Counterpoint: Kim Jong-Il

Captain Ed, among Twin Cities' bloggers, is famously well-connected; dining at Michelle Malkin's, partying with George Will, on John "J-Po" Podhoretz' speed dialer - Ed is a guy on the go. So today's scoop - landing John McCain as a...
Posted by Mitch on October 10, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Playing Politics?

Todays' Strib Editorial on the Interrogation Bill recycles the usual talking points; on the notion of "coddling" terrorists:Perhaps Hastert means coddle folks like the hapless, innocent Canadian who was shanghaied by U.S. officials and sent off to Syria for a...
Posted by Mitch on September 29, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

I Suppose The Pope...

...is going to get yelled about about this, too....
Posted by Mitch on September 20, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Huh

I think she means it, too....
Posted by Mitch on September 18, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Pick Your Parallels Carefully

Dealing with stock-issue lefties is sort of like handling four-year-olds. A four-year-old will keep begging for candy long after it's quite clear Dad and Mom are not going to cave in. And a not-that-bright lefty will keep with a line...
Posted by Mitch on September 12, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

9/11

In the past, I've written long screeds about the 9/11 anniversary. This year? 40-odd percent of the nation thinks we need to cut and run from Iraq. Too many think that "war on terror" means "perp-walking Bin Laden". For many...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (20) | TrackBack

I'm Probably Going To Go...

...to Ed's speech at Macalester tonight - he'll be the only pro-war speaker on a panel of four, and if I and some other NARN/CQ fans don't show up he'll also likely be the only one in the entire room...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

The Madness Spreads

A little while ago, I was talking with a liberal about the war in Iraq. He, she or it conveyed a belief that Iraq was better off under the rule of Hussein that it is today. I asked he, she...
Posted by Mitch on September 10, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (32) | TrackBack

It's About Time

The President makes the war the big issue again:So I'm -- today I'm asking Congress to pass legislation that will clarify the rules for our personnel fighting the war on terror. First, I am asking Congress to list the specific...
Posted by Mitch on September 08, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Fingers Crossed

The Strib on Armitage: "I know you are but what am I?". No, really:To hear Bush administration defenders tell it, news that Richard Armitage was the original source of the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA work means the entire Plamegate...
Posted by Mitch on September 01, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Foreshadowing

Israel makes it official - they're taking Iran very seriously:Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war against Iran, prompting speculation that it is preparing for possible military action against Tehran's nuclear program. Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel's...
Posted by Mitch on August 28, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Iranians Seize Oil Rig

An Iranian Navy vessel has seized a Romanian oil rig in the Gulf Why care?:One clear purpose behind Iran's seizure of the Romanian rig was a show of force. Heinrich Matthee, Iran analyst for London's Control Risk Group, has noted...
Posted by Mitch on August 25, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Moron Mail

Boy, some of those letters to the editor the Strib prints... For example, today's example, a queazily-selective, half-thought screed from a a Geoff Nunberg, shows that almost anyone can get a letter in the Strib, no matter now badly-written and...
Posted by Mitch on August 22, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (41) | TrackBack

Munich

Arthur Herman on last week's Munich moment:"We have passed an awful milestone in our history," Winston Churchill said after the Munich agreement was signed. "Do not suppose this is the end . . . This is only the first sip,...
Posted by Mitch on August 17, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Treating The Problem

The UK starts profiling Moslems:The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.I'm guessing by "ethnic or religious background" they're talking about the same...
Posted by Mitch on August 15, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Everything But Sausage

Lisa Vincent - widow of Steven Vincent, the freelance journalist who was murdered a year ago by Islamonazi insurgents - is sending pizza and approval to the Israeli Defense Forces: To honor and remember my beloved husband Steven Vincent, the...
Posted by Mitch on August 02, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Partly Pregnant

In the early days of World War II, George Patton said (I'm paraphrasing here) that the goal of war was to find the enemy and kill him. Fast, brutally, and immediately. To kill as many as you could so fast...
Posted by Mitch on August 01, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (25) | TrackBack

False Equivalence

Dick Bernard of Woodbury writes a letter to the editor that is a candidate for a Learned Footing:On Dec. 6, 1941, with war raging around the world, the American people were apparently of no mood to join in -- until...
Posted by Mitch on August 01, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (16) | TrackBack

On The Way To A Solution

I'm not normally one to quote from my comments section in creating new posts - it's kind of lazy if you make too much a habit of it. But occasionally, a comment gives me the impetus for a post. As...
Posted by Mitch on July 25, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Unless They Come After You

Michelle Malkin broils Pat Buchanan and Chris Matthew over a spit, and remembers Lt. Col Rich Higgins, Petty Officer Dave Stethem, Bill Buckley and the Marines killed in Lebanon - of whom it's apparently too inconvenient for Matthews and Buchanan...
Posted by Mitch on July 25, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

And Your Solution Is...

The Strib notes Darfur...:Push has definitely come to shove, and a meeting in Brussels last week underscored the calamity at hand. The only "peacekeeping" operation now in Darfur is run by a 7,000-member African Union force -- too thinly spread...
Posted by Mitch on July 24, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Definition of Insanity

Insanity is doing the same things over and over - and expecting a different result. Even the Strib knows not to expect better from Hezb'allah:If pariahs wanting back into the game explains the implicit reasoning for setting off this round...
Posted by Mitch on July 14, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

7/11

UPDATE: It's gotten much worse. And, according to Roggio, while Al Quaeda hasn't been formally linked to the attack yet, there are leads:An anonymous intelligence source told the Times of India the attacks were "carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and local...
Posted by Mitch on July 11, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (18) | TrackBack

Make Nice, Dumb*ss

I like the Dixie Chicks. Like most stars, I am perfectly fine enjoying the music and ignoring the artists' politics, to a point (Vanessa Redgrave being an example of someone whose politics overshadowed her acting, to me). But Pat Boone...
Posted by Mitch on June 27, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Murtha: Losing It?

Michelle Malkin has extensive evisceration of John Murtha's "Okinawa Plan". This, from "Meet The Press":REP MURTHA:...We can go to Okinawa. We, we don’t have—we can redeploy there almost instantly. So that’s not—that’s, that’s a fallacy. That, that’s just a statement...
Posted by Mitch on June 19, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Iraq, On The Record

The House voted on HR 861 today - expressing support for the Administration's appreciation of Iraq's importance in the War on Terro. Minnesota's delegation voted mostly on party lines, with Democrat Colin Peterson crossing over to vote "yea" with Republicans...
Posted by Mitch on June 16, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

It's Probably Not My Better Self...

...that thinks it's a good thing that Zarquawi didn't die right away:Al-Zarqawi could barely speak when Iraqi police arrived at the scene of Wednesday's attack. "He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," U.S. military spokesman...
Posted by Mitch on June 09, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Priorities

Zarquawi? Zarquawi who?Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, didn't mean to be a spoilsport Thursday when he interrupted the bipartisan celebration over the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with an inopportune observation. What about the man President Bush said he...
Posted by Mitch on June 09, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (32) | TrackBack

Lie Down With The Pigs

Zarqawi is toast:Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq with a $25 million bounty on his head, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse northeast of Baghdad, coalition officials said Thursday. His death was...
Posted by Mitch on June 08, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (58) | TrackBack

The Che of the '00s

Wretchard has an excellent article on the romanticization - and, for news purposes, commodification - of thugs and murderers as pseudo-celebrities on the left. Read the whole thing - but the end caught my attention:Though he died nearly forty years...
Posted by Mitch on May 10, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Enough Rope

Victor Davis Hanson on dealing with Ahmadinejad:The good news is that Iran, like all ossified societies in the current era of globalized communications, is unstable. The eighth-century theocrats in charge there could find their own citizens questioning whether a bomb...
Posted by Mitch on May 04, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

A Step On The Road To Toast

Handwriting experts link Saddam Hussein - the former dictator of Iraq, and the leader so many on the American left seem to feel preferable to the chaos of democracy for all those inconvenient brown people - to Dujail death warrants:Saddam...
Posted by Mitch on April 19, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (27) | TrackBack

Feel The Throb

You could see the glee on Matt Lauer's face when he announced it: a politician was going to slag the Administration's Iraq policy:But this politician isn't a Democrat; it's former Republican congressman Newt Gingrich!Wow. I don't recall them taking Gingrich...
Posted by Mitch on April 13, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (21) | TrackBack

More Good News

Jill Carroll, the American reporter kidnapped almost three months ago, has been released:American reporter Jill Carroll was set free today, nearly three months after she was kidnapped in a bloody ambush that killed her translator, police said. Her editor said...
Posted by Mitch on March 30, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Thanks For Saving Our Lives. Now Take Your Stuff And Please Leave

Christian Peacemaker Teams finally thanked their rescuers (ya gotta scroll down):We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply...
Posted by Mitch on March 24, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Open Letter to "Christian Peacemaker Teams"

I just emailed this to "Christian Peacemaker Teams":CPT, My name is Mitch Berg. I'm a blogger (www.shotinthedark.info), and a radio talk show host (on WWTC-AM in Minneapolis), and a Christian who desires genuine, just peace. I was overjoyed this morning...
Posted by Mitch on March 23, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (36) | TrackBack

Very Good News

A combined US/UK rescue operation has rescued three hostages in Iraq:U.S. and British forces freed one Briton and two Canadians early Thursday in a military operation, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot...
Posted by Mitch on March 23, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

NPR News Flash: 19 out of 20 Nazis Oppose Normandy Landings

An NPR report on last night's episode of The World notes that crowds are taking to the streets in Khartoum to protest a US proposal to deploy UN troops to combat the genocide in Darfur. To a backdrop of protesters...
Posted by Mitch on March 09, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Absolute Moral Authority

Joe Reppya - Twin Citian and now veteran of three wars, who volunteered to go back to Iraq, where he will likely be celebrating his sixtieth birthday shortly - hammers Nick Coleman:Too bad that our veterans and Gold Star parents...
Posted by Mitch on March 07, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Fondest Dreams; Crushed?

