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.

RED AIR, is the Army's medevac policy killing wounded troops?

The United State Army has a policy that is killing our wounded troops in Afghanistan. U.S. Army medevac UH60s are unarmed and require by policy an armed escort before proceeding to pick up wounded troops. Given the high demand for AH64 Apache gunships in-theater, this policy results in unnecessary and unreasonable delays. On 18 September, 2011, the unnecessary death of a young soldier was documented by an independent third party. The article disclosing to the world what happened has become known as “RED AIR”.

As reported by war correspondent Michael Yon in his dispatch titled “RED AIR-America’s Medevac Failure” (http://www.michaelyon-online.com/red-air-americas-medevac-failure.htm) , on 18 September, 2011, while on a mission in Afghanistan, SPC Chazray Clark had the bad misfortune to trigger an IED, severely wounding the young soldier. Once the unit’s medics were able to assess his injuries, a medevac was immediately called for. The unit immediately returned to their LZ with SPC Clark to await the arrival of the medevac UH60.
What happened was an obscenity.

The call was put in for a medevac Dustoff setting at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) Pasab approximately 5 minutes away. Also based at Kandahar, AB, approximately 15 minutes away, were USAF PEDROs HH60G Pavehawks. Since the weather was good, Army policy dictates that its wounded be medevaced by its own unarmed Dustoff UH60s. The medevac helo waited 30 minutes on the ground for the arrival of the AH64 gunship required for escort by Army policy. 30 minutes which, for SPC Clark, his comrades, and the medevac helo crew must have seemed like an eternity. However, policy is policy, and the rules must be followed . . . SPC Chazray Clark grew weaker as time passed.

It took 65 minutes to get SPC Chazray Clark evacuated to a field hospital for treatment, even though FOB Pasab that the medevac helo was dispatched from was 10 minutes from the landing zone where SPC Clark lay dying. SPC Chazray Clark died just after landing at Kandahar, AB. Had the Army medevac helo been able to leave after notification of the medevac mission, without awaiting armed escort, SPC Clark would have been in the same field hospital within 24 minutes to 35 minutes, depending upon whether or not the medevac mission was launched from FOB Pasab or Kandahar, AB instead of the 65 minutesthat it actually took. Had SPC Chazray Clark been offloaded at the field hospital within 35 minutes, he would have survived his terrible wounds.

Time was the critical element as to whether or not SPC Chazray Clark lived or died after the IED was triggered.

The Army refuses to arm its medevac helicopters and insists on marking them with red crosses on white backgrounds so that the enemy has 1) a good aiming point, and 2) knows that they are unarmed. While conforming to the Geneva Convention, the red crosses are not taken by Muslims with the same meaning as intended under the Geneva Convention.

The Army’s policy stems from WWI when medical personnel and ambulances were marked with red crosses and were technically non-combatants. However, that civilized idea did not last long on the battlefield.
During the war in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), the Army’s Vietnam Dustoff (medevac ) UH1Ds and UH1Hs were still painted with red crosses on white backgrounds, giving the Viet Cong and the soldiers of the Peoples’ Army of Viet Nam readily identifiable aiming points. The medevac helos were armed or not, depending upon policy at the time. A documentary shot in 1966 called “The Anderson Platoon”, a story about the experiences of an infantry platoon of the 1st CAV in the RVN has two medevac scenes with wounded G.I.s being medevaced by armed Hueys marked with red crosses on white backgrounds. The point being, at that time, early in the war, unlike the Army medevac UH60s of Iraq and Afghanistan, in 1966, the Army 1st CAV Dustoff Hueys were armed.

The U.S. Army has a goal of getting any wounded troops to a medical facility within 60 minutes of notification of the need for medevac.

If the medevac site is declared “RED AIR” due to bad weather, then the USAF PEDRO UH60G Pavehawks are called in with their advanced all-weather instruments and sensors. Since the PEDROs are armed, they do not require any gunship escort.

No other service flies unarmed helos in a war zone. No other service forces its wounded to await evacuation based upon a policy that requires waiting for an armed gunship escort.

