At long last, Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin is home. He was laid to rest with full military honors this weekend, after having been captured by jihadis and then murdered by them in disregard for the protections of the very Geneva Conventions they claim protection from when they fall into the hands of Americans.

Thousands walked past Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin's casket during a daylong visitation at a civic center in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati, where he grew up. Many of them headed to Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds, for an afternoon memorial service.

The crowd occupied the lower portion of the 42,000-seat stadium, behind home plate, stretching from first base to third.

Maupin's flag-draped casket was on a platform in the area of the pitcher's mound. The only people on the field were members of the 338th Army band and about 100 family members, military representatives and dignitaries.

This weekend was a long time coming for Maupin's family. He was captured on April 9, 2004, and executed a short time thereafter. His body was recovered this spring.

May the sacrifice of Matt Maupin, and of all soldiers in the war against jihadi terrorism, not be in vain.

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Having been the architect of success in iraq following the troop surge, General David Petraeus will be promoted to head the US Central Command -- giving him operational control over the entire Middle East.

Gen. David Petraeus has been tapped to become the next commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations from the Middle East to Central Asia and directs the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced his decision Wednesday at a press conference in Washington, saying President Bush would send Petraeus' nomination to the Senate soon.

"I recommended him to the president because he is absolutely the best man to do the job. The conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan are very much characterized by asymmetric warfare and I don't know anyone better prepared to deal with that," Gates said of Petraeus, speaking to reporters.

Petraeus issued a statement shortly afterward.

"I am honored to be nominated for this position and to have an opportunity to continue to serve with America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coastguardsmen, and civilians," Petraeus said.

The strategy designed and implemented by Petraeus has led to decreased violence and increased security in Iraq -- things that are positives for anyone who is interested in seeing an American victory over terrorism.

Interestingly enough, Harry Reid has indicated that the Democrats are going to use the summer hearings on this promotion and several related changes to play politics with the military command structure and the Iraq war in the run-up to the election. While such actions are disgusting, they are not unexpected. The only positive I see in this probability is that it will remind the American people of the fundamental unfitness of the Democrats to control our national defense.

H/T Hot Air, Malkin

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Posted by: Huberta at Wed Oct 21 23:15:12 2009 (/hK63)

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The leftists will no doubt remain dissatisfied.

President Bush plans to announce today that he will cut Army combat tours in Iraq from 15 months to 12 months, returning rotations to where they were before last year's troop buildup in an effort to alleviate the tremendous stress on the military, administration officials said.

The move is in response to intense pressure from service commanders who have expressed anxiety about the toll of long deployments on their soldiers and, more broadly, about the U.S. military's ability to confront unanticipated threats. Bush will announce the decision during a national speech, in which aides said he will also embrace Army Gen. David H. Petraeus's plan to indefinitely suspend a drawdown of forces.

Interestingly enough, this is being done even as the phased withdrawal of troops is underway -- and also under criticism from the anti-war crew because it is being conducted in a way consistent with preserving the security gains of the last year. They still are interested in a pell-mell cut-and-run strategy that would have every American out by next Thursday -- even though their false messiah Barack Obama is committed to leaving 60,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely, much like John McCain is (and much like we did in Germany, Japan, and Korea, those ongoing quagmires in progress for the last five or six decades).

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Highlight the seemingly negative news, bury the positive.

The percentage of recruits requiring a waiver to join the Army because of a criminal record or other past misconduct has more than doubled since 2004 to one for every eight new soldiers.

The increase reflects the difficulties the Army faces in attracting young men and women into the military at a time of war. "Each month is a struggle, for the Army in particular," said Bill Carr, a top military personnel official.

The percentage of active and Reserve Army recruits granted "conduct" waivers for misdemeanor or felony charges increased to 11% last fiscal year from 4.6% in fiscal 2004, according to Army Recruiting Command statistics. So far this fiscal year, which began last October, 13% of recruits have entered the Army with conduct waivers.

Most waivers involve misdemeanors. The Army has granted 4,676 conduct waivers among the 36,047 recruited from October through late February. The waivers have helped the Army meet its active and Reserve recruitment goals of about 100,000 people a year for the past several years.

Obviously this constitutes a degradation of our military, right.

Well, maybe not.

Indeed, certainly not.

Recruits who have come in with waivers generally perform better than peers who haven't needed special permission to join the Army, Carr said.
"When you have people volunteering that have made some mistakes in their life, you give them fair consideration," said Frank Shaffery, deputy director of the Army's Recruiting Command.

Interesting how the fact that these soldiers out-perform their peers gets buried at the very end of the story. You donÂ’t suppose it could be based upon a subconscious desire to bad talk the troops, do you?

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I first wrote about Sgt. Matt Maupin in December of 2005, and concluded with this line.

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.

Maupin will be returning home soon -- for burial by his family. After nearly four years, his family has been notified that his remains have been identified.

Sgt. Matt Maupin is dead, the parents of the missing Clermont County soldier said today.

MaupinÂ’s remain were found in Iraq, nearly four years after he was captured by insurgents, his parents said. An Army general visited them today and gave them the news, they said.

“Matt is coming home. He’s completed his mission,” his father, Keith Maupin, said.

Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured on April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy was ambushed west of Baghdad. He had been driving a supply truck.

Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape a week later showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles. That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victimÂ’s head and not the actual shooting.

The Glen Este High School graduate was the only U.S. military member still listed as missing-captured in Iraq. Military officials identified the remains through DNA, Keith Maupin said. He said he wasnÂ’t told where the remains had been found.

“We don’t know where, just somewhere in Iraq.They found a shirt similar to what he (Matt) was wearing,” Keith Maupin said. “They had DNA and confirmed it was Matt.”

Given the video evidence that the jihadi cowards who had captured him committed a war crime by murdering their prisoner, this is not a surprising outcome.

To learn more about Sgt. Maupin, American hero, feel free to read this post from a year ago, which I had already been preparing to update for net week.

Michelle Malkin offers this information as well.

The Maupin family website is here. And please support their Yellow Ribbon Support Center.

I join with her in directing my readers to those two sites.

My deepest condolences to the Maupin family --you are in my prayers at this difficult time, as you have been for some time. I thank you for your family's sacrifice.

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Set aside the fact that we are (inconveniently, from a liberal Democrat perspective) winning in Iraq. We've been hearing from the Left that the US military is broken and defeated, and that's why we need to cut-and-run from Iraq.

One year ago, as President Bush decided to send more troops to Iraq, the conventional wisdom in Washington among opponents of the war was that the U.S. Army was on the verge of breaking.

In December 2006 former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell warned, "The active Army is about broken."

Ret. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, in a much-cited memo to West Point colleagues, wrote: "My bottom line is that the Army is unraveling, and if we donÂ’t expend significant national energy to reverse that trend, sometime in the next two years we will break the Army just like we did during Vietnam."

