There is no Christian way to say this .. but they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster.

Similarly un-Christian, but... Fucking A.

Much has already been done. Patience is needed by the public for what remains to be done.

Interesting letter. This, and Mark Steyn's last piece critiquing the media, have really made me wonder when the media will stop whipping itself up into a lather about stories that they have created themselves.

May G-d bless and keep this brave soldier. May G-d keep him and his family safe while he fights for the freedom of an ungrateful people. And may G-d change the hearts of that people. Amen.

#3 Ariel

Tim Sebastien did a HARDtalk with the guy who runs CARE International, and quoted Steyn's piece on Iraq several times.

Mark also laid in to CARE International in this piece.

Someone please explain this:

If the media are whores for viewers/readers and if the majority of americans support what's going in iraq, why the hell is the media so set on showing the people what they apparently don't want to see?

I know FOX News is an exception and that they are doing well in the ratings game... What about the prominent print media? How can they possibly not report what the people want to read? Are they blind or stupid? Or is there something going that we are not seeing?

BTW, I'm NOT saying that media should report what the people want to hear... I'm just wondering why if they are willing to be biased based on ideology, why they wouldn't be more willing to be be biased based on $$$/viewers/readers?

WMD ? ...important .. have to find 'em wherever they may be (.. in Syria?), but not OUR real motivator. Don't let it be yours either.

Yes, I do believe that WMD are currently residing in Syria.

#6 RaphDaRussian

I suspect the media is so pissed that all their gloomy predictions were wrong that they're plugging the post-war "disaster" in some twisted attempt to retain their credibility.

#9

Attempting to gain more credibility by telling more untruths...

It's so simple...

Why didn't I think of that?

:)

No offense, but... has this letter been run by Snopes yet?

I have to disagree with the Major. I think WMD was the reason to go into Iraq. It's a wonderful benefit that so many are freed from Saddam, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking that this was primarily altruistic. Saddam admitted to having lots of chemical and biological weapons in '98, couldn't account for them or prove they had been destroyed, and wanted to use them against us more than anything in the world. That's why we went in. If relieving people from tyranny was our only motivation for going to war, we'd do nothing else.

Yeah, I'm with BH. After the "LOOK HOW THEY HATE AMERICA IN NORMANDY OH WAIT NO THEY DON'T" debacle over at the Dissident Frogman's blog last week, I'd love some confirmation that there is such a guy and that he did write this.

I agree that put with Mark Steyn's column, this letter (dated June 2/03) pretty much says what Steyn said, that the media is making it look a LOT worse than it is.

So like RalphDaRussian says, what's up with that.

I know the media are on the whole Liberal but it really seems that the Washington Post and NYTimes have an agenda. I've written so many times about slanted articles but even after the scandals at NYT they still slant the news from Iraq and Israel.

CNN is party owned by the Saudis Royals so I expect them to be bigotted. MSNBC has gotten somewhat better (I think) with Joe Scarborough who is definitely Conservative although if Teacake is right they've sacked Michael Savage but (my opinion only) his writings may be okay but his show was wussy--he came off like a fussy little old man instead of a fire-breathing right-thinking, moderate. Alan Keyes was better than Michael Savage by miles!

Not listed on Snopes. This means this letter is to be taken as is for now.

#12: Doss

Interesting post. The fact that the United States and her allies did free a suppressed people that suffered from a sadistic, sick and brutal dictator was courageous and noble, but it was not the reason for war. The WMDs unaccounted-for have not disappeared - they are still there and will be found. Therefore, the question whether liberating a suppressed people does justify a war is shadow-boxing.

The asymmetry of reporting in the media is striking though. Nearly every news channel I read focuses on the fact that one US soldier dies every day in post-war Iraq, as U.S. Major E. R. states:

Are we still getting shot at? Yep. Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents. But dead is dead.

Further, Iraq is depicted as a country that is in toto hostile and hates all US soldiers, which is of course fraudulent and wrong. But then - the media indulge more in death and turmoil than in Iraqis thanking US soldiers for their liberation, which happens every day. Violence sells.

I think that this transcript from fox news sunday with Richard Meyers goes along the lines of this letter. transcript from fox

Splodeydope alert:

Two dead.

[Link: story.news.yahoo.com...]

I got this in an email last week. Did I miss my one and only chance at a hat tip?

OT: Grim motives behind infant killings, as opposed to the usual "cheery" ones.

Reminds me of Charles' earlier post about the female suicide bomber "catch and release" program implemented by the PA and their search for her mysterious motives.

Of course we can always rely on the AP to bring us back down to earth should we entertain the notion that at least some of the Iraqi people are enjoying their freedom.

'Our freedom has no taste': Iraqis glad Saddam is gone, but depressed about the future

G-d but the world expects a lot from the US! Like the US is some sort of Fairy G-dmother, making it all alright with a mere swish of the wand.

"Help us, free us, save us! (Now get out, we hate you)."

21 zulubaby:

'Our freedom has no taste': Iraqis glad Saddam is gone, but depressed about the future

Perhaps someone should add a little Zoloft or Paxil to their "Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy." It works for about half of Manhattan and Southern California.

Nothing on snopes, but the email is on Jerry Pournelle [anyone know if he's reliable?], and includes a name: William E. Haynes (Col. USAF, Ret.). That's apparently the fellow who passed it on, since it wouldn't be the Major who's in Iraq.

I'd love this to be true but want to be certain before I start passing it around. Jolly Roger, do you have any more info on its parentage?

If it's the Jerry Pournelle of sci-fi fame, he's pretty reliable.

I'm assuming that's the one, I didn't check out the rest of the site.

BTW, I sent an email to snopes, so I hope we'll find out--although it won't be for a while.

I'll bet you this will not be printed in many (any?) newspapers. It's way too optimistic.

Yeah, it's that Jerry Pournelle. But he didn't write it, he just posted it. Anyone know how thoroughly he checks what he posts?

Eliminate a few reporters who don't help our cause and see how the attitude would change!

SoCalJustice (#22)

I'm sure that they are depressed. They've lived with terror for decades, just been through a war, relatives and loved ones are being dug up all over the place... Life can't be too grand there right now, but I can't imagine that it's worse than living under Saddam's brutality and insanity. Also, people can be resistant to change, even if it's positive. I'm sure they must be a little dazed and confused at this point.

Having said that, the article was all Doom & Gloom and what got me was that it's all America's fault! The Iraqis are depressed = Bad, Bad US. Things don't happen instantaneously. Life will slowly balance out for them (hopefully), repairs will be done, they will begin to heal from the years of abuse and fear, and stop whispering out of habit. I'm sure it's overwhelming and if I were an Iraqi, I'd want to see Saddam's head on a stick as proof that the bastard is dead. He was everywhere.

Don't know much about Zoloft or Paxil, but Xanax takes the edge off. Or so I hear ;-)

#28: Richard the lionheart

You're not posting from Saudi-Arabia, are you? ;)

#27, you're right - and that's what I meant. Jerry Pournelle has in general been a straight-up guy (although now that I've read his Chaos Manor website, I wonder if he's marging to the edges).

Unless someone steps forward and says "here's the source of this e-mail" in a way that can be largely trusted, I'd hold off touting this e-mail as some proof. It resonates well, but it may not be original.

Kind of like some of the stuff Bill Whipple writes has echoes of Pournelle and Heinlein. (Not to take away from Bill Whipple.) But I suspect that if Bill ever makes it to the moon on something built by his friends at XCOR, one of the first things Bill will do is to put an empty oxygen tank on the surface as an homage to Heinlein.

what's that preview button on this page for?

BILL WHITTLE
BILL WHITTLE
A thousand times BILL WHITTLE

Got him and the Charmin guy mixed up, I guess.

Mea culpa.

I found the church, they are located in Washington state, I called them and the lady who answered the phone said there are two letters, one is authentic and the other one is forged. She suggested that I will send to her the letter I have got and she will tell me if the letter is authentic, I sent her the letter and I am still waiting for a response.

29 zulubaby:

Having said that, the article was all Doom & Gloom and what got me was that it's all America's fault

Occasionally one sees a soundbite from an Iraqi who says they are happier now or that America needs to stay until the job done, but only occasionally. Amazing, since this very article says:

For 35 years, Iraqis had to constantly extol Saddam, sing his praises, attend his demonstrations. The most innocuous remark could become a death sentence. Parents had to be careful what they said in front of their children, lest they repeated the indiscretion at school.

Yet they couldn't find a quote from someone about how life is better? The assignment editor told this reporter to write an article on Iraqi despair and how bad things are, and that's what the reporter came back with. Just following orders....

Now, having said that, of course the media should cover stories of people who are negatively affected by the occupation and continue covering every coalition force killing. But one gets the feeling that a lot of good news is getting buried both for political reasons in some instances or because it's simply just not the media's cup of tea.

Let's face it, you don't read or hear a lot of good news on almost any topic until you get to the "Arts/Style" section of a newspaper or the "kicker" segment to end a newscast.

I'll take your word on the Xanax.

Lizzel, I look forward to the response from the church.

you found the church in Washington State? How? There are a bazillion "First Lutheran" churches.

This letter means more to me than you can imagine. If we did not occasionally doubt our motives, and our assumptions, we would be no better than the Indymedia jackals.

