A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
U.N. Ambassador Bolton Won't Stay “President Bush surrendered to congressional foes yesterday in his fight to install John R. Bolton as permanent ambassador to the United Nations, a harbinger of how the political world has changed since Democrats captured both houses of Congress.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Army Battling To Save Equipment “Field upon field of more than 1,000 battered M1 tanks, howitzers and other armored vehicles sit amid weeds here at the 15,000-acre Anniston Army Depot -- the idle, hulking formations symbolic of an Army that is wearing out faster than it is being rebuilt.” (READ MORE)
Lawyers Demand Release of Chinese Muslims “Attorneys for a group of Chinese Muslims held for nearly five years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, filed suit yesterday, asking that the men be released immediately and alleging that they have been held as part of a political deal between the United States and China.” (READ MORE)
Ahmadinejad issues warning on sanctions “Iran's president warned Washington's European allies on Tuesday that Iran would reconsider its relations with them if they insist on punishing Tehran for its nuclear program, saying that would amount to an act of ‘hostility.’” (READ MORE)
Pakistan would give up claim to Kashmir “Pakistan is willing to give up its claim to Kashmir if India agrees to a far-reaching self-governance plan for the Himalayan region, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suggested Tuesday.” (READ MORE)
Bush presses Shi'ite leader on violence “President Bush yesterday bluntly told the leader of Iraq's largest Shi'ite party that the United States is not satisfied with efforts by Iraqi political leaders to stop sectarian violence, which has spiraled out of control in recent months.” (READ MORE)
Iraq panel likened to Vietnam 'wise men' “The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which has received concentrated press coverage this fall as it prepares to report to President Bush tomorrow, was the idea of a Republican lawmaker looking for fresh ideas on the war.” (READ MORE)
Court Reviews Race as Factor in School Plans “There seemed little prospect that plans to maintain racial integration at two urban school systems would survive the Supreme Court’s scrutiny.” (READ MORE)
Fiji’s Military Chief Says He Has Taken Over “Commodore Frank Bainimarama said that he had dismissed the elected prime minister following a standoff between the two leaders in recent weeks.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Military Shifts Troops in Iraq Into Advisory Roles “Commanders are shifting the roles of thousands of combat troops in the latest attempt to bring sectarian violence under control.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Baghdad counts on local improvements “Baghdad is facing some challenging times and for the situation to get better, most officials believe local residents need to see that their government is working and improvements are taking place.” (READ MORE)
IRAQI POLICE, ARMY TEAM UP WITH PARATROOPERS, DISCOVER THREE WEAPON CACHES SUNDAY “FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraqi – Iraqi police and Iraqi army troops teamed up with paratroopers from 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, to discovered three large weapons caches Dec. 3.” (READ MORE)
Salah Ad Din Sheiks Meet to Discuss Peace, Stability in Province “TIKRIT, Iraq – Lt. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Abdel-Rahman Al-Mufti, the 4th Iraqi Army commander hosted approximately 30 tribal sheiks from the Salah ad Din province Saturday in a meeting to discuss ways to maintain peace and stability throughout the province.” (READ MORE)
MND-B Soldiers Respond to Mosque Explosion “BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers responded to an explosion in the Kadamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad while conducting combat operations at approximately 3:20 pm. Dec. 3. Upon further investigation, a platoon-sized element of Company A, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division discovered the area’s Nida’al Dallah Mosque’s dome partially collapsed.” (READ MORE)
Greyhawk writes Right and Wong “Via Michelle Malkin, a pointer to a NY Times blog discussion on the AP's ‘6 Sunnis burned alive’ story. In a meeting with us this afternoon, the AP’s executive editor, Kathleen Carroll, said again, passionately, ‘We have done everything we know how to do’ to respond to the questions. Insisting that their witness exists by ‘vigorously re-reporting’ the same thing is apparently the limit - proving his existence is out of the question.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes The Military and The Media - The divide grows “FALLUJAH, IRAQ: I've completed the first leg of the journey to Iraq, after having moved through Dubai, Kuwait and Baghdad. I am now at Camp Fallujah. While in Fallujah, I'll embed with a Marine Police Transition Team (PTT) and also meet with the Civil Affairs Group. The next stop will be Ramadi.” (READ MORE)
Celestial Junk has Leopards get Frisky “For the first time since the Korean War, Canadian tanks have been deployed into combat. Our Afghan deployed squadron took its first romp into potential combat the other day. Canada has upped anti in a serous way now, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Taliban response will be. My personal fear; 2 Billion dollars of opium sales can buy a lot of fly-by-wire antitank systems. Let us not forget that Hezbollah had a variety of ugly surprises for Israeli tankers this past summer. At least Canada’s Leopard Tanks were the first NATO tanks in Afghanistan.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jules Crittenden writes A Dream of Mature Nations “A number of Canadians took offense recently to a Boston Herald column in which I slammed Canada and Europe in general for failing to hold up its end in this war for democracy, freedom and security. Specificially, I slammed them for being smug democracies that do little to help the truly oppressed of this world, while throwing insults at us and obstacles in our way.” (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager writing at Townhall.com writes A response to my many critics - and a solution “To understate the case, my last column, "America, Not Keith Ellison, Decides What Book a Congressman Takes His Oath on," seems to have touched a national nerve.” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell writing at Townhall.com writes Hollywood economics “It is not really news that Hollywood is still producing anti-business movies, but there is a certain irony in it nevertheless.” (READ MORE)
