Marine Base Bans Anti-Islam Bumper Stickers

This one should stick in the craw (whatever those are) of my buddy, Joe. Being staunch defenders of the first amendment, we disagree on things at times but we both agree that we should not be censored in any way. This story is political correctness at it's evil worst. Regardless of your position on the war on terror, the actions of this military installation are heinous!

Click the post title for the full story

Couldn't Resist Sharing

"Panties In A Bunch" warning for those of the left-leaning sort. View at your own risk.



Same warning for this one. It is undeniably hilarious!



This one is by the same group is not as politically charged. Just a really good song memorializing the service members who paid the ultimate price "For My Country"

The Latest Dispatch From Michael Yon

I can't contain my enthusiasm for this journalist and his articles. The most recent dispatch, Superman, was a whirlwind of a story. The high of victory, the low of defeat and essentially a happy ending. It was quite revealing to see how the media reported the situation involving the terrorist bomb attack on the Stryker vehicle in the story. Just a brief mention and stated as fact. The agenda being (IMHO), report as many U.S. soldiers killed as possible so as to deflate the public's support of the war. Not to mention, they're also aiding and comforting the enemy.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed today northwest of Baghdad when their Stryker vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. Names of the service members are being withheld until notification of next of kin. The controversial Stryker vehicle is increasingly under fire by critics who claim that its armor is insufficient to protect troops in Iraq. Elsewhere, Iraqi and U.S. forces killed at least 50 people in Baghdad after three days of fighting in the area....

The real story was 180 degrees from what was reported in the mainstrem media. No one was killed. If you watch the terrorist propaganda video linked in Michael's Superman article, it is absolutely amazing that no one was killed. If you Google News search for "Four Soldiers Killed By Roadside Bomb Northwest of Baghdad" , none of the linked stories reports the truth of the event with the exception of Michael Yon's. Granted, he has first hand knowledge of the event but why was there no verification on the part of the MSM before they report four soldiers being killed, etc.? That's a rhetorical question that answers itself, of course. Because it is the MSM.

I don't part easily with my hard earned dollars but Michael Yon is a deserving recipient of them. I recently sent him some dinero through PayPal and will do so again in the future. He is placing his life on the line along with the heroic soldiers he is embedded with to bring us the truth about this conflict. I would urge everyone to spend some time on his site and read more of his articles AND contribute to his efforts!

Iron Stones

Army Staff Sgt Kyle Keenan deflects a bullit with his head and keeps on keeping on. This Story from Blackanthem.com tells how he took a round to the helmet at point blank range and came out unscathed.

“We went toward where we last saw him, came around the corner of a house, and saw a reed line. We knew we were looking for him in the field there – but when I looked two or three feet away, downward, I saw his face and his eyes, and told
him ‘Get up! Americans!’ and right then, I heard a pop and my head snapped back.”

Seconds later he regained his vision, caught his bearings, leveled his shotgun and fired at the terrorist killing him. Read the whole story, it's quite impressive. This blogger is eternally grateful to those men and women who face these dangers on a daily basis so that we can enjoy our freedom in the "greatest nation on God's green Earth" (H.T.-Michael Medved)

Kyle Keenan hails from Newark, Ohio. He is a scout section leader with the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y.

Thank You Kyle and may God continue to bless and keep you!

Armada Arrives in the Gulf

Here's a multimedia page on Militarytimes.com that has some good photos and videos. There's a narration of a video of an armada of ships arriving in the Persian Gulf for military exercises. Being the ex-Navy military junkie that I am, I tend to get a great deal of enjoyment from sites like these. Also Discovery Channel's Military Channel gives me the fix I need as well. I think if I only had the Discovery network channels available on my TV I would be happy enough. I don't necessarily watch a lot, but if I do it's generally something boring (per the other members of the household) on those channels.

How can this be considered boring? I'm not sure I would have been as genial to my attackers as this soldier was to his. What would this post be without more testosterone??

A Soldiers Perspective

An excellent animated short based on a blog posting by Colby Buzzell. He was an infantryman in Iraq and wrote a book called "My War - Killing Time in Iraq". He was with the Army's 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team based out of Fort Lewis, Washington. Hat Tip to The Evangelical Outpost for his link in a posting on 5/11/07.

A Ruthless Foe - by Michael O'Hanlon

An excellent commentary from Michael O'Hanlon published in the Washington Times. He describes the importance of winning this war. Even though he is no fan of the administration or the current tactics, he underscores the necessity for victory.

Power, Freedom, War and Presidents

More applicable quotes after perusing The Quotes Page. A leisurely stroll through random authors jump starts my thought process on pertinent subjects.

