You can see "Ashley's Story," if you have not, at that address.
I personally believe that character can be a sufficient cause to vote for one candidate over another--character is the one thing on which you can finally rely. The law won’t restrain a man of sufficient power or connections or fame. Past a certain level, character is the only thing that can.
Everyone must finally evaluate these mens’ characters for themselves. It seems to me that this story is enlightening in that regard, given the great number of assaults that have been directed at Bush’s. Yet, finally, he is a decent man.
Kerry is not. He betrayed his oath as an officer, and his brothers in arms--first by leaving them under fire, then by meeting privately with the leaders of their enemies, and then by entering those leaders’ propaganda into the Senate record, while advocating that enemy’s plan. That he did so is not even contested. People who wish to support him merely try to excuse or explain what everyone recognizes that he did.
There are many things the Bush administration does of which I don’t approve. Yet, finally, Bush is a decent man, and Kerry is not. To me, and to others, that will be sufficient.
Ashley's Story
gladwell dot com / The Ketchup Conundrum
Want to read something really interesting, that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics or the military? Read "The Ketchup Conundrum." It will explain several things you never knew you didn't know: why your toddler won't eat anything new, why nobody's ever gotten rich selling gourmet ketchup, and several other things besides.
Via Arts & Letters Daily.
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today
Best of the Web runs this AP headline:
BotW wonders if this won't distract the men. As any student of Marine Corps / Navy jokes knows, however, the answer is...'U.S. Navy Makes Skirts Optional for Women'
As Grim's Hall is a family site, that sentence will not be concluded. Still, Marines in the audience are grinning broadly.
(Similar adolescent humor: One evening, hanging around with a couple of soldiers and some former Marines at a jujitsu club in Gainesville, GA, a debate arose over which service was better. One of the women there, Renee, said, "This is just silly. Everyone knows the services go hand in hand." To which former Marine sergeant Ken Caton replied...)
Really, military humor is just unprintable. I apologize to everyone for this walk down memory lane.
MSNBC - Bush campaign voices worry about military vote
Should the military be allowed to vote in the presidential elections? Both Florida and Ohio have massive numbers of deployed soldiers, as do NJ, PA, and other swing states. But Democratic lawsuits may prevent military voters from having the chance to speak out.
My reading of the polls is that the general trends give the election to Bush, if military voters are counted. If the Democratic party can get military ballots thrown out, or prevent them from being issued in time for the election in the first place, Kerry could win. Ohio is close enough, excepting military voters, that Kerry has a chance of carrying it.
Is there anything we can do to make sure the servicemen get to vote? Nope. By putting the matter in the courts, partisans remove it entirely from any democratic (small d-) pressures -- indeed, that is why the courts are generally preferred by advocates of positions that horrify the electorate. If the partisans can manage the delays long enough, they could win by disenfranchising the deployed military, and no political action by any side or group can stop it. It's just a matter of whether the courts reach a resolution in time to get approved ballots to the troops, get them filled out, and returned in a proper fashion.
No point in speculating on what the proper response would be, should the litigation strategy succeed in disenfranchising military voters. Maybe things will work out right. Perhaps the court system will work. I suppose we'll see.
Froggy Ruminations: Vox Blogoli: Why George Bush
As a SEAL Reservist, I have tried to maintain contact with my friends in the Teams who have remained on active duty. This President has authorized SOF operations that were unthinkable with the prior administration. If I told you the places my friends have been, you would be shocked. President Bush's risk tolerance for operations in support of the GWOT is satisfyingly high. While John Kerry promises to double SOF which is impossible, the President has shown a detailed understanding of what the SEALs are up to and how they are getting it done. The President has mandated the creation of 2 additional SEAL Teams, but he told our top Admiral that he would not abide the degradation of training and selection of men. This is music to the ears of a Navy SEAL who places his life in the hands of his comrades in training and war.There's more.
SEALs that I have talked to love the President and Donald Rumsfeld as well.
Da Grunt's Support Team! - - Fotopages.com
JarHeadDad invites you all to drop by and see the pictures from Iraq. The 2/2 is just back, and he's got some new shots just developed and posted online. There are some older things too, if you missed them the first time around.
War's Wrenching Counterpoint to Quints' Arrival (washingtonpost.com)
Thanks to everyone who sent me this morning's story from the Washington Post. Turns out he's in Bethesda, which is only a couple of hours from here. Maybe I'll drop in to see the fellow next week, if the National Naval Medical Center allows visitors. Does anyone know?
War's Wrenching Counterpoint to Quints' Arrival (washingtonpost.com)
Thanks to everyone who sent me this morning's story from the Washington Post. Turns out he's in Bethesda, which is only a couple of hours from here. Maybe I'll drop in to see the fellow next week, if the National Naval Medical Center allows visitors. Does anyone know?
The Command Post - 2004 Presidential Election
Yet again we are being told by the Kerry campaign to please ignore the last two decades of his career:
When asked to reconcile all that she had said about Kerry's purported positive views on space with a voting record wherein he repeatedly voted to cut or cancel various NASA activities including the ISS, Garver noted that she was not all that concerned about this - and that one should not consider Kerry�s Senate voting record as being indicative of how Kerry would view NASA as President.Come on, now. How the man has voted for two decades says nothing whatsoever about his opinions on the military, intelligence,and now space policy? Just what is the role of a Senator's vote, then?
Marine Corps Times - News - More News
Marine Sgt. Joshua Horton, the Marine who deployed just in advance of the birth of quintuplets, is back in the USA. Sadly, it's because he was seriously hurt:
A Marine sergeant who was seriously injured in Iraq just days before his wife gave birth to quintuplets has been told about the new babies, a Marine spokesman said Wednesday. 'His mom and sisters met with him today. He's been able to talk to doctors and he knows he?s a dad five times over now,' said Maj. Rick Coates, a spokesman for Sgt. Joshua Horton's Chicago-based unit, the 2nd Battalion 24th Marine Regiment. The couple has two other children.Sgt. Horton himself is also in critical but stable condition. Grim's Hall sends our best. Thanks to Janie from Seattle for dropping a note to me about it. If anyone hears more, including especially ways to help out, let me know.
Coates said Horton, 28, was concerned about the babies who all weighed less than two pounds when they were born premature Monday in a Naperville, Ill., hospital. But he said Horton talked to his wife, Taunacy, who reassured him that the babies were in good health. The babies remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday, according to Edward Hospital.
MOOSE CREEK PUBLISHING
I've just realized, while looking at the AuthentiSEAL webpage, that the book about their exploits uncovering fake SEALs was written by an old friend of mine. Steve Robinson, known to me as "Tiny," is not only a former SEAL and investigator of false claims to military glory. He's also a blacksmith, the first Westerner ever to be admitted into the Russian Hammerman's guild, and also a member of the ancient Scottish Hammerman's guild.
Since Tiny has posted a few pictures of himself on the website, I thought I'd give you one that was a bit more recent. Here is Tiny at the Grandfather Mountain Scottish Highland Games, wearing his "Clan McTablecloth" tartan greatkilt.
Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge - October 13, 2004 - The New York Sun
You've probably seen the The New York Sun piece explaining why it is likely that Kerry was dishonorably discharged from the Navy. This is a well-researched story, founded in exactly the kind of details about military procedure that usually escapes the journalist community.
Is the author right? Perhaps. I know that the director of AuthentiSEAL has been looking into just this question for quite a while. I've gotten the chain email started by Mr. Nash several times, though I haven't published it because it contained questions but no answers. The Sun piece is different -- it's got some hard facts:
According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all....All that is reasonable -- as is the presumption that a Naval Officer who secretly met with the Viet Cong leadership and negotiated a peace treaty with them might not have been honorably discharged. Indeed, one would expect that the least that he would face would be a dishonorable discharge. That Kerry did so is not disputed by anyone, so far as I know, and his work on "The People's Peace Treaty" is a matter of public record.
There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr. Kerry's medals were reissued.
Will this story get enough legs to impress itself into the public mind between now and 2 November? I hope so, if it's true. A man who violated his oath as a Naval officer ought not to be trusted to keep his oath as President.
This is a point made recently by BlackFive, discussing LtCol Khan's recent removal from command. "For example, look at the comments surrounding the posts here about Marine LtCol Khan who may very well be facing a dead end career because he won't fight his removal from command...he won't fight BECAUSE IT WOULD COST THE MARINE CORPS TOO MUCH. LtCol Khan doesn't want to cause a stir while Marines are fighting overseas. "
How that contrasts with a man who went out of his way to undermine the cause for which his fellow sailors were fighting. How it contrasts with a man who went out of his way to cause a stir ('If we chain crippled vets to the White House fence, will you cover it?'). Then there was that Senate testimony of 1971, in which another Mr. Khan was invoked by John Kerry, who said he was the model for the military's behavior.
