**Video: Different Presidents, A Different Corps (Pres. Bush - Obama)

You Tube ^ | 3-1-09

[STARWISE]

DIFFERENT PRESIDENTS, A DIFFERENT CORPS

Over 4 million hits

[STARWISE]

They know.

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EDITORIAL: Ready, aim, hold your fire ~~ Our troops are saddled with dangerous rules of engagement

Excerpt:

The recent battle in Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province was a key test case for new rules of engagement that emphasized protecting civilians rather than killing insurgents. The town was taken, but whether that was because of the new rules or despite them remains to be seen.

The rules of engagement are probably the most restrictive ever seen for a war of this nature.

NATO forces cannot fire on suspected Taliban fighters unless they are clearly visible, armed and posing a direct threat.

Buildings suspected of containing insurgents cannot be targeted unless it is certain that civilians are not also present.

Air strikes and night raids are limited, and prisoners have to be released or transferred within four days, making for a 96-hour catch-and-release program.

In Marjah, the enemy quickly adapted to the rules, which led to bizarre circumstances such as Taliban fighters throwing down their weapons when they were out of ammunition and taunting coalition troops with impunity or walking in plain view with women behind them carrying their weapons like caddies.

If World War II had been fought with similar rules, the battles would still be raging. Paradoxically, America's most successful post-conflict reconstructions were in Germany and Japan, where enemy-occupied towns like Marjah were flattened without a second thought.

[STARWISE]

[GOP_Lady]

What great young men and women.

Thanks very much, STARWISE! :-)

[STARWISE]

My pleasure.

[STARWISE]

[STARWISE]

[DrDeb]

Our courageous troops know the difference between a Commander-in-Chief and a Pretender-in-Chief!! . . . And yes, I definitely miss the former — President George W Bush, the REAL deal!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Krodg]

That pic is so sad. I can’t say more without getting banned or arrested.

[flowerplough]

Different Presidents, A Different Corpse?

American Thinker Blog: President Obama honors Navy ‘Corpse-Man’ http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/president_obama_honors_navy_co.html

[STARWISE]

I know .. utterly crushing.

[STARWISE]

[ntmxx]

These are the same courageous types that have defended America throughout the ages; yet when Johnson, Carter, Clinton and the Kenyan Clown [PINO: President in name only] are involved, the only thanks they get is to be spit upon.

[STARWISE]

Newsweek: Rebirth of a Nation | Something that looks an awful lot like democracy is beginning to take hold in Iraq. It may not be 'mission accomplished'—but it's a start.

"Iraqi democracy will succeed," President George W. Bush declared in November 2003, "and that success will send forth the news from Damascus to Tehran that freedom can be the future of every nation." The audience at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington answered with hearty applause. Bush went on: "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution."

*snip*

The turnaround has been dramatic.

"The political process is very combative," says a senior U.S. adviser to the Iraqi government who is not authorized to speak on the record. "They fight—but they get sufficient support to pass legislation."

Some very important bills have stalled, most notably the one that's meant to decide how the country's oil riches are divvied up. But as shouting replaces shooting, the Parliament managed to pass 50 bills in the last year alone, while vetoing only three.

The new legislation included the 2010 budget and an amendment to the investment law, as well as a broad law, one of the most progressive in the region, defining the activities of nongovernmental organizations.

The Iraqis have surprised even themselves with their passion for democratic processes. In 2005, after decades living in Saddam Hussein's totalitarian "republic of fear," they flooded to the polls as soon as they got the chance. Today Baghdad is papered over with campaign posters and the printing shops on Saadoun Street seem to be open 24 hours a day, cranking out more. Political cliques can no longer rely on voters to rubber-stamp lists of sectarian candidates.

Those that seem to think they still might, like the Iranian-influenced Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, have seen their support wane dramatically. Provincial elections a year ago were dominated by issues like the need for electricity, jobs, clean water, clinics, and especially security. Maliki has developed a reputation for delivering some of that, and his candidates won majorities in nine of 18 provinces. They lead current polls as well.

[STARWISE]

Above is an excerpt.

[FES0844]

Our military is awesome....they make my heart swell with pride. I would love to kiss every boot! God bless them & their families. From a grateful American.

[STARWISE]

Newsweek Declares 'Victory At Last' In Iraq, While Team Bush Blasts Joe Klein and Tom Ricks

At The Corner on NRO, former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner greeted the new "Victory at Last" Iraq cover story in Newsweek by throwing a hardball back at Iraq pessimists in the media, like Time’s Joe Klein and Tom Ricks of The Washington Post, who insisted the Iraq war was a "fiasco" and the surge was ridiculous:

Those like Joe Klein and Tom Ricks, who claimed the Iraq war was "probably the biggest foreign policy mistake in American history" (Klein's words) and "the biggest mistake in the history of American foreign policy" (Ricks's words), were wrong. Ricks went so far as to say in 2009 that "I think staying in Iraq is immoral."

Now, if we had followed the counsel of Klein and Ricks and not implemented the surge, their predictions might have been closer to the mark. (Bush's decision was one of "adolescent petulance" and "the decision to surge was made unilaterally, without adequate respect for history or military doctrine," Klein wrote on April 5, 2007.) As it is, if the positive trajectory of events continue and Iraq does end up reshaping the political culture of the Arab Middle East, the Iraq war will, on balance, have advanced American interests in the region.

Newsweek declared:

"Bush's rhetoric about democracy came to sound as bitterly ironic as his pumped-up appearance on an aircraft carrier a few months earlier, in front of an enormous banner that declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. And yet it has to be said and it should be understood – now, almost seven hellish years later -- that something that looks mighty like democracy is emerging in Iraq.

And while it may not be a beacon of inspiration to the region, it most certainly is a watershed event that could come to represent a whole new era in the history of the massively undemocratic Middle East."

Newsweek did not title its cover story "We Are All Iraq War Backers Now."

Wehner predicted that the historical long view on the war isn’t going to sound like Joe Klein and Tom Ricks:

With the passage of time, President Bush's decision to champion a new counterinsurgency strategy, including sending 30,000 additional troops to Iraq when most Americans were bone-weary of the war, will be seen as one of the most impressive and important acts of political courage in our lifetime. And those who fiercely opposed the so-called surge were not only wrong in their judgment; in some instances their actions were shameful.

(I have in mind those who insisted the surge was failing long after it was clear it was succeeding. For a recapitulation of the words and actions of the critics of the surge, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, go here and here).

Read Wehner's whole item, especially the words from Fouad Ajami, a former Dan Rather favorite.

~~~

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Tears! Thank you.

Thank God for President Bush - for his leadership when our nation most needed it.

Even now, his good efforts and leadership are carrying over and protecting our troops and our country even now.

God bless all our military heroes! and their families!

[STARWISE]

Amen .. sniff

[ohioWfan]

STARWISE, this is an INCREDIBLE thread. So poignant and stirring at the same time.

THANK you!