Posted on 06/12/2003 9:11:52 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
Happy birthday to Tex;
Happy birthday to Kat;
Happy Birthday dear TexKat
And MAAAAAAAAAAANNNY more !
How it resembles Vietnam - the same press, the same left working to undermine our efforts and claim some ludicrous "moral superiority" over our honorable military.
Imagine what a few hundred thousand reporters could do to change the world if they actually investigated the BAD GUYS for a change???
*Part I - Rambo and the Bogus War Heroes
* Part II - Welcome Home, Babykiller
* Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up?
* Part VI - The VVA - The Vietnam Victims of America
Shame on You America-Hating Liberals
Front Page Magazine ^ | September 13, 2002 | Tony Parsons - England
ONE year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting - the mass murder of thousands, live on television.
As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.
Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance.
Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.
There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country - too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic.
And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood.
A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon.
And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries - were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognised them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands and wives. And children. Some unborn.
And these people brought it on themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan.
The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.
Remember, remember.
Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum. Remember, remember - and realise that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex.
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength.
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism". A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell", if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe.
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth.
The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic.
Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper.
And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department. To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein.
Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange centre, oh mighty one!
Remember, remember, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America.
No, do more than remember. Never forget.
And for those Palestinians that don't die by bulletwounds, they will the way their buddies throw them on the stretchers. Now they are all running in the streets, looking like a bunch of ants.
Witness: Israeli Strike Kills One in Gaza
JERUSALEM - Israeli helicopter gunships fired three missiles at a car Friday, killing one person and wounding 22, including seven children, doctors said.
Israel TV's Channel Two said the missiles were aimed at a car carrying Palestinian militants who had fired homemade rockets toward Israel. The report said troops followed the militants and called in the helicopters.
Four people were in the car, witnesses said. A charred body was pulled from the burning wreckage. Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, director of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, initially said two people were killed, but then revised the death toll to one.
Earlier Friday, Israeli officials and media said Israel has decided to target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, confirming a policy change likely to speed up an attack-revenge cycle that already has claimed 46 lives in four days.
There is nothing unusual about that. Walk into any auto dealers repair shop and you will find people that love cars. People enter professions that they like.
What is significant about a sports reporter and a news reporter is they are in an occupation that reports on their favorite subjects. ... Sports and Government. The auto mechanic is into cars... he is not into dealerships. The typical news reporter is into government.. not Radio, TV stations or Newspapers. They like government.
Can you imagine a significant number of sports reporters being in favor of less sports and fewer players? Can you imagine a sports reporter's reaction to down sizing sports? The same is true of most news reporters. They are government fans. They would like to be in the government and some of them have been. At heart they are government fans.
There is a second smaller category of reporters. They are mostly columnists or on air personalities. They got into it for the recognition. They wanted to be a radio or Tv star. They are not government fans. They are, to use an impolite term,... Hams.
It is worth noting that Rush Limbaugh spent many years as a Disk Jockey. Rush wanted to be number one on the Radio. It took politics to get him there. With this in mind it is not hard to understand how the media became liberal. It is not hard to see why the reporters hate someone who wants to downsize government. It is not hard to understand the media's animosity toward those you think government is best that governs least.
So when you look at a Dan Rather, Peter Jennings,Tom Brokaw, Larry King, and Wolf Blitzer understand what they first and foremost are government fans. Any person that is anti more government, is their enemy.
Understand the logic behind Fox's Roger Ailes choice of people he puts on the air. He puts people on the air from Geraldo to Greta who are not government fans. Yes they may be liberal when he gets them... but over time they trend to the right. He picks people who are into becoming TV stars...They are not government fans. And they will, in-spite of themselves, do all they can to please the audience and make it grow. Some, like Brit Hume, were raised in a government fan home.... but Brit is not one himself.
A staff full of Hams will find a way to garner audience... It is what drives them. Today garnering a large audience means trending to the right.
CNN and the others don't understand that the secret to radio and TV news success is finding Hams and letting them do news and news talk. Hams are far more profitable and popular than finding government fans and letting them do news. Fox is going to defeat CNN and all the rest until they stops staffing with government fans.
Cheney, Rumsfeld Salute Army on Birthday
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld joined in a cake-cutting ceremony at the Pentagon to mark the Army's 228th birthday.
Rumsfeld says the Army has come a long way from its inception during the 1770s, when settlers fought for America's independence from Great Britain. Instead of patriots using muskets to battle adversaries, Patriot missiles now strike at enemy rockets.
Meanwhile, Cheney says the Army of the future is going to be dramatically different from the armed forces of now. However, he says one thing will remain the same: it will be the soldiers who take the risk and make the sacrifices that deliver victory to this nation.
Vice President Dick Cheney, right, licks cake off his finger, Friday, June 13, 2003, after cutting an Army birthday cake with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, left, as they celebrated the Army's 228 years of service to the country.
Vice President Dick Cheney' center,cuts an Army birthday cake at the Pentagon, Friday, June 13, 2003, as they celebrated the Army's 228 years of service to the country. Left to right; Vice Chief of Staff, Army General John Keane, Cheney, Sergeant Major Jack Tilley.
I would really like to talk to you about Sam Shepard. It was a Cleveland newspaper (Plain dealer?) that virutally convicted him on their news pages.
I never really dug into the case. As they say, all I knew is what I read on the AP wire, but it always seemed strange to me that a man smart enough to become a Doctor would kill a wife as he was accused of doing. And his story was nothing like a story a killer would fabricate.
I just can't imagine a man with a doctors income killing a wife when there was no discoverable motive. I found it very telling that his son spent decades trying to clear his fathers name. Mothers sons don't do that for men the think killed their mother.
