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The New York Daily News, 22 March, 2003:
War in Iraq claims first bloodThe first loss in a war that at the time was expected by many to claim tens of thousands of coalition lives. Unlike today, there was no shortage of protesters:U.S. and British forces rolled into Iraq yesterday, starting the ground invasion, but they also suffered their first casualties.
A CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait around 7:40 p.m. New York time, killing all 12 on board. Casualty figures, which originally stood at 16, were revised early this morning.
Four of the men were American, the rest British, U.S. military officials said. There was no immediate word on whether the chopper was shot down or crashed accidentally.
Protests erupted around the world as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to oppose the U.S. attack on Iraq. Traffic was stopped in Chicago, and Times Square was filled.Among the first to fall was Marine Captain Ryan A. Beaupre, of St. Anne, Illinois:
In his tiny hometown of St. Anne, Ill., Marine Capt. Ryan Beaupre was known for his unruly red hair and easy smile. He was the type to surrender his turn on the phone to other Marines with wives and children back home, family and friends said.And to them he left one last letter home:Beaupre, a graduate of Bishop McNamara High School and Illinois Wesleyan University, died March 21 in a helicopter crash near the Iraq border. He had joined the Marine Corps in 1995. The family has two other children, Kari Leisure, 28, and Christopher, 22.
Mom & Dad,Semper Fi.
Well if you are reading this, then things didn't go well for me over in Iraq. I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you because of this. Please do not be upset with the Marine Corps, the military, the government, or the President. It was my choice to go into the military. The President and my higher commanders were just doing what they thought was best. Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself. There is a paragraph that I read from time to time when I lose focus. "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stewart Mill Now there is a little Marine Corps bravado in there, but I do believe in the basic premise. I want you to know that I could not have asked for better parents, or a better family. ..... I'll never forget that one of my friends in elementary school said that if he could trade places with one person, he'd trade places with me because of my parents and home life. I truly feel that I've had a blessed life thanks to you two. Please give my love to Alyse & Ryan, Kari & Matt & the girls, Chris & Brandy, and everyone else in the family.
All my love,
Ryan
Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.The New York Times found this letter so abhorrent to their side in the war on terror that they censored it - the end result was something entirely different in meaning from the original. The New York Times is fighting a war based on lies.
Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twister pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The r?is easy; there is none easier, save only the r?of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."
(Updated with 2005 and 1910 sections added to original post from 2005-10-27 16:00:55)
It's often said that it's difficult to cover the entirety of the Iraq war from a hotel in Baghdad. The truthfulness or fairness of that statement is debateable. But regardless of effort, motivation, or lack thereof, given the thousands of potential stories to tell it's no surprise that many are overlooked. For instance, enter "Lance Corporal Joshua Butler" in the search window at ABC News and you'll get this response: No results were found for "Lance Corporal Joshua Butler". Try the same at the New York Times: Your search for Marine Corporal Joshua Butler in all fields returned 0 results.
That's unfortunate. Because in a rather baffling story last summer the NY Times bemoaned the fact that there were no stories of heroes in the media coverage of the Iraq war. They blamed the Pentagon. (Full text here.) For bloggers this was the equivalent of tossing a lamb chop into a den of lions. Follow the links and trackbacks in this story and you'll find numerous examples of heroism, outstanding acts of courage, and ample evidence that the generation at war in Iraq is no less deserving of accolades then their fathers and grandfathers before them. Since most of those blog reports rely on military news sources for their information we can dismiss that "Pentagon reluctance" to acknowledge heroism and instead ponder why the media has been reluctant to do so. After all, they waste little time in detailing the failures of those same all-to-human troops.
Among the many heroic stories the Times missed is that of Marine Corporal Joshua Butler. Corporal Butler was serving with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team-2 in Husaybah, Iraq, near the Syrian border. On April 11, 2005, they were attacked:
That morning a group of four mortar rounds flew over the base.Meanwhile, the attack intensified. Under suppressing fire from small arms and RPGs, a white dump truck approached the Marine's position:Twenty-two-year-old Cpl. Roy Mitros was the sergeant of the guard when this happened.
?It was definitely out of the norm because all of them were within 5 to 10 meters of each other,? he explained.
The Huntsville, Ala., native hurried to the combat operations center (COC) to report the location of the rounds to the watch officer. At that point the base came under heavy mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire as the COC took three RPG rockets blowing the doors off. Mitros went to get the quick reaction force, finding them all ready with their gear on.
Corporal Anthony Fink, a 21-year-old Columbus, Ohio native and Lance Cpl.s Joe Lampe and Roger Leyton were manning a M-240G medium machinegun when their bunker was hit with an RPG knocking them to the ground. The dust and sand from the busted sandbags clouded their view of the oncoming truck and small arms fire forced them to keep their heads down.The first truck was intended to blast a hole for the larger one to follow:From his post, Lance Cpl. Joshua Butler saw a white dump truck rolling past Fink?s position toward his post and the front entrance.
The 20-year-old Altoona, Pa. native engaged the truck with 20 to 30 5.56 mm rounds as it veered off the road and detonated about 40 meters from his post, creating a crater and sending a wall of smoke into the air.
Butler was thrown into one of the walls of his post as shrapnel and debris landed around him. One piece broke through his goggles that rested on the front of his Kevlar helmet. Getting up to check himself and moving down the wall of his post to gain better cover, he heard another distinct diesel engine rumble.
A couple of seconds later, a red fire truck cleared the smoke the previous truck left heading toward Butler and his post at about 40 mph.The attack had failed, but the battle wasn't over...?It was like nothing I?d ever seen before,? he explained.
Fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Charles Young, a 19-year-old from Oldsmar, Fla., fired grenades from a corresponding position at the fire truck hitting directly in front and behind the truck, slowing its progress.
As the truck slowed, Butler was able to make out two men inside the truck, their faces covered by black veils. He engaged these men with his SAW, spraying 100 to 150 rounds into the truck causing it to follow the same path its predecessor made exploding 30 meters from his position.
?I knew what they were doing and I just tried to stop them,? he said.
The explosion created an enormous fire ball that ripped into the air. Doors around the base were blown off their hinges, windows shattered and remains of the fire truck rained down on the entire camp.
A third suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated farther out.
Mitros arrived with the quick reaction force as the small arms fire continued and Butler was sent to be seen by the corpsman.
As Butler stopped the SVBIED attacks, the assault on Fink?s post continued from multiple directions. Taking fire and returning it, Fink and Leyton began firing 40 mm grenades from a M-203 grenade launcher as 1st Sgt. Donald Brazeal, the company first sergeant, arrived at their position to find out where they were taking the heaviest amount of fire.As USA Today noted in their coverage, this was one in a series of defeats for the enemy in Iraq:?(Fink) told me that it was coming from beyond a wall 300 meters from the post, so we reset the machineguns to suppress the wall,? explained the 40-year-old Council Bluffs, Iowa native.
Brazeal and Fink pulled out two AT-4 anti-tank missiles. Brazeal fired the first of the two from a HESCO barrier, landing a direct hit on the wall. Fink then followed it with another direct hit. With the insurgents? position suppressed, they were able to resupply the post with ammunition.
As the battle continued, approximately 100 school children ran out of the school across the street from the base. The insurgents sought cover behind them slowing the fighting.
?The Marines displayed extreme discipline in not firing at the children,? Brazeal explained.
<...>
Despite what Brazeal says was an obvious preplanned attack, no one was severely injured. Three causalities were medevaced for minor injuries, but returned later.Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessie Beddia, was the primary corpsman during the attacks.
?Most of our causalities were internal injuries from the blast wave of the truck explosions, but miraculously nothing was really serious. A couple of Marines complained about some minor hearing loss, but that is common in that situation,? the 31-year-old from Buytown, Texas explained.
The daylight attack on this remote U.S. military base fits a pattern of recent insurgent attacks on U.S. military strongholds. On Saturday, a mortar attack at Camp Ramadi killed three servicemembers, and there was a coordinated assault two weeks ago on the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.The Abu Ghraib attack was very similar in execution and outcome to the Husaybah assault:U.S. forces have repelled each attack, inflicting large losses on the insurgents while incurring few casualties.
The insurgents used small and medium arms fire as cover fire for a suicide car-bomber as he drove his way towards the perimeter wall near the southeast tower. Marines returned fire, causing the vehicle to explode before it reached the wall.A quick reaction force, made up of Marines and U.S. soldiers, as well as Apache helicopters and artillery counter-fire, prevented the insurgency from breaching the perimeter walls.
The insurgent force was estimated to be more than 60 members strong. Their attempt to infiltrate the operating base lasted for two hours before they were forced to retreat, but not without suffering at least 50 casualties.
Shortly thereafter the story of Corporal Butler was forgotten - at least in the media. But last week, following the return of Butler's unit to the States, he was honored in the US Congress by Bill Shuster (R - Pa):
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and distinguish one of America?s finest ? United States Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Butler of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Butler, who dreamed of being a U.S. Marine since he was four years old, protected hundreds of his fellow comrades from suicide bombers mounting an attack with trucks, explosives and no regard for human life.No doubt Americans would be proud of Corporal Butler and the many like him, but once again, here's the New York Times coverage of the story. We'll assume he didn't meet the Times criteria for that hero they were looking for.Butler was stationed in Iraq along the Syrian border, and while guarding the base?s perimeter from a lookout tower his post was attacked. Butler sprayed the first suicide bomber with twenty or thirty rounds causing him to veer off at the last moment to miss his target. The truck, filled with explosives and manned by a suicide-mission insurgent, crashed through the improvised barrier the Marines had built up along the edge of the base. After being knocked down by the blast, Lance Corporal Butler remained focused, alert and ready. Through the smoke of the blast, he saw a red, suicide-driven fire engine coming toward the base. Butler fired one-hundred rounds onto the vehicle. After the truck was hit by a grenade, launched by Pfc. Charles Young, its explosives were detonated outside of the base but within fifty yards of Butler. Debris from this blast sprayed the length of four football fields and knocked down soldiers as far as two-hundred yards away. But no Marines were seriously hurt, including Butler.
Lance Corporal Butler?s actions saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow Marines and marked a significant victory against the insurgents in Iraq. The suicide bombers mission was thwarted by Butler?s courageous and timely reaction. An estimated twenty-one insurgents were killed that day while fifteen were reported wounded.
Lance Corporal Butler ? You are a U.S. Marine and a hero, and across the country Americans are proud of your leadership. Thank you for serving when your nation called.
If you read far enough into the AP story headlined U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq you may experience a bit of deja-vu:
[Al-Qaida in Iraq] also said it was behind the three suicide car bombs aimed at the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad. Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said 17 people were killed - mostly hotel guards and passers-by - in Monday's attack, which involved bombers driving two cars and a cement truck.For saving a hotel full of reporters from certain death, Spc Green was named ABC News Person of the Week.The U.S. soldier who shot and killed the truck driver said he initially had a hard time seeing the truck drive through the breach that the first car explosion had created in the concrete wall.
``Once the dust and the debris settled down, I noticed the truck had already breached through our perimeter,'' Spc. Darrell Green told CNN American Morning. ``He backed up and then pulled forward. As he was doing that, I engaged in machine gun and took out the driver. If he had made it through, he could have done a lot more damage, a lot more casualties than what actually happened.''
In a Web posting, al-Qaida in Iraq said it carried out the hotel attack to target a ``dirty harbor of intelligence agents and private American, British and Australian security companies.'' The hotel complex houses offices of the AP and other media organizations.
It's often said that it's difficult to cover the entirety of the Iraq war from a hotel in Baghdad. But if you wait there long enough, eventually the war will come to you.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 - Security Council diplomats worked out final details on Sunday on a tough resolution against Syria, an action that will forcefully step up international pressure on the country's embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, and deepen his government's struggle to ward off increasing isolation.Syria has responded by trying to enlist the support of Arab leadersDiplomats from the resolution's three co-sponsors, Britain, France and the United States, said they expected passage on Monday and did not foresee a veto from either China or Russia, the two countries most reluctant to punish Syria.
The resolution threatens Syria with economic penalties if it does not give full cooperation to the United Nations investigation that has identified high-ranking security officials as suspects in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri.
<...>
Casting the American vote on Monday will be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the leader of the American diplomatic campaign to isolate Syria. She is joining foreign ministers from the other Security Council states in the higher-level "ministerial" meeting of the panel that the resolution's sponsors requested to give it added force.The foreign ministers of the council's five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - held a private dinner in New York Sunday at which the resolution was to be discussed.
Ms. Rice and other American officials have said they do not seek "regime change" in Syria but rather "behavior change." As an example, they point to Libya, where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi decided in 2003 to admit the existence of his weapons programs, agree to dismantle them and thereby start to shed his country's pariah status.
To cope, Syria has reached out to the international community, including Arab leaders, trying with little success to promote the idea that it had nothing to do with Mr. Hariri's death. In that connection, Syria sent its deputy foreign minister, Walid al-Mualem, on a tour of Persian Gulf states on Sunday. On Saturday, President Assad said he would set up a commission to conduct Syria's own investigation into the assassination.
Althouh the New York Times reports Syria's quest for support met with "little success", an LA Times story indicates that may not be completely true - as "some Arab leaders" are urging caution:
The Bush administration has embarked on an effort to build strong international pressure on Syria despite warnings from some Arab leaders and Israelis that doing so could lead to a chaotic collapse or even the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic regime in Damascus, U.S. officials say.Meanwhile, the London Sunday Telegraph presents a Syrian response not covered in those accounts:American diplomats have been trying to enlist other nations to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad as the United Nations weighs how to respond to an investigator's report implicating top Syrian officials in the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
<...>
But some Arab leaders and other allies say the Syrian government is already fragile and isolated. They have warned that international sanctions or other measures could topple the regime, destabilizing an important corner of the Middle East and possibly opening the way for Islamist groups such as the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.The outlawed organization, which is alleged by some to have ties to Al Qaeda, has been badly weakened by Assad's government and that of his long-ruling father, Hafez Assad. However, it still is widely considered to have the broadest base of support of any Syrian opposition group.
Syria has accused the United States of launching lethal military raids into its territory from Iraq, escalating the diplomatic crisis between the two countries as the Bush administration seeks to step up pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime.Now for a complete perspective, read this post from a blogger in Lebanon. (Via Michael Totten - who's insight should prove invaluable as this story develops.)Major General Amid Suleiman, a Syrian officer, said that American cross-border attacks into Syria had killed at least two border guards, wounded several more and prompted an official complaint to the American embassy in Damascus.
He made the allegations during an official press tour of Syrian security forces on the Iraqi border, which the US claims is a barely guarded passage into Iraq for hardcore foreign jihadis.
While showing off what he said were beefed-up Syrian border measures designed to blunt those criticisms, including new police stations and checkpoints, Maj Gen Suleiman alleged that his own border forces had come under repeated American attack.
"Incidents have taken place with casualties on my surveillance troops," he said, near the Euphrates river border crossing between Syria and Iraq. "Many US projectiles have landed here. In this area alone, two soldiers and two civilians have been killed by the American attacks."
Update: The resolution has been passed by the UN Security council - unanimously.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Monday in favor of a tough resolution demanding Syria cooperate with a U.N. probe into the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri or face possible punitive measures.Unanimous - that's not to be taken lightly. Such things have meaning, after all.The resolution was adopted 15-0 after the principal drafters, the United States and France, agreed to delete a specific reference to economic sanctions. Instead the resolution would consider possible unspecified "further action" if Syria did not comply.
News from Better Homes and gardens the London Sunday Times:
It has emerged that the former Iraqi dictator, who is about to go on trial, had two sumptuous homes in southern France. Instead of retreating into the rat hole in Iraq where American soldiers caught him, he may have been planning to retire in comfort to the Riviera like other discredited despots.The Counterterrorism Blog has more.
Saddam never visited either property but one, a white-walled, 12-bedroomed villa on a hill overlooking Cannes, was occasionally used for parties by Uday, his son, according to an Iraqi embassy spokesman in Paris. He said the government in Baghdad would keep the house, valued at ?8.5m, as a ?splendid investment?.
<...>
France?s strict privacy laws combined with the C?d?Azur?s comfortable climate have made it the bolthole of choice for dictators in retirement. Residents have included Mobutu Sese Seko, the Zairean dictator, and Jean-Claude ?Baby Doc? Duvalier of Haiti.
<...>
The dictator?s interest in the property probably dates from a visit he made to Provence in 1975, with President Jacques Chirac, then French prime minister. Saddam reciprocated by offering Chirac a banquet of barbecued Iraqi carp.The visit resulted in a bonanza for French business, including a deal worth ?3 billion to supply Iraq with a nuclear reactor. It ended up being destroyed in a bombing raid by the Israelis in 1986.
(Via Mrs G's Dawn Patrol)
Update: Heh.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Happy Birthday Lady Liberty!
The 119th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty is today, October 28, 2005. It will be celebrated on Liberty Island with a patriotic ceremony commemorating the original dedication of the monument that now represents freedom to the world.
Colonel Janis Karpinski, the highest ranking officer to be punished for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, has written a book: One Woman's Army : The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story
You can't judge a book by it's cover, but this one has an interesting feature - a photo of the Colonel still wearing her General's stars, and the rank "General" preceding her name. Karpinski was demoted to Colonel as a result of the investigation into the abuse of inmates by soldiers under her command. Based on the numerous media interviews during the lengthy campaign she embarked on following the televised airing of the photos, a better title for the book might be "It was Everyone's Fault but Mine".
Let me save you the cost of the book. You can read Colonel Karpinski's claims to know nothing for free in her PBS Frontline interview:
But I can tell you that these soldiers, these MPs -- Lynndie England was not even an MP, nor was one of the other soldiers. He was a mechanic. OK, they were brought over there specifically to work with these, setting up these photographs and everything. Lynndie England might have been over there for a variety of reasons, but they were brought over there specifically that night. And I know, with no doubt, that these soldiers didn't wake up that morning and say: "Hey, let's go screw with some prisoners tonight. Let's take some pictures. Let's violate everything we know to be decent and correct and fair." Lynndie England surely did not show up in Iraq with a dog collar and a dog leash.The only explanation I've seen for the leash comes from Charles Graner, testifying at Lynndie England's trial after he had already been convicted for his role in the abuse:So those items either came from previous experience at other locations with interrogations, or other people with bizarre ideas brought those pieces of equipment independent of any instructions. But somebody who understood what humiliation is to an Arab person designed these techniques. And military police personnel do not study the Arab mind. But my guess is that interrogators should or do; at least they know more, maybe from previous experience or otherwise. But somebody instructed this group of people on the night shift to do these things, and if they made them believe that it would take them out of Abu Ghraib or out of Iraq a day, even one day sooner than what the plan was, that would be incentive enough to get them to do it. I can't tell you specifically, because even though I've been held accountable for all of those soldiers' behavior, I never had the chance to speak to any one of them from when those pictures first surfaced. ...
Graner, who is serving a 10-year sentence for his role in the scandal, said from the stand that one of the central acts of the case - in which England appeared in a photo holding a naked prisoner on a leash - was a legitimate prison procedure.I suppose that's possible - but it seems unlikely.Graner said he looped the leash around the prisoner's shoulders as a way to coax him out of a cell, and that it slipped up around his neck.
As for using unwilling subjects in home-spun porn photography , that was a taste Graner and England acquired before they ever set foot in Iraq:
Spc. Steve Strother, a fellow soldier, described a weekend trip in 2003 to Virginia Beach with England and Graner. The three partied on the beach until 1 a.m. before their unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, was deployed to Iraq.In fact the answers to many of Colonel Karpinski's questions about what exactly went on at her prison can be found with a bit of searching through the news coverage that followed the appearance of the photos on TV. If you accept her claims to not know what was happening in her command, you'll likely believe it's reasonable to assume she wasn't aware of that either.Strother described how he passed out in the room the three shared after a night of drinking, and then was photographed in sexually explicit poses with both England and Graner.
The following information may be useful to those who actually would like to know the answers to those questions. A re-"print" from January, 2005.
