Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Why I’ll Never Be Allowed to Ask Kerry Questions

    Now that Kerry has once again recast himself as the doubting, wrong-war-wrong-place candidate, blaming Bush for his statements on the progress of the war, here are the questions to which would I demand answers:

    • Are we at war?

      • If the answer was “no,” I would cut off the interview and call him an idiot. If yes, I would proceed.

    • Of our past wartime presidents, whom do you view as successful?
    • Of these successful wartime presidents, how many accurately and immediately reported to the American people every difficulty and setback, as you currently seem to expect of the Bush administration?
    • Of these same administrations, how many accurately foretold and dealt with every danger and complexity of their wartime and postwar situations, as you currently seem to expect of the Bush administration?
    • Other than bailing out of the current war, how can you assure the American public that every wartime decision you make will be above reproach, as you currently seem to expect of the Bush administration?
    • If you do bail out of the current war, how can you assure the American public that the dangers of expansionistic Islamic terrorism will not have a greater impact on their children and grandchildren than would’ve been the case had we fought the good fight now? Other than the fact you were in Viet Nam?
    • Do you plan to utilize the fact that you were on the wrong side of history in the Cold War, advocating a unilateral freeze instead of Reagan’s military build-up, during the last portion of your campaign?
    • What will you do if, after all of your diplomacy, negotiation and nuance to get your planned international assistance, our alleged “allies” still say no? What if, no matter what you do, they freakin’ still say no?

      • And finally,

    • How long until you, the defeatist, repeat the last-man-to-die-for-a-mistake line? You do realize early voting opens soon in some states, right?

    Please, some journalist of importance or access, pretty please follow this line of questioning. If you need help for potential follow-up questions, let me know at gunner-at-targetcentermass-dot-com. I’ll help you, if only to salvage the concepts of journalistic integrity that Rather,et al., have thoroughly shamed.

  • Flight Diverted After Cat Stevens Tied to Watch List

    Living testament to my belief that a huge chunk of the music of the ’60s and ’70s was garbage, the former Cat Stevens hit a U.S. government tripwire and caused the diversion of an inbound international flight.

    A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine today when it was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as singer Cat Stevens — was on a government watch list and barred from entering the country, two federal officials said.

    United Airlines Flight 919 was en route to Dulles International Airport when the match was made between a passenger and a name on the watch list, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. The plane was met by federal agents at Maine’s Bangor International Airport around 3 p.m., Melendez said.

    The two federal officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the passenger as Islam. They said Islam was denied entry on national security grounds, but had no details about why the peace activist might be considered a risk to the United States.

    ….

    He was expected to be returned early Wednesday to London, the official said.

    Look, Cat Islam may or may not be much of a danger. That said, I want him kept permanently out of the country just because of “Morning Has Broken.” My hippie music teacher made us sing that crap in fifth grade and I still bear the scars.

  • U.S. Soldiers Introduce Baseball to Iraqis

    Okay, here’s my feel-good story of the day.

    Gray-shirted Brusiks filled the bases in the final inning when the potential winning run strode to the plate — Kamaran Sabir, the team’s 14-year-old slugger.

    Kamaran clenched his teeth. The Nawruz pitcher, Diller Fakhraddin, stared back. Parents in the stands wrung their hands and shouted. Diller’s fastball whizzed in, and Kamaran hacked.

    Strike one. Strike two. Then, “Strike three!” yelled the umpire, U.S. Army Capt. Deron Haught. “You’re out!”

    And what may have been Iraq’s first organized baseball game was over, with the red-shirted Nawruz — the Kurdish word for New Year’s Day — beating Brusik, or Team Lightning, 10-7.

    The teams of 13- to 17-year-old boys are the only two in Altun Kupri’s new league, and Wednesday was opening day in this northern Iraqi village, a clutch of blocky buildings named for a 16th century Ottoman bridge that once spanned the Little Zab River here.

    It was a perfect evening for baseball. Parents crunched pistachios to the ding of aluminum bats. Soldiers from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade stood guard at the soccer field-turned-ball diamond, with a Humvee parked at each outfield foul pole and another sitting just beyond the center field fence.

