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A British soldier awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross died in vain because of an order to prevent damage to Taliban mud huts, an inquest will be told this summer. Colleagues of Lance Corporal James Ashworth – who won the UK’s highest gallantry medal – are expected to tell a coroner they were denied powerful weapons to take on the Taliban due to fears mortars and rockets could damage buildings. Soldiers from the Grenadier Guards will claim James died because he was forced to crawl to within a few feet of an enemy sniper in a mud hut while clutching a...

I’ve said before that the Rules of Engagement are a much bigger scandal than Benghazi. I don’t have much else to say, except watch this video. Find an Obama supporter who still has some sense of right and wrong and show them this video. “The hearts and minds of the enemy are more valuable to this government than my son’s blood. This is submission and the cost of that submission on August 6 was my only son.”

"America’s muddle in Afghanistan is not merely an unwise policy, two prominent American authors — one a serious analyst (and former badass warrior) the other a bestselling novelist (who created one of our biggest badass heroes) worry that it is an affront to American manhood as well." ************* "West proposes we change from a counterinsurgency protocol (winning hearts and minds in order to recruit allies against the terrorists while building a civil society) to a counter-terror strategy (kill them whenever and wherever we can find them and let the Afghan government build its own society)."

Exclusive: Pamela Geller tells of corporal gunned down by Afghan 'ally' SNIP: The event was illuminating in many ways. One speaker insistently emphasized that all religions teach the same core values, and another heralded our “nation building” efforts in Afghanistan. But then something happened that showed all that up as the politically correct nonsense that it is: the club presented a Supreme Sacrifice award to the family of Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr., who was murdered by one of our Afghan “allies” while working out in the base gym after a long day of work “nation building” among those allies...

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade we didn't buy a ruby. Instead, the Center for Reproductive Rights asked Mehcad Brooks of the USA Network's "Necessary Roughness" and HBO's "True Blood" to prepare a special video message just for you. To learn more and to sign the Bill of Reproductive Rights visit DrawTheLine.org.

PRINCETON, NJ -- The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as "pro-choice" is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009. Fifty percent now call themselves "pro-life," one point shy of the record high, also from May 2009.

At last week's signing of "executive actions" designed to combat gun violence in America, President Obama, flanked by schoolchildren, said, "...when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, we must act now." There's no doubt that children, especially schoolchildren, are vulnerable to all kinds of threats, but are they "the most vulnerable," as the president claimed, or is there another category of human life that qualifies for that designation? Forty years after a Supreme Court majority opened the door to legalized abortion, the number of aborted babies has reached roughly 55 million. Think of that. Fifty-five million potential...

Two videos at link. Badass military heroism: Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer's Into the Fire is this generation's To Hell and Back. Into the Fire A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War By Dakota Meyer and Bing West Random House, $27, 239 pp. Does this sound familiar? 1. A group of Americans on a diplomatic mission to reach out to Muslims are pinned down by al-Qaeda and come under overwhelming fire. 2. They repeatedly call for support fire missions, which are denied because they cannot absolutely guarantee no civilians are in the area. 3....

The continued spillover of the fighting in Syria into Israel has caused the IDF to change the rules of engagement along the Syrian border. According to a Channel 2 News report on Friday, the new orders instruct soldiers to respond if fire from Syria is dangerous and persistent. The report noted that while Israel wants to avoid such confrontation with Syria as much as possible, the main concern is that Islamist elements are contained along the Syrian border. At the beginning of the week, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz warned that Syria's civil war might soon become "an Israeli...

THIS IS AN EXCERPT: For years, many veterans and active military have been alarmed about the idiocy of the changes in battlefield evacuation known as Dust Off. For reasons having nothing to do with patient care, Dust Off has been removed from the control of the professionals, the medics, and put under the control of amateurs, aviation staff officers. According to Gen. Creighton Abrams, former U.S. Army chief of staff and former supreme commander in Vietnam: “A special word about the Dust Offs … Courage above and beyond the call of duty was sort of routine to them. It was...

Lamb reports to Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell, who reports to Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, who in turn reports directly to Secretary of State Clinton. A primary responsibility of Boswell and Lamb in Libya was enforcing the "No Marines, No Bullets" State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya document signed by Secretary Clinton some time within the past year and a half after the fall of Khadafi's dictatorship in Libya.

