Strategic Overview - GWOT

H/T Syberghost

Strategic Overview

I will be examining this article as time permits, but an quick scan suggests it's worth reading.

It's official and it's up!

Boot Murtha

Go and donate if you can, ME I'm gonna drive up and do the Operation Street Corner thing.

Don Surber: Murtha lesson

Don Surber: Murtha lesson

Although it's important to set the record straight, I must disagree with Mr. Surber a bit.

This story didn't originate with bloggers. Bloggers are under the same handicap as the MSM when it comes to reporting. Unless you're on scene you're faced with reporting events second or more levels removed. Luckily for me I posted a second source from the same paper that DID NOT mention the mistaken quote. See: Geez Louise

Via FR - a GOOD read and restating the obvious.

The Good War

Some people just don’t get it.
Five years on, some people remain unaware that this is war; that we are facing an enemy that will do anything in its power to destroy us.
The fact that on any given day we are free to fly around the world, drive our cars without restriction and buy as much food as we like in rich variety seems to have confused them.
The lack of U-boats attacking the shipping lanes has lulled some people into thinking this is not actually a war. Not a real war, certainly not a good war, not like World War II. They mock the very notion that it is a war, having fun with the name “Global War on Terror.” They put forward the notion that, like almost everything else in our American lives, this thing that has been called a war is a choice. A bad choice.
Who can blame them? Even fighting in this war, unlike most of the great wars our that threatened our existence in the past, is a choice made by a small percentage of Americans who have joined the Armed Forces.

...

There are some people who will never get that. Their actions show that they are not worthy of the freedoms that American soldiers have died to give them. Those freedoms are theirs anyway, the birthright of even the most despicable self-centered coward who is born American. But there comes a point when you have to ask, which side are they on? There comes a point when even professional capriciousness and misguided idealism - to be charitable - have to be labelled for what they are: Giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Treason.

This article encapsulates what many know, but few articulate.

From near the middle of the article: Bush chose not to treat this as total war, insisting it could be done with some finetuning of the resources at hand. His domestic opposition has taken that idea several steps farther, insisting Islamic terrorism is a police problem that does not require military force and certainly not the suspension of some legal niceties. After all, they do not consider it an actual war of the sort faced by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt when they destroyed cities and imprisoned anyone who threatened the security of the nation.

President Bush should have declared War, and mobilized the country. By trying to do 'The Right Thing' he, ironically, may have set the stage for a unfocused effort that can lead to defeat.

More Dianna Irey Info - Murtha's opponent

H/T Bill and Russ at Small Town Veteran

Meet Diana Irey

Turns out she's another hillbilly from just up the road.

More Free Speech in Action.

The Huffington Post's Swift Antics


Some readers of HuffingtonPost.com have initiated a new wave of harassing phone calls to Swift Boat veterans who questioned John Kerry's military record in the 2004 campaign -- and the website's proprietors remained ignorant of it for days, despite repeated complaints.

Hmmm, The other shoe?

Via Cox and Forkum

Leaks and the Law

f the Justice Department chooses not to prosecute the Times, its inaction will turn this statute into a dead letter. At stake here for Attorney General Gonzales to contemplate is not just the right to defend ourselves from another Pearl Harbor. Can it really be the government's position that, in the middle of a war in which we have been attacked on our own soil, the power to classify or declassify vital secrets should be taken away from elected officials acting in accord with laws set by Congress and bestowed on a private institution accountable to no one?

Wow! Just Wow!

Snow to Keller

You have defended your decision to compromise this program by asserting that "terror financiers know" our methods for tracking their funds and have already moved to other methods to send money. The fact that your editors believe themselves to be qualified to assess how terrorists are moving money betrays a breathtaking arrogance and a deep misunderstanding of this program and how it works. While terrorists are relying more heavily than before on cumbersome methods to move money, such as cash couriers, we have continued to see them using the formal financial system, which has made this particular program incredibly valuable.

Lastly, justifying this disclosure by citing the "public interest" in knowing information about this program means the paper has given itself free license to expose any covert activity that it happens to learn of - even those that are legally grounded, responsibly administered, independently overseen, and highly effective. Indeed, you have done so here.

