try to imagine

I then awake on what is my Tuesday morning, and at 7:00 a.m., I remember the call to my home and the voice saying "Mr. Stokely, this is Maj. Hulsey - please come to the door, your dog won't let us up the driveway and we need to speak to you" and then remembering my fast gait to the driveway and asking, before they can say anything "is my boy dead" and the the words they spoke, with humble sadness in the eyes of Maj. Hulsey and the Chaplin that was with him "we regret to inform you...." But the pain,while there, is more manageable. I think it must be like the rigors and harshness of war - it is always the same, you just adjust.

TAR 08

All that time watching The Amazing Race and i still couldn't decide which Bransen daughter was hottest. Lauren or Lindsay. OK Lauren. Maybe

cory maye

Free Cory Maye. I would have shot too...


http://www.theagitator.com/archives/025962.php#025962

UPDATE: OK OK.... that's assuming the facts are as laid out at The Agitator. I took the time to read the comments at the always enlightening Volokh Conspiracy and would add the following: Let's hope he gets his appeal for a weighing of the trial procedure and evidence presented first. Second, No Knock warrants whould be forbidden on a residence without surveillance first being performed to determine credibility of informant reports and assess for other risks like building entrances and occupant activities.

baghdad danny boy

Fourth photo down here you have to love the "traditional" Iraqi instrument being played for the soldiers to dance to.

(I see that a commentor to that post also noticed the bagpipe)

Watch this space also for all your Iraqi eletion blogging updates.

sledgehammer

I see the Ontario Liberals are going to use the heavy hand of state coercion to meddle lives of families and the raising of their children. This is just appalling:

Ontario to be first to deny driver's licences to dropouts under 18

The statism of this is objectionable on so many levels. I wonder, if most of the dropouts are inner city poor, as i suspect they are in disproportionate amounts, then this will have little effect since transit is far more widely available in urban areas.

Coupled with the Federal Liberals stance on daycare -- that institutional, goverment approved centres are the only options that deserve taxpayer support -- you have a governing ideologoy in the largest province and at the federal level summed up as : big brother knows best. In a speech at UWO last year Christpher Hitchens remarked on North Korea: "North Korea was founded in 1948, the same year Orwell wrote 1984. I wonder if they didn't get a copy of the book and go 'maybe we could make this work'". It appears to me that more than one member of the Canada's governing class may have taken to much of a shine to the books central messages, albiet in the inverse as to what they were intended to convey.

Paul Koring tries and tries

Off to a really bad start:

Photo headline (print edition): "Battle Weary: Cadets await word from Bush on Iraq pullout."

Wrong. Those who attend the Naval Academy are Midshipman, not Cadets. This was not exactly hard to figure out since the first line of the second paragraph of the speech reads as follows:

"This is the first year that every class of midshipmen at this Academy..."

The photo caption repeats the error

(The photo itself was a rather disingenuous bit. There is no news value to snoozing students at the USNA. These young men and women have agreed to serve their country in a time of war and those from the Marines face the very real danger of deployment to Iraq and the threat of death or massive injury while on duty there. What to do other than show them all taking a nap! Nice job.)

Off to a bad start in the article too. The headline (and the photo caption):

“Bush remains vague on date for withdrawing troops.”

Of course he is being vague since the whole idea that there will be a data announced is a false debate. This is being pushed by the Democrats and the media who seem to think that unless a date is decided upon now, then there is no plan and no plan means no ability to leave. It is a rhetorical tool being used to bash the administration since all “good” plans have timelines and timelines mean dates and a time when America will be assured that its sons and daughters are out of harms way. Framing the story this way is wrong and that is why the pushback from the administration has been to focus on achieving goals that allow the US to adjust its presence as the situation changes and stabilizes. Apparently the simple logic that committing to a date means your enemy now has a timeline too, is beyond Koring and his editors

There US will not pack up its gear and drive back to Kuwait on "X" day. There will be a wind down, a transition, a process and they will slowly lower their profile as Iraqi forces improve (more on this below) And, there may never be a complete withdrawal if they get basing rights for some continuing in-country and regional operational capability, which, I think, is to be expected. I find it stunning that the Globe is essentially trying to cover the President’s speech with a news angle that is essentially poorly thought out Democratic talking points.

