An excellent cause
Dan Gillmor, of the San Jose Mercury News, say of Spirit of America, "a Web-based humanitarian project that almost anyone can endorse, regardless of one's stance on the... war."
| Hello, Doug. You last logged in on November 15, 2004 at 12:30PM ET from IP address 24.1.2.3. |
| Fahri quotes Joe Scarborough blasting Sean Hannity for reading RNC "talking points" for the past four years and wondering how Hannity is going to fill three hours a day from here on out. Did it not occur to Fahri that Joe S. works for MSNBC and is a direct competitor of Hannity's television show, and thus might be less than a disinterested observer of how Hannity does his show or of its prospects moving forward? Yesterday Sean had on Janeane Garofalo for a rollicking couple of segments that made for great radio. Like me Hannity interviews newsmakers from both sides of the aisle. As long as there is a newscast on the networks there will be vibrant and growing talk shows.
Talk radio, like the blogosphere, has experienced explosive growth because vast numbers of Americans do not trust MSM --including the Washington Post-- to report the truth. This past election cycle, with Rathergate and the myth of the missing munitions have confirmed for that audience and many others that the Post etc are just extensions of the DNC. Until MSM reforms itself, the growth curve for talk radio --and the honest journalists who work within as opposed to the agenda journalists at 60 Minutes-- will do fine for the reason that Chronkite did fine for all those years. People want news from sources they trust. They trust me, Paul, and they trust Sean and Laura and Rush and Dennis and Michael and Bill. They don't trust you. It's the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CBS, and all other biased media that should be worried, not talk radio. New media is gaining audience share; MSM is losing it. Fahri's article is like GM warning Toyota in 1970 to watch out for market trends. |
| It’s a safety issue pure and simple. After assaulting through a target, put a security round in everybody’s head. Sorry al-Reuters, there’s no paddy wagon rolling around Fallujah picking up “prisoners” and offering them a hot cup a joe, falafel, and a blanket. There’s no time to dick around in the target, you clear the space, dump the chumps, and moveon.org. Are Corpsman expected to treat wounded terrorists? Negative. Hey libs, worried about the defense budget? Well, it would be waste, fraud, and abuse for a Corpsman to spend one man minute or a battle dressing on a terrorist, its much cheaper to just spend the $.02 on a 5.56mm FMJ.
By the way, terrorists who chop off civilian’s heads are not prisoners, they are carcasses. UPDATE: Let me be very clear about this issue. I have looked around the web, and many people get this concept, but there are some stragglers. Here is your situation Marine. You just took fire from unlawful combatants shooting from a religious building attempting to use the sanctuary status of their position as protection. But you’re in Fallujah now, and the Marine Corps has decided that they’re not playing that game this time. That was Najaf. So you set the mosque on fire and you hose down the terrorists with small arms, launch some AT-4s (Rockets), some 40MM grenades into the building and things quiet down. So you run over there, and find some tangos wounded and pretending to be dead. You are aware that suicide martyrdom is like really popular with these kind of idiots, and like taking some Marines with them would be really cool. So you can either risk your life and your fireteam’s lives by having them cover you while you bend down and search a guy that you think is pretending to be dead for some reason. Also, you don’t know who or what is in the next room, and you’re already speaking english to each other and its loud because your hearing is poor from shooting people for several days. So you know that there are many other rooms to enter, and that if anyone is still alive in those rooms, they know that Americans are in the mosque. Meanwhile (3 seconds later), you still have this terrorist that was just shooting at you from a mosque playing possum. What do you do? You double tap his head, and you go to the next room, that’s what. What about the Geneva Conventions and all that Law of Land Warfare stuff? What about it. Without even addressing the issues at hand you first thought should be, “I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6.” Bear in mind that this is a perpetual mindset that is reinforced by experiences gained on a minute by minute basis. Secondly, you are fighting an unlawful combatant in a Sanctuary which is a double No No on his part. Third, tactically you are in no position to take “prisoners” because there are more rooms to search and clear, and the behavior of said terrorist indicates that he is up to no good. No good in Fallujah is a very large place and the low end of no good and the high end of no good are fundamentally the same... Marines get hurt or die. So there is no compelling reason for you to do anything but double tap this idiot and get on with the mission. If you are a veteran then everything I have just written is self evident, if you are not a veteran than at least try to put yourself in the situation. Remember, in Fallujah there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only now. Right NOW. Have you ever lived in NOW for a week? It is not easy, and if you have never lived in NOW for longer than it takes to finish the big roller coaster at Six Flags, then shut your hole about putting Marines in jail for war crimes. Be advised, I am not talking to my readers, but if this post gets linked up, I want regular folks to get this message loud and clear. Froggy OUT. |
| This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.
