Bill O'Reilly has a talent of grating on my last nerve, but his talking point memo for June 10th is something I can support 100%. Releasing the photos with out a proper context will inflame our enemies and U.S. soldiers will die. Every sane citizen understands this basic principle. Please contact Madame Speaker on this crucial issue, and tell her to not issue death warrants for U.S. soldiers.


Bill O'Reilly TPM:

There comes a time, ladies and gentlemen, when ideology can cause death. I am so tired of zealots, primarily on the left, putting their insane personal agendas above the safety of fellow Americans.

Do you think the brave soldiers and Marines operating in dangerous areas right this minute want grisly pictures all over Al Jazeera and the terror Web sites? So let's look out for our military, OK?

Photo and text shamelessly borrowed from my favorite heterosexual LT:

The results for the Iraqi provincial elections are mostly in, and the NYT Baghdad Bureau has the results broken out by province. The big winner is Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party, which won in Baghdad and most of the southern provinces. The Iraqi Islamic Party won in some northern Sunni provinces like Salahuddin and Diyala, but the winner in the largest Sunni province (Anbar) was won by the secular Iraqi National Project. The awakening tribes finished in a close second and they are satisfied with the results and backing off on their initial call to arms amidst fraud allegations. Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (with very close ties to Iran) and everyone's hero, Muqtada al-Sadr, lost big too...even in Muthanna and Basra.

Not reported on O'CNN.

BlackFive reports on the recent elections in Iraq. This is a must read, folks.
ToThePoint News contributor observed on this election:

H/T: American Sheepdogs.

With a lineage stretching back to this nation's struggle for independence, the 56th Styker Brigade prepares to continue this tradition of excellence in Iraq.

The Bulletin, in partnership with Tastykake Baking Co., the Liberty USO of Philadelphia and South Jersey and the National Bible Association, would like to extend best wishes to the soldiers of Philadelphia’s own elite 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) of the 28th (Keystone) Division, Pennsylvania National Guard during their mission in Iraq.

In recognition of their service, Tastykake is furnishing Tastykake cakes and pies to members of the 56th as they leave from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.; Liberty USO will be hosting a send-off; and the National Bible Society is providing Bibles to any member who wants one.

“We appreciate the offer from Tastykake to donate up to 4000 Tastykakes to the deploying soldiers of the 56th Stryker Brigade,” said Gen. Wesley Craig, the interim CEO of Liberty USO. “I can tell you that Tastykakes are the most popular food item we offer at (the USO center at the Philadelphia International Airport) and Ft Dix/McGuire (USO Center).”

The Bibles were furnished by the American Bible Society. Philadelphia was named the National Bible City by the Nat. Bible Assoc. for this year. Events are organized around the city featuring the Bible.

Back Channels: Despite Iraq successes, U.S. has more to do

From Vets For Freedom:

No matter who is President? Yes, it does matter. With Obama zig-zagging on Iraq, the only candidate with a consistent plan for Iraq and its crucial role in the global war on terror is McCain.

Oh, did you know: New Iraq report: 15 of 18 benchmarks satisfactory

Michael Yon's latest dispatch from his freshly redesigned blog:

Terrorists. The ones who have been forcibly evicted from places like Anbar Province, Baghdad and Baqubah by American and Iraqi forces. Terrorists are here now in Mosul. They call themselves al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI cannot win without Baghdad, and cannot survive without Mosul. The Battle for Mosul is evolving into AQI’s last great stand.

Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province is AQI's last stand. It seems to also be the latest recipient of a funding drive for Code Pink. The last time Code Pink was so beneficent, in December 2004, the organization along with help from Global Exchange delivered $600,000 in cash and humanitarian aid to the 'other side' in the then al Qaeda controlled Iraqi city of Fallujah. Now AQI has been pushed out of everywhere in Iraq except Mosul. Hmmm...I detect a particular pattern of support by Code Pink.

The weekend marked the begining of the Chester County Victory Movement's 7th month of standing up for our Troops and our Nation at the footsteps of the Courthouse in West Chester, Pa. Seven months...it could have been seven years. It seeems that my friends and I have stood together on that corner for ages, and we look forward to the years to come.

I had no inkling of this future on that fateful Saturday in September when I first visited Rich Davis and his one man protest. I almost did not make this rally, winding up in Paoli instead of West Chester.