Opening sentence:

“Under mounting pressure from a war-weary public to bring U.S. troops home”

Wrong:

"But the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday night also found nearly six in 10 Americans said U.S. troops should not be withdrawn from Iraq until certain goals are achieved. "
Now this was done after Koring would have submitted his article but “increasing pressure” is just not true from November 10:

A recent CBS News poll found that 50 percent of Americans think we should leave "as soon as possible," with only 43 percent saying we should stay the course.

And

this article shows people’s opinions are greatly influenced by how the question is asked and how it is framed.

“Although Mr. Bush refused to set a target level for troop reductions, senior Pentagon officials have been hinting it could drop to as low as 100,000 by the end of 2006. That would mean bringing home one of every three U.S. marines and soldiers.”

Careful with your numbers. Would that be from current force levels of 160-170,000 which is actually more than on in three? But this is an aberration since they have overlapped the rotation of units in order to have a stronger presence for the first full constitutionally governed elections on December 15. The normal level has been about 130-140,000 which is not quite 1 of 3, but close. Opinionated Bastard has more on this and see his hilarious critique of the Kerry plan in the same post:

“there are currently 170,000 troops in Iraq, up from 140,000 prior to September. The Pentagon quietly raised the number of troops in Iraq for the October and December elections by overlapping the OIF-4 rotations against the OIF-3 rotations. That overlap ends in the first quarter of 2006. "

From Koring

“The President only hinted at troop cuts and shifting U.S. soldiers from Iraqi city centres in Baghdad and the so-called Sunni triangle, where they are particularly vulnerable to insurgent attacks”

Wrong . He didn’t hint at troop cuts, he made them explicit. But the nature of the troop withdrawals is conditional on continuing improvements in the size and capabilities of the Iraqi forces, greatly redusing insurgent activity and wiping out Al Qaeda in Iraq. A "date" is not mentioned

Here’s Bush:

"And as the Iraqi security forces stand up, coalition forces can stand down -- and when our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation. "

Bases… yes yes they turned over a major base in Tikrit and areas of Baghdad, but the US is actually expanding the number of bases in western Anbar province, which is also part of the Sunni triangle, as the Marines finally bring a constant force presence to the Euphrates valley. Ramadi remains problematic, but I think the plan is to limit the flow of weapons and men by controlling the space out to the border with Syria and then deal with that city. Every major town between Ramadi and the Syrian border now has US combat forces close by. Fallujah, between Ramadi and Baghdad, is largely secure and rebuilding, todays single, but deadly bombing, aside. Bill Roggio has been following events in Anbar closely for some time and he is reporting from Iraq right now at Threatswatch.

“Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who lost to Mr. Bush in 2004, derided the speech.”

"This morning we saw the full power of the presidency to have the entire United States Naval Academy serve as a platform, as a front drop and a backdrop, for a presidential speech, reinforced with a very large sign front and back that says, 'Plan for Victory,' " he said. "It reminds you of an aircraft carrier and 'Mission accomplished.'”

Wow. Before he submitted the article he should have checked out this reaction to Kerry’s talking points by the noted Republican spinmeisters at Daily Kos who found Kerry's rebuttal confusing, patrician and unhelpful. They loved Senator Feingold, although i didn't find it as agreeable, and that analysis was readily available before press time.

And Closing with a quote from Ted Kennedy? Who has no credibility on security and intelligence matters. Please. Ending an article on Bush's security policies with a quote from Kennedy is like ending an article on Kennedy with a quote from the Kopechne family. It's just lame.