A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Iraq, Iran and Syria Set For 3-way Talks “Iraqi President Jalal Talabani yesterday agreed to travel to Tehran this weekend for an unprecedented three-way summit with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian leader Bashar Assad to deal with Iraq's raging insurgency.” (READ MORE)
Rangel's Call For New Military Draft Rebuffed “Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel's latest call to quickly restart the military draft was shot down yesterday by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party members, who said it will not be part of the Democrats' legislative agenda.” (READ MORE)
Simpson Book, TV Special Canceled “After a firestorm of criticism, News Corp. yesterday said that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special ‘If I Did It.’” (READ MORE)
Training for Iraqi Forces Is Rife With Problems “Shortcomings plague a program that is growing in importance as the Pentagon shifts from combat operations to advising and training.” (READ MORE)Polygamists Out of the Closet “About 40,000 Americans in polygamous families are part of a movement to decriminalize bigamy.” (READ MORE)
6 Imams Removed From Twin Cities Flight “Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.” (READ MORE)
Judge Rejects Request for NSA Documents “The National Security Agency is not required to release details about its secret wiretapping program, a federal judge said Monday.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Kirkuk Firefighters Battle Traffic, Insurgents “KIRKUK, Iraq – Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division visited the Kirkuk Fire Department Headquarters recently to assess their capabilities and find out how their service can be improved.” (READ MORE)
Violence in Iraq Drops in Weeks After Ramadan “WASHINGTON – As expected, violence in Iraq has dropped following the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a coalition spokesman said in Baghdad today.” (READ MORE)
ISF Targets Kidnapping and Muder Cell, Captures 7 “BAGHDAD – Special Iraqi Army Forces, with coalition advisers, detained an illegal armed group kidnapping and murder cell leader during a raid Nov. 21 in Sadr City, Baghdad. The raid was launched to target this individual and to obtain information on the whereabouts of a kidnapped U.S. Soldier.” (READ MORE)
America Supports You: Aaron Tippin To Spend Thanksgiving in Afghanistan “Country star Aaron Tippin will spend the Thanksgiving holiday with troops deployed overseas. Tippin left for Afghanistan Nov. 18 and will perform for the troops stationed there through Nov. 27. He’ll perform music from his new album, “Now & Then,” as well as his well-known hits. This will be his second Thanksgiving tour sponsored by Stars for Stripes and U.S. Army, Europe.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes Pakistan's Suicide Squad “Pakistani intelligence uncovers a suicide bombing network, more assassinations in Waziristan. The recent suicide bombings against an Army post in Dargai and police in Peshawar have sparked fears of a larger conspiracy to attack Pakistani security forces throughout the Northwest Frontier Province and beyond.” (READ MORE)
Michael Fumento writes Return to Ramadi “Operation Phantom Fury, the U.S. assault on Fallujah in Iraq's Al Anbar Province in November 2004, is widely perceived as the greatest coalition victory against Iraq's insurgent and terrorist forces. It did indeed end enemy control over the city. But civilian casualties were high because of the massive use of firepower. About a fourth of the city's homes were destroyed and another fourth damaged. And while many of the enemy died, the advance notice of the attack plus the ability to escape across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in small boats meant that most of the fighters killed were probably seeking martyrdom. The rest simply scattered like rats. Most of those rebuilt their nests 30 miles west of Fallujah and 30 miles closer to Syria, in Anbar's capital, Ramadi.” (READ MORE)
Jack Army writes Go Home? “I have read a number of blog posts, and news articles, editorals and the like, telling everyone who'll listen.... er.... read, that we need to bring the troops home from Iraq. Big mistake, this Iraq war, and we need to stop throwing good money after bad, stop wasting the lives of our troops and blah blah blah.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
David Limbaugh writing at Townhall.com writes Addressing the Elephant in the Room “I realize Democrats won the elections, but I believe the last thing the president should do the next two years is retreat from his agenda or extend the hand of bipartisanship to liberal Democrats who will only bite it off to a nub anyway.” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell writing at Townhall.com writes Sneak Previews “Usually this would be too early to tell what the political alignment will be like when the new Congress convenes in January, with both Houses under the control of the Democrats.” (READ MORE)
Bill Murchison writing at Townhall.com writes On Freedom and Thanksgiving “The Iraqis, considered as a unit, may not lust for the blessings and challenges of liberty, nor the North Koreans, yet Friedman's mark -- deep and comprehensive -- is on many a nation in Asia and eastern Europe and Latin America. He changed the world. In part.” (READ MORE)
Caroline B. Glick writing at Townhall.com writes After the Muses Fall Silent “British Prime Minister Tony Blair has gone on an appeasement spree and no one seems to mind. On Friday, Blair gave a marquis interview to Al-Jazeera's new psychological warfare platform - its English-language channel - to celebrate its launch.” (READ MORE)
