Tag: war on terrorism

Team Army at Valour IT needs our Help!

I have not really promoted it that heavily; mainly because I have not really thought about it.

But your help is requested…

Here’s the e-mail that I received:

Subject: An Affront to All that is Good and Pure in the World

I’m talking about the marines.

Team Marines is leading Team Army by a lousy few thousand dollars.  This simply must not stand.

First, let me thank all of you who have posted on behalf of Team Army.  Second, I apologize for the lack of commo and cooordination (blame my scout background) as I just received the email list yesterday and am recovering from the flu.

So, here are some assets to use in posting about Valour-IT for Team Army:

Team Army donation page: Click Here

Ballad of Captain Z video: Click Here
(you can get the embed codes on that page).

Cox & Forkum Carton: attached to this email (we have permission to use but it would also be nice to link to them – Click here ).
Now this is where Mr. Blackfive thinks that I should be mocking Marines. What kind of idiot does he think I am? 😯 😮 I mean, most of those guys are muscle bound menaces; and besides that, I cannot run worth a darn. IYKWIMAITYD!
Anyhow, here’s the videos, THAT I GOT FROM BLACKFIVE!

If you have any assets you want to share, email me and I’ll send them to the group.
Thanks!
Go ARMY!
Matt

—
Matthew Burden
“BlackFive”

Yeah, what he said! 😀

Seriously folks, it is going for a very good cause… So, if you would, Click here and give what you can.

WND: 'Muslim Mafia' linked to Detroit FBI shootout

Normally I take what I read over at WorldNetDaily with a grain of salt; but once and a while, they stumble over something big.

I believe they have done it again:

Already under increased scrutiny after revelations in a new book, the Council on American-Islamic Relations now is defending itself against documented links to a federal case that drew national attention this week when an indicted Detroit imam was killed in an FBI raid.

Internal documents from an undercover investigation by the authors of “Muslim Mafia” show CAIR helped finance the legal appeal of Muslim cop-killer Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who is named in the Detroit criminal complaint as the spiritual leader of a radical group that calls for violent action to establish a sovereign Islamic state within the U.S.

The federal complaint also states one of the 11 indicted followers of the imam who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the FBI Wednesday, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, attended a mosque “affiliated with CAIR” in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Canadian border from Detroit.

via ‘Muslim Mafia’ linked to Detroit FBI shootout.- WND.com

I highly suggest that you go read the rest of this as it is quite interesting. Looks like CAIR is involved as well. This is big and could have lasting impact.

Like I wrote before; the idea of “Fight them there, so we don’t have to fight them here” is a bit lame now; because quite frankly, they are already here and this proves that!

Matthew Hoh resigns over Afghanistan

I have to give this man credit; he is a man of conviction, for that alone, he is a true patriot.

Via the Washington Times:

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”

The reaction to Hoh’s letter was immediate. Senior U.S. officials, concerned that they would lose an outstanding officer and perhaps gain a prominent critic, appealed to him to stay.

U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer,” Holbrooke said in an interview. “We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to him.”

While he did not share Hoh’s view that the war “wasn’t worth the fight,” Holbrooke said, “I agreed with much of his analysis.” He asked Hoh to join his team in Washington, saying that “if he really wanted to affect policy and help reduce the cost of the war on lives and treasure,” why not be “inside the building, rather than outside, where you can get a lot of attention but you won’t have the same political impact?”

Hoh accepted the argument and the job, but changed his mind a week later. “I recognize the career implications, but it wasn’t the right thing to do,” he said in an interview Friday, two days after his resignation became final.

“I’m not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love,” Hoh said. Although he said his time in Zabul was the “second-best job I’ve ever had,” his dominant experience is from the Marines, where many of his closest friends still serve.

“There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed,” he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. “I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys.”

But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there — a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.