What you've seemed to overlook is that it is also a matter of public interest that we use all means available - lawfully and responsibly - to help protect the American people from the deadly threats of terrorists. I am deeply disappointed in the New York Times.

Sincerely,

[signed]

John W. Snow, Secretary

U.S. Department of the Treasury

That's one shoe, wonder if the White House has the balls to drop the other?

Go Git 'em Mom!

Some Soldier's Mom: If Dirt Were $$$$

Geez Louise

via Powerline:

Murtha says U.S. poses top threat to world peace

Original article is here.

And a related article from a different author is here.

Murtha lied is up!!!

HERE!

Ain't free speech a joy to behold?

Carrying ammo

I'm too old and beat up to be a front-line warrior, but I can carry ammo and cover the rear. I once felt comfortable bear hunting with a switch, now I carry a gun. For many of us Vets that's what it boils down to.

Coupla thing are on-going that make it a little easier to bear.

Bill over at Small Town Veteran is bringing up a site called 'Old War Dogs' soon. And Captain Larry Bailey of 'Kerry Lied' fame is putting a 'Boot Murtha' effort together see: this.

In this technological age those doing battle for us have an awareness of the goings-on back here that simply wasn't there in earlier conflicts, and maybe, just maybe, those of us who've 'been there, and done that' can do what we've always done. The same technology that alerts our current war fighters can be a bridge. This MilBlog and the dozens like it are one element us geezers can control.

We share something that many do not, and this is no small thing. Sure, we're likely to bore them silly with OUR stories, but so what. It's odd, but when discussing such things over a beer (or whatever) time becomes a wonderful telescope. Like the Hubble we can share a view of the past and present simply unavailable to most.

My Father-in-Law was one of the original members of the 82nd Airborne folks, with two combat jumps, and he and I have chatted in a way no one else grasps, including his family. Our experiences were in no way similar, and yet a bond exists.

Many of us still have tooth or two to bare if asked. And all that matters in the final count is that although we've had our Crispin's day we can relish their day.

It's of note that there's not much real sadness in this; just maybe a small touch of melancholy. We still head to the sound of the guns - we just don't hear them quite the same.

So I'll keep carrying ammo for the younger warriors, with no small pride, and blessing them for their service and sacrifices.

Thanks to my co-contributors for their clarity and help.

More Murtha and Haditha

The My Lai Lie

THE MEDIA COVERAGE of the killing of 24 Iraqis at Haditha has given rich new definition to the phrase "rush to judgment." The coverage, plus the reaction of antiwar politicians like Democratic representative John Murtha, amounts to a public verdict of guilty, rendered against a handful of Marines, before an investigation of the bloody incident is completed or a trial (if there is one) held.

Wish I'd said that!

General Benedict Arnold Was Also a “War Hero”

It is long past time to speak the undiluted truth in response to Congressman John Murtha (D.-Pa.), Senator John Kerry (D.-Ma) and any of their cohorts on Capitol Hill who continually strive to demoralize Americans in the War on Terror by demanding unconditional retreat. They are not “patriotic” nor are they voices of the “loyal opposition,” for they can be neither patriotic nor loyal when “carrying the water” for the mortal enemies of America.

That opening paragraph nicely sets the tone of the article. And solidifies the effort being mounted to unseat Murtha.

Cox and Forkum

I read them everyday but as o_2opine_o points out this one deserves special note.

Soldier's Burden

Most of us see the cartoons but there's an informative blog as well.

Great news!

Operation Street Corner, Vietnam Veterans for the Truth and Larry Bailey.

BTW I eat this stuff up - see this.

Murtha's bit of PA is about two hours from here.

Just go and read it!

Cruel and Inhuman Islamists

Perspective via DadManly

Neither Sympathy Nor Quarter

From Don Surber

Rage properly directed: Make them pay

Rage, vengence, and restating the obvious

There are those who wonder if a line has been crossed, not the least of which you can find here from Donald Sensing.

… the terrorists will learn something else: they have made the war personal. When that happens, the American experience of war shows that our troops will shed the veneer of restraint like a snake’s skin. And for every American head Zarqawi severs, he will soon find three of his own men’s heads.

