Free Republic

WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy forces in the Arabian Gulf are conducting maritime security operations and providing support to troops on the ground in Iraq, a Navy Strike Group commander said. Speaking to reporters from the USS Enterprise in the northern Arabian Sea, Navy Rear Adm. Raymond Spicer, commander of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, said his unit is putting in long hours on many different missions in support of the war on terror. “Whether Enterprise strike group is protecting coalition troops on the ground, conducting planned strikes on known terrorist sites, or providing airborne command and control for our coalition...

AN NUMANIYAH, Iraq (Aug. 12, 2005) -- On June 9, 2005, the forward deployed 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing sent an 11-man Military Transition Team (MiTT), to An Numaniyah, Iraq, a training base in southeastern Iraq. The team’s mission is to stand up the 2nd Brigade of the 7th Iraqi Army Division and serve as advisory staff in the training of the 1st Battalion. The MiTT concept is modeled after the combined arms platoons that were employed in Vietnam from 1967 to 1974. Using this model, Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq formed three specialized teams to embed with the New Iraqi Army...

First, we put the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in proper context. One meaning of this story is to demonstrate that we are in a battle between two civilizations. Ours is a modern one, in which people who violate civilized standards on treatment of prisoners will be prosecuted and punished. On the other side is a barbaric civilization, in which graft, torture and mass murder are not only not punished, the perpetrators are praised and supported. No one should doubt at this point that we face a conflict as clear as that between the Romans and the Goths....