Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Iraq TV Helps Break Holy Warrior Mystique

    I must say that the headline and leading paragraph had me intrigued.

    Say the word mujahid– or holy warrior – these days and many inhabitants of Baghdad are likely to snigger.

    I had my doubts quickly, however, with the second paragraph.

    An appellation once worn as a badge of pride by anti-American insurgents has now become street slang for homosexuals, after men claiming to be captured Islamist guerrillas confessed that they were holding gay orgies in the popular Iraqi TV programme Terror in the Hands of Justice.

    I think the terrorists are scum, a bunch of cowardly bastards. While this article is worth a read and it’s nice to know that the Iraqis are seeing something besides pro-terrorist propaganda (e.g. al-Jazeera, CNN), I still feel a need to apologize for the worst side effect of the Iraqi campaign — the export of the horror of “reality” TV. It was obviously another shortcoming in the planning of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis.

    It started innocently enough.

    When the programme first aired two months ago, it mostly featured non-Iraqi Arabs who claimed to have entered the country to aid the insurgency, reinforcing many Iraqis’ belief that the insurgency is driven by foreign extremists such as al-Qaeda.

    In time, however, the programme began to feature men who said they were petty criminals, killing “collaborators” for a few hundred dollars’ bounty.

    In fact, the US and Iraqi security forces have for some time claimed to have ample evidence that many insurgent attacks were launched by out-of-work soldiers desperate for money. Some well-known insurgent captains had former lives under the old regime as gang leaders.

    In recent weeks, however, the insurgents’ confessions have become increasingly at odds with the movement’s reputation for stringent Islamic austerity.

    One long-bearded preacher known as Abu Tabarek recently confessed that guerrillas had usually held orgies in his mosques, secure in the knowledge that their status as holy warriors would win them forgiveness of their sins.

    Hopefully for the Iraqi people, sanity will soon reign.

    Sabah Khadim, spokesman for Iraq’s interior minister, says that the programme may have run its course, and should be reviewed.

    He denies that the confessions were extracted by torture but has his doubts as to whether those confessing are being truthful or simply saying whatever they think their captors want to hear. He also has reservations over whether the display of prisoners on television violates the Geneva Convention.

    But, Mr Khadem says, the programme has been immensely effective in getting Iraqis to come forward with information about guerrillas, leading to a surge in the number of insurgents captured.

    “If this were not an emergency situation, we would not have run this,” he says. “But it is an emergency situation, and this produces results.”

    Now, if only we could get rid of some of this crap on our own airwaves , I would really believe that civilization is progressing.

  • U.S. Death Rate Down in Iraq Since Elections

    Progress. Slow but steady progress.

    The rate of U.S. deaths in the Iraq war has fallen sharply since the historic January elections as American military leaders tout progress against the insurgency but warn of a long road ahead.

    March is on pace for the lowest monthly U.S. military death toll in 13 months, and the rate of American fatalities has fallen by about 50 percent since the parliamentary elections in which millions of Iraqis defied insurgents to cast ballots.

    Defense analysts noted that while violence aimed at U.S. forces has declined in the 7 1/2 weeks since the election, insurgent attacks on Iraqis have escalated. They added that previous lulls in attacks on U.S. forces in the two-year war have been followed by intense periods of violence.

    “We have seen a downward trend in attacks,” Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said on Thursday, calling the elections a turning point.

    “There’s still a very good chance that they (insurgents) can do some spectacular events. But the situation does get better each day, all the time,” Boylan added.

    At the current pace, the U.S. military death toll in March will reach about 35. That would be the lowest monthly death toll since 20 U.S. troops died in February 2004, the smallest count of the war. But that proved to be a temporary lull followed some of the most bloody months of the war that spring.

    Analyst Charles Pena said gauging the progress of the war against insurgents is months, if not years, away.

    “I think what you get is a mixed picture in Iraq,” said Pena of the Cato Institute. “Whatever progress we’re making in terms of violence against U.S. troops, it is being offset by violence against Iraqis and Iraqi security forces.”

    Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, seemed to agree.

    “The average counter-insurgency in the 20th century was about nine years, so it takes time to snuff out the insurgency. And also, I think you know, most insurgencies are defeated by political means rather than necessarily by military means,” Casey said in Washington earlier this month.

