A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
In Iraq, Bush Cites Gains - AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Sept. 3 -- President Bush, making an unannounced visit to this isolated and well-fortified air base in Anbar province, said Monday that continued gains in security in Iraq could allow for a reduction in U.S. troops and called on the Iraqi government to follow up... (READ MORE)
John Edwards, Enjoying Timely Endorsements - PITTSBURGH, Sept. 3 -- The morning fog was still burning off the Allegheny River as workers gathered before 9 a.m. outside the hockey arena where a parade through downtown would later begin -- the electricians, the sheet-metal workers, the operating engineers, and, in greatest number, the coalminers... (READ MORE)
Weighing the 'Surge' - BAGHDAD -- Nearly every week, American generals and politicians visit Combat Outpost Gator, nestled behind a towering blast wall in the Dora market. They arrive in convoys of armored Humvees, sometimes accompanied by helicopter gunships... (READ MORE)
ID Would Control Access to Disaster Sites - NEW YORK -- Retiree Gene O'Brien hurried to the World Trade Center site after Sept. 11, 2001, and volunteered to help shuttle supplies to police and fire workers. Some days, his only identification to get into the disaster site was a tattoo on his forearm. (READ MORE)
In Bosnia, Former Fighters Face Expulsion - ZENICA, Bosnia -- They met in 1985 as Syrian immigrants in Croatia, two students in their 20s grappling with a language and a culture they didn't understand. Seven years later, when word spread of a nearby war being waged by fellow Muslims, Ayman Awad and Imad Al Husayn boarded a bus for Bosnia and joined the fight, they recounted. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Northern Disclosure: Splashing Canadian Waterfalls - One of the biggest reasons I started to write this blog was to share the human experience of war and life. Since reading great authors like Stephen Ambrose whose offerings such as ,Comrades, and Band of Brothers have brought the true fellowship of war into our homes and lives I could not in good conscience ignore the wonderful people and experiences with them I have shared. (READ MORE)
The Mesopotamian: Hi - My friends may be disappointed with me for these long periods of silence, but this silence really is a result of discouragement and discontent. In a private letter to one of my friends I have frankly stated some of my misgivings concerning some of the aspects of the Iraqi situation at the present time. I think it is rather important that I make some paragraphs of that letter public and here they are: "The situation in Iraq is rather complicated at the moment, and I fear that the mechanics of American political life is probably adding to the problems rather than the opposite." (READ MORE)
Matt Sanchez: Will the Real Sheik Wake up - I just finished interviewing one of Iraq's most fascinating people, Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, the man accredited with starting the Anbar Awakening. I'll print the interview in depth shortly, but a small introduction is in order. Sheik Sattar is one of the few real sheiks in a country that currently has a lot of wannabe sheiks. An Anbari born and breed, Sheik Sattar lost his father and three brothers when al Qaeda pulled into town. (READ MORE)
Iraq Pundit: Trashing Allawi - Here's an amazing story in Arabic that turned up in my inbox without a link; it claims that Ayad Allawi made a pilgrimage to the grave of Saddam Hussein, where he respectfully recited the Muslim prayer for the dead. Gimme a break. The purpose of the story, of course, is to discredit Allawi, and if you're an ignoramus, it might work. (READ MORE)
Bill Ardolino: Headed Out (UPDATED) - I'm off to Kuwait tomorrow, followed by a brief stop in Baghdad and then Fallujah. "Space Available" military travel could take 2-4 days, so expect posting from Iraq to start early next week. UPDATE (9/3, 10:31 AM Eastern US, 6:32 Baghdad): I'm in Baghdad, having run the "Summer Space-A Military Travel Endurance Gauntlet" and emerged victorious, if damaged. Back in January the process was slow and annoying, but eminently tolerable. Add toting around 100+ lbs. of gear in 110-120 degrees to the mix, and you've got something closer to casual torture by mischievous gods. The intricate bureaucratic insanities, face-melting heat and apathetic contractors form the perfect storm of bad travel. (READ MORE)
Hard Soldier: "Curses" - There is no such thing as bad luck right? Well I have been hit by more IEDS and had more break downs and just overall bad luck than most in the company so much that people are starting to say that I'm bad luck. These guys have even given me the nickname "routes red". I don't know if I should be honored or just keep laughing at it. (READ MORE)
From an Anthropological Perspective: Just Along For the Ride - I went along as a rider on a patrol today and had my first glimpse of the conditions of essential services in the AOR in which I work. Sewage and trash are particular problems. There is a significant disparity in essential services between the Sunni and Shia neighborhoods. I’m trying to figure out what affect this may have in terms of health and wellness as well as a developing a study of demographics. (READ MORE)
Eighty Deuce on the Loose in Iraq: Death and destruction... - If there's one thing about being in a war zone it is this... the level and intensity of the carnage that I've see is unparallel to anything I will ever experience again in my life. Before I came to Iraq, I had never experienced much of what I would come to see. The only time I had seen a dead body (other than 2 occasions at open casket funerals) was in New Orleans when we deployed there after Hurricane Katrina. Now, I have seen more dead bodies than I wish to even try to count. And its not your typical, died of natural causes or from the heat or anything like that. Its been the worst of the worst. Gun shots, explosions, burned to death. Stuff that would make even some trauma nurses cringe. (READ MORE)