I have never doubted the compassion and the competence of our military men and women in post-war Iraq. I have wondered if we are doing as well as we could be doing. Hearing from this Major, in his typically decent, low-key, can-do way, just makes me burst with pride and admiration. Where do we find these people?

Rhetorical question, I guess. We're a nation built out of people like that.

Oh, and please don't squeeze the Idiotarians.

The left didn't support the Civil War to free the slaves, either. Why upset the peace? All the messy casualties, the noise and cost to our economy - not to mention the years of uncomfortable restoration and rebuilding following the war.

The Republicans went south to help the oppressed then, too.

Re. the motivation of the press, check out the tactics and history of the anti-Americans - ANSWER, Clinton's classmates...Maoists and Marxists, EU and DNC socialists - the majority of the press. They KNOW our troops exposed them as hypocrites.

The left KNOWS that our military and this President debunked decades of anti-American, pro-UN-NGO socialist propaganda on their way into Baghdad - in weeks. They KNOW that observant freedom-loving folks around the world watched and learned that the 'racist, sexist military industrial machine' was in reality the honorable liberator of an oppressed people - all races, gallant men and feminine women - and MIGHTY.

The world also witnessed the left - press, NGOS, pols and peaceniks - fall for (and SELL) Iraqi Info Min. anti-American propaganda. The left defended Saddam and mocked CENTCOM. They're now spinning 24/7 to cover up their nakedness.

imho

The DNC had their own 'war plan' - wrote the script last year and sent it to the willing press:

[Link: www.capitolhillblue.com...]

From Carville, McAuliffe, Gephardt and Daschle +... to the world...thanks to sponsors like these:

[Link: globalfreepress.com...]

Audrey from the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach was kind enough to send me the original letter.She also told me the letter is fro May 23

OPEN LETTER
TO
FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH
OF
RICHMOND BEACH
3 July 03

To all the wonderful people of First Lutheran Church from Iraq, Greetings. This will be my last letter as my time here is quickly coming to a close. I would like to provide some final thoughts on my time in Iraq.

First, you need to understand that, in general, the Iraqi people are industrious, resourceful, and eager for a new life. The news, again, has been bad, and this time, things have gotten a little worse. There has been more disorganized hostile activity against US forces AND Iraqi civilians. We are taking fewer casualties than before, even with the increased attacks. The Iraqi civilians, specifically businesses, are being threatened and even bombed or burned out, for dealing with coalition forces. These are the same people as before, Fedayeen and Ba’ath Party members who are now officially out of a job forever. They will not go away quietly, but with these methods, they will gain no new recruits and will not stay alive long either. We send out forces on raids to capture major Fedayeen and Ba’ath Party leaders everyday, mostly on information from Iraqi’s and we are more often than not, successful. Time is on our side.

There have also been attacks against Iraqi Infrastructure by these terrorist forces as well, that again, does nothing but hurt the Iraqi people. Oil pipelines and electrical power transmission lines have been the main targets. What do we do about it? We hire Iraqi companies to go out and fix them and pay top dollar and help the Iraqi economy, that’s what we do. Then we train Iraqi security forces to secure the pipelines and the power lines, paying more Iraqi people and creating jobs where there were none before. That’s what we do too.

Are we making progress? Overall? Yes. There has been a little backsliding. When the power lines go down, the power grid fluctuates wildly and the power plant shuts down. When the power plant shuts down, the oil refinery shuts down and when the oil refinery shuts down, the oil flow has to stop because there is only so much storage capacity and there is no LPG produced for people to cook with. So you see, it’s all interconnected. So how can I say we are progressing? Easy. We are contracting to repair two key 400Kv Ultra-high voltage lines as I type this. It’ll be 60 days until they are complete, but this will stabilize power for the entire country. We have companies going to the Bayji Thermal Power plant to repair the last 2 of 6 turbines adding 250 Mega-watts to the grid in the next 2 weeks. We have another company going to the Bayji Gas Turbine plant to repair 2 of it’s 4 turbines in the next two weeks adding ANOTHER 250 Mega-watts to the national power grid. I have personally signed two contracts with local Iraqi companies to repair and upgrade water treatment plants in 2 cities. The Al Dour water facility contract is $23,000 worth of pumps and chlorination equipment and the Baqubah water treatment facility is $99,795 worth of pumps, laboratory testing equipment, pipes, chlorination metering and injection equipment and upgrade of their distribution towers. The work at these two facilities will be complete within the next 30 days and provide CLEAN and TREATED drinking water to 100,000 people for the first time in their lives.

THAT’S HOW I CAN SAY WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS……

People have to remember, the 4th Infantry Division has been in central Iraq for a total of 96 days now, 3 months and 1 week. Patience is a virtue. 96 days to both secure an area the size of West Virginia, defeat remaining terrorist forces inside that area AND fix things destroyed in a war, looted by the local population to survive and keep an economy functioning at some level. Yes, patience is a virtue, and most news channels and many Americans need to be more virtuous.

What about the UN? We are all persons of faith, please don’t waste it on the UN. I may elaborate in person when I get back.

Respectfully,

ERIC RYDBOM
MAJOR, ENGINEER
Deputy Division Engineer
4th Infantry Division
Tikrit, Iraq

#10 RaphDaRussian

:-)

Seriously though, if you control the majority of news sources, you can to a certain extent dictate what the truth is.

One must remember that, since the beginning of the republic, the American press has been a partisan press. Nothing has changed in respect to partisanship except that the mainstream press is uniformly partisan to the Democrat Party. Everything they print or broadcast is geared toward getting Democrats elected. The Democrats see the WoT as the one issue that will keep them out of the White House in ’04 and they will do everything in their power to make it a negative for the Republicans. During Clinton’s administration there was no hand-wringing or panty-twisting about bombing Serbia or Iraq or Sudan or Afghanistan, because a Democrat was doing it. Democrats and by extension the press, aren’t against war – they’re against Republican wars.

Remember, the New York Times’ motto is “All The That Fits, We Print.”

Lizzel, thank you so much.

May I pass on this information to snopes? Unless you've done it yourself, of course.

Oh Geez, now I have incurred the attention of Bill WhiTTle (two t's, please).

I shall slink away in silence...

SoCalJustice (#34)

The depressed mood is in part a result of plummeting expectations.

Isolated and cut off from the outside world for so long, most Iraqis had come to assume the American superpower could transform the country with a push of a button.

That's the problem, as far as I'm concerned. Not comparable, but the same sort of thing happened after Mandela was released from jail. Let me repeat: the situations are not comparable... but, the similarity lies in the unrealistic expectations that are a guaranteed to lead to major disappointments. There weren't high-paying jobs the very next day, huge houses and fancy cars "like the whites". I think that was what I was seeing in the article, the unrealistic expectations that all would be well in the world and peace would reign, overnight.

Also this:

Although her body glistened with sweat, Dinkha was one of the few Iraqis I met who did not mind the discomforts of her new life.

Okay, it's qualified with "...I met", which is fair enough but how many Iraqis did the reporter actually meet? Surely there must be more than a few?

But one gets the feeling that a lot of good news is getting buried both for political reasons in some instances or because it's simply just not the media's cup of tea.

I agree.

It's the same feeling I have about the reported "lull in Palestinian violence" while the reality is that the attempts to murder Jews is never-ending, but only the "successful" (she said bitterly) ones are newsworthy. Half-stories, lies by omission, ferocious editing... I'm not sure.

Pardon me, I had a senior moment.

Remember, the New York Times’ motto is “All The News That Fits, We Print.”

Preview is my friend

So Richmond Beach threw me for a bit, but it's part of the city of Shoreline, just north of Seattle, and near where our disclaimed liberal lives.
First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach (Shoreline, WA)

Charles, can you post the correct version of the email?

Thanks Lizzel, CentCom gives a rundown on what they are doing in Iraq.

I have to admit that I'm skeptical about the identity of the author of this letter (Lizzel's posts notwithstanding). I hope I'm wrong, but I'll need some convincing. Below are some points that I'd have to raise, hopefully at least some of them can be answered by those more knowledgeable of the Army than I am; hopefully others will be answered by anyone with more background on this letter and events in Iraq.

1) It's excessively vague (and anonymous), like hoaxes (however well-intentioned) often are. "It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church ..." First Lutheran Chruch where?

2) "Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 1:45 PM". Is that local time? Would an Army officer naturally write "1:45 PM"? Or "June 26, 2003" instead of "26 June 2003" or "1345 ZULU" or whatever? Or is that supposed to be a line in an email header?

3) Unless the major is hopelessly non-technical, I suspect that he wouldn't write "Mw" for megawatt ("MW") or "Kv" for "kilovolt" ("kV").

4) "Are we still getting shot at? Yep. Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents." Mostly in accidents? That's not what I've been hearing on the news - I've been hearing mostly RPGs.

5) "E. R. MAJOR Deputy Division Engineer 4th Infantry Division" Deputy Division Engineer? What does that mean? (Seriously, is that a staff job at division? I don't know.)

6) "The crude oil pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June)." 2 June (not June 2). So he sent this to someone(s) 24 days after he wrote it. Or else he writes in the future tense of a past event? Does not compute. Does anyone know if repairs on this pipeline were completed by 2 June?