    Since the election, the rate of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq has been about 1.7 per day, compared to about 3.4 per day from November to election day — a 50 percent drop. It is also about one-fifth lower than the rate experienced from the start of the war until the election.

    November through January marked one of the bloodiest periods of the war for U.S. forces, with the Falluja offensive in November and insurgents staging a deadly series of attacks before the election. The 137 U.S. troops killed in November was the highest monthly toll of the war, and the 107 killed in January was the third highest.

    The official Pentagon count released on Thursday listed 1,519 U.S. military deaths since the March 2003 invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein. It said another 11,442 U.S. troops have been wounded.

    Casey said he was not ready to declare the elections a “tipping point” toward victory.

    “We’re in a good position following the elections, but … we have a lot of work ahead to get to our final objective in Iraq,” Casey said.

    Here’s a graphical representation that agrees (current month figures are latest projected), from GlobalSecurity.org. Please note the the two largest spikes (APR 04 and NOV 04) were during American offensives and the third largest (JAN 05) was when the terrorists failed to stop the elections.

    US KIA as of 24-MAR-05

    Note, the mission continues. It is not accomplished, but it is progressing.

    I say again for the dense, the mission continues.

  • US Deserter Denied Canada Asylum

    I blogged in December about Jeremy Hinzman, the coward who had deserted his comrades as they went to Iraq, instead applying in Canada for refugee status. Well, Canada’s decision was handed down today, and Hinzman’s hopes of staying yellow in the Great White North were denied.

    A former US soldier who quit the army in protest against the Iraq war has been denied refugee status in Canada.

    Jeremy Hinzman, 26, was the first to receive an answer from a number of US deserters seeking Canadian residency.

    Mr Hinzman, who served in Afghanistan in a non-combat role, left the 82nd Airborne Regiment when he was deployed to Iraq.

    Correspondents say the decision may affect eight other ex-servicemen, but improve Canadian-US relations.

    In its judgement Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board said Mr Hinzman had not convinced its members that he would face persecution or cruel and unusual punishment if he were sent back to the US.

    Board member Brian Goodman wrote in the judgement: “The treatment does not amount to a violation of a fundamental human right, and the harm is not serious.”

    Mr Hinzman’s lawyer said he planned to appeal, and that they remained confident of success.

    “He is disappointed. We don’t believe that people should be imprisoned for doing what they believe is illegal,” Jeffry House told Canadian TV.

    Man, I really hope that is a misquote.

    Mr House also settled in Canada after dodging the US military draft during the Vietnam War.

    Well, maybe it’s not.

    If Mr Hinzman’s appeal is not successful, his final option would be a direct plea to Canada’s immigration minister for leave to remain on compassionate grounds.

    He faces up to five years in prison if he fails and is returned to the US.

    Mr Hinzman fled his unit in January 2004, shortly before the 82nd Airborne was due in Iraq.

    He had served three years in the army, but had asked to be classified as a conscientious objector ahead of deployment to Afghanistan in 2002.

    Mr Hinzman now lives with his wife and young son in Toronto, where his case has been championed by Quakers and anti-war activist groups.

    I have little sympathy for a volunteer who runs out on his fellow soldiers. Okay, maybe a touch of sympathy, as I’ll stand by my original conclusion from December:

    Should any such deserters elect to return, I would like to see Hinzman and his ilk given a choice: prison or finish service in one of the historical roles of conscientious objector, such as a medic or chaplain’s assistant. See, I have a heart, especially for Quaker Buddhists.

    See, I have a heart.

  • Iraqi, U.S. Forces Overrun Terror Base

    I may not be too confident about the body count, as reports have ranged from “dozens” all the way up to 85 dead scumbags, but I am certain which side has momentum in Iraq after government forces crush a terrorist base.

    After a two-hour firefight, Iraqi forces and U.S. helicopters captured an insurgent base north of Baghdad, killing 85 rebels, U.S. and Iraqi military officials said Wednesday.

    “A previous safe haven for planning attacks has been removed,” a U.S. military official said of Tuesday’s battle.

    Although the Iraqi military said it killed 85 insurgents during the firefight, the U.S. military said the number of rebel dead was “undetermined.”

    […]

    After entering the camp, Iraqi commandos found non-Iraqi passports, training publications, propaganda documents, weapons and ammunition, the U.S. military said.