This is one most don't hear: A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives. The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag. But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares. This is the story everyone hears: A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insugent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded. Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face. The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!" The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead. Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for commiting a war crime. Unlawful killing. And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, i too would have done the same. For those of you who don't know, we Marines, Band of Brothers, Jarheads, Leathernecks, etc., do not fight because we think it is right, or think it is wrong. We are here for the man to our left, and the man to our right. We choose to give our lives so that the man or woman next to us can go home and see their husbands, wives, children, friends and families. For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of your recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. See what I've seen, walk where I have walked. To those of you who support us, my sincerest gratitude. You keep us alive. I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. They do not represent those of the Marine Corps or of the US military, or any other. |
| Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule.
As US and Iraqi troops mopped up the last vestiges of resistance in the city after a week of bombardment and fighting, residents who stayed on through last week's offensive were emerging and telling harrowing tales of the brutality they endured. Flyposters still litter the walls bearing all manner of decrees from insurgent commanders, to be heeded on pain of death. Amid the rubble of the main shopping street, one decree bearing the insurgents' insignia - two Kalashnikovs propped together - and dated November 1 gives vendors three days to remove nine market stalls from outside the city's library or face execution. The pretext given is that the rebels wanted to convert the building into a headquarters for the "Mujahidin Advisory Council" through which they ran the city. Another poster in the ruins of the souk bears testament to the strict brand of Sunni Islam imposed by the council, fronted by hardline cleric Abdullah Junabi. The decree warns all women that they must cover up from head to toe outdoors, or face execution by the armed militants who controlled the streets. Two female bodies found yesterday suggest such threats were far from idle. An Arab woman, in a violet nightdress, lay in a post-mortem embrace with a male corpse in the middle of the street. Both bodies had died from bullets to the head. Just six metres away on the same street lay the decomposing corpse of a blonde-haired white woman, too disfigured for swift identification but presumed to be the body of one of the many foreign hostages kidnapped by the rebels... |
| Osama bin Laden now has religious approval to use a nuclear device against Americans, says the former head of the CIA unit charged with tracking down the Saudi terrorist. The former agent, Michael Scheuer, speaks to Steve Kroft in his first television interview without disguise to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Nov. 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Scheuer was until recently known as the "anonymous" author of two books critical of the West's response to bin Laden and al Qaeda, the most recent of which is titled Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. No one in the West knows more about the Qaeda leader than Scheuer, who has tracked him since the mid-1980s. The CIA allowed him to write the books provided he remain anonymous, but now is allowing him to reveal himself for the first time on Sunday's broadcast; he formally leaves the Agency today (12). Even if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, he probably wouldn't have used it for a lack of proper religious authority - authority he has now. "[Bin Laden] secured from a Saudi sheik...a rather long treatise on the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Americans," says Scheuer. "[The treatise] found that he was perfectly within his rights to use them. Muslims argue that the United States is responsible for millions of dead Muslims around the world, so reciprocity would mean you could kill millions of Americans," Scheuer tells Kroft. Scheuer says bin Laden was criticized by some Muslims for the 9/11 attack because he killed so many people without enough warning and before offering to help convert them to Islam. But now bin Laden has addressed the American people and given fair warning. "They're intention is to end the war as soon as they can and to ratchet up the pain for the Americans until we get out of their region....If they acquire the weapon, they will use it, whether it's chemical, biological or some sort of nuclear weapon," says Scheuer. As the head of the CIA unit charged with tracking bin Laden from 1996 to 1999, Scheuer says he never had enough people to do the job right. He blames former CIA Director George Tenet. "One of the questions that should have been asked of Mr. Tenet was why were there always enough people for the public relations office, for the academic outreach office, for the diversity and multi-cultural office? All those things are admirable and necessary but none of them are protecting the American people from a foreign threat," says Scheuer. And the threat posed by bin Laden is also underestimated, says Scheuer. "I think our leaders over the last decade have done the American people a disservice...continuing to characterize Osama bin Laden as a thug, as a gangster," he says. "Until we respect him, sir, we are going to die in numbers that are probably unnecessary, yes. He's a very, very talented man and a very worthy opponent," he tells Kroft. Until today (12), Scheuer was a senior official in the CIA's counter terrorism unit and a special advisor to the head of the agency's bin Laden unit. |
Below is a table of choices in various categories. One choice alienates more voters than others, particularly voters near the center.