Desert Flier: BBQ with the Weekly Standard - Teflon Don and I are swapping stories around the BBQ in front of Charlie Medical. Missions have been completed, and within days we begin the long journey home to friends and family and pick up the pieces we left off 8-12 months ago. The Army medical staff are throwing one last BBQ before the old surgical team gets replaced and heads out later this week. (READ MORE)
LTC Richard Phillips: Afghans help build mosque, hospital in border region - The only sound more frequent than the echo of helicopter blades across this forward operating base is the banging of hammers. As choppers come and go, ferrying wounded troops and combat boots across southeastern Afghanistan, scores of indigenous laborers sweat under the relentless sun converting this once-spartan base into an enduring compound for coalition forces and, some day, the Afghan National Army. (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Bill Steigerwald: Joel Kotkin Debunks the Myth of Deindustrialization - Another Labor Day is upon us/has come and gone. But are we still celebrating a blue-collar, industrial work force that barely exists anymore? Lots of people think so, but not city guru Joel Kotkin. (READ MORE)
Bill Murchison: More to Life Than Politics - Public men and women of hard-won, well-understood substance aren't in oversupply right now, and the question is why? Why so many Kerrys and Doles and Dukakises, not to mention Trent Lotts, Harry Reids, Chuck Schumers, Chuck Hagels and Barbara Boxers? Why, Lord? (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: No "Health Care"? - During the first 30 years of my life, I had no health insurance. Neither did a lot of other people, back in those days. (READ MORE)
Dennis Prager: Why Do People Do Evil? - Decent people have sought to identify the roots of evil since the first indecent person inflicted cruelty on an innocent person. And people have come up with one or more of nine explanations, most of which are indeed valid. (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: Phase III of Bush's War - Those who hoped that -- with the victory of the antiwar party in 2006, the departure of Rumsfeld and the neocons from the Pentagon, the rise of Condi and the eclipse of Cheney -- America was headed out of Iraq got a rude awakening. They are about to get another. (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: Mother Teresa’s Dark Night of the Soul - In Christopher Hitchens’ wickedly iconoclastic book The Missionary Position, Mother Teresa is portrayed as a self-satisfied dogmatist who never entertained any doubts. (READ MORE)
Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Redemption - We need to give Vick, Paris Hilton and others a chance to change their lives. Although we use the expression "a leopard cannot change its spots," people can and do change. (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: Mind the GAP - We are about to find out what sort of president of the World Bank Robert Zoellick intends to be. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Project, (GAP), a self-described public interest law firm, will release an unofficial report on the Department of Institutional Integrity, the World Bank's anti-corruption unit known internally as the INT. Next week comes a second, official report about the INT from a panel of worthies led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. By the end of the month the INT intends to release its own report on the Bank's health-related projects in India, where there is evidence of corruption running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. (READ MORE)
WSJ Review & Outlook: World Bank Corruption - Having knocked off Paul Wolfowitz as president, the forces of the status quo at the World Bank now have another target in their destructive sights: The corruption fighters at the bank's Department of Institutional Integrity. New President Robert Zoellick will soon have decisions to make. (READ MORE)
Micheal Totten: The Next Iranian Revolution - IN A GREEN VALLEY nestled between snow-capped peaks in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq is an armed camp of revolutionaries preparing to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran. Men with automatic weapons stand watch on the roofs of the houses. Party flags snap in the wind. Radio and satellite TV stations beam illegal news, commentary, and music into homes and government offices across the border. (READ MORE)
Neptunus Lex: Paternalism - I think it was George Will who acerbically noted that one of the more off-putting features of liberalism, at least in its most recent form, is the underlying paternalism in so many of its communal prescriptions. It is almost as though some of them share a grim belief that anything which is not forbidden must be compulsory. Based on the tone of his comments in Iowa, at least one presidential aspirant appears to agree: (READ MORE)
David Tate: Flashpoint Afghanistan: Musa Qala - Over the past week, Coalition forces have been engaged in heavy fighting near Regay village in Musa Qala district, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Taliban who have been attacking Coalition patrols daily. Located 14 miles south of the city of Musa Qala, Regay saw heavy fighting break out August 25th when a joint Afghan-US Special Forces patrol came under attack and spent the night fighting off the Taliban. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Pakistan frees over 100 South Waziristan "tribesmen" - The Pakistani government is caving to the demands of South Waziristan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud less than one week after his forces captured well over 150 Pakistani regular army troops in the tribal agency. Over 100 "tribesmen" of the Mehsud tribe have been released by the government "in an effort to pave the way for the release of 210 kidnapped soldiers," the Kuwaiti News Agency reported. (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: Potemkin Journalism - WaPo finally decides to do some war reporting in the runup to that Petraeus report. Where does it go? The Dora marketplace that the pols have walked through. Damning conclusion? “… recent improvements are sometimes tenuous, temporary, even illusory.” The story line is clear. Aware of wavering in Congress, aware that the “lack of political progress” line is not