November 26, 2004

The WSJ's Daniel Henninger has a wonderful column on the volunteer "bottoms-up" organizations here on the Home front to support our volunteer military that have come into being since the WOT began:War's Homefront Comes to Life Where It Belongs
He notes the creation of the clearing house website America Supports You where you can find a super list of groups from which to choose to give a donation or fund a Christmas treat for a deserving member of our military from buying them AT&T phone cards to Operation Air Conditioner heaters to Treats for Troops goodie bags.
(Our Blogfather Instapundit has an even better list here:Support our troops.)
The Dept. of Defense site announces that just last week, Hollywood stars actually did some nice things for our soldiers, instead of bashing President Bush or only giving lip service to "supporting the troops, but not the war."
Ellen Degeneres, joined by guest star Tom Hanks, devoted a whole TV show to our military and their families giving out $1.2 million in cruises to military families, airing messages from our troops deployed overseas and promoting the new America Supports You site and USO Care Packages.
America thanks you, Ellen, for your Victory spirit!
And at the USO site, we find that "The Sopranos" stars "Paulie" (Tony Sirico) and the head hood himself "Tony"(James Gondolfini) made appearances on a USO tour:



Even über-Liberal Paul Newman has put partisan politics to the side and paired Newman's Own with Fisher House Foundation to give monetary grants to miltary-support groups run by volunteers, as virtually all of them are.
I'd love to see Hollywood get behind our war effort in a big way, the way they did in WWII, but then, the film industry had Ronald Reagan heading that up!

Weapons cache biggest yet - The Washington Times: World - November 26, 2004

American troops said yesterday they had uncovered the largest weapons cache to date in Fallujah,
[This is alarming as it seems there were enough arms for the "insurgents" to take over the whole of Iraq!
Good thing we re-took the town!] where Iraqi officials said more than 2,000 people died in the weeklong U.S.-led offensive aimed at curbing the insurgency so that elections could be held nationwide.

    
The Fallujah siege angered many in the influential Sunni minority, producing calls to boycott the vote, a move that could cost the new government much-needed legitimacy.
[Both Iraqi interim president Allawi and President Bush are very unlikely to allow that the elections be delayed; it's important for the enemy that they be delayed so that they can work their chaos and confusion, so any postponement isn't going to happen.
It's not good to send the message that their terrorist murder and intimidation is working in any way!--Jen]
    
The weapons cache, described by the U.S. military as the largest uncovered so far in Fallujah, was discovered Wednesday in the Saad Bin Abi Waqas Mosque, where fugitive rebel leader Abdullah al-Janabi often preached.
[So much for the evildoers' theory that their mosques are "holy centers of peace"...!--J.T.]
    
Troops found small arms, artillery shells, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank mines inside the mosque, the U.S. military said.
   
 U.S. forces also uncovered what may have been a mobile bomb-making factory as well as mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, launchers, and parts of surface-to-air weapons systems elsewhere in the mosque compound, the military added.
[Mosques are proving to be nothing but arsenals and jihadi enlistment and battle-planning centers.
Hope this doesn't apply to mosques in this country and in Europe, but I'll bet that it does.]
    
At a press conference in Baghdad, National Security Adviser Qassem Dawoud said troops found the suspected chemical lab in the southwestern district of Fallujah, where pockets of insurgents are still holding out following the Nov. 8 U.S.-Iraqi assault.
    
"We also found in the laboratory manuals and instructions spelling out procedures for making explosives," he said. "They also spoke about making anthrax."
[...]
One of the pictures showed a row of plastic-covered computer terminals and chairs.
[If you doubted that cyber pys-ops were part of the war...--Jen]
    
Mr. Dawoud also said a key aide of Al Qaeda-linked terror boss Abu Musab Zarqawi, who was believed to have been based in Fallujah, had been arrested in Mosul, where insurgents rose up this month in support of the Fallujah fighters.
    
Mr. Dawoud identified him only as Abu Saeed and did not say whether he had fled Fallujah. The Iraqi official said the death toll for the entire Fallujah operation stood at more than 2,085, although he gave no breakdown. About 54 U.S. troops were among those killed.

God rest our fallen.
Now, rebel [Sunni] forces are trying to negotiate with Arabic blather what they can't gain by force of arms any longer since we launched Operation Plymouth Rock (the Allied offensive to retake control of Fallujah)--the forestalling or postponement (hopefully forever, if they can swing it) of the scheduled election.
I hope that we won't let them prevail, as they seem hell-bent (literally) on preventing any freely-elected government from reflecting the fact that 60% of the Iraqi population is Shi-ite and only 10-20% are Sunni.
Isn't it curious that 17 Iraqi Sunni political "parties" have met with Adnan Pachachi to ask for a delay, whereas 18 months ago, before we launched OIF, there had been only one political party--Saddam's Baathist Party--in all of Iraq for decades?
Looks like the Freedom thing has caught on fast in Iraq, but these enemies of Freedom are still working to take it back to a one-party oligarchy any way they can.
Let's not let them and let our guys press on to total victory!