Army Maj. Gen. Bob Scales, the former head of the Army War College, agreed. He wrote in an editorial in the Washington Times on March 30:

"If you haven't heard the news, I'm afraid your Army is broken, a victim of too many missions for too few soldiers for too long. ... Today, anecdotal evidence of collapse is all around."

But interestingly enough, Scales now admits that his assessment was dead wrong.

But now, one year later, Scales has done an about-face. He says that he was wrong. Despite all the predictions of imminent collapse, the U.S. Army and the combat brigades have proven to be surprisingly resilient.

According to Army statistics obtained exclusively by FOX News, 70 percent of soldiers eligible to re-enlist in 2006 did so — a re-enlistment rate higher than before Sept. 11, 2001. For the past 10 years, the enlisted retention rates of the Army have exceeded 100 percent. As of last Nov. 13, Army re-enlistment was 137 percent of its stated goal.

Scales, a FOX News contributor, said he based his assessment last year "on the statistics that showed a high attrition among enlisted soldiers, officers who were leaving the service early, and a decline in the quality of enlistments," a reference to the rising number of waivers given for "moral defects" such as drug use and lowered educational requirements.

"In fact, what we've seen over the last year is that the Army retention rates are pretty high, that re-enlistments, for instance, particularly re-enlistments in Iraq and Afghanistan, remain very high," Scales said. He noted that re-enlistments were high even among troops who have served multiple tours.

Not only that, but the predicted loss of those often considered to be the backbone of the military just hasn't happened.

But Scales says the desertion by mid-grade officers — captains and majors — just hasn’t occurred as predicted.

"The Army's collapse after Vietnam was presaged by a desertion of mid-grade officers (captains) and non-commissioned officers," Scales wrote a year ago. "Many were killed or wounded. Most left because they and their families were tired and didn't want to serve in units unprepared for war....

"If we lose our sergeants and captains, the Army breaks again. It's just that simple. That's why these soldiers are still the canaries in the readiness coal-mine. And, again, if you look closely, you will see that these canaries are fleeing their cages in frightening numbers."

But an internal Army document prepared at the request of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey and obtained by FOX News suggests that the comparison to the "hollow Army" of 1972 near the end of the Vietnam War is inappropriate.

The main reason: Today's Army is an all-volunteer force, and the Army in Vietnam largely was composed of draftees.

Captain losses have remained steady at about 11 percent since 1990, and the loss of majors has been unchanged at about 6 percent.

"To date, the data do not show heightened levels of junior officer departures that can be tied directly to multiple rotations in Afghanistan or Iraq," the internal Army memo concludes.

In other words, the phenomena that were supposed to be indicative of the weakening of the US military just are not happening. And while that may be disturbing to those whose political goals require the defeat of the American armed forces, it is ample reason for Americans to reject the defeatism which would have been appropriately labeled as defeatism and sedition in an earlier generation, back when patriotism and support of the military were still strongly held values among Democrats, not just Republicans.

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I'm sorry I didn't get to this story sooner, but I only found out about it today. An American hero has been honored for his bravery in combat, and has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty:

In action with an armed enemy near Sangsan-ni, Korea, on 20 October, 1951. On that day, Master Sergeant Keeble was an acting platoon leader for the support platoon in Company G, 19th Infantry, in the attack on Hill 765, a steep and rugged position that was well defended by the enemy. Leading the support platoon, Master Sergeant Keeble saw that the attacking elements had become pinned down on the slope by heavy enemy fire from three well-fortified and strategically placed enemy positions. With complete disregard for his personal safety, Master Sergeant Keeble dashed forward and joined the pinned-down platoon. Then, hugging the ground, Master Sergeant Keeble crawled forward alone until he was in close proximity to one of the hostile machine-gun emplacements. Ignoring the heavy fire that the crew trained on him, Master Sergeant Keeble activated a grenade and threw it with great accuracy, successfully destroying the position. Continuing his one-man assault, he moved to the second enemy position and destroyed it with another grenade. Despite the fact that the enemy troops were now directing their firepower against him and unleashing a shower of grenades in a frantic attempt to stop his advance, he moved forward against the third hostile emplacement, and skillfully neutralized the remaining enemy position. As his comrades moved forward to join him, Master Sergeant Keeble continued to direct accurate fire against nearby trenches, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Inspired by his courage, Company G successfully moved forward and seized its important objective. The extraordinary courage, selfless service, and devotion to duty displayed that day by Master Sergeant Keeble was an inspiration to all around him and reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

The delay in this award is, depending upon whose side you accept, based upon either lost paperwork or racial animus towards Woody Keeble, a member of the Sioux tribe. And yet regardless of the reason, it is important that all of us note the award and honor his memory.

H/T Pink Flamingo

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Because, after all, she has the power to impose her views on him.

Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military, and watching "Full Metal Jacket" last year really sold him on becoming a Marine.

But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus.

In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military.

"The judge said she didn't support the Iraq war for any reason why we're over there," said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.

"She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.' She said she didn't want him to fight in it."

Sage, 17, said he begged for Mackel's permission.

"Foster children shouldn't be denied (an) ability to enlist in the service just because they're foster kids," he said. "Foster kids shouldn't have to go to court to gain approval to serve one's country."

Mackel, a juvenile dependency commissioner at the Children's Court in Monterey Park, declined through a clerk to speak about any court case or comments she may have made in court.

Now let's be honest. Some recruiters are over-zealous. But here is a kid who has dreamed of joining the military since he was 7 years old, and who has chosen which branch he wants to join. On what legitimate basis does she impose her own views upon him? And upon what basis does she allow her bailiff to harangue the young man -- and another foster child, who was denied permission to enter the Delayed Entry Program for the Navy -- over a decision made out of love of country?

Interestingly enough, the judge and the bailiff, neither of whom know Shawn Sage, were the only two people in the courtroom who objected to his plans. His foster parents and social worker, who know him well, supported the decision. But that didn't stop Mackel from acting on her anti-military (and, may I say, anti-American) bias to deny the young man his freedom of choice.

What is particularly galling here is that if Shawn were a female foster child seeking an abortion, there would probably be no need for permission and it would almost certainly not be denied by Mackel if it were needed. But a patriotic desire to serve one's country doesn't merit such consideration in her eyes.

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They are saying the explosion may come from a man-made device. If so, the word "TERRORISM" applies -- whether the attackers are jihadis out to hit symbolic targets or Berkeley-style lefties who view America a s a bigger threat to the world than the Islamists.

New York City police officers and firefighters cordoned off much of Times Square after an explosion — possibly set off by a human-made device — rocked the front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station on the traffic island bounded by 43rd and 44th Streets, Seventh Avenue and Broadway around 4 a.m.

