With Al Qaeda In Iraq All But Completely Defeated ... We Are Learning The Fate Of Their Rivals

We all know AQI is getting their asses handed to them by the coalition, but we are now making some grim discoveries as a result of AQI fleeing their former territory.

AP:

More than 150 bodies have been unearthed in recent months from mass graves around Lake Tharthar. It is seen as the grisly legacy of al-Qaida control of Iraq’s western deserts before the group was ousted early this year in an uprising by local tribes.

Each mass grave uncovered around Tharthar and elsewhere in Iraq — so far at least 12 burial sites — appears to offer more evidence of the fate of Iraqis who challenged al-Qaida and its backers.

The graves help explain the decision by Sunni tribal leaders to fight back. Of the 23 sets of remains in one grave, authorities were able to identify only Awad and two others. That is typical in Iraq, where officials usually lack such forensics aids as DNA and dental records.

An estimated 375,000 Iraqis have vanished as a result of checkpoint kidnappings and other violence by Sunni and Shiite extremists.

Isn't it about time we finally admit who the real bad guys are?

Great News! Murder At Two Year Low In Baghdad Boundary Region

Not going to find this in the MSM anywhere, but it is true non-the-less.

Defenselink:

Reported murders in a region adjacent to Baghdad on the city’s eastern boundary have dropped to levels not seen in two years, a senior commander in the region said today.

Barring any extreme spike in murders this month, Army Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., commander of 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said he expects the year to finish out with as many as 400 fewer reported murders in the area than reported in 2005.

Someone should tell Harry "Pinky" Reid that the surge is responsible for this positive development.

Turkey Authorizes Military Strikes Against Kurds In Iraq

It's been coming for a while now, but Turkey's Prime Minister finally confirmed what we all knew would happen.

VOA:

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the Turkish government has authorized the army to carry out a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

In televised comments Friday, Mr. Erdogan said the decision to carry out the operation was made at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. He said Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved of the plan.

Looks like the Dems will get a chance to see if Turkey and the US will part ways as friends.

Iraq Asks The US To Stay In Iraq Indefinitely

Uh oh ... spaghetti oh!

Just days after al Qaeda's last stronghold in Iraq fell to the coalition ... Iraq has offered a deal to the US to stay in Iraq for the long haul.

Fox News:

Iraq's government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.

As part of the package, the Iraqis want an end to the current U.N.-mandated multinational forces mission, and also an end to all U.N.-ordered restrictions on Iraq's sovereignty.

In a televised address Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his government will ask the U.N. to renew the mandate for the multinational force for one final time, with its authorization to end in 2008.

Yep, Iraq wants the UN out and the US in.

The US will also get some economic benefits from the deal as well.

The Americans appeared generally favorable subject to negotiations on the details, which include preferential treatment for American investments, according to the Iraqi officials involved in the discussions.

The two Iraqi officials, who are from two different political parties, spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is sensitive. Members of parliament were briefed on the plan during a three-hour closed-door meeting Sunday, during which lawmakers loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr objected to the formula.

Preferential treatment for U.S. investors could provide a huge windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil resources. Such a deal would also enable the United States to maintain leverage against Iranian expansion at a time of growing fears about Tehran's nuclear aspirations.

It is important to note that this is not a treaty, and further negotiations will continue throughout 2008.

Who Would Have Thought Muslims Would Help Christians Put Up A Cross In Baghdad?

Well, a lot of people actually. Mostly military personnel who've been to Iraq. Michael Yon has more.

Another Mass Grave Found In Iraq

This time 22 bodies were found in a mass grave just NW of Baghdad.

60 Minutes Lies About Saddam's WMDs

I'll save the overall argument about Saddam's wmd programs for another time. I'm writing a book about it so I'm not giving out a bunch of free info on the matter. You can always join the over 1,500 people that have taken The Iraq War Test to learn more. Bottom line is that we found BM-21 rockets loaded with sarin and ready to fire during the invasion ... case closed.

The reason I'm focusing on the uranium argument here with 60 Minutes is that the 500 tons of uranium found, and removed from Iraq, is a slam dunk as it is the most reported story of Saddam having banned substances before the invasion. If you don't know the story of the 500 tons of uranium you should ...

1. Recuse yourself from any wmd discussion because you don't know what the hell you're talking about ... and
   
2. You should read on because I will give you more info, and provide you with links to the story.

Now back to 60 Minutes' lying ways.