A few weeks prior, September 8th to be exact, Rich Davis walked up to the corner of High and Market Sts and with a hand written sign of support for our troops. The reaction by the membership of the Chester County Peace Movement was anything but peaceful - he was jostled, cursed at and the peaceful folk repeatedly attempted to block his sign. Rich held his ground and his cool, but responding only with the statement 'Freedom of Speech'.

In her September newsletter, the director of the Chester County Peace Movement, Karen Porter, decribed Rich Davis as "he's a troublemaker, a war-monger, prone to violence, non-smiling, he had a blank expression on his face, almost inhuman." This acidic diatribe was just a bellweather for what was to come.

Picture the Civil Rights Movement - picture dogs on chains andwaterhoses on African Americans.

* Picture jack-booted guards in Nazi concentration camps.

* Picture jack-booted guards in the Soviet Gulag.

Each week, our merry band of Patriots jumps into the breech to support our troops and add an informed and positive perspective on the weekly discussion of Iraq at the corner of High and Market. While we welcome home heroes, and pass on traditions, the Chester County Peace Movement is busy recruiting at United For Peace & Justice, Code Pink, and WIB.

This past Saturday, the Chester County Peace Movement membership demonstrated what peace looks like to them. Two of our female patriots stood on the opposition's corner with their signs - one of them simply asking the passerby's to support her husband who is currently serving in Afghanistan. As you can see in the photo above the close proximity of the traffic at this corner and the crowding of them both by the peace protesters. Both reported being bumped into the street with the oncoming traffic. * SIGH*

And thus ends another chapter in the ongoing saga of West Chester Victory Rally.

The video below captures the scene on the corner:

Group Photo by Neocon: A man with the very, very large lens.

Please contact the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We can prevent another generation of veterans from being treated like Vietnam Veterans were. We can take action now and prevent our current hero's from being falsely accused of crimes. Also visit Denis Keohane's blog Obiter Dictum and see what else he has been doing about the upcoming winter soldier Investigation.

We need to all take action on this, and defeat these traitors before their lies are made part of the congressional records.

The membership of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee can be found here.

The addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of members of the United States Senate can be found here.


Please feel free to use the following letter, copy pasted or in any form whatsoever or modified at your sole discretion, to contact members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on this matter.

Dear Senator ______________,

During the Democratic Debate between Senators Clinton and Obama televised on the evening of February 21st, Senator Obama spoke of information passed on to him by an officer in the United States Army about our forces in Afghanistan suffering from a shortage of equipment and weapons. The very next day, a member and former Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, sent a letter to Senator Obama, asking for information about these charges. Senator Warner wrote:

"...I, and I believe other members of SASC, have a responsibility to establish where in the military chain of command rests the 'accountability,' depending of course, on the accuracy of the facts...

What I need from you are the essential facts of when- the dates- the unit was deployed, to which brigade combat team, or other unit it was assigned, the name and current location of the captain, or other military personnel who shared the alleged facts with you, so that committee staff can debrief them."

Senator Warner was, as should be the case, taking the oversight responsibility of the members of the SASC seriously.

The anti-war activist organization Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has advertised widely that it will hold a public event it has entitled "Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI) - Iraq and Afghanistan" near Washington D.C. next month (Mar. 13-16).

The event is self-consciously patterned after the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation held in Detroit by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War(VVAW). During that event, over one hundred purported Vietnam veterans "testified" to widespread and horrific atrocities committed routinely by American forces in Vietnam.

In April of 1971, Senator Mark Hatfield moved that the entire WSI "testimony" be entered into the Congressional Record, while also calling for the relevant investigatory agencies in the military to investigate the charges made. None of that "testimony" had been given under oath or in legally binding depositions or affidavits.

Later that same month, Senator William Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee held hearings, well publicized on television, in which young war hero and VVAW leader John Kerry testified to the widespread atrocity "findings" of that WSI.

When military investigators for both the Army and Navy attempted to investigate the charges, those who had "testified" and could be located were almost universally uncooperative with those investigations. They would not give names, dates, units or details of events that would allow investigation to proceed.

There is no record that the Foreign Relations Committee or any committee of the Senate ever held hearings to receive those follow-up reports. As such, the general theme of the 1971 WSI of widespread atrocities committed by American forces in Vietnam passed largely unchallenged into much of our culture. It has been a mainstay of the film industry for decades. It has harmed the image of American in general, and the honor of three million Vietnam Veterans in particular.