No injuries were immediately reported. A city official confirmed that the explosion occurred and that police had cordoned off the area as a precaution to ensure that there was no secondary device; the official emphasized that there was no reason to believe that any additional devices had been planted.

I just heard a TV report that someone was spotted riding away on a bicycle after throwing a device at the recruiting station. No arrests yet, but it will be interesting to see if there is a claim of responsibility. My personal thought is that this probably makes the perps "Code Pink types", since any self-respecting jihadi would have blown himself up during daylight hours to take out as many innocents as possible. The fact you have a coward fleeing the scene on an environmentally-friendly means of transportation when there was no one around makes it appear to be the tactics of the Left -- though still treasonous terrorism.

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OneÂ’s country is one of them, at least for this soldier.

After completing two tours in Iraq, Sgt. Wayne Leyde won $1 million from a scratch-and-win lotto ticket on Tuesday.

Now that he's won, Leyde, a 26-year-old member of the Washington National Guard, says he's still going to volunteer to go back to Iraq for a third tour and won't spend any of the money in the meantime.

* * *

Leyde couldn't believe it when he scratched a winning ticket, but he still plans to return to Iraq.

"It was a commitment I made about three months ago. I'm going to stick to it," Leyde said about his decision.

The sergeant says rents have gone sky high where he and his parents live in the Mount Spokane area of Washington and that, for now, he's not going to spend any of the money.

"For right now, I'm going to hold off [spending] and let reality sink back to earth. This is a true blessing. I'm going to turn it around and see if I can bless other people with this," Leyde said.

This soldier could possibly get out of the military at this point. He could almost certainly defer his deployment to a war zone. He is doing neither, as he views the mission in Iraq as important to our nation and to the Iraqi people. My hat is off to Sgt. Wayne Leyde.

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Details are sketchy in this incident -- but it illustrates teh difference between the US and the terrorists quite nicely.

The U.S. military said Monday that it accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq south of Baghdad.

The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three more civilians were wounded and taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said.

The incident and the events surrounding it are under investigation, Evans said.

The killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the area. Shortly after the incident, American officers met with a Muslim sheik representing citizens in the area, he said.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," Evans said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.

Saturday's strike was the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.

Let's look at those differences.

1) Civilian casualties caused by the US are accidental; those caused by the terrorists are intentional.

2) The US apologizes for such casualties; the terrorists proclaim them as a sign of their success.

3) The US treats the wounded; the terrorists leave them to die as a part of their terror campaign.

4) The US investigates such casualties with an eye towards avoiding them; the terrorists seek to maximize them.

It will, of course, be important to discover exactly what happened and how this tragedy occurred. And it will be educational to see how the "moral equivalence" crowd responds.

Posted by: Greg at 10:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of these suckers could ruin your whole day!

DAHLGREN, VA. — The Navy set a new world record for the most powerful electromagnetic railgun when it fired a test shot here Thursday morning.

The gun fired an aluminum projectile at 10.68 megajoules. A joule is the work needed to produce one watt of energy for one second. A megajoule is 1 million joules.

Guests including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Rear Adm. William Landay, head of the Office of Naval Research, witnessed the shot via a live video feed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren. The gun was launched from a control center after approximately four minutes of charging the electromagnetic rails. After the charge, the gun fired and witnesses saw a quick burst of flame as the projectile, traveling at 2,500 meters per second, or Mach 7, hit its target.

Damn -- that puts the lie to the old saying that "You can run but you can't hide". I do believe that running wouldn't even be an option, with the target truly being dead before it knew what hit it.

You can watch the video here -- just don't blink.

And I love the quote at the beginning.

"I never, ever, want to see a sailor or Marine in a fair fight."
Adm. Gary Roughead
Chief of Naval Operations

Bravo, Admiral -- and let's extend that wish to the Army and Air Force as well.

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But of course, the left-wing citizens of Berkeley aren't disloyal to America. They just hate the troops.

In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

Currently, a recruiting office is held to the same standards as most other businesses, which do not require a public hearing or have limits on where offices can be established.

The author of the initiative, Berkeley-based lawyer Sharon Adams, modeled the initiative after current zoning law that restricts the location of adult-oriented businesses.

"In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that's the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations," said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city's Peace and Justice Commission. "Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don't want them in our face."

I'm curious -- does the city actually have the legal ability to impose such a restriction upon the location of federal government offices? And if it does actually put such a measure in place, what will be the response of the federal government? Will they withhold federal funds from Berkeley? Perhaps require that all federal offices open in the same zones as the recruiters -- in effect closing all government offices, including post offices, in the city?

But in the end I have to wonder -- has the time come for the United States to secede from Berkeley, and build a border fence around it to keep such undesirables out of the country?

H/T Michelle Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 05:22 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Just put the Recruiting offices on Federal Property and let the Berkley Soviet foam at the mouth

Posted by: Dan Kauffman at Mon Jan 28 03:05:48 2008 (BNCg2)

2 I think they're planning to turn it into an ARMY WRONG recruiting office. www.armywrong.net

Posted by: Michelle Malkin at Fri Feb 8 16:04:22 2008 (oS4TH)

3 I see the "Hate America First" activists have dropped by to pollute my site -- and in doing so show their cowardice by posting under the name of a prominent pro-military pundit who has taken the lead against Berkeley. I think the fact that the loser above lacks the guts to associate his or her own name with the sedition promoted in the comment says it all about the level of cowardice we see among these anti-American scum.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Feb 9 00:39:35 2008 (rI7s1)

4 Well, I think they are just trying to get recruitment out of the city. They aren't really against Marines living in the city, they just don't want the recruiting officers to target teens. By the way, you'd do a lot better by doing less mud-slinging and actually posting coherent arguments. Reasonable people place restrictions on the recruiting offices and reasonable people disagree. Do remember, this was passed in their CONGRESS. Meaning that trained political officers were the ones who did this, not a bunch of wackos.

Posted by: Connor Lennon at Tue Feb 12 12:58:12 2008 (nv4Zb)

5 Unfortunately for you, Connor, the city council is not in any way, shape or form the equivalent of Congress. On the other hand, the US Constitution places the raising of armed forces in the hands of the ACTUAL Congress -- and therefore under the principle of federalism these morons in Berkeley have far exceeded their authority. That goes all the way back to McCulloch v. Maryland. Oh, yeah, and one other thing -- engaged in an act of sedition, if not treason.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Feb 12 15:12:22 2008 (rI7s1)

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An interesting development -- and a well-deserved posting.

The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration but that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.

A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing “a next assignment for Petraeus” and that the NATO post was a possibility. “He deserves one and that has also always been a highly prestigious position,” the official said. “So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisions and nothing on the timing.”