Of course, if we behave LIKE the enemy, we're little better than the enemy. I know this, and yet I would surely relish some payback.

One of the more important battles ongoing has been between those around the world who DO see a moral equivalence between 'American imperialism' and the 'freedom fighters' in Iraq and elsewhere. The idea collapses under examination, it's out there none the less. One 'phase' of that battle is seen when there is more outrage over flushing the Koran than the mistreatment of American Soldiers.

Sadly, another 'phase' of this battle is being fought in our own congress.

But here's the simple fact: We are better than the enemy!

We could have simply leveled Mogadishu in a few hours.

We could have turned most of Beruit into a parking lot.

We could have turned the harbor in Yemen into a boiling cauldron.

And we could certainly turn parts of Iraq into glass, saving the oils fields, of course.

Or, speaking of oil, we could control the worlds oil supply with little short term sacrifice, holding on to it is more iffy, but it could be done.

Looking at the press and listening to the noises around the world one would think that we did all those things, but we didn't!

Here's an easy question, if the situations mentioned were reversed would our enemy have shown restraint?

And then there's another element of distinction. Wahabi 'schools' flourish in this country, many Muslims have far more freedom in this country than in their countries of origin. It's hard to discuss western religionous training in Islamic countries because there is none.
...

I've said little new here, I know, but that makes it all the more frustrating. We are better as a people. Warts and all.

Bill Whittle's new essay Rafts is apropo. How many news stories have you read describing boat people fleeing TO Cuba or Haiti?
...

So should we begin treating captured 'bad guys' the way they treat us? Would the satisifaction be worth it?

PTSD and Stuff via FR

Iraq War May Add Stress for Past Vets

Disclaimer: PTSD is a secondary diagnosis in my case, not the primary.

More than 30 years after their war ended, thousands of Vietnam veterans are seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder, and experts say one reason appears to be harrowing images of combat in Iraq.
...

PTSD researcher John P. Wilson, who oversaw a small recent survey of 70 veterans -- nearly all from Vietnam -- at Cleveland State University, said 57 percent reported flashbacks after watching reports about the war on television, and almost 46 percent said their sleep was disrupted. Nearly 44 percent said they had fallen into a depression since the war began, and nearly 30 percent said they had sought counseling since combat started in Iraq.

"Clearly the current Iraq war, and their exposure to it, created significantly increased distress for them," said Wilson, who has done extensive research on Vietnam veterans since the 1970s. "We found very high levels of intensification of their symptoms. . . . It's like a fever that has gone from 99 to 104."

Wilson was one of the primary researchers responsible for PSTD being included in the DSM. I met with him briefly in Cleveland in the early '90s. Interesting character.
...

Max Cleland, a former U.S. senator from Georgia and onetime head of the VA who was left a triple amputee by the Vietnam War, said the convergence of age and the Iraq war has created problems for many of his fellow veterans -- as well as for himself.

"As we Vietnam veterans get older, we are more vulnerable," he said. When the war started in 2003, he said, "it was like going back in time -- it was like 1968 again."

Now he goes for therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and is wary of news from Iraq. "I don't read a newspaper," he said. "I don't watch television. It's all a trigger. . . . This war has triggered me, and it has triggered Vietnam veterans all over America."

There are those who believe that PTSD is not a real desease, perhaps with some justification, but after years of working with vets I'm convinced that there is SOMETHING to it.

Oh well

North American Union Would Trump U.S. Supreme Court

The Bush Administration is pushing to create a North American Union out of the work on-going in the Department of Commerce under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in the NAFTA office headed by Geri Word. A key part of the plan is to expand the NAFTA tribunals into a North American Union court system that would have supremacy over all U.S. law, even over the U.S. Supreme Court, in any matter related to the trilateral political and economic integration of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

This should prove interesting.

H/T Small Town Veteran

Letter urges Bush to join House bill

Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first.

Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits.

Kick out Murtha!

vets4irey

The Highway to the future?

H/T Loquacis

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway


Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

changes

changed things a bit.

Looks okay under IE and Firefox here.

Holler if you see any problems.