Before we start in on 60 Minutes it is important to know the highly liberal stance they take. For instance, they did a whole segment on the Appeal for Redress (an anti-war petition from military personnel) a while back, but they refused to provide the same airtime to the Appeal for Courage (a pro-war petition from military personnel) even though the Appeal for Courage has more signatures. I've received the runaround from 60 Minutes about the issue, and I've spoken with LT. Nichols about the matter. For a giggle, you should look at both appeals media page to see the huge distortion in media coverage. LT. Nichols, by the way, is in Iraq.

Last week, 60 Minutes ran this story ...

Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction? No, he did not. We've known that for some time now. So where did the intelligence come from that he was building up his arsenal? Fantastically, the most compelling part came from one obscure Iraqi defector who came in and out of history like a comet. His code name, ironically, was "Curve Ball" and his information became the pillar of the case Colin Powell made to the United Nations before the war. Who is Curve Ball and how did he fool the world's elite intelligence agencies?

60 Minutes spent two years, and traveled to nine countries, trying to solve the mystery. We talked to intelligence sources, to people who knew Curve Ball and to people who worked with him. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, Curve Ball's real name has never been made public, nor has any video of him, until now.

A very "unbiased" and "honest" introductory isn't it. Too bad the wmd statements are completely false, but I digress.

We do know that we were fed some bad intel on Iraq's wmd programs ... that is not in dispute. Charles Duelfer said as such in his report, and congressional testimony. He essentially said that Saddam did have the weapons programs, but they were not as advanced as we thought. More on that later.

60 Minutes then went on to out "Curve Ball" as Rafid Ahmed Alwan, and break down how he became an informant. It is important that you know he refused to see any Americans and was interrogated by Germany for a year and a half. Transcripts of what he said were sent to the CIA by Germany. The CIA was actually denied requests to debrief "Curve Ball" before making their case against Iraq to President Bush. 60 Minutes never blames Germany for misleading the US.

60 Minutes also completely ignores that the wmds found before the invasion by the UN. Here's an example, but you have to do the rest of the legwork.

They also ignore that every UN weapons inspector said Saddam was hiding weapons programs before the invasion. Yes I know some of them changed their mind suddenly after years of their own saber rattling. In response to that I would say to check out ex-inspector Richard Butler, and ask yourself why Ritter suddenly went from saying Saddam was hiding weapons to Saddam is a great guy. The answer to that is that Ritter started receiving money funneled out of the oil-for-food scandal, and was essentially paid by Saddam to make an anti-war film. It makes me wonder why other inspectors changed their tune so quickly.

So what did Duelfer really have to say about Saddam's weapons programs? Not what you've heard from your teenage friends on the left-wing blogs ... I guarantee it. Again, the programs were not as advanced as we thought, but he did have them. You can read his congressional testimony here. Listen to this little tidbit that 60 Minutes and others always leave out:

There were also efforts to retain the intellectual capital of nuclear scientists by
forbidding their departure from Iraq and keeping them employed in government areas. However, over time there was decay in the team.

Despite this decay, Saddam did not abandon his nuclear ambitions. He made
clear his view that nuclear weapons were the right of any country that could build them.

He was very attentive to the growing Iranian threat—especially its potential nuclear
component, and stated that he would do whatever it took to offset the Iranian threat,
clearly implying matching Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.

What? You've never heard Duelfer say that before? Curious.

Here's what Duelfer said about the chemical and biological chapters of his report:

Once inspections began in 1991, Iraq chose to yield most of its weapons and bulk
agent as well as the large facilities that were widely known to exist. As in the other WMD areas, Saddam sought to sustain the requisite knowledge base to restart the program eventually and, to the extent it did not threaten the Iraqi efforts to get out from sanctions, to sustain the inherent capability to produce such weapons as circumstances permitted in the future.

Let's recap so far. At a bare minimum Saddam did not declare and destroy all of his wmds, he committed hundreds of violations with respect to conventional weapons (most notably developing long range missiles), and he retained the infrastructure, knowledge and desire to restart his wmd programs once sanctions ended. All things listed as concerns for the future, and reasons for war.

Wait til you hear what Duelfer had to say about Saddam using the oil-for-food program to increase his wmd capability.

Over time, and with the infusion of funding and resources following acceptance
of the Oil for Food program, Iraq effectively shortened the time that would be required to reestablish CW production capacity.

