The Thunder Run

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)
The End of Free Trade? - The demise of the Doha trade round is another blow to the struggling world economy, and there's plenty of blame to go around. But the crucial question going forward is whether this is merely a temporary setback, or if it marks the end of the post-World War II free-trade era that has done so much to spread prosperity. (READ MORE)

Mr. Paulson's New Bonds - These days, it's next to impossible to sell a mortgage-backed security -- unless, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you have access to the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam. So this week Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson teamed up with four of the country's biggest banks to jump start an alternative to securitization known as "covered bonds." (READ MORE)

Scandalous Justice - So, let's see: The Bush Justice Department this week indicted a prominent Republican Senator for corruption less than 100 days before he's up for re-election. But we are supposed to believe that Bush Justice is corruptly politicized because some of its dimmer bulbs asked job-seekers about their ideological leanings. (READ MORE)

Gates Sees Terrorism Remaining Enemy No. 1 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the "Long War" against violent extremism and that the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists should be the nation's top military priority over coming decades, according to a new National... (READ MORE)

Alaskans Fret About a Future Without Help From 'Uncle Ted' - ANCHORAGE, July 30 -- Alaska's vast landscape is littered with federally funded tributes to Sen. Ted Stevens's single-minded promotion of the state, from the brushed steel of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to the $187 million that subsidizes air mail for the one-third of residents who... (READ MORE)

IOC Allows China To Limit Reporters' Access to Internet - BEIJING, July 30 -- The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government acknowledged Wednesday that reporters covering the Olympics will be blocked from accessing Internet sites that Chinese authorities consider politically sensitive. (READ MORE)

Obama Tries to Show Missouri Concern for Small-Town Issues - UNION, Mo., July 30 -- Sen. Barack Obama campaigned through the conservative heart of rural Missouri on Wednesday, determined to prove that a Democrat can capture this bellwether state by winning over voters in its far-flung small towns as well as in its urban centers. (READ MORE)

N. Korean Food Crisis Spurs U.N. to Act - BEIJING, July 30 -- With shriveled harvests and a cutback in imports, North Korea has slipped back into a serious food shortage that is causing millions of people to go hungry, the United Nations announced Wednesday. (READ MORE)

Olmert Declares Intent to Step Down - JERUSALEM, July 30 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, facing a widening corruption investigation, announced Wednesday that he will not compete in his party's leadership primary in September. The move will effectively end his tenure as premier and is likely to complicate efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before President Bush leaves office. (READ MORE)

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Leader May Be in Afghanistan - BAGHDAD, July 30 -- The leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and several of his top lieutenants have recently left Iraq for Afghanistan, according to group leaders and Iraqi intelligence officials, a possible further sign of what Iraqi and U.S. officials call growing disarray and weakness in the organization. (READ MORE)

Turkish ruling party secure - Turkey's highest court on Wednesday narrowly rejected an indictment to outlaw the nation's ruling party for Islamist activities - ending months of turmoil that had paralyzed the NATO ally, frightened foreign investors and stalled the nation's bid to join the European Union. (READ MORE)

Ad rips celebrity Obama - Britney, Paris and ... Barack? Sen. John McCain on Wednesday charged that his Democratic presidential opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, is more Cosmo than he is commander in chief, running a stark, harsh and groundbreaking ad that matches him with clips of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. (READ MORE)

Pakistan probes Taliban collusion - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said U.S. concerns about collusion between members of his nation's intelligence agency and terrorists are being taken seriously and "will be resolved." (READ MORE)

Obama supports union organizing - Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to hold a private ballot vote in unionization drives, which critics say would lead to harassment and intimidation, has spurred a pitched battle between powerful labor unions supportive of Sen. Barack Obama and big business in the presidential campaign. (READ MORE)

Illegals figure drops by 11% - The Department of Homeland Security is claiming success after an independent study released Wednesday argued that stepped-up enforcement efforts have reduced the illegal immigrant population by 11 percent since August. (READ MORE)

Police aware of Maryland's spying - Maryland State Police documents show that the Baltimore Police Department knew of the state's spying on groups opposed to war and the death penalty and once offered backup assistance at a protest. The American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the documents earlier this month, said Wednesday that it is broadening its investigation into the matter to include more activist groups and more state and federal agencies. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Daniel Henninger: Is John McCain Stupid? - Is John McCain losing it? On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't." This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation. He got back to the subject Tuesday in Reno, Nev. Reporters asked about the Sunday tax comments. Mr. McCain replied, "The worst thing you could do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!" Then he was asked about working with Democrats to fix Social Security, and he repeated, "everything has to be on the table." But how can . . .? Oh never mind. Yesterday he was in Aurora, Colo., to wit: "On Social Security, he [Sen. Obama] wants to raise Social Security taxes. I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes." (READ MORE)

Lanny J. Davis: Why Obama Should Pick Hillary - Picking a vice president is obviously Barack Obama's decision to make. He must be comfortable with who he picks. Comfort level between a president and vice president may be the most important factor of all. So I can only offer my argument, based on some facts and subjective impressions, as to why I believe it would be in Sen. Obama's personal and political interest to select Hillary Rodham Clinton as his vice presidential running mate. Not just to enhance his chances of winning -- but, more important, to help him be a more effective president. Let's start with one undisputable fact: Sen. Clinton is the only Democrat who gives Sen. Obama a statistically significant boost in any national poll results. This is not a criticism of other candidates. This is simply a fact -- a product of Sen. Clinton's nearly 18-month national campaign in all 50 states and the 18 million votes she won. (READ MORE)

Karl Rove: Obama's Iraq Fumble - In a race supposedly dominated by the economy, both Barack Obama and John McCain have spent a lot of time talking about Iraq. Why? Because both men have Iraq problems that are causing difficulties for their campaigns. How each candidate resolves his Iraq problems may determine who voters come to see as best qualified to set American foreign policy. If Mr. McCain wins the argument on Iraq, he will add to his greatest strength -- a perceived fitness to be commander in chief and lead the global war on terror. As the underdog, Mr. McCain needs to convince voters that he is overwhelmingly the better choice on the issue. Mr. Obama needs to win the argument because his greatest weakness is inexperience and a perceived unreadiness to be president. That's dangerous. Voters believe keeping America safe and strong is a president's most important responsibility. (READ MORE)

Arthur C. Brooks: Where's the Outrage? Really. - "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." So lectures a popular bumper sticker in my university-dominated neighborhood. And according to an emerging journalistic narrative of this campaign season, ordinary Americans are indeed outraged -- at the Iraq war, at gas prices, and by the fact that their houses are not rising in value. As a July 4 Associated Press headline put it, "Americans' unhappy birthday: 'Too much wrong.'" One does not do well to question the legitimacy of this alleged anger. Former Texas senator and McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm learned this the hard way. Looking at data showing less economic trouble than he felt the gloomy headlines warranted, he said in an interview on July 9 that the U.S. was a "nation of whiners" and that we are merely in a "mental recession." Within a few days he stepped down from a McCain campaign increasingly worried about a possible backlash from supposedly enraged voters. (READ MORE)

Laurence H. Tribe: The Supreme Court Is Wrong on the Death Penalty - It's not often that the U.S. Supreme Court is asked by a state and the federal government to reconsider a case it has just handed down because it missed key evidence. But that is what is happening now in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In that case, the court ruled in late June that Louisiana could not execute someone convicted of violently raping a child. Dividing along familiar 5-4 lines, the court held, speaking through Justice Anthony Kennedy, that the death penalty must be reserved for killers and traitors. To apply it to others, including the most reprehensible violators of young children, would constitute a "cruel and unusual punishment" violating the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. Emphasizing the evolving character of what constitutes an "unusual" if not an unduly "cruel" punishment, the court rested its condemnation of executing the rapists of children largely on what it described as a trend away from the use of death to punish such crimes both here and abroad. (READ MORE)

Ann Coulter: A Baby Daddy for Both Americas - The mainstream media really seem to imagine they can prevent Americans from knowing information by refusing to mention it in newspapers or on TV. For those few Americans without an Internet connection and to whom I have not faxed the National Enquirer stories: Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right -- there really are "two Americas." There's one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives. To put it another way, it would appear that ambulances aren't the only things John Edwards has been chasing lately. Last year, the National Enquirer broke the story about New-Age divorcee Rielle Hunter, formerly Lisa Druck, telling friends she was having an affair with Edwards and that she was pregnant with his "love child." Who knew that "my father was a mill worker" could be such a great pickup line? (READ MORE)

Frank Turek: The Presidency Is Not An Entry-Level Position - Barack Obama’s recent op-ed in the New York Times declares, “It’s time to end this war.” (You remember that Senator McCain tried to respond, but the Times apparently wanted to give McCain his opinion rather than allow him to express his own. Every day I read the New York Times and the Bible just to see what both sides are doing.) Is Obama right? Is it time to end this war? Maybe it is time to begin drawing down our forces and handing-off more responsibility for security to Iraqi forces. This idea is gaining favor in Bagdad and Washington. The problem for Obama is that withdrawal, not victory, has always been his goal. Obama wanted to “end this war” when it would have meant an American defeat. The only reason a slow withdrawal is possible now is because President Bush made the unpopular but wise decision to increase our efforts while Obama and the Democrat party tried to get us to cut and run. (READ MORE)

Larry Elder: A Black Conservative Lament - Oh, no, not another "blacks in America" news special! One of the cable networks recently put together another one of these "specials" on what it's like to be black in America. The network asked a conservative friend of mine to participate. He sent the following letter; and I wrote back. Dear Larry, OK, Larry, I grew up a bit last night. Those (unflattering descriptive deleted) at that news network on cable used me like a two-dollar whore! I interviewed with them for almost 10 hours, and all that talk was whittled down into five-second sound bites that put me in a rather negative light. Part of our talk was about the crack epidemic. I spoke about the way we are fighting this drug war, which we should approach as a health issue as opposed to a law enforcement problem. I talked about the impact single parenthood has on crime rates. … I talked and talked. They edited it all down to, "If you don't want to go to jail, don't sell crack." I am really angry. (READ MORE)

Victor Davis Hanson: What If Iraq Works? - There is a growing confidence among officers, diplomats and politicians that a constitutional Iraq is going to make it. We don't hear much anymore of trisecting the country, much less pulling all American troops out in defeat. Critics of the war now argue that a victory in Iraq was not worth the costs, not that victory was always impossible. The worst terrorist leaders, like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Muqtada al-Sadr, are either dead or in hiding. The 2007 surge, the Anbar Awakening of tribal sheiks against al-Qaida, the change to counterinsurgency tactics, the vast increase in the size and competence of the Iraqi Security Forces, the sheer number of enemy jihadists killed between 2003-8, the unexpected political savvy of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the magnetic leadership of Gen. David Petraeus have all contributed to a radically improved Iraq. (READ MORE)

Ken Blackwell: Freedom Now - Nancy Pelosi wants to the save the planet. That was the House speakers answer to why she is not allowing a vote on expanding domestic oil drilling. Unfortunately, Americans need for an ambitious long-term plan for energy independence is placing a damper on the speakers planet-saving pursuits. The energy issue is taking center stage for the public. If this issue is forced to the next level, Senator McCain might win the White House and Republicans might avoid another election year rout. First, Mr. McCain must outline an ambitious Kennedy to the moon ambitious energy plan aimed at transforming America from an energy importer to an energy exporter. He should start with the obvious. Only conventional sources can address Americas short-term energy needs. The nation has the infrastructure to use coal, oil, and natural gas, and all it needs is additional supply. (READ MORE)

Maggie Gallagher: Everything's Coming Up Nancy - Move over, Hillary, its Nancy's turn to take center stage. This past Monday, Nancy Pelosi was all over your television set, penetrating as many American living rooms as she could with her new message: Girl Power Forever -- aka "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters." Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most powerful woman of all? Nancy Pelosi showed the Republicans who's boss of the Hill recently. After promising "fairness and open debate," according to David Rogers at Politico.com, Pelosi resorted to hard-knuckle politics to shut down the GOP's chance to offer any policy alternatives to the Dems' official party line. She's not exactly apologetic about it. Rogers reports: "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet," she says impatiently when questioned. "I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy." (READ MORE)

David Strom: Revealed: Conservatives Have Escape Plan for When They Destroy the Earth - Well, the secret is out. Conservatives' willingness to destroy Mother Earth in pursuit of financial gain now makes sense. The missing fact that helps explain the seemingly inexplicable willingness of Conservatives to destroy the planet was revealed last week by former astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell. You may or may not remember Mitchell as the astronaut who holds the record for the longest moonwalk. Dr. Mitchell has broken a long-standing wall of silence and revealed that our government-and governments around the world-have been in secret contact with alien beings from another planet. Mitchell revealed the aliens to be "little people who look strange to us." Mitchell still refuses to put a name to cigarette-smoking man and other top government officials in on the conspiracy, but details are sure to follow. We can surely know that they are a cabal of neoconservatives. (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: A Possible Judicial Solution to Re-imposition of the So-called "Fairness Doctrine" - I have been feeling rather blue. Those who know me know that I never give up without a fight. My problem is with the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," which represents the opposite of fairness. Talk Radio, as we now know it, represents one of the very few weapons in the conservative media arsenal. 630 WMAL's brilliant commentator, Chris Plante, has declared that 2008 is the year that true journalism died in the United States of America. I agree with him. The national media overwhelmingly supports Senator Barack H. Obama (D-IL), the presumed Democratic nominee, for President. How can he lose with the national media all but carrying his bags as he goes abroad? With the exception of Fox News Channel the television media is all in the hands of the left. Fox itself is more Republican than conservative. The left also controls nearly all of the print media. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: UN Fails Again - The UN is ending its peacekeeping mission along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, claiming that Eritrea is hampering peacekeeping activities. “Council members and other diplomats said the U.N. had little choice but to withdraw its 1,700-strong force that has been monitoring a 15-mile-wide, 620-mile-long buffer zone between the two nations. The vote means the entire mission will be terminated on Thursday, Vietnam's U.N. ambassador, Le Luong Minh, told reporters after the vote. Belgian Ambassador Jan Grauls told the council that the mission, known as UNMEE, ‘had become impossible to implement’ because Eritreans progressively limited peacekeepers' movements -- including restricting night patrols, supply routes and diesel fuel -- and Ethiopians refused to accept an independent boundary commission's 2002 decision to award the key town of Badme to Eritrea.” (READ MORE)

Ace of Spades: The audacity of fraud - Wexler isn't really a FL resident - Apparently, Fox/O'Reilly had something on this, but it made it above the fold in the print version of the Palm Beach Post today, so the story must have enough traction that even the reliably Bolshevik PBP can't bury it. Wexler is of course a flaming moonbat, high profile Dem attack dog, and staunch supporter of the Messiah. “Acknowledging that accusations that he doesn't really live in Florida are raising ‘concerns’ among his constituents, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said Tuesday that he will begin leasing an apartment in his congressional district rather than continue to claim residency at his in-laws' home near Delray Beach. Wexler made the announcement on the same day that his two challengers produced records showing Wexler received property tax breaks by declaring his house in Potomac, Md., a ‘primary residence’ from 1999 to 2002. He also signed a loan document with his wife in 2005 describing the house as ‘my/our principal residence.’...” (READ MORE)

Donald Douglas: Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi: From Guantanamo to Martyrdom - Debra Burlingame, at the Wall Street Journal, illustrates how the civil liberties activists of the American left have enabled terrorists and sacrificed lives to the nihilist mayhem of Islamist evil. The story begins with Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, a one-time detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was released from American custody in 2005. Al-Ajmi returned to the Middle East to commit a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq, in March 2008 (as seen below, in the blast photo from the Combat Outpost Inman). It turns out that Al-Ajmi had written poetry while at Gitmo, with one poem mocking the American detention system, and glorifying holy martyrdom under Islam: (READ MORE)

Pamela Geller: Saudi funded Hate School Director Pleads Guilty to Covering Child Sexual Abuse - He plead guilty? According to the Koran, he's innocent. Al-Shabnan's arrest came after police alleged he covered up an incident in which a 5-year-old girl attending the school reported that she was being sexually abused by her father. According to court papers, Al-Shabnan, 52, of McLean, told police that he didn't believe the girl, and advised the girl's parents to put her into counseling. But state law requires school authorities to report alleged child abuse within 72 hours of learning of the allegation. This director of this school curriculum included 12th-grade text on Quranic interpretation that taught students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to the investigation by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel created by Congress that monitors religious freedom rights around the world. (READ MORE)

Baldilocks: Why Is the Black Vote in the Democrats’ Pocket? - Why do 90% of eligible black Americans vote Democrat and call themselves liberal? A few weeks back, I lambasted prominent black conservatives for even thinking of voting for Barack Obama, a man who embodies only one part of the two-word description “black conservative.” Several black conservatives were quoted in the article to which I was responding. However, the most revealing quote came from former U.S. Representative J.C. Watts (R-OK): “J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he’s thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he’s still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them. ‘And Obama highlights that even more,’ Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. ‘Republicans often seem indifferent to those things.’” (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Congressional Dems: Some Branches Are More Equal Than Others - For months now, Democratic congressional leaders, such as Rep. John Conyers (D-MI, 100%) and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT, 95%), have declared Karl Rove to be in contempt of Congress. Now, had they accused him of having contempt for Congress, they might have a case; but if that is the standard, they will have to refer 82.7% of adult Americans to the U.S. Attorney (USA) for prosecution. Apart from the laughability of Congress demanding that a USA appointed by President George W. Bush prosecute the chief advisor to George W. Bush, merely because Mr. Rove tweaked the Democrats' beards (Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Haight-Ashbury, shaves hers off), there is actually a serious question here. According to our constitution, our government comprises three branches: the Legislature (Congress), the Executive (President of the United States), and the Judiciary (Supreme Court and all inferior federal courts). (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: Data point 2 - The European trip is over and Obama is still falling in the Intrade prediction market. AFP writes, “No ‘bounce’ from Obama foreign trip: poll” CNN’s Jack Caffery expresses his bafflement. “It’s a mystery to many: why isn’t Barack Obama farther ahead in the polls? CNN’s poll of polls shows Obama up by 5 points, leading John McCain 45% to 40%. In most polls, he rarely breaks 50%. A new USA Today/Gallup Poll actually shows McCain leading Obama 49% to 45% percent among likely voters. It seems like Obama should be miles ahead of McCain when you consider the political climate.” And what an adulatory climate it was. The Guardian described his “rock star” welcome. “For the man who has brought rock star charisma to electoral politics, yesterday saw the campaign rally as pop festival, a summer gathering of peace, love and loathing of George Bush. Taking what he calls his ‘improbable journey’ to the heart of Europe, Barack Obama succeeded in closing down one of Berlin’s main thoroughfares last night, luring the city’s young in their tens of thousands to stand in the evening sunshine and hear him spin his dreams of hope - not for America this time, but for the whole world.” One story from Bild was filed from a gym where the Candidate was working out. (READ MORE)

Driven @ Blackfive: ...coming forth to carry me home... - Back when I was a PFC, my company was out in the field for a week for MOUT training. The first day was spent practicing reflexive fire. When the sun goes down at Ft. Bragg the humidity rises and the temperature seems to hold steady. Even with the sun's burning stare gone we did not find any relief. An hour before midnight we started our march. We followed a tank trail around the perimeter of the training areas. I could only see the cat eyes (glow in the dark patches we attach to the back of our helmets) of the man in front of me. The night was silent except for the sound of soldiers on the march. There wasn't even a breath of wind as we trudged through the darkness. Loaded down with our equipment and already tired from the day's training we walked in muted silence. At about 2 A.M. the wind picked up and a mummer passed down the line. Everyone knew what was coming. This wind brought no relief, it brought rain. (READ MORE)

Jeffrey Imm: ISNA and MPAC Seek to Silence Steven Emerson at Congressional Hearing - As mentioned in Andrew Cochran's July 28 posting, the Investigative Project on Terrorism's (IPT) counterterrorism leader Steven Emerson will be testifying on Thursday July 31 at a Congressional hearing on "Foreign Aid and the Fight Against Terrorism and Proliferation: Leveraging Foreign Aid to Achieve U.S. Policy Goals." This hearing will take place at the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade this Thursday at 10:30 AM ET in room 2200 of the Rayburn House Building. In the past day, however, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have been working on a public relations campaign to silence Steven Emerson at this July 31 hearing. ISNA sent out an "Urgent Action Alert" to its membership calling for them to lobby Congressman Brad Sherman to either have "balanced, qualified testimony"... [or demand that] "the session be canceled." (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: FINALLY! Wartime Opposition to War Is Explained Clearly - Ok, for those of you playing the home game, let’s recap: President Bush invaded Iraq and ended America’s 13 year war with Saddam with the authorization of Congress, and support of Democrats. Even before the war started, Gov Howard Dean ran for President on an anti-war theme (in addition to governor of Vermont, doctor, maple syrup king, and Presidential Candidate, he’s secretly been a middle eastern intelligence operative and the only man in the world who could accurately assess the threat from Saddam…or…so people were led to believe). As soon as Coalition forces crossed the border, Democrats en masse changed their tune, opposed the war like candidate Dean, and they themselves either tested the Presidential campaign waters, or just jumped right in. And so it was that the debate raged, grew, exaggerated, distorted, and became an animal-a monster-in and of itself. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Economic growth doubles - Not good enough for the New York Times, which keeps hoping for a recession. The New York Times headline was dour: “G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus.” It goes on to say this dimmed hopes for a “quick recovery.” Recovery from what? There has been no recession. Perhaps if the Times did not rely on former Enron adviser Paul Krugman for economics advice, its editors would understand the basic definition of a recession. The AP was more positive:
Economic growth picked up in the second quarter as tax rebates energized consumers and exports boosted businesses. The rebound followed a treacherous patch where the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the April-to-June period. That marked an improvement over the feeble 0.9 percent growth logged in the first quarter of this year and an outright contraction in the economy during the final quarter of last year. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Hey, what do you know? Enforcement works! - A report from the Center for Immigration Studies concludes that illegal immigrants have left the US in large numbers, thanks to enforcement efforts at federal and state levels over the past nine months. The change coincides with the rejection of the comprehensive immigration bill considered by Congress and abandoned last July. The CIS contends that this created a disincentive that pushed almost a million illegals back across the border: “A report released yesterday by a Washington think tank that advocates stricter limits on immigration says the number of illegal immigrants in the country appears to have declined significantly over the past year, at least partly because of the chilling effect of stepped-up enforcement. The study by the Center for Immigration Studies based its findings on census data that indicate that the number of less-educated, working-age Hispanic immigrants, defined as 18-to-40-year-olds with a high school diploma or less, has dropped by more than 10 percent, or about 830,000 people, since last August.” (READ MORE)

Fjordman: The Organization of the Islamic Conference and Eurabia - Dr. Andrew Bostom, editor of the excellent book The Legacy of Jihad and the recent book about Islamic anti-Semitism, warns that the 57 Muslim nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are trying to impose Islamic blasphemy law -- which includes the death penalty for those who "blaspheme" the Muslim prophet Muhammad -- as the universal standard across the world. These sentiments of the OIC were reiterated more brazenly by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. During a sermon in response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons which aired February 3, 2006, Qaradawi demanded action from the United Nations in accordance with sharia-based conceptions of blasphemy: "…the governments [of the world] must be pressured to demand that the U.N. adopt a clear resolution or law that categorically prohibits affronts to prophets—to the prophets of the Lord and his Messengers, to His holy books, and to the religious holy places." (READ MORE)

Quid Nimis: Barry the Redeemer - "[Barry the Redeemer] is going to demand that you shed your cynicism." Well, maybe we can just have a National Day of Shedding, and Obamassiah can join in.Just checked in with Melanie Phillips over at the spectator and she has a trenchant word or two about the Prayer in the Wall scandal. In case you aren't completely up to speed, it appears that when Barack Obama had his pray note stolen by some go-getter seminarian in Jerusalem, it wasn't exactly the scoop of the century, as MP, who is terribly cynical for one so young, points out: “What kind of unprincipled individual would steal such a note and reveal its contents to the world? they fretted. This seemed to me at the time to be remarkably naive. Was it really likely that Senator Obama would have inserted such a note in such a place, with the serried ranks of the world's media lenses pointing at him, without at the very least harbouring the teensiest suspicion that within seconds it would be removed and its contents find their way into a newspaper?” (READ MORE)

John Hinderaker: Racial Progress, Or Stagnation? - It's generally assumed that Barack Obama's nomination for President is a sign of great racial progress in the U.S. Perhaps so. But several stories in the news this week suggest that for many, racial politics are stuck in the same dead end of victimology that has held back African-Americans for decades. Last night, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow. The resolution passed on a voice vote, relieving members of the need to go on record for or against it. But I hope none of our Minnesota Congressmen voted for the resolution. Minnesota became a state in 1858, just in time to send its best men to help preserve the Union and stamp out slavery. We never had Jim Crow legislation here. If anyone should apologize, it's the Democratic Party, which supported slavery and disunion to the bitter end and did its best to preserve segregation in the South long after the Civil War. (READ MORE)

Scott Johnson: Midnight conservative - Early in his career, Jon Voight must have been stationed somewhere on the far left of the Hollywood crowd. When he came up to Dartmouth in the spring of 1970 for a showing of "The Revolutionary," he clearly identified with the film's hero. In the question-and-answer session following the showing of the film, Voight explained in all seriousness that we should know "the revolution" was going to begin in Washington on November 15. Voight's radicalism was obviously no impediment to his livelihood. Indeed, it may well have facilitated a career of great prominence and distinction, including an Academy Award for his performance in "Coming Home." Voight's career withstood his foolish radicalism, but his turn to patriotism and the middle of the road has raised a red flag, so to speak, in Hollywood. In his Washington Times column condemning Barack Obama, Voight speaks from his own experience: (READ MORE)

McQ: Obama, Unions and the secret ballot - If you’re ready to revisit the era of union strong-arm tactics and closed shops (which have seen businesses flee for ’right to work’ states), a vote for Obama is recommended. “‘We’re ready to play offense for organized labor. It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word “union.” A president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best: organize our workers,’ Mr. Obama told the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia on April 2. ‘I will make it the law of the land when I’m president of the United States,’ Mr. Obama told the labor federation.” Of course, this promise explains why the SIEU is dropping $150 million in the effort to get him elected and why the AFL-CIO has "a ramped-up campaign" to help Obama win. In fact the AFL-CIO is committed to a 600,000 mailing to uncommitted voters on Obama’s, and thereby the union’s, behalf. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Land, Ho? Try Landstuhl, No! - Well, it's taken about a week or so for enough details to emerge about Senator Obama's canceled visit to the hospital for American troops in Landstuhl, Germany, and it's a smidgen more complicated than originally presented -- and, as is eminently predictable, falls pretty well between the two sides who first started tussling about it. As a bit of backdrop, it's become customary for government officials to visit troops who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush has made numerous trips to Walter Reed, and has met with families of those killed in action. He's also hosted quite a few wounded vets at the White House. It's also become customary (backed up by military regulations) for these visits to be kept largely free of publicity and politics. The only time I can think of Bush's actions in this area getting much attention was when it came out that Cindy "Momma Moonbat" Sheehan, who was demanding a meeting with President Bush, had actually had one... (READ MORE)

The Midnight Sun: CHILD TORTURE AND MURDER ELEVATED AS ‘ART’ - From the British government covering the butt of pedophiles in Britain to the push in the Netherlands for a legal pedophile party, things aren’t looking too safe in the world for children any more. But who’d have thought that artists would now be glorifying the torture and murder of a real toddler? Back in April, we posted on the widespread pedophilia in high places in Britain and a coverup by Tony Blair of the police investigation of many of his staff. I predicted at that time that pedophilia would be legalized, and referred to other posts we’d done previously on the rising drive in Europe for the legal acceptance of pedophilia here, here, here and here. Incredibly, in a matter of months, in Sydney there erupted the scandal of the taking soft-porn shots of a naked 13-year-old girl, and of sick, perverted art critic Robert Nelson going into ecstasies about the ”diabolically sexual” image of his toddler daughter “pleasure sucking” on a dummy/pacifier. (READ MORE)

Kings of War: Putting Munich and Hitler behind us - Jeffrey Record is a scholar whose work on insurgencies and the use of history I very much respect. I recommend ‘Beating Goliath’ to the swelling number of my own students who want to understand how great powers lose lesser wars. But I can’t agree with his latest piece in Parameters. He argues that we should retire the potent historical analogy of Munich, Chamberlain and Hitler, along with the overarching fable about appeasement, which teaches that it is futile to accommodate aggressors, and that only a confrontational strategy is a winning strategy. Record notes that hawkish folk have overused this analogy, pressing it into service with disastrous results in Iraq (not to mention Suez). Further, there was little realistic alternative to a policy of appeasement in the 1930’s. Preemptive intervention with force, say, in 1936 was politically and militarily impossible. (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.

