9/11, reflections, are we safer? No.

On September 11, 2001, the "Pearl Harbor" event of our lives took place. Those who were cognizant of what happened, who saw it, experience it, and those who have sacrificed to preserve our Republic in the years since and those against whom we expressed our national angst all recognize that on that day, the world changed. For awhile, the sleeping giant was again awakened. And, like their WWII German and Japanese counterparts, the militant factions of Islam soon understood the military might of the United States knows no equal.

Unfortunately, we were using our technological superiority and the superior training and equipment of our troops on basically feudal tribal cultures with a low level of technology.

Domestically, as a result of the nature of the infiltration of our commercial aviation by the terrorists, mainly from Saudi Arabia, and all from Arab Islamic countries, a new and unsettling addition was made to our national security. The Patriot Act supported by President George Bush as part of his national security initiative post 9-11 created a concern regarding our constitutional protections from unlawful search and seizure, arrest, and interference with our internal and international travel. President Bush's initiative included the creation of a new Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Agency within the FAA. The DHS and TSA were the direct result of the terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers in NYC on September 11, 2001. Since 9-11, both have grown dramatically, in both scope of their missions and the size of the bureaucracy.

The TSA has been under steady criticism from the flying public for its outrageous violation of traveling Americans' 4th, 9th, and 14th Amendment rights. Property is seized without recompense and due process. The citizen is grotesquely violated in a manner that in any other context would result in the arrest of the TSA agent for sexual molestation at the very least, and rape at worst. Worse, the TSA has implemented technologies for the search of a person using microwave radiation that has been heavily criticized by physicists and physicians associations nationwide. There is a serious question as to the long term effect of the low level radiation upon the skin. Worse for the TSA is a practice of ignoring the only segment of the flying population whose religion is at the root of the 9-11 attacks. Political correctness prevents the TSA from focusing upon the estimated 5% of the flying public that is Muslim. It is not uncommon to see Muslim men and women in full ethnic garb being passed through with a cursory search, while older Americans, including the disabled and very young are subjected to the most invasive and embarrassing affronts to their personal dignity in violation of their constitutional rights. The record of the TSA with respect to stopping terrorists is highly questionable, as they have failed test after test involving smuggled weapons and chemicals simulating explosives.

What is it that the TSA really does other than condition the American public to allow the suspension of their civil rights without proper notification of arrest and the intent to search? The TSA is a direct threat to our liberties that is far more serious and insidious than the Patriot Acts' secret tribunals for issuing warrants to conduct surveillance upon Americans. The TSA has now expanded its jurisdiction into non-aviation venues of travel, including highway and large attendance events held in local jurisdictions. So much for the freedom of unrestricted travel.

As was stated so sagely by Benjamin Franklin during the debates on the drafting of the Constitution: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty."

The Department of Homeland Security became a huge vacuum that swept up all of the federal law enforcement, including Customs and the Border Patrol. The outcome has been a massive bureaucracy that has confused, impeded, and demonstrated that an agency with powers not enumerated in the Constitution may have been excluded for a reason. There is no Constitutional basis for the federal DHS.

On the state level, the 50 states have followed suit and created a state namesake for their state version of DHS. These state agencies became largely conduits for funneling billions of dollars of federal tax dollars to local communities to allegedly improve their public safety agencies' communications, provide for updated equipment, and to provide for community training for emergencies through the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) concept, and for providing increased fire and rescue equipment. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the money went for monuments to . . . politicians in the form of statues, parks and buildings having nothing to do with improving disaster response.

In Alaska, the Division of Emergency Services became the Division of Alaska Homeland Security and Emergency Services. The additional alphabet soup did not increase the effectiveness or efficiency of the idea of making Alaskans safer. It did however, become a conduit for disbursing federal DHS grants to local communities. And, that it has done since it was renamed. The yearly grant amounts supplied by the federal DHS to be distributed by the State have been as high as $18,000,000 to this year's $9,500,000. For 2012-2017, the yearly State grant amount is set at $9,500,000.

For the $10s of millions received yearly by Alaska local governments through the DHS grant program, there are still municipal police and fire agencies with radios that cannot communicate with the Alaska State Troopers or neighboring communities. By contrast, the Juneau Fire Department was a focus of one New York Times article in 2006 that investigated the use of the DHS grants. As the fireman in Juneau stated, they had bought so much new equipment, that they had no idea how they were going to use it, as training and manpower to use it were now the issues. Too much of a good thing is still too much.