Star Parker writing at Townhall.com writes A Voter 'to do' List “Now, barely two weeks after the elections, at least some folks have got to be slapping their forehead, realizing they're watching the same lousy movie they walked out on 12 years ago.” (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico writes Kissinger On Iraq “A lot of folks who want us out of Iraq yesterday have latched onto a small portion of Henry Kissinger’s interview with the BBC on Sunday as a reason to leave Iraq quicker, even though that's not what he advocated in the remainder of the interview. In fact, he warned against too quick a withdrawal from Iraq.” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson writes Will the West Stumble? “What a stupid question. By any benchmark of economic prosperity, military power, and political stability, Western civilization — in the United States, Europe, and the former British Commonwealth — has never been stronger. Globalization has become a euphemism for Westernization, an apparent unstoppable juggernaut.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit writes Video: Rangel says Iraq volunteers are in it for the money, or something “I’ve watched this five times and I’m still not sure what he’s saying. I think he’s trying to argue that there’s no legitimate national security interest to our being in Iraq because, if there were, we wouldn’t have to recruit the poor by running ads and offering financial incentives.” (READ MORE)
GayPatriotWest writing at GayPatriot writes Democrats on W -- Criticism without Substance “You know the MSM's coverage of the Iraq war is biased when they fail to question war critics, like incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel who accuse the president of leading us to war on "flimsy evidence." It has now become practically a mantra of the Left (repeated uncritically by the media) that the President misled us into war. Yet, too often when these critics offer up their accusations, they fail to offer any specifics:” (READ MORE)
D-Ring writes Tsk Tsk, CENTCOM (Part One) “Those who have read my old blog know that I am a big fan of CENTCOM and their blogger engagement team. I think that they are way ahead of most of the military in terms of adoption of new media techniques. They have some people coming to their side, but it appears that someone at U.S. Central Command fell asleep at the wheel. Big time.” (READ MORE)
ShrinkWrapped writes The Immorality of Fighting a War Morally “Marc Schulman performs an extremely important service in his post describing Our Rules of Engagement in Iraq. He reviews some of the ROE which have hampered our military in Iraq and raises important questions: ‘The rules of engagement we've followed in Iraq raise an issue than couldn't be more fundamental. If our twenty-first century conflicts are going to pit us (or, I might add, Israel) against extremist groups whose tactics know no bounds and we allow our conduct to be constrained by the dictates of international law, as defined by such multilateral institutions as the UN, we are condemning ourselves to fighting protracted conflicts that erode American willpower…’” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes Apologize Now Miles O'Brien! “The smarmy CNN "journalist", Miles O'Brien, has crossed the line. In an effort to pander to the terrorist supporters watching CNN, O'Brien trashed the American contractors recently kidnapped in Iraq. From Scott Whitlock over at Newsbusters:” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes Now Democrats Are Trapped In Iraq “Given published reports, it appears the Dems are the party now stuck in Iraq and coming up with an exit strategy for their predicament isn't going to be easy. At the bottom of this WaPo article on three Pentagon options for Iraq - Go Long, Go Big or Go Home, you'll find that the Go Long strategy is said to be similar to what is expected from the Baker study group later this year.” (READ MORE)
Andi of Andi’s World writes Christmas For Our Wounded Heroes “Last Christmas my husband was deployed, so I decided to spend Christmas Day at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I left the hospital more blessed than when I had entered. The father of one of our wounded troops told me that he saw exactly what he wanted to see on Christmas Day in Ward 57 -- the ward where many of our most critically wounded reside -- people arriving with their arms loaded with goodies for our troops. The wife of one of the soldiers told me that it didn't matter that they were spending their Christmas in a hospital, ‘our family is together.’” (READ MORE)
MaryAnn of Soldiers Angels Germany writes It looks like a normal house from the outside... but inside, there's a LOT going on “That was the comment from a boy to his schoolmates after visiting Sara Ehrlich's home. Through flyers and word of mouth, Sara had spread the word before Halloween within her New Jersey community that extra candy could be dropped off at her home and she would send it to our deployed troops.” (READ MORE)
John Hawkins writes The Democratic Underground Thread Of The Day. An American Flag Means Nothing To Me “Liberals often have a weird way of looking at patriotism. They get extremely huffy if you question their patriotism, but then they often go out of their way to show that they're not patriotic. Take the American flag. It's not unusual for conservatives to wear flag pins or display flags because they genuinely love their country and feel like displaying the flag is a symbol of that affection. On the other hand, liberals create threads on the Democratic Underground just so they can let everyone know how much they dislike the American Flag.” (READ MORE)
Mohammed of Iraq the Model writes Find the Right Partner. “Where do Iraqis stand from all the debate about Iraq's future, and how do they look at the expectations and recommendations being made these days? Iraqis are of course the most concerned and affected by the ongoing crisis but the continuous pressure and trauma made their vision so confused that they are drowned by the daily dangers and problems that compressed their dreams and thought and made seeing tomorrow's sunshine their top priority.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes A Familiar Refrain In Lebanon “Once again, a politician opposed to Syrian hegemony in Lebanon has been assassinated, and again the victim hails from a family with a long history of supporting Lebanese independence. Pierre Gemayel, whose brother Bashir was also assassinated in 1982, died in a suburban hospital after a shooting:” (READ MORE)
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