Tom Burnett Sr. and Alec Rawls will be in Somerset PA this weekend to condemn the crescent/broken-circle memorial to Flight 93. Here is Alec's notice about the press conference that he and Mr. Burnett will host after they speak at the public meeting of the Memorial Project Saturday morning:

...Also on the press conference panel will be Diane Gramley, President of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, and the Reverend Ron McRae of Johnstown.

In addition to our own statements, Mr. Burnett will read a statement from Congressman John Kline (R-MN), and Alec Rawls will present statements from Rich Davis, founder of the Chester County Victory Movement, and from the president of Muslims Against Sharia Law.

After answering questions for the press, Mr. Burnett and his co-panelists will host a rally to stop the re-hijacking of Flight 93. Members of our informal Western Pennsylvania Compatriots group (who spoke out at the last public meeting) will be in attendance, and some out of town folks will be coming as well.

And check this out: a big color ad in the local paper:

To inform and invite the local populace, a half-page full-color ad will be running in tomorrow’s edition of the Somerset Daily American. It explains how the original Crescent of Embrace design remains completely intact in the Circle of Embrace redesign, which is explicitly described by the Park Service itself as a “broken” circle. That is exactly how architect Paul Murdoch described his original Crescent design.

All the redesign does is include an extra arc of trees that explicitly represents a broken off part of the circle. The unbroken part of the circle (the crescent), remains exactly as it was. It is still a giant Islamic shaped crescent, still pointing to Mecca , as your colleague Kirk Swauger verified a year ago:

Rawls maintains that the midpoint between the tips of the crescent points almost precisely toward “qibla,” the direction to Mecca , which Muslims are supposed to face for prayer.

His claims seem to be backed up by coordinates for the direction of qibla from Somerset that can be found on Islam.com. When superimposed over the crescent in the memorial design, the midpoint points over the Arctic Circle, through Europe toward Mecca.

Except for Kirk’s verification of the Mecca orientation of the crescent (which was not picked up by any other news organization), reporters have not been bothering to check the facts. When our claim that there are to be 44 inscribed translucent blocks emplaced along the flight path was reported a few months ago, Gordon Felt, President of Families of Flight 93 was quoted denying it, but despite this clear conflict of factual claims, no reporter bothered to simply open up the design drawings and count.

Can reporters actually be shamed into doing their jobs? Doubtful. They seem to regard actually checking the facts as giving some kind of unfair advantage to the side that is right (which they would be happy do do if the right side was THEIR side).

When the press is in this anti-fact-checking mode, their methodology is just to quote each side. We are trying to take advantage of this behavior by having some of our independent supporters use source documents to fact-check our basic claims, then attest in press releases and at the public meeting that they have personally counted the translucent memorial blocks etcetera.

Co-panelist Diane Gramley will be making such declarations for the cameras. Cao (the organizer of these blogbursts) did some checking from source documents this week and has already posted a powerful press release about her findings that Alec will present at the press conference.

Tom Burnett's attendance should bring national news coverage. If Tom and Alec can direct some of that coverage to our independent fact checking, it might break the media embargo on fact checking, and once we get the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent out as verified national news, the crescent goose will be cooked.

If you want to participate in our fact-checking drive, Alec has a set of fact checking guides, with links to source documents, at CrescentOfBetrayal.com. Just send him a link to the post or comment in which you attest to your fact-checking results, and he will compile them.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url.

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: Neptunus Lex

Recently retired and now a government contractor wheenie, Lex is a Naval Aviator and a friend of this blog.

Stop in and read a sea story or two.

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
A Major's Perspective: Iraq Diyala Offensive - Today Iraqi and US Forces kicked off the offensive into Diyala. Here are some of the reports coming out of Iraq currently: (NY TIMES ART): “U.S.-backed Iraqi troops sealed off Baqouba and staged house-to-house searches Tuesday as they began a new offensive in Diyala province in the latest bid to clear al-Qaida in Iraq from its last major belt near the capital. Iraqi security forces hope to build on recent security successes elsewhere in a new test of the country's readiness to take over its own security and enable American troops to withdraw eventually. The U.S. military said the improved abilities of the Iraqi troops have enabled the Americans to play a less high-profile role in operations, helping to lower the number of U.S. casualties so far this year.” (READ MORE)

Sgt B AKA Gramps: Chow… - Pretty much anywhere else you go, you eat three meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner… Normally you eat it sitting down, whether at a table, picnic table, dinner table, or driving down the road.. Everywhere except the military… Every meal is called “chow”, and, in the Infantry, it is eaten standing up… They don’t even make the vehicles with flat hoods to use as a dinner table anymore… (I miss my old jeep…) Whether it’s “morning chow”, “noon chow”, or “evening chow”, it’s all “chow. It comes in green plastic containers called “mermites”, and in each container is one element (meat, veggies, dessert, etc…) The company forms up from junior to senior, privates and specialists first, and then NCOs, and then officers; you take care of the juniors first… (READ MORE)

Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Combat Engineers finding fewer IEDs - FALLUJAH, Iraq – Blinding lights pierce through the darkness on a long and winding stretch of pitch black road, exposing otherwise unseen rusted metal objects and abandoned cars. Behind these bright lights are a group of Marines, part of a route clearance team with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 1, who are tasked with locating ordnance on and near roads traveled by Iraqi citizens and Coalition forces. The Marines, with Company C, conducted an all-night street-sweeping operation July 23, in the city of Karma, Iraq. In past years, the city and its surrounding area has been a hotbed for insurgent activity, and many of the roads were heavily laden with improvised explosive devices. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Taliban, Pakistani Army clash in Swat - The Pakistani Army claimed 48 Taliban fighters, including 10 senior Swat leaders, were killed in a major battle in the settled district of the Northwest Frontier Province. Five Pakistani soldiers were also reported killed. The Taliban refuted the claims of heavy casualties, but confirmed one leader was killed in the fighting. "We have inflicted heavy losses on the militants,” a military spokesman told GEO TV. “We have video footage showing bodies of the militants killed in the fighting." The Pakistani military has inflated enemy casualties in the past while downplaying their losses. Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman for Swat leader Mullah Fazlullah, denied the Taliban took heavy casualties. He did confirm that Maulvi Hussain Ali, a Taliban commander who is also known as Toor Mullah, was killed in the fighting. (READ MORE)

Matel-in-Iraq: The Worst Hard Time - I just finished The Worst Hard Time about the dust bowl of the 1930s. Some of what the author describes applies to Iraq. We get the different color dust and it is almost impossible to get away from it. [...] Iraq has a climate like the Texas Panhandle, only hotter. Anbar gets 4-7 inches of rain in a usual year. Most of that rain falls in winter. I saw a couple of good storms and once it rained all day, but the place is a desert. I wonder, however, how much of desolation is man-made. The dunes in Anbar are dust and dirt, not sand. Plants can grow on dirt, if they have a chance. Unfortunately, people and goats have been working on this place for 4000 years. It would never be verdant, but how much could be restored? We have planned and funded some small scale restoration projects. I don’t know if they will last very long. Local shepherds have incentives to let their animals devour what they can get, even if it means destruction in coming years. (READ MORE)

Manrymission: Site Visits in Kurdistan - Last week, I spent a day visiting projects in Dahuk followed by a day of visits in Erbil. I saw lots of great projects. With construction projects, the most memorable things are the things that aren’t perfect. You’ve probably heard the phrase “good enough for government work”. When I was in Korea, we often joked that it was the land of the “not quite right”. Sometimes when I visit projects here, I think of “Iraqi good enough”. At one school we visited in Dahuk, the contractor had recently completed a basketball court. Unfortunately, he installed the goal so that the backboard was almost even with the half circle below the free throw line. In the photo, Masuood, the Deputy in the Dahuk Office, is shooting from the line. Also at this school, the contractor installed a very popular fire extinguishing system I’ve seen at several other school projects. (READ MORE)


Back and still writing:
Bouhammer: Bouhammer’s Plan - I have wanted to write about this for a while, and I think it is time. What you are about to read is controversial. It may make some people dislike me, if not hate me. It may make some never read my blog again. If so, I can only say it is a shame that you would let a disagreement with my opinion offend you that much. I have felt this way for a long time and have been very verbal about this for quite a few years, to include an editorial I wrote in the Army Times several years ago. This article http://www.military.com/news/article/general-defends-15month-tours.html does not necessarily support my opinion, but it is partially there. See here is what Bouhammer thinks…. I think that we as a country, government and military need to get off of this notion of a 12 or even 15 month tours and then rotate out. I call this the Vietnam mentality, and it does not serve us well. It may have been needed then, when we had a draft for a highly unpopular war, but it does not fit now. (READ MORE)


News from the Front:
Iraq:
After the bombing, Shiite pilgrims walk on - The sea of pilgrims moved toward the majestic Imam Kadhim mosque complex with its twin gilded domes and towering minarets. They came to mourn Imam Kadhim, the Shiite saint who died in 799 when, his followers say, the Islamic world's caliph, a Sunni, poisoned his food in prison. The pilgrims — women in black robes, and men in traditional dishdashas or simple T-shirts and sweatpants — marched long distances from all over Iraq to mourn his death. They covered their heads with T-shirts to protect themselves from the sun. (READ MORE)

Operation Sabre Pursuit in Diyala nets several cache finds - DIYALA PROVINCE, Iraq – Iraqi Army and Multi-National Division – North Soldiers discovered several weapons caches July 28 near Hamud, a town in the eastern Diyala Province, during clearing operations in support of Operation Sabre Pursuit. Iraqi Army Soldiers with the 18th Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, along with 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Soldiers, unearthed 12 caches. (READ MORE)

Ministry of Interior tells two-years of progress - Baghdad – While fighting terrorism and insurgents during the past two years, the Ministry of Interior has undergone great change and faced many challenges yet managed to nearly double its police forces and greatly improve security for Iraqi citizens. A conference at the Ministry of Interior Monday highlighted some of the major progress since Jawad al Bulani became Minister of Interior in June 2006. (READ MORE)

MND-B Soldiers reduce explosive threat, detain suspected terrorist - BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers confiscated homemade explosives, destroyed an improvised explosive device and detained a suspected terrorist in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad July 28-29. At approximately 11:45 p.m. July 28, Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division secured an undisclosed amount of homemade explosives at a house in the Saydiyah community of Rashid. (READ MORE)

ISF, MND-B Soldiers seize munitions in Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized multiple weapons caches in Baghdad July 29. At approximately 12 a.m., soldiers with the 24th Brigade, 6th Iraq Army Division seized improvised explosive device components north of Baghdad. (READ MORE)

MND-B Soldiers detain five suspects in New Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers detained a key suspected criminal and four of his suspected associates in eastern Baghdad July 29. Soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light) detained the suspects while conducting an operation specifically targeting them in the New Baghdad district. The individuals allegedly house and hide key criminal leaders. (READ MORE)

Al-Qaeda support structure dwindling - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces killed one known terrorist facilitator and detained 18 suspected terrorists during operations around the country to disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq operations Monday and Tuesday. Coalition forces killed a known terrorist facilitator during an operation in Baghdad on Tuesday. When the force arrived at the target location, the targeted man came out and refused to follow the interpreter’s instructions to surrender. (READ MORE)

Wolfhounds Continue Their Search for Weapons - CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Cache search operations in the Taji Qada is an ongoing effort. This area, northwest of Baghdad, is dotted with occasional houses, farms, growing businesses, and vast amounts of barren land travelled by goat herders and the occasional terrorist. (READ MORE)

Soldiers Tour Adhamiyah Fish Market, Assess Needs, Find Solutions - BAGHDAD — Deep purple eggplant glisten in the sun while stacks of fresh watermelon rest on display safely under cover from the mid-day, 115-degree weather as Striker Brigade Soldiers walk the street admiring the produce and assessing needs of this popular Fish Market in the Suleikh neighborhood of the Adhamiyah District of Baghdad, July 24. (READ MORE)

Iraqi Forces Show Self Sufficiency - CAMP VICTORY — This past June, Iraqi Army Soldiers in Taji recovered two broken down humvees on their own and restored them without any help from Coalition maintenance. “Probably the most exciting thing for me is I compare (today) to our partnership with the IA in 2006, and it’s night and day,” said Capt. Steve Chadwick. (READ MORE)

Iraqi Government Conducts National Literacy Program - CAMP VICTORY — Iraq is targeting more than 6 million illiterate adults through a national literacy campaign. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that more than 60 percent of the adult population in Iraq cannot read or write. This was not always the case, U.N. officials said. (READ MORE)


Afghanistan:
Militants killed in Ghazni province - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 29, 2008) — Several militants were killed during a Coalition forces’ operation Monday in Ghazni province targeting a Taliban leader. Coalition forces searched compounds in Gairo District targeting a militant leader known to conduct foreign fighter operations in Ghazni and Paktika provinces. (READ MORE)

Militants detained in Khost province - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 29, 2008) — Three militants, including the target of the operation, were detained Monday during a Coalition forces’ operation to disrupt militant activities in Khost province. (READ MORE)

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)
Trade Talks Crumble in Feud Over Farm Aid - International talks aimed at ushering in a new era of free trade collapsed in Geneva yesterday during a bitter split between developed and developing countries over the future shape of global commerce. (READ MORE)

Sen. Stevens Indicted On 7 Corruption Counts - Alaska's Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, was indicted yesterday on seven charges of making false statements about more than $250,000 that corporate executives doled out to overhaul his Anchorage area house. (READ MORE)

McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence - For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true. (READ MORE)

U.S. Wary of Pakistani Appeal for More Cooperation - Bush administration officials have responded with skepticism to an appeal by visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani for increased intelligence cooperation, which he said would help his country attack militant groups and terrorist encampments near its border with Afghanistan. (READ MORE)

Chinese Officials Give Club District A Brusque Cleanup - BEIJING -- Ryan Horne loves living in China. He arrived in March from Los Angeles to manage the opening of a club in the heart of the city's night-life district. Drawn by the promise of wealthy investors and an ultra-creative founder, Horne set about trying to shape the "it" factor in Beijing... (READ MORE)

Rivalry to Taliban 'not welcome' - The Bush administration's senior official for South Asia said Tuesday that a reported buildup of the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance's forces in Afghanistan to counter the Taliban's expanding influence is "not welcome" and that "ethnic politics" should not impede the central government's efforts to unite the country. (READ MORE)

U.N. thermostat to be set higher - UNITED NATIONS Everyone complains about climate change, and the United Nations is finally doing something about it - on Friday, the temperature inside U.N. headquarters in New York will rise by 5 degrees. (READ MORE)

Farm tariffs sink world trade talks - For the fourth time in five years, global trade talks collapsed Tuesday, dealing what could prove to be a fatal blow to the nearly seven-year-old Doha round of negotiations. (READ MORE)

Campaign trail drains the Hill of staffers - After months of sitting on the sidelines and watching the presidential race unfold in Iowa, Florida and Colorado, Capitol Hill staffers are leaving for the campaign trail in droves. (READ MORE)

U.S. homelessness on decline - Some 1.6 million people were forced to use an emergency shelter or transitional housing at some point between 2006 and 2007, but the number of people who are chronically homeless dropped nearly 30 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to a report made public Tuesday. (READ MORE)


On the Web:
Austin Bay: Challenges of the Muslim World: Oil, Testosterone and War - Oil and unemployed testosterone don't mix, they collide -- with war the likely result. "Economics and demographics" lack the sizzle of oil and testosterone, which as eye-grabbers are an Oprah-notch below money and sex. But in the grand sense of geo-strategy and the intricate 21st century problems that produce wars, poverty and other forms of sustained misery, economics and demographics are the fire. Anyone looking for instant soundbites won't find them in William Cooper and Piyu Yue's "Challenges of the Muslim World, Present, Future, and Past" (Elsevier, 2008). Cooper is an economist at the University of Texas. A spry 94 years old, he's comfortable with detailed history as well as voluminous data. Yue works at the University of Texas' IC2 Institute. The book is not a political polemic -- it is penetrating scholarship addressing persistent, fundamental structural issues that defy polemics. (READ MORE)

Michelle Malkin: The Brangelina-fication of the Obamas - You couldn't pass a grocery store line this weekend without seeing the picture-perfect smiles of the Obama family. There were Barack Obama's young daughters (whose privacy their parents so sanctimoniously claim to want to protect) flashing their pearly whites on the cover of People magazine. Malia and Sasha competed for attention right next to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's toddler daughter, Shiloh, whose cherubic face was splashed on the cover of another celebrity tabloid. Next to them beamed basket-case starlet Lindsay Lohan and her new lesbian lover -- oh, and that formerly pregnant "man" who just gave birth to a baby girl. The Obamas blended seamlessly into this Hollyweird pop culture galaxy. The spread in People, which earlier this year fawned over a photo of the bare-chested Obama in his swimsuit, was supposed to be an "exclusive" first and last look at life at home with the Obamas. (READ MORE)

Walter E. Williams: Environmentalists' Hold on Congress - Let's face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it's a different story with groups such as Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. When they speak, Congress listens. Unlike the average American, they are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned to be a disobedient congressman's worse nightmare. Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation. For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling. They've managed to have the Congress enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible. Similarly, they've used the courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security. (READ MORE)

John Stossel: How Many Wives Is Too Many? - "Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect ... on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group's West Texas compound," The Los Angeles Times reported last week (http://tinyurl.com/6oenlz). The Associated Press and other media used similar words: "indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs ... charges of felony sexual assault of a child." Straightforward reporting? In my "20/20" special "Sex in America", polygamy activist Mark Henkel said no, it's an ignorant distortion. "The media kept saying, 'Polygamist leader, polygamist leader,'" Henkel told me. "But the case actually involved incest and arranged marriage of a girl with her 19-year-old cousin. There wasn't anything [that] had to do with polygamy. [Jeffs] wasn't called an incest leader. He wasn't called an underage-marriage leader. He was called a polygamist leader." (READ MORE)

Brent Bozell III: Barack's No Reagan - Newsweek's love for Barack Obama knows no bounds. After Obama's speech in Berlin, Newsweek published a headline that suggests an editor who's spent six days drunk on a merry-go-round: "Obama's Reagan Moment." That deserves the Lloyd Bentsen retort: "I knew Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a friend of mine. Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan." The Newsweek piece sneered that while Obama and John Kennedy spoke to more than 100,000 people, Reagan spoke to a much smaller audience, "only about 20,000," and they were outnumbered by leftist protesters the night before. They recalled, "Even some of Reagan's aides were embarrassed by the 'tear down this wall' line, thinking it was too provocative or grandiose." Newsweek would concede only that "Reagan understood stagecraft," and communism's fall "made his words prescient." In other words, the Gipper was a showboat who got lucky. (READ MORE)

Mike S. Adams: The Al-Jazeera Constitution - "It is puzzling to the court that the promotion of tolerance would take the appearance of such intolerance as is contained in the religious materials distributed with the Safe Space program.” Federal Judge Owen Forrester writing on diversity at Georgia Tech. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC) may have taken the place of The New York Times as both the most liberal and least credible paper in America. And Andrea Jones may well be the least professional reporter at the AJC. Some will recall Jones’ crass assertion that plaintiffs in the recent Sklar v. Clough federal case against Georgia Tech were suing for the right to be “intolerant.” When I called her out on this, she responded via email suggesting I lacked credibility by saying that I was just a “blogger.” This is significant because I have never “blogged” nor inhaled while doing so. (READ MORE)

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Are You Ready For $6.00 a Gallon Gas? - Two weeks ago, more than two-dozen civil rights, African-American, agriculture, senior citizen, and veteran advocacy groups came together to begin the STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR Campaign. We announced our support of legislation of any kind that will increase domestic energy supplies and decrease energy costs for our domestic poor. We especially like the Americans for American Energy Act (HR6384), which offers significant short-term and long-term solutions to our energy woes that amount to economic enslavement of the poor. The increase of African-American and senior groups speaking out on this issue is a new and unexpected twist in this debate. Evidently, it has made a lot of people nervous on Capitol Hill. This week a partisan political group, funded by radical green groups, is answering our call. (READ MORE)

Jon Sanders: Tell the Legislators: Low Taxes and Regulations Are Good for Growth - If there were a handbook produced for state lawmakers entitled "Economic Growth: How Best to Stop It Without Making Voters Think That's What You Want," it would promote high progressive tax rates to care for the poor and high regulations on business to protect people. There's no better way for states to rid themselves of the people responsible for the lion's share of state revenues, both directly through paying their taxes and indirectly through growing the state's economy. That is a lesson that resounds in a new study by the American Legislative Exchange Council written by Dr. Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore. In their study, "Rich States/Poor States: The ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index," Laffer (yes, the Dr. Laffer of Laffer Curve fame and Reagan's supply-side revolution) and Moore (economist and editorial board member of The Wall Street Journal)... (READ MORE)

Michael Medved: War on Middle Class Values, Not on Middle Class - Despite demagogic and alarmist claims that a relentless “War on the Middle Class” has left ordinary Americans pummeled and powerless, middle income people still manage to find enough money to secure most of life’s true necessities – like the grotesquely violent and anti-authoritarian video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which shattered all sales records in its first week of release. Despite a price tag of sixty dollars (more than ninety dollars in the special edition), and despite its release on April 29, 2008, at the very height of national concern over a potential recession, the game sold an astonishing 6 million units in its first week. By the end of 2008, at least 11 million Americans will have purchased GTA IV, placing the game in nearly one out of ten households in the land of the free. (READ MORE)

The Virtuous Republic: A Perfect Example of the Media’s Leftist Bias - We in Hell know that much of the mainstream media–an extension of the left, despises their country and make every effort to let that hatred be known. Though We are surprised the VOA published such a piece, it is a perfect example of a typical “America is evil” leftist journalism. First, the report has to include a statement from the Taliban. What the hell? Did we call Hitler after every skirmish in WWII and ask him for his take on events? The Taliban are our enemies. Remember 9/11? Remember they provided safe haven for al-Qaeda? Hello, they are our enemies, not Big Oil! Second, why is it that every story from Afghanistan has to include a statement that NATO forces killed “innocent” civilians? For the love of God, did this author check out the credentials of those who claim that civilians were killed? (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: John Edwards, The Democratic National Convention, & A Rielle Hunter Inspired Catch-22 - Since the National Enquirer caught the Silky Pony at a hotel room with his mistress, Rielle Hunter, the media landscape has been surreal. Even though Fox News has spoken with a security guard who has confirmed that Edwards was there, this huge story has been largely ignored by most of the mainstream press. In some cases, the Left has even gone to bizarre lengths to try to keep the story quiet. After a blogger at the LA Times wrote about the story, they ordered their bloggers not to discuss the story again. Even Wikipedia initially blocked any mentions of the story on John Edwards' page (As of today, they do have a small mention of the story). The reaction on the left side of the blogosphere, with a few exceptions, has been to either ignore the story or protest that it's not true....Which brings us to the Democratic National Convention next month. (READ MORE)

abu muqawama: Ackerman & Kilcullen hullabaloo - Here's some one-stop shopping for those of you who may be following the fall-out from Spencer Ackerman's story yesterday about the new inter-agency COIN manual,* wherein Spence includes a profanity-laden quote from one David Kilcullen regarding the stupidity of the Iraq war. This prompted Herr Doktor Kilcullen to post a clarification on SWJ: “Spencer Ackerman, in yesterday’s Washington Independent, claims I told him the Iraq war was ‘f*cking stupid.’ He did not seek to clear that quote with me, and I would not have approved it if he had. If he HAD sought a formal comment, I would have told him what I have said publicly before: in my view, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was an extremely serious strategic error. But the task of the moment is not to cry over spilt milk, rather to help clean it up: a task in which the surge, the comprehensive counterinsurgency approach, and our troops on the ground are admirably succeeding.” (READ MORE)

This Ain't Hell: Gitmo’s poets - Debra Burlingame writes in the Wall Street Journal about Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, a former Guantanamo detainee cum homicide bomber in Mosul last March. His poetry was included in the book “Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak,” (Iowa University Press, 2007) and read for a Guantanamo “teach-in” in 2006; “In his introductory remarks to the students, Mr. [Marc] Falkoff described Al-Ajmi and the other detainee poets as ‘gentle, thoughtful young men’ who, though frustrated and disillusioned, expressed an abiding hope in the future. ‘One thing you won’t hear is hatred,’ he said, ‘and the reason you won’t hear it is not because I edited it out, it’s because it’s not there in the poetry.’” Two years after the “teach-in”, that gentle, thoughtful young man drove about 10,000 pounds of explosives into an Iraqi army compound and detonated the truck killing 13 and wounding scores of others leaving a smoldering 25-foot crater where his “gentle, thoughtful” personage evaporated. (READ MORE)

Soccerdad: A passive aggressive national ethos - The other day I commented on a story from the Washington Post that Arab states were failing to fulfill their commitments to fund the Palestinian Authority. Since then a few other bloggers have written about the story as well as a related story in the Jerusalem Post. Boker Tov Boulder points out that by focusing on what wasn’t paid to the PA, the story misses the bigger picture: what’s been paid to the PA and gone for naught. In fact 3 weeks ago, we learned that $1 billion in international aid had been disbursed to the PA in 6 months. (This is something that Boker Tov Boulder followed up on.) “The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians.” (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Bull, China, Shopping - Well, the 2008 Summer Games are drawing nearer, and it seems that everyone is getting into the spirit of celebrating the Olympics and their host, Beijing, China. Those of us who opposed awarding the Games to that city and nation from the outset are growing fewer and fewer -- but the evidence that we were right is growing. My reasons for opposing Beijing were twofold. First up, the Olympics are a "reward" for being a good member of the international community. Countries that have a brutal record for outward aggression and inward oppression are usually excluded from the honor. And on that front, China's record -- on both fronts -- is indisputable. Outward aggression? Talk to Tibet. Or Taiwan, formerly known as the Republic of China. Inward oppression? Try being a Christian there. (READ MORE)

Winds of Change: From Counterinsurgents to Peacekeepers - Associated Press Baghdad Bureau Chief Robert Reid and his chief military reporter Robert Burns published a dispatch from Iraq over the weekend that should have made banner headlines. “It's not the end of fighting,” they wrote. “It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.” This is exactly right, but millions of Americans still have no idea. Coverage from Iraq has diminished as much as the casualty rates since General David Petraeus implemented an effective counterinsurgency strategy in early 2007. At least we’re finally seeing a media consensus emerge after a year and a half of looking at the data as though it were inkblots on a Rorschach. It’s nearly impossible to work in Iraq anymore and deny what has happened. Even so, this is no time to get recklessly drunk on victory and declare “mission accomplished.” Nor is this the time to bolt for the exits from an unpopular war. (READ MORE)

