You Have To See This

This picture brought tears to my eyes. It's not just our freedom that matters. Everyone deserves to be free.

H/T Tigerhawk

Sadr City Celebrates American Presence

Iraqis in Sadr City celebrate the Americans and there are pictures to prove it. Some corners of the dark world are seeing light again and that's good news.

The Mean Streets of Cleveland

Marines as targets.....in America.

Gary Sinise Supports Our Troops

At least one actor supports the troops and by support, I mean, actually seems to like them and want to honor them.

Memorial Day

You are here because they fought there.

Update: McCain's speech.

Gateway Pundit has an awesome poster brought to us by the soldiers themselves.

John Hawkins shares war quotes. One of my favorites is from Winston Churchill but not on this list: "When going through hell, keep going."

MaxedOutMama says, "Peace is not the natural state of mankind, and peace dies the day there are no more soldiers."

Michelle Malkin quotes soldiers. Here's one of my favorites,"Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils."

Donald Sensing writes this (read the whole thing):

Historian and retired infantry officer T. R. Fehrenbach observed that the virtues required to protect a democracy are often at odds with the virtues of democracy. So while we cherish life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as just ends of democratic freedom, our Marines put their lives at risk, surrender many personal liberties and submit to rigorous discipline that is often most unhappy.
Why did they do this? The most reasonable thing to do when battle begins is to run away, not stay and fight. Were they truly willing to die for their country? I don't think so. There's an old story that goes back probably to the Civil War of the young soldier whose commander asked him, "Are you willing to die for your country?" The young man answered, "Certainly not. But I am ready to die, unwilling."

The American armed forces really have no use for someone who is willing to die. We do not seek and soon weed out anyone seeking martyrdom in battle; this is a key distinction between us and our enemy. We do not send our soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines to die even though we know some inevitably will. Our country is instead ably protected by those who accept the risk rather than seek it. But why accept it? What civilians rarely discern but what every veteran knows is that military service, especially in battle, is steeped with the convictions of deepest emotion.

In battle there is fear and courage, anger and compassion. There is resignation and determination. There is hope and despair. The chief emotion of the battlefield is an unlikely one. It is love. Across the range of mental, physical and emotional states in the desolation of combat, love abides.

Kim DuToit writes: "Charles Loxton thought only about other people his entire life."

Rachel Lucas remembers her grandpa who died in WWII.

Remembering visually.

Words of advice for Memorial Day revelers.

"How do you remember something you've never learned?" Fred Thompson asks. Via Photon Courier who has more links.

Pierre LeGrand, "Do not dishonor them."

Via Powerline, "We are their children."

A prayer from Red State.

Tigerhawk says, "Welcome home." Best picture of our soldiers returning home I've seen for a while.

"Remember the wounded." Blackfive has more.

Rolling Thunder via Blogs of War.

The Warrior Caste by Greyhawk.

Thanks Pilot Pal!

I shared with you people one of my favorite essays by David Sedaris called, "Thanks! Stadium Pal!" It's one of the funniest things I've ever read. One passage was particularly apropos to today's topic: How do jet fighter pilots pee in flight? The sad former answer was in their pants or some other equally humiliating answer. Hell, it's the same answer for marathon runners, so whatever. Some tasks require sacrifice. Flying a jet is worth wet pants, I guess.

The humiliation is over and there is a new urination technology for pilots:

The aerobatic maneuver is even harder for female pilots.

On long or cold-weather flights, the amount of gear and clothing made the maneuver nearly impossible, and pilots would sometimes have no choice but to relieve themselves in their flight suits.

In the AMXD, a cup for a man and a pad for a woman is strategically placed before the pilot dons a flight suit.

An instructional DVD tells pilots: "When the time comes to urinate, unzip the flight suit, remove the hose.... The control unit will pump the urine from the cup to the collection bag, where it will be chemically gelled." See how the system works »

Pilots are free to think about other business.

The Army and Navy look to use these elsewhere. But I have to wonder, why not just use the Stadium Pal? Truckers use them. And if the adhesive that Sedaris used and so viciously harmed his nether regions were replaced by something kinder and gentler, I would think it'd be a cheaper alternative. $2,000 bucks a pop seems excessive just to pee easily.