Abu Ghraib is but a stone's throw from where I now type these words, and it's ugliness is more than skin deep. It's a very real place, and an undesirable home to criminals and those whose duty it is to guard them. But to many it's an abstract image, a debate point to be used against opponents like garlic to frighten vampires, a boogy man to frighten children. They inject that ward into any writing they do on certain topics in an attempt to frame the discussion around what is unquestionably now the immediate mind's eye association most people in the world make with the word "torture" - the horrendous photos from the notorious prison.
Here's an illustration from the Washington Post: Does the Right Remember Abu Ghraib? See, it's about Abu Ghraib people! Defend that! The title alone is an attempt to frame the debate on two points. 1) The issue is a right/left issue, and 2) The notorious digital images from Abu Ghraib are a result of government policy.
Both claims lack merit.
Let's dispense with the right/left aspect of this outright. Not everything can be pigeonholed into those political categories, and certainly no one on either end of the political spectrum feels torture is one of the defining points of their position. As much as some may take delight in setting up a "torture aficionado straw man" who supported that other guy in the last election" it's certainly not a legitimate starting point for any reasonable discussion on the matter. Unfortunately there are those who would have it that way in the US Senate, and whatever the outcome the nation will be the worse for it.
If you're looking for further discussion on that political topic move on. The remainder of this post is not for you. But you will miss a chance to look a little deeper into the ugly mirror that is Abu Ghraib, perhaps to clear a bit of fog from it's surface, and discover if you know all you think you do on that topic.
Take this simple 10 question quiz. The answers follow (no fair peeking). There are no trick questions, and no opinion questions. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. But perhaps not those you'll find on the editorial pages of your local paper.
Pencils ready? Here's the quiz:
1. The famous "60 Minutes" photos from Abu Ghraib were
a. Taken over a period of several months
b. All from one night
c. All from one week
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2. Who were the victims in those photos, and why were they singled out for abuse?
a. Iraqi cab drivers / mistakenly identified as terrorists
b. Suspected Al-Qaeda Terrorists / Intel officers acting under orders from the Pentagon had carefully instructed the guards at Abu Ghraib in the effectiveness of humiliation in getting terrorists to "sing", and actively encouraged it's use.
c. "Insurgents" / High Command needed info quickly to stem the rising tide of violence during Ramadan
d. Ordinary criminals in prison for their crimes, of no intelligence value/they were brought to the high security area for fighting among themselves at another area of the prison.
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3. Throughout Fall 2003 SSg Ivan Frederick, a guard at Abu Ghraib, was continuously emailing his concerns about conditions home to his family, but higher ups ignored them.
True or False
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4. The highest ranking of the accused torturers at Abu Ghraib were Reservists, not Active Duty. What were their civilian occupations?
a. Republican precinct Chairmen
b. WalMart Stockboys
c. Postal workers
d. Prison guards
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5. Lyndie England was an administrative worker at the prison. Why was she present for the torture session?
a. Not enough "real guards" due to poor planning
b. She was celebrating her Birthday with her boyfriend, and had violated orders to be there
c. The naked pyramid was scientifically proven more effective if a female was present
d. Direct orders of Donald Rumsfeld
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6. The Army suppressed the story of Abu Ghraib until the 60 Minutes broadcast.
True or False
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7. The Army investigation began
a. After 60 Minutes aired the photos when General Taguba was sent to find out what happened
b. Shortly after the event when a fellow guard learned of the photos and reported the abuse to higher ups at Abu Ghraib
c. When Frederick alerted his family to what he was being forced to do
d. When photos began showing up on weblogs operated by the guards
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8. How were the pictures made public?
a. Discovered after months-long investigations by reporter Seymour Hersh and 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes
b. Handed to Hersh by Gary Myers, his old pal from the My-Lai court martial who was coincidentally representing SSG Ivan Frederick, the highest ranking individual charged with torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, immediately after the preliminary hearing in which they were released to the defense
c. Handed to a representative of 60 Minutes by relatives of SSG Frederick
d. Discovered posted on weblogs operated by the guards
-------------------
9. General Taguba in Senate testimony blamed events on
a. Poorly supervised individuals acting on their own
b. Unnamed Pentagon bureaucrats
c. The military culture
d. Individuals carrying out what they believed to be legal orders
-------------------
10. SSG Frederick:
a. Was given a slap on the hand
b. Was found guilty by court martial despite the valiant efforts of his top-notch defense team to identify the "real criminals"
c. Pleaded guilty at start of court martial
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Answers
1: B. The photos were from November 8, 2003.
Those who thought otherwise are experiencing the "success" of Seymour Hersh's early efforts. In a theme later adopted and repeated worldwide, Seymour Hersh (and others) insisted frequently that there were thousands of photos available: "This is a generation that sends stuff on CDs, sends it around. some kid right now is negotiating with some European magazine. -- You know, I can't say that for sure, but it's there. -- It's out there. And the Army knows it." As of this writing no additional pictures have surfaced.
2. D. Criminals brought to the cell block for fighting. They were not being interrogated for information, in fact they were being tortured as punishment and for "fun". At England's hearing, a government lawyer read numerous statements from England's previous sworn statements into the record. The statements are of England admitting to stepping on prisoners' toes, taking photos, posing for photos and posing prisoners for photos, and saying she participated for fun, not due to orders. Additional testimony corroborated this admission.
Another Hershism: He tried desperately to depict the Abu Ghraib torture victims as innocents swept off the streets as a result of confessions gained in earlier torture sessions: "I'll tell you how they get there. You bust the guy that doesn't have anything to do. You humiliate him. You break him down. You interrogate him. He gives up the name of you want to know who is an insurgent, who is Al Qaeda? He gives up any name he knows."
3. False. Frederick began emailing his family about the situation at Abu Ghraib after he was arrested for his part in the torture. Those who thought otherwise may have been mislead by Seymour Hersh's original New Yorker piece on the event, in which Seymour told the story without using chronological order.
4. D. Although several early stories tried to paint them as untrained individuals thrust into a job they weren't prepared to do, Ivan Frederick (38 at the time) and Charles Graner (36 at the time) were prison guards.
Key quotes:
Frederick (original 60 Minutes story linked above): Frederick told us he will plead not guilty, claiming the way the Army was running the prison led to the abuse of prisoners.
"We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things...like rules and regulations," says Frederick. "And it just wasn't happening."
...He's a corrections officer at a Virginia prison, whose warden described Frederick to us as "one of the best."
Graner (link above): But public records indicate that Graner had troubles at work as a correctional officer in the state prison system in Greene County -- a history of disciplinary actions that culminated in his firing in 2000. He was later reinstated by an arbitrator.
A reporter who served with Graner previously: He said he was shocked to hear that Graner has been accused of mistreating prisoners, in part because of the training they and other guards received years ago. "It was drilled into our minds well before we left the continental U.S. what we were allowed to do, and not allowed to do, relative to the treatment of prisoners."
More Hersh: "Let me just say this. I believe the services have a -- look, the kids did bad things. But the notion that it's all just these kids [doing these things]... The officers are "in loco parentis" with these children. We send our children to war. And we have officers like that general, whose job is to be mother and father to these kids, to keep them out of trouble. The idea of watching these pictures, it's not only a failure of the kids, it's a failure of everybody in the command structure."
5. B. England was celebrating her 21st birthday with her boyfriend, Graner. Numerous early media versions of the story would quote her family members questioning why she was being used as a guard when that wasn't her job. (At the time it was a "not enough soldiers to do the job" story) England was in fact violating orders by being in the cell block. Later she would claim that her superiors had instructed her to pose and told her exactly what to do. If that's true, it was Frederick or Graner giving the "orders", but she never named names, or, if she did, it didn't "make the papers".
But England refused to give him up. In March 2003, she went with Graner and another soldier to Virginia Beach. During the trip, Graner took pictures of himself having anal sex with England. He also photographed her placing her nipple in the ear of the other soldier, who was passed out in a hotel room. Soon, it became their new game: Whenever Graner asked her to, England would strike a pose.6. False. The story first appeared in CNN in January, with a follow up in March, to include mentions of the photographic evidence. Without the sensational photos the story didn't get much attention."Everything they did, he took a picture of," says Hardy, her lawyer. "I asked Lynndie why she let him. She said, 'Guys like that. I just wanted to make him happy.' She was like a little plaything for him. The sexual stuff, the way he put her in those positions, that was his way of saying, 'Let's see what I can make you do.'"
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During that time, Graner instigated another kind of amusement: sexually charged weekly theme parties in the barracks. "Naked Chem-Light Tuesday," he called it. A Chem-Light is a light stick used by soldiers that's akin to a flashlight, containing hydrogen peroxide and a fluorescent dye packaged in a small plastic tube. Break it open, and the stuff glows for hours. One night, Graner pulled his shorts down, poured the contents of a Chem-Light onto his penis, and walked around naked.
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And pose for more pictures. In a supply room, Graner takes a shot of England performing oral sex. England adds a flourish for the photos: a thumbs-up sign. In another photo, England is standing near a detainee, Hayder Sabbar Abd, a 34-year-old taxi driver, as he is being made to simulate masturbation. Again, she gives a thumbs-up.
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They'd found a dead goat and a dead cat somewhere and started slicing them up. Someone took a photo of a soldier pretending to have sex with the goat's head. "Then they cut off the cat's head and shoved it on the top of a soda bottle," England says.
For several weeks, the decaying animal heads provided entertainment for the soldiers. "Someone put sunglasses on them, and put the rifle next to the heads and took a picture. Some soldiers put a cigarette in the cat's mouth," she says. The soldiers stashed the severed heads in their rooms."It was funny," England says. "So funny."
7. B. The Army began investigating as soon as a fellow guard reported the photos he had seen.
8. C. The known correct answer is "C" - Members of Frederick's family handed the photos to a 60 Minutes representative. The NY Times offers this quote from his uncle: "The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes," he said. "But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.'s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case." Ironically that may better describe the motive of the 60 Minutes crew.
The relationship between Hersh and Frederick's lawyer was certainly just an amazing coincidence.
If you'd heard this quote from during the time of the 60 Minutes / "Rathergate" story you might have been misled on this question: Ms. Mapes is also responsible for CBS's reporting on the Abu Ghraib pictures, a story she helped break. According to TV reporter Gail Shister, "The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by 60 II producer Mary Mapes." In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mapes described how hard she worked to find the incriminating pictures:
"We ended up chasing it, chasing it halfway around the world and back again. Trying not just to chase the rumors of it, but---but to find out what the reality of it. And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone, and we were able luckily to narrow that down and get our hands on the pictures which really gave us our first real hard proof that this was real."
9. A. The key quote from Taguba's Senate testimony: "We did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition and I believe that they collaborated with several MI (military intelligence) interrogators at the lower level." Follow the link to see the media spin on this one. The headlines screamed "Taguba blames Leadership for Prison Abuse".
10. C. Frederick entered a guilty plea at the start of his court martial. No evidence was presented, the story was not recorded. His lawyer was at his side as he called for all those other guilty parties to follow his example. He didn't clarify who he meant. After he was sentenced to eight years his lawyer called the sentence "excessive" and said he intended to appeal.
What was your score?
A discussion of torture is an ugly necessity in the world today, but those who would enter that discourse with the battle cry of "Abu Ghraib" should at least understand their position. It's a house of cards, ugly cards to be sure, and not a foundation for discussion with any intent of serious resolution.
2005-01-07 12:47:17
One thing overlooked in most coverage of Abu Ghraib - the answers are as important as the questions.
Gary Trudeau:
"Anyone who doesn't know generally what soldiers in Iraq are enduring is averting his eyes. It's available in real time in excruciating detail in a multitude of media - from CNN to milblogs. So both writer and audience today have a far more sophisticated understanding of the conflict."That's a quote from an Associated Press interview with the creator of Doonesbury. More:
AP: What is your daily media diet?Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires:Trudeau: About what you'd expect - New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today every morning. newsweeklies. Lots of Web surfing - Slate, Salon, milblogs - and cable news, primarily CNN.
Los blogs son ahora el instrumento que muchos soldados norteamericanos utilizan para contar sus experiencias en el frente de batalla en Irak. Para ellos, internet es una buena herramienta para difundir lo que les pasa sin que haya de por medio censura.In Santiago, Chile:Con el t�lo ?La guerra de Irak vista desde el frente?, el diario chileno El Mercurio da cuenta de que son m᳠de 200 los soldados que apelan a esta forma moderna de comunicaciPara ello utilizan lo que se conoce como milblogs, que se traduce en blogs militares.
Si en las guerras medievales las odas y cantos 鰩cos se encargaban de retratar las odiseas de sus h鲯es, hoy -en tiempos de la guerra de Irak y de Internet- esas hazadel campo de batalla se relatan a trav鳠del medio m᳠pop del momento: los blogs.Germany:Bajo el lema "libertad de expresiara aquellos que la hacen posible", m᳠de 200 soldados "postean" (escriben en sus blogs) desde sus computadoras laptops en "milblogs" (blogs militares), que se han convertido en el medio ideal para tener una visin "primera persona" de la guerra, y de paso, tratar de evitar la f鲲ea censura castrense.
Die Blogs der US-Soldaten aber zeichnen sich h䵦ig durch mehrere Eigenschaften aus: Sie sind hochaktuell und stammen direkt von aktiven Soldaten im Irak und in Afghanistan.Denmark:
Det 䲠inte bara journalisterna som bloggar fr宠Irak. "Milblogs", som skrivs av soldater i f䬴, sprider oro i Pentagon. Nyligen sl䰰te tv堵ppm䲫sammade milbloggare sina b?r med f?ahandsskildringar av kriget.The American GI has always been touted as an ambassador for his country - but now there's new meaning to the phrase.
(Ironically, most of the articles also detail the Army's efforts to regulate MilBloggers, proving yet again that there's no better way to create a tenfold increase in interest in what someone says than to attempt to place limits upon it.)
I got this from American Citizen Soldier.
I guess he wanted GI Joe watching his back.
The NY Times reports that Senator Carl Levin, (D-Mi) "vowed Tuesday to defeat President Bush's choice for chief Pentagon spokesman", J. Dorrance Smith.
Here's what the Senator finds unacceptable:
Mr. Smith, a former ABC News producer who has worked as an adviser in both Bush administrations, said in an article in The Wall Street Journal on April 25 that the Arab satellite news channel Al Jazeera operated on behalf of terrorists and that American networks aided them by televising Al Jazeera's videotape.The Times quotes Senator Levin as saying "As far as I'm concerned that is so far over the top, it's unacceptable.""Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Al Qaeda have a partner in Al Jazeera and, by extension, most networks in the U.S.," Mr. Smith wrote. "This partnership is a powerful tool for the terrorists in the war in Iraq."
"Al Jazeera," he added, "has very strong partners in the U.S. - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Video aired by Al Jazeera ends up on these networks, sometimes within minutes."
Right or wrong, it certainly won't endear you to the press. I confess that here at Mudville we had no idea that the Senate had advise and consent responsibilities in the selection process for DoD press handlers. But we certainly hope there's no truth to the rumor that the DoD may invoke something called "the nuclear option" to ensure Smith's approval.
As to qualifications, Mr. Smith spent nine months in Iraq as a media adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority. And you can read the full text of his WSJ article here, including the quotes above in their full context:
On April 11, Jeffrey Ake, an American, was taken hostage in Iraq. Video of him in captivity was shown on Al-Jazeera on April 13. A short time later six American networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC -- aired the same video, a vivid example of the ongoing relationship between terrorists, Al-Jazeera and the networks. Last week, Al-Jazeera showed video of a helicopter being shot, bursting into flames and trailing smoke as it fell to the ground. It also aired video of the lone survivor being forced to walk on a broken leg and then being shot by the terrorists, one of whom said, "We are applying God's law."Perhaps someone in Congress could look into it.As the war continues, more hostages will be taken and acts of murderous violence committed -- leading to more videos for Al-Jazeera and the networks. Isn't it time to scrutinize the relationship among Al-Jazeera, American networks and the terrorists? What role should the U.S. government be playing?
Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and al Qaeda have a partner in Al- Jazeera and, by extension, most networks in the U.S. This partnership is a powerful tool for the terrorists in the war in Iraq. Figures show that 77% of Iraqis cite TV as their main source of information; 15% cite newspapers. Current estimates are that close to 100% of Iraqis have access to satellite TV, 18% to cell phones, and 8% to the Internet. The battle for Iraqi hearts and minds is being fought over satellite TV. It is a battle today that we are losing badly.
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In addition to being subsidized by Qatar, Al-Jazeera has very strong partners in the U.S. -- ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Video aired by Al-Jazeera ends up on these networks, sometimes within minutes. The terrorists are aware of this access and use it -- as in the Ake case -- to further their aims. They want to reach the American audience and influence public opinion.The arrangement between the U.S. networks and Al-Jazeera raises questions of journalistic ethics. Do the U.S. networks know the terms of the relationship that Al-Jazeera has with the terrorists? Do they want to know?
Update: Chapomatic has more, including a link to an Army Times story that includes coverage of the hearing that the NY Times found unfit to print.
The Oct. 25 Senate confirmation hearing of the nominee to become the next senior Pentagon spokesman turned into a media brawl.Dorrance Smith, an Emmy-award winning television news producer who worked in Baghdad as a media adviser to former Ambassador Paul Bremer, is nominated to become the new Pentagon spokesman.
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But if Smith is to become the new voice of the Pentagon, at least one senator doesn?t like his tone.Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, took Smith to task for a piece he wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal in which he linked major U.S. television news networks with al-Jazeera, saying the U.S. networks occasionally shared video and other feeds initially aired by the Qatar-based network.
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?That?s a very serious allegation,? Levin said solemnly. ?Did you really mean that there is a relationship??Smith responded that he had learned a great deal about the way television networks operate during his stint in Baghdad and how footage used by al-Jazeera often can be picked up by U.S. networks.
It is a ?collaborative? relationship, said Smith, who has worked at ABC?s ?Nightline? and ?This Week with David Brinkley? in his 30-year television career.
?I think that?s a serious mischaracterization,? Levin continued. ?It suggests what your approach will be to information if you are confirmed in this position.?
That was when Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., jumped in. Inhofe, who volunteered that he has probably spent more time in Iraq than anyone on the committee, said he was rankled by a discussion he had with a field-grade officer in Iraq during one trip who told him that the media is distorting the picture of what is actually going on in Iraq.
Inhofe suggested that the war in Iraq is being fought on television and in newspapers as much as on the battlefield.
?More than half this battle is in the media,? he said. ?They are winning that battle, and we have to do something about it.?
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, presents A Kurdish Vision Of Iraq:
In recent weeks Iraq has passed three important milestones. The constitutional referendum on Oct. 15 was a powerful demonstration of Iraqis' desire to establish democracy and save a country still recovering from its disastrous history. Two days later the remains of 500 of my kinsmen were returned from a mass grave in southern Iraq for reburial in Iraqi Kurdistan. Another 7,500 of my kin are still missing after "disappearing" from a Baathist concentration camp in 1983 in the first phase of the genocidal Anfal campaign, which caused the death of 182,000 Kurdish civilians during the 1980s. Then, on Oct. 19, Saddam Hussein finally went on trial.Please read the whole thing - this is a voice that speaks for many that deserve to be heard, and too seldom are.None of this would have been possible without the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, an operation in which Kurds were proud partners. After the U.S. armed forces, our pesh merga was the second-largest member of the coalition. Today the security forces of Iraqi Kurdistan remain highly capable and reliable allies of the United States. By consistently working with the United States and reaching out to our fellow Iraqis, we have been at the heart of a political process based on equality and inclusion, on consensus and compromise.
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The restraint of the victims, the defiance of the millions who vote -- refusing to be drawn into the civil war fantasies of the terrorists -- vindicate the courage and vision of the United States and its coalition partners. Backing this fundamentally sound vision has been President Bush's moral understanding of the healing and dignity that democracy confers upon all men and women, an understanding that the Kurds share.The United States has never wavered in its quest to help Iraqis build a democracy that rewards compromise and consensus. The ever-generous American people have paid a tragic price, the lives of their finest men and women, to advance the banner of freedom and democracy, a sacrifice for which we are profoundly grateful. We all know that democracy is the only solution to political problems, the only method by which grievances can be addressed. In this war and for these principles, the Kurds are true friends of the United States.
