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

Category: Support the troops

  • How NOT to support the troops

    Stevie Wunder could see it from space. Anyone who remembers the late 60s and early 70s can spot the signs. The Left is gearing up to go after the troops since they can’t change the course of the war in Congress in hopes to discourage a new, young generation from considering a stint in the military.

    Of course, the early signs were that huge, stupid poster we all witnessed out in California or Oregon or some-damn-where hippies are allowed to be as stupid and smelly as they like that read “We support the troops when they kill their officers”. That was about as lame and intellectually vacant as anything the Left has ever written – encouraging soldiers to volunteer for life imprisonment.

    Last year, Joshua Sparling, an amputee soldier, was spat upon by an anti-war protester in DC. They can’t even be original sometimes.

    We’ve had politicians like Dick Durbin, John Murtha, John Kerry, John Edwards who have all taken turns slandering the troops and minimizing their sacrifice to this country. That sets us up for this coming weekend.

    Crotchety Old Bastard reports that the whole Haditha thing might be a complete fabrication from the NCIS investigators. (I never trusted that Mark Harmon anyway) It was the whole reason Murtha used on ABC to justify bringing the troops home (or redeploying them to Guam or some-damn-where).

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express has trolled the depths of the Democrat, anti-national security websites and assembled quotes from the various commenters that all seem to disparage General Petraeus – who, by the way is one of the troops. Notice his uniform? That’s how I recognize the troops whom I thank for their service around this town – regardless of their rank.

    Dadmanly goes after the ACLU and Time Magazine for blowing US committed atrocities out of proportion to turn the public against our sons and daughter.

    Gateway Pundit, Hang Right Politics’ Kathy and Michele Malkin catch MoveOn.org calling the good general a traitor. A traitor to what, for Pete’s sake? How utterly vacuous to call a general a traitor for merely reporting on the war. The same group of alleged people (alleged because I’m not sure they’re from this planet anymore) who were formed to prevent a president from being impeached on real and damning evidence has now stooped to calling a general a traitor BEFORE HE’S SPOKEN A WORD OF HIS REPORT!

    Pete Hegseth at The Weekly Standard reminds us that no general is an island;

    Let’s be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has ‘betrayed’ his country. This is disgusting. To attack as a traitor an American general commanding forces in war because his ‘on the ground’ experience does not align with MoveOn.org’s political objectives is utterly shameful. It shows contempt for America’s military leadership, as well as for the troops who have confidence in him, as our fellow soldiers in Iraq certainly do.

    General Petraeus has served this country for over 35 years with honor, distinction, and integrity. And this is not just about General Petraeus. After all, if General Petraeus is “cooking the books,” then the entire military chain of command in Baghdad, and all the staff, military and civilian, who have been working with General Petraeus are complicit, since Petraeus did not write his report in isolation. They are all, apparently, ‘betray[ing] us.’

    They, the Left, just picked General Petraeus as their target because they think they did a clever job of misspelling his name so the sheep can bleat it in unison. They have trouble remembering stuff if doesn’t rhyme apparently. And he wears a uniform.

    The Left likes to use the Old Europe concept of generals being rich, connected royalty-types, when in fact the United States armed forces has always been made up of the kids in your neighborhood, the kids who played with your kids, the kids who delivered your newspaper (the VFW has put together a video on that very same subject). There’s no secret farm somewhere upon which are bred secret super-soldiers. They’re bred in your hometown. 

    Yeah, I see the Left getting ready for major league troop-bashing. Chickenhawk Express warned me to take my spit shield this weekend – I think I’ll bring my spit bat instead.

  • Kokesh jailed in DC already

    Photo from Washington Post

    Adam Kokesh, the little ex-Marine (I know ya’all Marines say there are no ex-Marines – but this guy fits, believe me) who made a stink about the Marines downgrading his discharge because he wore his uniform at anti-war protests and poorly representing our fighting men and women while still in the service, was arrested Thursday, according to the Washington Post;Â

    The demonstrators, members of the antiwar Answer Coalition, have been in an ongoing dispute with the District and Park Service over their right to post signs in public places.