sufficient... (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: WND: Hsu has connection to previous Clinton/China scandal? - Sort of. WND claims he was recommended for his seat on the New School board of trustees by Friend of Billary Bernard Schwartz, who was allegedly allowed to sell ICBM technology to the Chinese military in 1996 after dropping some coin in the Clinton coffers. So far as I know, that’s unrelated to the Chinese fundraising scandal that came later, although WND sees fit to mention both in the same piece. (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: UPI reports attack on al-Doura power plant that never happened - Here’s the UPI story: “Iraq’s already burdened electricity sector took another hit Thursday as assailants attacked a plant in southern Baghdad, shutting it down. The casualty count hasn’t been released, but workers were sent to the hospital after an armed group laid siege to the al-Doura power plant, setting one unit on fire and damaging a second, an Iraq Electricity Ministry source told the Voices of Iraq news agency.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Ice blocks global warming trip - British yachtsman Adrian Flanagan is trying to prove global warming by sailing along the Northern Sea route, which sailors have pursued for centuries. He’s run into the same problem that sailors have run into for centuries: Ice. (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Not Ready For Prime Time - Every now and then, I wonder if we're right to keep our distance from Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that won election to head the Palestinian Authority. If we ought to bow to the reality of the situation and make the best of it, to see if we can make progress towards a permanent, fair, just, and peaceful solution. And then I remember just why they're on the list of terrorist organizations -- usually because they do something to remind me. (READ MORE)
Dafydd: Civilian Deaths in Iraq Are Up, But They're Really Down - I have a difficult argument to make. Your natural impulse may be to roll your eyes and accuse me of special pleading... but one's first impulse is often naive. AP reports, with much fanfare and not a little gloating, that "civilian deaths rose" from 1,760 in July to 1,809 in August. AP's explicit conclusion is that this is a terrible setback for the counterinsurgency: “Civilian deaths rose in August to their second-highest monthly level this year, according to figures compiled Saturday by The Associated Press. That raises questions about whether U.S. strategy is working days before Congress receives landmark reports that will decide the course of the war.” But they embargo a critical fact until later in the article, a point that makes all the difference to their central thesis: (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: A Moment, But Which Moment? - Freg Kagan calls the President's visit to Anbar the Gettysburg moment of the war in Iraq. I wouldn't go so far, but let's hear what Kagan has to say: “It has been one of the most violent provinces in Iraq, and one of the most dangerous for American soldiers and Marines, until recently. Now it is one of the safest — safe enough for the war cabinet of the United States of America to meet there with the senior leadership of the government of Iraq to discuss strategy.” (READ MORE)
War Historian: The Uncommon Valor of Common Sense - Schofield Barracks, June, 1991: The main buildings on this infantry-dominated post are called “Quads.” Massive, squat structures, built by the Work Projects Administration during the Depression, each is large enough to house an entire brigade of men, three full battalions. Beyond that, they also have enough room left over to fit the offices for the company and battalion headquarters of each unit. That summer I was a newly minted First Lieutenant, promoted up and away from my beloved rifle platoon and onto the battalion staff. My battalion of “Light” (meaning we carried all that we would take to war, on our backs, but required fewer airplanes and ships to get us there) Infantry was about to deploy to the Egyptian-Israeli border as part of the peacekeeping force that had been on site since the Camp David accords. It was a static mission, but tensions remained high in the region in the wake of Desert Storm. (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: See Your Doctor Or Go To Jail? - John Edwards has a strange way of distilling foolishness to its essence, and he showed that talent yesterday when talking about his vision of health care. In remarks curiously ignored by newspapers today, Edwards insisted that his plan would force people to seek health evaluations, whether they desire one or not. It reveals the arrogance and the authoritarianism that waits around the corner when government-run healthcare gets imposed on a free society: “Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express: Sending Liberals Over the Edge Again - I just love how the President can make the Liberals go even more batty. Take today's trip to Iraq. The BDS crowd went ballistic - how dare the President go visit the troops? How dare he offer moral support to the soldiers fighting in Iraq? One KOS kid was pissed off that President Bush dared to SMILE while in Iraq. Yeah - that's a sign of mental stability - NOT. No matter how much the Left tries to portray the soldiers as haters of Bush, the pics from Iraq certainly tell a different story. May God Bless Our Soldiers & Marines, Our President and America. (READ MORE)
Big Dog: The Troops Approve of the President - There is a small number of military personnel who are opposed to action in Iraq and who oppose President Bush, despite what certain trolls and people at the Daily Kos would have us believe. People cite donations to Ron Paul and outspoken critics like Wesley Clark as proof that a large number of people in the military oppose the President and our actions in Iraq and around the world. I speak to a lot of military folks and most would love the war to be over but not until we have won. (READ MORE)
Lawhawk: Danish Authorities Thwart Al Qaeda Attack - Danish police have arrested eight people with alleged links to al-Qaeda on suspicion of planning a bomb attack.
