There’s great story at Stars and Stripes of SSG Brandon Camacho, “The Bullet Magnet”. A teaser;
Struck by shrapnel during heavy mortar bombardment in Iraq in 2003, Camacho has since been grazed by one bullet, hit in the shoulder with a tracer round and finally, in June, shot in the arm. His men call him “The Bullet Magnet” and joke that since all his injuries have been on his left side, if they just stand to his right, they’ll be fine.
I’ve got a meeting and I’ll be back soon (I hope).
The Washington Times‘ Claude Salhani writes this morning that the Taliban, after two decades of terrorizing the Afghan people, has decided to change their image. They’ve issued a little blue book entitled “Rules for Mujahedeen”;
The manual admonishes fighters to:
c Avoid civilian deaths, civilian injuries and damage to civilian property.c Restrict suicide attacks to “high value” targets.
c “Behave well” to win over the “hearts of Muslim civilians.”
c Avoid discrimination based on tribe, language or geography.
I’m sure that this will cleanse folks minds of incidents of throwing acid on the faces of schoolgirls, murdering teachers, suicide bombings in markets, murdering government workers and their families.
Al Jazeera says that this more about Mullah Omar trying to consolidate the Taliban;
“We have in the past had a lot of different groups in Afghanistan operating under the umbrella of the Taliban,” Bays said.
“But it says in these regulations that if you find an irregular battalion that is not obeying orders then what you have to do is find that battalion and then disarm them.”
Here’s an English Al Jazeera report on the book;
Treatment of Taliban’s prisoners may improve;
“A brave son of Islam should not be used for lower and useless targets. The utmost effort should be made to avoid civilian casualties,” the book says.
There are now clear guidelines on how the Taliban will treat its prisoners as well.
“Whenever any official, soldier, contractor or worker of the slave government is captured, these prisoners cannot be attacked or harmed,” it says.
“The decision on whether to seek a prisoner exchange or to release the prisoner with strong guarantees will be made by the provincial leader.
“Releasing prisoners in exchange for money is strictly prohibited.”
It’s a little different that the book of rules they issued three years ago.
For the bulk of the past month, our attentions have been captured by a host of things…important things, like; jackass wannabe dictators attempting to thwart their nation’s own constitution, Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush calling it quits (I really had high hopes for those kids), iPhone prices drop to a “mere” $250, we got a new Harry Potter movie which apparently a few people went to go see, birthers got a few moments in the sun when they got a shout out from their homey Press Secretary Whatshisface, Sarah Palin resigns from her gig as governor of that state where Deadliest Catch is filmed, then we got a few steps closer to Sonia Sotomayor (apparently a wise Latina or something) replacing some old white dude on the Supreme Court, then there’s the situation in Cambridge Mass where Steve Urkel’s dad broke into his own house and the cops lured him into their squad car using copies of Computer Shopper and MAD magazine (at least that’s my understanding of the situation), and last but not least, there’s this whole healthcare thing which is so amazingly complicated, even John Conyers and Bill Mayer can’t be bothered to read all 1000+ pages of it, much less look up the definition of the words ‘douchebag’ or ‘ironic’.
With all of these clearly important things going on, halfway across the globe, a few other things failed to get much of a mention. I’d like to at least attempt to rectify that a little. Below is a list of honored dead. They probably never made it on to television, or wrote a bestseller, or had a shot at being wisely appointed to replace a left wing retard for a lifetime political appointment, but I’m nearly certain that in each and every case, they had a mom and dad who will cry a little harder during Christmas, many will have a loved one wake up in the morning to an empty bed, a child or two will lament that only one of their parents will be there to see them off to their first day of school next month, a sister or brother will feel a little more lonely while watching a beloved family video. Forty-nine US soldiers have perished in Iraq and Afghanistan this month so far, and God willing, that number won’t creep higher, but I wouldn’t spend an inordinate amount of time looking for that fact on the front pages of any newspaper, or look for it crawling across the bottom of MSNBC. Gone are the days of the media criticizing the Global War On Islamist Terror, assuming you can even find anyone willing to call it that. They deserve better.