    The D.C. government has fined the coalition about $20,000 for posting signs, and the Park Service has asked the group to remove them.

    The coalition countered by filing a lawsuit challenging the District’s regulations. The suit is pending.

    The group assembled for a news conference yesterday at Lafayette Square to promise to put up more posters, regardless of possible sanctions. Within minutes, the pledge was tested. An officer approached and asked whether the demonstrators had a permit for their gathering.

    Here’s a link to the Youtube video of the arrest of three “activists”. I get the impression that they were there just to get arrested. The Park Police officer (not a Metro cop as many news reports record) asked them to stop putting up posters and they continued. How hard is it to not put up posters.

    The ANSWER clowns have put those garish yellow posters all over the city – disregarding the ordinance that forbids it. The posters stay up for months after the protests end and eventually are either posted over by new ANSWER posters or city workers have to remove them – at great, useless cost to taxpayers (since it’s DC, all US taxpayers pay for the removal).

    Now, the incident happened in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, which is policed by Federal Park Police since it’s a national park – the Park Service forbids putting posters up in national parks. I guess Kokesh and his little buddy, Tina Richards, didn’t factor that in to that little demonstration of their idiocy.

    Of course, the “activists” blame Bush in the video – he’s so unemcumbered by his duties, he’s worried about two halfwits putting posters up in Lafayette Park. The Park Police would’ve done the same if Clinton (either one) was President.

    The closest thing to an incident I’ve had with Park Police is Mother’s Day last year when I confronted some Code Pink goofballs in Lafayette Park. The Park Police asked me to leave the park and then they escorted me off. I shook their hands when I left and thanked them for their good works. It was that easy.

    I’d say the police did us all a favor – those ugly yellow posters are all over the city and they’ll still be all over the city next Spring. I’ve wondered how the city can let them get away with it after they passed the ordinance three years ago to prevent this de-facing of the city.

    In the beginning of the video, you can see the Park Police ask them for their permit to assemble – of course they didn’t have one. Again claiming their First Amendment rights. I hope none of them are lawyers.

    But Lt. Phil Beck of the U.S. Park Police said the officers took action only after the demonstrators ignored a command to remove a table and stop posting the signs.

    That’s all apparent in the video. I guess if they’re this wired up before their “Die-in” next week, it ought to get real interesting. And I’ll be there to capture it all. I love this non-paying job.

  • Why the Patriot Guards ride

    My cousin, dear friend that he is, writes to me that he has been seething over this picture for days now and after reading a few of my blog entries, decided I should seethe a bit, too. So as a loving family member he sent me the picture – so I have indeed been seething over it and decided to let you seethe a bit, too.

    Laurie from Soldiers’ Angels New York – another of my buddies out there in blogland – should notice that the picture was taken during my cousin’s Patriot Guard ride from Syracuse to Old Forge (notice the NY State Trooper car).

    What’s with the flag stuffed in their crotches? Is that what counts as free speech these days? I guess they figure they’re protected from other other people expressing themselves.

  • Democrats’ cut-and-run strategy failing

    The Washington Post’s lead story this morning is General Petraeus’ impending recommendation of drawing down one combat brigade from Iraq. The Weisman/Wright written piece begins;

    Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has indicated a willingness to consider a drawdown of one brigade of between 3,500 and 4,500 U.S. troops from Iraq early next year, with more to follow over the next months based on conditions on the ground, according to a senior U.S. official.

    The pullouts would be contingent on the ability of U.S. and Iraqi forces to sustain what the administration heralds as recent gains in security and to make further gains in stabilizing Iraq. President Bush signaled the possibility of drawdowns after visiting Anbar province earlier this week. After meeting with Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Bush said he was told that “if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.”

    Meanwhile, the Democrats have hit a brickwall in their “redeployment” scheme – the Republican Administration. From the Washington Times’ S.A. Miller;

    Rank-and-file Democrats in Congress are criticizing the party’s leaders for allowing the White House to sap momentum from the antiwar movement during the August recess.