For quite some time now milblogger (veteran - not active duty) Bill Roggio has been providing outstanding commentary and invaluable analysis of military operations in Iraq at his blog The Fourth Rail. His efforts have obviously received some notice, as his latest post makes clear.
In the coming weeks I will be taking part in an opportunity that, while not risk free, is more than I can pass up. To make it happen, I will need assistance and good fortune. I'd like your assistance in sending me to Iraq.Now would be a good time to hit Bill's tip jar - note that "unpaid leave of absence" above. This is an unprecedented event for the bogosphere - a blogger invited to cover the war. Let's make it happen.A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to visit and tour the operations environment I've been covering here for the last year. That invitation, from senior Marine officers with the Regimental Combat Team - 2, 2nd Marine Division, presents an opportunity for me to provide first hand reporting from Iraq, as well as to continue to provide context to the reports coming from other sources as I've done here at the Fourth Rail.
Current planning centers on leaving in mid-November, and I plan to be out of country for a month and in theater as long as possible. I will be taking an unpaid leave of absence from my current employment, and hopefully returning to find that I'm still employed. And I'll need lots of assistance to make this a reality. Foremost is a means to defer the significant cost of going.
Rofa Six points us to a disturbing quote from Stars and Stripes:
In one case last week, Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier called an Army lawyer at nearby FOB Warhorse to ask whether a man seen behaving suspiciously after curfew should be shot.Seems like arming the lawyers and posting them at the wall would be a big time saver.The sniper posted near the road retained radio contact with the commander through his platoon leader and tried to keep the suspicious man in his sites while the shot was approved.
The Army lawyer ultimately approved the shot, but the process took nearly 10 minutes and by that time the insurgent had disappeared from site.
Probably illegal though.
And here's a blast from the past.
Robert Kagan writing in The Washington Post reminds us of some pre-war headlines on Iraq and WMD. His list includes:
"Flight Tests Show Iraq Has Resumed a Missile Program" (July)
"U.S. Says Iraq Aided Production of Chemical Weapons in Sudan" (August)
"Iraqi Work Toward A-Bomb Reported." (September)
"Iraq Has Network of Outside Help on Arms, Experts Say" (November)
"Iraq Suspected of Secret Germ War Effort" (February)
"Signs of Iraqi Arms Buildup Bedevil U.S. Administration" (February)
From these one could make a compelling argument that the media willingly aided and abetted the Bush White House in building a case for invasion. But there's one problem, as Kagan notes. The headlines above all appeared between 1998 and 2000 - before Bush had even secured the Republican nomination.
As we've noted previously (see this examination of a rather obvious example from PBS) the current narrative of Iraq as post-9/11, WMD fear-fueled machination of the Bush administration is actually a post-invasion construct of a media heavily reliant on a public perceived as short on memory or low on attention span. Personally I don't think the public is so easily deceived, by the media or any administration, though perhaps a small percentage of that public who are willing to believe is all it takes to keep media types satisfied - with their circulation figures and their mercurial editorial positions.
Read it all. (Via Mrs G's indispensable Dawn Patrol.)
Here's a group that doesn't seem to have difficulty recruiting:
While most Iraqi women live in fear of terrorists and criminals, one small band of women has taken up arms and is prepared to fight back.And if you're wondering, the desire to serve one's country by running to the sound of the guns is not exclusive to any nationality or gender:Employed by a private security company, the women ride in the front passenger seat posing as ordinary housewives when the company's drivers transport customers around the city in nondescript vehicles.
But their firearms are always close at hand, and they are trained to respond with force if they come under attack.
"Before I got into this, I was like a normal female; when I heard bullets, I would hide," said Muna, a stocky young woman in a black T-shirt and black pants.The women's employer has discovered that armored and heavily-armed convoys may not be best for avoiding insurgent attacks. Instead, they've adopted a tactic of using nondescript vehicles, with women literally riding shotgun:"Now, I feel like a man. When I hear a bullet, I want to know where it came from," she said, sitting comfortably with an AK-47 assault rifle across her legs, red toenails poking out from a pair of stacked sandals. "Now I feel equal to my husband."
If the work provides personal fulfillment for Muna, her colleague Assal -- a divorced mother -- sees it as a cause.
"I have seen a lot of innocent people die," she said, staring out with intense black eyes. "We are trying to defend ourselves and defend each other. I am doing this for my country."
That impression, the companies find, is enhanced by the presence of a modestly dressed woman in the front seat next to the driver, appearing to be a housewife out for a drive with her husband.But the women are more than decoys, and insurgents foolish enough to try their luck may be in for a surprise:"We are a low-profile security convoy company. We do our best not to be discovered, and part of that is using women," said Mr. Karam, a veteran of the Lebanon civil war. "We never have been hit while they were with us."
"We train them all together, women and men. They are treated as equals," Mr. Karam said.The training includes how to respond to an ambush, an attack from an overpass and a situation in which a company client is surrounded and about to be killed or kidnapped.
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After several months of training, the women say they feel more self-confident and stronger. Although none ever dreamed she would be handling guns or jumping out of cars, now all want more training, especially firing range practice with the Baghdad guns of choice -- AK-47s and 9 mm pistols."I used to watch action movies when I was a kid, I loved them," laughed Xena, a conservative Muslim who chose her pseudonym from the film character, Xena the Warrior Princess. "My favorite actor is [Jean-Claude] Van Damme."
Meanwhile, back in the USA, some academics bemoan their inability to inspire opposition to Iraq:
The deaths of five Maryland soldiers this month did little to elicit protest against the war in Iraq, and even as U.S. military fatalities climbed near 2,000 last week, military experts say they expect no public outcry. Like the death in Iraq 13 months ago of the 1,000th American soldier, this next milestone will barely register with a public easily distracted, predicts former Marine Lou Cantori.Can't recruit? Blame the media.Cantori, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, likens the rising U.S. death toll to the ticking of a clock. It's so constant and familiar that eventually it goes unnoticed.
"American public opinion is the proverbial deer caught in the headlights as a [foreign] policy disaster bears down on it," said Cantori, who also taught at the U.S. Military Academy, the Air Force Academy and the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va. "The public is doing exactly what the president is asking them to do and what the Democratic Party is asking them to do -- to hang in there."
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"We looked at the market to see why people were joining the Guard," he explained. "The majority identified said they wanted to serve the greater good -- to be part of something bigger than themselves."But Cantori says no such rousing spirit can be found to oppose the war. To explain the apparent and collective indifference, he searched for the right word. "Stultification," he said, finally. "American public opinion is stultified."
David Segal, a military sociologist who heads the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization, blames the news media in part for the nation's collective slow pulse. Without daily front-page and primetime TV coverage, Americans are easily distracted by other events, he said.Given the lack of media coverage one can only wonder where exactly Segal heard about this "Iraq War" he describes in - (irony alert) - a newspaper. More despair over the good old days follows:
Also, missing from college campuses is any significant resistance to the war, said Cantori, who recently participated in a Middle East forum on the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University. Compared with the Vietnam War, when young people faced a military draft and marshaled thundering protests, campuses today are quiet, according to students and faculty at some of Maryland's largest schools.We'll let that comment stand on it's own merits.
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During the Middle East forum last month at Hopkins, co-sponsored by the student chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Muslim Students' Association, a panelist asked if students were optimistic about the direction Iraq was headed. Of the 50 or so students present that day in the Arellano Theater, the majority raised their hands, said Claire Edington, 21, president of Hopkins' ACLU student chapter."I was surprised, but I was also encouraged because most of the students there were Muslim," she said.
Cantori was sitting on the panel that day and couldn't believe "the naivete."
But as long as we're on the subject of naivete,
Hopkins graduate student Kevan Harris, spokesman for the Hopkins Anti-War Coalition, or HAWC, believes resistance, like the polls, is rising against the war. When peace activist Cindy Sheehan spoke at Hopkins' Shriver Hall last month, she attracted a crowd, and HAWC meetings have drawn new members, he said.Perhaps they could have done even better had the media given this Cindy Sheehan person some coverage.For a peace march in Washington four weeks ago, HAWC filled a bus with 40 students who paid $10 each for the trip.
"Last year we wouldn't have been able to fill up a car," Harris said. "By comparison of degrees, this year [students are] qualitatively less apathetic."
And since we're talking about travel, let's revisit the ladies from our first story - they've been to some of the most notorious areas in Iraq:
Their trips take them around Baghdad, as far north as Mosul and deep into the violent western province of Al Anbar.Choose your side.But always, before leaving, they take down a tiny red-bound Koran, remove the white tissue wrapping and turn to the passages that evoke protection.
"We pray together, we call each other to see if the other is safe," Muna said.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 80% of Utah National Guard troops intend to reenlist - a number similar to retention rates nationwide. Army and Air Guard members have served numerous deployments to the Middle East and elsewhere, and many of the Utah troops surveyed are now preparing for Iraq.
Utah has shouldered more than its share of mobilizations. Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the U.S., Utah led the nation when more than 80 percent of its forces were placed on alert or mobilized. Those early deployments have resulted in Utah Guard members serving more tours than their counterparts nationwide.I'd be remiss in not taking this opportunity to salute Utah Guard member Chief Wiggles - one of the earliest (if not the first) milblogger from Iraq. But as this article makes clear, there are many more like him at home.Nationally, of the nearly 500,000 Guard and reservists deployed since September 2001, only about 76,600 have been called up twice - and all but 2,200 of them volunteered for a second tour, according to the Pentagon. And nearly one-third of the volunteers - for both Guard and reserves - listed a Utah address.
And we'll let them explain their motivations - for staying in or getting out - in their own words.
From the 80% staying in:Time will tell if the stupidity is reduced.
"Age 55 Guard retirement."
"It's who I am; it's what I do."
"Camaraderie."
"Duty, honor, country."
"Fight the war."
"Full-time job."
"I'm an American and we are at war."
"I actually like my job."
"If not me, who will do it?"
"I love it!"
"It's the right thing to do."
"Lisa."
"Love for my country."
"Loyalty to country and retirement."
"Patriotism and paycheck."
"Protection of U.S. way of life."
"The country needs us."
"USA, brother!"
From the 20% getting out:
"1st Sgts. & platoon leaders."
"Don't care anymore."
"Family."
"Got another job."
"I want to be free."
"Lack of leadership."
"Medical insurance is very bad. They don't pay!!!"
"Nobody can get the pay right. Takes too long to fix."
"Not enough money or bonuses."
"Not worth the risk."
"Tired of higher rank bullheadedness and lower rank slothfulness."
Would anything make you change your mind and re-enlist?
"$50,000."
"A conflict that I believe in."
"Better training. Better leaders. Less inspections."
"Change leadership."
"Dream on!"
"Get rid of the stupids."
"Health benefits for guard members."
"Maybe if they paid me $1,000,000."
"No."
"None."
"Nope."
"If my wife said yes, but that will never happen."
"Promotion and big bonus."
"Reduce the stupidity."
"Retirement - same as full-time soldiers."
"There's not enough paper to list everything."
"Three years for $30,000 signing bonus."
"Truck load of cash."
"Two-rank promotion and a desk job."
"Yes, GI Bill extension, $25,000 re-enlistment bonus."
But the best quote of the piece comes from 1Lt Bruce Bishop, a Salt Lake County firefighter and Afghanistan veteran who's currently deployed to Louisiana. I can hear Dave Letterman introducing this one: The number one reason for staying in the Guard is:
..."because as I look around at the state of this nation and see all of the weak little pampered candy-asses that are whining about this or protesting that, I'd be afraid to leave the fate of this nation entirely up to them."
Update: A look at two organizations experiencing varying degrees of success at Iraq war recruiting here.
(Also see a recent discussion on recruiting here.)
A Turkish court has fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law that bans use of characters not in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said.The court in the southeastern city of Siirt fined each of the 20 people 100 new lira ($75.53) for holding up the placards, written in Kurdish, at the event last year. The letters Q and W do not exist in the Turkish alphabet.
Their "home field" at Keesler AFB, Mississippi was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Now the Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron - the "Hurricane Hunters" - have relocated to Georgia:
Light is one of about 30 members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron whose families are camping in rented rooms near Dobbins Air Reserve Base. As they continue to fly, their downtime is spent fighting with insurance adjusters. Like thousands of other Katrina evacuees, they are trying to get financial assistance for relocating from the Gulf Coast, and many wonder if they'll have homes to return to when hurricane season ends.There certainly hasn't been any shortage of missions post-Katrina. Background on the 53rd here.But despite his situation, Light has continued to fly into the eye of storms -- this week into Wilma, for a time the strongest ever recorded.
Sorry no Dawn Patrol today, working on techical issues.
So go visit Michael Yon , An excerpt of his latest dispatch appears in today's Weekly Standard, "All Quiet on the Baghdad Front" and the full length version "Purple Fingers" with more photos is now published on his blog. And in case you missed it, here's his latest interview: Pundit Review Radio.
So what are you waiting for?
Seems there's another problem with comments and trackbacks. We're clueless as to why, bare with us while investigate. Please try anyway so we know when it's up and working.
The purpose of the Open Post is (hopefully) obvious. Those with something to say can link their blogs here and those readers who are interested can follow those links to the source. This whole inter-linking thing is what the blogosphere is all about. Given that Mudville is a fairly large blog, we?re pleased to offer an opportunity to help the blogosphere grow - a goal we've been committed to for some time. Because our purpose has always been to send readers to other blogs, we've never been overly concerned with the few who game the system and create a trackback link here without actually including a link to this post in their respective post. This is, of course, a breech of blogosphere etiquette, but not one I previously felt was worth noting.
However, wiser folks have convinced me I was wrong. Those who do provide a link to this post actually send a few readers here too. Those readers in turn are likely to read something else in the open post. In other words, they keep the cycle going. Those who create trackbacks here without actually linking do not - but they aren't cheating Mudville as much as they are cheating the other folks who post here.
Not only that, but this post is designed to display only 21 trackbacks before the new ones start replacing the old - so there's a double foul - when someone freeloads they probably bump someone else off the list.
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Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey, in a letter to the Washington Post:
On Oct. 11 the Defense Department released its recruiting figures for fiscal 2005. Much attention has been given to the Army missing its goal of 80,000 recruits by 6,600. Despite some alarmist rhetoric, the Army is not in a recruiting crisis or considering a draft.A notable point - that 2 percent figure. Recruiting has been nearly steady-state for a decade over all branches of the military - we recently looked at facts and figures here. While one fact remains undeniable - the Army did fall short of it's raised recruiting goal this year - a corollary is false, that being "because of the war".To put this year's shortfall in perspective, the total of 73,400 people recruited is within 2 percent of the average recruitment each year for the past 10 years.
Although in fact, one group of recruits was undoubtedly deterred from joining for just that reason - those who enlist solely "for an education" or "for the benefits". No doubt that incentive is still weighed as a major factor by those considering a future in uniform in any branch of service, but 4 years of the war on terror has now eliminated any expectation that such benefit comes at no cost to those who choose it. Having seen much media coverage of those who decided to bolt at the first sound of the guns while admitting their motive for enlisting was only for personal gain, we can assume many such people exist. You can also take my word for it based on personal experience - I've met several over the past two decades. Now of course, they must find other avenues to achieve their goals.
The unappreciated fact is that based on the real numbers, any loss of such potential troops has been offset by a like number of new recruits who are willing to move towards the sound of the guns. I've met several of them over the past two decades too - and many more over the last four years. I prefer their company to that of the other sort.
It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."
An intriguing story from the AP:
Iraqi police on Wednesday arrested Saddam Hussein's nephew in Baghdad, charging that he served as the top financier of Iraq's rampant insurgency, senior Iraqi security officials said.If true that's good news for many reasons. Could the Syrians really have made this gesture? Quotes and claims from anonymous Iraqi officials frequently remain unverified.Yasir Sabhawi Ibrahim, son of Saddam's half brother Sabhawi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, was arrested in a Baghdad apartment, several days after Syrian authorities forced him to return to Iraq, the officials told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Cairo. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to deal with the media.
One of the officials, who works as a coordinator between Iraqi authorities and U.S. military intelligence, described the purported financier as the most dangerous man in the urgency. The other official, who is a senior member of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said the arrest was a serious blow to terrorist networks.
Both officials said Syrian authorities "pushed" Ibrahim into Iraq but did not hand him over to authorities.
The Syrians were aware of his whereabouts in Baghdad and informed U.S. authorities, who then passed the information to Iraq security forces who carried out a "fast, easy" raid on the fugitive's apartment, the Defense Ministry official said.
Nothing as yet from CENTCOM, although they do report another Zarqawi aid killed in Iraq.
Investigators chipped away at a glacier today that holds what they suspect are the remains of an airman killed on a training flight that crashed in the High Sierra more than 60 years ago.There are nearly 80,000 Americans classified as missing in action from WWII.Two climbers discovered the icebound body Sunday, with a nondeployed parachute strapped on its back bearing the stenciled word "Army."
"They just saw a portion of the body -- head, shoulder, and part of an arm -- coming out of a solid block of ice," said Jody Lyle, a spokeswoman for Kings Canyon National Park.
<...>
While the body may have laid in frozen silence for nearly 65 years, its discovery touched off a grim drill that occurs somewhere in the world with surprising frequency. The discoveries of remains of World War II veterans are reported to military authorities at least a dozen times yearly, authorities said.
Rep. K. Michael Conaway, (R, Tx.):
Just four days prior to the referendum vote, U.S. intelligence officials released a letter from Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's No. 2 operative, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the insurgency in Iraq. In the letter, al-Zawahri predicted that American forces "will exit soon" and he acknowledges that the war in Iraq will be won "in the battlefield of the media." Al-Zawahri's belief that the insurgency must improve its efforts in engaging in geo-political warfare proves that the battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqi's still goes on. It should come as no surprise that al Qaeda members in Iraq are now attempting to denounce the letter as a fake.A few words from Ralph Peters:The letter proves that the media war is a key aspect to their overall effort to thwart democracy in the Middle East. The 6,300-word document outlined the terrorist political campaign to defeat coalition troops in Iraq, not by traditional military victory, but by carefully plotting an offensive on American public opinion.
Their short-term objective is clear: The insurgency must succeed in defeating an emerging democratic Iraq by eliminating its current military protectors. The insurgents' plan is simple: Drag the fight on by continuing to murder innocent Americans and Iraqis until American public opinion has waned.
We'll soon reach a total of 2,000 dead American troops in Iraq. You won't miss the day it happens. The media will pound it into you.For a more scholarly view read Victor Davis Hanson's LA Times column:But no one will tell you what that number really means ? and what it doesn't.
Unable to convince the Bush administration or our troops to cut and run, the American left is waging its campaign of support for Islamist terror through our all-too-cooperative media. And you're the duck in the anti-war movement's shooting gallery.
Breathless anchors and voice-of-God columnists will suggest that 2,000 dead is an exorbitant price to pay in wartime, that reaching such a threshold means we've failed and that it's time to "support our troops and bring them home."
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If the American left and its media sympathizers want someone to blame for our combat losses, they should begin with themselves. Their irresponsible demands for troop withdrawals provide powerful encouragement to Muslim fanatics to keep on killing as many American service members as possible. On the worst days the terrorists suffer in Iraq, our "anti-war" fellow citizens keep the cause of Islamist fascism alive. Their support is worth far more to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi than any amount of Saudi money.It would be wonderful to live in a world in which war was never necessary. But we don't live in such a world. And there are no bloodless wars. We should honor every fallen American. But we also must recognize that, on this maddened earth, only the blood of patriots shed abroad allows us to live in safety here at home.
