The Thunder Run

H/T Proud Infidel:

Allie Martin
OneNewsNow.com
October 31, 2007

Officials with the Veterans Administration (VA) have clarified a directive limiting the use of a religious recitation at flag-folding ceremonies during military funerals. And a replica of the cap on the Washington Monument will be rebuilt so a God-honoring phrase is visible. The founder of the American Family Association (AFA) credits public outcry in both cases.

Last month, a senior VA official told directors of the agency's 125 cemeteries not to distribute or post non-government handouts on "The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag."

The memo also said the handout should not be recited at graveside services by cemetery workers or by VA-sponsored volunteer honor guards. The recitations include references to "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" and to "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Public outcry was swift, with more than 200,000 emails sent to the VA. Now a VA spokesperson says volunteer honor guards may recite any text requested by next of kin.

Good work my friends, your emails, letters, faxes and phone calls have had the result we demanded: that the bureaucrats not be allowed to make these decisions but instead the decision should reside with the families. Congratulations on a job well done!

Trackbacked/Linked by:
Americans fight back -- and WIN! from Right Truth

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Camelot' Star Robert Goulet Dies at 73 - Robert Goulet was in good spirits as he waited for a lung transplant, even telling doctors before they inserted a breathing tube, "Just watch my vocal cords," his wife said. (READ MORE)

Mukasey Losing Democrats' Backing - Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is "repugnant to me," but he said he does not know whether the interrogation tactic violates U.S. laws against torture. (READ MORE)

Clinton's Foes Go on the Attack - PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 30 -- With just over two months until the first primary contest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals aggressively challenged their party's front-runner here Tuesday night, accusing her of being dishonest and of emboldening President Bush to declare war against Iran. (READ MORE)

U.S. and Pakistan: A Frayed Alliance - Five years ago, elite Pakistani troops stationed near the border with Afghanistan began receiving hundreds of pairs of U.S.-made night-vision goggles that would enable them to see and fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the dark. The sophisticated goggles, supplied by the Bush administration at... (READ MORE)

Intelligence Budget Disclosure Is Hailed - The Democratic chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday praised the administration's declassification of the $43.5 billion budget total for national intelligence programs, calling it a useful step toward enhanced accountability. (READ MORE)

New Charter Would Widen Chavez's Reach - BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 30 -- Under a new constitution being considered in Venezuela, the workday would be slashed from eight hours to six, so workers would have sufficient time for "personal development." But while Venezuelans might have more leisure time, the constitution would also ensure that President Hugo Chavez could toil far into the future. (READ MORE)

Iraq Set to Lift Contractors' Immunity - The Iraqi parliament is poised to pass its first significant piece of legislation since the lawmakers went on summer recess — a bill to remove immunity from expatriate security companies working there. (READ MORE)

Answers Sought on TB Flier - Senators are demanding answers about why a Mexican national infected with a contagious form of tuberculosis was allowed to cross the U.S. border 76 times and whether government officials were told not to discuss the case outside their departments. (READ MORE)

FAA Fines Minister $28,000 - The Rev. Sam Childers, a Pennsylvania missionary who operates the orphanage for victims of the war in Sudan's Darfur region and elsewhere in Africa, is in a fight with federal aviation officials over a $28,000 fine for some supplies he tried to send to his shelter. (READ MORE)

O'Malley Links Tax Cuts, Health Coverage to Slots - Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday warned that if his plan to legalize slot machines is rejected, he will not cut property taxes, freeze college tuition, increase spending on school construction or expand health care coverage. (READ MORE)

McCain Caters to GOP Voters - Sen. John McCain has quietly been piling up flip-flops, including ditching his long-held support for the Law of the Sea convention and telling bloggers he now opposes the DREAM Act to legalize illegal alien students. (READ MORE)

Officials: Boy Started California Fire - A boy playing with matches started a fire in north Los Angeles County that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week, authorities said yesterday. (READ MORE)

The Kingdom - King Abdullah caused an uproar ahead of a visit to Britain this week by scolding his hosts about terrorism. But as long as the Saudi monarch has raised the subject, by all means let's debate the kingdom's role in promoting radical Islam. In a BBC interview Monday, King Abdullah said that "most countries are not taking this issue [terrorism] too seriously… (READ MORE)

From the Front:
From an Anthropological Perspective: Tribal Genealogy - Another project I am working on as part of trying to understand who are the stakeholders in this area is tribal genealogy. That information is largely understand by many people here but is not necessarily understood by Americans. Last night I was priviledged to spend a few hours at a Sheik's house and he explained his tribe's genealogy. The section pictured here shows his lineage going back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and before. Elaborate trees (this one stands from floor to over my head) are symbols to visitors of the Sheik's legitimate claim to authority. (READ MORE)

ON Point: The “Concerned Citizens”- The Locals Join Up - It may have taken four years, but the Iraqi people are finally taking the lead in the reconstruction of their own country. The combination of the extra American troops brought in through The Surge strategy, accompanied by the Iraqi revulsion to the brutality of Al-qada-Iraq and others is producing a resurgence of Iraqi local pride that may provide the tipping point in the war. OnPoint examines 1 - an area in the Diyala River Valley (north of Baghdad), 2 - a suburb in Baghdad, and 3 - talked with Coalition spokesman Maj Gen Kevin Bergner about the current conditions in Iraq: Reconciliation begins in Muqdadiya... (READ MORE)

Jason's Iraq Vacation: Typical Situation - The sensory overload was making my head spin, but I had to get control of the situation, so I stepped back for a second and just kinda laughed to myself. This is typical, I thought to myself. A typical meeting with a typical Iraqi self-appointed bigshot. A few posts ago I wrote about the green sewer trench that has taken on a life of its own. Well, this trench is about to overflow and fill our little camp with its green goodness. (READ MORE)

Yellowhammering Afghanistan: There shura are a lot of people here - We attended our first shura today. Actually, it was the second one for me, but the last time I was working with the police on perimeter security and never got to go into the actual shura itself, so this was the first one I attended. The shura is like a town hall meeting in which everyone - every male anyway - in a given area attends. This shura was in Dih Yak, one of our districts in Ghazni province. Village elders from throughout Dih Yak were there as were representatives from Parliament and the Ghazni governor. The Dih Yak sub-governor was there as one might expect. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Orin Kerr: Speaking Ruth to Power - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently gave an address on the role of dissenting opinions that included a remarkable explanation for her dissent last term in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber. That case involved a statute regulating when discrimination claims must be filed; the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the lawsuit in that case was filed too late. Justice Ginsburg dissented, and she took the unusual step of reading her dissent from the bench. In her address, Justice Ginsburg explains that the purpose of her dissent was "to attract immediate public attention and to propel legislative change." She then explains how the other branches responded: (READ MORE)

Benjamin Civiletti, et al: Surveillance Sanity - Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to target al Qaeda communications into and out of the country. Mr. Bush concluded that this was essential for protecting the country, that using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would not permit the necessary speed and agility, and that he had the constitutional power to authorize such surveillance without court orders to defend the country. Since the program became public in 2006, Congress has been asserting appropriate oversight. Few of those who learned the details of the program have criticized its necessity. Instead, critics argued that if the president found FISA inadequate, he should have gone to Congress and gotten the changes necessary to allow the program to proceed under court orders. (READ MORE)

Austin Bay: A Diplomacy of Neighborhoods - Diplomats, pack your duffel bags. And I mean duffel bags, not garment bags. While you're at it, get a pair of boots. I also recommend several pair of work gloves and work pants with lots of pockets for cameras, extra batteries, sunglasses and your global cell phone. Twenty-first century diplomacy isn't an office job. It is a demanding and, at times, a dangerous trade, one that requires accepting deprivation, running physical risks and hanging out in bad neighborhoods. (READ MORE)

Ed Feulner: Maneuvering Against Missile Defense - There’s simply no pleasing some people. In the 1990s, Congress decided it was time for the United States to build a missile-defense system. This was a reasonable -- even overdue -- step. After all, we’d been completely defenseless against any sort of missile attack since the missile had been invented. But not everybody liked the idea. For example, in 2000 the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report that questioned the technical feasibility of a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: Brave Newark World - The University of Delaware has just become one of the most Orwellian campuses in America. Students in its residence halls are now being subjected to a re-education program that is actually dubbed - in the university’s own tax-payer funded materials - as “treatment” for students who have incorrect attitudes and beliefs. Delaware now requires nearly 7,000 students in its residence halls to adopt specific public university-approved (read: government-approved) views on issues ranging from race, to sexuality, to philosophy. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (see www.TheFire.org) is calling for the total dismantling of the program. (READ MORE)

Jacob Sullum: $23,000-a-Barrel Oil - When does oil cost $13,000 a barrel? When you spill it in Prince William Sound. That's how much Exxon paid after one of its tankers ran aground on Bligh Reef near the southern coast of Alaska in 1989, spilling 258,000 barrels of oil. The company spent more than $3.4 billion on clean-up costs, fines and compensation payments. Yet, in 1994, a federal jury in Anchorage said Exxon should cough up another $5 billion in punitive damages, a number that an appeals court eventually cut in half. (READ MORE)

John Stossel: Utahns Can Vote for School Choice Tuesday - Next Tuesday, Utah voters go to the polls to decide if their state will become the first in the nation to offer school vouchers statewide. Referendum 1 would make all public-school kids eligible for vouchers worth from $500 to $3,000 a year, depending on family income. Parents could then use the vouchers to send their children to private schools. What a great idea. Finally, parents will have choices that wealthy parents have always had. The resulting competition would create better private schools and even improve the government schools. (READ MORE)

Walter E. Williams: Are the Poor Getting Poorer? - People who want more government income redistribution programs often sell their agenda with the lament, "The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer," but how about some evidence and you decide? I think the rich are getting richer, and so are the poor. According to the most recent census, about 35 million Americans live in poverty. Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Rector, using several government reports, gives us some insights about these people in his paper: "Understanding Poverty and Economic Inequality in the United States". (READ MORE)

Brent Bozell III: "Peace" Movement Passe? - If the "peace" movement holds a protest and no one in the press covers it, does it still exist? If Americans are sick of the war, they're also sick of the "antiwar." Even the media have grown antiwar-weary. Rallies on Oct. 27 drew only perfunctory news mentions. The peaceniks have become a bipartisan political problem, now that the Democrats who control Congress haven't dared to placate the radicals by cutting off money for the troops. Cindy Sheehan is threatening to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But suddenly -- surprise, surprise -- the media aren't interested in Sheehan's new crusade. (READ MORE)

Carl Horowitz: The Jena Defendants: Is Thuggery a New Right? - "You think we brought thousands to Jena. You wait 'til we go to D.C. and bring the whole country, because there's Jenas all over America. There's Jenas in New York. There's Jenas in Atlanta. There's Jenas in Florida. There's Jenas all over Texas." -- Rev. Al Sharpton, speaking in Jena, Louisiana, September 20, 2007 Times had been tough for a while for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and other self-proclaimed civil-rights spokesmen. Their attempt to sway public opinion in the hopes of railroading into prison three white Duke University lacrosse players on phony rape charges backfired badly this spring. (READ MORE)

Janice Shaw Crouse: The Softer Side of Hillary - The media have made much of Senator Hillary Clinton’s new campaign to show her “softer side” and her more feminine self. The comics have had a heyday questioning whether she even has a softer, more feminine side. Cynics like me recognize that this is a calculated effort to win the presidency. With her current support pretty much limited to single women (who are already in her party’s camp anyway and, alas for her, tend to vote in limited numbers), Hillary has to reach out to married mothers if she wants to “expand her territory” (to use the latest fad in Evangelical lingo, since so much of the married mother vote is religious). (READ MORE)

Jerry Bowyer: Hawks, Doves, Vultures, and Chicken Littles - Editor's note: this piece originally appeared on the National Review Online. My e-mail inbox is usually near full these days. That’s what happens when people are confused about the markets. But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and I’ve used this deluge to improve my computer filing system. Rather then let my e-mails stack up on top of each other, I now place them in specially marked folders, according to their economic species. Herewith, my folder headings and cataloguing criteria: (READ MORE)

GayPatriot: Paul Krugman Proved A Fool By British Islamists - Paul Krugman, New York Times’ resident Bush Hater & Appeaser (and man, that’s quite an accomplishment) wrote a widely discussed piece on Monday: Fearing Fear Itself. It features all of the now-routine liberal rhetoric designed to undercut and de-legitimize our war effort and our American government itself. But the key line of the piece was this: "For one thing, there isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism - it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination." (READ MORE)

Ian Schwatrz: (Video) Hillary Asked About National Archives Records, Obama Pounces - Tim Russert asked Hillary if she would release her national security records that her husband locked away until at least 2012. Hillary, of course spinned her answer and joked about how the National Archives has more important things to worry about and how it takes for them to get through things. However, Russert would have none of it and asked her again. Obama took this as a chance to blast Hillary as being apart the same old, same old Washington crowd. He added that if a candidate was really interested in change they would be an “open, transparent, accountable” leader. (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Ron Rosenbaum: LA Times is sitting on a major sex scandal involving a “leading” candidate - When the news is slow, we turn to rumor. I linked this in the debate thread last night but it’s interesting enough to warrant its own thread, especially on a dull morning. Let’s see if we can apply some collective intelligence. The only clues are that it involves a “leading” candidate and this: "Now, as I say it’s a rumor; I haven’t seen the supporting evidence. But the person who told me said it offhandedly as if everyone in his world knew about it. And if you look close enough you can find hints of something impending, something potentially derailing to this candidate in the reporting of the campaign." (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: FIRE: U of Delaware student indoctrination teaches that all white people are racist Updated - You can’t make this stuff up: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has found a program that would make the most totalitarian Communist proud of its hard left bias, its heavy handedness and gall. “The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a ‘treatment’ for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs.” (READ MORE)

Dymphna: Georgetown's School of Foreign Service Presents Its Hallowe'en Horror Movie - You can’t say Georgetown University isn’t predictable. The nursery for future State Department Hive Workers never strays far from its text, no matter how far it may stray from home. Thus The Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar has a film series for its faculty this term. And for a Hallowe’en trick-or-treat party they are showing The Situation, purportedly a look at the situation in Iraq post-Saddam. Given what we know about our State Department workers’ general sentiments about things American, the emotional tenor of this film should come as no surprise. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: A journalist learns - After dissing milbloggers, CJR blogger praises bloggers - Remember this passage defending Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp from critics of his fabrications? “How dare a college grad and engaged citizen volunteer to join the Army to fight for his country! (Which is something that most of the brave souls who inhabit the milblog community prefers to leave to others.)” Milbloggers actually are in the military. Most have rotated through Iraq or Afghanistan and several times. They know their ammo, their vehicles and their terrain. They can spot fake from half a world away. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Madrid Mastermind Walks - The Spanish court trying the remaining suspects in the deadly Madrid bombings convicted the actual perpetrators today, sentencing them to gaudy terms that wind up being no more than 40 years each. The man who planned the attacks, and whose voice could be heard on wiretaps bragging about it, won an acquittal: "One of the accused masterminds of the 2004 Madrid terror bombings was acquitted of all charges today by a Spanish court in the culmination to a politically divisive trial over Europe's worst Islamic militant terror attack." (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Troubled Waters - This article about the practice of waterboarding has generated a lot of discussion about the practice, as well as just what defines "torture" and how it should be regulated or banned by our government. My first reaction was surprise. I'd never had any real problems with waterboarding, as I understood it worked by simulating drowning. To my mind, "torture" has to involve an element of severe pain or bodily injury -- and as I understood it, the experience of waterboarding tricked the subconscious into thinking one was drowning -- but NOT ACTUALLY DROWNING. According to the article, though, it actually involves a partial drowning -- water in the lungs and all that. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Suicide bomber kills seven outside military headquarters in Rawalpindi - As the Pakistani government has negotiated another cease-fire with the Taliban in the settled district of Swat in the Northwest Frontier Province, the terrorists conducted another suicide strike in the heart of President Pervez Musharraf's seat of power. A suicide bomber detonated his vest outside of the Pakistani army headquarters in the military garrison city of Rawalpindi. Seven were killed, including two police officers, and another 14 were reported wounded in the strike. The suicide bomber struck as Musharraf was conducting talks with his senior leaders. "The blast happened at a police checkpost a less than a kilometre (half a mile) from where Musharraf was holding talks with top government officials about a spate of attacks, including a recent bid to kill Benazir Bhutto," AFP reported. (READ MORE)

The Oxford Medievalist: Welcome to the University of Delaware. Check Your Brain at the Door - Not satisfied with the comparatively simple liberal re-education of students that happens on most U.S. college campuses, the University of Delaware conducts a comprehensive, aggressive and quite blatant indoctrination program reminiscent of something out of Orwell's 1984. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit organization dealing with civil liberties in academia, the University's own materials describe the program as "treatment" for students' incorrect attitudes and beliefs: "The university’s views are forced on students through a comprehensive manipulation of the residence hall environment, from mandatory training sessions to “sustainability” door decorations. Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs)." (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin: Who cares about voter fraud, anymore? ACORN guilty pleas ignored - Remember last fall, when every last moonbat was decrying voter fraud preemptively? Remember Diebold Derangement Syndrome? After the Dems won, of course, voter fraud dropped from their political radar screen. And boy, would they love for the rest of us to fuhgeddaboudit. Yesterday, three elections hoaxers who worked for the far Left group ACORN pleaded guilty in Seattle for their role in the biggest election fraud scheme in Washington state history (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Surrenderists Mull A Truce - While they work on a new abandonment strategy. Of course, there are a few deadenders: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are debating whether to approve up to $70 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan, only a down payment on President Bush’s $196 billion war spending request but enough to keep the wars afloat for several more months." I’d suggest it’s more likely to spare Democrats another painful veto humiliation, not to mention a vote that may well indicate significant defections. Better just to let it go quietly. (READ MORE)

McQ: The Democratic Halloween Debate - Well I watched a debate - naturally it was the Democratic debate - and I only watched it because there were going to be some promised fireworks. And, to an extent, there were. As an aside, my wife, who obviously knows I’m a political junkie, always questioned why I didn’t watch these things. I had various excuses, but last night, sitting together watching this one she said, "now I know why you don’t watch. They irritate the hell out of you don’t they"? Uh, yeah. 2 hours of one-sided, unanswered crap - well, except when they were attacking Hillary, and then she got some rebuttal time. In fact the most used 6 words during the debate were "George Bush, Dick Cheney and Senator Clinton" because they were the ones under constant attack. (READ MORE)

Dan Riehl: What Was Missing In The Democrat Debate - So I watched the Democrat debate tonight in its entirety, just taking it in. Is there an industry they wouldn't attack? From Hedge Funds, Defense, the Airlines, Insurance companies and, of course, the Oil Companies, it seems they all have investigations, regulations, or some restrictions in mind, assuming they flat out don't just want to do away with it completely? Not once did I hear anything even remotely referencing the individual and certainly nothing that might challenge one. Apparently people can't become Doctors ... unless the government pays their tuition - and the trend discussed was free college for all at the government's expense. (READ MORE)

Right Wing Nut House: No "Slam Dunk" Medal of Freedom Winners - Ever since George Tenet won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the award seems to have lost some of its luster. It’s much like the Nobel Peace Prize; once you have given the award to someone who exhibits the exact opposite qualities that should be recognized, all credibility in the prize is lost. In the case of the mis-named Peace Prize, you can point to several recipients in the last quarter century who have been named champions of peace but were actually murderers and thugs. Yassar Arafat comes immediately to mind. Then there were to enablers of murderous thugs like Kofi Anan and Jimmy Carter. The moral universe inhabited by the Nobel Committee is not the same one you and I live in. They have forever cheapened an award that at one time, was recognized as a singular honor. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: The Top 6 Attacks On Hillary At Last Night's Debate - Last night, I suffered through another hideous Democratic debate which featured 2 hours of socialists talking about how rotten everything is in this country, followed by each of them blaming every bad thing that's happening on Bush -- and then they all promised to fix each problem with either massive new spending, a huge increase in government power, or some combination thereof. After the debate, I took a little tour around the National Review blogs and was absolutely amazed to find them saying that Hillary won the debate. In my opinion, she delivered the single worst performance of any top tier candidate, on either side, so far this year. (READ MORE)

ROFASix: How Different It Might Have Been - My previous post on Ron Paul got me musing on what our world might be like now had Ron Paul sparked an examination by Americans as to the road we were on in 1988 and we had changed our course thereafter. What would it be like if America embraced her core principles and avoided international interventionism then, as Paul proposes we do from now on? It is, as politicians like to say, a 'hypothetical' and I do em' even though politicians won't. The difference being bloggers don't have to stroke voters like politicians do. Some will argue that failing to follow our interventionist policies of the late 1980s might have meant we would have lost the Cold War. I doubt it. It might only have changed the timeline of events, not the outcome. (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: "If Wishes Were Horses..." - The last several days have treated us to a number of articles and posts that examine the tendency of so many people to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy. On Friday, Peggy Noonan suggested that the New Republic editors could only buy Scott Thomas Beauchamp's fantasies because the closest they had ever come to the military was through the lens of anti-war movies. During the fabled 60s and 70s, movies which depicted the military reliably took as reality the left-wing point of view that the military took ordinary young men (hereinafter referred to as "victims") and turned them into amoral killers and torturers. On Saturday, Mark Steyn suggested that conspiracy theorists have ongoing difficulties separating fantasy from reality: (READ MORE)

Smooth Stone: What is Machsom Watch? - The she-pigs at Machsom Watch love to tour Hebron and other parts of the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel with groups of Israelis and non-Israelis, against the Jews of Hebron by giving false, warped presentations. Furthermore, the she-pigs at Machsom Watch act with the cooperation of Palestinian interlopers and marauders in order to undermine the operations of the Israel Defence Forces, whose purpose is to defend the citizens of Israel against palestinian murderers. In fact, the actions perpetrated by the she-pigs at Machsom Watch are racist actions that aim to bring about the ethnic cleansing of Hebron of all of its Jewish citizens. (READ MORE)

Some Soldier's Mom: It's Not About You - I read this websitePostSecret where people send in their deepest (and sometimes darkest) secrets on post cards. (Docturned me on to the site a few years ago.) The site has spawned a number of books... and to tell the truth, I am sometimes shocked! by the secrets people send in -- to the point that every once in a while I wonder whether people are making things up just to see if they can get on the website. This week's secrets include the one shown above. I wonder if it's the same Mom I wrote to here? If not, I'd like to address this Mom here: Dear Madam, Makes you feel like a failure as a mother?? Oh give me a break lady! Did you raise him/her to live YOUR dream or did you raise your child to live HIS/HERS?? So, let me enlighten you:
IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU. (READ MORE)

Warner Todd Huston: Fire All Government Workers - We conservatives are fond of wanting to oust everyone in office and for wanting to “vote the scoundrels out.” But, I’d like to add one more level to the throw-them-out-of-government genera. Let’s fire every government worker from the smallest village receptionist or sewer worker to the staffers of the highest Senator and every menial clerk and recalcitrant paper shuffler in between. It’s not just pique at the famous laziness of a government worker and it’s not just the fact that the only reason they got their jobs is because they are pals with one politician or another. It’s not just that they are better paid than just about any real American in the private sector — whether they deserve it or not — and it’s not because they are impossible to fire, nor is it because they get a better pension and health care than anyone who really contributes to society… well, OK, it is because of that stuff. All that stuff and more. (READ MORE)

THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS: Nicolas Sarkozy and me - The Chirac Broadcasting System, desperate to boost its own failing ratings due to hostility towards many things Americans support, decided to run a sensationalist promo attacking Nicolas Sarkozy. The buildup to the interview was a clip meant to make it look like he stormed out of an interview. Granted, this is not as bad as “fake but accurate” memos, or fake footage of cars exploding, but it is still typical leftist dishonesty. The truth is Mr. Sarkozy was very busy, and did not want his scheduler booking that interview on that day. Then, to compound the problem, the interviewer asked stupid questions. (READ MORE)

Wolf Pangloss: Media Cheerleaders for Despair - In a 4GW like the Counterjihad the world is fighting against Al Qaeda and the other Caliphate gangs, the media are the the means of attack. We cannot afford to have a media with no regard for the obligations of good citizenship. They will amplify the enemy’s message and muffle our own. And yet that is what we have. How did it get this bad? There are no more Ernie Pyles telling the stories of American grunts from the perspective of the foxhole. Though Geraldo Rivera and other television news stars embedded with American troops in the charge to Baghdad in 2003, reporting positively on the initial blitzkrieg that seized the land with remarkably little bloodshed for a war of conquest, that changed quickly. (READ MORE)

Meryl Yourish: Hamas to Israel: We’re going to keep on killing - The democratically-elected government of the Palestinian terrortories[sic] is declaring its intention to murder large numbers of Israelis and, indeed, to start an “offensive war” with Israel (like they’re not already doing that). “Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military wing, has said that the movement will strike in the heart of Israel in the near future, a senior Hamas member said Tuesday. The man, Sheikh Ahmed Hamdan from the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said that he recently met with Deif in his hiding place, and heard from him that Hamas will soon replace its defensive fighting policy with an offensive one. According to Hamdan, ‘The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, plans to begin its attack against the Israeli occupation in the coming weeks, and will not settle for the defensive policy.’” (READ MORE)

Michael Kraft: The Holy Land Foundation: Misinformation about Material Support - In the recent trial of the Holy Land Foundation and some of the other trials of groups or persons charged with providing for foreign terrorist organizations, a frequent assertion made on behalf of the defendants is that the contributions were for humanitarian purposes, not terrorist attacks. This theme was stretched to its limits by Professor David Cole of Georgetown University, a prolific defender of groups accused of violating the 1996 law (the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) that makes it a criminal offense to knowingly provide funds or other forms of material support to groups designated by the Secretary of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In a Washington Post op-ed article ““Anti-Terrorism on Trial” printed Wednesday, October 24, Prof. Cole seriously misrepresents the Material Support provisions of claiming that “for all practical purposes the law imposes guilt by association.” (READ MORE)

Democracy Project: Lawyers Should Do No Harm - The first rule of medicine is Do No Harm. The same should apply to lawyers. There are gradations of circumstances in which this rule comes into play. Cut off a gangrenous toe to save a leg is not a harm. Cutting off a terrorist from destroying thousands of lives is not a harm. Two former U.S. Attorney Generals and a former Director of the CIA and FBI, serving Democrat and Republican administrations, speak to that in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Surveillance Sanity.” (READ MORE)

Blue Star Chronicles: A Liberal Mother’s Son Joins the Military and She Doesn’t Have a Clue - I came so close to not reading this story. Its gotten to the point that reading about what people like this think of our military infuriates me so bad that I can almost literally feel my blood pressure going up as I read it. When I saw the title of the blog post over at The Pirate’s Cove I pulled my eyes away, but then had a compulsion to go back and read it. Sure enough, I found myself getting aggravated, but then I actually come close to feeling sorry for this woman because she really and truly doesn’t get it. She has written an article that exposes her contempt for and embarrassment by the choices her son has made and, interestingly, it seems to be more about her than about her son. (READ MORE)

Confederate Yankee: An Eye For Detail - I had every intention of letting "Cheney Flag-gate" go uncommented upon as a non-story. Vice President Cheney went pheasant hunting at an exclusive preserve in Dutchess County, New York yesterday, and the hunt itself left only pheasants hitting the ground. It was a local interest story for the most part, until a sharp-eyed photographer and a self-promoting blowhard turned this local interest story into a national non-story when it was discovered that the inside of the back door of a garage at the hunt club was draped in a Confederate battle flag. There is precisely no evidence that Cheney or anyone on his staff saw the flag, but that didn't keep the Daily News from running straight to Al Sharpton. The story ended in lots of hot air being spit by a man in love with the sound of his own voice, and many people fruitlessly wishing they had a way to somehow blame the Vice President. I only mention this story at all because of the eye for detail it reveals in our media. Consider this a "teachable moment" for media fact-checkers. (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Hajj Podge - Hajj is the pilgrimage all good Moslems must undertake during the lunar month of Dhu’l Hijja, sometime during their lives. The journey to Mecca is the fifth of the five pillars of Islam, after professing that there is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet; praying five times every day; giving charity to the poor; and fasting during Ramadan. Every year, millions of the faithful travel to Mecca, walk seven times around the Kabah and sacrifice an animal to God, in honor of the patriarch Ibrahim. And every year, it seems that brainless Hollywood weirdos must perform their own Hajj to the America-hating dictator du jour. The most recent pilgrim is 37 year old "supermodel" and violent harridan Naomi Campbell: (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: MSNBC Hysterics Over Mosul Dam - MSNBC has a video report and accompanying story on the situation with the Mosul Dam, which is located in Northern Iraq. The dam was built in the early 1980s by Saddam Hussein. “Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager.” (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

When Tom Burnett Sr. came out against the Flight 93 Memorial, the press asked architect Paul Murdoch if there were really going to be 44 inscribed translucent blocks emplaced along the flight path (equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists). Murdoch acknowledged 43 of the blocks, but denied knowing about a 44th:

[T]here are 40 inscribed marble panels listing the names of the passengers and crew at the gateway to the Sacred Ground, where their remains still rest.

There is then an opening in the wall, Mr. Murdoch said, and three additional panels, which would include the date, Sept. 11, 2001.

"Where the other one is being fabricated, I don't know," he said.

Yes he does. Paul Murdoch is fully aware of the large dedicatory glass block at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway:



Man and child stand in front of the 44th block, which forms the railing at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway. The glass block will be inscribed: "A field of honor forever." This Walkway provides visitors with their first view of the inside of the giant crescent. (From the Entry Portal page of the original design PDFs. Click pic for wider view.)

The flight path

The Entry Portal Walkway is built along the flight path. It signifies, in Paul Murdoch's own description, the terrorists

The forty translucent blocks that run horizontally through the left hand section of wall (closest to the impact crater) will be inscribed with the names of the forty murdered heroes. The three on the right will be inscribed with the 9/11 date. (From the Sacred Ground Plaza page of the original design PDF's. Click pic for larger image. The alternating white and gray depicts the zig zag layout of the translucent blocks.)

Challenged by the father of one of our murdered heroes, Murdoch told a desperate lie, feigning ignorance of one of the most prominent features of his own design: the huge glass block that dedicates the entire site. This should have been the end of his hijack attempt, but Murdoch's deception was abetted by both the Memorial Project and the press.

The abettors

"That has been disproved so many times," download 3, p. 146.)

"The windows in the visitor center are not on the flight path," Rawls replied. He never said they were all the same size, and he never said there are no other panes of glass in the Memorial. Reinbold's silly dodges do not contradict Rawls' 44 glass blocks claim in any way.

The press was also in on the deception. Kecia Bal, the reporter who quoted Hayworth's dismissal of the 44 blocks claim had already verified the block count for herself. Mr. Rawls had John Reynolds

Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley at joanne_hanley@nps.gov
click here to email Joanne Hanley

Project Manager Jeff Reinbold at jeff_reinbold@nps.gov
click here to email Jeff Reinbold

Chief Ranger Jill Hawk (who conducted the phony internal investigation) at jill_hawk@nps.gov
click here to email Jill Hawk

Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan at Phil_Sheridan@nps.gov
click here to email Phil Sheridan

Director, Northeast sector of Park Service (oversees Memorial Project) Mary Bomar at mary_bomar@nps.gov
click here to email Mary Bomar

Communications officer, National Park Service Gary Gaumer at Gerry_Gaumer@nps.gov
click here to email Gerry Gaumer

To emailing all of them at once:
click here to email all of the above

Be respectful, use your own words, but clearly send the message that you agree with Tom Burnett, Sr., that they should respect his wishes that his son's name should be kept off the memorial, and that a more appropriate memorial should be constructed on the crash site; one that doesn't memorialize the terrorists because in Flight 93 National Memorial Act, Pub. L. No. 107-226, the purpose of the memorial is spelled out: it is to honor the passengers and crew of the flight, and the last section of the law excludes the terrorists from the definition of passengers and crew.

