COVERS ABOUND

Just a personal observation...and perhaps indicative that I am "of a certain age".

Are you aware that covers, or remakes are doing well on the pop charts these days? Or, are you even aware that these are remakes? (Yes, Erin, I'm talking to you!)

The easiest one to spot is "Its My Life" by No Doubt. But this catchy tune made its first trip around the block in the 80s when it was a hit for the British group Talk Talk.

But how many of the pups out there know that your parents were listening to "Behind Blue Eyes" (currently covered by Limp Bizkit) 32 years ago in 1971. That makes the song older than most of the band members. Credit "The Who" for that nice ballad.

And if you've enjoyed that catchy tune out by Sheryl Crow, "The First Cut is the Deepest"...well, Sheryl has some folks to thanks as well. Rod Stewart had a hit with this song in 1976...but he borrowed the song from its author Cat Stevens (nee Stephen Demetri Georgiou in 1948, later converted to Islam adopting the name Yusuf Islam). And according to this website the song has been covered by at least 5 other performers as well.

Of course, I remember being in high school and learning that some of my favorite songs were remakes. "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and "I Only Have Eyes For You" are two that I remember especially.

Anyway...it just occured to me that covers - remakes if you will - are hot items today. Which somehow proves that the good stuff is timeless.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...

Look here.

NOW WAIT A COTTON PICKIN' MINUTE

Is this the same country where the crybabies have been whining about how the hospitals and pharmacies are broken and blaming the US military for that?

Well the yoga-meisters see it differently.

"Though the war is over, we found many residents were unable to sleep or even eat. The residents go through mood swings and depression. The majority of the men smoke heavily and a large number of women have begun smoking," said Mr Kumar.

The volunteers also found that people were taking pills indiscriminately to get to sleep or forget their worries.

"If they have a headache, they pop a valium. If they feel pain, they take steroids. There's a lot of reckless self-medication," said Mr Kumar.

DOWN BOY....DOWN BOY!

Paul O'Neill says the press is out of control.

Gee...ya think?

That started what O'Neill described to NBC's "Today" show as a "red meat frenzy that's occurred when people didn't have anything except snippets."

"People are trying to make a case that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration," O'Neill said.

"Actually, there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be regime change in Iraq."

And then, there is this comment on Paul O'Neill himself...

This pattern of saying something, being surprised by the reaction, and wanting to take it back is why he got fired in the first place.

WISH THIS HAD HAPPENED SOONER...

But I'm glad its happening now.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. producer of communications equipment to run and upgrade Iraq's broadcast and print media for the next 12 months.

In a separate effort, a U.S.-funded, 24-hour Arabic-language satellite television network will start broadcasting to the Middle East within weeks. Part of that effort will focus on delivering news and information programming to an Iraqi audience.

Florida-based Harris Corporation has forged a partnership with two Middle Eastern media companies to develop the network, currently known as Al-Iraqiyah. The network will upgrade and expand media outlets in place under the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

GOOD IDEA, CHIEF

The Fresno Police Department has come up with an idea to help protect police in Iraq.

Chief Jerry Dyer asked the city council to sign off on a plan to send surplus police vests to Iraq.

The vests are still usable, but are no longer in use by the department.

The Police Officer's Association hopes to secure more vests from other agencies. They hope to ship the vests to Iraq by March.

ODD TIMES

In Iraq these days, you brake for dead animals but not live ones.

One of the strangest things about postwar Iraq is how easy it is to get in and how hard it is to find the American occupiers.


Interesting piece...worth a read.

SPIN WATCH

This journalists chastises her industry for trying to dress up terrorism in the romantic clothes of "resistance".

The car bomb that killed eight people and wounded 35 others in Baghdad on New Year’s Eve wasn’t an act of insurgency, or guerrilla warfare, or resistance. It was an act of terror ­ 500 pounds of high explosives left on a main thoroughfare and aimed at whoever happened to be celebrating the first Saddam-free New Year since 1979 in a restaurant called Nabil...

(T)he Nabil attack...was directed against civilians and killed only civilians, all of them Iraqi. It was entirely random and served no military purpose...

The Baghdad bombers felt no need to explain, or to declare their identity or objective.

It was “a terrorist act by people who have no morals or ethics,” said Iraqi police chief Ahmed Qadim Ibrahim.

If Iraqis can say it, why not we journalists?

An informal survey of a number of major outlets suggested the “T” word was conspicuous by its absence in reports of the Nabil atrocity. The New York Times and the Washington Post spoke of “insurgents.” Reuters used the word “guerrillas.” The Guardian, apparently in possession of privileged information about the nationality and motivation of the bombers, attributed it to “the Iraqi resistance.” Whoops...

In the rabidly anti-American mood of the moment, this needs restating.
Iraqis seem to have had no doubt that spreading terror was the raison d’etre of the attack on New Year’s Eve. It was meant, said Hamid Alyasiry of the Baghdad Police Department, “to frighten everyone.”

But much of the media appeared to impute another motive more in tune with buzzword of the moment: “resistance”...

Although evidence is largely anecdotal, there can be no doubt that the “resistance” in Iraq is supported by only a minority of Iraqis ­ most of them Sunnis (themselves a minority), and many of those supporters of Saddam, with criminal histories and the most questionable of motives.

In an article published on the Open Democracy website, an exile, Yahya Said, who returned to Iraq late last year, said he did not meet a single Iraqi who welcomed violence “as legitimate resistance to occupation.” What he did find, he said, was quite the opposite, namely “a yearning for an end to violence.”...

Said remarked that his visit made him “revise assumptions formed under the influence of Western news coverage dedicated almost exclusively to the reporting of violence.”

Romanticizing Iraq’s “resistance” gives oxygen to those who are killing Iraqis in far larger numbers than they are Americans.

WELL SURE...BUT THAT WAS 800 YEARS AGO

The Mongol Hordes clean up their act.

The last time Mongol troops entered Iraq was in 1258, when the grandson of Genghis Kahn sacked Baghdad in a four-day siege so bloody that legend has it the rivers ran red for days. Eight centuries later, they're back, and they want to help.

"We're on your side," Mongolian President Natsagiyn Bagabandi, a former Soviet cosmonaut, said to President Bush in Washington last April, according to a Western diplomat. "We've had problems with Iraq ourselves."

The country of the fierce Mongol hordes best known for descending from Central Asia's frigid steppes to slay every man, woman and child in any city that refused to submit, has transformed itself into an international peacekeeper. Since 1999, Mongolia has dispatched members of a former Special Forces battalion to global hot spots in the Western Sahara, Congo, Afghanistan and, as of September, Iraq.

DRIVERS EDUCATION IN BAGHDAD

Updated curriculum.

Haki, the longest-serving driving instructor in Baghdad, works at one of just six driving schools still operating in the city, compared with 71 before the war.

Staying in business, however, has meant incorporating new and unorthodox techniques into his teaching repertoire.

Along with the three-point turn and reversing around a corner, learners must now master such skills as driving the wrong way down a one-way street and cruising along the sidewalk to escape traffic jams and roadblocks.

There also are new matters of motoring etiquette, such as what to do when sharing road space with a 50-ton U.S. Army tank: Give plenty of clearance to avoid being shot at or getting flattened.

PROGRESS

US soldiers have seized four relatives of the man America believes is masterminding attacks against its troops, in early morning raids today.

The raids in Samarra netted four family members, including two nephews of former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, considered the top organiser of attacks against US forces in Iraq and the most senior Iraqi fugitive still at large.

The military said the arrest of the nephews – believed to be helping al-Douri remain in hiding – could help bring coalition forces closer to his capture. Al-Douri, a Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman and long-time Saddam confidant, is number six on the US list of 55 most wanted Iraqis.

JIHADISTS CONTINUE TO KILL IRAQIS

A suspected suicide car bomb exploded at a police station in central Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least two other people and wounding 14, while U.S. troops edged closer in their hunt for Iraq's most-wanted man. A policeman in the town of Baquba, a hotbed of anti-American insurgency about 40 miles north of Baghdad, said he saw a white car race toward the police station seconds before it erupted in a powerful blast that knocked down scores of people.