Orin Kerr: The War on Terror and Measuring the Threat - I've been enjoying the Opinio Juris blog debate on Ben Wittes's new book, Law and the Long War. I'm almost done with the book, which I have found a really excellent read: As with all of Wittes's work, it is thoughtful, balanced, and independent. But before posting some substantive response to the book, I wanted to flag a dynamic that I think is driving both the book and the blog responses to it: Assessments of the terrorist threat. My sense is that each person's assessment of the terrorist threat heavily influences where they come out on what measures the government should take in the war on terror. At bottom, everyone in this debate is a pragmatist. Everyone balances the values of advancing public safety by taking aggressive measures against the value of advancing civil liberties by rejecting those measures. (READ MORE)

Steve Schippert: Intelligence, Pakistani Whispers and 'Fighting The War For Ourselves' - Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani’s demands that the United States hand Pakistan intelligence and allow the Pakistanis to exclusively “do the job” themselves has been irking me all day and into this morning. Again, here’s what he said right after meeting with President Bush. “If the missile strike was proven to have been a US operation, it would be a violation of Pakistani sovereignty, he said. ‘Basically, Americans are a little impatient. Therefore in the future I think we’ll have more co-operation on the intelligence side and we’ll do the job ourselves,’ Mr Gilani said.” I was going spend significant time writing why this is a wholly untenable alternative and explain it in simple, plain terms. But there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. An August 2007 PrincipalAnalysis on precisely this - cause and (adverse) effect in sharing target intelligence with Pakistan - is precisely the round peg for today’s round hole presented by Prime Minister Gilani. (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: The Youth Vote and Hubert Humphrey - In 1968, the counter-culture was flush with fervor, passion, and glamor. The youth of America were going to stop a war, end inequality, and bring peace, love, and happiness to all. The embodiment of the pacifist, anti-war position was Eugene McCarthy. He mounted such a successful challenge to Lyndon Johnson that Johnson decided not to seek re-election. Hubert Humphrey, a good man and a long time figure of great stature among liberal politicians (who had become invisible as LBJ's VP*) eventually took the Democratic nomination. Prior to his stint as LBJ's VP, Hubert Humphrey was known as an impassioned liberal who pressed a legislative agenda based on progressive ideas. His one failing as a nominee was that he could not bring himself to completely break with the policies of LBJ. He supported the war in Vietnam and tried to hedge by explaining how he would end the war and bring the troops back home. (READ MORE)

McQ: Obama wants a "peace dividend" - This was linked previously by Lance, but it deserves a post of its own. We’ve been through this before: “Barack Obama said Friday that persuading NATO allies to contribute more troops to Afghanistan could lead to U.S. troop cuts and help improve the U.S. economy, with reduced military expenditure being diverted into tax cuts to help middle class families.” As you see more and more specifics from this guy (see reparations post) the scarier he gets. We’re presently engaged in building up the military because we’ve found that our doctrine of being able to fight two mid sized wars simultaneously can’t be done with the military of the size it is today. Why? Because it puts too much stress on the force, doesn’t allow for the appropriate amount of downtime for training and can’t be sustained. All of those points were points the Democrats have been pounding for years. (READ MORE)

Dale Franks: Madness! Madness! - This election cycle is just stunning. I really am amazed at the level of sheer insanity being played out on the Left side of the political spectrum. Just scroll down on the current home page here at QandO. One idiot doesn’t want a bomber pilot as president. Another idiot wants to tax the top 50% extra to defray the costs of their global warming burden. South Central LA may have all new fast food joints banned, presumably because they’re keeping Whole Foods from opening up a combination market and organic tofu deli straddling Crip and Blood territories. All I can think of is that it’s because the Left is now positive they’ll sweep the election in November. "Finally, we’ll have a real progressive in the White House, not some half-Republican like Bill Clinton. And we’ll control the Senate! We’ll finally get to remake the country the way we always wanted, back when we were dope-smoking hippies at Berkeley in ’68!" (READ MORE)

Political Vindication: Liberals Reveal Their Problem With Democracy - The problem? Americans might get to vote on issues that the left has been ramming through the courts! John Fund of the Wall Street Journal has a wicked column unmasking the tactics of leftist who are opposed to Ward Connoly’s Civil Rights Initiative that seeks to “approve race-neutral government policies in public hiring, contracting and university admissions.” Here in California I worked for the campaign that ultimately passed, called the California Civil Rights Initiative. It was my first dip into the dirty pool of politics, and after two months of being spit at, called a racist and hollered down in my classrooms when I rose to defend it, I learned a bitter lesson - liberals don’t want to debate you, they want to beat the shit out of you. (READ MORE)

Missiles and stilettos: 54% Back Military Tribunals for Terrorists over U.S. Courts - Most Americans believe suspected terrorists should be tried by military tribunals rather than in U.S. courts, as the first such trial began this week at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. Seventy-one percent (71%) say the suspects should not be given the rights U.S. citizens have in court, while only 18% think they should, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national survey. While some politicians, foreign officials and non-government groups like Amnesty International argue that the Bush administration is acting outside of the law in its treatment of these terrorist suspects, just 30% of Americans believe they should have access to U.S. courts, as opposed to 54% who favor the special military trials. (READ MORE)

Neal Boortz: DESPERATE TO BE GREEN - The Democrats have their thongs so far up their politically correct behinds that they are unable to think rationally. They are drunk on OwlGore's kool-aid. Take this Democrat Convention coming up in Colorado. First it was the food. No fried food. Food must be organic or have a small carbon footprint. You get the point. Well now it looks like their entire scheme for offsetting their carbon footprint for the convention has completely failed. Eager to utilize their latest scheme – carbon offset programs – the Democrat Convention chose the eastern Colorado wind turbine as their offset investment. The only problem: It doesn't generate electricity. None. An investigation reveals that the turbine which was to begin producing electricity February 15th but it is incapable of producing its intended output. They found that the district's turbine has never produced marketable energy because of massive equipment malfunctions. (READ MORE)

Amy Proctor: Iraqi Official Visits Walter Reed, Thanks Troops, Praises Facility - Iraq ’s interior minister Jawad al-Bulani visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center and thanked U.S. servicemembers and their families for their sacrifices on behalf of his country. From the DOD: “Jawad al-Bulani told reporters that he wanted to convey his country’s ‘gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifices made by these great warrior-soldiers, in the freeing of the Iraqi people and in helping us in Iraq to recover from tyranny and dictatorship.’ The senior Iraqi official also told reporters that he’d witnessed ‘the level of technical and medical sophistication’ that is being practiced at Walter Reed. Observations at Walter Reed will be employed ‘to help our own wounded and many, many victims of terrorism and violence in Iraq,’ Bulani said.” (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: The One: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions”; Update: GOP launches “Audacity Watch” - Spaketh He Who Is to a choir of Democrats, “[T]his is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for.” But wait, says Jake Tapper, rushing to the rescue. He didn’t mean it the way it sounds. He’s not claiming to be the incarnation of America’s “best traditions;” he’s merely claiming to be a blank screen on which the Andrew Sullivans and Doug Kmiecs of the world can project their fondest hopes and dreams — which is true enough, as even Hillary once acknowledged. Feel better now? All geared up for Commander-in-Chief Blank Screen? “His entire point of that riff was that the campaign is NOT about him,” says a House Democratic staffer. The Post “left out the important first half of the sentence which was something along the lines of ‘it has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. Its about America. I have just become a symbol.’” (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Will Congressional Dems back down on oil ban? - David Freddoso sees a showdown coming six weeks before the election in Congress — and he looks forward to it. The ban on drilling in the OCS and in shale formations expires on September 30th, and Congress usually extends these bans in the appropriations process. Freddoso expects Nancy Pelosi to remain obstinate in supporting the ban, and hopes Republicans in both the House and Senate rise to her challenge: “Democrats will likely propose a continuing resolution to extend funding for the government through the end of the calendar year without making major changes. This bill will certainly include a continuation of the drilling ban — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), a zealous opponent of offshore drilling since the 1980s, has resisted all attempts to change it.” (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: “Settled science”? 31,072 American scientists just say no to AWG - The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine - an organization poo poo’ed by AGW proponents as insignificant, ties to “big oil”… the usual mantra - has released the results of their petition drive to American scientists. 31,072 of them who reject the assertation that global warming is a crisis, or that it is caused by human activity. The release of the list has managed to elude most MSM outlets, but can be found reported in Heartland Organization’s July 2008 newsletter, Environment & Climate News. Tho SourceWatch has a less than complimentary review of both the OISM and it’s head, Arthur Robinson, the petition has garnered the support of credible scholars. “The current list of 31,072 petition signers includes 9,021 PhD; 6,961 MS; 2,240 MD and DVM; and 12,850 BS or equivalent academic degrees. Most of the MD and DVM signers also have underlying degrees in basic science.” (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Blackwater follies - Remember that defense contractor that Obama blasted in the primaries? Its employees protected him in Afghanistan. And by protected, I mean, were willing to take a bullet for him. Toby Harnden of the London Daily Telegraph reported: “A tight-lipped Anne Tyrrell, spokeswoman for Blackwater, said she could neither confirm nor deny that the company had been involved in the visits by the senators to Afghanistan or Iraq. My request to Bill Burton, Obama’s national spokesman, for comment on the Bedard story - including whether the alleged quote or its sentiment was genuine - went unanswered. But a source familiar with Obama’s security arrangements told me that Blackwater, along with the Secret Service, did pull security for the three senators in Afghanistan, though not Iraq.” Harnden reminded readers of what Obama said in the winter and spring: (READ MORE)

Dadmanly: Kinds of Allegiance - Last week, Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama made a speech in Berlin, Germany. The Grand Revision on Iraq may be underway in earnest, but there were other revisions on display as well, when Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama gave a grand speech in Berlin. It is no doubt true that those who win wars get to write history, but it is just as true that just about anybody, from any political legacy, can attach themselves to a victory they did not foresee, in a struggle they did not support, for an objective they did not seek. This is just as true when speaking of the Cold War, as when speaking of our emerging victory in Iraq. Sen. Obama, presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President, hails from a political tradition and party that devalued and obstructed both. For many on the Left, the Cold War was an invention and a series of provocations; communism and socialism were appealing doctrines, marred only by unfortunate implementations. (READ MORE)


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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 site, you can go here.

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
A Major's Perspective: More Trouble on the Border Part Two - As we saw from yesterdays activity in Afghanistan the problem with the border region is not getting better. The Pakistani Prime Minister was in Washington today, and not much came out of that. What I did find very interesting was what the NATO Secretary General had to offer on his trip to Afghanistan two days ago. “The battle came as NATO’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, warned of critical danger to Afghanistan, with foreign fighters and terrorists trying to destabilize the country. He called for greater international attention to the problem. ‘Those people — and we see too many of them in recent weeks and months — who are coming into Afghanistan to create mischief and havoc, those people who want to destabilize Afghanistan, and those people are killing NATO forces as well, are the same who are after the destabilizing of Pakistan and the destabilizing of other parts of the world,’ he said.” (READ MORE)

A Battlefield Tourist: US Had Warning of Attack in Nuristan - Qourbon had been in the capital of Kabul just a few days when he got a call from relatives telling him things in Nuristan were turning bad. Not only that, but his home village of Want was about to become the epicenter of trouble. As an interpreter for US forces, Qourbon is seen as both a patriot and a traitor. In the mirror, Qourbon sees a man who helps those that are helping his country during some very dark times. Now that war was on the doorstep of his small mountain village, he knew he had to return home. His first thought is to help protect his family. A second thought is to warn the soldiers he’s committed to that a large scale militant attack on their base is imminent. Several email interviews were completed with “Qourbon” for this story, whose name has been changed in an attempt to protect his identity. (READ MORE)

Back on the Homefront: I Miss Daddy...part 2 - So tonight I sit and write about MY dad. Today would have been his 76th birthday and I miss him greatly. You see, my father died almost exactly three years ago, during Micah's first deployment. In fact, Micah was home for his first R & R when my father died. My father was a great man. Its very hard to put into words just how much he meant to me. He was always there to support me in everything I did. I will never forgot his words to me when I decided to change my career path during college. I started out Pre-Med and after two years discovered that I didn't really want to be a doctor, but rather a teacher. Everyone told me I was crazy to switch to a lower paying job...but when I broke the news to my parents, my father gave me the best advice. He said "I don't care if you choose to be a ditch digger. As long as you enjoy what you're doing and it makes you happy, that's all that matters." Somehow, he knew that's exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in time. (READ MORE)

Jake's Life: Update on Jake in Afghanistan - Jake's mom and I were able to talk to Jake Sunday 7/27. He sounded in good spirits. He is currently deployed in an area that is far removed from any western comforts. There is no air conditioning and no internet. When I asked him how long it would be before he got back to a base where he could kick back and enjoy some down time, he replied that he expected to be in his current AO until the end of his deployment. He said he is getting packages ( one his mom had sent took almost 4 weeks) and he asked me to again extend his thank you's. When he does eventually get some internet he will extend thanks personally. The Taliban is very active in the areas he is patrolling and Jake's team is getting outstanding artillery and air support. (READ MORE)

IN-iraq: Series of suicide bombings mark Shia pilgrimage to Baghdad - At 8 a.m. this morning I was awoken by one of the largest-sounding explosions I've heard. Followed by gunshots. I looked out the hotel window of where I was staying and saw the security detail looking up, probably at the rooftop guards, but no one appeared too concerned. They knew we weren't the ones being attacked. The neighborhood was being rocked by suicide attacks targeting Shias while they marched toward the Kadhimya shrine where one of their important Imans is buried. The BBC story reported twenty five people dead and about 70 wounded in another attack by women suicide bombers who conceal their bombs under dresses (and who must have been extremely hard to pick out in the crowd of pilgrims.) The NYT story reported that the attack was conducted by three women using suicide vests who struck minutes apart. (READ MORE)

Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: New sheik takes stand against AQI - SITCHER, Iraq (July 24, 2008) – Marines and Iraqi tribal and security officials gathered near the Sitcher Iraqi Police Station to celebrate the inauguration of a new local sheik July 24. Amar Abdullah Husain al-Jumaili received his official appointment as a sheik, replacing his uncle, Sheik Ahmed Sarham, who was killed along with 20 other sheiks and three Marines after a suicide bombing at a meeting in Karma. Marines of 2nd Platoon, Company G, Task Force 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, attended the ceremony to pay their respects. “Sheik (Amar) is a great man and a great leader, and I’m confident he’ll do good things here,” said 1st Lt. Hussein Yaghnam, platoon commander, 2nd Platoon, Company G, Task Force 2/3. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Operation Omens of Prosperity begins in Diyala - The long awaited offensive to secure Diyala province has begun. Iraqi Army and police forces, backed by the US Army, officially started Operation Omens of Prosperity today. Iraqi sources originally said the operation would begin in the beginning of August. An indefinite curfew has been imposed on the province to restrict the movement of al Qaeda and allied terror groups. The bulk of the offensive is likely to take place in the rural northern regions of the province, where al Qaeda still maintains strongholds. US and Iraqi special operations forces have been hunting al Qaeda in the Hamrin Mountains, which span Diyala, Salahadin, and Tamin provinces. This area is a major fallback position for al Qaeda in Iraq and allied insurgent groups. (READ MORE)

Major John: Oh no, I am "Them" - I have had the most terrible realization in the whole time I have been here in Iraq. Since I moved up to Baghdad and began working for MNSTC-I, I have become one of the people at the "Puzzle Palace". I'm one of the guys at the Head Shed. I'm part of the "they" as in "they @#$%ed things up, back there in Baghdad" as spoken by people in the field (I know, I was one of 'em). Oh no, I might become one of "THEM"! I swear I will do everything I can to not become one of the faceless bureaucrats at the "flagpole". I don't want to be Them. (READ MORE)

Sergeant Grumpy: Justice for Bosnia? - After years on the run, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, was captured in Serbia last week. This man played a big role in stoking the fires of hatred and genocide in Bosnia Herzegovina. While all sides in this terrible three way civil war descended into the depths of human cruelty, Karadzic's forces led the way and were responsible for some of the most gruesome acts of inhumanity since WWII, and rival the behaviour of Al Qaeda in Iraq. This includes the round up and murder of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995, and the vicious shelling campaign against Sarajevo (66 people were killed and 200 wounded in just one day, documented here.) It is particularly gratifying for me to see this bastard caught - catching him was one of our major "projects" in Bosnia, as "D" also discusses. (READ MORE)


Back and still writing:
Army of Dude: Enemies With Benefits - Don't tell the pathetic non-serving members of the old media (and new media), but the surge wasn't wholly responsible for the drop in violence seen in Iraq over the last year. I have outlined the three main reasons violence has subsided, but one of the more important aspects is still largely misunderstood and mischaracterized by the punditry across the country. The 'awakening group' movement first appeared in Anbar in late 2005 (or if you're John McCain, it started in a time warp before and after the surge) and has since grown to a large, lethal force that battles elements of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq. That is usually where the media narrative leaves you, insinuating that these groups are patriotic volunteers casting out the demons of al-Qaeda. What they don't mention is both the original motivations for these groups and their history of battling American soldiers. (READ MORE)


News from the Front:
Iraq:
Inside Sadr City: Imam Ali Hospital - BAGHDAD — In the first years of the war, reporters would rush to the scene of car bombings. Now the American and Iraqi military block access to bombing sites until the damage can be cleaned up and the victims evacuated. One result of this policy is that the immediate aftermath of attacks in Iraq are no longer seen on television or in newspapers. To be sure, violence is down in Baghdad and many other cities in Iraq, but it has not disappeared. Today, when many reporters and photographers hear a large explosion in the city they head to the nearest hospital to document the dead and wounded as they are brought to morgue or emergency room. In Sadr City, that means traveling to one of four hospitals. (READ MORE)

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)
Fannie Mae's Political Immunity - President Bush is poised to sign the housing and Fannie Mae bailout bill, after the Senate passed it with 72 votes on the weekend. But an underreported part of this story is that Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to allow a vote on Republican Jim DeMint's amendment to bar political donations and lobbying by Fannie and its sibling, Freddie Mac. (READ MORE)

The Thrill Is Gone - That was a brief fling, even by European romantic standards. One day after his speech before an adulating Berlin crowd last week, Barack Obama said more NATO troops would allow the U.S. to cut its presence in Afghanistan. The "billions of dollars" saved, he told CNN on Friday, could "finance lower taxes for middle-class families." (READ MORE)

The Price of RomneyCare - Gearing up for 2009, liberals are eager to claim Massachusetts as a Valhalla of health reform. Their enthusiasm is apparently evidence-proof. Even Mitt Romney, who should know better, took to these pages recently to proclaim, "Health-care reform is working in Massachusetts." Shortly after Mr. Romney's self-tribute, Governor Deval Patrick wheeled out a new $129 million tax plan to make up for this year's health spending shortfalls. Yet partisans are cheering the cost overruns as a sign of success. (READ MORE)

Lawmakers Agree to Ban Toxins in Children's Items - Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children's products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from toys. (READ MORE)

Internal Justice Dept. Report Cites Illegal Hiring Practices - For nearly two years, a young political aide sought to cultivate a "farm system" for Republicans at the Justice Department, hiring scores of prosecutors and immigration judges who espoused conservative priorities and Christian lifestyle choices. (READ MORE)

U.S. Strike May Have Killed Al-Qaeda Aide - An apparent U.S. missile strike on a compound in northwestern Pakistan killed six people early yesterday, including a man believed to be a top al-Qaeda operative and key figure in the terrorist group's production of chemical weapons and conventional explosives, U.S. and Pakistani sources said. (READ MORE)

Four Women Kill Dozens In Suicide Blasts in Iraq - BAGHDAD, July 28 -- Wearing their flowing black garments, they can carry hidden explosives past most checkpoints because customs of modesty prevent male guards from frisking them. (READ MORE)

Sen. Reid Thwarted On Bundle Of Bills - Senate Republicans yesterday blocked consideration of 35 bills that were rolled into one omnibus measure designed to overcome the objections of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who has used parliamentary tactics to stymie dozens of pieces of legislation. (READ MORE)

Calif. Field Goes from Rush To Reflection of Global Limits - In May 1899, a pair of oil prospectors wielding picks and shovels dug into a bank of the Kern River where some gooey liquid had seeped to the surface. About 45 feet down, they hit oil, and when the local newspaper printed the news, it set off an oil rush that swept up hundreds of fortune seekers, oil companies, a big railroad and even some enterprising school districts that bought up tracts in hope of turning a profit. (READ MORE)

Evangelicals warn against McCain-Romney ticket - Prominent evangelical leaders are warning Sen. John McCain against picking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate, saying their troops will abandon the Republican ticket on Election Day if that happens. (READ MORE)

Report finds politics in hiring - Justice Department officials two years ago had no better candidate for a counterterrorism job than a widely respected prosecutor who handled several terrorism cases and had received the department's highest honor, according to a report released Monday. (READ MORE)

Doubts mount on Afghan surge - While U.S. commanders and both presidential candidates are pressing the Pentagon to send more troops to Afghanistan, several military and Afghanistan analysts say a surge there will not solve and could even worsen the problems of a country famous for resisting foreign interference. (READ MORE)

Exchange rate costs U.N. $10 million - UNITED NATIONS Burma is forcing U.N. aid agencies to convert cash to local currency at below-market rates, costing the world body $10 million so far and drawing comparisons to the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq. (READ MORE)

Bush successor faces massive debt - President Bush, who entered the White House to budget surpluses, will bequeath the largest-ever budget deficit to his successor, and the men vying for that honor struggled Monday to explain how they will dig out from the inherited red ink. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
William MCGurn: Mercenaries for Darfur - When Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg announced a new antismoking campaign the other day, they put their money in line with their mouths. The former Microsoft chairman and the mayor of New York together pledged $500 million to target what Mr. Gates called "one of the greatest health challenges facing developing countries." The same day they were announcing their campaign, the president of Sudan was on a visit to Darfur. Presumably it was his way of responding to news that the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is seeking an arrest warrant against him on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet Omar al-Bashir did not appear to be a troubled man. At one rally, the AP reports, he broke into a little dance -- and state television ran footage of supporters "waving banners reading 'No! No! to the prosecutor!' and 'We are with you, al-Bashir!'" (READ MORE)

Michael J. Boskin: Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession - What if I told you that a prominent global political figure in recent months has proposed: abrogating key features of his government's contracts with energy companies; unilaterally renegotiating his country's international economic treaties; dramatically raising marginal tax rates on the "rich" to levels not seen in his country in three decades (which would make them among the highest in the world); and changing his country's social insurance system into explicit welfare by severing the link between taxes and benefits? The first name that came to mind would probably not be Barack Obama, possibly our nation's next president. Yet despite his obvious general intelligence, and uplifting and motivational eloquence, Sen. Obama reveals this startling economic illiteracy in his policy proposals and economic pronouncements. (READ MORE)

Michael Soussan: Don't Hold the Olympics Without Iraq - The decision last week by the International Olympic Committee to ban Iraq from participating in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing reflects far more negatively on the committee itself than on Iraq. The country's sin, as described by the IOC, is to have changed the members of its national Olympic committee, awarding posts based on local political loyalties. This is an interesting accusation -- given that the previous chief of Iraq's Olympic effort was Uday Hussein, the son of Iraq's former dictator. If Uday Hussein was acceptable to the IOC, why is the committee up in arms about the Iraqi government's decision to reshuffle its Olympic management team? The answer is that Iraq's new Olympic managers have not yet been accredited by the IOC. What will it take to get them accredited? Will they have to start torturing their athletes the way Uday used to do, when they failed to perform to his liking? (READ MORE)

Garry Kasparov: Obama Should Stand Up to Russia's Regime - Berlin is an ideal place for an American president, even a would-be president, to speak to the world about freedom and shared values. Barack Obama's recent visit evoked the famous speeches of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan that defended the U.S. stance against the Soviet Union and tyranny in Eastern Europe. Both the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union are now gone, but dangerous, nuclear-armed dictatorships are not. Sadly, Mr. Obama declined to mention this in Berlin. The stage for his disappointing performance was set several weeks ago, when the Illinois senator rejected John McCain's proposal to eject Russia and exclude China from the Group of Eight (G-8). Mr. Obama's response during a July 13 interview on CNN -- "We have to engage and get them involved" -- suggests that it is impossible to work with Russia and China on economic and nuclear nonproliferation issues while also standing up for democracy and human rights. (READ MORE)

Michele Bachman: The Democrats' Energy Charade - Earlier this month the House of Representatives voted on an energy bill called the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands (Drill) Act. The good news, for those of us who actually want to do something to lower gas prices, is that it failed. The bad news is that Democrats will try again before the November elections. We can expect more legislation that claims to increase production, but in reality offers a framework of heavy regulation, litigation and union rules that could prevent new energy supplies from getting to market. And we can expect legislation that would likely hamper current oil and gas exploration. Consider the details of Drill. It would not have opened new lands to energy exploration. Instead, it would have increased the number of lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's (ANWR's) sister territory on Alaska's North Slope -- from one lease sale every two years to one every year. (READ MORE)

Bret Stephens: The Berlin Obama Didn't See - "People of the world -- look at Berlin!" - Barack Obama, July 24, 2008, quoting Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter, Sept. 9, 1948 - By all means, senator, let's take a long, hard look at Berlin: Germany's hip, and nearly bankrupt, capital. A couple of years ago, Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit -- a man Passport magazine describes as "effortlessly personifying" the city's "hip, sophisticated, and tolerant image" -- petitioned Germany's high court to compel the federal government to assume at least 60% of the city's debt, then topping $77 billion and marking a fivefold increase since the city's reunification in 1990. About 12% of the city's budget went to servicing its debt, close to the 15% figure New York City reached when it nearly defaulted under Mayor Abe Beame in 1975. Worse, unemployment in Berlin was running around 17%, about twice the national average, and the city was poorer than it had been 16 years before. (READ MORE)

Wesley Pruden: The messiah who can't break away - Barack Obama leads in the polls, but every pollster understands the butterflies in the bellies of sober Democrats. With everything going for him, why hasn't Barack Obama put a little daylight between himself and John McCain? Querulous minds want to know. Where, asks Kellyanne Conway of the Polling Company, is "the Barack bump?" Where, indeed. Many of the reporters traveling with Mr. Obama on his Magical Mystery Tour of the Middle East (and certain European beachheads of Islam) and the giddy pundits have been treating him as if he were, in Mzz Conway's description, "the fifth Beatle." Gallup found a tiny weekend bump — perhaps a pimple or a zit — over the weekend, and on Sunday put his advantage at 9 points. This is getting close to something significant, but Gallup cautions that "the key question remains as to whether this 'bounce' is short-term (as happens to bounces ... following intense publicity surrounding a convention) or if his lead will persist: (READ MORE)

David Limbaugh: Obama's Ongoing Foreign Policy Implosion - There is one unexpected gift that John McCain's presumptive nomination brings to the GOP. McCain was certainly not my choice, but if any other Republican candidate were running, it's unlikely we'd be seeing as much emphasis in the campaign on foreign policy, and Obama's unfolding incompetence in this area might have escaped essential scrutiny. Democrats were no doubt looking to capitalize on the Iraq issue before it became apparent that the success of the surge had exceeded all but our most optimistic expectations. Because McCain is perceived as one of the most ardent proponents of the surge and Obama fiercely opposed it, Obama finds himself caught in a trap over the entire issue. Obama's arguments, echoing the perennial anti-Iraq-war line Democrats have been peddling for years now, that we shouldn't have attacked Iraq in the first place are falling flat, given the radical reduction in violence levels the surge has produced. (READ MORE)

Dennis Prager: Obama's Naive Berlin Speech - To better understand Sen. Barack Obama, his speech before 200,000 Germans in Berlin is one good place to start. As we shall see, however, it does not leave one secure as to the senator's understanding of history, of America's role in the world, and what to do about evil, among other important issues. Obama: "At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning -- his dream -- required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West." Promised by the West? Or promised by America? It wasn't "the West" that Obama's father went to; it was America. During the Cold War, it wasn't "the West" that led the fight to preserve Western freedom; it was America. Obama concedes this point in his next sentence: "And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life." (READ MORE)