If you need more to write about, watch this movie.

If you want to join the growing list of bloggers:

1. in objecting to planting an Islamic symbol instead of an American one on the crash site,
2. in objecting to its pointing to Mecca and the terrorists' intended target,
3. in objecting to dishonoring the memory of the people who fought the terrorists on Flight 93
4. in pointing out how Paul Murdoch cleverly and symbolically cast the passenger and crew out of the Islamic heavens in the design while the terrorists are inside the Islamic heavens
5. in pointing out how the date and the site are dedicated to the terrorists
6. in pointing out the numerous redundant mosque design features
7. in pointing out the terrorist memorializing features
8. and post along with us on Wednesdays,

please contact caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com with your website url. She will, in turn, add you to the email list, send you the blogroll code (if you want to put it in your sidebar), and will send you the prewritten text to post. You should receive the email from Cao a day or two prior to the Wednesday it should be posted, and tracked back to Cao's blog and Error Theory, if your blog has that capability. This will help us track who in the blogroll is posting the blogburst.

Stop the Memorial Blogburst





Trackbacked/linked by:
Halloween Terrorist, GWOT and US Terrorism Policy Update from Pros and Cons

Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas R. Anderson
21 years old from Sauk City, Wisconsin
1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force
March 13, 2006


Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson lost his life after the Humvee he was riding in rolled over as a group of Marines pursued a suspicious vehicle near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He suffered head injuries in the crash and died as he was being transported to a hospital.

Nicholas Anderson joined the Marines in January 2005 and began a six-month tour of Afghanistan two months ago with the 3rd Marines Weapons Platoon, his father, James Anderson said.

"I just know that he died fighting for what he believed in," he said. "He wanted to be a Marine and even though it was a major risk he just wanted to go."

James Anderson said his son, a 2003 Sauk Prairie High School graduate, enjoyed riding his motorcycle, lifting weights, going fishing and hanging out with friends.

He joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard when he was 18, but an injured shoulder forced him to drop out. He then enlisted in the Marines.

"I was very nervous when he first joined the Marines because two words jumped into my head: Afghanistan and Iraq," his father said. "I just supported him and prayed that it would end before he had to go over."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

I'll be on with Andrea Shea-King tonight at 9:00 pm EDT to discuss the recent ruling by the National Cemetery Administration as well as a host of other topics. With so much going on in the world you never know what we'll talk about....rest assured it won't be about Brittney's recent wardrobe malfunction.

To listen in click on the link below:

We've got a couple of guests joining us tonight -- from 9 to 9:30 it's Paul Kengor, author of THE JUDGE: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan’s Top Hand, a new book on Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor. Kengor will tell us the issues presidential candidates have taken and how their
advisors need to direct them towards a winning campaign; such as Judge Clark with President Reagan.

“There is no candidate – none – in the history of presidential politics as radical as Hillary Clinton on abortion; she must be defeated,” says Kengor.

“That said, Rudy Giuliani is not the answer, though he may be a lesser of two evils on the issue of abortion. A pro-choice Republican president robs Republicans of the moral and rhetorical leadership that the presidents have provided on the abortion issue, especially under four terms of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Rudy’s advisors need to inform him on the Republican platform.”

Kengor will divulge William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor’s insight on the 2008 Presidential race.


And then at 9:30 we'll talk with Richard S. Lowry, author of Marines in the Garden of Eden and The Gulf War Chronicles about a story the mainstream press DID NOT cover: Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya's San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California. The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya.

I'll be sharing hosting duties with Andrea again tonight, we'll be busy....!!! Also on tap for discussion -- the National Cemetary Commission's decidion to halt Flag Folding recitations at our national cemetaries, and the Valour IT competition -- it's heating up!!!

Fox news is reporting that several congressmen have asked the Veteran's Adminstration to reconsider its blanket ban on the Flag Folding Ceremony at National Cemetaries:

A group of congressmen has asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to reconsider its ban on the flag-folding ceremony at military funerals after the agency decided last month to streamline burials at federal cemeteries.

"The flag folding recitation is a longstanding tradition which brings comfort to the living and honor to the deceased," Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., writes in his letter Tuesday signed by 11 other congressmen. "The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear."

Veterans Affairs made the new policy decision last month, after a complaint was filed to the White House, said Rees Lloyd, a member of the American Legion's Memorial Honor Detail for services at Riverside National Cemetery in California.

"To me, it's a slap in the face for every veteran, every member of the Memorial Honor Detail and every family of the deceased veteran," Lloyd said.

At issue are secondary meanings attached to the folding of the flag. As the honor guard makes the 13 folds — traditionally representing the original colonies — they recite "the first fold of our flag is a symbol of life, the second fold is a symbol of our belief in the eternal life, etc."

A complaint about the recitation for the 11th fold — "in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" — garnered a complaint and prompted the ban.

In a Sept. 27 memo, the National Cemetery Administration halted the ceremony. It was an effort to create uniform services throughout the military graveyard system, spokesman Mike Nacincik said.

But it's caused a furor among veterans. Members of the American Legion have been flooding national headquarters since the decision, according to Ramona Joyce, an organization spokeswoman.

"We definitely think is a matter left up to the families," she said. "It's a nice ceremony; we've been doing it for years. Our honor guards have been doing it.

"It's respectful and it's something the family should be able to choose to have done if they so wish for their veteran," Joyce said.

Nacincik said the 13-fold recital is not part of the U.S. Flag Code and is not government-approved.

"The entirety of this issue is an absurdity that shows political correctness and secular cleansing run amok," Lloyd said. "This is about families of deceased veterans putting to rest their loved ones. No one should interfere with their choices."

The 12th fold recitation is geared to Christians, saying the fold "represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost."

In the Legion's burning ceremony for the dignified disposal of unserviceable flags, a chaplain invokes the name of God with lines like "as they yield their substance to the fire, may your holy light spread over us and bring our hearts renewed devotion to God and country," Joyce said.
"When we got back from the war, we didn't ask for a whole lot," said Bobby Castillo, 85, a World War II Navy veteran. "We just want to give our veterans the respect they deserve. No one has ever complained to us about it. I just don't understand."

Lloyd and Castillo are part of a 16-member detail that have performed military honors at more than 1,400 services. They were preparing to read the flag-folding remarks at the Riverside cemetery when graveyard staff stopped them.

Charlie Waters, parliamentarian for the American Legion of California, said he's advising memorial honor details to ignore the edict.

"This is nuts," Waters told the Press-Enterprise by telephone from Fresno. "There are 26 million veterans in this country and they're not going to take us all to prison."

Nacincik said that while the flag-folding narrative includes references to God that the government does not endorse, the main reason for the new rules is uniformity.

"We are looking at consistency," Nacincik said. "We think that's important."

Rabbi Yitzhak Miller of Temple Beth El said he understands the ban.

"It is a perfect example of government choosing to ignore religion in order to avoid offending some religions," Miller said. "To me, ignoring religion in general is just as problematic as endorsing any one religion."

Shuler's letter urged Veterans Affairs to change its mind.

"Please reconsider the policy and allow the Memorial Honor Detail volunteers to perform the traditional flag-folding recitation if requested by the family of the deceased," he wrote.

Lloyd said the honor guard would decide whether to defy the ban next Tuesday, when it will serve at more military funerals.

"We are going to abide by the wishes of the families," Lloyd said. "Not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. Period."

UPDATE
Rep Shuler's letter follows:

Rep. Shuler Leads Call for End to VA Policy Banning Traditional Flag-Folding Recitations

The Honorable Gordon H. Mansfield
Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20420

Dear Acting Secretary Mansfield:

We are writing to express our concern regarding recently announced policies banning the traditional flag-folding recitations by Memorial Honor Detail volunteers.

The flag folding recitation is a longstanding tradition which brings comfort to the living and honor to the deceased. The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, the nation they proudly serve, and the beliefs that they hold dear.

As our nation loses 1,500 World War II veterans every day, we feel it is vital to ensure that the final rites for these American heroes be permitted to include the freedoms of speech and religious expression enshrined in our Constitution and defended by their service.

We ask that you please reconsider the policy and allow the Memorial Honor Detail volunteers to perform the traditional flag-folding recitation if requested by the family of the deceased. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact Sean O’Brien in Congressman Shuler’s office at (202) 225-6401.

Sincerely,
Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA), Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Baron Hill (D-IN), Tim Holden (D-PA), Nick Lampson (D-TX), Jim Marshall (D-GA), Jim Matheson (D-UT), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Mike Ross (D-AR) Gene Taylor (D-MS), and John Tanner (D-TN).

What no Republicans?

Trackbacked/Linked by:
H&I* Fires, 31 OCT 2007 from Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Immunity Jeopardizes Iraq Probe - Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials... (READ MORE)

Iraqi Dam Seen In Danger of Deadly Collapse - AT THE MOSUL DAM, Iraq -- The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers... (READ MORE)

Fake FEMA Briefing Costs Official New Assignment - The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response... (READ MORE)

Cuba's Waning System of Block-Watchers - CAMAGUEY, Cuba -- Children swarmed the table outside Blanca Peleaz's concrete home in this central Cuban city. There were cakes and cookies, gooey frosting and candy speckles, rare abundance in a place where food shortages are the norm. (READ MORE)

Protests Welcome Back Assembly - Hundreds of anti-tax demonstrators greeted lawmakers on their return yesterday for a special General Assembly session to consider Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to increase taxes and legalize slot machines to cut the state's $1.7 billion budget shortfall. (READ MORE)

U.S. Officials Visit Cole Bomber - U.S. Embassy officials in Yemen visited a Yemeni man convicted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in his prison cell yesterday, three days after he was seen greeting relatives in his house. (READ MORE)

U.N. Envoy to Probe Deadly Force by U.S. - The U.N. specialist on illegal executions plans to probe the use of deadly force by U.S. troops and military contractors in Iraq when he visits the United States next spring. (READ MORE)

N. Korean Reveals Childhood Torture - In a testimony to stunned journalists yesterday, Mr. Shin, the first North Korean defector to the South who was born in the North's notorious gulag, revealed a nightmarish world in which inmates and their children suffer lifetime incarceration, are kept ignorant of outside society and undergo forms of torture that are medieval in their barbarism. (READ MORE)

Iraqi Rebuilding Stalled Despite Recent Calm - Despite declining violence in Iraq, the shaky state of security is still impeding the nation's $100 billion recovery and rebuilding effort, a new report said today. (READ MORE)

Hillary Backed Lab of Donor - Lawmakers, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have taken thousands in campaign cash from an embattled Nobel-prize winning scientist while earmarking federal money for his New York lab. (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: BOOM! - Being an artillery guy, I'm kind of partial to explosions. We don't get to see many of them in the nation-building missions we're doing today. So when one of our district teams made arrangements to destroy some mortar and rocket rounds taken from the Taliban and the Afghan National Police, I exercised my rank and made sure I was along for the ride. 1LT Plowden Dickson and his team was assessing an Afghan National Police observation post when he discovered many of the mortar and RPG rounds the police were using were rusted, damaged and generally unsafe. He convinced the police chief to destroy them for the protection of his men. (READ MORE)

This War and Me: What DO I send - If you have been following along with me the past week, you have noticed I mentioned some things NOT to send. It started out as mindless, humorous ranting but it is honestly about things we are in abundance of. So, I have received several comments and emails asking what we DO need. I received a comment from Debi M, with Soldiers' Angels and wanted to pretty much plagiarize her list of things we do need/want. I also wanted to say that it is not that we don't ever need the items on my list. I was targeting the individuals that want to send things too. We do receive candy, sun block, chap stick, soaps and razors, etc. We have a few large groups, like Soldiers' Angels that sends many boxes. (READ MORE)

Michael Yon: The Perfect Evil: Coming to Roost - Iraq is looking better month by month. But at the current rate, surely we shall fail in Afghanistan: A great deal of flak came in for my 2006 reporting from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, that on-the-ground reporting is proving correct nearly to the letter. The following three-part report summarizing my observations and experiences in Afghanistan more than a year ago, warned of the growing threat of a narco-fueled Taliban increasingly able to challenge a national government overgrown with incompetency and choked with corruption. (READ MORE)

Northern Disclosure: Me, I'm just PROUD! - Home truly is where the heart is and mine is right here with our family. I am home on my R & R and it is wonderful! My wife truly is Wonder Woman, since I have been playing guns with my friends in the desert she has moved houses, reared a 4 year old monkey boy all while being pregnant. I was pretty sure that she was amazing before but now I am truly convinced. (READ MORE)

On Point: Ramadi: Building on Success - This month last year I was embedded in Ramadi with 1st Battalion 6th Marines as they kicked in doors, fought insurgents, and began to clear the city block by block. It cost the lives of a lot of good Marines, most under age 25, but their efforts and sacrifice convinced a few local citizens that the Marines understood the difference between “Iraqi’s” and “Al-Quada” – and so the charismatic Sheik Sattar Abu Risha formed the Sons of Anbar, and began co-operating with LtCol William Jurney’s young Marines. What a difference a year makes. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Bret Stephens: Amazonian Swindle - Ecuador has a huge environmental problem courtesy of Big Oil. Since 1990, there have been at least 800 recorded oil spills in the country, including 117 in the first nine months of 2006 alone. Their cumulative volume easily exceeds three million gallons. Scores of spills have never been cleaned up, posing severe health risks for the local population. Rainfall in the area is said to smell like car exhaust. mall wonder, then, that when actress Daryl Hannah ventured into the Ecuadorean Amazon in June to have herself photographed dipping her hand into a lake of black sludge, she characterized the situation as "potentially the biggest environmental case ever." Only one problem: The supposed villain in the plot, Texaco--now merged with Chevron--ceased operations in Ecuador in 1990. (READ MORE)

Pete Du Pont: Inconvenient Tax Truths - Nobel Peace laureate Al Gore believes global warming is "an inconvenient truth." Here are some economic truths that America's liberal leadership finds too inconvenient to support. Tax rate reductions increase tax revenues. This truth has been proved at both state and federal levels, including by President Bush's 2003 tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends. Those reductions have raised federal tax receipts by $785 billion, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. In fiscal 2007, which ended last month, the government took in 6.7% more tax revenues than in 2006. (READ MORE)

Dennis Prager: The Left and the Term "Islamo-Fascism" - Last week, at universities around America, the conservative activist David Horowitz organized "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." The week featured a guest speaker, the showing of the documentary, "Obsession," about radical Islam, and related activities. As one of those speakers -- at the University of California at Santa Barbara -- I was particularly interested in the controversy Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week engendered as well as in the larger question of whether the term "Islamo-Fascism" is valid. (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Political "Solutions" - It is remarkable how many political "solutions" today are dealing with problems created by previous political "solutions." Three examples that come to mind immediately are the housing market crisis, the wildfires in southern California, and the water shortages in the west. Congress and the Bush administration are currently vying with each other to come up with a solution to the housing crisis, brought on by widespread defaults on home mortgage loans -- especially defaults by those who took out risky "subprime" loans. (READ MORE)

Bill Murchison: Fall Of The Religious Right? - I don't see glee oozing from between every comma in David Kirkpatrick's New York Times magazine article this past weekend on the "evangelical crackup." He's a good reporter, whose coverage of conservatives I regard as generally well balanced. On the other hand, it isn't hard to visualize street dancing and fireworks displays outside Clinton headquarters. Kirkpatrick's focus is on the glug-glug sound as evangelical enthusiasm for conservatives and Republicans drains from the tub. No one can predict, for certain, the speed or volume of the drainage. (READ MORE)

Bill Steigerwald: Behind the California Wildfires with Dr. Reese - As several of Southern California's wind-whipped wildfires still burned on Thursday, we called conservation biologist and forest researcher Dr. Reese Halter to learn more about the 20 fires that had destroyed 2,000 homes, forced the evacuation of more than 500,000 people and left at least eight dead. Halter, the author of "Wild Weather: The Truth Behind Global Warming," is the founder and president of Global Forest Science (globalforestscience.org), a forest conservation and research institute that helps private landholders, governments and corporations around the world "make better ecological decisions." He was in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs. (READ MORE)

Rich Lowry: Barack Obama on Barack Obama - When it comes to self-reflection, Barack Obama is an overachiever. At age 46, he has already written two memoirs when most people in public life -- sometime at the end of their career -- will be lucky to write one. So far, what Obama seems set to get out of his presidential campaign is yet another memoir -- this one an agonized, deeply personal account of how his campaign went nowhere despite all the media hoopla, crowds and fundraising. It turns out that voters aren't as interested in Barack Obama as Barack Obama is. (READ MORE)

John Boehner: Pelosi-Rangel Really Is ‘Mother of all Tax Hikes’ - WASHINGTON - American families are feeling te crunch of spiking energy costs, runaway college tuition, ever-burdensome home mortgages and steadily rising prices for consumer goods. These and other cost-of-living increases are eating away at the family budget — making every dollar earned and saved even more valuable. The very last thing families need is to see more of their paycheck confiscated by Congress. (READ MORE)

John McCaslin: Conquering America - The Mexican government apparently has no problem with its citizens penetrating the U.S. border by the millions. In fact, it's been written that increasing the number of Mexicans working illegally in America is among Mexico's highest foreign-policy objectives. Yet now comes congressional testimony from Jess T. Ford, the Government Accountability Office's director of international affairs and trade, that "Mexican sensitivity about its national sovereignty" has made it difficult for the two countries to coordinate counternarcotics activities. (READ MORE)

Humbled Infidel: Help Spread The Good News Happening In Iraq - Our Troops Have Our Backs - Let's Have Their Backs - Since the “Surge” of troops was completed in June of this year, violence throughout Iraq has reduced dramatically. The combination of additional troops, and more importantly a new counter-insurgency strategy, are undeniably responsible for the reduction. Below you will see FACTS about the dramatic drop in violence. We have broken them down to the “Surge Focus” (June-October 2007) and to “One Year Focus.” Visit this site weekly to get the latest data. We also plan to add data about political and economic progress. (READ MORE)

Wolf Pangloss: 4GW Jihad and the role of the World Media - 4GW Jihad as it is currently practiced is characterized most often by recording photogenic megaviolence, then propagating the recordings to media channels that primarily serve the Muslim populace, for recruiting, radicalization and morale-building purposes, and secondarily the non-Muslim populace to propagandize against its own government and military. This is not ideal for the Jihadists, as they would prefer killing infidels to fooling them or demoralizing them, but it will do until they can advance to more sophisticated and impersonal methods of killing than beheading a kuffir with a dull knife. But it is good enough for their long-term plans. F. G. Hoffman described it well in his talk at the Boyd 2007 Conference. (READ MORE)

Kim Priestap: Rangel's Tax Plan a Return to Carternomics? - James Pethokoukis at US News & World Report writes that Charlie Rangel's tax plan could actually send tax rates to even higher levels than they were under Carter. He quotes Lawrence Lindsay: "Until very recently, there had been a growing bipartisan consensus, acknowledged at least implicitly, that you cannot run a high-tax [economic] regime and be competitive. The great unspoken fact is that [Rangel's 4.6 percentage-point surtax on high incomes] only looks like a restoration of [Clinton's tax rates]." (READ MORE)

Lorie Byrd: Errors of Omission - I only have a minute to comment on the following right now, so if any other Wizbang bloggers want to jump in on this one, please do. Bluto has posted the full text of the email Glenn Greenwald received from Colonel Steven A. Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for General Petraeus, with the portions that Greenwald omitted from his post characterizing the email as "bizarre" highlighted. Interesting is what Greenwald chose to include in the post, and what he chose to omit. In his original post describing the email as bizarre, Greenwald said: (READ MORE)

A Soldiers Mind: Training For Trauma - I remember well the training I went through to become a Paramedic. After 3 months of classroom work, we spent 3 months in our clinicals, working in various areas of hospitals, such as the Emergency Room, Surgery, Obstetrics, a Burn Unit, Neonatal ICU and Cardiac Care. For my Emergency Department rotation, I was fortunate to do my 2 weeks of ER clinicals in one of the busiest Level 1 Trauma Centers in the state of Kansas, where the most severely injured patients from all over the state were sent. The time we spent in the Emergency Department prepared us for what we would face, as we went into jobs working as Paramedics on various ambulance services. It was time well spent. Without that type of training, we’d have had no clue what we would be facing out in the field. The training allowed us to have hands on experience with actual patients and allowed us to practice and hone our skills that we’d been learning in the classroom. (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Does Kagan Read Big Lizards, or Does Big Lizards Anticipate Kagan? - Actually neither; Frederick W. Kagan has been making this same point for weeks now -- that we've already won the first Iraq battle against al-Qaeda, giving us encouragement as we tackle the second against the Iran-controlled Shiite militias. But he makes the argument very forcefully in an opinion piece in the current Weekly Standard. Kagan, recall, was a co-author along with Gen. Jack Keane and Maj. Daniel Dwyer of Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, which most argue was the impetus behind President George W. Bush deciding to scrap the previous strategy we were using in Iraq and choose a counterinsurgency strategy (and a new general) instead. The link above is actually to a Power Point presentation on the strategy (masquerading as a PDF file) that I particularly like: Just set the zoom to "Fit page" and keep pressing the Page Down key to progress through the "slides." (READ MORE)

Big Dog: Response to Wildfires by Military not Hampered by Deployments - It did not take long for people to blame George Bush for the wildfires in California because of his [past] opposition to global warming and because of a general hatred of the man. People compare the response to the wildfires with the response to Katrina and there are those who believe that the wealthier Californians made out better than the poor folk in New Orleans. The fact is, all response starts at the local level and then rapidly involves state resources. The local responders put their plans into effect quickly in California and the state rapidly became involved. The National Guard responded proactively by moving planes equipped to fight fires closer to the action by placing them on training missions until they were requested and the official request could be initiated. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Trench Warfare On The Hill - The year after winning majorities in both chambers of Congress, the Democrats still have little to show for its victory. The only major partisan goal they have achieved, a minimum-wage increase, had to latch onto Iraq war funding to get the votes to pass. Republicans have grown incensed by heavy-handed tactics such as Harry Reid's publicity-stunt all-nighter on Iraq in July, and the snap vote on the latest S-CHIP bill, which actually cost them one of the Republican moderates who had supported the previous bill: “In a closed-door meeting before the last vote on the children’s health care bill, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer appealed for the support of about 30 wavering Republican lawmakers. What he got instead was a tongue-lashing, participants said.” (READ MORE)

Dymphna: The Transatlantic Mystery - I think it’s more complicated than you say. As a first generation American I sometimes feel like a participant observer in the US. But that might have been my natural inclination anyway… people who write tend to have this “observing ego” that notices without let-up. The last two World Wars damaged Europe badly. John Derbyshire had a recent column in which he looked back on the many spinsters of his childhood in Britain. “Many” because the flower of British manhood had been obliterated and left entombed in Flanders Field. It was the same for France and Germany, and Spain to some extent in the ’30s. World War II was wash, rinse, repeat, but with far more damage to the infrastructure of things ancient, things which could not be restored. In fact, some of them ceased to exist even as cultural memories. (READ MORE)

GayPatriotWest: The Clintonite Responses of Some Readers (& Others) - A couple weeks ago, while I was driving in the Northeast, The Hill newspaper reported the response of Hillary Clinton’s campaign to allegations that the former First lady “listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents:” “Clinton’s spokesman panned the book [Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, detailing the allegations] but declined to discuss the allegation that Clinton had reviewed secretly recorded calls. ‘We don’t comment on books that are utter and complete failures,’ said Clinton’s press secretary, Philippe Reines.” How typical of the Clintons, attack the messenger without responding to the question. It seems that some of our critics have developed a similar strategy to deal with our points, attack us (as self-hating or motivated by currying favor with other conservatives) rather than respond to our arguments. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Iraqi troops free tribal leaders kidnapped by Mahdi Army commander - Just 24 hours after the capture of 11 Sunni and Shia tribal leaders in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi Army has freed eight of the sheikhs. Meanwhile, Multinational Forces Iraq has identified the Mahdi Army commander responsible for the kidnappings and has begun to name other Mahdi Army leaders as being involved in criminal and insurgent activity. Iraqi soldiers conducted the raid in a yet-to-be-identified region near Baghdad, likely with the aid of US Special Forces and killed four of the kidnappers. "We have rescued eight of the hostages and are working to free the others. We killed four of the kidnappers," Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al Askari said. (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
In S.C., Obama Seeks a Spiritual Reawakening - CHARLESTON, S.C. -- As a man not only of God but of politics, the Rev. Joe Darby is an outspoken observer of the campaign scene. Reclining in his cluttered office at Morris Brown AME Church here, he witnesses the union between the pulpit and the polls. (READ MORE)

U.S. Promises on Darfur Don't Match Actions - In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists -- including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave -- was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. (READ MORE)

U.S. Guns Behind Cartel Killings in Mexico - TIJUANA, Mexico -- Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles. (READ MORE)

Argentina's First Lady Wins Presidency by Wide Margin -BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 28 -- The presidency of Argentina was handed from husband to wife Sunday, as first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner crushed 13 opposition candidates on the promise of adhering to the political principles that made President Nestor Kirchner one of Latin America's most popular leaders. (READ MORE)

Gunmen in Iraq Kidnap Eleven Tribal Leaders Allied With U.S. - BAGHDAD, Oct. 28 -- Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said. (READ MORE)

Torturing Mukasey - Just when you thought someone might be confirmed in Washington without a partisan fight, Senate Democrats are suggesting they may not approve Michael Mukasey as Attorney General after all. The judge's offense is that he's declined to declare "illegal" an interrogation technique in the war on terror that Congress itself has never specifically banned. (READ MORE)

Israel puts squeeze on Gaza Strip - Israel began scaling back fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip and closed a key crossing for humanitarian provisions — sanctions seen by observers as a last-ditch attempt to squeeze the economy of the coastal strip before a more aggressive military offensive is ordered. (READ MORE)

Huckabee stirs up third-party fear - Influential conservatives are clashing over whether Mr. Huckabee is capable of keeping evangelicals from fleeing the GOP to form a third party or if he's too liberal fiscally for the Republican electorate. (READ MORE)

U.S. territory hits 'amnesty' as threat - A U.S. territory in the Pacific is battling to stop Congress from imposing federal guest-worker rules and an "amnesty" for current temporary workers, saying aliens could then use the territory as an entry point to get into other places in the U.S. (READ MORE)

Argentine first lady claims victory - BUENOS AIRES (AP) — First lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed victory in Argentina's presidential election yesterday, with early results and exit polls suggesting she had avoided a runoff and become the first woman elected to the post. (READ MORE)

AARP magazine targets 'new 50' - While it was founded a half-century ago for retirees, the post-millennial AARP is busy aiming its publications, products and services like never before at the millions of baby boomers who are not only active, fit and career-minded, but who are rocking the demographics in nearly every consumer market nationwide. (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Badger 6: Authentic Iraq - In the great tradition of Soldiers since time immemorial I have looked for things to bring home from the war zone. In the past Soldiers brought home all sorts of militaria; today most of that has already been brought home or is forbidden from being retained as a war trophy. I have turned in several AK variants and Dragunov rifles that I would have liked to retain. In the more mundane, I can get a variety of T-shirts and the like commemorating the places you have been. I must admit when I saw someone with a baseball cap with Operation Phantom Fury – the November 2004 Battle for Falluja – emblazoned across the front, I had to pause… (READ MORE)

Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure: Welcome Back to "The Suck" - Time warp. I'm back in Afghanistan, arriving at a little after 0100 local time last night. Ouch. Miserably long flights, a night in lovely Kuwait, and then a typically monumentally uncomfortable C-17 flight back into Bagram. I was secretly hoping my team would be out in The Valley and would have to come and get me in their own good time so that I could sleep forever. Alas, twas not to be. (READ MORE)

Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: Wonderful memories in an amazing land... - The last week that it has been since I last posted has been pretty eventful for me. I have been quite busy with friends and family and just truly having a great time while being back home. As expected the time has been going by quicker and quicker, but as the time draws near I feel I am more mentally prepared to leave again than when I first arrived on leave. In many ways I'm actually looking forward to it. My close friends with whom I have spent all day every day with in some of the most trying days of my life are where I will be heading and I do miss them. (READ MORE)

From an Anthropological Perspective: Relative Poverty and Absolute Poverty - One project our team is working on is determining how to define relative poverty in our section of Baghdad. We know what absolute poverty is: it is when you do not have sufficient income to eat, put a roof over your head, or have money for adequate clothing. One of our team occasionally talks with a woman and her young daughter who are homeless and live on the street. We hope to obtain a few oral histories from her and others on the street to better understand how they got there and what life is like for them and what, if anything, can be done to alleviate their situation. (READ MORE)

Far From Perfect: Healing - So, I have been healing up for the past week or so. I have been working at our BAS, and off the patrol schedule. Its been a good time, and I have been really productive. I live for patient care and I have treated more people in the past 8 days then I have in the past two months in the field. I guess thats a good thing. The lack of serious trauma patients from enemy contact is yet more proof that the surge is working. I actually heard on the news yesterday that there were no casualties last month for the first time, but I haven’t seen the report myself. I wish I could just ride out the last bit of our deployment working in the BAS, but alas my platoon needs me still. They are still being slammed with patrols and the other night they brought in several IA that had been wounded in a rollover. (READ MORE)

Iraq Pundit: Who's Afraid of al-Qaeda in Iraq? - Osama Bin Laden didn't get much response from Iraqis when he told the country's resistance fighters to unite against the enemy, which he defines as the U.S. and the Shiites. Sounds like something we should learn more about the audiotape aired recently on Al Jazeera. You'd think so, right? His tape on the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV station admitted some errors and pleaded with the fighters to join together. Here's what happened next. (READ MORE)

LTC Phillips: Heeere’s SSgt Morris (another TEXAN) - LTC Phillips drafted, oops, requested another Sgt to the blog. My name is SSgt Brien Morris and LTC Phillips asked me to prepare a post for the blog. I'm not really familiar with blogging but here goes. I'm 29 years old and originally from the GREAT STATE OF TEXAS!! (San Antonio to be exact). I am currently stationed at Langley AFB in Hampton, VA, and have been there for almost 8 years (way too long!). (READ MORE)

Greyhawk: Change in the Weather - October has been a fine month in Iraq. The heat of summer has gone and the rains and mud of November are still a ways away. Oddly enough, while that's good weather for combat there's been very little of it thus far. Hot spots have gone "warm", and warm spots have grown cold - I suppose it's that time of year... Cheers erupt on the Left side of the Blogosphere*, as after months of no notice the Washington Post finds an Iraq story worthy of their front page. 'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life' - it's a quote from an actual sergeant on the ground in Iraq. And he's talking about one of the shittiest little corners of Baghdad. Though like everywhere else in Iraq, before the invasion it was a place of butterflies and rainbows... (READ MORE)


On the Web:
John Fund: 'Fairness' Is Foul - It wasn't that hard for Indiana's Rep. Mike Pence to build media and congressional support for his Free Flow of Information Act, which would protect the confidentiality of contacts between reporters and sources. It passed the House this month by an overwhelming vote of 398-21. His next battle will be a lot harder--to permanently ban the Fairness Doctrine, the regulation many liberals are now actively trying to revive in an effort to silence their critics. (READ MORE)