"There were two civilians killed in the street and at least 14 people were injured, all of them police," said the policeman, who declined to be identified. The bomber was also killed.

THE ROLLER COASTER CONTINUES

Well, I even hesitate to bring this up...but we have updated information on CPT Patti's schedule.

When last we spoke of this subject we had just learned that the Stop Loss/Stop Movement (SL/SM) order was official and that it did affect CPT Patti.

At that time we believed that would delay her return from Baghdadd until probably May.

However, yesterday afternoon she sent me an email...in which she tells me that the current plan is for her to be a part of the ADVON (Advanced Echelon) for the 501st FSB as they return home.

And what that means is that she will precede the units "main body" in order to handle the logistics required to receive all those people and all that equipment enroute from Iraq.

And that means, according to current plan, that we are sort of back where we started...believing she will be returning to Germany sometime in March.

Oh how I pray this will hold up...

Because right now I'm very, VERY happy about it.

WELL WHY NOT - ITS ENOUGH TO MAKE MOST HUMANS AVOID ANYONE WHO HAS EATEN IT

South Korean officials say keeping SARS cases off the peninsula is attributable to more stringent prevention measures and, in part, to the supposed health benefits of kimchi, the spicy and ubiquitous national dish.

If you aren't familiar with this Korean dish, in its purest form it is somewhat fermented cabbage overly infused with spicy red pepper and a whole lot of garlic.

Eat it today...and the odor will seep from your pores until Friday...

But it IS good.

NO MORE BODY ARMOR SHORTAGE

Working full-tilt, nine contractors have finished crafting 160,000 Interceptor body armor vests, and the equipment is now en route to units preparing to deploy to Iraq and a central distribution point in Kuwait, according to Army officials.

This month’s production run of the Interceptor tactical vests fulfills a promise to Congress by Army officials, who said that by January the service would have enough of the vests to outfit every soldier deployed to Iraq, according to Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman.

“Congress has been notified that the requirement has been met,” Tallman said Friday...

As units assigned to Iraq’s first rotation make their way home through Kuwait, they will turn in their assigned vests to a central collection point at Kuwait’s Camp Victory, Tallman said.

Those vests will be checked out and reissued to Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 personnel who are staging in Kuwait.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14th.

The 247th day of CPT Patti's foreign study in the land of the fertile crescent.

Me...I'm establishing the Rapid German Study Foundation...in attempt to save you time in learning German by pointing out phrases you do NOT need to learn since they are NEVER used in German.

Todays Rapid German Study Foundation phrase you don't need to bother to learn:

kostenlose Nachfüllung

which is German for "free refill"...but since there is no such thing as a free refill in Germany, you don't need to learn this phrase at all.

See how much time you just saved?

IS THAT SO?

Sick to death of "identity politics" at home, Americans find themselves dealing with a tinderbox of ethnic division in Iraq. We may be the least well-equipped nation in the world to manage the kinds of group hatreds that threaten Iraqi society today.

Because of our belief in the "melting pot" and America's own relatively successful - though halting and incomplete - history of assimilation, we don't always understand the significance of ethnicity, especially abroad.

Seems to me that failing to develop a melting pot mentality...that is, heeding the lines of ethnic hatred has a whole lot to do with the middle east being the stagnant cesspool of zero manufacturing, zero economic growth, terror petri-dish that it is today...

GUILTY!

Update on the spy trial in Chicago.

A community newspaper publisher accused of spying on Iraqi dissidents in the United States was found guilty Monday of serving as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein.

The jury took less than two hours to convict Khaled Dumeisi after the week-long trial.

EXACTLY THE LEVEL OF CREDIBILITY WE'VE COME TO EXPECT IN THE ARAB MEDIA

Welcome to the Baghdad Bob Show!

It's the all-new Baghdad Bob - he's cleaned up his act, dyed his hair and he's back on the air.

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi minister of disinformation who became famous for his absurd daily reports that Iraq was winning the war, has popped up on Arab television as a commentator - as these new exclusive photos show.

The fallen regime spin-doctor was hired by Abu Dhabi TV specifically to rant about his former boss and favorite subject: Saddam Hussein.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE OIL IN IRAQ

A group of 40 men armed with AK-47 assault rifles in 10 to 15 vehicles were spotted at the pipeline by the troops who were led to the area by an Iraqi informant, said army spokesman, Master Sergeant Robert Cargie.

US troops, armed with M-16 rifles and 125mm cannons mounted on Bradley fighting vehicles, shot at the thieves, killing seven of them in a gunfight, he said. The remaining people escaped, he said.

THERE'S JUST NO PLEASING HIM

Reverand, you went over there with an agenda...and you were utterly feckless then.

And now that 5 million Iraqis have been liberated you refuse to acknowledge that progress can be progress although yet imperfect.

Sorry, reverand...your bias is showing.

A Methodist minister who traveled to Baghdad last year to oppose going to war with Iraq has begun a hunger strike to call attention to what he says have been human rights abuses of Iraqi civilians by American troops there.

The Rev. Frederick Boyle of the Titusville United Methodist Church in Mercer County has been one of New Jersey's most active opponents of the war. In February and March, he attracted widespread attention when he spent nine days inside Iraq in advance of an anticipated bombing campaign to call attention to its potential impact on civilians.

With U.S. and other coalition forces still occupying the country 10 months later, Boyle's attention has remained on civilian victims of the war.

Iraqi civilians have been subject to searches in the middle of the night, detentions without charges, destruction of their homes and property, injury and death, Boyle said.

SOUNDS LIKE SUCCESS TO ME

An international trade fair organizers hope will attract hundreds of businesses to Baghdad is being postponed for a month because of the amount of interest from the United States, the head of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce said Monday.

Raad Ommar told reporters in Amman the "Destination Baghdad Expo" would now open in early April.

"Our best guess is that it will take place somewhere between April 5 and 6," Ommar said, saying the delay from an earlier planned March 1 to 4 fair was due to "the large interest from the United States."

STILL DANGEROUS

A U.S. helicopter went down Tuesday near the town of Habaniyah, west of Baghdad, the Coalition Public Information Center (CPIC) said.

However, the noon (Central European Time) Headline News broadcast indicated the crew survived this crash, thank the Lord.

But then there is also this:

At least two explosions ripped through different parts of Baghdad on Monday, with one killing a U.S. soldier and the other apparently targeting journalists.

A U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded by a homemade bomb that went off in central Baghdad, the 1st Armored Division said.

All three were soldiers of the division. The attack took place about 10 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) and is under investigation, according to a statement from the 1st Armored Division. No other details of the attack were released.

The flag in front of 1st Brigade HQ in Friedberg is not at half staff, indicating the 1AD casualty was not from the 1st Brigade.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE HEADLINE:

"FORMER BA’ATH PARTY MEMBERS DENOUNCE AFFILIATION, TURN IN WEAPONS"

and

"THREE WEAPONS CACHES DISCOVERED, DESTROYED BY TASK FORCE “ALL AMERICAN”"

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13th.

This is the 246th day of CPT Patti's field trip to the "cradle of civilization".

Me...I'm here in Germany reminded once again that the German word for weather is "Wetter".

And my nomination, therefore, of the German phrase you need least in your vocabulary: "ein schöner sonniger Tag" (A beautiful, sunny day.)

WHAT 60 MINUTES DIDN'T TELL YOU

In their hatchet job of the President, they failed to mention that the Clinton administration had nearly identical plans for Iraq...so says the American Spectator

What former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and other Bush administration blabbermouths failed to mention when leaking NSC documents and the like for the forthcoming book O'Neill worked on, is that the Clinton administration had many of the same documents prepared laying out plans for a Iraq post-invasion Iraq.

"We had the same stuff," says a former senior Clinton Administration aide who worked at the Pentagon. "It would have been irresponsible not to have such planning. We had all kinds of briefing material ready should the president have decided to move on Iraq. In fact, a lot of the material we had prepared was material that the previous Bush administration had left for us. It just isn't that big a deal. Or shouldn't be."

THE PALMETTO STATE AND THE DEMOCRATS' DILLEMA

My home state raises some interesting challenges for the 9 dwarves.