    “The White House is taking great advantage of the Democrats not pushing back,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, California Democrat and co-founder of the antiwar Out of Iraq Caucus.

    “We need bolder steps from the Democrats,” she said. “The people of this country are waiting for some leadership — some bold leadership — from the people that they elected to be the majority of the House and the Senate.”

    Um, the people also elected the Republican Administration, Ms Woolsey, because they don’t trust Democrats to protect us and the country. I don’t know what bolder steps you can take – neither does the Democrat Leadership as quoted by the Washington Post;

    “Clearly, we don’t have the numbers to override the president’s vetoes, as has been clearly demonstrated,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), “nor do we expect to for a long time.”

    Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has said that he could drop his demand for a firm troop withdrawal next spring to win GOP votes. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this week that she will allow a vote on bipartisan troop legislation that, without requiring a redeployment, would force the administration to begin publicly planning for a withdrawal.

    So while the Democrats try to make the withdraw from Iraq look like their plan and their idea, the President is actually getting ahead of them and doing it without a time schedule from Congress and as the tactical situation permits – like he has planned to do all along. And the Democrats can’t keep their promise to force an immediate withdrawal of troops so they can have photos splashed across the front pages of newspaper of people climbing on the last helicopter out of the Baghdad Embassy in time for the election next Fall.

    But the Democrats are cherrypicking which reports they want to believe from WashTimes’ Miller;

    Democrats planned to seize upon other war studies presented this week that, in part, highlight failures of the fledgling Iraqi government, including a report on Iraqi security forces yesterday by an independent commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, former U.S. commander in Europe.

    The report, however, did not support calls for a speedy troop withdrawal, which Democrats say would extract U.S. forces from a civil war and force the Iraqi government to take charge.

    Commission member John Hamre, president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a House panel that continued U.S. military presence in Iraq safeguards the United States’ many strategic interests in the Middle East.

    “Every one of those interests would be seriously diminished if we have to crawl out or run out of Iraq,” he told the Armed Services Committee.

    The report concluded that Iraqi security forces would not be ready to police their country alone for at least 18 months. It recommended giving Iraqis a lead role but with substantial support and training by U.S. forces.

    Frederick Kagan in The Weekly Standard why the Post is cherrypicking and leaking the Jones report in “What the Jones Report Really Says“;

    SOME IN THE MEDIA have been remarkably quick to report on leaked copies of reports about Iraq before the average person has a chance to read them. There is a reason, apart from the usual journalistic desire to be first with a story. The reports often don’t say what the reporters want them to. First leaks about the National Intelligence Estimate and the report of the Government Accountability Office turned out to have painted them darker–and in the case of the NIE much darker–than they actually were. That is even more true of the report of Retired Marine General Jim Jones about the state of the Iraqi Security Forces. 

    Roy Blunt, House Minority Leader, farting in a hurricane, asked Democrats to be objective;

    House Minority Whip Roy Blunt urged members to take a “broad, objective look” at the reports, noting that the Jones report showed “that real progress is being made in raising a reliable Iraqi army.”

    “As Congress continues to take in these reports and evaluate the merit of their recommendations, we owe it to our men and women fighting abroad to take a broad, objective look at the conditions in the field, the progress they continue to make, and the ways we can come together as an institution to help — not hinder — their continued success,” said Mr. Blunt, Missouri Republican.

    Here’s the farting in a hurricane part;

    Democrats have attempted to discredit Gen. Petraeus ahead of his delivering the administration’s war assessment.

    Mrs. Woolsey said Gen. Petraeus’ report would be “packaged spin” from the White House, echoing early criticism of the report from Democratic leaders.

    Mr. McGovern also took a pre-emptive swipe at the progress reports.

    “What the president has to say doesn’t carry much water here,” Mr. McGovern said. “I don’t trust the president on this war any more. I know those are strong words. I just don’t [trust him].”

    Yeah, well, when you talk like that, Congressman, we don’t trust your party with the keys to the White House. The Post quotes McGovern as threatening a revolt from the hairy-armpit crowd;

    The new effort at compromise by the Democratic leadership could alienate liberals. “You may end up with a revolt from my wing of the party if we do something that doesn’t pass the smell test and, quite frankly, infuriates our constituents,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a firm opponent of the war.

