Category Archives: The War

The real state of the union

Posted on January 23, 2007 | Comments Off on The real state of the union

Conservative commentator Jules Crittenden has some fun with the speech Bush ought to give:

"So what is the best thing I can do tonight? I can tell you the truth. What none of you want to hear. What you’ve been stopping your ears to. The ugly truth. The State of the Union is a disaster. I did my best, but I made mistakes, and my best wasn’t good enough. We went to war without building up our army, and now, I am trying to make up for that. But that is not the disaster. The disaster is that you, Congress and the American people, do not care to fight."

Which would be funny if it wasn’t so true.

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Posted in The War

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130 days at the airport

Posted on January 22, 2007 | Comments Off on 130 days at the airport

Pajamas Media updates the wretched tale of Zahra Kamalfar and her children, who in fleeing Iran are still stuck in Moscow’s Sheremetyavo Airport despite efforts by, among others, American lawyers:

"What accounts for this behavior? Sources speculate both the Russians and the Iranians have reason to fear Kamalfar. She may have a lot to talk about when and if she finally gets asylum – including extreme mistreatment by the Russian airport personnel before this case came into public view and even more brutal and abusive treatment by the Iranians while she was in prison. Kamalfar’s husband disappeared in Iran under mysterious circumstances."

Somebody should ask Putin why his government is so dysfunctional on this case.

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Polished tanks

Posted on January 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Polished tanks

Blogger and freelance embed journalist Bill Ardolino finds that some pay, body armor and weapon shortages in the new Iraqi army are due to corruption among senior commanders, affecting day-to-day operations and the lives of everyone below them:

"Perhaps half of the Iraqi Army in Fallujah, primarily the ‘Jundi’ soldiers at the bottom of the pay scale, haven’t been paid in months. As a result, 160 soldiers in the Iraqi Third Battalion recently walked off the job because of missed salaries. The supposed number of soldiers in the battalion was about 700, yet the loss of 160 reduced the unit’s real strength by half. Fuel and equipment shortages greatly influenced by corruption also hamper operations."

Corruption among generals and colonels was believed to be common in the defunct South Vietnamese army, as well, where the commander’s traditional waxed jeep often extended to polished tanks and personnel carriers. Lots of gold-plating, in other words, indicating units organized for something other than fighting. Hopefully the Iraqis can stop it before it worsens.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Walking the line, part 3

Posted on January 21, 2007 | Comments Off on Walking the line, part 3

This time, in Al Anbar province, hotbed of Sunni resistence, with Army veteran and freelance journalist Michael Yon and his photos:

"…the first thing that Marine Sergeant Major O’Connell said about the Minnesota National Guard was something to the effect that this was the best bunch he’d ever seen. I had to clear my ears and ask him to repeat that. I seemed to have had an auditory hallucination, because high praise coming from a Marine Sergeant Major in Anbar province, who knows what competent troops are, just didn’t seem right when it was heaped on the Army."

Rest is here. 

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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The Second Holocaust

Posted on January 21, 2007 | Comments Off on The Second Holocaust

It won’t be personal in the least, it will be over in minutes, and it might be that no one, including the USA, will respond:

"The second holocaust will be quite different. One bright morning, in five or 10 years, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran’s acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will convene in secret session, under a portrait of the steely-eyed Ayatollah Khomeini, and give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by then in his second or third term, the go-ahead."

A plausible, and therefore chilling, read. Fortunately, it’s only one scenario.

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Posted in Israel, The War

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Last chance talk unfair

Posted on January 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Last chance talk unfair

A fairly heartbreaking, and arresting analysis of the coming surge by Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

"It is unfair to demand the impossible from the coming operations; total eradication of terrorism and militias within months is a long shot because the violence in Iraq is a result of domestic and regional conflicts that are not limited to Baghdad and it is part of heavy legacy of mistakes and evil the Baath era left."

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Safety procedures

Posted on January 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Safety procedures

PFC-in-Iraq humor from Teflon Don:

"I’ve seen pictures of what may happen to me if I hit my hand with a hammer, or get too close to a dirt auger. I now know that I shouldn’t play with knives, and that opening the feed tray of a weapon while it is firing may be bad for my health. I have been warned on the dangers of cigarettes, and told that I shouldn’t be drinking alcohol (not that doing so is allowed anyway). I know not to light fires inside tents, or any other enclosure, for that matter. It’s only a matter of time before we’re not allowed to throw rocks."

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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