If you're a Democrat running for president, South Carolina isn't a battlefield: It's a minefield.

First you have to somehow slip past the Confederate-flag issue. (Oops! There goes Howard Dean). Then you have to step around the flag-inspired NAACP boycott — a boycott that Senator John Edwards's campaign handled courageously by saying that "while he would honor [it], that did not mean he necessarily supported it." (Boom.)

Then you've got the problem of being a northeastern liberal with a potty mouth in the most socially conservative state east of Utah (Sorry, Senator Kerry). Or you could run on your credentials as a champion of Big Labor, and all twelve of South Carolina's unionized employees will rally to your flag. (Goodbye, Representative Gephardt.)

Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, black voters are a major part of the South Carolina Democratic coalition, so there's real opportunity to motivate them. You just have to be careful and not use race-baiting rhetoric that will alienate the state's other major constituency: moderate, white Democrats. (Adios, Al Sharpton.)

And, finally, after years of Strom Thurmonds and Fritz Hollingses, South Carolina voters like colorful, entertaining characters. You don't want to bore them into submission. (Can I get you your coat, Senator Lieberman?)

THE MORAL BANKRUPTCY OF THE FRENCH PRESS

"All-out war: How the press lied to us about Iraq"), was published by Calmann Levy, France's oldest publishing house, with impeccable timing last October...

It wasn't critical of France. It was critical of the French press.

Specifically, it was critical of the misleading and incompetent reporting that appeared not only in his own paper, but also in Le Figaro, Le Monde, Libération, and Ouest-France, the largest regional newspaper, during the first few weeks of the war in Iraq. Hertoghe's book appeared in bookstores around the country and he waited for the debate to begin.

It never started. Instead, Hertoghe told me, "I experienced collective and spontaneous silence." Other than a paragraph in a column in Le Figaro and an item in a free paper distributed to commuters, no major French newspaper has reviewed the book, or even mentioned it...

Instead, just before Christmas, Hertoghe was confronted by his editor, Bruno Frappat. He was told by Frappat that he had "committed an act of treason" and fired.

HOW FREE ENTERPRISE IS WHIPPING TERRORISM

Humvees have become a regular target for roadside bombs planted by Iraqi insurgents, so who better to call on to strengthen U.S. military vehicles against future blasts than Iraqis themselves.

While driving through the Kurdish-controlled northern city of Kirkuk several months ago, Master Sgt. Dana Watson, 43, of St. Johns, Mich., came up with the idea to seek local assistance when he spotted men at a metal works shop grinding and welding pieces of steel.

"I went to these guys with the design to fit our vehicles with some kind of reinforced steel and asked if they could build a prototype," Watson, a combat engineer with the Tikrit-based 4th Infantry Division, said recently. "They said they could, and after making a bid for the project, they won the tender."

The winning company, which belongs to Kirkuk businessman Delshat Peerot Aziz, has built and installed 8mm thick steel casings in the rear compartments of 100 Humvees and other vehicles where gun-toting soldiers sit. It also fitted new doors made of the same material onto each of the vehicles.

A MAN FOR ALL VOTERS

Because apparently retired General Wesley Clark will say whatever you want to hear.

"Certainly there's a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda," (Clark) said in 2002.

"There was no imminent threat from Iraq, nor was Iraq connected with Al Qaeda."
(January 4, 2004, Wesley Clark)

Taking lessons from Slick Willie, Wes?

ABOUT ONE YEAR, AND 60 MILLION DOLLARS TOO LATE

Thanks Turkey...but it turns out we didn't need your fence ridin' "friendship".

Turkey lets US use base for troop change in Iraq

THE DANGER OF THE DAWN OF A "WARRIOR CLASS"

When service to the nation is considered "their" job...such results can be expected.

A British officer noted for a stirring eve-of-battle speech to troops preparing to fight in Iraq has resigned, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Col. Tim Collins, 43, was widely praised when he told his soldiers to "wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory." ...

The Mail on Sunday quoted Collins' wife Caroline as saying he was disillusioned with changes in the armed forces.

"Tim is no longer convinced that the army reflects the country with the fourth largest economy in the world," she was quoted as saying. "He fears it is becoming a cottage industry.

"He's worried it is being crippled by political correctness, petty bureaucracy and the refusal of politicians who send British soldiers to war to give them enough money to do their job."

TIRED OF THE VIOLENCE...THEIR OWN VIOLENCE

"Now you see how it feels, how we have to jump and duck when we hear explosions," Samia Abdullah, a 45-year-old Fallujah resident, told a reporter on the bus. "Day and night, we are afraid, and we are tired of it. I can no longer feel proud of the resistance. They have made these bombings our everyday life."

Such disdain for anti-American attacks is a new phenomenon in Fallujah...

"I'm against the resistance now, and I'm not afraid to say it," said Mahmoud Ali, 25, who was tending a roadside soda stand. "I can bring you a dozen friends who say the same thing. I wish the attacks would stop. It's affecting our whole stability, our whole life."

IT TOOK US 15 YEARS TO FIND THESE...

Oh...and somehow these escaped UN reporting and discovery by UN weapons inspectors over the course of a decade or so...

Danish and Icelandic troops have uncovered a cache of 36 shells buried in the Iraqi desert, and preliminary tests showed they contained a liquid blister agent, the Danish military said Saturday.

The 120mm mortar shells are thought to be left over from the eight-year war between Iraq and neighboring Iran, which ended in 1988, said U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

IS THERE ANYTHING THESE SCUM WON'T TURN INTO BOMBS TO KILL THEIR ARAB BROTHERS?

AT LEAST five people were killed yesterday when a bicycle bomb exploded in a busy Iraqi street as worshippers streamed out of a Shiite Muslim mosque after midday prayers.

And...another mosque bombing. Recall that we are the culturally insensitive "infidels" when we so much as get near a mosque. But apparently it is OK to use them as armories and targets...so long as you are Muslim yourself.

HEARTBREAKING

And on any given day this could be any one of us who has a husband, wife, son or daughter down range.

The sharp edge of that possibility leaves one raw after a while

The conversation fallen Auburn soldier Jesse Mizener had literally moments before his death in Iraq is still bringing comfort to his young widow, his words offering a final goodbye to his family.

“He told me that he loved me so much and couldn’t wait to come home to me,” said Auburn resident Nicole Mizener. “Then he said, ‘Nicole, you sit those babies down and you tell them that their daddy loves them.’ He said, ‘You promise me you’ll do that?’ I said, ‘Of course, I do all the time. They know.’”

The call came at 6:14 a.m. Wednesday, less than two minutes before the mortar attack that took Mizener’s life, Nicole Mizener estimated. The couple spoke regularly on the phone during the soldier’s deployment about their children — Gia, 2, Eve, 1 and Jesse Alexander Jr., less than two months old.

“It was the best conversation I’ve ever had,” Mizener said. “It was the kind of conversation where you just had an opportunity to say everything that you’ve ever wanted to say and take back anything you had said that you regretted.”

THE ROLE OF WOMEN

I can't say if this guy overstates the case, but it is informative to see this issue through his eyes.

One night, weary of Iraq's all-male environment, I went to the Al-Hamra Hotel, a well-known hang-out for Westerners. There, in the outdoor courtyard, I took a seat near a table where two American women were conversing. During the course of their conversation, I was startled when the pair burst out laughing at some shared comment-and I realized that, during my entire time in Iraq, I had not heard a woman laugh. Not in a free and unguarded manner, at any rate. The sound of female laughter struck me like music-a wonderful sound I'd taken for granted in the States, but which now seemed more precious, more worth defending, in Iraq and at home, than anything I'd heard before. At once, my "objectivity" vanished: I became a feminist warrior.

I don't mean to sound naïve, or possessed with the outrage of the newly-converted. Endorsing feminism for Iraq is a huge proposition. Once you link women's rights with the country's democratization, it's a short step to connecting the issue with freedom throughout the entire Middle East-and, by extension, victory in the war against terror. In this context, cultural mores take on enormous significance: no longer an exotic foreign custom, hejab now appears as fundamentalist's weapon that oppresses women and retards the spread of democracy. Even more unacceptable are "honor killings"- the tradition of murdering females who have somehow disgraced their families. (I am writing this essay in Amman, Jordan, where a 22 year-old man just received a suspended one-year prison sentence for brutally killing his sister because she persisted in leaving home without parental permission.) In short, what befalls Middle Eastern women affects the security of America.


