January 14, 2006

Gore Executed, Bush Crowned

Former Vice President Al Gore was summarily executed by members of the Republican National Commitee just after midnight Saturday, two days before Gore was to give a speech denouncing the threat the President poses to the Constitution.

At the same time, Democratic member of Congress were rounded up by stormtroopers of the Secret Service and shipped off to concentration camps in the darkest corners of northwest Maryland.

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post were closed by crack elements of the Texas Air National Guard loyal to Bush, and ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN were appointed censors reporting directly to Scott McClellan.

-OR-

Al and his MoveOn.org cronies are listening to the orb again.

I'll let you decide which.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:15 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
Post contains 130 words, total size 1 kb.

January 13, 2006

Zawahiri Killed?

Via MSNBC.com:


U.S. officials told NBC News on Friday that American airstrikes in Pakistan overnight Thursday were aimed at the No. 2 man in the al-Qaida terror organization — Ayman al-Zawahri.

One official said intelligence indicated a strong possibility that Zawahri was in the Pakistani village at the time of the airstrike, but there is no confirmation that he was killed.

Pakistani officials say U.S. aircraft, apparently CIA Predator drones, fired as many as 10 missiles at the residential compound.

Interestingly enough, a Predator circling overhead was able to capture this image seconds before the missile strike, with subtitles.



Osama bin Laden hasn't been heard from in over a year, and some sources think he died of kidney failure in mid-December and was buried in Iran. If the DNA squeegeed off surrounding rocks verifies that Zawahiri was killed, who does that leave in charge of al Qaeda?

Update: Here.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 1 kb.

Truthout's Accidental Truth

Left wing truthout has breathlessly issued a press release claiming they have a document proving that President Bush authorized NSA wiretaps prior to 9/11/01.


The National Security Agency advised President Bush in early 2001 that it had been eavesdropping on Americans during the course of its work monitoring suspected terrorists and foreigners believed to have ties to terrorist groups, according to a declassified document.

And what does that declassified document (PDF) reveal? Just the bottom half of the cover page alone reveals quite a bit:



Now let me ask you the same three questions I asked at Balloon Juice:

When was this document prepared?
December, 2000, but deriving from NSA Manual 123 Dated February 24, 1998.

Who was President during these dates?
William Jefferson Clinton (January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001).

When was Bush inaugurated?
January 20, 2001.

Without even going past the cover sheet, it appears that the NSA programs covered by this particular document date to Bill Clinton's second term, from three years before Bush took office.

I'll have to finish reading the document at a later time, but this seems to be hardly the smoking gun that truthout claims.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 04:57 PM | Comments (32) | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 2 kb.

File this under, "We would if we could."


"When it comes to its image, New Jersey really cares," Gov. Richard J. Codey said. "Our catch phrase should hint at our true beauty."

Mission accomplished.

Personally, I liked, "New Jersey: Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted."

For the time being, it's even true.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:28 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

Can You Here Me Now? BOOM!

This bears watching. Via ABC News:


Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

The phones — which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card — have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists.

[snip]

In one New Year's Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said.

In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident.

The Midland, Texas, police report dated December 18 and obtained by ABC News states: "Information obtained by MPD [Midland Police Department] dispatch personnel indicated that approximately six individuals of Middle-Eastern origin were attempting to purchase an unusually large quantity of tracfones (disposable cell phones with prepaid minutes attached)." At least one of the suspects was identified as being from Iraq and another from Pakistan, officials said.

[snip]

The Midland, Texas, arrest report police also identified the individuals as linked to a terror cell:

"Evasive responses provided by the subjects, coupled with actions observed by officers at the onset of the contact prompted the notification of local FBI officials to assist in the investigation," the report said. "Upon the arrival of special agents, and as a result of subsequent interviews, it was discovered that members of the group were linked to suspected terrorist cells stationed within the Metroplex.

In addition to the uses stated, cell phones such as these tracfones have been used as part of the triggering device of remote control IEDs in Iraq and elsewhere.

Another blog I came across yesterday (I'm sorry, but I forgot which one [updated: here. -ed.]) noted that there seems to be a pattern of terror attacks or attempted terror attacks following videotaped statements released by al Qaeda's resident cave doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Guess who just released a statement last week?

Something to think about...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 414 words, total size 3 kb.

