Posted from Amarillo, Texas, at the home of my girlfriend’s parents. Back to Dallas tomorrow evening.
Author: Gunner
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Iraq Seeks European Help With Security
Iraq is requesting training assistance from France and Germany for its security forces.
Iraq (news – web sites)’s deputy foreign minister appealed Friday to France and Germany to help build and train the country’s security forces, saying the new Iraqi government wants to broaden its relations beyond Washington and London.
This is a very sharp move, if I’m reading this correctly. By going straight to the heart of our erstwhile allies, the new Iraqi government can present an argument that it is not just a U.S. puppet while still getting a valuable commodity. Also, if agreed that the training is in Europe, France and Germany have little ground on which to base a refusal.
“We want balanced relations with all the countries of the world, and we are seeking the help of the international community to build a new Iraq built on democracy and respect for human rights,” al-Bayati said.
This paints the Euros into a corner: help the new Iraqi government find stability and thus strengthen the American chance of long-term success or look like schmucks on the world stage.
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No One Asked Us
Here is a great article on the Iraq invasion, written by a Marine Corps Reserve major (now Lt. Colonel) who took part in the fighting.
I killed many Iraqi soldiers, as they tried to kill me and my Marines. I did it with a radio, directing air-strikes and artillery, in concert with my British artillery officer counterpart, in combat along the Hamas Canal in southern Iraq. I saw, up close, everything the rest of you see in the newspapers: dead bodies, parts of dead bodies, helmets with bullet holes through them, handcuffed POWs sitting in the sand, oil well fires with flames reaching 100 feet into the air and a roar you could hear from over a mile away.
I stood on the bloody sand where Marine Second Lieutenant Therrel Childers was the first American killed on the ground. I pointed a loaded weapon at another man for the first time in my life. I did what I had spent 14 years training to do, and my Marines — your Marines — performed so well it still brings tears to my eyes to think about it. I was proud of what we did then, and I am proud of it now.
Along with the violence, I saw many things that lifted my heart. I saw thousands of Iraqis in cities like Qurnah and Medinah — men, women, children, grandparents carrying babies — running into the streets at the sight of the first Westerners to enter their streets. I saw them screaming, crying, waving, cheering. They ran from their homes at the sound of our Humvee tires roaring in from the south, bringing bread and tea and cigarettes and photos of their children. They chattered at us in Arabic, and we spoke to them in English, and neither understood the other. The entire time I was in Iraq, I had one impression from the civilians I met: Thank God, finally someone has arrived with bigger men and bigger guns to be, at last, on our side.
Let there be no mistake, those of you who don’t believe in this war: the Ba’ath regime were the Nazis of the second half of the 20th century. I saw what the murderous, brutal regime of Saddam Hussein wrought on that country through his party and their Fedayeen henchmen. They raped, murdered, tortured, extorted, and terrorized those in that country for 35 years. There are mass graves throughout Iraq only now being discovered. 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, liberated a prison in Iraq populated entirely by children. The Ba’athists brutalized the weakest among them, and killed the strongest. I saw in the eyes of the people how a generation of fear reflects in the human soul.
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Polish Troops Find Sarin Warheads
It seems more WMD has surfaced in Iraq.
“We were mortified by the information that terrorists were looking for these warheads and offered $5,000 apiece,” Dukaczewski said. “An attack with such weapons would be hard to imagine. All of our activity was accelerated at appropriating these warheads.”
Dukaczewski refused to give any further details about the terrorists or the sellers of the munitions, saying only that his troops thwarted terrorists by purchasing the 17 rockets for a Soviet-era launcher and two mortar rounds containing the nerve agent for an undisclosed sum June 23.
There’s a lot of scary aspects to this story. First, these were almost in terrorist hands, so what do they already have? Second, I see no way that we will ever be able to account for all of Iraq’s WMD, leaving us to never have a good knowledge of the scope of the danger we face. Third, the left still refuses to acknowledge the existence of WMD.
The warheads all contained cyclosarin, multinational force commander Polish Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek said.
“Laboratory tests showed the presence in them of cyclosarin, a very toxic gas, five times stronger than sarin and five times more durable,” Bieniek told Poland’s TVN24 at the force’s Camp Babylon headquarters.
“If these warheads, which were still usable, were used on a military base like Camp Babylon, they would have caused unforeseeable damage.”
The tests were done by U.S. experts, who were conducting more.
The munitions were found in a bunker in the Polish sector, but Polish officials refused to be more specific.
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Palestinian militants publicly execute suspected informant
Palestinian “militants” gunned down a man accused of collaborating with the Israelis. Machine gunned him. Publicly. In the town square. In the middle of a crowd of Palestinians chanting for his death.
Four gunmen from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade carried out the killing in the town square of the West Bank town of Qabatiya.
They machine-gunned the Hamad Rafiq Abdel Razek, 42, as hundreds of onlookers called for him to die.