Study of the Peloponnesian War should also remind us that it is not assured that the wealthiest, most sophisticated and democratic state always triumphs over less impressive enemies. After all, Athens, for all its advantages, finally lost its war. And as Thucydides reminds us about the democratic empire's lapses, arrogance and major blunders, more often the chief culprit was its own infighting and internal discord than the prowess of its many enemies.And for a view from the top, General William Wallace's comments on departing Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for the Army Training and Doctrine Command are not to be missed:
As some may be aware, I served as the U.S. Army V Corps commander in the initial combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom and participated in the ground attack to Baghdad in 2003.Related post here.We faced challenges and endured sacrifices against a determined, resourceful, and capable enemy.
Now, terrorists and former regime loyalists are creating new challenges for both coalition forces and Iraqi authorities.
Yet, the world as a whole is a far safer and better place because of American and coalition commitment to removing the threat posed by Saddam?s regime and planting the seeds of democracy in the region.
Equally important, the Iraqi people have exercised their freedom, as evidenced by the January elections and the recent referendum on the Iraqi constitution. These elections, the first in more than 50 years in that country, never would have happened without boots on the ground ? the boots of U.S. Army soldiers and Marines.
Coalition forces emboldened the Iraqi people and created the conditions for polling places to be open and political freedom to be expressed.
It is the unmistakable charter of America?s military ? to provide opportunity to peoples around the world.
As I am sure most of you appreciate, the conflict we are engaged in is larger than Iraq, Afghanistan or the Middle East and it is more than a military problem. It requires strategic resolve on the part of the U.S. government and the understanding and commitment of the American people.
Washington Times reporter Andrew Salmon finds paradise north of the DMZ, and learns what Margaret Mitchell, Madeleine Albright, and Roger Clinton have in common:
Outside the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, where exhibits claim biological warfare and an illustration purportedly depicts an American missionary torturing a little boy with acid, there is little sign of the communist regime's notorious anti-Americanism.Margaret Mitchell?In downtown Pyongyang, only one anti-American poster, depicting a giant fist crushing a G.I., was visible. In the Arirang Mass Games, a theatrical extravaganza earlier this month, a sequence featuring agents defeating foreign intruders was reportedly deleted on the orders of leader Kim Jong-il.
Even so, in a nation comprehensively devastated by U.S. bombs during the 1950-53 Korean War, anti-American paranoia simmers.
Mr. Kim's "military first" policy implies insecurity in the face of American hostility. A foreign resident said that although economic activity and foreign trade have increased in recent years, there has been no apparent investment in infrastructure. Richard Ragan, head of the U.N. World Food Program in North Korea, estimated that 13 percent of its discretionary spending goes to the military.
The journalists' minder, Choe Jong-hun, conceded that there were "some" good Americans, such as Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone with the Wind"; former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; and Roger Clinton, half-brother of the former president. The latter two had both visited Pyongyang.
But spouting North Korean invective, he referred to Americans as "evil Americans." All problems, such as the famines of the mid-1990s ("evil Americans' blockade") and the slow process of North-South engagement ("evil Americans' interference") were laid at Washington's door.
After explaining that he had lost seven family members during the Korean War, Mr. Choe, 50, described how his mother's 3-year-old sister was hurled into a burning ruin by U.S. troops.
"Who could do that?" he asked rhetorically.
"They are monsters," he spat.
It's not mentioned in the story, but the Korean war began when the North launched an invasion of the South, catching both the South Koreans and their American allies completely unprepared for war.
This David Ignatius column from the Washington Post last year is also worth reading.
Excerpt:
Coverage of the Korean Peninsula has been an especially delicate issue. The paper's stance has been aggressively anti-Pyongyang. But the church has embraced a conciliatory line, including investment in North Korea. Moon has bankrolled Pyonghwa Motors, which plans to produce cars in the North, along with a hotel, a park and a church there. A senior church official, Ahn Ho Yeol, told a South Korean newspaper last year: "It is our principle to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula by promoting mutual prosperity." Again, that's a dovish sentiment you won't often read in the Times.
An Air Force Academy graduate on Tuesday offered to drop his lawsuit against the Air Force over religious intolerance if the service bans proselytizing and evangelism.Meanwhile:The offer from Mikey Weinstein, who graduated in 1977 and has sent two sons to the school, is being studied by the Air Force. He said the offer would allow chaplains to minister to those who seek them out, but it would order them to leave others alone.
Weinstein said he offered the settlement, which differs little from the aims of the lawsuit he filed this month, to save the Air Force from embarrassment in the courtroom.
Lawmakers yesterday said Christian chaplains throughout the branches of the military are being restricted in how they can pray, and President Bush should step in to protect religious freedom.Meanwhile, at Annapolis:"We're giving the president an opportunity to use the Constitution to guarantee the First Amendment rights of our chaplains," said Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican.
<...>
The lawmakers said chaplains of all faiths should be able to pray as they wish, since diversity is the very reason the military hired them in the first place."Chaplains ought to be able to pray based on who they are," said Rep. Mike McIntyre, North Carolina Democrat. "Otherwise, it's hypocrisy."
<...>
"We're seeing the same pattern ... and it's a pattern of hostility to freedom of speech," said Rep. Todd Akin, Missouri Republican. "The chaplains have complained, and it's been increasing and more widespread and not only limited to the Air Force."
<...>
Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd said that branch's chaplains may speak freely if they are addressing a service of their specific faith, but in general military assemblies or services they should take a more general approach."They call for a slightly different approach," she said of general gatherings. "The Army wants chaplains to show respect for all faiths."
But Mr. Jones said it's not fair that any chaplain -- Christian, Muslim or otherwise -- should have to speak in such a way as to mask his beliefs. Mr. Jones' letter asks Mr. Bush to issue an executive order allowing all military chaplains to pray according to their faiths.
The U.S. Naval Academy has told gay rights activists that they might be arrested if they go ahead with a planned noontime rally tomorrow to protest the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
<...>
"While the Naval Academy supports and defends every citizen's right to freedom of speech, we also have an obligation to ensure our mission and activities are free from disruption," Cmdr. Rod Gibbons, an academy spokesman, said in a statement.
<...>
The threat of arrest has forced Equality Ride organizers to reevaluate their plans. A group of about 60 students, most of them from the Washington area, intended to meet at the academy's main gate, at Randall and King George avenues, for an 11:30 a.m. news conference.From there, group members planned to march onto the grounds, eat lunch and talk to midshipmen about the effects of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
(Update/bump from 2005-10-19 20:49:31)
THE SPANISH JUDGE who is leading the judicial investigation of the death of Jose Couso, the Spanish TV cameraman killed in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, has finally issued an international arrest warrant against the 3 US tank crewmembers who were in the tank that allegedly shot the shell.Read it all.
Previous Mudville entries on this topic include an in-depth look at the event itself (including an interview with reporter Jules Crittenden, who was there) and an initial report on the judge's antics here.
Update: Jules Crittenden comments in the Boston Herald's story on the arrest warrants .
My own brief hiatus found me away from the keyboard when Sgt Hook ended his extended absence from the blogosphere. I'm not the first to say it, but welcome back, Hook!
For those who are new to the neighborhood, Hook was one of the earliest milbloggers - a plank owner in the first platoon. He's been sorely missed.
From our great friends at Soldier's Angels:
Soldiers? Angels Need Your HelpBelieve it or not, the deadline for sending gifts to Iraq from the US is approaching - and now is the time to move from planning to action. Last year in Iraq every GI in my camp received a Christmas gift due to the efforts of these good folks. Please help all you can.Pasadena, CA. October 12, 2005 -- The Holiday Season is not far away and thousands of America?s bravest men and women who are standing watch over our freedom will not be home to share this special time of year with their families and friends. Sadly, there are many other deployed soldiers who have no family to send them a package or even a card at this most special time of year. Many wounded will be celebrating in hospitals.
Soldiers? Angels, an all-volunteer non-profit organization that provides support to deployed soldiers and wounded soldiers as well as their families, is hard at work on their annual Holidays For Heroes stocking drive, where stockings stuffed with small but welcomed items are sent to soldiers who are deployed in the Middle East combat areas and hospital units.
Cash donations are needed to purchase supplies as well as to help with shipping the stockings to the Middle East. Also needed are Holiday Stockings (homemade with special decorations and messages are wonderful, store bought is also great) as well as the little presents to stuff inside such as:
- Individual packets of hot chocolate, cider or hot soup mix?
- Candy (bite sized, individually wrapped, all kinds)
- AT&T; Phone Cards (asking for this brand because it works in the Middle East area)
- Hand held games (playing cards, battery games with batteries, please)
- Small puzzle books
- Miniature Menorah
- Small, signed Holiday cards from you and your families simply addressed to ?Soldier? or ?Hero?. Homemade Cards are Welcome! Be sure to enclose your name and address.
This is the perfect project for a church, school, club, business, family or for any group to get involved and to participate!
Tax deductible cash donations to Soldiers? Angels, a 501 ( c) (3) organization, can be made by going to the Soldiers? Angels website at www.soldiersangels.org and clicking on the ?Donations? button to donate using Paypal or by sending a check to:
Soldiers? Angels, 1792 E. Washington Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91104
Please make checks payable to Soldiers? Angels and make a notation that the check is for the Holiday Spirit For Heroes fund.
For drop-off locations or questions, please contact:
Becky Morton - rpmorton375@yahoo.com
Jamie Hedman ? harleyprncs0130@yahoo.com
Judi Burns ? prteam@gmail.com
No doubt most readers here are aware that Saddam Hussein's trial began (albeit briefly) today. Accused of a long list of atrocities, fewer probably know the specifics of the current charges. The LA Times has details:
Once a torrent of water coursed through this central Iraq town, which takes its name from Nahr Dujayl, the Little Tigris River that for centuries nourished its lush palm groves and orchards.Read the whole thing, of course. Much interesting background information.Now, only raw sewage flows through open gutters along the city's unpaved alleyways.
Inside a mud-brick home, an old man chokes back tears as he recalls his three sons. They were killed, prosecutors say, as a result of then-President Saddam Hussein's vengeful fury following a 1982 assassination attempt.
"One by one, my sons were taken from me," said Ali Hossein Mussawi, a 68-year-old onetime farmer. His humble living room is filled with fading photographs of the three young men. "Saddam took away my sons, he took away half of my heart."
Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated regime unleashed a wave of retaliation within hours of the July 8, 1982, attack in the Shiite-majority city, Iraqi officials, prosecutors and witnesses say. At least 148 were rounded up and executed, an Iraqi prosecutor said. Some estimate three times that many were killed. Prosecutors allege that almost 400 men, women and even children were in custody for years.
The small river running through the town, which gave it life and prosperity, was cut off, plowed over and eventually turned into an asphalt road. The date palm groves and gardens where residents earned their livelihoods were bulldozed or left unwatered until they died too, according to prosecutors and townspeople.
While reading, consider the people of Iraq. Used as cannon fodder in a lengthy war with Iran or slaughtered for opposing their own government. Forced to march into Kuwait then punished economically by the world after the defeat in that war. Murdered by the thousands by their own government for over a decade and finally invaded and occupied. Now as Baathist remnants continue their slaughter of their political opponents and foreign fighters slip across the border to add to that death toll the people go to the polls to vote on their future.
Rebuilding this devastated nation will be a project of many years. Most of the world and half of the population of the US are missing in action from the effort, if not in outright opposition in word or deed.
As for the trial itself, perhaps no event will reveal as much about the heights and depths to which those who support or oppose this effort are willing to rise or fall.
The New York Times, for instance, leads with this:
But what should be a moment of triumph for his victims is instead stirring concern about the fairness and competence of the court itself.And offers a litany of reasons they consider the as-yet unheld trial to be a failure. No word on the qualifications of the stenographer or the comfort of the press gallery seating, but future entries will no doubt tell the tale.
There are those who will find themselves agreeing with the Times - and they should carefully examine their motives. The thin veneer of a call for "legitimacy" offers cover, but it's the implicit claim of illegitimacy of the current system in Iraq that nourishes their hunger to dismiss the effort. That is their right, of course, as witnesses to history - a luxury the participants seldom enjoy. Even mere bystanders in these historic times can speak out without fear of repercussion - and can do so with or without the obligatory disclaimer that the accused is, of course, guilty - dismissed immediately with the requisite "but...".
They can say what they will, for as long as the 'less talk more action' crowd are inclined to protect them from the Saddam Husseins of this world.
Anne Applebaum's op-ed in the Washington Post offers a welcome dose of reason:
The rhetoric was soaring, the goals were grand, the ideals were large. And yet, by the standards of modern human rights and international law, the International Military Tribunal that tried and sentenced the Nazi leadership in Nuremberg should have been a failure.She's found the signal in the noise, of course. Read it all.From the start, the trials were clearly "victor's justice." Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union created the court with no real German or other "international" involvement. They called their ground rules a charter, not a law, to duck the question of the court's dubious legality. The list of defendants, limited to 20, was hardly comprehensive. At one point, Soviet prosecutors accused the Nazis of massacring some 20,000 Polish officers in 1940, a crime their government knew perfectly well the Soviet Union itself had carried out.
Yet Nuremberg was, in retrospect, a huge success, and as the trial of Saddam Hussein begins today in Baghdad, it is worth remembering why. If it achieved nothing else, Nuremberg laid out for the German people, and for the world, the true nature of the Nazi system.
Odd that the Post identifies this as an opinion piece, while the Times claims theirs is news.
Sorry Having difficulties with the computer, Sorry, no pics but link away
We are taking a couple days off to celebrate our 21st Wedding Anniversay. Some of you may remember that last year, Greyhawk was in Baghdad during our 20th, so we're making up for lost time ;-)
As an American in Germany, please allow me to be first to say "Don't let the screen door hit ya*"
See also this.
And this.
And this.
Home sweet home.
By the way, I love it here. Most Germans, like most folks everywhere, are wonderful people. As supporting evidence, note the election results.
PS:
*German homes don't have screen doors.
No picture, just a few words.
The purpose of the Open Post is (hopefully) obvious. Those with something to say can link their blogs here and those readers who are interested can follow those links to the source. This whole inter-linking thing is what the blogosphere is all about. Given that Mudville is a fairly large blog, we?re pleased to offer an opportunity to help the blogosphere grow - a goal we've been committed to for some time. Because our purpose has always been to send readers to other blogs, we've never been overly concerned with the few who game the system and create a trackback link here without actually including a link to this post in their respective post. This is, of course, a breech of blogosphere etiquette, but not one I previously felt was worth noting.
However, wiser folks have convinced me I was wrong. Those who do provide a link to this post actually send a few readers here too. Those readers in turn are likely to read something else in the open post. In other words, they keep the cycle going. Those who create trackbacks here without actually linking do not - but they aren't cheating Mudville as much as they are cheating the other folks who post here.
Not only that, but this post is designed to display only 21 trackbacks before the new ones start replacing the old - so there's a double foul - when someone freeloads they probably bump someone else off the list.
So henceforth that's a red card offense - and any post that doesn't actually include a link to the open post will be deleted. Any repeat offenders will likely be banned permanently.
This is no problem for the vast majority of folks who link here. For the remaining few, please feel free to play by the rules henceforth. Your fellow bloggers will appreciate it.
Have at it gang, Mudville is yours.
(Part one of this series is here)
II - A Desert War in Shades of Grey
PBS has created a portal, a compilation of their Frontline reports on Iraq. A goldmine of information, with interviews, video, transcripts, and more.
Just looking at the overview of the series provides interesting insight onto how the media narrative of the Iraq war has evolved with time.
Originally broadcast on October 9th, 2003, Truth, War, and Consequences is a good place to start. Here's the description from the site:
FRONTLINE traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following September 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war.An especially interesting line, that tracing the roots to September 11 bit. The previous episode detailed just below it offers an odd juxtaposition.
The Long Road to War originally aired on March 17, 2003 - just as the shooting war in Iraq began again. From the PBS description:
With the U.S. apparently within days of attacking Iraq, FRONTLINE draws on its 12 years of reporting on Iraq to chronicle the key moments in the history of America's ongoing confrontation with Saddam Hussein.So, an ongoing confrontation stretching back 12 years becomes (seven months later) something whose "roots" can only be traced back to September 11, 2001 - a day that apparently inspired Don Rumsfeld to cook up some sort of excuse to invade.
Those of us who've worn the uniform over all those years know September 11 was but another of many turns in an extremely serpentine road. We watched the news coverage of the parades of troops returning home back in '91 too - and then we proceeded to rotate in and out of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other points nearby to maintain an uneasy "ceasefire" for the next dozen years. Our seemingly eternal military presence in Saudi - mostly Air Force enforcing the southern part of the "no fly zone" - was a significant factor in Osama Bin Laden's determination to bring death and destruction to the US that fateful day. Though ultimately (perhaps obviously) untenable, the world was happy with that status quo. And as the Iraqi people suffered and died - from starvation or poison gas or other methods to be discussed more fully in a certain upcoming trial - a few opportunists from many lands made fortunes on something we now know was (perhaps inevitably) corrupt - Oil For Food (even more trials to come). Still, from time to time over those dozen years we'd get a quick headline after launching a missile in response to Saddam's violation of UN regulations, and the world went on its merry way.
Yes, September 11 was one of countless events on the road to finishing our unfinished business in Iraq. Being "the" event along that path is a construct of the post-war media, as PBS rather unexpectedly demonstrates for us in quite dramatic fashion.
Everyone has a right to change their mind, of course. But those damn pesky facts just never want to change...
III - A Desert War in Fading Color
In the post-Vietnam era there was a nickname for the war in Korea - "the forgotten war". Just after the horrible glory of WWII and prior to the pure horror of Vietnam, the conflict ended with a ceasefire and no clear victor - a situation that persists - five decades later. The forgotten war indeed.
Now, in order for the Iraq was a result of overreaction to 9/11 narrative to work it's important that we forget another war. Desert Storm has practically vanished from our national memory - and certainly from any discussion of the current situation in Iraq. As noted above, it "ended" with a 12-year ceasefire, enforced with GIs on the line. As noted above, we as a nation are perfectly willing to allow such things to go for decades - we can be quite comfortable with that, as long as we aren't reminded too often of the situation. As noted above, Osama Bin Laden felt we needed reminding. It wasn't just our threat to Iraq that offended him so - it was our presence on the ground in Saudi that fueled his hostility - among many reasons equally inexplicable to those not afflicted with blind adherence to an orthodoxy of hate.
Oddly enough I was in Korea during Desert Storm - the one location from which troops weren't pulled for duty in the desert. And I well recall the abrupt end of the conflict, and from my perspective there near the 38th parallel I could see a bit of the future too. We're never going to leave... I predicted - another short tour opportunity created for yours truly some fine day. Yes, I was a cynic back in those days...
PBS' Frontline series offers a look back at that newly forgotten war too. The Gulf War was first broadcast in 1996. (When was the last time you even heard a reference to "the Gulf War"? Use the term today and it's likely that few would know what you mean.)
Look into the oral history section and you'll find a name you might recognize. It's none other than Rick Atkinson, author of An Army at Dawn
Asked by a PBS interviewer "what were Saddam's miscalculations?" Atkinson responds that they were legion:
Sadam made many strategic miscalculations. He failed to recognize that the world was awash with oil. That Iraqi oil was not critical to the functioning of the Western democracies. There was plenty of oil.He didn't realize that we didn't need his damn oil? Hard to imagine that being mentioned in the context of the current situation in Iraq, eh?
In fact, check out this quote from a recently published book on the latest invasion, from a reporter who was embedded with the 101st Airborne. He describes the Forward Area Refueling Points (FARPs) set up to refuel helicopters advancing ever northward through the desert:
With stupefying obtuseness, the military had named the FARPs for oil companies, despite Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's insistence that the invasion of a country with 112 billion barrels of confirmed reserves had "nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil".And explains the motivation of U.S. Soldiers:
But most soldiers evinced a cool detachment toward their potential Iraqi adversaries. Certainly no hate lodged in their bones. Many had an inchoate conviction that this deployment was somehow linked to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, a delusion encouraged by the nation's political leadership. Long before 9/11, however, the Army had become an expeditionary force that careered among global hot spots. If they were modern legionnaires, these soldiers nevertheless thought of themselves as defenders of a secular faith embracing sundry liberties and entitlements, including many that were noble, and others - such as the daily consumption of more than 25 percent of the world's oil supply by only 5 percent of the world's population - that were less so.Seems diametrically opposed to Rick Atkinson's views that the world didn't need Iraq's oil - until you check the name of the author. It's none other than Rick Atkinson, from his latest book, In the Company of Soldiers
, his telling of the tale of the invasion of Iraq.