Various sources on the Internet and in print, including the IVAW, the VVAW and the Veterans for Peace as well as other organizations associated wth them have been claiming that "testimony" given next month will be about a variety of matters including widespread atrocities, indiscriminate and unwarranted killing of civilians and destruction of property and infrastructure, torture of detainess, mutilation of corpses and the illegal use of Afghan bodies for medical "practice", rampant sexual misconduct, racism and drug/alcohol use by American soldiers and on and on.

I (we) the undersigned request that the United States Senate Armed Services Committee take the following steps:

Make request of the Iraq Veterans Aagainst the War that member(s) of Committee staff be permitted to attend the entire Winter Soldier Investigation "testimony" proceedings and be provided access to those testifying. That in the event that staff determines that there has been testimony given that touches on areas where, in the words of Senator Warner, the members of the SASC "have a responsibility to establish where in the military chain of command rests the 'accountability,' depending of course, on the accuracy of the facts...", the Committee or a Sub-Committee of its delegation begin proceedings to follow-up on the claims made.

That the Committee or Sub-Committe investigation be prepared to request and/or subpoena all documents and records, signed statements and recordings, audio, video or digital, that bear on the claims made and being investigated. That those making such claims or professing publicly to verify those claims be requested or subpoened to appear before the Committe or Sub-Committee, under oath, to answer questions.

The IVAW has also publicly stated that it intends to have the unsworn "testimony" from the upcoming event also entered into the Congressional Record. In 1971 the Senate of the United States was derelict in its duty of both oversight and follow-up and in the reasonable regard and respect it should have shown in consideration of the sacrifice and service of the American armed forces and veterans.

I (we) request that the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee not allow what happened to a previous generation of veterans be allowed to happen to another and even be aided, as it was then, by the United States Senate.

Respectfully,

________________

As the remains of a recent snow storm blanketed the city of West Chester, our intrepid band of patriots turned out in good cheer, their smiles melting away the cold. I was pleased to see Frank out in this weather - nothing stops this man! Visitors from the Big Apple made an appearance at our rally, and we look forward to seeing them at future rallies. I want to thank the individual who brought the doughnuts - food is always welcome on our corner.

As usual, my friends did an outstanding job holding their signs and flags, cheering at the number of honks from passing cars. It has come to my attention that there are motorists who make it a point to drive by the intersection every Saturday to honk in support of our troops. We are a light, my friends, we are making a difference.

The VFP groupies redeployed over to the opposite sidewalk, rather than mingle with us. Not sure why, I thought we were cool. However, I am getting the impression that they fear me and my video camera.

Speaking of cameras - I am seriously considering investing in a wide angle lens for the group photos. This weekend I was forced to step out into the intersection to take this photo. The rate our group is growing, I'll have to stand at the cross corner to get the group shot.

I lingered a few moments at the Courthouse making sure everything was neat and tidy before meeting up with the rest of the crew at the Brewery. Our after-rally nosh at the nearby Iron Hill Brewery was delightful. The food, company and conversation are always top notch.

It is prudent to note that not only do we stand on the steps of the Courthouse in West Chester, but the membership of the CCVM is up to the task of maintenance when necessary. I do not recall seeing the membership of the peace movement pitching in to help clear the steps.

It is truly this simple:

After the rare yet honest display of open hostility towards the Marines by representatives of Code Pink and Veterans For Peace.

I present you with a clip from a panel discussion I attended at CPAC. The speaker is SSG David Bellavia and he is describing the importance of Iraq and Afghanistan to him and his three fellow panelists.

There is no pithy commentary that can improve upon David’s statements:

Found this gem over at Flopping Aces:

Details from the interview:

"He told me he initially miscalculated... President Bush’s intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998...a four-day aerial attack," says Piro. "He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack." "He didn't believe the U.S. would invade?" asks Pelley, "No, not initially," answers Piro.

He also intended and had the wherewithal to restart the weapons program. "Saddam] still had the engineers. The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there," says Piro. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD…to reconstitute his entire WMD program." This included chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Piro says.

Conventional Wisdom of WMD - By S.Hussein

Saddam’s nuclear documents compel any reasonable person to the conclusion that, more probably than not, there were in fact nuclear WMD sites, components, and programs hidden inside Iraq at the time the Coalition forces invaded.