This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Valentine’s Day

    We’re off on our annual Valentine’s Day trip to South Beach, Miami; sand, cigars and shopping. Not a moment too soon, I guess. Snow’s falling and more’s expected, so the DC drama queens are shutting down everything. We’ll be back come Friday, tan, rested and ready to battle the forces of evil.

  • Iranians supply insurgents

    Both the Washington Times and Washington Post lead their news with stories about Iranians supplying insurgents in Iraq with their most deadly weapons against our troops. the difference in the stories is the degree to which the authors belive the information;

    From Bill Gertz’ Washington Times story;

    Iran is supplying deadly shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing bombs to Iraqi insurgents, along with TNT, triggering devices, rockets and other weapons that are killing and injuring hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. military intelligence report made public yesterday says.
        The detailed briefing report, titled “Iranian Support for Lethal Activity in Iraq,” stated that Iranian Misagh-1 portable anti-aircraft missiles were found after a failed attempt to shoot down a plane at Baghdad’s airport in 2004.  

    From Joshua Partlow’s Washington Post story;

    Senior U.S. military officials in Iraq sought Sunday to link Iran to deadly armor-piercing explosives and other weapons that they said are being used to kill U.S. and Iraqi troops with increasing regularity.

    See the difference? Gertz says “is supplying” and “the report stated”, while Partlow uses the weak “military officials sought to link”. So I guess Partlow wants this to be a legal case not a military operation. Careful not to make the Iranians look guilty before it’s proven in some as-yet-to-be decided court case, I guess.

    And the Associated Press rushes Iran’s denial to the web;

    In a rare interview with the US media given amid mounting tensions with the Islamic republic’s arch-enemy in Washington, Ahmadinejad told ABC television that that he did not fear a US attack.

    “Fear? Why should we be afraid? First, the possibility is very low,” he said the day after the United States accused Iranian agents of smuggling armour-piercing bombs into war-torn Iraq.

    “Our nation has made it clear that anyone who wants to attack our country will be severely punished,” Ahmadinejad added Monday.

    While the Iranian leader sidestepped US accusations that Iran is supplying potent weapons to Iraq insurgents, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini categorically rejected the charge.

    From Milblogs we read the Iranian threats to our Navy with their “suicide drones”. And Putin denies he gave missile technology to Iran despite evidence to the contrary.

    The Washington Post also warns us that the Shi’ite/Sunni “civil war” is spreading to Egypt;

    Fought in speeches, newspaper columns, rumors swirling through cafes and the Internet, and occasional bursts of strife, the conflict is predominantly shaped by politics: a disintegrating Iraq, an ascendant Iran, a sense of Arab powerlessness and a persistent suspicion of American intentions.

    Of course it’s the US fault. Did you think the WaPo could write one story that didn’t decribe us as “suspicious”?

    No one fears us anymore because the Left has made it clear that we’re ready to surrender. The Iranians will continue to fight us in this proxy war because we’ve lost our stomach to rid the world of evil. And the reason we’ve lost our stomach is the weasel words of Murtha, Kerry, Webb, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, etcetera, ad nauseum.

    The Left is preempting any effective attempt to blunt Iranian power in the region by making this ideological fight about politics.

    “Every leader in the region and every observer, every expert here in our country, tells us that Iran does not want a complete and total implosion in Iraq,” Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said Sunday.

    And no leader in the Arab World has ever lied to us have they, Kerry?

    But Democratic Sen. Jack Reed wondered whether the influx of Iranian armaments was a plan by the Islamic regime in Tehran or just “rogue elements” within it.

    Rogue elements, Mr Reed? Have you been paying attention the last few months? The government of Iran is rogue.  Sometimes I wonder if they’ve been on the same planet as the rest of us for the last few centuries.

