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 Blast Kills 9 GIs, Injures 20 At Outpost - A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged truck into a U.S. military outpost near Baqubah on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 in one of the deadliest single ground attacks on U.S. forces since the start of the war in Iraq, military officials said early Tuesday. (READ MORE)
Bush Asserts Increased Confidence in Gonzales - President Bush said his confidence in Alberto R. Gonzales has grown as a result of the attorney general's testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the administration moved to end speculation that Gonzales would step down after a performance criticized by senators in both... (READ MORE)
U.S. Aims to Reassure Russia on Defense Sites - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday in Moscow that Russian leaders appear concerned a U.S. plan to place 10 missile-defense interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic could pose threats to Russia, should the characteristics of the facilities change in the future. (READ MORE)
Bill to limit U.S. in Iraq advances - The Democrat-controlled Congress yesterday moved to limit U.S. combat operations in Iraq immediately and withdraw troops as early as July, hardening its stance for a veto showdown with President Bush over war funding. (READ MORE)
Yeltsin pushed Russian reform - Divisive even in death, former President Boris Yeltsin leaves a legacy of triumphs and tragedies -- both personal and political -- that his Russian countrymen will be dealing with for decades to come. (READ MORE)
Ban to press Assad on Mideast peace - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Damascus today to ask Syrian leaders to "play a constructive role" in the Middle East peace process and to press for the acceptance of an international tribunal to pursue the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister... (READ MORE)
Colorado takes aim at race, sex preferences - Civil rights advocates kicked off a four-state campaign yesterday aimed at ending government race and sex preferences by emulating the success of last year's Michigan ballot initiative. (READ MORE)
From the Front:
Desert Flier: VBIED's rock Ramadi “Sitting at my desk writing letters after lunch when the biggest crunch yet flings things off my shelf. D squared and I look at each other for a milisecond, jump up, and run out of the hut to go to Charlie Medical for our flak and kevlar. We take a quick look up and see the plum of smoke just a short distance past some barracks. I jump on the HESCO barrier and snap a quick picture, D squared on my heels. ‘You know we are supposed to get our asses down when we hear an explosion, not climb shit to see what's going on!’” (READ MORE)
GWOTdotUS: What home is “As I watch the second-hand tick by ever so slowly, I cannot help but think of home. What is home? Being in various overseas assignments and combat tours, one starts to develop a greater understanding of exactly what constitutes ‘home.’ Is it this place that I take my boots off in? This location on a map where my lawn mower resides? Is it where I grew up?” (READ MORE)
Omar: The Wall. “First and foremost, I don’t know why ‘The Wall’ is becoming such an issue now. Work to construct similar walls started weeks ago in the Amiriya and Ghazaliyah districts. The ‘news’ went utterly unnoticed then. But that’s not what matters. What does matter is effectiveness versus side-effects. Neither should be neglected.” (READ MORE)
LTC Rich Phillips: Week 14--Afghanis I Have Known “I was going to write a long entry about all the Afghanis I know and work with here at FOB Salerno and in Khowst. However, as I gathered information and talked to my Afghan friends I realized that the last thing they want is their name and/or picture posted on the internet. The same technology we use to keep in touch and share our lives with friends and family, the insurgents use to target the Afghans who work with the Coalition Forces. I'm sad to say that I personally know of many, here and in Iraq, who have been killed just for working with the US Army.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Jules Crittenden: Road to Nowhere “Reid: Bush in denial. This from a member of the Democratic leadership that is pushing a symbolic retreat plan he knows won’t survive a veto, simply to make the petulant point. This from the bearers of a mandate who have so far managed to enact exactly one meaningless non-binding, self-negating resolution. Broder: Reid a ‘bumbling’ ‘embarrassment.’” (READ MORE)
Rich Lowry: The French Devolution “France has often, for better or worse, led the way during its history: in state-building, when Louis XIV created the modern French monarchy; in proto-totalitarian politics, with its revolution of 1789; in mass-mobilized warfare, in the wake of the revolution. Now, France is being reduced to a sad object lesson, a warning of the deadening effects of Big Government economics.” (READ MORE)
Thomas Sowell: Aftermath of the 1960s? “Someone recently said that mass shootings, such as those at Virginia Tech or Columbine High School, are largely a phenomenon of the 1960s and afterwards.” (READ MORE)
David Limbaugh: It Depends What the Meaning of "Support" Is “One is entitled to wonder how the prime movers in today's Democratic Party would behave differently if they were trying to dispirit our troops and embolden the enemy.” (READ MORE)
Debra J. Saunders: Will Afghanistan Be the Next Iraq? “The simple equation in politics today -- at least according to many Democrats -- is that the war in Iraq is a bad war and the war in Afghanistan is a good war.” (READ MORE)
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Terror's Lobbyist “This week, the Ohio Legislature will hold its second hearing on legislation designed to help the state make a real contribution to America’s triumph in the War for the Free World. It would prevent investment by Ohio’s public pension funds in companies that do business with the terrorism-sponsoring, nuclear weapons- and ballistic missile-building and genocide-threatening Islamic Republic of Iran.” (READ MORE)
Michael Barone: Funding the Troops “End the war. Fund the troops. You can sum up the argument between George W. Bush and the Democratic majorities in Congress in just six words.” (READ MORE)
WSJ REVIEW & OUTLOOK: HillaryCare Installment Plan “Any doubt that ‘universal’ health care has returned as a dominant political issue vanished with last month's forum for Democratic Presidential candidates in Nevada. ‘We need a movement,’ Hillary Clinton declared. ‘We need people to make this the No. 1 voting issue in the '08 election.’