Marines Are Stooopid

A friend and staunch Obama supporter argued extensively with me yesterday about the "criminal" Bush. One of his chief arguments was that the military enlistees were a bunch of rubes who "didn't sign on" for Iraq. They didn't believe that a "misguided" war was part of the bargain. It seems to me that a soldier should have the idea that he or she might do the work of soldiering and that often involves war.

So, are the new Marine recruits stupid? The Marines hit 142% of their recruiting target. Why? Tigerhawk has some theories:

I wonder three things. First, we are in the middle of a presidential election in which even the anti-war candidates repeatedly claim to "support our wonderful troops". Perhaps that is rubbing off -- I mean, if you have heard nothing but praise for our military from politicians of all stripes for years on end, maybe you might actually absorb the idea that military service is a meaningful and respectable way of life. Second, perhaps new recruits have become a bit desensitized to the risk of combat. After all, we have been at war a long time against a tough enemy in a very difficult part of the world, and notwithstanding predictions to the contrary the numbers of killed and permanently injured remain relatively low as a percentage of the total exposed to the risk. Perhaps new recruits today are more willing to confront the personal risk than during -- say -- 2005, when recruitment swooned under the press of the war. Finally, I wonder whether the apparent success of the new strategy under David Petraeus is also helping recruitment. It is obviously more appealing to join the military if you can believe that its leadership knows what it is doing.

I also think people are seeing the veterans come back. What an impressive group of people! They walk tall. They seem sensible. I have yet to meet one vet who is crazy in the head or otherwise unstable (the Vietnam mis-perception). They seem strong and centered and mature in a world where young people act aimless, self-centered and immature. It's nice to see the veterans. They are impressive and not at all the caricature the Left would portray them as.

Maybe, people are accumulating enough evidence to judge for themselves and the media has less impact than it did.

Peace Thugs Wage War On Veteren's Family

Here's the video of the peace activists beating the shit out of a a family: father (vet), mother, 14 year old daughter. The courage. The valor.

Gratitude For Our Troops Sign Language Style--UPDATED

Gateway Pundit shares a way to show gratitude to our troops and it involves something near and now, dear, to my heart: sign language. I'm delighted that this amazing language is being used in such a great way:



Saying Thank you to the troops is easy. Gateway Pundit feels that this week will be especially challenging for our troops this week because of General Petreaus' testimony before Congress. It will be an opportunity for Congress Critters to express themselves. That's always dangerous. So the thank you sign will mean a lot to them:

The "Thank You" sign...

The sign we are using is intended to communicate "thank you from the bottom of my heart. "

To make the sign simply place your hand on your heart as though you're saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Then pull your hand down and out, bending at the elbow (not the wrist), stopping for a moment at about the belly button with your hand flat, palm up, angled toward the person you're thanking.

According to Norman Heimgartner, Ed.D., author of “Behavioral Traits of Deaf children” and former Professor of Education at the University of Puget Sound, this sign originated in France in the late 1700’s, and was published in “Theorie des Signes”, a dictionary of signs by the Abbe Sicard. The sign was brought to the United States in 1816 by the Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of Gallaudet University, who later modified it to start at the chin rather than at the heart. That sign is now the standard sign for “thank you” in American Sign Language.

And, if you have a minute HERE is an easy way to express your gratitude to the troops in Iraq.

Freedom's Watch has more on the expected testimony this week by General Petraeus.

UPDATE: Great, just great! It turns out that this video has caused a stink in the Deaf Community. Well, the way to say thank you in ASL is to do the same hand and arm motion but come to come from the chin. This is an easy enough change and thing to do. Please watch the video, still, the intent is good, but substitute the proper sign when you see it done the wrong way. ASL is not English as hand signals. It is its own language, with it's own usage demands and own history. I knew that the sign was wrong in the video, but wrongly assumed the modification was specifically for the troops.

No, we don't want to tell the troops that "we give in". We want to tell them thank you. When I see a soldier, I just say thanks, but I'm not known for keeping my yapper shut, either.