This just struck my fancy

H/T to Bill at Small Town Veteran

the Warrior Caste - Revisited, and read the comments.

I wouldn't normally invest time in issues dealt with by 'The Big Boys', but this one is oddly fun.

I have documentation that at least one of my ancestors fought in the Revolution, and suggestions that one was with William the Conquerer.

Dunno about the Civil War... likely they were involved, but maybe as pirates or road agents. We had a lot of that here in WV.

Grandfather was in WW1.

Father was KIA in Korea.

Me, I have no kids, but did my time in and around Vietnam.

Now I just Blog.

Member of American Legion, VFW, and the DAV.

The older I get the less I feel like 'A Warrior', but the mind is still willing.

Speaking of Kerry?

I was at the Kerry Lied Rally in '04. Post and pix are here

Coming soon

Old War Dogs

I'm stoked. The only real problem with this idea is that I didn't think of it first!

Geezers get a voice!

FYI

The North American Union "matrix"

And:

US divided by superhighway plan

Without comment from me.

The Cause of Terror

The Stephen Coonts short story, Secretary of Terror, is definitely food for thought, and I actually agree with the professor's assessment. Fundamental Islamic terrorists will not just go away, because they are supported, or at the very least, not disagreed with by the majority of those who worship under Islam.

The theory that terrorism is the result of poverty has already been disproved according to a paper done at Harvard University in 2004. Acts of terrorism from all parts of the globe and perpetrated by a variety of terror organizations and ideologies were studied, along with the backgrounds of those carrying out the acts of terror. It was found that it was not economics, but the degree of political freedom a nation affords that was the severity of terrorism. Terrorism declined among nations with high levels of political freedom, as well as nations at the other extreme - with tightly controlled autocratic governments - also experienced low levels of terrorism. It was the intermediate nations or the ones making the transition from one extreme to the other that seemed the most vulnerable.

Interestingly, a paper by the same authors done in 2005 suggest that poverty, or at least lowered expectations of prosperity are the by-products of terror.

For whatever international reasons, this paper is rarely cited as a reference and the poverty theory pursed to ad nauseum. The current U.S. administration seems the only involved party interested in these findings.

The reasons behind the results of this paper were not studied, but I have my own theory as to why transitioning nations are more vulnerable to terrorism. I believe it is the desire of the highly autocratic governments, or the forces within, to hold onto control of the population. It is my contention that nations suffering the highest degree of terror attacks have elements of the former regime encouraging terrorism with the hopes of proving that freedom is dangerous. That was very clearly defined in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My curiosity wanders into nations such as China and North Korea. Does terrorism exist there?

Islam also seems a determining factor, but for my own foray into political correctness, I will assume the role of Islam to be nothing more than a tool for the enemies of freedom. This paper specifically addresses suicide terrorism, and makes a good case for a multi-level explantion for its root causes.

The Coonts story is an illustration of the desperation felt by the victims of terror, and the depths to which the imagination with delve in search of a defense. The story is brief, so I won't spoil it, but the case for political freedom or lack of as a root cause of terrorism, is the main reason for my belief that the story is pure entertainment in the form of high social fiction.

Read the story, and allow your imagination to wander. What do you think?

Hat tip to Consul at Arms and Another Voice

From Cuivenar

Just a Day Trip (my title)

We loaded up and I got the chance to talk to our Iraqi security escort. They seemed like sharp guys and were at the ready for anything that might come up. They bragged that they could deploy either side within seconds or change a tire in 1:05 minutes. Not bad. The route was to be up MSR Tampa, and for anybody who knows Tampa, it is long and boring in between cities, a dangerous and wreck-strewn mess in each city. It passes some rather famous towns, Baquba, Taji, Balad, Tikrit, and Mosul. We take the left turn at Mosul and you'll end up at Tel Afar.