Interestingly enough, given the emphasis on WMD threats, the potential for nuclear first strikes by Iran, China, North Korea and Russia, the Alaska Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs have yet to decentralize the command and control from Camp Denali on Ft. Richardson (JBER). There are only so many real military targets of significance in Alaska, those being the four major military bases and the Trans Alaska Pipeline and Terminus at Valdez. Therefore, why has the State left its military command and control in the "target zone"?

Another issue that is of concern to Alaskans is the state of our communications data infrastructure, both public and private, in face of a potential Electromagnetic Pulse attack (EMP). There was allegedly a report done in around 2007-2008, but what steps have been taken to harden the telecommunications infrastructure of Alaska's towns and cities?

In the face of the federal DHS grant largess, the Alaska State Defense Force, a proven disaster response asset was literally rendered ineffective and deemed ineligible for receipt of DHS grants by Governor Sarah Palin, then Adjutant General LTG Craig Campbell, and now Governor Sean Parnell and his Adjutant General MG Thomas Katkus. Their vision for disaster response in Alaska is based upon a reliance upon a totally federal disaster response capability and availability. This reliance is flawed based upon Alaska's disaster response experience during the War on Terror.

In 2006, with the federal commitment of the Alaska Army National Guard and the federal troops to the War on Terror, three times the ASDF was called to State Active Duty because there were no available National Guard troops to use for disaster response. Today, MG Katkus believes that Outside National Guard assets will replace any need for the Alaska State Defense Force.

Another troubling aspect of the DHS grant program has been the militarizing of local and
State police agencies. In the 1950s, the FBI began a program to standardize the organization, rank, investigative procedures, including forms and policies of the local police agencies. This program started with the training of officers and management of the local police agencies in these standards and procedures. The purpose in this was to provide a commonality in command and control for the federalization of local assets in the event of a national emergency. Now, DHS and the federal Department of Justice have taken this first step to a new level.

DOJ has provided local law enforcement with federal law enforcement grants over the years. This program was accelerated during the initial phases of the War on Terror, and somewhat overlapped by DHS.

DHS grants have provided funding to localities to use for law enforcement equipment, communications, and personnel training in concert with DOJ grants. Local and State police agencies are became eligible for priority receipt of military equipment directly from DOD.

The reason our police are looking and acting more like the military is that they are being trained in small unit operations and tactics by military instructors, equipped with similar uniforms and equipment, and instilled with an attitude that was not present in local law enforcement. That attitude is the "break it" mentality of the infantry: surrender or die. We now see NYPD officers armed with H&K MP5 submachine guns and M16A4s. Except for the color of the uniform, one would be hard put to discern the civil police tactical operations officer from any heavily armed military infantry soldier.

Unfortunately, the federal grants have failed to create the Tower of Babel that would give the federal, state and local agencies the ability to communicate with each other. The incompatibility of data base structures compounds the problem of getting information disseminated between agencies.

What are the changes for the common citizen during the course of the War on Terror arising from the attacks of 9-11?

We have seen our soldiers go to war, again, and again, and again. We have grieved with their families for their sacrifices. We have stood in awe at the commitment of duty that those sacrifices require.

We have seen our civil rights diminished and our population suborned to search and seizure in violation of their rights under the Constitution.

Is the State of Alaska more secure as a result of the DHS grants? No. Bad policy and poor leadership cannot be remedied by money. That policy and leadership, however, is not the bane of just Alaska, it is the bane of every State and most of all, reflected in our national leadership. A leadership that apologizes to the enemy, that kow tows to foreign despots and apologizes for our country!

A national leadership that excuses a religion that condones the murder of innocents, the mutilation of women, the treatment of women as property, that maintains slavery in this day and age, that kills apostates and homosexuals without due process, destroys any other religion, and seeks to impose Shari'a upon the entire world: ISLAM.

May we not forget 9-11, may it be a reminder always to future generations that ignoring a threat because of political correctness is irresponsible. People died because our government did not heed the warnings extending all the way back to the 1970s of the threat of radical Islam.