Mike Huckabee: My Proud Record - John Fund's view of my 10 1/2-year record as governor of Arkansas and my vision for America's future ("Another Man from Hope: Who is Mike Huckabee?") calls for me to set the record straight. It's important to note that every living Republican in Arkansas who has been elected to either a statewide or a federal office has endorsed my candidacy. I'm grateful for their support and proud that in 1998, I received the largest percentage of votes ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas, and that Arkansans re-elected me to another four-year term in November 2002. (READ MORE)

Robert D. Novak: Who Wants to Kill Bhutto? - Benazir Bhutto, back in Pakistan following eight years in exile with plans to tour the country seeking voter support, is holed up in Karachi after the near-miss attempt on her life. The government has declined to provide her minimal security against renewed assassination attempts on the former prime minister. That points up the shadowy new partnership between Bhutto and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, re-elected president of Pakistan by the electoral college on Oct. 6. (READ MORE)

Michael Barone: When There's No Life in the Party - "Pray take away this pudding," Winston Churchill commanded one night at dinner. "It has no theme." Our two political parties, facing the first election in 80 years in which neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president is running, are similarly bereft of themes. Or, to put it more precisely, neither has a convincing narrative of where we are in history and where we should be headed next. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: Understanding Atheism - I declared myself an agnostic in 1983 and stayed that way until I declared myself an atheist in 1992. The road from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity was – with my apologies to Beatles fans – long and winding. It took many years to travel. The decision to major in psychology was one of many factors that led to my decision to leave the church. Not many psychology departments have more atheists than the nearest philosophy department. But many come close. And the way the discipline of psychology approaches religion is likely to lead some students astray. (READ MORE)

Robert Bluey: Congress Reaches the Wrong Milestone - For the first time in history, the House of Representatives hit the 1,000-vote mark. It’s a thoroughly meaningless milestone, yet liberals proclaimed it a monumental accomplishment. “Our job is to take America in a new direction, and we are working hard to do that,” a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the Associated Press. A closer look at the numbers tells a different story, however. The House could literally vote all day on measures such as motions to recommit and motions to adjourn. But lawmakers are busying themselves with other “priorities” as well -- such as naming post offices. (READ MORE)

Tuesday Update: Get your tissues, I am getting super sappy here - not too long ago I wrote a post about "what not to say to a wife of a deployed soldier"....Tuesday Update....if this doesn't link it correctly, it is the July 5, 2007 post... Tonight I got this email from my Husband's boss's wife.....I have to admit I broke down in tears. yes, I am WAY emotional this week....those of you being visited by aunt Flo know the feelings. But in total opposition to what NOT to say, this is what TO say to a wife who hasn't seen her husband in 15 months....(okay you totally cannot count the two weeks we had in March!!) I am adding my comments in crimson..... Dear Military Wife, I am an American woman that has no idea what is going on in the military other than what I hear on the news. ***I don't watch the news, so I don't know much either, welcome to my world.*** (READ MORE)

Winter's Soldier Story: All's Quiet on the Iraq War Front, So Let's Leak Defense Secrets - Again - Shhh. Did you hear that? Neither did I. The news is not reporting anything out of Iraq this week because there is plenty of good news and it is hard to find bad news, so why give the American public anything to rejoice about? There were some anti-war protests around the country, with the usual over-inflated numbers and hate-America rhetoric. That got a lot of coverage, even on the Internet where my service provider, Comcast, trumpeted the anti-war protests on its home page headline service, but not a word of military successes. Looks like its time to switch providers. (READ MORE)

Wolf Pangloss: Democracies at 4GWar - Counterinsurgency and Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) are two ways of saying the same thing. War compels an enemy to submit to your will. 4GW is a form of warfare. It is still a technique for compulsion. However, it does not focus directly on the enemy military force but directs a narrative (a storyline which may bear little similarity to the facts) at the enemy population in order to convince them to do something, for example to stop supporting their military. Gunplay, bombing, and other kinetic operations (including security operations, a free press, and free elections) are useful in a 4GW so far as they fit into and reinforce the chosen narrative. (READ MORE)

Kim Priestap: In Praise of Congressman Tom Lantos - There's very little that Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos and I agree on, but Mr. Lantos deserves heaps of praise for standing up to Dutch politicians who came to Guantanamo Bay to tell us what we are required to do with it. Don Surber has the story: "The Dutch are threatening to remove their 1,600 troops from Afghanistan to protest Gitmo. Dutch politicians face growing problems with Islamic youths and likely fear a L'Intifada like France suffered in 2005." (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: "How Can There Be A Problem? We Passed A Law!" - One of Mitt Romney's last little gifts to the people of Massachusetts was a plan that required every single resident of the Commonwealth to carry health insurance under penalty of law. I think P. J. O'Rourke would call it the "Take Care Of Your Health Or We'll Kill You" plan. As I understand the way the plan works, if you have health insurance, you're fine. If you don't, your employer is "encouraged" to offer you some sort of plan, even if they don't offer to pick up part of the tab. And if all else fails, you sign up for some state plan. No matter what, you're GOING to be covered. (READ MORE)

Mark Steyn: The Real War on Children - On Thursday, Congress attempted to override President Bush's veto of the S-CHIP debate. S-CHIP? Isn't that something to do with healthcare for children? Absolutely. And here is Representative Pete Stark (Democrat, California) addressing the issue with his customary forensic incisiveness: "The Republicans are worried that they can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war on children, but you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people? If he can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement." I'm not sure I follow the argument here: President Bush wants to breed a generation of sickly uninsured children in order to send them to Iraq to stagger round the Sunni Triangle weak and spindly and emaciated and rickets-stricken to get their heads blown off? (READ MORE)

A Soldier's Mind: Was Today “National Moonbat Day?” - Did somebody forget to tell me that it was “National Moonbat Day” today, or something? It seems like they were out in full force at various places across the country today. I guess while I was taking part in what’s supposed to be, National Make A Difference Day, and taking donations to the local Domestic Violence shelter, some of the moonbats decided that they’d stage some anti-war protests, and behave in the typical fashion moonbats worldwide…. making total fools of themselves. In the Washington DC area, those protestors were to be met by a group of Moms, whose children are currently Active Duty Soldiers, in a counter demonstration, to show their support of the mission that their children are currently involved in. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: The Invulnerable Networked Insurgency (Part 1) - Armed Liberal at Winds of Change takes on what he describes as the myth of the invincible "networked insurgency". The futility of fighting al-Qaeda has often been compared to fighting the mythical Hydra and the capture or death of each al-Qaeda "high value target" in Iraq was discounted as being as futile as cutting off the head of the legendary Lernaean serpent since each severed head was immediately replaced by two more. And when the words "network" and "insurgency" are juxtaposed, the public automatically associates the vastness and power of the Internet, the world's best known public network, with the traditional potency of insurgencies to create the nightmare image of an invulnerable al-Qaeda, at once omnipresent and invincible. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Mutiny on the Pelosi? - ‘Last week was a bad week for the House Speaker and she didn’t seem to even know it.’ American Spectator today explained why the House is cutting back its workweek: To regroup and maybe oust House Speaker Pelosi. When you are mired at 11% job approval, you try something different. American Spectator said the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, called the shorter workweek. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: France Back In NATO? - With Nicolas Sarkozy at the helm of government, relations between the US and France have warmed considerably. Sarkozy has adopted the American position on Iran and now leads European efforts to demand accountability from Teheran on their nuclear program. Can a French return to NATO be far behind? Not according to Ronald Asmus, who oversaw a close-run attempt ten years ago: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated his willingness to bring France back into NATO." (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Pew study: Election coverage thus far light on policy, heavy on crap - You’ll find the full-sized version of the front page screencap here, but I recommend skimming the version of the report at Journalism.org — especially the part on how different media sectors favor different parties. That’s the red meat section of this supermarket. Quick and dirty, how newspapers cover the race…ersus how network news covers it…versus the all-important cable news breakdown. Do you have any idea how favorable most of MSNBC’s coverage of Republicans must be to lead the field in that category notwithstanding Olbermann’s DNC Hour of Power every night? (READ MORE)

McQ: Pogo’s revenge - poll and pander - I always enjoy reading Michael Barone because his articles are usually pretty insightful. Today's is no exception. Barone looks at the two major political parties and concludes they have no real themes going into the '08 election. Barone claims that domestically Democrats are reacting to polls that say "the voters are once again ready for more government". Heck of a way to run a railroad but pretty consistent with what politics today have become - a struggle for power in which parties try to determine what scheme will garner them the most votes whether or not, in the long run, it is a sustainable scheme or one that is even good for the country. What that means, essentially, is that there are no principles, such as those embodied in the Constitution or the founding of the country, driving the political process anymore. It is pandering for power and whatever it takes is what will be proposed, whether it eventually bankrupts us (both culturally and financially) or not. (READ MORE)

Richard Landes: The Brits Pig out on Anti-Zionism: How Europe Commits Suicide - I have argued repeatedly that Antizionism acts in the 21st century as a form of cultural auto-immune deficiency syndrome. By appealing to the moral Schadenfreude that anti-Zionism seems to offer (especially) to the Europeans, it makes it virtually impossible for the consumer of this discourse to identify and defend against their real enemy: global Jihad. It’s so much fun to see the Israelis as cruel colonizing oppressors of a plucky Palestinian national liberation movement (PCP2), that acknowledging the forces of global Jihad behind the secular (Marxist) facade, would just spoil the fun. After all, if you admit that the Israelis are fighting a monstrous and implacable enemy that has genocidal intentions, how could you dump on them so vigorously for defending themselves? Definitely no fun. (READ MORE)

The Captain's Journal: Homecoming! - A son comes home from war, a crucial campaign has been won in Fallujah, and the homecoming of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Golf Company, a unit which has performed heroically in Iraq, is as remarkable for who didn’t show up as who did. In answer to ten thousand prayers, our son, who has earned the Combat Action Ribbon, has come home safely from Fallujah. 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Golf Company, arrived home on Tuesday, October 16th, from Fallujah, Iraq. Families were ecstatic to see the busses finally arriving at Camp Lejeune from Cherry Point. I had what I believed to be a reliable offer to embed with the Marines and report from Fallujah, but this offer dried up, and I was left with the wonderful reporting by Jim Spiri and Bill Ardolino, along with some of my own research, all of which was better than any report from the main stream media. It has been a hard ride for me as father of a warrior. Upon the inevitable reports of deaths of Marines in Anbar (without names being released as is the practice), I found myself unable to sleep many nights, and I spent some amount of time at the front door waiting on that visit from Marine officers that thankfully never came. I will find a way to embed with 2/6 the next time they deploy, God willing. (READ MORE)

Chickenhawk Express: Need A War Crime Story? Call Dahr Jamail - I've read many stories and articles from Iraq by "independent" reporter Dahr Jamail. For some reason, he's flown under the radar on the right while leading the charge against American Imperialist Occupiers for the left. Don't believe me - google "war crimes" and "american military in Iraq". Most of the items will either have a Dahr Jamail byline or have a statement from him in the story or will have a trail of crumbs leading back to this rat's lair. Take for instance the Fallujah White Phosphorus debunked claims - this was the "journalist" that beat the hell outta that dead horse and continues to do so. In fact, Jamail drove the damn bus on the Fallujah massacre claims - and not one single tinfoil hat wearing minion questioned his claims. If a bomb went off in Iraq and civilians were killed, you could count on a dispatch from Dahr Jamail pointing out America's complicity in the act. (READ MORE)

Animesh Roul: Why Pakistan Fails to Counter 'Suicide' Attacks? - As the investigation into the Oct 18 Karachi blast continues, more terrorist strikes (e.g. Oct 20 Baluchistan car bomb blast and Oct 25 Swat blast), violent street protests and fatal shootouts came thick and fast to haunt Pakistan. Blame games and finger pointing are taking its usual round. The larger question, who is responsible for the carnage, is not important at this juncture. Both Jihadi elements and Bhutto herself should be held responsible for this carnage. The procession with thousands supporters was utterly unnecessary for security point of view and that to in the night. Everybody knows about Pakistan’s internal security situation that has been deteriorated further since July this year. The Karachi suicide attack that ripped the security convoy of former Prime Minister and Pakistan People’s Party leader Bonaire Bhutto, killed over 130 people and left scores of others injured. As many as hundred among those 540 odd injured have been fighting with life and death in various hospitals in and around Karachi. (READ MORE)

Dadmanly; The Ends of Anti-Americanism - Francis Fukuyama concludes that America has created and now will preside over a self-defeating hegemony, in a pre-written obituary appearing at Real Clear Politics. I fully admit that I have not read Fukuyama in the original texts. If that renders my criticism of his opinions moot for some readers, thanks for stopping by, you can move on. Many of us know of Fukuyama only through the academic catch phrase he embraced in his thought and writings, “the end of history,” and synopses of his works. If we end our military involvement in the Middle East or aggressive responses to radical Islamic terrorism, I suppose we can conclude that the end of history would now resume. (READ MORE)

Knee Deep in the Hooah!: Dear Son, I support your mission! - Dear Mike, I think about you everyday, but some days I think about you in the present and others more so in the past. Today I was thinking about you in a way that paralleled both worlds where my thoughts and memories of you are treasured and contained. I really do have so many tender memories of when you were little. You were such a bright and curious guy, well you still are, but just in different ways now. The memories of you bring a lot of joy to me, and they remind me of how much I miss seeing you and hearing your voice in person. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: US targets al Qaeda's al Furqan media wing in Iraq - Coalition and Iraqi special operations forces continue to target al Qaeda's propaganda capabilities. Over the summer, US forces scored a major victory with the capture of Khalid Abdul Fatah Da’ud Mahmud al Mashadani, also known as Abu Shahed. Mashadani was al Qaeda's minister of information and served as the go between for al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al Masri and Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. The capture of Mashadani has shed light on al Qaeda's media operations, and has allowed Multinational Forces Iraq to roll up al Qaeda's media cells throughout Iraq. "Since the surge began, we’ve uncovered eight separate al Qaeda media offices and cells, have captured or killed 24 al Qaeda propaganda cell members and have discovered 23 terabytes of information," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Forces Iraq in a press briefing. (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

Project Valour-IT began when Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company in Iraq in June 2005.

During his deployment he kept a blog (an online personal diary, opinion forum, or news analysis site-called a milblog or military weblog when written by a servicemember or about military subjects). Captivating writing, insightful stories of his experiences, and his self-deprecating humor won him many loyal readers. After he was wounded, his wife continued his blog, keeping his readers informed of his condition.

As he began to recover, CPT Ziegenfuss wanted to return to writing his blog, but serious hand injuries hampered his typing. When a loyal and generous reader gave him a copy of the Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred software, other readers began to realize how important such software could be to CPT Ziegenfuss' fellow wounded soldiers and started cast about for a way to get it to them.

A fellow blogger (blog author) who writes under the pseudonym FbL contacted Captain Ziegenfuss and the two realized they shared a vision of providing laptops with voice-controlled software to wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a standard computer. FbL contacted Soldiers Angels, who offered to help develop the project, and Project Valour IT was born

The largest military blog fund raiser begins right now and we need your help!

Let's see who can raise the most money to help reconnect our wounded warriors with the world!

WHAT: Friendly fundraising competition for Valour-IT.
WHEN: October 29th through Veterans Day, November 11th .
WHERE: Based in the blogosphere, spreading everywhere else.
WHY: Because giving wounded warriors with hand and arm injuries access to a computer supports their healing and puts them back in touch with the world.
HOW: Blogger teams will be divided along military branches, with civilians "up for grabs."

The lines are drawn by service rivalry:
Jarheads (Marines) will be led by Holly Aho
Zoomies (Air Force) will be led by Mrs. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette
Squids (Navy) will be led by Chaotic Synaptic Activity.
Doggies (Army) led by Matt and Jim of Blackfive

Non-military bloggers should choose a branch the Army to support (they are called the Army's sister services for a reason):

Sign up for the Army team by enlisting at the Project Valour-IT site and click (under Army) "Join". We'll generate links, buzz, and get these heroes some Commo support!

It's a tax-deductible donation and eligible for matching funds from companies who do that sort of thing (see: IRS INFO for proof for the cautious).

The snail mail address for those who'd rather donate that way (be sure to put ARMY in big letters on the check):
Soldiers' Angels
Project Valour-IT Fund - ARMY TEAM
1792 E. Washington Blvd
Pasadena, Ca 91104

Be a part of something big.

*Updated*

Yesterday I posted about the recent ruling by the National Cemetery Administration to "ban" the recitation by honor guards as to the significance of the 13 folds, when folding the flag that had been draped over the coffin of our honored veterans.

I was personally offended when I read the story on Humbled Infidel's blog about the decision, even more so when I read Mr. Stokely's reply to my post. He is absolutely correct; this should be a family matter and not one for the bureaucrats.

The National Cemetery Administration is a division of the Veteran’s Administration, and as such they report to Congress and the President of the United States. We cannot allow our heritage and the honor of our veterans to be dishonored by this recent decision.

So what can we do?

First, we must contact our elected representatives in their home districts and Washington Offices. We must let them know that this blanket decision is inappropriate and must be rescinded immediately.

Secondly, we must contact the Veteran’s Administration and let them know that this blanket decision is inappropriate and must be rescinded immediately.

The decision to have this recitation must rest with the family and not the government. The funeral ceremony is not there to glorify the government or to appeal to the sensibilities of passersby; it is there to glorify and respect the fallen and to offer closure to the family. It is their wishes which should dictate what is and is not said during the course of the ceremony not the decision of onlookers and outsiders. It is definitely not the decision of bureaucrats in Washington or elsewhere to decide what is appropriate for the family. As Mr. Stokely so eloquently noted:

“Government is banned from making or establishing religion, and thus banned from interfering with those who have an established religion and the free exercise thereof. Accommodating the free exercise of a fallen soldier's religion and that of his family is not a Government endorsement or making or establishing of religion.”

I couldn't agree more. We allow our soldiers to note the religion of their choice on their identification tags so that the proper honors might be rendered, why would we now allow bureaucrats in Washington to decide for them and their families after the death of their loved one what is and is not appropriate for the family's ceremony?

Please contact your elected official and the Veteran’s Administration as soon as you can so that this horrendous decision can be overturned and the decision returned to the family where it belongs.

You can contact the VA by clicking here:
You can contact your Senator by clicking here:
You can contact your Congressman by clicking here:
You can contact the President by clicking here:


UPDATE:
FP, Notes we can send our comments and opinion of this recent decision to FOX NEWS by sending them an email.

Back in February, I wrote about how I gazed at the Moon during Mike's three month tour of duty in Iraq and how it connected me to him there in Yusufiyah. Tonight, Saturday, October 28, 2007, 26 months after Mike died under a nearly full moon from a road side bomb, I again gaze at the Moon Over Yusufiyah, as it comes over the tree line to my east. For these past seven months since the publication of the original Moon Over Yusufiyah, I have had correspondence with a soldier's mom who read that piece and whose son was with the 10th Mountain Division at Yusufiyah. Since Mike's guys left Yusufiyah for new duty stations in early November 05', I did not know someone there at Yusufiyah. Sandy Bressler and her son reconnected me to Yusufiyah and I have had many opportunities to stand on my porch and gaze at the moon and offer up prayers for her son. I have had my heart sink when casualty reports signaled a loss from the 10th Mountain at Yusufiyah, especially several in just the past month. It hurts to hear these reports for they trigger a response of anguish knowing what a family is now going through. Fortunately, this mom's son was not one of the casualties.

Tonight, as I write this and watch a slightly waning, but almost still full moon rise, I have offered us a new prayer, one of thanksgiving for this mom's son, for he is now in Kuwait, and if all goes well, by the time the Moon rises over Yusufiyah on Sunday night, he will be airborne, next stop the USA. Thank you God for protecting Daniel Bressler and for the soon to be safe homecoming he will have with a new wife, his mom, dad, brother and many friends. Thank you Daniel Bressler for serving, and we will not forget your fallen brothers, or you and the service and sacrifice made so we may continue to live free.

Maybe one day, if God chooses to grant me a special blessing, I can go to Yusufiyah and see the place where my son served and which his fellow soldiers took it upon themselves, in defiance of the orders of Baghdad, to rename FOB Stokely. It is important to me to go to the place where my son fell the night he died, kneel, and touch the soil and breathe the air. Maybe, just maybe, I might even be able to do it even as the Moon over Yusufiyah rises.

Robert Stokely
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 Aug 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
US Army E Troop 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG

I'm promoting this out of the comments from this post, because I believe that its important enough to be on the front page.

When a Gold Star Family speaks out about how and why things are done at the funeral of their loved one, we need to listen...

Robert Stokely wrote:

While, for no particular reason, this recitation was not done during Mike's flag folding at his funeral, I don't believe they can stop it if a soldier's family wants it. After all we do still have a constitution that is mightier than the Committee that took this action and I do not believe this committee has the authority to tell a family how they can exercise their religious freedom and free speech when burying their fallen soldier and loved one. Fundamental Rights - that is what the U.S. Supreme Court calls freedom of religion and speech, even ruling that such are the highest and most protected of rights our Constitution guarantees us.

I can understand those of another religious persuasion or those who do not believe in a God at all not wanting such a recitation read during the flag folding at their loved one's funeral. But that is not a constitutionally valid reason for this Committee banning outright the recitation at any National Cemetery military funeral. It should be remembered that a dog tag lists the soldier's religious preference and that preference as well as that of the family is what should legally control. A simple directive by the family to the Funeral Director or Casualty Assistance Officer is a better approach to be sensitive to the family who is burying their soldier than a scorched earth religious edict such as has now been issued by a Government Official. And I again emphasize that the Government is banned from making or establishing religion, and thus banned from interfering with those who have an established religion and the free exercise thereof. Accommodating the free exercise of a fallen soldier's religion and that of his family is not a Government endorsement or making or establishing of religion.

What is next, somebody who doesn't like guns complains and they do away with the 21 gun salute? Somebody doesn't like the American Flag, so we ban draping the flag over the soldier's casket or folding it in silence? Somebody is deaf so we don't play TAPS?

A funeral, especially a military funeral, is for the family to have a final moment of good-bye that is befitting of that loved one's standing in life, including religious standing. It is not a time to be concerned about the feeling of an on-looker who has not suffered such a moment of loss.


Trackbacked/Linked by:
A NATION TUNRING ITS FACE FROM GOD from The Radio Patriot

A recent ruling by the National Cemetery Administration has ruled that the follwing can no longer be recited as honor guards fold the flag that has been draped over a coffin of a veteran.

These meanings, not part of the U.S. Flag Code, have been ascribed to the 13 folds of American flags at veterans burial services. The banned words:
1. Symbol of life.
2. Symbol of our belief in the eternal life.
3. In honor and remembrance of the veteran departing our ranks who gave a portion of life for the defense of our country to attain a peace throughout the world.
4. Represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in times of war for His divine guidance.
5. A tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, "Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong."
6. Represents where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
7. A tribute to our armed forces.
8. A tribute to the one who entered in to the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother's Day.
9. A tribute to womanhood.
10. A tribute to father.
11. In the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
12. In the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost.
13. When the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, "In God We Trust."

By JOE VARGO
The Press-Enterprise

Through thousands of military burials, Memorial Honor Detail volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors of those being laid to rest.

The first fold, a narrator tells relatives, represents life, the second a belief in eternal life.

The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

A single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries.

A spokesman in Washington said the complaint originated from someone who witnessed the ceremony at Riverside National but would provide no other details and declined to release the directive banning the flag-folding recital, saying it was "an internal working document not meant for public distribution."

Humbled Infidel has more:

Linked by:
Human race will 'split into two different species' from Right Truth
A NATION TUNRING ITS FACE FROM GOD from The Radio Patriot

by Michael Israel

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Strike on Iran Would Roil Oil Markets, Experts Say - A U.S. military strike against Iran would have dire consequences in petroleum markets, say a variety of oil industry experts, many of whom think the prospect of pandemonium in those markets makes U.S. military action unlikely despite escalating economic sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. (READ MORE)

Giuliani's Policy Professor - Late in March, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was not at the time known as a zealous supply-sider, held a news conference in Midtown Manhattan to announce that the conservative activist and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes would become his campaign co-chairman. (READ MORE)

Burmese Refugees Recall How the Protests Evolved - MAE SOT, Thailand, Oct. 25 -- The young Buddhist monk arrived here by boat last week from Burma, exhausted and disheveled, with no passport, the stubble of his hair dyed blond for a disguise, and wearing a traditional Burmese longyi wrap instead of his saffron-colored robe. (READ MORE)

Trillion-Dollar Baby - You can't say Charlie Rangel lacks for ambition. The House Ways and Means Chairman has been saying he wants to pass "the mother of all tax reforms," and even that doesn't do justice to the trillion-dollar tax baby he delivered unto Washington yesterday. No one thinks his plan has a chance of becoming law this year, but its beauty is as a signal of Democratic intentions for 2009. In proposing what would be the largest tax increase in history, Mr. Rangel is showing the world what he wants the tax code to look like if Democrats run the entire government. (READ MORE)

Rangel Pitches Tax 'Relief' - The Democrats' top tax-writer yesterday introduced a massive plan to give tax relief to 90 million working families, a long-anticipated tax-code overhaul that Republicans criticized as the largest proposed tax increase in U.S. history. (READ MORE)

Traveler With TB Did Not use Alias - Key senators said a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis did not use a fake name to enter the country 76 times and take numerous flights, as Homeland Security spokesmen had previously stated. (READ MORE)

Rice: Guards not 'Above the Law' - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress yesterday that the State Department had "appropriate oversight" of security contractors in Iraq before a Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater USA guards are accused of killing as many as 17 Iraqi civilians. (READ MORE)

Law of Sea Treaty Draws GOP Focus - The Law of the Sea convention, a relic of the 1970s, could become the next fight of this year's Republican presidential campaign, with some of the candidates trying to push it to the front of the debate. (READ MORE)



From the Front:
Michael Yon: Beauchamp and the Rule of Second Chances - The story of General Petraeus getting accidentally shot in the chest is a case in point. One of his own soldiers had pulled the trigger. Normally, something very bad would have happened to that soldier and his commander. Instead Petraeus sent that soldier to Ranger School, and his Captain (Fred Johnson) was promoted early. In June, I witnessed LTC Fred Johnson helping to restore security and rebuild Baqubah. Fred Johnson is a believer in second chances. Some months ago, a soldier in Baghdad wrote a piece on the way war can degrade the morals and affect the judgment of combat soldiers. His story was published at face-value in The New Republic magazine. In it the soldier wrote terrible things about his unit, making the article sensational. (READ MORE)

Michael Totten: House to House: An Epic Memoir of War - We've all heard and read about how terrorists and insurgents hide behind civilians and use human shields, but it's hard to grasp what that really means without at least a little dramatization. Here is Bellavia describing one of these incidents in the town of Muqdadiyah, Diyala: “The angst-filled scenes on the street cannot compare to what we find inside these battle-scarred houses. Yesterday, my squad kicked in one door and stumbled right into a woman wearing a blood-soaked apron. She was sitting on the floor, howling with grief. She looked to be in her mid-forties and had Shia tattoos on her face. When she saw us, she stood and grasped Specialist Piotr Sucholas by the shoulders and gave him a kiss on the cheek.” (READ MORE)

Matt Sanchez: Inside Saddam's 'Lion' mega-base - Most flights coming into the Anbar province go through one of Iraq's biggest air bases. Al Asad serves as a hub for troops to board convoys or helicopters en route to their final destination. When a tour is finally over, troops "rip out" through al Asad, while their replacements "rip in" to begin their time in country. In some ways, every Marine in Iraq knows airbase al Asad. But even those who have never physically been to the base have heard of it from reputation. Fallujah, Ramadi, Habbaniya, Haditha – everywhere I've been in the Anbar province, I've heard tales of the "mega-base." (READ MORE)

Outlaw 13: Ted Rall...Worthless POS - Ted Rall is the piece of shit that drew the cartoon above. In a lame reference to Mike Judge's film, Idiocracy...he labels all soldiers as idiots and goes downhill from there. I can not believe this guy is still employed...besides being tasteless, this cartoon is not funny either. Real irony would be Ted Rall being put into the hospital after a traffic accident on the highway with an eighteen wheeler carrying CONEXs coming back from Iraq… (READ MORE)

Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure: I Wasn't Prepared For... - I had to hurry to get to Atlanta by 1300 today so that I could in-process for a flight that boards at 1815 this evening. Typical. Hurry up and wait. God bless the United States Army. The wonderful people of the USO provide free wireless internet, which I am now gratefully using to post to the Adventure as I wait for my flight back to the war. I had prepared for saying goodbye to my children. I set a calm and cheerful example, and being prepared for it kept my emotions more manageable. My kids did pretty well with it, and I'm pretty sure that being calm myself really made a difference for them. (READ MORE)

Badger 6: Remember Iraq? Who can forget? - Remember when Paul Krugman worked for Enron, Maureen Dowd was a pouty little girl, and Thomas Friedman was a respected writer? Me too. Then the New York Times created Times Select and those of us unwilling to fork over money were then deprived of their musings. Sadly Times Select was apparently a colossal failure and they are back and available to us, the unwashed masses. During that two year public hiatus Mr. Friedman must have started channeling Ms. Dowd as his column today demonstrates. It is a temper tantrum worthy of her if not a five year old. The problem with the column is Mr. Friedman's failure to really have a grasp of the situation in Iraq. (READ MORE)

Omar: A Tale of al-Qaeda Tow Tribes and a Militia, Contd. - For some time I've been hearing some debate, that in many cases involved warnings, about the possible negative consequences of US troops and Iraqi government allying with Sunni tribes in fighting al-Qaeda. Honestly I wasn't inclined to comment on this since I thought it was a no-brainer—those tribal fighters are fighting al-Qaeda like no one else did and the change in Anbar testifies for their effectiveness. But then someone sent me this video and asked for feedback; so here it is… Now believe it or not this video talks about the very same part of Iraq where an earlier story we reported was taking place. Small world, isn't it? the significance of that story and the sequence of development does not arise from the magnitude of the local course of events but from the fact that these have close resemblance to many other situations in spots with mixed populations cursed by the presence and activity of both al-Qaeda and Shia militias. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
John Fund: Another Man From Hope - Republicans have won five of the last seven presidential elections by running candidates who broadly fit the Ronald Reagan model--fiscally conservative, and firmly but not harshly conservative on social issues. The wide-open race for the 2008 GOP nomination has generated two new approaches. Rudy Giuliani, for example, isn't running away from his socially liberal views, although he has modified them. But he is campaigning as a staunch, even acerbic economic conservative. (READ MORE)

Peggy Noonan: Apocalypse No - "I love chicks that have been intimate with EDS's," he announced to his fellow soldiers sitting in the chow tent in Camp Falcon in Baghdad. "It really turns me on--melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses." The soldiers laughed so hard they almost fell from their chairs. They enjoy running over dogs in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, luring them in and then crushing their bones as they whelp. When a soldier comes upon a mass grave, he picks up a human skull, places it merrily on his head, and marches around. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: The End of America As We Know It - "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper." -- T. S. Eliot Like most conservatives, I am an optimist with an unshakable faith in the United States of America and the benevolence of a just God who looks down upon us. Yet and still, the lack of seriousness our politicians and much of our populace display towards the grave issues we face as a nation has grown to such an extent that it may become a threat to this country's very survival...(READ MORE)