    Sorry, but your constituents don’t have a say in a representative Republic – they voted for you they didn’t vote for the other 334 representives. They only get a voice once every two years – pity they continue to waste that vote on you, Mr. McGovern.

    The Purple Avenger at Ace of Spades reminds us that Petreus had not one nay vote for his confirmation. Including Schumer.

    COBDanny (who, by the way has first hand experience with General Petraeus’ briefings) says this won’t sit well with the peace-at-any-cost Left.

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express trolls the depths of Democrat.com and comes back with trophy gems like this;

    General BETRAYOUS told the conservanazi republikan caucus what he was going to report BEFORE HE EVEN WENT TO IRAQ. GEN. BETRAYOUS IS A CONSERVANAZI STOOGE THAT WANTS TO KEEP THE conservanazis IN POWER.

    Gateway Pundit explains their derangement – apparently 42% of Democrats think President Bush had something to do with the 9-11 plot.

    The NY Sun wants Petraeus to run for President. (h/t Micheal Goldfarb)

    Sweetness and Light catches Schumer’s edits to his anti-troops statement earlier in the week. Shades of Orwell’s Winston Smith.

    Wordsmith at Flopping Aces tempts the Paulians in with red meat.

  • Petraeus report dismissed as “Bush Report”

    When I made the public comment days after 9-11 that Democrats would end their charade of supporting this country and it’s national security in short order, I was criticized and chastised. But that’s why I made the comment, I suppose.

    Since then, we’ve had recorded incidences of wounded soldiers being spat upon, we’ve had Little Dick Durbin calling them SS Nazi camp guards, John Murtha calling them murderers, John Kerry telling us that the troops aren’t very smart, John Edwards calling the war against terrorism a bumper sticker phrase, Harry Reid told us the surge had failed before it even started…well, I could go on, but you get the idea.

    Today, the Washington Times’ S.A. Miller writes that they’ve already dismissed the upcoming Petraeus Report;

    Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can’t be trusted.

    “The Bush report?” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq.

    “We know what is going to be in it. It’s clear. I think the president’s trip over to Iraq makes it very obvious,” the Illinois Democrat said. “I expect the Bush report to say, ‘The surge is working. Let’s have more of the same.’ ”

    The top Democrats — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — also referred to the general’s briefing as the “Bush report.”

    Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Gen. Petraeus’ report was potentially compromised by the White House’s involvement in drafting it.

    Imagine that – the Executive Branch actually cooperated among the various agencies to produce a report to the Legislative Branch. Van Hollen, you’re an idiot. That’s what the Executive Branch should be doing. Where did you take civics? In space?

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express sums the current variation of BDS very well;

    These moveon morons can’t see anything because they are just totally consumed with hatred for President Bush and anything Republican. They are still smarting from President Bush’s trip to Iraq this week and the overwhelming support for the CIC demonstrated by the troops.

    Rather than embrace the report from the General that is up to his armpits in the situation in Iraq, the Dems would rather pick their own little reports to refer to. No surprise here – the reports they are banking on are less than optimistic. But why would we expect anything else from the Defeatocrats?

    Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive targets my favorite imbecile, Little Chuckie “the Putz” Schumer who says that the surge is working despite our troops;

    Wow Senator, really. So the Sunni tribes that before had either helped Al Qaeda, tolerated them, or were intimidated into submission by them, decided to fight them on their own. And somehow they chose to show this by allying themselves directly with us and conducting operations with US troops. Hmm go figure, but noted military expert Chuck Schumer wouldn’t just be running his mouth would he? Just standing on the Senate floor flappin’ his gums about things  he is woefully ignorant about, this is the US Senate for cripes sakes.

    And yet there he is, lying in that disgusting tone those collegial jagoffs use.

    Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters disputes “The Putz”;

    The Iraqis aren’t fooled. They named the police station after the man who masterminded the liberation of Ramadi from al-Qaeda. They named it after US Army Captain Travis Patriquin.