The question of General PetraeusÂ’s future comes as the Pentagon is looking at changing several top-level assignments this year. President Bush has been an enthusiastic supporter of General Petraeus, whom he has credited with overseeing a troop increase and counterinsurgency plan credited with reducing the sectarian violence in Iraq, and some officials say the president would want to keep General Petraeus in Iraq as long as possible.

In one approach under discussion, General Petraeus would be nominated and confirmed for the NATO post before the end of September, when Congress is expected to break for the presidential election. He might stay in Iraq for some time after that before moving to the allianceÂ’s headquarters in Brussels, but would take his post before a new president takes office.

And if a Republican wins in November, we are likely to see General Petraeus head the Joint Chiefs of Staff before his career ends. Expect significantly less respect from a Democrat President, given the insults directed towards the general last fall and the accusations of treason from Democrat surrogates.

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Let’s be clear here – the United States Navy could have (and should have) blown these Iranian boats out of the water. That they did not was excessive restraint exercised out of Administration policy to avoid a shooting war with Iran.

But that isnÂ’t enough for at least reporter with the Washington Post.

In contrast to the military's professionalism and restraint, the Bush administration wasted no time falling back on its knee-jerk rules of engagement. President Bush called the incident "a provocative act" and "dangerous situation." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued to play up the Iranian threat. "The United States is going to defend its interests, it's going to defend the interests of its allies," she said defensively. "Iran is the single most important, greatest threat to the kind of Middle East we all want to see. It's a supporter of terrorism in Iraq, in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories. It has nuclear ambitions."

Yeah, verbally condemning acts of war and pointing out the many misdeeds of Mahmoud the Mad and the Mullahcracy in Iran is irresponsible behavior to this idiot, who previously called our troops overpaid, pampered mercenaries and declared them to be enemies of American liberty. It strikes me that he has never met an American enemy he didnÂ’t like, and that he would have found some reason to condemn the Bush Administration no matter what the outcome of the incident had been.

Show restraint and condemn the provocation -- WRONG.

Show restraint and suffer an attack -- WRONG.

Show restraint and remain silent -- WRONG.

Sink the enemy -- WRONG.

And since Arkin doesn't bless us with his wisdom on what would have been the right course of action, we know that he'll be able to condemn the Administration if they take a different course of action in the future. After all, being a journalist means never having to take a position that makes a real difference in terms of lives and national security.

Maybe he is angling for an endowed chair at Columbia University, so he can join these Islamist-lovers on their pro-jihadi junket.

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This legislation clearly grows out of the liberal ideology that our men and women in uniform are stupid losers.

A bill in Congress seeks to eliminate military slot machines overseas that take in $130 million a year, mostly from soldiers.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tennessee, named the bill after Army Warrant Officer Aaron Walsh, a decorated Apache helicopter pilot who became addicted to gambling on military slot machines.

Walsh eventually was discharged from the Army. He committed suicide after several failed attempts to break his addiction.

The Defense Department uses slot machine revenues to pay a small portion of its morale, welfare and recreation programs.

Davis said the money raised off the gambling of soldiers is not worth the risks.

"If American men and women are willing to serve our country overseas we should not be dependent on them to pay for recreational activities they deserve," Davis said in a written statement. "The risks are simply too high and too many to ask that of our soldiers."

In other words, the relatively infrequent problem of individuals with gambling problems are sufficient reason to ban slot machines on military bases.

If that is the case, why not ban slot machines and other forms of legal gambling nationwide on the same premise? You know, because the risks of legal gambling are simply too high and too many to permit the public to fund education and social services (and the coffers of the gambling industry) in that manner. Or at the very least, why not pass legislation prohibiting members of the United States military from gambling off-post as well, both overseas and in the United States? Certainly the same logic applies as it does to slots on foreign military bases.

And while we are at it, we can take US military bases dry based upon the possibility of alcoholism. We can make them porn-free zones because someone might chafe their penis while masturbating, too.

Here's an idea, Congressman Davis -- why don't we treat our soldiers like adults and allow them to make adult decisions. The problem in the case of Aaron Walsh was not the availability of gambling, it was a failure of the military to respond effectively to his out-of-control gambling. Focus your legislation there, not on depriving servicemen and women of recreational activities.

Posted by: Greg at 02:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm shocked and appalled -- other than a few Code Pinkos and the like protesting outside of a VA hospital, I can't imagine anything this disgusting happening in the United States.

Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.

The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.

* * *

The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.

The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.

One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.

It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre.

The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.

Charles Murrin, 79, a Navy veteran who saw the incident, said: "The woman said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays to come in the pool and they don't. I spoke to the instructor in the changing room afterwards and he was livid."

Someone should have told these evil bitches that the missing limbs were clear evidence that these disabled soldiers had paid more than she ever would. Indeed, the cretins who engaged in such behavior should have been the ones ejected from the pool, not the wounded heroes.

I agree with the position taken by the former head of the British military.

The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be "named and shamed".

"These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press," he said. "It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again."

Of course, a certain British poet diagnosed this contemptible attitude over a century ago.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"

But it's "Saviour of 'is country," when the guns begin to shoot;

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

But Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

For shame!

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin picks up the story.

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And as such it is unacceptable to anyone with a brain -- and to anyone who wants complete withdrawal abject surrender, too.

The Democrats' flagship proposal on Iraq is aimed at bringing most troops home. Yet if enacted, the law would still allow for tens of thousands of U.S. troops to stay deployed for years to come.

This reality — readily acknowledged by Democrats who say it's still their best shot at curbing the nearly five-year war — has drawn the ire of anti-war groups and bolstered President Bush's prediction that the United States will most likely wind up maintaining a hefty long-term presence in Iraq, much like in South Korea.

For those who want troops out, "you've got more holes in here than Swiss cheese," said Tom Andrews, national director of the war protest group Win Without War and a former congressman from Maine.

The Democratic proposal would order troops to begin leaving Iraq within 30 days, a requirement Bush is already on track to meet as he begins reversing this year's 30,000 troop buildup. The proposal also sets a goal of ending combat by Dec. 15, 2008.

After that, troops remaining in Iraq would be restricted to three missions: counterterrorism, training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. assets, including diplomats.

Now why is this proposal a bad one? Because it ties the hands of the President -- whether that president is named Bush, Clinton, Romney, Obama, Giuliani, or Kucinich -- when it comes to assessing the national interest and deploying troops for the appropriate mission in the region.

And the problem is that the definition of what would be allowed is quite nebulous -- meaning that what is permitted is quite subjective.

Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy chief of staff for operations in Iraq, declined to estimate how many troops might be needed under the Democrats' plan but said it would be hard to accomplish any of those missions without a significant force.

"It's a combination of all of our resources and capabilities to be able to execute these missions the way that we are," Barbero said in a recent phone interview from Baghdad.

For example, Barbero said that "several thousand" troops are assigned to specialized anti-terrorism units focused on capturing high profile terrorist targets. But they often rely on the logistics, security and intelligence provided by conventional troops, he said.

