A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
(Ed Note: Connectivity issues have forced me to post an incomplete Web Reconnaissance for today. As my internet issues resolve themselves I shall resume blogging and update the recon with more articles of interest.)
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Australian's Guilty Plea Is First at Guantanamo “Australian David M. Hicks pleaded guilty to one charge of material support for terrorism during a brief military hearing Monday night, becoming the first Guantanamo prisoner to officially accept criminal responsibility for aiding terrorists since the detention...” (READ MORE)
Republicans Soften Stance on Pullout Language “Unwilling to do the White House's heavy lifting on Iraq, Senate Republicans are prepared to step aside to allow language requiring troop withdrawals to reach President Bush, forcing him to face down Democratic adversaries with his veto pen.” (READ MORE)
An Enclave of Normalcy in Fearful Baghdad “In front of a blue metal gate, women in black abayas clutch food ration cards and exhibit a confidence rarely felt in the Iraqi capital. They will feed their families tonight. Several yards away, men sit behind wooden desks poring over hundreds of colorful folders, one each for Shiite...” (READ MORE)
Troops salute fallen leader “First Sgt. Tito Ferrera stood up straight yesterday, looked out over his troops and started the roll call.” (READ MORE)
Financial criminal captivates Tehran “The international crisis over the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines has been overshadowed in Iran by the arrest of a high-profile financial criminal, whose case has exposed corruption and fiscal mismanagement in the upper ranks of the Islamic Republic.” (READ MORE)
Mindful of Past, Clinton Cultivates the Military “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is striving to show voters that she is comfortable with military policy and culture.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Long Worried That Iran Supplied Weapons in Iraq “Before going public, the U.S. directly accused Iran of supplying explosive devices to Shiite extremists in Iraq.” (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Omar: A plateau for now, but more action is in the air. “Our last report on operation Imposing Law is now up on Pajamas Media: Ahmed Farhan Hassan has been captured. This operative is described as a senior aide to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi the leader of al-Qaeda’s so-called Islamic State in Iraq. That would make him a reasonably big fish, one from which, it would seem, good intelligence can be extracted.” (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: A Eulogy for SSG Darrell Ray Griffin, Jr. By SGT. Victor Quinonez "First off, I would like to thank everyone for attending the memorial of one of the greatest guys the United States Army has ever seen: SSG. Darrell Ray Griffin, Jr. SSG. Griffin and I clicked immediately, not just because we both volunteered to leave First Brigade and join this fine unit, but because he made me feel equal and welcomed. I think we can all agree he was like that with everyone." (READ MORE)
The Calm Before the Sand: Recon "Somewhere south of Baghdad, en route to As-Suwayrah, Iraq...It's a balmy morning in southern Iraq, and I'm weighed down by sixty pounds of gear and ammo, getting ready for my first mission as part of Recon. The farmers' fields are shrouded in fog, and a hundred feet below me the countryside whips past the viewports. We're riding in a Polish Mi-8, a type of heavy transport helicopter. It's a Russian design, dating back to the Cold War, and a notable departure from the UH-60 Black Hawks that brought us down here." (READ MORE)
Bill Ardonlino: Last Personal Anecdotes and Impressions, Embed "Care Packages Military families and folks from organizations like Soldiers' Angels and Operation Gratitude should feel confident that their care packages are appreciated and everywhere in Fallujah. From Camp Fallujah to Iraqi Police Headquarters to the Forward Operating Bases outside the wire, one can't help stumbling across endless boxes of soap, baby wipes, beef jerky, pop tarts, beef jerky, soup and beef jerky. Between the packages, fancy chow halls at larger bases and good communications, servicemembers are certainly more connected and probably better taken care of than during any other war in US history. Internet communication with family especially blunts the stress, discomfort and broken relationships traditionally suffered during wartime service." (READ MORE)
Michael J. Totten: The Iranian Revolution in Iraq "They were supposed to be social democrats, the people Patrick Lasswell and I met yesterday in a compound outside the city of Suleimaniya, the cultural capital of Northern Iraqi Kurdistan. We had it all set up. We were to meet Abu Bakr Mudarisy and his associates for lunch at 11:00 A.M. and learn what we could about the anti-government resistance a few miles away in the Islamic Republic of Iran." (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Dennis Prager: New Form of Evil Is Why America Has Not Won Iraq War “After the gas chambers of the Holocaust, the tens of millions murdered in the Gulag, the forced starvation in the Ukraine, the hideous medical experiments on people by the Germans and the Japanese in World War II, the torture chambers in all police states, I had actually believed that no new forms of evil existed.” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Dangerous Demagoguery “One of the dangers in being a demagogue is that some of your own supporters -- those who take you literally -- can turn against you when you start letting your actions be influenced by realities, instead of following the logic of your ringing rhetoric.” (READ MORE)
Patrick J. Buchanan: Interventions Without End? “U.S. global hegemony is history. Like every nation, America must now choose -- between what is vital and worth fighting for, and what may be ‘idealistic,’ but is not worth a war.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: Sen. Hagel's Reckless Rhetoric “Hagel has been dogging Bush for months, if not years, over Iraq, and now he is actually doing the antiwar Democrats' bidding on it.” (READ MORE)
Dinesh D'Souza: Liberal Myths about Radical Islam “As the Pelosi Democrats attempt to steer the debate on Iraq and the war on terror away from President Bush's approach, it is useful to examine the premises behind the liberal Democratic understanding of the war on terror. So far the Democrats have been successful in faulting the president's admittedly-flawed approach.” (READ MORE)
