Update: Trainwreck Britney's new song. It's called Cold As Fire and it sounds weird. The lyrics, however, is pure genius.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm just a girl with the ability to drive a man crazy
Make him call me "mama," make him my new baby
A new way to prove they're saying "thank you very much"
Living legend
You can look, but don't touch
'Cause I'm cold as fire baby, hot as ice
If you've ever been to heaven, this is twice as nice
I'm cold as fire baby, hot as ice
If you've ever been to heaven, this is twice as nice
Break it down, break it down, break it down
Break it down, break it down, break it down
To see your foolishness and fuckery
And handling my business
Holler if you hear me
Hey, can I get a witness
Preach it, preach it
I'm the teacher, you can learn
Watch your fingers, boy
You might get burned
Update: Russia plans to build a permanent base on the moon. My God, they are getting more and more ridiculous.
Update: I totally have to link this: Marines kick al-Qaeda ass in Fallujah! "U.S. forces in Falluja killed 12 members of al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq and destroyed two vehicles on Wednesday, the U.S. army said on Friday."
Trashing the troops!Brian de Palma drags America through the mud during wartime. Sorry, but I'm really pissed off right now. Forget the fact that Iraqis have fricking murdered/raped innocent civilians and all those things... Gee, I'm really pissed off. I wrote a cheery entry about my mother but this whole Brian de Palma thing ruined my cheery mood so I had to delete it.
Friday, August 31, 2007
An American Martyr.
Update: Marine to sue Murtha over Haditha incident accusations - Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?" Video.
Update: Michael Yon's latest dispatch - Over days of operations, I found Lieutenant Hamid to be courageous, intelligent, and with natural leadership abilities. Hamid asked me to publish his photo. He said he wants al Qaeda to come to Sadr City and look for him... (Read more)
From PatDollard.Com
Update: Michael Yon's latest dispatch - Over days of operations, I found Lieutenant Hamid to be courageous, intelligent, and with natural leadership abilities. Hamid asked me to publish his photo. He said he wants al Qaeda to come to Sadr City and look for him... (Read more)
From PatDollard.Com
The police station in Tameen, a district of Ramadi, occupies a wreck of a building – its roof shattered by shells, its windows blown out, its walls pockmarked by shrapnel. That is not unusual in Iraq. What makes this station extraordinary is that a city in the heart of the infamous Sunni Triangle, a city that once led the antiAmerican insurgency, has named it after a US soldier – Captain Travis Patriquin.
The honour is well-deserved. Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.
He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.
In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me.
I listened incredulously as Latif Obaid Ayadah, Ramadi’s Mayor, told me of his desire to build an airport and tourist resort in Ramadi and talked – only half in jest – of twinning his city with Belfast and Oklahoma City. “I want it to be a small slice of heaven,” he declared.
I had met Captain Patriquin while embedded with US troops in Ramadi last November. He was a big man, moustachioed, ex-Special Forces, fluent in Arabic and engaged in what was then a revolutionary experiment for a US military renowned for busting doors down. He and a small group from the First Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were assiduously courting the local sheikhs – tribal leaders – over endless cups of tea and cigarettes.
They were encouraging them to rise up against the hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters – Saudi, Jordanian, Syrian, Sudanese, Yemeni – who had arrived in Ramadi two years earlier, promising to lead the battle against the infidel Americans. What al-Qaeda actually did was recruit local thugs, seize control of the city, and impose a Taleban-style rule of terror. Mayor Latif said that they regularly beheaded “collaborators” in public and left the heads beside the corpses. Mischievous children would then put cigarettes in the mouths of the disembodied heads.
Captain Patriquin may have offered more than mere words. His main interlocutor, Sheikh Abdul Sittar Bezea al-Rishawi, told The Times that he gave them guns and ammunition too. The sheikhs did rise up. They formed a movement called the Anbar Awakening, led by Sheikh Sittar. They persuaded thousands of their tribesmen to join the Iraqi police, which was practically defunct thanks to al-Qaeda death threats, and to work with the reviled US troops. The US military built a string of combat outposts (COPs) throughout a city that had previously been a no-go area, and through a combination of Iraqi local knowledge and American firepower they gradually regained control of Ramadi, district by district, until the last al-Qaeda fighters were expelled in three pitched battles in March. What happened in Ramadi was later replicated throughout much of Anbar province.
Ramadi’s transformation is breathtaking. Shortly before I arrived last November masked al-Qaeda fighters had brazenly marched through the city centre, pronouncing it the capital of a new Islamic caliphate. The US military was still having to fight its way into the city through a gauntlet of snipers, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Fifty US soldiers had been killed in the previous five months alone. I spent 24 hours huddled inside Eagles Nest, a tiny COP overlooking the derelict football stadium, listening to gunfire, explosions and the thump of mortars. The city was a ruin, with no water, electricity or functioning government. Those of its 400,000 terrified inhabitants who had not fled cowered indoors as fighting raged around them.