It is time we noted the lesson imparted us by the War on Terror and the experiences of our troops. We need to understand that the threat is now in amongst us. We need to understand that the War on Terror will be ongoing so long as our political leaders fail to understand the threat.

After 11 years of war, our southern borders still stand open, with swaths of our national lands off limits to citizens so that drug runners and jihadis can have free and unfettered access to America from Mexico. A nation with open borders will not remain a sovereign nation for long. That lesson of history is still being ignored so that a few can take advantage of the many seeking work, not citizenship, but just work.

This 9-11, resolve to vote the apologists out of office.

May God bless all who have served, and all who have lost loved ones in the War on Terror and in the defense of our Constitution and our Great Republic.

Up the Republic!
We apologize to NONE!

 

 

 

Memorial Day 2012, a day of remembrance, not self indulgence

Today is a day that we are supposed to memorialize our war dead. Our heroes and heroines who died in the line of duty while serving their country in defense of freedom. Instead, too many ignore the why of the day, to indulge in self-serving activities that have nothing to do with attempting to demonstrate their appreciation for the sacrifice of our war dead.


The veterans of foreign wars are all around us. We may never know who they are, we might note the hat that they wear to show that they served during a time of duress and war, or a jacket. There may be no outward appearance or sign of their prior service. We largely ignore them, giving lip service to their sacrifice by showing “appreciation” to our troops by enduring politicians self-serving speeches.

My father became a Marine at the close of WWII. He served on Okinawa in a Scout Recon Platoon, always referred to as “kid” by his platoon sergeant, never as Marine, because he was underage. In 1947, he was sent to China as part of the Allied Army of Occupation. While there, he spent 9 months as a prisoner of the Red Chinese. He and those captured with him, were beaten daily, suffered depravations, and told upon repatriation to forget it by the USMC, never happened. He was discharged and returned to Arizona, serving in the Army National Guard, until the Korean War, when he once again became a Marine for the duration. He moved his family to Alaska in 1954 upon his release from the USMC. He then again joined the Army National Guard, becoming Alaska’s first fiscal officer. My father did not go to Vietnam, but in 1968 was offered a commission as a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy, if he would take a two year tour to Camh Ranh Bay with the Seabees. He declined the offer.

My father’s experience was not really unique. He was of a generation of Americans who faced a terrible war that threatened the very existence of the United States. He continued to serve in one capacity or another with the military until his early 40s. Such service was a matter of course for his generation, and expected. Through my father, his association with aviation, his USMC and National Guard service, and his tenure as an Alaska Territorial and Alaska State Police Officer in the 1950s and early 60s, I was privy to a world of men and women who were of that generation who served in WWII and Korea, and through Civil Air Patrol, those serving in the Republic of Viet Nam.

When Iraq came around, my youngest son, after serving a five year tour in the USMC, had joined the U.S. Army Reserve and was called up to duty as a combat engineer NCO.

While working on a USMC firing range renovation in 2008 on Oahu, I had the sincere privilege to meet young Marines who had been wounded in action, most by IEDs. They had been sent to the unit responsible for the firing range awaiting discharge for their injuries. We were humbled and sobered to be in the presence of those who had done the job and had been severely injured.

Soldiers fight for their buddies. It is all about the guy next to them. Not about country, not about the color of skin, not about where one came from, not about religion, not about anything but doing one’s part, and not letting your buddies down.

The guys in WWII did not serve to see the U.S. become less. They served to end a threat. They did terrible things. They firebombed cities. They shelled cities. They killed soldiers and civilians. They fought a total war. They won. Since, we have put our troops in harm’s way, but our leaders have prevented them from winning.

Today, our troops are under the influence of those whose world view is now very much like the enemy of the 50s-80s. The former Soviet Union and communism.

We have a President who is a product of communists and hard core socialists. People who do not believe that the U.S. is a good place or that its society is unique in the world with our Constitution and our rule of law. People who do not value life, our culture, the preservation of language, our institutions, the supremacy of our Constitution, or the traditional family as being necessary to the preservation of our country and way of life. People who live in the past believing that the U.S. is a place rife with discrimination based upon color and ethnicity and unfairness. People who believe that they have the right to take from those that work and give to those who do not. That the Constitution is nothing but an outdated piece of paper in need of revision to reflect their progressive (anytime progressive is used, read communist) world view. What’s yours is theirs. Abortion, though a tool of eugenics and intended to be used as such against the African-American population, has become a “right” for women who put killing the unborn below protecting a whale. This is not the United States that my father and millions of Americans before and since fought to defend or who sacrificed their lives to protect.

