Insurgents

Advice To An Insurgent:

This is from the AP, but I don't see it on Google News yet. I'll post the majority of the piece, for your edification. It's called, "Cyber-sympathizers of Fallujah insurgents offer instructions on how to
confront the Americans."

Fill balloons with hydrogen after packing them with explosives and when U.S. aircraft prowl over Fallujah, let them loose against the planes.

"Damn! Those F-16s are fast! Ok, next time let it loose, er, two minutes before the plane flies over."

That is among the numerous examples of unsolicited advice offered to Fallujah insurgents on Islamist Web sites which are rooting for the guerrillas they prepare to face an anticipated American assault.

Over the past few days, the Islamist Web sites have featured tips on the
simplest and most effective tactics to combat the Americans, who are awaiting
orders from interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to launch an all-out assault.

One contributor posted a picture of an American soldier stepping over a piece
of orange cloth, which the writer said was used by U.S. forces to identify
themselves and guard against friendly fire.

The author, who signed his name as "Weirdo One," suggested the insurgents,
popularly known as mujahedeen, could don orange cloth to confuse the Americans
about who was friend or foe.

"To our mujahedeen, here you can deceive the Americans," he wrote. "Think
about it."

"No, really. Everybody put on these 'Hunter Blaze' vests. Marines are conditioned from birth not to shoot that color."

The same contributor posted a satellite picture showing how smoke from burning tires or oil tanks can blacken the sky and make it difficult for aircraft to track insurgents.

Others urged the people of Fallujah to leave their houses after boobytrapping
them with explosives - a tactic U.S. commanders say they expect to be used
against them in Fallujah. Contributors recommended Fallujah people dig tunnels
and hide underground until the Americans stop the assault.

Another tipster urged Fallujah to use loudspeakers in the city's numerous
mosques "to warn the mujahedeen and give them signals" about the tactical
situation.

Beneath that message, another contributor advised fighters that if they can
capture American pilots, "make sure to interrogate them to know where they
launch their warplanes and how they track their targets."

Hint: If you don't already know the answers to those questions, you're not going to win this one.

Although some of the advice seems outdated, other contributors displayed some knowledge of modern infantry tactics.

"Be careful of the electronic devices with which missiles can track down the
mujahedeen because they were the ones that caused most harm in Afghanistan,"
wrote one contributor under the name Abu al-Qaqaa.

NY Times reader, that one.

To the Marines, the soldiers, the aviators, the Iraqi National Guard, and to the Black Watch:

Good hunting.

Jacksonian Party

The Jacksonian Party:

Way back in January, The New Republic was speculating on a collapse of the Democratic party if elections didn't go well for them this time. I doubted we'd see it, but if we did I would want to found a new party:

If it comes to that, I will start a new party myself--I think we will call ourselves the Jacksonian Party. I mean, of course, James Jackson, and therefore a Jeffersonian party; but people who like Andrew Jackson will be welcome too. It's a big tent for American Classical Liberals, and ought to be able to pull from Republicans as well as Democrats. It will be founded on the real, and honorable, left of American culture: Jefferson's vision, which James Jackson shared, and for which he fought so valiantly.

It is that left which does not merely idolize the poor, but upholds them and finds ways to make them powerful. The support of unions is one way. Another is by supporting their right to bear arms, so that they do not rely upon a distant and disinterested state for their personal security or that of their families. Even in the city, the state is distant when the bandit is already in your home. Furthermore, and more importantly, an armed citizen is not merely more independent of the state. He is personally capable of defending the state, the lawful order, and the common peace, wherever he goes. Whether it is felons or terrorists who threaten that order and that peace, he is ready. The disarmed citizen is a ward of the state. The Armed citizen is its guardian. The state is his to uphold.

Another matter: we need a renewed focus on the rights and duties of the citizen, so that the poor will understand the power they already have by statute, but have forgotten how to wield. Consider jury nullification. Special interests may write the laws, but we have every right to make exceptions. The powerful and the rich do not sit in judgement over us: we judge ourselves.

Another matter: the defense and support of small businesses, who are the 'Yeoman Farmers' of the city. No man is freer than he who employs himself, whether it is the owner of his own land, or the owner of his own shop. If we are going to fiddle with tax policy, let's fiddle with it in a way that encourages and supports small businesses and farmers.

Another matter: education culture. Private-sector unions are a defense for the poor, but public-sector unions are the enemy of everyone outside themselves. Private-sector unions encourage profit sharing, but there is no profit in the public sector--there is only tax money, which must be drawn from the poor as from the rich, and which is drawn at the point of a gun. Restraining public spending is a civil rights issue. The less money you must send to the government, the more you can use to build your own personal capital, and pull yourself up from poverty.

On the same topic, educators should themselves be educated. This should be a real education on the topic they intend to teach, not an education in "educational theory." No one needs that. By the time they are prepared to teach, they have had the most practical education in educating--they have attended twelve years of public school, four years of college, and have at some point had the practical apprenticeship of being an teacher's aide and a student teacher. They have seen education done for more than a decade, have a number of working models in mind, and have practiced the art themselves. What they need is to know their subject matter. We need historians teaching History, and mathematicians teaching math. A large majority of the public is being educated by people whose knowledge of a given subject is no greater than the textbooks they have been assigned. They can't enlarge upon the text, and they can't tell the students when the text goes wrong.

In foreign policy: we should recognize that international terrorist organizations actually are subject to an existing international law: the law of the sea. Precisely like the roving bands of brigands and pirates of the 1600s and 1700s, they are organized against civilization, travel through multiple jurisdictions and through lawless areas alike. They are not combatants of any state, and are protected therefore by neither the Geneva Conventions nor the rules of war. Like pirates, they are subject to summary execution by the officers of any nation that comes into control of them; or by interrogation and some more merciful response, if we prefer and at our discretion. This brutality on the part of civilized men is justified for the exact reason it was justified of old: the threat these bands pose to the transportation infrastructure is a dagger at the heart of civilization. We cannot maintain our cities, our populations, our ability to combat disease or famine, or our relative freedom from total war over resources, without the massive but fragile transportation capacity we have developed.

This is not idle or of small importance. A small increase in transport costs kills at the margins--for example, aid to Africa is reduced as it is more expensive to transport, but resources are fixed. A large increase threatens civilization itself. Our cities do not contain enough food to feed the populace for more than about three days. That is no problem; more food is coming. But if the ability to transport that food is severely harmed--starvation, and in many regions of the world, disease. A serious disruption could unleash a resource war by nations that see mass starvation if they don't capture food, oil, and other needful things. Such a disruption is possible if these terror groups continue their infiltration of the West, and come into possession of WMD.