Today Ramadi is scarcely recognisable. Scores of shattered buildings testify to the fury of past battles, but those who fled the violence are now returning. Pedestrians, cars and motorbike rickshaws throng the streets. More than 700 shops and businesses have reopened. Restaurants stay open late into the evening. People sit outside smoking hookahs, listening to music, wearing shorts – practices that al-Qaeda banned. Women walk around with uncovered faces. Children wave at US Humvees. Eagles’ Nest, a heavily fortified warren of commandeered houses, is abandoned and the stadium hosts football matches.
“Al-Qaeda is gone. Everybody is happy,” said Mohammed Ramadan, 38, a stallholder in the souk who witnessed four executions. “It was fear, pure fear. Nobody wanted to help them but you had to do what they told you.”
On the night of June 30 a US patrol chanced upon two trucks laden with al-Qaeda fighters, weapons and explosives approaching Ramadi across the desert from the south, and two US soldiers were killed in what became known as the “Battle of Donkey Island”. But there has not been a US casualty, or major attack, since. No vehicles can enter the city without being checked for explosives, and any al-Qaeda fighter who returned would be swiftly handed over.
“We have an Iraqi saying: ‘If you’re bitten by a snake you’re scared of the smallest insect’. We’re not going to let that snake back any more,” said Ali Sami, 39, another stallholder who recently returned home after fleeing to Baghdad. Ramadi has gone from war zone to building site. US soldiers have become the nation-builders so derided by Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Defence Secretary. They are training Ramadi’s 7,000 new policemen (a year ago it had 200) and helping the Iraqis to rebuild their broken city.
They have set up 12 district councils and a city council. They have created 19,000 day labour jobs, paying locals $7 (£3.47) an hour to clear rubble, remove acres of garbage, repair cratered roads, paint shop fronts and replace underground pipes destroyed by IEDs. They have restored electricity, water, rubbish collections and a rudimentary bus service. They are erecting 1,000 solar-powered street lamps. The hospital – commandeered by al-Qaeda – and the fire station are back up and running. Criminal courts will reopen next month. So will Ramadi’s ceramics factory, one of its few real employers. Gunfire has become a sound of celebration.
The city council and US military broadcast daily progress reports, introduced by the national anthem and English football results, from giant loudspeakers above 19 police stations.
The 6,000 US soldiers are now dubbed “friendly forces”, and most are bemused by their new civil role. “I want to fight al-Qaeda, but f*** it – this is victory,” said Corporal Patrick Marzillo from Chicago.
“Instead of using my radio to summon support fire I’m calling to get a water leak mended,” said Colonel Turner. The soldiers’ biggest enemy now is the scorching heat – well over 110 degrees most days, which is no joke in body armour.
The al-Qaeda fighters driven from Ramadi have not left Iraq, of course. Indeed, they appear to be stepping up suicide bomb attacks elsewhere. But Colonel John Charlton, the US officer in overall charge of Ramadi, insists that al-Qaeda has suffered a major setback. “We’ve denied them a base of operations. I think it was a severe strategic blow to lose not only Ramadi, but all of Anbar province,” he said.
Iraqi Shias are also worried that the new US-trained police forces of Ramadi and Anbar province could eventually metamorphose into well-trained Sunni militias; the Sunni insurgency may be fading, but the Shia-Sunni civil war rages on.
But for now Ramadi’s citizens are enjoying their improbable peace, and remembering the American they call “Martyr Husham” – the brave and generous martyr.
Captain Patriquin, 32, a father of three young children, was killed by a roadside bomb days after I left Ramadi last winter. Sheikh Sittar wept when told the news. He and several tribal leaders attended his memorial service. Captain Patriquin “was an extraordinary man who played a very, very important role,” he told The Times.
He “showed Iraqis that Americans are real people and not an evil occupying force bent on destroying their land…He was a true hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” said Colonel Charlton.
FASHION: Silk Scarf.
My favoriteeeee!
It's my prettiest scarf! Floral overload!
A must-have accessory that is classic, versatile and stylish. I love floral designs on pure silk. I know that many girls prefer "cute" scarves, like that pink Burberry sh*t with a bunch of teddy bears on it- and I sort of like that too. But I still say nothing beats a silk scarf with a bunch of flowers on it! Teddy bears should be cuddled in your arms, not printed all over your scarf. And as much as I dislike Louis Vuitton (how disastrous can you get each year!), I must admit their Monaco scarf makes me drool. I actually prefer to see monograms stamped on a scarf than on a bag, provided the overall look is clean and simple.
Exhibit A:
From E-Luxury.Com
Now if you want a scarf that is both sexy and feminine, how about one that boldly mixes a snakeskin pattern with a rose print? Here is Nordstrom's Echo 'Floral Bouquet' Silk Scarf:
Wear it in many ways:
From Saks Fifth Avenue
Other patterns:
From E-Luxury and Nordstrom
Thursday, August 30, 2007
FASHION: THINspiration?
Like all vain- uh, insecure -girls my age, I count my calories and eat all sorts of veggies and consume fruit-flavored drinks with zero grams of fat and I also hold my handbag a certain way so my arms look thinner and I wear oversize bangles so my wrist looks skinnier and I make sure the pretty shoes on my feet do not make my ankles look fat 'cause I totally don't want to look like a cow like omgggggggzzzzzlolteehee!
