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POPSDefining “Victory” In Iraq Part of the problem here is that the war in Iraq is usually thought of as a single war in Iraq. But there have been at least three wars in Iraq since 2003 – the U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party regime, the civil war between Sunni and Shia militias, and the insurgencies against government and international forces waged by a constellation of guerrilla and terrorist groups. All three wars are distinct from each other, and two of the three are already over. The war against Saddam Hussein and his government ended when the regime was overthrown and what remained of its army was disbanded. You might say it didn’t officially end until he was captured in December of 2003, but he effectively lost when he was demoted from absolute dictator to fugitive. No matter what else might happen, Saddam Hussein will never be considered victorious.
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POPSEx-insurgents Want More Money, or Else To get a real idea of how this surge is not working. Read the rest of the story. Then read the comments. The comments are from real soldiers. You know. The troops we pretend to support.
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POPSDARPA's Amazing Robot Pack Mule Keeps its Balance On Ice Impressive! ...yet, while "human may not be quite ready to accept such lifelike behavior coming from a machine" - I wonder on the "human like behavior" that needs DARPA and military justification to support such technology. maybe this is the tantalizing reflection of this project...
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POPSMosul conflict ebbs after five-year battle The operation captured more than 1,000 insurgents, 12 tons of home explosives, 500 mortars and artillery rounds that could be used in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), 84 rocket propelled grenades, and 221 IEDs. The formation of “Sons of Iraq,” an armed neighborhood-watch program that now includes 2,700 members in rural areas to the south of Mosul, denied insurgency safe havens to terrorists that had used them in past years.
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POPSMcCain's Double Standard on Campaign Visits to Military Bases With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present. McCain campaign officials said Thursday they intentionally did not campaign on military property. "We follow the rules," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt. Because all three presidential candidates are sitting senators, DoD officials have privately noted for some weeks that the whole matter of drawing the line between Senate business and campaigning is sensitive. A U.S. Army official told CNN there are no pending requests from any of the campaigns to visit Army bases at this time. He noted that Sen. Barack Obama recently visited Fayetteville, North Carolina, but did not go to Fort Bragg; and Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Killeen, Texas, but did not go to Fort Hood.
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POPSChaplains Serve Soldiers Given that attitude they feel attacked by “the devil” when prayer and Bible readings are outlawed in public schools, when active proselytizing is stopped at the Air Force Academy and now when prayers are requested to be removed from mandatory meals at the Naval Academy. Each of these initiatives is, however, not only correct, but each brings practice into conformity with the Constitution. I rejoice in this decision.
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POPSHaaretz editor: Israel facing existential crisis The outgoing editor of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz spoke at the London Jewish Book Week. On the 2005 Chris McGreal series that appeared in the Guardian, comparing Israel to South Africa: Landau was "outraged" by the articles at the time, but went on: "I don't feel like that any more. I don't feel that my outrage did sufficient justice to that piece of journalism because I feel that we in Israel have got ourselves into a situation in which we will indeed be facing a South African dilemma. "We will have a country in which we will become the minority and the majority will be denied their political and civil rights. When I re-read the Chris McGreal reports I no longer feel necessarily that that was totally tendentious. It might have been a prophetic piece of journalism. But the point is that the outrage which I gave voice to was an inadequate reaction. The reaction should have been: 'has he got a point?'"
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POPSinteractive guide: Who in the Bush administration broke the law, and who could be prosecuted
Each scandal is represented by a colored circle that encompasses the people who are implicated. As it's easy to see, many of the players here are mixed up in two, three, or more of the alleged crimes. Hence all the overlapping circles (Venn-diagram heaven!). The best way to make sense of this legal tangle is to mouse over the title of an individual scandal, which will highlight everyone implicated. For example, the wiretapping bubble ensnares George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, David Addington, John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and Alberto Gonzales. At the same time, Ashcroft and Gonzales fall into the overlapping circle for monkey business related to DoJ hiring. Mouse over a person's name for information on how each person is involved. Mouse over the title of each circle for specifics about the particular scandal. And if all else fails, fall back on this golden rule of wrongdoing in the White House: All roads lead to Gonzales.