This year, the Democratic Party cozied up to all of the individuals and groups on the left of the list. They lost my vote, despite the fact that I voted for Gore, Clinton, and even Dukakis. My guess is that none of the choices that the Democrats made in the chart helped them in 2004. |
| ...To your “fourth reaction", how quaint a notion - that the ideal means for addressing one atrocity, is to accept another immoral alternative. By your logic, then, I suppose we should excuse Hitler, since, after all, he was not only a vegetarian, but a lover of animals and kind to children? Then again, we’ve seen that logic at work, in the excuses the Left makes for Saddam Hussein (mass graves notwithstanding, nor even acknowledged by the Left), while falsely comparing the President to all manner of evil. The Left uses lies and deceit and malice and hatred in their tactics and message, yet claim for all of that to represent the side of tolerance and hope. There may come a day, when the penny will fall, and you guys will finally realize that you not only got caught in your lies, you simply aren’t very good at lying anymore.
To your “fifth reaction", I must say your position is hypocrisy itself. The war is ‘immoral’, hmm? Then explain your silence at those mass graves, at the capture of a half-dozen major terrorist leaders in Iraq, at warehouses full of suicide vests and prisons designed and built specifically to torture children. You’re OK with all that? Leftists wanted America to enter Liberia to help the people suffering there, but not Iraq. You demanded we go to Bosnia to help people being decimated by a madman, but not in Iraq? You are unprincipled thugs, if you really believe that. Instead, I will accept the notion that you are a step or two better - you are willing for America to help nations, but only so long as it advances Liberal causes, and does not annoy the French. The soldiers who actually went to Iraq overwhelmingly support the President. I guess that doesn’t count to the Left. After all, you don’t want their votes counted, so it’s no shock you want to ignore the men themselves. All that Honor, that History, that Discipline, it must give Michael Moore the heebie-jeebies just thinking about Marines helping Iraqi children go to free schools, making it possible for Iraqi and Afghan women to vote for the first time ever, that (sacre bleu!) Democratic Republics might exist in the Arab world! Tough. It’s happening, and one of these days maybe you’ll grow up, figure out why 'Semper Fi' is so proudly held by so many, and you might even show some respect to men in uniform, instead of a few selected martinets willing to betray their buddies for an office and a spotlight. Welcome to America, trolls. That motion sickness you feel is not from injustice, but from the nation moving ahead and leaving you behind. If you want to catch up, you need to grow up, first. |
The Bakersfield Californian reports that US forces have reached the major east-west highway that runs through Fallujah.
To realize the significance of this, refer to this map from Global Security, which shows the start lines of the participating American units: USMC 3/1, USMC 3/5, Army 2/7 Cavalry, USMC 1/8, USMC 1/3 and Army 2/2 Infantry. These units were attacking north to south, down towards the highway. The east-west highway referred to in the paragraph above is the bright green line running horizontally across the map. US Army armor is now on that highway, after advancing south and probably swinging west. US forces are probably waiting across the highway... |
| During the campaign, Hugh Hewitt argued that John Kerry was running a terrible campaign, which should cause Americans concern about the type of president he would be.
I was initially skeptical of this argument. After all, most people agree that Karl Rove, not George Bush, was the mastermind behind the Bush campaign. If Karl Rove can run a better campaign than Kerry, does that necessarily mean that Bush would be a better president than Kerry? But it turns out that Hugh's observation was dead right, as a recent appearance by Newsweek's Evan Thomas on the Today Show confirms. (Transcript available on NEXIS.) Thomas revealed a Kerry campaign in chaos -- headed by a John Kerry so paralyzed with indecision that campaign staffers took his cell phone away from him so he would stop calling people for advice:
Now, we heard a little something about Kerry's penchant for calling friends for advice when he was picking his vice-presidential nominee. But even Thomas agrees that the full extent of the chaos in the Kerry campaign was not revealed to the American people during the campaign:
If a presidential candidate is running a shockingly disorganized campaign, paralyzed by the candidate's indecision, the American people have a right to know. So why weren't we told the full truth until now -- when it's too late?? ... |