For that reason, the reform of terror-sponsor states is paramount. So is the reform of failed states that are not necessarily terror-sponsors, but where terrorists are able to travel freely due to bribes of local officials or through outright lawlessness. So long as we can do so while maintaining an all-volunteer force, the United States ought to feel free to act on these places one by one. This has the practical matter, for a Jacksonian party, of bringing liberty and strength to the poor and unfree abroad exactly as we wish to do at home.

Perhaps we need a "Purple Party." I suspect this one would occupy a strong position on the political spectrum's middle ground.

I didn't consider gay marriage at the time -- it's one of those subjects that I've never given much thought, except for a real concern about the turmoil that would come from an attempt to resolve the question judicially. However, I think that it would be perfectly in keeping with the original Classical Liberal principles to reserve the power to the states, and then let each state do as it wanted. That solution -- Federalism -- is being called for, I've noticed, by a number of commentators lately. It seems correct to me.

UPDATE: As I think this over, I believe a clarification is necessary: I think America needs a Jacksonian Party. But it doesn't have to be called "the Jacksonian Party." It could be called "the Democratic Party." It could also be called "the Republican Party." It could be a third party, but it need not be.

The Winning of the West, Volume 1 by Theodore Roosevelt - Project Gutenberg

The Scots-Irish:

There's been a lot of talk about the Scots-Irish in America, thanks mostly to James Webb's new book, Born Fighting. InstaPundit suggests that much of the same ground was covered in Albion's Seed, a few years ago.

Let me add my own plug. Perhaps the earliest treatment of the Scots-Irish, and still one of the best, was Theodore Roosevelt's history of the "backwoodsmen," which makes up much of The Winning of the West, Volume 1. Roosevelt describes these people, who he says were the first and last to bypass civilization and seek out the wild places of the frontier:

Thus the backwoodsmen lived on the clearings they had hewed out of the everlasting forest; a grim, stern people, strong and simple, powerful for good and evil, swayed by gusts of stormy passion, the love of freedom rooted in their very hearts' core. Their lives were harsh and narrow; they gained their bread by their blood and sweat, in the unending struggle with the wild ruggedness of nature. They suffered terrible injuries at the hands of the red men, and on their foes they waged a terrible warfare in return. They were relentless, revengeful, suspicious, knowing neither ruth nor pity; they were also upright, resolute, and fearless, loyal to their friends, and devoted to their country.

If any other account has captured the Scots-Irish so well as that, I haven't seen it.

Arizona Monthly :: The Magazine of a New Arizona

Big Iron:

Presumably the Arizona Rangers know about this. So should you.

For nearly two decades, the most important nexus for international jihad outside of Pakistan and the Middle East has been Arizona.

That's overstated: the most important center outside of Pakistan and the Middle East was probably London, although other European cities have a claim on the "honor."

Still, this is important. Read the rest. I don't think I have any Arizona readers -- feel free to disabuse me if I'm wrong -- but I know I have some several from Texas. Keep your eyes open.

The Corner on National Review Online

The Side of Light:

Two items on the Iraq war. First, a USCENTCOM press release:

An Army unit assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force, discovered and defused an explosive-laden youth center in Ramadi Nov. 4, which was rigged by insurgents to detonate and potentially kill dozens of Iraqi children. They also discovered more than two tons of explosives hidden in a mosque.

Hat tip: The Corner.

Second item: BlackFive has an interview with a member of the Army Guard's medical team. "I came to this country hating the Iraqi people," he begins:

In the arms of the soldier was a crying baby wrapped in pieces of cloth. Neither man spoke English more than a few words, "Baby, no good. Please."

I unwrapped the baby to expose a terribly distended belly, feet and legs that looked like filled water balloons ready to explode. His cry was pitiful. I told a medic to call for a physician and the surgical team. I escorted the two men and two children to our exam room. It was evident that there was a serious problem with this tiny baby.

After assuring the men we would try our best to help, I was able to ascertain that the baby was 3 months old and that the civilian hospital in Baghdad had sent the soldier away, telling him they could not help.

I saw a man who very much loved his son begging us to save his baby. He frantically tried to soothe his cry, gently kissing his cheek. My heart went out to him. I took the baby's vital signs as the physician assistant examined him. He determined that we needed to get the baby to Baghdad to our larger military hospital as soon as possible.

We had the father get out of his uniform and put on a scrub top so he would be a little less conspicuous — Iraqi soldiers are often targeted in Baghdad. The baby and his father were on their way to hope....

Many times I wonder if it is worth it. Then I think of the 3-year-old boy dressed in a suit watching his daddy graduate as a new Iraqi soldier. As he runs toward me, I am in battle uniform and ballistic armor, with weapon at high ready. He smiles big, waves and says, "I love you, American!" Yeah, it's worth it.

It's worth it.

Yahoo! News - Black Watch mourns first combat deaths of new Iraq mission

Hail the Black Watch:

I offer a salute to the Black Watch. They were raised as the 43rd Royal Highland Regiment; after the British army had an entire regiment reduced, they became the 42nd. It grew large enough that it was divided into two regiments, the 42nd and 73rd; during the African conflicts the two were reunited as 1st and 2nd Battalions, Black Watch. They first came by this title due to their uniform tartan, a dark blue and green pattern that looked black at any distance. It contrasted them with the Red Coats, who were the British regulars; irony being a common mode, they later adopted the uniform red coat themselves.

They have suffered their first combat losses since redeploying to support Iraqi National Guard and US Marine efforts around Fallujah.

"For a close knit family such as the Black Watch this is indeed a painful blow," said Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan, the head of the battle group.

"We will miss them as brothers in arms and we extend our sympathy and love to their families," he said in a statement Friday.

"The whole of the Black Watch is saddened by this loss. But while we feel this blow most keenly we will not be deterred from seeing our task through to a successful conclusion," said Cowan.

The Black Watch's service today continues a tradition that has passed from history into near myth. They remain the most famous of the Scottish Regiments, though they are not the oldest of them -- the Royal Scots have that honor. They have seen service in the Napoleonic wars, the Crimean War, both World Wars, and were the last British unit in Hong Kong. At every point they have served with gallantry and courage. They have been at the forefront of all the right causes since Napoleon, from the elimination of the slave trade to the crushing of the Nazis. I remember the awe I felt, looking on the order of battle back in 2003, to realize that they had been deployed in our support.

But this story has an odd beginning. The Black Watch was raised in the Highlands, for duty suppressing the Clans who were disloyal to the crown. They came from a world in which tribal loyalty was the ancient and accepted standard, and in which the British regulars could not operate without raising the ire of the populace.

They were, in other words, exactly like the Iraqi National Guard.

In two hundred years, some journalist may be writing an account of some conflict, some brushfire war in some corner of his world, and find that his breath catches in his throat to see that the Iraqi Guard has deployed. "Do you know who they are?" he will whisper, voice filled with reverent awe.