January 12, 2006

Empty Suits and Empty Chairs

Senate Democrats took the better part of four days to assault the character and moral fiber of a composed and dignified Judge Samuel Alito.

But when seven appeals court judges came to testify about Alito's stellar qualfications, the Senators did what modern Democrats do best, as noted by Michelle Malkin:


Chuck Schumer walked out before the judges started to speak. Teddy Kennedy showed up late, stayed for 10 minutes, then left. Pat Leahy put on a dour face for a short time, and also bailed. Dianne Feinstein, to her credit, remained for the duration and asked respectful questions.

These four days of testimony were never about "advise and consent," nor giving Judge Alito a fair hearing, but were instead about partisan demogoguery. As John Hinderaker notes:


...if the Democrats were actually interested in what kind of judge Sam Alito is, these [judges] are precisely the witnesses who could tell them. If the Democrats really thought that Alito's judicial opinions reflect poorly on him, these are exactly the people who could answer their questions, and, if they are correct, confirm their fears. But the Democrats apparently knew that wasn't going to happen. The only conclusion one can draw is that the Democrats knew they were smearing a fine man and a fine judge. But the fact that they didn't even have the decency or respect to stay and listen to Alito's colleagues is disgusting.

The Senate Democrats did not want to hear from the appelate judges. The Senators made their scurrilous attacks against a far better man than they, and having failed in their ignoble endevour, they committed to doing what Democrats do best.

They cut and ran... again.

Note: Though it wasn't intentional, it seems that I pretty much ripped off the title and content of this post from Hugh Hewitt through some sort of blogroll osmosis. Freaky.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:55 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 317 words, total size 2 kb.

The Domestic Lying Scandal

ABC News still can't basic facts about the NSA surveillance story correct, as ABC reporter Jessica Yellin proves in her story, Ex-CIA Lawyer, No Legal Basic for NSA Spying.

She stumbles—or perhaps intentionally misleads—in the very first paragraph of her story:


Former CIA General Counsel Jeffrey Smith will testify in House hearings that there is no legal basis for President Bush's controversial National Security Agency domestic surveillance program, ABC News has learned.

The section I bolded highlights a key factual error in Yellin's article, which is this fact that the NSA intercept program was decidedly non-domestic in nature.

Yellin's incorrect assertion is one common to many in the media.

Deb Reichmann of the Associated Press, makes the claim as well, even though she contradicts herself by noting, that Bush "Â…gave the NSA permission to eavesdrop without a warrant on communications between suspected terrorists overseas and people inside the United States."

Josh Meyer and Daryl Strickland get it wrong in the LA Times, as does Scott Shane of the NY Times and literally dozens of other journalists.

Someone please alert the media that a call between people in two countries is, by definition, not domestic. This is sloppy reporting, betraying the fact that the journalists covering this story are ignorant of the subject matter they are covering. Or could another factor be in play?

Certainly, our crack corps of media professionals wouldn't dream of purposefully trying to muddy the waters to push a certain political agendaÂ… would they?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:17 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 255 words, total size 2 kb.

Tactical Seppuku

The NY Times notes more friction in the Iraqi insurgency between local insurgents and those loyal to al Qaeda:


The discussion dragged on for seven hours, he said, but did not go well. The local insurgents demanded that the foreigners from Al Qaeda leave Iraq.

"They said, 'Jihad needs its victims,' " Abu Lil said. " 'Iraqis should be willing to pay the price.' "

"We said, 'It's very expensive.' "

The meeting ended abruptly, and Abu Lil and his associates walked out, feeling powerless and angry.

"I wished I had a nuclear bomb to attack them," he said. "We told them, 'You are not Iraqis. Who gave you the power to do this?' "

Antagonism between factions of the insurgency is nothing new, but local citizens increasingly tire of al Qaeda tactics that have little or no regard for the lives of civilian populations. Attacks upon Sunnis, including many joining the Iraqi military and police forces, have increased the resolve of Iraqis to defeat al Qaeda as a matter of own personal protection.

What the Times cannot bring itself to say is what al Qaeda in Iraq leader Musab al Zarqawi already knows, which is that al Qaeda cannot win against Iraqis in Iraq, and is merely hoping to delay losing in hopes of a miraculous political victory (a precipitous American withdrawal) as advocated by some Democrats.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 232 words, total size 2 kb.