    The Iranians know we’ve become gutless because of Democrats – why would they be using the Democrats’s same weasel words? The Democrats know that they are causing our decline in world stature, too, but they hide behind their false-patriotism. While American blood is spilled by the barrels-full at the alter of Leftism.

  • Crybaby interogators need not apply

    I’m reading this sorry excuse for an opinion piece in the Washington Post about some whiner named Eric T. Fair who has nightmares;

    Aman with no face stares at me from the corner of a room. He pleads for help, but I’m afraid to move. He begins to cry. It is a pitiful sound, and it sickens me. He screams, but as I awaken, I realize the screams are mine.

    That dream, along with a host of other nightmares, has plagued me since my return from Iraq in the summer of 2004. Though the man in this particular nightmare has no face, I know who he is. I assisted in his interrogation at a detention facility in Fallujah. I was one of two civilian interrogators assigned to the division interrogation facility (DIF) of the 82nd Airborne Division. The man, whose name I’ve long since forgotten, was a suspected associate of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, the Baath Party leader in Anbar province who had been captured two months earlier.

    If this guy thinks this is horrible torture that should keep him up at night nearly three years after the event, he was in the wrong line of work. I have nightmares, too, but has anyone seen me anywhere on the ‘net complain about them?

    Sorry to interrupt, I’ll let the crybaby continue;

    I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking.

    Sounds like an ARTEP in Hohenfels to me. Imagine – standing naked in the dark – horrible, just horrible. Is this the best he can do? Is the best the Washington Post can do?

    I googled his name and came up empty. So I went to my trusty military.com Buddy Finder and the only profile that exists for an Eric T. Fair is the one he made. There’s no public record of the military service of this guy, although he claims he was an Arabic linguist in the Army before 2000 and then a contractor in 2004. 

    I am desperate to get on with my life and erase my memories of my experiences in Iraq. But those memories and experiences do not belong to me. They belong to history.

    So what’s his stupid point? And what is the Post’s point? This is just a whinefest for some guy who didn’t have the stomach for being mean, and rightly terminated his service with the military. So why did he and the Post think it deserved even a column inch of space?

    And why did the Washington Post put on their website next to the frontpage link to this story the picture of the poncho-clad terrorist with his arms outstretched, sandbag over his head, car battery wires attached to his hands that came out of the Abu Garaib? Did poor little Eric mention that he was forced by his paymasters to do this to innocent little beheaders? Nope. He talked about sleepless hungry nights and punching. Get a grip Eric and the WaPo. A tight grip.

    But he attracts the nutroots like The American Street who suggests we waterboard the Administration, and Thoughts on an unjust war by prevenger who thinks that poor Mr. Fair doesn’t deserve to sleep because he hasn’t spoken out sooner, and the Blue Herald who wants to “lay a little pain” on the Administration (no thoughts on what he’d like to do to those poor unfortunate souls who behead others, though).

    But anyway, Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive is trying to outmaneuver the MSM on the “surge” – if you have any info for him, send it.

  • General Murtha speaks;

    All this yammering about Pelosi’s plane really didn’t interest me until I read this line from John Murtha;

    Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the Pelosi ally who chairs the House military appropriations subcommittee, said he has spoken to Pentagon officials about the need to provide Pelosi with a bigger plane that can fly passengers coast to coast in comfort.

    But he denied pressuring the Pentagon. “I don’t need to pressure them. I just tell them what they need to do,” Murtha said.

    I wonder if Big Shot Murtha ever read the Constitution  – the part where the President is the commander-in-chief of the military. No where does it say that some pickle-brained, pasty-faced, fat-assed, cut-and-run coward committee chairman gets to tell the military what they should do – especially by threatening to withold funding for REAL COMBAT SOLDIERS deployed in combat over something so petty as a non-stop flight for the Speaker.

    I’ll grant that she needs a plane and I’ll grant that the military should provide one, but I’ll not concede that Murtha has the right to denigrate the military by declaring that they need to follow his directions. Especially the way he’s treated combat troops in the near and distant past.