Kerry's not out of the woods with military men, not yet. The stories about his bad behavior hurt him in August, but there has been a respite since then. Yet now, with only a few weeks to go, there is a last chance to make Americans aware of Kerry's dishonorable actions, and unfitness to serve in any high or respected office.
Carter may have pardoned him, but we have not.
Japan Today - News - China reportedly moves over 30,000 troops near N Korean border - Japan's Leading International News Network
The People's Liberation Army has reportedly deployed 30,000 soldiers on the DPRK border. The report does not make clear whether these are part of the 150,000 deployed in the region, which include heavy armor and artillery, or if they are an additional 30,000 troops.
BostonHerald.com - International News: Japan struggles to define new patriotism untainted by wartime debacle
The Japanese are sorting out the answer to a familiar problem:
Six decades after the end of World War II, patriotism is making a comeback in Japan. In classrooms, barracks and the corridors of power, the Japanese are extolling the virtues of national strength and pride with greater freedom and enthusiasm than at any time since their defeat in 1945.Japan has been moving in this direction for years. I recall back in 2000, while I was living in China, the Japanese budgeted for an aircraft carrier. The Chinese press went nuts. "Why should a self defense force need an aircraft carrier?" they asked, reasonably enough. Aircraft carriers are about power projection.
The revival - accelerated by the groundbreaking dispatch of troops to Iraq earlier this year - is wearing away the ground rules established in the postwar years, when Japan renounced militarism, and patriotism was tainted with the horrors of war.
Nowadays, Japan's most cherished postwar principles are being challenged by a series of firsts: first deployment in a combat zone; first serious political debate about amending the pacifist constitution; first prime minister to make an annual official practice of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. Another first looks imminent: a partial lifting of Japan's ban on arms exports.
The Chinese remember World War II very differently from anyone else. The Chinese I talked to about it all called it "The War of Japanese Imperialist Aggression," which indeed is how it must have looked from Manchuria. A renewed strength in Japan is troubling to the Chinese, but they hate more any renewed Japanese patriotism -- that is, not just strength but the belief in your country's rightness that encourages strength's use.
Yet it is not healthy to be ashamed of your heritage. It is necessary to be able to recognize where your parents -- or countrymen -- have gone wrong, and where they have fallen from the ideals you would want upheld. At the same time, you have to be able to recognize and honor the good that they did. To do otherwise is to believe that you come from poisoned earth. It darkens your understanding, and it weakens your ability to defend the right in the future.
Germany suffers from the same problem as Ms. Yoko Takaoka, wife of an SDF man and someone who wants to be proud of what her country is doing in the world today. But...
'Patriotism? If you say that, it reminds me of the old army. It sounds like extremism,' she said as her toddler daughter gazed up at an imposing Cobra attack helicopter at the army base display.Southerners, at least, understand the difficulty of sorting out the problems of history. Most Southerners have a Confederate soldiers in the family tree. Many of the South's recognizable symbols and much of its heritage are impossible to separate from those four years in the 1860s. You can't travel through the South without crossing battlefields, which is not true in other parts of the country. Indeed, this little town where work has brought me for this year changed hands 67 times during the Civil War.
Bold and remarkable things were done by men in grey, brave and wonderous things. They fought with passion, with brilliance, and with honor. They won the praise of their foes at every turn. And yet, and yet...
They fought for good reasons, but also for bad ones -- including one particular evil. The Union soldiers (many Southerners, including me, have ancestors from both sides of the war) fought brutally, with far less art, and finally were able to find victory only through the most astonishing cruelty, and the complete rejection of the laws of war and the rules of chivalry. General Sherman trained Col. Custer, and they together did worse things in the South than in the Black Hills. In the wake of the war, Sherman proposed literal genocide: slaughtering former Confederates, and distributing the land of the South to the Union army's soldiers as compensation for fighting in the war.
Yes, the Union also fought for many reasons, some bad, and one very good, bright and shining.
So it is with sympathy that I read these reports from Japan, where the folk are dealing with hard questions, and feeling guilty about feeling proud. It is necessary to learn to be proud of the good, without forgetting the bad. It is necessary, in other words, to learn to forgive your ancestors: to recognize their flaws, their failings, and even their crimes, but to love them anyway.
That love of home, ancestor, and country is the very definition of patriotism. I understand how the Japanese, as others, can stand at the start of the road back to patriotism and wonder at it. Patriotism might indeed sound extreme, looking at the long road with its ditches full of waste and ruin, crime and cruelty.
Yet, in the end, patriotism proves to be a kind of health. As with other loves that forgive, it sets you free: free to honor the past, and to work for better in the future.
Gulf Daily News
Another of the great tragedies of internationalism, although not of the magnitude of the U.N., is the Nobel Prize for Peace. This year's winner is spreading goodwill even today:
Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, yesterday reiterated her claim that the Aids virus was a deliberately created biological agent.Maathai thereby joins the Yasser Arafat wing of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, along with Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and the United Nations itself.
"Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.
"Us black people are dying more than any other people in this planet," Maathai told a press conference in Nairobi a day after winning the prize for her work in human rights and reversing deforestation across Africa.
Conspiracy
"It's true that there are some people who create agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could have not have invaded Iraq," she said.
"We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam Hussein had made, or was in the process of creating agents of biological warfare," said Maathai, also Kenyan deputy environment and natural resources minister, who has gained a reputation as a fearless speaker.
"In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare," she added.
"Why has there been so much secrecy about Aids? When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That makes me suspicious," Maathai added.
It wasn't always this way. Once, the Nobel Prize for Peace was -- as, indeed, was the UN -- an honorable organization. Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the Red Cross, Woodrow Wilson -- a misguided and highly overestimated man, but an honest idealist -- Martin Luther King, Jr., and other worthies.
It began to go bad when it began being used to advance "internationalism" instead of peace. This happened in the early 1970s. First Will Brandt was awarded the prize for "embodying a new attitude toward Eastern Europe," that is to say, an attitude that embraced Communists; in 1973, Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho won it jointly for negotiating an American withdrawal from Vietnam. As laughable as it is to have Kissinger awarded the prize, at least Kissinger held up his end of the bargain; Duc Tho's folks at once began plans for an invasion, which they undertook as soon as the US troops were clear.
Even since then there have been deserving winners -- Mother Theresa, Lech Walesa, Aung San Suu Kyi (still a prisoner in Burma/Myanmar) -- but as the years have passed, more and more bad actors have been granted the honor. Desmond Tutu, Mandela and De Klerk were all unworthy -- De Klerk, like Kissinger before him, most obviously so, and yet also like Kissinger, he did the most to keep his word. Arafat we mentioned, but he deserves mentioning again.
Unlike the UN, which has passed the point at which it ought to be saved even if it can be saved, the Nobel Prize might be renewed. Perhaps someday, we can hope, its panels and commissioners will stop trying to send messages to the world, and return to honoring those who already have.
Remarks by President Bush at Missourians for Matt Blunt and the Missouri Republican Party Breakfast
The President gave a great speech this morning. I'm going to include large excerpts of it, as it was a much longer speech and some of the best parts might get lost. What follows is a vision of foreign policy that I can wholeheartedly support, one I would be glad to fight for.
On today's elections:
There was voting time elsewhere in this world today. A marvelous thing is happening in Afghanistan. Freedom is powerful. Think about a society in which young girls couldn't go to school and their mothers were whipped in the public square. And today, they're holding a presidential election. The first person to vote in the presidential election, three years after the Taliban ruled that country with such barbarism, was a 19-year-old woman, an Afghan refugee, who fled her homeland during the civil war. Here's what she said: "I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am. I would never have thought I would be able to vote in this election." She's voting in this election because the United States of America believes that freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world.On elections yet to come:
And today is an appropriate day for Americans to remember and thank the men and women of our Armed Forces who liberated Afghanistan.
The people of Australia voted today, as well. And I want to congratulate my good friend, Prime Minister John Howard, who won a great victory.... Because we led, because we acted, Afghanistan is fighting terror and holding a presidential election today; Pakistan is capturing terrorists; Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests; Libya is dismantling its weapons programs; a army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of al Qaeda's leaders and associates have been brought to justice.
Over the next four years, we'll continue to spread freedom. And that's what's happening in Iraq. Last night I talked about the finance minister who came to see me. Let me recount some of that conversation I had with him. I thought it was really interesting and illustrative. He walks in full of confidence. He says, Mr. President, thank you for what you and your country have done for us, we're headed toward elections.On winning the peace:
Think about that statement. A fellow shows up in the Oval Office of the President of the United States and says, we're headed for elections. For most of us, that doesn't sound like much. But for a person who used to live under the -- in a country that was ruled by a brutal tyrant, where there were torture rooms and mass graves, where people had no freedom at all, to say, "we're headed toward elections," is a powerful statement....
