Monday, July 7, 2008
A Fitting Tribute to a Slain Navy SEAL Gains Attention
Petty Officer Michael A. Monsoor was killed in battle in Iraq in September 2006. He had been assigned to protect fellow SEALs on a rooftop in Ramadi, Iraq, when a fierce firefight with insurgents broke out. During the battle, a grenade bounced off Monsoor’s chest and landed on the roof.
Faced with the choice to save his comrades or save himself, Monsoor threw himself on the grenade, absorbing the impact. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in April. [snip]
During the service, as Monsoor's coffin was taken from the hearse to the gravesite, Navy SEALs lined up in two columns. As the coffin passed, video shows each SEAL slapping down the gold Trident from his uniform and deeply embedding it in Monsoor's wooden coffin.
The slaps were reportedly heard across the cemetery.
The symbolic display moved many, included Bush, who during his speech in April's Medal of Honor ceremony spoke about the incident.
"The procession went on nearly half an hour," Bush said. "And when it was all over, the simple wooden coffin had become a gold-plated memorial to a hero who will never be forgotten.”
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New Iraq report: 15 of 18 benchmarks met
No matter who is elected president in November, his foreign policy team will have to deal with one of the most frustrating realities in Iraq: the slow pace with which the government in Baghdad operates.
Iraq's political and military success is considered vital to U.S. interests, whether troops stay or go. And while the Iraqi government has made measurable progress in recent months, the pace at which it's done so has been achingly slow.
The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are "satisfactory" — almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago.
[this article is a riot: the AP just hates reporting good news in Iraq and is incapable of not spinning it as negatively as possible. Iraq's government is slow? Only moving on 15 of 18 benchmark while bullets are flying? While our government has done what? And progress on 15 of 18 counts is 'particularly positive' ? comical. they just can't help themselves]
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Mainstream Media Ignores Major Progress In Iraq
You may have thought it was big news Tuesday when the administration reported to Congress that Iraq has made satisfactory progress on 15 of 18 political benchmarks set by the U.S. (Snip) war critics have repeatedly cited the lack of political progress in arguing against the troop surge.
But the Media Research Center says there was not a word about the report on the "CBS Evening News," "NBC Nightly News" or ABC's "World News Tonight."
Warring History
Rethinking the Iraq critics, By Michael Barone
Today we’re only beginning to learn about what went on behind the scenes in regard to Iraq. One important new source is the recently published War and Decision by Douglas Feith, the No. 3 civilian at the Pentagon from 2001 to 2005. [snip] One such narrative is, “Bush lied; people died.” The claim is that “neocons,” politicized intelligence to show that Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction.
Not so, as the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Silberman-Robb Commission have concluded already.
Every intelligence agency believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and the post-invasion Duelfer report concluded that he maintained the capability to produce them on short notice. There was abundant evidence of contacts between Saddam’s regime and al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Given Saddam’s hostility to the United States and his stonewalling of the United Nations, American leaders had every reason to believe he posed a grave threat. Removing him removed that threat...
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US removes uranium from Iraq
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of ''yellowcake'' - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.
[I don't suppose this would qualify as evidence of WMD - or intentions thereof - in Iraq. No, of course not.]
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Is cosying up to Muslim extremists the best way to defeat terrorism?
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, was nice about sharia this week. It is not "only about mandating sanctions such as stoning, flogging, the cutting off of hands and death to those who do not comply with the law", he said. And the provisions of sharia "do not include the repression of women". [? well that's a relief; the countless stories of it doing exactly that had me concerned there for a minute][snip]
Of course, you could find some blood-curdling things in Jewish and Christian scriptures, but the difference for our society today is that neither Jews nor Christians are trying to establish a state based on the political implementation of their religion. Islamists are. [and succeeding][snip]
If you can cut through the jungle of jargon, you find "a risk-based preventing violent extremism action plan". This risk is never explained, but it seems to mean that the groups promised the money to wean the young off violent extremism will often be pretty extremist themselves. [snip]
So the solution to extremism is that extremists become the official representatives of Islam in this country. Islamist mosques, organisations and spokesmen will be treated as the true voice of Muslims (and woe betide those Muslims who disagree). Then we shall get a lot more sharia than Lord Phillips has bargained for...
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Schoolboys disciplined for 'refusing to pray to Allah'
Daily Telegraph [UK]
Two schoolboys were allegedly disciplined after refusing to kneel down and "pray to Allah" during a religious education lesson. It was claimed that the boys, from a year seven class of 11 and 12-year-olds, were given detention after refusing to take part in a practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped. Yesterday parents accused the school of breaching their human rights by forcing them to take part in the exercise.
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Threefer...
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A bold rescue is good news for Colombia – and Canada
The day clock has thankfully stopped in front of city hall in Paris. It used to show how many days Ingrid Betancourt had been held captive by Colombian guerrillas. Now she and 14 other hostages are free, thanks to a brilliant Colombian rescue mission backed by U.S. intelligence...