I would very much like to hear your take on the man and what he was like.
President Bush fishes while on board his father's boat, Fidelity II, off the coast of Kennebunk, Maine, Friday, June 13, 2003. The President, who fished with his father on the boat, arrived in Maine Thursday, and is to vacation with his family over the Father's Day weekend.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani emerge after their meeting at the State Department in Washington Friday, June 13, 2003. Giuliani will head the U.S. delegation at the upcoming meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) anti-Semitism meeting in Vienna.
WASHINGTON - U.S. forces in Iraq are checking out sites identified by captured Iraqis as possibly holding biological or chemical weapons, the commander of American ground troops said Friday.
Lt. Gen. David McKiernan and Pentagon officials said they had no confirmed discoveries of chemical or biological weapons to announce. But the general said he was confident weapons of mass destruction eventually would be found.
President Bush (news - web sites) said he ordered the U.S.-led war with Iraq to eliminate stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons that he said deposed President Saddam Hussein's government had collected. No such weapons have been found.
Information on chemical and biological weapons is rare because so few Iraqis were involved in those programs, McKiernan told Pentagon reporters over a video link from Iraq's capital, Baghdad. He said, however, that questioning of some Iraqi officials has been fruitful.
"From some interrogations, we get information that leads us to another source, that we have to go locate certain facilities and go in there and check those out," McKiernan said. "I'm not going to go into the details, but there is discussion from both the chemical and the biological side that leads us to intelligence that we have to go confirm or deny."
The failure to find any banned weapons in Iraq has prompted critics in the United States and abroad to question whether Bush overstated the evidence that Saddam's government had them. McKiernan said he had no such doubts.
"Even if there were no interrogations, I would tell you personally, I think there's a lot still hidden that it will take time for us to uncover," McKiernan said.
The general said the attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq do not appear to be coordinated by any central authority. A prominent former Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, said this week that Saddam was still alive and offering bounties for the killing of American troops.
McKiernan said the attacks were "only coordinated locally, not nationally."
Still, "there is the probability that there are financial trails that lead to other parts of Iraq, and there might be communications that go to other parts," McKiernan said. He didn't elaborate.
McKiernan said many of the attacks were from former members of Saddam's Baath Party, his intelligence services or the former president's Special Republican Guard. Those are former combatants who "know they have zero future in the next Iraq and will do everything they can to attack coalition efforts in this country."
American troops will begin to leave Iraq "when the time is right," McKiernan said, but he refused to predict when that might be. Some units, such as the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, have been in Iraq for almost three months after spending nearly a year in Kuwait preparing for the invasion.
"I'm not worried about our units and our soldiers losing their combat edge," McKiernan said, although he said some equipment had to be repaired or replaced.
An Iraqi on a bicycle passes next to a U.S. army truck full of soldiers on patrol near the town of Balad, 60 miles north of capital Baghdad June 13, 2003. A U.S. drive to root out supporters of Saddam Hussein from his heartland north of Baghdad is fueling mounting hostility toward the American forces occupying Iraq, angry local people said Friday.
Iraqis Irate as U.S. Forces Roam Hostile Countryside
BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A U.S. drive to root out supporters of Saddam Hussein from his heartland north of Baghdad is fueling mounting hostility toward the American forces occupying Iraq, angry local people said Friday.
Thousands of U.S. troops launched their biggest operation this week since major combat was declared over, raiding hide-outs of suspected Saddam loyalists around the small agriculture market town of Balad.
In the bloodiest clash of the operation so far, U.S. forces said they killed 27 people who ambushed a tank patrol in the area Friday.
But locals said the harsh U.S. crackdown would only alienate Iraqis and stir up discontent.
"What does America expect? We are eating bread from the same flour that Saddam distributed. The United States has not done anything for Iraq," said Jasem al-Obeidi.
Since Saddam was ousted in April, food distribution mostly stopped and unemployment rose in Balad, which is dependent on jobs in the military and agriculture.
The town is full of orchards, watermelon fields, fig and apricot trees. An Iraqi air base now occupied by U.S. forces is next to the town.
U.S. helicopters fly low over the fields. Iraqi warplanes that have not flown for years for lack of spare parts lie looted between sand dunes. Beside one was an ejector seat, apparently triggered by looters.
HOMES RANSACKED
Iraqis around Balad say their homes have been ransacked and their property damaged by U.S. troops during the raids, which began Monday. Many say they were assaulted, or handcuffed and detained for hours for no reason.
"The United States sent the Iraqi army home without compensation. They set up checkpoints and prevented farmers from going to work," said Taleb, a farmer, as he watched a truck full of U.S. soldiers pass in front of his home.
He said his brother recently drove to town to sell tomatoes and cucumbers but was detained for four days on the way.
The U.S military says its sweep through Balad, dubbed Operation Peninsula Strike, is aimed at flushing out supporters of Saddam who have staged repeated deadly ambushes on American soldiers in mostly Sunni Muslim parts of Iraq.
Shi'ites, predominantly in the south of the country, are the majority Muslim sect, but Sunni Muslims have traditionally ruled the country.
Saddam also exercised power through the Baath Party and Balad residents said the Americans were relying on dubious local informants to arrest former party members and break its influence.
"The approach is naive. One had to become a Baathist to live in Iraq, even as a kindergarten teacher," said Haitham, a technician.
Farmers said many civilians had been killed in the U.S. operation, including five who they said died after American forces came under attack Thursday near an air base.
U.S. Lt. Col. Andy Fawler said his troops would not target civilians.
"My men have strict orders not to shoot at any unarmed civilian day or night. If they had weapons and they were shooting, then my troopers will return fire," he said.
Also try the 25th Day of Situation Room. It has other links that weren't in the Update thread.
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