W. Thomas Smith, Jr: Lebanon Inching Closer to War - Lebanon – one of the most critical fronts in the war on terror – is on the brink of a full-blown shooting war. Few Americans living or traveling outside of that country seem to have any prescient understanding of this: Perhaps it is because Americans are so keenly focused on the bloodier, more immediate twin fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our own forthcoming general elections here at home. Maybe it is because the Lebanese media seems to spend more time and energy reporting to itself than to the international press. (READ MORE)

Oliver North: Real American Heroes - Quick: Name a movie star, a noted celebrity, a great athlete and a radio or TV personality. When I posed these queries to some nice Americans this week, I got answers such as: "Russell Crowe," "Paris Hilton," "Britney Spears," "quarterback Tom Brady," "Curt Schilling of the Red Sox," "Tiger Woods" and "Rush Limbaugh." Now: Can you name a contemporary American hero? Only two of the dozen or so people I challenged came up with, "Navy SEAL Michael Murphy." That says a lot about what our mainstream media thinks is important. (READ MORE)

Charles Krauthammer: Taking Reagan Out of the Race - Major grumbling among conservatives about the Republican field. So many candidates, so many flaws. Rudy Giuliani, abortion apostate. Mitt Romney, flip-flopper. John McCain, Mr. Amnesty. Fred Thompson, lazy boy. Where is the paragon? Where is Ronald Reagan? Well, what about Reagan? This president, renowned for his naps, granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli bill. As governor of California, he signed the most liberal abortion legalization bill in America, then flip-flopped and became an abortion opponent. (READ MORE)

Jonah Goldberg: The Borking of American Politics - If you think American politics have gotten nastier, crueler and more symbolic over the last 20 years, blame Ted Kennedy. This month marks the 20th anniversary of the borking of Judge Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan’s failed Supreme Court nominee. And it was Ted Kennedy’s bilious bugle blast that brought the man down. Almost immediately after Reagan nominated Bork, Kennedy pulled himself off his barstool and proclaimed: “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of the government ...” (READ MORE)

Michael Reagan: Playing the Blame Game - It was inevitable – a huge swath of Southern California was ablaze in one of the worst wildfires in the state's history, yet all that gasbag liberals could do in the face of this disaster was to go looking for someone to blame. While hundreds of heroic firefighters risk life and limb to save as many homes as possible, and state and federal disaster officials bend every effort to put in place all the firefighting assets available to them, the likes of Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer and their allies scurry to use this immense tragedy to make political capital out of it. (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: A Dangerous Precedent Abuilding in California - There is terrible news from California. On October 12, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law three bills which, the opposition argues, introduce the radical homosexual agenda into educational institutions. Unquestionably the traditional purpose of public education is to teach reading, writing, mathematics and other fundamentals necessary for well-rounded intellectual development. Instead, these institutions apparently will become miniature laboratories for redefining nature, implementing “gender theory” and experimenting with the effects of sexual lifestyles. (READ MORE)

Richard Landes: Eurofada: The Frantifada spreads northeast to Benelux - I haven’t been paying much attention lately, so it came as (only something) of a surprise to find out that there’s rioting in Amsterdam and Brussels which have not (another suroprise) been covered by the MSM. (Hat tip fp.) Try finding riots in the NYT over the last week and you’ll find articles on Hungary (right wing), Venezuela (students against Hugo Chavez), Iran (students against the government), Israel (Palestinian prison riot), Bolivia (regional against socialist government), but nothing on Europe. Apparently, not mentioning the riots in France in the fall of 2005 for over a week, while the blogosphere was all over it, has not made our MSM more willing to report these things more readily. And not surprisingly, the dextrasphere is all over it, led by the usual suspects, LGF who got it from Digital Journal, Jihadwatch et alia. This is not promising for the MSM’s “learning curve.” (READ MORE)

Jeffrey Imm: Jihad, Islamism, and the Challenge of Anti-Freedom Ideologies - As previously discussed, large segments of America and the West have a continuing dangerous denial on Jihad. But what of political Islamism itself? How does it factor into a blueprint strategy in addressing our national security issues? In the documentary "Islam versus Islamism", anti-terrorist Muslim Dr. Zuhdi Jasser states: "a majority, I believe, look at the lens of politics through an Islamist lens... if we hand them the mantle of religion that they seek to exploit for their own geopolitical issues all over the globe, then we are going to really lose this war." (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: In The Valley Of Ennui - Hollywood came under criticism since 9/11 for ignoring the war on terror, going out of its way to avoid making films that tell stories of American fortitude. With a few exceptions like United 93 and World Trade Center, the cinema remained devoid of any meaningful representation of the war. That changed this year, but not for the better, as Hollywood instead began churning out politically-motivated anti-war films. Given the supposed anti-war mood of the nation, it sounded like a sure bet for financial success and a critical slap at the military and Bush administration. Fortunately, Hollywood appears to have lost its bet (via Instapundit): (READ MORE)

Laughing_Wolf: Challenge To Foer/TNR - In consequence of transparency and potential conflicts of interest, I need to state up front that I have in the past done work for and with DoD PAO operations. It is, in fact, one of the reasons that I have a low opinion of many DoD PAO activities, operations, and even people. I have indeed met Scott Beauchamp, corresponded with his wife, and have met Major Luedeke and others mentioned in the reports and articles. With one exception, I do not plan to say anything about any of these people at this time. I note yet again that my goal in doing my embed was not to deal with this issue or the people involved; but, rather to talk about the reality of day-to-day life at COP Ellis and allow our readers to meet some of the outstanding soldiers there. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Taliban suicide bomber targets police in Swat; kills 30 - Just days after the Pakistani government deployed additional paramilitary troops to Swat in the Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban attacked police in the town of Mingora. The attack, which hit a convoy of Frontier Constabulary police forces, killed at least 30 and wounded 17. Over ten shops were destroyed, likely due to the secondary explosions cause by the ammunition of the truck detonating. “Police officer Amjad Khan told the Associated Press the blast hit a platoon of 43 Frontier Constabulary troops in a truck near the police district headquarters,” CNN reported. AFP stated the likely cause of the explosion was a suicide bomber. The Pakistani Interior Ministry appears to be willing to chalk the explosion up as a munitions accident. (READ MORE)

The Monkey Tennis Centre: Truth is still a hostage of the BBC - Alan Johnston, the BBC's Gaza correspondent who was held hostage for nearly four months by Islamic terrorists before being freed in July, is probably the first kidnap victim to develop Stockholm syndrome before being abducted. His solidly pro-Palestinian reporting made him an unlikely target for the militants, and as Melanie Phillips has written, his kidnapping was very likely staged as a prelude to Hamas’s takeover of Gaza a few weeks later. That’s not to belittle Johnston’s ordeal. But the way the BBC has milked the episode to wallow in self-importance, and generally promote its global brand, leaves a nasty taste in the mouth – to say nothing of its kid-gloves approach to the terrorists of Hamas in the months since. (READ MORE)

Amy Proctor: Condi Wins the Battle of the Broads - It was a clash between class and the ass as another deranged Code commie-Pinko assaulted the Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice yesterday as she testified on the Hill on foreign relations. Condi stared down the Code Nutcase with an "oh, give me a break" look, but this confrontation was scary. The question here isn’t about the right to free speech, it’s about security and public law. How close to a national incident are we willing to let these fruitcakes, who do not deserve to be in the same room as a Condoleeza Rice, get before something violent happens? How can security be so lax at these meetings with our national leaders? (READ MORE)

Fern Sidman: And Then There Were Three... - The voices of truth can never be diminished or drowned out, be it by the rain that fell in New York City or by the zealousness of truth’s adversaries. On Wednesday evening, October 24th, the electricity in the air was palpable on the campus of Columbia University. In a packed classroom in the mathematics building, a panel discussion was held as part of an ongoing series of lectures in a weeklong event being held on over 100 university and college campuses. This nationwide event is entitled Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week and is the brainchild of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. David Horowitz is a former left-wing academic whose politics have now taken a giant step to the right. (READ MORE)

Neptunus Lex: The other Scott Thomas Beauchamp - Everyone knows the story of the “Bagdhad Diarist” who embellished what could not be woven out of whole cloth, thereby staining the honor of those who served alongside. People are increasingly aware that, under pressure from a clearly self-interested editorial staff at The New Republic to corroborate his own calumnies, he refused to cave in even when Franklin Foer gracelessly brought his journalist wife into the discussion. Beauchamp said he had done with all that, that she was a journalist and he was a soldier. What I did not realize was that Beauchamp had been offered the opportunity to leave Iraq and instead chose to stay, serving in a dangerous part of Baghdad. (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: The Canaries in the Coal Mine - The Jewish people have earned their role as the "canaries in the coal mine" the hard way; whenever tyranny has reared its ugly head, scapegoating (externalization) the Jews has been a popular device whereby the tyrants solidify and legitimize their rule. With the existence of the state of Israel, it is not even necessary for a country to actually contain Jews in order for anti-Semitism to flourish. Along with its important role in traditional anti-Semitism, the state of Israel seems determined to blaze new trails in its role as the "canarie in the cola mine" amongst the Nations. (READ MORE)

Orin Kerr: What if It Were Justice Scalia? -- A Response to Commenters: - There were many interesting comments to my post on Justice Ginsburg and Legislative Independence. I responded to many of them in the comment thread late last night, but I wanted to add an additional response to the many who thought it was perfectly fine for Justice Ginsburg to use her dissent to try to get Congress to respond by enacting new legislation more to her liking. In particular, I want to switch the politics just to make sure we all have the same position of the merits. Commenters had four basic arguments for why Justice Ginsburg may have behaved properly. First, anyone can try to influence the legislative process, so it's okay for Justices to try to do this as well. Second, Justices are smart people "on the front lines" of the law, so it's good that they are generally interested in sharing their wisdom to improve it. Third, Justice Ginsburg's remarks should be read as really just making a comment on the state of the law, which is something that we generally find unobjectionable. Fourth, it is appropriate for a Justice to take extra steps to inform Congress that their will might have been thwarted, just to let them know so they can take corrective action. (READ MORE)

DJ Drummond: Will You Answer What Congress Won't? The Top 20 Questions pt 1 - Back in late 2004 and early 2005, I sent emails, faxes, and letters to every member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. In it, I asked them for their answer to a set of twenty questions which the readers of Polipundit wanted asked. The text of the letter was posted here. 52 Readers in 38 states joined the effort, asking their district Representatives and Senators to answer the questions. Response from our elected Representatives and Senators was poor, predictably so. Most Congressmen and Senators simply ignored the letters, emails and faxes. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Congress, Investigate Thyself - Back when the Democrats were campaigning to take control of Congress in 2006, one of the things they promised was that they would not be a party of perpetual investigations. That promise went much the way of the "most ethical" and "most transparent" Congress -- at last count, they'd broken triple digits into investigations, mostly fishing expeditions. Well, as contrary as it might seem, I'd like to see them start a fresh investigation -- this time into themselves. (READ MORE)

Political Vindication: IslamoFascism Awareness Week - Dennis Prager Stuns Them at UCSB - I made the drive up the coast tonight to see Dennis Prager speak at the University of California Santa Barbara. He was invited by the College Republicans, and he did not disappoint. This week is an emotional one for the college left - the bubble they live in has been punctured by an army of eloquent conservatives fanning out throughout the country to unveil a sensitive topic - Islamofascism. The crowd that packed Girvetz Theatre was amazingly behaved, and much of the credit for that has to go to Prager - he charmed the crowd into submission, and a wry smile came to his face when the last questioner of the night complained that she “didn’t like being manipulated.” (READ MORE)

A Soldier's Mind: In The Middle Of Two Wars, They Continue To Enlist - Many people in this country wonder why in the world a young man or woman would want to enlist in the Military, knowing that our country is in the middle of fighting two wars and that they’re likely to be deployed at some point during their enlistment period. Parents may question their childs decision making ability, friends may scoff at their decision, others my ostracize them for making that choice, yet military recruiting figures continue to show almost every month that each branch of the military has met their recruiting goals. What would lead a young man or woman to make that decision, knowing what they’re likely to be faced with in a few short months? (READ MORE)

Knee Deep in the Hooah!: Dissonance at its finest - There has been a quirk that I developed since my son joined the Army during this time of war and deployment. It's not a "tic" where I yell out random cuss words at unknown passersby, but I must admit that I am more prone to doing that these days than I was 7 months ago -- pardon my digression. This interesting little quirk of mine that has developed is something that I am learning is common with a lot of parents of deployed or deploying soldiers. I am not sure if wives feel this way or not, but it is definitely a hot topic for discussion among the soldiers' parents I am blessed to chat with -- both online and in person. (READ MORE)

Fortress of Solitude: More defeats for Global Warming - The religion of Global Warming has suffered a lot of defeats lately. Earlier this month, a British judge ruled that the bible of the Church of Global Warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is a political work, and cited nine specific errors in the film. The judge concluded that the film should not be shown to school children without being accompanied by a significant warning of the political biases and inaccuracies contained therein. (Yes, many schools, even in this country, are showing the film to students in an attempt to indoctrinate them into the religion of Global Warming.) Now, the Science & Public Policy Institute has released a report which details 35 errors in Gore’s “documentary.” (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

A concerned citizen led Coalition Forces to a large weapons cache yesterday in a home in Sa’ada Village, Iraq. This cache is one of the largest discoveries of explosively formed penetrators found in at one location in Iraq. The find included more than 120 fully-assembled EFPs, more than 150 copper disks of four different sizes used in making EFPs (including 12- inch disks – one of the largest ever discovered in Iraq), 600-plus pounds of C4 and other explosive materials, 100 mortar rounds of various caliber, approximately 30 107mm rockets, two mortar tubes and 20 claymore-type mines.

Key graph:

“A find like this helps keep my Soldiers’ morale up because they know they’ve made a difference. It makes them feel good that they are saving Soldiers lives through their work,” said Capt. Jason Rosenstrauch, B Troop commander, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment.

Tip from Concerned Iraqi Citizen leads to large EFP,explosives cache

KHAN BANI SA’AD, Iraq – A concerned citizen led Coalition Forces to a large weapons cache yesterday in a home in Sa’ada Village, Iraq.

This cache is one of the largest discoveries of explosively formed penetrators found in at one location in Iraq. The find included more than 120 fully-assembled EFPs, more than 150 copper disks of four different sizes used in making EFPs (including 12- inch disks – one of the largest ever discovered in Iraq), 600-plus pounds of C4 and other explosive materials, 100 mortar rounds of various caliber, approximately 30 107mm rockets, two mortar tubes and 20 claymore-type mines.

“A find like this helps keep my Soldiers’ morale up because they know they’ve made a difference. It makes them feel good that they are saving Soldiers lives through their work,” said Capt. Jason Rosenstrauch, B Troop commander, 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment.

“My first concern was for my Soldiers,” added Rosenstrauch. “I was worried that the room was unstable because it smelled like explosives and nitric acid.”

Last week such information from Concerned Local Citizens in a village near Muqdadiyah assisted CF to unearth a weapons cache and detain one suspected terrorist.

Coalition Forces detained the homeowner in the raid.

Rosenstrauch said the citizens of Khan Bani Sa’ad are now working closely with Coalition Forces to keep insurgents out of the city.

“We have a lot of peace in the city center now,” Rosenstrauch said. “We have had [many] CLCs reporting on enemy activity. The people are turning on the insurgents and telling us where they are.”

Linked by:
One hates to quote John McCain from Pros and Cons

Members of the Concerned Local Citizens program in Hawr Rajab found several improvised explosive devices and explosive materials hidden in three seperate sites and took them to Coalition Forces for safe disposal Oct. 23.
Key graphs:

“The concerned citizens are facilitating a secure environment,” said Capt. Chad
Klascius, commander, Troop A, adding that in the past two weeks the Concerned
Local Citizens program in Hawr Rajab had removed 13 IEDs from the area.

Concerned Local Citizens find IEDs

FOB KALSU – Members of the Concerned Local Citizens program in Hawr Rajab found several improvised explosive devices and explosive materials and took them to Coalition Forces for safe disposal Oct. 23.

In three separate locations, concerned citizens led Soldiers to caches that contained one 122mm artillery shell, four two-liter bottles of homemade explosives, a bundle of four 57mm rounds and four blasting caps.

The citizens claimed that one cache was found in a home belonging to an individual on the Coalition’s wanted list.

All materials were destroyed in a controlled detonation pit at ECP 20, a joint security site manned by Paratroopers of Troop A, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska, and Iraqi Soldiers from Company A, 5th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division.

“The concerned citizens are facilitating a secure environment,” said Capt. Chad Klascius, commander, Troop A, adding that in the past two weeks the Concerned Local Citizens program in Hawr Rajab had removed 13 IEDs from the area.

Coalition forces detained two wanted individuals and an additional suspect during operations Tuesday to disrupt the car-bombing network in Baghdad.

The key graphs:

The suspect was allegedly in the process of planning up to 25 car-bombing attacks to take place in the Fadhil area of Rusafa, where his brother is allegedly a key terrorist leader. Intelligence reports led the ground force to the target area, where they detained the suspect without incident.
[...]
“Our operations are steadily chipping away at the al-Qaeda in Iraq network in Baghdad,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “We will relentlessly apply pressure on the networks so they cannot recover and carry out their brutal attacks on the Iraqi people.”

Coalition forces disrupt Baghdad car-bombing network; three detained

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces detained two wanted individuals and an additional suspect during operations Tuesday to disrupt the car-bombing network in Baghdad.

Coalition forces captured a wanted individual believed to be responsible for planning numerous car-bombing attacks in the capital city. The suspect was allegedly in the process of planning up to 25 car-bombing attacks to take place in the Fadhil area of Rusafa, where his brother is allegedly a key terrorist leader. Intelligence reports led the ground force to the target area, where they detained the suspect without incident.

West of the city, the ground force captured another wanted individual reportedly attempting to re-establish the city's car-bombing operations after significant degradation by Coalition forces. During operations Oct. 7, 13 and 16, Coalition forces captured several suspects with ties to the car-bombing network believed to be involved in the planning and execution of numerous attacks against Iraqi civilians and security forces. In addition to the targeted individual, one suspected terrorist was detained during the operation.

“Our operations are steadily chipping away at the al-Qaeda in Iraq network in Baghdad,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “We will relentlessly apply pressure on the networks so they cannot recover and carry out their brutal attacks on the Iraqi people.”

The key points:

Coalition forces killed one terrorist and captured a wanted individual reported to be an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader responsible for facilitating funding for terrorist operations in the province. Reports indicate he has connections to al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leadership and knowledge of foreign terrorist operations in the area.
[...]
“We’re continuing to target terrorists at every level,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “Foreign terrorists who come to Iraq with the help of al-Qaeda and threaten Iraq’s security are unwelcome and will find no safe haven.”

Coalition forces disrupt al-Qaeda networks; one terrorist killed, 28 detained

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces killed one terrorist and detained 28 suspects during operations Monday and Tuesday to disrupt terrorist networks in central and northern parts of Iraq.

West of Kirkuk today, Coalition forces killed one terrorist and captured a wanted individual reported to be an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader responsible for facilitating funding for terrorist operations in the province. Reports indicate he has connections to al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leadership and knowledge of foreign terrorist operations in the area. As Coalition forces arrived in the area, two men emerged from the target building. The ground force detained one of the individuals who was armed with a pistol, ammunition and a military-style assault vest, while the other individual continued to evade the ground force. Perceiving hostile intent, supporting aircraft engaged, wounding the suspect. The individual was immediately transported to a military medical facility for treatment and died at the hospital.

In Bayji, Coalition forces captured a wanted individual responsible for providing logistics support for al-Qaeda in Iraq operating in the region. Intelligence indicates the suspect is an associate of other al-Qaeda financial and logistical leaders, and has ties to the foreign terrorist facilitation network that funnels extremists into Iraq. In addition to the targeted individual, the ground force detained six suspected terrorists during the operation.

Coalition forces conducted an operation west of Tarmiyah targeting a suspected al-Qaeda senior leader responsible for terrorist operations in the northern belt. The targeted individual is believed to be a direct associate of numerous senior members of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Five suspected terrorists were detained on site.

Ten suspected terrorists were detained northwest of Tall ‘Afar during an operation targeting a suspected associate of al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leadership. The targeted individual allegedly facilitates travel for numerous senior terrorist leaders into Iraq, to include providing communications equipment and false documents.

Southwest of Balad Monday, five suspects were detained during two coordinated operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders operating in the area. Coalition forces followed four men they observed departing the target building in a vehicle. The suspects surrendered to the ground force and were detained without incident. Coalition forces destroyed the vehicle to prevent further use by terrorists. In addition to the four individuals, one suspect was detained at the target building.

“We’re continuing to target terrorists at every level,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “Foreign terrorists who come to Iraq with the help of al-Qaeda and threaten Iraq’s security are unwelcome and will find no safe haven.”

Linked by:
New Variants On Turmoil In The Middle East [to be updated throughout the day] from Pros and Cons

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Blackwater Call for Cameras Denied - The State Department cited legal concerns in turning down a 2005 request from Blackwater USA to install cameras in official U.S. motorcades protected by employees of the security contractor in Iraq, The Washington Times has learned. (READ MORE)

Rice Orders Training, Oversight for Guards - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private guards who protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, including cultural awareness training for contractors and a board to investigate any future killings. (READ MORE)

A Call To End Illegals' Refuges - Fred Thompson yesterday became the first major presidential candidate to embrace attrition as the solution to illegal entry, saying the government should deny illegal aliens a hiding place by cracking down on the businesses and sanctuary cities that shield them. (READ MORE)

S. Korea Moves to Stay in Iraq - President Roh Moo-hyun called yesterday for a one-year extension of South Korean troop deployments in Iraq, saying that closer relations with Washington were vital to his nation's security. (READ MORE)

A Helping of Vermont Politics - The inviting aromas overwhelm a visitor strolling down Bridge Street. It's comfort food, New England style, wafting from hot ovens inside clapboard homes, soon to be consumed at the 104-year-old Richmond Congregational Church. (READ MORE)

Administration Diverges on Missile Defense - President Bush said yesterday that a missile defense system is urgently needed in Europe to guard against a possible attack on U.S. allies by Iran, while Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested that the United States could delay activating such a system until there is "definitive proof" of such... (READ MORE)

Security Firms in Iraq Face New Rules - Private security contractors will continue to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq but will operate under closer supervision by U.S. Embassy officials and with clearer accountability for their actions, according to new rules approved yesterday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (READ MORE)

Photographs Said to Show Israeli Target Inside Syria - Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for on... (READ MORE)

Maliki, Under Turkish Pressure, Vows to Curb Kurdish Rebels - BAGHDAD, Oct. 23 -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed Tuesday to halt the activities of Kurdish separatists staging strikes into Turkey from northern Iraq, marking his government's strongest declaration yet that it would act to forestall a Turkish invasion. (READ MORE)

NATO Talks Focus on Turkey, Afghanistan - NOORDWIJK, Netherlands -- The mounting tension on Turkey's border with Iraq and U.S. demands for European allies to do more in Afghanistan are expected to dominate a meeting of NATO defense ministers opening Wednesday in the Netherlands. (READ MORE)

China Launches Lunar Probe - BEIJING, Oct. 24 -- China sent a satellite rocketing toward lunar orbit Wednesday evening, the latest step in an ambitious national program to shoot more astronauts into space, build a space station and eventually land Chinese astronauts on the moon. (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Greyhawk: Four Months - ...with the WaPo's David Ignatious. July 20, 2007 - Iraq is an inferno that will spread through the region: July 27, 2007 - too bad we don't have a government like Englands, then we could dump that idiot Bush and get out of Iraq! August 24: Progress? Hah - it's all in Anbar where the Sunnis are playing us for stooges to get arms to fight the Shiites after we leave, and you'll never see al Qaeda in this discussion, brother. September 12 (Petraeus goes to Congress: Okay, there's been a little more progress than I thought, but Petraeus better hurry up cause he doesn't have time to fix this huge mess: October 19 (Insert your own interpretation here*): "Let's assume that the numbers from Iraq are right and that there has been a significant reduction in violence there. Let's even agree that the Bush administration's strategy is finally showing some success." (READ MORE)

Iraqpundit: Forgetting Iraq's Civilians - Didn't Tom Friedman used to be smart? Based on his column today in the NYT, he no longer appears to be. Friedman is terribly disappointed because U.S. politicians are no longer talking about withdrawal from Iraq. Yes, I know that's a popular position. But is the right one? The writer contradicts himself when he promotes withdrawal and says, "Neglect is not benign when it comes to Iraq." (READ MORE)

Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: Being home is..... different - I have to start off by saying that I am loving being back home. I've been having a great time so far, and I still have much more fun stuff planned in the next week or so that I will be back. Shoot, the Arizona State Fair is in town and I still have yet to go to that! I can't wait, because I hear that they have 14 new rides, bringing the grand total to sowhere around 75. I haven't had the chance to go to the fair in years, because the time when it is normally in town I had been stuck in NC thanks to the Army. So its a nice suprise to have the fair in town and I will definatly be hitting that up here soon. (READ MORE)

Badger 6: Staff Sergeant (P) Ian Freeman - Someone You Should Know - Staff Sergeant (Promotable) Ian Freeman - for the longest time Badger 22, Squad Leader of 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon for much of our deployment. Staff Sergeant Freeman is an Active Guard and Reserve Soldier, and AGR, a Soldier who works full time for the Reserve components. He is one of the people that makes sure the hard work of running a reserve unit is accomplished. (READ MORE)

Jeff Emanuel: The situation in Iraq is incredibly complex--and the products of the 'Surge' are far too fragile to survive a Coalition drawdown - Samarra, Iraq - In April and May of this year, and again from the beginning of August through October, I was embedded with the U.S. military in some of the most kinetic combat zones in Iraq, observing Gen. Petraeus’s strategy from the ground level in several different locations – including with the undermanned units and in the sparsely covered areas mentioned above -- and I have seen the outstanding effort being made by the coalition forces there, as well as clear evidence of the strategy’s effects on the overall situation. (READ MORE)

The Landlocked Sailor: Turnover ... - It's official, I've begun turning my duties over to Aaron, my relief. He's watching me go through a typical week this week, and next week I'll observe him. After we're done with that ... I'm gone. To say that Aaron was a bit overwhelmed at the scope of the job is an understatement. It's not that the job is that tough, it's more learning about how we do business over here. I had forgotten how bizarre this world can be. Like any military job, we have our own language here. Aaron has spent the last few days listening and giving me that telling look that means, "uhhh, what does that acronym mean?" (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Robert F. Turner: The Surveillance Law That Matters - I have never met Judge Michael Mukasey, and I have no strong feelings on who should be our next attorney general. But after four decades studying and writing about national security aspects of our Constitution, I believe Congress and the American people must understand that some of the issues raised in Mr. Mukasey's confirmation hearings are far more complex than they may initially appear. (READ MORE)

Christopher Hitchens: An Anglosphere Future - Having devoured the Sherlock Holmes stories as a boy, I did what their author hoped and graduated to his much finer historical novels. The best of these, "The White Company," appeared in 1890; it describes the recruitment and deployment of a detachment of Hampshire archers during the reign of King Edward III, a period that, as Arthur Conan Doyle phrased it, "constituted the greatest epoch in English History--an epoch when both the French and the Scottish kings were prisoners in London." (READ MORE)

Barbara Jepson: The Perils of Being a Child Prodigy - When 17-year-old Hungarian pianist Ervin Nyiregyházi arrived in the U.S. in 1920 for a concert tour that included his Carnegie Hall debut, photographers documented the occasion. In Europe, the slender prodigy had won acclaim for his keyboard prowess and youthful compositions, giving his first public performance at the age of 6, playing at Buckingham Palace at 8 and appearing as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic at 12. By then, he had developed a taste for caviar and an unshakable sense of his own importance. (READ MORE)

Amanda Carpenter: Gender Politics Key to Hillary’s Political Calculation - Hillary Clinton has made a political calculation to capture the women’s vote by playing gender politics to make herself the first woman President. Her approach includes an often made pitch to women that she needs their votes to “make history” and “shatter the highest glass ceiling” by installing her in the White House. (READ MORE)

Michael Medved: How government expansion worsens hard times - For those Americans who know anything at all about the history of the Great Depression and the New Deal, the story line seems simple, dramatic, inspiring and familiar: Capitalists and speculators went wild with greed in “The Roaring Twenties,” leading to a stock market crash and hard times. Banks closed, once prosperous workers sold apples on street-corners or became hobos in shanty-towns, while the Republican President Herbert Hoover did nothing for the destitute and suffering nation. Then FDR arrived on the scene, inspiring new hope with his golden words (“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”)... (READ MORE)

Ben Shapiro: Dumbledore Waves the Rainbow Flag - I am not a fan of the Harry Potter series. Nonetheless, I, like every other sentient human being, know something about Harry Potter. Most of my friends are fans. My three younger sisters are fans. I've seen the movies. I've read small portions of several of the books. So when J.K. Rowling announced last week that Albus Dumbledore, the aged headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was gay, I was somewhat confused. When did the old dude with the funky beard turn into Gore Vidal? (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin: "Profile" Foreign Donors? Of Course! - Asian-American groups don't like the increased public scrutiny that Hillary Clinton's mysterious Chinese dishwasher donors are getting. To which I say, in words that should be universally understood: Boo-freaking-hoo. In the wake of eye-opening investigations by the New York Post and Los Angeles Times of more dubious foreign funny money flowing into Hill's coffers... (READ MORE)

Chuck Colson: How America Treats Its Military - One of the really formative experiences in my life was serving as an officer in the Marine Corps. I thought military service was an honorable profession, so much so that I urged my sons to consider military service—even though that was during the Vietnam War. But after what I have been watching the past few months, I wonder if I would urge my grandsons to serve today. (READ MORE)

Jacob Sullum: The Gap in Mukasey's Testimony - During his recent confirmation hearings, Michael Mukasey, the former federal judge nominated to be the next attorney general, conceded that "the president doesn't stand above the law." Yet Mukasey, who is expected to be easily confirmed, also suggested that the president is entitled to ignore certain laws. Since the law "starts with the Constitution," he said, the president need not obey a statute that interferes with his inherent constitutional authority "to defend the country." (READ MORE)

John Stossel: The Global-Warming Debate Isn't Over Until It's Over - First he won the Oscar -- then the Nobel Peace Prize. He's being called a "prophet." Impressive, considering that one of former Vice President Al Gore's chief contributions has been to call the debate over global warming "over" and to marginalize anyone who disagrees. Although he favors major government intervention to stop global warming, he says, "the climate crisis is not a political issue. It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity". Give me a break. (READ MORE)

Walter E. Williams: Congressional Constitutional Contempt - Here's the oath of office administered to members of the House and Senate: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God." A similar oath is sworn to by the president and federal judges. (READ MORE)

Tony Blankley: From the Bosporus to the Himalayas: What a Mess - With the steady decline of our selected ally Gen. Pervez Musharraf's ability to govern Pakistan and the growing alienation of the Turkish people and government from their longtime ally the United States, it is fair to say that from the Bosporus to the Himalayas, American interests continue to decline, while American policy drifts. It is ironic, if not mordant, to observe that in that zone, our policy in Iraq stands out as holding more promise for success than most of the other policies we are attempting. This week, let me consider why we are losing Turkey. (READ MORE)

John McCaslin: Hard-Knock Life - John Lockwood, whose recent research at the Library of Congress made headlines after he uncovered a 1922 Washington Post article "Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt," doesn't normally buy children's books. But bookstore browsing over the weekend "I came across a new edition of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' re-written for children — or as the cover phrased it, 'Adapted for a New Generation.' I bought a copy; I couldn't help myself," he insists. (READ MORE)