    The U.S. military said the camp is at a remote location about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, near Lake Tharthar, along the border of Salaheddin and Anbar provinces. But the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the camp was in Samarra, which is east of the lake.

    […]

    The U.S. role in the battle was primarily to provide helicopter support, the U.S. military official said. The battle “is another indication of [the insurgents’] diminished capabilities,” the official said.

    “This in an indication that they have been forced from major population centers and forced to operate in more remote areas,” he said.

    Dr. Rusty Shackleford over at the Jawa Report has a rather colorful post about the engagement.

    It turns out that there were 85 pieces of terrorist shit that were splattered by our Iraqi allies today, not 80. Hey, five more dead mujahidin going to meet their 75 white grapes is a good numerical adjustment in my book.

    Dr. Rusty’s post also includes a nice round-up of others writing on the matter.

    Add to the story this Associated Press summary of the recent success against the Saddamist and radical Islamist terrorists.

    Battles that have killed large numbers of Iraqi insurgents over the past few days:

    SUNDAY: Dozens of insurgents ambush a U.S. convoy near the infamous “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, and 26 militants are killed in the resulting gunbattle. Eight others are taken into custody, including seven wounded. Seven soldiers are also injured.

    MONDAY: Militants ambush a convoy of security officials in Mosul, sparking a gunbattle that left 17 dead and 14 injured, according to Iraqi police. No security forces were hurt.

    TUESDAY: Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, raid a suspected insurgent training camp near Lake Tharthar, leaving 85 people dead, according to Iraqi officials. At least seven Iraqi commandos were also killed.

    You can double-check my math, but that looks like a three-day winning streak with a cumulative score of 128-7. And that, folks, is a sweet scoreboard.

  • Guard Shines Against Ambush in Iraq

    Weekend warrior.

    Yeah, I was called that. Derisively, and more often than I was thanked for my service and sacrifices. Maybe that was my fault, as I left the National Guard in 1999. That was well before the patriotic fervor of 9/11 swept the land and people began to see Guardsmen and Reservists performing in the roles for which we trained.

    Now, with the war against radical Islamist terror having active theaters in Afghanistan and Iraq, the reserve components have been called upon extensively. Sometimes with praise, sometimes with condemnation.

    How now, when serious blood has been shed? Initial responses to Sunday’s engagement, where 27 insurgents were killed in a brutal failure of an ambush on a coalition convoy, centered on questions about another Tet and whether the size was a sign of a desperate or growing opposition.

    Little reported until today (and still little reported) was that it was a Guard unit that kicked ass on Sunday, killing 27 while suffering only three casualties after being ambushed.

    A Kentucky National Guard unit is being credited with responding in “textbook” fashion during an ambush here March 20, killing 27 insurgents and capturing a sizable weapons cache and valuable intelligence.

    The insurgent death toll is the highest in Iraq since the Fallujah operation in November 2004 and, according to Army Capt. Todd Lindner, commander of the Richmond, Ky.-based 617th Military Police Company, represents “without a doubt, one of the most significant impacts an MP company has had in this war.”

    Lindner credits his unit’s dogged commitment to training and unwillingness to cut corners with preparing his soldiers for the firefight along an alternative supply route about seven miles southeast of Baghdad.

    Three squads from the 617th MP Company were providing security for a convoy along the supply route when it came under attack by 40 to 50 insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

    According to Lindner, the soldiers positioned themselves between the convoy and the attackers, “putting down a heavy volume of fire” and flanking the enemy, when they began receiving fire from the rear.

    “They were armed to the teeth, and looked like they were ready to fight for a long time,” Linder said of the insurgents.

    Ultimately, the unit killed 27 of the insurgents and captured several more. After the attack, they recovered a cache of RPGs, rockets, machine guns, assault weapons, hand grenades and ammunition.

    Three unit soldiers were wounded, two seriously.

    “These guys were amazing,” Linder said of his soldiers. “This proves what we’ve been saying all along: These guys rock.”

    Lindner credits training with making the vital difference in his unit’s ability to respond under fire.

    “We’ve been training for this mission for the last year before we got here,” he said. “Once we knew we were coming (to Iraq), we changed our training to focus specifically on this mission.”

    That training, he said, “absolutely made a difference” in his unit’s response during the weekend attack, sharpening its ability to maneuver while firing.

    Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Ware, platoon sergeant for the squads involved, agrees the training the unit received “absolutely” made a difference during the attack.

    “From Day 1, there was an emphasis on training,” he said. “We trained and trained and trained.”

    Equally critical, he said, was the unit’s strict adherence to standards — conducting precombat inspections, making sure weapons are clean, and requiring use of body armor, Kevlar helmets and eye and hearing protection.

    These steps have protected his company against numerous attacks, Ware said. “You can’t completely take the risk out of what we’re doing, but you can mitigate it,” he said.

    Ware, who served 10 years on active duty before becoming a full-time National Guardsman, said he came to the Guard with prejudices that its members played second string to the active force. But he said the Guard members he worked with quickly proved him wrong.

    “The Guard is not the same Guard it was two years ago,” he said. “They’re as good as any active duty unit.”

    The average Guard unit is most assuredly not up to par with their counterparts in the active Army, but the difference is in training time. It most assuredly is not in motivation or talent.

    After Action Report follows: the terrorists should learn not to jack with a bunch of “weekend warriors,” even if trying to use the two-year anniversary of the war’s opening for a Tet-type media response.

    And certainly not on a weekend. That’s prime time, baby.

    Hooah, troops!

  • Artfully Honoring the Fallen

    An exhibit is soon to open that will pay a rather special tribute to our soldiers who themselves have paid the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq — a collection of over 1,300 personal portraits to be displayed at Arlington National Cemetary.

    Spc. Brandon Tobler, an Army reservist from Portland, Ore., grew up with one mom.

    But now that Tobler’s life has ended — cut short at age 19 in a vehicle crash during a blinding sandstorm in Iraq on March 22, 2003 — the young soldier has two moms: his birth mother, and Washington portrait artist Annette Polan.

    Now Tobler “is my baby, too,” Polan said March 15, as she ran her fingers gently over the surface of the 6-inch-by-8-inch portrait she created for the new “Faces of the Fallen” project.

    Polan traced a finger over the portrait’s full lips.

    “His mouth is so alive for me,” she murmured. “I see it and think, ‘I hope he had a girlfriend. I hope he had his first kiss.’ ”

    The power of art to spark emotions in that manner — emotions a photograph may leave untouched — is what Polan and more than 150 volunteer artists are hoping to evoke with “Faces of the Fallen,” an exhibition of 1,327 individual portraits of servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The exhibit, which opens to the public March 23 at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 5, includes portraits or silhouettes of every servicemember killed while deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom through Nov. 11, 2004.

    This is not a disrepectful protest of flag-draped faux coffins. This is not a stab at our troops’ efforts in Iraq. I hasten to point out that, unlike the casualty figures so commonly bandied about, our losses in Afghanistan are being included and honored.

    The military and the families obviously agree.

    Retired Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught, the Women’s Memorial Foundation president and a friend of Polan, was an early supporter.

    Vaught acted as a liaison with the Defense Department, as well as offering the memorial as the exhibit space.

    Before the project got under way, the different military services mailed letters to each family whose portrait was scheduled to be part of the exhibit, giving them the opportunity not to participate if they so chose.

    They were also informed that once the exhibit is done touring, each honored servicemember’s family would be given the portrait.

    Not a single family declined, Polan said.

    […]

    The intent of the portraits, however, is not to remind viewers of death, but to celebrate lives that are normally noted only in ever-growing statistics, said Dennis O’Neil, an expert in print-making who provided 200 hand-screened silhouettes for the exhibit that are “place holders” for servicemembers whose photos were not available, or whose assigned artists have not completed their assignments.

    “When one artist deals with one soul, you’re re-humanizing the fact that these people lost their lives,” said O’Neil, who in addition to working as an artist is also a professor of art at the Corcoran.

    […]

    Before the exhibit opens to the public, there will be a special reception and viewing for the families of the servicemembers. Polan said that 1,800 family members have indicated that they will attend, including a family traveling from India for the event, and a military widow who is coming from Australia.

    For all the viewers of “Faces of the Fallen,” Polan said, “what I really hope [the exhibit] ultimately has is the quality of healing.”

    “We as a country are going through a very divisive time,” Polan said.

    “But we can all agree as Americans that the troops who sacrificed their lives, deserve to be honored and remembered.”

    Here’s hoping the families are helped in their search for solace and healing, and I want to thank Polan and the other artists involved for their efforts.