As the White House deliberates over whether to deploy more troops, Hoh said he decided to speak out publicly because “I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, ‘Listen, I don’t think this is right.’ “

“I realize what I’m getting into . . . what people are going to say about me,” he said. “I never thought I would be doing this.”

The underlined parts up here are the parts that I think are the most inspiring. Some Conservatives and even some MilBloggers might want to slam this guy. Well, I will not be counted among that group.  I have said on this blog many times that I felt that Bush basically screwed us in the long run, for trying to fight two wars at the same time. That belief is becoming clearer now, eight years on and we’re still trying to catch Osama Bin Laden —- and that task is becoming more of a difficult task everyday. There is plenty of blame to go around; Bush is not the sole person responsible for this terrible screw up. The whole “We have to fight them there, so, we don’t have to fight them here..” line is a bit worn thin now, seeing that there has been people arrested on terror plotting charges here now.

Again, I applaud this man for having the courage to stand up and dissent. Some may knock him, but not sane thinking Americans, who see things through the long lens; like me.

The Round up for ALL sides of the Political fence: The Washington Independent, The Moderate Voice, Top of the Ticket, Abu Muqawama, Matthew Yglesias, JustOneMinute, New York Times, Neptunus Lex, Firedoglake, ABCNEWS, MoJo Blog Posts, Alan Colmes’ Liberaland, The New Republic, Salon, The Atlanticist, BLACKFIVE, Jules Crittenden, The Daily Dish, Guardian, Mudville Gazette, Rethink Afghanistan, Newshoggers.com, Atlas Shrugs, Chicago Boyz, RedState, Newsweek Blogs, LewRockwell.com Blog, Wall Street Journal, Taylor Marsh, MyDD and Politics Daily

14 Americans killed in 2 helicopter crashes in Afghanistan

A sad bit of news: (H/T Gateway Pundit)

KABUL (AP) – A series of helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans in insurgent-wracked Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. military said. It was one of the deadliest days of the war for U.S. troops.

In the first crash, a chopper went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents, killing 10 Americans—seven troops and three civilians working for the government. Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

In a separate incident in the south, two other U.S. choppers collided while in flight, killing four American troops and wounding two more, the military said.

U.S. authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in northwest Badghis province’s Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.

via BreitBart:  US: 14 Americans killed in 2 helicopter crashes.

I think it would be a good thing to remember all of our service men in our Prayers this day.

I just hope this is all worth it.

Video: The Southern Avenger on "The Myth of Objective Journalism"

I do not always agree with Jack Hunter; however I do on this video here. Especially on his views of the Main Stream Media in the lead up to the Iraq War. Whether it is his anti-Military bias or an honest disgust with the Bush Administration; that Jack can only answer. But he is right, and very sadly so. The media was laying down on the job during that time period.

Having said all that, let me be absolutely clear; while I am quite happy that Bush’s surge worked and that Iraq, outside of the occasional car bomb, is much more stable than it was in 2006. But that does not take away from the fact that Bush’s invasion of Iraq and occupation of it was not justified. I believe that this will be a black mark on America for a long time to come.

Enjoy the Video:

Car Bombs in Iraq kills over 100

First CNN Video:

and from the AP:

The Story via CNN:

At least 132 people were killed and 520 wounded in twin suicide car bombings in central Baghdad Sunday, officials said — the deadliest attack on civilians in Iraq this year.

Two car bombs detonated in quick succession near Iraqi government buildings about 10:30 a.m. Sunday, as the Iraqi work week began, an Interior Ministry official said.

Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy told CNN. The embassy would not give any more details.

One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad’s governorate building. The second was outside the Justice Ministry, about 500 meters (1,600 feet) away. The Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, which is about 50 meters from the Justice Ministry, also sustained severe damage.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki surveyed the carnage shortly after the explosions.

“The cowardly attack that took place today should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party and the terrorist al Qaeda organization, who have committed the most heinous crimes against the civilians,'” al-Maliki said in a statement.