Nancy Pelosi and her pathetic attempt to wrestle power from the President using the Emergency Spending Bill would be well served reading just a few quotes from Abraham Lincoln.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Abraham Lincoln

Of course Pelosi and the Dems don't feel the Iraq war is just so this quote would be meaningless to them. The focus would be on the failure portion of the quote. They believe we cannot win and that we have already failed.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

That quote seems indicative of the anti-war leftists. They have no idea how precious their right to denounce all that is happening on the war stage or how expensive a price was paid. They complain about the mistakes being made and throw in the arm-chair quarterback analysis. Never providing their ideas on how to win, they only tell us how to quit, get out, surrender, run away.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Shmuley on 'Hotel Rwanda'

Bill Clinton's infamy with regards to Rwanda will tarnish his presidency forever

This is an amazingly gut-wrenching article written by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. It's a painful read. I have yet to see the movie "Hotel Rwanda" but I do intend to do so. While a movie cannot supplant acurrate historical information, I think I can get the gist of the horror. I can recall my bewilderment at the governments' lack of intervention during the genocide. I had the same bewilderment as U.S. troops landed on the shores of Haiti under the halogen camera lights of CNN and the other alphabet soup networks. I could not understand why we were having live television coverage of an humanitarian mission that looked like an oddly orchestrated invasion. These are the scenarios that occur when politicians who "loathe the military" get involved with commanding those same forces. Interestingly enough, Clinton deployed the armed forces more often than any other U.S. President. Not bad for a guy who loathed them!

General: U.S. captures car bomb ringleaders

Good news from Iraq that would be even better had the perpetrators of the car bombings been dispatched in their apprehension. Strange how a significant story like this is buried under headlines like "Autopsy: Anna Nicole Smith Overdosed", or "Scars From Iraq",

How three U.S. troops share the visible and invisible wounds of war and how it changed their lives and impacted their loved ones.

The car bombers had killed 265 Iraqi's and wounded 650 others since early February and here we are talking about a sad pop-culture icon and how war leaves scars on soldiers (no kidding!).

Micromanaging the War in Iraq

From the infinite wisdom of elected officials (read: clueless idiots) comes the House Emergency Supplemental Bill. This is essentially an attempt at manipulating the authority that the President has to be the Commander-in-Chief. Here's a link to the Victory Caucus page that has excerpted text from the bill. It's truly mind-boggling. The same Viet Nam era war protesters who complained about how the war was mismanaged now hold elected offices and are battling to have their chance to mismanage a war. Let the President prosecute the war.

Wow, apology is in order

I just noticed the date of my last post. What a pathetic statement that is! However there is always the prospect of posting pictures to count as a "post". It is cheating in a sense but at least it's fresh material!

It seems rather appropriate to post about something that's relative to the current headlines even if it's not much of a topic. But, here's the tree anyway.



And just for fun I'll throw in a picture of me in Guam around Christmas 1986. It was when I was with U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74. This picture is on the job site near a town called Barrigada. We cleared 85 acres of jungle to build a 750 foot long range communication anttena (LORAN). The dirt that would stain everything a bright reddish brown color we called the "Barrigada Brown Funk". Notice the sleeping SeeBees on the benches in the back of the deuce-and-a-half (2 and 1/2 ton truck). We used to sleep like that driving on the way to the job site. Usually it was only when we were very hung over!



Below is the rebar "cage" that we would weld together. It was a 20' x 20' maze of steel. The carpenters would build forms around these and then we would pour 40 yards of cement (if I remember correctly) into them. They would be used as anchors for the guy wires for the antenna. I believe we built 8 of these all together. There were also another set of smaller anchors set farther out from the base of the antenna.



Hopefully this little trip in the "Way Back Machine" will appease my detractors. That would be assuming anyone actually reads my blog to begin with (thanks Mom). More stuff to come in the future (if we are that lucky).

Media Predisposition to Bash Bush

mThe media bias never stops. There is a prediposition for advancing the causes of the enemy. In this article from the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, the story has the Bush administration preparing for their deceptive tactics to take us into war with Iran. They set the stage for questioning whatever policy positions the administration determines on Iran.

"It seems like Iran is becoming the new Iraq," said one U.S. counterterrorism official.

This official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the information involved is classified.

The MSM completely miss the story when they have an opportunity to Bush bash. The "investigative", "unbiased" journalism which I'm sure they believe they are doing is really opinion journalism. The quote below from the Wichita Eagle shows this by the inclusion of one word! "unusual"

The International Atomic Energy Agency complained in an unusual letter made public on Thursday that a House intelligence committee report on Iran contains "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information."

Simply by removing the word unusual you have an unbiased assesment of the letter. Throughout the article there are only "sources", "analysts" and "officials" quoted. Who are these people and what are their credentials? The article reads more like a gossip column.

We can always count on the MSM to talk to unnamed or anonymous sources in regards to classified information. Apparently our safetey and the safety of the men an women in the armed forces is not a concern when it applies to "getting the story".

If you read the "unusual" letter it appears (in my humble opinion) that Mr. Vilmos Cserveny from the Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination is upset that the perception of Iran is that of a sinister nation. I think the most telling paragraph is the second to last where he states,

"Finally, it is also regrettable that the Staff Report did not take into account the views of the United Nations Security Council..."

STOP!

That sentence alone is enough to relegate the whole letter to being bird cage liner. When has the UN Security Council ever accomplished anything? The United Nations is a joke! The organization is like the points awarded in the comedy show "Who's Line is it Anyway?". They just don't matter. Like the Surgeon General's warning on a pack of cigarettes.

Here's a good sign of progress in Iraq. It may be baby steps, but it's steps.

What frustrates me is the anti-war crowd that rants about bringing the troops home now. If I'm not mistaken...we still have troops in Germany and Japan. That war was over like 60 years ago man, and our troops are still there! Why the problem with Iraq?? We just got there a couple years ago. Where's the consistancy?