Dinesh D'Souza: Countering Richard Dawkins on Al-Jazeera - To listen to Richard Dawkins, or read his book The God Delusion, you would get the idea that belief in God is a dangerous delusion, even a kind of virus of the mind. Dawkins finds absolutely no rational sense in theism, and moreover, he insists that science stands firmly behind him. Given this, one would think that Dawkins would be eager to debate the best advocates for God, in the firm confidence that he could defeat them. Why should an advocate of the round-earth have any hesitancy in debating an advocate of the flat-earth? Surely a round-earth man should be able to prevail in such debates every single time. Shortly after the publication of my book What’s So Great About Christianity, I invited Dawkins to debate me. Since that time I’ve debated many of the leading atheists—Christopher Hitchens, Michael Shermer, Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer. Yet despite my several invitations, Dawkins has always refused to agree to a debate. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: Great Expectations - There is a reason the psalmist warned, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." (Psalm 146:3) It wasn't that he was cynical about humanity. It appears the writer observed that the best efforts of humankind were unable to produce the satisfaction people sought in earthly leaders. Which brings us to the expectations surrounding Barack Obama. It is a truism in politics that you are supposed to lower expectations in order to boost your political stock should you exceed them. Sen. Obama has done precisely the opposite. He has raised expectations so high there is only one way he can exceed them following his nomination in Denver. That is to climb to the top of a mountain peak, there to be transfigured and ascend into Heaven. No wonder Jon Stewart lampooned his messianic personae on "The Daily Show," saying that while in Israel, Obama made a short visit to the manger in Bethlehem where he was born. (READ MORE)

Ed Feulner: Kyoto Treaty: Pointless Promises - Next month, the greatest athletes in the world will visit Beijing for the Olympic Games. Undoubtedly they’ll set new records in plenty of sports. But after the stars go home, China (which has cut back industrial production in an effort to clear the air ahead of the Olympics) will go back to setting a dubious record of its own: It’s the greatest emitter of carbon dioxide on earth. China’s CO2 emissions rose 8 percent last year, after jumping more than 11 percent in each of the two previous years. According to a Dutch study, China alone accounted for two-thirds of the growth in global greenhouse-gas emissions in 2007, and its current lead over the United States in such emissions is only expected to grow. Contrast that with our environmental record. The U.S. government estimates that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by just 1.6 percent in 2007, after dropping 1.5 percent the year before. (READ MORE)

Chuck Norris: Nancy Pelosi vs. Rush Limbaugh - Despite the fact that a recent poll found that Americans now believe (by a 3-1 ratio) gas prices are a bigger problem than global warming, The Washington Post noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., an avid opponent of offshore drilling, vows to block a drilling vote and even dialogue from occurring on the House floor. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., echoed the same sentiment when he eliminated energy amendments to his anti-speculation bill. At the same time, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., canceled committee consideration of spending bills for fear that Republicans would include drilling amendments. When President Bush recently lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling, the ball was placed completely in Congress' court to take the next move. But instead of Congress representing the majority of Americans' wishes to drill for domestic oil, they once again are favoring a minority. (READ MORE)

Bill Steigerwald: Government Is Our Problem - On Jan. 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address to a nation battered by high inflation, punitive taxes and a stagnant economy, he said famously, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” “Yeah, right!” said all the sophisticated socialists in politics and media who assumed Reagan knew and cared as little as they did about limited government, free market capitalism and individual freedom. Reagan's libertarian rhetoric was better than his actual governance or his ability to derail or even downsize the speeding train of Big Government. But his complaint about government is truer than ever. Behind virtually every major social problem, financial crisis or corruption scandal that afflicts us lies the heavy hand or leaden foot of government, which today in all its levels gobbles up more than 50 percent of our annual GDP and controls more of our lives than ever. (READ MORE)

Richard H. Collins: Next JFK Or No Way? - Is Senator Barack Obama the next John F. Kennedy or Richard Nixon? This may seem like an odd question given their party affiliation, but simply labeling them Democrat or Republican fails to get at their personalities and styles. In terms of style Obama clearly wants to emulate JFK; as the next young, handsome intellectual, with the fashionable wife and adoring crowds. Like the young Kennedy, Obama seeks to rise above mere politics to iconic status. But despite his rock star status, Obama shares some of Nixon’s personality and style: a touch of paranoia and a tendency to stretch the truth in his own defense. And if you get Obama away from a teleprompter, and the large adoring crowds, he is far less eloquent and a great deal more combative. There is an arrogance and obsession with secrecy that is Nixonian. As I have noted before, as soon as he became the presumptive nominee Obama immediately accused his opponents of racism and smear tactics. (READ MORE)

Donald Douglas: Lone Tennessee Madman Used to Smear GOP - I put out the call this morning, perhaps idealistically, for partisans of both sides to end to the politicization of personal tragedies, with reference to Sunday's shooting tragedy at Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennessee. It turns out that the alleged killer, Jim David Adkisson, was a fan of right-wing media personalities such as Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. In a four-page letter outlining his intentions, Adkisson reportedly declared not only his hatred of the "liberal movement," but also "anyone different from him." Adkisson was deeply frustrated with his employment prospects and he was divorced after a deeply troubled and potentially violent marriage. Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas, an acquantaince of Adkission's for 25-30 years, suggested he was facing psychological crisis: (READ MORE)

A Newt One: National Service Act: Amerika's Newest Conscript Nation - The National Service Act: Universal National Service Act of 2007 (Introduced in House) “To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the favorable treatment afforded combat pay under the earned income tax credit, and for other purposes.” To REQUIRE? Forced servitude? To AUTHORIZE THE INDUCTION? Forced servitude? I am detecting a pattern here. And for OTHER PURPOSES? What might those other purposes be..prey tell? “Short Title - This Act may be cited as the 'Universal National Service Act of 2007'” There's that "universal" term again. Reps Charles B Rangel, Yvette D Clark and Jim McDermott are responsible for this crap. Yes, it was introduced months and months ago but it hasn't died yet and is still in committee. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: Trading Fire - It is such an innocuous term. It makes you think of people hanging around a campfire and taking turns keeping it lit or sharing it with your neighbors who are having a tough time getting their fire started. However, the reality is that Pakistan and India were slugging it out across their disputed border region for nearly 12 hours in an attempt to kill each other's troops. “The night-long gunbattle came after one Indian soldier and four Pakistanis were killed Monday along the heavily armed frontier that divides Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said. No further casualties were reported Tuesday.” Given that these two countries are nuclear weapons capable, and share a common disputed border that has borne witness to three prior wars, you would think that this story would be far more prominent, especially as the Pakistani foreign minister was in the US meeting with President Bush to discuss Pakistan's ongoing problems with the frontier provinces that are safe havens for the Taliban and al Qaeda. (READ MORE)

The Anchoress: Obama, you’re no John Paul II - In pondering the question of whether or not Team Obama released for publication his prayer at the Western Wall, I wondered if any other politician had done the same. John McCain apparently did not. There has been a case where the text of a prayer left at the Western Wall was purposely released, but that was a very specific prayer, released for a specific reason. As part and parcel of a whole acknowledgment of wrongs against the Jewish people, John Paul II’s prayer at the Western Wall was made public. It was made public because it was pretty much a signed and stamped historical document, one that has been preserved at Yad Vashem. We really need to know if Ma’ariv is telling it straight when they say that Obama released the prayer as he left his hotel and headed to the Western Wall. Says TNR, "Yediot Aharonot, Israel's most popular daily, apparently also received a copy of the note in advance but decided not to print it.' (READ MORE)

Augean Stables: NYTimes Not Interested in Palestinians Killing Palestinians - When Israel seems guilty of killing Palestinians to The New York Times, the newspaper is eager to trumpet the story across its front page. We all remember the June 12, 2006 headline “Errant Shell Turns Girl Into Palestinian Icon“, and the article that suggested that in all likelihood, Israel was responsible for the shell that killed 9 Palestinians. But when Palestinians kill Palestinians, The New York Times is a lot less interested. A car bomb near a Gaza beach on Friday exploded near a Hamas vehicle, killing five Hamas members, a 7 year-old girl, Sareen Safadi, and wounding 22 others (at last count). Did The New York Times put the story on its front page? No, but the article about over-exuberant parents of children at summer camp did. How about the International round-up on page A2. Again, no. (READ MORE)

The Belmont Club: The wrong place - Two assertions about Iraq ought to be challenged or at least examined more closely. The first is the idea that security improvements in Iraq and al-Qaeda’s defeat had little if anything to do with the US effort. The second is the assertion that the “real” strategic center of gravity always should have been Afghanistan, because the proper object of the War is to “get bin Laden”. Take the question of whether the growing success in Iraq had anything to do with US effort. Once violence in Iraq began to wane and al-Qaeda was clearly being defeated, the search to find a non-American explanation began in earnest. For a while it was fashionable to credit Moqtada al-Sadr’s “ceasefire” with improving conditions in Iraq. The Guardian report of February 2008 ascribing nearly miraculous powers to al-Sadr typified the explanation that violence was down because he had turned it off. (READ MORE)

Blonde Sagacity: Philadelphia's Folly: "Racial Loyalty Over Citizenship" - I feel like really profound articles are VERY few and far between. Most just hollowly regurgitate an event and those that seek to be moving rarely make the mark. Investigative journalism seems to be dead --whether for financial reasons or maybe reporters are just scared. The inkies shouldn't be baffled that subscriptions are plummeting and sales are at an all time low (even for the NYT). But, that being said, every once in a great while you find and article that you can't just skim through. One in which each line written feels like a slam dunk and you're saying "yeah!" out loud. An article that makes you want to meet the author and shake their hand. I read one of those yesterday by Kevin Williamson on National Review Online. It's an article about the state of affairs in Philadelphia, but I think it can be symbolic of the entire country when it comes to racial issues and the taboo in speaking about them. (READ MORE)

The Captain's Journal: The Surge - Senator John McCain is being taken to task for alleged discrepancies in his surge narrative. Joe Conason with Salon has recently discussed “McCain’s embarrassing assertion that the Sunni insurgency’s turn toward the U.S. and away from al-Qaida came because of the surge.” Conason’s discussion is pedestrian and rather boring, but a more sophisticated hit job is being proffered by Professor Colin Kahl - now advisor to Barack Obama - entitled When to Leave Iraq. I will only deal with one major aspect of the commentary, that being his citation of Major Niel Smith’s paper and the alleged obsession of the Anbar tribes with the stateside talk of withdrawal. According to Kahl, “In short, contrary to the Bush administration’s claims, the Awakening began before the surge and was driven in part by Democratic pressure to withdraw.” (READ MORE)

Confederate Yankee: When Denied A Chance to Turn Wounded Troops Into A Photo Op, Obama Declined to Meet with Them at All - Why did Barack Obama cancel his visit to see wounded U.S. soldiers yesterday at Landstuhl Medical Center in Ramstein, Germany? According to the Politico and the Chicago Sun-Times, the Obama campaign is blaming the military, claiming that the Obama campaign was told the visit "would look too political." But according to MSNBC, Obama and his Senate staff could have visited wounded troops; he simply couldn't bring along his campaign staff and the media. The campaign's response? They withdrew the request to visit the troops. The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him." If he can't use them as props, it seems Barack Obama has little use for the military. Come to think if it, that is roughly how they factor into his feckless foreign policy plans as well. (READ MORE)

Dadmanly: Grand Revision - As if in prelude to commentary on Sen. Obama’s Presidential (Campaign) Visit to Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel and Palestinian Territories, and an adoring Europe, this past week evidenced recent evidence of Grand Revision. This, of course, is the long predicted traverse of various political classes of Conventional Wisdom from What We All Knew Was True then, to What We Have Always Known is True now. This turn of events surprises many, even those quite familiar with the various adages that embroider the truism, Defeat is an Orphan, Victory has a Thousand Fathers. Old political hands no doubt have all manner of examples from Partisan Navigation of the various methods and manners of the political pivot. Changes in political trade winds prompt a wise Captain to change tack. Paradigms shift. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Drill - Lake Erie, too. The Buffalo News has a story that shows the folly of banning offshore drilling. The USA has banned drilling under the Great Lakes. Canada hasn’t. Canada is. Thus not only is the USA ban not working, it is making us further dependent on our No. 1 foreign supplier of oil: Canada. I have nothing against Canada. I rather like its imperial gallon. It is a manly thing, worth 1.2 of our puny gallons. Republican Congressman John Peterson, who represents a Pennsylvania district near Lake Erie (but not on it), is sponsoring legislation to open offshore drilling. “I don’t think the Great Lakes has ever even been a discussion item,” Peterson told the Buffalo News. He said it makes no sense. (READ MORE)

Baron Bodissey: In Enemy Territory - Below is an article from today’s Die Welt, translated into English through the tireless efforts of our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc. It concerns the evolution of huge no-go zones in various German cities. You’ll notice that the construction of the largest mosque in Germany inside one of these areas did nothing to alleviate the problem. It’s also notable that the immigrant groups that are causing most of the trouble are not the Turks — who are the traditional foreigners in the area — but the more recently arrived and “stateless” Arabs: “In enemy territory - In several German cities the police barely dare to enter certain districts, because they are attacked immediately. A visit to a ‘dangerous place’in the Ruhr District. Just take another step across Viehofer Street, and a border has been trespassed. It’s invisible; there are no warnings in the available maps of the city of Essen. But behind the line other laws are enforced. At Viehofer Street the ‘danger zone’ begins. That’s what the local police calls the Northern part of the Essen downtown.” (READ MORE)

Yankeemom: Swindlers and Liars - Our esteemed elected have been putting on quite the show these past few days ~ well, actually longer than that…they are just outdoing themselves lately with their present unadulterated hogwash. I’ve been watching the House and Senate sessions and hearings and conferences on CSPAN as I work here at home. There have been hearings on impeaching Bush (that was a set up if I ever saw one), Gitmo detainee rights (good lord, these people have no clue), the limitations of executive powers (my, my, how the Dems hate Bush), gays and lesbians in the military (just another sideshow by the committee - boy, do they get upset easily!). And that’s just since last Thursday! Gee, I could come up with several other things that really need attention ~ like, our combat troops getting all they need to stay alive and be victorious, the illegal immigration crisis, our wounded warriors getting all the care they need and deserve... (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Obama the Cipher - Richard Cohen asks the trenchant question of his fellow Democrats in his opening paragraph today, and the answer recalls a Hillary Clinton dismissal of Barack Obama: “‘Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire,’ I asked a prominent Democrat. He paused and then said that he admired Obama’s speech to the Democratic convention in 2004. I agreed. It was a hell of a speech, but it was just a speech.” Just what has Obama accomplished in his political career? What stand has he taken, what policy has he promulgated into law? Cohen is at a loss to find anything that Obama has done to differentiate himself enough to run for President. On the other hand, Cohen says he has no problem answering that question regarding McCain: (READ MORE)

Michael J. Totten: The Bin Ladens of the Balkans, Part II - I met Shpetim Mahmudi at a covered outdoor cafe on a cold day in late spring in the ethnic Albanian region of Macedonia. Black clouds hung low over the city of Tetovo. Fat rain drops pelted the sidewalk and the awning over my head as I shivered in my light black leather jacket. “Let's go inside,” he said, “where it's warmer and drier.” We found a table and ordered coffee. He leaned in close to whisper when the waiter stepped out of earshot. “We are really in trouble here,” he said. “We are really in trouble with the Wahhabis.” After the Kosovo War ended in 1999, well-heeled Gulf Arabs with Saudi money moved in to rebuild mosques destroyed by Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslav army and paramilitary forces. They're still there trying to impose a stern Wahhabi interpretation of Islam on indigenous Europeans, and they're having an awfully difficult time getting much traction. (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: So Always Look For The Union Scumbags - Well, if it's an election year, then it's time to once again reflect on the state of organized labor as it once again assumes the role of John to the Democratic whores. They wave their money and wring all sorts of empty promises and proclamations of true love, of the sheer virility and irresistibility and skillfulness from the prostitute, but in the end all they get is screwed. This time around, the unions are lining up behind Senator Barack Obama. And he seems quite willing to take their money and mouth all the right platitudes. But it isn't really fair to single him out for this -- as happens every election cycle, the entire Democratic establishment is bending over and hiking their skirts (once the checks clear). (READ MORE)

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A short primer on the Insurgent Groups operating in Iraq.

Source material from MNF-Iraq, Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism; SITE Institute; International Crisis Group. Accurate as of July 15, 2008


The insurgency in Iraq consists of myriad anti-Iraqi Forces and their supporters who are engaged in guerilla warfare against Coalition and Iraqi security forces and use terrorism to strike fear in the Iraqi populace. Their tactics include, but are not limited to, suicide bombings, improvised explosive device attacks, kidnapping, rudimentary sniper techniques, mortar attack, rocket attacks, and murder.

Insurgent activity is centered in the Sunni-dominated parts of Iraq, primarily the areas to the northwest of Baghdad and between the cities of Tikrit, Ramadi, Samarra and Fallujah. Sunni Arabs, including Ba’athist and former elements of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Saddamists, sometimes collaborate with international Sunni Arab terrorist networks, providing funds and guidance across family, tribal, religious and peer group lines. The foreigners include jihadists led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist network, al-Qaida in Iraq, AQI. Together, these groups work to perpetuate a reign of terror designed to breed havoc in Iraq.

Some of these anti-government elements are clearly groups drawn from the former regime, the Ba’th Party, the paramilitary Fedayeen, and the Republican Guard. Some are anti-Saddam nationalist groups with no desire to see Saddam restored but resentful of U.S. and Western presence; others are Islamist groups, some members of which have been trained overseas or are foreign nationals, the latter including Syrians, Saudis, Yemenis, and Sudanese. Some activities have been the work of criminals or criminal organizations, large numbers of criminals being released at the end of the war and some certainly hiring themselves out for attacks on Coalition forces.

Other Iraqi jihadists groups are active, notably Ansar al-Sunnah, which operates primarily in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq. The foreign jihadists enter Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Iran.

Most of the victims of jihadists suicide bombings have been civilians, innocent bystanders. This has been especially true since Coalition and Iraqi security forces developed tactics and deployed better equipment to protect themselves from the attacks. Among the Sunnis, a variety of groups have been identified. They are united only in the sense of having what have been called “negative” goals in opposition to U.S. presence; in seeking some return to the former status quo in which the Sunni minority have exercised power since the Ottoman period.

There are also armed militias attached to the two main Shiite political parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and al-Dawa, and there is clearly potential for Shiite participation in violence. The pattern of Iraqi activity thus far looks remarkably similar to that in Palestine with roadside bombs, which have also been used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and other so-called improvised explosive devices; ambushes of soft-skinned vehicles; opportunistic rocket-propelled grenade and shooting attacks on military personnel; attacks on civilian members of the Coalition authorities and foreign personnel working in some way for the Coalition; attacks on Iraqi “collaborators,” most recently police and army recruits’ and attacks on economic targets such as power stations, oil installations, and pipelines. There has also been an increase in the number of attacks upon “soft” targets, principally civilian gatherings.

Terrorist Organizations
al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers
Mujahideen Shura Council
Ansar al-Sunnah
Islamic Army in Iraq

Although some named terrorist groups operate in Iraq, these categories are constantly shifting. The following is a brief introduction to some of the most well-known terrorist groups in Iraq.

A. al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers (al-Qaida in Iraq—AQI)

Al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers (AQI) is the name of the terrorist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before being killed in a Coalition forces airstrike on June 7, 2006.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri replaced al-Zarqawi as leader of the group whose name implies that they consider themselves as the center of Jihadist activities in Iraq.

The goals of this group are to overthrow the Iraqi government and establish an Islamic state in Iraq by forcing out the U.S.-led coalition. Elements of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, and indigenous Sunni Iraqis form the ranks of this group.

AQI has issued claims of responsibility in Iraq for attacks on American and Iraqi security forces, often claiming several attacks in one day. The group uses a variety of tactics that include RPG attacks against armored vehicles, guerilla style attacks by armed militants, suicide bombings, and the kidnapping and beheadings of foreigners.

Al-Qaida in the land of the Two Rivers, which is believed to derive most of its domestic support from Sunni Arabs, has focused on attacking Shiite Arabs and the fledgling Iraqi police force. This group is blamed for the bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra in February of 2006 and June of 2007, which set off a series of deadly reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shias.

In addition to these frequent smaller scale attacks in Iraq, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of three hotels in Amman, Jordan that left 67 people dead and injured more than 150.

In January 2006, the group was one of six insurgent organizations to unify under the Mujahideen Shura Council. As of now, all attacks perpetrated by al-Qaida in Iraq are claimed in the name of the Council.

B. Mujahideen Shura Council

The Mujahideen Shura Council, “Freedom Fighter Consultation Council,” is an umbrella organization made up of several terrorist groups in Iraq, including AQI.

The Mujahideen Shura Council first appeared in spring 2005 when it claimed the kidnapping of Australian citizen Douglas Wood. Wood was a contractor with the American firm Bechtel. The group demanded the departure of all foreign forces in Iraq. Wood was freed by Iraqi forces in an operation in June 2005 after being held several weeks.

Despite the high-profile nature of this incident, the Council did not claim responsibility for any more attacks for several months.

In January 2006, several Sunni insurgent groups announced that they were joining to form the Mujahideen Shura Council. They claimed to unite in order to continue the struggle and force out the “invading infidels.” The groups that formed the council included: al-Qaida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers, Jaish al-Taifa al-Mansoura, al-Ahwal Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, al-Ghuraba Brigades, and Saraya Ansar al-Tawhid.

The idea of the Council is to unify insurgent efforts in Iraq against government and Coalition forces. It may also be an attempt to mend a rift between various Sunni insurgent groups. But it is clearly an attempt to unify disparate groups with a radical Sunni ideology driven to destroy the Iraqi government and its international support.

The formation of the Council is also possibly to shore up support for the insurgency by distancing itself from the extremely violent tactics and targeting of innocent Iraqis by al-Qaida. The Council allows AQI to continue its methods without claiming direct responsibility. It is now the organization claiming attacks by its member factions. Thus, the goals of the Council and its members are the same: the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq and the formation of an Islamic government in place of the current government.

C. Ansar al-Sunnah

Ansar al-Sunnah (“Followers of the Tradition”) is a group of Iraqi Jihadists attempting to establish an Islamic state with Shariah law in Iraq. They aim to achieve this by defeating Coalition Forces in the country. To them, Jihad in Iraq is obligatory for all Muslims, and anyone opposed to Jihad is their enemy. The group’s membership is varied, but includes radical Kurds in the Ansar al-Islam, foreign al-Qaidaand other Sunni terrorists.

The Ansar al-Sunnah has targeted coalition military, Iraqi soldiers and governmental institutions, and other political establishments in Iraq which the group treats as puppet regimes of American occupation. The group claims many attacks, many of which are unsubstantiated.
Ansar al-Sunnah has reportedly teamed up with the banned Arab Socialist Ba’th Part and AQI where they pledge to continue and increase attacks on the coalition and Iraqi government forces.

D. Islamic Army in Iraq

The Islamic Army in Iraq, IAI, conducts a brutally violent campaign against foreigners within Iraq, specifically anyone believed to be cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition. IAI has been implicated in several gruesome beheading deaths. The terrorist group aims to drive all U.S. and related Coalition forces, both military and civilian, from Iraq. But IAI does not limit its attacks to just these groups; it has also murdered French journalists, Pakistani contractors, an Italian journalist, and Macedonian citizens working for a U.S. company.

In the past, IAI has kidnapped individuals or group of people and then made demands impossible to meet. Frequently, these demands are indirectly related to the kidnapping victims. For example, IAI captured Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist who also volunteered for the Red Cross in Iraq. IAI demanded that Italy withdraw all troops from Iraq or Enzo Baldoni, both an independent journalist and humanitarian volunteer, would be killed. Italy did not recall its troops and Baldoni was murdered. This is a common tactic of IAI. The Islamic Army in Iraq has also attacked French civilians in retaliation for France’s law regarding headscarves in schools. IAI does not limit its terrorist attacks to non-Iraqis; the group has also executed Iraqi people who join Iraq’s police and military services.

According to old statements by the leader of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the group has thousands of terrorists in its ranks. The group’s leader also claims that the group is predominantly Iraqi, not foreign-born. Statements released in November 2004 announced that the Islamic Army in Iraq has collaborated with Ansar al-Sunnah and AQI.

1/6 Marines in Helmand Province Afghanistan push through the opium routes of Afghanistan and find themselves in the heart of Taliban country - and a subsequent five-hour firefight. NBC's Jim Maceda reporting from May, 2008.

As of April 2008 the following projects and accomplishments have taken place thanks to the hard work and dedication of US Forces operating in Iraq.

Electricity
In 2007, electricity production capabilities climbed 31 percent. Iraq’s electrical infrastructure currently is meeting approximately 65 percent of the country’s demand. Since 2003, electrical demand has increased about 70 percent – meaning residents are buying more consumer goods, such as air conditioners and refrigerators and more essential services are coming on line, such as health clinics and fire stations.


Healthcare Clinics
Currently, 86 of the planned 142 healthcare clinics by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are completed – 12 more clinics are expected to be completed in April 2008. Each clinic sees approximately 300 patients a day.


Hospitals
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ $288.5 million hospital program includes 25 renovation projects at 20 hospitals that focus on children’s and maternity care. Two new hospitals also are being constructed in Basrah and Maysan provinces. Currently, they have completed 17 of the projects, with the remaining eight (8) renovations expected to be completed by May 2008.


New Hospital
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building the $163 million Basrah Children’s Hospital, designed to care for children with cancer and to train doctors in pediatric oncology. The project is being built using U.S. and United Nations funds. Further, medical equipment that will be installed in the hospital is being donated by Project HOPE, an international philanthropic organization. The project is about 70 percent completed, with an estimated construction completion date of July 2008. Approximately 700 workers are employed daily on the job site.


Capacity Development
The Iraqi Ministry of Health has been provided $12 million for health-care training to ensure medical personnel have the knowledge to properly work the new equipment that the U.S. Government has funded. In addition, the MoH also has been provided with $12 million worth of 50 maintenance vans and medical repair tools for maintenance teams, and a one-year maintenance support contract for the Provincial Health Clinics. This will ensure that Ministry has the tools and expertise needed to keep the hospitals and healthcare centers up-and-running.


Education
The Ministry of Education identified the schools it deemed needed work and the USG stepped in to assist. The school program – done with Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Funds – is complete with 1,885 new schools ($259.1 million); 1,604 repaired schools ($95.5 million); and $18.6 million in supplies and equipment.

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is the: League of Disgruntled Majors

Who is the League of Disgruntled Majors?

We are a loosely affiliated group of officers in the United States Army. We are comprised mostly of Major’s, though we are certain that there are Lieutenant Colonels and some senior captains who align themselves with our beliefs. We have even found we have compatriots of similar grades in the other armed forces of the United States. We are mostly those who work behind the scenes of an operation to make it successful. We seldom march at the head of formation, kick in doors, fly aircraft, or drive tanks, though we support those who do daily, with little fanfare. We are planners, logisticians, communicators and coordinators. To steal a phrase from the special operations community, we are "quiet professionals" who do our jobs well, though are seldom recognized for it. For our efforts, we are infrequently praised, and frequently disdained by those we support and those we help make successful.

Why do they Serve? We serve because we love our country and because we agree with most of its policies, though some may be flawed. We agreed to give up personal comfort and personal freedom to serve a cause which we believe to be a higher calling. We serve to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, regardless of the political party in power; past, present or future. We serve the American Ideal.

Stop by and check them out!