The PSD decided that he would prefer to take every by-pass around the towns that he could. And we did. We went way on out in the country. At one point you could look east and see the foothills rising out of the desert basin. It was rather beautiful. Granted a good deal of my work has been in the cities, and except for travel, I've seen little of the country side, and it left me with the impression that we were trying to control the cities and leaving the countryside to the terrorists. I will have to drop that impression after this trip. We travelled in "low profile" vehicles which is to say as close to the iraqi look as we can and still be armored. No big tank looking SUVs, no guns bristling out of every window, just a couple of cars zooming down the highway. Now, don't let that fool ya. There are lead vehicles and trailing vehicles with small armies in them. And each vehicle with pax also contains a small arsenal. But one has to admit it. In Iraq, casualties nowadays are rarely caused by rifle fire or RPG or any direct attack. The trouble is IEDs and the new EFD (shape charges).

...

Since we'd missed dinner, the security manager of my company took me over to "Mustafa's House" for a little barbeque. The big event was England versus Trinidad & Tobago. I think it's hilarious that in England there is a debate about flying the English flag because of it's reference to the Crusades (which it doesn't), while here in Iraq a muslim English football fan decorated his entire villa with English flags and jerseys of all his favorite teams.

Secretary of Terror

H/T Consul-at-arms

Coonts: Secretary of Terror

“Conventional military responses have also proven futile. Smashing third world governments because they tolerate or refuse to combat terrorists hasn't solved anything. In fact, it makes the clerics stronger because they no longer have to compete for power with secular authorities. The people are left to choose between the mosques or anarchy. Clearly, we must go in other directions.”

...

“Oh, no!” Senator Franklin roared. “Oh, no. A few fanatics carry out murderous criminal attacks, but the vast majority of the people in the Arab world have not raised a hand against us.”

“I beg to differ. They harbor the clerics who preach this poison. They pay for terrorism, they provide the jihad soldiers, they cheer the atrocities in the streets and in the mosques. They are not our friends, senator, nor are they neutral. They are our enemies and we will not win this war until we recognize and act on that fact.”

This actually a tough short story to read. I found myself cheering and cringing at the same time.

Might wanna

bookmark this site: Diana Irey

She's running against Murtha!

According to: Interview with Commissioner and GOP Candidate, Diana Irey (Seeking Jack Murtha's seat) She is getting money and support from across the nation.

Not sure about this guy via FR

But his words certainly ring true.

E pluribus pluribus?


While much of the immigration debate focuses on financial issues - whether illegal immigrants hurt or help the economy - the missing link to understanding Americans' anxiety over the issue is the reality that we are failing to build a citizenry that loves America first. The unasked question is whether we are building allegiance to anything other than the almighty dollar.

...


Today, hyphenated Americans put other countries and affiliations first, and they drive a wedge into the heart of "one nation." A recent poll of Hispanics in America by Investor's Business Daily shows that 64% consider themselves "mostly Hispanic," but that only 15% see themselves as "mostly American." The survey further reveals that 31% speak "only Spanish" in the home, while just 6% speak "only English." Finally, 69% of respondents said they lived in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.

Don Surber: We won

Don Surber: We won

Text of al-Zarqawi Safe-House Document

The situation and conditions of the resistance in Iraq have reached a point that requires a review of the events and of the work being done inside Iraq. Such a study is needed in order to show the best means to accomplish the required goals, especially that the forces of the National Guard have succeeded in forming an enormous shield protecting the American forces and have reduced substantially the losses that were solely suffered by the American forces. This is in addition to the role, played by the Shi'a (the leadership and masses) by supporting the occupation, working to defeat the resistance and by informing on its elements.

Communism

Consul-At-Arms Has a post up that links to a post that should be read.

Don Surber: My timetable for leaving Iraq: When hell freezes over

Don Surber: My timetable for leaving Iraq: When hell freezes over

'Warmongers' have a point: It's a war

Baghdad: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi found himself on the receiving end of 500 pounds of U.S. ordnance.
London: Scotland Yard arrested a cell of East End Muslims allegedly plotting a sarin attack in Britain.
Toronto: The Mounties busted a cell of Ontario Muslims planning a bombing three times more powerful than Oklahoma City.
Mogadishu: An al-Qaida affiliate, the "Joint Islamic Courts," took control of the Somali capital, displacing "U.S.-backed warlords."
The world divides into those who think the above are all part of the same story and those who figure they're strictly local items of no wider significance deriving from various regional factors...