But this photo of Keira Knightly- Knightley? -makes me want supersize myself with two dozen cheeseburgers and five hundred pounds of greasy fries!
Gnarly. I still love her, though.
But this photo of Keira Knightly- Knightley? -makes me want supersize myself with two dozen cheeseburgers and five hundred pounds of greasy fries!
Gnarly. I still love her, though.
It's Saint Angie!
Angelina Jolie just concluded her Syria-Iraq tour. She visited Iraqi refugees who were displaced by the war, as well as U.S. troops in the area (but only "privately"). Anyway here is a photo of Saint Angie with a Marine (the true hero! =P):
From TMZ.COM
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to this humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners," Jolie was quoted as saying by the Geneva-based agency on Tuesday. "It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate about Iraq's future includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences these people face," she said. (More?)
She cares! She cares! She reeeeally cares! Just look at that sympathetic expression on her face. Awwww. Angie knows hardship.
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to this humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners," Jolie was quoted as saying by the Geneva-based agency on Tuesday. "It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate about Iraq's future includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences these people face," she said. (More?)
She cares! She cares! She reeeeally cares! Just look at that sympathetic expression on her face. Awwww. Angie knows hardship.
Hulk Hogan's son injures U.S. Marine.
I'm sure you've all heard about how Nick Hogan's crazy driving resulted in a car crash that injured himself and gravely injured his friend, John Graziano, a young U.S. Marine who served two tours in Iraq. Hogan was released from the hospital after a brief period of time, while Graziano is still in very serious condition (four days and still no change in his condition; possible brain damage).
An American Hero:
Photo from the St. Petersburg Times
If you have the time, please say a little prayer for this brave young hero. "Hogan knows best" my ass. But knowing the justice system, Nick will probably get the Lohan Sentence or, worse, the Nicole Richie Sentence- y'know, 82 minutes in jail. Anyway, here is the article about the accident. It describes John this way:
Graziano, a 2003 graduate of Dunedin High School, is a Marine and served two tours of duty in Iraq. He returned home in October.
Sgt. Maj. Edgardo Guzman served with Graziano in Fallujah and Ramadi. He said the young Dunedin man had a good attitude and got along well with others.
When they first met, Graziano was serving as a truck driver, transporting Marines and equipment. Guzman said Graziano then joined a Tampa reserve unit.
"He could have just went home and got a civilian job and went to college," Guzman said. "He decided to join the local reserve unit and continue to be a Marine and serve his country."
Read TMZ's article here.
An American Hero:
Photo from the St. Petersburg Times
If you have the time, please say a little prayer for this brave young hero. "Hogan knows best" my ass. But knowing the justice system, Nick will probably get the Lohan Sentence or, worse, the Nicole Richie Sentence- y'know, 82 minutes in jail. Anyway, here is the article about the accident. It describes John this way:
Graziano, a 2003 graduate of Dunedin High School, is a Marine and served two tours of duty in Iraq. He returned home in October.
Sgt. Maj. Edgardo Guzman served with Graziano in Fallujah and Ramadi. He said the young Dunedin man had a good attitude and got along well with others.
When they first met, Graziano was serving as a truck driver, transporting Marines and equipment. Guzman said Graziano then joined a Tampa reserve unit.
"He could have just went home and got a civilian job and went to college," Guzman said. "He decided to join the local reserve unit and continue to be a Marine and serve his country."
Read TMZ's article here.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Iraqi-Americans Protest Against Terrorism.
Update: U.S., Iraqi forces kill 33 retarded insurgents to free town's water supply. Take that, you selfish insurgent bastards!
Denouncing terrorism...
TEHRAN, Aug 25 (MNA)-- Hundreds of Iraqis residing in the U.S. converged in the front of the Saudi embassy in Washington on Friday condemning Riyadh’s policy towards Iraq, Sotaliraq said on its website.
With slogans “Down with Terrorism” and “Shia and Sunni Should Unite in Iraq,” demonstrators called for the immediate halt to Saudi support for terrorism in Iraq and the issuance of “takfiri” religious decrees (fatwas) by Saudi scholars.
Nazar Heydar, the director of Iraq information center in Washington and a member of the international center for campaign against terrorism, said “by this demonstration we meant to draw the attention of the world to Saudi Arabia as the real source of terrorism.”
“We believe that by issuing takfiri religious decrees and financial support of terrorist operations, Saudi Arabia is the real source of terrorism, not only in Iraq, but in the entire world. We read in the press that 50% of suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi nationals,” he explained.
In a statement issued by Iraqi demonstrators, they called upon the U.S. to pressure Saudi Arabia to stop actions leading to the murder of innocents.
“We tried to submit a copy of the statement to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, but he refused to accept it,” Heydar noted.
Read more.
TEHRAN, Aug 25 (MNA)-- Hundreds of Iraqis residing in the U.S. converged in the front of the Saudi embassy in Washington on Friday condemning Riyadh’s policy towards Iraq, Sotaliraq said on its website.
With slogans “Down with Terrorism” and “Shia and Sunni Should Unite in Iraq,” demonstrators called for the immediate halt to Saudi support for terrorism in Iraq and the issuance of “takfiri” religious decrees (fatwas) by Saudi scholars.