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
A Major's Perspective: More Trouble on the Border - I didn't see this in any of the News Broadcasts today, and I found it only by going to look for it. The problems that were so blatantly exemplified two weeks ago in the border outpost fight are still occurring. This is not a situation where anything has lessened. If anything it is increasing. In addition I fear it will only continue to increase as long as the Taliban and Al Qaeda have a safe haven in the tribal regions of Pakistan. (NY TIMES ART): “About 100 insurgents raided a government center Sunday near the border with Pakistan, and more than two dozen of the attackers were killed in the battle, authorities said. Two policemen also died. American troops and aircraft assisted Afghan forces during the battle in Spera district of eastern Khost province, said provincial governor Arsallah Jamal.” (READ MORE)

A Battlefield Tourist: Long Term US Presence in Northern Iraq is Moving Forward - Over the past several weeks, more and more evidence is mounting that a long term US presence in the Kurdish region of Iraq is in the works. On July 16 the mayor of Halabja, Khadr Karim Mohammad, told the Aswat al-Iraqi news agency that the regional government in Sulaimaniyah Province has agreed to sell 1,500 acres of land east of town to the Americans to build an airport. Mohammad believes the airport will actually be an American airbase. Halabja lies just under seven miles from the border with Iran and was the scene of a massacre of more than 5,000 Kurds during one of many Saddam-era offensives that targeted Kurdish civilians and rebel fighters alike. (READ MORE)

Brad's Excellent Adventure: A Place For My Stuff - I spent today packing up my room. I can’t pack completely since I still have at least a week to go, but I could pack up most of my stuff. It’s kind of amazing how much stuff I accumulated in two years here. Even more amazing when you consider that my room is only about 7 ½ x 11 feet. But I’m sort of a packrat, I tend to overpack when traveling, and I like books and movies. So it’s no wonder I could barely turn around in here! Part of what took so long was sorting through files and papers, throwing away what wasn’t needed and filing other things properly. Lots of things just got stuck in convenient nooks and crannies over time, but really needed to be filed. I actually have six years’ worth of tax records over here with me, since I had to document that situation to get my security clearance approved. Once that is settled (and the IRS accepts my 1040X for 2006), I’ll be able to send about a linear foot of files home for storage. (READ MORE)

Charlie Foxtrot: What we really meant was.... - Allahpundit has an excellent takedown of Dem angst over McCain getting verbally pugilistic with their messiah candidate. The best bit that comes out of it is the new Dem line that Iraq can't be lost, so why are we staying? Interesting.... Not too long ago, according to Democrats, we needed to get out of Iraq, because Iraq couldn't be won. Now, according to Democrats, we need to get out of Iraq, because Iraq can't be lost. Unfortunately both arguments simply demonstrate the Dems lack of understanding of reality. You see, not too long ago, we needed to stay in Iraq, because Iraq could be won. Now we need to stay in Iraq because Iraq can be lost. (READ MORE)

Cheese's Milblog: ...aaaaannnnd we're back - I never thought that I'd be even the least bit happy to be back at Phoenix. Don't get me wrong...the feeling is fading fast...but someone has developed the genius plan to leave returning soldiers in the POS “transient tents” at Bagram just long enough actually miss Phoenix. I feel so ashamed that it worked on me! I can't stress how good it was for me to go home when I did. You can probably tell from my past posts that I have been pretty disappointed with my deployment thus far. When I first heard that I was going to Afghanistan, I was picturing a high speed deployment at the tip of the spear with a heavy-weapons company. My optimism was hardly shaken by the embarrassingly irrelevant and insufficient training that I received at Fort Bragg, so it wasn't until my boots hit the ground at Phoenix that I realized just how tame this deployment was going to be. (READ MORE)

Back on the Homefront: I Miss Daddy - A few days ago we took my husband to the airport to catch a plane and head back to Kuwait. We were lucky enough to have him for a 12 day R & R during his deployment. We loved the chance to see him and hang out with him, but saying goodbye again has been difficult...this is what transpired last night: “I want my daddy.” Those are the words I hear as I turn around to find my four year old son coming downstairs because he can’t sleep. Normally Evan doesn’t cry about daddy being gone. Usually he says he misses daddy and proceeds to do one of two things: he plays with army trucks that remind him of daddy or he acts out all day…because in his little mind, that is the only way to deal with the anger he has inside. But this time is different. This time he climbs on my lap, wraps his arms around me and actually cries. (READ MORE)

Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Baton Rouge, La. Marines personify ‘Brothers-In-Arms’ - FALLUJAH, Iraq – As siblings grow from adolescence, they venture into adulthood and typically embark on their own paths in life. Some fly far away from the nest, while others strive to carry on family traditions. Some join the masses to work for a greater good, while others become independent and take the road less travelled. Two Marines, who hail from Baton Rouge, La., essentially fall into all of these categories. They are brothers who became two of the few and the proud while carrying on a tradition of service members in their family. Pfc. Travis Dodson, 21, graduated Marine Corps basic training September 2005. His brother, Lance Cpl. Lance Dodson, 19, followed in his footsteps and graduated basic training in April 2007. (READ MORE)

Sgt B: Home Sweet Home… - When you mention “office”, most folks think of some sort of structure, four walls and a ceiling, at least, with a rudimentary HVAC system, break room, hot and cold running water, and a bathroom… In the infantry, the company office is called a “command post”. It is the nerve center of the company, where the company commander and his staff can look at the “big picture”, and fight his company effectively. It’s also the place where all of the company administrative tasks are accomplished. It is the company office. It can be located in the back of a truck, or under a dining fly in the middle of the woods, or, if your lucky, in a tent like this one…Learning how to run one of these things, to support the company by supporting the company battle staff is proving to be interesting, but not overwhelming. (READ MORE)

From the Halls to the Shores: We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog - Hey all. Back again after spending a couple weeks doing the national tour to see family and friends... as opposed to the international tour to see sand and possible enemies. Tell you what though, Baghdad is a pretty quiet place all things considered. I only heard those couple thumps that I wrote about early on, and the only fire I saw was directly related to - get this - victories by the Iraqi National Soccer Team. Of course, that can be dangerous too. I'll never know for sure, but I swear, something kicked up sparks on the concrete not 15 feet from me on one of those nights when tracers were filling the sky... Anyway, you'll soon see another post that's been rolling around in my head for the last week or so. With the release of The Dark Knight, it's time to once again explore how America IS Batman. For those of you joining our blog already in progress, please click the Caped Crusader's image directly to your right... thank you. (READ MORE)

IraqPundit: Cowards Kill Civilians Again - The so-called resistance murdered several civilians today in an effort to remind us that the resistance fighters are still around. A senior U.S. military official blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for the attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and said two of the bombers were believed to have been women. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was releasing the information ahead of a formal statement, gave a slightly lower casualty toll of 20 killed and 70 wounded. A similar attack killed 43 in Kirkuk. Maybe al-Qaeda was annoyed by reports that violence is 85 percent down from last year. We could look at this as a desperate act on the part of the killers. But sadly the result is the same. Innocents are murdered. The targets are nearly always civilians. (READ MORE)

IN-iraq: Literary-minded Iraqi sergeant was on the run for years - Bayji- I met Sgt. Salah Al-Jabori, 33, almost two months ago, but his story is still in my head. In the spare office of the Bayji Joint Security Station, he humbly read love poems he’d written from one of his notebooks. I could not understand the verses, but I was taken by the lyrical sounds and the pride with which he read them. Sgt. Al-Jabori’s life has not been an easy one, even by war-suffering Iraqi standards. He was conscripted into the army under the old regime and he deserted. He was hunted and on the run for years, often living by himself in the desert. He began his story by putting it into historical context. The Iran-Iraq war was very hard, he said. A lot of kids grew up without fathers. Then Saddam occupied Kuwait and the Gulf War began. “We lost a lot of relatives and people from our tribe,” Al-Jabori said. (READ MORE)

Omar: Talabani Rejects the Provincial Election Law - Disagreement erupted between the parliament and presidency council over the provincial elections law. After the parliament passed the law with 127 votes out of 140 that attended the session, president Talabani and VP Adbul Mahdi rejected the law and returned it to the parliament for revision. The key point of disagreement is an article that provides guidelines for the future of Kirkuk. Spokesman of parliament Mahmoud Mashhadani ordered a secret vote for this particular article, the thing that outraged Kurdish MPs and some Shiite MPs who then decided to boycott the vote. No wonder Kurds reject the article. I’ve translated the important parts of the article, which was posted on Azzaman, that are the most likely source of disagreement: (READ MORE)

IraqPundit: Who Could Have Guessed? - Well, well, well. Even the NYT is reporting that Moktada Al Sadr's lost his halo. Why? It appears the same people who, according to the MSM, were his adoring fans, are pleased to see him lose power. The NYT observes: "The change is showing up in the lives of ordinary people." You don't say! The price of cooking gas is less than a fifth of what it was when the militia controlled local gas stations, and kerosene for heating has also become much less expensive." You mean Mookie's thugs were not looking after the needs of the people? I'm shocked!! "Merchants say they no longer have to pay protection money to militiamen." You mean they were Mafia-like thugs? So even the NYT has figured out they weren't charity workers. Maybe NYT finally gets that Mookie isn't wildly popular. (READ MORE)

Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: All is Well in Anu al-Verona - I guess I should start by apologizing. I really am not good at this blogging thing. In my defense, however, I am not where all of the action is, experiencing the things you want to hear about. I just get quick email blurbs about them. Let me tell you, it was far more exciting to hear about CPT G’s missions when they were written about on Kaboom. I guess emails do not inspire the same thoughts and language as an e-journal read by thousands of people. I guess I should start with what everyone is wondering: CPT G and the Gravediggers are just fine. Things have been fairly normal in Anu al-Verona. They recently caught some local bad guy. I cannot give you more details, mostly because I do not know them, but let’s say he was sneaking around for a while and deserved what he got. A lot of what goes on reminds me of the mafia, specifically this incident. (READ MORE)

James Aalan Bernsen: The September 11 flag - On September 11, 2001, I was working as the Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Phil Gramm in his Dallas office. I woke up that day and as if my instincts told me something would be different, changed my routine. Fixing some breakfast, I had turned on the television and had just started to eat. The anchor was seated in front of a vast backdrop of the New York skyline, in which one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center was engulfed in a wreath of smoke. As I watched in fascination, the reporter said that there was no indication that the attack was related to terrorism. At that point the source of the explosion wasn't even certain, much less the instigation behind it. But seconds later, all doubt was removed as a massive fireball appeared on the screen and the second of the twin towers was struck. Literally as I watched. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Report: Al Qaeda WMD expert Abu Khabab thought killed in South Waziristan strike - A Pakistani intelligence official claimed al Qaeda weapons expert Midhat Mursi al Sayyid Umar, better known as Abu Khabab, was killed in this morning's airstrike in South Waziristan. "We believe he was killed in this strike," a senior intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It was his hide-out and information that has been shared with us says he was targeted in this strike." Six Pakistanis, including three foreigner terrorists, were reported killed in the airstrike, which hit either a madrassa or a home next to a mosque. Abu Khabab and four other senior al Qaeda commanders were reported to have been killed in an airstrike in the town of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal agency in January 2006. (READ MORE)

Bill Murray: Mosul conflict ebbs after five-year battle between Coalition, insurgents for control - MOSUL, IRAQ: The Battle for Mosul over the past several years has worked as a microcosm for the larger Iraqi conflict, with Coalition and Iraqi forces successfully imposing their will only after al Qaeda and other insurgent groups held large parts of the city and region for long periods. Control over the city of 1.9 million people and the surrounding Ninewa province has been lost to Coalition and government forces twice since 2003. A successful security operation in May brought attacks to their lowest recorded levels since the conflict began. Operation “Lion’s Roar” in May involved 5,000 Coalition forces and 55,000 Iraqi Police and Army members and cut insurgent attacks in the city to less than one a day over the next two months. The tactics used to defeat the insurgents were similar to successes in other parts of the country: (READ MORE)

Matel-in-Iraq: Wrapping up and Avoiding Moral Hazards - I will go back to Iraq at the end of this week for my last two months there. I have been thinking about how I can continue to add value at the end. The two hardest parts of any tour are the first month and the last. In first month you are trying to learn to do the job and the people; in the last you are trying to stay relevant and not check out before you leave. Much of my energy will be absorbed by the transition. It helps that my successor, Robert Kerr, is an experienced diplomat who has already served in Iraq. Beyond that, my team works autonomously. We all like to think we are indispensible, but I know from experience that soon after we are gone from a posting we are missed as much as the snows of last winter. We do our part in our time and when our time is passed we do something else. (READ MORE)

ManryMission: Mosul Police Academy Project - I visited a new construction project this morning. According to the project packet, it is officially called the Baghdad Police College - North (Mosul). I’m not sure why Baghdad has to be in the name, but I’m not the one paying for it. Anyway, this was an early morning visit; we hit the road at 0430. I made sure to get in a cup of coffee before departing so I wouldn’t be so grumpy. The project has just started, and the contractor is doing a lot of foundation work at this point. This facility will eventually house 1000 police recruits and 100 instructors and provide classrooms and other training facilities. Today we saw a lot of cement, blocks and rebar. The contractor awarded this $18 million contract is an Iraqi construction company. So far, I’m very impressed with the company. It’s nice to see an Iraqi company with the resources to handle such a large project. I think Mugs’ Dad would appreciate all of the labor involved in tying the rebar. (READ MORE)

Navy Gal-Off To IRAQ: Blah - Blah. That is exactly how I have been feeling lately. We have passed the half-way point on this deployment and now it's pretty much all downhill from here. I'm getting ready to go on R&R and see someone who means a great deal to me and I am very excited about that. However, the day-to-day boredom is overshadowing the excitement of even that small ounce of hope for a break in the routine. Blah. I go to the pool and it's too damn hot to enjoy that. I go work-out and you are pouring sweat before you even start your work-out. It's too hot to walk anywhere. It's too hot to eat. So, the only alternative is to buy snacks in the PX and eat in your room. I'm sick of seeing AFN commercials! Oh what I wouldn't give to see just one McDonald's commercial or a Wal-Mart commercial and I LOATHE Wal-Mart! (READ MORE)

One Marine's View: SOMETIMES YOU GOT TO CHEW SOME ASS - The lion. He is the king of the jungle. He sits in the shade as little cubs taunt him and pull at his tail. The hyenas watch the lion all the time. Day in and day out. Everyday they test the lion by hunting in his area ever so much than the previous day. Until. Until the lion one day gets a really tired of the hyenas and lets them get real brave and careless, then he attacks and kills every hyena near him. Its night time. It’s still hot from the excruciating days heat. It never really cools off. You’ve been eating dirt and sweating all day. Keeping a cool head as you solve tribal issues with the local tribesman. As you continue to work into the night, pitch black, no headlights, little sound and careful planned formations and routes to set the conditions for the enemy to trigger. It isn’t easy, it doesn’t always go the way you want it to and remember the enemy gets a vote, remember he is trying to kill you as well. The operations continue through the night. (READ MORE)

Something on the staff: Arab Music - During my daily dealings with the Iraqi Army, we spend quality time watching TV. TV, especially satellite TV, is something of a miracle for the Iraqis, as Saddam forbade all satellite dishes. Before 2003, Iraqis could only watch government TV channels. Back in 2002, an Iraqi took his broken TV to a repair man. The repair man wanted 200 dollars to fix it. That’s way too much. Iraqi went to a second repairman. 150 dollars, no way! But the third repairman wanted five dollars. Five dollars? Why so little. The repairman said he’d put a picture of Saddam on the screen, it would be the same as fixing the TV…That story is much funnier in Arabic. We always watch Arabic music channels. Arabic music is monotonous. Every single song sounds exactly the same, and they’re always disgustingly sweet poetic love songs, like diabetic Backstreet Boys. (READ MORE)

Those Wacky Iraqis: A snoot full of dirt - When I got up this morning I went through my middle east morning ritual of coffee, checking email, taking a crap and then showering before dressing. Even though I take a shower when I get in from all the heat, sand and sweat I still take one every morning just to wake up. I just don't feel right until I have had that shower. I even did this when we lived at the Hotel California at BIAP back in 2003. Of course that was a John Wayne shower but it was a cleansing experience none the less. Coming outside I saw what I detest. A friggin sandstorm had snuck in overnight and was lingering in the area. This means less heat because of the diffused rays of the sun but it also means limited visibility, everything coated in it and the inevitable snootful of dirt. You can pick some world class boogers over here. (READ MORE)

Up Country Iraq: From Searching to Soccer - To start things off, I am happy to report that my family has made it back home to Colorado after 2 months and over 9,000 miles of driving. Yes, Tina is still sane, but she had to work to keep the casualty count among the kids down to one appendectomy, one re-injured knee, and one broken arm. It appears that Deployed Dad maintains a commanding lead in the category of “Fewest Trips to the ER.” Despite 75% of the kids getting hit with one type of injury or illness during the trip, they had a blast. Thanks to all of you who hosted them on that journey. My journeys over the past couple of weeks included a trip down to the city of Balad in southern Salah Ad Din province. Balad was the home of a large portion of the Saddam Hussein Air Force. The few fighter jets that we maintain in country are based out of Balad, but I did not travel to Balad to visit with the Air Force. (READ MORE)

SSG Frederick K Goldacker III: Working and fighting side by side - This is a picture of me talking to the interpreter while trying to communicate to the officer on the left how he can improve on his rifle marksmanship. The officer is looking down at the target he had just shot. Out here in Wardak, we can't teach the cops basic police stuff, we have to train them to be warriors, to close with and destroy the enemy, not to arrest them. I have been in fire fights where the police are right next to us fighting the enemy and standing their ground. These Afghan police you train become like your own men, because you train them, you eat lunch with them etc.. And when one of them falls next to you in combat, the sting of a fallen friend is still there. (READ MORE)

Paul Fanning: Reflections - What we are doing in Afghanistan? - It is both an eerie and satisfying feeling to note the increasing amount of attention being shown to Afghanistan in American news media reports these days. Armed Forces Network here pipes in programming over satellite from CNN, Fox News and MSNBC so we can watch a little while we are in the dining facility and some staff section offices. It is quite an experience to listen to soundbites from interviews and coverage half a world away and know they are talking about you and your teammates on the ground here. About two weeks ago, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was here in Kabul. Even though he didn't come to this base, Camp Phoenix, I know he went to another base "down range" and visited with some troops. We expect Sen. John McCain will do the same at some point. Both have pledged to send more forces here. (READ MORE)



News from the Front:
Iraq:
An IED in Ramadi - It was a comfort when our host, Capt. Jonathan Hamilton, told us attacks in Ramadi were down to about seven a month. A Marine patrol had just dropped us off at Joint Security Station Karama, the outpost in western Iraq where we would spend four days with Hamilton’s weapons company. We were there to learn about the rebuilding of Ramadi, and we didn’t relish the idea of dodging bombs or seeing people get hurt. But it didn’t take long to find out that Marines still face hazards. Later that day, we were interviewing Lt. Col. Amer Ubaid Hays Rishawi, head of intelligence for the southern precinct of Ramadi police, when a policeman came in and told him to cut it short because there was an emergency. We soon learned that three Marines were injured when their Humvee hit a roadside bomb. We were relieved to hear that the injuries were minor and that none of the Marines required hospitalization. (READ MORE)

Coalition forces detain 30 suspected AQI terrorists, remove AQI hideout - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces captured two wanted men and detained 28 additional suspected terrorists while targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern parts of the country Monday. Coalition forces detained two wanted men and five additional suspects during an operation in Abu Ghraib, about 25 kilometers west of Baghdad. One of the men is reportedly an AQI leader who oversees attacks. The other wanted man is allegedly a bomb-maker and emplacer in an AQI attack cell. (READ MORE)

ISF, MND-B Soldiers seize multiple caches in Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers uncovered multiple weapons caches in the Baghdad area July 27. At approximately 2 p.m., soldiers with the 22nd Brigade, 6th Iraq Army Division found two machine guns, a rocket propelled grenade, two RPG rounds, three RPG fuses, 7.62 mm ammo and machinegun round links in the Kadamiyah district of Baghdad, after receiving a tip from a local citizen. (READ MORE)

More than 50 suspected AQI detained, 4 AQI killed during search operation in Ninewah - MOSUL, Iraq – Fifty-eight suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq members were detained and four members were killed during an intelligence-driven search operation in the Ninewah Province July 27. Four Iraqi Army soldiers were killed during the operation by small-arms fire. Additionally, six IA soldiers and one Coalition force soldier were wounded during the operation. (READ MORE)

MND-B Soldiers detain known criminal, find weapons cache - BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers detained a known criminal and discovered a weapons cache July 27 in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad. Around 1 a.m. in the Abu T’shir neighborhood, Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division detained the Special Groups criminal known for rocket and roadside bomb attacks against Coalition forces. The patrol returned to a combat outpost with the suspect for questioning. (READ MORE)

ISF detain suspected AQI terrorist, discover weapons cache in separate operations - BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces detained a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist and discovered a weapons cache in separate operations in northern Iraq July 25. The Muqdadiyah Special Weapons and Tactics team detained a suspected AQI cell member in Babylon, around 87 km northeast of Baghdad, in an operation to disrupt terrorist activity in Muqdadiyah. The suspect is allegedly a primary logistical facilitator for a cell involved in improvised explosive device emplacements, sectarian violence and weapons smuggling. (READ MORE)

Escalation of Force Investigation Complete - BAGHDAD – The Multi-National Division - Baghdad investigation into the June 25 escalation of force incident finds that neither the soldiers nor civilians involved in the incident were at fault. On June 25, MND-B soldiers were traveling south in a four-vehicle convoy on a road adjacent to Baghdad International Airport when they experienced maintenance problems with one of their vehicles. The soldiers pulled over to the side of the road to assess and recover the vehicle. While working on the vehicle, a civilian vehicle approached the rear of the convoy at what appeared to the soldiers to be a high rate of speed despite several obstructions in the road. (READ MORE)

Al-Qaeda faces continued pressure in Iraq - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces detained five suspected terrorists during operations Sunday targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq in two of the country’s largest cities. Coalition forces captured a wanted man and one additional suspect during an operation just south of Baghdad. The wanted man reportedly has ties to senior terrorist leaders in the northern belt around the city, and his network includes attack cells in the Abu Ghraib area. (READ MORE)

Market Street reopens in Siniyah - SINIYAH, Iraq – For more than a year, the former Ba’ath Party stronghold of Siniyah was without its main thoroughfare for trade and commerce, but that all changed as the city’s Mayor officially opened Market Street during a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 26. More than 40 shops and small businesses were forced to close due to the lack of business when the restriction of the road was announced in July of 2007. (READ MORE)

More than 500 reconcile in Tikrit, ad Dwar - TIKRIT, Iraq – More than 500 Iraqis have reconciled with Iraqi Security and Coalition forces since late June in the cities of Tikrit and ad Dwar combined. In Tikrit, where the people were once very loyal to Saddam’s former regime, more than 200 people have cleared their names and safely rejoined Iraqi society over the past 10 days. (READ MORE)

Coalition forces capture suspected Special Groups leaders in Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces struck another blow to the already-struggling Special Groups criminal organization after capturing two key leaders and another suspected Special Groups criminal during operations in the Rusafa district in Baghdad early Sunday morning. Based on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted the location of an Iranian-trained senior leader of Special Groups criminals in the Sadr City area. (READ MORE)

Ameriya Technical High School will offer opportunities for a new generation (Baghdad) - The $615 thousand renovation and expansion of the Ameriya Technical High School in the Mansour District of Baghdad will soon provide vocational technical training for high school students. “This school is very important,” said Mohammed Abdullah, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Central district’s International Zone project engineer. “It will have a great impact on the families who cannot afford to send their children to universities. They will learn a profession to earn a living.” (READ MORE)

INPs, MND-B Soldiers seize massive cache in Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Iraqi National Police and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized a massive weapons cache in the Kadhamiyah district of Baghdad July 24. National police with the Presidential Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, and Soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, discovered the cache in a basement at approximately 8:00 a.m. (READ MORE)


Afghanistan:
Families tied by war: Brothers in arms cross paths in Afghanistan - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 27, 2008) — Twenty-one year old Senior Airman Matthew Delgado made one last trip home before deploying in May. He was set to deploy to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, and didn’t expect to see his family for months. Half-way into his deployment rotation, he was surprised when someone knocked on his barracks door and told him his brother was waiting for him at the PX here. Army Pfc. Jerin Delgado, 26, arrived at Bagram July 18 with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, out of Fort Hood, Texas, as they transitioned to a forward operating base in the region. The two brothers, from Cedar Hill, Texas, were able to spend a few days together catching up. (READ MORE)

Families tied by war: Sisters pilot Afghan skies - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 27, 2008) — They never planned on being pilots and Afghanistan was the last place they expected to see each other, but that’s just what happened for two sisters from White Salmon, Wash. Air Force Capt. Kelly Smith and Army Chief Warrant Officer Amber Smith grew up in a family rich with aviation ties. Their grandfather flew in the Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel during World War II and a commercial pilot after that. Their grandmother and mother were flight attendants. Multiple others in the family became commercial pilots, including their father, uncle and a few cousins. (READ MORE)

Big Red One takes command in northeastern Afghanistan - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 26, 2008) — When the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team paratroopers set foot on Afghanistan soil 15 months ago, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division “Big Red One” was just re-activating at Fort Hood, Texas. Throughout the 173rd’s deployment they fought to reform Afghanistan while 3rd BCT, 1ST ID was training to take their place. On July 24, at Forward Operating Base Fenty, a transfer of authority gave 3rd BCT, 1ST ID the opportunity to put their training to work and continue the mission the 173rd has been doing for more than a year. (READ MORE)

Konar PRT joins divided districts with bridges - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 26, 2008) — The Konar River runs for 150 km and serves as a natural border between eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. Although the villages along the eastern and western banks of the river are part of Konar, the river reinforces cultural and political alliances between Afghans on the eastern shore and tribesmen across the border in Pakistan. The people on the east have had very little connection to the provincial government. To resolve this problem, the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team has embarked on a bridge-building strategy to connect the Afghan government to the five provincial districts on the east of the Konar River. Until recently Afghans in Khas Konar, Sarkani, Naray, Marawara and Dangam Districts looked to Pakistan for cultural affiliation, services and trade. (READ MORE)

Sergeant Major of the Army visits U.S. troops in Afghanistan - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 25, 2008) — Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth O. Preston met and spoke with U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan this week and visited International Security Assistance Forces and Combined Joint Task Force 101 leaders to talk about the mission focus, and current operations. Preston flew through Kabul International Airport Tuesday afternoon and landed at Bagram Air Field, Parwan province, where the CJTF-101 headquarters is located. (READ MORE)

Militant killed; explosives neutralized in Kapisa province - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 26, 2008) – A militant was killed and several explosive devices were neutralized Friday during a Coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Kapisa province. Coalition forces searched several compounds in Tagab District targeting a militant suspected of conducting foreign fighter operations in the area. An armed militant threatened Coalition forces, who responded with small-arms fire, killing the militant. (READ MORE)

Compassion and skill: The art of saving lives - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 23, 2008) — Every morning, the Soldiers of 1st Platoon, C Company, 6-101 Aviation Regiment make their way across a scorching flight line to the platoon’s three UH-60 Black Hawks. Pilots, crew chiefs and medics all take part in the ritual checks to make sure medical equipment is prepared, perform pre-flight inspections and power up the helicopters. (READ MORE)

Militants killed in Wardak province - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 23, 2008) — Several militants were killed Tuesday during a Coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Wardak province. Coalition forces searched several compounds in Sayed Abad District targeting a Taliban commander suspected of conducting attacks on Coalition forces, including the June 26 attack in Wardak resulting in the deaths of three Coalition service members and an Afghan Interpreter. The anti-Afghan forces attacked the Coalition forces with grenades, machineguns and small-arms fire from a house where they were barricaded. Coalition forces returned fire using small-arms, grenades and an airstrike, ultimately killing the militants. (READ MORE)

Task Force King transfers authority to Centaur - NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan (July 22, 2008) — Commanders, Soldiers and Afghan dignitaries gathered for a transfer-of-authority ceremony, where Task Force Centaur assumed responsibilities from TF King at Forward Operating Base Kalagush, Nuristan province, Afghanistan, July 20. Task Force King, consisting primarily of paratroopers from the 4th Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, provided combat support for Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman provinces. They also maintained their own separate area of operation in western Nuristan province. (READ MORE)

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: Battle Dress U

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: Navy Gal

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: Doc in the Box

Displaced citizens have returned to their homes in Garmsir district since the area has been cleared from Taliban by the 24th MEU.