In the past week, the media and left have been audibly slavering over the possibility of a civil war in Iraq. It is, indeed, the last shot at redemption for their policy; it's the only way Bush's policy can objectively...
Posted by Mitch on March 02, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (26) | TrackBack

Deutsch Für "Karma"

The upper ranks of the Analysis wing of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to agency critics, are occupied by people who graduated from universities in the late sixties through the mid-seventies, the height of the counterculture. Many were "inspired" to...
Posted by Mitch on February 28, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Any Port In A Storm

Remember last month? When Algore was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (the nation that gives Al Quaeda much of its funding), condemning the Administration's "racial profiling?" Now, the Dems are attacking the "port deal" because...the company that wants to buy the...
Posted by Mitch on February 23, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (47) | TrackBack

It Must All Be Lies

Via Irish Pennants, this this WaPo piece on the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment's tour in Iraq is a fascinating look at how some Coalition units are adapting to the counterinsurgency war:When the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment moved into northwest Iraq...
Posted by Mitch on February 20, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bin Laden's Latest: A Response

To: Usama Bin Laden From: Mitch Berg Re: Your Resolution Mr. Bin Laden, you have vowed not be be captured alive. At last, something on which I agree with you....
Posted by Mitch on February 20, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bluster

Jay Reding also takes a baseball bat to Duncan "Atrios" Black's curious, misplaced bellicosity. Black:s a nuclear Iran really a threat to us? Certainly an Iran-with-nukes could blow the hell out of a city or two, but an Iran that...
Posted by Mitch on February 06, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

The Whole System Is No Longer Out Of Order

There's nothing about a "Fair trial" that involves a defendant controlling the proceedings. (For that matter, there's nothing about Saddam Hussein's record that justifies a trial in the first place; the US - or the Iraqi government - would have...
Posted by Mitch on January 30, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (26) | TrackBack

Under New Management

"Code Pink" is an organization with extensive Twin Cities ties. They are also a group that has pioneered bringing invincible ignorance to bear in support of left-wing causes - I encountered them during the passage of the Minnesota Personal Protection...
Posted by Mitch on January 23, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Good Fascist/Bad Fascist

It's the oldest interrogation trick in the book (at least, among the books I've read); have one questioner come on strong and intransigent, threatening all manner of ugly consequences for not spilling. Then, have the other interrogator - sympathetic, concerned,...
Posted by Mitch on January 20, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Can't Fight Bureaucracy

The Army's procurement system is a holdover from the post-World-War-II era; slow, officer-heavy, prone to analysis paralysis. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, the Army's procurement system is famously sclerotic. In few places has this come in for as...
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

For Goodness' Sake, Don't Rile Them

Europe is about to rouse itself to ineffective pseudo-action:EU powers began circulating a draft resolution on Wednesday for a February 2 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog asking it to report Iran to the Security Council......but have no fear; Europe...
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Reforming the Saudis

Jamie Glazov in Frontpage interviewing Ali Alyami on the future - and recent past - of Saudi Arabia. Money quote for a nation at war:FP: If you were to give the Bush administration advice on policy toward Saudi Arabia what...
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Democrats Endorse Vietnam!

So let me get this straight: John Murtha says he wouldn't enlist in the military today... ...but - in a TV interview last week - he says he did believe in Vietnam, and would have enlisted for that war again?...
Posted by Mitch on January 17, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (10) | TrackBack

German Help?

Via the excellent David's Medienkritik (by far the best digest of German media), this item from the Suddeutsche Zeitung (via ABC): German spies in Baghdad helped U.S. warplanes strike at least one target during the 2003 Iraq war despite Berlin's...
Posted by Mitch on January 12, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Terrorists: Rot In Hell

Via Bogus Doug, ugly news; Ron Schultz's family believes he's been executed by terrorists who kidnapped him in Iraq [Story in the Strib and the local Jamestown Sun]. Schultz, an electrical contractor and former Marine, is from my hometown, as...
Posted by Mitch on January 11, 2006 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

I Bet Halliburton Paid For It

The Chicago Tribune does the unthinkable: questions the left's talking points about Bush's case for war in Iraq.On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to assess the Bush administration's arguments for war in Iraq. We have...
Posted by Mitch on December 31, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (13) | TrackBack

The Poles Remain

Poland's new, relatively conservative government will keep its troops in Iraq for another year:Poland's government says it has taken the "very difficult decision" to extend its military deployment in Iraq until the end of 2006. The new conservative government's decision...
Posted by Mitch on December 28, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Black Septemberfest

I had high hopes for Steven Spielberg's Munich, which purports (in its trailers) to tell the story of Israel's response to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. Scott Johnson in Powerline points to a NYSun piece by Mitch Webber, a Harvard...
Posted by Mitch on December 26, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Legal Grounds

From Radioblogger, a transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with U of Chicago Law professor Cass Sunstein - constitutional law expert and self-described liberal and non-Bush tool:If the Congress authorizes the president to use force, a pretty natural incident of that...
Posted by Mitch on December 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Name This Quote

Quick: Who said this?"The Department of Justice believes -- and the case law supports -- that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the president may, as he has done, delegate...
Posted by Mitch on December 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (43) | TrackBack

Wiretap Roundup

Michelle Malkin posts an encyclopedic roundup of legal support for the Administration in the NSA wiretap story. Read 'em - especially if you're of the "the President had no right...school of thought - and take a moment to absorb it.Now,...
Posted by Mitch on December 20, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (34) | TrackBack

Question

One of the favorite tropes of the left (and some less-gifted elements of the right) in re the war in Iraq is that we made a huge mistake disbanding the Iraqi Army after the war. Let's dispense with that forever,...
Posted by Mitch on December 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Dude, Where's My Policy?

I'm not sure what is the funniest thing about this morning's WaPo piece by Dan Balz on Nancy Pelosi essentially punting on her party's splintering over Iraq: the fact that she can not get her caucus onto the same page...:House...
Posted by Mitch on December 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

What's In A Word, Part II

The NRO asks, in the wake of John McCain's grandstanding, "what is torture":The root of this confusion is the absence of an agreed-upon definition of terms. Everyone knows that "torture" is illegal, banned under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT)....
Posted by Mitch on December 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

What's In A Word

I heard Howard Dean on NPR the other day. Closely paraphrasing: "We're not fighting terrorists. We're fighting insurgents". In other words, they're just rebelling against the central authority, not really trying to impose their political will via terror. Let's see...
Posted by Mitch on December 09, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Kennedy Swings

Good to see GOP Congressman and Senatorial candidate Mark Kennedy coming out swinging against the DFLers running against him. He asks the question that, in the wake of Murtha, all of us need to be asking all of them:Kennedy fired...
Posted by Mitch on December 09, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (28) | TrackBack

Schultz

A group of sub-human vermin claims to have executed Ron Schultz:The Islamic Army in Iraq said it had killed "the American security consultant for the Housing Ministry," after the United States failed to respond to its demand of the release...
Posted by Mitch on December 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (34) | TrackBack

It Takes A Hero?

The nation was mired in a war whose unpopularity was a matter of question. The media stood firmly on the "anti" side, having declared the war "unwinnable" in the midst of the greatest military victory of the war, in a...
Posted by Mitch on December 06, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Call Ramsey Clark

You're out driving. It's seven on a Saturday evening, and as you pull up at a stoplight, you see a police car in your rear-view mirror. You think nothing of it; you have a clean record, as far as you...
Posted by Mitch on December 05, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (33) | TrackBack

The Minutemen In Action

Michael Moore: The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the MinutemenWord today that the "Minutemen" have boobytrapping children's dolls in Iraq:The Iraqi army said on Thursday...
Posted by Mitch on November 25, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Murtha Drinking Dean's Koolaid?

Remember in the run-up to and the early days of the Iraq war? John Howard Dean, then running for President, insisted the proper path was for the US to deploy and for 130,000-odd troops from "Moderate Moslem" nations to handle...
Posted by Mitch on November 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (56) | TrackBack

They Use Bullets, Too

Note to the American left: Explosives - hand grenades, artillery shells, missile warheads - are made of chemicals.Bullets are made using chemicals, and are propelled by an explosion of other chemicals.The plastic flexi-cuffs that are put on apprehended terrorists are...
Posted by Mitch on November 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Senate: Let Terrorists Set Their Own Goal Dates

The Senate slammed the door shut on the Dem notion of forcing a pull-out from Iraq. The 50-38 vote wasn't entirely on party lines: Lincoln Chafee voted for the bill, while Pryor (AR), Lieberman (CT)(!), both Nelsons (FL and NE),...
Posted by Mitch on November 15, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Post-Election Wrapup

Michael Yon on the election. He met some Minnesota National Guards:We stopped at another station, and met Minnesota National Guard (now the 720th MPs) soldiers. Captain Aaron Krenz said their responsibilities included the Karrada and Mada-an districts, and 119 polling...
Posted by Mitch on October 26, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Two Elections

Strategy Page compares the two Iraqi elections so far:The government is getting better at running national elections under the threat of terrorist attacks. The legislative elections last January had fewer than ten million people voting (69 percent of those registered),...
Posted by Mitch on October 17, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Omission?

For a bit, I thought Mark Steyn was indulging in hyperbole in Friday's column about the media's reluctance to associate Islam with terrorism:NPR's "All Things Considered" had one of those bland interviews between one of its unperturbable anchorettes and some...
Posted by Mitch on October 17, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Staged!

Hah!:Controversy has erupted among the press corps in the last few days as news has spread that the now-famous picture of the "victorious" flag raising over Iwo Jima a couple weeks ago was staged. Many believe that, as the huge...
Posted by Mitch on October 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It Was Five Years Ago Today...