Nazar Heydar, the director of Iraq information center in Washington and a member of the international center for campaign against terrorism, said “by this demonstration we meant to draw the attention of the world to Saudi Arabia as the real source of terrorism.”
“We believe that by issuing takfiri religious decrees and financial support of terrorist operations, Saudi Arabia is the real source of terrorism, not only in Iraq, but in the entire world. We read in the press that 50% of suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi nationals,” he explained.
In a statement issued by Iraqi demonstrators, they called upon the U.S. to pressure Saudi Arabia to stop actions leading to the murder of innocents.
“We tried to submit a copy of the statement to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, but he refused to accept it,” Heydar noted.
Read more.
FASHION: Best of Teens
Just Jared published numerous photos of young Hollywood celebrities at the Teens Choice Awards yesterday. Zanessa? Check! Avril Lavigne? Check! Kelly Clarkson? Check! Jessica Alba? Cheeeck! Unfortunately, Kelly's outfit wasn't outstanding, Avril's was so ordinary, Vanessa's was... okay. I rounded up the top four and here they are:
Jessica and Lauren's bubble dresses are sooo cute! You can see more photos here. Anyway check out this skirt from Diane Von Furstenberg. It's so pretty and would look quite good with a Zagliani python clutch.
Jessica and Lauren's bubble dresses are sooo cute! You can see more photos here. Anyway check out this skirt from Diane Von Furstenberg. It's so pretty and would look quite good with a Zagliani python clutch.
Fallujah now.
Update: Attacks down, economic development up in Iraq. BAGHDAD — Recent strides in Iraq’s economic development, including the reopening of a flour mill last week, are occurring as Iraqi and Coalition forces disrupt al-Qaeda and other terrorist elements, a senior military spokesman in Iraq said Sunday.
Update: Iraqi Army Soldiers kill, capture several attackers, eliminate VBIEDS -
Multi-National Division. I'm not surprised that the Iraqis are finally stepping-up. They are, after all, being trained by the greatest military force in the world.
The infamous Operation Phantom Fury that swept through Fallujah in 2004 left the cruel city in ruins. Now U.S. Marines are back to win over the hearts and minds of disillusioned Iraqis- and they seem to be doing just that.
How Marines Pulled Fallujah Out Of Hell
NY Post
Ralph Peters
Update: Iraqi Army Soldiers kill, capture several attackers, eliminate VBIEDS -
Multi-National Division. I'm not surprised that the Iraqis are finally stepping-up. They are, after all, being trained by the greatest military force in the world.
The infamous Operation Phantom Fury that swept through Fallujah in 2004 left the cruel city in ruins. Now U.S. Marines are back to win over the hearts and minds of disillusioned Iraqis- and they seem to be doing just that.
How Marines Pulled Fallujah Out Of Hell
NY Post
Ralph Peters
Fallujah and the Marines have some history. In 2004, one savage battle ended when the Marines were pulled out for political reasons. Later that year, they had to finish the job.
And they did. They took down the terrorists' stronghold in a week of fury.
With a fundamentalist tradition, Fallujah seemed to fit al Qaeda perfectly. Robbed of their Saddam-era privileges and out for revenge, even secular locals had aligned with the terrorists. Despite the Marine victory, violence simmered on.
The extremists and insurgents believed they could wear America down. But between 2004 and 2007, two things happened: We wore them down - and al Qaeda wore them out.
With foreign fanatics butchering the innocent and enforcing prison-yard "Islamic laws" that far exceeded the Koran's demands, it belatedly dawned on the insurgents that, while we intended to leave eventually - on our own terms - al Qaeda meant to stay.
A wave of suicide bombings earlier this year, culminating in a massive attack on a funeral procession, made the population snap. The people of Fallujah may never love us, but they hate al Qaeda with the rage of a betrayed lover.
Since May, the change has been stunning. When the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines were last in Fallujah, in 2006, they took casualties from snipers and roadside bombs. The city was violent, bankrupt and partly in ruins.
Now the battalion's back. And welcome. Marines banter with the locals where, six months ago, it was risky to ride in an armored vehicle.
Paradoxically, the violence of the past set the only possible conditions for the sudden reconciliation. The Iraqis had to grasp that we meant business. Now the 1st Platoon of the battalion's Fox Company lives and works in the Hadari Precinct with the Iraqi police.
The new police are recruited from vetted locals, and the policy has paid huge dividends. The locals know who doesn't fit, and they've got an immediate interest in their neighborhood's safety. Most encouragingly, the reformed police are popular.
Fallujah still isn't a place to buy retirement property, but it was encouraging to sit down with 1st Platoon's commander, 2nd Lt. Nick DeLonga, and his Iraqi counterpart, 1st Lt. Mohammed.
DeLonga joined the Marines immediately after 9/11, because "I didn't want to just sit and vote while others were dying." Now he's the sheriff of a sprawling neighborhood in a war-torn city.
FIRST Lt. Mohammed's fa ther is a sheik, giving him a brand of authority - and insight - an outsider could never attain. DeLonga has the firepower (if ever needed) and the resources, while Mohammed has the pull. It works.
