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OK folks, as of 1730 hours yesterday, Carhartt Inc, the worlds leading maker of durable outdoor and work clothing has generously donated...ready for this??? 750 pairs of ECWCS (Extreme Cold Weather Clothing System) thermal underwear and (this is really good), 5,000, yes thats five THOUSAND pairs of winter wool socks to the 2-503ABN Infantry Regimen 173DABN Brigade (Sep). So I'd like to ask that everyone go out and buy something with the Carhartt label. It doesn't have to be much; it's not a donation, it's a personal purchase for you, or your husband, or son, or wife, or whomever. I...

Iraq's parliament adopted legislation Saturday on the reinstatement of thousands of former Baath party supporters to government jobs, a key benchmark sought by the United States as a step toward national reconciliation. The bill was approved by a unanimous show of hands on each of the law's 30 clauses. Titled the Accountability and Justice law, it seeks to relax restrictions on the rights of members of Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Baath party to fill government posts. It is also designed to reinstate thousands of Baathists in government jobs from which they had been dismissed because of their ties to the party....

hristmas Eve, late afternoon, and U.S. soldiers from 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment piled into their Stryker armored vehicles for a patrol out on the streets of Baghdad. This is the fifth Christmas that U.S. troops have been out in Iraq, and commanders say the best way to keep morale up is to keep moving. There are special dinners, packages from home, religious services and decorations around camp, but no let-up in patrols. "My personal goal would be to try to go ahead and keep the mission constant," said Ray Ramsey, who has spent 23 years in the army and...

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS Megan pulled a three-ring binder out of her bag and showed me a photograph of herself and her husband. Young--they're both 21--with big smiles on their faces and obviously wildly in love. "That's what he looked like," she said with a somber face, "He was such a cutie-pie?always buying me little stuffed animals and writing the most thoughtful notes the entire time he was in Iraq." Then she showed me the photo of her husband receiving the Purple Heart on Wednesday from President Bush at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. As President Bush pinned the medal on...

Everyday Americans, true patriots to the core, came out in the sleet, wind, rain (and yes, sometimes under bright blue skies and warm rays of sunshine) to raise the flag of the United States and bring real support for our troops, the kind that keeps them rolling when they miss their families and have to face another day of fighting a cowardly but lethal enemy. Our last stop before Iraq was at Liberty Park at the World Trade Center grounds, or, as I like to call it, Ground Hero, because it inspires the men and women on the frontlines of...

Honoring Heroes at the Holidays to be in New York, Sunday, December 16th * Honoring Heroes at the Holidays * - Holiday Cards for the Troops! - Gathering of Eagles is proud to announce the Move America Forward caravan will arrive in New York City on Sunday, December 16th, at 1 pm, culminating their 16 state cross country caravan collecting Holiday Cards for our young men and women serving overseas this Holiday season. If you did not have an opportunity to greet the caravan in your state, take advantage of this opportunity to send cards to the troops! Let's pull...

Honoring Heroes at the Holidays Tour"A Song for Their Service" - Holiday Concert   You Are Invited... Holiday Pro-Troop ConcertHonors America's Heroes Top Musical Talent to Perform at "A Song for Their Service" Lincoln Theater, Washington, D.C. Friday, December 14, 2007 - 8:00 PM (Washington, D.C.) A special one-night-only holiday pro-troop concert will honor America's military men and women this Friday, December 14, 2007 at 8:00 PM. The "A Song for Their Service" concert will take place at the historic Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C. (1215 U Street NW).The concert is open to the public, and ticket prices are $45...

You’ve all been following the moonbat-influenced decision by NBC to turn down pro-troops public service ads from Freedom’s Watch. The Peacock Network says the ads were too “political.” Because, you know, simply saying “thank you” to the troops and asking others to do the same is just like calling an American general a traitor or exploiting the death toll in Iraq…which MoveOn.org did in an ad that ran on the Today Show, according to Newsbusters. After enduring a nationwide backlash, it seems NBC may be flip-flopping. Drudge reports: Under pressure from outraged viewers, NBC has reversed its decision not to...

I received this in my email this morning. Its been seen a gazillion times by myself alone... which needs to be repeated a gazillion more times alone! A definite oldie, but goodie! Let we forget... please keep our troops in your thoughts and hearts this holiday season. Lord, Bless them... Keep them safe... and Return them home... soon. http://www.iwo.com/heroes.htm

We just started a cross-country tour called "Honoring our Heroes for the Holidays" that will take us to New York City at the World Trade Center site. We are collecting more than 100,000 cards of love and support that we did not show our veterans of more recent wars, which I will take to our soldiers in Iraq. Our first stop on Monday was in Santa Nella, Calif., at The Remembrance Memorial for California Korean War Veterans. The names of 2,495 California veterans are engraved there. Our people were overwhelmed with the service of these veterans who gave their lives...

