Free Republic

"National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice." -Samuel Smiles I ask you, to which side has the scale tipped in these United States?

BAGHDAD, Sept. 30 — In an airless room at the back of a Baghdad ministry on Tuesday, 29 Iraqis became the first female state security guards in the postwar country, handed official badges and licences to carry weapons. A variety of ages, most wearing headscarves and long skirts, the women are the first to join the Facilities Protection Service (FPS) -- a force which guards anything from ministries to dams -- as fully fledged and armed officials. ''This day is something that has never happened before,'' FPS chief Faisel Muhsen Ali told the women at a short and no-frills ceremony....

U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., went to Iraq to check out the war for himself. What he saw has him angry ... at America's media establishment. "The Iraq war has predictably evolved into a guerrilla conflict similar to Vietnam. Our currently stated objectives are to establish reasonable security and foster the creation of a secular, representative government with a stable market economy that provides broad opportunity throughout Iraqi society. Attaining these objectives in Iraq would inevitably transform the Arab world and immeasurably increase our future national security," he writes in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "These are goals worthy of a...

"Let no child be left behind"; ... "It takes a village to raise a child"; ... "Quality time"; ... "Crime Stoppers." Each of the foregoing, unfortunate phrases is supposed by many to be an expression of progress, is as American as Enron and now is at home in - the West Indian Republic of Trinidad and Tobago? During our just-concluded annual visit to my wife's folks in Trinidad, my family was bombarded with warmed-over Americanisms on television. (While prosperous, tiny Tobago with its beautiful beaches is the preferred destination of tourists, 93 percent of the 1.3 million largely hardworking, hard-luck...

<p>Iraq is said to be in "chaos," and the security situation "deteriorating" because of the suicide truck bombings of the U.N. compound in Baghdad Aug. 19, and the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf Aug. 29.</p> <p>"Chaos" means the complete absence of order. If Iraq really were in chaos, it is hard to imagine how the security situation could "deteriorate" further. Our pundits are as linguistically challenged as they are careless with facts.</p>

Sheikhs agree to peace deal with coalition troops By Harry de Quetteville in Fallujah (Filed: 09/08/2003) After months of bitterness, the heads of the seven major tribes of Fallujah have met for the first time with the Iraqi town's mayor and its American forces commander. Clan leaders and their hangers-on packed the mayor's office at the morning meeting, described by Lt-Col Chris Hickey, US army Fallujah commander, as "an extremely important day". They came from the Albuaisa tribe, from the al-Jumela and from the al-Halabsa. They greeted the sheikhs of the al-Mahamuda tribe, the Albu al-Wan, the al-Zuba'a and Albuaisa-Qais....

<p>CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush said Friday that coalition forces were "slowly but surely" bringing stability to Iraqis, 100 days after he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, which he characterized as vital to winning the war on terrorism.</p>

<p>CRAWFORD, Texas  — President Bush claimed major progress in Iraq on Friday but mourned the growing loss of American lives, 100 days after he declared an end to major combat.</p> <p>"We suffer when we lose life," the president said. "Our country is a country that grieves with those who sacrifice." The tally of soldiers who have died in action in Iraq over the last 100 days has reached at least 55. Bush said the soldiers had been participating in a vital "part of the war on terror."</p>

Bremer says great progress has occurred in Iraq over past two weeks Iraq-USA, Politics, 7/24/2003 The administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said great progress has been achieved in improving the lives of the Iraqi people during the past two weeks. In a speech at the National Press Club and in a press conference at the Foreign Press Center in Washington July 23, Bremer spoke about the successes and challenges in converting Iraq from a totalitarian state to stable, peaceful democracy after the toppling of the regime of Saddam Hussein. In the past...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - Accusing Republicans of blocking a budget solution, Gov. Gray Davis said Wednesday that lawmakers should drop all other business and put off plans for summer recess until a spending plan is adopted.</p> <p>Davis, who has stepped up his criticism of the GOP in the last week, made his strongest comments to date even as he prepared to meet with party leaders on the budget crisis behind closed doors later today.</p>

SO were the last 20 years a figment of our imagination? Was the idea that we kept most of what we earned and took responsibility for ourselves and our families a dream? We thought we’d left behind the era of crippling taxation and union militancy, where everything costs the earth and nothing works properly. We were led to believe Labour had changed. Enterprise was in, envy was out. We obviously thought wrong. In the past few days, there have been calls for much higher income taxes from senior Labour politicians. One of Tony Blair’s favourite think tanks has come up...