We went for a stroll in the streets. The Marines still wear full combat gear: Despite security measures, a sniper might still sneak into the city. But there was no threat from the locals in the market. The worst mood the Marines encountered was aloofness. More often, they were welcomed with a polite greeting.
People are relieved that their streets are safe again. And the kids are out in regiments, surrounding the Marines in hope of candy or just a bit of attention.
For the Iraqi police lieutenant, our patrol was a triumphal procession. DeLonga let Mohammed have center stage as citizens came out to complain about lagging utilities or, in one striking case, to protest that, as former residents of Baghdad, they had come to Fallujah to be safe, but were being charged exorbitant rents. A ward pol as well as a cop, Mohammed told his aides to write it all down.
Mohammed is effective, but he might jar anyone with unrealistic expectations. In our one-on-one meeting, he quoted Saddam: "You must be sharp as a sword with civilians - and as soft as perfume." But he's no hard-core Ba'athist: You have to remember that Saddam shaped every Iraqi's life for more than three decades.
Anyway, men such as Lt. Mohammed have figured out that nostalgia solves nothing. And thanks to al Qaeda's blood orgy, the old Middle Eastern dictum applies: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In a sense, al Qaeda set us up for success.
BUT there's more to it. Much more. The Marines and the Iraqi police find they get along surprisingly well. The Americans realize that the Iraqis know the buttons to press to get things done, while the Iraqis learn from the Marines' professionalism.
I laughed to see Iraqi cops marveling at a Marine's, uh, interesting tattoos, while the Marines are still surprised that the environment has gone "nonkinetic" so fast.
And we're truly winning over some Iraqis. "Crash," is a Basra-born interpreter (a "terp") who, more than anything else in the world, wants to become a U.S. Marine. He lives and works with the Marines, studies their rituals, works out with them - and carries himself like a Marine. Crash also carries a weapon for self-defense - a right he earned after pulling wounded Marines to safety in combat.
"His" Marines are doing all they can to help him enlist.
Fallujah? Some districts have ugly stretches of ruins, while others are largely intact. The population has returned. And there's a construction boom. Meanwhile, the Marines have repaired generators, turned trash lots into parks and created hundreds of jobs. Suddenly, the city's movers and shakers want to work with the Marines.
Oh, and the mullah of the city's strictest mosque just sat down for the first time with Lt. DeLonga. They got along fine.
Had I been asked three years ago if we'd ever be welcome in Fallujah, I would've called it wrong. Not that the Iraqis want us to stay forever, but they'd rather cooperate than fight at this point. Given Fallujah's past, that's no small thing.
And the locals are out in front of us in the fight against al Qaeda. Which is a big thing.
I was in the city during one of the last phases of Operation Alljah, which has been bringing the rule of law back to the city's precincts, one by one. In the hours of darkness, Marine engineers swept in and blocked the roads in and out of one of the last un-purged districts with Jersey barriers. The police moved in to bust suspected terrorists and kick out hoodlums who don't have local roots.
In a "swarm," identification cards are provided to all, beginning with the local movers and shakers. Volunteers are vetted to join the police or armed neighborhood-watch groups. And revitalization programs go into gear.
Capt. Mason Harlow, the Fox Company commander, was wounded by shrapnel two years ago. In Fallujah. Now he's back, overseeing the Hadari District and two others. His Marines haven't been attacked for months. And his former enemies are doing his work for him.
Capt. Harlow didn't think he'd live to see the day.
Ralph Peters is reporting from Iraq. His new book is "Wars of Blood and Faith."
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Pretty things.
Fashionable giftbags: A good enough compensation for the heart-attack your dear wife might experience over that crappy- uh, thing -you are trying to pass off as an anniversary gift. Tee-hee! And just in case you're thinking of getting something for your sweeeet little daughter, check this out. It's an adorable purse pendant that has a vintage feel to it. Now if that's too simple for you, you may choose to shower your little princess with these delicious Baccarat crystals: Tourmaline Crystal and Blue Scarabee & Silver.
Update: Camilla will not attend Diana's memorial. Good. She's a vile woman and does not deserve to be there.
Update: Tom Ford's tacky sex-drenched perfume advertisement. Where on earth did all the class go?
Update: Camilla will not attend Diana's memorial. Good. She's a vile woman and does not deserve to be there.
Update: Tom Ford's tacky sex-drenched perfume advertisement. Where on earth did all the class go?
GWOT: Death by Rules of Engagement.
Update: Seeing beyond their differences? Sunnis and Shiites team-up with U.S. troops to heal the wounds of Iraq.
“This is a great accomplishment for the area,” said Hassan Jabbar Mirhrish, a prominent Sunni leader and a former colonel in the Saddam Hussein-era military. “What the Iraqi government has been able to do in four years we have managed to do in one month.”
Update: 39% believe U.S. troops are winning in the War on Terror; 32% believe the terrorists are winning; 23% believe neither is winning; 6% are unsure. From the report -Republicans, by a 58% to 19% margin, believe the U.S. and its allies are winning. Democrats, by a 43% to 24% margin, believe the terrorists are winning. Among unaffiliated voters, 38% believe the U.S. team is winning while 32% say the opposite.
