Kofi Annan delivers the unstartling news that our invasion of Iraq "destablized" the Middle East. Omar at Iraq the Model elucidates why that is not a bad thing.
"The Syrian Baath regime lost its eastern twin, Iran lost its anti-American, anti-Semitic western neighbor and the family-state in Saudi Arabia suddenly found itself with a northern neighbor where minorities and majorities both have shares in governance."
It is out there, it just doesn’t fit the MSM’s narrative. For one thing there’s the telltale morale of US troops:
"The morale of American GIs serving in Iraq continues to be high, regardless of the danger, difficult conditions and family sacrifices they face," the Army’s top enlisted leader said yesterday.
"They really look at it as a badge of honor," said Sgt. Major of the Army, Kenneth O. Preston.
Read. It. All. Enlighten yourself.
They’re leavin’ Fort Hood.
"The 3,000 soldiers of the 1st Cavalry’s air brigade cased their unit flags and streamers during the hourlong ceremony on a Fort Hood parade ground, the last time the unit will muster until it arrives in Iraq in a few weeks."
"The family [of Hospers, Iowa] issued a written statement that described Thorne as ‘very kind, quiet, and unassuming.’
"’He had an affectionate sense of humor, and a most infectious smile. He was an example of both humility and endurance through challenging times,’ the statement read. ‘His gracious presence will continue to be an inspiration. His family is very proud of his dedication and sacrifice, and is committed to honoring him through their lives.’"
UPDATE His wife, Corey, who was also serving in Iraq, illustrates Belmont Club’s belief that religious faith will be needed to beat the jihadis. "We are two very strong people," Corey Thorne said when asked how they coped with the separation and the danger of combat deployment. "We leaned on each other very much. We just trusted in the Lord, that God would take care of each other. Being a solder, I was trained to prepare myself for this."
Comments Off on R.I.P. PFC William E. Thorne, 4th ID
Posted in Troops
Tagged Army, Iraq, William E. Thorne
I don’t recall anyone in the Army of the 1960s sounding like LTC Randolph C. White, Jr., but times certainly have changed in the past forty years. The quote below is from a Free Republic transcript of White’s speech to an advanced individual training (in this case, infantry) graduation back in April at Fort Benning, Ga., and it’s a rouser:
"Don’t let the pessimistic television talking heads, high browed newspaper writers, Hollywood idiots, or any other faction of the ‘blame America first’ crowd get you down! I’m speaking of the ‘Latte Biscotti Crowd.’ They are simply background chatter men and will always exist on the periphery of any endeavor that requires selfless service or loyalty. They are not worthy of your concern and truth be told — in the pit of their cowardly hearts — they wish they could be like you."
Blackfive has the complete video and the transcript and a link to where all 26 MB of the video can be downloaded for repeated viewings and squirreling away.
More on the interesting phenomenon of some civilians and their political and media backers agitating to pull out while the all-volunteer troops want to stay, via the chief findings from a new Stars & Stripes survey of troops in Iraq:
"In the third year of the war in Iraq, with debate flaring in the U.S., American troops surveyed by Stars and Stripes overwhelmingly said the war is worth fighting. Seventy-four percent of Stripes military readers in Iraq who responded to a readership survey said fighting the war for America was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ worthwhile."
Iraq the Model’s Mohammed Fadhill explains.
"The key point in this strategy is to keep the half-solution alive. This method proved successful in keeping the despotic regimes in power for decades and these regimes think this strategy is still valid. What makes them this way is their interpretation of international comments which came almost exactly as they always do; calls for restraint and urging a cease-fire which they (Iran and her allies) think will mean eventually going back to negotiations which they know very well how to keep moving in an empty circle."
What it really boils down to is the insanity of half measures when dealing with terrorists. You either go for victory or you accept their war of attrition, a slow death of a thousand cuts. But even if the Olmert government knows that – and it surely does – will they have the courage to push on through the usual condemnation?
Everyone in the blogosphere, it seems, apologizes before noting something DEBKAfile has up. The conventional wisdom is that DEBKA is not always accurate, but the Israeli open-intelligence site certainly is interesting and has many readers, and now has a good active map that shows what’s within the range of some of those thousands of missiles that have been raining on northern Israel since last week, almost one-a-minute at times.
Comments Off on Why a ceasefire won’t work for long
Posted in Israel
Tagged attrition, cease-fire, Iraq, Israel, Olmert, terrorists
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 