A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the day…so check back often. This is a weekend edition so updates are as time and family permits.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Romney Wins Iowa's GOP Poll - With a convincing victory in the Republican straw poll here Saturday, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney vaulted himself into the next phase of a presidential nomination battle. (READ MORE)
U.S. Pays Millions In Cost Overruns For Security in Iraq - BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military has paid $548 million over the past three years to two British security firms that protect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on reconstruction projects, more than $200 million over the original budget... (READ MORE)
How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won - For three days, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This is the issue," said the plain-spoken retired vice admiral and Vietnam veteran, "that makes my blood... (READ MORE)
The Campaign - PARIS -- When little Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family's hotel room in Portugal on May 3, every parent's worst nightmare became Europe's summer-long saga. (READ MORE)
Romney Tops Iowa Straw Poll - Mitt Romney won yesterday's Iowa Republican Party straw poll, but the best showing went to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose strong second-place finish gives him a much-needed boost going forward. (READ MORE)
Primary Schedule 'A Mess' - Democrats and Republicans readily acknowledge they don't like the increasing front-loading of their party primaries, but few think it will affect the chances of their leading presidential front-runners next year. (READ MORE)
India PM Won't Back Down - India's prime minister has dared leftist allies to withdraw support for his government, saying in an interview published yesterday that he will not go back on a civil nuclear-energy deal with the United States. (READ MORE)
Bomb Kills Governor, Police Chief - A powerful roadside bomb yesterday killed the governor and police chief of a southern province that has been torn by fierce fighting between Shi'ite factions, and the country's prime minister urged residents to show restraint and not launch reprisals. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
W. Thomas Smith Jr.: Recruiting Boy Jihadists - AL TAQADDUM — Sat down this afternoon with Maj. Bart Nagle, the 13th MEU's intelligence officer, who shared with me some of what he could, including the names of some of the terrorist subsidiary groups we are facing here in the TQ area of operations: (READ MORE)
LTC Rich Phillips: The Future . . . - In my last post I looked back, to where we came from and where we have been on this deployment. I thought it only appropriate that in this post I look forward, to where we are going, to where I am going. (READ MORE)
Jason's Iraq Vacation: The Ligers - No, the title is not referring to my uncle's fantasy football team that won the league championship last year (although they did). The Ligers are what we nicknamed ourselves after a surprise visit from a 10-person "Tiger" team sent by our higher HQ. What's a Tiger team? Great question, and its the same question we asked upon their arrival. (READ MORE)
Jake's Life: It is a very strange feeling to be done - But, it's more or less official. We spent the better part of yesterday taking an inventory of all the gear that we had acquired over here, everything from chem-lites, to spare tires, concertina wire, ammo, lots of ammo, gypsy racks, mass casualty bags, power inverters, slave cables, and a handful of humvees. We then took everything on that inventory list and dumped it in the laps of our relief battalion. (READ MORE)
Omar: Talking to Iraq's Neighbors - I think it's a good time to make a preliminary assessment of the results of reaching out and talking to Iraq's neighbors in reducing violence in the country. So, was it a bad suggestion to talk to them? Not completely bad, and not completely good either, pretty much like any suggestion when the situation in question is as complex as Iraq's. (READ MORE)
Far From Perfect: Two Days Off - So I have had the past two days off. Haven’t done a whole lot, but on the first day off I sat in maintenance from 0630 till 1500 with our borrowed truck. They replaced the oil filtering system with a new dual filter system. That’s all they did! Its supposedly a two hour job. I did manage to get it dispatched though, and that’s no small task with our Maintenance Section. (READ MORE)
Eighty Deuce on the Loose in Iraq: Bringing 'em back! (Part I) - Ok, well as some of yall know, back in the day things around here used to be more exciting. In the infant stages of me doing this blog, I was smack dab in the middle of fighting an enemy that was willing to show up with AKs, machine guns and RPGs, and it was becoming common place. Shortly after my blogs popularity began, I ran in to some issues with my old platoon leader and what he felt were OPSEC violations with my blog. (READ MORE)