Out of such humble beginnings often grow proud traditions. Sometimes, they grow into legends.

Nov 2

Victory & What It Means:

We won. Take a moment to survey the landscape.

Yesterday, almost 55 million Americans got up, formed part of record lines, and voted to replace the President of the United States. Many of them felt passionately about doing so. Many had donated money to political campaigns for the first time. Many people heretofore uninterested in politics joined grassroots organizations aimed at removing George Bush from office, and to try to pry any part of the Federal government back to their political party.

This morning, the results must look to them like the carnage of a battlefield. Despite everything they did, George Bush was reelected. The Republicans, far from losing the House or the Senate, secured and increased their majorities. The highest ranking Democrat in the government, Senate Minority Leader Daschle, was turned out by voters. For social liberals, the sweeping victory of amendments forbidding gay marriage -- every one offered passed handily -- must be depressing. There is nothing for them to feel good about in the results, except the election of Mr. Obama and the well-deserved defeat of Mr. Keyes in IL.

They were defeated only because more than 58 million Americans stood up to vote for the opposite things.

In medieval battles, often forces coming into contact with each other were nearly evenly matched. The forces fight -- Vikings and Saxons clashing at each other behind their shield walls -- until that small difference in strength breaks one of the lines. Then, pouring through the breach, the victors tear apart the shield wall and rout the enemy. Few of the losers escaped from such battles, when any did. Though the foe may have been of nearly equal size and strength, at the last that small difference led to a complete victory for one side, and complete destruction for the other.

Democracy works in a similar way. We have had a giant clash of peaceful armies, and in spite of the completeness of the rout, we must remember that their force was nearly as powerful as our own.

For those of you readers who were part of the defeated army, I salute you. You have every reason to be proud of how hard you fought, and of the dedication and steadfastness with which you struck for your cause. You can hold your heads high, knowing that you did absolutely everything that could be done.

In the next years, we must remember the 55 million. It may be that some of them can be won over, through argument or through example, or even -- on matters not of principle -- through compromise. Even when not, we must remember that they showed that America is their country too: no one can ever again claim to be backed by the "silent majority." That majority has now spoken, but it spoke on both sides.

We should remember that they felt all the passion and concern that we did ourselves, and found that doing everything they could only led to the defeat of their cause. That kind of defeat can weaken the Republic, which many of us are sworn to uphold. It weakens it by undermining faith and confidence in the institutions. We must take care to be sure they find fair hearing of their concerns in the institutions that conservatives now control. The government must serve them as well. We should take care to observe the tenets of Federalism, and not use the power of the Federal government to try and influence liberal states according to a general will. We should erect new walls in that regard, so that our disappointed neighbors can still live the lives they want to live in what is also their country.

Those same walls will protect us, should we ever someday lose.

Congratulations to the victor.

Voting

Voting:

Grim's Hall enjoyed 100% turnout in our private "Get Out The Vote" efforts, with 100% of us voting for Bush. The election comes down to really just two things, which are tightly related: the war, and character. Bush has proven he'll fight the war emphatically; Kerry says he would, when he isn't saying he'll have the troops "home where they belong." Troops brought home can't win the war.

As to character: in spite of the constant assaults on Bush's character, I've developed some mild admiration for the man. He's far from perfect, but I believe he is decent and brave. I remember how he flew into Baghdad by night, to visit his troops on Thanksgiving. I remember how he took time out of his day to climb up on a plane of soldiers deploying to Iraq. I thought "Ashley's story" was very revealing, because it was her family that went to the trouble of getting it out, making sure we knew about it. I remember Bush going to run with Sergeant McNaughton, who lost his leg.

We know, by now, what I think of Kerry's character, so I won't belabor it. To put it short: I've seen nothing from him to indicate that he is a decent man.

Mistakes are made in war, and to be honest, there have been no mistakes in Iraq to rival some of the ones made in the planning for the war in France, following Operation Overlord. Victor Hanson, a man whose writing I don't normally enjoy, wrote an excellent account of the brutality that followed D-Day, most of it due to poor Allied planning, which cost 2,500 Allied lives every day. Iraq has seen its share of blunders and mistakes, imperfect planning and sometimes even absent planning. But all wars do; most of them, worse.

What matters is boldness and commitment, and the certainty of heart. Bush has that.

Too, I must acknowledge that some of our institutions have broken down. Neither the traditional separation of powers, nor the rule of law, can any longer restrain the most powerful men and women in this country. If the law cannot bind them, oaths must. Character is the only guarantee we have, the last one that can function.

Would Kerry keep his oath? I can't see why, when he broke his oath as a Naval officer. Will he choose to obey the law when the court can't restrain him? I can't see why, when he's continued to collect his Senate pay in open defiance of the US Code.

No, this election is an election of no choice. Bush is the only candidate to support. He is a decent man "with a spine of tempered steel," as Zell Miller put it. His opponent has neither quality, and both are needed.

Sgt Hook - This We'll Defend � Sergeant Major Hook

Congrats!

Congratulations are due to Sergeant Major Hook. One of our own, done good.

K-Disch

Kerry's Discharge Was Not Honorable:

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to an old friend of mine, Tiny Robinson, who in 1971 was a Navy SEAL. AuthentiSEAL, a research organization which investigates false claims to military glory, has been looking into Kerry's discharge status for months.

Today there are new stories about this. You've probably seen the first one, in the New York Sun. It is an interview with Captain Mark Sullivan, USN Ret, one of a pair of Naval attorneys who have separately been researching the question. As a JAG officer, he is intimitely familiar with what the paperwork should look like. What Kerry has posted isn't it, he says.

Kerry spokesman David Wade did not reply when asked if Mr. Kerry was other than honorably discharged before he was honorably discharged.

"Mr. Meehan may well be right and all Mr. Kerry's military records are on his Web site," Mr. Sullivan said. "Unlike en listed members, officers do not receive other than honorable, or dishonorable, certificates of discharge. To the contrary, the rule is that no certificate will be awarded to an officer separated wherever the circumstances prompting separation are not deemed consonant with traditional naval concepts of honor. The absence of an honorable discharge certificate for a separated naval officer is, therefore, a harsh and severe sanction and is, in fact, the treatment given officers who are dismissed after a general court-martial."

The Sun piece is an interview, as I said. The actual testimony of these two Naval JAG officers is posted at Vets For Bush (.PDF warning). PoliPundit, who has also been following this story, has more.

Channelnewsasia.com

Osama Lied!

What to make of this story?

"The US Department of State wishes to alert US citizens, either resident in or traveling through the Nordic/Baltic region, that it has received threat information and urges all US citizens in the Nordic and Baltic countries to be vigilant as to their surroundings," the embassy in Helsinki said.