    This is real hearts-and-minds stuff. While I normally view such activity with a jaded eye, I think this is the kind that can work. Involve the children and families. Let them know that there’s life without war, without terror, without the boredom of soccer. Okay, it’s not time for this in the Sunni triangle, but perhaps it is time for more, much more of this in the majority of Iraq.

    Haught, commander of a platoon that occupies a small base in this town 205 miles north of Baghdad, said the soldiers hope America’s favorite pastime catches on in Iraq.

    “I’d like to see one of them get a scholarship at West Virginia University and then go and play for the Pirates,” said Haught, 37, a Pittsburgh fan who hails from Harrisville, W.Va.

    It’s not an impossible dream. Baseball has thrived in some countries where U.S. troops have deployed, including Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

    ….

    The idea for the league arose after Haught’s soldiers began playing baseball among themselves. They made a ball from wadded paper wrapped in duct tape. An aluminum cot leg was the bat.

    Haught said he mentioned the games to his sister back in West Virginia. “She felt bad. We were over here serving our country and we were playing baseball with a tape ball and a cot leg,” he said. “So she started Operation Home Run.”

    Packages began arriving filled with baseballs, bats and gloves.

    At the same time, the platoon was trying — and failing — to unify Altun Kupri’s sports clubs, which are grouped, like the town, into Turkomen and Kurdish camps. So the soldiers started their own sports club and made it a baseball league. In July, Haught persuaded the city council to send over a few dozen kids.

    He wasn’t sure it would work. Iraqis play soccer and volleyball, sports that don’t involve catching or throwing. But the kids picked up the basics.

    I think this is great stuff. I look forward to hearing about a future Iraqi counterpart talking of his childhood hero, Keith al-Hernandez.

    With the final out on opening day, Diller, the winning 16-year-old pitcher, and his teammates poured off the field, their arms in the air, shouting “Nawruz, Nawruz!”

    “I like this game. It’s better than soccer,” the lanky boy said.

    Perhaps we’re really not so different after all.

    EDIT: More on Operation Home Run here, here and here.

  • Kerry’s Sister Tries to Sour Aussies on Coalition

    Apparently tired of lying about Bush’s “unilateral” campaign in Iraq, John Kerry might be taking steps to disperse our coalition himself, with his own sister acting as surrogate.

    JOHN Kerry’s campaign has warned Australians that the Howard Government’s support for the US in Iraq has made them a bigger target for international terrorists.

    Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

    “Australia has kept faith with the US and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels,” she said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

    Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters effectively takes Kerry to task for this maneuver.

    So much for “building alliances”! Kerry has now acted to undermine a critical relationship in the war on terror just to score some electoral points.

    ….

    Does John Kerry care more about grabbing power than he does about the United States? It certainly appears that way. Who gave the order for Diana Kerry to interfere with the Australian election? Who told her to act in a manner that is calculated to undermine the American-Australian partnership on the terror war? Frankly, not only should this disqualify him for the presidency, it should disqualify anyone involved in his campaign from ever holding public office. Those who condone this interference in a wartime alliance must be punished at the polls, and their party as a whole should be blocked from any power whatsoever until they atone for their actions.

    Just as interesting was this from CQ commenter Dismuke:

    Gee – why bomb trains prior to an election when you have the Kerry campaign out there trying to accomplish the exact same thing?

    Frankly, as the days go by, the more I’m disgusted by John Kerry. He is seriously doing all he can to turn my pro-Bush vote into an anti-Kerry vote.

  • French Press: Kerry Attacks Not Working

    An article released by the French press AFP enumerates a list of recent attacks and claims by the seemingly desperate Kerry campaign and their negligible, perhaps negative, effect on voters.

    First, let’s look at the attacks.

    Kerry’s claim that the White House has a secret callup plan stirred up the presidential election campaign….

    ….

    Kerry has condemned the president over his own military service and his handling of Iraq and the economy.

    He has also hit out at Cheney over his links to Halliburton, the controversial oil and general services giant which is in trouble over military contracts in Iraq.

    In his latest assault, Kerry said the president has a secret plan to call up large numbers of reservists for Iraq duty, which he said will be announced only after the November 2 election.