January 11, 2006

Alito-palooza

While I'm not super-interested in the Alito confirmation hearings ("done deal" is the phrase that comes to mind), I know a lot of folks are, and my fellow Pajamahadeen are all over it with the Mondo Alito blog.

Update: Partisans won't be swayed, but this won't play well in Peoria.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 52 words, total size 1 kb.

Hillary's Heroes


A brave U.S. soldier risks certain death by heatstroke to satisfy the liberal cry for more body armor. (Picture source)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:28 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 24 words, total size 1 kb.

More on Ali Fadhil's Rude Awakening

The Guardian is elaborating on the story it broke yesterday that award-winning Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhil had his home violently invaded in a raid by U.S. soldiers over the weekend. Fadhil claims:


It began at half past midnight on Saturday when explosives blew apart the three entrances to my house. We thought we had been caught in a bombing, but then a rifle sneaked round our bedroom door and shot a couple of bullets blindly; suddenly our room was filled with the wild sounds of US soldiers.

My three-year-old daughter Sarah woke to this nightmare. She pushed herself on to me and shouted "Daddy, Americans! They will take you! No, no, not like this daddy ..." She tried to say something to one of the soldiers but her tears stopped her from speaking. Instead of blaming the soldier I could see she was blaming me. I tried to calm her down but as I did so the soldier threw me on to the ground and tied me.

They then took me downstairs and made me sit in the living room while they smashed every piece of furniture we have. There were about 20 soldiers inside the house and several others on guard on the roof. A blue-eyed captain came to me holding my Handycam camcorder and questioned me aggressively: "Can you explain to me why you have this footage?"

The details of the raid, which I blogged about here yesterday, are very disturbing if true.

U.S forces should have better training and fire discipline than to blindly start shooting around corners in civilian households. American soldiers should have better discipline than to randomly smash all of the Fadhil family's furniture in a random, spiteful manner. If there is any credence to this story at all, then there should be a through investigation by the authorities.

But is there credibility in Fadhil's story? That is turning out to be an intriguing question.

As I stated yesterday, random "spray and pray" gunfire is not part of any military room clearing training of which I've ever heard. It is extremely counterproductive, as rifle fire in the confines of a dwelling is as potentially dangerous to the shooter's entry team and the shooter himself as it is to any potential hostiles.

Likewise, random, purposeful violence against civilians and their property is at odds with American goals in Iraq. I find it hard to believe that any American officer or senior NCOs would allow the destruction Fadhil alleges occurred in his home at the hands of American soldiers.

For that matter, I find it hard to believe that "a small room, two metres [sic] square, with wooden walls, a refrigerator and an oval table in the middle" could also have enough room for three adult males. All this in a 6'x6' room? Again Fadhil's story seems suspect.

But this story is also easily verified, at least in part.

Gunfire--even just a couple of bullets fired "blindly" as Fadhil alleges-- leaves copious physical evidence behind. Anyone familiar with the various "CSI" television shows know that bullets make hole in what they hit, and that bullets shatter on hard targets, leaving identifiable fragments. They also leave cartridge casings, and even an untrained eye can tell the difference between the 7.62x39mm round used by Iraqi forces and the 5.56x45mm cartridge favored by American forces.

I sincerely hope that Ali Fadhil would not would not manufacture or embellish a story in the hopes of ginning up interest in a Guardian films project he is developing for Channel 4, but at this point, with so many inconsistencies in his story, I'd have to say that anything at all is possible.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 621 words, total size 4 kb.

Fired NSA Stalker Admits Role as Times Source

Move over Bill Burkett, we've got a new player vying for "most disreputable source" status.

Via ABC News:


Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.

For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.

...Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the National Security Agency in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.

Now here is what ABC didn't tell you.

Tice was diagnosed by the Defense Department with psychotic paranoia and fired for apparently violating his security clearances by taking unauthorized peeks into the background of a female Asian employee he thought was a Chinese spy.

I wonder of James Risen realizes that the Ides of Mapes are upon him...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:32 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 195 words, total size 2 kb.

January 10, 2006

Starbucks Bomber Sought

Via Fox News, it looks like someone is brewing for a fight:


Police defused an explosive device found in the bathroom of a Starbucks on Monday. No one was injured.