David Horowitz: Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week Already a Success - The focus was on the violent oppression of Muslim women as thousands of students campuses across the country on attended and in some cases protested against speeches and panel discussions marking the first day of Islamo Fascism Awareness Week. “We have organized students on over 100 campuses across the country, we are hosting over 30 speakers on subjects like the plight of women in Islam and we are leading the discussion on the danger of Islamo Fascism,” (READ MORE)

Wolf Pangloss: A Spur to Action: The Violent Oppression of Woman in Islam - The following video is not safe for work. It is not safe to watch with children. It is not safe to watch if you are easily sickened or horrified. What it is, is a true documentary depiction of what it means for girls and women to be subjugated and oppressed by barbaric and abusive practices associated with Islamic imperialism. Narrated by ex-Muslim Nonie Darwish, its name is The Violent Oppression of Woman in Islam. (READ MORE)

Ilya Somin: Can We Make the Constitution More Democratic? - Recent years have seen a revival of proposals to reform the Constitution in order to make it more democratic. University of Texas law professor Sandy Levinson has recently published a prominent book on the subject, as has well-known political scientist and pundit Larry Sabato. In our contribution to a symposium on constitutional reform , William and Mary law professor Neal Devins and I raise some questions about both the desirability and feasibility of proposals to democratize the Constitution. Here's an excerpt from the abstract: (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: For The Record - The other day, I discussed Senator John McCain and why I respect him -- and why I can't vote for him. As the primary here in New Hampshire draws closer, I find myself thinking more and more about matters, and wondering just how my subconscious judges candidates. And one of them has bubbled to the forefront: a record of accomplishments. Looking at the Republican side, two men stand out in that category: Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. (READ MORE)

Jim Addison: Diapered donors dodge delimited donations - Finally, a campaign scandal not just Hillary's! Underaged donors giving the maximum to Presidential campaigns is becoming a common way around campaign finance limits for candidates of both parties, reports Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post: “Just how much campaign cash is coming from children is uncertain -- the FEC does not require donors to provide their age. But the amount written by those identifying themselves as students on contribution forms has risen dramatically this year, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. During the first six months of the 2000 presidential campaign, students gave $338,464. In 2004, that rose to $538,936.” (READ MORE)

Mark Steyn: No Smoke Without Fire - These stories turn up so routinely you hardly notice them anymore: “Vancouver's hookah-parlour owners are celebrating after winning an exemption Thursday from a proposed new bylaw that will ban smoking on most sidewalks in commercial districts, in bus shelters and even in taxis passing through Vancouver. In giving the bylaw unanimous approval-in-principle, Vancouver city council members bowed to arguments that hookah lounges provide an important cultural space for the city's Muslims and granted them a temporary exemption.” Can that be right, even in Canada? Infidels can't smoke but Muslims can? Apparently so. As the Vancouver Sun report continued, Emad Yacoub "said hookah lounges are essential for immigrants from hookah-smoking cultures, because it helps them deal with the depression common for newcomers and gives them places like they have at home." (READ MORE)

The Sundries Shack: When Pork Trumps “The Children” (or, How Many Health Insurance Plans Could You Have Bought With the Money they’re Spending?) - Man, that Tom Coburn is one smart cookie and the Senate Democrats are a bunch of feckless weasels. Why do I say that? Well, do you remember the past two weeks when you couldn’t swing a dead cat in Washington and not hit a Democrat nearly in tears about how George Bush and the Republicans want children to get sick and die because they were opposed to expanding the S-CHIP program by 35 billion dollars? Do you remember how many times (approximately one bazillion times, by my count) we were told that all that money was for “the children” and how the President was hurting “the children” and how the Democrats simply adored “the children”? (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: The MSM & Superego Lacunae - One of the important components of our Superego is our conscience. Our conscience is what evokes guilt when I we do something that does not fit into our ethical and moral code. Signal guilt allows us to anticipate how we would feel if we followed through on an unacceptable impulse. At the same time, we all have Superego defects, compromises whereby our Superego "looks" the other way and allows us to rationalize or ignore transgressions; such Superego defects can be thought of a Superego lacunae, literally holes in the Superego. An everyday example can be found in those people who proclaim they are honest and would never cheat anyone yes when a clerk makes a math error in their favor, keeps the money that does not belong to them, with the rationalization that the store won't miss the money and its not so much anyway. (READ MORE)

Patterico's Pontifications: Whelan Bashes Sunstein and Miles Piece on Judicial Activism - Ed Whelan takes to the pages of the Los Angeles Times this morning to bash that Sunstein and Miles piece on judicial activism that I criticized here and here. Ed’s most valuable contribution is to put the Sunstein and Miles piece in its proper context, noting that it is but a small volley in the war “to try to defuse the charge of liberal judicial activism” by advancing “shoddy” arguments that redefine “activism” to allow the charge to be leveled at conservative judges. Ed notes that Sunstein and Miles’s analysis of agency actions has nothing to do with the real problem most Americans have with judicial activism: (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: Mugged by reality in Iraq? - This morning we post the last of the three items from the Fall issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here). The review/essay by CRB editor Charles R. Kesler addresses three new books on the war. As our situation and strategy in Iraq change, Professor Kesler asks, "Will we have learned anything?" Continuing his series on the intellectual assumptions behind the war, Professor Kesler examines three important new works by conservatives whom Kesler describes as of the neo variety (he also acknowledes the demonology at work in the polemics regarding neoconservative influence on American foreign policy, and it is an adjective that I resist using). (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: The Daily Kos Post Of The Day: Is Congress Being Blackmailed By W.H.? - If the Kossacks didn't exist, conservatives would have to invent them. I mean, DK is an enormously popular and influential liberal blog. So much so, that Democratic politicians, even the ones running for President, fall all over themselves to kiss the rings of the Kossacks -- yet, here's the sort of "crazy" that's being pumped out on a daily basis over there (From Daily Kos diarist rainmanjr), (READ MORE)

Amy Proctor: CNN Has No Bad War News; Focus Shifts to Romney's Hair - The lack of back news flowing from Iraq has apparently created a vacuum on the major news networks forcing them, rather than reporting the progress in Iraq, to switch gears and report on embarrassing puff pieces. Case in point: Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room reporting on the state of Mitt Romney’s hair at the Republican Presidential Debate on Sunday. (READ MORE)

Acute Politics: Shadows - There were six American flags set out in front of the crowd that gathered at Gowen Field to welcome us home. Six flags, guarded by veterans of other wars- one for each soldier our Task Force lost over a year in combat. If we came home today, there would be seven flags standing silent before the formation. Sergeant First Class Tony "Ski" Wasielewski died earlier this month at home in Wisconsin. He had volunteered for Iraq as a veteran route clearance soldier, having already served a tour in Afghanistan. (READ MORE)

Richard Landes: Who Endangers Europe? Islamists or Islamophobes - When discussing the dangers that Europe faces with colleagues, it’s very difficult to get them to take it seriously. Partly this comes from an almost narcissistic sense that Western culture (whose freedoms we academics enjoy to the fullest) is immortal and invulnerable, something like James Dean tooling down the highway on his hog at 120mph without a helmet. Partly this comes from their inability to imagine the Europeans behaving self-destructively, even though many of our own “progressive” values contribute to that behavior. In the asymmetrical warfare between Global Jihad and the West, the role of “progressive” values, aggressively asserted by dupes of demopaths plays a key role. Not only do “progressives” consistently attempt to silence any effort to expose the hate-mongering world of Islamism with cries of Islamophobia, but they aggressively attack anyone who objects. In this, the police seem to play an astonishingly central role. (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

This Week's Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Lt. Michael P. Murphy
29 years old from Patchogue, New York
SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1
June 28, 2005


On Monday, Lt. Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. His father was the one who accepted the award. Lt. Murphy will receive the award for his extraordinary, selfless heroism and steadfast courage while leading a four-man, special reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan June 27 to 28, 2005

"We are thrilled by the President's announcement today, especially because there is now a public recognition of what we knew all along about Michael's loyalty, devotion and sacrifice to his friends, family, country, and especially his SEAL teammates," the Murphy family said in a statement released earlier in the month. "The honor is not just about Michael, it is about his teammates and those who lost their lives that same day."

Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded. The SEALs fought with everything they had. despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.

Eight more SEALs and eight Army "Nightstalker" special operations personnel comprising the initial reinforcement also lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down before they could engage the enemy.

Murphy was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon during a ceremony yesterday. His name was engraved beside the names of some 3,400 other service members who have also been awarded the nation’s highest honor.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

When Tom Burnett Sr. was helping to pick a memorial to Flight 93, he objected vehemently to the planting of a huge Islamic shaped crescent on the crash site. The Project asked if he would be okay with the Crescent of Embrace design if they didn't call it a crescent. He said no way:

What the hell? You change words. A pig is a pig!

No doubt about that.



"How about if we don't CALL it a crescent?" (Click pic for larger image)

See that Memorial Plaza that is situated roughly in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag? It marks the crash site. It doesn't have to be CALLED an Islamic star for this placement as the star on an Islamic flag to be inappropriate.

Mountain Goat and the 44 blocks

From PJ Country comes news of the Memorial Project's latest effort to help architect Paul Murdoch adjust the disguise on his terrorist memorializing design, just enough for him to slip through gate security.

"Mountain Goat" called the Memorial Project a few weeks ago to ask about the 44 inscribed translucent blocks that are to be emplaced along the flight path. (There were 40 heroes and 4 terrorists on the flight.)

The person he spoke to said that the three translucent marble blocks that were to be inscribed with the 9/11 date are going to be replaced with a single block, "roughly the length three of the other blocks would have been."

That would reduce the block count from 44 to 42, but would it actually fix anything?

Whether the 9/11 date is inscribed on three blocks or one, these blocks are to be built into a separate section of Memorial Wall that is centered on the bisector of the giant crescent. That is the exact position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag. Thus the date goes to the Islamic flag--the date goes to the terrorists--no matter how many blocks are used.



See that trail that enters the Memorial Plaza (the star on the flag) from the left? It divides the Memorial Wall into separate upper and lower sections. The upper section has the 9/11 date inscribed. You can see that this upper section of wall is centered on the bisector of the giant crescent (the exact position of an Islamic star). Click for larger image.
End it, don't mend it

No amount of tweaking the design can alter its terrorist memorializing intent. "Fix" every one of the half dozen large scale terrorist memorializing features in the design by making them all a little bit "off," and it only establishes the long term Islamo-fascist goal of one day restoring the Crescent mosque to its intended configuration, the same way the jihadists now use re-possession of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem (the Dome of the Rock) as a motivation driving the Jews out of Israel.

Most ridiculous of all is the Bowl of Embrace redesign, which leaves every particle of the original Crescent of Embrace design completely intact, only adding some surrounding trees. http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/CrescentandBowlstacked65.jpg "Here, put on this burka, then you can sneak your bomb on board the airplane."

The proper answer, when someone is caught trying to sneak an Islamo-fascist plot through gate security, is not to tell him to go back outside and try again. It is to cart him away.

If you want to join us outraged protesting bloggers

1. in objecting to planting an Islamic symbol instead of an American one on the crash site,
2. in objecting to its pointing to Mecca and the terrorists' intended target,
3. in objecting to dishonoring the memory of the people who fought the terrorists on Flight 93
4. in pointing out how Paul Murdoch cleverly and symbolically cast the passenger and crew out of the Islamic heavens in the design while the terrorists are inside the Islamic heavens
5. in pointing out how the date and the site are dedicated to the terrorists
6. in pointing out the numerous redundant mosque design features
7. in pointing out the terrorist memorializing features
8. and post along with us on Wednesdays,

please contact caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com with your website url. She will, in turn, add you to the email list, send you the blogroll code (if you want to put it in your sidebar), and will send you the prewritten text to post. You should receive the email from Cao a day or two prior to the Wednesday it should be posted, and tracked back to Cao's blog and Error Theory, if your blog has that capability. This will help us track who in the blogroll is posting the blogburst.

Stop the Memorial Blogburst

I'll be co-hosting with Andrea Shea-King tonight on Blogtalkradio, starting at 9:00 pm.

Topics for discussion:

The Dirty Dozen
Michael Yon's Challenge to the MSM
Media Malfesance
Lt. Murphy's Medal of Honor.
and "Islamo-facism Awareness Week".

To tune in click here or click on the link below.



- Links to webpages discussed in tonights broadcast -

Is This The New Dirty Dozen?

Resistance is Futile

FrontPage Magazine

How you know its getting better in Iraq

Even Closer to the Brink

What If Violence Fell And No One Reported It?

Violence in Iraq drops sharply: Ministry

Third Times the Charm

Lt. Murphy - MOH

Actually, I do take it very personally!

ALERTS FROM Steve Elliott at Grassfire Alliance and Roy Beck at Numbers USA:

Harry Reid has scheduled a cloture vote on the Dream Amnesty Act for TOMORROW (Wednesday).

This comes after we shut down switchboards in opposition to the Dream Act when it was pushed as an amendment last week.

Now, Durbin and Reid are pushing the Dream Amnesty Act straight to the Senate floor as a stand-alone bill -- S. 2205 -- despite overwhelming grassroots opposition!

But to rush the bill directly to the floor, they must pass a "cloture" vote first.

Friends, we MUST stop this latest effort to sneak an amnesty bill through the Senate. These are the same tricks Reid tried to use this summer to pass the Bush-Kennedy bill.

Action Item #1 -- Fax Reid, Durbin and your senators
We need thousands of faxes immediately headed to Reid's office, Durbin's office, your two Senators and other key senators.

Go here to schedule your faxes
(You'll find sample letters and the fax numbers if you prefer to send your own faxes.)

Action Item #2 -- Call, Call, Call!
We must shut down the switchboards today and tomorrow.
Every Senator needs to get thousands of calls. Please call your two Senators today and tomorrow, as well as these key senators:

Key Senators:
Durbin (Asst. Maj. Leader) -- 202-224-2152
Reid (Maj. Leader)-- 202-224-3542
Shelby (AL)-- 202-224-5744
Hagel (co-sponsor) 202-224-4224
Lugar (co-sponsor) 202-224-4814
Brownback (KS) 202-224-6521
Grassley (IA) 202-224-3744
Lott (MS) 202-224-6253
Cochran (MS) 202-224-5054
Hutchison (TX) 202-224-5922
Byrd (WV) 202-224-3954
Nelson (FL) 202-224-5274
Martinez (FL) 202-224-3041

Grassfire's staff has compiled a list of all the Senators who currently have "no position" on this bill. Go here

Talking Points
1. I oppose the DREAM Act because it provides amnesty to illegal aliens and their families.

2. I urge the Senator to vote "NO" on cloture for S. 2205. This amnesty bill should not be brought to the Senate floor.

3. A "yes" vote on cloture will be considered a "yes" vote for amnesty.

We CANNOT allow Reid and Durbin to sneak this bill through the Senate!
Please forward this message to friends who share our concern for our nation’s illegal invasion crisis.

H/T: Andrea Shea-King

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
U.S. Warns Iraq to Halt Rebel Raids On Turkey - The United States has warned Iraqi leaders to take concrete steps to crack down on Kurdish rebels operating against Turkey from northern Iraq, as Turkey yesterday dispatched more troops and heavy weaponry toward the Iraqi border. (READ MORE)

With Trippi's Rise, Some See a New John Edwards - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have a widening lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but John Edwards is not about to give her a free ride. (READ MORE)

Bush Asks Congress For $46 Billion More In War Funding - President Bush challenged Congress to another clash over the direction of the Iraq war yesterday as he asked lawmakers for $46 billion more to pay for overseas military operations and insisted that they approve it by the end of the year. (READ MORE)

Mistrial Declared in Islamic Charity Case - MIAMI, Oct. 22 -- The trial against what was once the nation's largest Islamic charity ended in a mistrial Monday as federal prosecutors in Dallas were unable to gain a conviction on charges that the group's leaders had funneled millions of dollars to Mideast terrorists. (READ MORE)

Honor For a Fallen Hero - The nation showed its gratitude to the young officer yesterday. President Bush presented the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan to the family of Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a Navy SEAL who sacrificed his life trying to save his comrades two years ago. (READ MORE)

Thompson Keeps it Short, Not so Sweet - Former Sen. Fred Thompson was asked yesterday whether he lacks the passion needed to run for president, whether he could keep the Republican nomination battle from becoming a two-man race, and just exactly why he gave only a five-minute speech to hundreds of supporters over the weekend. (READ MORE)

Evans Linked to Firm with D.C. Tax Breaks - D.C. Council member Jack Evans voted to give a tax break to CareFirst in 2004 even after his employer filed papers stating that the longtime councilman lobbied Congress for the health care company, federal and city records show. (READ MORE)



From the Front:
Andrew Lubin: Pakistan: The Battlefield Against Islamic Terrorists - There is a war to be fought against Islamic terrorists and fanatics, but it is not in Iraq. The threat to the United States and the West comes from Pakistan, which is rapidly degenerating into a religious and political civil war that may put a nuclear bomb in jihadi hands. Islamic militants have spread beyond their tribal bases in Waziristan and the North-West Frontier, and are moving east into Pakistani cities and villages. Destabilizing the country as the Army cowers in their barracks, these militant Islamic groups are increasing their influence in this poor, but nuclear-armed central Asian state. Last week, in the middle of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto’s triumphal return to Pakistan from exile, her motorcade procession through Karachi was bombed; 140+ people were killed, 450 were wounded. (READ MORE)

Those Wacky Iraqis: Sounds - No movie can make incoming fire sound right. It does not matter if it is artillery, mortars, rockets, or small arms, it just never sounds right. It may be because the film crews who conduct the Foley effects have never been under fire, then again live music always sounds different from recorded so maybe you just can't get it right, you get it close. There is a marked "Crump" sound when a mortar lands. Sometimes you hear the tubes when they launch. That is a far away "POP" and you know it's coming. (READ MORE)

Northern Disclosure: I Do it so can you! - For those of you that didn't know, I was invited to speak at Brown University for a Watson Institute forum involving frontline media, writers and filmakers. I was honored by the invitation but it was hard to attend since I am over here. I did participate via webcast and found that in itself very entertaining. I was able to watch the panel before the one I spoke on which had Colby Buzzell, a kid that was a specialist in the same unit I was in the first time over, and also Matt from "Blackfive". They spoke of military blogs and how they have changed. (READ MORE)

Greyhawk: News Flash - Want more evidence of victory in Iraq? Look no further than Newsweek's amazing attempt at spin: “The Bush administration is starving for good news out of Iraq, and it may finally have some: new U.S. government statistics showing that violent attacks of all kinds are down to levels not seen since 2005. But until recently, the administration appears to have resisted acknowledging a key element of the new data, because it flies in the face of President George W. Bush's ongoing rhetorical confrontation with Iran's clerical regime.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Bush administration has now been accused of trying to cover up good news from Iraq. The second paragraph just piles on the ignorance - with a shocking secret revealed: (READ MORE)

Matt Sanchez: Hunting al-Qaida in Iraq - Terror and anonymity go hand in hand. It's hard to be a terrorist when everyone knows who you are. An attack takes a certain detachment, stealth and a craven willingness to kill people you've probably never met. Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad – one by one, as neighbors learn who lives next to them and repel those who mean harm, terrorists have moved out of the cities and into the outskirts, the areas that have had little or no authority. (READ MORE)

Jason's Iraq Vacation: Not another post about frustration! - The stark contrast was almost a thing of beauty: the long, desolate stretch of desert slamming into a rushing, winding river; on the other side, green everywhere. It was my first trip outside of the Baghdad area and the change of scenery was nice. The goal of my trip was to tour the marine logistics operation out in TQ and fine tune some ideas to implement in the Iraqi logistic system. (READ MORE)

Iraqpundit: Unfit to Print - Peter Galbraith cheers a Senate vote in a piece in the NYT today. He writes that the measure, co-sponsored by presidential wannabe Joe Biden, "acknowledge[s] that Iraq has broken up and cannot be put back together." Galbraith would be the first to admit that nothing would make him happier than to see a fragmented Iraq, which he argues is a failure because there is no shared identity. Never mind what the Iraqi people think. Never mind that the Asia Cup win that had all Iraqis celebrating the country's football victory. Galbraith is certain that he and Biden know what's best for us. Forget the lives of ordinary Iraqis. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Gary L. McDowell: The War for the Constitution - Twenty years ago today the United States Senate voted to reject President Reagan's nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court. The senators may have had every reason to believe that was the end of the story. However ugly it had been, however much time it had taken, Mr. Bork's defeat was only one more routine sacrifice to partisan politics. But time would prove wrong anyone who actually thought that. The battle over Mr. Bork was politically transformative, its constitutional lessons enduring. (READ MORE)

Bret Stephens: A Kurdish Lesson - A debate among U.S. military brass over whether to declare victory over al Qaeda in Iraq coincides with threats by Turkey to strike terrorist camps in northern Iraq belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Note the irony: The PKK, which in recent days has killed scores of Turkish soldiers, was itself declared dead as a terrorist group in 1999. There are excellent reasons to avoid pronouncements concerning AQI's defeat. (READ MORE)

Chuck Colson: How America Treats Its Military - One of the really formative experiences in my life was serving as an officer in the Marine Corps. I thought military service was an honorable profession, so much so that I urged my sons to consider military service—even though that was during the Vietnam War. But after what I have been watching the past few months, I wonder if I would urge my grandsons to serve today. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: Get Up! - This summer, I met a fellow named Darrin by a poolside in Wilmington, North Carolina. Darrin had long hair and lots of tattoos so, before I introduced myself, I already knew he’d be a good conversationalist. I wanted to ask him whether it was possible to get sunburned through his tattoos or whether he needed to put suntan lotion on top of them. But it was getting late so we decided to talk about God, Satan, and salvation. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: "No News" Is Bad News? - Last week, ABC’s Charles Gibson introduced a segment about Iraq on “World News Tonight” with this curious remark: “The news is (pause for effect) that there is no news. The police told us today that, to their knowledge, there were no major acts of violence. Attacks are down in Baghdad and today no bombings or roadside explosions were reported.” (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Prestige Versus Education - High school seniors who want to go to a selective college in the fall of 2008 should already be making arrangements to take the tests they will need before they apply ahead of the deadlines for such schools, which are usually in January or February. One of the consequences of taking these tests is that, if you do well, you may be deluged with literature from colleges and universities all across the country. (READ MORE)

Diana Ernst: Reforming Health Care: Choice versus Coercion on the Campaign Trail - Senator Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani lead the polls in their respective parties, but they are starkly divided on health care, a thorny issue in the 2008 presidential race. Their dispute centers on whether to expand or reduce government control of health care. It is an issue with long-term implications for America's health and prosperity. Liberty-loving Americans have always feared the threats of government medicine to individual choice and health-care quality. (READ MORE)

Burt Prelutsky: 180 Degrees of Separation - One of the silliest complaints that liberals never tire of leveling against conservatives is that we’re divisive. I should hope so. God forbid that those of us on the right should ever roll over for the knuckleheads on the left. But this is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle divisive. The truth of the matter is that it’s nearly always the folks on the left who go out of their way to promote the issues that separate Americans. (READ MORE)

ROFASix: The Pakistan Dilemma - One question I wanted to hear asked of the Republican Presidential hopefuls during last nights debate was, “What, if anything, should we do about Pakistan?” I suspect Ron Paul would have said lets leave em’ alone and not embark on another interventionist sojourn in Pakistan. That would be a Pollyannaish answer and might have been right once, but given the reality of America’s war on terrorists, an answer like that would be naïve at best. Pakistan offers a host of problems for the US that sooner or later will surface. So far, with our focus on Iraq and Afghanistan, they have been ignored or deferred. A day is coming when we will no longer be able to do that. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Those Honest Democrats - There's an old definition of an "honest politician" -- once they're bought, they stay bought. And by that standard, the Democrats in Congress are remarkably honest. The ties between the Democrats and unions go way back. Nearly every penny the unions spend on political campaigns goes to Democrats (regardless of the wishes of their members), and they expect a certain return on their investment. And with the Democrats renewed majority in Congress, they're getting it. (READ MORE)

Right Truth: Be Afraid! - Barack Obama stands without hand on heart during the National Anthem. “This picture is the exclamation point on the Democrat party. Barack Obama doesn’t even have enough common sense to fake it during the National Anthem. This country needs less Democrats with this kind of sentiment, not more, and certainly not a leader. Picture - Time Magazine. H/T Newsbusters. The Time Magazine caption under the picture is one word, Respect. (Thanks to Webloggin)” If Obama doesn't want to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, that's his business. But not honoring the Pledge by raising his hand is an insult. If he doesn't honor the symbol of the United States of America, ... WHAT DOES HE HONOR??? I'm just asking the question. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: Mistrial in Dallas - Shuttered by the government in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation was the key fundraising arm for Hamas in the United States. Yesterday the subsequent criminal case brought by the government against the Holy Land Foundation defendants ended in a weird mistrial. As I understand the outcome, one defendant was acquitted on all charges but one, while that one charge and the other charges against the remaining defendants ended in a mistrial. Prosecutors announced that they intend to retry the case. The Dallas Morning News provides a good recap of yesterday's events (with some background here, with an interesting appearance by Nihad Awad, executive director of unindicted co-conspirator CAIR: (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: The Daily Kos Post Of The Day: George Bush Is Responsible For The California Wildfires - If you regularly read liberal blogs, one thing you will quickly learn is that all roads inevitably lead to George W. Bush. If Bush supports a policy, it's bad, merely by virtue of the fact that Bush supports it. If Bush says something, it's a lie, merely by virtue of the fact that Bush said it. If something bad happens, Bush must be responsible somehow, because he is the root of all evil in the world. The latest tragedy that Chimpy McBushHitler is apparently the cause of is the California wildfires. (READ MORE)

Rhymes With Right: Osama Thinks US Is Winning - Hence his call for the disparate factions in Iraq to unite. “Osama bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents to unite and avoid divisive ‘extremism,’ speaking in an audiotape aired Monday and apparently intended to win over Sunnis opposed to al-Qaida's branch in Iraq. In the audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden said insurgents should admit ‘mistakes’ and that he even advises himself not to be extreme in his leadership.” So, will the cut-and-run-and-surrender crowd that has been crowing that the war is lost finally admit that it is not? (READ MORE)

William Teach: TLF: Philly Adds More Surveillence Cameras - Ever notice how liberals pitch a fit over the Bush administration putting measures in place to surveil terrorists, but not when a good NE liberal city does it to surveil crime? “Philadelphia will be getting 250 additional surveillance cameras in various locations throughout the city, Mayor Street announced Monday, The announcement was made during a morning news conference at City Hall. Street said it is a major expansion of the high-tech crime-fighting program which has already placed 18 cameras at 7th Street and Girard Avenue and other locations.” (READ MORE)

McQ: How you know its getting better in Iraq - Billy points out the disconnect between what is going on in Iraq and what some people want to believe is going on in Iraq. And obviously, never the twain shall meet.Here's another example of something those clinging to the belief that Iraq is an unrecoverable disaster are not going to want to hear: “Osama bin Laden urged insurgent groups in Iraq to unite, saying divisions only helped the enemy, in an audio recording aired by Al Jazeera television on Monday.” (READ MORE)

The Oxford Medievalist: Bin Laden: Mistakes Have Been Made - The fact that Osama bin Laden has released yet another audio tape urging the various insurgents in Iraq to unite (really, in effect, to stop killing his Al Qaeda terrorists) is further evidence that his and Zawahiri's plan to turn Iraq in an Islamofascist state has been a complete failure. The terrorists are feeling the pressure from the surge, which has sought to splinter insurgent groups away from Al Qaeda, but also Al Qaeda strategies of brutality in Iraq have ultimately had the opposite effect of their intention and have driven former terrorist supporters and sympathizers to the U.S. side. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Osama bin Laden on the state of Iraq - After almost a year of silence, Osama bin Laden has issued his third tape in less than two months. Based on excerpts from bin Laden's latest audiotape, titled "Message to the people of Iraq," he views the situation in Iraq as dire. Bin Laden is clearly concerned with the defection of Sunni insurgents to the Awakening movements and local security forces, the possibility of the Sunnis reconciling with the government, and the failure of al Qaeda leaders to unite the Sunni fighters under al Qaeda's banner. Bin Laden takes on the failure of al Qaeda leaders to recruit Sunni insurgent groups into the fold of the Islamic State of Iraq, and the defection of previous allies to the Iraqi government and Coalition forces. "Some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks," bin Laden said. "Beware of division ... (READ MORE)

Amy Proctor: Valerie Plame Believed Saddam Had WMD - In a 60 Minutes interview with Katie Couric last night, outed CIA agent Valerie Plame admitted she, as Chief of Operations for Joint Task Force-Iraq, believed Saddam had WMD. After all, he did use them on his own people. Damn that Bush! (READ MORE)

Jihad Watch: Spencer at DePaul University last night for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week - Last night I had the great honor of speaking on a panel with Iranian freedom fighter Amir Abbas Fakhrivar. We were at DePaul University, where the crowd was hostile but only made a few attempts actually to shout us down. They restricted their chanting about racism -- an absurd charge to hurl in any discussion of Islam and jihad, but particularly inappropriate to shout at a former inmate of the mullah' prison cells -- to before and after the event. It was hard to be heard at less than a shout level during the book signing after the event, when the peaceful, tolerant folks' moronic chanting made it almost impossible to carry on a conversation. (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: NWoeT - First Osama. Now the NYT ed board: “The news out of Iraq just keeps getting worse.” You’d think, like Osama, whose views NYT ed board generally shares on Iraq, they’re talking about their dismay over the fact that the Americans, the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people are finally prevailing over terrorism, mass murder, chaos. Not at all. NYT ed board is talking about business as usual in northern Iraq/southeastern Turkey. (READ MORE)

Knee Deep in the Hooah!: Actually, I do take it very personally! - I have been battling an inner feeling lately. It has been a struggle within my own heart and I have finally decided to air my inner grievances. This is not going to a long and nasty note where I drop names (like I even know any!), and expose scandals. No, this is just a mother who is feeling a little battered and bruised these days, and I need to find a way to collect these thoughts, air them out, and put them away. (READ MORE)

Ian Schwartz: (Video) ABC Reports ‘Remarkable Turnaround’ in Fallujah - “We have an extraordinary comeback story tonight from the place where the Marines suffered their worst losses of the war. Fallujah is undergoing a remarkable turnaround. Tribal leaders, local officials and the U.S. Marines have united behind a common cause. Bringing security to a place that had been one of Iraq’s most insecure.” — Charles Gibson, ABC World News anchor Yes, you read right. On Monday evening ABC’s “World News” did a positive story highlighting the improvement in Fallujah, a city once home to insurgents: (READ MORE)

Yankee Mom: Already Home - The first time I heard this song on the radio I had to stop what I was doing and sit down as the sobs shook me. It’s interesting ~ I feel my Mom and Dad around me more and more as the days of war go by. They’ve passed on now but I know they are watching over us, especially my Baby Girl. You see, I grew up with WWII being very present in our lives. As I’ve mentioned before, my Mom ran away from college and joined the Navy in 1942. My Dad was drafted and both my uncles served. My Mom was stationed at the Brooklyn Shipyard and was in charge of the new boots. (You bet I can make a bed that would pass inspection!) (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: Violence in Iraq down 70% - But, I’m confused. I coulda swore I heard someone say “The war is lost.” Maybe that prognostication was a bit premature. “Violence in Iraq has dropped by 70 percent since the end of June, when U.S. forces completed their build-up of 30,000 extra troops to stabilize the war-torn country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.” This is the lead of a Reuters story. Watch how they use the next sentence to make sure that no one jumps for joy. (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Gitmo jihadi not sure why he was released — but promises to pick up where he left off - Meet Sadeq Mohammed Saeed. He spent six years in the pen after he was caught recovering at an Afghan hospital following a battle during the U.S. invasion in 2001 — at the tender age of 17. His brother, a former jihadist himself and currently an “Islamic activist” and “mosque speaker,” talks openly of his support for Bin Laden and the Taliban (”But I’m also calling for dialogue and respect of rights and freedoms for all, and I’m against violence and coercion”). He was extradited to Yemen in June for reasons unknown even to him but which I suspect have much to do with, ahem, improving America’s image in the world, and then released by Yemeni authorities two weeks ago. (READ MORE)

