As combat troops withdraw from major cities in Iraq, in victory, and in accordance with Article 5 of the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Operation Proper Exit brought 6 wounded warriors back to Iraq for closure and to see the progress that has been gained:

”It kind of helps you heal mentally and emotionally, to close that chapter in your life so you can move on,” he said. ”The progress that’s been made—it shows that we made a sacrifice but it was for a reason.”
Read the rest of this entry »

We have victory in Iraq due to our brave military members, the brave Iraqi’s who stood and fought for their country, and President Bush. But where is the MSM on this great day?

Iraqi government TV has been playing patriotic music to celebrate the U.S. military withdrawal from cities, towns and villages across the country, officially set to be completed by Tuesday June 30th.

Iraqi military vehicles were also covered with flowers to celebrate the event, and military parades, complete with band music, were organized in Diyala and Diwania provinces.

The government declared a “Day of National Sovereignty” to mark the event, and has invited ordinary citizens to join evening celebrations at Baghdad’s Zawra Park for a festival of music and poetry.

Interior Minister Jawad Boulani told journalists the U.S. withdrawal is almost complete and Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining order across the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Carlos Bledsoe/Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad/Abdulhakim Bledsoe/Human Pondscum gave an interview to the Associated Press, reported yesterday, in which he justifies the killing of Private William Andrew Long as not murder, “because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.”:

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

~~~

Muhammad told the AP he admitted to his actions to police and said he was retaliating against the U.S. military.

“Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally,” Muhammad said. He called it “a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military.”

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

He also said he didn’t specifically plan the shootings that morning.

“It’s been on my mind for awhile. It wasn’t nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know,” said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

~~~

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. “For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate,” he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

No! Certainly not! The U.S. military would never seize and destroy Bibles!

“U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don’t believe in turning the other cheek,” he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said “I didn’t know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did,” especially desecrating the Quran.

Muhammad isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, is he? But then, what crayon in the jihad movement coloring book is?

But he’s got a point.

Here are photos to support Muhammad’s assertions, showing proof positive that “U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women.”:
Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE below the fold.

Contessa Brewer interviews John Ziegler regarding David Letterman’s tasteless comments about Sarah Palin and daughter, Willow.

For background on the kerfuffle, see Curt’s post here.

When the interview got too hot to handle, Brewer orders Ziegler’s mic cut.

Roll the tape:

Letterman doubled down last night.
Read the rest of this entry »

Good on President Obama and Stephen Colbert (and General Odierno) for participating in entertaining the troops:

Gov. Sarah Palin recently visited Auburn, New York, to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. That city’s Founders Day event honored William Seward who played an important role in the purchase of Alaska while he served as secretary of state.

During her visit she visited different historical and not so historical sites and met the residents of Auburn: (h/t to Conservative 4 Palin)

Bistro One got a very last-minute reservation request Thursday. But this was one they wanted to make room for.

Former vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin participated in a breakfast event Friday morning at the Auburn restaurant. The event, which was attended by area supporters, kicked off a day of activities for the Republican governor at various local businesses, parks and organizations.