"When a brigade is operating in a village, meeting with locals, asking questions, collecting human intelligence on these very same (terrorist) organizations, that intelligence comes back and is merged and fed into this counterterrorism unit," Barbero said. "So are they doing counterterrorism operations?

"It's all linked and simultaneous," he added. "You can't separate it cleanly like that."

In other words, it is not at all clear what is allowed and what is forbidden under the provisions of this politically-motivated proposal. And there are very realistic scenarios in which the missions that are permitted cannot be carried out because of the lack of supporting troops who make that mission possible.

The bill's restrictions are also unnecessary, given that the current plans for the mission in Iraq are already quite similar to what the legislation envisions. That makes it pointless and dangerous at the same time.

And let's be clear about one thing -- this bill is not about national security or military necessity. It is about politics. And that the Democrats are playing politics with the military is shameful -- and sadly, not unexpected.

More At Don Surber

Posted by: Greg at 02:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Because when all is said and done, the Pentagon is prepared to spend its money on national security and winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, even as the Democrats seek to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for their partisan political benefit.

The military plans to furlough civilian employees and cut all Army and Marine Corps bases to bare-bones operations early next year because of a funding impasse with Congress, according to a memo provided to Politico.

Democratic leaders accused the Bush administration of using scare tactics, and said they will not be strong-armed into giving the White House a blank check on the war.

In the memo, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates instructs the secretaries and of the Army and Navy to “start appropriate planning to reduce operations at all Army bases by mid-February of next year and all USMC bases by mid-March of next year.”

The plan would leave “bases … all but shut down, only able to provide the most basic safety and security measures for those who reside there,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said at a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

“The most immediate impact will be felt next month, just before Christmas, in fact, when we'll begin notifying roughly 200,000 civilians and contractors that we can no longer afford their services; and that, absent additional funding, they will be furloughed, or temporarily laid off, within a matter of weeks,” Morrell said.

“It is imperative that lawmakers reconsider this matter as soon as possible and send the president supplemental funding legislation, free from objectionable policy provisions, in order to insure that we can continue to support our troops and their families, as well as protect our nation's security.”

Gates said he wants enough planning done by mid-December so the department “can begin appropriate notification of government civilian employees to be furloughed consistent with labor agreements.”

Amusingly enough, Senate Majority Leader Minority Follower Harry Reid dares to suggest that it is the President who is playing politics with the military. His every effort over the last year has been aimed at ensuring that the war in Iraq is lost so that the Democrats have a campaign issue to run on in 2008 -- and despite the undeniable successes in Iraq he continues to claim that America has lost there.

Of course, the Democrats keep demanding a timetable for retreat and surrender. I guess that ensuring that the troops get the funding they need to win the war is too much to ask of those who view an American victory as a blow to their partisan interests. When will they stop adhering to our enemies, and giving them aid and comfort?

Posted by: Greg at 01:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The sort of people who do crap like this -- killing little children and the soldiers giving them toys.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.

Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from al-Qaida in Iraq last summer.

The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a troop buildup began this year.

Police said the attack occurred as U.S. soldiers were handing out toys, sports equipment and other treats in a playground near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Few details were available, but the U.S. military said it was a "suicide vest attack" and that three American soldiers were killed.

Some on the Left want to claim that the Islamofascists are the latter day equivalent of our founding fathers. Events like this put the lie to that claim. After all, how many children did George Washington order killed at random?

Posted by: Greg at 04:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You see, they don't get to live like a refugee.

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear an appeal by two U.S. military deserters who sought refuge in the country to avoid deployment to Iraq, a conflict they argued is “immoral and illegal.”

The announcement ends a bid by American soldiers Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the plaintiffs in the case, to win refugee status and opens the way for them to be deported to the United States, where they could face court martial for going AWOL and missing troop movements. It also could lead to deportation of dozens of other American soldiers who have filed formal applications for refugee status.

“Theoretically they (are) facing immediate removal,” said Jeffry House, a Toronto lawyer who represents most of the U.S. refugee applicants, including Hinzman and Hughey. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case, “vastly advances the government’s agenda to remove them,” he said.

The rejection also closes off that legal avenue for other U.S. military personnel who have gone to Canada and remained illegally. House estimates there are at least 300 AWOL U.S. soldiers living in Canada.

Let's hope that the Canadian government takes immediate action to send these dishonorable cowards back to America. Once here, a court martial awaits them. And then, on to some nice accommodations, courtesy of the Department of Defense.

More At Malkin, Gunpowder Chronicle

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Posted by: Greg at 11:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It was not too many decades ago that young men in trouble with the law were given an option by a judge -- jail or the military. Many of them joined the military, got their acts together, and became upstanding citizens.

As the military became an all-volunteer force, standards became higher. Minor offenses that might have gotten a guy to join the military became disqualifying factor. And some things became disqualifiers that really had nothing to do with fitness to serve at all. Example? Tattoos, even if they weren't gang-related -- even as tattoos became more socially acceptable in American society.

Which leads us to this story.

Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned.

The review, in its early stages, comes as the number of Army recruits needing waivers for bad behavior — such as trying drugs, stealing, carrying weapons on school grounds and fighting — rose from 15 percent in 2006 to 18 percent this year. And it reflects the services' growing use of criminal, health and other waivers to build their ranks.

Overall, about three in every 10 recruits must get a waiver, according to Pentagon statistics obtained by AP, and about two-thirds of those approved in recent years have been for criminal behavior. Some recruits must get more than one waiver to cover things ranging from any criminal record, to health problems such as asthma or flat feet, to low aptitude scores — and even for some tattoos.

The goal of the review is to make cumbersome waiver requirements consistent across the services — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force — and reduce the number of petty crimes that now trigger the process. Still, some Army officers worry that disciplinary problems will grow as more soldiers with records, past drug use and behavior problems are brought in.

I've seen how these processes go. One of my students wanted to be a Marine, but had to get a waiver for a tattoo on his shoulder memorializing his cousin, who had been killed in a random shooting. Another was arrested at 13 for breaking into a neighbor's house to recover a stolen bicycle -- he ended up with a year's probation and went on to become an honor student. And I won't even begin to get into the cases of kids who tried marijuana once at a party and had to go through the process. I'm willing to bet that most of these waivers are for good kids who have messed up -- and who will make exemplary citizens after the experiences of military service. They are the kids who I work with to try to ensure that they don't screw up again -- the ones you want to see get a second chance.

That is why I will find the reaction of liberals like Oliver Willis on this topic informative. Liberals love to tell us that kids shouldn't be thrown away for youthful mistakes. Why, then, does Willis (and other liberals) feel it necessary to degrade them when they seek to serve their country? Could it be that they loathe the military, and the country, so deeply that they are prepared to tear down folks trying to better themselves? Is it merely rank hypocrisy from the left -- the kind we are all so used to? You bet it is.