Some of our young American who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places have given five years away from home and family. Some, much more.

There are Gold Star families in Palmer, Wasilla, and Eagle River.

When you see a uniform of our armed services, think of how much time you have given in service to your fellow citizens away from your family. And, remember, what they do is dangerous in of itself with respect to training and daily operations without being shot at.

Be thankful that there are such heroes and heroines willing to do the job of our military. Tell your kids that these men and women are there to protect them and mommy and daddy. Tell your children that those grave stones in our national cemeteries mark the final resting place of someone’s daddy, son, brother, sister, mother, or wife.

May God bless these men and women who serve and those who have served this Great Nation. They stood the line and deserve our respect.

Memorial Day should be a day of respect and quiet reflection.

DADT and the aftermath

The Senate decided to ignore the needs of the troops, the needs of our wounded in hospitals across the country, and the impact upon the services by forcing homosexual priorities upon the services. Why was the military chosen for this gay agenda goal? The military can be ordered to comply with no recourse for the individual soldier who is opposed, other than to resign.
There is no civil rights issue in this. Where is the prejudice against the homosexual soldier who does not openly flaunt their sexual proclivities?
What of the legal, religious, moral and morale issues associated with dealing with openly homosexual soldiers in one’s unit? Those issues are ignored. The secular state has decreed what is to be, and the military will obey . . . or else, the Joint Chiefs and others will be replaced with more amiable types who are more concerned about their careers than the troops’ concerns.
Art. 125 UCMJ
“(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration , however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.
(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
Apparently, Art. 125 will be ignored from this point forward. Now, it will be every goat and sheep for themselves.
Yes, I recognize the contributions of homosexuals in the military. I remember that the most highly decorated enlisted airman in the USAF to serve in the Republic of Viet Nam was homosexual. Did his homosexuality make him brave? No, but his personal courage, his devotion to duty, to his country, and to his comrades gave him the ability to do what he did. He was a man who served honorably, nothing more, nothing less.
What is the problem, then with homosexuals serving openly in the military? Well, the idea of a homosexual in one’s unit, sharing one’s shower, the same latrine, the same dressing area, living area may make some uncomfortable. However, that is not the worst. The worst comes in two forms.
One is the second layer of DADT repeal. The political correctness will now be imposed. Penalties will be imposed for insulting homosexuals. Hate speech will become the lever to make a small minority much more powerful. The need to redress inequities in rank and position that do not now exist will be played out to the detriment of those more qualified. All of sudden, how good a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine will matter not. It will be “Congress says there must be X number of homosexual 1st LTs this promotion cycle, or we don’t get the new whiz bang Taliban thumper deluxe!”
A primary goal of the homosexual agenda will be to eliminate “hate speech” by military chaplains. The Bible says what it says. How that will be reconciled will resemble the Canadian solution. Censor the Bible . . . and the Koran.
Working one’s butt off to be the best that one can be will not count. I will bet you that whose butt the general has will. Sexual politics of the male female variety are one thing, but male on male or female on female will open up a whole new dimension to this age old problem. What was once the venue of rumor will now be in your face.
The playful slap on the back, shoulder or butt that is common amongst male soldiers at times will now be regarded from a new perspective.
Yes, sex will play a new role in the military.
Then, there is the second issue. The morality and religious convictions of those troops whose religion dictate the rejection of the homosexual lifestyle. These individuals will have the unfair choice of not accepting the lifestyle and giving up their military career, or to accept knowing that they are accepting something that is an anathema to their religion.
The figures given in the Pentagon’s so called study were flawed, and those who did the study knew it. Only a small fraction of the Army personnel sent the survey responded. The majority response was by USAF and Navy personnel. The two ground combat arms, the Army and the Marines, were not in favor of any change to DADT. The impact upon combat units will not be favorable with the imposed change.
This is not a matter of civil rights where the color of one’s skin was concerned. With prejudice in treatment and advancement were visible. This is now a matter of individuals who had before the repeal the same right to promotion and benefits and who were not otherwise prejudiced by their conduct, so long as they did not proclaim their sexual preference openly, the same as any heterosexual soldier, airman, sailor or Marine. Now, things will change.
Only by fiat of the secular state can one be forced to choose between religion and one’s military service.
Uncle Sam’s military will never be the same. Now, there is another layer of privilege based upon sexual preference. Just what our soldiers needed instead of new equipment, better weapons, and better support after they get home, more political correctness that puts soldiering second and CYA first.
Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, this vote of yours will be remembered come reelection.