It said the warning should be heeded "especially in centers of ground-based mass transit" and called on Americans "to report any unusual or suspicious persons, incidents or circumstances to the nearest police authorities."

But how can this be? Didn't Osama just tell us that Sweden was safe, as we would be too if only we'd lay down arms?

Why, I feel betrayed.

deuddersun says...

"For the Eight"

Deuddersun has a tribute up to our fallen brothers of this week:

Go now, and take your places at the Table of Warriors with the Blessings of The All Father, Odin, One-eye, for you have, by your blood and steel, earned nothing less than Eternal Honor amongst the Heroes of Valhalla.

There's a Christian poem, too. Someday I'll write a long piece on the US Marines and the old heathen religion.

For today, though, I heft my mead horn in salute. May I drink in Valhalla with you, when the day comes.

deuddersun says...

Tribute:

Deuddersun has a tribute to the eight Marines killed in Iraq this weekend. In it, he invokes both Odin and the Christian God.

I have noticed that this is not uncommon among Marines. I do it myself.

The thing everybody knows about St. George is that he killed a dragon. The "Golden Legend" about him is all you need to know:

Several stories have been attached to Saint George, the best known of which is the Golden Legend. In it, a dragon lived in a lake near Silena, Libya. Whole armies had gone up against this fearce creature, and had gone down in painful defeat. The monster ate two sheep each day; when mutton was scarce, lots were drawn in local villages, and maidens were substituted for sheep. Into this country came Saint George. Hearing the story on a day when a princess was to be eaten, he crossed himself, rode to battle against the serpent, and killed it with a single blow with his lance. George then held forth with a magnificent sermon, and converted the locals. Given a large reward by the king, George distributed it to the poor, then rode away.

Due to his chivalrous behavior (protecting women, fighting evil, dependence on faith and might of arms, largesse to the poor), devotion to Saint George became popular in the Europe after the 10th century. In the 15th century his feast day was as popular and important as Christmas. Many of his areas of patronage have to do with life as a knight on horseback. The celebrated Knights of the Garter are actually Knights of the Order of Saint George.

The actual St. George was tortured and beheaded about AD 304.

This is one way in which the old heathen traditions have survived in the Christian faith. The great legend of St. George has its roots in the heroic tradition of the North, traditions made better by the Christian influence. Those traditions took generosity and courage, and added chivalry and gentleness with the weak.

In a great but largely unknown piece of Western literature, Fritz Leiber's Lean Times in Lankhmar, this process is playfully but insightfully laid bare:

As delivered over and over by [northern barbarian] Fafhrd, the History of Issek of the Jug gradually altered... into something considerably more like the saga of a Northern hero, though toned down in some respects. Issek had not slain dragons and other monsters as a child -- that would have been against hi Creed -- he had only sported with them.... Issek had expired quite quickly, though with some kindly parting admonitions, after being disjointed on the rack. Fafhrd's Issek (now the Issek) had broken seven racks before he began seriously to weaken.

Is this something a good Christian should be bothered by? I don't think so.

There are generations of precedent. The good monks and friars of old had to deal with these heroic figures of old. Were they real? If they were, what was their nature? Only a few argued that they were demons (although Odin-as-demon makes an appearance in St. Olav's Saga -- ironic, since no saint has inherited more old divine stories than has St. Olav, whose legends sound very much like Thor's).

More of these sages argued that the old gods were kings, or heroes, who had been endowed by time and imagination with great stories until they were regarded as something like gods. (This approach is called euhemerism, after Euhemerus, a Greek philosopher who favored it for his own gods.) People carried on sacrificing to the old kings and heroes, in the belief that those great ones wielded power in this world and the next.

Fine... but what are saints, except kings and heroes, who wield power to aid in this world and the next?

Step forward now, O' Devil-Dog,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?

The Marine squared his shoulders,
said, No, Lord, I guess I ain't,
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint.

Anticipatory Retaliation: Iraqi Endorsement Roundup

Bathroom Humor:

Remember all those pubic jokes about Bush and Cheney's names? Well, apparently the humor works in Kurdistan too, only the other way:

Old Man: KIRI is a name ? It is the end of the world.

Who knew? These things happen now and then (see the comments to that post, too).

Reverend Horton Heat

That Other Election:

Best American Band of 2004. Hey, you've gotta pick somebody. These are my boys. "Liquor, Beer and Wine" remains a classic.

homepagestudio - filemanager

A Message from Osama:

Doc in the Box

Culminating Point of Victory:

You'll recall "Clausewitz & The Triangle," in which I argued that the traditional mode of victory -- what von Clauzewitz called "the culminating point of victory" -- was not available to the Iraqi insurgents.

Doc in the Box, mourning a vicious slaughter of friends he had while in the sandbox, makes the point in personal terms:

The insurgences, whom I believe are foreign nationals mostly, aren't doing anyone over there any good. They're installing fear in everybody, they're not only attacking us, they're attacking the very people that are trying to raise the country out of post war barbarism that seems to be running rampant. These people don't have the good of the Iraqi people at heart, they don't worship Allah, they worship Chaos.

This is the true terrorism, when you're trying to change a country by taking out anybody that can make a difference. Relief workers, people that help the poor? Doctors, Teachers, potential Leaders?

After such attacks, who is ever going to take these people seriously?

That is why they cannot win. That is why we will, and it is why we must. Only we ourselves can lose, by talking ourselves out of fighting it through to the end. The good folk of Iraq are counting on us.

From the Halls to the Shores

Mike on UBL:

Mike the Marine has a reaction to the UBL speech.

The State | 10/30/2004 | On election results, it�s still the economy

Labor Memo:

You've probably heard about the Labor Dept. Memo predicting a sure Bush win. It says that 'nearly every model' shows Bush carrying the election by much larger margins than the polls show.

"What models?" you might reasonably ask. After all, everything we've seen in the press indicates a very tight race.

Well, here's a primer on some of them. Here is another. CNN had some back in August. here is one from Yale. And here are some based on political science rather than economic theory.

Most of these predict a sizable Bush victory, between 54 and 60 percent.

Are they accurate? Eh, who knows? :) But the smart money for a gambler is on Bush.

Wives of U.S. Troops Share Pain -- and Often Politics (washingtonpost.com)

Military Wives:

Don't miss today's page-one story from the Washington Post, on the wives of front-line soldiers.

Greyhawk, one such soldier deployed in Iraq, says this about the story: "Three years into the war on terror and this is the first honest reporting on military families I have ever seen in a major daily."

Grim's Hall

Range Report: Halloween Edition

I took a little time today to sight in my "new" rifle. It's only new to me; it was manufactured in 1966, based on a design that was already quite old at the time. It's a Winchester Model 94, in .30-30.