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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NEW POSTS BELOW THIS ONE

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled and adaptive laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field. The experience of MAJ Charles “Chuck” Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered serious hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important these laptops can be to a wounded service member's recovery.

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After all, good news is no news for the MSM.

During a five-day stretch between October 19 and 23, there were no deaths among coalition forces. Although three US servicemen died from “non-hostile causes”, this was the longest period without combat deaths for almost four years. And, between October 27 and 29, there were more days without coalition deaths.

Such statistics do not take account of deaths among the Iraqi security forces or civilians. But Iraqis, too, have had days when no one in their ranks has died. On October 13, for instance, neither the coalition nor the Iraqi military suffered any deaths. But one Iraqi policeman was killed, along with four reported civilian deaths in Baghdad.

Two days later, there were no deaths among the coalition but six among the Iraqi security forces.

October 19 was a death-free day for both coalition and Iraqi security forces, but 12 civilians were killed.

The civilian death toll was lower on October 23 - when four were killed - but they were joined in the mortuaries by two Iraqi policemen.

On October 30, the Iraq Interior Ministry reported that there were no civilian deaths in Baghdad but three US troops and four Iraqi policemen were killed.

It is beyond dispute, though, that the tide of violence in Iraq has been stemmed.

But since the MSM meme has been that the war is lost, and since the Democrat meme has been that the war is lost (but I repeat myself), the actual news that the war is not lost and is going much better has been lost. Maybe the problem is that the side supported by the media and the Democrats continues to suffer serious losses at the hands of US and Iraqi forces -- they continue to kill scores of terrorists.

H/T Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Care to guess the politics of whoever perpetrated this outrage?

The gravesite of a Southeast Texas Marine killed in Iraq has been vandalized just days after hundreds of mourners turned out for his funeral.

Lance Cpl. Jeremy Burris of Liberty was 22.

Burris died Oct. 8 when an explosive device went off in the Al Anbar province. His services were held Tuesday.

Workers at Cooke Memorial Cemetery on Friday discovered flags and posters had been torn apart, plus flowers were cast aside. The incident is under investigation.

I cannot even begin to express my horror and outrage over this evil deed.

My prayers are with the Burris family as they struggle with the new pain these America-hating cretins have perpetrated against them and their son, who gave his life for his country.

Here is coverage of Lance Corporal Burris' funeral earlier this week.

UPDATE: Haven't had a chance to get back to this one, but Lee's comment does lead me to link to this story -- which indicates the motive was greed, not hatred of the troops.

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Posted by: Greg at 05:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to a New Yorker didn't make the cut for the Paper of Wreckage.

The posthumous award of the nation's highest battlefield honor to a Long Island war hero has become an other black mark for the Gray Lady.

The New York Times carried not a whisper of news yesterday about the bestowal of the Medal of Honor to Navy Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue - the first time the honor has been given for action in Afghanistan.

How did other papers cover the story?

Every major daily paper in New York took note of President Bush's deci sion to bestow the first Medal of Honor of Operation Enduring Freedom on Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy - a Long Islander who gave his life for his country and his fellow SEALs.

Every paper but one, that is.

And it shouldn't be particularly hard to guess which one.

By now, most folks know exactly how much The New York Times despises the U.S. military.

Utterly shameful, that's the only way to describe this case of editorial malpractice.

Can we concede that Ann Coulter had it right about them?

Posted by: Greg at 06:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The New York Post puts it so much better than I could.

October 12, 2007 -- President Bush announced yesterday that the nation's highest military distinction will be awarded - posthumously - to a Long Islander of incredible valor.

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a Patchogue native and Navy SEAL, was deep in enemy territory in Afghanistan two years ago when Taliban gunmen ambushed his unit. Forsaking cover, he was shot as he scrambled into the open to send a distress signal back to the base.

He succeeded - but was killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Lt. Murphy will be the first to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in Operation Enduring Freedom. The president will present it to his parents at the White House on Oct. 22.

Make no mistake: Americans owe their freedom to all the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. But the courage and instant self-sacrifice that sustains their effort can be seen most clearly in heroes like Lt. Murphy.

His father told a reporter that he considers the medal "a public recognition of what we knew about Michael - of his intensity, his focus, his devout loyalty to home and family, his country and especially his SEAL teammates and the SEAL community."

No one could be more deserving of the honor.

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to Michael Murphy - and New Yorkers can take special pride in the memory of a local hero.

Murphy, 29, was leading a four-man observation team in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains when they were spotted by Taliban fighters on June 28, 2005. During the intense battle, Murphy and two of his men — Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson — were killed, and a fourth man, former Special Warfare Operator 1st Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell, was seriously wounded but managed to escape. Luttrell was rescued days later.

Murphy, known as “Mikey” to his friends and family, shot and wounded, managed to crawl onto a ridgeline and radio headquarters at the nearby air base for them to send in reinforcements. Taliban fighters were closing in on the team’s position, shooting their weapons and firing rocket-propelled grenades.

“Mikey was ignoring his wound and fighting like a SEAL officer should, uncompromising, steady, hard-eyed, and professional,” Luttrell wrote in his recently published book, Lone Survivor, about his military experiences, his team and the events of that day and the deaths of his teammates, his friends.

What more can I add besides tears – tears of sadness, of admiration, and of pride that our nation produced a man who would “lay down his life for a friend”.

H/t Don Surber, Michelle Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But I guess not, if it gets in the way of liberal talking points.

After all, why else would the New York Times make so much of this criticism of the chief investigator of the so-called "war crimes" at Haditha -- which now appear to not have been crimes at all.

“When you have an investigating officer like Ware, who says ‘don’t go there if you can’t prove,’” your case, Mr. Solis said, “we’re left with what appear to be very reduced charges.” He added: “He’s aggressive, and he seems to make his judgments without regard for anything but the law. He must know that people — civilians, primarily — are going to howl about this, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern.”

I'm curious why this criticism would be made in the first place by Georgetown Law professor and former marine judge Gary D. Solis. After all, shouldn't the decision to bring or dismiss charges -- as well as the outcome of the case more generally -- be based upon the law and nothing but the law?

Is Mr. Solis suggesting that these trials should move forward anyway, despite the fact that it is obvious that the charges cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt? Does he really believe that we should put these American fighting men through a political show trial to please those who would use that trial to discredit the war? Such a position is disgraceful, and should result in the immediate reexamination of every case that Solis was involved with during his military service to determine whether or not justice was truly done.

And Lt. Col. Paul J. Ware, the investigator, gets it exactly right when he rejects holding such sham proceedings.