Of course, you may want to consider this quote...

I have not left after me any chance of turmoil more injurious to men than the harm done to men because of women. -- the Prophet Mohammad

1st ARMOR DIVISION'S LUXURY HOTEL IN BAGHDAD

A place for the troops to catch a break.

More than 1,800 troops have cycled through since the hotel opened in mid-October.

Called Freedom Rest, it offers a sauna, outdoor swimming pool, 100-seat movie theater, weight rooms and 24-hour food service, including T-bone steaks and lobster. In the renovated marble lobby with glass chandeliers glistening overhead, uniformed attendants sweep up cigarette butts and serve cold drinks.

"It's a great escape from getting mortared," Sgt. Xochitl Barragan, 27, of Fort Worth, Tex., said as she emerged dripping from the huge pool, where air defense and engineer specialists had just finished a splash contest off the 10-meter diving board...

Back at Freedom Rest, tucked just inside Baghdad's barricaded "green zone," soldiers are required to check their combat fatigues, body armor and assault rifles at the door and change into civilian clothes or workout togs. For many, it is the first time in months to unwind, sleep in or watch endless movies.

Still, after nights of rocket and mortar attacks, some soldiers say it is hard to break old habits of scanning the hotel rooftop for snipers or momentarily panicking when they don't find their weapons by their sides at bedtime.

"Last night," said Sgt. William Schramm, 25, of Lancaster, Wis., "it was so quiet I could barely sleep."

PERHAPS THE MOST INANE SENTENCE YOU WILL READ THIS MONTH

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, refused to say if the investigation was still ongoing or what had been uncovered.

Or, restated, "speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said nothing."

For this we have journalism schools?

AND THEN SOMETIMES YOU LEARN STUFF IN A WAR ZONE THAT IS USEFUL AT HOME

This lady picked the wrong family to steal from...

A former U.S. marine captain performed a citizen's arrest Friday on a woman suspected of stealing his wife's purse.

Bron Roeder of Soquel recently returned home from the front lines in Baghdad...

Roeder didn't find the suspect at the drug store. But when he went to the grocery store next door, he spotted a woman standing in the check-out line with his wife's red leather purse.

He walked over, grabbed her wrist and told her she was going to jail.

MEET THE GENERAL

A good piece on LTG Sanchez, the senior military officer in Iraq.

His is a true American dream story...read it all.

Outside the American headquarters, Sanchez clambered on a tank to chat with crewmen who, like others in the American garrison at Abu Saida, have been retrained as infantrymen for patrols, firefights and other duties around the town. As he talked with the crewmen, one, Hector Quijada, 20, from the Bronx, N.Y., stepped forward and spoke in Spanish. The two men, the general and the specialist, then spoke quietly for several minutes.

Afterward, Quijada, speaking in fractured English, said that he and his family had migrated to the United States four years ago, settling in New York, where his father worked in a plastics factory. What he wanted the general to know, he said, was that he was a hero among Mexican-Americans, and among Quijada's friends in his hometown of Cancun. "I told him that the people of Mexico always talk about General Sanchez, everybody gets excited about him."

BUT WAIT...THIS CAN'T BE...IT IS A QUAGMIRE...REMEMBER?

Attacks against coalition forces in Iraq have dropped 22% in the four weeks since Saddam Hussein's capture, military records show.

ENEMY PRISONER OF WAR

That is what Saddam is, say the DOD lawyers.

Me...I'm thinking there is more to this than we are seeing .

Do you suppose the lawyer types hadn't stopped to consider what his status would be during the ten months we've had forces there? Do you think it really took the DOD lawyers a month to get around to rendering an opinion once we got our hands on him?

I'm not sure why this would be happening, but I'm thinking its a bit fishy.

Iraqi authorities expressed surprise and disappointment Saturday at reports that Pentagon lawyers have determined that Saddam Hussein has been a prisoner of war since American forces captured him last month.

On Friday, a Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Michael Shavers, said the Defense Department's top civilian lawyers have determined that Saddam is a prisoner of war because of his status as former commander in chief of Iraq's military. The lawyers determined that no formal declaration of Saddam's status was needed, he said.

Some Iraqis expressed concern that prisoner of war status, which grants Saddam certain legal rights and protection under the Geneva Conventions, could prevent Iraqi courts from trying the ousted dictator for alleged crimes against the Iraqi people.

"I am surprised by this decision," said Dara Nor al-Din, a former appeals court judge and member of the Iraqi Governing Council. "We still consider Saddam a criminal and he will be tried on this basis. This new move will be discussed thoroughly in the Governing Council."

Debate away...the Iraqis can try the man however they want to...it is their country. Us...we sort of have to do it this way.

Don't know why folks are concerned...I mean, do you really think there is a chance in hell we can't convict the guy in a fair trial???

CAMP VIRGINIA

One of six camps on the Iraq-Kuwait border where those coming and going will cross paths.

Much has changed since the battalion originally left Camp Virginia to push north into Iraq. Furnace-like winds that blew dust storms across the desert last spring have given way to winter rains that soak the sand, turning the camp into a soupy mush.

Life is fairly mundane for the troops here. Signs read, no parking, no smoking, no weapons allowed. Troops cluster among the tiny cappuccino shop and the Internet café.

International servicemembers fill many of the tent cities. It’s common to hear Spanish, Italian, Polish or Hungarian as groups of soldiers walk through the camp. Troops from Denmark, Lithuania and Bulgaria are also passing through. More foreign units are expected, Edwards said.

"NO SOIL WILL LEAVE THIS COUNTRY"

The arduous and mundane task of cleaning equipment...but it is a huge hurdle between the soldiers and coming home

Soaked through to the skin, Pvt. Dustin Munson, 19, of Shirley, N.Y., lit a cigarette and checked his watch. The mechanics had worked for 24 hours, with just a two-hour break, Munson said. Despite the soldiers’ best efforts, sergeants working for customs still found dirty places the soldiers overlooked.

“It sucks. They’ll reach their finger at something you didn’t see,” Munson said. “After a year in Iraq, it’s hard to get these trucks clean. But no soil will leave this country.”

GOOD NEWS FOR THE WALLET

But only for those whose R&R was lately.

Perhaps this is what is meant by "the last shall be first..."

The Army is now reimbursing troops for commercial plane tickets home for troops returning for two-weeks vacation from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Troops tapped for the two-week vacation away from the war zones under the Rest and Recuperation program will have to pay their own way up front, and then file the necessary reimbursement paperwork.

“Payment will be through the normal channels. They’ll submit a travel voucher through their chain of command and [the Defense Finance and Accounting System] will pay it,” said Gary Jones, a spokesman for Army Forces Central Command in Atlanta. “Just save the receipts.”

Reimbursements for fares already paid by troops are retroactive only to Dec. 19, and do not extend to the beginning of program, which started in September.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

CENTCOM has numerous stories about Iraqis identifying weapons caches to US forces.

Good news...and progress.

MONDAY, JANUARY 12th.

Day 245 of CPT Patti's Arabian adventure.

Thank God she doesn't have to do 1001 Arabian nights...

Me - I took the weekend off from posting, watched movies, football...and RAIN. It has rained everyday since CPT Patti left to go back to Iraq.

No - this is not a metaphor...it is a meteorological fact.

Rain, rain, drizzle, rain...

And its pretty darned depressing.

SPIN WATCH

It ain't just me.

Jay Nordlinger at National Review Online has this to say:

May I begin with a brief comment on journalism? Won't be too boring, I promise. A Reuters report out of Washington yesterday began, "Looking to draw more Hispanics behind his re-election bid, President Bush on Wednesday will propose a temporary worker program to help millions of immigrants work legally in the United States, officials said."

Notice that the very first words of this news report are commentary: "Looking to draw more Hispanics behind his re-election bid . . ." That is sheer speculation, or analysis, if you like. It may be perfectly correct. But it is the lead in a news item.