...that Al Quaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole, a Burke-class destroyer docked in Aden harbor in Yemen. Stars and Stripes talks about the attacks...:The Cole incident was one of a series of terrorist attacks in the 1990s that were not adequately...
Posted by Mitch on October 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Coming Up Short on Context

The media is in full "spike the ball in the end zone" mode; the Army missed its recuiting goal for the year. Disaster, right? Stephen Spruiell says "not so fast":First, the primary reason for the shortfall is the fact that...
Posted by Mitch on October 06, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

OKC Suicide Bomber

The guy who blew himself up at last weekend's Oklahoma football game? Just a depressed student. Well, that's the media's official word. According to Michelle Malkin, there's more to it than that:Hinrichs reportedly tried to buy ammonium nitrate. Gateway Pundit...
Posted by Mitch on October 05, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Three Canards

In a previous thread, commenter "Teena" - who seems a thoroughly well-meaning sort - listed three canards of the (I'll be charitable) anti-war left that I think need to be examined more closely....
Posted by Mitch on October 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (62) | TrackBack

Petraeus

Via the Powerguys, I saw Tigerhawk's coverage of a speech at Princeton by Lt. General David Petraeus. Petraeus is the former commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command and NATO Training Mission in Iraq, and before that commanded the 101st...
Posted by Mitch on October 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Odd

If you read blogs, this story isn't much of a surprise:U.S. troops battled insurgents holed up in houses and driving explosives-laden vehicles in a town near the Syrian border, killing at least 28 of them Sunday in an expansion of...
Posted by Mitch on October 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Very Worth A Read

Do yourselves a favor and read Terror in the Skies, by Annie Jacobsen. It's a story of her own terrifying encounter with a government that still seems not to be entirely serious about terror, and her investigation into how bad...
Posted by Mitch on September 29, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Quagmire!

Afghanistan held another election:Afghan voters elected a parliament for the first time in more than 35 years Sunday as a massive security operation foiled Taliban threats to disrupt the polling. There were 19 attacks across the country, but they were...
Posted by Mitch on September 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fighting Back

I saw "The Flight That Fought Back" on Discovery last night. If you have a chance to see it, you need to. The one-hour special - a combination of dramatic reconstruction, real audio footage and interviews with relatives of the...
Posted by Mitch on September 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

September 11: Compare, Contrast

In two days, Saint Paul will have its mayoral primary (for those of you outside the Twin Cities, this is not just an endorsement primary, but in fact the runoff for the November election; the top two vote-getters for Mayor...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 11: Priorities

CNN won't show you this today: But they will file suit so that you can see the decomposed bodies of people killed by a natural disaster. The sight of humans falling to their death after a terrorist attack is "too...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (20) | TrackBack

September 11: Accents

One of the most interesting-cum-jarring things of the last few months has been the release of the transcripts and tapes of 9/11 radio traffic. Most of it is the inscrutable code of professionals carrying out an arcane craft; the transcripts...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 11: The Perfect Awful Morning

Four years ago this morning, the morning had already started out badly. And that was just me. I had been divorced less than a year. Dealing with the kids in the morning had not gotten any easier; One or both...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 11: The WTC and Me

It was the third Saturday of October in 1988. I had flown to New York City earlier in the week, to interview for a couple of radio jobs. It was my first time in New York City. I'd spent the...
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 11

Lots of things to write on today's fourth anniversary. Rather than my traditional novel, I'm just going to post a lot of different things as they come up....
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Anniversary

Sheila has been re-publishing a bunch of her 9/11-related posts - some of the best stuff I read on the subject - over the past few days. Especially today's....
Posted by Mitch on September 10, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Assailable

Today's Strib editorial is a particularly ripe specimen. It cites the likes of Cindy Sheehan and Becky Lourey as the new face of the antiwar movement.Thirty-five years ago, the antiwar movement was typified by a long-haired, scruffy young male of...
Posted by Mitch on August 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

What News?

Remember last spring, when the Army (alone among the armed services) fell short of its recruiting goals? Today, Ralph Peters in the NYPost notes that news of the military's demise was greatly exaggerated:Now, as the fiscal year nears an end,...
Posted by Mitch on August 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The New Front

David Frum - via Brian Preston at Malkin's blog - notes that the real front in the Iraq war today is right here in the US. The president could have made news yesterday by itemizing the reasons to regard Iraq...
Posted by Mitch on August 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Identity Theft

I can't stand it when people appropriate "America's Children" for some hair-brained left-wing cause. My children are "America's Children", true - but they're my children, first and foremost. Keep your mitts off them. I find it deeply offensive. How much...
Posted by Mitch on August 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

The Good News?

Terrorists took a pot shot at a couple of American ships docked in Jordan early today.It was carried on an Islamist Web site not often used by other groups which say they are linked to Osama bin Laden's network. "A...
Posted by Mitch on August 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Fishy?

UPDATED AND BUMPED UP: Michelle Malkin is passing on an image (sent to her by Dang If I Know), which purports to show a divorce filing between Cindy and Patrick Sheehan. Cindy Sheehan, of course, is the woman whom the...
Posted by Mitch on August 15, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (41) | TrackBack

Routing Around the Damage

Buried in this story about possible threatened terrorist attacks on our around the September 11 anniversary is an interesting bit of good news/bad news:The Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. have stepped up their ability to collect and analyze...
Posted by Mitch on August 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Coverage

The Fraters have been writing a lot about Michael Yon's coverage from Iraq. So I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. Money quote:After seeing the damaged Stryker, and being unable to visualize how human bodies would have to be arrayed...
Posted by Mitch on August 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A Family Matter

I haven't spent any time covering the Cindy Sheehan story. There's no way to win, really - criticizing a parent who has lost a child is a bad move. And she has every right to believe and say what she...
Posted by Mitch on August 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (32) | TrackBack

Stephen Vincent Murdered

Author Stephen Vincent was kidnapped and murdered in Basra, Iraq. A US freelance reporter, Steven Vincent, has been shot dead by unknown gunmen in Basra, southern Iraq, police have said. Mr Vincent was abducted with his female Iraqi translator at...
Posted by Mitch on August 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Flypaper: The Numbers

Chrenkoff asks, in light of all the phumphering about the link between Iraq and the London bombings:We are told that London bombings are a result of Tony Blair's decision to participate in the illegal invasion of Iraq. We are told...
Posted by Mitch on August 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Searching the Strib Archives

I did some digging around in the Strib archives the other day, and I found some old editorials. Let's take a look:...
Posted by Mitch on July 25, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Sympathies

Egypt's government is, by American standards, an authoritarian mess. The Mubarak government has cozied up to the United States since Camp David, largely out of self-preservation, squeezed as it has been between two Marxist militocracies iin Libya and the...
Posted by Mitch on July 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

London Again

More bombings - or attempted bombings - in London?Two weeks after suicide attacks on subway stations and a bus, police evacuated three subway stations and a bus after reports of smoke and an explosion today. Police said one person was...
Posted by Mitch on July 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

In Sudan

Mudville Gazette on American involvement in Sudan:A C-17 Globemaster III departed here July 18 carrying 95 Rwandan troops deploying to help ease the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. The airlift started the 86th Aerospace Expeditionary Group’s involvement...
Posted by Mitch on July 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Lost Me

LaShawn Barber has long been one of my favorite conservative bloggers. But we're going to have to have a long talk here:Most politicians are faint-hearted, weak, ineffectual, disconnected, and desensitized pencil-pushers, so when one comes along and says what should’ve...
Posted by Mitch on July 20, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (25) | TrackBack

There Never Were Any Connections, Winston

In a thread from earlier this week, I noted that a celebrated (on the left) survey judged that Fox viewers were "more ill-informed" than PBS viewers because they believed there had been a connection between Hussein and Al Quaeda. The...
Posted by Mitch on July 20, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Tancredo - Context Doesn't Help Much

Thorley Winston, Twin Cities blogger at large writing with RedState, has Rep. Tancredo's remarks:While I am sympathetic that people sometimes speak off the cuff and say things that don't come out quite as they intended and that the MSM can...
Posted by Mitch on July 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Why Tancredo Is Wrong

A number of people left comments yesterday defending Rep. Tancredo's statement. To be fair to the Congressman, it's possible his remarks were taken out of context. I'll wait and see. But if indeed he said we should "Nuke Mecca" in...
Posted by Mitch on July 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Tancredo: Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

Rep. Tom Tancredo's remarks about nuking Mecca if Islamofascists nuke an American city are among the stupidest things I've heard an American politician of any party say. Ever. Hugh's right:Every media voice that was raised against Dick Durbin's asinine comparison...
Posted by Mitch on July 18, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Not Torture

Not at Guantanamo, anyway, says a DOD report:Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, who headed the probe into FBI accounts of abuse of Guantanamo prisoners by Defense Department personnel, concluded that the man was subjected to "abusive and degrading treatment"...
Posted by Mitch on July 14, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Paging Alanis Morrissette

Sinn Fein sends condolences to London's bombing victims....
Posted by Mitch on July 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Myths Slaughtered While You Wait

John Hawkins shreds eight common myths about Iraq (in a piece I could have used yesterday). Meanwhile, in his slower and less spectacular way, Chrenkoff does the same for Afghanistan....
Posted by Mitch on July 12, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hitchens V. Reagan (Ron)

I've been trying to figure out for days what to say about Ron Reagan's interview with Christopher Hitchens last week. Fortunately, Baldilocks is on the ball.Poor Ron. Blissfully, he probably doesn't realize how embarrassing the schooling was that Christopher gave...
Posted by Mitch on July 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Institutional Myopia

Well, that answers one question. I asked what the Strib believed about the London bombing. As this morning's institutional editorial shows, the paper's view is not as caustically morally depraved as what Nick Coleman allegedly said, but it's not a...
Posted by Mitch on July 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Coleman: They Had It Coming

According to someone who still pays attention, Nick Coleman said (paraphrasing closely) that the people of London had it coming. He apparently said it starting around 7:45AM yesterday morning on his radio show. Apparently - according to this source, who...
Posted by Mitch on July 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (26) | TrackBack

Lost In Translation

Andrew Sullivan says re: Londoners' reaction to the attacks:Stoicism is not an American virtue.Dunno, Andrew. If the terrorists ever attacked Fargo or Duluth, the dominant sound bite would likely be "Enh. Coulda been worse". Apart from a sense of humor,...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Around London

The BBC's Mark Easton reports on the Beeb's reporter blog from London's King's Cross station - sort of a Penn Station, a subway and BritRail hub for London and points east, as I recall:At King's Cross the professionalism and control...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Condolences

To my British readers - and I know I have one or two - my condolences at your tragedy. And ours. Beyond that, I am for the moment speechless. Your guy said it better anyway:Centuries ago words were written...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Carnage in the Tube

You've no doubt heard; the London Underground was bombed this morning. While the authorities haven't yet fixed blame - it could be Islamofascists, anti-G8 militants, IRA holdouts or any of a number of other terror groups - apparently (say sources...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Some Good News

According to Froggy Ruminations, one of the SEALs that's been missing since last Tuesday has been rescued after five days of Escape and Evasion. Stay tuned....
Posted by Mitch on July 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Backstory

The desperate battle to rescue a SEAL team in the mountains of Afghanistan continues:A Predator unmanned aerial vehicle captured images of movement around the crash site and infrared strobes of the type U.S. special operators use in emergencies, a military...
Posted by Mitch on July 01, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

The President's Speech

The legion of the predictably, perpetually concerned have their undies in a knot over the 9/11 references in the President's speech last night. Andrew McCarthy eats them for breakfast in this bruising NRO piece. Key bit:If the president is guilty...
Posted by Mitch on June 29, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Enter Cowboy?