Update: Bush's approval rating stands at 39%; Congress at 18% (according to CNN as of yesterday!)
Death by rules of engagement
By Diana West
Friday, August 17, 2007
Now that Marcus Luttrell's book, "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10," is a national bestseller, maybe Americans are ready to start a discussion about the core issue his story brings to light: the inverted morality and insanity of U.S. military rules of engagement.
On a stark mountaintop in Afghanistan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell and three Navy SEAL teammates found themselves having just such a discussion back in 2005. Dropped behind enemy lines to kill or capture a Taliban kingpin who commanded between 150 and 200 fighters, the SEAL team was unexpectedly discovered in the early stages of a mission whose success, of course, depended on secrecy.
Three unarmed Afghan goatherds, one a teenager, had stumbled across the Americans' position, presenting the soldiers with an urgent dilemma: What should they do? If they let the Afghans go, the Afghans would probably alert the Taliban to the their whereabouts. This would mean a battle in which the Americans were outnumbered by at least 35 to 1. If the Americans didn't let the goatherds go -- if they killed them, because there was no way to hold them -- the Americans would avoid detection and, most likely, leave the area safely.
On a treeless mountainside far from home, four of our bravest patriots came to the ghastly conclusion that the only way to save themselves was forbidden by the ROE (Rules of Engagement). Such an action would set off a media firestorm, and lead to murder charges for all.
It is agonizing to read their tense debate as recounted by Marcus Luttrell, the "lone survivor" of the disastrous mission. Each of the SEALs was aware of "the strictly correct military decision" -- namely, that it would be suicide to let the goatherds live. But they were also aware that their own country, for which they were fighting, would ultimately turn on them if they made that decision.
It was as if committing suicide had become the only politically correct option. For fighting men ordered behind enemy lines, such rules are not only insane, they're immoral. The SEALs sent the goatherds on their way.
One hour later, a sizeable Taliban force attacked, beginning a horrendous battle that resulted not only in the deaths of Mr. Luttrell's three SEAL teammates, but also the deaths of 16 would-be rescuers -- eight additional SEALs and eight Army special operations soldiers whose helicopter was shot down by a Taliban RPG.
"Look at me right now in my story," Mr. Luttrell writes. "Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it's worth: If you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place."
I couldn't agree more, except for the fact that conservatives, up to and including the president, are at least as responsible for our outrageous rules of engagement as liberals. The question Americans need to ask themselves now, with "Lone Survivor" as Exhibit A, is whether adhering to these precious rules is worth the exorbitant price -- in this case, 19 valiant soldiers.
Another question to raise is why our military, knowing the precise location of a Taliban kingpin, sends in Navy SEALs, not Air Force bombers, in the first place?
The answer is "collateral damage." I know this -- and so do our enemies, who, as Mr. Luttrell writes, laugh at our rules of engagement as they sleep safely at night.
I find it hard to believe that this is something most Americans applaud, but it's impossible to know because this debate hasn't begun. But it should. It strikes at the core not only of our capacity to make war, but also our will to survive.
A nation that doesn't automatically value its sons who fight to protect it more than the "unarmed civilians" they encounter behind enemy lines is not only unlikely to win a war: It isn't showing much interest in its own survival. This is what comes through, loud and ugly, from that mountaintop in Afghanistan, where four young Americans ultimately agreed it was better to be killed than to kill.
“This is a great accomplishment for the area,” said Hassan Jabbar Mirhrish, a prominent Sunni leader and a former colonel in the Saddam Hussein-era military. “What the Iraqi government has been able to do in four years we have managed to do in one month.”
Update: 39% believe U.S. troops are winning in the War on Terror; 32% believe the terrorists are winning; 23% believe neither is winning; 6% are unsure. From the report -Republicans, by a 58% to 19% margin, believe the U.S. and its allies are winning. Democrats, by a 43% to 24% margin, believe the terrorists are winning. Among unaffiliated voters, 38% believe the U.S. team is winning while 32% say the opposite.
Update: Bush's approval rating stands at 39%; Congress at 18% (according to CNN as of yesterday!)
Death by rules of engagement
By Diana West
Friday, August 17, 2007
Now that Marcus Luttrell's book, "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10," is a national bestseller, maybe Americans are ready to start a discussion about the core issue his story brings to light: the inverted morality and insanity of U.S. military rules of engagement.
On a stark mountaintop in Afghanistan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell and three Navy SEAL teammates found themselves having just such a discussion back in 2005. Dropped behind enemy lines to kill or capture a Taliban kingpin who commanded between 150 and 200 fighters, the SEAL team was unexpectedly discovered in the early stages of a mission whose success, of course, depended on secrecy.
Three unarmed Afghan goatherds, one a teenager, had stumbled across the Americans' position, presenting the soldiers with an urgent dilemma: What should they do? If they let the Afghans go, the Afghans would probably alert the Taliban to the their whereabouts. This would mean a battle in which the Americans were outnumbered by at least 35 to 1. If the Americans didn't let the goatherds go -- if they killed them, because there was no way to hold them -- the Americans would avoid detection and, most likely, leave the area safely.