November 23, 2004

New CNN Exec Wants Anchors to Show More Passion
Everyone remember this genius?
He's the one who stated on TV that bloggers were only "guys who sat around in their living rooms in their pajamas" in regards to exposing the fake "60 Minutes" documents about President Bush's TANG service.
Now he wants Aaron Brown to have "passion?"
Aaron Brown wouldn't have passion if you shot him through with 50,000 volts.
How delightful that CNN thinks this clown can save their news shows and get their ever-declining ratings back up...The MSM still isn't "getting it" because they don't want to.
I don't think we've made them hurt badly enough yet, because look at this weasel move today by Dan Rather and CBS (also in response to that same "60 Minutes II" forged-document episode...or maybe not):
Dan Rather to Leave 'CBS Evening News'
This is giving the American public nothing!
Dan is only stepping down as anchor and managing editor, a retirement that was planned long before the explosive events of late summer.
He'll remain as a contributor and correspondent to both "60 Minutes" shows and CBS news in general.

The announcement that he will step down comes months after he and CBS News came under fire for a report on "60 Minutes II" that questioned President George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard. The report, which aired Sept. 8 during the heated presidential campaign, was based on memos that cast doubt on Bush's service.

Immediately after the report aired, critics pointed to indications the documents had been forged. After initially defending the report, Rather said CBS could not prove the authenticity of the documents and made an on-air apology to viewers.

CBS did not mention the controversy in today's announcement.

ABC is happy to report this because they believe they can throw their "brother" Dan and CBS News to the mob (that's us!) and still remain unscathed themselves or better yet, emerge as more "fair, balanced and honest."
Nice try.
And as Hindrocket at Powerline points out, where is the report about that internal investigation of this incident that CBS promised us all?
*Crickets*
They think we've forgotten.
I say that we haven't.
The Pajamahadeen may always be in their jammies, but we never sleep!

Spirit of America
Help support the champions of Freedom, Peace, Democracy and Friendship in Iraq and Afghanistan by contributing your dollars to the Spirit of America in your Christmas and end-of-the-year charitable giving.
SoA allows 100% of your donation to go to the project you choose from among 13 they have planned, including Gifts for Iraqi Children, the Iraqi Democracy Project and one to buy tools for Iraqi tradesmen.
Give the gift that will last long past the Holidays, perhaps forever with just a small effort on our part!
(And Kudos and blessings to our servicemen and women and the willing Iraqis who are working to make these projects happen.
I like to think that SoA is doing for us over here what we'd like to do for our new Iraqi and Afghan friends if we could be over there!)
Don't forget our troops, either!
Set aside a few dollars to donate to Soldiers' Angels, a support organization for our military whose motto is "may no soldier go unloved."
Let our homegrown heroes know we love and support them by adopting a soldier (if you don't know one already) and giving them a pre-paid phone card to call home for Christmas, donating airmiles for leave, or by contributing to buy care packages for active military or comfort "backpacks" for the wounded.
You can help make this Holiday Season merry and bright for our sons and daughters who are defending freedom for us all in a place that isn't as merry or light-filled as it ought to be, should be or can be.

Don't Shop Target! The place to Sign the Petition and STAND TALL with the Salvation Army!
This Friday, with the family gathered for Thanksgiving and that marathon Christmas shopping day on Friday, please remember to *NOT* shop at Target as punishment for their barring the Salvation Army and their donation kettles from their stores this year!
Also, scoot on over to the link above and sign the petition to stand with the SA, as well.
It's my contention that the main reason Target is doing this is solely because the Salvation Army is too "Christian" and they'd rather push their own secular humanist charities to promote tree-hugging, the NWO as promulgated by world thugs in the U.N. and Kumbaya-singing rather than the merry chorus of Christmas carols.
Whatever.
To me, the sound of the SA's Santa bellringers and their brass band playing Christmas carols are the very essence of urban Christmas shopping experience and I can't imagine the Holidays without them...not to mention the millions of lost souls whom the SA has helped over the years which represents the very heart and soul of the Season itself, so let your voices be heard America and vote with your wallets, too, where it will really hurt them.

H/T Hugh Hewitt.

November 21, 2004

U.S. Troops Say They Find "atrocity Sites" in Fallujah - from TBO.com

U.S. troops have found close to 20 "atrocity sites" used by insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages in Fallujah, a U.S. military officer said Sunday.

Marine Maj. Jim West said that in addition to numerous weapons caches, troops clearing the city after a major U.S.-led offensive had found rooms containing knives and black hoods, "many of them blood-covered."

Briefing reporters at a base outside Fallujah, West said one room had "handprints on the walls and along the sides of the walls ... There was blood covering the entire wall and along the floorboard area."
[Dear God!
How else to respond to this scene of gratuitous carnage except to retch and give thanks that we're killing and imprisoning these evil, evil murderers?--Jen]

He said troops had found signs of "torture, murder, very gruesome sights."

"We found numerous houses where people were just chained to a wall for extended periods of time," he added.

West did not provide more details, but said "a few less than 20" such sites had been found in the city, a stronghold for insurgents 40 miles west of Baghdad.