The key to the President's problems lately is that he's been acting like...a politician. Which is a big part of the job, of course. But while talking with people at Keegans' last night, someone - probably a Frater - noted...
Posted by Mitch on June 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (22) | TrackBack

From the Moronic To the Ridiculous

Kofi Annan might be in trouble after all.The committee probing the U.N. oil-for-food program announced Tuesday it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after an e-mail suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar U.N. contract...
Posted by Mitch on June 14, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Whuppin'

A couple of weeks back, when Norm Coleman and George Galloway went mano a mano in the Senate, some of the more credulous elements of the left claimed a Galloway victory. "Time will tell", I replied....
Posted by Mitch on May 30, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Paying A Debt

Company B of the 141st Combat Engineer Battalion was my hometown National Guard unit when I was growing up. Many of the local guys were in the company, and toward the end of high school many more of my friends...
Posted by Mitch on May 22, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Scratch Another Conspiracy

Giuliana Sgrena's story that the US Army was plotting her demise when it killed her bodyguard and wounded her took at hit:U.S. military officials told NBC News that a joint American-Italian investigation found the soldiers acted properly in firing on...
Posted by Mitch on April 14, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Turning Tide?

This WaPo story on the battle in Mosul - and the attendant fall-off in attacks on US troops - illustrates the changing nature of the war in Iraq:From inside a vacant building, Sgt. 1st Class Domingo Ruiz watched through a...
Posted by Mitch on April 13, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Half the Story

Bing West was a Marine officer in Vietnam, a former assistant secretary of defense under Reagan, and co-author (with former Marine Major General Ray Smith) of The March Up, which is one of the essential histories of the Iraq War...
Posted by Mitch on April 08, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Midway, Kursk, El Alamein, The Atlantic, the Election - Part II

Austin Bay on his evidence that we're beating the insurgency. He discusses an observation made while on active duty in Iraq, in the Joint Operations Center....
Posted by Mitch on March 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

On Patrol

Rusten Currie is in Iraq, and writes one of the best stories I've seen about a typical patrol in the Sunni Triangle. Worth a read....
Posted by Mitch on March 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Right To Keep And Bear Arms

Everyone knows civilian ownership of assault rifles is a bad thing. Oh, yes.:Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon Tuesday, a carpenter named Dhiya saw a troop of masked gunmen with...
Posted by Mitch on March 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Sign Of The Times

Another flag burning in Iraq. A Jordanian flag this time, being burned for Jordan's support of the insurgents. Cry quagmire! UPDATE: Commenter Slash noticed something that I, on my weatherbeaten monitor at home, did not; as Powerline also notes, the...
Posted by Mitch on March 15, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

This Is Rich

After the Hariri assassination, Lebanese took to the streets in the thousands. The lefty media and major leftyblogs were silent. Then, last week, the Hezbollah thugocrats drew half a million - maybe - which cause a number of lefty commentators...
Posted by Mitch on March 15, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Will The Last Critic Turn The Lights Out?

First, it was Hillary Clinton [1], who drew brickbats from the MoveOn crowd for breaking ranks with the far left on the war. Then, on the Sunday talkies, Ted Kennedy and Bill Richardson both credited the President's policies in the...
Posted by Mitch on March 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

"Hasbara": Hebrew for "S**t or Get Off the Pot"

Israel claims to have a smoking gun in last Friday's bombings in Tel Aviv, and it has Syrian fingerprints:As the March 1 London conference devoted to the re-building of the Palestinian Authority approaches, Israel has launched an informational "hasbara" campaign...
Posted by Mitch on February 28, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Wall, '05

Deacon from Powerline notes this piece from the WaPo. See if you can tell why it's important....
Posted by Mitch on February 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Never Seen Law And Order

I love the old Saturday Night Live sketch, where the clue-free reporters ask Norman Schwartzkopf to divulge the times, places, and units involved in upcoming attacks, as the General does a slow burn at their bone-headitude. I'm having a flashback....
Posted by Mitch on February 23, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Glorious Mundanity

The front-runner for Prime Minister in Iraq seems to be steering a careful course between Islam and secularism:The shy family doctor who became the leading candidate for prime minister Tuesday says ending the nation's rampant violence is his top priority...
Posted by Mitch on February 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deep Kimchi, Part II

North Korea has nukes. So what?...
Posted by Mitch on February 16, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Hollywood Goes To War?

USA Today had a piece the other day about Hollywood's response to the Iraq war. No, really. They have one. I was amazed, too....
Posted by Mitch on February 10, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Iraq Election Predictions

As Cap'n Ed noted yesterday, there's evidence that the terrorists in Iraq - operating in similar fashion to their ideological forebears in Algeria in the '90s - are going to throw a full-court press against the election, targeting poll workers,...
Posted by Mitch on January 26, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

My Pal Grasshopper

I have a pal. His name is...well, that's not important. We all called him "Grasshopper". Not because he was a Kung Fu master or anything; far from it. He continually got his ass kicked in fight after fight... ...but, again,...
Posted by Mitch on January 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Armor Plated

Lieutenant Neil Prakash is a lieutenant in the First Infantry Division, a tank platoon leader, an Indian , the son of two doctors, a Silver Star winner, and the author of Armor Geddon, one of my favorite new milblogs and...
Posted by Mitch on January 24, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Playing What If

I heard Dennis Prager interviewing that noted right-wing tool William Shawcross today, in re his new book, Allies: The U.S., Britain, and Europe, and the War in Iraq, one of a small but fascinating number of books by liberal pundits...
Posted by Mitch on January 21, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Bomb Threat

An anonymous caller has the Feds and the government of Boston good and spooked:Massachusetts law enforcement officials were notified of the threat at 5:30 a.m. today through the FBI and Boston Police Joint Terrorist Task Force. The threat was serious...
Posted by Mitch on January 19, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Mad As Hell

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Ryan commands a battalion of the 12th Cavalry, part of the First Cavalry Division, currently serving in Iraq. He writes perhaps the most passionate, emotional evisceration of the media's blinkered coverage of Iraq that I've yet read....
Posted by Mitch on January 18, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Hersh and the Fantasy-Based Community

Seymour Hersh is back, talking about defense. When Seymour Hersh says "jump", the Fantasy-Based Community asks "off what?" The Pentagon is responding to Hersh's piece in the New Yorker in which he claimed US Special Forces and the CIA are...
Posted by Mitch on January 18, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (14) | TrackBack

The Invisible Boom?

What if Iraq's economy boomed, but the western major media ignored it? This bit from ABC has some numbers....
Posted by Mitch on January 17, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Interrogation

Heather MacDonald, in City Journal, has a has a fascinating piece on the background of the "torture" debate. Army doctrine gives interrogators 16 “approaches� to induce prisoners of war to divulge critical information. Sporting names like “Pride and Ego Down�...
Posted by Mitch on January 11, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vultures

The ever-more-essential Diplomad skewers the UN's roving disaster bureaucracy. Seeing these UNocrats perched at the table, whispering to each other, back-slapping, shaking hands, they seemed like a periodic reunion of old cynical Mafia chieftains or mercenaries who run into each...
Posted by Mitch on January 07, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MacGyver, USMC

It starts out as a typical military SNAFU story: Marine in Iraq gets a care packate intended for a female Marine, complete with, er, feminine products. And it's there that the story gets interesting....
Posted by Mitch on January 05, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Grand Disillusion

Naseer Flayih Hasan is an Iraqi, with a fascinating piece in Frontpage magazine. A few questions to keep in mind before we read it:Lefties: You say you "support the troops but oppose the war". OK. It's illogical and makes no...
Posted by Mitch on January 04, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Perfect is the Enemy of Good

Steven Vincent - author of the fascinating book "Into The Red Zone", and the nearly eponymous blog, on the upcoming elections:Will the Iraqi elections be "free?" Possibly not by the standards of Jimmy Carter or U.N. officials; certainly not the...
Posted by Mitch on January 03, 2005 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Another Endorsement

Bin Laden endorses the violence in Iraq by way of derailing the election:In an audiotape broadcast Monday by Al-Jazeera satellite television, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for...
Posted by Mitch on December 28, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Surprise, Surprise

The media is reacting to the current fighting in Fallujah like...well, like they react to all combat; as if the sky is falling. We took their base; what did the "analysts" in the major media expect? That the terrorists would...
Posted by Mitch on December 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Incoming

Training for Eternity is a blog by a chaplain currently serving in Iraq. His post today, on the attack in Mosul that claimed 19 lives today, is an essential. Read it. Absorb it. The vultures will soon be trying to...
Posted by Mitch on December 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11) | TrackBack