Authorities were called around 1:15 p.m., after an employee reported finding something suspicious in the store's bathroom. About 100 people were evacuated from the store and apartments above it, and the street was closed to traffic, said Sgt. Neville Gittens...

...In 2003, police said the windows of 17 Starbucks stores were clouded with glue and some of the door locks were jammed. Vandals also posted phony notices purporting to be from Starbucks management announcing the company's intention to abandon some of their San Francisco stores to make room for more locally owned coffee houses.

This appears to be another escalation of the Coffee Wars in which so many lives have been lost, as bean-related violence seems poised to spin madly out of control.

San Francisco authorities are said to be looking for these suspects seen just outside the targeted Starbucks just minutes before the bomb was discovered.



If these suspects are spotted, do not approach them, but instead please call the San Francisco Police Department, or contact them on the set of their latest movie.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 2 kb.

Confirming Alito

You might notice I'm not blogging the Senate confirmation hearings for SCOTUS nominee Judge Samuel Alito. It isn't because I don't care. It's because I consider his confirmation a foregone conclusion.

Looking at his record, I see even fewer reasons for Democrats to legitimately argue against him that they did against now Chief Justice John Roberts. I think his confirmation is a done deal without anything but a bluff at a filibuster. The only question for me is which Democrats will lose the most credibility with moderates during the proceedings pandering to the liberal "base" that keeps losing them elections.

Volokh, and The Corner will certainly be following the hearing closely, so visit them or your other favorite blogs for more coverage as it occurs.

In my opinion, Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court like waiting for sun to come up in the morning. It's only worth talking about if it doesn't happen.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:16 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 157 words, total size 1 kb.

January 09, 2006

Rude Awakening

The Guardian (UK) is reporting that an Iraqi journalist working for them received a very rough wake-up call:


American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children.
Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He was released hours later.

Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.

The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not yet been returned.

The director of the film, Callum Macrae, said yesterday: "The timing and nature of this raid is extremely disturbing. It is only a few days since we first approached the US authorities and told them Ali was doing this investigation, and asked them then to grant him an interview about our findings.

"We need a convincing assurance from the American authorities that this terrifying experience was not harassment and a crude attempt to discourage Ali's investigation."

Dr Fadhil was asleep with his wife, their three-year-old daughter, Sarah, and seven-month-old son, Adam, when the troops forced their way in.

"They fired into the bedroom where we were sleeping, then three soldiers came in. They rolled me on to the floor and tied my hands. When I tried to ask them what they were looking for they just told me to shut up," he said.

This story, as reported, is shocking and should result in an immediate investigation.

There is the distinct possibility that everything Dr. Fadhil says is accurate, at which point Central Command will have some serious explaining to do.

But as of the time I'm writing this article, every single post being written about this story comes from testimony provided by Dr. Fadhil himself in the Guardian, with no other witness testimony, or physical evidence provided to back his contentions. In addition, some of his charges do not seem to square with American tactics.

His case, as published, is thin.

The Guardian article has no concurring witnesses. In a city of 2 million, no one else heard shots or saw them enter Fadhil's home?

At the end of the article, Fadhil claims, "They rolled me on to the floor and tied my hands."

Tied? The American military does not generally tie up its prisoners, but instead uses handcuffs or nylon flexcuffs.

But the strongest evidence for or against Fadhil will be ballistic in nature.

The article seems to assert weapons discharges at two points: when the home invaders "blasted their way into the home," presumably breaching the door, and then, "firing bullets into the bedroom."

U.S forces sometimes use a breaching round to blast locks to gain entry into locked buildings, so I'd expect to find 12-gauge shotgun shell casings at or near the Fadhil family front door. The door should also show obvious signs of being breached, with shot-out locks.

I would also expect to find multiple 5.56mm NATO cartridge casings at, near, and possibly inside the bedroom, as well as bullet holes and 5.56mm bullet fragments.

If this physical evidence is not readily apparent, or the bullet holes, cartridge casings, and bullet fragments are not consistent with U.S weaponryÂ… well, then we might have another kind of story on our hands entirely.

Jayson Ali Blair, anyone?

Note: In case anyone is wondering, the Ali Fadhil in this story is in no way related to the Fadhil family of Iraq the Model, which I confirmed with Omar Fadhil today.

Update: Ali Fadhil has released a no-less-confusing first-person account, discussed here.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:27 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 655 words, total size 4 kb.