7) Where did Jolly Roger get this letter? Who sent it to him? Is he a member of the First Lutheran Church? (Please note that I'm not impugning Jolly Roger, just need more info.)

8) "Contracts for repairs to facilities [that are only 50% or less operational ] are being let." Are being let? That strikes me as a strange turn of phrase for a young American major.

9) "ALL these things were used by the Sadam regime" He misspelled Saddam?!

10) "(I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace)" Isn't that in Tikrit? Stoopit question time: was the Tikrit Palace bombed? I can't find anything on it having been bombed.

11) "(Remember, this is a country the size of Texas)" The most common geographic comparison has been to California - CA 163707 sq mi, TX 268601 sq mi, Iraq 168754 sq mi. Surely the major has a better grasp of comparative geography than this?

12) What's with all the dot dots? E.g., "If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped .. LPG pipelines and trucks stopped .. water was turned off .. power was turned off."

13) About LPG. I'm not sure if that's a tell or not. Wouldn't "propane" be more understandable to a general readership?

14) "I'm living in a 'guest palace' on a 500 acre palace compound", which location, presumably is "100 yards" from the Tikrit Palace. The Tikrit Palace encompasses 4 sq km (almost 1000 acres). How can the major be a factor of two off in his recounting of the area of the Tikrit Palace grounds, if he supposedly lives/works there?

I could go on, but I'm probably in enough trouble as it is. I just need more info before concluding this letter is genuine (I agree that almost everything the author wrote is true and I admire his upbeat tone - so I'm not trying to debunk most of his facts, just trying to verify his identity.)

Lizzel:
Thanks for finding that! I don't know why the anonymous middleman felt a need to spice it up. I'd be ticked if somebody reworded something I wrote. Oh well. Things still sound better than the media make it out to be.

#44 zulubaby

That's the problem, as far as I'm concerned.

The problem as I see it is an international press corp looking for the slightest sign of "QUAGMIRE". Iraq will not be reconfigured overnight. But, these folks need copy. It is time to ignore their COLLECTIVE rantings.
Tell me about electrical production. Tell me about drinking water production. Tell me about sewage treatment. Don't tell me about what happens daily in every major city in America!

To answer RalphdaRussian's question:

"BTW, I'm NOT saying that media should report what the people want to hear... I'm just wondering why if they are willing to be biased based on ideology, why they wouldn't be more willing to be be biased based on $$$/viewers/readers?"

The reasons are both simple and a little complicated.

Simple first:

1. It depends on the TYPE of media. Television and radio react far more rapidly to their viewer and listener demands than do newspapers simply because they get feedback much faster (ratings)

This is why there is a Fox News and why MSNBC went from left-biased to right-biased almost overnight. The ratings.

2. Print media changes far more slowly. Most cities now are one-newspaper towns (talk about market domination, newspapers are far more concentrated that TV and Radio, yet you hear few outcries about that) so if you enjoy reading the paper, you're pretty much stuck. About the only way people can protest is to cancel subscriptions.

The interesting this is that this IS happening. Newspaper readership is continuing in a freefall that began 15-20 years ago which is why there are so many one-paper towns now.

At any rate, when you have a monopoly, you don't need to be all that sensitive to the paying customers needs, right? And the continuing declines in readership still haven't been enough to make for changes.

Think about this: in most large cities, the heavy concentration of readership is in the most conservative suburbs, yet the papers play to the liberal city centers. Why? Because they can and because the overwhelming majority of the paper's staff is left-leaning.

Eventually, but only eventually, newspapers will be seriously damaged by the web, but today the damage is indirect.

Newspapers are businesses though most reporters don't really seem to believe, or even know, that this is the case.

They do have to react to the market. But when you've got the market cornered, and you're still making profits, you're not going to change much.

That's the story today (at least part of it).

Thom, your comments (perfectly valid) are with the forgery, not the letter that Lizzel got from the church. Although that doesn't explain why Audrey from the church said the letter was from May 23 and the email itself is dated July 3.

Salam Pax linked to an Iraqi girl, Zainab:
"I know that one day there will be agreat revolution against the Americans and now we have the first seeds of that revolution ... Did you know that at the beginning of the invasion everybody said it’s a bless getting rid of Saddam Hussien but it turns to be an ever lasting curse,haw could they just go leaving the biggest oil reservoir in the region, they have planned to stay... during the past regime there were safety &work chances(money) BUT, THERE IS NO FREEDOM, naw there is freedom without safety or public services with very very mini work opportunities... also the Iraqi popular resistance movement have called other liberation movements abroad to come and work together for Iraq’s liberation... All you have to do is forming a decent real government! Is that hard to be done ?..."

[Link: www.realwomenonline.com...]

Salam's comment on her post:
"Just be patient"

[Link: www.realwomenonline.com...]

I thought her post was interesting for the same reason I read Salam Pax's: the perspective. And nuggets like "other liberation movements abroad" validate W's "bring it on" statement. I'm amazed at how much people (worldwide) expect of the USA and how capable they believe US to be. Is it that hard to form a decent government? Send Elle Woods! Like it's hard!

Speaking of Heinlen, I was thinking of Stranger in a Strange Land and wondering how long it would have taken the IslamoNazis to kill Stinky...

Woo hoo, front page! I never thought I'd actually make it, and I confess that I didn't think the LGF sleuths would be quite so...efficient. :)

As for the provenance, it's like this: I'm currently active duty military, in the air side of the house, and I work with a bunch of guys from various other branches in a staff job. We got stuck home for the Big Dance, but we've all got friends and acquaintances over in the desert. Whenever any of us get reports from the front like this, we forward them around to everyone else in the office. I send a lot of the more generally interesting ones on to Charles. Some of them are from people we know personally, some are passed on through the military circles.

I'll probably respond to some of the more specific points later, after I've had a chance to read all the commentary thus far, but it sounded genuine soldier-speak when I read it, and still think it (mostly) is. At first blush, it's not too far off the letter Lizzel posted above, and is possibly even a later letter.

Before we all conclude that the letter I posted is a forgery, let's wait and see what Jolly Roger has to say about where he got it, OK? The one I posted is obviously not just a reworded version of Lizzel's letter -- the content is completely different, and it refers to the search for WMD in a way that would have made no sense back in May.

If it does turn out to be a forgery I'll certainly post an update, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

#49 Thom

3) Unless the major is hopelessly non-technical, I suspect that he wouldn't write "Mw" for megawatt ("MW") or "Kv" for "kilovolt" ("kV").

Its very important to capitalise Dubya.

4) "Are we still getting shot at? Yep. Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents." Mostly in accidents? That's not what I've been hearing on the news - I've been hearing mostly RPGs.

About 28 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in June, more than twice the death toll for May. Many of those casualties occurred in vehicle accidents, but soldiers in Iraq say that even those crashes are attributable in part to the fighting, because Humvee drivers often travel at unsafe speed[Link: www.washingtonpost.com...] to lessen the chance of being ambushed.

5) "E. R. MAJOR Deputy Division Engineer 4th Infantry Division" Deputy Division Engineer? What does that mean? (Seriously, is that a staff job at division? I don't know.)

Fuck you [Link: www.nwd.usace.army.mil...]

6) "The crude oil pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June)." 2 June (not June 2). So he sent this to someone(s) 24 days after he wrote it. Or else he writes in the future tense of a past event? Does not compute. Does anyone know if repairs on this pipeline were completed by 2 June?

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq, historically the Middle East's third-largest oil producer, will today complete repairs on a pipeline linking a northern oil field with Turkey, allowing the country to resume pumping to a Mediterranean export terminal.

Fuck you
[Link: quote.bloomberg.com...]

8) "Contracts for repairs to facilities [that are only 50% or less operational ] are being let." Are being let? That strikes me as a strange turn of phrase for a young American major.

An expert of ligusitic for the US Army. Thank you Dr. Chomsky.

9) "ALL these things were used by the Sadam regime" He misspelled Saddam?!

That's enough. Total Idiotarian.

I wouldn't quibble at misspellings (I should know!) like "Sadam" and "Mw." This isn't some technical manual or even publicly-circulated document. It's purportedly a letter written by some average Joe Soldier. If it turns out to be true, the misspellings mean nothing. If it turns out to be a hoax, the misspellings mean nothing.

If Major E.R. had written 'neighbour' or 'harbour,' then maybe we might suspect something.

This letter rings true. We just need to wait to bit to see if it IS true.

#52 R. McLeod

Thanks for the explanation... I agree on most points, but I still don't get one thing.

What happened to competition? You'd think that considering the level of distrust toward some of these major papers, there would be a publisher willing to pick up the slack (disillusioned readers).

I live in LA and I'm forced to subscribe to the WSJ because the LA Times makes me want to puke

Perhaps you are right however in that the future is in web media so perhaps investors/publishers are less willing to take on new "print" projects.

He had sent an email to every camp in Iraq hoping to find the General he had worked with in the initial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the very general who had surrendered with all his men the first day of the war without firing a shot. He was concerned about his whereabouts, and the reasons for his detainment. He wanted to pursue getting him released so he might work with him in the areas of most concern, the very areas I was just discussing with the general. Things happen in very mysterious ways but it is good to know they are working, there is a master plan and over time all of America will see the benefits of our labors here in this country. Good things are happening in the middle east that will be the start of great things to come.