She and her friends in Congress are already working on it, notably by proposing to greatly expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program.” (READ MORE)
Bret Stephens: A Tale of Two Scandals “Imagine that a top civil servant at a major multinational institution arranges a job for a forty-something female colleague that comes with a $45,000 raise and brings her yearly salary to about $190,000, tax free. Now imagine that the couple has been photographed at a nudist beach--him wearing nothing but a baseball cap. The latest sordid twist in l'affaire Wolfowitz? Not at all. This is the story of Günter Verheugen, first vice president of the European Commission in Brussels.” (READ MORE)
David Satter: Boris Yeltsin “The era of Boris Yeltsin, who died yesterday, was a time of lost opportunity. Yeltsin led the revolution that overthrew the Soviet Union. But his attempt to build democracy in Russia was a failure, in no small measure because, mesmerized by the success of the West, he was determined to create democracy by force.
In some respects, Yeltsin was one of history's great benefactors. Expelled from the Party leadership after he made a speech in 1987 denouncing the slow pace of Soviet reform, he became a martyr in the eyes of the public. And with the help of the first free elections, he emerged as the leader of the opposition to the regime.” (READ MORE)
Atlas Shrugs: Ismail Cho was a Liberal “Rush is right on the money again. Apparently Ismail/Cho was leftarded. So it is hardly surprising that those animals at MSU were spewing invectives when there was an attempt to remember the victims of the Virginia tech shooting (check out the video here.) Check this out over at ABC News. The liberal hypocrites (libhyps?) over at ABC are appalled by this, I applaud it: (READ MORE)
Bear Creek Ledger: Rep Boehner’s Feet Held to the Fire “A group of citizens attending the ‘Hold Their Feet To The Fire’ Capitol radio rally were rudely thrown out of House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office. Sounds like Boehner doesn’t like citizens visiting his office holding him to account. ‘Congressman John Boehner Throws Out Citizen Lobbyists - The office of Congressman John Boehner, minority leader in the House, threw out the first of our citizen lobbyists that went on Capitol Hill this morning to discuss illegal immigration. Most of the groups went out as five with a leader.’” (READ MORE)
Grim @ Blackfive: COIN: The Gravity Well “For reasons that must be clear to everyone, some of the best minds of the living generation have turned recently to the question of counterinsurgency warfare (COIN). I've heard them referred to here as ‘Jedi Knights,’ which may be an accurate description. There are some genuinely brilliant people turning out some extraordinary thinking on the subject. Between them, they have built a new model for thinking about how the current Global insurgency is organized and operates.” (READ MORE)
Blonde Sagacity: Gore's "Shadow" Campaign Team “I know I may regret saying this, but I really want the 2008 presidential race to be Alpocrisy Gore VS. Fred D. Thompson. What an exciting race...! Someone once said to me that when it comes to political thinking in the American, ‘once a loser always a loser’ --if that's true, that covers both Gore and McCain.” (READ MORE)
Blue Crab Boulevard: A Brief History Of Mental Health “Jonathan Kellerman, professor of psychology and best-selling author, provides a short history of mental health in the United States since the 1970s. In a nutshell, excuse the expression, it boils down to one thing: turn 'em loose on the streets. The rest, as they say, is history.” (READ MORE)
Ed Morrissey: Word Up -- Word Out “The fall of Don Imus may have accomplished what twenty years of finger-wagging couldn't: to get rap to clean up its act. Influential rap mogul Russell Simmons has called for the removal of curse words from hip-hop music, especially those that carry offensive racial and sexist meanings: ‘Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Monday that the recording and broadcast industries should consistently ban racial and sexist epithets from all so-called clean versions of rap songs and the airwaves.’” (READ MORE)
Crazy Politico: Showdown Week “This will be the week for grandstanding and the showdown over Iraq, kind of. The House and Senate conference committee reconciled the two versions of the War Funding/Emergency Pork bills they passed before spring break, and by Friday it should go to the White House for it's promised veto. The true showdown will come next week, when Congress has to decide to either try and override the vetos, or come up with a new plan of their own, since the one with deadlines is dead on arrival.” (READ MORE)
Don Surber: Save Iraq “The lefty story line is that the Iraqis want us to leave. If only Americans go home, the war will end. They said the same thing about Vietnam. We left. Thousands of people were slaughtered. A million took to the sea to escape and millions more were forced into re-education camps. Then came the killing fields of Cambodia, where Hanoi’s surrogates slaughtered 2 million more people.” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Training the Iraqi Army and the Order of Battle “In the conventional template of reporting on Iraq, glossy, controversial headlines often fail to reflect the reality of the situation on the ground. Take the latest reporting by McClatchy Newspapers' Nancy A. Youssef concerning the purported shift of U.S. military power away from training Iraqi Security Forces and back toward stability operations.” (READ MORE)