A Good Soldier

Honoring true heroes. I meant to link to this yesterday. Congratulations to the family of Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y., your pain and his sacrifice mean everything and won't be forgotten.

A formal thank you to our soldiers and marines and those willing to die for an idea: Freedom.

Doing Her Duty

Just a years work in Iraq. Some people are saying that this girl's life could no way be this challenging. It might not be, but it definitely could be. I write this as someone whose life could never be put in a made-for-TV movie. No one would believe it.

I'm willing to believe her.

Iraqi Sacrifices Himself For U.S. Soldiers

Inspiring. Gateway Pundit wonders why this hasn't hit the press.

Soldier Baby Killers Marauding Through Afghanistan, Too

Baby killers. They're everywhere the U.S. military works. Now it's Barak Obama vilifying our soldiers.

Do these presidential candidates consider how their soldiers will feel serving them as Commander-in-Chief? Oh yeah, the Commander will have your back, soldier. NOT.

One Soldier's Experience

Matt Sanchez who is embedded in Iraq, writes of the complexity of being a soldier. The whole article is worth reading. Here's a snippet:

Private Beauchamp questioned the criticism of those who had never fought in Iraq, but Nate Fick fought both in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, Fick asked just as many question as Beauchamp and humbly left plenty of the big questions unsolved. Fick risked his life and that of his reconnaissance unit to provide medical attention to a young Iraqi girl because he knew his humanity was in the balance, and not just the life of a stranger. Nate Fick not only wrote about his experiences, in the best selling book One Bullet Away, but his story will endure as required reading for any young man aspiring to become a Marine. Fick may not have set out to write an iconic work of the complexity of the warrior, but sometimes the written word can have unintended consequences--Private Beauchamp can attest to that.

I've met plenty of troops who question the reason, logic and futility of being in Iraq, but I met no one who said the experience has left them less of a human being. Those who read the misadventures of Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp and shook their heads in pity felt a false kinship with a caricature that devolved. The reality is quicksilver complex, where hardship and discouragement meet duty and resolve. Despite the heat, horrors and hardship of Iraq, the honest lesson is not that war turns men into monsters, but that men go off to war and often come back even better men.

Any sane soldier would have doubts, questions and mixed emotions when it comes to war. Any sane voter has the same. It is possible to have doubts, to question and to hold the government's collective feet to the fire without betraying your buddy or your country. And it is possible for war to improve the person.

War reveals the character of the person. Like fire, it purifies the spirit and a true nature is revealed.

I look forward to rich and complex literature and other art forms coming out of this war. Some of the best writing has been written by former soldiers: Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Hemingway, even Churchill. The writing is great not because these men are simpletons or automatons or monsters but because they've seen the fleeting nature of life, the brutality of men and their morality tested. We live in a flawed world, the battlefield magnifies those flaws.

But heroes rise out of adversity--more heroes, than villains. And to only see evil is to choose to be a pessimist. We are too blessed in this country, both in war and in peace, to be pessimists. It is the height of ingratitude and the ultimate in cynicism to assume that all soldiers are evil.

Beauchamp Blues : The New Republic Gets Duped By A Dope--UPDATE

Not that any of you care, but another member of the narrative-driven MSM got duped. This time they were duped by a soldier spewing their cherished beliefs (they should have slowed down, I mean it's like totally common knowledge that soldiers are scum): mainly that soldiers are raving psycho killing-machines marauding the Iraq countryside killing dogs, laughing at disfigured people (who don't exist and if they do exist, exist in Kuwait before being stationed in Iraq but let's not get picky, we all know soldiers are malignant amoral automatons), and creating mass graves, because, hey!, it's fun.

Ace is laughing and doing a celebratory Ewok dance.

Michelle Malkin asks if Beauchamp lied under oath or to TNR. He's lying to somebody.

And he's definitely screwed TNR and his buddies according to Resurrection Song--except the language isn't so delicate.

You know, I really, really don't care about The New Republic being screwed. If they weren't such eager beavers, they would have used some sense and checked out the fantastical stories. Beauchamp's war buddies, though, have been smeared. Who would want to be in a foxhole with this jerk? I know I wouldn't.