Everyone has a right to change their mind, of course. We'll guess he gained some sort of enlightenment somewhere between 1996 and 2004.
More to follow. In the meantime, I haven't changed my mind. Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943
Two years of blogging for Lex. We're not going to let such a thing pass without notice. He's the real deal, the sort of GI about whom movies are made, though I'm sure he'd rather not read such flattery. It's not really a compliment anyway, such things are not what we in uniform strive for. But for two years those in the know have benefitted from the view from on high he serves up routinely on his blog.
On high? Maybe I mean 30,000 feet above a rolling carrier that looks a lot like a kid's toy from up there. Maybe I'm referring to the place of honor he'd hold at the head table of any Milblogger's Ball (not to mention the parking spot), should such a thing ever come to pass.
He's a commanding guy, after all. And by that I might mean the way he commands the language, which, after all, is the another good reason to visit his blog.
If you've been before, tell him congrats. If not, you've got two years of great stuff to catch up on.
Start now, sez I.
Many were quick to applaud the Senate's overwhelming endorsement of the Army's approach to handling the interrogation and treatment of prisoners last week - others were even quicker to mis-characterize it as something else entirely. A more worthwhile conversation begins here.
Update: And let's also take a moment to examine the actual words of Senator John McCain on the topic
This amendment would establish the Army Field Manual as the standard for interrogation of all detainees held in DOD custody. The Manual has been developed by the Executive Branch for its own uses, and a new edition, written to take into account the needs of the war on terror and with a new classified annex, is due to be issued soon. My amendment would not set the Field Manual in stone ? it could be changed at any time.As far as punts go, that's about a 20-yarder.
Greetings from Germany! Here's your German language lesson for the day: in most cases when you see two vowels together in a German word, the second is pronounced. Thus Rhein Main Air Base is pronounced RINE MINE - each word one syllable, and each with what we in English call a long "i" sound.
But go ahead and pronounce it the way it looks; after all, generations of American GIs did. And although that's not the reason for it, the most frequently mispronounced US military installation in the world was returned to Germany this past week. Stars and Stripes reports on the end of an era:
RHEIN-MAIN AIR BASE, Germany ? As it flew overhead, the mighty metal bird wiggled its wings, a fitting final salute for a place known for lifting spirits near and far.With the closing, Spangdahlem Air Base becomes the US military's cargo hub in Germany, while Ramstein Air Base becomes the waypoint for travelers to and from the European and CENTCOM areas of operation. (Side note: I've seen the new Ramstein Pax terminal - it's great. WiFi in the USO lounge, big screen TV with amazing seats, and also this.)The U.S. ceremoniously returned Rhein-Main Air Base to Germany on Monday, an event that drew military veterans, well-heeled politicians and hundreds of other well-wishers. The Air Force still needs to pack out a few items, but by early December the keys to the base should be in German hands.
?Hey, it?s fine with me,? Dr. Earl Moore, president of the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association, said in reference to the changes. ?That?s progress.?
An interesting timeline of aviation history at Rhein-Main here. (It begins in 1785!!)
Austin Bay notes the passage here.
Soldier's Angels in Germany, also mark the occasion.
As the headline above this story reminds us, Rhein-Main (located in Frankfort) played a key role in the Berlin Airlift, as allies worked furiously to supply citizens of West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked overland delivery of food and other essential material from reaching the then-East German city.
Which partly explains the symbolism of the wiggle wings gesture described above. Among the many other heroes of the airlift was C-54 pilot USAF Colonel Gail Halvorsen of Provo, Utah.
One of the many American pilots to fly the USAF C-54 Skymaster during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 ("Operation Vittles") was Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen of Provo, Utah. During the operation he became known as the "Candy Bomber" because he repeatedly dropped candy to German children from his aircraft on approach to the runways.And here he is today:
The idea grew out of a chance meeting between Halvorsen and several German school children at the perimeter fence of Tempelhof Airport. While waiting for his aircraft to be unloaded one day he decided to walk to the end of the runway and photograph other C-54s making their landing approach to the runway, a tricky descent over several buildings outside the Tempelhof grounds. While standing at the barbed wire fence he struck up a conversation with the German children gathered outside to watch the giant airplanes land. The hungry children asked if Halvorsen had any gum or candy, and he eagerly gave them two pieces of gum that he happened to be carrying in his pocket. He promised to bring them more gum and candy on his next flight into the airport, saying that he would drop it to them as he passed over them while landing. When asked how they would known which of the huge airplanes was his, he said he would "wiggle his wings" as he approached their position.
True to his word, on his next mission to Tempelhof Airport, on final approach to the runway Halvorsen "wiggled his wings" and had the Flight Engineer push three bundles of sweets through the flare chute on the C-54 flightdeck. (Halvorsen had gathered the candy by talking other pilots into donating their Candy Ration Cards to the effort.) The three small parcels floated down on tiny, homemade handkerchief parachutes, but Halvorsen could not see whether the children caught the packages due to the business of landing. Later, as he taxied the empty C-54 to the end of the runway to depart the airfield, he looked to the crowd of children at the fence. Three white handkerchiefs waved back at him enthusiastically!
Over the next few weeks Halvorsen repeated the airdrops to an ever-growing audience of German children at the fence. Soon he even began to receive letters at the airport, addressed simply to "Uncle Wiggly Wings -- Tempelhof," requesting special airdrops at other locations within the city! Local newspapers picked up the story and his fame began to spread. Back at his home base Halvorsen began to receive mail from other pilots who wanted to help. Candy was donated, handkerchief parachutes were made by volunteers, and the tiny parcels began to fall all over Berlin.
On a brief trip back to the United States Halvorsen was asked by an interviewer what he needed to continue his popular "Candy Bomber" operation. He jokingly remarked "boxcars full of candy!" Sure enough, shortly after his return to Germany a traincar loaded with 3,000 pounds of chocolate bars arrived for "Uncle Wiggly Wings." Thousands of pounds of candy continued to arrive from the United States to support the airdrops. Other pilots volunteered to drop the packages of sweets across the city. After several letters were received from East Berlin "Uncle Wiggly Wings" even made a few drops to school yards there, angering Soviet officials for the "attempted subversion of young minds." When asked about it Halvorsen commented "kids are kids everywhere." He even mailed packages of candy to disappointed children who wrote to say they had never been able to reach the "sweet gifts from the sky" before others got all the loot. No one was to be missed by Utah's "Candy Bomber."
And here's what he was doing on the 50th anniversary of the airlift in 1999:Gail Halvorsen, 84, gives a thumb up in front of a U.S. Airforce C17 Globemaster aircraft named 'Spirit of Rhein-Main' during the symbolic closure ceremony honoring US Rhein-Main Airbase in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, Oct. 10, 2005. Halvorsen was a 'raisin bomber' pilot, flying food from Frankfurt to blockaded Berlin in 1945, in Germany after World War II and now lives in Spanish Fork, Utah. A hub of U.S. military activity for decades, Rhein-Main is being given back to Germany and its logistical functions taken over by bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)
From the Berlin Airlift, 50 years ago, to Operation Shining Hope, the Candy Bomber still delivers.Years later Colonel Halvorsen's efforts would inspire another Utah GI. Chief Warrant Officer Paul Holton as (aka "Chief Wiggles" - one of the first milbloggers in Iraq) launched Operation Give, bringing donated toys and other items from Americans to the children of Iraq. A real grassroots product of the blogosphere, the effort gained national attention and was ultimately praised by President Bush.One man's kind gesture at the end of World War II blossomed into a major operation with one mission -- to airdrop candy to the children of war-torn Berlin.
For the Candy Bomber, retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, the legacy continues.
Halvorsen, one of the Berlin Airlift's most famous figures and the impetus behind Operation "Little Vittles," visited Albania Tuesday to make yet another delivery to the Kosovar Albanian refugees fleeing Serb oppression in Kosovo.
The Candy Bomber made the 4 1/2-hour trek to Tirana aboard a C-130 transport plane from Ramstein's 37th Airlift Squadron. While there, he saw similarities between the nearly 600 U.S. servicemembers supporting humanitarian operations and the airmen who did the same for West Berlin in 1948.
"I saw the same spark in the folks here today. It's reflected in the crews and the ground folks," Halvorsen said. "I was impressed with their professionalism, how they went about their tasks and worked together as a team."
Chief Holton, an Army interrogator, has published a book detailing his time in Iraq. You can get a copy here.
Almost missed this story from SOUTHCOM
USSOUTHCOM deploys disaster response team to Guatemala DORAL, Fl. ? U.S. Southern Command deployed a 58-person disaster response team from Joint Task Force-Bravo in Honduras to Guatemala City Oct. 8 to assist with ongoing disaster relief efforts in the southwestern region of the country.The team, consisting of medical and logistics personnel, will conduct search and rescue operations and emergency supply movements using UH-60 and CH-47 helicopters as soon as weather conditions improve.
Torrential rainfalls in the region over the last week have generated mudslides and landslides affecting hundreds of citizens and isolating entire communities in the vicinity of Lake Atitlᮮ
As part of its mission, JTF-Bravo, based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, conducts and supports humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations throughout the Central American region.
The military's Northern Command is developing a proposal to organize a specially trained and equipped active-duty force that could respond quickly to assist relief efforts in the event of overwhelming natural disasters, like major hurricanes, floods or earthquakes.Developing, as they say.
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The force under consideration would keep hundreds of soldiers standing by on short notice to assist National Guard soldiers. The new unit could include military communications technicians, logistics specialists, doctors and nurses, engineers and even infantry.
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The idea has not yet been presented to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld or to the military's Joint Staff. It was described in an interview by Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of the Northern Command, which is in charge of the military's response to threats on American soil.
From CENTCOM:
FIRST U.S. HUMANITARIAN AIRLIFT REACHES ISLAMABADMore photos here.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ? A United States Air Force C-17 delivered the first relief supplies here within 48 hours of the devastating earthquake that has left thousands dead and thousands more injured and displaced.
The aircraft and its crew from the 7th Airlift Squadron, McChord Air Force Base, Wash., delivered 12 pallets -- weighing almost 90,000 pounds -- of food, water, medicine and blankets from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.
With only a few hours notice, Airmen and soldiers at Bagram, successfully worked to palletize the humanitarian relief supplies and prepare them for the flight. Three aerial port specialists were also on the flight to coordinate and manage the cargo once it arrived at Islamabad.
?This was a total team effort,? said Col. Mike Isherwood, 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Vice Commander. ?Our hearts go out to all those affected by the earthquake and we are thankful we were able to help out.?
Pakistan Army Brig. Gen. Imtiaz Sherazi, director of logistics, is coordinating the relief efforts as supplies arrive and ensuring rapid distribution of assistance to areas that need it most.
Said General Sherazi, ?These items are very valuable to us because there are lots of people in great distress.?
As relief efforts are ongoing worldwide, United States Central Command will continue to identify and provide additional capabilities for airborne reconnaissance, heavy lift ground equipment, medical support, shelters, rations and water to aid and assist the people of Pakistan.
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan ? The first relief supplies from the United States ready for departure aboard here on a U.S. Air Force C-17 less than 48 hours after the devastating earthquake that left thousands dead and thousands more injured. The C-17 and its crew from the 7th Airlift Squadron, McChord Air Force Base, Wash., delivered 12 pallets -- weighing almost 90,000 pounds -- of food, water, medicine and blankets from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Two aerial port specialists from Bagram's 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron were also on the flight to coordinate and manage cargo at Islamabad. Airmen and soldiers at Bagram, with only a few hours notice, worked feverishly to palletize the supplies and prepare them for the flight. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. James H. Cunningham)
Also:
COALITION SENDS HELICOPTER SUPPORT TO ASSIST PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE RECOVERYUS Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "Today, I will designate a dedicated Task Force commander in the region to work with the affected governments, to help assess their needs, and to draw on U.S. military capabilities from inside or outside the affected region as may be available and required."KABUL , Afghanistan ? At the request of the Pakistan Government, Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan will send U.S. Army helicopters and support personnel to assist with emergency recovery operations due to the earthquake in Pakistan
Following Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice?s statement of support for relief, recovery and rescue operations, five CH-47 Chinook helicopters and three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters with their associated crews should arrive Monday. They will provide rescue, recovery and logistics assistance.
CFC-A is in contact with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to provide planning assistance and technical guidance as required.
This support will not degrade the Coalition?s operations in the Global War on Terror
...in Georgia? Early details here.
Update: And UCLA.
From the LA Times:
It's hard to think of a more graphic illustration of the horror the U.S.-led coalition is fighting in Iraq than the mass murder on Sept. 26, in which terrorists disguised as policemen (a New York Times headline called these butchers "fighters") burst into a primary school in Iskandaria, south of Baghdad, seized five teachers (all Shiites) and shot them dead. Children stood weeping through this atrocity.Hard to think of a more graphic illustration? Perhaps not.
A suicide bomber in an explosives-laden SUV killed at least 27, including an American soldier, late this morning in the deadliest insurgent attack in more than two months.Another example from the same link:
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Many, if not most of the dead were children loitering and playing near U.S. soldiers at an impromptu checkpoint in Baghdad al-Jadida, a lower-middle class residential district populated by Shiites, Sunnis and Christians.
Iraq's interior minister said Monday that insurgents used a handicapped child as one of the suicide bombers who launched attacks on election day.And yet another incident from the same roundup:Falah al-Naqib told reporters in Baghdad that 38 attacks were carried out on polling stations in Iraq on Sunday and that one of the suicide bombings was carried out by a disabled child.
"A handicapped child was used to carry out a suicide attack on a polling site," al-Naqib said. "This is an indication of what horrific actions they are carrying out."
Iraqi health officials said 35 of the 42 fatalities from Thursday's blasts were children.Try this disturbing passage from Pamela Hess' report from Iraq:
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At the morgue, stunned mothers and fathers left with only body parts to take home and bury.
In all that time, as far as I knew, I was never in immediate danger. There was a grenade thrown once, ineffectually, at the back of a Warrior I was in. On one Blackhawk ride near Mosul machine gunners fired on men scrambling on the ground with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. In Fallujah I saw a single improvised explosive device explode, but from a safe distance. And I watched a car bomb burn at a police check point in Tall 'Afar, the explosion killing no one but the people inside the car -- a man, a woman and two young children.No additional details on that car bomb are provided.
Perhaps there's an explanation here:
A suicide bomber captured before he could blow himself up in a Shiite mosque late last week claimed he was kidnapped, beaten and drugged by insurgents who forced him to take on the mission. The U.S. military on Sunday said its medical tests indicated he was telling the truth.Which brings to mind this story from last January:In a confession broadcast on state television Friday, Mohammed Ali, who claimed to be Saudi-born, said he was kidnapped and coerced to agree to the mission. He said he fled after another suicide attacker killed at least 12 worshipers Friday at a mosque in the northern city of Tuz Khormato.
Results from medical tests on the young man were "consistent with his story and characterization of his treatment," Col. Billy Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman said.
His head and hands were wrapped in bandages and his uncovered face looked like bubbled tar.Perhaps this is all the explanation needed:
The young Saudi man told investigators this month that he wants revenge against the Iraqi terrorist network that sent him on the deadly mission that he survived.Ahmed Abdullah al-Shaya, 18, told Iraqi investigators during an interrogation early this month that he was recruited to drive a car rigged with explosives to Baghdad and blow it up.
He said the objective was ?to kill the Americans, policemen, national guards and the American collaborators.?
But Shaya said he was injured even before he went on the mission when insurgents detonated a truck bomb he was supposed to leave at a target site.
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?They asked me to take the truck near a concrete block barrier before turning to the right and leaving it there,? he says. ?There, somebody will pick up the truck from you,? they told him.?But they blew me up in the truck,? he says.
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Ahmed's truck bomb killed nine people, including a family of seven in their house nearby.
In the Syrian countryside north of Aleppo where Abu Ibrahim grew up and married, his fundamentalist impulses took their present shape when he met "a group of young men through my wife's family who spoke to me the true words of Islam. They told me Sufism was forbidden and the Shiites are infidels."Which Zarqawi explains here:
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Abu Ibrahim credited Zarqawi with revitalizing the insurgency, especially since October, when he pledged fealty to Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader. Abu Ibrahim said that union helped cement an alliance among several resistance groups in Iraq that formed a joint treasury."Six months ago, Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden were different," he said. "Osama did not consider the killing of Shiites as legitimate. Zarqawi did that. Anyone -- Christian, Jew, Sunni, Shiites -- whoever cooperates with the Americans can be killed. It's a holy war."
Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq said in an audio tape dated October 7 that the militants under the principles of Islam have what justifies killing civilian infidels.I suppose that whether or not any of the above examples are more graphic than the slaughter of teachers in front of their students is up to the individual reader, but whatever your thoughts on the topic I do think you should read the rest of that Times column here.The audio tape thought to be by Zarqawi?s voice was published on website believed to be owned by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and it his speech, Zarqawi said that Islam doesn?t distinguish between people on the basis of civilian vs. military but on the basis of Muslim vs. kaffir (infidel) and that ?an infidel?s blood should be spilled regardless of his occupation or position unless he had a treaty or a promise of peace?.
Then finish with these words of wisdom from Iraqi blogger Alaa.
Via reader email (thanks Bob!) we're tipped to an outstanding work by Pamela Hess, UPI's Pentagon Correspondent. Having spent nine weeks embedded with U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq she now offers a must-read critique of media coverage. Regarding "good news" vs "bad news" from Iraq, I agree completely with this observation:
There should only be true stories, accurately told.Indeed. That's simple enough - those that would complicate it do so at risk of their own credibility.
Take a look at Mike Yon's latest from Mosul - there's nothing sugar-coated about his dispatches - and I can't help but compare and contrast his photos and stories of the Iraqi police with the fraudulent reports and staged photos and videos from terrorists recently foisted on the public by the BBC, Reuters, and the AP. Reports like those do little to help the media regain credibility in the wake of their absolute failure with hurricane Katrina. Truth and accuracy seem to be slipping ever downward on the media list of things that matter.
But as the emailer who sent us the link to the first story above noted, it's important to support this type of reporting from Iraq. In fact, we've noticed an upturn in "good news" - or perhaps it's a downturn in the bad - over the past several weeks.
I - A Desert War in Black and White
An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943
September 1, 1939, was the first day of a war that would last for 2,174 days, and it brought the first dead in a war that would claim an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every 3 seconds.A war for which the US was not prepared. The book describes an Army at something less than what we now call level 1, but one we well know was able to ultimately achieve that status, albeit at great and painful cost:
Jeremiads derided the nation's martial potential. A Gallup Poll of October 1940 found a prevailing view of American youth as "a flabby, pacifistic, yellow, cynical, discouraged, and leftist lot"... Time magazine reported on the eve of Pearl Harbor that soldiers were booing newsreel shots of Roosevelt and General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, while cheering outspoken isolationists.Arguments were put forth that mounted cavalry would still be the most effective fighting force:Equipment and weaponry were pathetic. Soldiers trained with drainpipes for antitank guns, stovepipes for mortar tubes, and brooms for rifles. Money was short, and little guns were cheaper than big ones; no guns were cheapest of all.
"The idea of huge armies rolling along roads at a fast pace is a dream," Cavalry Journal warned in 1940, even after the German blitzkrieg signaled the arrival of mechanized warfare. "Oil and tires cannot like forage be obtained locally." The Army's cavalry chief assured Congress in 1941 that four well-spaced horsemen could charge half a mile across an open field to destroy an enemy machine-gun nest without sustaining a scratch... The last Regular Army cavalry regiment would slaughter its mounts to feed the starving garrison on Bataan in the Philippines, ending the cavalry era not with a bang but with a dinner bell.Although combat had been ongoing in the Pacific, it was late October 1942 - nearly 11 months after Pearl Harbor - before an allied invasion fleet set sail for North Africa, and America's first real confrontation with Hitler's Wehrmacht:
As the hour of departure grew near, anarchy ruled the docks. Sometimes Patton contributed to the disorder. On one especially hellish morning his quartermasters changed the loading plan six times between eight and nine A.M.One example of such was the acquisition and outfitting of the proper ships for the mission:More usually however, Patton, [Navy Rear Admiral Henry] Hewitt, and their lieutenants demonstrated the inventive resolve that would characterize the American way of war for the duration.