January 08, 2006

Bitter Anti-Semitic Patholigical Hatred Sells, But Who's Buying?

Some months ago when Cindy Sheehan's book Not One More Mother's Child was launched, I noted that it had an Amazon.com Sales Rank that I think (I'm going by memory here) was in the mid 3,000s.

I'd since rather forgotten about Saint Cindy and her tome, until I noticed Goldstein mocked her latest batch of arsenic nuttiness this afternoon as he riffed of her latest post to Michael Moore's site:


“I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis,” said George on December 12, 2005. Even if one accepts this very low guess-ti-mate by George, his policies have been responsible for ten times the 3000 deaths on September 11, 2001. By his own admission, he is ten times the terrorist that Osama ever was."

It isn't even worth the effort to rebut Sheehan anymore as she has become a sad parody of herself; the only hope I have is that the MoveOn.org/CodePink wing of the party will help her hold another March of the 29 before the '06 elections.

But all the same, I was wondering how her book sales were doing in the wake of her latest pronouncement. I'm not sure what I was expecting her Sales Rank to be.

I certainly expected something better than this:



113,488 yesterday, dropping to 153,267 today. Ouch. Was it something she said?

By way of comparison, Everyone Poops came in at 2,031 today, and The War Against Toenail Fungus came in at 41,338.

It seems like fewer and fewer people are buying her crap these days...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:31 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 283 words, total size 2 kb.

January 07, 2006

Thick-Headedness Does Not Count As Armor

I relish when pundits try make profound judgments about a subject they clearly do not understand, like this - yeah, I know - NY Times article that breathlessly states:


A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

Liberal blog Newshog certainly thinks this is today's Crime of the Century, running the headline Rumsfeld and Armor - Criminal Negligence Or Treason? Smelling a choice to score cynical political points, there has been much faux concern for our troops (from the same one liberals have called Marines murderers and war criminals for 40 years, of course) by loopy Kos diarists and the always amusing Pam's House Blend among others, who don't know what they are talking about any more than did the writer at the Times who cobbled this shoddy article together in the first place.

Lets look at some facts, shall we?

Interceptor armor is relatively new, first being deployed in 1999 as a two-part system, made up of a flexible tactical vest and armor plate inserts. The vest itself is a tactical weave that will stop much shrapnel and pistol bullets up to 9mm on its own, but it will not stop any rifle bullet, nor some shrapnel. The second component of the Interceptor system is a hard 10"x12" ceramic armor plate known as Small Arms Protective Inserts (SAPIs) that can withstand multiple strikes from most, but no all rifle cartridges encountered on the modern battlefield.

The Interceptor system used by the Marines (details here) is a marked improvement over the previous PASGT vest, and is available in five sizes. The upgraded version of the Interceptor, which started being deployed in March of 2005, increased the protection with the addition of some side and upper arm protection and can be viewed here (PDF).

But the careful construction of the report defies logic and objectivity.

By design, the Times article shows an inaccurate picture of the Interceptor system provided to the Marines, based upon a false premise. This study only looked at fatalities, those Marines killed by upper body wounds while wearing vests. It excluded all the times where Interceptor vests worked as designed and the Marine survived.

This is akin to judging automobile safety by looking at only wrecks resulting in fatalities, as oppose to those wrecks where fatalities were prevented by good automotive design.

Reporters and clueless critics will not doubt be outraged decades from now when body armor of the day yields similar results against plasma rifles or other military technologies of that time.

There has always been and will always be an arms race between those developing armor and those designing weapons to defeat that armor. It has been that way for tens of thousands of years. It will be this way for the foreseeable future.

It would be smart for these “experts” to pull their heads out of their crawlspaces long enough to glance at a history book before they make fools of themselves yet again.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:52 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
Post contains 670 words, total size 5 kb.

John Murtha: Semper Fidelis?

I think regular readers of Confederate Yankee realize that in my previous comments about decorated former Marine and current democratic Congressman John Murtha, I've been very careful not to question his patriotism, even though I questioned his judgement.

That was all until now (following bold mine).


Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has come to national prominence since his call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, said Thursday night that he worries about "a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory."

Appearing at a town meeting in Arlington, Virginia, with fellow Democratic Rep. James Moran, Murtha said, "A year ago, I said we can't win this militarily, and I got all kinds of criticism." Now, Murtha told the strongly antiwar audience, "I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there's a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing."