They Said It Couldn't Happen

Karzai sworn in:Three years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan's first popularly elected president, Hamid Karzai, was sworn in Tuesday in a dignified, heavily guarded ceremony attended by hundreds of Afghan and foreign guests, including Vice President Cheney and...
Posted by Mitch on December 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Islamists, Please Take Note

This has got to piss off the Islamofascists: They are Sgt. Angela Magnuson, Sgt. Kristen Pagel and Sgt. Jessica Fisher, of the North Dakota National Guard; according to Alois, "Charlie's Angels"....
Posted by Mitch on December 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Spirit of America in Afghanistan

Sgt Hook reports on Spirit of America's impact in an Afghan village....
Posted by Mitch on December 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Lack of Intelligence

The Strib is concerned about the "failure" to pass the intelligence "reform" bill:Before it adjourned last weekend, the U.S. House failed to pass an urgently needed intelligence reform bill, the one developed out of recommendations by the 9/11 commission. President...
Posted by Mitch on November 29, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Up Front

For all the criticism of the Embedded Reporter program that's happened in the two weeks since the shooting of a wounded insurgent by a US Marine (most of it misguided), the program continues to be a source of some great...
Posted by Mitch on November 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Doing His Job

Diane West in the WashTimes on The Marine:"Enlightened" people everywhere are clucking — but not over the heinous execution of CARE's Margaret Hassan, the mutilated bodies found on Fallujah's streets, the beheading chamber discovered by U.S. soldiers, the Taliban-like decrees...
Posted by Mitch on November 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Moore's Minutemen

Michael Moore compared them with the Minutemen. Less egregiously, a commenter on a previous post repeated a meme that the leftymedia have been pimping for the past week or so:An occupying soldier who shoots an unarmed wounded man in the...
Posted by Mitch on November 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Cue Wolves, Idiots

War is a lousy thing. In Fallujah, a Marine apparently shot and killed a wounded Iraqi prisoner....
Posted by Mitch on November 16, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (54) | TrackBack

Arafat Kacks?

The Christian in me refuses to rejoice at anyones death. The human in me wants to do a tapdance at the late-breaking word that Yasser Arafat has assumed room temperature. The auteur of the policy of years of suicide attacks...
Posted by Mitch on November 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (33) | TrackBack

All-Purpose - but Pointed

Lileks repeats something I heard on Hewitt; Paul Harvey has spoken:Paul Harvey, of all people, noted that the hard phase of the battle would involve house-to-house combat, “just like Vietnam.” Sigh. It’s now the all-purpose metaphor. All-purpose, perhaps - but...
Posted by Mitch on November 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Fallujah

The battle is joined in Fallujah. According to Wretchard, the US Army, Marine and Iraqi troops are moving in from the west of the city, while a battalion of Brits (the famous Black Watch, a storied and fairly ancient Scottish...
Posted by Mitch on November 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Canard Watch

Someone left me this comment:Bush had three years to get Bin Laden, and he didn't. Although he made big words around it right after 9/11. His approval rate was above 90% back then. Since then he started a different war....
Posted by Mitch on November 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Tancredo

Via the Generalissimo, I read Congressman Tom Tancredo's Blog entries about his trip to Beslan. This is for all of you that buy Kerry's line about the war on terror as a law enforcement exercise....
Posted by Mitch on October 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Terms of Armistice, Terms of Surrender

Wretchard from Belmont Club on Bin Laden's statement. I've added the emphasis:It is important to notice what [Bin Laden] has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more...
Posted by Mitch on October 29, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5) | TrackBack

The Terror Candidate?

Few things seem to rile the left more than the notion that the terrorists want John Kerry to win. Who can blame 'em? As a Republican, I get incensed when some chuzzlewit drags out the well-worn, long-pummeled warhorses about GOP...
Posted by Mitch on October 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Fog of War

Longtime Shot in the Dark correspondent Fingers - an officer serving on active duty - writes in the comments re the mysterious disappearing explosives:I've been meaning to thump this in and post it.... We have a saying in fighter aviation:...
Posted by Mitch on October 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Surprise

As you've no doubt heard, US and Iraqi forces are in action in Fallujah, in what appears to be an escalating series of raids into the city. The military is playing their intentions close to the vest: Maj. Francis Piccoli,...
Posted by Mitch on October 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

He'll Be Tough

When I rip on John Kerry for his perceived Neville-Chamberlain-y aspects, my lefty friends inevitably chime in "he'll fight the war on terror!" Yeah, sure - but how? Well, first of all, it never seems to occur to either Bai...
Posted by Mitch on October 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What - Another Final Word?

The press is awash with the declaration: "THE FINAL WORD: NO WMD!" And yet, buried farther down in the report is the exact thing we on the right have been warning about:But Duelfer also supports Bush’s argument that Saddam remained...
Posted by Mitch on October 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (19) | TrackBack

The First Battle

Longtime contributor Fingers sends this piece from the Standard. Iraq isn't Vietnam. It's Guadalcanal. Iraq isn't Vietnam, it's Guadalcanal--one campaign of many in a global war to defeat the terrorists and their sponsors. Like the United States in the Pacific...
Posted by Mitch on September 29, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Aid and Comfort

"Don't blame us", the left cavils, "and our lies and context-deprived rantings about Iraq, and our candidates' demonstrable desire to wash their hands of the nation, for the recent surge in violence!". Oh, I think I'll listen to those who...
Posted by Mitch on September 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Waaaaaaah

Generalissimo Duane calls our attention to John Kerry's continuing threat to stomp his feet and hold his breath until President Bush stops actually trying to get elected:Presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) — responding to a Republican group's...
Posted by Mitch on September 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Casus Belli

As predicted in this blog over a year ago, there is evidence that Iraq had dismantled its nuclear weapons program - but retained the knowledge to reconstitute it when the coast was clear....
Posted by Mitch on September 25, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Teaching Old Armies New Tricks

Americans are used to the notion that our military can pretty much pick up at any time, and fight any war, anywhere. It's enshrined in US military lore:From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we'll fight our...
Posted by Mitch on September 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Squeeze, Release, Watch, Repeat

Regular correspondent Fingers - an old friend with extremely extensive knowledge of military matters, left a great comment earlier today. Since John Kerry and the Dems seem to want to make an issue of Iraq, it seems especially appropriate....
Posted by Mitch on September 23, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Your Neighbor's House

Imagine the family that lives down the street from you - the Smiths - has a teenage son - let's call him "Robbie" - who gets waaaaay involved in mischief; petty vandalism escalating to drug dealing, culminating with terrorizing the...
Posted by Mitch on September 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (23) | TrackBack

Internationalism

Russia seems to be learning what Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, the UK, South Korea, Israel and most of the other nations involved in the day-to-day war on terror have learned; you can't go it alone, but but you also can't...
Posted by Mitch on September 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Never Forgive, Never Forget

There are many great 9/11 commemorations on the web today. The Patriette may have the simplest, and best, one. As to me? Tomorrow....
Posted by Mitch on September 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Someone Taping This?

Madeleine Albright is on Today, listed as a "Kerry Advisor". The interview, with Katie Couric... ...oh, words fail. If the content of this interview could be publicized, it'd be the best Bush ad since the third Swifty spot. Did you...
Posted by Mitch on September 08, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Russian Responses

This fascinating piece from Belmont Club explains much about hamfistedness of the Russian response to the Beslan massacre - and offers some clues as to why Kerry's promises of internationalization of the war on terror are hollow....
Posted by Mitch on September 08, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Human Nature

From The Unsealed Room, via Red, this reminder that the worst in some people swine brings out the best in some victims people:Like Korzchak, Kanidis didn’t just accompany his students, he guarded their lives. On Friday, when the children began...
Posted by Mitch on September 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Evil

Few do outraged photoblogs better than Jay Reding. His piece on Beslan is as good as any:There are those who want to argue that we’re no better than they are. There are those who want to argue bullshit like “one...
Posted by Mitch on September 06, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oh, Crap

The Ossetia School Siege is not turning out at all well:News breaking just now that terrorists have set off explosives in the gymnasium where from 400 to 1,000 people have been held hostage by Chechen Islamic terrorists. The roof has...
Posted by Mitch on September 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Blame Canada

I'm starting to worry about Canada. Not all of Canada, really. There are two Canadas; the West, a place that any North Dakotan or Coloradan would recognize, and the East - Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes - which are vying...
Posted by Mitch on August 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Peace is Messy

Irritating lefty trope of the week: "Bush Didn't Have A Plan to Win The Peace". The statement is tripe, of course; nobody ever knows that. Steven Green in TCS articulates that fact....
Posted by Mitch on August 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Side by Side

I was reading Kos the other day. Someone posted this map, which shows American deaths in action in Iraq by hometown. There are dots spread fairly evenly and thinly across the Red States, while the dots are clustered around the...
Posted by Mitch on August 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

The Real War

Ever since Iraq came on the national radar, the left has been hectoring President Bush for not going after "the real terrorists" - as if Al Quada were the only terrorist organizaton in the world. Word is, of course, filtering...
Posted by Mitch on August 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Bush Lied. People Died.

And apparently tha'ts really OK with John Kerry after all:Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction...
Posted by Mitch on August 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Driving to Chanhassen

A bit of video (500K download) showing my old commute; this was, if I recall correctly, Highway 5 down by Eden Prairie Center. No, really, it's not. (Via Free Market Fairy Tales)...
Posted by Mitch on August 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shhhhh. It's A Secret.