The eight suspects arrested late on Monday in Copenhagen form part of a terror cell with links to a senior al-Qaeda figure, police said. The suspects, aged between 19 and 29, were of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin, police said. (READ MORE)
Douglas Farah: Minnesota Website Tells how to Wage Jihad - The Middle East Media Research Institute has a disturbing and interesting new report on an Islamist website hosted in Minnesota telling people how to join al Qaeda, how to attack high value targets and how to form a functioning cell. As has previously been discussed here and elsewhere, the decentralized nature of the current incarnation of al Qaeda is stressed, including the ability to form a jihad cell wherever one is, without ever meeting anyone from the formal al Qaeda structure. The document is aimed at recruits outside the United States, possibly those seeking to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. (READ MORE)
Walid Phares: The Tampa Bombers: Jihadists or "Beach Boys?" - Six years after 9/11, the mainstream reading of the war on Terror still circles around the essence of the conflict. Two young men indicted for charges of possession of explosives aren't yet perceived as part of an Urban Jihadist campaign inside the United States, despite the fact that a number of cells and of individuals have been arrested over the past years, all linked to Jihadism. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24 and Youssef Samir Megahed (in Egyptian accent it reads “Mujahid”) 21, are affiliated with South Florida University in Tampa. As one reviews all news reporting (until this day), no link was made yet to an ideology which is the master chain between the perpetrators and their action. (READ MORE)
Flopping Aces: Bush Visits Iraq - Very smart move here on Bush's part. He brought along Robert Gates, Condoleezza Rice, General Peter Pace, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and the "war czar" General Douglas Lute. He stayed in Anbar instead of Baghdad which speaks volumes about the level of change that has been going on in Iraq plus he met with Maliki, of course, but also tribal leaders which is huge in my opinion. This means that Bush and his Administration recognize that Iraq has a different sort of Democracy. The tribal leader is a very important part of that landscape and what Bush is saying here is that we will work with them. (READ MORE)
Chuck Ziegenfuss: Why our Armed Forces Fear (or at least are put off by) "soldierbloggers" - The most obvious ammunition in the Defense Department's arsenal for reasons to Ban/Monitor/control Milblogging, (especially from theater) is the repulsive and detestable lies that were told by Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. I know this horse has been ridden already, but I drew this conclusion about the whole thing: there is actually some positive light in all of this. When the illegal/immoral/impeach/stolen election/cut and run crowd add the mantra of Beauchump's stories as clear evidence of atrocity and cover-up to their rhetoric, it also highlights their willingness to believe any falsehood, no matter how inane, as long at it demeans our nation, it's leaders, and it's service members. (READ MORE)
Dymphna: “Gradations of Cruelty” - In the August 13th edition of The National Review (subscription required) Ralph Peters has a thoughtful essay on ethnic cleansing and genocide. These are difficult subjects to think about, given the bloodshed and cruelty we bear witness to on a daily basis. However, Mr. Peters does us a big favor by differentiating the two terms. The most important step toward understanding something is to have an adequate definition of what it is you seek to clarify, and thus, perhaps, act upon: (READ MORE)
Average Gay Joe: The Joy of Schadenfreude - I do believe I understand the concept now. While President Bush makes a visit to the Anbar province of Iraq, one of his harshest media critics, the UK Daily Mirror’s Piers Morgan, thoughtfully provides this image to the world of falling flat on his face and breaking 3 ribs. You should recall, of course, that Morgan sneeringly derided Bush for his own fall off a Segway back in 2003 by saying: “You’d have to be an idiot to fall off, wouldn’t you Mr President. If anyone can make a pig’s ear of riding a sophisticated, self-balancing machine like this, Dubya can.” (READ MORE)
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