As an aside, you cannot lead a coalition in Iraq if you tell them, this is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine my opponent's grand idea of a global summit, and he walks in, and there are the leaders around the world, sitting there, waiting for the American President to speak. And he says, follow me into a great mistake. Nobody is going to follow. You must have optimism. You must believe in what you're doing if you expect to lead. And I believe in what we're doing in Iraq. And in January, Iraq will have elections, and that's important. You see, I believe in the power of liberty to transform societies.
But think about that for a minute. [Japan's Koizumi] and I are friends, and we're talking about different issues confronting the world. And the reason I say, think about it, is because it wasn't all that long ago that we were at war with Japan.
If you're 58 years old, like me, it seems like an eternity. But a lot of people in this country still remember that war. My dad does, Buck's brother. I'm sure you've got dads and grandads who fought against the Japanese. They were our sworn enemy.
And after we were victorious in World War II, Harry S. Truman, from the state of Missouri, believed that liberty could transform an enemy into an ally. And so did a lot of other citizens. Oh, there were some skeptics in those days, and you can understand why. We had just finished a war. A lot of people's lives had been hurt as a result of that war. A lot of Americans had lost a loved one. They weren't interested in worrying about Japan, they were interested in their own souls and their own hearts. I'm sure there was a lot of people here that said, it's just impossible for an enemy to become a friend.
But because my predecessor and other Americans believed in the power of liberty to transform societies, I sit at the table with Prime Minister Koizumi, talking about the peace we all want.
We'll get the job done in Iraq. Freedom is powerful. And when we succeed, an American President will be sitting down with a duly-elected leader of Iraq, talking about the peace that we all want, and we will have known, this generation of Americans will have known we have done our duty to our children and our grandchildren to leave behind a better world.
:: Xinhuanet - English ::
The polls are now closed in Afghanistan, too, though counting will take a bit longer. Here's a look at the situation from a particularly unsympathetic souce, China's Xinhua News Service:
Around 10.5 million Afghan voters filed into some 22,000 polling stations across the country to elect their preferred leaders for the next five years.All the same, no major attacks were carried out, thanks to Coalition security. Afghanistan is now a democracy. All may not be well, but it is a major step forward, and one in which the Afghans are well pleased.
Among extra tight security, voters, men and women alike, went to nearest balloting sites to cast their votes. In Kabul, the capital of the small Central Asian country, some people stood in queue around 6:30 AM outside mosques and schools where the ballot will take place. In a famous mosque frequented by Hazaras, the third largest ethnic minority group in the country, hundreds of men, many of them wearing traditional long robes and turbans, stand in the cold and dusty wind, waiting patiently for their turns to cast.
The security is especially tight, as the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have threatened repeatedly to disrupt the polling with all means. A handful of taxis, police vehicles, buses and cars owned by foreign agencies went by the armed policemen and Afghan National Army soldiers.
In front of the Defense Ministry compound, a number of US special Operations soldiers, disguised as civilians, stand guard in their HUMVEEs.
Journalists from abroad and home struggled with some policemen in Kabul who barred them from getting inside the polling sites although according to the rule they are entitled to do so.
The weather turned nasty overnight. A sandstorm attacked
the capital, turning the city into a surrealistic scene in a sci-fi picture. Some Afghans said this is a bad omen for the whole nation,and they wonder what will happen during the day and after.
Some of the participants in the voting complained about the practice of applying indelible ink on their fingers, as the special ink will last for four or five days, making their easy targets for potential terrorist attacks.
The Iraqis, too, can take hope from this. What was done in Afghanistan with 17,000 Coalition troops can be done in Iraq with 170,000. The march to freedom carries on, in spite of her enemies. Congratulations to the Afghans. May Iraq soon join Afghanistan among the community of free nations.
Conservatives Sweep to Another Win in Australian National Elections
From Voice of America
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has led his Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive win in parliamentary elections.It appears that not everyone is happy with the results:
During the campaign, all indications were that this race would be extremely close. It has not worked out that way, with the conservative government now expected to significantly increase its parliamentary majority.
Democrat presidential contender John Forbes Kerry expressed displeasure at the Australian election outcome.Why yes, that was the first thing I thought of.
"This is the wrong election result, in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr. Kerry said. "Think of the precedent this sets."
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Huge Afghan poll attack 'foiled'
A tanker carrying 40,000 litres of fuel and packed with explosives was intercepted on the eve of the country's first direct presidential elections.I've been expecting an attack of that type on US soil for years. I'm sorry to see it's finally appeared, as others will learn even by a failed example.
The Media Drop: Indymedia UK server seizure: Is this not a story?
The FBI has apparently gone after Indymedia. Just rumors for now, but it is suggested that it may be this is part of the investigation into their posting of RNC delegates' names, addresses, and hotel information.
Transatlantic Intelligencer
Transatlantic Intelligencer is a new blog recommended by long time reader S.D. It looks good. The intention is to explain Euro politics to Americans, and vice-versa. The primary focus, however, is on overcoming the language gaps to make Europe accessible. It aims...
...to counter the egregiously misleading reporting on European affairs in the most widely-cited - in effect, "mainstream" - media in the States. Such reporting - long on cliché-ridden generalizations, short on factual details, and displaying a remarkable ignorance of European history - has given rise to a number of myths about contemporary Europe and the state of transatlantic relations. One such myth, which is playing a major role in the current US presidential campaign, suggests, for instance, that "Europe" - seemingly as a whole - responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a great outpouring of sympathy for the US and that this capital of sympathy has been successively squandered by the actions of the current American administration. This, so to say, "Legend of the Squandered Sympathy" is the subject of the long post that follows.And, indeed, that post is worth a read.
A Counterintelligence Reader
The classic work on CI, "A Counterintelligence Reader," is now online in all four volumes.
Marine In Iraq Expecting Quintuplets
Marine Reservist Josh Horton is deployed in Iraq. His wife (and veteran sailor) Traunacy Horton is due in six weeks with three daughters and two sons. This will increase the Horton brood to seven.
Congratulations are in order. My first thought, as a father myself: Josh is the only fellow in the Corps who will sleep better in Iraq than he would at home.
In Bill's World: A Post I Really Am Not Enjoying Writing
Fellow MilBlogger Bill Faith, a Vietnam Vet with troubles of his own, is trying to help his sister out while she fights off cancer. Drop by and hear the fellow out; maybe you can help him in one way or another.
The Kerry Spot on National Review Online
NRO decides to join the Kerry campaign:
A truly nefarious saboteur might start sending those e-mails to the DNC's mailing list now.Loyal readers responded:
Something like, "Edwards beat Cheney in the greatestest super-duper debate rout EVER! Kerry's victory is assured! Finally, on that glorious day, the Democratic Party will have its revenge, and we can finally round up those no-good evil Republicans and conservatives, and force them into re-education camps, and do away with those who oppose the NEW ORDER..."
Kerry Spot reader Jeremy has apparently already heard back from an Ohio paper. The Ohio paper's profanity-laden response:I've never been a loyal reader of the Kerry Spot, myself, but that will have to change. This Geraghty is a man after my own heart.
You ******* moron. You're supposed to send out your dumb*** spin letters after the debate — not four hours before it starts. All you do is **** editors off with this ****. Do you understand how many of these things we get? Do you understand how easy they are to spot? I'm a life-long Democrat, but I'm so embarrassed by how **** dumb the minions of my party are. You guys are less street smart than those guys named Scooter who work for Bush. No wonder we keep getting our ***** kicked.
I have to wipe the tears of laughter away.
Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com
According to an email I just got, Terry McAuliffe would like you to vote in the following online polls after the VP debate:
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/Well, maybe not you.
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/
Akron Beacon-Journal: http://www.ohio.com/
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/
Orlando Sentinel: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
New York Post Online Edition: postopinion
More from the fellow CalPundit described as "a military analyst generally respected by both left and right":
Has Sen. Kerry acknowledged the performance of our troops? Has he thanked them? Of course not. The senator and his posse of defeatists resent American victories in the final weeks before our presidential election.I suggest that you read the rest, if you have not already.
We're supposed to lose, you understand.
Instapundit.com
Full disclosure: My mother is from Rocky Hill, TN, and my father from the mining town of Mascot, TN. Knoxville is the nearest city to either, and I've been to this shopping center on many an occasion in my childhood.
I don't know who thought they could scare Tennessee's Republicans with gunfire, but they should have known better.