By 2003, Iraq would have been able to produce mustard agent in a period of months and nerve agent in less than a year or two.

Uh huh ... so with the oil-for-food program Saddam was able to buy off at least one UN inspector, and increase his wmd capability. Nice.

Iraq decided to retain the main BW production facility, but under guise of using it to produce singlecell protein for animal feed. These decisions were taken with Saddam’s explicit approval.

Preservation of Iraq’s biological weapons capabilities was simpler than any other
WMD area because of the nature of the material.

What is clear is that Saddam retained his notions of the use of force and had
experience that demonstrated the utility of WMD. He was making progress in eroding sanctions and, had it not been for the events of 9-11-2001, things would have taken a different course for the Regime. Most senior members of the Regime and scientists assumed that the programs would begin in earnest when sanctions ended---and sanctions were eroding.

Duelfer also highlighted the threat of such knowledge being given to terrorists, which Saddam openly supported.

A risk that has emerged since my previous status report to Congress is the
connection of former regime CW experts with anti-coalition forces. ISG uncovered
evidence of such links and undertook a sizeable effort to track down and prevent any
lash-up between foreign terrorists or anti-coalition forces and either existing CW stocks or experts able to produce such weapons indigenously. I believe we got ahead of this problem through a series of raids throughout the spring and summer. I am convinced we successfully contained a problem before it matured into a major threat. Nevertheless, it points to the problem that the dangerous expertise developed by the previous regime could be transferred to other hands. Certainly there are anti-coalition and terrorist elements seeking such capabilities.

Take the statements above with his previous statements to Congress 7 months earlier, and you start to see the picture that 60 Minutes ignored in their latest report.

Iraq did have facilities suitable for the production of biological and chemical agents needed for weapons. It had plans to improve and expand and even build new facilities.

Then there is the dual use chemicals.

With respect to chemical production, Iraq was working up to March 2003 to construct new facilities for the production of chemicals. There were plans under the direction of a leading nuclear scientist/WMD program manager to construct plants capable of making a variety of chemicals and producing a year’s supply of any chemical in a month. This was a crash program.

Most of the chemicals specified in this program were conventional commercial chemicals, but a few are considered “dual use.” One we are examining, commonly called DCC (N,N-Dicyclohexyl carbodiimide), was used by Iraq before 1991 as a stabilizing agent for the nerve agent VX.

Since many of you out there don't believe chemical and biological weapons are "really" wmds ... here's info on Saddam's nuclear weapons program.

Likewise, in the nuclear arena, the ISG has developed information that suggests Iraqi interest in preserving and expanding the knowledge needed to design and develop nuclear weapons.

One significant effort illustrating this was a high-speed rail gun program under the direction of two senior scientists associated with Iraq’s pre-1991 nuclear weapons program. Documents from this project show that the scientists were developing a rail gun designed to achieve speeds of 2-10 kilometers per second. The ostensible purpose for this research was development of an air defense gun, but these speeds are what are necessary to conduct experiments of metals compressing together at high speed as they do in a nuclear detonation. Scientists refer to these experiments as “equation of state” measurements.

Not only were these scientists developing a rail gun, but their laboratory also contained documents describing diagnostic techniques that are important for nuclear weapons experiments, such as flash x-ray radiography, laser velocimetry, and high-speed photography. Other documents found outside the laboratory described a high-voltage switch that can be used to detonate a nuclear weapon, laser detonation, nuclear fusion, radiation measurement, and radiation safety. These fields are certainly not related to air defense.

It is this combination of topics that makes us suspect this lab was intentionally focused on research applicable for nuclear weapons development.

No - he - did - not - just - say - that! Oh yes he did. Charles Duelfer, author of the famously misquoted Duelfer Report did just say that Saddam had a nuclear weapons program.

Duelfer and Kay also stated that they found:

"Uranium-enrichment centrifuges" whose only plausible use was as part of a clandestine nuclear-weapons program. In all these cases, "Iraqi scientists had been told before the war not to declare their activities to the U.N. inspectors," the official said.

Duelfer also went on to talk about the secret missile program that the UN failed to uncover even though Iraq test fired these missiles right under the UN's nose. Duelfer also stated that foreign assistance was utilized in assisting Iraq in these missile programs in violation of UN sanctions.