At least 34 foreign hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq this year, including three Americans. Many of the victims have been beheaded and their deaths shown on grisly videos posted on the Internet. Iraqi police and other security forces have also been killed after their capture by insurgents.

West said more than 1,400 people were detained in connection with the Fallujah offensive. More than 400 of them have been released after interrogators determined they were non-combatants.

The military says an estimated 1,200 insurgents and more than 50 U.S. troops have been killed in the assault.
[God rest the souls of the brave American fallen.
At least we killed 24 times the number of bad guys!
And as Gen. George Patton said, the key to victory is to get the other SOB's army to die rather than yours.--J.T.]

On Friday, Lt. Col. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said this month's offensive had "broken the back" of the insurgency. But U.S. troops and their Iraqi colleagues have continued to come under attack while searching for holdouts.

Marine Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson said troops were searching an estimated 30,000-50,000 buildings that could contain pockets of resistance. He said small numbers of insurgents managed to move in and out of the city but that a U.S. Army cordon around Fallujah kept most of the rebels contained.

Lest we forget, each and every one of those buildings could contain a booby-trapped enemy "corpse" that might require our soldiers to shoot first and ask questions later, such as the one the MSM made the brouhaha about this past week.
As Kevin Myers said so correctly in today's Sunday Telegraph, "A Marine's gotta do what a Marine's gotta do."
Myers also points out that the crucial issue of the video of the Marine killing the "poor" enemy combatant wasn't that it was an "unjust" killing, but that the TV cameraman was there at all and chose to roll tape on that particular incident, when there have been so many others doing the last 18 months since OIF began, such as U.S. troops rebuilding schools, roads and clinics or generally interacting well with the peace-loving Iraqi public.

And while we like to hope that the "back" of enemy resistance was truly broken by our Fallujah assault, there were some fireworks in Baghad over the weekend:
Raid on Mosque Sparks Battles in Baghdad

A U.S.-Iraqi raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque -- one of the most revered sites for Sunni Muslims
[How many of these "holy" sites do they have?
You've gotta wonder.
It's always the one under attack, though. Hmmm.] -- spawned a weekend of street battles, assassinations and a rash of bombings that changed Baghdad. The capital, for months a city of unrelenting but sporadic violence, has taken on the look of a battlefield.
[...]
Lt. Col. James Hutton, spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is in charge of security in Baghdad, acknowledged that there has been an increase in insurgent activity in the capital.

But he linked the increase to the fighting in Fallujah, where U.S. troops are still fighting pockets of resistance after recapturing the city last week, rather than the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque.
[I'm going with Lt. Col. Hutton rather than the anti-American Ass. Press!--Jen]

The government has said the raid was carried out because of suspicions of "terrorist activity" there. It appears the operation was part of a crackdown on militant Sunni clerics, many of whom are believed to have links to some insurgent groups and who had spoken out against the Fallujah operation.
[Of course, these Sunni hate-preachers are funded by our "friends" the Sunni Waahab Saudis or the Baathist Sunni thugocracy in Syria to stir up Muslim hatred to jihad.]
[...]
Tensions are likely to sharpen as the Jan. 30 election date approaches. The ballot is expected to confirm the domination of Iraq's Shiite community, estimated at 60 percent of the nearly 26 million population.

Victory would allow the Shiites to shrug off decades of oppression by the Sunni Arabs, a powerful minority that had long dominated Iraq. Most Kurds are Sunni, but they are resented by many Arab Sunnis because of their close ties to the Americans and for what are perceived as sucessionist tendencies.

Prominent Sunni clerics are calling on supporters to boycott the vote in retaliation for the fighting in Fallujah. A Sunni boycott would greatly undermine the legitimacy of the vote for a 275-member assembly, whose main task will be draft a permanent constitution for Iraq.

Why do the Iraqi Sunnis sound so much like our Democrats?
When votes don't go their way, they act as if they're "disenfranchised."
Boycotting the Jan. 30 election and thereby not getting their own representatives elected to the new Iraqi assembly will only hurt the minority Sunnis more.
So, it looks as if they haven't quite gotten or embraced the concepts of democracy--whatta surprise!
I'd be willing to bet that almost 100% of these radical clerics call democracy a "heresy" that must be resisted with violence and death.
The Iraqi Kurds--bless them!--have been running what has virtually been their own state in Iraq since 1991, when the no-fly zones were set up, and have set the standard for peaceful, democratic government for their fellow Iraqis and Sunni Muslims.
Iraq needs to look to them for the standard and probably does, whereas the "insurgents" and the Leftist media like the AP must realize that they're backing the wrong, weaker horse.
Why is it so impossible for the Ass. Press to laud American efforts to establish a peaceful democracy and truly representative government in a country that had previously been a terrorist haven and a living nightmare of a dictatorship of murder, torture and the suppression of the human rights of many of its citizens and with the least use of military force as possible, as well?
Just as with the recent re-election of President Bush, which I consider the "Culture War" part of the war, if we do win the WOT, it will be in spite of the many, various and concerted efforts of the MSM to defend Evil and to defeat the good and the True.