I dropped by the bullet-riddled Bush-Cheney HQ mentioned below on my way home from work. It wasn't bullet-riddled anymore, as the shot-out window panes had been removed. Nor, I have to say, was there much of a climate of fear in evidence, as the place seemed pretty crowded with people picking up Bush-Cheney signs and bumperstickers, children in tow.This is not the only time a Bush/Cheney office has been shot up. Nevertheless, as people are picking .32 caliber bullets out of Republican campaign offices, I note that somehow it is Bush supporters who are labeled "Digital Brownshirts."
This being East Tennessee, of course, I suppose that many of them were armed, which no doubt bolstered their courage.
Winds of Change.NET: John Kerry, Owen Wilson & Facing Reality
The Winds of Change ask the question. They find their answer in Kerry's Iran policy:
Kerry's positions on issues like Iran are clear, and were openly stated in the debate: normalize relations with the world's #1 terrorist sponsors while they undermine Iraq & Afghanistan, offer them nuclear fuel, propose sanctions the Europeans will drag their feet on in order to stop a late-stage nuclear program that's impervious to sanctions anyway, and oppose both missile defense and the nuclear bunker-buster weapons that would give the USA defensive or offensive options in a crisis.
Mudville Gazette
Another not-to-miss read today is Greyhawk's latest from Iraq, entitled "Cowboy Up." He muses on the difficulties of the Beefsteak MRE, the similarity of Iraq to the Old West (in ways both pleasant and unpleasant), and the dishonesty bordering on disloyalty of the NY Times.
The GWOT and the Old West is something I've written about on occasion, particularly here. It's always seemed odd to me that anyone would use "cowboy" in a derogatory fashion -- or, if they did, to expect Americans to feel ashamed by their use of it.
BLACKFIVE: Thundering Third - Part 7
Don't miss the letter from the CO of the "Thundering Third" -- that is, the 3/1 Marines -- over at BlackFive's place. It's a long piece, but includes some discussion of the USMC/Iraqi Army joint training and ops:
These distinguished gentlemen, and many other senior officers, have continuously demonstrated support of our efforts to create a viable Iraqi Security Force, which will assume the mission of security in Iraq upon our departure. I was on the range with them today and marveled at the level of proficiency they demonstrated in dry fire and movement training. Working side by side with Marines who live with them and know all of their Iraqi names and can give them basic commands and encouragement in Arabic, these men moved with aggressive enthusiasm and all stated that they are ready to go to Fallujah if called upon. This particularly special type of duty has matured our young Marines beyond their pay grades... looking across at the men who surrounded me for a few remarks, I couldn't help but think that I was looking at a group of NCOs instead of PFCs and LCpls with just a couple of Cpls in a crowd of over 20 men.There has been some expression of concern in the 'sphere that these people might be using the US for training purposes, but intending disloyalty; or, that they might in time come to hate America and back the insurgents. That would seem to be a special concern with former Saddamite Special Forces, would it not?
Your Marines are doing great things out here for Country, Corps, and the people of Iraq. We are also working with the Iraqi Specialized Special Forces (ISSF), led by an incredible officer, BGen Khalis. General Khalis is the former commander of the Iraqi Special Forces, where he commanded at every level up to Brigade and was director of the Special Forces Academy and Command and Staff College. This charismatic and exceptionally patriotic officer has formed two battalions from the old Iraqi Army. He has done this by carefully vetting and selecting his leaders for the challenges at hand. BGen Khalis has selected some superlative officers and soldiers, and the ISSF we are working with in the Thundering Third are superb Soldiers. These men share every hardship with us, are out patrolling everywhere we are, and have already shed their blood at our sides. They are particularly valuable at recognizing situations and especially people that are out of the ordinary (reminiscent of the old British expression, "absence of the normal, presence of the abnormal"). Unlike their ING counterparts, the ISSF are mainly composed of career special forces soldiers who received specialized training and were part of a small, elite group during the Saddam period. These men are from over 50 separate tribes across Iraq and have no political stance other than to support the Interim Iraqi Government. I would respectfully disagree with Ms. Ozernoy in her article below regarding the term "militia" as these men are career professionals who have returned to Army service in defense of their nation.
What is perhaps most laudable about all of the Iraqi Security Forces personnel, is the fact that every one of these men faces grave and imminent danger to their families as they carry out their duties. Indeed, BGen Khalis' family was abducted some weeks back by terrorists, who set fire and placed explosives at his home after taking his family away. Efforts to recover them are ongoing and they remain in our thoughts and prayers every day. Major Awda, our India Base ING Company Commander was also attacked by terrorists with automatic weapons on his way to his command post at India Base. Major Awda keeps his son with him at all times to ensure his safety when he is not at home. The terrorists here are ruthless, savage, and do not play by any rules. It takes an extraordinary level of sacrifice, determination, and heroism that most Americans cannot imagine to serve in the Iraqi Security Forces and government. Men like BGen Khalis and Major Awda, and many others, are serving in these conditions every day to bring freedom to their fellow Iraqis (please see the attached news article below about our brothers in the Iraqi Special Forces).It doesn't sound like the insurgency is winning hearts or minds. What we are seeing is the development of a genuine alliance; the first steps in the transformation of the Middle East that we all dream of seeing. It should be a source of great hope, and a cause to which we are all devoted.
MSNBC - SpaceShipOne soars into history
I don't think I've commented on the X-Prize before, but I have been watching the competition closely. I have only two things to say about today's victory over Mojave. First, congratulations to the winners!
Second, these are my kind of guys. If only we had a few more like this.
Out of the Question - Is Bush's biggest mistake too awful to admit? By William�Saletan
Mine, as it happens. It comes as a part of this astonishing article from Slate. It is called "Out of the Question," by William Saletan, Slate's chief policial correspondant.
The astonishment I refer to follows this segment, right in the center of the article:
In tonight's debate, moderator Jim Lehrer asked Bush, 'Has the war in Iraq been worth the cost of American lives?1,052 as of today?' Bush looked down. He recalled a woman whose husband had died in Iraq. 'I told her after we prayed and teared up and laughed some that I thought her husband's sacrifice was noble and worthy,' the president said. 'Was it worth it? Every life is precious. That's what distinguishes us from the enemy. ... We can look back and say we did our duty.'He goes on to characterize the message Bush sends on the war:
That's how Bush judges the war's worth: not by costs and benefits, but by character. It shows our nobility. It shows we did our duty. He used the word 'duty' seven times tonight. Kerry never used that word, except to refer to 'active duty' troops.
Will. Resolute. Steadfast. Uncertainty. Weakness. Supporting our troops.Here's the astonishing part: this is a pro-Kerry, anti-war article. Strongly anti-war.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is 'a brave, brave man,' Bush told the audience.
And so I have awakened to something that I once knew, but somehow forgot. I am aware of it now, but I do not understand what it is I am aware of. I don't see how anyone could write the lines I just quoted, and not support the war. He conditions his position on his reading of the evidence. His reading differs sharply from mine, but leave that: I don't see how you could write those words, and not support the war even if things were far, far worse. To leave a brave ally to his doom? No, I should say: especially if things were worse.
"Not by cost and benefits, but by character." "It shows we did our duty. He used the word 'duty' seven times tonight. Kerry never used the word, except to refer to 'active duty' troops."
How do you grow to be a man, and think that "It shows we did our duty" is an argument against a thing? For what kind of man is "It shows our nobility" a proposition to scorn?
'He judges not by cost and benefits, but by character.' Can you think of higher praise?
What kind of people are these?
Grim's Hall
"I think we need a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table and to do what's necessary to make it so America isn't doing this alone."French Foreign Minister Barnier:
Even though Nato last week overcame members' long-running reservations about a training mission to Iraq and agreed to set up an academy there for 300 soldiers, neither Paris nor Berlin will participate.SDP of Germany's Gert Weisskirchen:
Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said last week that France, which has tense relations with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, had no plans to send troops "either now or later".
"I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president."John Kerry:
"I know I can do a better job in Iraq. I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies, something this president has not yet achieved, not yet been able to do to bring people to the table."French Foreign Minister Barnier:
France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal, thus complicating the planning for a meeting that has drawn mixed reactions.John Kerry:
Paris also wants representatives of Iraq's insurgent groups to be invited to a conference in October or November, a call that would seem difficult for the Bush administration to accept.
"I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to provide the nuclear fuel, test [Iran], see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes."Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Asefi:
[I]t would be "irrational" for Iran to put its nuclear program in jeopardy by relying on supplies from abroad. "We have the technology (to make nuclear fuel) and there is no need for us to beg from others.... What guarantees are there? Will they supply us one day and then, if they want to, stop supplying us on another day?"