JASmius: Rudy’s “Calm Before The Storm”? - I have made no secret of two things regarding the former Mayor of New York City: (1) his continued support and defense of Roe v. Wade undermines his claim that if elected president he’ll appoint constitutionalist judges and SCOTUS justices ”in the mold of Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas”; and (2) because of this fundamental contradiction, he is, well, “fundamentally” unnominatable. Recently Douglas Sylva augmented that conundrum in NRO by pointing out that POTUSes do, indeed, have more sway over social policy-making than just their judicial selections: (READ MORE)

Hooah Wife and Friends: The Torture Debate - A retired Army colonel with 30 years experience as an intelligence officer has this to say about torture: “Coming from this background, it has been disappointing to observe the ongoing debate about torture in interrogation, usually carried out by people who have never interrogated a soul. Nor is it easy to accept that the current debate is framed pragmatically by the question, ‘Does torture work or not?’” His answer is unequivocally NO. But here’s the best part: (READ MORE)

The Gunslinger: Does Government Do ANYTHING Right? - I just had a conversation with my sister about Jury Duty. I told her that the way citizens are treated by the officials is a disgrace. Our time is not valued, our persons are not respected. We are expected to be at the beck & call, and convenience of the Judge....no matter how long it takes, no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable for us. As a result, pretty much everyone hates to be called for jury duty. It's an unpleasant experience from beginning to end. Searched like criminals, herded like sheep into underground bunkers for indeterminate periods, paraded into courtrooms, questioned like first-graders by condescending judges and annoying lawyers, to determine our 'fitness'. The FIX? Make it a pleasant experience. (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: Destroying Society From Within - Mark Steyn wrote an excellent editorial over the weekend about the Democrats latest attempt to bolster the nanny state that I just had to blog on, even while on vacation" Last Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, as is the fashion, used the phrase "the children" like some twitchy verbal tic, a kind of Democrat Tourette's syndrome: "This is a discussion about America's children … We could establish ourselves as the children's Congress … Come forward on behalf of the children … I tried to do that when I was sworn in as speaker surrounded by children. It was a spontaneous moment, but it was one that was clear in its message: we are gaveling this House to order on behalf of the children." (READ MORE)

Dr. Sanity: Dummycrats, Dhimmicrats, Democrats - One of the definitions of the word dummy is "a large puppet usually having movable features (as mouth and arms) manipulated by a ventriloquist". Of course, it also is a word that means "a stupid person". Per Robert Spencer, Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law (i.e., Sharia) mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, “protected” or “guilty” people, are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, are part of the legal superstructure that global jihadists are laboring through violence to restore everywhere in the Islamic world, and wish ultimately to impose on the entire human race. (READ MORE)

Walid Phares: A Caliph's frustration with his emirs - Yes, Bin Laden’s latest audiotape aired on al Jazeera is somewhat unique. Not in its ideological party line or in the Salafi doctrinal roots. That hasn’t changed nor is it expected to. Surely, in a previous speech he inserted some neo Marxist and Trotskyite stuff; but that was part of his “American” rhetoric, and possibly at the request of his Gringo advisers. Today’s audio wasn’t concerned about Berkeley’s approval but was dedicated to whip the chaotic commanders of Jihad in Iraq. Usama’s message was more so the expression of a frustrated (self appointed) “Caliph” trying to reign in on his emirs gone wild in the deserts of Middle Earth. (READ MORE)

Chickenhawk Express: In Honor of LCpl Miguel Terrazas - In all the coverage of the Haditha incident, the name of one Marine is mentioned briefly but consistently. This Marine, LCpl Miguel Terrazas, was killed by the IED blast early that November day in Haditha in 2005. While his death is frequently recounted in the media, very little has been written about his life. As part of my salute to the Haditha Marines, the obvious place to start was with LCpl Terrazas. Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas graduated from Mountain View High School in 2003. He played left guard for the varsity football team. He also worked at the family business, an El Paso taco shop. Terrazas followed the family tradition and joined the Marines after graduation. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: What If Violence Fell And No One Reported It? - Yesterday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported on a dramatic decline in violence throughout the nation since the full complement of surge troops reached Iraq. Even in Baghdad, where the conflict has raged even with a heavier US presence, bombings have dropped by half and murders by 28%. In Anbar, violence fell by 82% since the end of June. Reuters reported this yesterday afternoon: (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Why Do So Many People Hate Intellectuals? Let Me Count the Ways... - The major reason people tend to hate self-styled intellectuals is that so often, their thinking is divorced from ordinary human thought. They say or write things so truculent, while simultaneously so risible, that you wonder whether they need a sedative -- or a keeper. Take this year's Nobel winner in literature, Doris Lessing: “Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain. ‘September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible,’ the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.” (READ MORE)

Deebow @ Blackfive: Extreme Smackdown, Afghanistan Style.... - Perhaps my praise for Al-Reuters was a bit hasty.... I had a feeling that I might be a bit premature on that. First, some background. This is the village of Orgun (pronounced or GOON Mr. Sparkle). It really is a pretty nice place that is only about 12 miles (as the crow flies) from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border and for it is the center of a great many operations to destroy/capture/kill bad guys who are bent on doing bad things to good people. In this photo, our Afghan Army counter-parts and their soldiers were playing soccer in tournament at the local school against a local team. We were there helping to provide security for the game, along with others from the Battalion, so that the half-time show would not include such entertainment as a car bomb or a ritual beheading. Please take note of the brand new District center in the background. It was finished while I was there and was a really well done project. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: NATO Members Considering Withdrawals From Afghanistan - Why are members of NATO considering withdrawals from Afghanistan? That's the war that everyone supposedly backs and understands that al Qaeda and Taliban elements used Afghanistan to plot and plan terrorist attacks against the West and used that territory as a safe haven. Are NATO's European countries so strapped for troops that they cannot sustain a lengthy commitment abroad? Are they stretched so thin that they cannot hold to their word? (READ MORE)

TigerHawk: Fair and balanced book reviews at the New York Times - Regular readers know that I love bashing on the New York Times as much as any conservative. Its editorial page editors in particular skulk in the borderlands of intellectual dishonesty (see, e.g., the first sentence in this morning's first unsigned editorial: "The news out of Iraq just keeps getting worse."). However, fairness -- which flows through my veins right along with the milk of human kindness -- compels me to admit that the editor who assigns book reviews does a reasonably creditable job of locating reviewers who hammer on lefties, often in very uncharitable language. On Sunday, for example, David Kennedy carpet-bombed the new book of uber-lefty Times columnist Paul Krugman. Kennedy describes Krugman's view of the economic and social implications of purported income inequality in the United States, which Krugman blames not on exogenous factors but the Republican party. Kennedy's reply is almost painful to read: (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

President Bush awarded Lt. Michael P. Murphy the Medal of Honor yesterday in an East Room ceremony at the White House. He honored Lt. Murphy thusly:

Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration that a President can bestow. It recognizes gallantry that goes above and beyond the call of duty in the face of an enemy attack. The tradition of awarding this honor began during the Civil War. And many of those who have received the medal have given their lives in the action that earned it.

Today, we add Lieutenant Michael Murphy's name to the list of recipients who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Deep in the mountains of Afghanistan, this brave officer gave his life in defense of his fellow Navy SEALs. Two years later, the story of his sacrifice humbles and inspires all who hear it. And by presenting Michael Murphy's family with the Medal of Honor that he earned, a grateful nation remembers the courage of this proud Navy SEAL.

I welcome the Vice President; Senator Ted Stevens; Senator Chuck Schumer, from Lieutenant Murphy's home state. I appreciate very much the fact that Congressman Tim Bishop, from Lieutenant Murphy's district, is with us today. Welcome. Thank you all for coming.
I appreciate the fact that Deputy Secretary Gordon England has joined us; Secretary Pete Geren of the Army; Secretary Don Winter of the Navy; Secretary Mike Wynne of the Air Force; Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations; and all who wear the nation's uniform. Welcome.

I appreciate the fact that we've got Barney Barnum, Tom Kelley, Tommy Norris, and Mike Thornton, Medal of Honor recipients, with us today.

We do welcome Dan Murphy and Maureen Murphy, father and mother of Michael Murphy; John Murphy, his brother; and other family members that are with us today.

It's my honor to welcome all the friends and comrades of Lieutenant Michael Murphy to the White House. And I want to thank Chaplain Bob Burt, Chief of Chaplains, for his opening prayer.
Looking back on his childhood in Patchogue, New York, you might say that Michael Murphy was born to be a Navy SEAL. SEALs get their name from operating by sea, air, and land -- and even as a toddler, Michael could find his way through any obstacle. When he was just 18 months old, he darted across a neighbor's yard, and dove into the swimming pool. By the time his frantic parents reached him, Michael had swum to the other side with a big smile on his face. As he grew older, Michael learned to swim from one side of a nearby lake to the other -- and he developed into a talented all-around athlete.

But beyond his physical strength, Michael Murphy was blessed with a powerful sense of right and wrong. This sense came from devoted parents who taught him to love his neighbor -- and defend those who could not defend themselves. Well, Michael took these lessons to heart. One day in school, he got into a scuffle sticking up for a student with a disability. It's the only time his parents ever got a phone call from the principal -- and they couldn't have been prouder.

Michael's passion for helping others led him to become a caring brother, a tutor, a lifeguard, and eventually, a member of the United States Armed Forces.

Michael's decision to join the military wasn't an easy one for his family. As a Purple Heart recipient during Vietnam, Michael's father understood the sacrifices that accompany a life of service. He also understood that his son was prepared to make these sacrifices. After graduating from Penn State with honors, Michael accepted a commission in the Navy -- and later, set off for SEAL training. Fewer than a third of those who begin this intense training program graduate to become Navy SEALs. Yet there was little doubt about the determined lieutenant from New York. And in 2002, Michael earned his Navy SEAL Trident.

Michael also earned the respect of his men. They remember a wise-cracking friend who went by "Mikey" or "Murph." They remember a patriot who wore a New York City firehouse patch on his uniform in honor of the heroes of 9/11. And they remember an officer who respected their opinions, and led them with an understated, yet unmistakable, sense of command. Together, Michael and his fellow SEALs deployed multiple times around the world in the war against the extremists and radicals. And while their missions were often carried out in secrecy, their love of country and devotion to each other was always clear.

On June 28th, 2005, Michael would give his life for these ideals. While conducting surveillance on a mountain ridge in Afghanistan, he and three fellow SEALs were surrounded by a much larger enemy force. Their only escape was down the side of a mountain -- and the SEALs launched a valiant counterattack while cascading from cliff to cliff. But as the enemy closed in, Michael recognized that the survival of his men depended on calling back to the base for reinforcements. With complete disregard for his own life, he moved into a clearing where his phone would get reception. He made the call, and Michael then fell under heavy fire. Yet his grace and upbringing never deserted him. Though severely wounded, he said "thank you" before hanging up, and returned to the fight -- before losing his life.

Unfortunately, the helicopter carrying the reinforcements never reached the scene. It crashed after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. And in the end, more Americans died in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005 than on any other day since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. This day of tragedy also has the sad distinction of being the deadliest for Navy Special Warfare forces since World War II.

One of Michael's fellow SEALs did make it off the mountain ridge -- he was one of Michael's closest friends. Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell of Texas, author of a riveting book called "Lone Survivor," put it this way: "Mikey was the best officer I ever knew, an iron-souled warrior of colossal and almost unbelievable courage in the face of the enemy."

For his courage, we award Lieutenant Michael Murphy the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan. And with this medal, we acknowledge a debt that will not diminish with time -- and can never be repaid.

Our nation is blessed to have volunteers like Michael who risk their lives for our freedom. We're blessed to have mothers and fathers like Maureen and Dan Murphy who raise sons of such courage and character. And we're blessed with the mercy of a loving God who comforts all those who grieve.


The Citation:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, as the leader of a special reconnaissance element with Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Afghanistan on 27 and 28 June 2005.

While leading a mission to locate a high-level anti-coalition militia leader, Lieutenant Murphy demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of grave danger in the vicinity of Asadabad, Konar Province, Afghanistan. On 28 June 2005, operating in an extremely rugged, enemy-controlled area, Lieutenant Murphy’s team was discovered by anti-coalition militia sympathizers who revealed their position to Taliban fighters. As a result, between 30 and 40 enemy fighters besieged his four-member team.

Demonstrating exceptional resolve, Lieutenant Murphy valiantly led his men in engaging the large enemy force. The ensuing fierce firefight resulted in numerous enemy casualties, as well as the wounding of all four members of his team. Ignoring his own wounds and demonstrating exceptional composure, Lieutenant Murphy continued to lead and encourage his men. When the primary communicator fell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Murphy repeatedly attempted to call for assistance for his beleaguered teammates. Realizing the impossibility of communicating in the extreme terrain and in the face of almost certain death, he fought his way into an open terrain to gain a better position to transmit a call. This deliberate heroic act deprived him of cover, exposing him to direct enemy fire. Finally achieving contact with his headquarters, Lieutenant Murphy maintained his exposed position while he provided his location and requested immediate support for his team.

In his final act of bravery, he continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded, gallantly giving his life for his country and for the cause of freedom. By his selfless leadership, courageous actions, and extraordinary devotion to duty, Lieutenant Murphy reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Kurds From Iraq Kill 17 Soldiers in Turkey - BAGHDAD, Oct. 21 -- An audacious cross-border ambush by Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq killed at least 17 Turkish soldiers Sunday, ratcheting up pressure on the Turkish government to launch a military offensive into Iraq. (READ MORE)

Attacks Sharpen Among Party's Principal Rivals - ORLANDO, Oct. 21 -- The leading Republican presidential candidates staged their most contentious and personal debate of the long campaign season here Sunday night, clashing sharply over abortion, immigration, tort reform and their readiness to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) (READ MORE)

Bombing Shakes Pakistan's Political Culture - KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 21 -- For a few hours Thursday, Pakistan glimpsed its political future, and it looked like this: A crowd of hundreds of thousands spilling into the streets for a rollicking but peaceful welcome to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto that, when replicated across the country, would propel her all the way back to her old job. (READ MORE)

Cheney: U.S., Other Nations Won't Let Iran Get Nuclear Arms - The United States and other nations will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Vice President Cheney said yesterday. "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions," Cheney said in a speech at a Washington think tank's conference, meeting at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg. (READ MORE)

Valerie Plame, Telling the (Edited) Inside Story - Mothers who are spies, it turns out, face the same juggling act as other working moms. After a year at home following the birth of twins, Valerie Plame Wilson returned to work in April 2001 in the Iraq branch of the CIA's Counterproliferation Division. "When I had to deal with pressing operational issues I had no choice but to bring the toddlers into my office on a Saturday," she writes in her memoir, published this week. (READ MORE)

The Wiretap Deal - As the Bush Administration winds down, one of its main tasks is preserving Presidential war-fighting powers against poaching by a hostile Congress and expansive judiciary. On this score, last week's Senate "compromise" on warrantless wiretaps is at best a mixed achievement. In return for Congress's blessing to continue this surveillance, the White House is ceding some of its Constitutional authority to unelected, unaccountable judges. (READ MORE)



From the Front:
Those Wacky Iraqis: The World Sport - Football (Soccer) is THE world sport. We as Americans are very arrogant to think that the average Iraqi gives a hoot about baseball, the NFL or hockey. They care only about their brand of football which is the premier and most popular sport world wide. It is such a simple game and all a kid needs is one ball. You dont need gloves, tees, pads, bats, goalie sticks, pucks, ice skates or any of the other gear that only the rich nations of the world can afford. you just need a ball, some spirit, and the will to play. (READ MORE)

Richard's Deployment to Afghanistan: Afghanistan, a country that is truly in need of our help... - Dear All, I am writing to you all from FOB Salerno, Afghanistan with a small story of my experiences in a country that truly is in need of our help. I am Sergeant First Class Michael Fields from Spokane Valley, Washington. First and foremost I would like to tell all of the American people thank you, for all of your help and support. I think that the best way that I could describe Afghanistan is the wild wild west, or life on the great frontier. (READ MORE)

Northern Disclosure: Life is going to have to wait a little bit longer - Several times I have referenced time. It's one of those things that man has never been able or will never be able to master or control. We do try hard to and many fantasize about the ability to manipulate it but that’s all it will ever be. I am getting ready to head home to be with my wife while we welcome our newest addition to the tribe into the world. I have been staying back from missions to prepare for this and to allow others the chance to get out as much as the guys and I. (READ MORE)

Michael Yon: Resistance is Futile - A gulf. A gap. A chasm. A parallel universe. All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq. Knowing this disconnect exists and experiencing it directly are two separate matters. It’s like the difference between holding the remote control during the telecast of a volcanic eruption on some distant island (and then flipping the channel), versus running for survival from a wretch of molten lava that just engulfed your car. (READ MORE)

Michael Totten: On to Fallujah with the Marines - I’m out of fresh material from Iraq, so I’ll be heading back in a few weeks to get more. This time I plan to visit in Fallujah. I’ll spend more time there than I did in either Baghdad or Ramadi, and I’ll embed with the Marines instead of the Army. Fallujah all but demands more time and attention. On the surface it resembles Ramadi. But Fallujah is meaner and murkier. This is the notorious city from which the Sunni insurgency was launched in full force. (READ MORE)

Jason's Iraq Vacation: Quickie - I just got back from a short trip out West to Habbiniyah and al-Taqaddam (TQ) , so I will write a better update tomorrow. However, I wanted to make a quick comment regarding football this Sunday. 1st - I'm not able to watch the Eagles this week, so feel free to bet accordingly. 2nd - listen to the announcers. It's one of my favorite things to do. In particular, listen to the awful statistics they use freely throughout the game. (READ MORE)

Hard Soldier: "Trick or Treat" - Ah yes one of my favorite holidays is rapidly approaching and yet again I have to be stuck in Iraq and unable to participate in the festivities of All Hallows Eve otherwise known as Halloween. What is the true meaning of Halloween I ask? Before you start bombarding me with legitimate histories and legends about Halloween let me tell you what your kids, boyfriends and husbands think about the true meaning of Halloween. It's all about the candy ladies and gentlemen, that is while you’re a kid. (READ MORE)

From an Anthropological Perspective: My Daily Routine - My routine is that each day is somewhat different from the next. Like the soldiers I work with, we are on the job 24/7. I put in between 12-15 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of that time is working out the purpose and strategies of team members going out on a patrol or other mission as a ride along in order to become better situationally awareness of life in the neighborhoods. Some of those 12-15 hours are spent in briefings and other meetings. Some hours are spent interviewing Iraqis and Americans and the occasional foreign national about their experiences. (READ MORE)

Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure: Picture and Movie Time - Well, in the post below (also published today,) Blogger could or would not allow me to upload pictures. Gremlins; you know I hate 'em. Anyway, I ranted instead. However, the good people at Blogger are nothing if not astute, so they immediately fixed whatever problems the aforementioned gremlins had caused, enabling me to bring you these fine pictures. Enjoi. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
John Fund: Bayou Boy Wonder - Bobby Jindal can't hold down a job: That's the joke circulating around Louisiana today about the election of Mr. Jindal, a son of immigrants from India, as governor. Mr. Jindal, a 36-year-old Republican congressman from the New Orleans suburbs, won 54% of the vote in Saturday's election, avoiding the need for a runoff next month. When he takes office in January he will be the nation's youngest governor. But he has already held a glittering array of other positions of responsibility in his short career. (READ MORE)
Burt Prelutsky: 180 Degrees of Separation - One of the silliest complaints that liberals never tire of leveling against conservatives is that we’re divisive. I should hope so. God forbid that those of us on the right should ever roll over for the knuckleheads on the left. But this is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle divisive. The truth of the matter is that it’s nearly always the folks on the left who go out of their way to promote the issues that separate Americans. (READ MORE)

Debra J. Saunders: Was the Recall Worth It? - Was the recall worth it? California government is still spending more than it takes in. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to blow up the "boxes" of state government, but he didn't. Democratic legislative leaders are enjoying lavish lifestyles when they should be rolling up their sleeves. (READ MORE)

Suzanne Fields: A Long Trail to November - John Edwards is right about one thing. Lots of people are acting as if Hillary Clinton has the Democratic nomination wrapped up in tissue paper and safely tucked away in her Louis Vuitton handbag. "Did I miss something?" he asks. "Did we already have the Iowa caucuses? Did we already have the New Hampshire primary?" "It's a long, long time from May to December," the lyricist Maxwell Anderson consoled lovers, and the presidential candidates are learning that the days will begin to dwindle down to November soon enough... (READ MORE)

Donald Lambro: Largely Irrelevant? Bush Soldiers On - WASHINGTON -- George Bush was asked last week whether he had become irrelevant in the decisions of government, a question that has been posed before in previous presidencies. The suggestion came from a reporter at a White House news conference who must have been out of the country for most of the year -- because the president clearly remains a force to be reckoned with in the twilight of his second term in office. (READ MORE)

Michael Barone: We're Not in 2006 Anymore - Things are not working out as Democratic congressional leaders expected. For the first eight months of this year, they struggled to find some way to shut down the American military effort in Iraq. They took it for granted that we were stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, with continuous high casualties and very little to show for them. They pressed hard to get the Republican votes they needed to block a filibuster in the Senate and were cheered when some Republicans, like John Warner, seemed to lean their way. (READ MORE)

Dinesh D'Souza: The atheist indoctrination project - It seems atheists have developed a comprehensive strategy to win the minds of the next generation. The strategy can be described simply: let the religious people breed them, and we will educate them to despise their parents’ beliefs. Many people think that the secularization of the minds of our young people is the inevitable consequence of learning and maturing. In fact, it is to a large degree orchestrated by teachers and professors to promote anti-religious agendas. (READ MORE)

Star Parker: Clarence Thomas' very American story - Futurist John Naisbitt, in his most recent book, talks about trends and leadership. He notes the price that genuine leaders often pay, evoking envy and resentment, because they refuse to be defined by "prevailing values, rules, and expectations" in their pursuit of higher goals. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a case study of the phenomenon. He is a far too humble man to describe himself in these terms. But this is the case. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: Why Islamic Fascists Get Away With Hate Speech - When, in class one day, a student said that “hate speech” was not free speech, I asked him the following: “Can you even define hate speech?” After a long silence, I assured him that I, too, was unable to define hate speech. But, since then, I think I have come up with a suitable definition that helps me understand both the failure of speech codes and the success of Islamic terrorism. (READ MORE)

Chickenhawk Express: Artist Fasts to Honor the Memory of the Haditha Victims While Slamming the Military - A truly misguided gesture by one of the anti-war, peaceniks has flown under the radar in the mainstream. An artist who spends his time creating art devoted to exposing the "atrocities" committed by US Soldiers in Iraq is currently on a water only fast in honor of the memory of the victims at Haditha. The fast is part of his "multi-media installation" titled "One Morning in Haditha". It follows his previous artistic slam against the military in Fallujah. The enlightened one, Russ Smith, is keeping a diary of his fast. (READ MORE)

Melanie Phillips: The shifting quicksands of prejudice - Keith Jarrett, president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), has stirred up a hornets’ nest with his call for the police to make greater use of stop and search in order to control gun and knife crime, including areas where the concentration of black residents would mean stopping and searching more young black people. Mr Jarrett speaks no more than pure common sense. Yet he has provoked outrage among the so-called representatives of ethnic minorities. The NBPA’s own legal adviser, Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, has said, for example, that stop and search is of limited value and that greater use would merely ‘increase tension in the black community’. But as Mr Jarrett says, it is what black parents themselves are calling for — and for one outstandingly good reason. Their children are getting murdered at an appalling rate: (READ MORE)

Neptunus Lex: Troubled - I’ve walked out of movies before and I’ve walked away from conversations. But until today, I’d never walked out of church - and I’m not at all sure that I did the right thing. Our national church is in the middle of an ugly schism. The church hierarchy is dominated by revisionists who have taken a particular side in the American culture war and who have, by doing so, not only disenchanted broad swathes of the American church but also alienated that body from the much larger Anglican Convention. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Raid in Baghdad's Sadr City kills 49 Special Groups operatives - Multinational Forces Iraq conducted a major raid in Baghdad's Sadr City. Forty-nine Special Groups operatives were killed in a nighttime raid targeting a cell leader of the Iranian-backed Shia terror group. Coalition forces, often the cover name given to the special operations forces hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, met heavy resistance in Sadr City as they cleared buildings in search of the Special Groups leader. (READ MORE)

Yankeemom: She’s My Hero - Well, it’s official as of this past Friday. My daughter has reenlisted in the Army for four more years. She will be getting transfered to Ft Belvoir here in VA next year. I have to say that I had moments of non-breathing, partly from my incredible pride in my daughter and that ol’ Mom terror thang. As I told a young soldier who was talking about being deployed, we spend 18 years of our lives doing everything to keep you from harm and danger and there you go ~ walking straight into it. And there’s not a thing we can do about it. And our heart swells with pride and awe that you…our child, a part of us… is made up of such stuff. (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Yon to media: Will you publish the truth about Iraq if I give it to you for free? - No joke. So despairing is he of the gap between what he’s seeing on the ground versus what he’s seeing in the papers, especially in Basra, that he’s offering his reports and photos to the National Newspaper Association at no charge. But he needs your help, in two ways: “Using the lessons learned from “Bless the Beasts,” it probably won’t be enough just to make the news I am reporting available to NNA-member publications at no cost. There may need to be a little irritating sand in order to get a pearl out of this oyster…” (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: History Channel: Stalking Jihad - I just finished watching Mark Bowden’s Stalking Jihad on the History Channel. You may remember Bowden as the author of Black Hawk Down. Stalking Jihad covers the US-Philippine war against Abu Sayyaf, which is al Qaeda’s branch in the Philippines. It covers the rescue of American missionary Gracia Burnham, who along with her husband Martin was taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf in 2001, and follows past that to the defeat of Abu Sayyaf’s commander in 2002. (READ MORE)

Sig Christenson: Remembering Wilbert Davis - As many times as I have been to Arlington National Cemetery, every visit except the first has felt like an abstraction, one with no strong personal connection. That first visit, back in the mid-1980s, was to the grave of President John F. Kennedy. The profound power of this place, however, came home last weekend. I stumbled onto the headstone of Sgt. 1st Class Wilbert Davis, who I last saw alive on the evening in the last hours before the Battle of Karbala Gap. This was in early April. Davis was in the driver's seat of a Humvee, and it seemed to me that he was fast asleep as I talked with journalist Michael Kelly and Senior Airman Dan Housley. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Shattered TNR - This weekend, we finally watched the movie Shattered Glass, the story of the fabulist Stephen Glass at The New Republic. The movie recounts the deception that Glass repeatedly perpetrated in placing himself as an eyewitness to events in order to write colorful and libelous articles, in one instance about young conservatives at the CPAC conference in the mid-90s. It's a good movie, although it tends to overlook the fact that a number of people publicly questioned Glass' veracity on his earlier stories before Forbes.com exploded Glass' article on a hacker convention that never took place, as Jonathan Last noted at the time. (READ MORE)

The Captain's Journal: The Strong Horse in Counterinsurgency - In the Saturday, October 20, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Michael Ledeen wrote an interesting and compelling commentary entitled Victory is Within Reach in Iraq, in which he quote me from an article here at TCJ entitled Reorganizations and Defections Within the Insurgency in Iraq: “There is no point in fighting forces (U.S. Marines) who will not be beaten and who will not go away.” On January 23, 2004, a letter was captured in a safe house in Baghdad from Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi to senior al Qaeda leadership, in which he said (in part) that “America, however, has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it becomes. It is looking to a near future, when it will remain safe in its bases, while handing over control of Iraq to a bastard government.” (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Croak and Dagger - The Raw Story has this just up: “CBS News has confirmed, in advance of a 60 Minutes interview with outed CIA agent Valerie Plame to be run this Sunday, that Plame ‘was involved in operations to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.’ CBS states further that Plame ‘was involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran. It was called Operation Merlin, and it was first revealed in a book by investigative reporter James Risen.’” (READ MORE)

Ace of Spades: Is Assassinating The Israeli Prime Minister Part Of The Peace Process? - One would think that a person harboring assassins committed to killing their opposite number in a negotiation would be cause for doubting that person's commitment to 'the process’. But in this case we’re talking about the Palestinians and they get an unending number of mulligans. “According to meeting participants, (Shin Bet Director) Diskin said Palestinian gunmen had planned to attack Olmert's convoy as it entered the West Bank town of Jericho on Aug. 6 for a meeting with Abbas.” (READ MORE)

Jonathan Adler: Five "Myths" About Rendition - Former Clinton Administration National Security Council staff member Daniel Benjamin takes to the Washington Post's Outlook section to address "5 Myths about Rendition (and that New Movie)." Writes Benjamin: "With hearings in Congress, legal cases bouncing up to the Supreme Court and complaints from Canada and our European allies, the issue of rendition is everywhere. There's even a new, eponymously titled movie in a theater near you, starring Reese Witherspoon as a bereft wife whose innocent husband gets kidnapped and Meryl Streep as the frosty CIA chief who ordered the snatch. Like most covert actions and much of the war on al-Qaeda, the practice is shrouded in mystery — and, increasingly, the suspicion that it's synonymous with torture and lawlessness." (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Tempting, But I'll Pass - When it comes to choosing which candidates to back, I tend to go by my "gut" more than any rational reason. I tend to trust my instincts, my subconscious, my hunches more than a cool analysis of issues and resumes and accomplishments. But there are some things that I do allow to overrule that. There's something deep inside me that wants to like John McCain, that wants to back him for president. There's something about the man's character that I find appealing in a leader. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: It's the coverup that kills you, part 3 - It's been another week without word from the New Republic on the status of its "investigation" into the columns of TNR Baghdad Diarist Scott Thomas Beauchamp. "The editors" have not spoken on the matter since their August 10 update. At that time "the editors" spoke grandly of their "commitment to the truth" and their efforts to resolve the "legitimate concerns about journalistic accuracy" that had been raised by the critics of Beauchamp's TNR Baghdad Diarist columns. They also said they took those concerns "extremely seriously." Ten weeks later, however, their promises have proved empty. "The editors" think they can stonewall their way through the scandal. They should know better. Indeed, as we will see below, once upon a time TNR editor Franiklin Foer instructed readers in the wisdom of the proposition that "stonewalling never works." (READ MORE)

Kim Zigfeld: That Woman Behind the Armenian Curtain - The Democrats have been drowning in bad news lately. A staunchly conservative Republican (and a racial minority to boot!) was overwhelmingly elected governor of Louisiana on the first ballot over the weekend. The New York Times (and Daily Kos) are moaning about their need to "double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year" after brutal defeats on national security and health care reform votes at the hands of George Bush, and moaning too as Speaker Pelosi is forced to back away from a crazy colleague spewing anti-Bush hatred under the withering fire of the conservative blogosphere. And the Democrats themselves are raising serious questions about whether their runaway presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton is electable. (READ MORE)