    This is just indicative of Murtha’s total disregard for this nation’s security – that he’s willing to sacrifice soldiers’ lives so he can suck up at lightspeed to Blinky the Botox Queen. As if we needed something else to point out his disregard.

     

  • Gathering of Eagles

    As I reported here, ANSWER and their assorted loony friends are planning a march on the Pentagon on March 17th. Today as I read Flopping Aces, I discovered that some veterans on The US Veterans Dispatch are planning a human wall of veterans to protect the Viet Nam Memorial from vandals during ANSWER’s gathering of turkeys;

    “The anti-war/anti-America group cannot be allowed to use the Vietnam Memorial Wall as a back-drop to their anti-America venom and stain the hallowed ground that virtually cries out with blood at the thought of this proposed desecration … it must not happen,” said veteran Bud Gross. “… All Americans are invited to support our effort, which is intended as a defender of hallowed ground and intended as a non-violent competition between those that would sell out America and those of us who support freedom and keeping the fight with the enemy on distant shores.”

    The group defending the Wall will be wearing armbands to identify themselves. Those who are unable to stand with the defenders are being asked to wear armbands with small U.S. flags to show their own communities that they abhor the Fonda-Sheehan tactics.

    “We’ll be there to act as a countervailing force against the Cindy Sheehan-Jane Fonda march from the Vietnam Memorial to the Pentagon,” retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey said. “We will protect the Vietnam Memorial.”

    So, any of you folks who are in the area, or plan on visiting here a month from now, take some time and show your support. I’ll be there – details to come later. I plan on getting photos and do a little better reporting than I did on the last protest.

    In the meantime, USVD has a message board up.

  • This is the End of American culture

    I read about those idiot college students who made the fake beheading video out there on Long Island and, yeah, I thought it was tasteless and insensitive to the families of beheading victims. Until I saw the usual “outrage” statements of the Muslim community;  

    “I think it’s not a prank,” said Ghazi Khankan of Long Beach, a member of the board of the American Muslim Alliance, which he described as a regional and national group that advocates for Muslim participation in the political process. “Campuses are for enlightenment and for teaching us to get along, to respect each other, to know how to live together.”

    Funny, I thought college was a place where we learned. I didn’t realize that it’s a big social laboratory. Guess I was wrong. I always figured that college students were accustomed to blowing off steam in unusual ways – like swallowing goldfish and packing phone booths.

    Maybe the outraged Muslims can teach those folks who behead and set fire to buses a little about respecting each other instead of focusing on a college prank, for pete’s sake.

    Habeeb Ahmed, president of the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, who said he was a C.W. Post alumnus, agreed. “People are testing the waters again and again, and the Muslim community is always at the receiving end.”

    Always? Since when? Maybe if Muslims would stop testing the waters, I’d feel for ’em a bit more. The only ones on the receiving end are those of us who hear and read endless lectures about tolerance from an entire race of intolerant people.

    I wonder if they were this outraged over the news of actual beheadings.

    These five students are only guilty of putting the video on YouTube where they’d get busted for being rambunctous youngsters. If people are going to start losing jobs for being funny, I think it’s the end of our civilization.

    Afterall, who can forget the other comedy team who dared to poke fun at our enemies (it is only our enemies who threaten to behead us, right?);

  • Spineless Republicans defect

    It reads like a list of usual suspects – seven Republican Senators have threatened to surrender to Democrats on the nonbinding resolution to not support the President’s strategy in Iraq. According to the Washington Post;

    In a letter distributed yesterday evening to Senate leaders, John W. Warner (Va.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and five other GOP supporters of the resolution threatened to attach their measure to any bill sent to the floor in the coming weeks. Noting that the war is the “most pressing issue of our time,” the senators declared: “We will explore all of our options under the Senate procedures and practices to ensure a full and open debate.”