The local rifle range is set up with twenty-five yard, sixty yard, and hundred yard target holders. I was planning on using the twenty-five yard targets, as this thing has only the original iron sights on it. Since my primary reason to have it is home defense, I plan on replacing them with a ghost ring, but for today I just wanted to get the feel of the rifle.

However, deer season is on us, so I didn't end up getting my choice of ranges. Unless I wanted to wait a long time to shoot, the sixty yard targets were all there was. Too, all the people sighting in for deer season meant that I could shoot for only one thirty-minute segment. Taking time to get to know the rifle, that means I only spent fifteen rounds before it was time to leave.

I had two other difficulties at the range. The first was that the staple gun jammed up, so I only got the top of the target stapled to the target holders. This meant that the steady breeze was flapping my target around a bit at the bottom. The other problem was that I hadn't thought to dig out my field glasses, so I couldn't tell how accurate my shooting was -- at sixty yards, a hole .3 inches wide is invisible to me unless you get one of those splash targets, and all I had was basic white paper with black rings.

All that said, I put all fifteen rounds on paper, but it sights very high at sixty yards. I can only assume the previous owner sighted it in for longer distances, as I was fairly well trained in the basics of riflery and I'm sure my part of it was right. I didn't get anything within two inches of the X ring, although it was otherwise grouped pretty well.

No doubt I just need to apply some Kentucky windage, until I get around to replacing the sights.

EMPIRE

EMPIRE

This flier is one of several being posted around D.C. They all say, "No matter who wins, the system is rotten," and promise a massive "loud" and "unpermitted" demonstration -- that is, a pre-planned riot that you are invited to join -- on 3 November, regardless of the outcome of the election.

There are, as I said, several fliers, but this one is special.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph, which is from my camera phone. Still, as you can probably make out, the image is of the word "EMPIRE," with a mountain of skulls piled atop it. At the summit, there is a mockery of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

There is much to be said about this image, and what it represents. These are American citizens putting this stuff out, and this is what they believe: that America is an empire, built on a mountain of skulls. That Iwo Jima was fought against an actual empire does not enter their minds. That the mountains of skulls are to be found in Saddam's mass graves, not in the wake of US troop movements, likewise never comes to their mind.

But there is one part of the image that is true. The flag on Mt. Surabachi was raised atop a mountain of skulls. The skulls belonged to the United States Marines.

There they fought up Iwo Jima's hill
Two hundred and fifty men,
But only twenty-seven lived
To fight back down again.

The dead deserve better from the living than this.

Scotsman.com News - News Archive - Documentary reveals Albanian arms dealer donated cash to the Kerry campaign

The Scotsman on Kerry and KLA Terrorists:

Thanks to reader TxRascal for this link. The Scotsman is a famously sober voice in news journalism. Here is what they say:

JOHN Kerry has acquired a financial backer likely to provide him with more problems than support in his battle for the White House: the Kosovo Liberation Army.

A documentary produced by a Dutch television crew alleges Florin Krasniqi, an Albanian arms dealer, is buying weapons in the US and sending them to Kosovo - while perfecting contacts with the Democratic Party in the United States.

Mr Krasniqi is filmed at a Kerry fundraising event handing over a cheque, then chatting and joking with senior Democrats including Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander and Richard Holbrooke, Mr Kerry's senior foreign policy adviser.

The documentary, broadcast last month in The Netherlands and seen by The Scotsman, follows Mr Krasniqi from his home in Brooklyn in New York to his Albanian base where he distributes arms to mercenaries on the Kosovo border.

Showing remarkable candour, Mr Krasniqi says the KLA has "unfinished business" with the Serbs and predicts that war will break out again in "about a year and a half" if the UN does grant Kosovo independence from Serbia and Montenegro.

The Kerry fundraising event is shown making a direct pitch for Albanian money. Mr Holbrooke warns in a speech that Mr Bush is planning to pull troops out of Kosovo - the implication being the Serbs would be unconstrained.

John Belushi, the Albanian-American actor, then appears in a video soliciting donations. "If you care about the fate of Albanians in the Balkans, I hope you'll do anything to can to make sure John Kerry is elected as our next President," he says.

The documentary goes on to show Mr Krasniqi buying guns from a dealer in St Mary's, Pennsylvania.

With frankness bordering on the brazen, he explains to the film crew how easy it is to smuggle arms. "We had set up a hunting club in Albania," he says - and simply tell anyone who asks they are planning an excursion to Tasmania.

He admits being "caught twice" - by Italian and Swiss authorities - but allowed to proceed after saying the Albanian hunting club was preparing for an expedition to hunt elephants in Tasmania. Other arms are smuggled under humanitarian aid, he says.

While there is no suggestion that Mr Kerry had knowledge about the funds being donated by Mr Krasniqi, the video will be deeply embarrassing for the Massachusetts senator as he combats accusations of being soft on terror.

Mr Krasniqi is named in the Federal Election Commission returns as a registered donor to the Kerry campaign at his Brooklyn address. The sum is dollars 1,000. The Kerry-Edwards campaign was asked to comment, but did not return calls to The Scotsman yesterday.

Oktoberfest on National Review Online

Want a drink?

Depending on where you are, it may be late enough in the day for one. The pundits at National Review Online are running a feature on their favorite beers, just in case any of you were curious.

My favorite beer to drink at the pub is Guinness, without question, although when one can get it, Murphy's is as good -- slightly sweeter, but equally rich. If I'm drinking at home, where you can't get a proper draft beer, I'll take Fosters' bitter or my grandfather's favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

Shadow Wars:

There is an interview on how we are winning the war on terror here. It is with the author of a new book, Shadow War, which I have not read. It may be worth a look.

Serbianna.com | Columns | Boba Borojevic

Canadian Ambassador: US Democrats Tied To KLA Terrorists

The former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, James Bissett, agrees with yesterday's story about the KLA & the DNC. Once again, this is an article that is not aimed at the American market. These charges are being raised by the Ambassador as a warning to Serbs about the outcome of the election, not to influence the election in America.

The Ambassador says:

In addition, it seems clear to me that if the Democrats get back into power in the next election, we are going to find the same old "Serb-hating" gang in power. That is: Madlene Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Wesley Clark and a number of others. These are all people who are very much anti - Serb. Holbrooke's book and his remarks about the Serbs are clearly racist. All these individuals are committed to a Greater Albania in the Balkans. The Kerry election campaign is also getting a tremendous amount of funding by the Albanians.

Dutch Television showed a documentary produced by KLA, with KLA members in a room in New York City giving cheques to Richard Holbrooke and Wesley Clark. It showed Richard Holbrooke phoning a man by the name Philips, telling him they collected great amount of money. The figure of US $ 500,000 was mentioned. It is very clear that if they are in power, the Democrats will demand the independence for Kosovo.