What were the three countries that were caught violating UN sanctions by assisting Saddam's weapons programs again? Ah yes, I remember, Russia, France and GERMANY! The same Germany that 60 Minutes fails to criticize for feeding us incorrect information from "Curve Ball."

Since we all now know that Saddam did have a nuclear weapons program ... that brings me to the 500 tons of uranium we found in Iraq that so many news agencies choose to ignore these days. Of course, they didn't ignore it when it happened because it was a huge story. How soon we forget eh?

Here's a couple of links for the 500 tons of uranium. Full urls left in place so you know they are separate articles.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/20/85636.shtml

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1516235/posts

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10613FA345B0C718EDDAC0894DC404482

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/13/101911.shtml -- this quotes a NY Times article

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/2/220331.shtml

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040522/news_1n22uranium.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3009082.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3872201.stm

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/12/103450.shtml

Yep ... Saddam had 500 tons of uranium (1.8 tons partially enriched), and a clandestine nuclear weapons program. So how many nuclear bombs could this 500 tons of uranium have produced as a result of this clandestine nuclear weapons program? The answer is 142 nuclear bombs.

Too bad 60 Minutes didn't do any show prep before they ran this story. Especially since they said they spent two years on said story.

Just to add salt to the wound ... a friend of mine stationed in al Asad, Iraq sent me several pictures of chemical warheads. I figured I would share one with you today.


Al Asad is where Saddam's air force was found buried under the sand. Coincidently that's where they found this bad boy. When they removed the protective coverings they discovered that it was loaded with sarin bomblets. Notice that this is not an old, harmless weapon. It is modern, and in very good condition.

Below is a reference image of a US sarin warhead with its bomblets. Again, the bottom photo is older, and from an American warhead. It was not found in Iraq. It is only demonstrating what a sarin bomblet is.


Too bad 60 Minutes hasn't paid attention to what is really coming out of Iraq, and no the pictures are not classified.

FINALLY, Someone Covers Why The Decline In Violence In Iraq Is Not News

H/T Hotair for the vid
Now it's time to go to work ripping these two idiot ladies to pieces.

Kurtz made it a point to tell you how major papers buried the news that I told you a week ago. He went on by giving the numbers of decline in Iraq deaths, and playing a clip from Gibson's program. Gibson was the lone exception in making the decline in Iraq deaths a lead story. Gibson reported that it was the fourth straight month that US deaths declined, and that Iraqi civilian deaths dropped by 50%.

Enter guest Robin Wright who proceeded to say that the news of the declines in deaths should NOT have been front page news. She went on to talk about an "enormous dispute" in how casualties are counted, and that we were at the beginning of a trend that we weren't sure was a trend yet.

She then talks about the military looking for irreversible momentum ... which would be after two months. She says that we haven't reached that time frame yet, but keep in mind that this was the fourth consecutive month of decline in troop deaths. That's a full 100% longer than she was looking for.

Barbara Star then weighs in on the issue by saying that "we don't know if it's a trend." She also said that it was not "enduring progress", but that it was a positive step. Kurtz then interrupted and said that if the numbers showed US and Iraqi casualties going up, it would have been front page news. Star agreed with him on that, and said that by "any definition, that is news." So why is it that by any definition an increase in casualties is news, but not a decrease?

Star went on to criticize the Pentagon for saying that there has been progress for five years (and there has been), but that she needed to see "a little bit more than one month before she gets too excited." Again, the numbers are four months straight of decline.

Either these two ladies are utterly stupid, or they didn't pay attention to the fact that these were four month numbers, or they are running damage control to negate any positives in Iraq. I'll let you decide which it is.

The bottom line is that US troop deaths are at a 14 month low. How is that for irreversible momentum? To top that off ... overall Iraqi violence, ethno-sectarian murders, and terrorism in Iraq and around the world is down from 2006.

If they were looking for more than a month of progress ... they got it. We can add in the increase in Iraqi cooperation with coalition forces, and the massive increase in weapons caches seized also. All have been increasing every month since June of '06. Even with a steady year of major leaps forward in Iraq ... the news still will not cover it because they are waiting for the insurgents to have a good month.

Of The 41 Dems Demanding Rush To Apologize ... 39 Of Them Refused To Condemn Personal Attacks On The Honor & Integrity Of Our Troops Last Month

I've spent the last two days pointing out this hypocrisy on my show, and blogged about my call to Sen. Reid's office here in Vegas.