FALLUJAH, IRAQ – “You're probably safer here than you are in New York City,” said Marine First Lieutenant Barry Edwards when I arrived in Fallujah. I raised my eyebrows at him skeptically. “How many people got shot at last night in New York City?” he said. “Probably somebody,” I said. “Yeah, probably somebody did,” he said. “Somewhere.” Nobody was shot last night in Fallujah. No American has been shot anywhere in Fallujah since the 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment rotated into the city two months ago. There have been no rocket or mortar attacks since the summer. Not a single...

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

Hardship troopers Local group Move America Forward supports the troops—and the War on Terror By Kari Westerman More stories by this author... Diana Nagy croons at a Move American Forward rally. MAF contacted Nagy after hearing her rendition of "Where Freedom Flies," a song penned by Nagy’s mother during a sleepless night after viewing a television report of protesters burning the American flag. SN&R PHOTO BY MARY PEARSON Clad in an American flag-print tank top, a red leather jacket and gem-studded jeans, patriotic singer Diana Nagy kicked off Move America Forward’s 40-city Honoring our Heroes at the Holidays Tour with an...

QARGHULIA, Iraq — Despite persistent sectarian tensions in the Iraqi government, war-weary Sunnis and Shiites are joining hands at the local level to protect their communities from militants on both sides, U.S. military officials say. In the last two months, a U.S.-backed policing movement called Concerned Citizens, launched last year in Sunni-dominated Anbar province under the banner of the Awakening movement, has spread rapidly into the mixed Iraqi heartland. ... "What you find is these people have lived together for decades with no problem until the terrorists arrived and tried to instigate the problem," ..."So they are perfectly willing to...

Violence is down 55 percent in Iraq since a U.S.-Iraqi security operation began this summer, U.S. officials said today, even as at least 15 Iraqis were reported killed in bombings and shootings. The dead included three children who were killed as they gathered around American troops who were handing out toys and sports equipment. The officials cautioned it was too early to credit Tehran with the recent lull in overall violence, despite recent optimism that Iran was stemming its support for Shiite militia fighters. "It's unclear to us what role the Iranians might have had in these developments, if any,"...

The British commander in southern Iraq confirmed yesterday that UK officials have been holding talks with supporters of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army in the hope they would be drawn into the political process. Major General Graham Binns said the security situation in Basra province - to be handed over to Iraqi forces next month - was improving and attacks against British and Iraqi forces had fallen by 90% since British troops withdrew from their last base in the centre of the city in September. Confirming the talks with the Mahdi army, first reported in the Guardian, Binns...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With an intensifying White House race drawing attention to his legacy, President George W. Bush could leave office without the baggage of complete failure in Iraq some analysts say. American success at quelling sectarian and insurgent violence has raised hopes that the relatively calmer conditions of the past few months in Iraq might last into early 2009, when the next U.S. president takes over. "The overall prediction has to be that George Bush will escape this without an obviously visible abject failure. It may become that again over time. But right now, it looks like Bush will...

BAGHDAD - An armed Sunni group has ended Al-Qaeda’s tight two-year grip on north Baghdad’s volatile Adhamiyah neighbourhood and is now in control, an AFP correspondent witnessed on Friday. A local militia calling itself the “revolutionaries of Adhamiyah” took over the Sunni district on the east bank of the Tigris on November 10 in a swift and audacious raid that sent Al-Qaeda fleeing from its last stronghold in Baghdad. On Friday, members of the “revolutionaries of Adhamiyah” controlled main roads into the neighbourhood as well the square housing the famous Abu Hanifa mosque where Saddam Hussein made his last public...

Come home, come home, Ye who are weary, come home; ...Most Reverend Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in both Arabic and English, Bishop Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices. Again and again, throughout the service, he thanked the Americans. .........Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize...

We couldn't believe this despicable story when we first heard it and neither could the folks at television station WFXT in Boston, MA. Local Boy Scouts in Boston were collecting care package items to send to the troops during this holiday season - that is until city officials stepped in, called law enforcement and shut down their care package collections for the troops. The mean, cold-hearted woman who shut down the Boy Scouts efforts is a city official named Marsha Weinerman of Boston, Massachusetts who was appointed to her post July 1, 2006. You can contact Ms. Weinerman at this...