Veterans' Day--Give thanks to our heroes

I am certain that I join Gov. Sean Parnell in expressing the thanks of my family to those serving and those who have served this great country. They are the thin red line that keeps us free and the barbarians from the proverbial gates/

We have vets who have done four tours of one year each, with sailors, Marines and airmen who have done equal time doing six months tours in country. The toll on them and their families is incredible and little appreciated by all too many.

I have seen the scars and wounds some of these young men bear from IEDs and VBEDs. They are simply incredible in the strong, positive manner in which they carry on in the face of their challenge in this life.

We owe them all a debt of gratitude that those safe and warm, who have never really been inconvenienced by this war, or any war, cannot appreciate, because of our inability to fully relate to their sacrifice.

The heat, sand, dust, rain, cold, snow, the itching from sweat, being rubbed raw by straps and equipment, blisters, lack of sleep, aching muscles, stink of unwashed bodies, insects, putting up with equipment and gear that is war weary, that fear in the pit of your stomach, and the adrenaline surge of the fight that cannot be imagined by those safe and warm back in the world of the good old U.S.A.—except where the gangbangers play and induce fear. The horror and sense of loss of one of your own who has fallen.

These guys and gals fight for their own, their sense of honor and duty will not let them fail their buddies. They go back in harms way time and again for their friends and comrades, not to cop out, not to let them down; to be there for them.

Then, there are the families. Those who are now Gold Star families who lost their loved one. Their sacrifice ongoing. That pain will never diminish. And, those whose loved one is damaged physically beyond our current medical technology to fix, and those damaged mentally from what they’ve seen and done. The families of those who go again and again in harms way who live that not knowing every day and who worry, but who themselves soldier on for their loved one.

Then, there is the damage to the families, those who divorce for whatever reason; too long away, one day too many of not knowing, of feeling that the unit comes first over the family, on and on. We know that situation all too well.

The greatest generation is not dead. They are wearing the uniform of the Untied States military. The best and greatest military fielded by any nation at any time in any age.

Our children have heroes as role models. All they have to do is to look up at the aircraft protecting our skies and hauling needed supplies to the troops; the grey ships on the world’s seas, and the bright red and white Coasties in our coastal waters and around the world; to look as far their next door neighbor with the “high and tight” haircut who stands tall in uniform; to the young man or woman in the wheel chair or in a hospital bed in a VA hospital; or to just look as far as mommy and/or daddy, brother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, grandma and grandpa and great grandma and great grandpa.

That old man who shuffles along with bent back might have been a young Marine witness to Tarawa’s and Saipan’s horrors, a young Ranger or Paratrooper who survived D-Day when too many of their comrades did not, did the attack to the rear from the frozen Chosin; the old woman who might have been a nurse or a mechanic, or a pilot flying aircraft to the war theaters all over the world; or the grandma who was a nurse when the VC breached the wire and got as far as the field hospital. You don’t know until you ask.

Thank a vet and those in uniform for their service and sacrifice. Remember not to forget to tell them to thank their families on your behalf for their sacrifice, too.

May God bless our service men and women and our vets and protect those in harms way in far off lands.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

On 18 August, 2008, near Sarobi, Afghanistan, 10 French soldiers were killed. They had recently taken over security for the area from the Italian contingent to NATO for OEF.

The London Times is reporting a disturbing discovery. The Times alleges that the Italians were bribing the Taleban to keep them from attacking Italian construction crews and Italian troops in the area. This is an outrageous conduct on the part of one of NATO’s longest standing members.

The allegations claim that the French had no idea of the bribery to keep Italian troops safe before taking over security duties for the area. When the French troops took over, they were hit hard. The French troops thought they had inherited a relatively quiet area from the Italian’s experience there.

This is a very serious situation. NATO cannot have each contributing country making separate deals with the enemy to keep them from attacking their troops. That is simply traitorous in its scope and intent. Such conduct frees up the Taleban resources in that area for use against the rest of NATO’s forces fighting in their areas to rid Afghanistan of the Taleban’s insanity.