On a treeless mountainside far from home, four of our bravest patriots came to the ghastly conclusion that the only way to save themselves was forbidden by the ROE (Rules of Engagement). Such an action would set off a media firestorm, and lead to murder charges for all.
It is agonizing to read their tense debate as recounted by Marcus Luttrell, the "lone survivor" of the disastrous mission. Each of the SEALs was aware of "the strictly correct military decision" -- namely, that it would be suicide to let the goatherds live. But they were also aware that their own country, for which they were fighting, would ultimately turn on them if they made that decision.
It was as if committing suicide had become the only politically correct option. For fighting men ordered behind enemy lines, such rules are not only insane, they're immoral. The SEALs sent the goatherds on their way.
One hour later, a sizeable Taliban force attacked, beginning a horrendous battle that resulted not only in the deaths of Mr. Luttrell's three SEAL teammates, but also the deaths of 16 would-be rescuers -- eight additional SEALs and eight Army special operations soldiers whose helicopter was shot down by a Taliban RPG.
"Look at me right now in my story," Mr. Luttrell writes. "Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it's worth: If you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place."
I couldn't agree more, except for the fact that conservatives, up to and including the president, are at least as responsible for our outrageous rules of engagement as liberals. The question Americans need to ask themselves now, with "Lone Survivor" as Exhibit A, is whether adhering to these precious rules is worth the exorbitant price -- in this case, 19 valiant soldiers.
Another question to raise is why our military, knowing the precise location of a Taliban kingpin, sends in Navy SEALs, not Air Force bombers, in the first place?
The answer is "collateral damage." I know this -- and so do our enemies, who, as Mr. Luttrell writes, laugh at our rules of engagement as they sleep safely at night.
I find it hard to believe that this is something most Americans applaud, but it's impossible to know because this debate hasn't begun. But it should. It strikes at the core not only of our capacity to make war, but also our will to survive.
A nation that doesn't automatically value its sons who fight to protect it more than the "unarmed civilians" they encounter behind enemy lines is not only unlikely to win a war: It isn't showing much interest in its own survival. This is what comes through, loud and ugly, from that mountaintop in Afghanistan, where four young Americans ultimately agreed it was better to be killed than to kill.
Russia's fight for power.
Well, it's no secret that Russia is aiming to be the Next Big Thing. Although I admire Russia's rich culture and history, President Putin is totally annoying me! Up until I got bored with the Romanovs I had high hopes for the defunct Romanov Imperial Family: I even nurtured a naive belief that there was a huge possibility the remaining heirs can somehow sashay back into the Winter Palace and reclaim their lost power. Silly, I know, especially since hardly anyone knows there are living Romanovs across the world today, including a few Americans from Palm Beach who are just fine being ordinary hardworking Americans and not Romanov tsars. Speaking of the Romanovs, a Russian anthropologist allegedly stumbled upon the remains of the two missing children- the heir, Alexei, and his sister. Russia plans to investigate the tsar's death once more. Interesting.
Anyway, President Putin sent his fans swooning after shirtless photos of His Imperial Highness appeared on the presidential website. So not hot! And a crazy Russian billionare offered to buy a U.S. bomber at an air show near Moscow. From the article: An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million (249.5 million pounds) if it were to be sold on the spot. "That is no problem. It is such a cool machine," the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.
LOL!
Anyway, Russia is also developing a Global Navigation System, and of course, I don't know what on earth that is. The article claims that the Russian system is suppose to be similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System... whatever that is. Gee, my total lack of knowledge on systems and things makes me feel kinda stupid.
FASHION: Tulle&Chiffon
From BCBG MAX AZRIA
Chiffon Tops
Update: Angelina Jolie's new Shiseido advertisements! I'm on TEAM ANISTON, but no one can deny that Angelina is a beautiful woman. Envy.
Update: Delicious Parada Vernice Sfumata Clutch!
Miss Teen U.S.A. tries to make a point.
"U.S. Americans" can't... find America on a map because... some people in America don't have maps... BUT... like, in South Africa, Iraq... like, need to educate... if only, for America... here... Thank you.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Updates.
America-bashing. Lee Harris -A specter haunts the world, and that specter is America. This is not the America discoverable in the pages of a world atlas, but a mythical America that is the target of the new form of anti-Americanism that Salman Rushdie, writing in the Guardian (February 6, 2002), says “is presently taking the world by storm” and that forms the subject of a Washington Post essay by Martin Kettle significantly entitled “U.S. Bashing: It’s All The Rage In Europe” (January 7, 2002). It is an America that Anatol Lieven assures us, in a recent article in the London Review of Books, is nothing less than “a menace to itself and to mankind” and that Noam Chomsky has repeatedly characterized as the world’s major terrorist state.
al-Qaeda operative captured. U.S. command said Friday that Iraqi troops and U.S. Special Forces raided a home in the Hit area and seized an al-Qaida suspect believed to have shot down an American helicopter in 2004.