I find it interesting to compare the Palestinian concept of justice with the concepts we are working to instill in Iraq. Sad that Abdel Razek died in the street without a trial a day after Saddam began making his aquaintances with the Iraqi court system.
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U.S. to Pull Forces From 2 U.N. Missions
Seems to only be a token gesture, but the U.S. military is backing out of two tiny deployments.
The U.S. military will pull tiny contingents out of two U.N. peacekeeping missions because Americans no longer are exempt from international prosecution for war crimes, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.
A seven-person team will be removed from the U.N. mission to keep the peace between the African nations of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and two liaison officers will be taken out of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, spokesman Larry Di Rita told reporters at a new conference.
We should pull, or at the very least threaten to pull, our 2,200 troops from Kosovo, with the explanation of principle and more dire need elsewhere. Specifically, enforcing U.N. resolutions in Iraq.
I do so tire of the League of Nations, Part Deux.
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Cohen: F9/11 So Bad It Could Help Bush
In the latest column of liberal Richard Cohen, the film Fahrenheit 9/11 is shredded, both on methodology and relevance.
I go on about Moore and Ellis because the stunning box office success of “Fahrenheit 9/11” is not, as proclaimed, a sure sign that Bush is on his way out, but instead a warning to the Democrats to keep the loony left at a safe distance.
Unfortunately, it may be too late for the Dems to keep the loony left at arm’s length. In fact, it seems the loons are the rudder of the good ship Democrat, steering hard a’port.
It is so juvenile in its approach, so awful in its journalism, such an inside joke for people who already hate Bush, that I found myself feeling a bit sorry for a President who is depicted mostly as a befuddled dope.
I fear how it will play to the undecided. For them, I recommend “Spider-Man 2.”
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A Letter to the American People
The Iraq-America Freedom Alliance took out a full-page ad in the USA Today, extending their hands “in friendship and gratitude to the American people.”
When freedom is born where it has never existed, the desire of all people to live in peace and dignity will only grow. With America’s support, we know that someday Iraqi children will dare to dream the same dreams as American children.
I believe the children are the future … damn you, Whitney Houston, get out of my head!
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Report: Al-Qaeda Spells Out Iraq Attack Strategy in Handbook
It seems that an al Queda document covering their early 2004 strategy in Iraq has been found and authenticated.
“We consider that the Spanish government cannot suffer more than two to three strikes before pulling out (of Iraq) under pressure from its own people,” said the document obtained Wednesday by AFP from Raido France Internationale’s regional office in Beirut.
“If these (Spanish) forces remain after the strikes, the victory of the socialist party would be near-guaranteed and the pullout of Spanish forces from Iraq would be on its agenda,” said the document, distributed ahead of the March 11 attacks in Madrid.
Pegged the Spanish.
But most of the chapter is about Spain, considering that the pullout of Spanish troops would “constitute a pressure on the British (military) presence that (Prime Minister) Tony Blair would not be able to bear.”
Underrated the Brits.
“They should not carry out any operation targeting the daily life of the Iraqi people or its future, such as the basic services or education, except for oil which should not be exploited under occupation,” it said.
So, we’re not the only ones playing the “hearts and minds” game. Hmmmm … seems like continued terror and suppression might be a hard sell compared to freedom and a better, safer life for future Iraqi generations.
We might pull this off yet, if we stand fast at the ramparts. I still call it iffy; we may have pulled off the freedom of South Vietnam had not the American left seized defeat from the jaws of victory after Tet.
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NYC Issues GOP Convention Protest Permits
The unionists, abortionists, socialists, pacifists and miscellaneous useful idiots are picking up their protest permits to turn New York city into a circus during the Republican’s national convention.
Late Wednesday, police announced additional permits to groups including the Christian Defense Coalition, Planned Parenthood (news – web sites), the Middle East Peace Coalition and People for the American Way. Demonstrations, prayer vigils and rallies by these organizations would be held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.
But United for Peace and Justice and city officials are to meet again Friday to discuss the anti-war group’s application for a rally and march for 250,000 people on convention eve, said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for the group.
What? No sign of ANSWER? And who is going to give anybody the Brooklyn Bridge for a protest?
Don’t get me wrong — I have nothing against protesting. Protesting is a fundamental right in our nation. I guess my problem is with the silly protesters. I don’t know what the union people will do or how they’ll protest. Heck, I don’t even know what they’ll be protesting, as I’ve seen nothing anti-union from Bush to date. However, the abortionists will have their same silly signs and silly chants and coathangers. The communists, socialists and pacifists will have their own silly signs and silly chants and many will generally look like they need showers and are just trying to leap back to the Sixties.
Here’s an idea, protester person, shower, shave (that goes for male and female), dress normally and carry a sign that, without falsehood, profanity and exaggeration, expresses a valid point. That is how to get mainstream America to take notice. Freaks may get more media attention, but the average American looks at the photos and television segments, only to sigh and mutter, “Great, more freaks.” No message conveyed.