Free Republic

CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 12, 2007 – The Iraqi government is doing everything it promised to do under President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s new strategy, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. Pace is visiting U.S. Pacific Command areas this week. When Bush put forward the new strategy in January, he said much of it was predicated on the Iraqi government coming through with their pledges. “They said they would have three brigades of their army to plus-up the current number in Baghdad,” Pace said. “The first of those brigades is already there, the...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2006 – The Department of Veterans Affairs remains "vibrant, dynamic, flexible, and ... forward-looking" as it pursues "the best care for America's defenders," the department's secretary said. "(VA) is strong and it's moving forward," Jim Nicholson said at the National Press Club yesterday in delivering the state of VA. "It is fulfilling President Bush's commitment to honor our veterans." The department is also carrying out President Lincoln's 1865 promise to U.S. veterans, "to care for him who has borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan," Nicholson said. The VA, following a decade-long health care transformation,...

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2005 – An 82nd Airborne Division unit has again proven the division's unofficial motto of "America's 911 Force" during its deployment to Iraq's Anbar province. It was a short, violent and ultimately fulfilling deployment for the paratroopers of Task Force 3-504, said its commander, Army Lt. Col. Larry Swift. The unit - built around the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and under command of the 2nd Marine Division while in Iraq - was one of two battalions deployed in September from Fort Bragg, N.C. The unit worked with other coalition and Iraqi...