John Kerry:
"I'm going to immediately set out to have bilateral talks with North Korea."Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing:
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, standing at [Colin Powell's] side, said the "entire international community" agreed that the six-nation approach was the best way to deal with the problem.
HUNDREDPERCENTER NEWSWIRES: President of Poland Calls Kerry 'Immoral'
It's not just the citizens who are angry:
Reacting to John Kerry's omission of Polands efforts in Iraq, President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski said, 'I find it kind of sad that a senator with 20 year parliamentary experience is unable to notice the Polish presence in the anti-terror coalition.'Highly immoral, eh? Our John Kerry?
When asked about Kerry's derogation of non-U.S. coalition countries fighting in Iraq, Kwasniewski said: 'I don't think it's an ignorance. Anti-terror coalition is larger than the USA, the UK and Australia. There are also Poland, Ukraine, and Bulgaria etc. which lost their soldiers there. It's highly immoral not to see our strong commitment we have taken with a strong believe that we must fight against terror together, that we must show our strong international solidarity because Saddam Hussein was dangerous to the world.'
Bush Says Kerry Will Allow Foreign Vetoes (washingtonpost.com)
"No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America."John Kerry:
Asked if he would vote against the $87 billion if his amendment did not pass, Kerry said, "I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible."John Kerry:
"But if and when you do it . . . you've got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test, where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."Zell Miller:
Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations. Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending.Richard Holbrooke:
Asked what the Kerry Doctrine actually is, Holbrooke, in a conference call with reporters, replied: "There is no Kerry Doctrine."Robert Kagan:
The doctrine Kerry enunciated [at the DNC], after all, was the doctrine initially favored by the antiwar movement and the mainstream of the Democratic Party after the debacle of Vietnam. "Come home, America" was the cry of those who believed America had corrupted both the world and itself in "wars of choice" in Vietnam and elsewhere.
Advocates of this doctrine did not propose a "return" to some mythical American past. Rather, they proposed a radical departure onto a very different course in American foreign policy. Their goal was a retraction of American power and influence from around the globe. Nor did they have any doubt that their view of America was patriotic. They would cleanse America of its sins.
Would it really be surprising if John Kerry, whose life and thought were so powerfully shaped by his Vietnam experience, now returned to the view of American foreign policy which that experience led him to three decades ago?
NEWSWEEK POLL: First Presidential Debate
One wonders why these polls are all over the place. The ABCNews and Gallup Polls showed little change in voter sentiment, and the Gallup poll in particular showed Bush more favored than Kerry on certain key issues (e.g., likeability). The NewsWeek poll shows a major movement, and Kerry favored on many of the same things that Gallup said Bush was favored for.
Why might that be? Well, here's their sample:
SAMPLE SIZE/MARGIN OF ERROR FOR REGISTERED VOTERS SUBGROUPS:Newsweek has been oversampling Republicans for a month, since the convention -- you've all heard the complaints. This time, they ran a poll that oversampled Democrats, and (especially in the registered voters section) women, who are far more likely to be Kerry supporters than men (women are evenly split, that is, whereas Bush is heavily favored by men).
1,013 Total Registered voters (plus or minus 4)
481 Men (plus or minus 5)
532 Women (plus or minus 5)
345 Republicans (plus or minus 6)
364 Democrats (plus or minus 6)
278 Independents (plus or minus 7)
SAMPLE SIZE/MARGIN OF ERROR FOR DEBATE VIEWERS SUBGROUPS:
770 Debate viewers (those who say they watched at least some of the
debate) (plus or minus 4.1)
369 Men (plus or minus 6)
401 Women (plus or minus 6)
265 Republicans (plus or minus 7)
274 Democrats (plus or minus 7)
215 Independents (plus or minus 8)
Just chance that the samples shifted right after the debate, which Kerry's allies have been touting as his big chance for movement? Well, we all know that the media isn't biased towards Kerry -- and certainly not NewsWeek.
Transterrestrial Musings
Well, it's good that someone's located it. It proves to be a test you can take online!
Hat tip: The Sage.
WTNH.com - US commander praises Iraqi fighters
The Major General speaks, along with his Iraqi counterpart:
Batiste also tells CNN he's been pleased with the performance of Iraqi troops there.
The Iraqi forces have done poorly in past battles, but Batiste says they're getting better training and equipment. And he says they handled themselves well in Samarra.
Iraq's defense minister says the fighting is largely over -- and that Iraqi troops handled the bulk of the two-day offensive, and U-S troops only provided cover.
Right Thinking from the Left Coast
What is more important than the article is the responses at the bottom of the page. The responders are really pissed and feel if Kerry is elected they MUST pull their troops out. There is a very angry energy over the fact that their soldiers have not only been killed but some are MIA and they want some closure.This is translated from the comments section of a Polish news site, Onet.pl. Diplomacy works, eh?
Belmont Club
Don't miss the Belmont Club's analysis of the Samarra situation, especially the performance of the 36th Iraqi Commando battalion. It is the masterpiece of the new Iraqi Army, trained to special-ops standards by the US military.
This is not its first engagement, but it was a high-profile assignment of a type that would have been inflammatory if the US had undertaken it: capture of a mosque held by insurgents. Their success means that Coalition forces can now deny what has until now been a tactical advantage to Islamist insurgents. In Najaf, the insurgents didn't even bother to sandbag their mortar positions inside the Shrine of Ali, being so confident that America would not fire back. That confidence and security is no longer operative.
That is to say, the rebuilding of the Muslim world has passed a milestone. There is now a Muslim state capable of joint-force operations with the US Army, which also has the will to engage Islamists in mosques. Even six months ago, the Iraqi Army could not be used in that capacity, partially due to incomplete training, but also due to the lack of will. The Iraqi Governing Council was gutless, but there was a lack of will at the lower levels too. Newly-minted soldiers assigned to support US operations would sometimes desert, to avoid having to fight "their Muslim brothers."
No more. Six months on, the insurgents have so enraged the Iraqi army that all claims of Muslim brotherhood are broken. Insurgents are now the enemy; the US is an ally; and we are together clearing the streets of Samarra.
Poodle Ad
You may perhaps have heard of the NRA's new Poodle Ad, wherein John Kerry is portrayed as a toy French Poodle with a pink bow (the text of the ad says, "That dog don't hunt," so therefore a toy rather than a sporting breed of dog is used).
Some of the ad text is damning indeed, given Kerry's frequent attempts to portray himself as pro-hunting: Kerry voted to outlaw most ammunition used by deer hunters, for example. There is a larger assembly of Kerry's anti-hunting voting record here.
But I'm really curious about this part:
"...it's no wonder John Kerry has been called a "hero" by the Humane Society of the United States, an extremist group that wants to outlaw hunting in America."
What?
The Human Society is an extremist group?
Now, it is true that the Humane Society is completely opposed to hunting. That is certainly an extremist position.
Nevertheless, surely the good works of the Humane Society should protect it from being called an "extremist group." It is a group of kind hearted people who do largely worthy things. They are entirely mistaken and misguided on this one question. It is a serious matter, as part of any donation to the Humane Society goes to lobby against hunting rights. It is bad for us, as they lobby against our ancient rights. It is also bad for them, as it cuts out a large number of people who would otherwise be their friends and supporters. Their position makes it impossible for many of us who love animals to support their other work, because we can't afford also to support their constant anti-hunter lobbying.
Still, holding one extreme position among many positions is not the same as being an extremist. I can't imagine that the NRA stands to gain anything by the charaterization. Most people know the Humane Society from its work with domestic animals; very few know of its anti-hunting work. It's useful to explain why you oppose the Humane Society, but it would be wise to recognize that most people have a very favorable impression of them -- an impression that, by and large, is deserved. We must defeat the Humane Society's lobbyists on occasion, but we have no reason to wish to defeat the Humane Society.
It is possible to disagree, even to the point at which no compromise is possible, while remaining friends. Between people of good will, that should be the standard.
The Spectator.co.uk
This article from the London Spectator may be the most brilliant thing I've read in a year. Every time you think you've discovered the theme of the piece, another is raised; and yet, in the end, they all work together perfectly. It intends to explain America to Englishmen, but it is a fine explanation of America for Americans.
Unsurprisingly, the author's name is Mark Steyn.
Southern Gentleman, Marine, Germanic Tribalist -- A Different Point of View
So says this audio file. It's a compelling argument. Thanks to Bjorn Patsson for pointing it out.