And if not, according to the interview, more of that KLA money was going to buy weapons to be used against American soldiers.

D&D

"I Swing My Crossbow!"

As we are now entering the last days of this miserable election season, I'd like to point you back to how we got started on this festival. In honor of the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, let's have a retrospective to Ace of Spades post: the Democratic Nominees as D&D characters.

I think these predictions have held up very well over time.

Kerry KLA

Kerry Financed By KLA Terrorists:

That, at least, is the claim being made by FaithFreedom.Org, which is an anti-jihadist site of former Muslims (or, if you like, Muslim apostates now living under the threat of death from radicals).

Actually, they are just reporting the claim of a Dutch television station, which has video of what they say are known KLA operatives writing fat checks at a Kerry fundraiser. There is also an interview with one of the KLA men, in which it is claimed that he says he is buying weapons for a possible war against US/UN forces in Kosovo.

This came to me through a reputable civilian open source intelligence group. I'm passing it on to the blogosphere in the hope that someone can give me a read on whether the TV station in question (VPRO) is of good or bad reputation, and whether or not the report that actually ran is as it is portrayed by FaithFreedom.

UPDATE: The story has now migrated to the far-right news sites NewsMax and WorldNetDaily. Neither of which is normally reliable, but again, all they are reporting is the Dutch video, which is available online for your own perusal.

What makes this story seem oddly credible -- that is, unlike a smear attack -- is that the Dutch aren't apparently interested in the Kerry angle. The name of their TV program translates as "The Brooklyn Connection," that is, the KLA's connection to Brooklyn; not "the Kosovo Conection," which would be Kerry's connection to Kosovo.

It's also reasonable to assume that KLA figures would know some highly placed Democrats such as those allegedly meeting with them at the DNC. This is due to the candidacy of Wes Clark, who in his military capacity worked with KLA forces.

It is an interesting story.

United Press International: DoD breaks with Bush over intel reform

DOD Breaks With White House:

And, as usual when this happens, DOD is right.

The most senior U.S. military official has publicly broken with the White House in the ongoing controversy over reforming U.S. intelligence.

In a letter to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. Richard Myers makes it clear that he does not support the White House-backed proposal to give a new national spy chief budgetary control over three key intelligence agencies inside the Department of Defense.

"The budgets of the combat support agencies should come up from the agencies through the secretary of defense," reads the letter, signed Thursday by Myers and obtained by United Press International.

There's a whole lot of good reasons for this. Reason number one, though, is that the CIA has been wrong about absolutely everything from the Soviet missle counts, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, to... well, take your pick.

Having DIA as a fully independent intelligence apparatus makes a lot of sense. Bad practices in a "unified" command mean bad practices in every intelligence product produced by the US. Having competing views is utterly healthy in the intelligence world. We would be fools to undo this aspect of our intel setup.

OpinionJournal - Extra

Jacksonians:

The Scots-Irish vote in America today. The author, James Webb, has a new book out on the topic that was recommended to me by a former paratrooper of my association, a good lad from East Tennessee (the best of the three Tennessees).

bloodletting.blog-city.com

The Perils of Shopping for Shoes:

I assume most all of you read BlackFive, whom I linked yesterday. Not all of you may get by Doc Russia's place. Doc is a former Marine, and a medical student married to a full-fledged doctor.

Doc is a great writer on top of that. My female readers, especially, may enjoy his account of his wife's shoe-shopping expedition, entitled "Hard to find."

The Liberal Conspiracy - Satire, Informed Commentary and 9-11 Research

Border Wars:

Dear Sovay has a funny piece on a Kerry campaign stop, in a wee town down on the Texas/New Mexico border:

But their waitress and the police keeping watch outside the restaurant said it is in Anthony, Texas, not Anthony, N.M. An officer pointed to the Brown Derby Pub just up the street and said the line runs right through it.

He explained that many years ago, the pub had a dance floor on the New Mexico side, and the bar on the Texas side because the state's more lenient alcohol laws then allowed 18-year-olds to drink.

As to which, my favorite example of this is the little town of Tennga, which is half in Tennessee, and half in the great state of Georgia. The Georgia half is in a dry county.

Highway 411 runs through it, and just as it crosses the border there is a little cinderblock building on the Tennessee side. If you are heading north, the sign outside reads: "1st Tennessee Beer!"

If you are heading south, it reads instead: "Last Tennessee Beer!"

Now that's marketing.

BLACKFIVE

B-5:

If you haven't been reading BlackFive lately, you should stop by.

Yahoo! Mail - grimbeornr@yahoo.com

A Question:

Reader M.N. writes:

I read your article regarding Women In Combat. I heard an ABC radio news article on this subject yesterday, but the gist of the entire article (per ABC) was that the Army is having trouble meeting enlistment quotas and that women are going to be encouraged to enlist to fill those slots. Would you comment on this view, please?

Certainly.

SECDEF Rumsfeld spoke to the issue of recruitment, and retention, as recently as August.

Q: Well, it wasn’t. So, pleasure to have you on the air today, sir. I appreciate your time. If I could just get right to it and ask you a couple of questions. One of them that has been on my mind. I seem to remember a couple of months ago – maybe eight, 12 weeks ago, some reports that recruitment, Armed Forces recruitment, was running very, very high. The various branches were having no trouble at all attracting the recruits that they needed. Then in more recent weeks, I hear the opposite, that recruitment is not running that high and, in fact, some of the branches may be having a little bit of a problem fulfilling their manpower requirements. What is the status there?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, the facts are these, that the Navy and the Air Force are having no issues whatsoever. With respect to the Army, recruiting in the active component is doing quite well. It’s 101 percent of their target for fiscal year ’04. The Reserve recruiting is at 102 percent, so that’s going well also. And then the National Guard is somewhat below their target. They’re at 88 percent, but seem confident that they’re going to eventually make the numbers they need. That’s recruiting. On retention, things are going well, also. The retention in the active component’s over 100 percent of target, and Reserve retention’s about 99 percent. And in the National Guard, interestingly, it’s almost 101 percent. So across the board, it’s going very well. And we’ve got a terrific group of people in men and women in the service and they’re doing a great job. And the Army, of course, has an awful lot of people around the world, something like 12 percent of their forces is deployed. They’ve got 123,000 possibly in Iraq and Afghanistan together and maybe 270,000 deployed all over. So needless to say, that does pose some stress on the force. On the other hand, when you think they’re drawing off a million people, and we’re only using 270,000 deployed, it’s pretty clear that the problem is not a shortage of people; the problem is that they’re malorganized.

So: it's not true that the Army is having trouble making its goals. The National Guard is, to some degree, but not the Army.

All that said, the Army loves women recruits for other reasons. It has diversity task forces which "encourage," in the military fashion, a certain participation by various groups. Here is one such.