Last month the Senate voted on the Cornyn Amendment which not only condemned the "Betray Us" ad, but it also condemned any personal attack on the honor and integrity of our troops.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

Several Senate Democrats refused to strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of our troops. They were:

1. Akaka (D-HI)
2. Bingaman (D-NM)
3. Boxer (D-CA)
4. Brown (D-OH)
5. Byrd (D-WV)
6. Clinton (D-NY)
7. Dodd (D-CT)
8. Durbin (D-IL)
9. Feingold (D-WI)
10. Harkin (D-IA)
11. Inouye (D-HI)
12. Kennedy (D-MA)
13. Kerry (D-MA)
14. Lautenberg (D-NJ)
15. Levin (D-MI)
16. Menendez (D-NJ)
17. Murray (D-WA)
18. Reed (D-RI)
19. Reid (D-NV)
20. Rockefeller (D-WV)
21. Sanders (I-VT)
22. Schumer (D-NY)
23. Stabenow (D-MI)
24. Whitehouse (D-RI)
25. Wyden (D-OR)

Of the 25 above who refused to condemn personal attacks on our troops (because many of them engage in personal attacks themselves) ... only Bingaman and Feingold refused to sign Harry Reid's letter demanding that Clear Channel repudiate Rush Limbaugh for his words which Harry Reid called attacks on:

"The courage and character of those fighting and dying for him and for all of us."

Perhaps Reid should apologize for all the times he insulted the military.

So what exactly is the difference between honor and integrity, and courage and character? Why is it that these Dems are willing to condemn attacks on courage and character, but not honor and integrity? Of course we all know the answer to that ... politics. You'd have to be a fool to not think this is a strategy to build support for the fairness doctrine. For crying out loud, Levin admitted he only read the part of the transcript that Media Matters gave him.

Let's not forget that Media Matters was started by Center for American Progress who was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton. You should also know that Hillary had a part in creating both organizations.

Clear Channel told Reid and his minions to go jump in a lake in this letter.

Far more important to the political wrangling going on for the fairness doctrine is the fact that Reid is demanding that Rush apologize to Jesse MacBeth. Whom Rush was specifically talking about on his show at the time. Why would the Democrats support such a character as MacBeth?

He is a proven phony (hence phony soldier), who is now an admitted and convicted phony. He also completely discredited Iraq Veterans Against the War. MacBeth was allowed to speak at IVAW rallies, and was a poster boy for their organization for a time. Yet this group that proclaims to be veterans didn't catch the falsehoods in MacBeth's statements, and image?

How can you trust them to be an honest organization again? The picture below is from their website, and is their featured soldier profile right now. This guy is claiming to be still on active duty?


Notice some things missing?

Harry Reid's political career is coming to an end. You now all know what we in Nevada have known for a long time about this guy. The only reason he was reelected last time was that Nevadans were hoping he could stop Yucca Mountain (which he helped bring here in the first place), but he's done nothing to make that a reality. Reid is nearly done with politics, but we will have to deal with his son, Rory. Don't you guys worry about that ... we'll take care of business on our end this time.

If the Dems are going to constantly act like spoiled children, and get caught lying, there may be hope in 2008. Problem is that too many people do not pay attention to all of this, and will not be prepared to cast their vote for the right candidate. In the meantime, we must keep up the good fight and fight for our troops against this slander so they can continue to make the great progress they've been making overseas.

U.S. Military Deaths In Iraq Lowest In 14 Months

Guess what? Harry Reid's website has no mention of it ... SURPRISE!

Breitbart:

US military losses in Iraq for September stood at 70 on Sunday, the lowest monthly figure since July last year, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

The figure also marks the fourth consecutive drop in the monthly death toll following a high of 121 in May. June saw 93 deaths, July 82 and August 79. The monthly toll in July 2006 was 53.

Don't forget about the stark decline in ethno-sectarian murders, and overall violence in Iraq either kiddies.

Al Qaeda Running Scared In Iraq

PLEASE ... FOR THE LOVE OF ALLAH ... HELP US! THE AMERICANS ARE COMING! THE AMERICANS ARE COMING!

Well, you get the idea. That was the basic summary of a letter written by an aide to AQI leader Al Masri. This isn't the first time we've had AQI pinned against a wall, but we have to keep the pressure up this time.