    More information, including a slide show of some of the portraits, can be found at the Faces of the Fallen website. Hmmm … might be time for another trip to D.C. soon.

  • Army Ups Enlistment Age to 39

    Can one teach old dogs new military tricks?

    The maximum age for new recruits joining the Army Reserve and National Guard has been raised by five years to 39.

    Officials for the U.S. Army, which is struggling to meet enlistment quotas following two years of war in Iraq, announced the policy on Friday. They said raising the age expands the recruiting pool and strengthens the readiness of Reserve units. Another benefit, the Army said in a statement, is the “maturity, motivation, loyalty and patriotism” older recruits will bring to the service.

    Physical requirements will remain the same for all recruits regardless of age. Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins told FOXNews.com that the older recruits will be required to pass the same “standard batter [sic] of physical, mental and cognitive tests” and would be expected to enter any environment expected of younger soldiers.

    There are many “physically fit, health-conscious individuals in this [age] category who can serve their nation and they do right now,” Robbins said.

    The Army National Guard missed its recruiting goal for the 2004 fiscal year and is “short across the board right now” in recruiting soldiers for active duty, Reserves and Guardsman, Robbins said. But she added that recruitment during winter months is generally lower than average, while the end of the school year and summer see a jump in enlistments.

    […]

    Robbins said that the Army expected the higher enlistment age to help it reach recruitment goals, but that no specific numerical goal for the older age group was set.

    The test program applies only to new recruits and not those currently enlisted soldiers whose age requirements are determined by federal law. The age increase will run to September 2008. After the end of that period, the Army will “collect and analyze statistical data,” including how many enlistments were recruited and how many were retained.

    My guess is that this change will yield very few new recruits. After all, half of this group was still eligible to enlist on Sept. 12, 2001. Also, we’re not talking about just one weekend a month and two weeks a year. This is for new recruits who would have to march away from their civilian lives for basic and advanced training, the same training expected of active-duty recruits. Add to this the possibility of activation and I doubt there’s a substantial portion in this age bracket ready to raise their right hand for state and country.

    The people eligible again have already had opportunity to demonstrate love of country and desire to militarily serve. Will many fathers (and even grandfathers) now rally to the cause? I doubt enough even understand the threat of radical Islam and that the cause is their families.

  • Changed U.S. Military Emerges from Iraq

    Peter Grier, staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, takes an interesting look at the structure and equipment of the American military and how they are being shaped by the Iraqi campaign.

    Hard service in Iraq is wearing out some of the US military’s core weapons. Tanks, armored vehicles, and aircraft are being run at rates two to six times greater than in peacetime, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Congress earlier this month.

    The bad news here is they may need to be replaced. But there’s good news too, according to Secretary Rumsfeld: It’s possible they can be replaced with something better.

    The need to refurbish equipment “is providing an opportunity to adjust the capabilities of the force earlier than otherwise might have been the case,” Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee on March 10.

    Perhaps the same might be said of the military as a whole.

    […]

    The US may have gone to war with the Army it had, to paraphrase Secretary Rumsfeld. But it’s likely to leave the war with armed services that are considerably different.

    Go give it a gander. While the article looks, with varying degrees of depth, at all of the involved branches, I found myself cringing slightly at the following.

    “We have to design our armed forces for the 360-degree battlefield and not the linear battlefield,” [Gen. John Abizaid, US Central Commander,] told House Armed Services Committee members.

    I’ve written before on the ever-present problem of applying lessons learned to the military — it is all too easy to end up preparing for the previous war and find one’s self blindsided by the realities of the next war. I worry that we may go too far into this 360-degree, high mobility direction and completely lose the ability to slug it out on a more traditional battlefield.

  • General: Iraq Insurgency on Decline

    Maybe, just maybe, Iraq is on the verge of finding its own footing.

    The Iraqis have voted, the holdouts and terrorists have repeatedly failed in their boastful threats and the American-led coalition has adjusted tactics and training as needed. Now, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff hints that efforts may be showing some serious returns.

    The military’s top general gave his most optimistic public assessment on Thursday of progress in Iraq, saying the insurgency shows signs of slipping as the U.S.-led international effort gains momentum in building Iraqi police and military forces.