    “He won’t tell us that day by day we’re running out of soldiers and that we’re now resorting to a backdoor draft from our reservists and our National Guard,” the Massachusetts senator said during a campaign stop in Albuquerque on Friday.

    First, yes, many reservists are currently scheduled to go to Iraq. This is known, not secret. Many have been called up and scheduled to rotate in January. More will assuredly be needed. Second, the attacks on the president’s service won’t work as long as surrogates assisting in the assault rely on forgeries and shoddy journalism. Maybe not even then, as the focus on Viet Nam has not helped Kerry since the primaries. Third, the evil Halliburton attacks only work with the far left, and ignore the abilities and sacrifices of the corporation. Fourth, can someone freakin’ tell Kerry that the phrase “backdoor draft” refers to stop-loss, not utilizing the reserves. It means keeping people from exiting after their commitment is complete. This guy will only have limited respect from the military as long as he cannot speak their language.

    The article then looks at the current effectiveness of the strategy of attacking everything Bush while never establishing anything Kerry.

    Two polls published Thursday had shown Kerry pulling even with Bush, but a third gave the Republican a healthy 13-point margin.

    The CBS/New York Times poll said Bush’s lead had widened from seven to nine points in the past week.

    ….

    The Times said voters are saying that Kerry “has not laid out a case for why he wants to be president and expressing strong concern about his ability to manage an international crisis.”

    ….

    But it said that Bush has been “lifted as much by what Mr Kerry has done wrong as by what Mr Bush has done right.”

    Maybe, just maybe, the American public doesn’t want a candidate whose stance on Iraq and other terror issues is a wheel of fortune, spinning around with constant options of definitely, definitely not, and definitely maybe but certainly differently if so. Unfortunately for the Kerry campaign right now, a good chunk of the electorate is still living in a post-9/11 world.

  • Read This … Please

    I read this when it was first posted and wanted to link. One thing, another, etc. Anyway, from Bill helping out at the Gazette, here’s this from Blackfive.

    Thanks, Doc. You did all that could’ve been asked and more.

  • Edwards: No Military Draft if Dems Win

    As it should be, national defense is an issue in the 2004 presidential election. Unfortunately, it is not being discussed but, rather, manipulated in a seemingly concerted effort.

    Vice presidential candidate John Edwards promised a West Virginia mother on Wednesday that if the Democratic ticket is elected in November the military draft would not be revived.

    During a question-and-answer session, the mother of a 23-year-old who recently graduated from West Virginia University asked Edwards whether the draft would be reinstated.

    “There will be no draft when John Kerry is president,” Edwards said, a statement that drew a standing ovation.

    The current force is all-volunteer, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he opposes reinstating the draft. But the Pentagon has taken several steps that have drawn criticism.

    In June, the Pentagon recalled to active duty 5,674 members of the Individual Ready Reserve, soldiers who have served specified tours of duty but have years remaining in their enlistment contracts.

    Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, has complained about the extent of the Bush administration’s use of Reserves and National Guardsmen and a device called “stop loss,” which prevents soldiers from leaving when typical obligations end. “They have effectively used a stop-loss policy as a backdoor draft,” Kerry said.

    First, tie this to the (incorrect) allegation of a backdoor draft during Kerry’s DNC acceptance speech.

    Second, tie this to an email campaign started from a “Soapbox Alert” on Congress.org, a soapbox alert that has been subsequently removed and has been replaced with the message “The Soapbox Alert you’ve requested is no longer available.”

    Luckily, a discussion forum I’m a member of was subjected to repeated postings of this “alert” and threads are still available. The alert read as follows:

    Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
    The Draft will Start in June 2005

    There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program’s initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 — just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public’s attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

    $28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan – fiscal year 2004.

    The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld’s prediction of a “long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on “terrorism”] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

    Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/legislation/na…s89/default.asp entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, “to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18–26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.” These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services.

    Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era.

    College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a “smart border declaration,” which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a “pre-clearance agreement” of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

    Even those voters who currently support US actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a
    shelter and includes women in the draft.

    The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision.

    Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too — it’s their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!

    Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren’t telling their constituents about these bills — and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they’re not covering this important story.