    Peejz at Right Voices points out that they haven’t read the darn thing yet, so who are they to judge?

    What is it that they do believe? Well, the GAO report, of course, and why is that? The Democratic Congress ensured that the report would deliver negative “grades” for the Iraqi government by asking the GAO to evaluate whether or not the benchmarks have been met now–just two months after the major combat operations of the surge began.

    And me? Well, the surge working was inevitable – the reason Iraqis are stepping up is they were certain that if the Democrats won the Congress last November, they’d pull US troops out – just like the Democrats told us they would. Instead, Bush sent more US troops – the Iraqis realize that our support to them isn’t hinged on political rhetoric, but genuine commitment. The reason they didn’t step up before was that they were pretty certain that Americans would cut and run and leave them hanging – like we’ve left Vietnamese, Somalians, Haitians, Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians and Cubans hanging. And the iraqi Shi’ites in 1991. Why would Iraqis commit to hanging thier own asses out after we’ve become famous worldwide as cut-and-runners?

    George Bush proved to them that the US is there to win despite the political climate here. And they responded in kind. The Iraqis cowboy’d up.

    My buddy, Kate, likes to quote Jose Marti; Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist. We just needed to show the Iraqis that we are willing to point the way to liberty.

    And Gateway Pundit has all of the good news from Iraq in one neat, handy package. Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs posts pictures of US atrocities in response to Schumer.

    Curt at Flopping Aces, in “The New Democrat Offensive“, parses two articles from WaPo’s Karen Young on the subject “Iraq Army Unable to Take Over in a Year Report Says” and “Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq“. She might have a shred of credibility or at least the appearance of journalistic integrity if she’d ever written an article on the other side.

    Brings to mind Spiro Agnew’s comment about the “nattering nabobs of negativity” from our Viet Nam Era.

  • Anti-war movement’s death throes

    Since I went to the Gathering of Eagles counter-protest last March 17th, I’ve been convinced that the pathetic and pointless, culture of personalities, anti-war movement is in its death throes. In fact, I’ve wrote about it several times on this blog. The sparse participation at the March on the Pentagon convinced me of that – it was a Saturday morning in the middle of the Spring semester in a hugely college town, yet they could barely scrape together enough people to outnumber the counter protesters – if they did.

    Well, apparently, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard arrived at the same conclusion, for different reasons, in this week’s issue;

    It would be silly to make too much out of one item on a Time blog. But it does suggest that even the respectable elements of the antiwar movement have jumped the shark. Unwilling seriously to debate the choices before us, and the consequences of those choices, antiwar advocates are now down to name-calling.

    Well, that’s not all. I see on the Gathering of Eagles blog, the Move America Forward tour and it’s organizer have been threatened by Daily Kos diarists (the post was obviously removed but the evidence remains). Marooned in Marin has more substantial evidence of the Left’s intentions towards the MAF caravan. When the Left resorts to threats, they’re losing – and we’re winning!Â

    More evidence, in my mind, is the fact that the anti-war movement’s studly hero, a crybaby by the name of Adam Kokesh, whom I’ve written about extensively here, is calling for a longer commitment than just one day from the mindless zombies of the Left;

    To kick off the week of action, after the rally we will march from the White House to the Capitol, and go straight into a mass civil-disobedience die-in around the Peace Monument. The die-in will be led by an Honor Guard of Iraq Veterans Against the War who will simulate a 21-Gun Salute before taps is played to initiate the die-in. We are asking as many members of VFP as possible to sign up to wear cammies and die-in around us to symbolize the American cost of this war. We will be encircled by bolts of red cloth to symbolize the Iraqi deaths and invite anyone else from the rally to participate in the die-in.

    Sunday will be a day of teach-ins including a Truth In Recruiting Workshop led by IVAW. That evening, IVAW DC will be holding a benefit concert. Monday is National Truth In Recruiting Day, and there will be numerous activities planned and we will need your help with an action at the main recruiting office in DC. Tuesday is Congressional Challenge Day led by Tina Richards. Wednesday or Thursday will be Veterans Lobbying Day, and Friday is the Moratorium. Also, the 14th, the Friday before the rally, is the IVAW CD Release Party. All of these events are on the calendar at Sept15.org.