Oh yeah, half of Masri's top aides are wondering where the virgins are.

World Tribune:

The U.S. military is eliminating Al Qaida's chain of command in Iraq.

Officials said several leading aides to Al Qaida network chief Abu Ayoub Al Masri have been killed by the U.S.-led coalition. They said two out of the four foreign aides of Al Masri remain alive.

On Sept. 25, the U.S. military killed an Al Qaida chief deemed responsible for transporting foreign operatives to Iraq. The Al Qaida commander, identified as Abu Osama Al Tunisi, was killed in a U.S. air strike as he met his colleagues in Musayib, about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Ok, there's the background. Now here's the funny stuff.

Shortly before he died, Al Tunisi wrote a letter that warned of a threat to Al Qaida operations in Karkh. The lettter, found by the U.S. military, sought guidance from Al Qaida leaders amid coalition operations that hampered Al Tunisi's network.

"We are so desperate for your help," the letter read.

"This was a dangerous terrorist who is no longer a part of Al Qaida in Iraq," U.S. Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff of the Multinational Corps Iraq, said. "His death deals a significant blow to their operation. Abu Osama Al Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders within Al Qaida in Iraq."

I guess backup couldn't get there in time.

Ethno-Sectarian Murders In Iraq Down 55% Since 2006

Another tidbit of progress for you to digest that you won't hear anywhere in the MSM.

MNF-I:

The number of ethno-sectarian murders has declined significantly since the height of the sectarian violence in December 2006.

Iraq-wide, the number of ethno-sectarian deaths has decreased by over 55 percent, and it would have decreased much further if it not for the casualties inflicted by barbaric al-Qaeda bombings attempting to reignite sectarian violence.

Kucinich In Syria: The Effort In Iraq Was A Lie, Dishonest, & Crooked

Photo Ripped From Hotair

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), and 2008 presidential candidate went on Syrian television the other day, and assaulted our nation. Here's some highlights of what he said ...

• Americans have an increased understanding today of how wrong the war was and is.
• The United States must end the occupation.
• I've repeatedly challenged the thinking behind the surge.
• Increasing the occupation with a surge is counter-productive.
• We also must pay reparations to the people of Iraq.
• The US must take steps to repair the damage that has been done to the lives of the people of Iraq.
• We need to see that there is honest reconstruction in Iraq, no Halliburton dishonest cheating of the people of Iraq.
• I want my country to be loved by the world.
• It hurts my heart to know how America is seen in places around the world right now.
• The truth is the war was wrong.
• This war was based on lies.
• The effort against Iraq was dishonest, or crooked, from the beginning, and nothing good can come of it.
• We have to understand that the policy was based on a lie.

Trust me, there is more in the nearly 9 minute video.

No doubt, Kucinich would fail the Iraq War Test. I doubt he'd even get one question right.

The money shot came after he got finished calling Bush, the military, Poland's military, Denmark's military, Duelfer, the UN, and every media outlet in the world liars. Kucinich actually quoted the Bible ... IN SYRIA ... ON SYRIAN TELEVISION!

Regardless of what you think of Bush, or the war, it is categorically indefensible to go to an enemy foreign nation, go on their television, and say we are the liars and bad guys. He did this to the face of the enemy during a time of war.

Syria is a sponsor of terrorism that has threatened the US, and is threatening our allies as we speak. The majority of suicide bombers in Iraq come through Syria. We have repeatedly asked Syria to stop its support of terrorism, and to help stop the flow of fighters into Iraq. All to no avail.

Instead, we get terrorist leaders meeting each other in Syria, threats of violence, and more threats of violence. We then continue to ask Syria to stop supporting terrorism with no results.

Even with all of that, and more, Kucinich is perfectly happy to insult this country on the soil of a nation that is a state sponsor of terrorism, and has been directly linked to insurgent activity that gets our troops hurt.

Washington would have executed him, Lincoln and FDR would have imprisoned him for this action. There is a very real argument for treason here under Article III, Section III of the US Constitution.

Kucinich may not have a chance in hell of winning the nomination (especially when he is campaigning in Syria), but he does have a decent shot at a cabinet appointment.

There is absolutely no excuse for any elected leader to go to an enemy nation, and verbally attack the character, and integrity of this nation. No matter how bad Kucinich's heart hurts that not everyone in the world loves us.