McQ: Republicans and the Senate - Obviously everyone knows what’s at stake in ’08 when voters head to the polls. The House of Reps is in Democratic hands, and most likely will remain that way. And there’s a very real possibility that a Democrat may end up in the White House. There’s little doubt of what sort of agenda will then be proposed. For Republicans, the Senate, even in minority status, could end up being the key to surviving the election. Democrats certainly understand what that would mean: (READ MORE)

ROFASix: Fascism In America - When I write that America has become fascist I know the first thing that comes to mind is that I am calling us Nazis. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most kids today get out of school thinking fascism means Nazi Germany. They were never taught that the despotic Nazi state was fueled by the policies of National Socialism and fascism was but one element of it. A closer look at the ideology of the National Socialists reveals a jingoistic state. One finds a particularistic allegiance to country, culture, and 'Aryan' ethnicity. Add to this, a suspicion of rationalism, a preference for economic autarky, and a view of life as one of inevitable but glorious struggle and you get a feel for the politics and policies of National Socialists after they seized power in Germany. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: How Can Anyone Think Hillary Has A Lock On The Presidency In 2008? - If Hillary Clinton going to be the next President of the United States? These numbers say "no, she isn't"... Bad news for New York’s junior senator. “While Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has won broad support in national tracking polls in her quest for the presidency, the former first lady is steeped in negative attitudes, according to a Zogby International poll released Sunday. Half of likely voters nationwide said they would never vote for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, in a poll Zogby conducted Oct. 11-15, 2007, with a margin of error of +/– 1.0 percentage point.” (READ MORE)

Rhymes With Right: Will The Democrats Condemn This Practitioner Of Rendition? - You know, if they really think that those who use it to go after terrorists are violating the Constitution and international law. “Beginning in 1995, the Clinton administration turned up the speed with a full-fledged program to use rendition to disrupt terrorist plotting abroad. According to former director of central intelligence George J. Tenet, about 70 renditions were carried out before Sept. 11, 2001, most of them during the Clinton years.” I'll take serious the Democrat complaints about rendition when they demand that Bill Clinton be turned over to an international court for prosecution. (READ MORE)

Michael Tanji: Self Defense is National Defense - The defense of a nation ultimately depends on the wherewithal and actions of that nation’s citizens. The true measure of how secure a nation is against attacks of all sorts is not the number of federal agents employed or size of its intelligence agencies, but by how well those at every level of power and authority recognize current and emerging threats and prepare to deal with them. In 2001, in the span of a few minutes, the people of this nation were reminded that threats to national security were not ethereal, far-off affairs that impacted someone else. Nearly every day since then we have been subjected to daily bombardment of information about threats to the nation and to ourselves as individuals. The response to these threats has ranged from military action to boosting the size, power, and authority of national security establishments. (READ MORE)

Mark Steyn: SAINT AL OF THE ECOPALYPSE - A couple of days before Al Gore was awarded his Nobel Peace prize, Michael Burton, an English High Court judge and apparently a fine film critic, ruled that Al's Oscar-winner An Inconvenient Truth was prone to "alarmism and exaggeration" and identified nine major factual errors. For example, the former vice-president predicts a rise in sea levels of 6m "in the near future". "The Armageddon scenario he predicts," declared Burton, "is not in line with the scientific consensus." (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: [T]hugo's Largesse - [T]hugo Chavez, the thuggish leader of Venezuela, has seen fit to spend millions of his country's currency on projects in inner city areas of the United States, hoping to curry favor among the down and out in the US to change US opinions of his thuggish and socialist views. He wants to spend millions of dollars on places like the South Bronx and selling cheap home heating oil through his nation's oil company Citgo, in order to curry favor.That's not sitting well with many Venezuelans, including the mayor of Caracas, where the poor and wretched are ignored by the Venezuelan government. (READ MORE)

Richard Landes: A PCP Anomaly Worth Considering: Arabs choose Israeli “Occupation” - It’s an axiom of PCP (especially the second variety, the Post-colonial paradigm) that occupation is inevitably and inherently evil and oppressive and humiliating, and that “resisting occupation” is the right of anyone under occupation. Indeed, occupation is so evil that any form of resistance — including suicide terrorism — is legitimate. That such an attitude is ludicrous when one considers the difference between say, the Allied occupation of Germany, and the Nazi occupation of Europe. It’s part of the moral miscalculations of the “progressive left” to identify the Israeli occupation with the Nazi one, rather than with the Allied one. Part of what makes that identification so grotesque is that in the case of the Nazis, because they systematically used collective punishment — hundreds of civilians randomly rounded up and shot in retaliation for one Nazi soldier killed — resistance was not only difficult, but endangered the very civilians the resisters presumably sought to free. (READ MORE)

Amy Proctor: D-Congressman: Soldiers Killed in Iraq for Bush's Amusement - D-Calif Pete Stark, a self-described "Unitarian who does not believe in a Supreme Being", angry that his party has no power with their so-called mandate to lose the war in Iraq, lashed out against Bush Thursday on the floor of the Congress for their failure to override Bush's veto of the SCHIP. (READ MORE)

Right Truth: The Future of Iraq - Yesterday I reported on some good news from Iraq, but we need to realize that there is still much to be done to accomplish peace in that country. "U.S. officials in Baghdad fear that violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites in some areas will erupt into "ethnic cleansing" with the departure of U.S. forces." With each new report coming out of Iraq there is a mixed bag of good and bad news. That's the way it is with war, it's not pretty.
The facts on the ground, direct from sources in Iraq, on the progress on the Baghdad Security Plan: "... is limited to the military track, with the little military progress, which has been made, unsustainable, over time. No progress, whatsoever, on the political rack. Not now, nor in the near future. None of the key objectives having been met, or about to be met. ... 'redeployment without replacement,' is the plan. ..." (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

The local paper has decided to weigh in upon the case of Shirley Katz, a teacher in Medford, OR, who wishes to carry her sidearm to school. Katz holds a conceal carry permit for the gun and trains with it regularly. She argument is that she needs the gun to protect herself from her ex-husband and the gun-free zone the school board has imposed upon its citizens impedes her ability to protect her life, essentially making her a target while she is at work.

The issue of guns and schools has been a contentious one, and with the recent killings at Virginia Tech and the Amish School in Pennsylvania, the issue has once again been thrust into the light. In their attempt to weigh in with their stand our local editorial board has condemned Katz’ assessment of the current standard policy for school boards when a confrontation occurs by saying:

“There's nothing quite like an armed educator with an assault-response plan. But only if a state of war were to be declared or some Armageddon-like scenario were to unfold. And that's not the case.”

Unfortunately, that is the case, or the case the news media would have us believe in. According to news reports guns are the largest threat to Americans, and apparently the presence of gun-free zones are our only solution. The news media has jumped on the topic of gun ownership and the rise in murders, and has sided via editorial control with jurisdictions in the removal of guns from school zones, but as we can see by recent events, the prohibition of guns on school property does nothing to prevent gun violence on school property. Why is it wrong that Katz, a trained individual with a conceal carry permit, seeks to carry her sidearm to school. Not only will she be able to protect herself from her ex-husband, but she could also avert another Virginia Tech or Columbine type situation from occurring in her school.

Frankly, Katz’ assessment of the prevailing policy is right on. The liberal cult of victimology has produced a policy that boils down to:

"… if somebody threatening comes in, you try to avoid eye contact, and do whatever they say…”

That my friends is a recipe for disaster, and only absolves administrators from making the hard choices and decisions we pay them to.

When the editorial board states rather condescendingly:

“[t]eachers like Katz, who view conflict resolution as involving a violent weapon and believe that a children-dominated environment is an OK place to exercise their Second Amendment right to weld such a weapon, aren't "teacher" material at all. They should immediately look for a new line of employment; ideally, one with a firing range.”

What they are really saying is they don’t want anyone thinking for themselves or challenging the prevailing viewpoints.

What suddenly makes Katz unsuitable as a teacher, if up until the day she expressed her desire to protect herself while at work, she was for all intents and purposes a model teacher? Is it her desire to challenge the liberal thought process or is it really all about guns and the editorial board’s inability to reconcile their fear of them?

The editorial board is lying when they write:

“Across our nation, educators, parents and community law enforcement personnel are stepping up to the plate to make sure that American schools support and enhance the statistics that repeatedly show they are the safest places for children to be. And that's where the investments should continue to be made -- in the institutions.”

For across America educators, parents and community law enforcement personnel are turning our schools into wastelands of learning. They are stifling creativity and protecting our children from every imaginable threat to include the game of tag and dodge ball, the end result of which will be unhappy, inhibited, deeply incurious children with no spark of creativity or liveliness left in them for everything will be off limits.

That’s not to say that giving them guns is the solution but has anyone considered why a recent best seller has been the book: The Dangerous Book for Boys and not one of the protectionist tomes currently being hawked on the talk show circuit or in liberal think tanks?

School districts nationwide have taken their charge of educating and molding the minds of our young and changed it to be a charge of teaching to the test and diminishing their liability from lawsuits. Even administrators can no longer think critically about topics outside their small scope of expertise, and even their ability to perform their jobs effectively is in question, and yet we are expected to believe them when they propose gun-free school zones and zero-tolerance policies that result in suspensions for 2nd grades that hug their teachers?

If a trained law-enforcement officer can carry his or her sidearm on school property in the course of their duties why can’t a trained teacher or other school employee do the same? Are we to be less trusting of a teacher or an office worker than of a police officer, if they have met the same requirements and training? A gun is a tool, it can be loaded and left on a desk for decades and it won’t kill a single person of its own accord, what makes the editorial board think that Katz a thinking and rational person won’t be able to do the same?

I for one would feel better knowing that a trained and responsible person had a way to protect my children in school instead of them being forced to adopt the policy of “if somebody threatening comes in, you try to avoid eye contact, and do whatever they say.” In Pennsylvania and Virginia we saw the results of that policy, should we have to see it again to have this discussion or can we do so now rationally when our emotions aren’t running high because our children have been murdered by an estranged spouse intent upon killing their ex and whom ever else gets in the way?

Trackbacked by:
Sunday Reading List 10/21/07 from Right Truth

Concerned Local Citizen’s tip leads to mortar cache

TARMIYAH, Iraq – A tip from a Concerned Local Citizen led to the discovery of a large mortar round cache northwest of Mushada, Iraq, Oct. 14.

“Finding this cache was 100 percent a result of the tip,” said Capt. Troy Mills, commander, Company F, 52nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. “We would never have found it if not for the assistance and information of the Concerned Local Citizen. If this was a patrol anywhere else in our (area of operations), we would have walked right by it.”

Acting on tips provided by Concerned Local Citizens, Soldiers from Company F, 52nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division discovered 474 81mm mortar rounds, in the village of 50 Dar. 22 of the rounds contained homemade explosives.

“The cache was in a remote location, approximately four kilometers from the nearest paved road,” according to Mills. Approximately half the rounds were buried in an old water tank completely covered by dirt and the rest were in a canal buried by reeds.

CF destroyed the mortar rounds at the site.

“My first thought when I saw the cache was the injuries and damage that that much munitions could cause CF and the Iraqi people,” Mills said. “By destroying this cache, it shows the Iraqi people that we are determined to stop insurgent activity by acting on intel they give.”

(SOURCE)

Five terrorists killed, two suspects detained during Coalition operations

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces killed five terrorists and detained two suspects Friday during operations targeting al-Qaeda networks throughout Iraq.

South of Tarmiyah, Coalition forces conducted an operation targeting associates of an al-Qaeda in Iraq network operating in the city. Intelligence reports indicate the network is known for car-bombing, improvised explosive device attacks and the facilitation of foreign terrorists. During the operation, surveillance elements observed a group of armed men move from the target building into nearby palm groves. As the ground force approached, the enemy opened fire from their defensive positions. Responding in self-defense, Coalition forces returned fire and called for supporting aircraft to engage the armed men, killing four terrorists, one of whom was wearing a suicide vest. As the ground force secured the area, they also discovered a small weapons cache which was safely destroyed on-site.

During an operation south of Baqubah, Coalition forces targeted and killed an al-Qaeda in Iraq improvised explosive device cell leader. Reports indicate he led a group of approximately 250 terrorists that emplaced IEDs and conducted attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces. The terrorist acted as a judge for an illegal terrorist court system in the area. As the ground force cleared the target building, they discovered a woman in a room and directed her to get down. The ground force was then engaged by an armed man and, responding in self-defense, they returned fire and killed the terrorist, who was the targeted individual. The woman was not harmed during the engagement and one suspect was detained.

Coalition forces detained one suspected terrorist north of Bayj during an operation to further disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq. Intelligence gained from a previous operation led the ground force to the target area. During that operation, Coalition forces captured an individual allegedly involved in the facilitation of foreign terrorists, false documentation and terrorist funds, and who is believed to have ties to Syrian-based extremists attempting to communicate with the al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

“Our operations are dismantling al-Qaeda in Iraq piece by piece,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “We will continue to take the fight to these terrorists so Iraqis can live in a safe and stable environment.”

(SOURCE)

Two militants attempting to plant IED wounded, captured

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Two militants planting an improvised explosive device southeast of Al Mahmudiyah were deterred and detained by a Task Force Marne attack aviation team Oct. 15.

Two AH-64 Apaches from 1st Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, flying a mission for the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, saw three militants planting the IED. The Apache pilots engaged them with 30mm automatic cannon fire; two of the militants retreated into a nearby house and the third escaped into a canal.

A quick reaction force from the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment entered the building and detained the two militants.

“This engagement demonstrates exactly what our scouts bring to the battlefield,” said Capt. Kevin McKittrick, battle captain for 3-17 Cav. Regt. “The ability to locate and fix the enemy through precise reconnaissance and to destroy him with skilled precision through detailed integration with our brothers on the ground.”

The 3-17 Cav. Regt., deployed from Fort Drum, N.Y., are attached to the 3rd CAB, 3rd Inf. Div., in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

(Source)

Five hostages released, illegal prisons discovered in Baqouba

BAQOUBA, Iraq – Soldiers from Company D, 1-12 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, acting on a tip, discovered two houses used as make-shift prisons and released five local citizens who were held for ransom in the village of Buhriz in Baqouba, Iraq, Oct. 16.

A leader from a local Concerned Local Citizens group provided tips leading Soldiers to conduct the search operation, which also netted two weapons caches, and led to the detaining of six Iraqi men, acting as guards for the prisons, in addition to the discovery and release of five hostages.

In house one, the Soldiers found four guards, armed with AK-47s, a weapons cache consisting of one rocket-propelled grenade launcher with three RPG rounds, and one hand grenade, as well as two hostages. The four guards surrendered to CF.

In the second house, the Soldiers captured two guards, who also surrendered, and were armed with AK-47s, a weapons cache consisting of four hand grenades, 15 AK-47 magazines, two pieces of body armor and three hostages.

“The involvement in criminal activities is something that should infuriate every law-abiding CLC in the province, whose motivation to service is the security of their own citizens and loved ones, and not personal gain,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, commander of Coalition Forces in Diyala province.

The five released hostages were transferred to Forward Operating Base Warhorse, north of Baqouba, for medical treatment.

(Source)

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Bombs Hit Convoy as Bhutto Returns - KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 19 -- Two powerful bombs detonated next to a truck carrying former prime minister Benazir Bhutto late Thursday, just hours after she returned from exile to a triumphal homecoming. More than 120 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in one of Pakistan's worst episode... (READ MORE)

Evangelicals Lukewarm Toward GOP Field - For months, Republican presidential candidates such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and John McCain have courted evangelical Christians, meeting with religious leaders throughout the Midwest and the South. (READ MORE)

Local Foes Commit to Peace in Baghdad - BAGHDAD, Oct. 18 -- Local Sunni and Shiite leaders from southwestern Baghdad signed an agreement Thursday intended to halt sectarian violence and attacks on American and Iraqi troops, with the condition that security forces limit their raids and offensive operations. (READ MORE)

On Day 2, Democrats See Change In Mukasey - President Bush's choice for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, embraced some of the administration's most controversial legal positions yesterday, suggesting that Bush can ignore surveillance statutes in wartime and avoiding a declaration that simulated drowning constitutes torture under U.S... (READ MORE)

French Transit Workers Strike Over Pension Threat - PARIS, Oct. 18 -- French public transportation workers staged a strike on Thursday, bringing most rail, bus and subway service across the country to a standstill and delivering a vivid warning to President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose plans to reduce generous but costly public pensions face stiff opposition from labor unions. (READ MORE)

Congress Orders Probe of TB Case - Capitol Hill lawmakers yesterday called for an investigation into why federal officials knowingly allowed a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis to repeatedly board planes and cross U.S. borders. (READ MORE)

SCHIP Veto in House Stands - The House yesterday failed to override President Bush's veto of a bill that more than doubles spending for a popular children's health care plan — as Democrats vowed to push their proposal until it becomes law. (READ MORE)

Critics Soften Hits on Cosby Message - Civil rights activists and scholars are softening their criticism of Bill Cosby's message to black Americans to stop blaming racism for their problems and engage in more personal responsibility. (READ MORE)

Scouts Must Pay $200,000 for Rent - The city of Philadelphia has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit homosexual scouts. (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Jason's Iraq Vacation: Ain't no party like an Iraqi Party - Well Ramadan is finally over, which means the end of hiding our drinking habits from the Iraqi's and also the end of their fast. Instead of having a Mardi Gras-type celebration before their fasting period, Muslim's have a big 4 day feast after the big fast. This year, we were fortunate to be invited (for some us it was actually rather unfortunate. As in, the next day was spent doing the 100 meter dash across our gravel lot to the bathroom type unfortunate. But I digress . . . .) (READ MORE)

Figthin' 6th Marines: Signs of Progress - RCT-6 on ABC's Good Morning America - We recently had Miguel Marquez and his camera crew from ABC News out with us for a tour of the city of Fallujah. They report the city like it is rarely done: truthfully. Watch the clip. To pre-empt some comments I know are coming -- "ABC is lying!" -- they are not. (We received such comments after posting Katie Couric's video following her visit here.) It is no big secret that any media outlet that comes out here to witness first-hand the progress in Al Anbar Province reports the same thing: progress. Great things are being done here. (READ MORE)

Badger 6: Another Task Force Pathfinder Soldier Dies - Sergeant First Class Anthony R. "Tony" Wasielewski, Sergeant Ski, late of Team Cobra, Company C, 397th Engineer, Task Force Pathfinder, died at his home in Wisconsin on October 7. "Ski" was injured in an IED attack in May and spent time at Walter Reed and a VA Hospital in Wisconsin before being released home to continue his recovery. It is unclear to me from the news reports and the emails that I have exchanged with his Commander if the cause of death was related to his injuries. I can't believe they had no affect on his health and certainly seems to me that lacking other evidence he should be considered a casualty of the Iraq War. (READ MORE)

Far From Perfect: Evacuated to the CSH - So I’ve been in the hospital for the last few days with what is called a Non-Battle Injury. In other words, I was not wounded in battle, I had an urgent healthcare matter that required surgery. I got a whirlwind tour of the medical evacuation system for Iraq and Kuwait in the process. I have to say it works pretty well, especially if you are litter bound. I was medevac’d from my FOB to the Combat Surgical Hospital, CSH, in Mosul. They did an evaluation and decided I needed surgery. An hour or so later I was in surgery. Can’t really say too much about how that went as they gave me some really good sedatives and a spinal block. I woke up shortly after the surgery in the recovery room numb from the belly button down. Strange experience trying to get up and walk when you can’t feel anything below your umbilicus. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
What Happened at Haditha - The incident at Haditha--or the massacre, as it is often called--is due for a wholesale rethinking. The allegations are that in 2005 U.S. Marines went on a killing spree and deliberately executed 24 Iraqi civilians. The casualties have drawn an extraordinary amount of political attention, becoming an emblem for everything critics say is wrong with the Iraq war--in the common telling, another My Lai. Thus Congressman Jack Murtha, a decorated combat veteran, made accusations of war crimes and said the Marines had killed "in cold blood." These are serious charges; and military justice continues to deal with them seriously, though thankfully at a slower pace than politics... (READ MORE)

Stephen Moore: Comfy With K Street - The late Milton Friedman used to rail against what he called corporate America's "suicidal impulse." By that he meant that the business community continually financed the very politicians who were intent on robbing their profits and slitting their throats. It's happening again. The latest quarterly Federal Election Commission Report on political giving, released this week, shows the majority of corporate money flowing to the Democrats. Firms like Comcast, General Electric, Federal Express and UPS have shifted campaign giving away from the GOP. (READ MORE)

Peggy Noonan: Sex and the Presidency - Where do things stand now with Hillary Clinton? What is her trajectory almost a year since it became clear she was running for the presidency? Some time back I said she doesn't have to prove she is a man, she has to prove she is a woman. Her problem is not her sex, as she and her campaign pretend. That she is a woman is a boon to her, a source of latent power. But to make it work, she has to seem like a woman. (READ MORE)

Mike Gallagher: Media Dishonesty in New Orleans - One of the biggest injustices ever done to the Bush Administration was the claim that the federal government abandoned the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You know the narrative by now: angry liberals who have a contemptuous view of President Bush like to spin a yarn of a White House completely indifferent to the pain and loss of all those people left in Katrina’s wake. (READ MORE)

Amanda Carpenter: Earmark War on the Senate Floor - Fiscal conservatives won one battle but lost another over wasteful spending on the Senate floor Thursday. Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) spearheaded efforts to eliminate two egregious earmarks tucked into the fiscal year 2008 Labor Health and Human Services spending bill. Coburn zeroed in on a $1 million earmark that had been secured by New York Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer for a Woodstock concert museum. (READ MORE)

Michael Reagan: Promises, Promises - In 2006 Nancy Pelosi promised the American people that if they would vote to give Democrats control of Congress, making her Speaker of the House, they would come to Washington and “drain the swamp.” More than a year later, Democrats have converted the alleged Republican swamp into a vast pit of quicksand into which America’s national and financial security are slowly sinking. (READ MORE)

Diana West: Making the West Disappear - Earlier this week, I took a trip down memory lane to Yale, where I happily attended college almost 25 years ago in the second decade of its co-ed existence. Which meant that I was plenty old enough to be the mother of the undergraduates I was addressing in the traditionally genteel setting of a "master's tea." The tea, attended by about two dozen, was in beauteous Branford, one of Yale's 12 residential colleges, all carved stone and grassy courtyard. (READ MORE)

Oliver North: Putin the Puppet Master - SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Vladimir Putin is on a roll. Last month, he made it clear that he intends to become prime minister -- and keep the reigns of power in the Kremlin -- when his second presidential term ends in March 2008. Last week, in the midst of a bravura "mini-summit" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin wowed the fawning European media by shrugging off a carefully leaked rumor of an alleged assassination attempt and by speaking fluent German -- a language he mastered as a KGB officer in Dresden during the Cold War. All this apparently took U.S. diplomats and intelligence agencies by surprise. But wait, there's more. (READ MORE)

Charles Krauthammer: This House's Moral Cleanliness - WASHINGTON -- There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide. (a) Did it happen? (b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now? (c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort? The answers are: (READ MORE)

Linda Chavez: Why Not Reward Excellence? - An employee who works harder than his colleagues, produces more and generally excels at his job should be paid more than one who is mediocre, or worse, a downright failure, right? Most employers reward good workers with promotions, bonuses and higher pay in order to keep them. But in the one profession you'd think that excellence should be rewarded -- namely, teaching -- it's often difficult to do so. Teachers unions have been the main obstacle to paying teachers based on their performance, but change may be on the horizon. It's been a long time coming. (READ MORE)

Mona Charen: About that Muslim Letter to the Pope - With a good deal of fanfare, a group of 138 Muslim clerics from around the globe released a statement to Christian leaders earlier this month calling for peace and understanding between the two religions. American and other Western newspapers and media lapped it up. "Muslim Leaders Reach Out to Christians" announced the Los Angeles Times. "Muslim Leaders Send Peace Message" headlined Time magazine. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: Eight Problems with the Conservative Movement Right Now - The conservative movement and the vehicle that we use to implement our ideas, the Republican Party, have a number of problems right now that need to be addressed. For example: Taking Care Of The Base: The first rule of politics is to make sure that your base is reasonably happy and if they're not, find a way to change that. Unfortunately, too many Republican politicians have forgotten that most basic of rules and they've allowed their biggest supporters to become dispirited and angry with them. (READ MORE)

Richard H. Collins: The Definition of a Hypocrite - What is more surprising, the brazen hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton or the fact that she continues to get away with it? This week brought yet another shining example: the issue of government surveillance. Earlier this week, it was revealed that in 1992 Hillary personally “listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.” The details are found in the recent Hillary biography, Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, by investigative journalists Don Van Natta Jr. and Jeff Gerth. (READ MORE)

Cliff May: Al-Qaeda in Iraq on the Run - Al-Qaeda is on the horns of a dilemma. Last month, some 30 of its senior leaders in Iraq were killed or captured. Now, Osama bin Laden faces a tough decision: Send reinforcements to Iraq in an attempt to regain the initiative? That risks losing those combatants, too – and that could seriously diminish his global organization. But the alternative is equally unappealing: accept defeat in Iraq, the battlefield bin Laden has called central to the struggle al-Qaeda is waging against America and its allies. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Bombings in Karachi target former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's triumphant return to Pakistan was shattered by violence just hours after touching down in the country after an eight-year exile. Two bombs struck the convoy carrying Bhutto and senior officials of the Pakistan People's Party. Over 132 were killed and several hundred wounded during the twin blasts. Bhutto and her aides survived the attack unharmed. South Waziristan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud had promised to strike at Bhutto upon her return and has lived up to his word. Bhutto appears to have narrowly escaped the assassination. The Taliban used two bombs, a smaller charge followed by a large bomb. (READ MORE)

Chickenhawk Express: Flag Honoring Slain Marine Torched - My heart breaks for this Marines' family while my head burns in anger at this wanton act of desecration... Flags flew the May day they buried Dale Peterson. They lined the streets of Burns, where hundreds watched, hands on hearts, as his coffin passed. One flag, in particular, made it to Dale's dad. Greg Peterson, former sheriff of Harney County, went home to Redmond and hung the flag beside his front door. And there it flew, day and night, for the toddler he carried on his back into the Blue Mountains, for the boy he taught to fish the Malheur River, for the only son he sent to Iraq. Sunday morning, as Greg Peterson left for church, he found the flag. Someone had torn it down, drenched it in lighter fluid and burned it. Ashes and the charred wooden flagpole lay scattered. "This was personal," he thought. (READ MORE)

Michael Tanji: Common Sense on Surveillance - It was recently reported that the Bush administration would be turning over documents related to its terrorist surveillance program to members of the Senate, who are currently attempting to craft a legislative solution to the electronic surveillance dilemma. As a quick reminder; current law throws a myriad of serious roadblocks in front of our intelligence agencies when they try to monitor the communications of terrorists. Civil libertarians decry almost any attempt to gain access to domestic communications systems. They wonder what is to stop the government from turning its intelligence capabilities away from terrorists and towards law-abiding citizens. Functionally speaking the answer is nothing, though the real defense against a true “domestic” surveillance program will be addressed later. (READ MORE)

Soccerdad: It wasn’t nuclear but we’ll clean it up anyway - So after showing a bunch of credulous reporters an agricultural site, Syria’s now cleaning up the real site of the Israeli attack. "Syria has begun dismantling the remains of a site Israel bombed Sept. 6 in what may be an attempt to prevent the location from coming under international scrutiny, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the aftermath of the attack.Based on overhead photography, the officials say the site in Syria’s eastern desert near the Euphrates River had a “signature” or characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor, one similar in structure to North Korea’s facilities." Interesting, now there seems little doubt what the facility was for. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: I Think I know How Cassandra Felt - Lord, sometimes I hate being right. In David Gerrold's sci-fi classic "The War Against The Chtorr," his protagonist has developed an uncanny reputation for being able to predict the behavior of the alien invaders. It's the cause of much speculation about Mr. McCarthy, even some saying that he's somehow in league with them. Finally, someone enlightens him to this attitude, and he explains just how he's so good at it: (Roughly paraphrased) "I just imagine the worst possible thing that can happen next, then prepare for it. And most of the time, I'm right." (READ MORE)

Kim Priestap: House Fails to Override SCHIP Veto - Common sense prevailed in the House as Republicans stuck together and supported Bush's SCHIP expansion veto, but not before lunatic Democratic Representative Peter Stark made the shockingly vile statement that America's troops are in Iraq getting their heads blown off "for the President's amusement": “Democratic Rep. Pete Stark launched a shocking one-man assault on the Bush administration Thursday, interrupting floor debate before a failed attempt to override the president's veto of the so-called SCHIP bill to suggest that U.S. troops in Iraq are getting their heads ‘blown off for the president's amusement.’” (READ MORE)

McQ: Stop the draft, er, the war, er recruiting ... why are we here? - Ah Berkley protests, they're just not what they used to be. All my young former hippy, flowerchild, earth-womyn are now 'Grandmothers Against the War' (or Code Pink, or well, you get the drift). Apparently they and counter protesters have been shouting at each other across the street at a local recruiting station. The purpose, of Code Pink and GATW being there? "'Our message is very clear. We are peaceful people. We don't want to send our sons and daughters into this war. I think the sentiment of Berkeley is on this side of the street,' said CodePINK co-founder Medea Benjamin." (READ MORE)

Dale Franks: The Laffer Curve: Myths and Realities - Looking over the comments in Jon's post below, there seems to be some misinterpretation of the Laffer Curve on the part of some. Although I learned long ago that econ posts tend not to draw any great interest, and though I've written on this several times before (and am too lazy to look up the specific links at the moment), I'll give it another shot. The curve itself is pretty simple, and there's hardly an economist in the world that doesn't believe that the Laffer Curve, or something quite like it, doesn't exist. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: The HLF jury returns - The Dallas Morning News reports that the jury has reached a verdict in the Holy Land Foundation trial after 19 days of deliberation. The verdicts were sealed and will not be read in court until the presiding Judge Joe Fish returns to town on Monday. The story on the jury's return dwells on the length of time that the jury was out. At least one juror was replaced during deliberations (on Septebmer 26). On October 3, Judge Fish read the jury an Allen charge, urging the jurors to continue their deliberations when they asked for advice regarding the refusal of one juror to participate. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Busboys ‘give’ $380,000 to Hillary - Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown The LA Times is not letting this Hsu thing drop. Reporters Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger are digging through Hillary’s dumpster of campaign finance disclosures and finding she’s raking in a lot of money from a lot of poor people. Well, at least from the addresses of poor people. Reported the LA Times today: "Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton’s campaign treasury." (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: The Adam Gadahn Amendment - The Senate Intelligence Committee passed the latest version of FISA on a 13-2 vote after reaching a compromise with Republicans on amnesty for telecoms and other issues. However, a last-minute amendment adopted by the committee has the White House objecting: "The Senate intelligence committee yesterday produced a new bipartisan bill governing foreign intelligence surveillance conducted inside the United States, but objections by several Democratic lawmakers to some of its provisions raised questions about how quickly it might gain passage." (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Got Experience? - Joyner at Outside the Beltway on Hillary’s lack of it, or unusual variety of it … and why it probably doesn’t make any difference: “Hillary Clinton and her supporters tout her 35 years of public policy experience. The Hill’s Bob Cusack assesses that figure. ‘In a concerted effort to deflect attacks on her presidential credentials, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y) and her allies repeatedly say she has 35 years of relevant experience. She has been an elected official only seven years, but the drumbeat of sound bites and statements touting the 35-year figure appears to have paid off.’” (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Blair in NYC: Islamism is to today what fascism was to the 1930s - And Iran’s the engine. I understand the temptation of this analogy; I’m sure I’ve used it myself. But coming from someone as influential as Blair, all it does in the public’s mind, I fear, is implicitly minimize a grave threat by measuring it against the yardstick of ultimate evil. If you want to note the similarities, and there are plenty, simply explain Islamism to them and let people draw the connection themselves. Saying “it’s 1939 all over again!” (READ MORE)

Ron Winter: End of the "Vietnam Syndrome!" Melanie Morgan, MAF Rout Code Pinkos in Berkeley! Knife Wielder Redefines 'Peacenik'! - Did I mention that a knife-wielding "Peace" protester had to be disarmed by the police? Uh-huh. It happened. Yes it Did! Proves the point we've been making for years now, that these people aren't for peace, they favor POWER but Power for them only. And they'll stab you if you don't agree with them. An outpouring of support Wednesday for US troops in general, and US Marines in Berkeley, California in particular, marks what we can only hope is the end of the false, but oh-so-often repeated refrain "Vietnam Syndrome." Members of the pro-terrorist, pro-communist, anarchist, anti-American organization Code Pink have been demonstrating outside the Marine recruiting office in downtown Berkeley for some time. But in recent weeks they have escalated their efforts to include vandalizing the office and interfering with the recruiters. (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: Fox to air “Islam vs Islamists” tomorrow Updated - The film that was just too hot for PBS finally gets national airtime. “A controversial film that PBS axed from its documentary series about the post-Sept. 11 world will be broadcast for the first time nationwide this week by the FOX News Channel. The documentary, originally titled ‘Islam vs. Islamists,’ was produced by ABG Films with $675,000 in public funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It was originally slated to run earlier this year as part of PBS’ ‘America at a Crossroads’ series.” (READ MORE)

Dan Riehl: S-CHIP: Anatomy Of A DSCC / Media Smear On Sen. McConnell - Quick Update: And they are unfairly going after Bush, as well. As for this below, Dem Op Matt Miller drove the Foley scandal, now he's using misleading and false statements to target Minority Leader McConnell R-KY. Despite, or perhaps because of the S-CHIP stalemate in Washington, liberal media outlets including the New York Times, Think Progress and now the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky continue to somewhat sinisterly flame one aspect of the S-CHIP story at the urging of Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) staffer Matt Miller, even though the narrative they've woven isn't at all supported by the facts. (READ MORE)

Steeljaw Scribe: Air Force Pilot Missing From Vietnam War is Identified - In the mail today: “The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Maj. Robert G. Lapham, U.S. Air Force, of Marshall, Mich. He will be buried Friday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Feb. 8, 1968, Lapham was flying the lead A-1G Skyraider in a flight of two in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The aircraft were alerted to join an airborne forward air controller to destroy enemy tanks that had overrun the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp. After completing one pass on the tanks, Lapham was nearing his target on the second pass when he crashed. The crew of the other aircraft involved in the mission reported seeing no parachute.” But wait, there’s more… (READ MORE)

Kim Zigfeld: Bhutto in Pakistan - The American nutroots received a few rather unpleasant jolts of reality over the past few days. First, a major campaign financing scandal erupted, tarnishing all the major Democratic candidates with the allegation of acceptance of seriously tainted money. Large amounts of the filthy stuff. Then, despite all the hew and cry from the leftist lunatics about how George Bush is evil and the whole damn country knows it, the House (despite its Democratic majority) failed to override President Bush's veto of the child healthcare reform proposals (despite Bush recently recording the lowest-ever public approval ratings for a president, the House's approval rating is half that of Bush). (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: Funny Money Fundraising Hits Clinton Campaign Again - It's a most curious situation given that many of those donors have simply fallen off the map and can't be found. The Hsunami began when curious donations by the Paw family were found and digging by Flip and others found a huge number of bundled donations that were made under suspicious circumstances and by individuals whose source of income is highly suspect. Are we witnessing the tip of yet another Clinton campaign fundraising scandal? (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

In three seperate areas of Iraq, Coalition Forces disrupted the al-Qaeda network and captured 15 terrorists:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces captured three wanted individuals and detained an additional 12 suspected terrorists Thursday during operations targeting al-Qaeda networks throughout Iraq.