[Link: chiefwiggles.blogspot.com...]

Rob writes, asking what I think about these recent remarks by President Bush:

Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice. There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring them on.
George W. Bush is President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is our leader. He sets the tone for every man and woman in uniform. If the President says we are a bunch of bad-asses, then that is the attitude we will adopt. It sure beats the heck out of the alternative.

Meanwhile, President Bush is taking some heat for these remarks, being accused of using “shoot-from-the-hip lines,” with some urging him to bring the troops home “as soon as possible.”

His response: “We're not leaving until we accomplish the task.”

How refreshing.
[Link: www.lt-smash.us...]

#49 Thom

10) "(I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace)" Isn't that in Tikrit? Stoopit question time: was the Tikrit Palace bombed? I can't find anything on it having been bombed.

I don't doubt that at all. The coalition bombed just about every palace, senior home, Ba'athist office and major power symbol they could. I expect Saddam's home palace in his home town came under that.

14) "I'm living in a 'guest palace' on a 500 acre palace compound", which location, presumably is "100 yards" from the Tikrit Palace. The Tikrit Palace encompasses 4 sq km (almost 1000 acres). How can the major be a factor of two off in his recounting of the area of the Tikrit Palace grounds, if he supposedly lives/works there?

Is at all impossible to imagine that the Tikrit palace grounds, walled and (as you say) 4 sq km, would be a good place from which to conduct military operations? Remember, he refers to his location as a "guest palace"; I think this is tongue-in-cheek for "we just took this place from Saddam's goons".

Speaking of tongue in cheek, the spelling errors in #63 shouldn't lead anyone to believe that it is someone purporting to be me. :-)

#53 cba.

Although that doesn't explain why Audrey from the church said the letter was from May 23 and the email itself is dated July 3.

My thought exactly. And how did Lizzel track down the church so fast? (Of course my comments were about the "forgery" - that's what's on the lgf front page.)

#57 Charles.

Before we all conclude that the letter I posted is a forgery, let's wait and see what Jolly Roger has to say about where he got it, OK? The one I posted is obviously not just a reworded version of Lizzel's letter -- the content is completely different, and it refers to the search for WMD in a way that would have made no sense back in May.

I agree. I was just posting some things that made me wonder. I haven't drawn any conclusions yet. I'm just wondering.

#58 ralph.

Fuck you [Link: www.nwd.usac......]

Thank you for that link. As I said, I really didn't know.

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq, historically the Middle East's third-largest oil producer, will today complete repairs on a pipeline linking a northern oil field with Turkey, allowing the country to resume pumping to a Mediterranean export terminal.

June 30 does not equal June 2. I must be missing something here.

The rest of your post I won't bother with - it's just gratuitously abusive. But thank you for clarifying the division engineer thing.

#59 steve miller.

Quibbling over spelling is not normally something I do (heck, I screwed up "amendment" the other night). But it just struck me as odd. And I agree that we just have to wait a bit for the truth to come out. If my suspicions are groundless, then so be it. I'll gladly (albeit ruefully) eat crow.

#63 Colt

(Re the Tikrit Palace bombing) I don't doubt that at all. The coalition bombed just about every palace, senior home, Ba'athist office and major power symbol they could. I expect Saddam's home palace in his home town came under that.

I agree. If I was Da Boss, I'd have bombed the crap out of his palaces. I was just saying that when I did a quick web search, I found some stories about looting, broken windows, and whatnot, but nothing about the palace actually being bombed. That's all.

Is at all impossible to imagine that the Tikrit palace grounds, walled and (as you say) 4 sq km, would be a good place from which to conduct military operations? Remember, he refers to his location as a "guest palace"; I think this is tongue-in-cheek for "we just took this place from Saddam's goons".

That is easily imaginable. I can readily imagine that the palace, situated on dominating ground with spectacular views of the surrounding country is an admirable place from which to conduct military operations. My question was, if he's 100 yards from the palace, then he must be within the 4 sq km area of the grounds, and 4 sq km is almost 1000 acres. How can he say that the palace grounds is only 500 acres? But maybe he's just on a sub-compound or something?

To all (ralph) - Please let me reaffirm that I'm only raising some points that caused me, in all of my glorious ignorance, to wonder about the authorship of this letter. I am not an "idiotarian" gloom-and-doomer whining about "quagmires" in Iraq. In my opinion, our troops are doing a spectacular job, in difficult circumstances, of restoring the Iraqis to civilization and ridding America of a terrorist threat.

There's a fairly long piece in today's ArabNews about what the Arabs and the Africans think Mr. Bush and we Americans should do to help Africa -- note, not just Liberia, but *all* of Africa, a whole bunch of different failing countries. [Link: www.arabnews.com...]

Among other things, they will be telling Mr. Bush they are expecting help on:

1. Curing their AIDS epidemic.
2. Conflict prevention including sending troops into Liberia (except they're calling them "peacekeepers" so they may not understand than American troops shoot back)..
3. Poverty reduction ...
4. ...which will include finanical assistance, and ...
5. ...technical assistance ...
6. ...and most probably medical assistance for that little AIDS thing.
7. Trade incentives ...
8. ....including reduced trade tariffs.
9. "Some Africans would also like to see Bush lean on US companies to do more to cooperate in efforts to reduce corruption in Africa," which includes promoting "accountability and transparency."

And what will the American taxpayer get in return for all of this largesse? Why the peace of knowing that we will have free rein to go into their countries and root out their terrorist problems. Maybe.

Although this particular article doesn't go into it, I wonder if there's a more concrete quid pro quo; say, oil?

Have I mentioned that California is facing billion-dollar deficits and bankruptcy??? As is New York state. And Oregon is having to shut down schools. And Los Angeles alone has over 2 million people with no health insurance. But what the hell -- I'm sure Africa needs our tax dollars more than we do.

#58 ralph.

Fuck you [Link: www.nwd.usac.......]

Nope. Try again. The guy you linked to is with the Corps of Engineers, and is second in command to the Division Commander.

Our Major, who wrote the letter, is second to and Infantry Division's highest ranking engineer called the Division Engineer.

Our Major is a second tier staff officer.

Another source of the letter

Oh, Lizzel's letter is a fake.

Well, forgery or not, I agreed with what is in both letters. I returned from Iraq on June 16, and I see only the sensational getting on TV. Some great things are going on in Iraq, and I worked with terrific Iraqis, who were smart, generous, open, friendly and happy to have us there.

As a contractor, I had a little more freedom (and was not targeted like the soldiers, God bless them!) to get out and meet Iraqis. God bless them too; the average Iraqi wants peace, stability, security, then human rights.

When I was asked why I went, I told them it was because their beautiful children deserve all the same things as children in the free world, from schools, food, shelter to the right to vote, protest and speak and associate freely.

Thanks for listening.

db, you wrote "our Major."

Do you know the guy personally?

#68 SGT LOL.

I also agree with the sentiments and most of the facts in both letters. Iraq is coming along, slowly but surely (but who, outside of CNN and the DNC, could expect a totalitarian, fascist state founded on decades of terrorizing and torturing civilians - adults and children - to turn around overnight?).

(When I raised my questions, my only concern was the possibility that we may be lionizing a fictitious major in Iraq. We don't need forgeries - if that is what it is - (or to circulate them) in order to propagate truth.)

The history of the conservative movement has taught me what Lincoln said long ago {possibly crude paraphrase alert}: you can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

For me, conservatism is the story of the gradual unveiling of truth to people who could not otherwise withstand it all at once- and the courage to stand by that truth in dark times. (Albeit GWB has sorely tested that view, if he is actually a conservative, and not just a political opportunist. Having voted for GWB, I worry about his stance on a number of Constitutional issues lately.)

#69 cba

No, I do not know the Major personally. It was a comment meaning that he was LGF's Major (in question).
Though, if I had time I could probably make a couple of phone calls and track him down.

However, I know exactly what a G3-ADE and what the Division Engineer is (with regard to combat divisions or Corps of Engineer divisions).

'Our Major' is the Deputy to a combat division's Division Engineer.

My money is that the letter at sftt.org is the real one.

Lizzel's letter had me thinking of somebody complaining that their perpetual motion machine broke down...

#58 ralph.

#49 Thom

3) Unless the major is hopelessly non-technical, I suspect that he wouldn't write "Mw" for megawatt ("MW") or "Kv" for "kilovolt" ("kV").

Its very important to capitalise Dubya.

I wondered what to do with this barb - here's what I came up with:

Yes, it is very important to capitaliza the "W", in honor of James Watt for whom the SI unit of power (or radiant flux) is named. A small "w" is positively an insult.

#59 Steve Miller, #72 Thom, et al.

Do not assume that if someone's a major, his spelling will be flawless. During my days as an enlisted soldier, I had to correct many a spelling and grammatical error in the letters, reports, and other typing assignments officers and senior enlisted persons handed off to me.

That's a great read. I'd heard about some of those things being done but usually - obvious - most you hear is the doom and gloom as zulubaby pointed out. Thanks Jolly Roger and Charles for posting this.

re #49:

"3) Unless the major is hopelessly non-technical, I suspect that he wouldn't write "Mw" for megawatt ("MW") or "Kv" for "kilovolt" ("kV")."