No less dramatic was the saga of the S.S. Contessa. The War Department for weeks had sought a shallow-draft ship capable of navigating a dozen miles up a serpentine Moroccan river to the Port Lyautey airfield, one of Patton's prime objectives. A worldwide search turned up the Contessa, a salt-caked, rust-stained scow that drew just over 17 feet and had spent most of her undistinguished career hauling bananas and coconuts from the Caribbean. She was ordered to Newport News. There the skipper, Captain William H. John, a thick-browed Briton with an untended mustache and a long, saggy face, learned he was to load more than a thousand tons of bombs, depth charges, and high-octane aviation fuel for a destination to be named later. The crew promptly jumped ship.Fortunately, most of the 34,000+ GIs converging on the area did not require armed guards. Still......Captain John and a Navy Reserve lieutenant named A.V. Leslie then headed for the Norfolk jail, which state corrections officials recently had identified as the most squalid lockup in all Virginia. John and Leslie interviewed fifty inmates. Many were bibulous seamen, said to be "bleary-eyed and unsteady on their pins," but game for a voyage described only as high-paying, dangerous, and far from any Norfolk cellblock. Fifteen men were chosen and their sentences commuted. Navy guards with riot guns escorted them to the Contessa.
Military policemen patrolled the tracks and bus stations to watch for deserters. The Army in the past six months had charged more than 2,600 soldiers with desertion and convicted 90 percent of them. Indiscipline also plagued units that had been staging in southeast Virginia for weeks. So many men were sentenced to the crowded brig at Solomon's Island in Chesapeake Bay during amphibious training that there was a waiting list to serve time; on October 3 alone, thirty men had been court-martialed for various infractions.In spite of the obstacles, in late October Task Force 34 set sail, launching Operation Torch. The rest, as they say, is history.
The idea that victory was inevitable is one that only arose years later - nothing tangible about the world of 1942 supports the theory. But by late that year the sleeping giant was awake, and America's ability to produce material and soldiers coupled with an overwhelming desire to win led ultimately to victory. "Americans love a winner", Patton said, and of the Army described above he said this: "We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do".
If Americans love a winner they love a victorious underdog even more. And as should be obvious, the US Army of 1942 was not the odds-on favorite. But as another blunt leader once stated, you go to war with the army you have. So in late October of that year America's sons began the long march to the Rhine.
The cost to the world of that unprepared underdog's long march to victory was noted at the beginning of this post; 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every 3 seconds.
(Part two is here.)
Postscript:
For those interested, Amazon currently offers An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy
My copy of Colby Buzzell's My War: Killing Time in Iraq
Specialist Van T. is with the Army National Guard, and has created the blog Camp Katrina, with lots of stories and pics from Operation Vigilant Relief. Don't miss it.
Haider Ajina, an American of Iraqi heritage, writes from California:
Greetings,
The following is a headline and article in the October 6 edition of the Iraqi Arab newspaper "Al-Mendhar".
Ayatollah Hussein Al Sadr (Iraqi Shiite Reference): Politicization of Religion diminishes its Sacredness
Baghdad ? Ayatollah Hussein Ismael Al Sadr, Iraqi Shiite reference, has called to refrain from the politization of religion. He confirmed, "The role of religion is guidance and enlightenment for the purpose of maintaining its sacredness."
He condemned the presence of armed militias (such as Mehdi Army etc....) in Iraq "as they weaken the role of the state and terminate the existence of law."
In an interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat at his office, which includes four bookshelves, abundant in cultural books, [We have witnessed them, by chance, and there might be other bookshelves at his house in the city of Al Kazimiyah (north of Baghdad), which we did not have a chance to see. They contain books on several religious issues; sects and religions, and scientific and literary topics]. The religious reference pointed out, "Religion plays the role of direction, enlightenment, and offering advice. It should not be dragged into the political process, as this diminishes its sacredness. Religion should not be politicized."
Al Sadr confirmed the existence of Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs. He said, "At present, the Iraqi arena is open for everyone, including Iran and many foreign parties that seek for establishing their existence in Iraq, mainly because of the open borders, and the available state of freedom. I believe that several neighboring countries have presence in Iraq. The terrorists that arrive from Arab countries represent the presence of these countries in Iraq."
Ayatollah Hussein Al Sadr refused to respond to a question on whether the extremist Shiite clergyman, Muqtada Al Sadr (son of Mohamed Sadeq Al Sadr) is the heir of the Sadri Trend and whether his supporters are followers of this trend, or not?
Ayatollah Hussein Al Sadr confirmed that he is against the presence of armed militias in Iraq. He said, "We certainly are against the presence of militias in the country. On the contrary, we are in favor of the existence of a strong state that stresses the significance of the law."
The Shiite reference denied the occurrence of a civil war in Iraq. He said, "Whoever bets on the civil war actually desires that a civil war takes place in Iraq, while the reality is contrary to that. I am witnessing the Iraqi reality with all its forms and variations. I believe that there are no indications for a civil war, or the like. We have held continuous meetings with our sons and dear ones of Shiaas, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, Sabaens, and Yezidis. They all stress the unity on Iraq and its safety, and that Iraq should remain united. Nevertheless, there have always been extremists in the community, who attempt to ignite sectarian, racial and religious sedition. We can get over such sedition with the efforts of the honest people in Iraq. A few days ago, I had meetings with many Sunni clan chiefs. I called for a covenant of honor among Iraqi clans that prescribes that no clan attacks another and no members of a certain clan attack members of another clan. We are seeking for expanding such covenant to include the other Shiite clans."
Ayatollah Al Sadr stressed the importance of the role of clergymen of all sects in standing against terrorism in Iraq. He said, "Religious references and scholars have a great effect in the Iraqi community, as religion is a deep-rooted issue in the community. A reference or clergyman, regardless of his religion or sect, should have a great effect and establish a sound cultural structure, in addition to standing against all devious trends that desire to distort Islam and the divine messages. Clergymen should direct humans to respect humanity, first of all. The Quran says, 'We have honored human beings' and 'if anyone slew a person, unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.' This means that human beings have been honored and their murder is prohibited, regardless of their religion, race, or sect. This honor has been granted on behalf of Allah to Man for his humanity, first of all."
Al Sadr has called for activating a Fatwa (religious opinion), which was issued on behalf of a Sunni clergyman. Al Sadr said, "More than a year ago, we have called for issuing a Fatwa that prohibits terrorism and murder. We have issued a Fatwa that was signed by me, in addition to a top Sunni scholar (Professor Sheikh Abdel Qader Al Ani) and a top Christian priest. This Fatwa should have been activated but the circumstances have hindered its execution. We are currently working on launching an organization for humanitarian dialogue for supporting brotherhood, love, and peace among Iraqi constituents, with all their religions, sects and races. We are holding many meetings in this regard with clan chiefs, and Sunni and Shiite scholars."
Haider's comments,
This type of separation of religion and politics is a strong school of thought amongst Iraqi Shiites. A very large majority of Iraqi Shiites understand and believe in separating religion from politics. Iranian & Lebanese (Hisbullah) Shiites however have a strong belief that religion should shape & control politics. We hear very little about Muslim leaders who have the courage to condemn terrorism and the killing of humans. While a number of them do voice their condemnation the media gives them little attention. Those who misrepresent and distort Islam get much more media attention.
Regards
Haider Ajina
Much will be written about the Senate's passage of a measure codifying standards for the treatment of detainees by the US military. (For a news report on the topic, see the Washington Post story here. For blog coverage see Instapundit here.)
Before this story becomes inevitably convoluted (or "FUBAR", as we say in the military) I thought I'd present a few facts, sans opinion on the issue. As I've noted before on other topics, public discourse should start with an informed public.
The measure was passed as an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act (S.Amdt. 1977 to H.R. 2863 (Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006 )). You can read the text of the amendment here.
Or here:
SA 1977. Mr. MCCAIN (for himself, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HAGEL, Mr. SMITH, and Ms. COLLINS) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 2863, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:Regarding "No person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation." - the referenced document is Army Field Manual 34-52, Intelligence Interrogation. You can view a pdf file here, of an html version here.
At the appropriate place, insert the following:SEC. __. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PERSONS UNDER THE DETENTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.
(a) IN GENERAL.--No person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.
(b) APPLICABILITY.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to with respect to any person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense pursuant to a criminal law or immigration law of the United States.
(c) CONSTRUCTION.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the rights under the United States Constitution of any person in the custody or under the physical jurisdiction of the United States.
SEC. __. PROHIBITION ON CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS UNDER CUSTODY OR CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.
(a) In General.--No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
(b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.
(c) Limitation on Supersedure.--The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section.
(d) Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Defined.--In this section, the term ``cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment'' means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.
A brief excerpt:
PROHIBITION AGAINST USE OF FORCEInteresting that in responding to claims that the Army has failed to provide guidance to soldiers the Senate has endorsed the published Army guidance to soldiers as the definitive response.
The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults, or exposure to unpleasant and inhumane treatment of any kind is prohibited by law and is neither authorized nor. condoned by the US Government. Experience indicates that the use of force is not necessary to gain the cooperation of sources for interrogation. Therefore, the use of force is a poor technique, as it yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear. However, the use of force is not to be confused with psychological ploys, verbal trickery, or other nonviolent and noncoercive ruses used by the interrogator in questioning hesitant or uncooperative sources.The psychological techniques and principles outlined should neither be confused with, nor construed to be synonymous with, unauthorized techniques such as brainwashing, mental torture, or any other form of mental coercion to include drugs. These techniques and principles are intended to serve as guides in obtaining the willing cooperation of a source. The absence of threats in interrogation is intentional, as their enforcement and use normally constitute violations of international law and may result in prosecution under the UCMJ.
Additionally, the inability to carry out a threat of violence or force renders an interrogator ineffective should the source challenge the threat. Consequently, from both legal and moral viewpoints, the restrictions established by international law, agreements, and customs render threats of force, violence, and deprivation useless as interrogation techniques.
In other early media coverage, both the AP and Knight-Ridder have defined the measure as "a rebuke to the White House."
A DoD note on variation from FM 34-52 here. Explicit departures were authorized here. Beatings and other severe punishments were never authorized.
We're really just getting back from vacation here - meaning tons of emails and other business to attend to. If you've sent one this way lately, we'll answer ASAP.
Lot's of folks awaiting entry into the MilBlogs Ring too. You haven't been forgotten, we've just been on break. You'll hear from us soon. (Approaching 400 members, never thought it would be so many.)
The stories we hear from Iraq are mostly the tales of combat and death, told without the context of the changing world in which they occur. Why do we fight? Is progress being made? Away from the combat, other stories answer the questions, and they're beginning to be told:
Iraqi Charter Gains Wide BackingUSA Today:Support high even in Sunni areas, poll finds
By Andrew Quinn, Reuters News Agency
BAGHDAD -- Recent polling shows widespread support for a new Iraqi constitution to be voted on Oct. 15, even in strongholds of Sunni Arab groups that are fighting to derail the charter.
Mehdi Hafedh, director of the Iraqi Center for Development and International Dialogue, said his latest survey showed that Iraqis are exhausted by the continuing violence and that most are hoping the new constitution will be a first step toward the restoration of order.
"The Iraqi people want to finalize the political process as soon as possible. ... They want to establish a normal government and institutions," Mr. Hafedh said yesterday, adding: "Iraqis want this situation to end. It is untenable."
The poll of 3,625 Iraqis, conducted Sept. 14 to 19, showed 79 percent in favor of the draft constitution and 8 percent opposed. The remainder did not respond.
A high percentage of respondents said they intended to vote and that the level of violence likely would be reduced after the referendum.
Army To Return Saddam Palace Complex To IraqFlight International looks briefly at the rebuilding of the Iraqi Air Force:Former regime compound "belongs to the people of Tikrit'
TIKRIT, Iraq - The U.S. Army is returning Saddam Hussein's most elaborate presidential complex, a sprawling network of 136 buildings overlooking the Tigris River here, to Iraq's government.
It is the largest transfer yet in a delayed effort to reduce the profile of U.S. forces by moving them out of Saddam's palaces and former government buildings.
"It belongs to the nation, and it belongs to the people of Tikrit," said Iraqi Col. Hammed al-Jubori, whose troops train on an island that's part of the massive compound in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
U.S. forces occupied palaces and other Saddam regime compounds after the invasion in spring 2003. Last year, Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. military commander in the region, told subordinates to start returning the palaces because the presence of American troops on symbolically important sites was an irritant to the Iraqi people.
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During Saddam's regime, most citizens were barred from the walled compound.Now, "maybe our families will have a chance to go and visit," al-Jubori said.
US Strives To Resurrect Iraq's Broken Air ForceAnd Tom Friedman joins the US Navy in Iraq:The Iraqi air force's once-formidable regional air power has been crumbled by two Gulf wars, with its fighter inventory in particular having been decimated. Many fighters were destroyed on the ground or in the air by coalition forces, while more advanced types, such as its MiG-29s, were flown to Iran to seek shelter. Tehran is unlikely to respond to a request for their return.
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Planning staff at South Carolina-based Central Air Forces Command are now assessing what the Iraqi air force needs to develop a more robust - yet still limited - portfolio of counter-insurgency, airlift and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
Sinbad Vs. The MermaidsNo one ever said it would be easy.Aboard U.S.S. Chosin
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Mustapha Ahansal is a Moroccan-American sailor who acts as the Chosin's Arabic translator when it boards ships in the gulf to look for pirates or terrorists. "The first time I boarded a boat," he told me, "we had six or seven people - one Hispanic, one black person, a white person, maybe a woman in our unit. Their sailors said to me, 'I thought all Americans were white.' Then one of them asked me, 'Are you in the military?' ... It shocks them actually. They never knew that such a world actually exists, because they have their own problems. I was talking to one of their higher-ups in their Coast Guard and he said: 'It is amazing how you guys can be so many religions, ethnic groups... and still make this thing work and be the best in the world. And here we are fighting north and south, and we are all cousins and brothers.' "The other thing that hits you on the Chosin is that many officers are women - so you hear women's voices all day long giving orders over the ship's loudspeaker and radio. And because the local Arab fishermen also hear this chatter, many of them probably think the Chosin is an all-female ship! The 110-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monomoy, alongside the Chosin, has a female deputy captain, who often leads the landing parties that inspect boats in the gulf; one of the Navy's fast patrol boats, also alongside the Chosin, had a female captain. "Being a female boarding officer is a huge asset because they are so curious they want to talk to us more, so we can learn more things," said Renya Hernandez, the 24-year-old female exec officer of the Monomoy.
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In trying to bring some democracy to Iraq, we are not just challenging the dictatorial-tribal political order here, but the male-dominated culture as well. In effect, we are promoting two revolutions at once: Jefferson versus Saddam and Sinbad versus the Little Mermaids - who turn out to be captains of ships. Succeeding in this venture, to stem the drift of the Arab world toward Islamo-fascism and autocracy, is so much more important than the war critics have ever allowed.
From time to time I point this out to my troops, if they express discouragement or wonder aloud about those at home who oppose us in our endeavors: "We're making history, they're making noise".
Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech on citizenship at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910. There's an oft-quoted passage in that speech, and I've included it in it's slightly broader context here.
As the country grows, its people, who have won success in so many lines, turn back to try to recover the possessions of the mind and the spirit, which perforce their fathers threw aside in order better to wage the first rough battles for the continent their children inherit. The leaders of thought and of action grope their way forward to a new life, realizing, sometimes dimly, sometimes clear-sightedly, that the life of material gain, whether for a nation or an individual, is of value only as a foundation, only as there is added to it the uplift that comes from devotion to loftier ideals.Read it all..
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Today I shall speak to you on the subject of individual citizenship, the one subject of vital importance to you, my hearers, and to me and my countrymen, because you and we a great citizens of great democratic republics. A democratic republic such as ours - an effort to realize its full sense government by, of, and for the people - represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught with great responsibilities alike for good and evil. The success or republics like yours and like ours means the glory, and our failure of despair, of mankind; and for you and for us the question of the quality of the individual citizen is supreme.
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Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twister pride in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The role is easy; there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier."
Haider Ajina, an American of Iraqi heritage, writes from California:
Greetings,
The following is my translation of a headline and article in the October 4th edition of two Iraqi Arab newspapers ?Al-Mada & Sotaliraq? & in the Pan Arab newspaper ?Asharq Alawsat?. While the translation is from the ?Sotaliraq? paper the other two had the identical information with some more details.
"Iraqi Army officially receives responsibility for security in Baghdad"
"Iraq?s army sixth brigade received yesterday the responsibility for security of Baghdad from the multi national forces. This took place in an official ceremony in Baghdad Almuthena airport. General Daham Radhi Alaasal who represented the defense minister and a number of high-ranking officers from both militaries attended the ceremonies. Brigadier General Mahmood Mohamed Alshimery, commander of the sixth brigade, (which is responsible for the protection of Baghdad) said that his forces have received responsibility for security in the Kerch & Rasafeh boroughs of central Baghdad and will receive the suburbs in the near future. Alshimery added that the brigade has prepared a cohesive plan for the security of Baghdad. This is done by permanent check pints, daily and continuous foot & mechanized patrols. This hand over facilitates the gradual withdrawal of the multinational forces from Baghdad".
Haider's comments:
Here we have it. The security of most of Baghdad is being handed over to the Iraqi forces (whom we trained I might add). This is a very big step forward for the Iraqis and us. This is progress of monumental proportions since only 30 moths ago Saddam was still terrorizing the Iraqis, their neighbors and the region. Now let us see if we read, or hear anything about this in our media, and if we do will they call it a symbolic gesture? Or what it actually is, progress.
The following is my translation of a headline and article in the October 3rd edition of the Iraqi Arab newspaper ?Alsabah Algadeed?.
?Iraq arrests four terrorist one if which is an ?Amire? (commander) in ?Ansar Alsunnah?
The Iraqi army was able to free a personal guard who was kidnapped and held for a $300,000 ransom. While freeing the guard one of his kidnapper was killed. Major Ayad Al-Kanani spokes person for the Sixth Company; first brigade, said that the personal guard was freed as a result of locals tipping off the Iraqi Army. He added that the personal guard was working for FPS when he was kidnapped over a month a go; he was imprisoned shackled and tortured while he was held.
In Kurdistan a police patrol in Machmoore west of Arbile, arrested four terrorist suspects one of whom carried the title of ?Amire? (commander) of the terrorist group Ansar Alsunnah. They were arrested in the villages of Domeh Adries & Azizah Abdeh near Machmoore. This same police unit was bale to confiscate a large cash of weapons and ammunition and items used to make explosives such as TNT. This cash was in position of the terrorist suspects when they were arrested.
Iraqi special police units killed one terrorist and arrested another in Hai Aljamiaah area while they were abandoning a black Chevy Caprice. Three more terrorists were arrested in Mosul after being pursued. In Felujah Iraqi security arrested, after tips from citizens and surveillance, a terrorist suspected of recruiting civilians to work with him.
Haider's comments:
This is further evidence that Iraqi average citizens, in Felujah & Mosul (former terrorist hotbeds and strong Sunni cities) are joining the rest of Iraq in defeating terror. They obviously have confidence in the Iraqi security forces since they turn to them to fight the terrorists.
Why do they have confidence in the Iraqi security forces? Because they are capable, well trained and respect the rule of law.
Who trained these forces? We did.
Is this progress? I believe so.
The following is my translation of a headline and article in the October 3rd edition of the Iraqi Arab newspaper ?Almowaten?
?Iraq?s Aljaafary says it is time to be proactive instead of reactive in dealing with terror".