    I looked into this and quickly was able to set up a pat response anytime this was posted: both pieces of legislation, while legitimate, were introduced in 2003 by Democrats (e.g. Rangel, McDermott, Conyers, Hollings). That President Bush is so brilliant as to be able to manipulate the Dems into submitting legislation supporting his secret plans is simply astounding.

    Okay, enough of fighting the stupidity campaign with facts. Now, let’s look at Edwards’ promise.

    This is simply a promise that never should be made. If unforeseen events demand a draft, the president would either have to break the promise or live up to it, cutting short our ability to respond.

    Nobody wants a draft. The all-volunteer military is far more effective in its current form than it would be with a bunch of conscripts. However, it cannot and should not be promised that there will not arise a need for conscripts. Contrary to apparently popular perception, the draft wasn’t a public raping used exclusively in the Viet Nam campaign. No, the draft has a long history of being used by this country in time of need, back to the Civil War and even in WWII, despite the popular notions that these were wars fought by idealistic volunteers.

    We are the United States of America. We have several advantages in our global position, militarily speaking, among which are the following:

    • Nuclear capability, anytime, anywhere
    • Technological superiority
    • Relatively sizable population

    It is my opinion that none of these advantages should ever be taken off the table. Our military is for this nation’s defense; I can honestly never see a reason to broadcast to a potential enemy that we, by policy, limit ourselves in any fashion.

    I honestly do not think that the Kerry-Edwards ticket takes our national defense and the fight against Islamist terror seriously. I have spoken before, repeatedly, about wrestling with the idea of re-enlisting since 9/11. I state now that (barring disaster), this will not happen if Kerry wins the presidency.

    It’s that simple. Short of disaster, I will not again volunteer to serve while John Kerry is Commander-in-Chief.

    At least I’m wise enough to hedge and allow for necessity; Edwards isn’t.

  • Terrorist Group Claims Two Aussies Kidnapped

    A terrorist group in Iraq is claiming to have nabbed two Australian nationals.

    Two Australian security contractors yesterday became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq after militants apparently ambushed their convoy on a road outside Baghdad.

    In a statement, a group calling itself the Islamic Secret Army said it would execute both men “without a second chance” unless their government pulled its troops out of Iraq within 24 hours.

    The group said it had seized the Australians, together with two east Asian nationals, in the town of Samarra, a Sunni militant stronghold effectively in the hands of the insurgents.

    Is no news since the claim actually good news?

    IT WAS a good sign that those claiming to have kidnapped two Australians in Iraq had not released the names of their alleged hostages, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

    ….

    Mr Howard said the Department of Foreign Affairs was yet to verify whether a kidnapping had actually occurred, or whether it was a hoax, but said in past kidnapping cases, the names of those held had been released and their passports displayed on television.

    In fact, maybe the claim holds as much water as CBS’ Killian documents.

    Australia has accounted for all its nationals known to be working in Iraq following a claim by a radical Islamic group to have kidnapped two Australians, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday.

    “At this stage we can find no evidence that any Australians are missing or have been kidnapped, but nevertheless we’ve got to be cautious in what we say because further information could turn up as the day goes on,” Downer said.

    He said the Australian embassy in Baghdad had accounted for all 88 civilian Australians registered with it.

    “We have also checked with four companies that we know employ Australians and those companies have all accounted for the Australians,” Downer said in a television interview.

    “There is, though, one of those four companies that is doing a recheck to finally clarify the situation,” he said.

    Let’s hope that this is nothing. However, with elections pending in Australia, one would expect that further moves by the scumbags against our allies are likely to be attempted thanks to the Spanish example.

  • Remembering 9/11

    I recommend this:
    9/11

    I also prefer to remember this, my alma mater’s first home game post-9/11. The color-coordinated shirts were the idea and hard work of a small handful of students. Thousands of dollars were raised for victims’ charities.
    Red, White and Blue-Out at Kyle Field, 9/22/01
    (image from the Houston Chronicle)

  • City Falls to Muslims

    Afghanistan is moving towards elections. Iraq pacification and democratization is in motion. Whither next in the war on Islamic terror? So many targets to consider. Syria. Iran. Sweden.

    Sweden?!!

    This read is as disgusting as it is alarming. (hat tip to Rusty Shackleford)