This doesn't worry me too much. My word processor keeps changing MPa to Mpa and HCl to Hcl etc... If you don't catch it everytime it can look like you don't know what you're talking about.

alex #75:

If you're using Word, here's how to fix the autocorrection problem.

1. Find AutoCorrect (in my version it's on the Tools menu).
2. Remove the check mark from the option "Correct TWo INitial CApitals."

Of course, now it won't fix things when it truly is a mistake, but in my experience that's a bit rarer.

However, in the case of this letter, Word would not have changed "KW" to "Kw" because it doesn't change a word (two-letters long or otherwise) if ALL the letters are uppercase. It only changes things like "PCs" to "Pcs"

#75 alex.

My word processor keeps changing MPa to Mpa and HCl to Hcl etc... If you don't catch it everytime it can look like you don't know what you're talking about.

Good point.

Thom, et al...

Responding to various points you made with the letter...

-The Addressees: Why would he specify more than "First Lutheran"? If you're writing to your home church where everyone knows you, you generally assume that the folks there know where they are.

-Military Time: I file flight plans in Zulu. The flight schedule, events schedule, etc. is written in "military time". But when we're discussing things like lunch or tee times, it's one o'clock, not "thirteen hundred".

-Mw/kV: I think this one has been done to death already.

-Accidents: You hear about people getting shot on the news, because that's News. You don't hear about all the accidents, except in peacetime. In an environment like that, accidents happen a lot, and "accidents" in the military are often fatal. My officemate knows I guy over there that managed to shoot himself down by flying through a frag pattern. So yeah, things happen, a lot.

-Contracts being "let": This guy probably does a lot of civil engineering, and the military uses a lot of civilian contractors for things like that. Sounds like standard terminology to me.

-TX v. CA: So friggin' what if somebody uses a different term? When I think of Texas, I think BIG. When I think of California, I think hippies and surfing.

-"Sadam": Do you realize that this guy is most likely writing his emails from a laptop Toughbook in a rather hostile environment, has little free time to write at all, and is just hoping the sat connection will work?

-Dots/Date Stamps: Some...people...use...dots...for...
emphasis...sometimes...It also could mean that an interim editor removed some personal messages or information unnecessary for the public at large. Same thing with the date stamps, could've been passed on along the way before it got to me and then Charles. Interim editing and forgery are NOT the same thing.

-Acreage/Yardage: Dude, do you REALLY, REALLY THINK that this guy is out there with a friggin' MEASURING TAPE???? Exactly how many people do you think can eye a piece of land and say, "Well Bob, that's about 42.739 acres right there, yessiree." Bueller? Bueller? And are they going to use it in a casual conversation?

Generally speaking, I see no reason to doubt the details of the letter, nor any reason to believe it is a "forgery", which would mean that someone elsewhere sat down and wrote this out of whole cloth. Nope, unh unh. There may have been some losses in transmission along the way, but overall, BFD.

Very interesting comments. Remember all the reasons Bush gave us back in November, 2002, for going to war. Nothing was mentioned about improving the standard of living of the Iraqi civilians as a reason for invasion. Their poor standard of living is due to the oppressive sanctions by the U.N. We can't justify our current occupation as legitimate just because we are trying to restore utilities and other infrastructure, all of which were working fine before the invasion. Blaming the locals for most of the destruction is like blaming mass muderers who go on a killing rampage after purposely being freed from prison by some whacko prison guard. WE caused the current situation, and WE are responsible for cleaning up the mess we made. And to blow off the WMD thing is bogus because it is the primary reason Congress gave Bush the authority to pursue Iraq (through the U.N., not on his own). Just close your eyes for a moment and think what it would be like right now in Iraq if we had never invaded. Hussein would still be in power, and the 5-7,000 civilians and 10's of thousands of Iraqi soldiers we murdered would be going about their daily lives at this moment. Face it, we screwed up. It wil be interesting to see if this post gets deleted because of its content.

Mike,

If we deleted you, we wouldn't have so much laughing at you!

Jolly Roger, ralph, et al.

I did some investigating today (including an interesting series of phone calls which eventually led me to the division G1) and found nothing to cast doubt on the authenticity of the letter. So let me retract my questions and sit down to some crow pie. {Mmmmm ... pie}

Mike,

No they wouldn't have been going about their daily lives. It's likely that the regime would have had at least some of them killed at some point (swamp draining, gassing etc. ring a bell?), the rest would have been living in fear it might be them tomorrow.

Mike (#79) wrote:

Blah. Blah blah blah Bush lied blah blah blah...It wil be interesting to see if this post gets deleted because of its content.

So, are you interested yet? Why in the world would I want to delete such a fun-filled post?

Are you maybe feeling a little embarrassed by your whiny accusation before the fact? No?

You'll need to be a lot nastier than that to get your posts deleted. As it is, you're just regurgitating the standard foolish counterpunch/alternet/indymedia line; you didn't even do a good job of trolling. (Notice how you were ignored.)

Better luck next time.

As for why Texas vs Cali...the 4th ID is from Texas.

Im so jealous!!! You got mentioned on Lucianne.com, a site that normally bans postings from blogs.

Keep up the great work! Mainstream media knows blogs are way beyond what they do and its blogs like yours that does the job for them.

best,

I just surfed on in to this informative place, so I just wanted to say to "the chief cook and bottle washer", (for the lack of a better title), thanks for another great place on the web to learn, and I suppose at some time in the future, to vent. And. I might add, to contribute. Again, thanks, and good luck, and G d bless America.

I'd point out that the Marine Corps is still in Iraq doing the same stuff....since before 4th ID got there

(#83) Charles wrote:

Mike (#79) wrote:

Blah. Blah blah blah Bush lied blah blah blah...It wil be interesting to see if this post gets deleted because of its content.

Actually, there were no "blah"s in my comment. I'm sorry that an attempt at discussing an issue on this blog results in mindless responses like Charles'. Also, it's sad to see the "Right" unable to think for themselves, but instead spend all their time trying to belittle those who do think and try to raise issues for debate. In sports the best defense is a good offense, but in politics, and in attempts at social change for the better, being offensive merely masks the inability to be defensive. When you learn to think and write at the same time, be sure to stop by my blog and debate the real issues. Thanks.

As Ex USAF Fighter Pilot I feel the tone and substance of the letter are plause-able and hopefully true in substance. I will not hold anyone's feet to the fire for the "nits" I see here.

Why we are there according to me:
1) Terror organizations have killed so many of our citizens over the last few years that the whole Congress and the whole rationally thinking population of our country is pissed off enough to go to war and kick butt(...) any butt!
2) SadDamn Insane (deliberately misspelled for the nit community) has demonstrated the use of WMD and has the will to do it again and had programs in place to get the means. Hitting him first sends a message, that I can read anyway.
3) I consider that enough piece parts have been seen on TV that the WMD question is answered as a positive "they had it". To see a full up nuclear missile on a lanch stand with Cairo or Some other city dialed in, ready for a button press, would only start a debate on weither it would have worked and not that there was proof.
4) Having served in Nam, I fully to the pit of my soul believe that in the near future we'll only have highly paid ... minimal conpetent civil service "diplomatic" types in-country. Maybe double a Language Prof salary and have him teach "Word".

Biggest Benefit: Teddy Rosevelt said noone will ever "love us" for we are too brash and too successful. I hope now that when we "cowboys" face them and look them in the eye, they will listen while they watch their life flash across their eyes.

War? Look at what the greatest generation did to Dresden and other cities with conventional weapons. What we did was a spanking, nothing more by comparison.

Thanks for the vent time :-)

Mike,

Charles' post wasn't the mindless one. I checked your blog. The nearly complete lack of commentary on it should tell you something about how interesting your sheep-like bleating opinions are. Have a safe trip to New Zealand!

I didn't need the President or the UN to provide a reason for tossing Hussein. The N. Korean freighter dropping off 150 rockets in Yemen was enough for me. I'm all for eliminating the players in the daisy chain of the arms market in the Middle East. Frustrating the intentions of fundamentalist Islamofascist governments hostile to free-market pluralist democracies is sufficient.

I had a debate with my uncle about this last weekend - he said the old line about if Bush doesn't find the weapons, then his going to war was immoral! I said, we didn't go to war because of any specific weapons, it was the nexus of Saddam supporting terrorists, torturing his own people, and flaunting international law in the form of UN 1441.
But the mere fact that the onus is on our fine President to justify his actions (as opposed of the evil incarnate Saddam) made me regret having to explain this at all.

I have received an e-mail from Audrey where she say that the letter she sent me (the one I posted ) is the latest one and not the one from June, the one from June is below:

It is almost the same as the one Charles posted, sorry for the confusion.

OPEN LETTER TO

FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH

OF

RICHMOND BEACH

It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what’s really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn’t sell.