Countdown to the Liberal Democrats and Lefty Blogs saying “See? We need to leave, right now!” in 5…4…3..2…

This is what will happen, if we leave, before Iraq is ready to stand on its own. But multiply that by 1000%.

ABC's Jack Tapper calls the White House out

This is why I really like good ol’ Jack Tapper. The man is just not drinking the Kool-Aid. I got to give the man props for that:

Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –

(Crosstalk)

Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.

Tapper: But that’s a pretty sweeping declaration that they are “not a news organization.” How are they any different from, say –

Gibbs: ABC –

Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different?

Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o’clock tonight. Or 5 o’clock this afternoon.

Tapper: I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a “news organization” — why is that appropriate for the White House to say?

Gibbs: That’s our opinion.

via Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 10/20/2009 – Political Punch.

That is their opinion; the problem with that is this, that is the White House, not a campaign office; what the White House says affects many things. Besides all that, this is still the United States of America; and we still have a two party system. Just because Fox News is not getting in lockstep with the President’s stupid socialism does not give them the right to fling around extremely stupid statements like this.

Folks, if I have told you this here once; I have told you a million times. This President Administration is totally overextending itself and it is totally gone of the rails with arrogance. Possibly as bad as, if not, worse than the George W. Bush Administration. There are some that read this blog, that might think that I am Bush fan. I am not, nor was I ever. I believe that his War in Iraq was wrong. Having said that, I am glad that he sent the surge in there and won the damn war. I just hope like hell that THIS President does the same thing in Afghanistan; as I would like to see some justice to those Al-Qaeda terrorists for what they did to those 2,996 people that died on 9/11. This is what separates me from the idiotic libertarians; they believe that 9/11 was a false flag operation carried out by the evil JEWS Neo-Conservatives to cause an excuse to go to war. Which is, of course, a bunch of bunk. I do not believe that our Government is smart enough to do something like that —- much less cover it up.

I know, that the rest of sane America know that 9/11 was carried out, by a group of criminal thugs, who hate our Country and everything that she stands for. These thugs hijacked a Religion as a recruitment tool. But yet, Obama wants to extend his hand these blood thirsty killers and give them a “Place at the table” as it were. George W. Bush called it correctly at the U.N.; that is nothing more than appeasement and it results in nothing more than dead people.  Just ask Neville Chamberlain. He tried that with Hitler, and you see what that got him.

It is a pity that this White House has no grasp on history and the lesson that Neville Chamberlain learned.

Update: Fixed my rather humorous name error in the posting. Ooops! 😛 I have zero idea why I called him Wilt.

Vice President Joe Biden should resign says… Arianna Huffington??

Oh, this is too rich…..

Seems that socialist Liberal Blogger Arianna Huffington; the marble mouthed, little miss “unicorns and rainbows” of the progressive Blogosphere, thinks that Gaffe Master Joe Biden should resign as Vice President if President Obama decides to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

From the Article:

I have no doubt that Joe Biden is a loyal guy — the question is who deserves his loyalty most? His “team” isn’t the White House, but the whole country. And if it becomes clear in the coming days that his loyalty to these two teams is in conflict, he should do the right thing. And quit.

Obama may be no drama, but Biden loves drama. And what could more dramatic than resigning the vice presidency on principle? And what principle could be more honorable than refusing to go along with a policy of unnecessarily risking American blood and treasure — and America’s national security? Now that would be a Whisky Tango Foxtrot moment for the McChrystal crowd — one that would be a lot more significant than some lame, after-the-fact apology delivered in a too-late-to-matter book.

I have a better idea; although it involves stuffing a sock in that feckless bitch’s mouth and duct tape. I mean, is not this is same group of people that declared the Iraq War to the unjust war and the Afghanistan war the good war? But yet now, they want to stop fighting in Afghanistan too?  What more living proof that we need that Progressive Blogosphere is siding with the terrorist? I mean, Republicans and Conservatives said that about them during the Iraq War and they were Poo-Poo’ed by the media and the Progressive Blogosphere for saying it. Well, guess what kids? It looks like that it is absolutely true.

