Saluting the 3rd ACR


In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.

NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq

The Taliban has decalared a mini-Caliphate in North Waziristan a province of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. Pesonally I really have little doubt that this is where bin Landin has been hidding out. (Warning: graphic photos accompany article toward end.)


The Taliban's bloody foothold in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad



KARACHI - By taking control of virtually all of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, the Taliban have gained a significant base from which to wage their resistance against US-led forces in Afghanistan. At the same time, the development solidifies the anti-US resistance groups in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, which will now fight under a single strategy.

Over the weekend two rather brave if not foolish counter-protesters showed up to let the followers of the "religion of peace" know where they stood on the issue of free speech. Click on the link to watch the video. The two where whisked away by police before the followers of the "religion of peace" lynched them.


Brigade de l'Argent des Français: La BAF crash la manif des Islamistes contre les caricatures



On Saturday, February 11, Islamic organizations yelling their slogans - in a "rather moderate tone", according to France 2 - had called on Muslims to demonstrate between Place de la République and¨Place de la Nation in Paris, France, against Danish cartoons of Mohammad and for the "respect of religions" and the "ethics of journalism" (!).

Must take the time to read the entire post, very well written, a sample:


allthingsbeautiful

We now have the ability to put remote control cameras on the surface of Mars. Why should we allow enemies to annihilate us simply because we lack the clarity or resolve to strike a reasonable balance between a healthy skepticism of government power and the need to take proactive measures to protect ourselves from such threats? The mantra of civil-liberties hard-liners is to "question authority" -- even when it is coming to our rescue -- then blame that same authority when, hamstrung by civil liberties laws, it fails to save us. The old laws that would prevent FBI agents from stopping the next al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were built on the bedrock of a 35-year history of dark, defeating mistrust.

More Americans should not die because the peace-at-any-cost fringe and antigovernment paranoids still fighting the ghost of Nixon hate President Bush more than they fear al Qaeda. Ask the American people what they want. They will say that they want the commander in chief to use all reasonable means to catch the people who are trying to rain terror on our cities. Those who cite the soaring principle of individual liberty do not appear to appreciate that our enemies are not seeking to destroy individuals, but whole populations.

How did we go from the Congressional authorization to use force against Iraq to perceiving that as the authority to wiretap? I have yet to see that specifically down on paper, anywhere.

It's not from the Congressional authorization to use force against Iraq.

www.usdoj.gov
Just a few days after the events of September 11th, Congress enacted a joint resolution to support and authorize a military response to the attacks on American soil. In this resolution, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Congress did two important things. First, it expressly recognized the President's "authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States." Second, it supplemented that authority by authorizing the President to, quote, "use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks" in order to prevent further attacks on the United States.

The Resolution means that the President's authority to use military force against those terrorist groups is at its maximum because he is acting with the express authorization of Congress.

What was the problem with obtaining the warrant 72 hours after the fact? That does not constrict the efforts in any way shape or form, and allows them to do what they need to do without violating the law.

The law was not violated, in any case here is the administrations reasons why FISA was too cumbersome for the surveillance program in question.

Some have pointed to the provision in FISA that allows for so-called "emergency authorizations" of surveillance for 72 hours without a court order. There's a serious misconception about these emergency authorizations. People should know that we do not approve emergency authorizations without knowing that we will receive court approval within 72 hours. FISA requires the Attorney General to determine IN ADVANCE that a FISA application for that particular intercept will be fully supported and will be approved by the court before an emergency authorization may be granted. That review process can take precious time.

Thus, to initiate surveillance under a FISA emergency authorization, it is not enough to rely on the best judgment of our intelligence officers alone. Those intelligence officers would have to get the sign-off of lawyers at the NSA that all provisions of FISA have been satisfied, then lawyers in the Department of Justice would have to be similarly satisfied, and finally as Attorney General, I would have to be satisfied that the search meets the requirements of FISA. And we would have to be prepared to follow up with a full FISA application within the 72 hours.

A typical FISA application involves a substantial process in its own right: The work of several lawyers; the preparation of a legal brief and supporting declarations; the approval of a Cabinet-level officer; a certification from the National Security Adviser, the Director of the FBI, or another designated Senate-confirmed officer; and, finally, of course, the approval of an Article III judge.

Now something for you to mull over in your own mind. What do you think would have happened if the President had not authorized the international surveillance program after September 11. That instead he had relied solely on FISA, and the following events took place.

The NSA obtains information that an agent of al Qaeda somewhere overseas is planning a nuclear attack in cooperation with an affiliate here in the United States. The NSA wants to intercept the communications between the overseas al Qaeda operative and the individual operative here in the U.S., but first it asks to obtain the approval from all the lawyers in the administration that this would involve, assembling all of the information needed to complete and insure a succesful FISA application. It begins the process of satisfying all those involved that would need to pass off on it but the next day, while NSA is still working on getting the necessary approvals, a nuclear device levels much of Washington, D.C.

Suppose that disaster had happened a year ago. How do you think the surviving Democrats would have responded? Do you think they would have praise for the administration's refusal to go outside the bounds of the FISA's procedures? Or do you think they would have denounced President Bush and the administration as the most irresponsible, negligent and ineffective officials to be in charge of the executive branch in the history of the nation?

And how does that impede the program? Anyone still inside the United Statews trying to execute terrorist acts and needing to communicate out side the country for whatever reason is STILL going to use a telephone. If not, how are they going to communicate?

How are they going to communicate, well I can think of a couple of ways just off the top of my head, but I don't feel comfortable putting those ideas on the www.

The US ecomomy has been consistently out performing every other economy on the planet. No one seems to have informed the MSM. You wouldn't know from the news coverage just how well the economy is performing. Meg Kreikemeier over at TCS noted both the strong performance and the weak coverage.

TCS Daily - Strong Economy, Weak Coverage

With the advent of a new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, many are contemplating the health of the economy and future actions needed by the Fed. So how is the economy doing, and has the coverage of its recovery been balanced? Consider some healthy economic results which were released in late November and early December 2005:

* The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a key measure of economic expansion and contraction, increased by 4.3 percent in the third quarter in spite of the devastating hurricanes. Since the second quarter 2003, GDP has grown over 3 percent each quarter.

*The November unemployment rate was 5 percent, where the rate has been hovering since May. (The unemployment rate has since dropped to 4.7% in January).

* Continuing the solid monthly trend in 2004, 215,000 jobs were added to the economy in November.

* Productivity, an indicator of rising living standards, rose more than expected during the third quarter and increased at its highest rate in two years.

*Factory orders and orders for durable goods increased by 2.2 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, in October.

*A survey of America's leading CEOs, the Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook Survey, showed that they expect "broad strength in the economy moving into 2006." The CEO Economic Outlook Index for December 2005 was at 101.4. The index is "centered on 50, which means anything above 50 is expansion and anything below 50 is contraction."

So where were the golwing headlines about the economy?

I read this excellent insight into every single leftest critique of America. All of the lefts complaints fit rather nicely don't you think? This is bound to become a classic.

The BIDINOTTO BLOG

If you wish to make intelligible the left's Byzantine policy positions and declarations, note that there are two constants in every leftist interpretation of world events:

(1) AMERICA is always to blame; and

(2) every evil committed by anyone else on the planet, foreign or domestic, is only a "reaction" or "response" to AMERICAN (fill in the blank) aggression/inequality/corruption/racism/imperialism
/jingoism/arrogance/capitalism/etc.