The stuff you don’t hear about? Let’s start with Electrical Power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 mega watts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70% complete.
Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, Water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (The Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in short supply or not used at all and when chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing. So some people got pool water and some people got water with lots of little things moving in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50% or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don’t have the metering problem solved yet (It’s only been 45 days).
How about oil and fuel? Well the war was all about oil wasn’t it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people because they have no other income, they produce nothing else. Oil is 95% of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it MUST sell oil. The Refinery at Bayji is at 75% of capacity producing gasoline. The crude pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June). LPG, what all Iraqi’s use to cook and heat with, is at 103% of normal production and WE, the US ARMY, at least 4th ID, are insuring it is being distributed FAIRLY to ALL Iraqi’s.
You have to remember that 3 months ago, ALL these things were used as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped, LPG pipelines and trucks stopped, Water was turned off, power was turned off.
Now, until exports start, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people, crude oil is being stored, the country is at 75% capacity now, they need to export or stop pumping soon, thank the UN for the delay. ALL LPG goes to the Iraqi people EVERYWHERE. Water is being purified as best they can, but at least it’s running all the time to everyone.

Are we still getting shot at? Yep

Are American Soldiers still dying? Yep, about 1 a day from the 4th ID, most in accidents, but dead is dead.
If we are doing all this for the Iraqi’s, why are they shooting at us?
The general population isn’t. There are still bad guys, who won’t let go of the old regime. They are Ba’ath party members (Read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who know nothing but the regime. They were thugs for the regime that caused many to disappear in the night and they have no other skills. At least the Nazis had jobs they could go back to after the war as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc…these people have no skills but terror. They are simply applying their skills….and we are applying ours. There is no Christian way to say they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster. Our troops are shot at literally everyday by small arms and RPGs. We respond and 100% of the time, the Ba’ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick. The most amazing thing to me is that they don’t realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on fixing things and leave. The more they shoot at us, the longer we will stay.
Lastly, Realize that 90% the damage you see on TV was caused by IRAQI’s, NOT the war. Sure we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000lb laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace), he had plenty to spare. But, ANY damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was ALL caused either by the Iraqi Army in its death throws or the Iraqi civilians looting the places. Could the army have prevented it? Nope. We can and do now, but 45 days ago the average soldier was lucky to know what town he was in much less be informed enough to know who owned what or have the power to stop a 1,000 people from looting a building by himself.
The United States and Britian are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world chopping block to free a people. I’ve already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death, bottom line, who cares, this country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway. We have probably destroyed more weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the US Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (Remember, this is a country the size of Texas), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here, if we find it GREAT, if we don’t, SO WHAT? I’m living in a “guest palace” on a 500 acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the countryside 5 miles away (I have) and see a family of 10 living in a mud hut herding two dozen sheep, The tell me why you think we are here.

Respectfully,

ERIC RYDBOM
MAJ, ENGINEER
Deputy Division Engineer
4th Infantry Division

haha, Mike's real name is Ted Rall, Jr.

Jolly Roger (#90)

I checked out Mike's blog too. Had a good chuckle really. Talk about not getting it! Sheesh.

Z-babe,

Yeah, I thought the same thing...my first thought was, "man, look at all this Tin Foil! What hats we could make!" Then I thought about posting some responses/sanity, but even half drunk I couldn't bring to do it.

Jolly Roger (#96)

It's hardly worth the bother. He's talking to himself, that one. One of the lamest blogs I've ever seen. Not. Interesting. At. All.

So, my plot to get people to visit my blog seems to be working like a charm! I'm sorry the content is above your heads, and thanks for the Ted Rall, Jr. compliment. Mr. Rall is someone who cares a lot about correcting the current injustices in our country and tries to express himself through his cartoons and a bit over-the-edge rants. But all of us want to be able to maintain the freedom of expressing ourselves, as you do here on this web site and thousands of others on their sites. Feel free to continue bashing me and other "liberals (a.k.a. traitors, according to Ann Coulter)" because the right to bash and express our opinions freely is exactly the thing for which we fight.

blah

Mike's blog has a 'Kucinich for President' link. I think that just about says it all.

Mike (#98)

So, my plot to get people to visit my blog seems to be working like a charm!

Yeah, all two of us. Mazel Tov!

From a excerpt from Mike's blog entitled "Is a Coma a Better Deal":

I wish I'd been comatose since January, 2001

I wish you were too.

#101 zulubaby.

Well, maybe three. I also visited. Once.

Mike's Blog-Visit Plot Assessment:

Hits Generated: 2
Visitors' Evaluation: Re-processed, Unoriginal Drivel.
Chance of repeat visits: [howls of derisive laughter]

Summary: " 'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to post a blog and remove all doubt."

Constructive Critcism: Try using facts to make your case, and interpreting them using a progression of logic. Ad hominem attacks against Bush like "he's stupid" earn you the Drivel Rating. E.g., when we point out that Clinton was a philanderer, we have plenty of evidence to document this. It's not ad hominem because it's a fact. There are no facts to support the "Bush is stupid" argument.

zulubaby (#101),

Yeah, all two of us. Mazel Tov!

And after reading your and Jolly Roger's glowing reviews, I'm sure the rest of us will be rushing to beat the bandwidth overload that will no doubt be shutting skippy's blog down any minute now.

Geepers,

Thanx for that link! That's a keeper!

it's your money that we want
and your money we shall have!

:-)

Jimmy Buffett's "Take It Back":

Open season on the open seas and
Captain says no prisoners please
Skull and crossbones on a background of black
We ain't stealin' we're just takin' back

Take It Back

The good major is in engineering and not infantry.

Thank God for the job he's doing, but let's hear from the infantry guys, NCOs, privates, and the small unit officers.

I laud the progress of the Coalition, and there are fringe benefits to the invasion, to the Iraqis and American corporations. The corporations will become the "benevolent" dictators of the Iraqi economy soon.

Let's see a report 5 years out as to how many Iraqis have left their mud huts with 10 people in them for good jobs in the city that support the family farm. We'll see if the corporate oligarchy that is moving into place in Iraq will really share the wealth. They are charging for every minute they're over there, taking a cut from the Iraqi people's share, and operating on US taxpayer paid security by US forces who aren't meant to be security guards.

tom (#102)

Please do not make comments like that while I'm at work. I am hysterical over that one! LOL!

Thom (#013)

That's more than enough, isn't it?

Jolly Roger and Geepers:

You guys have me crying too!

This is for Mike: [Link: newsmax.com...]

I think we citizens have every right to bemoan the casualties that the brass can't stop from occurring - every day more are being shot dead, and that means every day! Why, I'll bet that more people died violently from guns and knives in New York and LA, in the last three months than soldiers have died in Iraq. Voters should focus their unhappiness on the police and local politicians.

Jolly Roger (#108),

Ahh:

Open season on the open seas and
Captain says no prisoners please

The good ole days. ;-)

Hey, what king of space do I need to build a landing strip for an ultra light. I've got about 1,400 feet straight.

Again, thanks all you guys for visiting "Left is Right". Please leave some comments next time you visit, as one-sided viewpoints do get kinda boring after a while (a la LGF). I took Kwality Assurance's advice and visited Newsmax. I hope you guys are getting your source of opinions from more than just these kinds of sites. This guy insists on linking 9-11 to Iraq, without any justification, a common rightie ploy. If any of you have a web links to news sites that have evidence of such a terrorist link, PLEASE point it out to me, as I have been searching for months. And please don't point me to sites that just say Bush says there's a link, because obviously that is worthless. And Stefan, why do you belittle the American lives being needlessly taken in Iraq just because more are lost in America's slums? Please justify your comments. Thanks.

Ok lets see, all of you who think we should pull out of Iraq now and put Saddam back in power, raise your hands.
Whaaat? No one? Ok so shut up about not finding WMD! Saddam had them, he used them, he admitted to having huge amounts in 1998. Maybe he turned into a nice guy in the past couple of years? I don't think so. Better you should thank God one more piece of murderous scum has been eliminated and don't sweat the rest.

#113 Geepers

I don't know anything much about ultralights, but 1400 ft should be more than enough. My rough guesstimate is you'll need 200-300ft for takeoff, and probably 600-800 for landing. For reference, a single engine prop plane, like a Cessna, needs about a 2500 ft runway as a bare minimum.

The most important question you need to focus on, though, is your prevailing wind direction, and secondly the average wind speed. Find the nearest airport to your lot and take note of which way their primary runways are oriented, accounting for any major geographical features. That'll give you a pretty good idea of what you're starting with.

Jolly Roger (#116),

Thanks. Right. I'd hate to think where I'd be with a stiff cross wind (the pond?, ...fence line)

I do have some nice little slopes. Maybe a british carrier "jump" take off? :-) Or uphill landing quick stop?

An Areo-bowl?

I think that this is a good leter. Chat someware else.

Mike (#114)

...as one-sided viewpoints do get kinda boring after a while (a la LGF).

Interesting then that you're still here, what with that fascinating site of yours and all... how could you possibly tear yourself away?

Sorry, I just find you guys so entertaining in a weird kind of way. And you keep showing up on my bSTATS page because you keep visiting "Left is Right".

120 Mike

Its probly blowing your mind to see that the left IS RIGHT. Now I know this is a shock. now take a deep breath. alright you mite be allright now?

How about getting back to the question / letter at hand?
You have let Mike sidetrack you and that was his intent -
my son does the same thing - I recognize it when I see it.

Mike (#120)

And you keep showing up on my bSTATS page because you keep visiting "Left is Right".

But don't you find those one-time hits just sooo unfulfilling?