Coalition forces captured a wanted individual southwest of Tarmiyah, who is believed to be a member of the terrorist network in the city responsible for the majority of car-bombing and improvised explosive device attacks. Reports also indicate the network is involved in extortion, intimidation, weapons trafficking and the facilitation of foreign terrorists. In addition to the targeted individual, Coalition forces detained seven suspected terrorists on site.

Northwest of Tikrit, Coalition forces captured another wanted individual and detained three others for their alleged involvement in the movement of foreign terrorists. The targeted individual was also allegedly involved in facilitating false documentation and terrorist funds, and is believed to have ties to Syrian-based extremists attempting to communicate with the al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

During an operation in Baghdad, Coalition forces targeted and captured an individual reported to be involved in kidnapping operations and attacks on Coalition forces. Intelligence reports indicate the individual has links to various Special Groups leaders operating throughout Baghdad. In addition to the targeted individual, Coalition forces detained two suspects.

“Targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq networks and criminals responsible for vicious attacks against innocent Iraqis and their security forces is a top priority,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “We will continue to find and dismantle terrorist networks that try to deny the Iraqi people a future of their own choosing.”

Great job men!

"I did it for the honor of my family and the honor of my country" - Mudhehr Fayadh Baresh

KALSU, Iraq – A 72-year-old man stopped a suspected suicide bomber from detonating himself at a checkpoint in Arab Jabour Oct. 14. The man approached a checkpoint where Mudhehr Fayadh Baresh was standing guard, but did not make it very far.

Baresh, a tribal commissioner and member of the Arab Jabour Concerned Citizens program, said he ordered the man to lift his shirt - using training received from Coalition Forces - when he did not recognize him as a local villager.

The suspect refused to lift his shirt. Baresh repeated the command again, and the suspect exposed his suicide vest, running toward the checkpoint.

Baresh opened fire which caused the vest to detonate, killing the suspect.

“I did it for the honor of my family and the honor of my country,” said Baresh, when he met with Col. Terry Ferrell, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Lt. Col. Kenneth Adgie, commander of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment presented Mudher with a battalion coin for his valor Oct. 16.

This my friends is the face of courage and proof that Iraq has turned the corner: when 72 year old men will stand guard and man a checkpoint in an effort to quell the violence being wrought upon them by the insurgency.

Iraqi's all over the country are stepping up and pushing the insurgents out all in an attempt to erturn to normalcy and security. These local actions and efforts are what will pull and are pulling Iraq out of the chaos of violence, not federal actions by the Parliament. Just as most of the meaningful work in the US is accomplished at the local level, so will it occur in Iraq. To rely upon the federal government to solve the problems in Iraq is foolish. The Iraqis don't need a nanny state to protect them, they have proven that they are willing to take that responsibility upon themselves.

It is our duty to support them in that effort, so we can all come home victorious.

Or so the saying goes, however the media’s third time to disparage Iraq and the mission there once again falls flat.

On Monday they trotted out the Dirty Dozen and their historical/hysterical assessment of Iraq and the call for a national draft to ease the stress. Yesterday the media regaled us with the plight of Iraqi Cemetery Workers whose lively hood is being squashed by the recent drop in violence, and today they attempt to connect Iraq with Vietnam once again as they pull out all the stops and focus on the phenomenon of fragging and are dismayed to find that it isn’t occurring now.

What do all of these stories have in common, they are all base attempts to throw the war under a cloak of suspicion and to cloud one’s assessment of the current facts so as to make them susceptible to suggestion, and that suggestion is that the war is unnecessary and illegal. What other conclusion can we draw from the recent surge of news articles and opinion pieces coming from the newsrooms and broadcast booths of today’s media? Iraq has turned the corner under General Petraeus and the left dominated media can’t stand it.

In response the media has opened up their decades old playbook and have taken it upon them selves to discredit the war in the eyes of America. Their efforts to demoralize the troops are intended to bring about the same conclusion as they wrought with Vietnam, to make the grunt on the ground and the family back home believe that all is lost, that their sacrifices are for naught and that the only solution is to come home with our tail between our legs, but in doing so they show their naiveté towards today’s communications boom. They have forgotten that they are not the sole source of information out of Iraq and that in response to their one shrill voice there are literally thousands of softer voices speaking the truth about the mission and the successes that are occurring.

When the media begins digging deep for the bad news about victory, I know we are doing the right thing in Iraq.

In what can only be described as a bonus round of negligence and subversion the New York Times today runs a “commercial” for Islamic Jihad: Know Thine Enemy. You have to see it to believe it.

Also writing about the current media failures and subterfuge is McQ of Q and O - Headline of the Week

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Mexican Crisscrossed Border with TB - A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. (READ MORE)

Bhutto Returns to Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan today, ending eight years of exile with hopes of campaigning for a record third premiership – perhaps in tandem with the country's U.S.-backed military president. (READ MORE)

Foreign Fighters Seen on the Rise in Afghanistan - Foreign fighters are entering Afghanistan from Pakistan in greater numbers than at any time since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, Afghanistan's defense minister said yesterday. (READ MORE)

Bush Lauds Security Firm - President Bush said yesterday that private security firms like Blackwater USA provide a "valuable service" to U.S. government personnel abroad, a day after Blackwater's top executive complained of a lack of support from top U.S. officials over the company's role in a deadly shooting incident on a Baghdad street. (READ MORE)

House GOP Halts Wiretapping Bill - House Democrats, confounded by a Republican procedural maneuver that would force an embarrassing vote on terrorism, yesterday called off a vote on an electronic-surveillance bill that the White House opposes. (READ MORE)

Senate and Bush Agree On Terms of Spying Bill - Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies... (READ MORE)

Mukasey Vows Not to Bow to Political Power - Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey said yesterday that he would chart an independent path for the Justice Department after the tumultuous tenure of Alberto R. Gonzales, testifying that he would not be afraid to disagree with the president and would resign rather than implement policies... (READ MORE)


From the Front:
Those Wacky Iraqis: The Valley of Tombs - Not really so much a Valley as it is a Wadi of Tombs. It is a few hundred yards from the Ziggurat and has been covered in many areas with concrete or pitch to keep people out. Every tomb has been raided so there is nothing there as far as artifacts except that it is covered with more pottery shards that I have ever seen in any one location. I was just amazed at how many I saw and just plain walked on. (READ MORE)

On Point: SitRep: South of Khandahar - No one conquers Afghanistan. It’s been occupied many times – by Alexander, the British, the Russians, the Taliban, us...but it’s on a temporary basis. This is an unusual country; one of the very few in Central Asia or the Middle East where national pride trumps religious fervor. As Al-Qaida did in Iraq, the Taliban overstepped its bounds with the Afghan people it claimed to liberate. Beheadings, hangings, and general terror tactics do little to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of a people who despise the Taliban for its Pakistani origins. (READ MORE)

Michael J. Totten: The Shia Awakening - After returning to the U.S. from my summer trip to Baghdad and Ramadi, I wrote a piece for the New York Daily News that warned against bingeing on optimism in the wake of the surge. I wrote this despite the dramatic turnaround in Iraq’s Anbar Province. The abject defeat of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq in and around Anbar’s capital of Ramadi is stunning, but local. The fight still rages on elsewhere, and in each place it is different. In early 2007, Ramadi was the most violent city in all of Iraq. It was also, counterintuitively, the easiest city to win. (READ MORE)

IraqPundit: Lost in Translation? - I was wondering whether the interpreters hanging with Vladimir Putin during his visit to Iran got mixed up. Why? Well, the Associated Press reports that the Russian leader says the United States was wasting its time in Iraq. "One can wipe off a political map some tyrannical regime ... but it's absolutely pointless to fight with a people," he said. Could it be that those words were directed at Iran instead of the U.S.? It would make so much more sense, and Putin is smart, isn't he? (READ MORE)

Eighty Deuce On The Loose In Iraq: Welcome Home!!! - WOW! Let me start off by saying how awesome it is being home. I can't believe how much I missed "normal" life and all that comes with it. I have to admit that it is still a little weird being back. I look at myself in civilian clothes and it feels like I'm dressing up for Halloween or something. Getting used to traffic, and just being in civilized world is definatly an experience. Arriving in the United States after hours upon hours of flying was a great feeling. (READ MORE)

Badger 6: Things to Hold Close - Soldiers have traditionally, for very practical reasons, carried very little in the way of personal items with them. By a historical context of course those of us in Iraq have traveled very heavy. Nonetheless we carry little compared to what we have in our homes and for me, I still find that I have many things that I can do with out. I anticipate much simplifying when I do finally return home. There are however six things I have that are now almost like a second skin to me that I feel truly naked without. (READ MORE)

B.A. Patty: To raise them up. Part 2: The role of the Philippines in the Long War - Zamboanga, Philippines: Colonel David Maxwell is the commanding officer of the US Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines. In a two-hour interview he spoke about counterinsurgency in the Philippines and the larger Long War. What must first be understood is that the situation in the Philippines is different from either Iraq or Afghanistan. In many ways, JSOTF-P is in an enviable position: It has a stable partner in the Filipino government and works with security forces that are both reliable and structurally similar to US forces. The general orders of Naval Forces, Western Mindanao Command are precisely the same as those of the US Navy. In the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Marines and Navy Special Operations Group, the units are readily understood by US Marines and Navy Special Warfare. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Victor Davis Hanson: Congress' New Role: Undermining U.S. Foreign Policy - The president establishes American foreign policy and is commander in chief. At least that’s what the Constitution states. Then Congress oversees the president’s policies by either granting or withholding money to carry them out — in addition to approving treaties and authorizing war. pparently, the founding fathers were worried about dozens of renegade congressional leaders and committees speaking on behalf of the United States and opportunistically freelancing with foreign leaders. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: A Foreign-Policy Turkey - Just as it appears the United States may have turned an important corner in Iraq with the reported disabling of al-Qaida, Turkey is threatening to invade northern Iraq in an attempt to stop attacks by Kurdish rebels on Turkish territory. House Democrats added fuel to the combustible situation when the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 10 passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. (READ MORE)

Marvin Olasky: Leaping Before We Looked: The Clinton Administration's Bosnian Failure - With Hillary Clinton surging in the polls and Democrats knifing Bush's foreign policy and praising Bill Clinton's, it's time for a reality check on a supposed triumph: Team Clinton oversimplified a complex situation in Bosnia and ended up aiding and abetting Muslim extremists. That's the conclusion of John Schindler, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a former National Security Agency analyst. In his new book, "Unholy Terror: Bosnia, al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad," Schindler reappraises the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and America's decision to come to the defense of Muslims in their conflict with Serbs. (READ MORE)

Larry Elder: Do "Gun-Free" Zones Encourage School Shootings? - This time, Cleveland. A 14-year-old suspended high school student entered Cleveland's Success Tech Academy, a gun in each hand, and opened fire, wounding four. Later, we learn that the shooter's past included violent confrontations, mental problems and at least one previous suspension. A month earlier he told a friend that he intended to shoot up the school. But no one, apparently, took his behavior seriously enough to notify authorities. (READ MORE)

David A. Ridenour: Things the Nobel Committee Doesn’t Want You to Know - Poor Al Gore. He’s been in a downward spiral all year long. First, he received an Oscar for his documentary (or was it a “mockumentary”?), An Inconvenient Truth, from the out-of-touch motion picture industry. Then he received an International Emmy from the out-of-touch television industry – the international branch, no less. Now he’s received the Nobel Peace Prize, which ranks right up there with the Daytime Emmy – or it should. (READ MORE)

Ann Coulter: Another Liberal Noose-Ance - Liberals are so invigorated by the story about a noose being found on an obscure Columbia University professor's door that now nooses are popping up all over New York City. Liberals love to make believe the Night Riders are constantly at their doors. I'll be shocked by a noose appearing on a college campus the day an actual racist does it. Could Columbia at least produce one student or professor who supports racism before holding another "rally against racism"? Every concrete example of the racism allegedly sweeping the nation's campuses keeps turning out to be a fraud. (READ MORE)

Jon Sanders: College Admins: If You Favor Second Amendment Rights, You Must Be Crazy - A Minnesota college student was suspended and ordered to undergo "mental health evaluation" for his response to campus wide e-mails from school officials concerning the Virginia Tech massacre. The college, Hamline University, a private, liberal-arts institution affiliated with the Methodist Church, has a policy on "Freedom of Expression and Inquiry" that guarantees that Hamline students will be "free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly or privately." (READ MORE)

Michael Medved: Corporate power blesses, not oppresses, the American people - Why should so many Americans resent and distrust the very institutions that make possible our productivity, pleasure and opportunities? Given the fact that major corporations provide virtually every one of the commodities and comforts we consume, it makes no sense to feel hostile and contemptuous of the corporate organization of the contemporary economy. As I write these words – and as you read them –we all rely on the products of major companies with increasingly far flung and international operations. Leave aside for a moment the obvious example of the complex combination of brilliantly designed computer hardware and software that allows me to transfer my thoughts to a word processor and broadcast them to the world. (READ MORE)

WSJ Review & Outlook: World Bank Runaround - The world's finance ministers descend on Washington this weekend for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And true to type, bank officials and their media Boswells are doing their best to sweep the issue of corruption under the carpet. A letter from the bank published today illustrates the point. The letter from external affairs vice president Marwan Muasher responds to our October 11 editorial "Smiling Past Corruption," which reported the conclusions of seven internal investigations into bank projects in Cambodia. (READ MORE)

Daniel Henninger: Gen. Sanchez's Scream - Over the past weekend there were front-page accounts everywhere of Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez's description of the war in Iraq as a "nightmare." The New York Times led its story this way: "In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the Bush administration's handling of the war 'incompetent' and said the result was 'a nightmare with no end in sight.' " Gen. Sanchez said this last Friday to a gathering of reporters and editors in Washington who cover military affairs. It was a dramatic denunciation from the man who led U.S. forces in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. (READ MORE)

ROFASix: Toy Story from Talibammy - When Alabama wrote in Section 35 of their State Constitution under the title, "Objective of government": "That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression." ... it is pretty clear that the author's clearly understood the role of government in citizen's lives. It makes you wonder how stories like, "Toy Story" could possibly ever happen in a state with that provision. But as is the case at the federal level, these state legislator's don't worry much about their constitution. It is after all, "just a piece of paper." (READ MORE)

Jules Crittenden: Fragfree - Another reason Iraq is not like Vietnam. No one’s getting fragged. Someone may want to tell the 12 captains, draft-happy anti-war Dems, etc. Sending people to war who don’t want to go gets (the wrong) people killed. Better to leave war to the people who want to fight: Turns out for all its similarities with Vietnam … necessary war against a clear evil under trying political and military circumstances, with greater threat of defeat on homefront than battlefield … Iraq is in other ways not like Vietnam at all. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Pelosi’s politics of self-destruction - Now she’s blaming the Senate. Having wasted the last 10 months chasing geese, the Democratic Congress finds itself the most hated Congress. Ever. Poll after poll shows a job approval rating slightly above that of child pornographers. The Reuters poll today had only 11% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing under Pelosi and Reid. (READ MORE)

Bryan Preston: Charlie Rangel’s “Monument to Me” and other tales from the Democrat Congress - Rep. Charlie Rangel is attempting to build a “presidential library, without the president” at City College of New York. Rangel’s monument to himself consists of three separate and expensive items, the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, the Rangel Conference Center, and the Charles Rangel Library. It’s the library that even attracted the attention of CBS News. (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Swedish artist facing death threat from Al Qaeda names new dog … Muhammed - Not the sanest man in the world, but possibly one of the bravest. An English translation of his latest blog post, courtesy of reader “Winston Churchill” and cleaned up a bit by yours truly: "The logic and composition is crystal clear. The foundation for the whole roundaboutdog project was the exhibition in Tallerud which had the name The Dog in the Art. Well, now is the time to introduce a new member of staff." (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Senate Hands Bush Victory On FISA - Hours after Democratic leadership in the House pulled their version of FISA reform off the floor in embarrassment, the Senate agreed to the White House-endorsed version. Intel committee chair Jay Rockefeller and DNI Mike McConnell agreed to full immunity for telecoms and compromised on the term of the new law, requiring renewal in six years: The collapse of the Democrats on FISA mirrors that of two months ago, when they wound up endorsing the terrorist-surveillance program which they had previously claimed was illegal. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: The Grenade Through the Door - Is this good news or bad news? The AP notices that "'Fragging' Is Rare in Iraq, Afghanistan" But I think Roland and Anderson focus on the wrong causes. World War was fought largely by conscripts. Nor were there many helicopters going over or newsmen coming along. Most World War 2 battlefields were vastly more isolated from the home front than Vietnam's. People moved by slow ship. Letters took weeks to reach their destination. (READ MORE)

Ace of Spades: Democrats Pull Bill To Gut FISA Reforms, For Now - Protecting the constitutional rights of Osama bin Ladin: "Republicans successfully maneuvered to derail a Democratic government eavesdropping bill Wednesday, delaying a House vote until next week at the earliest. The bill, which seeks to expand court oversight of government surveillance in the United States, fell victim to a gambit by the chamber's Republican minority. Democrats were forced to pull the bill from the House floor with no certainty about how it might be revived." (READ MORE)

Army Wife Toddler Mom: Pentagon promising to resolve, Minnesota National Guard educational benefits issue! - When the Minnesota Guardsman returned from a 22 month deployment, some of them noted that the orders were written for one day shorter than they needed, to qualify for some educational benefits. There was a lot of debate at that time, politicizing the orders. Many people pointing fingers, at whether or not this "padding of orders" was done intentionally to save money. The media turning it into some sort of us against them scenario. Which, to those in The National Guard, was silly. (READ MORE)

Dr. Sanity: The Apocalyptic Vision of islamic Fanatics: A Sobering Reality - David Ignatius of the Washington Post--certainly no right wing shill-- has a sobering column at RealClearPolitics about Al Qaeda's quest for a nuclear weapon: If we add the mad mullahs and their psychotic president to the list of Islamic fanatic groups obsessed with obtaining nuclear weapons, then any reasonable person should realize that "Islamophobia" is a manifestation of the survival instinct, and simply some irrational, non-sensical or purely emotional response to the realities of the 21st century. Let's revisit this MEMRI Report from ‘Al-Qaeda Undercover Soldier, U.S.A’ threatening massive destruction and death in the US and other western countries unless they convert or submit to Islam: (READ MORE)

Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.

We've seen this wonderful video before by the amazing Lizzie Palmer, but it showed up in my inbox once again and I had to share. I think you'll admit it is extremely powerful, Lizzie you are amazing.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.


In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Many GOP Donors Yet to Open Wallets - More than a third of the top fundraisers who helped elect George W. Bush president remain on the sidelines in 2008, contributing to a gaping financial disparity between the GOP candidates and their Democratic counterparts. (READ MORE)

Does Obama's Message Match the Moment? - WASHINGTON, Iowa -- A hush fell over the crowd as Sen. Barack Obama crossed the field, his white shirt glowing in the sun, waves of cornstalks rustling behind him. Once inside the open barn on the county fairgrounds here, he offered a message as uplifting as the backdrop, promising a new era… (READ MORE)

Support Wanes For Armenian Genocide Bill - Chances for a U.S. resolution calling the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 genocide eroded dramatically last night, as sponsors dropped off in droves and senior Democrats urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to abandon her support. (READ MORE)

Justice Dept.'s Focus Has Shifted - The Justice Department under the Bush administration has retreated from prosecutions of mobsters, white-collar criminals, environmental crimes and traditional civil rights infractions, new department data show. (READ MORE)

Blackwater Won't Allow Arrests - A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq's faulty justice system. (READ MORE)

Patience Sought on China Deal - The White House yesterday said critics of a proposed merger between a U.S. maker of computer-security equipment and a Chinese company should give an interagency national-security review a chance to do its job. (READ MORE)

Hillary Leads in Donor Refunds - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign has cut nearly $1.3 million in refund checks to hundreds of donors since July 1 — more than triple what the rest of the Democratic field returned to supporters combined. (READ MORE)

Putin Urges U.S. Not to Strike Iran - Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday warned against a U.S. military strike against Iran and invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a precedent-setting visit to Moscow. (READ MORE)

GOP Hopefuls Take a Hard Line on Tehran - The top Republican presidential candidates yesterday repeatedly threatened attacks on Iran if it pursues nuclear weapons, drawing lines between themselves and the Democratic candidates. (READ MORE)



From the Front:
Bill and Bob's Excellent Adventure: Picture Time - Here are a few pictures of some of the recent happenings in The Valley. The Valley has a lot of farms. They primarily grow wheat (already harvested,) corn (pictured,) potatoes, tomatoes, onions (they LOVE onions,) melons, and cotton. Sunrise in The Valley. Pictures just don't do the mountains justice. (READ MORE)

Those Wacky Iraqis: The Ziggurat of Ur - FOBs, COBs, ASRs, MSRs, DFACs, MREs, MRAPs, MEF, M1-A1. It seems like that is the only lingo we know but every once in a while we hear a phrase of word that just stops us in our tracks and we go,"What"? This happened to me when I heard the name "Ziggurat of Ur". I said, "What the hell is that"? I was in Tallil and heard about this ancient edifice that existed on post. I had a vague remembrance of reading something about it years ago and went to wikipedia to read about it. (READ MORE)

Northern Disclosure: Like a Visa Commercial - Every deployment that I have been on the time gets divided into sections. The predeployment anticipation, early deployment shutters, the "I CAN"T STAND YOU!", Time keeps on ticking, and the "WOW! that was fast." Right now we are in the "I can't stand you" phase of our deployment. This is the period of time that everyone has been together for 6-8 months and personal ideosycracies are coming to the surface and everyone is getting rubbed the wrong way. I too am falling victim to this phenomena. (READ MORE)

B.A. Patty: To raise them up. Part 1: The lesser and greater insurgencies of the Philippines - Zamboanga, Philippines: The Philippines and the US have a history that formally begins with the Spanish American War of 1898. After the intense fighting that followed the secession of the Philippines from Spain to America, fierce Moro warriors fought US troops with tourniquets tied around their limbs, so they could fight a little longer before dying. In order to knock down the Moros, the US Army turned to John Moses Browning, who developed a more powerful military sidearm, the 1911 .45 Automatic Colt Pistol. (READ MORE)

IraqPundit: Listening Might Help - I would have a much easier time respecting the opinion in the NYT today had it been written by someone, anyone, who knew something about Iraq. The writer complains of bonuses the U.S. offers soldiers to stay in the Army. Then the same writer says: "The bonuses are another desperate reminder of how little planning was done for the Iraq war, and how much damage it has done to America’s forces. They are also the right thing to do, especially given the prolonged sacrifice demanded of the troops and their families. We are agnostic at this time on the Marine’s proposal for Afghanistan but are relieved that at least somebody is starting to plan for leaving Iraq." (READ MORE)

From an Anthropological Perspective: Back From Another Base - I just got back this evening to my FOB, flying in by Blackhawk, from another FOB where I met and brainstormed with another Human Terrain Team. My brigade has made incredible resources available to me and my team, flying from place to place by helicopter, doing an areal survey previously written about, letting us ride along in convoys, among other things. I'll blog soon about an awesome research effort the other team and I brainstormed regarding how to help Internally Displaced People and reduce the damage they are causing water infrastructure and the spread of water-bourne diseases. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: The Microsofting of Google - That Microsoft is leading the lobbying charge against Google's pending acquisition of DoubleClick is ironic for a lot of reasons, particularly this: "It is difficult to imagine that in an open society such as this one with multiple information sources, a single company could seize sufficient control of information transmission so as to constitute a threat to the underpinnings of a free society. But such a scenario is a realistic (and perhaps probable) outcome." Those words come from a famous 1995 brief by an imaginative Silicon Valley attorney that kicked off the Microsoft antitrust wars. Though the dread forecast today is the same, the bogeyman has changed. Now it's Google. (READ MORE)

Rhodes Cook: College Try - It would not be surprising if the most important single primary in 2008 takes place in California. But don't look for it to be the presidential primary on Super-Duper Tuesday Feb. 5. Look instead to the state primary on June 3, up to now a low-profile event that could become fraught with significance if some California Republicans succeed in getting a highly controversial proposition on the ballot. If successful, it would ensure the party's nominee 20 or so electoral votes from California next fall, even if the GOP candidate loses the state for the fifth straight election. And if the 2008 election is as close as the last two been have been, that could be enough to keep the White House in Republican hands. (READ MORE)

WSJ Review & Outlook: See No Proliferation - The silence from the Bush Administration over Israel's recent bombing of a site in Syria gets louder by the day. U.S. officials continue to look the other way, even as reports multiply that Israel and U.S. intelligence analysts believe the site was a partly constructed nuclear reactor modeled after a North Korean design. The weekend was full of reports about these intelligence judgments, first in the U.S. media then picked up by the Israeli press. Israel's former chief of military intelligence, Major General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, called them "logical." That's the term of art people use to confirm things in Israel when they want to get around the military censors. (READ MORE)

Brent Bozell III: Al Gore's Nobel Propaganda Prize - Twenty or 30 years ago, the Nobel Peace Prize was considered to be among the most prestigious awards in the world. It helped make historic figures out of Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and Lech Walesa. But in the last 20 years, its prestige has lessened as its political correctness has hardened. It went from an award that championed human rights to an award that honored dictators and terrorists (Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990, or Yasser Arafat, 1994). (READ MORE)

Amanda Carpenter: Kids - House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) blamed “hate radio” for demeaning children who were being used to lobby for an expansion of federally funded health insurance in a press conference late Tuesday morning. In the run-up to a House vote to override President Bush’s veto of a $35 billion increase to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, children like the 12-year old Graeme Frost---who suffered brain injuries after a car accident-- have been pushed to the forefront of the debate. (READ MORE)

Austin Bay: Recognizing the Armenian Genocide - It's an old phenomenon: When the dispossessed get clout, the past becomes a battleground. Often the stakes in the present are extraordinarily high. An exemplary skirmish over very bad history is taking place in the U.S. Congress -- in this case, the World War I slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey. (READ MORE)

John Stossel: Turning Kids into Sex Offenders - Imagine how DeMarcus Blackwell felt when he was told that his son Chris had engaged in "sexual contact and/or sexual harassment" at school. School officials in Waco, Texas, said Chris rubbed his face in the chest of a female teachers' aide. Well, before you can imagine this father's reaction, you need to know one other fact: His son was 4 years old when the "sexual" incident occurred. (READ MORE)

George Will: The Supply and Demand for Government - WASHINGTON -- Explaining a simple proposal to help people squirrel away gold for their golden years, Hillary Clinton said that a person "should not require a Ph.D. to save for retirement." But can even Ph.D.s understand liberalism's arithmetic and logic? Consider the controversy over the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is up for renewal. Most Republicans favor extending it. Almost all Democrats, and some Republicans, favor expanding it in a way that transforms it. (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Crime and Rhetoric - Oakland, California, continues to suffer the high crime rate, and especially the high murder rate, which has long afflicted that city. Judging by a recent speech by its current mayor, long-time leftist Ron Dellums, it can look forward to a future all too much like its past. Why is Oakland so crime-ridden? According to Mayor Dellums, "we have closed our eyes to the injustices and inequities, and now we are reaping the wild winds of that disregard for a whole range of people." (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin: Sinking SCHIP: A Defining Moment - On Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on a measure to override President Bush's veto of a massive government-subsidized health insurance entitlement expansion plan. I agree