Monday, November 24, 2008

American troops through a French infantryman's eyes

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Shockingly positive views of our forces in Afghanistan are revealed in this translation of a post by a French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman working with our troops there. A couple of brief excerpts:


Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission*. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.



And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. All of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark [....]



And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! [....]

Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner.



The superb Jules Crittenden brought this to our attention. Read the whole thing here or here.

[when next our media give our useful idiots primacy of coverage remember that this nation also produces the likes of these ]

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[*and about the people backing them in their mission - done so lately? ---> ]


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Iraqi 'killers' of British soldiers given legal aid to fight being tried at home because*

Two Iraqis accused of killing British prisoners of war have been awarded thousands in legal aid to fight being tried in their own country, it emerged today.

Faisal Al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi allegedly killed Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth in cold blood in 2003, at the start of the Iraq war.

At the time, then Prime Minister Tony Blair described their deaths as an 'execution' and the two men have been held in British custody in Iraq ever since.

Now the Government want to hand them over to Iraq for trial but their lawyers have launched a High Court challenge, claiming this would breach their human rights. [snip]

'Would we have given legal aid to Nazis who committed war crimes? Of course not. This is arrant nonsense,' ...
'What the hell is the point in fighting a way to try and establish democracy in a tyranny and then show a complete lack of trust in the new regime by failing to deliver alleged killers for trial?
'If these men do not stand trial in Iraq it would make a mockery of the blood spilt by British troops in fighting this war.'


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'US foiled missile shipment to Iran'

A few weeks before dropping North Korea from the United States' list of countries that sponsor terrorism, the Bush administration thwarted a shipment of missile parts, possibly including gyroscopes for guidance systems, from the far eastern country to Iran, the weekly news magazine Newsweek reported Sunday, quoting US officials.

[thank goodness Bush is leaving; we certainly couldn't afford four more years of this kind of thing]

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Pirates 'working with Islamists'

Somali pirates have been accused of forming what is described as an "unholy high seas alliance" with some of the country's Islamist insurgents. Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor says certain insurgents are using pirates to smuggle weapons and supplies and help provide bases in return. The London-based newsletter says pirates are also training Somali hardliners in naval tactics.

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AP Strangely Cheers: 'Pirate Economy Is Thriving'
[HT:LG]
Comedians have been having fun this week with the idea of old-fashioned piracy re-emerging on the Somali coast (enough of the Johnny Depp jokes). But Associated Press reporter Mohamad Olan Hassan filed a story with a strangely cheering tone for how Somali pirates can take their ill-gotten gains and "transform villages into boomtowns."

You have to read it to believe it..

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Deep-Six Piracy

Energy: Piracy has always been a shipping hazard, but Somalia's buccaneers have taken it up a notch. Their hijacking of a supertanker Monday shows how vulnerable oil supplies are and how critical it is to stop them.

[if only we had our own oil resources]

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Obama Out-Gores Gore at Climate Summit

Barack Obama managed to say all the wrong things at this week's Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles -- without even showing up. The President-elect appeared to the green faithful on Tuesday in the form of a mammoth video image, and opened his pre-recorded pledge to "take the lead" in addressing global warming with these eerily familiar words:

"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

Of course, no science is beyond dispute. Furthermore, one in its infancy, as is climatology, literally depends upon disagreement to light its path to maturity. And considering the tens of thousands of media-ignored-or-demeaned scientists disputing AGW dogma each and every day, Obama diminishes any credibility he might have on the subject by uttering words lifted directly from Gore's devious playbook.

He is, on the other hand, quite correct in stating that the facts are clear. Although, not as he sees them. To name but a few of contextual note:

[as always, a point by point scientific refutation of every point made by Obama in his full address. We're being scammed - if you've any doubt you Must Read > ]

Somehow an atomic Iran seems the more imminent threat.

[and please pass on - this scam is going to cost us and our children Trillions of dollars and a sizable chunk of our liberties]

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Looming Energy Disaster

I subscribe to an Internet newsletter called Energy Central and the news is getting more depressing every week. Every time I scan the headlines I realize I'm looking at another piece of a gathering energy debacle.

Take last Thursday's edition. Right at the top of the page was the story, "Xcel Energy, eXco Join in Major Wind Farm Developments in Minnesota, North Dakota." It's like this every day. Wind farms of sprouting up all over the country like 65-story mushrooms. [snip]

Unfortunately, it admits, "only approximately 23,000 MW…is projected to be available on peak." That means these windmills will be idle most of the time. Never mind, we are forging ahead anyway... [snip]

Rather than heeding this example, however, the Obama Administration is much more likely to do exactly what California did during the 1980s and 1990s -- stall both coal and nuclear construction while adopting huge subsidies and mandates for "renewable energy."

Within a decade we could find ourselves where California was in 2000 -- saddled with huge quantities of expensive "alternate" energy while not having enough electricity to run its traffic lights...

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Problems Plague U.S. Flex-Fuel Fleet

The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels. But the costly effort to put more workers into vehicles powered by ethanol and other fuel alternatives has been fraught with problems...

[surprise; a government program failure. Who could have seen that coming?]

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THE PUBLIC PAYROLL ALWAYS RISES

As the recession hits home, all across America businesses and families are having to make hard decisions about what not to buy this year, it's business as usual for New York's public payrolls. [snip]

  • The city reached an estimated record this June 30 of 313,965 employees on the public dime, according to the Mayor's office.
  • That's an increase of more than 40,000 public workers in a year when Wall Street has been enduring historic losses and laying off tens of thousands of people.
Like most of his predecessors, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been reluctant to challenge the public-employee unions that drive ever-larger public employment. Now, amid the current downturn, he is once again talking about a property-tax increase and a new commuter tax...