The diversity racket is a hindrance outside the military, but downright dangerous inside it. The military needs the best soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines it can get. If those are women, fine. If not, fine. Trying to play at percentages is unwise, as it means setting the participation goals above the fitness standards.

What the military needs to do is to set standards high, and keep them high. If you can meet the standards, you should find a place. If not -- well, then you'll be just like me, who is too old to be of use any more. :)

Statement

356 Green Berets Sign New Letter Against Kerry:

A band of Vietnam-veteran Special Forces have signed the following letter.

The undersigned Special Forces Vietnam Veterans support our Swift Boat brothers-in-arms and believe that John Kerry is unfit to be our Commander-in-Chief or to lead our nation as President. The Kerry presidential campaign has raised the significance of this deeply-felt and long-standing issue. While many, if not a majority, of the signatories of this request are Republicans and Bush supporters, many are not. Those who are Democrats have been effectively disenfranchised by Kerry's candidacy.

For most of us the question of his fitness to serve as Commander-in-Chief, or in any other office of honor and high public responsibility, was settled permanently in the negative thirty-three years ago. He slandered and dishonored all Vietnam Veterans in false and exaggerated testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. By throwing away the symbols of his honors, he insulted all veterans of all wars by debasing the milestones of their valor.

He has unrelentingly opposed issues vital to veterans. He has supported measures that have led to genocide of our former allies, the Montagnards, and the enslavement of the people of Vietnam. He has blocked efforts to enact Human Rights legislation to help alleviate their condition. He has taken action which led to the abandonment of American POWs in Vietnam that most of us believe were left behind. His stated plan to double special operations forces rapidly in response to today's threats demonstrates his lack of understanding of what makes a Special Forces soldier and his failure to understand that the available conventional armed forces manpower pool is insufficient to provide the necessary qualified personnel without seriously degrading standards.

By Lieutenant Kerry's own request, he returned to the United States after completing only one-third of his tour. He did this by seeking and receiving three Purple Hearts for wounds of questionable cause and severity. He was the commander of a military unit, in this case a Naval combatant craft, and he abandoned his crew to the fight to return to a life of ease. By the standards expected of a Naval line officer of the United States, even with the most charitable interpretation, this is contemptible.

There are serious questions concerning the circumstances of Lieutenant Kerry’s first Purple Heart, and perhaps about his other decorations, as well. These questions prompt us to call him to sign Standard Form 180 to authorize the full release of all records pertaining to his service. If his awards failed to measure up to the standards required, he should formally request that these awards be rescinded and removed from his record.

No apology, especially a Jane Fonda-type, insincere or tepid apology is acceptable. No legislative abridgement of our freedom of speech or because one candidate or the other does not wish to discuss the matter will halt the discussion of these issues. We have the American right to discuss these issues. We fought for that right.

We call upon the American people to reject his effort to become Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces and we urge other Veteran groups to join our solidarity with the Swift Boat critics of Senator John Kerry.

I gather from the NY Times' review of "Stolen Honor" that it is finally starting to sink in with the left that those of us who oppose Kerry on these grounds really mean it -- that it's not just an attempt to slur a political opponent, but genuine rage at a man who violated the code expected of military men, and then had the audacity to slander the honor of those who kept it.

I gather from Ms. Stanley's review that she is moved by the pain the POWs for Truth suffered, but unmoved by questions of honor. They don't interest her. Certainly she expresses sympathy for these men who were tortured in their nation's cause, and who had Kerry's words thrown in their faces by their captors. It will not, however, translate into a vote against Kerry, now or ever. Questions of honor don't matter as much as other things.

Probably there are quite a few people like that, and if all of them come to the same conclusion, "Stolen Honor" will have still be a great victory. If these people only recognize that the attacks on Kerry by veterans and soldiers are the result of an aggreived and deeply felt code of honor, rather than political smear, it will be both clarifying and soothing to the national discourse. Though they may choose to support him for political reasons, we might have their respect; and it is easier to live with those who respect and understand you, even if they do not agree, even if they do not care about what moves your heart.

So much for the urban liberal class, for whom honor is a quaint, even an amusing relic from an earlier age. There are others across this country for whom it is a living thing. Not all of them have heard what these Green Berets have to say, what the POWs said before them, and the Swiftees before them. There are ranks on ranks of honorable men ill-disposed to see a man of Kerry's character given command of anything or anyone. He is unfit, honorless.

Perhaps this time they will hear. Perhaps this time, they will listen.

I got a letter from my friend and former SEAL, Tiny Robinson, about whom you read earlier. He became a SEAL in 1971. At the end of his letter, he signed off: "Thank you for caring."

I share his pain. It hurts to know how few people do.

SMALL PACKAGES, BIG BANG: Personal Defense Weapons

PDWs:

"The modern version of the slingshot." Heh.

It was easy to keep all rounds on target while firing on full-auto, albeit at short range. While it looks highly unconventional at first glance, the P90 is actually well-balanced, ergonomic (non-snag), and quick to shoulder/point.

I'm not convinced, in spite of these good features. Obviously someone decided that our forces could not be taught to hit anything even if their lives depended on it. Why else would you try to put together a "pistol sized" automatic weapon, in .22 caliber (5.7mm)? The hope is to put ten rounds roughly on target at CQB range, but isn't it better to put one round right where you want it?

Go back to the .45, says I. It's training, not fancy toys, that is wanted.

Newsradio 620 WTMJ: Charlie Sykes

Spitting on Marines:

Now if they can just get on to calling us "baby killers," the antiwar left will be back to full-swing Vietnam mode.

On Thursday night, an antiwar protestor in Milwaukee spit on a returned Iraqi war veteran, Marine Major Jerry Boyle. Boyle is a Republican candidate for Congress in Milwaukee. Boyle served in Operation Iraqi freedom and was posted to Baghdad shortly after the invasion.

Boyle, the kind of gentleman we expect an officer to be, did not deign to notice. A gentleman duels only with equals, after all, and no such person is the equal of a United States Marine.

Female soldiers eyed for combat - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - October 22, 2004

Women in Combat:

The Army is apparently planning to do away with additional restrictions on women being placed in combat positions. The reasoning for this change is fairly sound: it's become so hard to distinguish what is and is not a "combat area" that enforcing the regs literally would mean keeping women confined to bases in the US. No point letting them enlist if you won't let them serve.

My favorite line from the story is this one, which explains that the military is already deploying women to these spots, regs or no regs:

Some Pentagon officials, who asked not to be named, said the proposed Forward Support Companies are at the least 'skirting' the existing ban if not violating it.

Yeah, I wouldn't want my name associated with a pun like that, either.