I thought that the water purification was interisting we alwase take water for granted.

Re: #114 Mike and the LGF prayer....

First, from [Link: www.dictionary.com:...]

troll

v.,n. 1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To
utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable
responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase
"trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream
"trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a
likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post
that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look
even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to
the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate
troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See
also YHBT. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1;
regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a
newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to
annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by
the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic
at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly
creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming
characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of
life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll." 3.
[Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS
students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab
policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves
lurking in dark cavelike corners.

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower
category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing
some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See
also Troll-O-Meter.

As an admitted newbie, I recognize I am probably more susceptible to trolls than most other readers/posters here, and also risk legitimizing Mike's (trolling?) comments by actually taking the time to reply to them. Nevertheless....

I find it interesting that Mike #114 projects onto Stefan's #112 a belittlement of the ongoing (and far from "needless") deaths in Iraq. I find no belittlement in Stefan's comments.

Also interesting is Mike's comment re: Newsmax, namely, "...getting your source of opinions from more than these kind of sites." . In my experience, most conservative thinkers (redundant, yes...) form their OWN opinions using information gleaned from a wide variety of sources, including sites like Newsmax (which provides information and opinions from an admitted conservative perspective), and even op-ed sources like the New York Times, Washington Post, and major broadcase media (which provide opinion mostly, from self-proclaimed "objective" perspectives).

It's so obvious that the media wants this whole endeavor to fail and is reflected in nearly every report I've read especially in the BBC coverage or New York Times Coverage. I've heard the word quagmire and comparisons more in the last few weeks than at any time in my lifetime. I wouldn't be surprised if the editorial board had a policy to insert at least one "quagmire" into every story.
Additionally the idea that there must be a smoking gun is such a red herring. The whole world believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, 3 administrations believed this, Clinton bombed Iraq because of it, the UN imposed sanctions because of it, and passed resolutions because of it. Inspections were started at least 3 times because of it. In fact, the whole notion that the UN is involved in any way with Iraq at all is because it believes that Iraq has/had wmd's. And most importantly, at every stop of the way the New York Times WROTE about it. If we look at coverage in the NYT's prior to the battle I'm sure we can uncover piles of documents and published stories detailing Iraq's noncompliance. What the hell is going on here?
To put this in perspective I happen to be reading a few books on Joe Mcarthy and the so called 'witchhunt" against commies as well as Will Duranty's winning of the pulitzer for his coverage of Stalinist russia and what is so striking is how there too the NYT's slanted coverage to hide the fact that there were commie spies all over the state dept, including alger hiss as per the venona documents which the times barely reported on. In other words they SMEARED mcarthy for telling the truth.
How much of the chicken little, doom and gloom reporiting is accurate and how much is based on the New York Times and democrats desire to discredit bush?
Based on past performance I wouldn't believe a word they have to say. What scares me is the influence they have, based on their coverage and the fact we live in a media controlled society, to in effect undermine our national security by shaming Bush into poo poohing war on terrorism.

#100 zulubaby.

Thom (#013)

That's more than enough, isn't it?

Well, I dunno. Well, yes, actually. I mean, just imagine how much traffic Nazimedia gets because of lgf? It's important to keep an eye on the enemy. But, with regard to the particular blog under discussion, it's so bland and devoid of insight, content, relevance, and overwhelming credibility and readership that, for me (and you, and virtually everyone else I'm sure), one visit was more than enough. Sorta like rubbernecking at a car accident (although that's an impulse I assiduously repress) - better yet, viewing a farm animal with some strange deformity: Did I look at it? Yup; do I want to look at every day? Naaaah.

#125 foxtrott_man

Mike's a troll - out for attention, with nothing to add to the discussion, and with the stated goal of attracting readers to his fog blog.

I'm kinda new here as well, and I've seen a tendency for some posters to denounce contrarians as "trolls" or idiotarians. But contrarianism does not a troll make, and most readers here recognize that. Content, facts, and reasoned argument are what counts.

most conservative thinkers (redundant, yes...)

Good one! :)

Thom (#127)

Sorta like rubbernecking at a car accident (although that's an impulse I assiduously repress)

That would be something that I don't do either, but I get you :-) Nazimedia is horrific, infuriating, repulsive -- negative reactions, for certain, but reactions nonetheless. Nazimedia needs to be kept an eye on for reasons that I'm sure I don't need to explain to you.

Mike's blog is...nothing comes to mind. Just nothingness. More like a blob than a blog.

Yep, me again. Regarding this:

It's so obvious that the media wants this whole endeavor to fail and is reflected in nearly every report I've read especially in the BBC coverage or New York Times Coverage. I've heard the word quagmire and comparisons more in the last few weeks than at any time in my lifetime. I wouldn't be surprised if the editorial board had a policy to insert at least one "quagmire" into every story.

The media doesn't want anything to fail, except the biased reporting for which they've been guilty since 9-11 and are apparently now trying to correct.

And this:

Additionally the idea that there must be a smoking gun is such a red herring. The whole world believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, 3 administrations believed this, Clinton bombed Iraq because of it, the UN imposed sanctions because of it, and passed resolutions because of it. Inspections were started at least 3 times because of it. In fact, the whole notion that the UN is involved in any way with Iraq at all is because it believes that Iraq has/had wmd's. And most importantly, at every stop of the way the New York Times WROTE about it. If we look at coverage in the NYT's prior to the battle I'm sure we can uncover piles of documents and published stories detailing Iraq's noncompliance. What the hell is going on here?

Of course the whole world believed Iraq had WMD, because they did. Israel bombed their nuclear (or "nucular" as your leader says) facilities a couple of decades ago, Iraq used them about 13 years ago, and the inspection teams continued to find and destroy them throughout the 1990's. No argument there. However by the time Bush got on his horse and rode into this already sanctions-decimated country this past March, virtually no WMD were left, having been destroyed over the years and what little, if any, remained shipped out at the last minute in anticipation of the invasion. Bush attacked a third-world nation that posed no threat to these United States, much less any country Iraq adjoined. Shame on us bullies. And if you are following the news this week you see that more and more Administration officials are admitting that at least some of the justifications for invasion were bogus (Bush admitted to one just yesterday), with additional admissions coming up. Bush may end up justifying the invasion solely on the fact that Hussein is a bad person. There are lots of bad leaders out there. Are we going to invade all their countries?

#129 zulubaby.

Mike's blog is...nothing comes to mind. Just nothingness. More like a blob than a blog.

Dang. I wish I had written "blob" instead of "fog." That was good!

#130.

{sigh}

There are lots of bad leaders out there. Are we going to invade all their countries?

If the choice is between us and them, who're you going to choose? In case you haven't noticed, the US has been (nominally) at war since 9/11/01. The pre-emptive strike doctrine would suggest that the jihadis in Afghanistan (and other locales) should have been taken out long ago. Instead, you suggest that we just sit around and wait for them to hit us, with increasingly devastating attacks?

One thinks not.

Anyway, I prefer not to give you any more voice on this worthy blog. Email me if you wish and we can discuss.

Thom (#131)

Dang. I wish I had written "blob" instead of "fog." That was good!

I like you, so have it, it's yours :-)

Friendship Develops With Iraqis, Troops

For the time being, however, Abdel-Hussein and his wife know they are safe in the company of the Marines. Unlike most of their countrymen, they say they dread the day the Americans pack up and leave.

"God willing, they will stay here forever," Abdel-Hussein's wife, Hasna, said as she breast-fed Hiyam. "They treat us well."

It warms my heart anyway.

i stumbled onto LGF by accident and still have'nt stopped laughing. thanks guys, you are now part of my daily surfing.
as for the idiot with the blog who says Dubya is stupid, i will answer with the one thing that drives the left-wing, bleeding heart, liberal extremist Adam Clymers absolutely stark raving, foaming at the mouth mad.
i'm going to point out FACTS.
FACT- the ivy league is not in the habit of passing out masters degrees to STUPID people- if they did, corporate america would stop hiring them and the ivy league colleges would go broke. Funny how capitalism works, isn't it?
FACT- last time i checked, the U.S. military is not in the habit of giving $30 million fighter jets to just anybody who wants to take them out for a spin. Dubya was a fighter pilot.
Hard, cold facts are such a wonderful thing.
Too bad stupid people can't recognize them, even when held right up to their faces.
You just can't FIX stupid.

Two points to Lefty... that is, Mike the Troll.

1) "I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" Yeah, and there's no link between Slaman Pak and the WTC murderers.

There is, in fact, very convincing evidence, which was ignored by Mr. Tenet (Bill Clinton's choice, first) that Salman Pak was the training facility of choice for al Queda and specialized in taking over airliners with box cutters. Though this was covered by NewsMax it was also covered by the BBC almost immediately after 09/11/01.

2) How many times has Tony Blair's statement that their intelligence on the Iraq uranium buy was not totally based on the forged documents been washed over in the mainstream media, or totally ignored? What chaps my hide is how the media has such sway over the minds of the mindless, including some within the present administration, who feel it necessary to backpeddle in supersonic mode at the slightest hint of questioning the veracity of information. All... let me repeat that... ALL intelligence is suspect until verified through independant channels. If verification was not performed, it's not the end user who made the mistake, but those responsible for that verification. In this case, no one doubted the veracity of the information until a washed out ex-Clintonista gave his "opinion" on the forged documents.