If elected, John Kerry has a plan to bring the boys and girls home. John F. Kerry pledged Sunday he would substantially reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq by the end of his first term in office but declined to...
Posted by Mitch on August 02, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Scouts

The New York police have been finding suitcases - empty ones - on the subway. They've concluded that the city's defenses and responses to potential bombs are being probed. And reports of people probing the defenses at airports and on...
Posted by Mitch on July 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Shout From The Pack

I've been a huge fan of Sergeant Stryker for a long, long time. He's the first milblogger I ever blogrolled, and he remains a very frequent read. Stryker has gotten some play from this piece, which whacks at both sides...
Posted by Mitch on July 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Sci Fi Comes To Life

Military Lasers were in the realm of science fiction for most of the last fifty years. Then, for about the last twenty years, they've been a tool - for aiming, measuring ranges and so on. But the long-standing goal of...
Posted by Mitch on July 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Strib Still Loves Wilson

From reading the Strib this morning, you'd never know that Joe "Sweet Tea" Wilson had been caught lying about the results of his "investigation". Nary a mention of his perfidy in this morning's editorial; just more Democrat talking points dressed...
Posted by Mitch on July 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

From the Duh Files

I wasn't nearly as surprised to hear that the Department of Defense has shut down the Pentagon daycare as I was to hear there was one there in the first place....
Posted by Mitch on July 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Purely Academic Question

Do you suppose that with all the bits and pieces of information that are starting to come out about possible Terrorist activities pertaining to the conventions, the Olympics and the election - including a number of terrorist arrests here in...
Posted by Mitch on July 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Foreboding

Caught this, via Lileks; apparently an immense proportion of our fleet is at sea.As a seafaring friend of mine once remarked, an aircraft carrier is not really listed on the books as a "ship," but as a "strategic asset." And...
Posted by Mitch on July 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3) | TrackBack

To Plan Or Not To Plan

I got some of the most gratifying response ever to my post from two days ago, Chum for the Moonbat Pond, where we discussed the Administration's inquiry into the legalities and policies regarding postponing the presidential election in case of...
Posted by Mitch on July 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Defense Dictionary

A big problem for people on the left; when they try to talk about things related to the military, they tend to sound incredibly ignorant. For the most part, it's because they are; most of them (I'm generalizing here, but...
Posted by Mitch on July 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deflation

Regarding the Joe "Frog Walk" Wilson, there's not much I can say that Captain Ed and Powerlinehaven't already said better. But I have a few questions. First: How would the left like its crow?...
Posted by Mitch on July 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Chum In The Moonbat Pond

First things first: Homeland Security's reschedule the election in the event of a terrorist attack is a lousy one. This country is built around ideas; the biggest idea is that our democracy is more important than its government. The election...
Posted by Mitch on July 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6) | TrackBack

But Wait - Bush Didn't Lie?

Uranium from Niger - a Brit Government report will soon show Iraq was in the market..A UK government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq is expected to conclude that Britain's spies were correct to say...
Posted by Mitch on July 08, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Brief Spark, then Darkness

As Jason Van Steenwyck reports, sometimes the media comes perilously close to enlightenment - as in this LATimes piece:It is a sign of bravery, Skuta continues, for a Marine to enter a town smiling and waving after he was ambushed...
Posted by Mitch on July 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Brothers from Different Mothers?

Baldilocks shows the evidence....
Posted by Mitch on July 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Have a Great Weekend

Fourth of July always struck me as a strange holiday. So many of our other holidays are built around notions of altruism, sacrifice, and faith. So, I suppose, is the Fourth of July - but unlike Memorial Day and Thanksgiving...
Posted by Mitch on July 02, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

No Chink Here

One suspects that if the terrorists tried to kidnap this female soldier, PFC Jessica Nicholson (and her M249 light machine gun "Camille"), they might pray to Allah the rest of the Army comes to rescue them in time:“While other soldiers...
Posted by Mitch on July 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4)

Chink in the Armor

According to the excellent Rowan Scarborough, the terrorists in Iraq are reportedly on the lookout for a female American soldier to kidnap, hold hostage, and presumably murder. “We have heard through intelligence channels that several extremist organizations are attempting to...
Posted by Mitch on July 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (12)

Sovereign

We handed power over to the interim Iraqi government earlier today, two days early....
Posted by Mitch on June 28, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Oh, You Mean That Collaboration...

The NYTimes Washington > Iraqis, Seeking Foes of Saudis, Contacted bin Laden, File Says" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/25TERR.html?pagewanted=1&hp">The New York Times > Washington >is suddenly onto a contact between Al-Quaeda and Hussein:Last week, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks addressed the...
Posted by Mitch on June 25, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

The Carter Game

Why did the Iranians seize the Brit sailors? Ledeen's got the most-plausible - if scariest - explanation so far....
Posted by Mitch on June 22, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Like Trite to Truth

The big story? The links between Al Quaeda and Hussein are coming out. Silly America's response? The New York Times ladles out wholesale lots of specious illogic. And the blogosphere's lefties are eating it up with the credulousness we've come...
Posted by Mitch on June 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Knowing In The Future What We Know Now...

Powerline's Deacon asks whether, assuming what we (and by "we" I mean both the Clinton and Bush administrations) know or reasonably believe today about the links between Hussein and international terrorism (including but far from limited to Al Quaeda):Assume that...
Posted by Mitch on June 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Clear and Present Danger

Reuters reports that Putin is announcing that Russia knew of planned Iraqi attacks in the US....
Posted by Mitch on June 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

Lock Step

So Powerline has linked to Andrew McCarthy's catalogue of the links between Iraq and Al Quaeda. This follows on the Northern Alliance's interview with Stephen Hayes, whose new book catalogues in exhaustive detail the links between Hussein and Al Quaeda....
Posted by Mitch on June 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Open Memo To "Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change"

To: Former Diplomats and Generals (and residents of Silly, Trite America) From: Serious America Re: Your Prescience. Dear Diplomats and Generals: Where were you between 1998 and September 10, 2001? Sincerely, Serious America (Via the Captain)...
Posted by Mitch on June 17, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

The torture cells are shuttered. Gang rape is an aberration, not an interrogation technique. The mass graves are being emptied rather than filled. International > Middle East > Energy: In Race to Give Power to Iraqis, Electricity Lags" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/international/middleeast/14POWE.html">No matter...
Posted by Mitch on June 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Flash! War is Messy!

Note to all NYTimes reporters:War is all about confusion. Clausewitz called it the "Fog of War". Times reporters: Read some Clausewitz. In fact, read any military history. Intelligence is not an exact science. In fact the Times article notes this,...
Posted by Mitch on June 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

A Government Only A Green Could Love

The UN's meddling in Iraq could still screw things up, says this OpinionJournal piece this morning....
Posted by Mitch on June 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Between the Uprights

The media - in conjunction, witting or otherwise - with the Kerry campaign, keeps moving the goalposts in Iraq. They move them left, they move them right, they set them in the parking lot, they spin them around. The President...
Posted by Mitch on June 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Kim DuToit's New Pinup

Or - who knows - maybe mine. From ashkan sahihi's Women of the IDF photo exhibit, which The Professor calls "Bin Laden's Worst Nightmare"....
Posted by Mitch on June 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Winging It

Chicago Boyz recap a great point:One of the great strengths America has in this war is that we have totally open discussion, including off the wall thinking. Off the wall situations require off the wall thinking. This situation we face...
Posted by Mitch on June 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Whittle Gets It

I lost patience with Bill Whittle's blog about a year ago. Posting too sporadic, pieces too long... But he's back on my must read list with this piece, which I'm going to clip gratuitously. A wallet full of money quotes...
Posted by Mitch on May 25, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Pointed Metaphor

Mark Steyn on what we really need to do in Iraq. He starts with a fascinating, anachronistic - and very appropriate - story:Here's a story no American news organization thought worth covering last week, so you'll just have to take...
Posted by Mitch on May 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Adios, Ritter

Friday, I took my best shot at Scott Ritter's dismissive take on the Sarin Shell. To summarize: while I"m no veteran, I was enough of a reporter to find a few things that I'd have loved to get more details...
Posted by Mitch on May 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Watch Ritter Spin

Scott Ritter's new piece in the Christian Science Monitor, "Iraq sarin shell is not part of a secret cache", probably answers a lot of questions - if you don't think about it too much....
Posted by Mitch on May 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6)

Hearts and Minds

Further evidence that I might be close to collecting on my bet with the rest of the Northern Allliance, courtesy of Robert Garcia Tagorda....
Posted by Mitch on May 21, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

The Accidental WMD

The left is toddling around the WMD story like it's a big win for them. Oliver "Like Cream Cheese to Bagels" Willis says:Either way, it's a far cry from stockpiles just outside Tikrit (as Rumsfeld said) or the capability to...
Posted by Mitch on May 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (8)

A Bunch of Naked Guys..

...in an Iraqi prison going through the equivalent of fraternity hazing get ten days of breathless coverage in the media. Pictures of guys watching Private Lindy Englund (the Tonya Harding of the 21st Century) get jiggy with a bunch of...
Posted by Mitch on May 17, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Tipping Point

I think we're at one of those points where things could slide quickly in one of two directions - which one, I don't think anyone knows....
Posted by Mitch on May 13, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Make Mine Guinness, Gents

On the Northern Alliance Radio Network on May 1, I bet the Elder, Rocket Man, Captain Ed and JB Doubtless a beer that Fallujah would be secured by June 1. Without a Stalingrad-style bloodbath. Without a frantic, politically-motivated battle that...
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (7)

Mehdi? That's Soooo April...

More evidence that the campaign on the ground against the "Mehdi Army" - the catastrophe of the month for April, until "Abusegate" was ready for prime time - is winding down....
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Two Heroes

Blackfive reports on two heroes....
Posted by Mitch on May 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Essential Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson has yet another essential column, with a lesson that a good chunk of our society needs to have constantly reiterated....
Posted by Mitch on May 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5)

Lack of Condemnation

On Thursday, the House voted on a non-binding resolution condemning the abuses at Abu Gharib. The measure passed 365-50, with 19 no-shows. (Hat tip Iraq Now)...
Posted by Mitch on May 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (5)

The Hardest Part

I was watching my son last night. He's 11 years old, going on six. It's probably the last summer I'll be able to say that; little boys seem to go through a little last grab at childhood before they begin...
Posted by Mitch on May 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Write Big Lie. Rinse. Repeat As Necessary

Fareed Zakaria has spoken. The left pays uncritical yet predictable obeisance. The cycle repeats....
Posted by Mitch on May 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (20)

Interrogation Techniques

The Guardian obliquely notes something that's fairly common knowledge; the "abusive" interrogation techniques are not only specialized, extreme forms of interrogation well-known to military intelligence; they are a part of training for many of our own people....
Posted by Mitch on May 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Note to Blumenthal: Read the Book

Sidney Blumenthal has a piece in, surprise, the Guardian, about Abu Graibh....
Posted by Mitch on May 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (11)

Now Go Enjoy the Weekend...