Her tour of the area precedes today’s first-ever Founders Day, which celebrates local history. During the Auburn festival, Palin will take part in a parade, speak at the city hall and attend a fundraiser luncheon at the Seward House.

~~~

One of about 40 in attendance at the breakfast was state Assemblyman Gary Finch. Finch said Palin gave a nonpolitical talk, and she expressed gratitude to the local community for inviting her.

Finch said that Palin, who brought her husband, Todd, daughter, Willow, her sister and nephew along, made sure to speak individually with each person at the event.

“She certainly conveyed to everyone that she is very glad to be here,” said Finch, who will also participate in Saturday’s festivities.

“She was very real, very genuine,” Finch said.

She also visited the Harriet Tubman Home: Read the rest of this entry »

Surely, in the dawn before any theatre action, so much must run thru the minds of our warriors. The scale of D-Day is humbling, and much is captured in this video on the Army’s website. Visit the page for more photos, maps and historic data on the June 6th, 1944 airborne and beach assaults on Omaha, Utah, Gold and June Beaches by American, British and Canadian forces.

Read the rest of this entry »

By now, the current POTUS/TOTUS has landed in France… set to address another world audience on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Regardless of the political scrutiny of Obama’s performance, this is as it should be. Our CIC *should* be there to pay honor to our heroes, resting on French soil.

But I will say this… considering Obama’s track record of speeches across Europe as POTUS, and as a candidate, I’m not looking forward to his D-Day Obama comments, and his half-baked pride in America that gets buried under platitudes during a fence balancing act. This is a day I want a Commander in Chief that delivers. A President who remembers and mourns the “boys” that left for war, and is proud and forever beholding to those same boys who became the “men” who conquered a cliff and saved a continent

Old Trooper has sent me the perfect tribute, with a promise I would post this to remind all FA readers of the honest and heartfelt thanks from a genuine Commander in Chief from decades past. So, together we take you back in time to 1984… President Ronald Reagan’s speech commemorating another anniversary of fallen heroes on sacred ground.

It is fitting, it is a speech worthy of the day, delivered by a Commander in Chief proud not only of his country today, but also it’s history. And today, I want to share it with you… and with heartfelt thanks to Old Trooper for reviving this stirring memory.

Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose. To protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials, like this one, and graveyards where our heroes rest. We in American have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars. It is better to be here, ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea… rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.

President Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984, Normandy

Read the rest of this entry »

…and it’s offensive. Maybe not to those in Cairo and the Muslim universe, maybe not to anti-Americans overseas, maybe not to half the country who thinks like President Barack HUSSEIN (his decision- it’s cool and hip to include, now) Obama, but offensive to myself and fellow conservatives who see danger in a president who doesn’t defend America, but castrates it before the world.

Read the rest of this entry »

Above is the Doonesbury cartoon that ran this past Sunday. What’s different about it from previous Memorial Day Doonesbury ‘toons?

Well, in 2004, a new tradition began to “honor” Memorial Day and the recently fallen:

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past many months a number of interviews, documents, admissions and other revelations have come to light that continue to undermine the notion that al Qaeda and al Qaeda linked groups were not able to operate inside Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein. These findings match up with older reports on the hotly contested that may now deserve re-examination.

A study byThe Combating Terrorism Center at West Point of al Qaeda documents deemed the “Sinjar Records” indicates that al Qaeda was, in fact, able to operate inside the country during the rule of the former regime. The center also has previously posted internal al Qaeda documents in which al Qaeda members revealed to one another that “some of them went to Saddam” likely in referrence to al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan to Iraq.

These documents match the testimony of what a former overseer of Iraqi prisons, Dan Bordenkircher, claims he was told by numerous prisoners. In an interview with Ryan Mauro, Bordenkircher says that he was told that al Qaeda was not limited to areas beyond Saddam Hussein’s control but was present in Mosul and Kirkuk and received assistance from one of Saddam Hussein’s sons.

In an interview with FrontPage magazine, Osama al Magid, a former police officer in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from 1992-2003, said that al Qaeda was present and protected in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

FP: How about Al Qaeda in Iraq?
Al-Magid: Al Qaeda and other people who believed the same as Al Qaeda had been in Iraq for many years. When I say “believed” I mean people who hated America and wanted to destroy the U.S. Saddam had this in common with Al Qaeda and this is why he provided them protection.

In an interview last year conducted by Michael Totten a Sunni Iraqi stated that al Qaeda wasn’t out in the open in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq but was there in some capacity.

“We can’t compare that to the situation we have now with all these different types of organizations running around all over the country. Before there was nothing like an Al Qaeda organization here. I mean, they were here, but they were secretive, they were not in the field, they were not recognized yet. But now we feel that they are serious, that something big is going on.”

Also on this topic Thomas Joscelyn points out that a fairly recent Senate Intelligence Committe report on prewar Bush adminstration statements on the topic backed up allegations that al Qaeda was in Saddam’s Iraq and not limited to Kurdistan. Joscelyn found that the report included the following statements: Read the rest of this entry »

link

Thank you Eddie