    I doubt very much that they’ll be able to keep the interest of 15-second attention span generation for an entire week. Especially if there’s a sign of rain, or the temp drops below 70 degrees, or they walk past the Hard Rock Cafe on their way to the protest, or if  American Idol Rewind is on their cable TVs in their hotel rooms.

    I think its funny that Kokesh is pushing for a “Truth in Recruiting” day – since he lied to all of the major media outlets and told them he’d been discharged from the military before his participation in protests and that the military was targeting him for harrassment. Kokesh wouldn’t know the truth if it bit his face.

    William Kristol calls for the anti-war crowd to action against Kokesh’s “Die-In”;

    Will mainstream antiwar groups and antiwar politicians denounce this action, which is scheduled to begin the weeklong protest? Will the respectable parts of the antiwar movement stand with veterans and veterans’ families who intend to protest this disgusting appropriation of their loved ones’ names? Surely most critics of the war still have a sense of decency.

    Obviously, Kristol has more faith in human nature than I. This last Spring, Kokesh, while still in the military, roamed the National Mall in uniform with his cohorts, pretending to be on a patrol in Iraq. They forced  tourists into makeshift prison cells and began humiliating them to simulate the way our troops treat innocent Iraqi civilians. There is no expectation of a “sense of decency” from people so steeped in their hatred for this country and the troops that defend us.

    Kokesh has an axe to grind with the Marines – he was reduced in rank and placed in the inactive reserves. On his blog, in which he calls himself “Sergeant Kokesh” (which in itself is a lie – he was dischaged as a private E-2 – he was busted. I guess he thinks that he gets to call himself whatever he wants now) describes his tour as a “civil affairs specialist” and says that his first tour soured him on the war. But he neglects to mention that before his second tour (for which he volunteered, by the way) he was busted for smuggling an Iraqi pistol back to the US after the first tour. Doesn’t sound like the actions of someone destined to be the public face of the anti-war movement, does it?

    Regardless, I plan on being there to bring you the photos of the pathetic end of the anti-war movement – as well as photos of the Gathering of Eagles who plan on lining Saturday’s event route for GOEIII. Tentatively, some fellow bloggers are planning to meet me there so, there should be lots to write about on September 15th.

    Anyone else planning on being there, drop me a line at admin@thisainthell.us Â

    Others blogging on the same thing as my meandering mind;

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express on William Kristol

    Skye at Midnight Blue on GOE III

    Michele Malkin on Answering ANSWER and GOE III

    SWAC Girl on GOE III

    The Redhunter on GOE III

    DragonMG at Tanker Brothers wonders “Where’s Harry?” when the GOE is there to welcome home Nevada’s sons and daughters, but Reid isn’t. While Dadmanly recounts Reid’s conversion to surrender monkey over the death of the first Nevadan in Iraq.

    Speaking of sharkjumping and the Daily Kos, Markos may have just jumped the shark by calling his readers gullible fools (from Newsbusters’ PJ Gladnik).

  • Reid snatching defeat from victory

    The public’s perception of the war in Iraq slowly shifts closer to reality claims John Ward of the Washington Times;

    The White House believes it has made significant progress over the past month in swaying public and political opinion toward supporting a continued U.S. military effort in Iraq, one of President Bush’s closest advisers said in an interview.

    “The end of the August feels a lot better than the beginning of August when it comes to where we are relative to perceptions of our Iraq policy and what is working,” said Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president.

    Congress returns Tuesday from a monthlong recess that did not go according to plan for Democratic leaders and the antiwar movement, who were looking to September as a time to force Mr. Bush into changing course in Iraq.

    That moment may still come. But August brought numerous reports from regional specialists and even Democratic members of Congress that the president’s surge of 30,000 troops is producing positive results.