?Iraqi Prime minister Dr. Ibrahiem Aljaafary threatened any who are involved in terror with swift and strong punishment. He added:?Any area which defies the peaceful political process will be dealt with, just as we did with Telaafar. With strength determination and audacity, with no hesitation or differentiation between any Iraqi cities.
?The prime minister added that the government has transformed itself from being reactive to being proactive in its dealings with terror. The government will pursue and hunt terrorists. He added that he hoped that the Iraqi people will vote for the constitution to cut the road for those who seek to derail the political process in Iraq. He described the Iraqi constitution (even with its minor adjustments) as a mirror of Iraq reflecting the rights of all its minorities and personifies them. ?That in it self is a great achievement,? he said.?
Haider's comments:
The Iraqi government is taking the fight to the terrorist. Telaafar was a good example and other cities are next. Our training and logistical backing of the Iraqi security forces is allowing the Iraqis to take steps towards taking charge of their own security. Evidence of this is daily. We have handed over security of two provinces and plan to hand over 5 more to the Iraqis. We have given the prison management back to the Iraqis etc?. These are many steps forward and in the right direction for Iraq?s democratic political process. We are seeing four steps forward and one step back. Not two forward and three back as most of our media put it.
I do not understand why most of our media is so defeatist about our and the Iraqis progress in Iraq. Iraq?s progress in the last 30 months is phenomenal and far exceeds any progress of any other country after such brutal dictatorship and robbery of its national resources and treasures as was done by the Baathists in the last 30 plus years.
Regards
Haider Ajina
Last but not least - in fact most important of all my posts, is this one. I've posted here several times in the past few weeks regarding the support of our troops. If I've interested you in getting involved personally, here are some links, advice and tips on how to do just that. Support of our troops is so important, and certainly not difficult. For those of you with limited budgets never fear - letters are the most effective means of support and only cost 37 cents. For those of you with bigger budgets there are many soldiers who would love a carepackage with that letter. Here are some tips on letter writing and sending packages if you'd like to get started:
Whether you want to send a letter along with your carepackage, or just want to send a letter by itself, it helps to know just what you might say. The last time most of us wrote to a complete stranger like a pen pal type thing was perhaps 3rd grade. It helps to keep in mind what you intend with your letter. If you are hoping they might write back you'll have a slightly different letter than if you just want to drop a letter in with your carepackage to say who it's from. So here's a few ideas of what to write in a letter to a soldier.
Introduce yourself. Tell them a little about yourself such as your age, name (even though you're putting your name at the bottom of the letter still put it up at the top when you introduce yourself), where you are from, kids, pets, job...whatever you'd like to share. At least then through the rest of the letter they can have a visual image of who is writing to them.
Add a few words of encouragement and support. This doesn't mean you have to get all sappy - unless you are good at it. I'm not. I usually only have 1-2 sentences thanking them for their sacrifice and service. I tell them I am not good at being serious so that's the best I can do. I have had several soldiers tell me they appreciated that more than the 'supportive and encouraging' letters they received. One soldier even went so far as to say it was more encouraging than the other letters. He liked it.
Next - pretend you are writing to a close friend, and make the rest of your letter the same as you would write to a good friend. Ignore the fact that you just introduced yourself in the paragraphs above. Write about your good or bad day, what you did last week, what your kids are up to...your sick dog. Whatever. Include a joke someone told you that was funny if you have one.
Last, ask a few questions if you like. I usually say first something like, "I know you are busy but if you have time to write and would like to send me a letter I'd love to hear from you, whatever you'd like to tell or feel comfortable sharing." Then I ask them a few questions such as where they are from, what their job is, how they like it, whether or not they need anything or would like something sent to them, and I ask when their birthday is so I can send them a card and present for their birthday.
What should you put in the carepackage? That depends on a few things. Where they are, their gender, their access to electricity and voltage, and their needs or wants. There are many great places to find a list of ideas for carepackages, along with links to cheaper places to find the items or stores that give discounts if the item is for a troop carepackage. Here are a few links to carepackage ideas:
AnySoldier.com - What to Send
Operation Soldier Support Carepackage Ideas
Operation: Support Our Troops - Carepackage Ideas
Operation Letters From Home - Carepackage Ideas
This link I really recommend, despite the 'girlie' look of the page...read through it - some of the best and smartest ideas I've seen:
Girlposse.com - Themed Care Package Ideas for US Military
Ok, so you have a few ideas for what you might put in a carepackage. Next job is to find out who to send it to and where to send it. The easiest place I can tell you to look is here - AnySoldier.com - Where to Send. You will find a list of soldiers there, with their addresses at the top (once you click on a name at the left), and a list of males/females in the group, along with what they might want of need in their own words below their address. You can also sign up to adopt a soldier through Soldiers Angels, which is an excellent program and I highly recommend.
Last things to do before you close your letter or send off your carepackage. If you can - include a notecard (just a handwritten notecard works fine) with your name, address and email address if you have one, on it. Also - write the same information on the bottom or back of your letter. Why? Because they might forget who wrote it, even if they have your notecard. It's easier for them to remember and keep track of their new friends if the information is also on the letter. Often envelopes get torn or thrown away. This way they can more easily respond if they like. If you send a carepackage, you can put the notecard in it as well - but go one step further. Soldiers more often like to send thank-you notes for carepackages and will take the time to write down all the addresses on the boxes before they open them. This takes time and effort. Make it easier for them. They do not know beforehand that you have a notecard inside the box with all of that information. So save them the trouble and tape that notecard to the outside of the box...in a fashion that makes it easy to get off the box. Heck...put on the notecard "Tear hear to keep this notecard with my address". Whatever - as long as it saves them the time and makes it easier, they will love you.
Want more ideas, stories on what it's like to be involved or advice on how to do just that? You can check out these posts and visit my own blog often for new posts on these topics:
Ideas for Supporting Our Troops
Visiting the Mother of a Fallen Soldier
The Armed Forces Service Center-Greet Troops at the Airport
I hope everyone reading this decides to send at least one letter this week. If I've accomplished nothing else posting at the Mudville Gazette these past few weeks except to encourage a few people to write letters of support to our troops, than it was worth it - well worth it. If you have any questions you'd just like to ask me personally or would like to email me to let me know you're excited about your first letter mailed out I'd be happy to hear from you! God bless our troops!!!
~Holly
The Cotillion (conservative women bloggers) is doing something different this week. Instead of the usual carnival of posts hosted by four members of the Cotillion, there is one small round up of posts at The Gray Tie (and the Cotillion's Main Blog)...along with a contest. Now, since this is my last day at the Mudville Gazette (late in the evening though it is - at least in CST..lol), I would be remiss if I didn't take this last opportunity to let you know about this great group of bloggers. The Cotillion is not just a group of women bloggers, it's a groups of excellent conservative women bloggers.
To give you an example of the impact and excellence of blogging that comes from this group of women, the Pro-Victory logo and blogroll came from A North American Patriot - a member of the Cotillion.
Check out the post Quick Fisk of the Mainstream Media from Atlas Shrugs to see great analysis of the bias in today's MSM.
Baldilocks, a blogger frequently found on Mrs. Greyhawk's Dawn Patrol round-up, has done regular posting and research on Able Danger...read 'em all.
The Anchoress is another favorite blogger of Mrs. Greyhawk, also often found in the Dawn Patrol with posts like Miers: Keep this in mind?
Then there's e-Claire, with this interesting post, Direct From the Horse's Mouth. A great post asking what soldiers in Iraq think about Cindy Sheehan, and then answering that question direct the soldiers themselves.
There are many great bloggers in the Cotillion, including one of my favorites, Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy...where you can also find a blogroll of all Cotillion members on the left side!
Check them all out - bookmark a few favorites and keep coming back often!!
A call for submissions at Blackfive:
Simon & Schuster has agreed to publish a collection from military bloggers sometime in late 2006. I submitted the proposal and will be the editor and one of the many authors.That's from Blackfive - read the rest and offer your suggestions here.We will bring together the best of the military blogs, the purest distillation of the myriad voices of this war. These bloggers provide a powerful insight into the military, the War on Terror, and the heart of our nation. By bringing these voices together, we offer the first real-time, ?oral? history of a war while it still going on. We will provide stories from many of the military blogs that cover the full range of the experience of this war ? from the decision to serve in the military to their return home, from the front lines to the home front, and from the med-evac units and hospitals where the price of freedom is paid in blood and suffering to the friends that made the ultimate sacrifice.
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While I have already been in contact with about 30 MilBloggers, I could use your help. This is your opportunity to influence the content of a book - what posts would you like to see in a book (on the history) of our soldiers in the War on Terror?
James J. Yee, former Muslim chaplain to the captured terrorists from Afghanistan held at the Guantᮡmo Bay detention center who was arrested and imprisoned in 2003 on suspicion of espionage (charges later droped) has written a book. The NY Times takes note:
James J. Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the Guantᮡmo Bay detention center, says in a new book that military authorities knowingly created an atmosphere in which guards would feel free to abuse prisoners.Here's how the Times reports Yee says that atmosphere was created:
Mr. Yee writes that when General Miller visited the prison, he would tell the guards sternly, "The war is on." That remark and similar comments, Mr. Yee writes, were designed to let soldiers know they were operating in a combat environment where it was understood that rules protecting detainees were relaxed and instances of mistreatment would be overlooked.Uhhh, yeah, sure. That's how any reasonable person would understand that. Likewise, had the General said "good morning" it would be understood to mean "good only if you beat a prisoner." If there's some substance to this story, the Times fails to find it - or neglects to report it. In fact, skip down to paragraph 18 and 19 of the Time's coverage, and you'll learn that Yee only heard about the things he alleges to have occurred:
He writes that he rarely witnessed physical abuse of the sort that has since become a point of contention between the military on one side and human rights groups and defense lawyers on the other. But he says that in his tenure at Guantᮡmo, he regularly heard about prisoners being beaten and humiliated in their interrogation sessions."...he was told of the abuse by detainees" - as per their al Qaeda training.He says he was told of the abuse by detainees and by Arabic-speaking translators who were present at many of the interrogations. He writes that these accounts were given to him months before similar accusations became public through press reports and the disclosure of internal memorandums by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(I wonder which interpreter Yee heard from...)
From our department of headlines we thought we'd never see:
That's from the AP.Human Rights Group Criticizes Terrorists
BAGHDAD -- Insurgent groups in Iraq are committing war crimes by targeting civilians in mass killings, abductions and beheadings, a human rights group said today.
Human Rights Watch, which often has criticized abuses by U.S. forces in Iraq, turned attention in its latest report to terrorist groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunnah.
Human Rights Watch also said the disregard for the lives of civilians in the mostly Muslim country was backfiring in terms of popular support for the insurgency elsewhere in the Arab world.
Update: Quotes above are from Washington Times version of AP story - which now appears to be unavailable on web. (Will speculate the AP didn't use "terrorist" in original.) No other versions I can find use "terrorist" - otherwise, same story.
Update 2: Okay, this is close: Insurgents in Iraq are drawing criticism for terrorism - but weak.
Update 3: Actual report is here, with brief summary here - and this is what I thought I'd never see - actual headlines are incidental.
TigerHawk posts a report on Lt. General David Petraeus' appearance at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School For Public and International Affairs. The speech received no notice in any other media as of this writing, and that's not surprising, given that a central topic of discussion was the failure of the media to report much of what was happening in Iraq during his latest tour there. The entire post is a must-read, and TigerHawk has done a great service in providing it.
A key comment:
The central theme of his talk, which was supported by lots of data and supporting anecdotes, was that there are a lot of myths about Iraq that need to be dispelled. One such myth is the claim that NATO has not been involved -- General Petraeus forcefully argued that it had been, particularly in the establishment of the military academy and training facilities, but that NATO's participation had been substantially ignored by the press.Indeed, though more correctly the American media has ignored it - as Agence France Presse did cover the story of the recent opening of a training center near Baghdad, although DefenseNews was one of the few American sources carry the story:
The United States hailed the launch of a new NATO training center for Iraqi forces on Sept. 27, saying the alliance had a key role to play in the insurgency-wracked nation.Although not noted by the General, another training facility recently opened in Iraq has also been ignored by media:NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer inaugurated the headquarters of a training mission and a military academy in Iraq on Tuesday, the alliance?s first cooperative venture in the country.
?The United States and NATO are committed to supporting democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Iraq,? deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said as he congratulated Iraq and NATO on the opening of the center outside of Baghdad.
Since last year, the North Atlantic Treaty organization has helped train hundreds of Iraqi officers who lead the embattled country?s security forces.
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The NATO staff college aims to train 910 senior officers each year, with some 500 more receiving instruction abroad.
In the U.S. Army, noncommissioned officers are known as the ?backbone of the Army,? and a group of these Soldiers has set up an academy to help the Iraqi army produce its own rigid corps of NCOs.And progress is being made:The Iraqi NCO Academy here is a new training ground for Iraqi troops, and is the brainchild of U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Victor Martinez, sergeant major, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Upon arriving in country last fall, Martinez noticed the Iraqi NCO corps didn?t have a training academy. The first thing on his to do list was to change that.
Using a handful of specially selected NCOs from his subordinate units, Martinez and his cadre found a training area, barracks and time to devote to a much needed group of up and coming Iraqi leaders, he said.
?We started the academy in November with the intent to strengthen the Iraqi NCO corps,? he said.
The newly trained NCOs go back to their respective units upon graduating from the academy, with one exception. Select Iraqi NCOs have the opportunity to become part of the cadre.Major K has more:The academy currently has eight Army personnel conducting training alongside a group of Iraqi sergeants. The Iraqi soldiers chosen to be part of the cadre were honor graduates from previous classes at the academy, said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Diego Alvarez, an academy instructor from the 98th Division, Rochester, N.Y.
?We?ve mentored three of the Iraqi cadre who are graduates of the NCO academy,? Alvarez said. ?We want them to take a proactive role so we can step back, and with more Iraqi cadre they can eventually run the academy themselves.?
When the Academy was first set up, SFC R. and the rest of the MiTT Team were teaching all of the courses. Now, the courses are taught exclusively by Iraqi NCO Instructors. Several of these instructors are female.It's not clear whether he's discussing the same facility though - and to be effective there should be several such schools throughout the country.
Both these schools are examples of forward progress - and to measure progress we return to TigerHawk's report:
The most impressive thing about the Iraqi units is how tenacious they have become, notwithstanding early reports that they would cut and run. According to General Patraeus, since the January elections, from which the Iraqi security forces ?took an enormous lift that still persists,? the Iraqi forces "have not run from a fight, they have not backed down."In fact, in my time in Iraq, the media was rife with stories of the failure of Iraqi security forces - their tendency to vanish when attacked by their foes. Such stories have been noticeably absent from reports for several months now - although questions about the overall readiness of the Iraqi Army are raised routinely.
Another quote from the General that brings to mind another now-vanished theme common to stories from Iraq a few months ago:
Another myth is that "the Iraqi forces have no armor." Coalition members from the former Communist bloc have contributed lots of armor compatible with legacy Iraqi experience, including 77 T-70 tanks from Hungary ("which are better than anything the Iraqis had under Saddam"). Iraqi tanks have been organized into an armored brigade which is responsible for securing the airport road ("Route Irish has been free of violence since the Iraqi armored brigade took it over").Those unfamiliar with the territory will miss the significance of that last line. Route Irish, aka the Airport Road links Baghdad Airport to the International Zone, and was rightfully notorious for the number of attacks that occurred there. A common theme in reports from Iraq was the story of any journalist's harrowing trip from the Zone to the Airport along that route - but such stories have vanished recently.
A final point from Princeton:
In General Petraeus' conception, the Transition Command has five missions:This is worth noting in that 1) it's right, and a realistic assessment, and 2) the sentiment is echoed in a quote from a junior officer from another unit in another recent story from Iraq:To "help Iraqis." "We believed what TE Lawrence said: ?Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them.?
"When people say it's horrible that you are training those Iraqi soldiers because they will never be as good as we are, they are missing the point," said Capt. Mike Whitney, commander of the 1-30th's Alpha Company. "No, the Iraqis will never be as good as we are, but they don't have to be. They just have to be better than anybody they face here."In a further sign of hope, note that that story is from the New York Times, and reflects a recent trend - more willingness to report good news from Iraq. So perhaps that battle is going a bit more favorably than the General is aware. Time will tell.
Oktoberfest! (The real thing)
And I'll pour the first round of the Oktoberfest Open Post - a story about that Ferris Wheel.
Via email, more photos of the recent demonstrations in DC. The ANSWER rally is on the left, and the counter-protest on the right.
Many more here.
Some earlier photos here.
Put a big shiny star on today's date and do not miss this NY Times story. This is a must-read for a couple reasons - what the story says and the fact that it's a first of its kind for the NY Times. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
(It's from the sports section. I wonder if the news and editorial folks will find it.)
Back in August the press had a field day when 21 members of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines were killed in Iraq. As a former 3/25 member reported:
They broke this story so fast that the Marines could not even notify the families before hand. This led to absolute panic among the 3/25 families.They all wanted to be the first to thrust a camera into the face of a grieving survivor, of course. One intrepid reporter was able to get a quote from a manager of a donut shop near their headquarters:
?Oh my God,? she said softly. ?I?m all for protection but this is getting a little bit ridiculous.?There's a grieving survivor photo and a video report at that link. However, a few days later Cindy Sheehan set up camp in a ditch in Crawford, and the Ohio Marines were promptly forgotten.
Now the 3/25 is back in the USA:
Despite the national attention, the Marines arrived to little fanfare. The battalion will face about a week of debriefing and administrative tasks before they can head home, so the Marine Corps asked families not to come to Camp Lejeune.Don't miss this letter from a Captain in the 3/25 Marines, written at the height of their battles.Some quiet was exactly what the Marines had in mind.
"We understand because of events over there, people are interested and we appreciate that support," said Col. Lionel Urquhart, the battalion's commanding officer. "The low-key is not disappointing. In fact, it's what we wanted."
While Urquhart, from Akron, Ohio, will have to wait to see his two sons, 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Marc Fencio is getting a surprise visit from his girlfriend, who flew in to welcome him back Friday night.
Fencio, a college student who lives in Athens, Ohio, said living and fighting in Iraq was an excellent reminder of how good we have it here.
"It felt like a different planet," he said. "I wish everyone could see how other parts of the world live. Over there, running water is a privilege. I'll live a much better life after seeing that. It's definitely going to make me appreciate America."
It was Fencio's first tour to Iraq, and he said combat was different than he expected.
"Our generation grew up on World War II movies, Playstation 2 games, where you get hit 10 times and keep on going," he said. "But combat: it's surreal, it's prolonged. It's real."
"You take incoming, get shot, get blown up, and sit around," said Cpl. Eric Bildstein, with Weapons Company and hailing from North Olmstead, Ohio. "War is boring, mostly. There's lulls when there's nothing happening. That's a challenge, fighting through the boredom."
While Fencio didn't know any of the battalion's fallen members personally, he said it still felt like he lost brothers.
"It's tragic," he said. "But when you saw as much combat as we have, it's inevitable."
Bildstein, however, did know some of the fallen personally. Some of the dead were from his original platoon, and he lost one of his best friends, Cpl. Brad Squires from Middleburg Heights, Ohio, to an explosion in Haqlaniyah on June 9.
"That was tough," he said quietly. "He was a great guy."
And the way the Marines dealt with the grief was to do their job to the best of their ability, Urquhart said.
"That's very tough," he said. "As a commanding officer, it's one of the toughest things you have to deal with. Fighting for your country, you go through the grieving process much faster. Dealing with the grief is something we all have to do."
Now that they are home, the main thing is to get some well-deserved rest and live lives that honor their fallen comrades, Urquhart said.
"They accomplished the mission we set out to accomplish," he said. "What our fallen brothers would have wanted is we live life to our fullest, and make sure we make life better for the families of Marines who made that ultimate sacrifice."
Welcome home, Marines.