Bonus:

I would have thought Kucinich would have tried to hide from his statements in Syria, but he is embracing them. I haven't received a call back from his people yet, but he has put the video on his campaign site. He put it right below the 9/11 remembrance ... nice.

Petraeus Speaks

As I told you back in August ... Petraeus believes he can downsize our force in Iraq.

He also reiterated that the surge has worked, and violence in Iraq is down. Some of you may remember some of my previous posts where Petraeus tells you the violence is down, and about Reid lying to everyone on the contents of the "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq" report. That's when Reid said the surge had failed.

Before Gen. Petraeus was allowed to speak ... he had to listen to a bunch of political rhetoric. Something I'm sure pained him greatly. Don't forget, Petraeus told Congress to shut their mouths back in April because the enemy was listening to them.

You can read some of the Dems' comments here.

You can read the AP article here.

To further illustrate Gen. Petraeus' point that violence is down I have a graph for you of the terrorist attacks in Iraq since 2000.


As you can see, violence is way down in Iraq this year by nearly 2/3. There is still a couple of months left in the year, and the terrorists were very active at the end of last year. However, this year has seen significant improvement in Iraq.

Last year, in Iraq, there were just over 330 terrorist attacks per month. This year, that number has declined to 127 per month.

Furthermore, global terrorism is also way down from last year.


It is important to note that even though terrorist attacks last year were so high ... the entire world, outside if Israel and Iraq, saw a decrease in terrorist activity.

Global terror last year yielded 554 attacks per month. This year, so far, those attacks have declined to 181 per month ... big difference.

You can compile any terrorist data you'd like using the analytic tools at TKB.ORG.

New Osama Tape, & Transcript

It has been authenticated, but the beard is most likely fake. You can see the similarities in the facial features.

OBL apparently criticized the Dems for not stopping the war in Iraq (h/t Hotair) ...

Officials said bin Laden criticized Democrats in Congress in the video for being unable to stop the war in Iraq. The al-Qaida leader also urged young Muslims to carry out suicide bombings against the West — a piece of advice he offers in most tapes…

Here's the full transcript. It's damn funny stuff! Global warming even gets a shout out.

Edwards Actually Has A Good Idea

I've been saying this since I was in the military in the 90's. There is already some cooperation between some nations, and it is very effective. The organization should be volunteer as far as combat personnel are concerned, and only allow intelligence sharing that is strictly terrorist related. As long as there are protections from sharing info vital to national security, and the independence of those nations is respected ... it's a damn fine idea.

AP:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is proposing an international organization to fight terrorism through shared intelligence.

This is far better than his previous plan to combat terrorism.

He then attacked Bush as being the only guy in the history of the world to make mistakes with terrorism, and he said some other stupid, untrue things ... like:

"Today, terrorism is worse in Iraq, and it's worse around the world," Edwards said in excerpts provided by his campaign. "It means the results are in on George Bush's so-called global war on terror and it's not just a failure, it's a double-edged failure."

Notice he failed to address Clinton's policies, and he did not give a reason why global terrorism shot through the roof in 1998. You and I know it was the fatwas, but he doesn't.

The interesting part of his comments that terrorism is worse around the world is technically false, and at best a spin.

As you can see from the graph below from the Terrorism Knowledge Base ... global terrorism is WAY DOWN this year from last.


If you look at this graph, you will see that terrorism in Iraq is also far less this year than last.


He also failed to note that outside of Iraq and the war in Israel last year ... global terror was significantly reduced. You can't count Iraq and Israel in the terror count because they were battlefields, and the argument has always been that the rest of the world was/was not safer since Iraq. Well, it is, and there is no way to deny it.

Now that those corrections have been made in what Edwards had to say ... his plan is still good.

"Those nations who join will, by working together, show the world the power of cooperation," Edwards said. "Those nations who join will also be required to commit to tough criteria about the steps they will take to root out extremists, particularly those who cross borders. Those nations who refuse to join will be called out before the world."

I really don't know what he means by "called out." This seems to be Edwards' version of Obama trying to act tough because they have a reputation for being weak. We all know Edwards won't do anything but talk about countries who refuse. He won't take any real action against those nations that don't support anti-terrorist activities, and he's been critical of others who do want action against those countries.

He did make a very laughable statement in his speech regarding the Cold War.