Foreign Policy: NGOs: Fighting Poverty, Hurting the Poor

Friendly Fire in the War on Global Poverty:

There is no such thing as friendly fire:

The war against poverty is threatened by friendly fire. A swarm of media-savvy Western activists has descended upon aid agencies, staging protests to block projects that allegedly exploit the developing world. The protests serve professional agitators by keeping their pet causes in the headlines. But they do not always serve the millions of people who live without clean water or electricity.

Increasingly, the NGOs are the enemies of the causes the espouse. It isn't just poverty either. How many times must Human Rights Watch or Amnesty attack the United States, before they sort out that we are the single most committed defender of human rights in the world today?

The enemy of your enemy is meant to be your friend. Even if they aren't perfect.

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | The last post

[Nigh-Endless Laughter]

It turns out that the last words of the UK Guardian sound remarkably like the joke about "the Redneck's Last Words."

Hey, watch this!

Hm... that didn't go too good.

Ya'll were on the wrong track from "the Tony Martin school of foreign policy." You might have checked to see just how many letters old Tony has gotten from the USA, these last few years. I wrote one myself.

My Way News

AP: Can't Trust Kerry

That, at least, is my reading of this paragraph from an AP story on Kerry "hunting for conservative voters" (more election violence!):

Kerry returned after a two-hour hunting trip wearing a camouflage jacket and carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, but someone else carried the bird he said he shot.

"Someone else carried the bird he said he shot." Now, I don't think Kerry can be trusted either. It's pretty clear that he'll say or do anything. Even I, however, am willing to believe that he could hit a goose with a double-barrel 12-gauge.

In other news, Kerry -- who has been taking pains to hunt in every state he's visited lately -- is going to be giving a speech on his values. His spokesman, McCurry, said, "The fact that Senator Kerry is a person of faith is something that might help voters who are undecided."

Personally, I would be surprised to learn that any remaining undecided voters are very religious. People for whom faith is a guiding light usually don't have a lot of trouble making up their minds on the important questions. What's to be undecided about, if you know your own moral center?

In addition to which, churches are involved in this election more than previous ones. I can't think that you'd need to explain your faith to religious voters...

...unless you're having trouble with a core constituency, that is.

UPDATE: Via PoliPundit, a writer who sees some similarities between Hunting Kerry and Elmer Fudd.

Elmer is the hunter who can't really stomach the kill. In fact, in the Bugs Bunny short A Wild Hare, he's grief stricken when he believes he's really shot the rabbit. "I'm a murderer!" he wails, to Bugs's (and the audience's) supreme amusement. (Kerry went from War Hero to Anti-War activist upon his return, the children of Vietnam vets have a message for Kerry.)

Elmer Fudd: Reminiscient of Genghis Khan!

UPDATE: Reader Gracie provides evidence that, once again, Kerry is trying to play the game from both sides:

UPDATE: Drudge apparently got a longer report from the journalists sent to cover the report. It sounds like they were pretty well torqued about the whole thing.

My favorite part is where they're speculating about whether or not Kerry will actually dare to be seen bringing back a dead animal. Or maybe Osama bin Laden, who'll have been hiding in the bush.

Mudville Gazette

"Saint George for Merry Fiji!"

The Mudville Gazette reports that, when every nation of old Europe had failed, Fiji boldly steps forth:

The United Nations says Fiji's government has become the first to agree to provide troops [to secure the UN efforts]... Wednesday UN spokeswoman Maria Okabe announced that 130 Fijians would provide security details for senior UN officials and a guard unit to protect UN facilities in Baghdad. "These contributions are critical to the UN's efforts to strengthen the security arrangements for its personnel in Iraq," she said, quoted by the Associated Press news agency. "This would make it possible for the United Nations to consider expanding its activities in Iraq as circumstances permit."

It's worth asking why Fiji has the kind of moral and physical courage lacking in so many. Greyhawk provides the answer by posting the flag of Fiji. In the upper hoist quadrant, there is a Union jack; in the field, a Cross of St. George.

Fiji's part of the Anglosphere.

My Way News

Damn Yankees:

The one time I've ever said anything nice about anything called a "Yankee," and look how they repay me. I should have known better. You just can't trust that ilk.

Battlegrounders on National Review Online

Democratic Realignment:

Zell Miller is out winning votes for Bush in PA. Not, mind you, firing up Republicans to vote for Bush: convincing Democrats to vote for Bush.

Westmoreland is a county heavily dominated by Democrats in municipal offices, as well. Its board of commissioners has a Democratic majority; its state House delegation is overwhelmingly Democratic....

Belying its registration statistics and political character at the local level, Westmoreland County over the last 15 years has become an increasingly reliable source of votes for Republican candidates. And reliance on that trend was one of the foundations of an aggressive GOP-controlled redistricting plan that dramatically reshaped the state's congressional map two years ago.

What this reflects is a drift of socially conservative voters away from the Democratic Party that presents a key challenge to Kerry and other Democratic candidates....

The issues of abortion and gun control are repeatedly cited by Republican and Democrats as among the keys to the GOP inroads in counties like Westmoreland across the western half of Pennsylvania.

Whatever the outcome of this race, there is going to be a realignment of traditional Democrats. Many, of course, will go Republican. But it may be that others of us will split the party. I think a Jacksonian Democratic party would be able to look toward 2008 with pleasure. Although it would lose most of the left wing of the current Democratic party, it could capture the center-right of the Republican party. I see no reason such a party shouldn't be the leading force in American politics.

Ashley's Story

"I Have Knocked on the Door of this Man's Soul and Found Someone Home."

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.

gladwell dot com / The Ketchup Conundrum

Ketchup:

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

The Navy At Work:

Best of the Web runs this AP headline:

'U.S. Navy Makes Skirts Optional for Women'

BotW wonders if this won't distract the men. As any student of Marine Corps / Navy jokes knows, however, the answer is...

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

"A Litigation Strategy" Against Military Voters:

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

The Operators:

Froggy Ruminations:

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.

SEALs that I have talked to love the President and Donald Rumsfeld as well.

There's more.

Da Grunt's Support Team! - - Fotopages.com

Warlords:

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)

Sgt. Horton:

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)

Sgt. Horton:

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

Really, His Senate Record Means Nothing At All:

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

A Troubling Note to An Earlier Story:

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.

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.

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.

MOOSE CREEK PUBLISHING

AuthentiSEAL:

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

Kerry Dishonorably Discharged?

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....

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.

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.

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

Another "Drill"?

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

'If You Say "Patriotism," It Sounds like Extremism.'

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.

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.

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 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

The Nobel Peace Prize:

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.

"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.

Maathai thereby joins the Yasser Arafat wing of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, along with Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and the United Nations itself.

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

"Freedom is Powerful"

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.

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.

On elections yet to come:

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.

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.

On winning the peace:

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.