A blind person could connect these dots. Yet somehow the World seems to be in a state of cognitive dissonance, because no one is catching on.

Life and liberty depends on our ability to understand the spreading threat. Mark Steyn lays it on the table.

Not sure how I missed this?

H/T Right Thinking Brotheres for NOT missing it.

Vietnam, After All?

VDH's usual clarity at it's best.

A great read

Doesn't need much comment, just read it.

H/T Powerline

The New Band of Brothers

TERRORIST-INFESTED RAMADI in the wild west of Iraq is for U.S. troops the meanest place in the country, "the graveyard of the Americans" as graffiti around town boast. There is no better place to observe American troops and the fledgling Iraqi army in combat. That's why I came. When military public affairs asked where I wanted to be embedded, I told them, "the redder, the better" (red means hostile). So they packed me off to Camp Corregidor in eastern Ramadi with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). The 506th's official motto is "Currahee," Cherokee for "stands alone." But they're better known as the "Band of Brothers"--so dubbed by author Stephen Ambrose and HBO (although the term originally applied to just one company in the regiment).

A No-Brainer, as in DOH!

85% Support English as Official Language Of U.S.

Nearly everyone except President Bush I guess.

Oh well.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Americans believe that English should be the official language of the United States. The latest Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults found that only 11% disagree and 4% are not sure.

Last month, as part of legislation on immigration reform, the Senate voted 63-34 to make English the “national” language. The semantic difference between an “official” language and a “national” language is something that only a politician could love. The survey did not attempt to make any such distinction.

An official language would require all government publications and business to be conducted in English. That requirement was not included in the Senate legislation. However, the bill does state that no one has "a right, entitlement or claim to have the government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services or provide materials in any language other than English."

Members

Added as a member here.

Likely to be adding more as they agree.

Any takers?

Wanted: Writers and Photographers

What an offer!

But I don’t want them to die. This is the most dangerous war for journalists in history. I have quietly helped others get into the war to report, but now I am making a public announcement. I have the best body armor money can buy. I have the same helmet that Marines wear. I have state-of-the-art night vision gear. Any serious – really serious – writer or photographer from an accredited organization can borrow my gear so long as that organization agrees to pay for it if you lose it, or get blown to pieces.

Good news travels fast, but...

I'm happy anyway.

Illegal Immigration and California

It's Immigration, Stupid

Okay, so he didn't call it 'Illegal Immigration' in the title. Newt's analysis of the recent election in California's 50 District is a good read.

The third (and most fascinating) was an enormous revelation by the Democrat. At a rally, someone told her (in Spanish) that they were for her but were undocumented (meaning they were in the United States illegally). Ms. Busby responded by suggesting that it was OK for a person in the United States illegally to be active in her campaign. Unfortunately for her candidacy, a Minuteman volunteer in the audience caught her words on tape and gave it to San Diego talk radio hosts. The following day, her willingness to pander to non-citizens became the centerpiece of the campaign and she was on defense for the last five days until the election.

Just a Comic Book

Mohammeds's Believe It or Else.

1000 hits

Creeping up on a thousand hits.

However, easily half are hits from me while tweeking or posting... But I'll take it as a milestone anyway.

Someone is reading this stuff!

The Force of Reason

H/T O_foruse_O for the initial reference and Supe for the link to the on-line review.

The review is here.

I'm not familiar with Fallaci, but I intend to change that.

The kicker:

In 1974, former Algerian President Houari Boumedienne said in a speech at the U.N.: "One day millions of men will leave the southern hemisphere to go to the northern hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory." In other words, says Fallaci, what Islamic armies have not been able to do with force in more than 1,000 years can be achieved in less than a century through high birth rates. She cites as evidence a 1975 meeting of Islamic countries in Lahore, in which they announced their project to transform the flow of Muslim immigrants in Europe in "demographic preponderance."