Ian: (Video) O’Reilly names those who recycle Media Matters’ garbage “Bill O’Reilly went after Media Matters tonight in his Talking Points Memo and in the segment that followed. He named several influential media figures who regurgitate content and talking points from Media Matters uncritically. O’Reilly promises more segments on Media Matters in the future.” (READ MORE)
Bryan Preston: Marine in Ramadi: “I got a quote…for Harry Reid.” (with video of Marines in Fallujah) Update: Dollard gets more Marine email “Cpl Tyler Rock sent the email to Pat Dollard, whose site is now down, and that’s probably due to the Drudge link that the email attracted. ‘these families need us here. obviously he has never been in iraq. or atleast the area worth seeing. the parts where insurgency is rampant and the buildings are blown to pieces. we need to stay here and help rebuild. if iraq didnt want us here then why do we have IP’s voluntering everyday to rebuild their cities.’” (READ MORE)
Chris Short: The Decision to Stay in Iraq Boils Down to One Thing “I have been a little curious lately about the Iraq war stance democrats and liberals have taken lately. Basically, they are going to force the President to use his veto power and then keep sending the President funding bills that include pork barrel spending or a timetable for withdrawal. Trust me, folks, a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq is like sending al Qaida an invitation to make the next pre-9/11 Afghanistan. Only this time the resistance will be weaker and the death toll will be much higher during the takeover.” (READ MORE)
Amy Proctor: 82nd Airborne is "Better Than Everyone Else" “Bottom Line Up Front: Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division are the Army’s cream of the crop. In February 2004, insurgents began using car bombs and EIDs in the al-Rashid district of Baghdad and stepped up the violence. Why? The 82nd Airborne Division, 2nd Brigade Infantry Regiment redeployed to Fort Bragg and left the area. Paratroopers are known for being the best of the best. One look from an airborne infantryman is enough to make an insurgent pee in his pants.” (READ MORE)
John Hinderaker: The "Right" Kind of Veteran “MoveOn.org announced today that Oliver Stone will direct a television commercial opposing the Iraq war. The commercial will be broadcast nationwide, financed by the vast wealth of the far left. It will star a veteran who will be selected through a contest on the MoveOn web site. Stone explains the project: ‘I decided to participate in this project because, as a veteran, I know that America needs to listen to our servicemen and women. They've been there and they know what's really going on. They need to be part of this debate.’” (READ MORE)
McQ: The strawmen cometh “Cynthia Tucker, a columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and recent winner of a Pulitzer Prize, writes a post-prize article which makes you wonder about the credibility of the award. It is entitled ‘Pushing Guns for all Students Cartoonish Idea’. A better title would have been ‘Pushing Guns For All Students Is A Strawman Argument, But One I Intend To Pursue.’ If there is anyone out there claiming ‘all students should be armed’, they’re as ‘cartoonish’ as Ms. Tucker’s claims. On to those claims:” (READ MORE)
Lorie Byrd: What Would It Take for Joe Lieberman to Fire Harry Reid? “Townhall has an online petition you can participate in to let Harry Reid know that you don't think the war in Iraq is lost, while others are asking Joe Lieberman to fire Reid. There was a time, not so long ago, that Lieberman expressed concern about the Democrats' position on Iraq. Now that so much has happened, including his majority leader declaring the war lost and congressional threats to defund the mission, what will he do? Is this going to be another case of Lieberman speaking out, but taking no action, as he did in the Clinton impeachment? This is a much more important matter, with not only many lives at stake, but also the security of the country and our place in the world. What would it take for Joe Lieberman to break ranks with the Democrats in the Senate and fire Harry Reid?” (READ MORE)
John Donovan: Meeting the Enemy... “...as in going to a political function and ambushing your freshman congressional Representative. In this case, Nancy Boyda, Democrat, representing the 2nd Congressional District of Kansas. She who upset Jim Ryun. Not that I mind his departure, his took his constituents for granted, I mind the loss of the seat to the Democrats, though despite some heated rhetoric to the contrary, I don't see Ms. Boyda as quite being "Ms. Boyda (D, KS/San Francisco).” (READ MORE)
The Belmont Club: Surge and Counter-surge “The car-bomb attack on a US patrol base in Diyala which killed 9 soldiers is the first of two adapatations the Sunni insurgency to the Surge. As Max Boot wrote in the Weekly Standard before the attack, the insurgents have responded to the crackdown in Baghdad by moving elsewhere, not only to preserve their forces but to exploit places where the American presence has thinned out in order to provide forces for Baghdad.” (READ MORE)
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