Surely the Italians realized that the monies paid would be used to buy arms and IED components to use against their brothers in arms?

An investigation needs to be undertaken at the highest levels of government. If Italy had a policy to bribe the enemy, then Italy should be forced to pay reparations for all NATO troops killed and wounded during the period their troops were protected by bribes to the enemy. Further, whomever authorized this policy should face trial as a traitor, and be imprisoned for life. Any Italian military who were aware of this policy should face courts martial, and imprisoned for their dishonorable conduct. One cannot fight a war in which one’s trusted allies are buying off the enemy.

Worse to me, as reported in the Washington Times, is the fact that our government has taken $2,600,000,000 ($2.6B) from our military budget that was to be used to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, it was reappropriated to feel good projects, such as a Teddy Kennedy Educational Institute for $20,000,000. How much ammunition, equipment, medical supplies, helicopters and spares parts for helicopters could this money have purchased?

On the one hand, we have the Italians bribing the big bad Taleban to leave their troops unharmed. On the other, we have the Obama Administration and its socialist Congress stealing from the defense budget to pay off special interests.

Anyone with a loved one in the military should contact their congressman and the Obama Administration and demand they restore the soldiers’ funding. Cutting the military’s ability to support our troops is simply insane. In that vein, the Italians’ duplicity and the Obama Administration’s failure to support our troops serve the same purpose. This conduct degrades NATO’s ability to wage a war and gives the enemy comfort and solace in the knowledge that the Western governments lack the will to see the conflict through.

How long before the radical Muslim element gets lucky and we are hit again, as on 9-11? Not as if they are not trying, given the recent revelations about CAIR and its association with HAMAS, and the conspiracies broken up by the FBI.

Yet, Obama/Pelosi/Reid et al are going hell bent for leather to establish the U.S. as a socialist state while short sheeting our troops in the field. It can be said that the Italians were just trying to mitigate casualties and avoid controversy at home. By cutting money out of the budget intended for necessary supplies and training, Obama et al have acted with open eyes to endanger our troops in a time of war.

Michael Yon

Michael Yon is a special forces soldier turned correspondent. He has covered Iraq and Afghanistan providing a viewpoint not shared by the mainstream media. His stories and pics are very compelling.

If you want an unbiased, experienced perspective on Iraq and Afghanistan, this is a good place to get it.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

Obama sends a letter, George W. Bush called the family. . . .

Pres. Obama in his address to the nation this date stated that he signed letters to the families of those 4 G.I.s killed in Iraq by an IED today.

George W. Bush called the families personally of each and every soldier, sailor, Marine, and airman killed in the service of this country during his tenure as President.

That ladies and gentlemen is the difference between a Commander-in-Chief and a pretender. Our troops will get the message, and I am willing to bet that before Obama's first term is completed, the Marines who stand to assist those on and off the helicopters will once again refuse to about face to receive any orders from the President once he has exited the aircraft.

What Geneva Convention? They kill our troops and mutilate the bodies, you morons!

(Written May, 2007 after the bodies of four of our troops had been accounted for after having been "captured" by the jihadis in Iraq. May God have mercy and compassion upon their souls and their families.)


Three out of four of the recently captured U.S. troops are now accounted for. May God have mercy upon their souls, and may their comrades have vengeance upon those who committed those atrocities against them.

I saw the photos the jihadis took to pump up their audience and their own courage. I saw the two dead young soldiers, with their heads separated from their mutilated bodies.

Earlier, I saw the photos of the first young man=s body discovered in the river with two bullet holes in the chest and one in the head. It was reported by the Iraqi police who found him that he had also suffered physical torture before he was executed. All done in the name of the religion of peace, because our men were . . . infidels.

These animals who committed these atrocities were the scum that Cindy Sheehan, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Teddy Kennedy, Rep. John Murtha, Bill Mahr and Rosie O=Donnell extoll the virtues of, but call our troops "terrorists". Notice that the jihadis' violation of the Hague and Geneva conventions regarding the treatment of captured troops go unremarked by these morons.

These jihadis are rabid dogs who must be dealt with harshly and with finality.

Why then, do we tie the hands of our troops in dealing with them?