The Belmont Club has become my favorite foreign policy blog. Which is not to say it's the feelgood hit of my blogroll. Especially this piece....
Posted by Mitch on May 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

What Did CBS Know, and When Did It Know It?

Via Blackfive, we get the timeline by which CBS discovered the Abu Ghraib "torture" "scandal"....
Posted by Mitch on May 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Bush: Don't Think About It

Bush rejected calls for Rumsfeld's resignation. This is absolutely correct. If anyone out there thinks the Secretary of Defense is stupid enough to have countenanced the sort of things that happened at Abu Ghraib, feel free to convince me. And...
Posted by Mitch on May 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Good Angel, Bad Angel

A few days ago, I posted a piece on why I think the Battle of Fallujah isn't going as badly - nearly as badly - as some think, including some who I'd think would know better. Someone said my posting...
Posted by Mitch on May 05, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (9)

Message From The Front

Hugh Hewitt is circulating a letter from a Marine in Iraq, which contains a request....
Posted by Mitch on May 04, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Dirtbags

Read this piece on TalkLeft... ...and then read the comments, wherein a bunch of people second-guess Thomas Hamill's escape from the terrorists who were threatening to kill him. One priceless quote:Is nobody finding it a tad convenient that Hamill was...
Posted by Mitch on May 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (3)

Fallujah

In the late spring of 1942, the First Marine Division left Hawaii, turning defense of the islands over to a couple of National Guard units. "We're retreating! We should be kicking Japanese ass!" cried a bunch of conservative bloggers. "This...
Posted by Mitch on May 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (13)

Heroes

While we were waiting in line to talk with Michael Medved on Wednesday, Captain Ed and the Elder and I came upon an interesting point: as a society, we tend to spend a lot more time mourning our dead than...
Posted by Mitch on April 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (6)

Terror Drops

According to the left, attacking Iraq was supposed to make the Arab Street fly into a paroxysm of rage - and bring terrorists out of the woodwork. How has that played out? Hint: how has every other trope of the...
Posted by Mitch on April 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4)

Deadly Month

The Today Show notes that 126 Americans have died this past month. They are agog at the casualties. Un-noted; that is almost exactly the death toll in the four days of the ground phase of the first Gulf War....
Posted by Mitch on April 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Required Reading

It takes a lot - an awful lot - to choke me up. My emotional threshold is incredibly high; call me jaded, call me anything you want (except cynical). But this piece did it. You need to read the whole...
Posted by Mitch on April 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (2)

Has Anyone Told John Kerry?

Hot potato in the Sudan!Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of the African country. Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria...
Posted by Mitch on April 27, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Fantasy World

Lately, the number of liberal commentators who've joined the "Legion of the Invincibly Ignorant" when it comes to the War on Terror is just overwhelming.

Case in point: "Brad", at his blog "Sad Parade".

Posted by Mitch on April 26, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Epitaph

Since the reports yesterday of the death in action of Pat Tillman, a lot of outlets and blogs have been citing this 2002 piece by Peggy Noonan, written when Tillman entered basic training. I liked this part:Men entering basic training...
Posted by Mitch on April 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Tillman KIA

Pat Tillman, NFL star who walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract to become an Airborne Ranger after 9/11, has reportedly been killed in action in Afghanistan.

Posted by Mitch on April 23, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Fearless Prediction

By this time next year, no rational person will doubt that there was a Middle Eastern involvement - Iraqi, Hamas, PLO, Al Quaeda or some combination - in the Oklahoma City bombing....
Posted by Mitch on April 20, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (4)

The Cambodian Parallel

The media - and the entire left, really - have been wallowing in supposed parallels with Vietnam since long before the first Green Beret landed in Afghanistan. There are two legitimate ones that the left media misses....
Posted by Mitch on April 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Oil And Terror

"But there's no link between Hussein and terror!" has been one of the standard bleats of the left since the run-up to the liberation of Iraq. Never mind the wanton violation of Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary that the...
Posted by Mitch on April 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (1)

Payola

Payola - Scott Ritter's connection with an Iraqi-American who was on the "Oil For Food" gravytrain are being examined: A Detroit-based businessman of Iraqi origin who financed a film by Scott Ritter, the former chief United Nations weapons inspector, has...
Posted by Mitch on April 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Ghoulish

Ghoulish - The top story from Iraq this morning, according to Katie Couric? A 20-year-old woman from the Wisconsin National Guard was killed in action. The woman has two sisters, also in the GUard. The Today Show pitched the story...
Posted by Mitch on April 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Got Clue?

Got Clue? - I'm not asking that in the post-ironic "get a clue" sense of the term. I'm talking about the classic whodunnit board game "Clue". It would seem to be where most of the american left learned its investigative...
Posted by Mitch on April 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Syria Attacks? - Remember back

Syria Attacks? - Remember back when President Bush's approval rating was in the sixties and seventies, and Iraq had fallen, and Iran and Syria were being very quiet? Notice how things start to get dicey now that the President would...
Posted by Mitch on April 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life - John Kerry lives in a wondrous world where lollipops grow by the sidewalks and the skies rain Shiraz. First, his claim that he'll create ten million new jobs in America. Details, anyone? Any details at all? No,...
Posted by Mitch on April 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Letter From A Marine

Letter From A Marine - Charlie Johnson at Little Green Footballs publishes a letter from a Marine in Fallujah, via one of his readers:There will be no shock and awe. There will be plenty of bloodshed at the lowest levels....
Posted by Mitch on April 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Out With The Old

Out With The Old - Powerline's Deacon reminds me of something that I wrote about quite a bit last year, but haven't touched on much lately. The next year is likely to see our "allies" Chirac and Schroeder retiring from...
Posted by Mitch on April 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Those That Trade Freedom For

Those That Trade Freedom For Security - For years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR nd its cold war artifact, the Warsaw Pact, many people on the left - including many of my...
Posted by Mitch on April 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

If Iraq is Bush's Vietnam

If Iraq is Bush's Vietnam - ...then "White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded to Mr. Kennedy's remarks by saying, "Ted Kennedy is John Kerry's Chappaquiddick."...
Posted by Mitch on April 07, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Priorities

Priorities - Al Quaeda was such a priority under the Clinton Administration, it didn't even make their final report:The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of...
Posted by Mitch on April 06, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Wages Of Surrender

Wages Of Surrender - Dealing with terrorism in a nuanced, multilateral, Kerry-esque way did the Spaniards so much good, didn't it?Three terrorism suspects killed themselves and a policeman when they set off an explosion inside a building south of Madrid...
Posted by Mitch on April 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

What Did The President Know,

What Did The President Know, And When Did He Know It? - A foreign paper reports that the President knew about one of the grisliest, most horrific acts of terrorism in history, but sat on information:US president Bill Clinton's administration...
Posted by Mitch on April 02, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Nuanced Internationalism

Nuanced Internationalism - Some of us warned you; getting involved in Kosovo was the real quagmire. "This is not only an ethnic squabble that goes back a thousand years - it's an inter-ethnic rhubarb, the hardest thing in the world...
Posted by Mitch on April 01, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Allies

Allies - Trent Telenko writes a column about the US' decisive advantage in military communications and what it means. It's a piece you need to read on many levels. But since we spend so much time dealing with the la-la-land...
Posted by Mitch on March 25, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

"In The Sights"

"In The Sights" - The left is now in a tizzy about the footage indicating that, sometime before 9/11 but after Bush's inauguration, a Predator drone allegedly had Bin Laden spotted. Questions: In those pre-9/11 days, how do you think...
Posted by Mitch on March 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Terrorist Strategy?

Terrorist Strategy? - It's occurred to me - probably much later than to most people - that the US is probably the safest place in the world to be right now, when it comes to terror. It's Western Europe, Japan...
Posted by Mitch on March 16, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Munich, 2004

Munich, 2004 - Saturday, during the radio show, I asked Rocket Man and Captain Ed if they thought the Madrid bombings might signal a turning point in Europe's approach to terror. Sunday morning I sat slack-jawed and depressed, seeing that...
Posted by Mitch on March 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Wages of Appeasement

Wages of Appeasement - Mark Steyn spells it out pretty thoroughly:Suppose you're an ETA cell. Suppose you were planning a car-bomb for next month – nothing fancy, just a dead Spanish official plus a couple of unlucky passers-by. Still want...
Posted by Mitch on March 15, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Not Over

Not Over - Was it the Basque separatist group ETA? It seems out of character: "If the attack was carried out by ETA, it could signal a radical and lethal change of strategy for the group that has largely targeted...
Posted by Mitch on March 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Steyn Nails It

Steyn Nails It - As usual:In other words, the "coalition of the willing" has effected more positive change in the last 10 months than the multilateral establishment has in the last 10 years. If President Bush loses in November because...
Posted by Mitch on March 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Deserve Victory - Powerline posts

Deserve Victory - Powerline posts posts a challenge from Professor Charles KeslerPerhaps, then, what the voters really wonder is whether this is war or only a new kind of protracted, indecisive police action, better fought now by airport screeners and...
Posted by Mitch on March 10, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Clear And Present Non-Factor

Clear And Present Non-Factor - Last year, as we were getting ready to move into Iraq, the left talked out both sides of its mouth, demanding that we extend what had already been 18 months of diplomatic Schühplottel at the...
Posted by Mitch on March 04, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Profiles in Illegitimacy

Profiles in Illegitimacy - Palestinians are demonstrating over the fence: "Palestinians have challenged the legality of Israel's West Bank barrier before the World Court, telling the opening session that the vast network of walls and fences would deny them a...
Posted by Mitch on February 24, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Safer, Part II

Safer, Part II - Longtime "Shot in the Dark" corresondent Fingers - a fighter pilot - observed this about yesterday's posting on whether we're safer with Iraq free and Hussein in the bag.Have you done anything on "where would you...
Posted by Mitch on February 20, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Safer

Safer - One of the left's most pernicious slanders these days is that we're no safer now that Hussein is gone. How do they want to explain this?:Investigators have discovered that the nuclear weapons designs obtained by Libya through a...
Posted by Mitch on February 19, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

National Service

National Service - Hugh Hewitt performed this nation a great service last night by playing the tape of John Kerry's 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Driving home, I was dumbfounded - I'm sure my jaw was hanging...
Posted by Mitch on February 18, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Watch the Spin

The media will spin the news of the terrorist attacks in Fallujah as a defeat. So will every half-witted leftyblog. And the story sounds gnarly, indeed - many Iraqi police killed, some prisoners released in a classical commando raid:It was...
Posted by Mitch on February 16, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Lard From The Front

Right after 9/11, my pal Mark the Graphics Guy and I were walking around Richfield discussing responses to the government's call for "unconventional responses to terror". My idea; a "sprinkler system" on airliners and other public transit that could, in...
Posted by Mitch on February 16, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Boots Still On The Ground

I heard a rerun yesterday of Dennis Prager's interview with Karl Zinsmeister, author of Boots On The Ground, the story of the 82nd Airborne Division during the liberation of Iraq. The good news? He's at work on a book about...
Posted by Mitch on February 09, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

"...And the #1 Sign I Need A Social Life..."