This morning the Washington Times reports that Pakistani security forces freed several children that had been sold to the Taliban, apparently by their parents, to serve as soldiers or suicide bombers;
“It seems that there are some 300 to 400 such children who the Taliban had taken forcibly or who they were training,” Gen. Ahmed said.
The Washington Times, citing Pentagon and Pakistani officials, reported July 2 that the top Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, has been buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers, and that the going price for child bombers was between $7,000 and $14,000.
Maj. Nasir Ali, spokesman for the forces in Swat, said most of the several children who had been rescued were taken from a Taliban training camp in Swat after a firefight, although some had turned themselves in later. He did not say when the rescue occurred.
One sixteen-year-old claims he was abducted while playing cricket with his friends.
I don’t understand how folks can say that we need to leave Afghanistan and abandon the fight against the Taliban. They are clearly one of the most evil forces in the world. Granted, the war against them has left much to be desired, but that’s certainly no reason to let them regain a seat of power in the region.
I read something the other day from the Left that claims we’re not helping the Afghan people, that the Taliban throw acid on young girls’ faces, murder teachers, use children as warriors and that’s why we should leave. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Especially since it was imperative that we run the Serbs out of Kosovo for doing much tamer stuff.
Bolivians are starting to get jumpy about the presence of Iranians in their country according to the Washington Times’ Martin Arostegui;
“We need to ask what Iran’s real interest is in Bolivia,” said Roman Loayza, a [Movement Toward Socialism (MAS)] dissident who is running against Mr. Morales in presidential elections scheduled for December. “Evo has no business entering into agreements with foreign interests at the back of the Bolivian people which could harm our environment,” Mr. Loayza told The Washington Times. Bolivian officials insist that Iran’s activities in Bolivia are benign. Iran’s ambassador has toured Indian communities and promised to finance development projects. Mr. Morales has said that Iran wants to build a radio and TV station in his home district of Chapare to “support the peasant struggle in South America.”
Of course, the easiest answer is that Iran wants to mine uranium from Bolivia’s rich deposits to fuel it’s nuclear program. The Israelis have accused Morales of entering into mineral agreements with Iran with just that purpose in mind. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was touring South America to avoid that prospect just last week. Last year, the Bush Administration was concerned about Hezbollah operating in the region, more specifically in Venezuela at the behest of Hugo Chavez. In fact, a few years ago, Chavez threw Christian missionaries out of Venezuela and replaced them with Islamic missionaries.
I read this yesterday at Best of the Web and the Jerusalem Post. Now it’s made it’s way to Fox News. I’ll admit that it sounded a bit far-fetched that J-Post can’t find but one witness to this, but it’s becoming news, nonetheless;
He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so “impressed my superiors” that, at 18, “I was given the ‘honor’ to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death.”
In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a “wedding” ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard – essentially raped by her “husband.”
“I regret that, even though the marriages were legal,” he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were “legal?”
“Because,” he went on, “I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their ‘wedding’ night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.
You probably ought to read the rest of the report, if you think you can stomach it. Both Best of the Web and Fox News link to J-Post.
I really don’t know what I can add to the story except that I shudder at the thought that these folks could have nuclear weapons within the next few months.
Some of you may have been waiting for me to write something more about PFC Bowe Bergdahl, the captured soldier who appears to be held by the Taliban. I’ve got some opinions, but I’d rather hold off until he gets recovered. In the meantime some folks who are much better informed than I are writing some brilliant stuff at their own places.
First you should read Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette. And someone who seems to know more than he’s telling us is Bouhammer. He also has the complete 28-minute video.
Speaking of videos, this one of LTC Ralph Peters on Fox News was absolutely uncalled for. Peters may know something the rest of us don’t know, but he should just shut up until Bergdahl is back in our custody;
But I understand why he calls Bergdahl a liar – I’d say stupid shit if I was talking to Julie Banderas, too.
Added: Jimbo says it’s time for the media to have a nice hot, steamy cup of STFU.
Michelle Malkin has updates to her post that make references to a note and desertion.