We have troops in prison for acting to defend themselves and their comrades. For doing what all soldiers do in war. We have troops in prison for what would have passed as "hazing" in a college fraternity initiation.

Abu Gharib. Why, we embarrassed those poor Muslim folks. Then, we turned them loose to kill our soldiers, and put our guards in jail. What a sick joke.

If there is a shooting of a jihadi, Iraqi or foreign, by our troops no matter the circumstances, time is wasted upon an investigation to determine whether or not the shooting was justified. That is a convention to be undertaken for a shooting in a civilian police action, not in a war. After WWII, our troops shot and killed hostiles in the occupied countries without trial or such inane oversight.

I know one young Iraq vet who was confined to quarters for three days after a justified shooting. His weapon was taken from him and he was placed under house arrest until the outcome of the investigation into the shooting. He saved the lives of his comrades by his action, and he was treated like a criminal. He did not reenlist for that reason. He said "never again" to being treated like a criminal by his own for doing his job as a soldier.

What cowards we are to worry about what the world thinks!

Remember, the greatest generation burned cities from the air and destroyed them on the ground. Burned from the air: Dresden. Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima to name a few. We incinerated civilians by the hundreds of thousands. Not soldiers. Civilians.

In WWII, total war was fought. No mercy. No ROE that gave the enemy the advantage. No tying the hands of the troops. We destroyed the enemy. We conquered the enemy. We humiliated the enemy.

Now, we worry not about winning, not about protecting our troops, but whether or not the alleged rights of those who try to kill our troops were violated?!

Iraq is not Cincinnati!

My father, our fathers and grandfathers, men who went to fight WWII, did the hard job of soldiering, and then came home.

Today, our troops, their grandsons, are being killed and maimed without being able to exercise the right to defend themselves and their comrades first, and worrying about collateral damage second. The actions and conduct of our troops are subjected to oversight by JAG officers, attorneys who determine after the fact whether or not a shooting was justified. Most of whom are not combat command qualified. Attorneys.

We would have lost WWII had these restrictions been imposed upon our troops.

Again, as in Korea and Vietnam, our troops hands are tied by politics.

Our troops are sacrificed to show the world that we are really good people and that we really do not want to hurt anyone. Golly.

It is unquestionable that the IEDs that are the most effective come from Iran. Why is there still an Iran?

It is also unquestionable that most of the jihadis foreign to Iraq are infiltrated from Syria. Why is there still a Syria?

Those who were behind those who came to kill us on 9-11 are still out there.

Who knows how many latent jihadis are in this country awaiting their chance, because of the stupidity of maintaining an open border that allows up to 15,000 illegal aliens to cross daily.

More Americans were killed in the 9-11 attack on NYC than at Pearl Harbor. Yet, we act like we brought this outrage upon ourselves. That this act of war was our fault.

Male bovine offal!

The only thing that the Arab tribal mind, regardless of religious sect, understands is power. In the 1930s, the British stopped a rebellion in Iraq by turning Bagdad into rubble from the air. The rebellion ended when the jihadis who were out to remove the British infidel from their so called "holy" soil realized that they could be bombed from the air into extinction with impunity.

Mr. President, rewrite the Rules of Engagement to give our troops the ability to defend themselves. When they are attacked, overwhelming firepower needs to be the only response. Bring on the B52s, B2s and B1s 24 hours a day 7 days a week!

Destroy Sadr City as we destroyed Nagasaki.

Publically hang Muqtada al Sadr for the cowardly scum that he is. Or, have you forgotten the charnel houses that were found at Najaf where his underlings held court?

Destroy every city and town in the Anbar Province the way we and the Brits destroyed the German and Japanese cities and towns. Then move south. Do not stop until the last rifle is laid down, and the last jihadi is hanging from a telephone pole.

Give the tribes a choice. Life or death. No other choice. Support the effort to rout and kill the insurgents, or to side with them and die with them.

Kill the jihadis, destroy their will to fight, destroy their capacity to make war, humiliate them, conquer them. Treat in the same manner those who harbor them, sympathize, and support them.

Religion of peace. Religion of death. Religion of the dead. That is what Islam has to be.

WAR!

To do otherwise, is to ensure an American Hiroshima.

Post: January, 2009, our Pres. Obama has just given the order to eliminate the detention center in Gitmo. Bad news in the long run.