Citizen Smash - The Indepundit
Two opinions counter to my own, on Tora Bora. The first is from Citizen Smash, formerly LT Smash. The second is from my favorite blogging SEAL:
As to the Tora Bora issue, Kerry said that we "outsourced" the job and therefore missed an opportunity to kill UBL. Tell that to the SF A-Teams that had infiltrated Afghanistan, trained and led the Northern Alliance into battle within a month of 9/11. The Unconventional Warfare operation conducted by the Army in Afghanistan will serve as a textbook example of how to conduct UW ops into perpetuity. Tell that to the CCT guys that were dumping air on Tora Bora, stacking up CAS 10 layers deep. Tell that to the SEALs who spent 9 days searching the caves for signs of UBL and finding only fingernails and tooth chips left from the bombing. Wrong answer, bitch!That's stronger language than we usually employ at Grim's Hall, but any SEAL has earned the right to say what he thinks. So, consider that two solid votes against my expressed opinion that the CIA shouldn't have been allowed to meddle in an SAS/Delta operation.
Global Test
OK, I've watched the debate now. I was wrong. The part where Kerry says that we 'have to pass... the global test'? It's a killer. If the Republicans don't hang him with it, it won't be anyone's fault but their own.
iowahawk: Classic TV Scripts: �Johnny Nuance�
I'm not really given to satire or parody as forms of humor. Nevetheless, I have to admit that Iowahawk has written a masterpiece. He obviously knows a great deal about 1950s Westerns, as well as about the particulars of the Kerry campaign.
The Command Post - Global War On Terror - Australia's Army Wearing Out
The Command Post today has the story of friction wearing out the Australian Army:
A total of 10,633 injuries, and two deaths, were reported for Australia's 52,000-strong defence force in 2002-03. There were also 889 incidents where ADF personnel needed immediate medical attention, hospitalisation or were off work for more than 30 days. There were also 2307 incidents recorded as "near misses" that "could have but did not result in a fatality, incapacity or serious personal injury".Emphasis added. I want to draw attention to those two points because they are clarifying.
Defence sources have told The Australian that deployments to places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Solomon Islands was only part of the reason for the high attrition rates.
Motorcycle and vehicle accidents, stress disorders over prolonged deployments, injuries playing contact sports and during heavy endurance training had also taken their toll. […] Sources also suggested that the real injury toll may be much higher because soldiers were "stoic", and tended to hide niggling injuries, particularly in special forces units.
The Armed Forces Federation, which represents ADF members, said last night the higher injury toll was a symptom of the force being both "overworked and undermanned". "People are being broken by higher fitness standards and the higher operational tempo generally. And they are just not able to get the rest in between deployments," federation chief industrial officer Graham Howatt said.
You can see at the website for the Ministry of Defence that Australia deploys only about 2,000 troops outside of its borders -- and that includes the East Timor assignment, which is a fairly short cruise by warship. Note that the usual deployment of combatant forces is of roughly battalion size: that is, at the size the US military considers the smallest self-supporting unit. Other deployments are largely symbolic; the Australian commitment to Afghanistan, which has at times been far larger, is currently limited to one soldier: a landmine specialist.
Some of this is just military griping -- "People are being broken by higher fitness standards." But there is a real limitation that they are starting to rub against. Australia can't do more than it is doing -- and it can't maintain current levels of activity in any deployment without cutting back in other areas (as they have done already in Afghanistan), or increasing spending to make some of their 50,000 non-deployable forces into expeditionary forces.
That can be done, if there is the will: the United States went from having almost no army at all, to sending 500,000 men to Europe in the year 1917. There is nothing I've seen coming out of the Australian election, however, to suggest that such a will exists.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Politics
What about this?
Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. But we didn't use American forces, the best trained in the world, to go kill him. The president relied on Afghan warlords and he outsourced that job too. That's wrong.Who was leading the charge to capture Bin Laden? It was not Afghans. It was the British SAS. And not without American support -- support, indeed, of the first water.
The SAS was fighting alongside Delta Force, the US army's special forces, and though the Brits did not think that the Yanks were quite their equal, our men were impressed by their men. Delta Force is not the same as the SAS. Much larger, its nearest British equivalent would be the SAS, merged with 3 (commando) brigade and 16 (air assault) brigade. As a result of Afghanistan, there are now pressures in the Pentagon to create an inner-core special force on British lines. Donald Rumsfeld's enthusiasm for the SAS goes beyond tributes at press conferences; he wants one of his own.Handing the SAS the responsibility for this is the farthest thing from irresponsible. They are, I think it does no disservice to our soldiers to say, among the very best in the world.
Yet, allowing for the fact that Kerry has misrepresented the situation, there is an honest complaint to be made here. Once it had trapped Bin Laden, the military was indeed set aside in favor of CIA operations.
There followed hours of fiffing and faffing, while gold coins were helicoptered in, to encourage the Northern Alliance. The USA is the greatest military power in the history of the planet, spending well over $300 billion a year on defence, yet everything was paralysed because it would not allow its fighting men to fight.It's hard to say that Kerry has a point, since he has run entirely on the platform of outsourcing all operations: "sharing the burden," as he likes to call it. Still, I sympathize with the fighting forces. They should have been allowed their kill. They were ready to pay any cost.
DRUDGE REPORT 2004�
Grim's Hall does not receive television, and CSPAN.com is lagged up. I will have to watch the debate tomorrow, though I have had a chance to see the transcript and various blog reactions (Instapundit and Allah have links to quite a few of those, both left and right).
My impression, having read a bunch of these, is that only the hardcore on either side think their boy won the day. Indeed, being ready to say "My candidate won," appears to be the very definition of a blinkered, blinders-wearing partisan (except for Kaus, whose claim to be a Kerry supporter is purely rhetorical). The consensus among bloggers is that it was a draw, with no movement to be expected on either side.
The main complaint against Kerry seems to be that he was too defensive ("I have a single plan for Iraq!" Sure, whatever: nice manicure, by the way); the main complaint against Bush seems to be that he didn't attack ("Every time Kerry opened his mouth, conservatives thought of the eight different responses and attacks that they wanted to see, and Bush mostly didn't use them." That's because the campaigns stuck to scripted responses to likely questions, focus-group tested to be sure they wouldn't offend.)
Having read the transcript, I have to say that's not surprising. I usually prefer to read speeches instead of hearing them, as it makes it easier to focus on the merits of what's being said rather than the merits of how it's being said. The transcript demonstrates that Bush was his usual self, clear about what he means in spite of his halting and having to rethink mid-sentence. Kerry's sentences were more polished, which is what everyone expects. In other words, the candidates appear to have played to type. There were few surprises, and I doubt many minds will be changed.
Still, there is some surprise being registered in the blogosphere. Out of kindness to the bloggers involved, I won't link to their posts because I'm going to be a little blunt, and I don't want anyone feeling singled-out.
Some are expressing shock that Kerry advocated giving nuclear fuel to Iran as a way of stopping their bomb program. These people haven't been listening, as Kerry's been saying that all summer. (Indeed, it was the core of the Clinton plan to stop North Korea's nuclear program, and it's likely to be just as successful). The plan is foolish in the extreme, but it isn't new.
Similarly, some have said that Kerry's idea of a "global test" was shocking. I'm not sure why that would be ("decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them..."), but again, it's not new. If you're overwhelmed by the idea that Kerry is an internationalist, who believes that the US should act in accord with the international consensus as to what is right-action, you've not been paying attention.
The difference lies between those who feel that "declaring the causes" is enough, and those who feel that they must convince people of the rightness of the cause. Kerry is, and has always been, in the latter camp.
Overall, though, there is nothing in the transcript that should move a single vote already assigned. For those who have not been watching the campaign, it was a clear presentation of the kind of man each candidate is, and his stance on the issues of the day.
For that, at least, both men deserve a measure of praise.
Scotsman.com News - Latest News - No Knock-Out Punch in Bush-Kerry Head-to-Head
From the Scotsman, which is as famously sober as its namesake is not:
No Knock-Out Punch in Bush-Kerry Head-to-HeadYeah, that seems about right to me. Of course, as I said, I have only read the arguments -- maybe something in the video will change my mind. See you tomorrow.
George Bush and John Kerry locked horns on live television today in the first face-to-face debate of the presidential election campaign.
The President and his Democratic challenger set out their different strategies on how to prevail in Iraq and win the war on terrorism.
But neither managed to deliver a knock-out punch during the 90-minute war of words at Miami University in Florida.
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today
From the Best of the Web:
The head of the Figaro press group went to see him about the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq; Raffarin assured him they would soon be freed, reportedly saying, 'The Iraqi insurgents are our best allies.'That's French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin being interviewed. Even I can't believe he meant to say that the way it ended up in the US press. I pulled up Le Figaro and read through several recent articles on the hostages, and didn't find anything quite like that, so I wonder what the quote really was.
Debate
I've added to the right sidebar a debate feed. It's being run by Blogs for Bush, I gather; at any rate, they're the ones who asked me to put it there. I believe the notion is to give them a platform to highlight things about the debate they'd like you to know.