[just to note an aspect of the rescue generally absent from most reporting]
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A daring rescue calls for reward
It was a hostage rescue right out of a first-rate spy thriller. Colombian government agents disguised as FARC guerrilla fighters - some of them sporting Che Guevara T-shirts, no less - rescued 15 hostages Wednesday via helicopter. The freed hostages included three American military contractors and Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French and Colombian citizen captured in 2002 during her presidential run. The three Americans, who were on an anti-narcotics mission, were captured in 2003.
[guess that would be 'Guevara camouflage' - too funny]
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Disdain Our Best Latin American Ally
[not funny]
FARC has terrorized Colombia for more than 40 years. What began as a communist insurgency gradually morphed into a communist/terrorist/narco gang whose favorite tactics included burning villages, torture, and kidnapping... [snip]
In 2002, Colombia elected Alvaro Uribe, and the nation has been climbing steadily up out of the mire ever since. A fortified police force and military have taken on the FARC with, as today's headlines attest, tremendous success. With greater security has come economic growth. But the gains are still fragile... [snip]
The Bush administration staunchly supports Uribe, and has proposed a bilateral free trade agreement. Unions and their poodles among the leadership of the Democratic Party have balked, throwing up one excuse after another to block the deal. Colombia needed to satisfy worker rights issues. They complied. They needed to assure that strict environmental standards were included. They agreed... [on and on, snip]
Now the Democratic leadership in Congress is insisting that Colombia demonstrate greater progress in quelling violence against trade unionists. (For a summation of the Democrats' position, you need only check out the Teamsters Union radio ad against the treaty.)
The Democrats have delayed consideration of the bill again...
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A MYTH THAT KILLS
[HT:SE]
THE Senate is near to pass ing a massive $50 billion Emergency Plan for HIV/ AIDS Relief - a bill whose priorities are based on myth, just like virtually all anti-AIDS efforts worldwide.
The world's top AIDS bureaucrat recently admitted the truth: "It is very unlikely that there will be a heterosexual epidemic" outside Africa, Kevin de Cock, director of the World Health Organization, told London's Independent newspaper. [snip]
"Although HIV causes 3.7 percent of [worldwide] mortality, it receives 25 percent of international health-care aid." ... "In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has trumped prevention," ... "AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry." ... "We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake."
Consider: A 2008 WHO/UNAIDS/UNICEF report demands AIDS drugs for every victim worldwide, requiring spending hikes from $8.1 billion now to $35 billion by 2010. Yet AIDS remains incurable. Conversely, an African with non-resistant tuberculosis is curable with merely $25 of drugs.
There is no precedent in history for such myth-driven "democratization" of a disease, nor for the abominable unfairness in allocating funds away from so many curable illnesses.
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Western Greenland Ice Growing
The ice between Canada and southwestern Greenland has reached its highest level in 15 years.
Minus 30 degrees Celsius. That's how cold it's been in large parts of western Greenland where the population has been bundling up in hats and scarves. At the same time, Denmark's Meteorological Institute states that the ice between Canada and southwest Greenland right now has reached its greatest extent in 15 years.
'Satellite pictures show that the ice expansion has extended farther south this year. In fact, it's a bit past the Nuuk area. We have to go back 15 years to find ice expansion so far south. On the eastern coast it hasn't been colder than normal, but there has been a good amount of snow.'
**Update 22:00--As far as I can tell, no one in the major media reported this.
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Energy Myths
[part 1]
Many in Congress seem either disconnected from reality or intentionally disingenuous about our energy crunch. They have well-honed negative responses to common-sense ideas about solving our energy crisis, particularly drilling for more oil.
These responses are based on a number of widely held myths. Sadly, they've somehow [read: media] become the backbone of our energy 'policy'. They include:
• "We can't drill our way out of our energy crisis."
Actually, we can.
Conservative estimates put the total amount of recoverable oil in conventional deposits at about 39 billion barrels. Offshore, we have another 89 billion barrels or so. In ANWR, 10 billion barrels. In oil shale deposits, we have more than 1 trillion barrels of oil.
In perspective, that's about four times the total reserves of Saudi Arabia. And if estimates of shale reserves as high as 2 trillion barrels prove true, we'll have about a 300-year supply of oil - just from shale. [snip]
By 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, we will need at least 30% more energy to fuel our economy. Nearly 85% of that increase will come from oil and gas, even with expected gains for alternative energy. Can't drill our way out? In fact, it's the only way out of our energy crisis...
[Recommended > ]
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American patriotism highest in the world
Soaring gasoline prices, tumbling stocks, the war, the nukes, the bickering between political parties as trouble looms. It is not the most serene Fourth of July on record, certainly. Yet, despite collective and persistent anxieties, the nation's patriotism remains very much intact.
Alive and well, in fact.
Americans are the most patriotic people on the planet, according to researchers at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center who quantified and compared the national sense of pride in 34 countries.
The United States is at the head of the list, followed by Venezuela, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, the Philippines and Israel rounding out the top 10.
It was no random gauge of passing sentiment... [snip]
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