Desert Flier: Incognito to 180-Out - [B]y far, the most noteworthy information I have to share is the current state of Ramadi's security. A stark contrast to what we saw in February when we arrived in Anbar, Ramadi is now one of the top success stories coming out of Iraq in the past six months. Iraqi Police have been working hand in hand with our units in and around the surrounding Province, and attacks have been virtually non-existent for weeks on end. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
George Will: Obama has some explaining to do... - Sen. Barack Obama recently told some Iowa farmers that prices of their crops are not high enough, considering what grocers are charging for other stuff: "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Living near the University of Chicago, Obama has perhaps experienced this outrage, but Iowans, who have no Whole Foods stores, might remember 1987, when Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis urged Iowa farmers to diversify by raising endive. Said a farmer to a Boston reporter, "Your governor scared me just a hair." (READ MORE)
Kevin McCullough: Why Not Another 9/11? - Liberally oriented newspaper editors increasingly wonder why subscription and circulation numbers continue to plummet among the old guard of news media: the printed page. What are they, the dumbest people on earth? (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: "King Corruption" Reigns - Republicans returning to the House floor on Friday morning Aug. 3 after their walkout the night before were surprised to find as presiding officer the Democrat they call "King Corruption": Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, master of earmarks and backroom deals. (READ MORE)
Debra J. Saunders: Paralyzing Fog of Uncertainty on Climate - Newsweek's global-warming cover story purports to reveal the "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry," which for the last two decades "has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." (READ MORE)
Caroline B. Glick: Coalitions, real and imaginary - Building and maintaining coalitions is one of the most difficult tasks of a nation at war. On the one hand, a state must ensure that its coalition partners share enough common goals and interests to ensure that their cooperation is effective. On the other hand, a state must constantly weigh the political and diplomatic benefits of maintaining its coalition against the price it must pay in terms of military effectiveness by delegating responsibility to others. (READ MORE)
Michael Franc: Small Government Efforts Aren't 'Fringe' - Principled conservative lawmakers have been called many things as they doggedly pursue their quest for smaller government. In the House, liberals have resorted to using the ‘f’ word —‘fringe’ -- to describe small-government conservatives who have tried in vain to cut spending, eliminate frivolous earmarks, and reform failed welfare programs. (READ MORE)
Richard H. Collins: You Go Girl - Hillary Clinton's strategy for winning the Democratic Presidential primary seems pretty clear at this point. In a time when Democrats are desperate to win the White House, and in the most favorable climate in a decade, she is promising them what they want: a candidate who can fight and win. (READ MORE)
Wolf Pangloss: Why the Fairness Doctrine is totally totally totally unnecessary - When it comes to television, the big three networks are stuck in the mentality of the Fairness Doctrine days. They don’t want to air conservative messages, because they fear they will be required to air opposing messages. But leftist messages get free play because the on-air and production talent are so far left they cannot imagine that anyone would find anything to disagree with in a leftist message. (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: Captured Iraqi Terrorist Says Bin Laden Had al-Qaeda Camps in Iraq Under Saddam's Regime - Bottom Line Up Front: Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda had training camps in Fallujah, Iraq, under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Al-Qaeda recruited Sunni Iraqis in the terror camps. In this amazing footage that aired on Iraqi TV in August 2005, Iraqi terrorist Ramzi Hashem Abed sang like a bird after being arrested for terrorist activity explaining his mission with al-Zarqawi, former head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as part of Osama bin Laden’s terror network. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Pakistan: Concern over nukes as al Qaeda camps empty - As the security situation in the Northwest Frontier Province continues to deteriorate and President Pervez Musharraf's political stock continues to drop, the US military intelligence community is "urgently assessing how secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons would be in the event President Gen. Pervez Musharraf were replaced." Meanwhile, the Taliban and al Qaeda have dispersed operatives from the training camps in the Northwest Frontier Province and are preparing to fight on their own terms. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Surrender Is As Surrender Does - Surrender enthusiasts may finally be surrendering. Dem candidates say getting out of Iraq may take years: “John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, would keep troops in the region to intervene in an Iraqi genocide and be prepared for military action if violence spills into other countries.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Harold Ford vs. Kos — the PJM remix - Here’s the long edit I promised you. Thanks to PJM producer Andrew Marcus for lending me a snippet of his interview with the chairman to punctuate Ford’s obsequious gladhanding of someone who spent last weekend sneering at the “con job” organization he leads and the “bunch of cranks” who populate it. Pathetically, it’s Ford, not Kos, who first broaches the idea of merging the two factions. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: Would another 9-11 unite us against terrorism? - Stu Bykofsky says yes, but the answer is no. Good arguments to back me up here and here. But here’s an even more basic answer: The first 9-11 didn’t really unite us, so why would the second? (READ MORE)
Don Surber: NYTimescare - In an editorial today, the New York Times tries to take a report that “shows” America is 42nd in the world in health care to make the argument that we need to nationalize the health care industry. The promise is that the government can do health better and cheaper than the private sector. I’ll put aside for the moment the holes Dr. Helen has punched into this kneejerk reaction to review a few points the Times made. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Ames Poll Produces Winner -- And It May Not Be Romney - The Ames straw poll in Iowa has concluded in a racous day of policy and showmanship, and in the end the man who spent the most money in Iowa won the most votes. However, the real winner may be the man who spent nothing but time and effort in hopes of breaking out of the second tier: (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Let's Go To The Video Tape - A security video was released today showing that Arab who was killed while attacking people near a yeshiva in Jerusalem on Friday was not some innocent dupe as his family claimed and indeed grabbed the security guard's gun and fired it repeatedly at the guard and nearby pedestrians. (READ MORE)
A Soldier's Mind: The Country Ignores A General (The Definition Of A Scam) - This will so get people against our military’s operations to fight terrorists howling like dogs at the moon. Especially since it involves the country of Iraq. Just recently Lt. General James M. Dubik just stated that Iraqi forces and police are making great strides. Now as all of you may know, there has also been recent comments from two other generals stating that Iraqi forces have made great strides, including a British general(mentioned here at ASM) and one American general(mentioned at A Soldier’s Perspective) who talked to Congress on behalf of the troops’ acheivements in Iraq… (READ MORE)
The Anchoress: A look back at Bush Derangement Syndrome - As we head toward the 2008 elections, I was thinking it might be fun - from time to time - to look back at the mad partisanship that has been gaining momentum on both sides and destabilizing the nation like a train careening too fast down a mountain and destined for a curvy surprise. Today, a look at one of the finest displays of BDS and the terrible effect it has on its victims: (READ MORE)
Iraq - For those counting, this is at least the sixth confirmation of this. ABC News led the way with three reports from captured AQ and captured IIS guys immediately after the invasion. (h/t Amy Proctor) The political rhetoric says that these camps were not in Saddam's Iraq but in the Kurdish north. What that ignores is that the camps were certainly not at all allied with the Kurds, but against them, and were acting with Saddam's help. Politicians often try to point to Senate Intelligence Committee reports claiming there were no ties etc., but these reports are: (READ MORE)
McQ: Quislings? "Screw ’em" - What is it that drives virulent anti-war (or at least anti-Iraq war) opponents to such excess? I recall with disgust the Kos "screw them" remark when 4 civilian contractors were killed, burnt, dismembered and had their body parts hung from a bridge. Apparently it would be fine with Neil Clark, writing in the Guardian, if the same happened to some Iraqi interpreters who’re feeling a bit threatened now that the British have decided to abandon Iraq and have asked for political asylum. His entire article is a huge "screw them" piece. (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.
Trackbacked by: GWOT update, will be updated in rolling fashion from Pros and Cons
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