The next sentence begins, "Facing a possibly close election next November, Bush is reviving an issue put on hold . . ."

More commentary — in the news story of a wire service! Journalism is becoming badly degraded, when we can hardly tell the difference between straight newsies and opinionists (like me).

The more we know about the manipulation techniques, the less likely it is that we will be maniulated.

A MATTER OF REASON

Lately I received a notice from Greyhawk asking military bloggers to offer their two cents worth on this story being linked to at the site of an Iraqi blogger.

First, the bottom line of the story. What is said to be an Iraqi mother writes about the murder of her son at the hands of American forces. In part the story goes:

And this is where the first chapter of the tragedy takes place.

An American army patrol stood in their way, and after they went through the whole procedure of searching my son and his cousin, and inspecting the cargo load, they tied them up both and led them to an area about three kilometres from the scene and...in front of one of the gates of the Tharthar dam where water flows at its strongest rate and to my son and his cousin's horror, they ordered them to jump into the water, it was midnight and the cold was unbearable, when they hesitated, they were pushed by the soldiers. Unfortunately my boy cannot swim, even though swimming at this time of the year wouldn't have helped.

Yet my sons cousin survived miraculously after he got stuck in a tree branch to give us his account of this tragic event which could have went untold. He tried saving my son, but the water current was stronger than him...After days of search we found my sons jacket floating with the stream, it shall remain with me as a memory and a symbol of the injustice brought against him by soldiers of the United States of America's army, who came to our country under the banners of human rights and democracy only to send my son to his demise on his wedding days...


My opinion?

Well, they say if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it is probably a duck.

I wasn't there...but I bring my own 27 years affiliation with the US Army to the table and have to conclude that if it smells like BS and it sticks to your shoe like BS ... it is probably BS.

Consider the context of the story, from the point of view of a US Soldier. Since we've been in Iraq we have:

- just nearly courtmartialed a fast rising Battalion Commander (LTC West) for merely discharging his weapon in the vicinity of an EPW in order to obtain information to immediately save the lives of his solders.. Instead we stripped him of command, throttled his career, fined him a month's pay and made him retire.

- courtmartialed and stripped of their status as US Soldiers three enlisted folks - including a couple of WOMEN - for mistreating Iraqi Enemy Prisoners of War (EPWs).

- might be courtmartialling two Florida Guardsmen for taking a moment out from patrols to get married for crying out loud.

And now these folks want us to believe a story involving deliberate, premeditated murder on the part of our soldiers...

Sorry - I did a lot of years in uniform...and haven't been out that long. CPT Patti is commanding a company in Baghdad right now...she was home for one week over Christmas. I consider myself in touch.

And this modern day story about US Soldiers requiring some hapless Iraqi teenager to essentially walk the plank...It doesn't add up.

This is the same Army that refused to engage the mortarmen who earlier this week wounded 34 at Log Base Seitz because the shelling came from a built-up, populated area.

This is the same Army that respects their bleedin' Mosques more than the Iraqis do for crying out loud.

What such allegations do are two fold:

First, they appeal to the seemingly endless capacity of the Arab mind to deceive itself when it is convenient.

Secondly, from the enemy's perspective it conveniently puts the US Army in the impossible position of disproving a negative (that is, proving it "didn't" happen.)

No such burden of proof has been required of the one who alleges this nonsense.

While that might not be sufficient to mollify Zeyad, or whatever the Iraqi blogger's name is, the fact is he has certain responsibilities as well...among them is the responsibility to be able to exercise a modicum of judgment.

I don' t for a minute doubt that some touchy-feely Berkely type can cite a hundred reasons why such "urban, cultural symbolic stories arise", much of which no doubt centers on the veritable overnight meltdown of the Arab mythology, the crumbling of the house of cards that has served as so-called Arab "leadership" for three or more decades and the lack of a noble leader since Saladin (who was a Kurd, by the way...go figure...) but the point is still to be made. We live on this Earth. It behooves each of us to finagle some grasp on the rational and the true. And it will continue to benefit us all to prosecute those who libel and slander due to their "agenda".

We've all grown up being advised that if it "sounds to good to be true" it probably is. Well, that advice works the same when trying to pin attrocities on your enemies.

I, for one, don't suffer the lame accusations of fools lightly.

I won't say it absolutely couldn't happen...but I've lived long enough to know that the highly unlikely is...well, highly unlikely.

I will publicly apologise and admit my mistake if this ever, EVER is proven to have happened.

Until then, sign me...

Skeptical

BEGGING THE QUESTION ON WHICH PLANET THIS WILL HAPPEN

Hell, I live in Germany and have seen enough unwanted coverage to know this guy offed his wife.

Scott Peterson Gets Change Of Venue
Judge: Jury Can Be Found In 15 Larger Counties

A judge overseeing the Scott Peterson murder trial ruled Thursday that the defendant can't get a fair trial in Stanislaus County. Now, the question becomes, where will it be held?

OH...I WONDER WHY!

Knight-Ridder headline for today:

Taxes replace Iraq as top issue among Democratic candidates

Heh.

INTERNICINE WARFARE

Note that this is a Shi'ia Mosque in a Sunni area.

At least five people have been killed and dozens injured by a bomb blast during Friday prayers at a Shi'ite mosque in the central Iraqi town of Baquba, hospital sources say.

Local police and witnessess said the bomb exploded outside a small mosque in a residential area. Officials at a nearby hospital said they knew of 39 people injured.

Witnesses gave conflicting reports about whether or not the explosion was caused by a car bomb.

Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, is in a largely Sunni Muslim area which is a hotbed of resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. U.S. forces have mounted major operations in and around the town to try to capture insurgents.

FUTURE HEADLINES: "IRAQ'S BIGGEST EXPORT...SOCCER BALLS"

"Many inexplicably bearing the flags of the USA, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, Japan..."

Japanese troops heading for Iraq in coming weeks will be equipped with everything required by a modern army: portable anti-tank rocket launchers, recoilless machine guns, flak jackets and...hundreds of soccer balls.

The weapons will be used to defend against attack.

The balls, emblazoned with Japan's rising sun symbol, are part of a strategy of winning friends among residents of Samawa, the southern city where Japan's 600 or so troops will be based.

IN BIBLICAL TERMS THAT MEANS "WEEPING AND WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH..."

Deprived of most world news since their capture, some of the hundreds of prisoners at (Guantanamo Bay) expressed shock when told recently of the capture of Saddam Hussein, a U.S. general said yesterday...

"We told them we had a war with Iraq, we told them the United States won, and we told them we captured Saddam Hussein," he said.

"There was some shock."

THE FUNNIEST THING YOU WILL READ TODAY

Do yourself a favor...go read the whole thing here.

Iraq has a net zero immigration rate. Vietnam has a negative immigration rate. These rates were no doubt caused by Iraq's socialist and Vietnam's communist governments, which are vastly different, in that socialist nations are often ruled unfairly by one guy and communist nations are ruled unfairly by, like, as many as seven guys.

What's more, Vietnam's median age is an elderly 24.5 years old compared with Iraq's 19.0. Yes, the average citizen of Iraq is the same age as NBA star LeBron James, with but a fraction of his ability to take it to the hole. (Except Saddam, who did an excellent job taking it to the hole, as it were.)

Money is another difference between the countries. In Iraq, the traditional currency is the dinar. In Vietnam the currency is called the dong. According to the CIA World Fact Book, it takes 15,300 dongs to make a dollar.

(Did you know that the CIA keeps tons of information like this on its Web site? Way to keep things under wraps, CIA! Like every idiot who types the word "dong" into a search engine will never find your top-secret site.)

YIKES!

I wish this story would tell us why these particular retired reservists...my guess is they are Civil Affairs types...the overwhelming majority of which are in the Reserve Component and most of which were used up by Afghanistan, and OIF1.

As the Pentagon digs deeper into its pool of civilian soldiers, retired reservists are being notified that they may be reactivated for duty in Iraq.

Some 270 retired reservists have been called up to active duty since the 9-11 attacks, said Julia Collins, a civilian public affairs specialist at the Army Human Resources Command in St. Louis.