And just for the record, it was stooopid, un-fact checked bloggers that checked the facts. Again.

History here.

UPDATE: And how will those who defended him react? Why, this will up his street cred with them. Scott Beauchamp got railroaded by the Man, man. Probably water-boarded, too, dude. Beauchamp will be giving false testimony to Congress and running for the Senate, if history is an guide.

Scott Beauchamp: How Far The MSM Will Go To Find The Narrative--UPDATED & BUMPED

You knew there would be a John Kerry coming out of this War, didn't you? I mean, it's inevitable. Never mind that the army these days is 100% volunteer. Never mind that soldiers are re-upping and re-upping to serve in Iraq; to get the job done. There had to be at least one of these guys:

Let's see -- emotionally immature with a juvenile persecution complex; delusions of intellectutal superiority; a huge chip on his shoulder about not having his genius properly recognized by the morons around him; he believes America is keeping him down due to his intellect; and he's determined to get those "riches" usually reserved for football stars, by hook or by crook!

And, by Job! The New Republic found their needle in the haystack, this super-secret "Bagdhad Diarist" in Private Scott Beauchamp. Here's what he said before being deployed:

Americans dont like smart people...at least people who are intelligent just to expand human knowledge. If youre smart, it better lead to riches. And as for the all american heroes, they're not more intlligent than you...just sexier or faster or in a gang, or, like, really really really good at football. It leaves no hope for those who are pretty useless save their intellect. Sorry AJ. You'll always be MY hero.

And this, too:

...I cant do it without getting through this army experience first, which will add a legitimacy to EVERYTHING i do afterwards, and totally bolster my opinions on defense, etc, and of course its making me a lot less lazy, just because im not use to being lazy any more, etc

Gateway Pundit says this:

Private Beauchamp is in a heap of trouble!
And, so is The New Republic for publishing such obviously bogus stories.

We'll see about that, Larry. So far, I haven't seen any part of the MSM pay for any of their misinformation ever. I mean look at the Duke Rape case. The MSM just keeps rolling.

Over at The Weekly Standard:

It's good to finally know the author's name, but there is nothing here to confirm the events as described by Beauchamp. Right now, we have no reason to believe that his stories are anything other than what we first suspected them to be: a "pastiche of the 'This is no bullshit . . . stories soldiers like to tell."

If the stories are true, we regret that Beauchamp has been forced to take "time out of his already insane schedule" of ridiculing IED victims, desecrating children's corpses, and killing stray dogs to "play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join." But, as Dean Barnett points out this seems more than a little disingenuous considering that his blog reveals that he joined this war "just to write a book" and that he "misses political arguments. There seems to be a consensus with all the boys overseas...we laugh harder at CSPAN than comedy central. Silly republicans."

That Beauchamp chose to reveal himself at this point also seems a bit disingenuous, since the military has already launched an investigation and, courtesy of JD Johannes, we'd already identified his unit four days ago. If we'd gotten that much information, it was only a matter of time before somebody besides his editors started asking him "hard questions."

"Scott Thomas" won't be the first or last. In this charged environment, Lefties will believe ANY THING impugning a soldier. It fits the narrative. Just like John Kerry came back and exploited the post-Vietnam EST, there will be weak-minded, weak-willed, self-serving soldiers who went to Iraq with an agenda and will come home with one, too.

And for every traitorous soldier, there will be a media outlet who gives him succor and shelter.

More at Blackfive. Doesn't every office, every church, every team everywhere have a guy like this?

Every unit has a Scott Thomas, the whiny pissant whose brilliance is never recognized and who is always being abused by the chain of command for stuff that's not his fault. It would be normal to hear folks telling him to STFU and do his damn job.

This is the guy who you want to yell at: Shut up and march!

More at OpFor:

Private Beauchamp has just placed himself in an unenviable 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario. If his stories are true, he'll be facing the business end of the UCMJ. If false, he'll be exposed as a fraud and a liar, and will have destroyed that budding writing career that he so confidently promised.