[labor unions are parasitical to our society - public sector unions doubly so as they don't even have the tempering aspect of competition {as Detroit's 'big three' automakers are in the process of learning}]

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A labor-union problem looms for Obama

Minneapolis -- Two months before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as president, opening salvos are being launched over what could become one of the thorniest issues his administration will face next year.

Organized labor, which spent more than $80 million to put Democrats in the White House and Congress, wants Obama to deliver on its priority: new rules to make it easier to unionize workplaces...

[i.e., the passage of EFCA, aka 'card check'... ]

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LESS GOVERNMENT, MUCH LESS GOVERNMENT

Social Security and Medicare alone currently have a combined unfunded liability of $101.7 trillion, according to the 2008 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report. The unfunded liability is the difference between total benefits to be paid, and the total projected collections in taxes.

That $101.7 trillion unfunded liability is more than seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times more than the national debt. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), without raising taxes or massive reform of entitlement spending programs:

• By 2010, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 10 things it's doing now.
• By 2020, the federal government will stop doing 1 in 4 things it's doing now.
• By 2030, the federal government will stop performing half of the services it provides.
• By 2050, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will consume nearly the entire federal budget.
How should you prepare to deal with this possibility of life with much less government? Addison Wiggin, coauthor of the suddenly popular book-turned-movie I.O.U.S.A. suggests,

"For their part, individuals need to save more, invest wisely, expect less from the government, and be willing to pay for the services they do expect."

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[then...
Can "we the people" really save our economy?

[click for website/info.]

The answer is "YES" - there IS something each of us can do.
Click here to add your signature to a letter we're publishing in the New York Times.


Best regards,
The I.O.U.S.A. team

Obama and Government Job Creation

Media sources seemed to be thrilled that Obama is promising to save or create millions of new jobs. The only problem is they seem to purposefully fail to mention that these will be government jobs. From Libertarian Republican:

A check of all the major mainstream media sources this morning, finds that not a single one of them are using either the phase "Government Jobs," or "Public Sector," in their reporting on Obama's 2.5 million Jobs Program.

The AP is typical of the style of reporting: [snip]

On Saturday, Obama announced his plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs by investing billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize schools and develop alternative energy sources and efficient cars.
Nowhere in the 14 paragraph article, is it mentioned that the jobs Obama plans to create are entirely in the public sector...

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Season Of Hope, Legacy Of Harm

Sen. Ted Kennedy, recovering from cancer surgery, made a splash when he returned to Capitol Hill last week. Good for him — but maybe bad for the future of U.S. medical treatment (Snip) reportedly said he was ready to work on an economic-stimulus package — and health care reform. While the damage from the former is likely to be only temporary, the harm from the latter will have negative effects for generations...
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Exhibit A: How Tom Daschle Might Kill Limited Government

The GOP strategist had been joking about the upcoming presidential election and giving his humorous assessments of the candidates. Then he suddenly cut out the schtick and got scary serious.

"Let me tell you something, if Democrats pass a big-government healthcare plan, that's it. Game over. Government will dominate the economy like it does in Europe. Conservatives will spend the rest of their lives trying to turn things around and they will fail."
And it turns out that the fearsome harbinger of free-market doom is the mild-mannered ex-U.S. senator with the little, red glasses, Tom Daschle. He'll be the guy shepherding President Barack Obama's healthcare plan through Congress via his role as secretary of health and human services...

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More Sarahs, Fewer Arnolds

At the recent Republican Governors Conference in Florida, one superstar (Sarah Palin of Alaska) was center stage, while another (Arnold Schwarzenkennedy of Caleefornia) was conspicuous by his absence. [snip]

In many ways, it is unfair to compare the task of governing California and Alaska. While they are two of the largest states physically, the former is the most populous state, while the latter is the most sparsely populated. But the principles of responsible governance remain the same.

For example, Sarah Palin has utilized the natural resources of Alaska for the benefit of the people of Alaska. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shackled the taxpayers of his state by embracing much of the silliness of the environmental movement: opposing offshore drilling; supporting the continuation of numerous designer grades of gasoline to conform to “clean air” standards, etc.

She, not he, is the future of the GOP.

[Recommended, more for the mis-management factoids of CA than Palin's future]

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The Party-Controlled Press

In the old Soviet Union, everything was controlled by the Party, the Communist Party. Even military units each had their own party commissar, to ensure no activities took place that were not in the interest of the Party.

This, of course, was true of the media as well. The only media allowed in the old Soviet Union were institutions controlled by and devoted to the Party, and to the government run by the Party. The Soviet media would consequently slavishly repeat the government party line.

The question is, how is the so-called Mainstream Media in America today, under the new Obama Administration, any different from the media in the old Soviet Union?

[silly stretch? read it >

BTW: history is made a 2nd time {in 10 years, but still}: this piece is from Media Matters

{somebody get smelling salts for TS}]


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Liberals upset to discover that turkeys don't grow in their freezer cases

Many liberals are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving once again, thankful they finally took back their country when their candidate won the presidential election. To demonstrate their gratitude they were even willing to eat turkey, although quite a few are vegetarian.

But wouldn't you know, former Republican vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin (Alaska) had to ruin the feast with reality...

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[HT:GC]


[that's just mean]
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