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POPSThis is my Kind of Guy--Inyerface, in the Army and Green The banner remained hanging for seven hours, which speaks volumes about the sentiment among enlisted personal on the base. The fact this incident wasn’t reported also tells something about the attitude of the press. The accomplishment of which Bartelli feels most proud from his service was when he was assigned to design an infrastructure that would bring low cost power, solar and wind, to remote Afghan villages. “I spent a considerable amount of time writing and talking with vendors from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, coming up with a plan that was affordable and as locally based as possible. By giving them solar and wind, fully sustainable, we could bring electricity to the villages.” While the chain of command eventually rejected it, there was little doubt Bartelli’s commanding officer chose him for this project because of his outspokenness on the environment.
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POPSOusting Jack Murtha If all that didn't make this enough of an inspiring story: In February, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that Russell had failed to collect enough signatures to make the primary ballot. But he refused to give up on his goal of defeating Murtha. The GOP neophyte persevered on a shoestring budget and won more than 4,000 write-in votes in the spring to earn a spot on the general-election ballot. Russell's campaign manager, veteran GOP activist Peg Luksik, says most second-quarter donations were less than $50. Russell's clear on where he stands. "I am a conservative," he says in his defining campaign statement. "I believe in the sovereignty and security of this one nation, under God. I believe the primary role of government is to provide for the common defense and a legal framework to protect families and individual liberty."
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POPSAfghanistan: Obama Sees Problems; McCain Sees A solution The differences are not small ones, and reflect a distinction between the kind of staff-driven, laundry-list mush that sees the immensity of a problem and a leader-driven set of priorities that sees a solution. It is the distinction between Obama's opposition to the Iraq surge and McCain's support for it: not just the courage to make the tough choice, but the clarity to follow the right course. It's also the distinction between winning the war and simply ending it. Thomas Donnelly is the Resident Fellow in Foreign & Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
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POPSMugtada al-Sadr keeps the truce for now.... Cont.... Such tales abound. Sudani said she'd heard of troops bursting into a woman's home and arresting her four sons, as a soldier threw the mother to the ground and put his boot on her head. Iraqi troops are said to have seized gasoline canisters from a Sadr City resident and distributed them to others, claiming they were from the government. Ali Jassim, 30, another resident, said his cousin's phone rang at a checkpoint with a ringtone containing a chant about Sadr. When soldiers heard it, they slapped him, he said. Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, has suffered a series of setbacks since last spring. It lost control of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, and the southern city of Amara after Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered his forces to retake those areas. Many charge that Maliki is waging a political war against his former allies in time for fall's provincial elections.
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POPSSupport Of Obama Shaped By Ahmad Chalabi Advice
security decisions of Iraq's army to forward a Shiite confessional agenda. The role of Mr. Chalabi, whose party failed to gain any seats in the 2005 federal parliamentary elections, should be of interest to close watchers of the Bush administration. While Mr. Chalabi has clashed with both the American embassy and at times with Mr. Maliki, he nonetheless is still regarded among the Shiite political class as knowledgeable of American politics from his days lobbying for the Iraq Liberation Act in Washington. At the time, in the late 1990s, Senator McCain was one of Mr. Chalabi's biggest supporters. Mr. Brooke yesterday pointed out that Mr. Chalabi was appointed in 2007 by Mr. Maliki to chair a special committee aimed at restoring basic services to the citizens of Baghdad. "Maliki was number two in the Debaathification commission from the beginning when it was started in 2003. He has been in constant contact with Dr. Chalabi since that time," Mr. Brooke said.
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POPSWar Dogs For all those dogs who gave their lives, they are truly sacrificing.
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POPSPresident Sarkozy Hosts Bastille Day Ceremony Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Syrian President Bashar Assad attend the Bastille Day ceremony on July 14, 2008 in Paris, France. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attended the Champs-Elysees military parade, alongside other European, North African and Middle Eastern leaders, which has caused controversy due to Syria's tie to organisations classified as terrorist by the several countries.
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POPSIsrael IS the Crime Its right there on the video, but the Jewish propagandist are already out in force on fora throughout the net defending the indefensible. Truly a cult without an ounce of shame. Then they have the gall to say to anyone that sees anything wrong with what takes place in the video or the fact that this Jew soldier will never see a single day in jail - video evidence and all - must be anti-Semetic. Riiight. No shame - No conscience.
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