    During a visit to a training base for Iraqi police cadets outside of Amman, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in recalling his stop Monday in Iraq, “I came away more positive than I’ve ever been” about the prospects for overcoming the insurgency and stabilizing the country.

    He also saw evidence, however, that obstacles remain, even for the Iraqis who are training in the relative safety of the Jordanian desert. Myers was told by his guide at the police training academy that some cadets have used water bottles as simulated weapons because the academy has not acquired enough rifles.

    Myers said the number of attacks against U.S. forces across Iraq has fallen to between 40 and 50 a day, and about half of those cause no injuries or property damage. The number of daily attacks is about at the level of one year ago, he said — far fewer than in the weeks prior to the Jan. 30 elections.

    “I think we’re getting some momentum built up against the insurgency,” he told reporters at his hotel in the Jordanian capital at the conclusion of a weeklong trip that also took him to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

    Myers acknowledged that violence in Iraq continues to kill U.S. forces as well as Iraqi security forces and civilians.

    I’ve never said it was over. I, just like President Bush, have never said that the mission was accomplished. The mission continues and continues to be dangerous. But there is progress. If anything, the calls of “Quagmire!” sound all the more pathetic and shrill when the news of the entire region is taken into account.

    During his Amman stop, Myers also visited Jordan’s special operations command headquarters outside the capital and watched several dozen Iraqis demonstrate on a training range what they had learned in a 12-week counterterrorism course. Jordan’s special operations forces are conducting the training, along with U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers.

    With Myers standing almost within arm’s reach, several Iraqis clad in black uniforms and firing live ammunition from M-16 rifles blasted their way into a mock residence, shooting the locks off doors, and tossing flash grenades that threw smoke and dust into Myers’ face as he observed from a low-slung catwalk.

    Myers and some of his senior staff wore armor-plated vests.

    I’ll take the only-somewhat cheap shot here: I’ll bet some of the rodents at Democratic Underground.com (I will not give a real link to these freaks) would’ve been drooling over this “revolutionary” opportunity.

    Asked by a reporter to rate the Iraqis on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the competency of U.S. Special Forces, one of the U.S. trainers said they are about a five. More than half of the 99 Iraqis in the counterterrorism training had no prior military experience, officials said.

    “They looked very disciplined,” Myers said later.

    At the police academy, where about 3,400 Iraqi cadets are in an eight-week training course, Myers saw a demonstration of the skills they have learned for stopping suspicious vehicles, searching them for weapons and homemade bombs and arresting suspected terrorists or insurgents with minimum use of force.

    Myers was told the entire curriculum for the police academy was overhauled after Lt. Gen. David Petraeus informed officials there last September that the program was not producing competent police officers. Instead of spending 75 percent of their time in classroom instruction and 25 percent in actual field training, the cadets are now getting less class time and more opportunity to practice on the training range.

    The Iraqis also are getting some practical advice on survival skills, which are a high priority given the large number of police who are attacked by the insurgents. For example: At home, don’t hang your laundered uniform on an outside clothes line, making your home a target for the insurgents.

    Don’t let your neighbors see your uniform. Sound bizarre? It shouldn’t. I remember protocols shifting back and forth on American military personnel wearing uniforms or civilian attire on even domestic civilian flights. And that was in the oh-so-joyous ’90s, long before President Bush could be blamed for anything.

    Progress. Chipping away at the support columns holding up the Islamist bastards. Baby steps in a nation possibly becoming giant strides in a regions.

    It almost hurts to hold back the hope.

  • Kuwait to Charge U.S. Military for Fuel

    Gratitude can only go so far. Actually, I’m surprised to learn this freebie even lasted this long.

    The days when a U.S. Army truck could fill up for free at a gas station in this oil-rich state are coming to an end. Kuwait’s energy minister said Thursday that U.S. troops are going to have to start paying for fuel.

    In a gift that must have saved the Pentagon a fortune, Kuwait has not charged the U.S. military for fuel since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Tens of thousands of American Humvees, trucks and armored vehicles have rolled through the country and across the desert border into Iraq during the past two years.

    “But now after the Iraqi elections … we have to create a mechanism for payment,” the energy minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, told reporters.

    Kuwait and the United States have agreed in principle on the matter, but the prices and other aspects are still to be worked out, he said.

    The minister did not say when the new system would start and he did not give other details.

    No objections to this from me, really.