So we know he's a soldier. I never doubted that in the first place, he spoke the lingo well enough. But, as Greyhawk noted, the inquiry has really just begun. Now we have to go about fact-checking his stories, which I suspect will turn out to have been grandly embellished.

So no doubt wheels are turning over in the 1/18's command staff right now. Wouldn't be surprised if Private Beauchamp was standing tall in front of the man at this very moment, under the scruntity of an aggressively curious CO who is demanding details down to the letter about each of his diary entries.

Expect a press release soon. The Army is going to move quick on this, now that they have a face to the name.

Either way, today is going to be a very bad day for Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

It's a bad day for Beauchamp, but the MSM will slither on, spewing their venom with impunity.

By the way, why do these arrogant scumbags always look just like you'd imagine them to look? Sheesh, Beauchamp just walked out of central casting: Arrogant, disaffected, intellectually superior, yellow belly whiner.


UPDATE: Charles at Little Green Footballs reports that Beauchamp is engaged to a TNR staffer and the "formerly sane" Andrew Sullivan is defending "Thomas".

UPDATED AGAIN: What if this was just a matter of a soldier baiting a Leftist MSM outfit and making them look like jack-asses using parody, asks Jeff Goldstein. Hmmmmm.... Crafty! That would kinda blow the whole "soldiers are no-necked ijits" wouldn't it?

Consider: if the author’s intent is to produce a “Scott Thomas” whose “reportage” is eventually shown to be apocryphal, then what we have is a person who intended that “Scott Thomas” be found out and exposed as a fraud. From there, we can speculate on the motives behind that intent. For instance, we can speculate that this entire hoax was created in order to weaken the credibility of the anti-war press.

As it turns out, of course, Beauchamp’s actual motives, coupled with Foer’s gullibility and his lame subsequent attempts to cover up for what will prove to be a major editorial blunder, will weaken the credibility of the anti-war media without any special help from some skilled parodist. But the text itself doesn’t rule out the latter, and it is this point that I hope to drive home.

Jeff is responding to this semiotic analysis of "Scott Thomas'" work by John Barnes. He is astonishingly accurate in his suppositions and funny, too:

"Scott Thomas", however, writes exactly like the mid-20s macho MFA student who is lying about an adventurous background. That list of symptoms I gave above is what every one of them I have encountered – probably around 50 in my lifetime – has written like. The point of those stylistic tics and content-fetishes is the same as the point of all the bizarre stories of mayhem, cruelty, and sheer shit-headedness that they tell in the bar after writing workshops: to confirm their role in the MFA program social system. Among the benefits of that role are free passes on certain kinds of bad behavior in class, sexual attractiveness to some other grad students (those with a thing for bad boys), and the maintenance of their interior movie in which they are played by some combination of James Dean, Bob Dylan, the younger Norman Mailer, and Hunter S. Thompson.

But ultimately, he's upset at The New Republic because it gives the left a bad name, and Barnes doesn't want that. Ah well, I'd like to say that this little TNR boondoggle will change the leftist narrative that drives everything within the MSM, but I have a little prediction of my own:

The left will come out defending this indefensible tripe. They will project their conspiracy theories on the military and suggest just what Goldstein puts forth: The New Republic was had! The military used them! This will make the Left look loonier. The public will sigh and shrug. So what? The press is biased...blah, blah, blah.

And Barnes is right. One day there might really be a horrible scene like leftists imagine happened every place an American soldier carries a weapon. There might be some atrocity committed. But no one will want to hear it. The left has cried wolf too often now. The public is going deaf.

Adam Cohen: Imperious Ass

Just what bloggers expect: A pompous ass spouting baseless opinions at The New York Times and believing them to be fact just because he wrote them.

Presidents wage war. Congress funds them. When Congress is certain that de-funding the war will be politically expedient, it will happen. And not a moment before.

The Left is not interested in winning or losing against al-Qaeda. They're interested in George Bush losing. That's why the war is still funded. That's why there's talk of censure and impeachment, not de-funding. The former gives the Left onanistic pleasure, the latter actually means taking a stance and living with the consequences.

There will be no grown-ups in a Democrat-led Congress, not when it's so much fun to undermine the troops by attacking the Commander-in-Chief.