SPIN WATCH

Meaningless comparisons.

From the Associated Press

The number of American troops who have died in Iraq since the war began last March is nearing 500, more than U.S. losses in many regional conflicts of the past several decades: the Gulf War, Lebanon, Somalia, Panama, Grenada, Kosovo and Afghanistan.


The meaninglessness of such statistics becomes clear if we make a few simple direct substitutions into the "logic".

The reason for this "statistics" can only be one of two. (A) You are presumed to be ranking Operation Iraqi Freedom among all the military operations executed by the USA in terms of casualties...or (B) spin to sensationalize the body count.

The unspoken "logic" says that any war is comparable to any other war, which is, of course, BS.

What happens if we use the same logic to, say, compare the cost of automobiles.

"The cost of the recently purchased HUMMER 2 is $45,000, more than we've paid for other 4X4 vehicles including the Ford Escape, the Kia Sportage and the Jeep Liberty."

Pointless. Unless you tell the uninformed that the Hummer is 3 times as big, has about 12 more cylinders, can climb the Eiffel tower, and can withstand potholes the size of the Grand Canyon...you haven't conveyed any meaningful information to the reader.

One can't compare based on the selection of one single variable unless all one wants to do is rank order the elements, by one isolated variable.

But that doesn't stop the AP from writing these stories.

Again...they aren't in the business to provide us with news...they are in business to make money. The provide the news that maximizes their bottom line.

THE ARMY IS CALLING IT "THE SURGE"

And it has begun.

And I'm happy not to be one of the transportation planners on this one...

"This is the biggest move we've done since World War II," said a Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified.

The approximately 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now will be heading home over the coming four months, to be replaced by a more mobile, less heavily armed force of about 110,000. That force will include about 20,000 Marines and an increased proportion of National Guard and Reserve troops.

EXAMPLE 7415 OF THE INEXHAUSTABLE CAPACITY OF THE ARAB MIND TO DECEIVE ITSELF

Only a day after Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer announced that the deposed Iraqi president was in custody a rumour that US forces had grabbed the wrong man, and that Saddam himself had broadcast to his followers from western Iraq, set off perhaps the largest display of pro-Saddam street power since the invasion.

Cars drove through the streets of Sunni neighbourhoods, with passengers firing their weapons in the air, shouting: “It wasn’t him! It wasn’t him!” Shopkeepers responded with celebratory fire that in some cases went on for hours. In Adhamiya in north Baghdad protesters, including armed men dressed in the black uniforms of the Saddam Fedayeen, marched through the streets until they ran into Iraqi police and US troops. Clashes broke out in which at least four civilians were reported killed. In the town of Faluja, west of Baghdad, demonstrators stormed municipal offices and erected Saddam’s picture on the roof.

DESTROYED FOR SIMPLY HEARING A JOKE

But Ibrahim was spared that indignity, he said, because his crime was less serious than theirs. He only heard a joke about Saddam and was suspected by the government of belonging to an underground Shiite religious movement.

To be precise, he heard a friend in a coffeehouse tell a joke about Saddam. Six months later, after joining the army, he was arrested and brought before a military court, where he was asked why as a loyal Iraqi he had not informed on the person who told the joke.

His manners did not permit him to do such a thing, he recalls saying. He later learned it was his friend who fingered him, allegedly after undergoing extensive torture.

Note the "loyal Iraqi" reference.

Another reason to be glad we express our allegiance to ideals, not to a dictator.

"FREEDOM IS SPROUTING"

So says one Senator.

"Freedom is sprouting up, and it's just a question, like in Russia, of how long it takes everyone to realize no bad guy is going to come back to take over," Bunning said.

IN CASE YOU WERE UNDER THE MISIMPRESSION THESE FOLKS ARE MERELY MISUNDERSTOOD BUT BASICALLY GOOD GUYS

See here.

A Blackhawk medivac helicopter, clearly marked with a red cross signifying its medical mission, crashed Thursday after a witness said it was hit by a rocket, killing all nine U.S. soldiers aboard.

And then there is this:

New information has emerged about a mortar attack on a U.S. supply base outside Baghdad that claimed the life of one American soldier and left 30 others wounded. A senior Pentagon official has revealed U.S. forces quickly determined the site where Iraqi attackers fired mortars into a coalition logistics base west of Baghdad late Wednesday.

But this official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says commanders declined to order so-called counter-battery fire that could have disrupted the attack and possibly killed the assailants.

The official tells VOA this is because the mortars were fired from a heavily-populated area where any American counter-attack could have caused civilian casualties.

Say it with me here..."We are not the bad guys..."

THANKS, JORDAN

It's nice to have a friend in the area...

Jordan said on Thursday it would start training dozens of junior Iraqi diplomats as soon as the United States prepares to hand over power in Baghdad.

U.S. ally Jordan is already training hundreds of Iraqi army officers and police recruits as the U.S. occupation forces try to build up neighboring Iraq's institutions ahead of transferring power before an end of June deadline.

AN ONGOING TRIAL IN CHICAGO

An alleged spy for Saddam is on trial - his cover - why Press, of course.

They don't understand our freedoms, nor do they appreciate them. But they sure as hell will try to exploit them to their ends.

An intelligence dossier found in Baghdad implicated the publisher of an Arabic-language suburban newspaper in a scheme to spy for the government of Saddam Hussein, prosecutors alleged yesterday in a trial that is shedding light on Hussein's efforts to gather intelligence against Iraqi opposition leaders in the United States.

Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, 61, was charged in July with being an unregistered agent of Iraq. According to the government, Dumeisi traveled to Iraq to learn the trade of spying, passed on phone records and other sensitive material about Iraqi dissidents, produced news credentials for Iraqi intelligence officers, and alerted his spy handlers to Hussein opponents who phoned in complaints to Dumeisi's newspaper because of coverage favorable to Hussein's regime.

Dumeisi has asserted that he's simply a journalist who cultivated contacts in Iraq as part of his job.

Prosecutors introduced what they said were incriminating documents against Dumeisi during the testimony of a man they said was a former high-ranking intelligence official. The reputed spymaster, identified in court only as "Mr. Sargon," had no personal knowledge of Dumeisi but vouched for the document's authenticity.

Defense attorneys tried to suggest that Dumeisi was not the newspaperman mentioned in the documents, and they had objected to allowing the dossier into evidence. But Judge Suzanne B. Conlon sided with prosecutors, noting that three pages in the dossier were in Dumeisi's handwriting.

Doh!

BUSY WEEK IN IRAQ

No one was hurt in Friday's dawn attack on the Burj al-Hayat hotel in central Baghdad, which is used mainly by foreign businessmen and U.S. army contractors. Three rockets hit rooms around the fourth floor, smashing windows, security guards said.

The guards said they exchanged fire with men in a car as the hotel came under attack...

On Thursday, scores of soldiers had a narrow escape when the C-5 Galaxy military transport plane, one of the world's largest aircraft, returned safely to Baghdad airport after what was possibly a missile hit.

Officials said the plane, carrying 63 passengers and crew, was hit by ground fire soon after take-off from Baghdad, causing an explosion in one of its four engines.

A military official in Washington told Reuters a missile might have struck the transporter. The U.S. military said later that guerrillas appeared to have hit the plane but that it was not clear what weapon they used...

In the town of Falluja west of Baghdad, a bastion of anti-U.S. guerrilla activity, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed on Thursday, but it was not clear whether it was shot down.

Nine soldiers were on board and all were killed, the military said.

One witness said he saw the helicopter in flames before it came down and news reports said it appeared to have been hit by a rocket. The U.S. military said it was investigating the cause...

In Tikrit, the hometown of the ousted dictator, some 300 soldiers from the army's 4th Infantry Division backed by Bradley armoured vehicles and military aircraft raided houses to search for suspects and for weapons and other incriminating material.

"It was a good night," Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Russell told reporters after 13 people were captured in the raids, which lasted for most of the hours of curfew in town between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. "Tikrit will be a safer place tomorrow as a result."

IN CASE YOU ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT THIS BEING A "REAL" WAR ZONE

This was a HUMMV in Baghdad.