Source: Space News, June 16, 2003, page 3 NASA would consider paying the Russian space agency for Progress and Soyuz space-transport vehicles should all other options for supporting the international space station without the space shuttle fail, the U.S. agency's top foreign relations official told Congress June 11. John Schumacher, NASA associate administrator for external relations, sought to reassure members of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee that Russia and the other partners in the 16-nation space station program are stepping up and helping out as NASA tries to recover from the Feb. 1 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Schumacher...

Sons of Union Veterans regroup By CAMERON McWHIRTER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Eric Peterson, a Wisconsin native who lives in Gwinnett County, and his son Max hope to start a Georgia chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. A Civil War buff and northern transplant has a simple message for Georgians: The Yankees were the good guys. Eric Peterson, born and raised in Wisconsin, is launching an effort this month to revive a defunct Georgia "camp" of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The Snellville resident wants the group to achieve what was once...

Not since the Revolutionary War has America faced a greater threat to its existence than it does today. A worldwide network of terrorists is bent on destroying us and everything we value. All the more reason to make clear on Flag Day the principles for which we stand. In this age of diversity-worship, it is considered axiomatic that all cultures and countries are equal. Western culture—and its most consistent and highest expression, America—it is declared, is in no way superior to that of any other culture, not even to tribes of cannibals. To deny the equality of all cultures, claim...

<p>More black Americans today are finishing high school, going to college, moving to the suburbs and earning higher salaries than in previous decades, while the trend of single-mother households is in historic decline, a new report shows.</p> <p>According to a report released yesterday by the Census Bureau, the percentage of black families led by unmarried females is 43 percent, the lowest percentage since at least 1980, when 40 percent of black families were led by an unmarried woman.</p>

Author's note: This is a short story that seeks to penetrate to the core of a conflict in modern society which places the entire destiny of human progress on the line. It is NOT a blurry post-modern perceptually-bound depiction, but rather a conflict of ideas with characters bound by only their own volition. Be prepared for a plot relevant to the most pervasive questions of human existence, and a style that harkens back to a time when rational humanism in writing was the rule, not the exception. Scott Denning, his face prematurely creased, wizened, and blemished by years of tanning,...

Bush sees progress toward multilateral talks on North Korea nuclear crisis Mon Apr 14, 1:33 AM ET Add Top Stories - AFP to My Yahoo! WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said that he saw progress in moving toward multilateral talks to resolve the impasse over North Korea (news - web sites)'s nuclear weapons program after Pyongyang signaled some flexibility on the issue. AFP Photo   "We are making progress on the Korean peninsula," Bush told reporters at the White House. "We have made it clear that we think that the best way to...

Franks: 'Where we stand today is . . . truly remarkable' U.S. Central Command denies that it has asked for troop reinforcements to maintain the war against Iraq. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks denied that he has asked for more troops to be sent from the United States to Iraq. In a briefing on Sunday, Franks also denied reports that his request was denied by the Defense Department. Franks also dismissed reports that his forces have taken what he described as an "operational pause" near Baghdad as Central Command waits for reinforcements. "We're in fact on plan," Franks said....

The regime has not collapsed at once. Apart from that, the war against Iraq is going well SO WHO is winning? Much of the action in this war is invisible to outsiders. On television the world has been able to witness the bombing of Baghdad and watch the reports filed by the groups of journalists who have been permitted to travel with a handful of advancing American and British units. But most of the serious action—large armoured sweeps through the desert, and the pounding from the air of the armoured divisions of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard ranged around Baghdad—has taken...

Please post any maps that show Allied progress in Operation Iraqi Freedom.