    Of course that’s terrible news for the Democrats. They think they won last November’s election on an anti-war platform, so an improved perception of the war bodes ill for the party that wants to abandon national security issues before the next election. The Washington Post reports that Harry “the war is lost” Reid is still trying to attract RINOs to his failures;

    Saying the coming weeks will be “one of the last opportunities” to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq.

    Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline.
     
    “I don’t think we have to think that our way is the only way,” Reid said of specific dates during an interview in his office here. “I’m not saying, ‘Republicans, do what we want to do.’ Just give me something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of what I want to do.”

    So now he’s willing to compromise with weak-kneed Republican defeatists in order to make himself look less ridiculous. Even though the administration may begin withdrawing troops before Spring without Congress passing any kind of legislation, according to rumors about the upcoming breifing to Congress by General Petreaus, Reid is trying to pull a “compromise” out of his ass to appear as if he still running things.

    And he has the audacity to disclaim partisanship;

    But looking forward, Reid said he will encourage new coalitions to develop, with a more bipartisan hue. “There is no reason that this be Democrat versus Republican,” he said.

    The whole thing has been Democrats versus Republicans since the airliner hit the ground in Pennsylvania. From that point, Democrats warned that their weakness on national defense shouldn’t be an issue in elections – even though it’s the most important issue that should be facing the federal government. 

    The Post outlines what Reid wants most;

    One measure Reid said he will seek to resurrect would tighten rules on the use of troops by requiring soldiers’ leave times to be at least as long as their most recent deployment. The proposal, offered by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), would not set withdrawal terms, but it could effectively limit U.S. force levels. A vote of 56 to 41 in favor of the measure on July 11 fell four votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster, but it had seven Republican supporters.

    That’s just plain stupid – and you’d think whiney-ass Jim Webb would know better, supposedly a combat veteran, but I wonder after reading this. To put restrictions on deployment schedules ties the military’s hands tightly – so tightly that they won’t have the flexibility to react to the situation on the ground. But, i think that’s the whole intent of Webb and Reid – to make it impossible to be at all effective on the ground, and to make it easier for the bad guys to kill our troops.

    And the Jon Ward article in the Times reports this all comes at a time when the war and the Americans’ perception of the war has improved markedly;

    Political reconciliation among Iraqi Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds remains problematic, but even there, all three factions reached a still-nebulous power-sharing agreement last weekend, which Mr. Gillespie cited as an improvement.

    “Even [the lack of political reconciliation] has changed since last week. We are seeing progress now,” Mr. Gillespie said. “I do think there is a general view that the surge is having its desired effect.”

    The latest poll by United Press International/Zogby Interactive showed that 54 percent think the war is not lost, with respondents splitting sharply along party lines on that question. 

    So Reid figures he has to hurry up and do something, anything, before we’re successful in Iraq.

    But if you think you’re mad about Reid, the KosKids are madder;

    [They’re] [n]ot Chamberlain Democrats. Chamberlain was arguably trying for peace.  Harry Reid knows the score and knows the consequences of his actions.  And he doesn’t care.

    The only way to turn this around is 10 million people on the streets, engaged in an organized occupation of every Congressional office in the country. 

    And even if that happened, I think Harry would continue to bend over and wait to get spanked by his Daddy.

    And; 

    The only one REALLY publicly insisting that funds be cut off is Dennis Kucinich in the House.  He has resolutions that he’s been begging people to pay attention to!  He’s been saying it all along.  We need to insist that this (these) resolution(s) come to the floor and get the attention they need to help thwart this very issue. 

    These are the people Reid is trying to please.

  • NY Times; punish those Haditha Marines even if they’re innocent

    By way of Republicanpundit of Hang Right Politics, I found this sorry, whining turd of an “opinion” piece from the New York Times today;

    Last December, when the Marine Corps charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby homes, massacring 24 innocent people.

    In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the guilty.

    But now, the prosecutions have faltered.

    See that? The prosecutions have faltered – not that the Marines are innocent, it’s those incompetent boobs that can’t prosecute them without evidence. Because we, the editorial board of the New York Times, already declared them guilty – what more evidence do you need?  

    Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis, including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.

    If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be convicted for what happened in Haditha.