Mary Grabar writing at Townhall.com writes December 24: The Day of Christian Pray-Ins at Airports “I can assure you that there are many Christians praying at airports. We, however, don’t make a display of it in order to draw false attention to our persecuted status. The imams, some of whom have been linked to terrorist organizations, however, it turns out were doing even more than that.” (READ MORE)
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. writing at Townhall.com writes The Iraq Surrender Group “On Wednesday, an unelected, unaccountable and substantially unqualified commission will formally report what hasn’t already been leaked about its recommendations with respect to the conflict in Iraq. The title of the commission is the Iraq Study Group (ISG).” (READ MORE)
Rich Galen writing at Townhall.com writes Statecraft “Now, lets shift forward to last week when the President was in Amman, Jordan and was supposed to have a dinner meeting with King Abdallah of Jordan and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki.” (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico writes We Need A Third Party “I had a great lunch time conversation today with Bruno of WKRS, 1220 AM, The Voice of Lake County (Il) who's on 10am-12pm weekdays. Bruno also writes a good blog, Extreme Wisdom, where he discusses many of the same issues he hits on his radio show. One of the points of our conversation today was the need for a third political party; that has a chance of winning seats in elections.” (READ MORE)
Victor Davis Hanson writes Blood and Oil “With the gruesome killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Putin's Russia stands accused of poisoning yet another critic. Meanwhile, Syria continues to mastermind the murders of Lebanese democrats. Israeli-free Gaza is as violent as ever. Hezbollah is busy replenishing its stock of Iranian missiles. The theocracy in Iran keeps promising an end to Israel. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is slowly strangling democracy in Latin America in a manner that an impoverished Fidel Castro never could.” (READ MORE)
Ian writes Murtha: America the ‘enemy’ in Iraq “Leading anti-war Democrat John Murtha said America is the enemy who incited the terrorists to come to Iraq. Murtha repeated the Democratic talking point that terrorists will leave once US forces redeploy.” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea writes Nancy Pelosi, political genius “Before last month's elections, I'd never really given Nancy Pelosi much thought. But since then, I've found myself learning a great deal about her. And I'm coming to a conclusion -- that this woman is a political genius the likes of which comes about maybe once a generation.” (READ MORE)
Mr. Wolf writing at Blackfive writes Here we go again? “’Your dad voted for Nixon? Does he kill babies too?’ ‘You guys are so stupid. I can't believe you live here. Why don't you leave?’ ‘How does your mom like being married to a baby killer?’ ‘Military people don't have any education. They're too stupid to do anything else.’ Think this sounds familiar? Been watching the MSM cover the actions of students at universities around the country? Believe some students at Columbia have uttered these very sentences? These are but a very few of the taunts I endured growing up in the hometown of a university that was second only to Berkeley in the frequency and fervor of student protests. Methinks we are setting the stage for more of the same... and soon.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes When Muslims Decide The Composition Of Holocaust Panels ...
“... then we will truly have lost the war on terror. Yesterday CAIR issued a statement demanding the removal of Dennis Prager from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for a matter completely unrelated to the Holocaust. Prager had objected to newly-elected Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison's plans to use a Qur'an for his oath of office rather than the Bible:” (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex writes Exiting gracefully “So, having stood primly by while some 800,000 Tutsis were butchered in Rwanda back in 1994, and - having sworn “never again” - giving the Sudanese government one of his best lip-pursings ever after another 200,000 - 400,000 Africans were and are being slaughtered in Darfur, what is chief among Kofi Annan’s regrets as he comes to the end of his UN presidency? The fact that he didn’t do more to stop the US from deposing Saddam Hussein:” (READ MORE)
Quid Nimis writes Londonistan “I had the great privilege and pleasure of meeting Melanie Phillips recently. I had heard her on the Laura Ingraham Show and was duly impressed with her articulate assessment of the Islamisation of Britain. As interesting as she was on the radio, it couldn't compare with hearing her speak out at Restoration on panels that discussed the threats of Islamofascism.” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club writes Blogs 2 “It's interesting to compare the previous post at the Belmont Club, "Blogs" with a very long piece in the New York Times describing a changes to counterterrorist intelligence gathering. The convergence of ideas between what has historically happened within some intel agencies since 9/11 and the Belmont Club piece is amazing. Of course, the NYT is describing how some of those ideas have been implemented within US intelligence to achieve what it calls ‘open source spying.’ (This is one of the areas where the NYT gets it wrong, or at least where its subject matter -- spying -- starts to distort the description of what is really a general process. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.) First, let's read how intel is gathered through the process of ... blogging.” (READ MORE)
Have an interesting post or know of a "must read?" Then send a trackback here and let us all know about it. Or you can send me an email with a link to the post and I'll update the Recon.
No comments:
Post a Comment