(CNSNews.com) - Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says he's "mad as hell" about the increasing number of insider attacks, in which Afghan soldiers and police murder the Americans who are trying to train them. "You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign. But we're not willing to be murdered for it," Gen. Allen told CBS' "60 Minutes" in a segment that aired on Sunday. Gen. Allen told CBS Correspondent Lara Logan that the insider attacks will continue: "The enemy recognizes this is a vulnerability. You know, in Iraq, the signature weapon system that...

Ex-Reagan official: 'If you think your partner may kill you, there's something wrong' Scores of U.S. troops have been killed by supposed allies within the Afghan military and police forces. These green-on-blue murders prompted the Pentagon to suspend joint patrols. Retired U.S. Marine Bing West, an author and former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Reagan administration, has been embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan on many occasions and just returned from going on a series of patrols. He told WND’s Greg Corombos there really isn’t more that can be done to screen the Afghans going...

TAMPA -- Army Staff Sgt. Matt Sitton's letter from the combat zone helped turn a congressman against the war in Afghanistan. His letter to his wife from about the same time offers a glimpse into the experiences shaping his views of the war. In the letter, Sitton lashes out at his commanders, saying they were blaming their troops for failing to stop casualties. He wonders in his writing about why troops are even in Afghanistan. And he predicted the conditions his men were subject to would have ripple effects far beyond the battlefield. Complaining about an unnamed company commander, Sitton...

Below is an extraordinary, heart-stopping and historic letter. It is a letter SSG Matthew Sitton sent to U.S. Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young after his commanders in Afghanistan told him to "quit whining" about orders to lead patrols without objective "through, for lack of a better term, basically a mine field on a daily basis," as Sitton wrote. Twice daily basis, in fact. On August 2, 2012, Sitton and another US soldier were killed in one the IED-riddled field he spoke of. Eighty-one-year-old Rep. Young, who attends the same church in Florida as the Sitton family, this week announced he no...

" At least one Afghan police officer turned his gun on NATO troops at a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday, killing four American service members before escaping, according to Afghan and international officials. It was the third attack by Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in military uniforms against international forces in as many days, killing eight troops in all."

"Rep. Gohmert stated that the press conference was scheduled weeks ago, but emphasized how timely this discussion was in light of the attacks on the US embassy in Libya and Cairo. Billy Vaughn spoke about his son Aaron, who was killed along with 29 others when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter in which he was riding was shot down. The mission was so risky it had to be approved outside of theater. When the chopper went down, the air support did not fire to take out the enemy because there might be friendlies in the building and the ROE made no...

In what can only be described as a pitiful attempt to distract Americans from the obvious truth which is being written, and rewritten in American blood multiple times per week, General Allen excused the actions of Afghanistan's "True Soldiers of Allah". He very publicly declared that the "stresses" endured by ANA and ANP troops who participated in the month long Ramadan fast, have contributed to the very existence of "insider" attacks. Apparently, for the General, this is an acceptable explanation for "vetted" Afghan's to turn the weapons Americans have given them, against their benefactors. It wasn't long ago we heard...

In the very best light, Leon Panetta, former CIA-director-turned-SecDef, was a dupe of Communism, an enabler and supporter of its agents and advocates. That he serves in the most sensitive positions in the US government is a real-life nightmare -- only the kind in which when you scream, no one hears you. That said, how to interpret a memorandum Panetta issued on July 30 regarding "Military Justice in Combat Zones"? In this memo to secretaries of the military departments, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and a new, Panetta-created panel called the Defense Legal Policy Board, Panetta orders a review...

Questions surround Army captain’s ‘lost’ nomination for Medal of HonorWASHINGTON ---- Like other U.S. trainers with the Afghan force that day, former Army Capt. William Swenson had expected light resistance. Instead, the contingent walked into a furious six-hour gunfight with Taliban ambushers in which Swenson repeatedly charged through intense fire to retrieve wounded and dead. The 2009 battle of Ganjgal is perhaps the most remarkable of the Afghan war for its extraordinary heroism and deadly incompetence. It produced dozens of casualties, career-killing reprimands and a slew of commendations for valor. They included two Medal of Honor nominations, one for Swenson....