Edwards accused Bush of focusing on Cold War institutions designed to win traditional wars instead of cooperation with allies to take out small hostile groups. He also accused him of "an exclusively short-term focus on the enemy we know" and "a foreign policy of convenience that readily does business with whoever is available and regularly turns a blind eye when our allies behave wrongly or fail to cooperate."

Once again another Democrat completely ignores the coalition of allies assisting us in this conflict. Even though there are more of them than the first time around.

The rest of his statement was hypocrisy at its best. He is willing to turn a blind eye to our allies doing bad things, and the Dems are notorious for continuing to focus on Cold War institutions that are now obsolete. That is the focus of appeasement.

Soldiers Honor Iraqi Who Sacrificed Himself To Save Them

Remember the Iraqi who was killed by a homicide bomber, and saved US troops and Iraqi civilians last week?

Today, the troops he saved with his courageous actions paid their respects.

MNF-I:

Leaders of 3rd HBCT, the Iraqi National Police and Jisr Diyala leaders met with the father to acknowledge his sacrifice and thank him for his son’s actions.

Both Barth and Kane were present at the ceremony to offer support to their friend and to provide security.

The father was given a plaque and a ceremonial pair of spurs from Lt. Col. John Kolasheski, of Louden, Tenn., commander of 3-1 Cav. Regt.

“You cannot put a price on a life, but we would like to give you a few tokens of appreciation for your sacrifice,” Kolasheski said. “This is a tragic event we are recognizing, but it represents an outstanding change in this area.”

Barth admits it has been difficult talking with the family because of the pain they are experiencing. He has thanked the family for their sacrifice.

“They will always be friends,” Barth said. “This tragedy has strengthened that.”

Berner has relied on the experience of members of his platoon to help him with the incident.

“I’ve talked with Sgt. Kane about it,” he said. “He helped me put in perspective. Being younger, I don’t have the life experience to really understand it. He has been a big help. It's just one of things that I will never forget.”

Test - How Much Do You Know About The War In Iraq?

I made a 13 answer quiz online about the war.

You can take it here. Just click the 'do the test' button, and you are on your way. Let me know what you think, and spread it around. I'm doing a case study on it.

Note: This post is sticky ... scroll down for new posts.

Update:

So far 757 people have taken the quiz, and the results are getting better. After initial problems with people passing the test ... now 61% of you have scored 80% or better, and 69% of you have said the test was very good.

Thanks again for the participation, and good luck on the exam.

Update 2:

Over 1000 people have now taken the test in a little over a day. The class curve is dropping somewhat again after making a resurgence yesterday evening.

59% of you have answered 80% or more of the questions right, but 68% still say the test is very good.

Update 3:

Wow, the test is really taking off! 1245 people have taken the test as of this moment. 58% of you have received 80-100% of the questions right, and 68% of you said the test was very good. There is a small group of people who say the test is very bad, but these are hacks who won't ever bother to check out the facts I gave in the answer explanation.

Update 4:

Almost 1400 people have taken the test! I can't believe how popular it has been, and I haven't even posted it on some of the major bookmark sites yet. The stats are about the same as the last update.

Zogby: Most Americans Say Iraq War Not Lost

File this under obvious.

54% of Americans in this poll say the war in Iraq is not lost. Of course, it splits down party lines. 66% of Dems, and 9% of Reps say it is lost (because they aren't paying attention).

It is impossible for our troops to lose this war because we already won it. Our war was with the Iraqi government who surrendered to us already. The mission now is simply to make sure that the Iraqis aren't conquered again by a dictator.

I had an argument with someone about this last night on my show.

If we left Germany or Japan after WWII, and the government we wanted them to have collapsed ... would that then mean we lost the war? Would their surrenders suddenly mean nothing?

U.S. Releases Iranian Diplomats Captured In Raid

News of the captures broke yesterday, and we were waiting for details on the capture. Now it seems the Iranians will be released.

Newsday:

Eight Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by U.S. forces Wednesday after being detained because unauthorized weapons were found in their cars, the U.S. military said. An adviser to the top U.S. general in Iraq called the detentions "regrettable."

There has already been other cases of Iranians bringing things into Iraq, that are not authorized, with the permission of the Iraqi government. Somehow, no one informs the US of such moves.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Iranian delegation was in Baghdad to hold talks with Iraqi officials on building a power plant.

Hmmmm, what kind of power plant?

The only reason there were arrests was because the Iraqi security detail didn't have any permits for their weapons.