However, I will give here one little once of credit for writing this:

This is indeed very tragic, and I share her concern. But missing from the discussion was the fact that “Sharia law with all of its violence” has just been made the law of the land by President Karzai — you know, our man in Kabul. The Sharia Personal Status Law, signed by Karzai, became operational in July. Among its provisions: custody rights are granted to fathers and grandfathers, women can work only with the permission of their husbands, and husbands can withhold food from wives who don’t want to have sex with them. On the plus side, if a man rapes a mentally ill woman or child, he must pay a fine.

Of course, even with America standing guard, only 4 percent of girls in Afghanistan make it to the 10th grade, and up to 80 percent of Afghani women are subjected to domestic violence. As one of the Afghan women interviewed in Rethink Afghanistan sums up the current situation: “The cases of violence against women are more now than in the Taliban time.”

So can we please put to rest the nonsensical rationalization that we’re there for women’s rights? And don’t be surprised if that reason is soon replaced by another — those pushing for escalation in Afghanistan seem to have learned the Bush administration’s old tactic of constantly moving the goal posts.

Now this here, I do share her feelings on this. This is where the Bush Administration screwed up. One of the worst things that George W. Bush did was allow that sitting Government in Afghanistan to stay there. What we should have done in Afghanistan was put in someone that was not going to enact the same Islamic sharia law in that country, after the defeat of the Taliban.  However, her reasoning on our presence in that Country is flawed; we are supposed to be —- emphasis on the word “supposed” — to catch or kill Osama Bin Ladin and defeat Al-Qaeda.  What happened was this; the Bush Administration thought that they could fight two wars, at the same time; with an all voluntary force. This was because the people that planned this war out; were under the impression that Iraq was going to be a cake-walk. Well, needless to say about that little thought, they were horribly wrong.

The same goes for Afghanistan; I believe those who originally planned to go into Afghanistan thought that the conflict was going to be an easy one. That the Taliban was just going to hand over Osama Bin Laden and it would be over. Well, that also proved to be false. So, now, we are stuck in this position that we have to do a little dance over there; because if we move the wrong way, the U.N. would be all over our backs.

Of course, I think Miss. Huffington might not have been informed of this, But there about to be a huge eslation in forces from Pakistan in that tribal region. Pakistan’s Military is planning a major military operation in that tribal region over there. So, we might not have to do anything major at all; except wait for Osama’s body to show up. Which would be a good thing for us, seeing that have already lost a good number of troops already in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

So, while I think Miss. Huffington is noble for trying to challenge her party. I think her reasoning is quite flawed. She has a obvious lack of understand of how Military operations work. Which is quite common amongst the Progressive Community.

Does Bank of America have a problem with the American flag and our war dead?

It sure seems that way to me.

First of all a very big tip of the hat to John Sykes on twitter for bringing this story to my attention.

The Video:

The Story: (H/T Captain’s Journal)

Via Greenville Online:

Only the faint sound of lightly marching feet could be heard as hundreds stood silent on the Greenville-Spartanburg International tarmac Wednesday while fully adorned Marines carried Lance Cpl. Chris Fowlkes’ flag-draped coffin.

The solemn arrival began an afternoon-long procession that ultimately wound through the streets of the 20-year-old Marine’s hometown of Gaffney, where businesses shut down and mourners lined the streets.

The homecoming came six days after the former Gaffney High School football player died in a military hospital in Germany from injuries sustained a week earlier in an explosion in the Helman province of Afghanistan.

Well-wishers waved flags, saluted and shed tears as an army of police cars escorted Fowlkes’ family along the 40-mile stretch from the airport to the town.

Among them were those who knew Fowlkes and remembered his life fondly.