Okay folks, I'm heading out for annual Boy Scout camp and looking forward to a 4 hour drive down Route 81 in VA. If anyone is near Harrisonburg around lunchtime look for me at one of the fast food resturants, I shouldn't be hard to find...a big oak tree of a guy in a green scout shirt. How many of them are there running around Virginia? *grin*

The Web Recon and From the Front will return on Monday, July 28 - Lord only knows what will happen while I'm gone so it could be an exciting time.

Take care and enjoy the posts I have on tap that will be hitting while I'm gone.

Scouts Out!

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is Andrea Shea-King's Radio Patriot

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit ( MEU ) is running operations in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF.

What makes the MEU different from other units ?

This is part 1 of the 6 part mini series.

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
The Gunline: In The Groove… - Annual training continues, and things are beginning to settle into place. In the big white tent that holds over 500 souls, there is a very subtle, very low key sense of finality. Joes talk on cell phones to loved ones, others chat over the computer, other write letters, and then there are those who will not have one significant other to hold their heart while they are gone. Most of these lone wolves don’t seem to mind; their family is here, with their bands of brothers… The others, well, who knows what a foreign land may hold for them… The day continues, with a comfortable wind in the morning, until the sun begins to beat down upon the land, filling the air with scorching temperatures, especially inside the command tents erected close to one another. Liquids are consumed feverishly, and the lucky TOCs will enjoy a special treat (we scored a watermelon)… (READ MORE)

Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Government Center a symbol of progress in Ramadi - RAMADI, Iraq (July 9, 2008) - The Provincial Government Center for al Anbar, located in the heart of downtown Ramadi, was a vicious and violent battleground for much of the last five years. But as the city emerges from the violence that has plagued it for so long, thanks in part to Iraqi and Coalition forces’ security efforts, the center now stands as a as a symbol of peace and stability. Governmental leaders operate there daily, overseeing a variety of departments critical in continuing the region’s growth. First Sergeant Patrick J. Dostal, the Headquarters and Service Company first sergeant with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, is on his second tour in the city and is overwhelmed by the center’s development since his first tour in 2006. (READ MORE)

Paul Fanning: Down range soldiers - Those of us who are assigned to Camp Phoenix often refer to our task force brethren who serve at forward operating bases as being "down range." Most of our bases in the Kabul area are large and built up and much more secure. Bases like Camp Phoenix serve as the task force headquarters and logistical and administrative support base. So going "down range" is a euphemism for getting closer to where the enemy operates from and for where the "real work" is being done. The training and mentoring mission of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix for the Afghan National Army and Police is rightly described as the task force's “main effort.” Our soldiers, and on occasion other service branch members, assigned to Embedded Training Teams for the Afghan Army and Police Mentoring Teams face enormous challenges under dangerous and austere conditions. They are operating from medium and small bases all over the country and often in remote areas of Afghanistan. (READ MORE)

Omar: Obama's Fact-Fudging Mission in Iraq - Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday for what is described as a fact-finding mission. However, it’s hard to believe Obama is actually searching for facts in Iraq, nor will the facts he finds change his position. The position he chose for himself, as well as all the comments he has made so far about Iraq, reflect a disregard for facts, and there is no reason to expect a change now. This visit, for Obama, is just a necessary evil — part of an electoral campaign and not a sincere fact-finding mission. The fact that Obama made Afghanistan his first stop (after arriving in Kuwait, just next door to Iraq) suggests that it’s his electoral campaign that sets his priorities when it comes to the war on terrorism, not the actual map and course of the war. Obama is lucky in that his host, Prime Ministe Maliki, is also going through an election season. (READ MORE)

Major John: My Continuing HP Lovecraft Tour of Iraq - I felt safe here, even after my earlier encounter. I was in Baghdad, large and cosmopolitan. A city looking to the future, despite a long past... how was I to know what waited for me? After settling in at my new quarters, I emerged the next day to see the tower reaching for the Elder skies... It is part of the Believer's Palace. But this belief was in who...or what? Heh. More pseudo-Lovecraftian writing for you all. I live near the old "Believer's Palace" and this tower is quite the notable feature. I have not had much of a chance to see anything else in Baghdad but the small compund I live on and the camp where I work. The hours here have gotten even worse than when I last checked in. (READ MORE)


News from the Front:
Iraq:
Inside Sadr City: The Wall - BAGHDAD — Sadr City, long one of the most dangerous parts of the Iraqi capital, is calmer now than it has been in years. To be sure, American soldiers and Iraqi judges are still being killed here, but not at the rate of deadly attacks in 2006 and 2007. The neighborhood is also one of the most important places to visit for people seeking to understand the mood of Shiite Muslims, long oppressed but the majority in Iraq. Beginning this month, the Baghdad Bureau blog will show you video and photographs from some of the most important sites in Sadr City and interview the soldiers, officials and civilians that will play a role determining which direction it moves in next. (READ MORE)

Huge weapons cache destroyed near Samarra - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces discovered a massive cache of weapons during an operation targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq elements near Samarra that concluded July 19. During the 48-hour operation, Coalition forces discovered three weapons caches and two buildings believed to be used in terrorist operations. One building was assessed to be a classroom where terrorists learned to build car bombs. The building had diagrams cut into the walls showing how to install bombs in vehicles, and a “test range” outside, littered with car parts. (READ MORE)

Iraqi and Coalition forces capture alleged kidnapping cell leader (Diyala and at-Tamim provinces) - BAGHDAD – Iraqi and Coalition forces captured an alleged kidnapping cell leader and detained six additional suspected terrorists while targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq operations in Diyala and at-Tamim provinces. Associates of an alleged leader of an AQI kidnapping cell led Iraqi and Coalition forces to Kirkuk, where they captured the wanted man and one additional suspect. The wanted man is believed to operate a kidnapping cell reportedly tied to terrorist activity spanning to Bayji and Tikrit in Salah ad-Din province. (READ MORE)

Hundreds of IDPs return to al Khwalis - TIKRIT, Iraq – More than 108 internally displaced families returned to their homes in the town of al Khwalis, Iraq, July 20. The event was celebrated by a welcome ceremony and is a significant mark in the reconciliation process. The families left the area when tensions mounted after the Iraqi Army cleared the area of al-Qaeda last year. “Today was a ceremony that represents the reconciling of differences between Sunni and Shi’a families,” said Capt. Roger Miranda, executive officer, 1st Battalion, 19th Brigade, 5th Division, Military Transition Team. “These people have been living in the town of Hib Hib since they were displaced.” (READ MORE)

An Najaf officials welcome new primary healthcare center - AN NAJAF, Iraq — Provincial and local officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony July 19 to open a new primary healthcare center in Sooq-sha’lan. Those attending included An Najaf Deputy Governor Hassan Abtan, Dr. Radhwan (the Director General for An Najaf’s Health Directorate), Dr. Enaas (the PHC’s Administrator) and Mayor Farooq. An Najaf is a province located south of Baghdad. (READ MORE)

Iraqi Security Forces disrupt terrorist activities in northern Iraq - BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces captured three suspected Islamic State of Iraq and al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists and detained eighteen others in separate operations in northern Iraq July 18-20. On July 20 in Mosul, the 2nd Iraqi Army Division captured a suspected ISI emir for the Jazeera region, specifically the Julayi area. Reports indicate that he was previously the ISI emir in Rabiyah before taking charge of cells in Jazeera. He is said to be part of an improvised explosive device network that conducts IED and vehicle-borne IED attacks in the west side of Mosul. (READ MORE)

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)
An Energy Sarbox - The political class needed to blame somebody for the run-up in energy prices, and settled on "speculators" as the designated villains. The mob grew to include everyone from Barack Obama to John McCain, and Bill O'Reilly to Hugo Chávez. Congress held over 40 hearings this summer. It was cynical, sure, but serious people assumed that the politicians were in on the conceit. (READ MORE)

Mr. Mukasey's Modest Proposal - We had not known previously that among Attorney General Michael Mukasey's skills was the satirical bite of Jonathan Swift. Only a Swiftian wit could have come up with Mr. Mukasey's proposal in a speech yesterday that the Solons of Congress solve the legal riddles of the Supreme Court's recent Boumediene decision on the rights of Guantanamo detainees. (READ MORE)

Iran Has Earned Nothing - In its waning days, the Bush Administration seems to be veering toward a policy of détente with Iran. Recent moves include a face-to-face meeting with Iran over its nuclear program and the likelihood of reopening a diplomatic mission in Tehran for the first time since -- well, you remember. Iran responded to these gestures on the weekend by rebuffing the West's latest set of carrots while refusing once again to give up its uranium enrichment. (READ MORE)

Russia increases weapon sales to Chavez - Russia is showing its irritation with U.S. intervention in its back yard by selling more weapons to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Mr. Chavez is to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday with a reported billion-dollar shopping list of armaments, including submarines and helicopters. (READ MORE)

Pickens sounds alarm over energy policy - Oil prices could hit $300 a barrel if the United States does not take drastic action to reduce its heavy dependence on foreign oil, but neither of the top presidential candidates is addressing the crisis, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said Monday. (READ MORE)

Consensus builds for Iraq exit - KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine Republican Sen. John McCain on Monday drew closer to his Democratic presidential opponent's timetable on Iraq, saying that U.S. troops could be "largely withdrawn" in two years, even as Sen. Barack Obama met with Iraqi leaders who now embrace his withdrawal time frame and with the architect of the troop surge he opposed. (READ MORE)

Probe: Currie's ties to developer strong - The federal investigation into state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie extends beyond his consulting work for Shoppers Food Warehouse to include one of Prince George's County's most powerful developers and his $3.7 billion Westphalia project in Capitol Heights, according to documents recently released by the state. (READ MORE)

Speculation rife in VP sweepstakes - There will be breathless speculation, short lists and long lists as Democrats and Republicans in the veepstakes are vetted and weighed in the next two months. Yet the choice for the No. 2 slot rarely matters. Pundits will analyze demographics and states that might just swing for one candidate with the right choice. (READ MORE)

Judge bars evidence from war crimes trial - GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - The judge in the first American war crimes trial since World War II barred evidence on Monday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan. (READ MORE)

Guantanamo Judge Blocks Use of Some Statements - GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba. July 21 -- Prosecutors in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver cannot use as evidence some statements the defendant gave interrogators because they were obtained under "highly coercive" conditions while he was a captive in Afghanistan... (READ MORE)

Monument Honors Civil Rights Pioneers - RICHMOND, July 21 -- In 1989, Virginia became the first state to elect a black governor. Last year, the General Assembly passed a resolution apologizing for the state's role in the slave trade. (READ MORE)

Iraq Points to Pullout in 2010 - BAGHDAD, July 21 -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama conferred with senior Iraqi leaders, U.S. officials and military commanders Monday, as a spokesman for the Iraqi government declared that it would like U.S. combat forces to complete their withdrawal by the end of 2010. (READ MORE)

Zimbabwean Rivals Agree to Negotiations - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed Monday to start urgent negotiations toward forming a new government, a first but very tentative step toward ending the nation's political stalemate. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Wesley Pruden: A new airlift to feed the frenzy - The early precincts are in, and it looks like a landslide. Unfortunately for Barack Obama, these are only the early precincts. America votes later. The public-opinion polls show the American idol winning by extraordinary margins in the precincts of the fantasists: by 51 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany, and 30 percent even in Britain, where voters speak English and understand American politics a little better than in the rest of Europe or, for that matter, the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Here at home, where there are early, tentative signs that Americans are beginning to come off a roaring drunk, he's effectively tied with John McCain. The American idol, who has been hanging out with generals and diplomats in Afghanistan and Iraq to practice his salute and indulge in a little make-believe as commander in chief, is itching for Thursday and his big speech in Berlin. (READ MORE)

Bret Stephens: Al Gore's Doomsday Clock - Al Gore gave a speech last week "challenging" America to run "on 100% zero-carbon electricity in 10 years" -- though that's just the first step on his road to "ending our reliance on carbon-based fuels." Serious people understand this is absurd. Maybe other people will start drawing the same conclusion about the man proposing it. The former vice president has also recently disavowed any intention of returning to politics. This is wise. As America's leading peddler of both doom and salvation, Mr. Gore has moved beyond the constraints and obligations of reality. His job is to serve as a Prophet of Truth. In Mr. Gore's prophesy, a transition to carbon-free electricity generation in a decade is "achievable, affordable and transformative." He believes that the goal can be achieved almost entirely through the use of "renewables" alone, meaning solar, geothermal, wind power and biofuels. (READ MORE)

William McGurn: Humanizing al Qaeda, Demonizing the Bush Team - David Addington and Omar Khadr are two names that will forever be linked to the war on terror. Mr. Addington is chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney and a former colleague of mine. He's the son of a West Point man who earned a bronze star in World War II and went on to become a general. Before coming to the White House, David put in stints at the CIA, at a congressional intelligence committee, and at the Pentagon -- all giving him an expertise on intelligence and national security issues only a handful of others can match. Then there's Mr. Khadr. He is the son of a man who helped found and finance al Qaeda, and who died in a 2003 gun battle with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border. (READ MORE)

Shelby Steele: Why Jesse Jackson Hates Obama - A few weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made something of a fool of himself. There he was -- a historical figure in his own right -- threatening the castration of Barack Obama. It was sad to see. If I have often criticized Mr. Jackson, I have also, reservedly, admired him. He is a late 20th century outcropping of a profoundly American archetype: the self-invented man who comes from nothing and, out of sheer force of personality, imposes himself on the American consciousness. If he never reached the greatness to which he aspired, he nevertheless did honor to the enduring American tradition of bold and unapologetic opportunism. But now -- not looking old so much as a bit lost within the new Obama aura -- it is clear that Jesse Jackson has come to a kind of dénouement. Some force that once buoyed him up now seems spent. (READ MORE)

David Gratzer: American Cancer Care Beats the Rest - "Your accomplishment of [universal access] is the envy of every U.S. citizen who understands what you've done," Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) told a Canadian audience in 1996. This week, a major international study confirms that Mr. Kennedy is right to stay at home for his own cancer care: U.S. medicine bests the cancer treatment available to people in 30 other countries. The Concord study compares five-year cancer survival rates for several malignancies: breast cancer in women; prostate cancer; colon and rectal cancer in women and men. Combining the efforts of some 100 researchers, drawing data from almost two million cancer patients in 31 countries, the study, to be published in the August issue of The Lancet, is groundbreaking. Who's on top? Arguably Cuba, which records the best overall outcomes for breast cancer and colorectal cancer (in women), and seems to beat U.S. health care in three out of the four categories. (READ MORE)

Al Hubbard & Noam Neusner: A Better Way to Support Home Buyers - Congress and President Bush are working to keep the U.S. housing-finance market from seizing up in the short term. But we also should be thinking beyond the emergency at hand -- and asking how the U.S. government should support housing finance in the long run. When the crisis is over, will we want or need Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Fannie and Freddie were created to make the mortgage market liquid. They've succeeded in this task by purchasing mortgages originated by other lenders, and then securitizing and selling them to other investors. This success came with a price tag to taxpayers. Fannie and Freddie enjoyed an implicit guarantee that the federal government would be a backstop for them, so they were tempted to take risks on securities that other lenders would not. (READ MORE)

Ann Marlowe: Afghanistan Doesn't Need a 'Surge' - Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of U.S. troops are not among them. Barack Obama said: "We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there." Mr. Obama should have supported the surge in Iraq, but that doesn't mean that advocating one in Afghanistan makes sense. Afghanistan's problems are not the same as Iraq's. Its people aren't recovering from a brutal, all-controlling tyranny, but from decades of chaos and centuries of bad government. Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, is largely illiterate and has a relatively undeveloped civil society. Afghan society still centers around the family and, for men, the mosque. Its society and traditions are still largely intact, in contrast to Iraq's fractured, urbanized and half-modernized population. (READ MORE)

Dennis Prager: Will Israel Attack Iran? - It is difficult to imagine Israel attacking Iran. It is, however, more difficult to imagine Israel not attacking Iran. Consider three questions: First, does Iran mean what it says about destroying Israel? When its leaders repeatedly call for Israel's annihilation, after referring to it as a cancer and using other rhetoric not heard on a national level since the Nazi regime's depiction of Jews, is this just rhetorical flourish? Or do they really hope and plan to destroy Israel? Second, can Iran do it? One can hope and even plan to do something outrageous, but that does not necessarily mean that one can accomplish it. So, the second question is whether Iran can destroy Israel or at least murder a high enough percentage of its population and destroy enough of its infrastructure to enable surrounding Arab states to invade and do the rest of the job that the majority of Arabs favor (even if some of their governments have a peace treaty with Israel). (READ MORE)

Thomas Sowell: Bankrupt "Exploiters" - In one of those front-page editorials disguised as "news" stories, the New York Times blames "the lucrative lending practices" of banks and other financial institutions for helping create the current financial crisis of millions of borrowers and of the financial system in general. It must take either a willful determination to believe whatever they want to believe or a cynical desire to propagandize their readers for the New York Times to call "lucrative" the lending practices that have caused many lenders to lose millions of dollars, some to lose billions and some to go bankrupt themselves. Blaming the lenders is the party line of Congressional Democrats as well. What we need is more government regulation of lenders, they say, to protect the innocent borrowers from "predatory" lending practices. Before going further down that road, it may be useful to look back at what got us into this mess in the first place. (READ MORE)

David Limbaugh: Obama: Milking His Failures - Isn't it enormously ironic that Barack Obama now finds himself the unintended beneficiary of the Iraq surge that he so vocally -- and wrongly -- opposed? It seems that Obama's untimely calls for a withdrawal timetable have lingered long enough to have some merit in the eyes of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki told Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." Assuming al-Maliki said it, and there has been some dispute, it doesn't make Obama right -- even now. But it's hard to imagine al-Maliki would be saying anything helpful to Obama's campaign today if the United States had followed Obama's disgraceful surrender policy instead of implementing the surge in 2007 -- over his strenuous objections. (READ MORE)

Chuck Norris: What the Bleep?! - Jesse Jackson (on an off-air mic before "Fox & Friends") and Whoopi Goldberg (and another host on "The View") have raised the cultural language debate to a new level: Who has the right to say the N-word? Their answer: Blacks can, but whites can't. Unfortunately, this derogatory debate has degraded into Don Imus on steroids. I agree with a lot that Whoopi had to say about the imbalances between the races. But I disagree with her for going off on an intentional N-word marathon, which was bleeped out repeatedly in order to demonstrate her point. There's a reason her diatribe was bleeped and our society still veils our full expression of the N-word: because it still is regarded by most as derogatory and demeaning. (Even among blacks, the N-word obviously can be defamatory, as Jesse Jackson proved when he used it in the same breath he used to describe how he would like to cut off Barack Obama's genitalia.) (READ MORE)

Carrie Lukas: Connecting the Dots on Energy Policy - Most policy debates seem to be a war of competing theories: Will lower tax rates really stimulate greater economic activity? Do generous government welfare programs actually discourage people from seeking employment? Each side marshals data supporting its side and voters have to sort out whose case seems most compelling. Often it’s hard to connect those policies with the decisions that you make in your own life. After all, we take into account numerous factors when we make big decisions, like how much to work or whether to try to open a business. Corporations, too, consider the particulars of their industry, specialty, and business environment when deciding how many jobs to offer or where to locate. It’s hard to isolate the affect that one policy, or even set of policies, has. Yet Americans increasingly seem to be connecting the dots between national energy policy and its impact on their lives. (READ MORE)

Cal Thomas: An Innocent Abroad - I remember the first time my wife and I visited Europe and the Middle East. The trip resembled Sen. Obama's current version of speed travel, but without the entourage, security and network coverage. Armed with Arthur Frommer's "Europe on $5 a Day," we crammed as much as we could into 18-hour days, hitting the museums, art galleries, cathedrals and restaurants. When the tour ended, we had impressions and a slightly better view of the world. There is a difference, though, between a view of the world and a worldview. A view of the world means you might like London and I might prefer Paris, but each preference can be equally valid because it is a matter of individual taste. A correct worldview is a way of not just looking at other countries and people, but having an intellectual and moral center that allows one to distinguish between good and evil; right and wrong; sound economic, social and political policies and bad ones. (READ MORE)

William Rusher: We Must Break Our Dependence on Oil - T. Boone Pickens is one of America's biggest independent oil producers, so he could be forgiven if he simply chose to sit back and pile up his profits. But the Texas entrepreneur is convinced that America must break its dependence on oil as a major source of energy, and has announced that over the next few weeks he is going to outline in the major media a plan for doing exactly that. He is right on the money, and I am going to listen carefully to what he has to say. There is no doubt that this country is deeply hooked on oil. It is, after all, the source of the gasoline on which America's cars and trucks run, and a national economy in which oil didn't play a major role is virtually inconceivable. But we are deep in a dilemma in which the tail is, for all practical purposes, wagging the dog. Our foreign policy, in particular, is bent out of shape by our desperate need to keep Middle Eastern oil flowing to us and to our European allies. (READ MORE)

Ed Feulner: Constitutional Confusion - Every president, every senator, every member of Congress and every Supreme Court justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The way some of them behave, though, you have to wonder if they’ve ever read it. The Constitution is clear and understandable. It gives Congress, the legislative branch, the responsibility of passing our laws. It gives the president, head of the executive branch, the responsibility of enforcing those laws. And it gives the courts, headed by the Supreme Court, the responsibility of interpreting them. Yet in recent years, leaders of all three branches have expressed confusing -- and incorrect -- ideas about the Constitution. Take the members of Congress who filed a brief with the Supreme Court urging it to strike down Washington, D.C.’s gun ban. Fortunately, the Court agreed. But Congress had the power to defend D.C. residents’ gun rights all along. (READ MORE)

Karin Agness: The Villains of Victimhood - Superwoman made a curious appearance this weekend, gracing the program cover of the National Organization for Women (NOW) National Conference, which was themed, “No Capes, No Masks, No Boundaries: Feminist Super-Women Unite!” “The concept of feminist superheroes is not much of a stretch,” Kim Gandy, President of NOW, said. “Both feminists and superheroes are dedicated to fighting injustice, while facing off against corrupt, malicious villains out to dominate the world (Bush and Cheney, anyone?). What makes feminists special is that they do this without superhuman powers-just a lot of pride, passion and patience.” Besides revealing an inflated view of their own organization, the superhero analogy demonstrates the destructive attitude dominating feminism today. It is the attitude that everyone is against women, out to get them. To feminists, women must take on the entire world. (READ MORE)

Paul Weyrich: A Persistent Threat to Second Amendment Rights - In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the District of Columbia's highly restrictive ban on guns is unconstitutional. The ruling was anticipated across the nation. It was the first time the Court made a direct judgment about the right of individuals to keep and bear arms since the adoption of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. One would think that under these circumstances the D.C. government would get the message. Not a chance. The Washington D.C. City Council lives in its own world. In a unanimous vote, the Council refused to repeal the handgun ban. Instead, it created a new exception under which the handgun ban does not apply to a person who seeks to register a pistol for use in self-defense in the home. (READ MORE)

Chuck Colson: What's the Matter With Canada? - How is this for irony? Recent actions by Canadian human rights groups have observers alarmed for the state of human rights in Canada. That is because the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal do not give a fig about protecting human rights. Their mission is suppressing free speech. Maclean’s magazine was hauled before these two “quasi-judicial” bodies when it published excerpts from Mark Steyn’s popular book America Alone. Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress charged that the content of these excerpts about the expansion of radical Islam “subjects Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt.” The Canadian Human Rights Commission dismissed the complaint, but the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal got in on the act. (READ MORE)

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Energy Freedom - A wag once famously observed that, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” The same has generally been true about gas prices. At least until this week. The hosing of American consumers (hilariously satirized in a new video by Hollywood icons David and Jerry Zucker at www.NozzleRage.com) and the attendant destruction of our economy has finally gotten the attention of the political elite in Washington and especially the Congress. Legislators are palpably in a panic at the prospect of facing voters in a few months having done nothing meaningful to bring down prices at the pump. Don’t get me wrong. Even now, even in the face of such “Nozzle Rage,” many on Capitol Hill are more interested in posturing than doing something practical. Some leading figures in both parties continue to play to their respective constituencies. (READ MORE)

Guy Benson: When Obama Attacks - What angers Barack Obama? The answer to this question may not be entirely clear, but at least a partial answer lies within the pages of the current New Yorker magazine. The controversial edition has generated far more attention for the political cartoon on its cover than for the content of the accompanying article. This often overlooked cover story includes two telling anecdotes. One story recounts Obama's explosive reaction to being "embarrassed" on the floor of the Illinois state legislature, and the other explores Obama's tepid reaction to the carnage of September 11, 2001. Both stories illustrate Obama's tendency to reserve his harshest attacks for perceived political affronts while treating true outrages with heavy doses of nuance. According to the New Yorker article, State Senator Barack Obama ignited a verbal dispute with a colleague during a 1997 legislative session in Springfield. (READ MORE)

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Stop the War on the Poor - Last Tuesday (July 15) I stood with Niger Innis of CORE and just under 100 people from around the country at a press conference in Washington, DC. The group was comprised of congressmen, senators, grassroots organizers, and clergy. We descended on Washington to announce a bold cry for affordable energy for the poor. Our campaign is simply called “Stop the War On The Poor.” Although some leftist groups have already called our efforts partisan, nothing could be further from the truth. Many of us have realized that most legislators on the Hill are advocating ideologically-based approaches to our energy problems. While Washington plays politics with American energy supplies, people are hurting – and the poor are hurting the most. The only hope the average poor person has is that gas prices won’t rise to $6.00/gallon. The poor cannot afford to hire advocates or lobbyists. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: And Again: Another Jerusalem Terror Attack - A terrorist got his hands on a front end loader from a Jerusalem construction site and attempted to overturn a bus and rammed cars, before he was killed by security forces. The bulldozer reportedly left a construction site near Yemin Moshe near King David Street, crashed into a city bus and hit two cars, wounding one person seriously and several more lightly. The wounded were evacuated to Sha'are Tzedek Hospital in the capital. According to initial reports, the driver was first shot by a civilian, but continued his attack before he was shot dead by border policemen. This is a developing story, but apparently, the attack occurred down the street from the hotel where Sen. Barack Obama was due to stay when visiting Israel later this week. At least 11 people were injured. (READ MORE)

Gabriel Malor @ Ace of Spades: Louisiana Files for Rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana - It would take a majority vote for the Supreme Court to reconsider the case which blatantly misconstrued public opinion about the death penalty for child rapists and which failed to discover a federal law imposing such a penalty. It is extremely rare for the Court to do so. Louisiana's petition is here (PDF). We discussed the likelihood of a rehearing a few weeks ago. I continue to believe that the justices need to grant this petition---even if they know they're going to come to the same decision---if only to straighten out the horrendous reasoning in the majority opinion. Justice Kennedy's claims about "national consensus" and "the Court's own judgment" make a farce out of our entire system of justice. Even if he's too set in his thinking to overturn such ridiculous Eighth Amendment standards, certainly he can do a more credible job supporting his conclusions. (READ MORE)