The courage, commitment, and dedication of Army medevac crews are legend. They are not the issue.

The solution to the Army's situation is simple:
1. Remove the red crosses that are a point of contention between the Muslims and the Army. The red cross was nothing more than a target since the Geneva Convention was written and last revised. In Vietnam, the red cross did not protect our medevac Dustoffs.
2. Arm the UH60A and UH60L medevac variants used in Afghanistan. They have the same engines, payload, and performance as the UH60 Slick utility helicopters that are presently armed with M240 7.62mm machine guns. The .50 caliber machine guns carried by the USAF PEDROs using basically the same helicopter with more sophisticated all weather sensors and in-flight refueling capability belie the Army's argument that the 168lbs for two M2 .50 cal machine guns and 100 lbs of ammo for both guns would negatively impact the performance of the UH60A or L medevac Dustoff variant used by the Army. See photo 3 of Nicole Sobrecki's photo series (link below) showing an Army Dustoff unit in Afghanistan and the interior of the UH60A.

The issue is an Army policy that has no place on the modern battlefield, which serves only to reduce the effectiveness of its medical evacuation capability. It is time this policy was changed. To mark or not to mark or to arm or not to arm the Army's medevac helicopters in a war zone should be a division command level decision. The in-country, in-theater war fighter commander should have that authority. The Army's ability to timely evacuate a wounded soldier should not be held hostage to an inflexible and outdated policy that has never been observed by any enemy since WWII.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/16/bureaucracy-killing-us-troops-in-afghanistan/

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/01/military-lawmaker-arm-medevac-helos-to-save-more-lives-011712/

http://www.navytimes.com/mobile/index.php?storyUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.navytimes.com%2Fnews%2F2012%2F01%2Fmilitary-lawmaker-arm-medevac-helos-to-save-more-lives-011712%2F

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

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/red-air-americas-medevac-failure.htm

CBS News interview with LTG Campbell regarding RED AIR and the Army's policy:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57362374/did-military-rules-cost-a-soldier-his-life/?tag=mncol%3Blst%3B1

Locally, the Frontiersman published my op-ed on the issue:

http://www.frontiersman.com/opinions/columnists/medevac-policy-is-costing-lives/article_3bf39468-3f52-11e1-8999-0019bb2963f4.html

Photographs by Nicole Sobecki of an Army medevac unit in Afghanistan. Photo 3 shows the interior of a UH60A medevac helicopter. The gunners would sit in the two seats behind the sitting Marine that face outward toward the windows just behind the pilots. This configuration belies the Army's argument that he UH60 would suffer degraded performance and cause the removal of two litters from the helo were two .50 caliber machine guns to be mounted on the fuselage.

http://www.nicholesobecki.com/#/dustoff--us-army-medevac/NS_AF_113010_Medevac14_002

The U.S. Army's Public Affairs Office response to the criticism of the Army's medevac policy:

http://www.army.mil/article/72250/Army_statement_on_MEDEVAC_issue/

Alaska has two Army brigades at JBER near Anchorage, and JBEW near Fairbanks. Several hundred Alaska soldiers and at least one company of Alaska Army National Guard troops are presently deployed to Afghanistan. This policy of having to await armed escort will have an impact upon these troops.

Please call or write Senator Mark Begich, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young and ask them to look into the Army policy of requiring an armed escort for medevac missions, which cause delays in reaching the wounded. Were the UH60s armed, they would not need an armed escort, thus saving time.

Pig oil used in our military's weapons?

Pig oil comprises a percentage of the small arms gun oil used by the United States military. That means that everyone of those jihadi's martyred are not going to paradise . . . BIG SMILEY FACE GOES HERE!

According to the London Daily Mail, that's the case.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393679/Did-pork-coated-bullet-kill-Bin-Laden-Yes-says-firm-claim-pig-fat-gun-oil-bought-U-S-military-personnel.html

EVERY LAST ONE OF THOSE SCUZZ BALL RAGHEAD TERRORIST SOBS SHOT BY OUR TROOPS DID NOT GO TO PARADISE!

HOOAH!!!!!!!

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.

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.