...is when you start fisking comments to your own blog. Although "Fisking" is perhaps too harsh a word. The commenter in question, "Flash", is the type of Democrat we have to count on continuing to exist if our two-party...
Posted by Mitch on February 03, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Those Who Live in Glass Buildings

Those Who Live in Glass Buildings - The Strib doesn't know when to shut up, in its current editorial about the Kay and Hutton reports: "Hutton investigated thoroughly the accusation that Blair and his colleagues manipulated British intelligence to make...
Posted by Mitch on January 30, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

"But Dissent Is Patriotic!" -

The commander of the British Army's 1st Battalion/42nd Highland Regiment (The Black Watch) has attacked Parliament's anti-war back-benchers and the protesters they supported: "While careful to make clear that the Government's decision to wait until the last minute was understandable,...
Posted by Mitch on January 23, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Casualty Figures

Casualty Figures - US combat deaths in Iraq passed 500 this month. That passing was noted with somnolent portent by many commentators - and shrill glee by many candidates. Robert H Reid puts it in context:Iraq casualty figures are small...
Posted by Mitch on January 22, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Picture Of The Day

Via Blackfive and the Professor: Other possible badges:"Here Until Those 150,000 Moderate Moslems Show Up"Honk If You're Bogged Down in a Quagmire""My Other Car Is NOT a Peugeot"More suggestions eagerly solicited....
Posted by Mitch on January 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Policy Shift

Top-ranking members of the Ba'ath Party are denouncing terror and renouncing Hussein:Former Ba’ath Party leaders in Northern Iraq denounced the party of Saddam Hussein Tuesday and exhorted the people of the region to work with the Coalition to build...
Posted by Mitch on January 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Situation in Iraq

This was in the paper Monday:Freedoms, Money and Cheap Cars (One) has to imagine an Iraqi who has been in a deep sleep for a year … suddenly his eyes open wide. On TV CNN, BBC or – more...
Posted by Mitch on January 14, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (33)

Follow the Bouncing Numbers -

Back in the bad old days when I was office temping between careers, I worked in a litigation support office. We sorted, read, summarized and coded immense stacks of legal documents obtained through the discovery processes, in huge lawsuits (in...
Posted by Mitch on January 12, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

But Forget About The Mass Killings...

But Forget About The Mass Killings... The Sunday Strib features an op-ed by by Abbas S. Mehdi, a professor at St. Cloud State. I once met a Russian who, while broadly admitting that the fall of communism was a Good...
Posted by Mitch on January 11, 2004 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Link?

Link? - US Troops find Al Quaeda literature in Iraqi arms cache: "U.S. forces operating in the so-called Sunni Triangle -- the region of Iraq most loyal to captured former dictator Saddam Hussein -- found a significant weapons cache that...
Posted by Mitch on December 31, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Speaking Of Our Tired, Overcommitted Military

Drezner - in for Sullivan - has this piece on the 101st Airborne's evolving mission in Northern Iraq. It quotes a NYTimes piece that should give the likes of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark pause:military commanders here expressed frustration that...
Posted by Mitch on December 31, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Harder Hummer

Iraq Now, on the slow, bumpy ride to getting armored Hummers to Iraq.Meanwhile, in the absence of guidance from echelons above reality, the units here on the ground have resorted to all manner of equally unauthorized Rube Goldberg contraptions...
Posted by Mitch on December 29, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Who Caught Hussein?

Josh Marshall tackles the rumor that Hussein was captured by the Kurds. We discussed this last week. Marshall says:"There've been other rumors flying around -- like this one from Debkafile. But Debkafile is about as reliable as raw intelligence and...
Posted by Mitch on December 24, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Russia to Forgive Iraqi Debt

Wasn't this the sort of thing that the "no contracts to countries that didn't support the war" flap of two weeks ago was supposed to have blown to smithereens? The stuff that had the likes of Josh Marshall calling the...
Posted by Mitch on December 24, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Absence of Knowledge

Iraq Now attacks the media's literacy about military matters. Nothing new in the concept - the media is famously ill-informed about anything to do with the military. But this is new:Whether we ought to use a smart bomb to attack...
Posted by Mitch on December 22, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Ten Lessons

A high school pal of mine who's current an Air Force fighter pilot sends this piece from talk show host Dennis Prager, with the ten lessons to be learned from the capture of Hussein. It originally appeared in the Wall...
Posted by Mitch on December 19, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Prisoner of Wha? - One

Prisoner of Wha? - One of the left's latest bleats - that Hussein is a POW, and that we had no business videotaping his head-lice exam according to the Geneva Convention. Piffle. He's not a POW. He's a leader -...
Posted by Mitch on December 17, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Compare This

Compare This - The left has been trying to chip away at the Bush Plan for rebuilding Iraq. Seems that while the Administration compared it in a broad sense with the Marshall Plan, some academics (eagerly cited by the left)...
Posted by Mitch on September 29, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Quagmire Alert

From Instapundit, a report from a musician currently touring Iraq and Syria, on the state of the country from his perspective. He says this about Syria:If CNN hasn't gotten it, it appears that Assad in Syria has. The cabinet change...
Posted by Mitch on September 18, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Instapundit reports that the Pentagon's DARPA think tank has proposed a "Futures Market", where experts could "bet" on the likelihood and means of different types of terrorist attacks....
Posted by Mitch on July 29, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Stiff Upper Lip - 67

Stiff Upper Lip - 67 British citizens died in the World Trade Center. As we close in on July 4, Bill McGurn writes about a British family whose father died in the attack, and their British perspective on America and...
Posted by Mitch on June 27, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Our "Allies"

Sullivan discusses yet another reason the Axis of Weasels may be so reticent about confronting Hussein:I fear that France and Germany's shenanigans - in allowing Sadam and our enemies to plan for months for war - may directly put...
Posted by Mitch on March 09, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Jitters

The Great National Self-Doubt has set in. It's everywhere:People are wondering if Britain will even be able to go on board with us. Tony Blair's in political trouble, as elements of his own party fall back on their pusillanimous roots....
Posted by Mitch on March 08, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Expert Testimony

The "Today" show this morning will feature representatives from, as Katie Couric says, "Americans who don't want America to send troops into Iraq". Who are these "respresentatives"?"A clergyman". OK, fair enough. But (not having seen the story yet), I'll bet...
Posted by Mitch on January 09, 2003 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Blix' Trix

Tony Blankley on Hans Blix:When, during World War II, we learned that Hitler was working on the atomic bomb, we assumed the worst and spent as much as it took and worked as fast as we could around the clock...
Posted by Mitch on November 27, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Empathy Alert

Ths news today, about the El Al hijacker who has apparently confessed in Turkish custody after reportedly being threatened with castration, can be taken a number of different ways:It's a warning: Don't mess up in Turkey;Someone needs to make sure...
Posted by Mitch on November 27, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Pizza on Patrol

Earlier today, I linked to to a site whose mission is to allow people to send take-out pizza to Israeli soldiers on duty against Palestinian terrorists. I added that while it seemed like a cool idea (and one that'd be...
Posted by Mitch on November 25, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The Pre-War Show

We're already working, "like termites" as this article from next week's Time Magaznie says, to undermine Hussein, within Iraq:America's recent combat experiences in the Balkans and Afghanistan have confirmed for the Pentagon the virtues of psychological warfare and political initiatives...
Posted by Mitch on November 24, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

War Soon?

Swen Swenson from A Coyote at the Dog Show writes the "impending war" post I've been chewing on for a long time. Well, part of it....
Posted by Mitch on November 22, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Paging Elliott Ness

Along with the Democrat japes about the potential of bringing down Hussein without a fight, there's a persistent nagging from the left that, because Bin Laden may still be alive and on the lam, Bush's mission in Afghanistan is...
Posted by Mitch on November 18, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Inspections

Katherine Kersten says this round is unlikely to succeed.During its seven-year tenure in Iraq, UNSCOM was fairly successful at detecting Saddam's chemical and biological weapons. In part, this was because it operated outside the United Nations' grossly inefficient bureaucracy. UNSCOM...
Posted by Mitch on November 10, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

Forces in Afghanistan

Here, from the excellent defense site Global Security.org, is the list of the troops we have in or around Afghanistan. Read my post on the subject from Friday. Notice the number of units with "special" in their titles. Then...
Posted by Mitch on February 10, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)

The View from Overseas

The US isn't the only country undergoing contortions over Afghanistan. The Frankfurter Allgemeine (English Version) ran this article about how the Germans' fragmented, fractured response to 9/11 may hurt the Greens and Social Democrats (Think Highland Park DFLers in lederhosen)...
Posted by Mitch on February 07, 2002 | Read Whole Post | Comments (0)