It's temporary -- I'll take it down after the debates, and perhaps after the first debate, depending on reader comments. Let me know if you like it or hate it. If it's useful to you, and doesn't slow down the site too much, I may leave it up through the other two debates as well.
John Derbyshire's September Diary on National Review Online
John Derbyshire points this out today:
In Le Figaro daily dated Feb 1, 2002, Lucienne Bui Trong, a criminologist working for the French government's Renseignements Generaux (General Intelligence -- a mix of FBI and secret service), complains that the survey system she had created for accurately denumbering the Muslim no-go zones was dismantled by the government. She wrote: 'From 106 hot points in 1991, we went to 818 sensitive areas in 1999. That's for the whole country. These data were not politically correct.' Since she comes from a Vietnamese background, Ms. Bui Trong cannot be suspected of racism, of course, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to start this survey in the first place.Mr. Derbyshire has several other interesting observations in this month's diary. Be sure to skip down to the one on British childhood games, even if you don't read the others.
The term she uses, 'sensitive area,' is the PC euphemism for these places where anything representing a Western institution (post office truck, firemen, even mail order delivery firms, and of course cops) is routinely ambushed with Molotov cocktails, and where war weapons imported from the Muslim part of Yugoslavia are routinely found.
The number 818 is from 2002. I'd go out on a limb and venture that it hasn't decreased in two years.
My Way News
The heart of the insurgency may be al-Anbar, but the real fighting is for Baghdad. The city is an important symbol, in much the same way that control of Paris symbolizes control of France.
Insurgents cannot hope to control Baghdad, so they try to show that the Iraqi government can't control it either. Today's attack at a sewage treatment plant did nothing to disrupt the function of the plant, but that is cold comfort to the families of thirty five children killed by car bombs.
The insurgents can't afford photographs of American soldiers passing out candy to smiling children, but the only way they can stop it is with photographs of American soldiers caring for children ripped open by the insurgents' bombs, and US helicopters rushing them to the hospital. This is the fullness of their power: they can kill children to protest that the US is cleaning up Baghdad's sewage.
One would think the monstrosity of these attacks would speak for itself, but it does not. The AP report shows only too clearly the moral blindness afflicting so many:
The day of violence across Iraq, including insurgent attacks and U.S. airstrikes in Fallujah, left a total of 46 people dead and 208 wounded.There we are then: the insurgents and the United States are equally the enemies of peaceful Iraqis. An insurgent attack on a sewage treatment plant designed to slaughter unarmed people en masse ought, of course, to be lumped in with an airstrike on a terrorist safehouse that was packed so full of ordinance that secondary explosions continued for hours.
Naturally.
GeorgeWBush.com :: Kerry's Flip Flop Olympics
"The John Kerry Flip-Flop Olympics!" This one gets a little hard around Round Four, when they get to the Iraq positions. Stick it out, though, for a chance to see your score evaluated by surprise last-round judges.
Instapundit.com
The Sage of Knoxville is irritated:
Best bit, from producer Linda Karas: "The truth of the e-mails were absolutely irrelevant to the piece, because all the story said was that people were worried. It’s a story about human beings that are afraid of the draft. We did not say that this (e-mail) was true, it’s just circulating. We are not verifying the e-mail."That's hardly the worst example from this week. Compare to the Washington Post's "CIA Pessmistic on Iraq." Who speaks for the CIA? Why, 'one former intelligence officer who maintains contact...'
And people accuse bloggers of trading in rumor?
Later, another unnamed source is allowed to speak for the CIA, the State Department and the military, saying that all of them are opposed to Bush. Really? CDRUSCENTCOM Abazaid didn't seem to be.
But of course, he was on the record. The front page news was the article about the rumors.
Belmont Club
The Belmont Club looks at the New York Times' recent article on the insurgency, which asserts that attacks are growing in frequency and are not confined to the Sunni Triangle and Baghdad.
Their numbers do say that's true, says Wretchard... but then compiles a table from the Times' own numbers that show that 88% of the attacks cited were confined in just that way. Of Iraq's 18 provinces, six (the Sunni Triangle area) comprise that 88%. Rounding the numbers for clarity, that is to say that nearly 90% of attacks are happening in just one third of Iraq.
Another six provinces -- a third of Iraq -- have attack frequencies below one attack per one hundred thousand people. Two more have attack frequencies under two per one hundred thousand people; the remainder, under ten per one hundred thousand people. One-third of Iraq is quite hot; two-thirds of Iraq are basically secure, although terrorists do manage to set off the occasional grenade or stage the occasional kidnapping.
Wretchard concludes:
So everything checks out just as the New York Times article reported it. All the facts are individually true, but Prime Minister Allawie's assertion that most provinces are "completely safe" and that security prospects are bright are also supported by those same facts. Such is the fog of war.Let me add this: the Times is participating in mythologizing of the guerrillas. Creating a mythology of strength and prowess is always a central aim in any insurgency:
The guerrilla relies in very large part on the fog of war to present an illusion of power. Orwell wrote that, "Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue." The guerrilla desperately needs people to believe in his power, and that his strength will grow forever, that his success is inevitable.In three of the provinces -- a sixth of Iraq -- the guerrillas only managed either one or two attacks of any kind in the last month, despite the advantages that go with being a guerrilla: the ability to choose the place and time of any attack, and the ability to target unarmed civilians and still call it a "victory." That means you can pick a time and a place when neither soldiers or policemen are around, and resistance to you will be nonexistent. Even so, there are provinces where these guerrillas the Times paints as all-powerful managed only one attack in a month.
By saying that this means that 'not a single province was unaffected,' the Times is not saying something untrue; technically a single attack is an effect. But by painting those provinces with the same brush as it does al Anbar province, it gives the guerrillas the illusion of a far greater power than they possess.
The Times, in other words, is playing the enemy's game. One can only assume that this is out of ignorance, the kind of ignorance that has permeated the journalistic community's reporting on this war. I don't believe it is disloyalty, as some have suggested. Regardless, it is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
What was wanted were facts for fighters. What we have gotten is an ode to the guerrillas: "sweeping" "surging" warriors overwhelming security efforts. Out of its apparent lack of understanding, the Times is -- to borrow another of Orwell's phrases -- objectively supporting the enemy. It is doing their information operations for them, far more effectively than they could do it themselves.
That is not to say that the Times is in any way disloyal. It is only to say that they have been fooled. The guerrillas focus on weaving a mystique through violence and terror; and the Times has bought it, hook and sinker.
Diplomacy
An ongoing criticism of President Bush is that he has not done enough to use diplomacy to resolve the Iraq situation. Indeed, Kerry just spoke to the matter:
[A]s president [Kerry said] he would immediately convene a summit of all European and Arab heads of state "to figure out how together we're going to assume the burdens" of Iraq and proposing that another country could provide a base for training Iraqi security forces.I include the last two paragraphs in order to be fair to the candidate. That is what he says he will do: not cut and run, solve the Israeli situation, prevent Iran from developing nukes, and cause Arabs to cease supporting terrorist groups. To which I say: all of that is wonderful if any of it is true. I can't quite imagine how he expects to achieve any of it, however, given previous statements (e.g., the plan to give Iran nuclear fuel doesn't really seem likely to "prevent," but rather to aid, the development of nuclear weapons; the way to "solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis" is a wonder that has eluded the best minds of three generations; and the question of cutting off Arab support for terrorists is another).
Kerry, taking questions from an invitation-only audience of Wisconsin voters, said "cutting and running" in Iraq would never be an option if he is commander in chief.
He said his proposed summit also would include searching for common ground to solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and cut off Arab support for terrorist groups.
Having let him have his say, however, let us examine his one concrete proposal: a summit on "how together we're going to assume the burdens." I don't think it's unfair to say that this translates properly as, "how you people are going to assume some of the burdens you've been letting us carry for you."
Some thoughts on the topic have already returned from France and Germany, who said the US election would not change their policy:
"I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president," Gert Weisskirchen, member of parliament and foreign policy expert for Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, said in an interview.Now, Kerry seems to be talking himself into pursuing less than what NATO has already agreed to do: to train people outside of Iraq, when NATO has already said they will train people inside of Iraq. That is, though, a minor quibble.
...
Even though Nato last week overcame members' long-running reservations about a training mission to Iraq and agreed to set up an academy there for 300 soldiers, neither Paris nor Berlin will participate.
Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, said last week that France, which has tense relations with interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, had no plans to send troops "either now or later".
The major objection is the notion of a summit. Paris has already stated their terms:
France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal, thus complicating the planning for a meeting that has drawn mixed reactions.France is unwilling to participate in a summit of allies seeking victory in Iraq.
