Category Archives: The War

Houston at risk

Posted on July 31, 2007 | Comments Off on Houston at risk

While many Texans have less than total admiration for Houston and environs, especially the nightmarish traffic and general sprawl, none would be pleased to see the place get struck by terrorists, either by Al Q, an offshoot or a group of freelance jihadis. But that’s just what a recent issue of Homeland Security Today said could happen in the attack even official Washington believes is overdue. So let’s hope the city, county, and the directors of the ship channel and the petrochemical infrastructure are thinking creatively about protecting their soft as well as their hard targets.

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Posted in Texana, The War

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Why the AC goes out

Posted on July 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Why the AC goes out

Teflon Don has a short, succinct explanation for why there’s so much difficulty in keeping the electricity on, four years into the Iraq campaign, even for soldiers who patrol all the time, except for the afternoon hours when they try to sleep in the unalleviated heat.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Rudy or Fred?

Posted on July 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Rudy or Fred?

The Seablogger foresees an enemy strike propelling the Reps into the White House in ’08, putting paid to Hillarity and Obamarama, and their party of appeasement. I do agree. The only question in my mind is who will the new prez be: Rudy or Fred?

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Posted in Scribbles, The War

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Riding with America’s team

Posted on July 28, 2007 | Comments Off on Riding with America’s team

Michael Totten brings his unique eye to reporting from the center of the surge:

"The 82nd Airborne Division is famous for being ready to roll within 24 hours of call up, so they were sent first. The surge started with these guys. Its progress here is therefore more measurable than it is anywhere else."

I especially like these lines from an earlier report, the sort thing you would never see in the MSM because it diminishes the favored narrative, not to mention the club:

"You’d think explosions and gunfire define Iraq if you look at this country from far away on the news. They do not. The media is a total distortion machine. Certain areas are still extremely violent, but the country as a whole is defined by heat, not war, at least in the summer."

Start here, then click on Home Page and start from the top. Then find the link to give him some money, so this stuff keeps coming.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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The damaged Iraq veteran

Posted on July 25, 2007 | Comments Off on The damaged Iraq veteran

Sound familiar? Try "the damaged Vietnam veteran." Hollywood is so predictably awful these days. The Iraq version will be the theme of the newest Hollywood anti-war movie, "Stop Loss," according to the Drudge Report. Well, really, what can you expect from the land of a thousand cokeheads and Scientologists? Patriotism? Belief in the country? Not hardly. Though, as Drudge points out, their predecessors had the courtesy to wait until World War II and the Vietnam war were over before slandering their veterans. Some courtesy. Cretins.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Harper’s high horse

Posted on July 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Harper’s high horse

There’s really very little more pathetic than when a "professional journalist" at a self-important glossy like Harper’s Magazine attacks bloggers by pretending that he’s anything more than an ink-stained wretch plying a not-very-reputable trade. Grim at BlackFive gets his rebuttal exactly right:

"The journalist is also in error by suggesting that it is a disservice to the public to let the public read the actual words of military officers, instead of [journalism’s] filtered narrative. We ask them questions, often questions that readers have asked us to ask them; then we post the transcript, and readers can judge for themselves."

Ah, for the days when editors crushed spent cigarettes on the linoleum and kept a flask in their desk. They had more perspective than many of today’s "journalism majors," who make their two phonecalls in carpeted offices where they are endlessly agast at departures from the party line. Being so far removed from ordinary human behavior themselves.

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Posted in Scribbles, The War

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TNR’s ace in the hole

Posted on July 20, 2007 | Comments Off on TNR’s ace in the hole

When your aim in journalism is to shock, you run the risk of going too far, becoming tempted to make things up to fit your narrative theme, like a latter-day Chuck Tatum massaging the details of the "grieving widow" device in Billy Wilder’s cult classic "Ace In The Hole." Cynicism and ambition run amuck. So it seems to be with Scott Thomas, the pseudonym of an alleged private whose "Baghdad Diarist," for the credulous liberals of The New Republic, is attracting the attention of a growing number of milbloggers–like Matt Sanchez–who are hot on his trail.

"His latest entries are making the rounds and, have raised a lot of doubts," Sanchez writes. "Those who have served in Baghdad are questioning how true these stories are…I don’t want to know who this guy is, I just want to fact check his stories."

Shockers like a baby’s skull some Neanderthal supposedly digs up and uses for a crown under his Kevlar helmet; the bored Bradley driver who goes out of his way to run over a dog; and the insensitive jerks who mock a disfigured woman in a Camp Falcon mess hall, where Sanchez, too, just happens to dine. So far the Bradley tale is getting the most workout, here in The Weekly Standard, where Bradley veterans explain how they know it’s fiction. Tatum (Kirk Douglas in the 1951 film) would do anything for fame. Thomas seems to be following his lead, and the military-hating libs are, naturally enough, sucking it up. As for TNR, well, like the minor league newspaper editor in "Ace In The Hole," they’re not looking too close at their good thing.

UPDATE The flak (information officer) at FOB Falcon weighs in, shooting down the baby skull item, and questioning the ones about the disfigured woman and the Bradley.

MORE Then the magazine’s editor says it is investigating the accuracy of the articles.

STILL MORE The chickens are coming home to roost as the 1st SGT in the Diarist’s unit says he "has other underlying issues" and his writings are "fairy tales." No surprise there. And, finally, Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette sums it all up.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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