Al Mansour is so treacherous that the Baumholder, Germany-based unit has pinned Purple Hearts on 10 of its 90-some soldiers. One soldier even has two. Last month, its medic died during a grenade attack and a hard hail of gunfire.

“It’s crazy around here, sir,” says Cpl. Wayne Santos, pulling guard duty out front. He pulls back his Kevlar collar to expose a bulging lozenge of a scar. “I was lucky, because I’ve got a 1½-inch hole that goes through the back of my neck.”

Yes, lucky. Lucky to be alive


Photo credit: Ward Sanderson / Stars & Stripes

DO YOU TRULY WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE WAR ON TERROR?

Most of the links you find here can be considered news rather than objective analysis. However, I receive wonderful emails occasionally from an organization called STRATFOR. They do analysis.

And it is amazing stuff.

If you truly want to gain a better understanding of this war on terror - with no political filter applied, then go here and read the whole thing.

However...before you do please note you will need 15 minutes of quiet reading time...and you will need to have your brain fully engaged.

If you like what you read, you can subscribe to the same analysis email for free...information is near the bottom of the document.

Sample:

The avalanche of bad news (for al Qaeda) did not stop there.

Libya, fully aware of the trends in the region, decided this was a propitious time to move closer to the United States.

In the Arab world, only Syria remained outside the process. The Syrians had badly misread the situation during last summer, betting that the United States would get bogged down in Iraq. They bet on the guerrillas.

Suddenly, as December wore on, they realized that they had not only guessed wrong, but had become completely isolated in the Arab world and surrounded on all sides by enemies.

Damascus began to make accommodating gestures as the New Year began, inviting Likud Knesset members to Damascus and sending President Bashar al-Assad off to Turkey.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9th.

The 242d day of CPT Patti's on-site Arab culture sensitivity training.

And presumably this marks right about the 2/3ds point, 66% completion of her newly extended deployment.

Me...I just hope one day they quit moving the goal posts...

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT

It is still very much a war zone.

Anti-American insurgents fired mortar rounds at a military camp, killing one American soldier and wounding 34 others, the U.S. command said.

Six mortar rounds exploded about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday at Logistical Base Seitz west of Baghdad, in the so-called Sunni Muslim triangle that is a stronghold of resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, a spokesman said.

Thirty-five soldiers were wounded in the attack, and one of them died overnight, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said Thursday.

"The wounded soldiers were given first aid and have been evacuated from the site for further medical treatment," the statement said. The Pentagon added that the soldiers were from the Army's 541st Maintenance Battalion, based in Fort Riley, Kan., and part of the 3rd Corps Support Command.

The mortars hit "a living area where they have their sleeping quarters," the spokesman said.

I notice these are suport Soldiers...called Combat Service Support or CSS in Army speak. That is what CPT Patti is. It is what I was during my career. It is what the soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company (PFC Jessica Lynch, et al.) are.

Once upon a time support Soldiers were referred to as REMFs. The first two stand for Rear Echelon...you can figure out the last two. But these days we find there is no rear echelon...the support Soldiers move right with the so-called warfighters.

And beginning with Desert Storm, the instances of large casualties have tended to accrue to the support types.

During Desert Storm one Iraqi SCUD missile made its way to a US Barracks. 13 members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment died that night.

We add to that the 507th Maintenance Company and the 541st Maintenance Battalion from Operation Iraqi Freedom and we add 14 dead, 53 wounded in single incident losses for each unit.

Support Soldiers have earned the respect of all...but all have not yet given their respect.

Do so.

SAD

Last Friday, as enemy mortar shells rained down on Forward Operating Base Eagle, Capt. Eric Paliwoda rushed to his mobile trailer to don his gear.

One of nine shells that fell that afternoon sent shrapnel into Paliwoda, snuffing the life out of a company commander described by his troops as a gentle giant who took good care of them...

As troops were reeling from the loss, Iraqi insurgents struck again Monday. Thirteen mortar rounds fell on their camp. Working from a local informant, soldiers are holding six more Iraqis who are now being interrogated.

An Iraqi artillery officer is suspected of helping the enemy mortar crews fire effectively, said Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman, commander of 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment.

“The last two attacks have been fairly accurate,” Sassaman said, adding that he intends to take out the mortar cell.

"IF YOUR WIFE IS COMING HOME FROM BAGHDAD IN MARCH, RAISE YOUR HAND"

"Not so fast there, Tim".

Gulp! The Stop Loss/Stop Movement (SL/SM) is official.

CPT Patti will NOT be coming home in March. She might be home in late April or sometime in May.

And we are not returning to the USA in April. Now it looks as if it will be sometime in July or August.

I've spent much of the day reading the Army message that announces all of this, then doing some interpretation...swapping email with CPT Patti...and just now she called.

The new plan...she will still relinquish command on 1 March. She's not so wild about that...but I am. From her point of view, if she's got to be there, well, it's good to be in Command. From my point of view, she suffered the stress of moving the unit from here to there. Someone else can be the DBC (Designated Basket Case) to get them from there to here.

She will be reassigned a position on the Providers staff as of March 2d.

Sorry I've been away from the postings today. I've been out in search of silver linings.

You may be happy to know that I've found several.

(You can read the official Army message here.)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8th.

This is day 241 of CPT Patti's missionary work with what Ray Stevens once called "A-hab the A-rab"

I'm guessing Ray couldn't get that record released today...

Me? Well, read the next post, above.

THE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY BEST HEADLINE YOU WILL READ TODAY

"Kucinich Shows Pie Chart on Radio Debate"

(via Drudge)

USE THIS WORD IN A SENTENCE - "GRUESOME"

Sure.

Howard Dean is less than 5 foot 9 inches tall, but on stage with former NBA star Bill Bradley, it looks like he GRUESOME.



See how its done here

Is David Blaine in the house?

A KINDER, GENTLER MARINE CORPS...

...than the one that kicked their butts last year.

They call it the "No Better Friend " Plan, which, as the web site says, is to indicate to Iraqis there is "no better friend than a Marine."

Anyway, its another way for you to donate, if you are so inclined.

BRACE YOURSELVES

Hillary is about to get the Trent Lott treatment...right?

Uh...right?

Uh, I mean she did just make a joke using racial stereotypes to boot...so we'll all howl and hound her out of her committee seats...right?

The New York Democrat made the remark at a fund-raiser Saturday. During an event here for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer, Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi by saying, "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis."...

The director of a U.S. center devoted to Gandhi's teachings said the remarks amounted to stereotyping and were insensitive.

After being approached by The Associated Press to clarify the remarks, Clinton suggested in a statement late Monday that she never meant to fuel the stereotype often used as a comedic punch line that certain ethnic groups run America's gas stations.

HEY STANGE - COPERNICUS CALLED!

Says to tell you he's discovered the universe does NOT revolve around you after all.

Bernd Stange, the German coach of the Iraqi national soccer team...continues his award-winning whining.

Iraq national coach Bernd Stange said Tuesday he would be sticking with the team until after the 2006 World Cup qualifiers but admitted he fears for his life in the war-torn country.

"I want to lead the team until the 2006 World Cup but the security conditions in the country have to improve.

I must be the only foreigner who does not have protection in Iraq," said the 56-year-old German

Longtime readers will remember Stange for these other makes-you-want-to-hug-him quotes:

"The national football stadium, the heart of Iraqi football, is left by the Americans like a dustbin."

"We have not one role model for the youth in Iraq."

"Sometimes I would be happy," he said, "if someone in the coalition said 'Okay, boys you did a good job' or 'Come on, we have a party together or a barbecue' but nothing happens - not one word."

Let me just comment - again - on this idiot. The Provider battalion, to which CPT Patti is assigned occupied the stadium he speaks of above. They moved in along side a support battalion from the 3d Infantry Division.

CPT Patti set up most of her supply base around that stadium...and then, within 60 days, picked the whole thing up and moved it again, while trying to support the then 4000+ soldiers in her sector. Meaning...they didn't have time to pack up and move, but they did it anyway.

And why?

Because the American leadership decided it would be a great symbol to give Iraq back its football (soccer) stadium.

And this guy just wants to whine about its condition?