In an unusual departure from the analysis of the facts in Lance Corporal Sharratt’s case, Colonel Ware warned that putting marines on trial for murder without having the evidence to prove it could “erode public support of the Marine Corps and mission in Iraq.”

More than that, it would legitimately call into question the military justice system -- and, for that matter, the entire criminal justice system in the United States. If we are going to begin to hold trials knowing there is insufficient evidence in order to satisfy the political agenda of a screaming mob, then we no longer have a criminal justice system.

Solis should be ashamed of himself -- but he won't be, because he has been pushing a rush to judgment since the Haditha charges were first made -- as should the New York Times, which included his comments in an article intended to sway readers to believe that respecting the due process rights of our servicemen is illegitimate.

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Posted by: Greg at 12:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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But then again, that might just be one more sign that the Surge is working, and they certainly couldn't let the American people start to believe that victory is possible.

US military losses in Iraq for September stood at 70 on Sunday, the lowest monthly figure since July last year, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

The figure also marks the fourth consecutive drop in the monthly death toll following a high of 121 in May. June saw 93 deaths, July 82 and August 79. The monthly toll in July 2006 was 53.

Two US soldiers were killed on Saturday in separate incidents, pushing the overall toll of American losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,801.

A US military "surge" strategy saw an extra 28,500 US troops being deployed from mid-February, mainly in Baghdad and the neighbouring province of Anbar, although commanders said most were not in combat positions until May.

US commanders say the strategy is starting to work and that levels of violence are dropping, allowing for a possible drawdown of the 160,000 or so troops currently deployed across war-torn Iraq.

So let's make this clear --more troops in Iraq, fewer deaths. the Surge is working -- even though the Democrats don't want you to know that.

Posted by: Greg at 02:30 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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But even as the percentage of the federal spending sits at about half of what it was 50 years ago, some want to cut it even further.

For Ben Cohen, the politically active half of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, life's not all about ice cream anymore. Since he and Jerry Greenfield sold their Burlington, Vt., company in 2000 to Unilever, the politically conscious cofounder Cohen has turned his attention entirely to making Americans more aware of what percentage of their tax dollars goes toward funding the Pentagon's budget. His latest efforts include hitting up the early primary states and finding Democratic caucus attendees who will pledge to only vote for a candidate who promises to slice the defense budget and put that money toward social needs programs.

* * *

From what I understand, you're trying to persuade the presidential candidates to commit part of the federal budget away from the Pentagon. How are you doing this?

About two years ago we started a grassroots campaign working with "Iowans for Sensible Priorities" and "Priorities New Hampshire" to educate people as to how the federal budget is currently sliced up. We knew from surveys that once people found out about it, people were incredulous and wanted to shift twice as much money as we're talking about.

What percent are you trying to get sliced away from the Pentagon?

It's about 13 percent. That's $60 billion and it's amazing what you can do with $60 billion. It's enough money to rebuild all our schools, provide healthcare for every kid who doesn't have it, provide food self-sufficiency for all 6 million starving kids a year in the world, and reduce our need for oil, increasing energy independence—a lot of stuff.

Cohen, of course, fudges the numbers in this project. What he shows is the proportions of government DISCRETIONARY spending. He ignores those expenditures that are not discretionary, which is about half the budget. Many of those expenditures that deal with the very social issues he wants to address – expenditures on programs that grow every year and have generally been ineffective.

But then why would we expect a super-rich socialist like Cohen to be honest? It simply is not in the nature of the Left to do so.

And I'm curious -- any American with common sense knows the War on Poverty was lost a generation ago. How many more lives and how much more treasure must be wasted on it before liberals will admit that their war policies have been a failure and devise a plan for surrender retreat redeployment of our nation's social workers and anti-poverty activists?

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Posted by: Greg at 01:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Military conditions might allow for even greater reductions in the number of troops in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday raised the possibility of cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 by the end of next year, well beyond the cuts President Bush has approved.

Stressing that he was expressing his hope, not an administration plan, Gates said it was possible conditions in Iraq could improve enough to merit much deeper troop cuts than are currently scheduled for 2008.

Asked at a news conference whether he was referring to going from today's level of about 169,000 to about 100,000 U.S. troops by the end of next year, Gates replied, "That would be the math."

It was the first time a member of Bush's war cabinet had publicly suggested such deep reductions, although many in Congress have pushed hard for big cuts to begin bringing the war to a conclusion.

You see, the determining factor will be the situation on the ground and military necessity, not politics and pandering like this proposal from the Democrats.

Now that President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus have charted their course for the Iraq war, Democrats in the Senate say one of their proposals aimed at shifting the presidentÂ’s strategy is finally close to winning enough Republican support for a real chance at being approved. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as on their most recent tours overseas before being redeployed.

The proposal, by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has strong support from top Democrats, who say that the practical effect would be to add time between deployments and force General Petraeus to withdraw troops on a substantially swifter timeline than the one he laid out before Congress this week, and that it would protect troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.

In other words, the Democrats are offering yet another plan to undermine the ability of the military to conduct operations during time of war. They seem to have forgotten, for example, that troops during WWII were not rotated home -- indeed, many remained deployed for the duration of the war, and didn't see loved ones from the time they shipped out until late 1945 or early 1946. But then again, these weak-kneed, limp-wristed liberals would have swooned as they read casualty reports from Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Normandy -- each of which cost the United states more troops in a matter of weeks (or, in the case of D-Day, hours) than Iraq has in four years.

In 1943 or 1944, proposals like the one offered by James Webb and promoted by Joe Biden and the Democrat leadership would have been promptly labeled what they are -- seditious capitulation to the enemy. It is disheartening to see that the party of Roosevelt has become the party of Benedict Arnold.

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Posted by: Greg at 02:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For all the partisan spin placed on the poll numbers, that is what these polling numbers really come down to.

And when asked what they think is the most acceptable outcome to the war in Iraq, 24 percent say that American troops should remain in Iraq until it becomes a stable democracy. Twenty-six percent want them to begin the process of leaving now, and 37 percent want them to leave within the next year — but still keep some of them in the region.

In other words, only a small minority insist upon the "get out now" strategy advocated by the militant cut-and-run crowd. However, the media is loathe to present those numbers that way, for fear that its template might have to be changed.

Posted by: Greg at 10:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't usually pass on the content of emails, but I received this last night and feel it is worth sending on, even though the interview quote is about two years old. After all, there are still Marines from this unit in Iraq.