The forces detained the suspect and a "second person of interest" in the Wednesday raid, and found an assault rifle as well as numerous identification cards and passports. In addition to the helicopter attack, the primary suspect — whose name was not released — is believed to be involved in roadside bombing and sniper attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces in the region, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
The twin attacks near the Diyala provincial capital of Baquoba — a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that has been the focus of recent major U.S.-Iraqi military operations against alleged al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen — hit a Shiite village and a Sunni village with the same ferocity but apparently different motives.
Violence is down in Iraq. Although the media, including big networks, are trying to spin reports from Iraq, noticeable progress cannot be denied. Independent bloggers who are currently embedded with Marine Units in Iraq keep releasing encouraging reports. Politicians and other journalists who have recently returned from Iraq also point out that progress is indeed being made.
CNN showed a brief clip from this piece, took it out of context and made it seem very negative, but if you read the whole article, you'll realize that it's a far cry from disaster.
WASHINGTON - "Due to the sustained presence of coalition forces in former insurgent safe havens and increased capability of Iraqi security forces, levels of violence in Iraq are the lowest they’ve been since June 2006," an operational leader on the Joint Staff said today.
Local government shows progress in Iraq's Anbar province. “To say that I feel good would be an understatement. I am continually amazed at … how much the local Iraqi government is actually doing to better their situation,” Simcock said. “They are working hand in hand, not only with my Marines and soldiers on ground, but also with the provisional reconstruction teams that are out here. I am very, very pleased with the efforts that local governance is putting forth.”
Bye-bye Brits! "We have a force surrounded like cowboys and Indians in the Basra palace." Other MPs said British troops told them the only reason they were staying in southern Iraq was "because of our relations with the US" and "American domestic sensibilities".
Charges to be dropped against Haditha Marine! Investigating officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware said the evidence was too weak for a court-martial. Tatum shot and killed civilians, but "he did so because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder," Ware wrote. [They had come under fire from within houses, after one of their fellow soldiers was killed in a roadside bomb.]
More good news from Iraq! Iraqi judges have heard 1,900 cases and completed 150 criminal investigations, Smith said. In addition, 30 Iraqi investigators have graduated from an academy run by the FBI, and detainees are held in the Rule of Law Complex in humane conditions, he said.
al-Qaeda operative captured. U.S. command said Friday that Iraqi troops and U.S. Special Forces raided a home in the Hit area and seized an al-Qaida suspect believed to have shot down an American helicopter in 2004.
The forces detained the suspect and a "second person of interest" in the Wednesday raid, and found an assault rifle as well as numerous identification cards and passports. In addition to the helicopter attack, the primary suspect — whose name was not released — is believed to be involved in roadside bombing and sniper attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces in the region, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
The twin attacks near the Diyala provincial capital of Baquoba — a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that has been the focus of recent major U.S.-Iraqi military operations against alleged al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen — hit a Shiite village and a Sunni village with the same ferocity but apparently different motives.
Violence is down in Iraq. Although the media, including big networks, are trying to spin reports from Iraq, noticeable progress cannot be denied. Independent bloggers who are currently embedded with Marine Units in Iraq keep releasing encouraging reports. Politicians and other journalists who have recently returned from Iraq also point out that progress is indeed being made.
CNN showed a brief clip from this piece, took it out of context and made it seem very negative, but if you read the whole article, you'll realize that it's a far cry from disaster.
WASHINGTON - "Due to the sustained presence of coalition forces in former insurgent safe havens and increased capability of Iraqi security forces, levels of violence in Iraq are the lowest they’ve been since June 2006," an operational leader on the Joint Staff said today.
Local government shows progress in Iraq's Anbar province. “To say that I feel good would be an understatement. I am continually amazed at … how much the local Iraqi government is actually doing to better their situation,” Simcock said. “They are working hand in hand, not only with my Marines and soldiers on ground, but also with the provisional reconstruction teams that are out here. I am very, very pleased with the efforts that local governance is putting forth.”
Bye-bye Brits! "We have a force surrounded like cowboys and Indians in the Basra palace." Other MPs said British troops told them the only reason they were staying in southern Iraq was "because of our relations with the US" and "American domestic sensibilities".
Charges to be dropped against Haditha Marine! Investigating officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware said the evidence was too weak for a court-martial. Tatum shot and killed civilians, but "he did so because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder," Ware wrote. [They had come under fire from within houses, after one of their fellow soldiers was killed in a roadside bomb.]
More good news from Iraq! Iraqi judges have heard 1,900 cases and completed 150 criminal investigations, Smith said. In addition, 30 Iraqi investigators have graduated from an academy run by the FBI, and detainees are held in the Rule of Law Complex in humane conditions, he said.
FASHION: It Bags!
Devi Kroell New York
Isn't this the cutest thing ever?
Python -it's just beyond lovely. Like I said, I love anything that glitters like the sun and looks pretty! Also, I know that red bags are in right now, so here are my two picks:
Red hot!
Vivienne Westwood Red Label; Tod's Restyled D-Bag
Others: Chloé Paddington Leather Satchel, Bottega Venetta Ombre Top Handle Bag, Isabella Fiore, Gucci Crystal Evening Bag - all from Saks Fifth Avenue. Below are four other It Bags that are just tooooo lovely to pass up!
Neiman Marcus
Bamrell Collection; Miu Miu
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