John Murtha worries that it looks like the United States might be victorious in Iraq, and that is an outcome that he does not desire.

Let that sink in for a moment.

A ranking Democratic member of Congress has publicly stated that he is against the United States winning a war, and advocates abandoning an ally, a fledging democracy, before it can even defend itself.

I will no longer restrain from commenting on Murtha because of his past military service. Another American military hero turned upon a fledgling democracy once, and he become synonymous with the blackest kind of treachery.

Murtha's treason--and I do now classify it as such-- is even more shameful in my opinion, as he seeks to undermine not only the United States while at war, but he seeks to undermine another nation, Iraq, that has shown a stronger commitment to democracy each time it has been tested at the ballot box.

For all that he once was, John Murtha is a disgrace as a Congressman and to the Marine Corps. If Murtha has any remaining decency, he should resign his position on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

The Marine motto "Semper Fidelis" means "Always faithful" in Latin. For John Murtha, who retired from the Marine Reserves in 1990, "always" lasted just 16 years.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:14 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 386 words, total size 3 kb.

Can Collector


"Where does he get those wonderful toys? "

--The Joker, Batman (1989)

Ward Brewer has a thing for collecting tin cans. Really big "tin cans," like E-01 Cuitlahuac / DD-574 John Rodgers, a World War II Fletcher-class destroyer he picked up from the Mexican Navy in December.

Now he's found 50 MK-6 Depth Charges from 1942-43.

You kinda get the feeling if you send him to the scrap yard looking for a spare water tank, he'd come back with one of these, don't you?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:13 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 88 words, total size 1 kb.

January 06, 2006

Courage to Stand

Via the Washington Post:


The residents of Ramadi had had enough. As they frantically searched the city's hospital for relatives killed and wounded in bomb blasts at a police recruiting station Thursday, they did something they had never publicly done: They blamed al Qaeda in Iraq, the insurgent movement led by Abu Musab Zarqawi.

"Neither the Americans nor the Shiites have any benefit in doing this. It is Zarqawi," said Khalid Saadi, 42, who came to the hospital looking for his brother, Muhammed.

Muhammed, it was later determined, was one of 80 police recruits killed by the terrorist attack on a recruiting line of 1,000 Sunni police force applicants in a town that had formerly assisted, sometimes actively, al Qaeda terrorists.

But that is not the entire story of yesterday's suicide bombing in Ramadi.

After the attack, the prospective recruits returned to the blood-stained streets, reformed their lines, and continued the screening process to become police officers.

The media breathlessly covers the moment-to-moment carnage of the day. They cannot understand, nor provide context to, the courage of a growing, increasingly tough anti-insurgency movement in Iraq. It is one thing to talk tough, but another thing entirely to stand for your beliefs.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:41 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 207 words, total size 2 kb.

<< Page 3 of 4 >>
190kb generated in CPU 0.0817, elapsed 0.1466 seconds.
71 queries taking 0.1183 seconds, 361 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.

Search Thingy



Recent Comments

  • penis advantage reviews Yet, the best male enhancement method acting that is proved to be the mastering the items infra good... entry
  • destockchine Do not lower, virtually all a person is depressed, as you are do not no who's falling out obsessed a... entry
  • chine destock During prosperity our own neighbors find out all of; when it comes to adversity we understand our ow... entry
  • tubal reversal I was very amazing why i not see your web page before i would come returning. tubal rever... entry
  • tubal reversal The simplest way to evade being disliked is to mind your own business and keep from giving goo... entry
  • outlet You will find certainly quite lots of particulars like that to take into consideration. That could b... entry
  • outlet I'm now not positive exactly where you might be acquiring your information, but great subject. I nee... entry
  • shoes There couple of fascinating points with time in this post but I don't know if these center to heart... entry
  • chanel outlet Wonderful beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your web site, how can i subscribe for a blog ... entry
  • Canada Goose Norge Would you like to leave a message? Are you sure? Draw your chair up to the table.It seems to me that... entry

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Sample link

Monthly Traffic

  • Pages: 9792
  • Files: 140
  • Bytes: 129.9M
  • CPU Time: 11:03
  • Queries: 369697

Content

  • Posts: 3653
  • Comments: 35960

Feeds


RSS 2.0 Atom 1.0