The Anchoress: Bravo, Drudge! Free Speech for McCain! - So, apparently the New York Times, on the heels of this Rasmussen Report which suggests that the voting public is finding the press just a tad too “in the tank” for Sen. Obama, has rejected a John McCain op-ed meant to respond to Obama’s Times-featured op-ed from last week. Glenn says, “People are going to start to think the press is in the tank for Obama or something. Oops, too late!” Not only did the Op-Ed editor, David Shipley, a former Clinton staffer, reject the thing…he was a bit condescending about it: “‘It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece,’ NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain’s staff. ‘I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written…I’d be pleased, though, to look at another draft.” (READ MORE)

The Barnyard: America Knows The MSM Is Biased Towards Obama - America's voters are not stupid by any means and they recognize blatant bias when they see it as the latest Rasmussen poll highlights very well. The majority of Americans believe the MSM is trying to ram Obama down our throats. Gee do ya think all the fawning coverage of the Lightworker and ignorance of his multitudinous gaffes have anything to do with that perception? Not to mention the alphabet network's main talking heads falling all over themselves to join the Obamassiah on his historic world tour to heal our image around the world with his mere presence. “The idea that reporters are trying to help Obama win in November has grown by five percentage points over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, taken just before the new controversy involving the Times erupted, found that 49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help the Democrat with their coverage, up from 44% a month ago.” (READ MORE)

Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive: Obama wrong from the start on Iraq - Let's put an end to the march Obama and his handlers are attempting to steal about leaving Iraq. They would love to ignore all of his statements opposing the surge and saying it would make things worse, they even scrubbed them from his website and tossed them under his bus. It makes absolutely no difference that Maliki or any other Iraqi says we could have combat troops out of the country in 2010, Obama was wrong before and this doesn't make him any righter. NRO compared it to two doctors, one who prescribes medicine and one who says a patient doesn't need them and isn't worth saving. The medicine works, the patient gets better and now doesn't need medicine and the second doctor then saying "See, he doesn't need medicine, I was right". You can expect to here about how Obama's cunning plan is now exactly what Iraq needs and the press to completely ignore how wrong he has been all along. (READ MORE)

Madeleine Gruen & Frank Hyland: The Threat Here - 2008: Setting the Scene - This is the second article in the series by Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland, portraying the seriousness of the threat of homegrown terrorism in the United States for readers of The Counterterrorism Blog. We hasten to say right off the bat that regular readers of CT Blog are already the recipients of a detailed and continuing supply of very useful information on the threat of terrorism here in the United States. We are grateful for our CT Blog colleagues Steven Emerson, Doug Farah, Jeff Imm, Mike Cutler, and on and on. Nothing in this series is intended to supplant their excellent work. If anything, we hope to draw even more attention to their (and others’) fine efforts in the past and in the future. Our goal is to draw together in this one series the signs of the continuing, emerging threat here so that policy makers and citizens of Main Street US alike will be better able to assess the true threat. (READ MORE)

McQ: Just show up naked - The lede: An Obama campaign ban on green clothing during the candidate's visits to Israel and Jordan has created wide puzzlement among observers of the Middle East. “Most have sad ‘Whaaa? Never heard of such a thing.’” The Obama campaign says, "We just wanted to be respectful, because, you know, green is the color most associated with Islam". Of course, the Irish disagree. But here was the most important point. The Obama campaign just made an issue out of something that was a non-issue before. And that led too: “‘Our folks in Jerusalem and the USA have no idea what this is about,’ said an official of one major American Jewish organization. ‘We have not ever suggested that people not wear the color green. During the disengagement from Gaza, the color orange was the color of the anti-disengagement folks, so we did advise folks not to make an unintentional political statement by wearing orange.’ Jeff Ballabon, a Republican consultant active in pro-Israel causes, was also baffled by the explanation of the link between green and Hamas. ‘Why didn't he also ban the use of yellow, which is Hezbollah's color?’” Brilliant. (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Gergen: We only have one president at a time - CNN political analyst David Gergen believes that Barack Obama made a political mistake in engaging Nouri al-Maliki on the question of the American presence in Iraq. He stepped over the line in explicitly admitting what amounts to negotiations with an American ally during wartime, a role that rightly belongs to the executive under all circumstances. Gergen calls this the first real political mistake of Obama’s trip — but will anyone notice? “David Gergen: ‘I think it was the first — Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations. We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He’s the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that’s under way with another party outside the country.’” (READ MORE)

Flopping Aces: Obama Abandons Commitment to Iraq Withdrawal Timetable - Senator Obama refuses to be boxed in between what he considers two “false choices”, either: 1) …On such and such date, come Hell or high water we’ve gotten our troops out, and be blind to anything that happens in intermediate months 2) …completely defer to whatever the commanders on the ground say (because his military and strategic knowledge is better than theirs) By dismissing out of hand the absoluteness of a calender date by which all Americans will be out of Iraq, Senator Obama has just capitulated the political left’s dogma for the past six years (a debate that started in 2002 before the invasion in 2003). Since the time of the DLC Conference in early 2002, Democrats have demanded a deadline for the war, a schedule, and President Bush has resisted. (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Antiwar Dem confesses - Lanny Davis: “Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do?” While I am convinced that most Democrats were anti-Bush and not antiwar, Lanny Davis made the case today in the Washington Times that he really truly believed the war in Iraq was unnecessary. He wrote: “We had Saddam surrounded.” But we went in, won the war (and promptly lost the peace) and on Jan. 30, 2005, the Purple Finger Gang showed up. That got Davis to thinking maybe the war was right. He wrote: “Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do? And were willing to fight for it, with our help? “Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Even a great thing?" (READ MORE)

Right Wing Nut House: THE TIMELINE IS STILL A SUCKY IDEA - I know I’m bucking a trend here but there has to be a reason Petreaus and Odinero are dead set against initiating a timeline for withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, something they told the messiah to his face yesterday. Are they Bushbots who simply don’t recognize the overpowering genius of our future savior? Maybe they’re war lovers and get off at the sight of dead Americans? Perhaps they’re “Manchurian Candidate” jihadists who want America to stay in Iraq so their friends can kill more of our troops? Or maybe – just maybe – they know a helluva lot more about what’s going on in Iraq than anyone else in the American government (including a wet behind the ears junior senator from Illinois) and have a view of how best to end this thing shaped by experience and not by what might play well on the hustings. (READ MORE)

ShrinkWrapped: Globalization's Paradoxes - Discussions of the benefits and costs of globalization tend to focus on the most parochial. Politicians pander to the fears of anxious voters and promise to stop exporting jobs overseas and protect domestic markets from the dangers of lower priced imports. They do not tend to offer any details about how they will accomplish such legerdemain, but when pressed either step back from the brink or set forward policies that, if enacted, would likely lead to the 1930s redux. There are much broader risks and benefits of globalization that get left out of these domestic political debates. In his article yesterday, Tom Barnett points out some of the unmistakable benefits of globalization: “Globalizations means fewer wars, less death - Two new reports about our world reiterate the overwhelmingly positive impact of globalization upon our planet, making it more peaceful and more just. The ‘Human Security Brief 2007,’ compiled by Canada's Simon Fraser University, details the continuing overall decline in global conflict that began with globalization's rapid expansion around the planet in recent years, to include the complete absence of classic state-on-state war since 2003.” (READ MORE)

Cassandra: Obama: The Audacity of Branding - When it comes to propping up his supersized ego, is any move too audacious for the Obama campaign? “At a discussion with a dozen Democratic governors in Chicago on Friday morning, each of the governors was identified with a small name plate but Senator Barack Obama sat behind a low rostrum to which was attached an official-looking seal no one had seen before. It is emblazoned with a fierce-looking eagle clutching an olive branch in one claw and arrows in the other and is deliberately reminiscent of the official seal of the president of the United States. ...Just above the eagle’s head are the words ‘Vero Possumus,’ roughly translated “Yes we can.” Not exactly E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One), the motto on the presidential seal and the dollar bill. Then again, Mr. Obama is not the president.” Ah but we live in hope, do we not? Currently the candidate for Change We Can Believe In has embarked upon a whirlwind tour of the MiddleEast in his very own chartered jet. Obama's exact whereabouts at any given point in time are a closely held secret. Due to security concerns, the candidate declined to release his itinerary to the press. Fortunately for Obama watchers worldwide, he shouldn't be too hard to spot since before leaving on this highly secure trip, Obama had his stealth plane ostentatiously emblazoned with his logo and the moniker, "Obama One". No doubt keeping Bill Keller and Eric Lichtblau in the dark as to his whereabouts will be all the protection Obama needs: (READ MORE)

David Kopel: The United Nations vs. the Second Amendment - Over at Opinio Juris, Kenneth Anderson has an interesting post about last week's gun control conference at the United Nations, and a New York Times puff piece thereon, written by C.J. Chivers. After noting U.S. concerns about the U.N. becoming a venue attacks on American gun ownership, the Times explains: “The United Nations and advocates of gun control have said that such fears are unfounded, and that there is no effort to impose standards on nations with traditions of civilian ownership, or to restrict hunting. The programs, they said, apply largely to areas suffering from insurgencies or war. ‘States remain free to have their own national legislation,’ said Daniel Prins, chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. ‘This document does not try to regulate gun ownership in the whole world. This is an instrument that allows states to focus on regions in conflict and the weapons that illicitly get there.’” But Anderson was present at the beginning of the U.N.'s campaign against gun ownership. He recalls: (READ MORE)

Jay Tea: Con Job - One of the more common criticisms of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate is his very, very thin resume'. The guy just hasn't done very much that gives us a solid indicator of what he believes, what he thinks, how he thinks, how he performs. One of the points on that resume' is his tenure as a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he taught for twelve years. Very little has come out about Obama as teacher, but I have to say that based on his statements in the last year, I have some serious doubts about his qualifications to teach that subject. When the Heller case challenging the Washington, DC absolute gun ban was wending its way to the Supreme Court, Senator Obama said that he supported the measure. He said, on numerous occasions, that he thought that the 2nd Amendment did not prevent the District of Columbia from preventing individuals from owning handguns. (READ MORE)

John Hawkins: McCain And The Surge. Bush And Homeland Security - Ironically, one of the reasons George Bush's approval rating is so low is that he has done such a fantastic job of protecting America from terrorist attacks since 9/11. After 9/11, if you had told people that Bush would prevent another major terrorist attack against the US for nearly seven years and would have an approval rating under 30%, they'd have thought it was crazy. However, because Bush has done such an incredible job, most people have gotten complacent. They've deluded themselves into believing that; Al-Qaeda is no longer a serious threat, we don't need tough security measures, and that Bush really doesn't deserve a lot of credit for keeping another 9/11 from occurring. Well, Jonah Goldberg is making a similar argument about Iraq and the surge: (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 NYT's returned Senator McCain's Op/Ed unpublished saying:

I’d be very eager to publish the Senator on the Op-Ed page.

However, I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.

I’d be pleased, though, to look at another draft.

Let me suggest an approach.

Let me suggest an approach? Isn't this Senator McCain's Opinion not yours Mr. Shipley?

And what opinion was it that Senator McCain wanted to get out there?

Lets read it for ourselves:

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there,” he said on January 10, 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that “our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence.” But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama’s determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his “plan for Iraq” in advance of his first “fact finding” trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.

To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.

Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military’s readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.

No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five “surge” brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his “plan for Iraq.” Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be “very dangerous.”

The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the “Mission Accomplished” banner prematurely.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war—only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

And the MSM media wonders why their stock prices continue to fall and employees are continually let go...

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: The Daily Ramble

Soldierly Language follows...

The Thunder Run Site of the Day is: chic[k]pilot

News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
Mike T @ Bouhammer: The demons stay here - So everyone has been following the news, especially about our brothers back east from the 173rd (may they rest in peace). There is a state of panic and anxiousness where I am at. There are big plans in the works for things all across the country as I type this, but so far little response after the incurring attacks on US/Coalition Forces. We have officially become the “old” guys here on the teams and we are under our 60 day mark. All of us are trying to find our own ways to deal with our short-timers attitude and well to simply stay alive. I have been sidelined by an unexpected injury, a hamstring tear. My days of running missions for the last month are out of the question. The weird part is I do not feel guilty or as if I am missing out on something. My brethren here have been very supportive and well I think a bit happy about it. (READ MORE)

48th Combat Support Hospital - FOB Salerno / Khowst, Afghanistan: Talk about a Happy Birthday!!! - That special wife of mine has done it again! I was planning on today being just another day over here at Salerno. Sure, 31 years ago today I joined the world as a newborn, but that was no cause for celebration today since I couldn't celebrate with my family....right? WRONG!!! I got greetings from everyone that I work with which I wasn't expecting. Then, to top it all off, I got called into the office and was wondering, "Now what is this all about". My friend Rick said, "I have to talk to you in private. Lets go somewhere quiet." I'm thinking to myself, "Now what in the world is this all about?" However, knowing Rick as well as I do, I decided that the serious look on his face must mean that this is really important. I followed him into the conference room. As soon as the door opened, I heard a loud "SURPRISE!!!!!!". (READ MORE)

Back In the Army Now (at 54): More PT and My Sister's Wedding - This weekend I switched my training from avoiding the heat 90+ heat to running and riding in the worst of it. The reason gos back to my sister's wedding in 1982. She got married on a Saturday in October near Boston. I had a drill weekend with the reserve tank unit I was in: 6th Battalion, 68th Armor, Reading PA. I got Satuday off, but I had to be at the firing range at Fort Indiantown Gap PA at 0700 on Sunday. I left my sister's wedding at 9pm, so I had to drive all night to get to the range. I made it a half-hour early, changed into my uniform, and went to the firing line. That Sunday we were firing the 45-caliber pistol and the M3 "Grease Gun" submachine gun, the personal weapons of armor crewmen. The M3 was a piece of cake. but the 45 is a moving range with weapons that were more than 40 years old with loose parts. (READ MORE)

Cheese's Milblog: Ok, so I lied... - I guess I don't have better things to do than post. Actually, that's not true at all...my leave has been absolutely amazing. Like last time, time actually went slowly enough for me to enjoy it. Two weeks is the perfect amount of time to be home...well, forever would be perfect, but you know what I mean...it gives you time to actually slip into a sort of routine, to be able to act like a normal person instead of just being that guy who's headed right back to Afghanistan. People tell you about how hard it is to reintegrate, and I agree with that when it pertains to coming home for good, but when you're home on leave the change from soldier to civilian is instantaneous. This is aided by the fact that I had been flying for about a day and that my last act in Kuwait had been to stand in 130 degree heat for about an hour, requiring my first act in the US to be a shower and fresh set of civilian clothes! (READ MORE)

Doc in the Box: Kuwaiting Take 8 - Once again I’m hanging out in this hot and sandy place, we flew in early one morning and I said to Swear, “it’s not too bad today” and he replied with “it’s only 8:30 in the morning” and I said “Oh”. One of my Marines had injured their back during the unloading process so I made a trip over to medical where they kindly provided some medical care and on my dime, I took her over to Taco Bell for the first time in 6 months. Who knew Taco Bell would taste so good? Got back to the barracks and crashed out due to the lack of sleep I’ve had over the last couple of weeks only to wake in a blast furnace. The power had gone off and it felt like it was 140 degrees inside and I crawled out into the 117 degree day and it was cooler out there. To think, there are people live like that all of the time. I had it good. (READ MORE)

Bill Roggio: Iraqi, US forces keep pressure on the Mahdi Army - Iraqi and US troops continue to press the offensive against the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army during a series of raids throughout Iraq. Since July 18, US and Iraqi forces have killed six Mahdi Army fighters and captured 18 during operations in central Iraq. Scores more have been captured, including senior leaders, weapons smugglers, financiers, trainers, and cell leaders. The raids have been driven by intelligence, much of it gleaned from captive Mahdi Army fighters, according to information contained in Multinational Forces Iraq press releases. Captive Mahdi Army leaders and cell members are providing US and Iraqi forces information on leaders and cells throughout central and southern Iraq. (READ MORE)

Bill Murray: Mosul's IED hunter wounded in attack - MOSUL, IRAQ: More than once, the cell phone rang in Iraqi Army Major Fakhir Ibrahim Mohammad’s hand seconds after he’d pulled wires away from the phone’s battery, disarming the remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Device that insurgents had buried in a street in the hopes of killing Iraqi police, Army or Coalition forces. "Hello, this is your IED, come save me," he would usually answer. Insurgents at the other end of the phone line were always speechless; bombs don’t normally talk back. Other times he would add a little taunt before getting hung up upon. "Come save me if you’re man enough to come out of hiding and fight me the open." (READ MORE)

Omar: In the Middle East, Diplomacy = Weakness - In a matter of just a few days several important developments have taken place in the Middle East, all likely to have negative repercussions on the already tense situation in the region. The first development was the awkward prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah. Then there were the unprecedented decisions by the American administration to take part directly in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, and reportedly to resume some level of diplomatic ties with the country. Finally, we had the White House agreeing to set a “time horizon” for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Such decisions may be viewed by many in the West as steps in the right direction since they offer more room for diplomacy in resolving outstanding issues in the Middle East. And in Iraq, this “time horizon” may be seen by the public as a reassertion of progress towards restoring full sovereignty, and by Maliki as an easy PR gain in election season. (READ MORE)

The Marching Camp: AQ and the SecDef and Acronyms - Ralph Peters makes the argument that, having largely lost Iraq, al-Qaeda is returning to a strategy of open confrontation in Afghanistan because that is the only place in the world where al-Qaeda can still gather enough force to fight without getting stepped on hard, because al-Qaeda is discredited in the rest of the Arab world. I certainly haven't had a chance to survey the mythical "Arab in the Street" in the rest of the Arab world. On the other hand, I am bored off my ass in al-Anbar, once the centerpiece of the Media's attempts to "prove" we were "losing" in Iraq, due in no small part to the support which AQI used to have here. So as far as I can see, he has a point. Argghhh! makes the argument that this was an intended consequence of our invasion of Iraq. By forcing AQI to fight for Iraq, we managed to kill lots of them and discredit them pretty completely. (READ MORE)

Big Tobacco: Running With the Devil - I had a choice after the PT test. I could accept the platoon that I was given, or turn them into the platoon that I want them to be. I decided to mold the platoon instead of accept what I was given. Playtime is over. Squads used to do PT on their own. Not anymore. Now we run every other day at MY pace for two miles. At night, we run again. This tactic worked. Private Applesauce, the tiny, tearful soldier from “Job Security” finally ran two miles in formation today, at my pace, without falling out. This may seem like a trivial matter to active-duty soldiers but if you could have seen the smile on her sweat-drenched face when we finished, it would have melted your heart. I am finally pulling her away from the comfortable light of shamdom and back toward soldering. Every one of my soldiers, with the exception of Private Invisible Boy, finished the run without walking once. But there were other problems... (READ MORE)



News from the Front:
Iraq:
Baghdad residents and businesses receive quality water - Baghdad – Serving more than 2000 homes and businesses, two water networks at a cost of $2.6 million are almost complete in the Kadamiyah area of Baghdad. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division and the Baghdad Water Authority are working together to replace the old and damaged pipeline system in the Kadamiyah district to supply a better quality and quantity of water. According to the Gulf Region Central districts International Zone project engineer, Malath Al Rawas, approximately 17,000 linear meters of ductile iron water pipe was laid at each of the sites. (READ MORE)

ISF, MND-B Soldiers seize munitions, caches across Baghdad area - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized munitions and caches while working to preserve security throughout the Baghdad area July 20. Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division found three rocket propelled grenades, twelve RPG-7 rounds, a PKC machine gun, four RPG-7 chargers, a grenade, a 60 mm mortar tube and base, two drums of PKC machine gun rounds and 300 loose PKC machine gun rounds at approximately 7:30 a.m. in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. (READ MORE)

MND-B Soldiers detain suspected criminal in New Baghdad - BAGHDAD – National Police and Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers detained a suspected criminal in the New Baghdad security district of eastern Baghdad July 21. Police from the 4th Brigade, 1st National Police Division and Soldiers from the 66th Armor Regiment conducted a combined operation to detain the suspect and found him hiding underneath a parked vehicle after he ran. The suspect is believed to have carried out improvised explosive device attacks in the Al Amin area and indirect fire attacks on Coalition forces during the past year. (READ MORE)

Coalition forces target Al-Qaeda and affiliated extremists (Baghdad) - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces captured an alleged senior adviser for al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Mosul network and detained 10 additional suspects in two of Iraq’s largest cities, July 20 and 21. An alleged AQI senior leader is in Coalition forces’ custody after an operation in Mosul on Monday. The alleged leader, who was detained with two additional suspects, is reportedly a senior adviser to the Mosul terrorist network. In that position, he is believed to conspire with other terrorist leaders to conduct attacks and impose extremist ideals on Iraqi civilians in Mosul. (READ MORE)

Baghdad Police College graduates largest ever class of 1,698 new police officers (Baghdad) - Baghdad – 1,698 officers, the largest class ever, graduated from the Ministry of Interior’s Baghdad Police College here Sunday and took the loyalty oath to uphold the rule of law and protect the citizens of Iraq. The new course is known as the 1st Qualification Course. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spoke of this initiative during Basrah operations as a means to promote both reconciliation and new jobs for former government employees and other recruits who met the qualifications. To become lieutenants in the police force, the graduates must complete the retraining and certification in the four-month course. Most were college graduates. (READ MORE)

Coalition forces capture suspected Hezbolla Brigades propaganda expert (New Baghdad) - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces captured a suspected propaganda specialist of the Hezbollah Brigades early Monday morning in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad. Based on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted the location of a suspected propaganda expert affiliated with the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq. Information taken from suspected criminals already in custody indicate that the man uploads web sites with imagery and video taken from attacks on Iraqi Security and Coalition forces. (READ MORE)

INPs, MND-B Soldiers confiscate weapons cache in Baghdad - BAGHDAD – Iraqi National Police and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized a weapons cache in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad July 20. Police with the 1st Brigade, 1st National Police Division, seized a six-inch explosively formed projectile, a 120 mm artillery round, four rocket propelled grenades and an improvised explosive device at 11 a.m. All munitions were turned in to Soldiers with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. (READ MORE)

IA soldiers seize weapons cache in Sadr City - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army soldiers working to secure the area in the Sadr City district of Baghdad uncovered a weapons cache July 20. Soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st IA Division found three rocket propelled grenades, twelve RPG-7 rounds, four RPG-7 chargers, a grenade, a 60 mm mortar tube and base, a PKC machine gun, two drums of rounds and 300 loose rounds. (READ MORE)

Modern School Highlights Ancient Iraq’s Role in Education - BAGHDAD — “This ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, between the two historic rivers, taught the world how to read and how to write,” said Ahmed Rubayee, the Director General of Baghdad’s Rusafa 2 Education Department at al Neel school opening last week. “That is what we are doing here today, establishing a school, and to once again, be civilized and concentrate on teaching our children to read and write.” (READ MORE)

Upgraded Substation Provides Reliable Power to 300,000 in Al Kut - FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The people of al Kut are receiving more reliable electricity, thanks to the upgrade of the Old al Kut substation 33kV switch gear, which increases the availability of power for transmission and distribution. Two sections of the antiquated substation were replaced and came online approximately two weeks ago. Government officials celebrated its completion during a ribbon cutting ceremony, July 16. (READ MORE)

Iraqi Army’s ‘Quiet Professionals’ - FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — A platoon of Iraqi Army scouts took part in a live-fire exercise last week designed to simulate a raid and pursuit of a terrorist target in an urban environment. U.S. Soldiers from Operational Detachment Alpha 7236 trained the IA scouts and supervised the exercise. “In six years of training with (American) Special Forces, we have never done training like we did today,” said the commander of the Scout Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division. (READ MORE)


Afghanistan:
Several militants killed in Farah province airstrikes - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 20, 2008) – Afghan National Security and Coalition forces used precision airstrikes to eliminate several militants in Farah province early this morning. One of the militants targeted in the airstrikes was an area leader. He was a weapons facilitator and planned militant operations. The strike was called while the militants were in an open area to prevent harm to non-combatants and civilian structures. (READ MORE)

Militants killed, detained in Kandahar province - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 19, 2008) - Afghan National Security Forces, with support from Coalition forces, killed a few militants and detained more than a dozen during an operation to disrupt militant activity in the Kandahar District, Kandahar province, July 18. A large cache of artillery rounds, grenade fuses, and small arms ammunition were discovered during the operation. These items were destroyed in place to prevent future use. (READ MORE)

Congressional delegation visits American forces in eastern Afghanistan - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 19, 2008) — A Congressional delegation including senators Jack Reed (R.I.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Barrack Obama (Ill.) visited Regional Command-East, Afghanistan, and other American forces under that command today. The delegation received a briefing from Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, commanding general, RC-East and Combined Joint Task Force-101 at Bagram Air Field. (READ MORE)

Commandos, SOF forces rescue kidnap victim - A young Afghan man’s prayers were finally answered July 17 when a team of Afghan National Army Commandos and U.S. Special Operations forces freed him from captivity after discovering him shackled near a Taliban jail in the village of Parmakan in Western Afghanistan’s Herat province. The Commandos, with assistance from the SOF troops, were searching a compound where Taliban commander Nangialia Khan was known to have been when they discovered a building the Taliban had been using as a jail. Locals say that Khan and his men routinely take hostages from the villages and then demand a ransom for their release. (READ MORE)

Ky. Guardsmen deliver donated toys to Afghan children - FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan (July 17, 2008) – Charlie Company, 201st Engineer Battalion, Kentucky National Guard, showed skill in multi-tasking by reaching out to the Afghan people on a personal level while ensuring routes in Khowst province were safe from improvised explosive device threats, July 13. The combat engineers, based in Cynthiana, Ky., are tasked with escorting groups to ensure that the IED threat is kept to a minimum. They use special equipment to detect and disarm explosives before they become a threat to the mission. This trip was different from their usual outings, thanks to support from home. (READ MORE)

Coalition forces respond to attack, 8 civilians killed in Farah - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (16 July 2008) – A coalition convoy on a routine patrol yesterday in Bakwa, Farah province came under sustained attack from machine gun and indirect fire from a number of houses adjacent to the road. The coalition convoy returned fire and called for close air support on the enemy positions. A house was hit; eight civilians were killed, two others injured. Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants, and deeply regret any occurrence such as this where civilians are killed and injured as a result of insurgent activity and actions. (READ MORE)

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)
Fannie and Freddie's Enablers - You'll love this one. In the strange accountability of Washington, the same folks who put taxpayers on the hook for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now demanding ransom to let taxpayers bail them out. It's as if Andy Fastow insisted that Enron shareholders pay his fines after his fraud cost them their life savings. (READ MORE)

Their Fair Share - Washington is teeing up "the rich" for a big tax hike next year, as a way to make them "pay their fair share." Well, the latest IRS data have arrived on who paid what share of income taxes in 2006, and it's going to be hard for the rich to pay any more than they already do. The data show that the 2003 Bush tax cuts caused what may be the biggest increase in tax payments by the rich in American history. (READ MORE)

For 'Surge' Troops, Pride Mingles With Doubt - BAGHDAD -- This time last year, Capt. Wes Wilhite's men were getting ready to move into an abandoned house in western Baghdad wedged between cells of Sunni insurgents to the south and strongholds of Shiite militias to the north. (READ MORE)

In Immigration Cases, Employers Feel the Pressure - A three-year-old enforcement campaign against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants is increasingly resulting in arrests and criminal convictions, using evidence gathered by phone taps, undercover agents and prisoners who agree to serve as government witnesses. (READ MORE)

Detainee's Trial in Military System Begins Today - GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Nearly seven years after President Bush declared an "extraordinary emergency" that empowered him to bring terrorists before military judges, Osama bin Laden's former driver is scheduled to go on trial Monday in the first test of whether that system can dispense fair and impartial justice. (READ MORE)