My opinion is that if the intelligence was wrong, or tainted, tough crap! It's too late!

My last point of left to Mike... Yes, the left adores freedom of speech, expression and the press; as long as it doesn't either speak the truth, clash with their own opinions or show up their ideas as less than main stream. Point of fact, Mike; 68% of Americans disagree with you, totally. That means that 68% of US have enough sense to make up our own minds from sources outside the Demoncratic National Communists' control.

To ignore the facts is to be ignorant.

By the way, I have read several letters from servicemen stationed in Iraq. The majority of the Iraqi people DO APPRECIATE THE SACRIFICES MADE BY AMERICANS ON THEIR BEHALF. No demoncrat in the country can take that away.

Misspellings are intentional.

Everyone open your Rosseau, who said that it becomes a question of either lying to the governor or the governed. This time, the Republifascists chose to "lie" to the governor. Riiiiiiiiight.

I wish us luck in Liberia, is there any other countries we can fix while we're up?

Re: Mike

You write: "No argument there. However by the time Bush got on his horse and rode into this already sanctions-decimated country this past March, virtually no WMD were left, having been destroyed over the years and what little, if any, remained shipped out at the last minute in anticipation of the invasion. Bush attacked a third-world nation that posed no threat to these United States, much less any country Iraq adjoined. Shame on us bullies"

Nice assumption there, but how do you prove it? Since 1998 we hadn't had inspectors allowed in Iraq. The only thing we had to go on is intelligence which as is revealed can be spotty or outright wrong if based on bogus info. But this is due to Iraq's non compliance. You remember when the centrifuge turned up recently it had been buried as far back as 1991 and was never uncovered by the previous inspectors. This evidence showed an active nuclear program that had been buried in someones garden for 12 years, presumably to be unearthed once the inspections had ended. Also remember that until Sadaams son in law showed us the smoking gun evidence of an active nuclear program we were so sure that they didn't have a program. But it turned out it was much worse than imagined.
The inspection process by itself had not revealed anything. It took defectors to reveal info to us. So how do you JUSTIFY your repsonse that they had nothing left when the inspectors obviously had merely scratched the surface. They are as unaware today as they were yesterday. Now, even Hans Blix acknowledged that there were unanswered questions concerning WMD's that had been unaccounted for. I know you say that we had destroyed all the weapons (then why the chem suits found on Iraqiis) but where's YOUR proof.
In a five year vacuum where the only evidence we had was our past knowledge of Iraq as continuing to develop weapons and our intelligence that this was continuing name one piece of evidence ONE that says that Iraq in fact had completely disarmed.
Containment is an utter fallacy without cooperation and verification from Iraq. Which was not provided.
Even you make the case by saying "what little, if any, remained shipped out at the last minute in anticipation of the invasion."
If you can make that statement than that proves that Iraq was a danger. You have no idea of the quantity of weapons that Iraq may have shipped out or where they were shipped to, so cannot say that these weapons do not pose a danger. The fact that they may have been shipped to Syria MAY indicate that now Syria has a large quantity of WMD's.

"Bush attacked a third-world nation that posed no threat to these United States, much less any country Iraq adjoined."
Here I say you're full of it. This country, Iraq, has never lived up to its responsibilities in 12 years. We had a cease fire predicated on the fact that Iraq must give up all its weapons in 60 days. It was dragged screaming into the disarmament process and the very fact that we are STILL (or were until the war) engaging in inspections means that Iraq posed a considerable danger. The whole idea of inspections is that Iraq has dangerous weapons unnaccounted for that pose a risk. If Iraq does not comply with these inspections then, what is it hiding, and by continuing to stonewall what is it preventing us from finding?
I will grant you that there was no evidence that Iraq had long range missiles aimed at America. However that does not mean that they don't pose a threat. They had, according to un weapons unnacounted for, weapons that terrorist groups want and are willing to pay good money for. There are hundreds of groups besides al qaeda that could buy these weapons (and Iraq is one of the main backers of Hamas ie) so explain to me with certainty that Iraq didn't get rid of its weapons by selling to any number of groups. You can't.
Absense of evidence doesn't mean evidence of absense. All it means is that we are still uncertain.

"Shame on us bullies"
This always gets my goat. We're bullies. Iraq commits mass murder against its people. Iraq invades its neighbors twice to get its weapons, sadaam considers himself saladin reincarnated and feels that he is destined to control the middle east (as he has stated), Iraq has lost a war and made the world chase him for 12 years of inspections, wasting our time playing circular games that would never have resolved themselves. Yet we're bullies.
All Iraq had to do was comply with its agreement. Frankly I can't believe we didn't reinvade after 60 days of noncompliance since those were our original terms that Iraq agreed to. No country should be able to play games on the UN's or USA's dime and get away with it for 12 years. It undermines the US and more importantly it undermines the UN. The UN is a joke right now. They are trying to deal with N Korea and Iran and both countries now realize that they can stonewall and obfuscate and play musical chairs with no penalty as the UN is a paper tiger.
Even if the nuclear purchase from Nigeria turns out to be bogus there was still more than enough evidence to remove this regime. We did so at a cost to us. We may have killed civilians inadvertantly, and I regret that, but how many would have died this year if we had done nothing and they continued to live without food and water and medicine. My guess is a lot more. We've removed a tyrant and largely left the infrastructure intact. Now Iraq can have sanctions lifted (unless France has their way) and can start earning oil profits to rebuild. That's a good thing.
Now it will take some time to get things running up to snuff, but that's surely expected. Nothing is fixed overnight. And we may lose some soldiers as the crisis continues. Perhaps that will mean bringing in NATO troops. It doesn't negate the fact that the US did the right thing in taking out Sadaam and his family.

Mike, sorry couldn't let this one go:

"Bush attacked a third-world nation that posed no threat to these United States, much less any country Iraq adjoined."

You obviously have not read much in the way of history. Since Sadaam has been in power he attacked Iran for its oil (with our help after the fact regrettably, but wasn't that Carters inane foreign policy?) , Kuwait for its oil and Israel because well, all muslims hate israel and the Jews and it figured if it were attacked (back in 91) it might as well kill some Jews.
In addition the very fact that they still possessed weapons or that its neighbors thought it had weapons that could be used against them were Sadaam to attack again (and based on past history why would we doubt that) means that Iraq would continue to pose a threat.
Also as Iraq is probably the biggest financier of Hamas terrorists (aside from perhaps Saudi Arabia) it continues posing a threat for Israel daily. I'm reminded of Sadaams words. He acknowledged that his one mistake was attacking Kuwait before he had nukes (which he was attempting to acquire). That says a lot about the guy.
Yeah, Iraq is a third world country my ass. It is one of the three largest suppliers of oil to the world as well as one of the largest financiers of terror to the world. Keep wallowing in vietnam memories Mike. By the way you were wrong there too.
Remember the Paris Peace accords? We had actually got a peace treaty between the north and south in vietnam to end the fighting. But when the North reinvaded the South the Democrats stabbed them in the back (despite our hardwon treaty) and allowed their country to fall without lifting a finger. Which also allowed Laos and Cambodia to fall. Remember that movie the Killing Fields? How horrible that was. Everyone shuddered, especially Sydney Shanberg of the NYT's watching Dith Pran stuck in that horror. That's leftist foreign policy at work. And that's third world ingenuity for you.
Why is it that all these third world countries are so backward and innnocent and yet routinely carry out mass murder and destablize the world? When was the last time that a leftist called a totalitarian regime evil. Since Uncle Joe killed 100 million in Russia the left has been having wet dreams about all the innocent dictatorships and regimes that would just be utopias were it not for imperialistic amerika.

I'm living in a "guest palace" on a 500 acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the country side 5 miles away, like I have, and see all the families of 10 or more, all living in mud huts and herding the two dozen sheep on which their very existence depends, ...then tell me why you think we are here.

I thought leftists were concerned with things like this; a tyrant building himself scores of palaces while his people live in mud huts.

(a beat)

Just kidding. I didn't really think that. :-)

BTW, the US Army Major has described what Max Weber called a "hydraulic despotism". A central authority cuts off essential services to crush dissent.

#117 Geepers

Yeah, in an aircraft that slow crosswinds make a HUGE difference.

I'd prefer to land on a downslope rather than an upslope, looks freaky when you're landing on it. You probably could rig up some arresting gear with some good bungee cord, too.

So ... what's the point?

He opens his letter to what appears to be
his congregation back home with:

"The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective.
Good news doesn't sell.
The stuff you don't hear about on CNN?"

His letter was written June 1'st. 50 days ago.
I'm trying to reflect on what the media was reporting
back then, but I don't think there were any claims FULL
water and power has been restored. Oil production
isn't up to full speed yet either.

He makes the statement it wasn't the attack on Iraq
that messed up the oil fields, but rather the retreating
Hussein troops who damaged the oil facilities.

He agrees the Hussein regime had to go ... and the
Ba'ath party hardliners taking pot shots at the troops
have to be eradicated. But ... nowhere does he clarify his opening statement that basically shreds CNN.

So I ask again?
What's the point of this letter?
Why would it be circulating?