Paris also wants representatives of Iraq's insurgent groups to be invited to a conference in October or November, a call that would seem difficult for the Bush administration to accept.
France is only willing to participate in negotiating, not as an ally but as a "neutral," a US surrender to the insurgency.
The International Herald Tribune says that this "would seem difficult for the Bush administration to accept." It does not seem able to say whether or not it would be difficult for a Kerry administration to accept.
I agree, on both points. However, I note that the French position is similiar to Kerry's on one other point: both of them have a "tense" relationship with Allawi and his government. Kerry openly craves French approval, and has adopted the French worldview on this and other points. Why should we not think he might adopt their plan for a negotiated surrender, under the vibrant but faithless heading of "Peace process"?
Kerry has chided the American government for failing to gain "the support of our allies." But the French are not our allies. They themselves have said so. We would do well not to forget.
Mudville Gazette
MilBlog founder Greyhawk has his first report from Iraq. It is entitled "Eyes of the Undefeated."
Downer unfit for job, says Latham - Election 2004 - www.smh.com.au
Sometimes you really screw up:
The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, was unfit to hold his job after saying Indonesia could make pre-emptive strikes at Australia, Opposition Leader Mark Latham said today.I love that this was on "Darwin radio."
His comments come after Mr Downer was asked on Darwin radio if he would expect another country to take pre-emptive action on Australian soil. Mr Downer said: "Absolutely, by the way, absolutely."
"If the Indonesians rang us up and said, 'there's a terrorist group in the Kimberleys who are planning to launch an attack on Kupang', and we said, 'well we don't really care; that's your problem, pal and we're not going to do anything about it', and they sent an F-16 over and bombed the terrorist group, you could understand that," Mr Downer added.
Now, honestly, the Australian government has been our finest friend in the GWOT. They, and the UK, have been unfailing in their support. The Howard government, of which Downer is a member, is far more likely to support the U.S. than the Labor opposition, which has run on cutting back cooperation with America.
All the same, I have to say, Downer is a consistently lousy diplomat.
Last week, all this "pre-emptive strike" business arose after PM Howard stated that he was going to form "flying squads" to address terrorist groups in the region. He explained that he was moving to a pre-emptive strike model, following the Jakarta bombing of the Aussie embassy.
Downer, challenged by Malaysia and Indonesia to explain this position, managed to refine his boss' statement into a pure hypothetical -- in fact, he said, it was just campaign rhetoric:
But imagine a situation, it's not likely to be Indonesia or a country which has a strong counter-terrorism capability, but a failed state in the South Pacific, as the Solomons once was and is not now, and a situation where a terrorist was about to attack and the country involved either didn't want to or in their case couldn't do anything to stop it, we would have to go and do it ourselves.... We're talking about a situation where, and it's a hypothetical situation, where somebody would not stop a terrorist attack on Australia, someone refused to stop a terrorist attack on Australia, wherever it might be in the world – not in Indonesia, but anywhere in the world, and I can assure you this Government would stop it if we knew it was going to happen.Isn't this the same Mr. Downer who said that his department "never" issued hypothetical statements about such things? I seem to remember he said that just lately. I believe it was in regard to the issue raised in this article, "Aussies Not Cowards: MOFA"
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said that it never called Australians "moral cowards" but had urged the Australian government to be even-handed in dealing with relations between Taiwan and China....When our own Secretary of State pointed out that Australia had a treaty obligation to do just that, Mr. Downer replied that they didn't do hypotheticals -- except, it seems, when they do.
Downer, during a visit to Beijing last month, spoke of a new strategic partnership between Australia and China extending beyond commercial interests and into the political sphere. Downer said Australia would not necessarily side with the US against China in support of Taiwan if hostilities broke out.
John Howard had to spurn his own FM in public over that remark, and now Mr. Downer is trying to "help" again. I can only hope that Howard survives the elections, and that he immediately dispenses with this particularly inept diplomat.
International News Article | Reuters.com
Amid the tallest dunes on earth, the new Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorist Initiative is hunting the GSPC, "Algeria's last powerful rebel force."
JunkYardBlog: September 19, 2004 - September 25, 2004 Archives
From JunkYardBlog, Japanese fan-dancing droids.
Kerry's Unlikely Detractors (washingtonpost.com)
Colbert I. King has a piece in today's Washington Post that is entitled "Kerry's Unlikely Detractors." Some excerpts:
[In a previous article] I had taken to task the authors of the blistering anti-Kerry bestseller "Unfit for Command" for giving readers an unbalanced view of Kerry's service in Vietnam, and for not revealing their own connections with the Bush campaign and the sources of their financial support. The column also criticized "Unfit for Command" for smearing Kerry, a decorated former naval officer, as disloyal because of his antiwar activities. Writing as a former Army officer, I concluded: "Speaking for myself, it is enough that he served."Coleman wishes to vote against Bush this year, but he says he cannot make up his mind. "Kerry still hasn't satisfied me and many others... It's September and I'm still conflicted. Speaking for myself, it is NOT enough that he served!"
A number of readers agreed with that conclusion. Many more, however, most of them angry veterans, did not. Most striking was the fact that those who identified themselves seemed to span the political spectrum, with one even describing himself as a Howard Dean Democrat.
Two weeks later, another e-mail arrived on the same topic. It was from a Howard University classmate, a friend of 47 years, former assistant secretary of the Air Force Rodney Coleman. A Democrat, Coleman has local roots, having worked for the D.C. Council and later the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp.
Bill Clinton appointed Coleman to the Pentagon post, in which he served from 1994 to 1998....
Coleman, who served in Vietnam for 13 months in 1971-72, wrote that he found disheartening the protracted mudslinging between Bush and Kerry and their respective camps about military records. But the favorable conclusion I drew about Kerry's service was, he stated, "with all due respect, not mine!"
"Some of those 58,000 who died [in Vietnam] were at DaNang with me, and some were under my command, in the 366th Air Force engineering squadron," Coleman wrote.
Then he got to the heart of the matter.
"I vividly recall Kerry's antiwar testimony in April 1971. I was a White House fellow at the time, on a leave of absence from active duty, as were five of the 17 fellows selected. Two of them had Vietnam experience with Silver and Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts awarded for their heroism. In early April 1971, I volunteered to go to Vietnam after my year as a White House fellow. I could have very easily taken steps to forgo a tour in 'Nam, but as an Air Force captain committed to the ideals of the oath of office I took, Vietnam was the only game in town."
The oath of office was a serious matter for products of Howard's ROTC programs. I know. I was commissioned in the Army; Coleman joined the Air Force. Unlike some college campuses, Howard's ROTC programs were a source of pride, having produced, according to the school, more African American general officers than any other university in the country.
"When Kerry made those critical statements of the war," Coleman wrote, "my parents, God bless them, went ballistic about their son going in harm's way. My military colleagues in the fellows program who had been there and were shot up were incensed that a so-called military man would engage in such insubordinate actions. At the time Kerry made those unfortunate remarks, America had POWs and MIAs, among them my friend, Colonel Fred Cherry, the longest-held black POW of the Vietnam War. How could a true American fighting man throw away his medals, while thousands he fought alongside of were in the midst of another example of man's inhumanity to man?"
Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com
Hail the Hall!
One of our own is coming home. JarHeadDad, faithful commenter and fellow Georgian, sends:
[Da Grunt] called on Wed night (Thur morning 0200) and was waiting on a C-130 to fly him and the boys to Kuwait! He's out of it and in one piece.Let me be the first to thank Da Grunt for his long service, and suffering in the defense of the Republic. And, let me be the first to say to JHD: we've all been holding our breath with you. Give the boy our very best, and tell him he's always welcome here.
And we'd best be keeping him and his compadres away from John Kerry for awhile! They are not real fond of him right now considering he threw them under the bus and they spent their last week fighting like hell because, and I quote, "The a**hole has let these %^&$* believe they can win and we're paying the price! Half of everything we worked so hard to do has gone to s**t!". I don't believe Kerry will get the Marine vote! If the new guys survive his rhetoric. Everyone over there will sure feel better when November comes! BTW, there was a huge absentee vote before the new guys went over. Enough politics but I thought y'all should know what the real story about the "quagmire" is and who is getting our boys killed again. Leopard never changes his spots! (In case you didn't notice, I'm really pissed at the crap spewed out this week and so is my son who had to pay a price for it!)
Anyhoo, 2/2 is cooling their heels in Kuwait. Janice and I will pop a bottle of bubbly as soon as I get off the computer!
And not just in the virtual hall. If he's ever out my way, be sure to let me know.
BLACKFIVE: "That's my president, hooah!"
Via BlackFive, an object lesson in how to be Commander in Chief.