The "sons of Allah," as Fallaci calls them, do not make a secret of their plans. A Catholic bishop recounted that, during an interfaith meeting in Turkey, a respected Muslim cleric told the crowd: "Thanks to your democratic laws we will invade you. Thanks to our Islamic laws we will conquer you." But what really makes Fallaci's blood boil is the West's inability to even acknowledge this aggression. A large part of her book is dedicated to analyzing how the main European countries pander to the arrogant demands of radical Muslim organizations, how they are unable to defend their Jewish citizens from acts of Islamic militant violence (often blamed on neo-Nazis and almost never on the Muslim perpetrators, even when the evidence clearly proves otherwise), and said countries' unwillingness to be proud of their cultures and identities.

It's no stretch to see some parallels with our own situation.

Defining Combat via FR

Part one is here, concerning Haditha.

And then the author offers a 'part Two' or maybe a footnote in Defining Combat

Above all the articles make a powerful attempt at presenting a picture or perhaps a foundation for what might have happened in Haditha (and other places).

I wonder if the Navy guys at Okinawa, or the Air Force flyers heading 'downtown' to Hanoi would agree with the the narrow definition of 'combat' the author presents, but that's a bit of a nit-pick on my part.

...

Now, I’m not excusing what may—with “may” being the optimum word here—prove to be a shameful day in the history of our Marine Corps. But it benefits no one if we do not attempt to understand the men involved and the dynamics of the system, and how it all could have temporarily broken down, if it did. Nor is there any justifiable reason to publicly convict the Marines—as we have seen in the rhetoric of Congressman John Murtha (D., Penn)—before those Marines have had their day in court.

Murtha contends the Marines killed civilians in “cold blood.” But based on my understanding of killing in “cold blood”—which is “deliberate” and with “a complete lack of emotion”—that would have been impossible under the circumstances. And any former Marine like Murtha should know better.

or

Are Marine infantrymen, by virtue of the nature of their work, “cold-blooded” killers?

On the contrary: It is because of the nature of their work—usually performed under extreme stress and fatigue—that Marines truly have to be some of the most moral men on the planet if they are going to be effective warriors. That doesn’t mean they are flawless.

Give them both a read for some perspective.

Aha, now I get it!

Flow of illegals not an 'invasion'

I like Tony Snow well enough (shrug) for a talking head, but this is just strange.

At today's White House press briefing, WND asked the spokesman: "Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution says, 'The United States shall guarantee to every state in the Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them from foreign invasion.' My question is, does the president believe this foreign invasion means only armed invasion, or doesn't this also mean the invasion of millions of illegal immigrants?"

Responded Snow: "I think what you are doing is you're attaching a martial connotation to something that does not have martial consequences. …"What the president has said – if you were talking about an invasion, he's made it clear that Mexico is not the enemy."

So why is the President sending the National Guard?

Is there a list of every illegal alien who's crossed the borders that seperates the 'yearning masses' from the terrorists, and criminals?

If so that explains everything!

When there's little joy in "I told you so".

In an earlier post I noted that I wished I'd said that.

Now there's this: Wonder Land

It's an interesting proposal, that:The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from the moral outrage of September 11. U.S. troops, the best this country has yet produced, went overseas to defend us against repeating that day. Now it isn't just that the war on terror has proven hard; the men and women fighting for us, the magnificent 99%, are being soiled in a repetitive, public way that is unbearable.

The greatest danger at this moment is that the American public will decide it wants to pull back because it has concluded that when the U.S. goes in, it always gets hung out to dry.

I suspect that is it more likely that the drum-beat of negative reporting seems to be approaching a crescendo. Like the 1812 overture, the cannon shot of Haditha, along with other recent events are nearly drowning out the rest of the orchestra.

It's really an odd form of torture, I think, this endless public self flagellation.

And like the old punch line, "it feels so good when we quit".

...


I'm lucky, in the circles I travel (metaphorically) there is still optimism and the military is still regarded with some respect. Like any human envedour there is little perfection to be found, but we generally don't confuse a pimple with skin cancer.

But, fact is, few would be surprised by the authors last paragraph:

One suspects that U.S. troops were party to some awful events in the Pacific and European theaters of World War II, all gone in the mists of history and the enemy's defeat. Not now. Gen. Chiarelli's magnificent "99.9%" notwithstanding, it's the phenomenon of the so-very-public 0.01%--at Abu Ghraib, on an Afghan street, at Haditha--that is breaking America's will this time.

It's a bit like adding another drummer.