Hey pal...have you checked out the Iraqis living in buildings with live bombs still embedded? Have you looked at the tent cities and makeshift barracks our GIs have dug out of the rubble.

Dude, you just need to learn to shut up...because every time you open your sorry mouth you just give me more fodder to show you up as the self-centered idiot that you are.

A KEY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NATIONAL GUARD AND THE ACTIVE ARMY

They might say the Actives lack experience...

Jack Sharkey, a Chinook pilot with the Army National Guard, was ready to retire when he learned his unit was going to Iraq.

I had to get a waiver," said Sharkey, a Vietnam veteran who will be 61 next month...

At Wheeler Army Airfield yesterday, Capt. Joe Laurel, Company C commander, said veterans such as Sharkey, a retired Aloha Airlines

pilot, seem to be more commonplace in guard units than among regular Army units, and are almost guaranteed to have served longer together.

"At any particular time, I can look at the guy to my right or the guy to my left and say I've flown with him for 10 years," Laurel said.

A LEVEL-HEADED DISCUSSION OF HALIBURTON

Take a moment to go read this entire piece. You will find it lacks the hysterics of the mainstream media.

The case made against the two long-established and well-respected American corporate giants is based on their links to the Bush administration, to which they made relatively large campaign contributions. Hence, Iraqi reconstruction contracts (US$2-billion plus for Halliburton, $1-billion plus for Bechtel) are alleged to be an example of egregious and corrupt mutual back scratching.

But nowhere have critics indicated exactly how President Bush or his "cronies" might have steered contracts the way of either company. They just keep repeating that that Vice-President Dick Cheney used to run Halliburton.

The main alleged "smoking gun" has been the charge that Halliburton subsidiary KBR overcharged for importing fuel into Iraq from Kuwait. But it has emerged that KBR was forced to deal with a single Kuwaiti supplier. KBR also pointed out that higher prices were justified by transportation dangers (It's also worth noting that the "exorbitant" price charged for Kuwaiti gasoline was similar to that paid by Canadians! But we know who the bandit is there: Just read that little pie chart on the pump).

When KBR located Turkish suppliers who could provide fuel much more cheaply, Pentagon auditors merely multiplied the difference between the Kuwaiti and the Turkish price by the volume of Kuwaiti imports and -- shazam -- you had an alleged US$61-million rip-off...

More significantly, however, the whole notion that the U.S. administration is concerned solely -- or even partly -- with lining the pockets of its corporate "cronies" is both facile and ultimately repulsive.

Emphasis added.

OOH YUCK!

PepsiCo Inc., driven from Iraq by United Nations economic sanctions in 1990, reached a franchise agreement with one of its former Iraqi bottlers, Baghdad Soft Drinks Co., and will relaunch its cola there, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported...

To many Iraqis, Pepsi-Cola never left. For more than a decade, Baghdad Soft Drinks and street vendors have kept the brand alive in Iraq by selling homemade cola in leftover Pepsi bottles..

AND YET ANOTHER REASON TO DISTRUST "THE PRESS"

The U.S. Army is still investigating whether its troops in Iraq came under attack by guerrillas posing as journalists after an American helicopter was shot down last week, a senior officer says.

But Major General Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said on Tuesday four Iraqis working for Reuters and the U.S. television network NBC who were detained in the area were probably "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

The military said on Friday that men wearing protective jackets marked with the word "Press" opened fire on U.S. troops securing the helicopter crash site near Falluja, where the 82nd Airborne is responsible for security

I SEE WHAT HE MEANS

Did you read COL Mansoors comments (see the links block)? If so you read how he observed that the press can't tell you much about what is going on in Baghdad because they won't leave the confines of their safe hotels.

Seems to me this Reuters headline sort of confirms what the Colonel said.

Blasts in Baghdad Likely to Be Controlled Explosions


Likely? Would we settle for such reporting if the head line was

"LSU likely beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl"

No...we wouldn't. We'd say the reporters aren't doing their jobs.

Here too...in Baghdad...we can make the case the reporters aren't doing their jobs.

And treat all we read from them with the level of suspicion they deserve.

PROGRESS

The second battalion of a new Iraqi army graduated Tuesday at a ceremony with traditional songs and dances, and a U.S. commander and Iraqi politicians said they soon will choose a civilian defense minister to lead the soldiers in securing a democratic nation.

WE AREN'T PHOTOGRAPHING AND FINGERPRINTING THOSE FROM FRANCE

Had this guy not already been on a watch list...what then?

The U.S. television channel ABC reported Tuesday that the man, who failed to show up for an Air France flight from Paris canceled on Christmas Eve, was suspected of having links to the al Qaeda network and might have a small bomb to attack planes.

"I confirm that we are looking for someone. I cannot tell you anything more," Perben told RMC radio.

French media reported that the man was a Tunisian whose name matched that of a man who was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan but later escaped.

This morning (Central European Time) CNN had Paula Zahn's show on in which Paula breathlessly explores the question "Are We Safer?" with regards to extra security measures in the airline systems.

Is it just me or does it also strike you that these rhetorical questions serve to cast doubt? Anyway, what little I saw of the show was along the lines of "but this is still broken and that hasn't been done..."

And I'm wondering...excuse me...is the question "Are we safer?" or is the question "Are we perfectly safe?"

And CNN seems intent to ask the former question while answering the latter.

And I just hate that.

SLOW NEWS DAY IN IRAQ

God bless the Stars & Stripes...virtually the only news outlet trying to bring us closer to the humanity of our soldiers in Iraq.

When Spc. Amy Henry walks through the mess hall, soldiers often do a double take — especially when her twin sister, Amanda, is walking beside her.

The same thing happens to Jamie and Justin Stearns, twin brothers.

All four soldiers serve with the 142nd Engineer Battalion, a National Guard unit tasked to make improvements on this former Iraqi air base north of Baghdad.

A BIT MORE ON THAT MOSQUE RAID

“These are hand grenades,” Kimmitt said, narrating the video. “Lots of TNT … a significant amount of weapons found, far beyond that needed for self-defense.”

When asked whether the video would further inflame Arab sentiment, Kimmitt said the use of a mosque as a weapons stash should do so, instead.

“That’s the picture, I think, that strikes one watching the video.”

EXCERPTS FROM CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

Note the progress on closing the border, and a brief appearance by Al Stupidah

CORDON AND SEARCHES LEAD TO CAPTURE OF ARMS DEALERS

RAMADI, Iraq – The 82nd Airborne Division and its subordinate units continued missions over the last day to bring peace and prosperity to the residents of the Al Anbar province.

During the last 24 hours, the 82nd Airborne Division and subordinate units conducted 203 patrols, 12 of which were joint patrols with Iraqis, and carried out four offensive operations. During these operations one enemy was wounded and 18 captured. Entry was denied to 55 personnel at Trebil all due to insufficient documentation.

Paratroopers from 3rd Brigade conducted a cordon and search in Fallujah. While conducting the operation, an Iraqi male walked out of a house with an automatic weapon and pointed it at the soldiers. The paratroopers immediately engaged and wounded the man. He was evacuated to FOB St. Mere for surgery and is in stable condition. The operation resulted in the capture of five enemy personnel, including one of the primary targets – a weapons dealer who has conducted attacks on coalition forces in the past. Also confiscated in the target area were an AK-47, 300 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, and a bayonet.

SARAH IS BACK

And she has two weeks of pent up observations to share. Go see her and prepare to take a drink from a fire hose.

Welcome back Sarah.

THE COMMANDER SPEAKS

COL Mansoor is CPT Patti's brigade commander, commander of the Ready First Combat Team also known as 1st Brigade, 1AD.

Last night he addressed Family Readiness Group members in Friedberg. I've posted my notes from that briefing under the links section.

Read them to find out how many Iraqis get killed by bullets falling from the sky after "celebratory gunfire".

Reat them to find out how Stalinist economic policies are clashing with free market forces to create long gas lines in Baghdad.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7th.

This is the 240th day of CPT Patti's camel ride.

She has 54 more days scheduled in command. But since the possibility of the Stop-Loss popped up yesterday, we are not sure when we should expect her home.

Pessimistically I'm thinking May.