Steve Chapman: All Illegal Immigration Is Local “The city government of Hazleton, Pa., got in trouble when it passed a law intended to drive out illegal immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to overturn the ordinance, arguing that it is the proper task of the federal government, not municipalities, to enforce immigration laws. But when good remedies are absent, it's no surprise to see bad ones emerge.” (READ MORE)
Robert D. Novak: Bush Alone “Republicans in Congress do not trust their president to protect them. That alone is sufficient reason to withhold statements of support for Gonzales, when such a gesture could be quickly followed by his resignation under pressure.” (READ MORE)
WSJ Opinion Journal: The Gitmo Blues “Winning a war is a difficult business under the best of circumstances. In democratic polities, the prospects for victory dim whenever there is strong domestic opposition, as there is today with respect to the handling of both Iraq and the broader war on terror. But far from merely challenging a particular military strategy or a discrete set of combat-related decisions, many critics deny that the United States is fighting a war at all.” (READ MORE)
Brendan Miniter: Northern Strategy “Remember Christie Todd Whitman? As recently as four years ago she was held up as a symbol that the Republican Party was moving away from its conservative roots and would maintain national dominance by appealing to moderate, suburban women. Ms. Whitman herself won two terms as governor of New Jersey and was tapped to run the Environmental Protection Agency by George W. Bush. She left government in 2003, published a book called ‘It's My Party Too’ and created a political action committee aimed at establishing her as a moderate anchor for the GOP.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit: (Video) Rosie blows the lid off the British sailor hostage crisis “Nice catch by the ‘Busters here. Western intel agents tell the Blotter that the kidnapping was indeed retaliation for the American raid in Irbil that netted five big Quds Force fish in January and that Iran may be angling for a swap; Iran denies it.” (READ MORE)
Ian: (Video) Hillary praises Bush at fundraiser; “he kept his word” on 9/11 funds “Sen. Hillary Clinton said she was “grateful” President Bush ‘kept his word’ and provided 9/11 funding for New York. Clinton responded to a question from singer Barbara Streisand at a fundraiser in Hollywood on Saturday night. Transcript is below the video.” (READ MORE)
Hugh Hewitt: The Increased Participation Of A Minority In Political Activism Does Not Excuse Bigotry Directed At Them “It would take a very foolish observer not to expect the presence of Senator Barack Obama in the race not to result in higher participation of African-Americans in Campaign 2008 and significant support for his campaign from African Americans. When that support materializes, it will not excuse or in any way legitimize racist attacks on the senator or his supporters. This is so obvious as to not even bear mentioning.” (READ MORE)
Jay Tea: Leaving Geneva “As many others have pointed out, including Captain Ed and Wretchard, the Geneva Convention -- that quaint little set of rules on how civilized nations wage war -- has become a ‘living document’ and evolved into ‘a set of rules that constrain how the West wages war, regardless of the actions of the other side.’ The original idea behind the Geneva Conventions was a sound one -- it outlined restrictions on weapons, tactics, and policies to be held to in times of war.” (READ MORE)
The Marching Camp: And that was BEFORE my coffee “The rest of today's anti-anti-war screed is going to be about the folks that are out there demonstrating. It is a popular myth that the ‘majority’ of the ‘anti-war’ crowd is composed of reasonable Americans who believe that the Iraq War was a mistake, and that these folks are the ones out there demonstrating against the war. Let me dismantle this in detail.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed: An Anniversary To Remember “Traditionally, fifth anniversary gifts come in wood, although more modern givers select silver. That seems appropriate as the nation celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, otherwise known as McCain-Feingold (Senate version) or Shays-Meehan (House version). Five years ago, wooden-headed politicians sold out the First Amendment for thirty pieces of silver in order to enact the first restrictions on political speech since the Sedition Act of the early 20th century.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden: By The Way, It’s Official “…we can win in Iraq, we are winning in Iraq, and George Bush’s surge strategy is responsible for it. Not even the AP can ignore it anymore: ‘The US military has captured the leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.’” (READ MORE)
Scott Johnson: The Democrats' Constitution “Last night Paul and John commented on yesterday's New York Sun story by Gary Shapiro on Senator Obama's contribution to Laurence Tribe's Harvard Law Review article ‘The Curvature of Constitutional Space: What Lawyers Can Learn From Modern Physics.’ According to Shapiro's summary of the article, Tribe ‘argues that constitutional jurisprudence should be updated in a similar way that Einstein's theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics, a view that would release judges from the original intent of the Founders of America.’” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Baghdad High Value Targets Nabbed “Three mass murderers have been arrested in Baghdad over the past week - Al Qaeda in Iraq and their network of suicide and car bomb cells have been the greatest threat to security in Baghdad, particularly since the implementation of the Baghdad Security Plan. Suicide attacks are aimed at Shia neighborhoods and markets in an attempt to reignite the sectarian murders, as well as at security forces in an attempt to break the will of the Iraqi police and soldiers.” (READ MORE)
Andi: They Just Don't Get It "Over the weekend, I spent some time with a friend of mine, a military spouse. My friend and her family were in town to meet with the President, which they did. I told her that I recently had the opportunity to shake the President's hand while covering the American Legion Legislative Rally. It wasn't the actual shaking of hands that will stick with me, it's the fact that President Bush made the effort to shake my hand, because I'm a military spouse. " (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.
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