    The other 5 usual suspects;

    The other Republican senators who signed the letter were Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Norm Coleman (Minn.), Gordon Smith (Ore.), and George V. Voinovich (Ohio).

    I’ll tell ya what, I’m so tired of hearing Hagel, Collins, Snowe and Voinovich standing in the way of every traditionally Republican vote in the Senate from tax cuts to this nonbinding resolution, I hope the party throws them under the bus in their next bid for reelection. Does anyone really miss Lincoln Chaffee? I don’t.

    Of course the letter came out yesterday afternoon after Chief of Staff General Peter Pace said this according to Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times;

    “From the standpoint of the troops, I believe that they understand how our legislature works and that they understand that there’s going to be this kind of debate,” said Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, effectively taking out of play an argument that had been made by Mr. Bush’s spokesman and other top Republicans, who had warned resolutions disagreeing with the troop increase plan would send bad signals.
        Joining Gen. Pace in testifying to the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the troops are “sophisticated enough to understand” that the debate is about a way to move forward in Iraq.
        But Gen. Pace said that would all change if today’s nonbinding resolutions turned into moves to cut off funding for the war effort — something some Democrats have proposed.

    So knowing those RINOs, they took that as signal to start leveraging their usually insignificant stature in the Senate. Political opportunists. Maybe they all need to come out of the closet.

    And all the while, Pelosi is still worrying about her free airplane.

  • Arkin’s Last Stand

    William Arkin, the cowardly lion in Vermont’s frozen interior has written for the last time (he says) on the subject of his blog piece last week in which he called our military “mercenaries”. He titles the latest piece “Demonization and Responsibility”, and I guess he’s not talking about his own demon behavior or taking responsibility for his ill-considered military bashing. 

    The many e-mails I’ve gotten privately from people serving in the military are, not surprisingly, the most respectful and reflective. Some correspondents are downright indignant, some are sarcastic, and most are hurt by the “mercenary” epithet and my commentary. But they are philosophical about their service and where we are in the war and the country today.

    The torrents of other mail — biting, fanatical, threatening — represent the worst of polarized and hate-filled America. I’m not complaining about being criticized or being made the latest punching bag for those who subsist off of high-volume conquest. Nor am I apologizing for addressing, however imperfectly, the questions I did last week, nor for being critical of the military.

    (Emphasis mine)

    We probably didn’t expect that you would, given your past “work” in the field of criticizing Republican Administrations and doing your best to obstruct any sort of functioning foreign policy.

    Note: On the advice of my editors, this is the last column I will post for awhile on this subject. My impulse would be to continue to fight back and answer the critics, but I see the wisdom in their observation that nothing new is being said here and the Internet frenzy is adding nothing to the debate or our understanding of our world. I also see that I cannot continue to write about humanity and difficult questions if indeed what I wish is to vanquish those who attack me.

    Your editors were wise in giving this advice, because you were getting your ass worn out worldwide. But you actually accomplished what you set out to do; you made it fashionable and acceptable to criticize the troops again. I’m sure that those who follow you will appreciate it. 

    I can see, in the military blogs and in the comments of those who have written about my posts last week, that those who refer to themselves as Vietnam veterans still yearn for the recognition and thanks that they believe they haven’t received. There is no question that Vietnam is still an open wound for them, and that they therefore only recognize the worth of fellow veterans, of those who have been through exactly the same experience.

    Yeah, the way you Leftists treated Viet Nam veterans was a crying-ass-shame, and I don’t imagine many will ever forgive. But I guess you feel slighted because you didn’t get your chance to criticize them then, so you’ll take your chance now. Take your chance to beat up on the generation of soldiers who served despite the criticism and abuse.

    A chickenshit, sideways glancing blow in another non-apology. When you’re ready to take responsibility and stop demonizing the troops, let us know.

    So Little Billy Arkin’s last stand on this subject is that we should all shut up and let the Vermont ski bum exercise his right to free speech.