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 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...
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.
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
The Nobel Peace Prize:
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.
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
"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.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 ::
Afghan Elections:
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.
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
Australia's 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'
Afghan Elections:
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?
Indymedia Servers Seized:
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
Trans-Int:
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
CI Reader:
The classic work on CI, "A Counterintelligence Reader," is now online in all four volumes.
Marine In Iraq Expecting Quintuplets
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
Bill Faith:
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
No, No: You're the Man, Eddie
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
The VP Debate:
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
Ralph Peters:
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
Thunder in Tennessee:
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
Would Kerry Defend America?
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
Cowboy Up:
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
Thundering Third:
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
The X-Prize:
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.
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