The CO of USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 in Iraq, is asking for e-mails - Undisclosed Recipients

US Marine Colonel Simcock, the commander of USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 in Iraq, is asking for 6,000 positive emails to his Marines. That's one email for each Marine in his RCT command. COL Simcock is concerned about the effect of the negative barrage that those Marines are getting through the electronic media. So far, they've only mustered 2,000 emails. That's a crying shame compared to the amount of crap I get daily in email. This is a legitimate request. It's not one of the "little Johnny wants to break the world's record in Christmas cards" situations. It takes only 30 seconds of your time. Here's the email address:

RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

If you're reading this email, then you can probably click on the address, type a few words, and then hit "send" to be all done. It doesn't have to be the Gettysburg Address. Something as simple as "Hello, Marine. We thank you for what you're doing. You are in a noble task. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Best wishes & get home soon" is more than sufficient.
An excerpt from an interview with the Colonel:

GRIM: Is there anything that you and your Marines need that we could send you?

COL. SIMCOCK: (Chuckles.) I'll tell you what, the one thing that all Marines want to know about -- and that includes me and everyone within Regimental Combat Team 6 -- we want to know that the American public are behind us. We believe that the actions that we're taking over here are very, very important to America. We're fighting a group of people that, if they could, would take away the freedoms that America enjoys.

If anyone -- you know, just sit down, jot us -- throw us an e- mail, write us a letter, let us know that the American public are behind us. Because we watch the news just like everyone else. It's broadcast over here in our chow halls and the weight rooms, and we watch that stuff, and we're a little bit concerned sometimes that America really doesn't know what's going on over here, and we get sometimes concerns that the American public isn't behind us and doesn't see the importance of what's going on. So that's something I think that all Marines, soldiers and sailors would like to hear from back home, that in fact, yes, they think what we're doing over here is important and they are in fact behind us.

So, friends -- send your support to those fighting for us.

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Posted by: Greg at 05:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Now, will all those cut-and-runners who worship at the altar of the Iraq Study Group fall in line with the proposal they outline? Somehow I doubt it.

n a report to be released today, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years and a total withdrawal and handover of security to the Iraqi military in five years.

"The United States faces too many challenges around the world to continue its current level of effort in Iraq, or even the deployment that was in place before the surge," the report says. "It is time to chart a clearer path forward."

Got that -- three years to cut troops by 50% and five years to get them out entirely. The Democrats are all talking about an immediate withdrawal. Will they now admit their error? Or will they play politics and dismiss any proposal that calls for any withdrawal timetable the extends past next year?

Posted by: Greg at 09:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The slogan of the cut-and-runners used to be "listen to the generals". Now the NY Times is shouting the exact opposite -- Ignore Petraeus and the generals in Iraq who are saying there is progress.

We hope that General Petraeus can resist the political pressure and provide an unvarnished assessment of the military situation in Iraq. He is an important source of information, of course, but he is only one source — and he is not the man who sets American policy. If Mr. Bush insists on listening only to those who agree with him, Congress and the public must weigh General Petraeus’s report against all data, including two new independent evaluations sharply at odds with the Pentagon’s claim that things in Iraq are substantially better.

In other words, we want Congress to listen to those who are not on the ground in Iraq rather than those who are.

Oh, and by the way, I love this little jab at the President.

Mr. Bush, deeply unpopular with the American people, is counting on the general to restore credibility to his discredited Iraq policy.

Let's see here -- what are the polls saying about the views of the American people towards Congress? Somewhere around 18% approve of the job being done by Congress, which is about half of the president's job approval rating. On the other hand, General Petraeus has an approval rating nearly 4 times higher than that of Congress. So perhaps it is time the anti-war, anti-troop Democrats listen to someone who the American people do believe is doing a good job.

Posted by: Greg at 01:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And their attempt to hamstring recruiting and cut of information about this important form of service to one's nation can only be described as unpatriotic.

Military recruiters are frequently given free reign in New York City public schools and allowed into classes in violation of the school systemÂ’s regulations, according to a report released yesterday by the Manhattan borough president and the New York Civil Liberties Union

The report, based on surveys of nearly 1,000 students at 45 high schools citywide last spring, said the cityÂ’s Department of Education exercised almost no oversight over how much access recruiters had to students at high schools.

“There were recruiters who were in the classroom not to talk to students about reading, writing and arithmetic, but to talk to them about how to get a one-way ticket to Iraq and all the benefits you will accrue by that process,” Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, said at a news conference. “This is something that must be stopped. It’s outrageous, and it gives recruiters a captive audience.”

Wanna bet that the NYACLU wouldn't have a problem with homosexual activists in the classroom explaing the joys of sodomy and the evils of those who have moral objections to homosexual conduct?

No -- they and their coalition of anti-war folks just want to make America (and the world) safe for jihadis -- just like they have here.

After all -- terrorists have rights, but patriots don't, and schools should teach kids to love and embrace Islam and fear and loathe the military.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over at the Cloaca Maxima of the internet, KOSsacks wail and gnash their teeth about the President's visit to Iraq.

I was particularly shocked by this comment, who clearly suffers from both BDS and Mother Sheehan's Disease.

My son will be leaving for Iraq in December. He actually believes that he is doing a good thing. It not only saddens me what is happening to so many people, but to also watch my son change overnight from intelligent to indoctrinated.

This craziness has gone on too long!

Supporting the troops my ass!

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Posted by: Greg at 08:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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That is what I'm left wondering after reading this WaPo article and the complaints from the congresscritters contained within.

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

My question – are the quotes accurate? Yes, in fact, they are. So how is it "sliming" if one accurately quotes the public words of a member of Congress? They strike me as honest, straight-forward comments that hardly can be described as defamatory.

Unless, of course, the representatives in question have defamed themselves and revealed their own personal sliminess by their criticisms of the Iraq war and their willingness to undercut the troops and their mission.

Especially when the polls show that over half of Americans believe victory is attainable.

Posted by: Greg at 09:56 AM | Comments (67) | Add Comment
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And yet neither the press nor the anti-war lynch mob led by John Murtha have offered a peep of apology now that it has been definitively shown that the "cold-blooded murders" violated not a single law.

Last December, when the Marine Corps charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby homes, massacring 24 innocent people.

In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the guilty.

But now, the prosecutions have faltered. Since May, charges against two infantrymen and a Marine officer have been dismissed, and dismissal has been recommended for murder charges against a third infantryman. Prosecutors were not able to prove even that the killings violated the American military code of justice.

Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis, including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.

If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be convicted for what happened in Haditha.

Could it be that what we had was a rush to judgment by the MSM and the cut-and-runners? Will the press look at that possibility?

No, they will instead continue to besmirch the names of heroes and wonder aloud about how the military justice system is broken, rather than consider that the media reporting was flawed and that the war's opponents have such low regard for the truth that they acted as a high-tech lynch mob that convicted these men before the charges were even brought.

After all, that story wouldn't fit the template that they are using to cover the war.

Posted by: Greg at 09:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Three 1000lb bombs are dropped from a B1 jet onto Mazdurak, a villiage in Kajaki, Afghanistan after a fierce firefight with the Taliban.

"I f*cking told you nothing but bacteria would live!"

H/T Jawa Report

Posted by: Greg at 12:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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