Dan Phillips, a family friend who waited for the escort outside the Blakely Funeral Home in Gaffney where Fowlkes’ body will remain until a memorial service today and burial on Saturday, said that Fowlkes had spoken with his grandmother not long before he was killed.

She had talked with her grandson over the phone, Phillips said, and asked him if he missed being home as school was getting started again.

“He told her, ‘No, I’m right where I want to be,’” Phillips said. “That’s a very powerful statement.”

Indeed it is a powerful statement, many of our finest, bravest and best young men are going and fighting in a war; so that the rest of us can be safe from terrorists, who want to harm this Nation and our people in it. You would think that everyone in this Nation would be proud of something like that, and would want to honor their bravery and sacrifice. Well, it seems that some, in the interest of political correctness, want to dishonor our war dead.

That “some” is Bank of America.

The Story via The Palmetto Scoop:

A South Carolina Bank of America branch is drawing criticism Thursday after an employee reportedly ordered the removal of American flags placed to honor a fallen Marine over fears that people would be offended.

The Palmetto Scoop received one eyewitness email claiming that the branch manager at Bank of America’s Gaffney branch at 1602 West Floyd Baker Blvd. “told a citizen who was preparing the route for a U.S. Marine killed in action in Afghanistan by placing small American flags along the roadway that the flags might upset some of her customers.”

Said the outraged tipster, “[The branch manager] took them down and made the citizen go in to get them if she didn’t want them thrown away.”

The flags were part of the funeral procession of Lance Corporal Christopher Fowlkes, 20, who died last week after an explosion in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

WSPA-TV has also received similar tips about the “flag flap.”

A teller at the branch confirmed to TPS that the branch manager had been there around the time of the incident but had left for the day.

Bank of America released a statement apologizing for the incident and celled it a misunderstanding.

“We want to ensure the community knows how deeply proud we are of the men and women who have sacrificed so much in service to our country,” the statement said. “The bank does fly the American Flag at our locations throughout the country and flags were displayed in front of our banking center in Gaffney the evening prior to our dedicated Marine returning home.”

___________

UPDATE: WCBD in Charleston reports that Bank of America said the incident was a “miscommunication in corporate policy.” That raises the question, which policy would require employees to remove American flags that are part of a funeral procession for a fallen Marine?

Mis-communication my hind leg. Someone in that damned bank was some sort of hippy liberal and was offended by the very damned site of Patriotism.

Herschel Smith over at Captain’s Journal weighs in:

So should BofA rename their corporation to bank of Russia?  Is it Bank of America, or is it not?  With whose offense were they worried?  Really.  Who, exactly, would have come into the bank and demanded that an American flag be removed for a Marine who perished in Afghanistan?  And why would Bank of AMERICA have cared?

What corporate policy was in effect?  Was this a branch-specific issue, or is there a corporate policy that forbids the displaying of American flags for the fear of causing offense?  Who was responsible for removing the flags?  Has corporate policy been changed?  If so, why was the policy in effect?  If not, what is the justification for the policy?  Will Bank of AMERICA issue a formal apology to the Fowlkes family first and then to AMERICA?

There are many unanswered questions concerning this ugly incident.  I feel that it’s necessary for a BofA official to formally comment on this article to enlighten my readers.

Indeed, I would like Bank of America to enlighten the rest of the Conservative Blogosphere as well. I would like to also see this Branch Manager terminated as well. A simply apology is NOT enough this man needs to be fired from his Job. He disrespected the war dead; there is no excuse, he must go, now.

Here is the contact information for Bank of America Corporate Office:

Bank of America Corporate Center
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
Tel: 1.800.432.1000

REMEMBER: Be Civil, No Threats or anything stupid like that! Simply ask to speak to someone in charge; and ask them if they believe that ordering people to remove American Flags respecting the Nation’s War dead is acceptable corporate policy and if not, why they would continue employ someone who would feel that way; and why they would allow this to happen. You could also kindly suggest that if this person was not terminated that you would take your business and money elsewhere.