Tending Distant Fires
Far from hearth and home, watching
Cold alone but not alone
On distant shore and only wanting
Safe return and little more
What tales we'll tell
When that time comes
When tales can be told
When things grim
Seem far away
When other fires go cold
Some distant sunset, vision fading
Memories remain
And tired eyes gaze 'pon folded flags
While distant drums beat their refrain
Saluting fallen friends whose names
And youth will never fade
Here's to those on other shores,
for them live well, the price is paid
- Greyhawk,
-- Iraq, December 2004
The Government Accountability Office (formerly the Government Accounting Office) recently released an in-depth report on recruiting in the US military. The entire document is a worthwhile read for those concerned with the issue. You can find it here. Much of its content is devoted to demographics of the military - apologies to those looking for that topic here; maybe a follow-up post will address it. (You can read a news report on that topic here, in which the data are used to respond to yet another demand from Representative Charles Rangel, D-N.Y to reinstate the draft.)
What we will examine here today are the challenges that confront (or confound) military recruiters revealed in this report. In a nutshell, 58% of age-eligible youths can't meet entry-level standards for health, education, aptitude, and other requirements - and are thus ineligible to serve. According to an Atlanta Journal Constitution report on the GAO study:
The total number of those ineligible was about 14 million, leaving only 10 million qualified. But of those, the report said 6 million go to college, leaving only 4 million potential recruits.Quotes from the GAO report follow. You'll see the terms AC and RC used, indicating Active Component and Reserve Component, respectively.
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Youth IneligibilityGiven that starting point, here are the results of recruiting efforts over the past several years:DOD researchers have estimated that over half of U.S. youth aged 16 to 21 could be ineligible to join the military because they cannot meet DOD or service entry standards (9). DOD accession officials stated that inability to meet medical and physical requirements accounts for much of the ineligibility among youth.
- DOD Directive 1304.26 establishes the educational, aptitude, medical, and moral character standards for entry into the military, as well as other standards such as those for age, citizenship, and number of dependent children (10).
- Many youth are ineligible because they cannot meet DOD or service standards for:
- education, as indicated by DOD's preference for accessions with a high school diploma;
- mental aptitude, as indicated by receipt of an acceptable score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test;
- physical fitness, as indicated by the absence of certain medical conditions and the ability to perform the physical challenges of military training; and
- moral character, as indicated by few or no criminal convictions or antisocial behavior.
The services may use more rigorous standards than those prescribed by DOD and create additional standards for areas not covered by DOD.
- Senior officials are allowed to issue waivers for some standards. Comparing data for 1991 to those for 2000 shows that the extent to which certain types of waivers were issued to enlisted accessions changed. For example, the number of moral waivers appeared to have declined, while physical and other types of waivers appear to have increased (11).
Notes:
9 National Research Council, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth; DOD, Overview Report June 2003 Youth Poll 5, December 2003, p. 71.10 If married, a recruit can have no more than two dependents under age 18. If unmarried, a recruit must give up custody of dependent children.
11 National Research Council, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth, briefing fig. 4-9.
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Youth Ineligibility and Educational Standards(Due to oversized images you may need to scroll down to view remainder of post)
All of the services except the Army have educational standards that exceed DOD's standard of having at least 90 percent of accessions possessing a high school diploma (see table 23).
- The Navy and Marine Corps standard is 95 percent, and the Air Force's educational standard is 99 percent.
- Recruits with an alternate educational credential such as a general educational development high school equivalency diploma or a certificate of completion may be assigned a lower enlistment priority because DOD's research shows that holders of an alternate educational credential are less likely than high school diploma graduates to complete military training and their initial obligation.
- DOD educational standards reduce the number of youth eligible for recruitment because DOD requires that at least 90 percent of recruits have a high school diploma, but only 71 percent of all high school students graduate with their class (12). Higher rates of high school completion may be reported in the Current Population Survey and other research, but in addition to high school diploma graduates they include high school equivalency and general educational development diplomas for adults 25 and older.
- In 2002, 52 percent of Hispanics graduated from high school compared to 56 percent of African Americans and 78 percent of Whites. However, of the youth who graduated from high school in 2002 only 40 percent of Whites, 23 percent of African Americans, and 20 percent, of Hispanics had the skills needed to attend a 4-year college (13).
- Most high school graduates qualified for college actually enrolled and this upward trend in college enrollment, both immediately after graduation and in the decade after high school, potentially reduces the number of youth interested in becoming enlisted personnel (14).
Notes:
12 Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Public High School Graduation Rates and College-Readiness: 1991-2002, February 2005.13 National Research Council, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth, briefing fig. 4-11.
14 National Research Council, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth.
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Youth Ineligibility and Aptitude Standards
Although DOD requires that at least 60 percent of recruits be from AFQT Categories I-IIIA, the services require that 63 to 77 percent be from Categories I-IIIA (see table 24). - The number of potential recruits available to enlist is less than the size of the youth population as a whole because DOD can generally access no more than 4 percent of its recruits from those with the lowest third of all AFQT scores.
- The percentage of new recruits scoring at or above the 50th percentile of the AFQT is higher than it was before the AVF (see table 25).
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Youth Ineligibility and Medical Standards
Medical conditions result in DOD drawing recruits from only a portion of the overall youth population. DOD research suggests that at least 26 percent of youth have a medical or physical condition that could make them ineligible to join (15).
- DOD officials told us that medical and physical conditions, such as those shown in table 26, were the top reasons youth are ineligible to join the military.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of 2002, about 12 percent of children under 18 years of age had been diagnosed with asthma.
- The National Center for Health Statistics found that obesity among 12-19 year olds increased from 6 percent in 1974 to 16 percent in 2002.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the percentage of 5-17 year olds for whom an antidepressant was prescribed or provided tripled from about 2 percent in 1994 to 6 percent in 2000-2002 (16)
Notes:
15 DOD, Overview Report: June 2003 Youth Poll 5, December 2003 p. 72.16 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans, p. 63.
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Youth Ineligibility and Moral Character Standards
- The number of potential recruits available to enlist is less than the size of the overall youth population because some youth with criminal records or evidence of antisocial behavior will be ineligible to enlist (see table 27 for standards). Researchers at the Army's Center for Accession Research said that about 2 percent of the 17-21 aged population who are qualified for service in the Army were ineligible because they have been incarcerated.
- Illegal drug use is a moral character condition that might result in some potential recruits being disqualified to enlist.
- In 2000, about 25 percent of high school seniors said that they had used an illicit drug in the previous 30 days (17).
- A recent study reported that about 39 percent of high school seniors, about 31 percent of sophomores, and about 15 percent of youth in their last year of middle school reported having used illicit drugs in the previous 12 months (18).
Notes:
17 National Research Council, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth, briefing fig. 4-16.18 National Institutes of Health, National Results of Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of key Findings 2004.
2A. Recruiting Overview: Active ComponentA few points worth noting:- AC enlisted accessions
- Each year for fiscal years 2000 through 2004, the AC accessed approximately 176,400 to 183,000 nonprior-service enlisted recruits.
- More of these accessions joined the Army than any other service:
- 39 to 43 percent joined the Army,
- 22 to 27 percent joined the Navy,
- 17 to 20 percent joined the Air Force, and
- 16 to 18 percent joined the Marine Corps.
- In fiscal year 2004, all active components met their goal.
- AC officer accessions
- Each fiscal year from 2000 through 2003, about 17,500 to 21,500 officers were accessed into the AC.
- The percentage of officers accessed by each service is as follows:
- 30 to 34 percent joined the Army,
- 31 to 37 percent joined the Air Force,
- 22 to 29 percent joined the Navy, and
- 7 to 9 percent joined the Marine Corps.
- In fiscal year 2004, the active services accessed over 16,400 officers to active duty. Only the Air Force, with its shortfall of 12 percent (comprised mostly of medical specialty direct appointments), missed its commissioned officer recruiting goal that year (3).
- Active duty officers and enlisted personnel are required to be available to serve for 8 years, although some of that service may be in a reserve component.
Note:
3 Statement of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, David S.C. Chu, before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, April 5, 2005, p 20.2A. Recruiting Overview: Reserve Component
- RC enlisted accessions
- Each year for fiscal years 2000 through 2004, the RC accessed about 118,000 to 153,000 enlisted personnel.
- More of these accessions joined the Army National Guard and Army Reserve than any other service.
- 40 to 44 percent joined the Army National Guard,
- 25 to 32 percent joined the Army Reserve,
- 10 to 11 percent joined the Navy Reserve,
- 6 to 7 percent joined the Marine Corps Reserve,
- 6 to 7 percent joined the Air National Guard, and
- 5 to 8 percent joined the Air Force Reserve.
- In fiscal year 2004, the components accessed about 118,000 enlisted personnel to the RC, and all components except the Army National Guard and Air National Guard met their goal.
- 41 percent joined the Army National Guard,
- 28 percent joined the Army Reserve,
- 10 percent joined the Navy Reserve,
- 8 percent joined the Air Force Reserve,
- 7 percent joined the Marine Corps Reserve, and
- 7 percent joined the Air National Guard.
- One difference between AC and RC recruiting is that the latter relies heavily on recruits who have prior military service. An official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs told us that currently, about 63 percent of the RC has prior military experience. For example,
- In fiscal year 2003, 52 percent of Air National Guard accessions had prior military service (4).
- In fiscal year 2004, at least one-quarter of Marine Corps Reserve recruits had prior military service (5).
- Historically, about 25 percent of active duty servicemembers leaving the Air Force enter the Air Force Reserve, accounting for a significant portion of Air Force Reserve accessions (6).
Stop-loss is a policy instituted by the services that requires military personnel to remain in the service beyond the end of their obligation (7). Because it reduces the number of prior service recruits available to join the RC at a given point in time and because many entering the RC have prior military service, stop-loss has been cited as a factor particularly affecting the reserve components' ability to meet recruitment goals.
- The Air Force was the first to issue a stop-loss in the aftermath of the September 11th attack, although this has since ended.
- The Army is the only service with stop-loss currently in effect, and the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel testified in April 2005 that, during January 2005, the stop-loss program affected 12,353 servicemembers in the Army's active and reserve components. The Army's current unit-based (rather than being driven by occupational specialty) stop-loss policy for its reserve components has remained continuously in effect since it was instituted in 2001 (8).
- Although the reserve components rely partly on recruits with prior military service to meet their recruiting goals, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness noted in April 2005 that because of high AC retention, increasing percentages of RC recruits had no prior military service and that "approximately 50 percent are now expected to come directly from civilian life."
Notes:
4 Statement of Lieutenant General Daniel James III, Director, Air National Guard, before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, April 13, 2005.5 Statements of Lieutenant General Dennis M. McCarthy, Commander, Marine Forces Reserve, before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee on April 13, 2005, and Lieutenant General H.P. Osman, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, United States Marine Corps Reserve, before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, April 5, 2005.
6 Statement of Lieutenant General John A. Bradley, Chief of Air Force Reserve, before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, April 13, 2005.
7 Stop-loss authority is provided by 10 U.S.C. -12305. For a description of the services' implementation of stop-loss after September 11, 2001, see app. VI in Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Address Long-term Reserve Force Availability and Related Mobilization and Demobilization Issues, GAO 04-1031 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 15, 2004).
8 See GAO 04-1031.
2B. Achieving Enlisted Recruiting Goals: Performance in Fiscal Years 1995 to 2004
- Figure 5 shows that over the past 10 years, the AC has met its enlisted recruiting goals more frequently than the RC.
- Except for 2 years in the late 1990s, a period of low unemployment and economic expansion, the AC met its recruiting goals.
- The RC did not meet its goals for 6 of the past 10 years.
- DOD researchers reported that events, such as the war in Iraq and increased operational tempo, have made meeting recruiting goals more difficult.
- In April 2005 testimony to the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs said that although the RC was having difficulty meeting its recruiting objectives, reserve reenlistments in fiscal year 2004 were slightly higher than in previous fiscal years.
- Also, the components typically start a new fiscal year with youth who have already signed enlistment contracts and have agreed to delay entry into the military until a later time. Overcoming monthly recruiting deficits may require that components acquire recruits from the delayed entry program. The reduction in the size of the delayed entry program may result in insufficient numbers of recruits being available in future months.
When noting that among all AC services only the Army missed it's recruiting goals for 2005 we should also note the percentage of Army recruits among all military recruits. Since 2000, 39 to 43 percent of all active duty military recruits joined the Army - roughly the equivalent of the Navy and Air Force percentages combined. Likewise, though not considered in the study, the Army's failure to reach it's recruiting goal in 2005 must be kept in the context of its increased end-strength for the year (+20,000). Meanwhile, in raw numbers, the Army recruited 73,000 new troops this year (estimated). Previous year's totals were 77,587 in 2004 and 74,132 in 2003. With very little change (and no trend) in raw numbers, the percentages of recruits/eligibles would be a more significant number than recruits/goal. Those figures aren't available at this time - though I'd guess they likewise haven't changes by any statistically significant amount.
Army retention is high - and this impacts reserve component recruiting (as noted here previously). A "double whammy" for their efforts as they compete for the same recruits, who now more than ever know that a reserve commitment can be every bit as demanding as an active duty tour - and perhaps less predictable.
The Army does face a recruiting challenge - in no way are we claiming otherwise here. But the real solutions require real numbers, which are not quite what the media have been presenting to the public recently. This does a great disservice on a vitally important issue - if public perceptions and discourse are to have any impact on public policy, it's crucial that said public be well informed.
WASHINGTON - An officer who has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous rules, charges that his lawyer suggests are aimed at undermining his credibility.The reported infractions by Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, 42, include obtaining a service medal under false pretenses, improperly flashing military identification while drunk, and stealing pens, according to paperwork from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency that his attorney showed to the Associated Press.
Shaffer was one of the first to publicly link Sept. 11 leader Mohamed Atta to the unit code-named Able Danger. Shaffer was one of five witnesses whom the Pentagon ordered not to appear Sept. 21 before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the unit's findings.
The military revoked Shaffer's top-security clearance this month, a day before he was supposed to testify to a congressional committee.
WASHINGTON - Army officials this week issued new warnings to soldiers about posting personal stories from combat zones on the Internet and taking photos at overseas bases, saying those actions could jeopardize troops' security.Meanwhile:The list of prohibited activities includes taking photos of Defense Department facilities, posting any official Defense Department information and releasing information detailing job responsibilities.
"Whether it is a family Web page or a personal blog, safety and security measures must be strictly observed," the message said. "Sensitive DOD information must not be divulged to the public at large for national security reasons."
Army investigators won't pursue criminal charges against anyone involved in a Web site that posts sometimes-grisly photos ostensibly submitted by U.S. soldiers in war zones. The site offered soldiers free access to pornographic materials in exchange for the photos.And now back to our first story:The site, which normally charges visitors to look at amateur pornography, had drawn the ire of the Pentagon and Muslim advocacy groups, prompting an Army inquiry. But late Wednesday, an Army spokesman said the Criminal Investigation Command did not find enough evidence to pursue felony charges.
"While this may not rise to the level of a felony crime, it's still serious," Army spokesman Paul Boyce told The Associated Press.
If investigators could prove soldiers had used government computers to post photos, charges could be pursued.
The site, which charges visitors to look at amateur pornography, has made a special deal directed to soldiers downrange: Send in a photo from Iraq or Afghanistan, get 90 days of access to the site?s racier content.
More than 2,500 posts have been sent to the site's "Pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan - Gory," section, which is freely accessible by all visitors to the site.
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Site administrator Chris Wilson, a 27-year-old from Lakeland, Fla., said approximately 30,000 of the site?s 200,000 members possess .mil or Army Knowledge Online e-mail addresses.
<...>
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable flatly condemned servicemembers' participation in the Web site."Such behavior is unacceptable," he said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "Certainly from an official standpoint, if an individual is using official equipment or obtained [the photos] in a professional capacity, it's unacceptable, both from a professional and an official sense."
Officials said the new guidelines were designed to be a reminder to troops and were not prompted by news this week of a Web site offering free access to pornography in exchange for gruesome war photos.
A visit with Debra Burlingame, voice of the Take Back the Memorial movement, here.
Excerpt:
This is the woman Messrs. Bernstein and company dismissed as a hausfrau. How they did so is baffling: She has the facts at her fingertips, the confidence of a person at ease with authority, and the rhetorical skills of one at home with the language. How could they have believed that she would just go away? "They were ambitious," Ms. Burlingame replied, "and myopic. Bernstein is an ideologue, a true believer. He told me that he was prepared to dedicate the next 10 years of his life to the center." They patronized her: By her account, Mr. Bernstein said, "Debra, we're calling on people from all sides of the political spectrum . . . very balanced . . . people who are very dignified." To which she responded, "Oh really! Tell me who you have that's conservative. And he replied, 'Fareed Zakaria' [editor of Newsweek International]. I squinched my face up and said, 'He's not conservative,' and Bernstein goes, 'Naah . . . he's not, yeah, you're right, he's not.' "Read it all.This gets to the heart of the problem: The Freedom Center's progenitors were convinced--utterly and adamantly--of their own reasonableness. In an inversion of the usual conditions of passion, the Forces of Rage--here, led by Ms. Burlingame--had an impressive clarity of vision; by contrast, the self-styled Forces of Reason were blinded by their own certitudes. (Ms. Burlingame insists that the blind include the editorial page of the New York Times, which twice attacked her by name--describing her, even, as "the Governor's Proxy"--yet did not consider it important to print a letter from her in response. The page's editor, Gail Collins, would not, it seems, take her calls. "A very, very snotty assistant said to me, 'Let me take your information.' Ms. Collins was 'busy,' 'unavailable' . . .")
Finding interlocutors on the telephone wasn't always this hard for Ms. Burlingame. After her op-ed appeared in the Journal in June, she received calls from political players in Washington, asking her to drop her opposition to Mr. Bernstein's project. She is prepared, only, to name John Bridgeland--a former director of the Domestic Policy Council in President Bush's White House, deputy policy director for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, and, after 9/11, the first director of the USA Freedom Corps Office. He called twice "to discourage me . . . no, not discourage, to 'explain what was actually going to be happening [at the Freedom Center],' and that I'd 'got it all wrong.' I said to him, 'Are you aware of some of the exhibits that they're talking about?' " He wasn't. "Here's a man who didn't know what was happening, yet he was picking up the phone and trying to effect an outcome."
A friend of mine is a radio talk show host for an AM radio station and brought up the topics of blogs on his show this evening. His basic contention was that blogs are not useful, powerful or read. He doesn't have a blog because he does not believe it is a valuable use of his time (that is...no one reads them). He wanted to know if he was wrong or misinformed.
Now I know of the power of blogs, have seen newspapers corrected by blogs (Little Green Footballs is a great example of blogs catching what the media doesn't), I've seen the media turn to blogs for information for stories...I've seen blogs influence things such as the International Freedom Center. What I'd like to do is give him a little taste of the power of blogs!
So, if you have 10 seconds and an email address, I'd like to send him some emails from bloggers and blog readers. I've set up the link below to automatically create an email from you to him, CC to me (I get an email sent to me as well) with the subject of "Are Blogs Powerful?" and the text of the email as, "Hi Chris, I heard through blogger Holly Aho that you were questioning the power of blogs. I'm a blogger/blog reader. She wrote a blog post requesting a few emails be sent to you to show you blogs are read and listened to. Here's my email!"
As the emails are CC'd to me I'll keep a tally of how many are sent and keep you updated. I'd like to have a few thousand sent to him - that would get the message across! (As we're friends he'll forgive me the massive amounts of emails - he'll probably enjoy it! lol). I figured that it's better to simply prove a point than debate the issue. I think this will do that nicely.
Here's the link - Email AM 1500 Chris Krok (View Update below!)
Just click the link and hit 'Send'. It's that simple!
Let's see just how powerful blogs really are!
UPDATE: I received this email from Chris tonight:
"No worries, point WELL taken!!
I'm worried about my home PC crashing, to answer your question about how many received, so if you can please "make 'em stop", I would appreciate it!! (all work emails get forwarded to home)."
He went on to say he hadn't read them all but they were friendly and interesting from the ones he has gone through. He did also say, "THANKS!"
I told him to be fair and mention it on his show tomorrow. So thank-you everyone for being willing to help - it just proves blogs are powerful and well read! Awesome!!!