    Nor is it yet clear whether officers higher up the chain of command than Sergeant Wuterich will be held responsible for the inadequate initial investigation.

    Translation; maybe those incompetent boobs can get it right this last time, after all we know they’re guilty because public opinion convicted them last year. Can’t the Marines succumb to public pressure and convict them like those Duke lacrosse players? Didn’t the Marines learn how a real justice system is supposed to work?

    On the other hand, some scholars said the spate of dismissals has left them wondering what to think of the young enlisted marines who, illegally or not, clearly killed unarmed people in a combat zone.

    Whether they’re guilty of an actual crime or not doesn’t matter(“illegally or not”), apparently – it’s what we should think about them for killing people in the dark in a combat zone. So even if they get off, it’s OK for us think poorly of these Marines cuz the New York Times editorial weinies said so – after all it’s their commanders’ fault and ultimately the President’s fault for being Republicans…I…er…mean warmongers. Whew, my guilt is assuaged.

    And let’s trot out some “legal experts” who can make inane, general statements that have nothing to do with this case;

    “It certainly erodes that sense that what they did was wrong,” Elizabeth L. Hillman, a legal historian who teaches military law at Rutgers University School of Law at Camden, said of the outcomes so far. “When the story broke, it seemed like we understood what happened; there didn’t seem to be much doubt. But we didn’t know.”

    Walter B. Huffman, a former Army judge advocate general, said it was not uncommon in military criminal proceedings to see charges against troops involved in a single episode to fall away under closer examination of evidence, winnowing culpability to just one or two defendants.

    See? When the story broke, we all knew what the verdict was going to be, we started jumping to conclusions – even though we didn’t know the facts. I just don’t understand how the lack of evidence of any wrong doing can affect the Marines being found guilty. What’s wrong with those Marine lawyers, anyway? Didn’t they watch “A Few Good Men?”

    Regardless of what happened to charges against the other defendants, there is still great public pressure on the Marine Corps to investigate and punish any wrongdoing in a case in which so many civilians died.

    Don’t you mean public pressure to prosecute an uninformed perception of wrongdoing?

    I’d like to see the New York Times get on the side of law and justice for a change instead of their own prejudices. If there’s no evidence, they’re innocent, you half-witted baboons. That’s what our whole system of justice is based upon – you should read the Fifth Amendment sometime.

    “We can’t say those guys didn’t commit a crime,” said Michael F. Noone Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer and law professor at Catholic University of America. “We can only say that after an investigation, there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute.”

    Michael F. Noone, Jr., retired Air Force lawyer and professor at Catholic University of America Columbus Law School in Northeast DC, because you must’ve missed a class in law school, I’ll twig you to this; insufficient evidence to prosecute means these guys didn’t commit a crime. Despite your backstabbing on your fellow servicemembers and scurrying up their fallen bodies so you can get your idiot name in the New York Times, you scum-sucking, back-biting turd lawyer/professor bitch.

    Kathy at Hang Right Politics piles on with “Something Rep. Murtha Needs to Learn”

    But, that’s what this is all about – the NYT is running a screen for Jack Murtha. They’re demanding the heads of “officers higher up” (don’t they realize that generals are part of that entity that we call “the troops” whom we want the anti-US groups to support, too) for failing to investigate this as if it were a crime scene in Las Vegas instead of a war in Iraq. Murtha can now hold up this article and tell us how the Marines botched its investigation, so he’s been right all along.  

    And the NYT is trying to influence the Marines into prosecuting this young Staff Sergeant – just like they influenced the prosecutor in North Carolina to presecute those innocent youngsters at Duke. It’s almost ironic that they should be pushing this morally and factually bankrupt opinion piece the day after Richard Jewel died.

    If you haven’t read Chickenhawk Express’  Four Part series (so far) on the media and their sorry behavior in this Haditha Marines case (I’m sure this NY Times hit piece will be part of the series, too) you’re missing a fantastic wrap up.  

    Part I     Part II      Part III      Part IV

    And while we’re talking media bias, check out Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House for “Bias? What Media Bias?”