Obama, Karzai Share a 'Working Lunch' - KABUL, July 20 -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met here Sunday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and later reiterated his call for additional U.S. forces to deal with conditions in Afghanistan that he described as "precarious and urgent," capping a two-day tour as casualties continued to mount from violence in the war-torn country. (READ MORE)

Obama begins firsthand look at Baghdad - BAGHDAD (AP) – Barack Obama began Monday his first on-the-ground inspection of Iraq since launching his bid for the White House, with U.S. commanders ready to brief him on progress in a war he has long opposed and Iraqi leaders wanting more details of his proposals for troop withdrawals. (READ MORE)

Fees, fewer flights ground business travel - Business travelers are beginning to reminisce about the days when red-eye flights and early-morning meetings were their primary sources of distress. In recent months, they have been overwhelmed by a cascade of increased costs, canceled flights and fees tacked on by airlines that are struggling to offset soaring fuel costs. (READ MORE)

Grassley won't be GOP delegate - Evangelical Christians in Iowa, dominant in the state's Republican Party, have denied Sen. Charles E. Grassley his request for a place on the state's delegation to this summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. (READ MORE)

Rice limits embassies' aid for candidates - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has instructed U.S. overseas missions to provide only minimal support to foreign visits by the two main presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, forbidding diplomats to hold events or arrange meetings for them. (READ MORE)

Newspaper editors hopeful amid woes - The news about newspapers is alarming but not hopeless - and there are actually a few good tidings, according to a report released Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The key to the newspaper's ultimate survival is "a good business model and strong journalism," the report says. (READ MORE)



On the Web:
Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Argentine Democrats Strike Back - Argentine democrats chalked up a big win last week when the Senate in Buenos Aires voted down a tax bill sent to it by President Cristina Kirchner. The significance of the defeat for Mrs. Kirchner goes well beyond her fiscal agenda to the heart of the rule of law in one of the most important countries in Latin America. To wit, for the first time in seven years, the office of the Argentine president has been forced to accept limits to its power. This is great news for a nation that seemed, until last week, to have lost all institutional checks and balances. If some of those institutions are reasserting their power to keep the executive in line, it means that the Argentine democracy still has a pulse. It is also good for the neighborhood, where young democracies are still being tested. (READ MORE)

L. Gordon Crovitz: Good Scholarship Is Worth Honoring - The University of Chicago recently announced it will create a new institute to add to its outsized reputation in economics, business and law. This became controversial because of the name: the Milton Friedman Institute. Some 100 members of the faculty last month wrote the university president to object that this would imply that the Chicago faculty "lacks intellectual and ideological diversity." Any implication that Chicago is staffed mostly by conservatives and libertarians is amusing -- after all, one Barack Obama taught law there until he became otherwise engaged. But the larger point is that what Friedman stood for, more than any particular idea, was the importance of doing the hard work of research. This sounds like a useful thing for academia in a world with hard policy problems to address, especially in this information-focused era when we expect right answers and wrong answers and to know which is which, preferably ahead of time. (READ MORE)

William Tucker: Let's Have Some Love for Nuclear Power - All over the world, nuclear power is making a comeback. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has just commissioned eight new reactors, and says there's "no upper limit" to the number Britain will build in the future. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has challenged her country's program to phase out 17 nuclear reactors by 2020, saying it will be impossible to deal with climate change without them. China and India are building nuclear power plants; France and Russia, both of whom have embraced the technology, are fiercely competing to sell them the hardware. And just last month John McCain called for the construction of 45 new reactors by 2030. Barack Obama is less enthusiastic about nuclear energy, but he seems to be moving toward tacit approval. In the U.S. at present, 104 nuclear plants generate about 21% of our electric power. (READ MORE)

R. Glenn Hubbard: We're Asking Too Much of the Fed - The combination of eye-popping headline inflation of 5% year over year and dramatic expansions of the Federal Reserve's lending activities to limit the credit crunch raise a key question: Are we asking too much of monetary policy? The simple answer is yes. The expansion of the Fed's lending has been extraordinary in scale and scope. But it is not the best response to the present credit crunch, and may bring unwelcome side effects. To assess the Fed's role as firefighter in the current financial turmoil, it is useful to start with the roots of the problem. Shocks to financial institutions' net worth affected the supply of credit from those institutions. Such credit restrictions reduced consumption and investment -- otherwise known as a "credit crunch." The Fed's interventions have, of course, aimed at liquidity -- the ability to fund increases in assets and meet obligations as they become due. (READ MORE)

Bronwen Maddox: Europe Gets Real About America - Berlin was always going to be the best backdrop for Barack Obama's big European speech this week. London offered only the besieged Gordon Brown, who is determined, aides have let it be known, to have a technocratic conversation with the Democratic candidate, hammering away at food and fuel prices. Paris's own pomp and architecture upstage most leaders. So does Carla Sarkozy. And although U.S.-French relations are unfreezing, defense and trade are still tough issues. But Berlin, oversupplied with resonant monuments to a once-divided continent, is the perfect stage for any politician who wants to strike the big themes of democracy, freedom and unity in the face of common threats. There was an endearing comedy in the efforts of the Obama team to find exactly the right location once Chancellor Angela Merkel vetoed the Brandenburg Gate. (READ MORE)

Micahel Rubin: Now Bush Is Appeasing Iran - On May 31, 2006, Condoleezza Rice drew a red line in front of Tehran's nuclear enrichment program. "The Iranian government's choices are clear," she said. "The negative choice is for the regime to maintain its current course. . . . If the regime does so, it will incur only great costs." She also offered an olive branch: "As soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives." Two years later, Iranian officials have installed more than 3,000 centrifuges in a facility designed to hold 50,000. On July 9, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tested missiles which could reach Israel; the same day, Iranian Web sites carried President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pledge to launch a satellite, an event that would demonstrate a mastery of intercontinental ballistic missile technology. (READ MORE)

Robert D. Novak: Obama's Iraq Spotlight - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I asked one of the Republican Party's smartest, most candid heavy hitters this week whether John McCain really has a chance to defeat Barack Obama in this season of Republican discontent. "No, if the campaign is about McCain," he replied. "Yes, if it's about Obama." That underlines the importance of Obama's visit to Iraq, beginning weeks of scrutiny for the Democratic presidential candidate under a GOP spotlight. Four years ago nearly to the day, I asked the same question to the same Republican leader about George W. Bush and John Kerry, and he gave the same answer. He proved prophetic because Bush's campaign made Kerry the issue, and the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate flunked the test. Obama is a far more interesting personality and an incomparably more appealing candidate than Kerry. But why then, in a year where the nation clearly has rejected the GOP as a party, does McCain have a real chance to be elected? (READ MORE)

Paul Greenberg: Good News is No News - Have you been keeping up with the good news out of Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold in Iraq? The good news is that it's not an al-Qaida stronghold any more. Thanks to the latest American and Iraqi offensive. But you might not have heard about that welcome development. American victories don't get all that much play in this country - a pattern that dates back at least to David Halberstam's heyday as a New York Times war correspondent and behind-the-scenes player in Vietnam. For news of victory, Americans may have to look to the foreign press. For example, The Times of London, which carried a piece by Marie Colvin the other day. She reported that "American and Iraqi forces are driving al-Qaida in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." Who knew? I must have overlooked the story in the New York Times. Nor did I see it on the AP wire. (READ MORE)

Star Parker: Gays in the military: What would George Washington think? - For the first time since the "don't ask, don't tell" law was enacted in 1993 by President Clinton, the House Armed Services Committee has scheduled hearings to review it. The law disqualifies gays from serving in the military. Individuals are deemed gay, according to this ruling, if they publicly state so. However, the military is prohibited from asking. Thus, "don't ask, don't tell." Activists are now pushing for change to allow gays to serve openly. We can anticipate a technical discussion. Does the presence of openly gay soldiers undermine cohesiveness of units, morale, and discipline? How would retention rates of troops or enlistments be affected? We can be sure, though, that a discussion about the general moral implications of such a policy will not take place. (READ MORE)

Dinesh D'Souza: An Absentee God? - In my debate with atheist Christopher Hitchens in New York last October he raised a point that I did not know how to answer. So I employed an old debating strategy: I ignored it and answered other issues. But Hitchens' argument bothered me. Here's what Hitchens said. Homo sapiens has been on the planet for a long time, let's say 100,000 years. Apparently for 95,000 years God sat idly by, watching and perhaps enjoying man's horrible condition. After all, cave-man's plight was a miserable one: infant mortality, brutal massacres, horrible toothaches, and an early death. Evidently God didn't really care. Then, a few thousand years ago, God said, "It's time to get involved." Even so God did not intervene in one of the civilized parts of the world. He didn't bother with China or Egypt or India. Rather, he decided to get his message to a group of nomadic people in the middle of nowhere. It took another thousand years or more for this message to get to places like India and China. (READ MORE)

Bill O'Reilly: Disrespecting Tony - The recent death of Tony Snow brought sadness to millions of Americans who admired the man's public service and optimism about his country. But not everybody felt the need to honor him. Just hours after he died from cancer, the Associated Press released an obituary that has shocked some people and badly damaged the AP's image, at least in the conservative community. AP reporter Douglass Daniel began the article by listing some of Tony's accomplishments, but then suddenly veered into ideological territory, writing: "With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster's good looks and a relentlessly bright outlook -- if not always a command of the facts -- he became a popular figure around the country to the delight of his White House bosses... "Critics suggested that Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation." (READ MORE)

Peter J. Wirs: Is Obama’s Secret Fall Strategy to Wage a Polarizing Smear Campaign? - The allegations of Obama planting the false Maureen Down column to immunize himself from legitimate criticism didn’t simply fall out the sky. Astute political observers could easily detect David Axelrod’s fingerprints all over the illicit campaign tactic. It worked before, so why not now? The senior partner of AKP Message & Media, David Axelrod is a leading political consultant based in Chicago, Illinois. While he is best known as a top adviser to Barack Obama, first in Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois and currently as strategist for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, he has been the power behind the throne in multiple campaigns, including Dennis Archer in Detroit, Michael R. White in Cleveland, Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C., Lee P. Brown in Houston, and John F. Street in Philadelphia. (READ MORE)

Salena Zito: The Hatfield 'n' McCoy vote - “The Appalachian voting bloc will be critical in the … 2008 presidential election,” former Democratic National Committee executive director Mark Siegel says. Yet his broad statement comes with its own geopolitical caveat: location. “It all depends on what part of Appalachia you are talking about,” says Siegel. “If they live in Pennsylvania and Ohio, then, yes, without a doubt they are the key voters. If they live in West Virginia, then no, because for the Democrats that is not a state that is in play.” Appalachia is not a single state but a region that has its own unique frame (or perhaps frames) of mind that extend well past the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky, the states most often associated with the term. As a geographical entity, Appalachia cuts a diagonal path from western New York to Alabama and Mississippi. (READ MORE)

Lawhawk: Gore Compares Offshore Drilling to Iraq Invasion - Thank goodness Al Gore never won the Presidency, because his asinine statements keep showing just how completely divorced from reality he is. He is so convinced in the existence of man made global warming that he makes preposterous analogies to support his baseless and destructive policy suggestions. As Ben Smith at Politico reports: “‘If you look at the seriousness of the climate crisis, you see how it ties to the economic crisis and the national security threat that we face,’ he said. ‘200 billion dollars are being sent overseas just from oil.’ ‘The idea that we can drill our way out of this is just so absurd,’ he said, comparing the push for offshore oil drilling — which has gained popularity and put environmentalists on the defense — to dealing with a hangover by having another drink.” (READ MORE)

A Newt One: Obama: The Subtleties of A Dictatorial Tyrant - He sure looks pretty, doesn't he? All dressed up and well groomed and all. Pearly whites all aglow pounding out verbiage not of his own, spouting of things he knows nothing of. Teleprompters not withstanding, isn't he all dashing, smiling and a champion of all of the oppressed? WOW! He doesn't fool me for a nano-second. What a fraud this Obama is. There is a must read over at Roger Guy's Radar Site blog entitled, The Fouse Report: 20 Jul 08 with a sub-title of, The New Nazis. It describes, in part, via a brief summary of known historical facts the rise of Hitler's Nazi Germany and the more than "coincidental" commonalities of Nazism and Islamofascism. Those of us that have studied Islam at length see the parallels of both. Barack Obama has said more than once that we have to talk to those that have sworn to destroy us. (READ MORE)

DrewM @ Ace of Spades: "Give me a second. I gotta go kill these guys first." - Last Sunday word came in about a large scale attack on a small and remote US base in Afghanistan. 9 soldiers were killed in that battle. In the few cases like this where the enemy decides to fight toe to toe the news seems to follow a familiar pattern...initial reports of US casualties, then a few days later news of how badly out numbered our troops were but still held off the larger force. Today the next phase gets underway... tales of heroism of American soldiers. Stars and Stripes has details on last week's fight in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. “Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed how badly he was bleeding. Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to him for help. Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look at Stafford that said, ‘Give me a second. I gotta go kill these guys first.’” (READ MORE)

Dafydd: Will Elite Media Ask Obama Whether Their Coverage of Him is Fair? - Well, we're not quite back yet; but we're out of the back country and rarin' to jump back into the political fray. So cowboy up and read on! The elite media love to gaze upon Barack H. Obama... but if there is anything they love more, it's gazing upon their own navels. Thus, we're not at all surprised to note that the big story of the day is -- "What should the big story of the day be?" Or in this case, who should it be... and should it be Barack H. Obama all day, every day? “Television news' royalty will fly in to meet Barack Obama during this week's overseas trip: CBS chief anchor Katie Couric in Jordan on Tuesday, ABC's Charles Gibson in Israel on Wednesday and NBC's Brian Williams in Germany on Thursday. The anchor blessing defines the trip as a Major Event and -- much like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit in February that depicted a press corps fawning over Obama -- raises anew the issue of fairness in campaign coverage.” (READ MORE)

Big Dog: McCain Shatters Obama’s Secrecy - The Obama camp is upset with John McCain because he disclosed that the young Senator was on his way to the Middle East. The camp is upset because they have closely guarded the information regarding his departure even though the major networks have mobilized to follow him around like Bill Clinton following the scent of an intern. “For weeks now, Barack Obama has closely guarded the details of his planned fact-finding trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, citing security concerns. But Friday, the Democratic presidential hopeful’s Republican rival, John McCain, may have let the secret out of the bag - infuriating some Obama supporters and putting Camp McCain on the defensive.” I understand the need for a certain amount of secrecy in order to ensure safety but the news has been abuzz about the anointed one and his trek across the world. The supposed “fact finding mission” is really a campaign ploy which explains why Obama has an army of advisers to keep him from making a mistake that might cost him votes. (READ MORE)

Blonde Sagacity: Muslims Offended...Again - During a conference call with reporters (arranged by Florida's Republican Comittee --NOT John McCain), one of McCain's fellow former POW's said this: “‘The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us. I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.’ ~Col. Bud Day” "Muslim leaders and Arab-American groups quickly denounced the ''bigoted'' comments by Day, a Pensacola resident, Medal of Honor recipient and member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attack machine from 2004. This is as close to racist as it gets. These are cheap street tactics,'' said Khaled Saffuri, who helped organize Arab outreach for President Bush's 2000 campaign but is now a Libertarian. ``Even if this is called a mistake or a slip of the tongue, it shows a bigger problem with racism. McCain and the Republican party should denounce this. (READ MORE)

The Captain's Journal: The Example of Musa Qala - We have previously covered the secret negotiations between MI6 agents and mid-level Taliban commanders, the result of which was the agreement between British forces and one Mullah Abdul Salaam who had promised military help when British and U.S. forces retook Musa Qala late in 2007. The military assistance never materialized, and instead of engaging in the battle, Salaam and his “fighters” stayed in his compound in Shakahraz, ten miles east, with a small cortège of fighters, where he made increasingly desperate pleas for help. “He said that he would bring all the tribes with him but they never materialised,” recalled one British officer at the forefront of the operation. “Instead, all that happened was a series of increasingly fraught and frantic calls from him for help to Karzai.” For this he was rewarded with rule of Musa Qala. But not more than half a year later relations between Salaam and the British have badly degraded. (READ MORE)

Evan Kohlmann: Is Iraq the “Central Front” in the War On Terror? - When the Bush administration made the fateful decision in 2003 to open an active military frontline in Iraq, for many Al-Qaida supporters, the experience was not unlike witnessing the fulfillment of divine prophecy. Former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke would later write in his memoirs, “It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting ‘invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq.’” Given the opportunity to confront an aggressive American invasion of the Islamic world, Bin Laden would “become a hero in the minds of people,” explained noted Saudi jihadi ideologue Dr. Saad al-Faqih to me over cups of sweet black tea shared at his suburban London flat. “It is a golden opportunity for them, for the American, for the infidel—the invading infidel—to be in his [military] uniform in a Muslim country, in an Arabic country even.” (READ MORE)

Confederate Yankee: Still No Good Explanation for Obama's Plan For A State Security Apparatus - Our good friends on the far left have plenty of snark to drop in this post, suddenly finding an aversion to Third Reich analogies after seven years of BushHilter and comparisons of the RNC to Nazis. What they have not done, nor even seriously attempted, was to explain the comments the media so carefully edited-out of a speech that Obama recently gave, where he advocated a "civilian national security force" that is "just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the nation's military. As I noted in my last comment to that post, "national" means United States, or domestic in nature, not a international force. Security means "police." Unless Obama was uttering "just words," he was advocating domestic state security. (READ MORE)

Crazy Politico: Liberal Definition of "Tax Relief" - If you have an understanding of economics, and government, and need a laugh, read this editorial from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called "Yes, it is property tax relief ". In it, the editorial board of the newpaper explains that a 0.5% sales tax enacted 17 years ago was in fact, property tax relief. By their logic, since the money raised was spent, and didn't come from property taxes, it was "property tax relief". The flip side of the argument; if they hadn't collected the money, it wouldn't have been spent; isn't raised. The editorial board at that paper has issues with the idea of not taking and spending money. The source of the argument is an advisory referendum slated for November to ask the voters to raise the sales tax again, so that property taxes won't have to go up to fund transportation and parks. (READ MORE)

Discerning Texan: Manchurian Candidate? Is the Obama Birth Certificate (released via the Daily Kos) a forgery? - For several months now, many Republicans have been questioning why Barack Obama has not released his birth certificate. Well, this week the Daily Kos finally did release a jpg of a purported "Hawaii Certificate of Live Birth" (basically a certification that the Original is legit) that it claims was provided by the Obama campaign. Jim Geraghty at NRO was among those calling attention to this back in June, as FullosseousFlap pointed out : “Was Barack Obama born in Hawaii or somewhere else, or did he just change a name? Jim Geraghty looks at rumors running around about Obama’s supposed secrecy on his birth, and runs down three scenarios of what the campaign may want to hide. Their refusal to produce a birth certificate has stoked some of the speculation:” Was all this much ado about nothing? Well, maybe... but you really do wonder why Obama "refused" initially to provide a birth certificate in the first place. Seems like it ought to be a mere formality, right? (READ MORE)

Don Surber: Schooled - Nouri al-Maliki plays both ends against the middle. And a year ago they said Iraq’s prime minister was weak. Robert Reid of the Associated Press figured it out. And in retrospect, it is obvious: “Confusion over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s seeming endorsement of Barack Obama’s troop withdrawal plan is part of Iraq’s strategy to play U.S. politics for the best deal possible over America’s military mission. The goal isn’t necessarily to push out the Americans quickly, but instead to give Iraqis a major voice in how long U.S. troops stay and what they will do while there. It also is designed to refurbish the credentials of al-Maliki, who owes his political survival to the support of President George W. Bush. Now, an increasingly confident Iraqi government seems to be undermining long-standing White House policies on Iraq.” Of course, that also plays well to the Iraqi populace who like France after World War II is pretty tired of us. (READ MORE)

FREEDOM EDEN: Revolutionary Michelle Obama - Barack Obama has said it repeatedly. His wife Michelle is off limits. Do not criticize her. Everyone is on notice. Leave Michelle alone. Obama's orders are meant to give Michelle a pass, but she has another shield to prevent challenges from opponents. She has something else to protect her -- the color of her skin. From Sophia A. Nelson, in the Washington Post: “There she is -- no, not Miss America, but the Angela-Davis-Afro-wearing, machine-gun-toting, angry, unpatriotic Michelle Obama, greeting her husband with a fist bump instead of a kiss on the cheek. It was supposed to be satire, but the caricature of Barack Obama and his wife that appeared on the cover of the New Yorker last week rightly caused a major flap. And among black professional women like me and many of my sisters in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, who happened to be gathered last week in Washington for our 100th anniversary celebration, the mischaracterization of Michelle hit the rawest of nerves.” (READ MORE)

Allahpundit: Lieberman: Obama couldn’t go to Iraq today if we’d followed his plan - From Fox News Sunday by way of Team McCain, a succinct reply to Obama triumphalists. His point at the end about Afghanistan is also well taken, although Hitchens’s formulation from last week is more elegant: “If it is true, as yesterday’s three-decker front-page headline in the New York Times had it, that ‘U.S. Considering Stepping Up Pace of Iraq Pullout/ Fall in Violence Cited/ More Troops Could Be Freed for Operations in Afghanistan,’ then this can only be because al-Qaida in Iraq has been subjected to a battlefield defeat at our hands—a military defeat accompanied by a political humiliation in which its fanatics have been angrily repudiated by the very people they falsely claimed to be fighting for. If we had left Iraq according to the timetable of the anti-war movement, the situation would be the precise reverse:” (READ MORE)

Ed Morrissey: Obama flunks history, again - After receiving a hailstorm of criticism for considering Brandenburg Gate for a public speech, as well as official German dissuasion, Barack Obama moved the venue to the Siegessäule monument. Obama will speak about “historic” US-German relations, but once again, Obama’s own grasp of history has been proven deficient. Not only does the site contain a monument to Prussian victories over other American allies in Europe, its placement was decided by Adolf Hitler — in order to impress crowds in his idealized version of Berlin called Germania: “Still, even as the issue of his speech’s location has now been settled, a number of politicians in Berlin are still dissatisfied with the site. The Siegessäule — or Victory Column — was erected in memory of Prussia’s victories over Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870/71). The column originally stood in front of the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, but was moved by Adolf Hitler to its current location in 1939 to make way for his planned transformation of Berlin into the Nazi capital ‘Germania.’” (READ MORE)

Michael J. Totten: The Bin Ladens of the Balkans, Part I - Around a thousand mujahideen, veteran Arabic fighters from the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, showed up in Bosnia in the mid-1990s to fight a jihad against Serbian Orthodox Christians. They thought they would be welcomed, and they were right. The European community imposed an arms embargo on all of Yugoslavia during the Bosnian civil war which preserved the imbalance of power and arms in favor of Slobodan Milosevic and his nationalist Bosnian Serb comrades in arms. The Bosnian army was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional – it included Serb and Croat Christians as well as Bosniak Muslims – but its leaders chose to accept help from the so-called “Afghan Arabs” because they were desperate. The radical Arab mujahideen matured slightly between the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and they probed the anti-Milosevic guerilla movement known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to see if they could lend a hand there, as well. (READ MORE)

Neptunus Lex: Shifting fires - The sources of Islamic resentment against the West are complex and multi-faceted. Our lofty ideals about democracy were always viewed with suspicion when our actions in the region were to make common cause with oppressive kings and tyrants. The issue of Palestinian statehood and the perceived injustices of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank smolder in hearts throughout the umma, but there is little hope for real compromise when too many Palestinians cherish the dream of destroying their Israeli “peace partners” in detail rather than coming to any form of accomodation with their existence. Even if some way were found to bridge that gap, the al Qaeda jihadis that dream of re-establishing the caliphate seek also to undo the Spanish reconquista along the way - a goal that is probably not worth serious consideration in Spain. So where are we now? Tactically. In Iraq we have taken a battle that al Qaeda called a “must-win” and made them lose. (READ MORE)

McQ: Or is it 1980? - Except in this case the "Ronald Reagan" of the election would be Barack Obama. Wandering around the net and reading various articles, I stumbled across Clive Crook’s examination of exactly the phenomenon Michael Baron addresses in the post below. Crook, however, has a completely different analysis based on the work of Emory University professor Alan Abramowitz and his electoral barometer. The point to be made about the good professor’s electoral barometer is it that has a good track record, much better than the polls. And, as Crook succinctly sums up Abramowitz’s findings about this election, "McCain is toast". Essentially the message Crook and Abramowitz give is that the polls that show the candidates in a very tight race don’t really matter because they’re polling the wrong things. (READ MORE)

This Ain't Hell: NY Times red pencil’s McCain’s opinion - I read it first at Little Green Footballs and then clicked over to Drudge to read the whole thing, and it’s pretty startling. It seems that the New York Times is now rejecting people’s opinions based on style issues. Obama’s opinion piece a few weeks ago in the Times is apparently the style guide. ‘It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece,’ NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain’s staff. ‘I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.’ Let me ask this question of the NYT’s editors…how do you think you can get away with presenting one politician’s opinion and then dictating to another what his rebuttal will be? NYT’s Shipley advised McCain to try again: ‘I’d be pleased, though, to look at another draft.’ (READ MORE)


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News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.

In their own words:
A Major's Perspective: Why I Feel Blogging By Military Members and Families is so Important - Blogging has given people the world over the ability to both stay in touch with family and to post their comments and perspective on current issues in the news. As Soldiers and Family Members of Soldiers I believe we have a very unique perspective on the current situation that we are in within the Global War on Terror. I firmly believe that we have a responsibility to the citizens of the nation to tell our story. To tell the citizens of the United States and also the citizens of the world what is really transpiring and to share all of the good news stories that are not normally reported in the regular media sources. I have talked about before how counter-insurgency operations demand one critical resource that is always in question. That resource is time. Counter-insurgency operations are not an operation that can be executed and done with-in a month or even a year. It is an operations that demands time to be done correctly. (READ MORE)

Caesar Ahmed: A slice of normality returns to Baghdad - It is a place tinged in nostalgia for Baghdadis of a certain generation. Many remember happy evenings strolling along Abu Nuwas Street, taking in the elegant homes, gardens and art galleries, and stopping at one of the many cafes for grilled fish, fresh from the Tigris River. The riverside street, named after a respected Arabic poet, used to be famous for its nightclubs, restaurants and bars. In its heyday in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was a favorite nightspot for tourists from the Persian Gulf region, who enjoyed visiting Iraq because of its relaxed attitude toward alcohol. (READ MORE)

Brad's Excellent Adventure: My Farewell From Kuwait - Thursday 17 July 2008 2100 - The Army has a tradition known as the “Hail and Farewell”. It is a way of welcoming new members of the command, and saying farewell to those who are leaving. When I was on active duty, we had a hail and farewell every month or two for the officers in our battalion. We’d go out to dinner at a nice restaurant someplace (the coolest one I ever remember was in a castle in the village of Rossbach, between Hanau and Giessen. (I liked that place so much that afterwards I used to ride my bike up there all the time). Anyway, it was a nice time to connect with the other officers and their wives socially, and to relax a little bit. The officers being hailed would get a chance to introduce themselves, and the officers being farewelled would make a few parting remarks (after being thoroughly roasted by their peers, of course). It was a lot of fun, and I looked forward to the occasions. (READ MORE)

Doc in the Box: My first feature length film - As my time draws to a close out here, I had one more project to complete. The book form cruise book fell though because we couldn’t get enough people to buy them to make it economically feasible. So, the cruise book staff voted to make another DVD and me, being the DVD guru with a brand spanking new laptop to handle it was put in charge. We had less then a month. First I needed to gather a game plan, we started brainstorming. All of the brainstorming somehow ended up coming out of my head for some reason, I had them gather up all of their personal pictures and video onto a cruise folder on the share drive, decide on a musical theme for their shop and teach them how to make movies so I could be m