And in the mean time, good news from Iraq in the effort to clean up Anbar Province.

Many Sunni tribal leaders, once openly hostile to the American presence, have formed a united front with American and Iraqi government forces against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. With the tribal leadersÂ’ encouragement, thousands of local residents have joined the police force. About 10,000 police officers are now in Anbar, up from several thousand a year ago. During the same period, the police force here in Ramadi, the provincial capital, has grown from fewer than 200 to about 4,500, American military officials say.

At the same time, American and Iraqi forces have been conducting sweeps of insurgent strongholds, particularly in and around Ramadi, leaving behind a network of police stations and military garrisons, a strategy that is also being used in Baghdad, IraqÂ’s capital, as part of its new security plan.

You know, the US and the Iraqi people might come out of this thing as winners -- if the President holds firm against al-Qaeda, al-Sadr, and the Democrats.

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I don’t know about one of these charges. The charge of “aiding the enemy” sounds an awful lot like the definition of another crime – the only one defined by the US Constitution.

A senior U.S. officer has been charged with nine offenses, including aiding the enemy and fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee while he commanded a military police detachment at an American detention facility near Baghdad, the military said Thursday.

Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele was accused of giving "aid to the enemy" by providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees.

Steele was the commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention center on the western outskirts of Baghdad, when the offenses allegedly occurred between October 2005 and February, military spokesman Lt. Col. James Hutton said.

Steele was being held in Kuwait pending a grand jury investigation, Hutton said.
The other charges included unauthorized possession of classified information, fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee, maintaining an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter, storing classified information in his quarters and possessing pornographic videos, the military said.

Steele also was charged with improperly marking classified information, failing to obey an order and failing to fulfill his obligations in the expenditure of funds, the military said.

All of this is serious. All of it needs to be punished. But if Steel has provided “aid to the enemy”, doesn’t that fall within the scope of the definition of “treason” contained in Article III, Section 3 of the US Constitution?

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As a Navy brat, I grew up worshiping the Blue Angels. Indeed, my brother and I both had fantasies of flying those planes. There even are a couple of pictures of us boys actually standing next to one of the planes with its pilot -- being an officer's kid has some advantages.

And so stories like this one leave me with a heavy heart.

A Navy Blue Angel fighter jet crashed during an air show Saturday, plunging into a neighborhood of small homes and trailers and killing the pilot, the county coroner said.

It was the first death of a Blue Angel pilot since 1999.

Witnesses said the Navy aerial-demonstration team, made up of six planes, was flying in formation at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort when one jet dropped below the tree line and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke.

It was not immediately known whether anyone on the ground was injured.

* * *

The Blue Angels were formed in 1946 to promote public interest in naval aviation. Flying F/A-18s painted navy blue, the team performs nationally at air shows, spring through fall, executing highly synchronized aerial acrobatics that bring the fighters within feet of each other at high speed.

Twenty-four Blue Angel pilots have died in accidents, including the one killed Saturday. In 1999, two were killed when an F/A-18 crashed into a stand of pine trees in Georgia as the team practiced for a show.

May the family and colleagues of the pilot who died yesterday -- whose name has yet to be released -- be comforted in this time of sorrow.

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The body of a World War II airman has been identified.

The remains of a World War II navigator listed as missing in action for almost 63 years have been identified two years after they were found in Croatia, the brother of the deceased pilot said.

Air Force 1st Lt. Archibald Kelly's B-24 crashed on July 22, 1944, south of Dubrovnik, Croatia, near the Adriatic Sea. The plane carrying 10 crew members was returning from a bombing raid on oil fields in Romania.

Fellow crew members who survived the crash told Sam Kelly that his brother was the first to jump from the damaged aircraft, but he was struggling to straighten out his parachute and crashed into a mountain. He was 23.

''The irony is that my brother had been on 45 missions and had five more to go and he would have been discharged,'' Sam Kelly, 83, told The Oakland Press.

Kelly said he and his wife, Katie, were notified in February by the Defense Department that dental records matched the skeletal remains found in a shallow grave near the village of Cavtat.

The remains, first discovered by children in 2005, also included a button from an American military uniform, said Capt. Robert Frazer, a casualty assistance officer.

Kelly's remains were being held in a military facility in Hawaii and until they are shipped to Michigan for a May 12 funeral.

We have so many American patriots willing to show up to provide an honor guard for our dead from the current conflict which was thrust upon us by the Islamists -- I hope that some of these are available to provide a fitting homecoming for 1st Lt. Archibald Kelly when he returns home to his permanent place of rest.

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It has been three years.

Two years ago, Matt Maupin was a typical American young man.

He worked at Sam's Club.

He was attending college, majoring in nutritional science.

He worked out at Powerhouse Gym.

He had a dog named Fibi.

He drove a Mustang.

And in February, 2004, he was deployed to Iraq with the 724th Transportation Company.

Six weeks later, on April 9, 2004, he was guarding a civilian convoy that was ambushed by so-called insurgents -- terrorists, to call them by their proper name -- and was captured. He is the only American to have been captured in Iraq.

The Pittsburgh Times-Review has a great piece about the Maupin family and their experiences over the last year-and-a-half. I encourage you to read it.

I also encourage you to copy my little PhotoShop project above and put it on your site.

For we must never forget Matt Maupin, a typical American young man, who fell into the hands of the enemy while fighting for this country and the freedom of the Iraqi people.

And we must make sure that Sgt. Matt Maupin returns home with honor -- an American hero.

Please feel free to use the badge to honor Sgt. Matt Maupin.

Here are a couple of great articles marking the anniversary.

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The city of Tacoma wants to bill the military for the cost of controlling anti-war anti-American protesters who caused a ruckus when military equipment was being deployed from the Port of Tacoma.

Tacoma police say last month's 12-day anti-war protests cost the city an unbudgeted $500,000 to provide a large-scale law enforcement presence.

The rough estimate covers overtime, regular compensation, equipment and food for hundreds of workers from Tacoma police and other agencies, Assistant Chief Bob Sheehan said.

The city plans to ask the Port of Tacoma and the military to cover some of the costs.

"That's a tremendous hit on our budget -- a half-million dollars of unexpected expense," said Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, adding that the military would get the first invoice.
"I think our request is justifiable," Baarsma said. "I would expect that we would be reimbursed. I would be surprised if we weren't."

Police increased law enforcement at the Port of Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Army Stryker vehicles from March 3 until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14.

Protesters were there each night.

Might I suggest that the invoice be returned with the words “BUGGER OFF!” scrawled across it.

Either that, or bill Tacoma for its proportionate share of the national defense budget.

H/T Michelle Malkin

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