapnel of that size.

What impressed him most, Cuomo said, was the way the gunner, still spitting glass from a shattered window, sprang into action without complaint.

By the way, this is the enemy: On the side of the road, the unit noticed some bodies, which turned out to be booby-trapped with an improvised bomb.

This is us: the gunner, still spitting glass from a shattered window, sprang into action without complaint.

Just a chat between moms.

In advance of the President's State of the Union Address, I was invited to be a guest for a 7-9 minute segment on a show called "Top Priority" (a show on "women's issues") on ABC's News Now... According to the show's producer, I was being invited to discuss one of the biggest issues facing our nation -- Iraq -- as the President prepared for his State of the Union Address. They said they were looking forward to hearing about my experiences as the mother of a soldier and how I felt about the situation in Iraq. Just a chat between moms. So I agree to the interview... after all I write a blog about what it's like to be a mom of a soldier.... After the first question and response from the other mother...

I'm thinking, Great. I have Hillary or Nancy in the other chair! Close. Turns out it was Barbara Boxer’s friend, Anne Roesler (thanks MaryAnn for the heads up!) not to mention Nancy Pelosi’s darling. While there was a small legend that appeared and quickly disappeared under Ms. Roesler’s picture, turns out that Anne Roesler is no ordinary, average “military mom”, but a practiced anti-war speaker and writer -- AND HAS BEEN SINCE BEFORE THE WAR ACTUALLY BEGAN. And -- as it turns out -- not just any anti‑war speaker, but a member of Military Families Speak Out, a contributor at MichaelMoore.com… a friend of Ms Sheehan… and she’s also a spokesperson for United for Peace & Justice. She’s even been honored as a “social activist” by the Communist Party.

oh yes.. there's more... with links... the whole thing over at Some Soldier's Mom