Bomb Explodes Outside U.S. Base

[thedrifter]

Bomb Explodes Outside U.S. Base
Associated Press
October 23, 2004

RAMADI, Iraq - A car bomb exploded outside a base in western Iraq used by the U.S. military and the Iraqi National Guard, killing eight people and wounding 48, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The blast hit right outside the gates of the Baghdadi base, 142 miles west of Baghdad near Ramadi. The U.S. military confirmed it was a car bomb but gave no other details.

The casualty figures of eight dead and 48 wounded came from a hospital official in nearby Haditha. It wasn't known if there were any U.S. soliders among the killed and wounded.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, has arrested a "senior leader" in the network run by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with five others during overnight raids in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, officials said Saturday.

American forces have stepped up operations in Fallujah in a bid to root out al-Zarqawi's terror group, Tawhid and Jihad, which is believed to operate from there. The group has been blamed in numerous suicide bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages, including recent twin blasts inside Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses the U.S and Iraqi leadership.

The 1:30 a.m. raid in southern Fallujah targeted a site being used as a safe haven by al-Zarqawi's inner circle, according to a military statement.

Intelligence sources said the man captured was previously thought to be a relatively minor member of the terror network. But because so many of al-Zarqawi's associates have been captured or killed, he moved up to take a more important role.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Captain Sues To Block Iraq Assignment
Associated Press
October 23, 2004

NEW YORK - An Army Captain sued the government Friday to block his pending deployment to Iraq, saying he resigned in June after completing eight years of service in the Army and Army Reserve.

Jay J. Ferriola, 31, said in the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld unlawfully continues to exercise control over him even though he properly resigned and was asked to turn in his equipment.

The New York resident has never received a written, official response to his resignation request, said the lawsuit, which asks a judge to process and approve the resignation.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office declined comment.

Ferriola this week received orders to report Monday for active duty with the 306th Military Police Battalion, which will leave for a year and a half "on a dangerous mission in Iraq," the lawsuit said.

It was not fear that prompted Ferriola to take legal action, but a desire to get on with his life, said his lawyer, Barry I. Slotnick.

Last month, a judge ruled that an Army reservist from North Carolina must report to active duty. Todd Parrish had argued he had fulfilled his military obligation and sent the Army a letter resigning his commission, but the judge agreed with the Army that he could be recalled to duty because he failed to sign a resignation line on a letter asking for an update on his personal information.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Operation Santa sending holiday cheer to Marines

By Linda McIntosh
UNION-TRIBUNE COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER
October 22, 2004

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – They aren't asking for much. Shampoo. Socks. A pack of gum.

It's the little things from home that will make the holidays special for many Marines in Iraq.

That's why Vicky Mohler enlisted in Operation Santa.

Mohler is one of hundreds of volunteers working to fill stockings for thousands of Marines from bases across the country who will spend the holiday season away from home.

But time is short.

The operation for Camp Pendleton Marines is facing a shipment deadline of early next month to get items to troops by Christmas.

"They aren't going to be getting a Christmas, so we want to provide it," said Karen Thomas, who is helping Mohler coordinate the project for Camp Pendleton's 9th Communication Battalion.

Mohler's son was deployed to Iraq with the battalion last month.

"It left an empty spot in my heart," Mohler said.

So she adopted his battalion for Operation Santa.

"I thought it was maybe 50 or 60 Marines," she said.

She found out it would mean sewing 700 stockings, getting gifts to fill them and mailing everything.

"I swallowed and told them I was game," Mohler said.

Operation Santa was started several months ago by Deb Conrad and Connie Riecke, two Marine Corps moms in Oregon. The idea was to adopt platoons and battalions and send them stockings.

Coordinators such as Mohler are volunteers. The effort is not sponsored by the Marine Corps or the Navy.

Mohler is coordinating the project from her hometown of Puyallup, Wash., on behalf of the Camp Pendleton-based battalion.

Co-workers in her company's quilting club sewed the stockings and Rite Aid supplied many of the gifts to fill them.

Mohler expects to ship more than 80 boxes by the first week of November. But mailing costs are estimated in the thousands of dollars, and she is appealing to communities in San Diego County for help.

Donations to purchase items for the stockings also are being collected through a nonprofit foundation being established by the Marine Corps moms who started Operation Santa.

"The more donations we get, the more stockings we can fill," said Becky Mack, a Vista resident who is making stockings with fellow members of the El Camino Quilt Guild.

Operation Santa will provide each company in the battalion with a Christmas-in-a-box, which includes the following:

A small Christmas tree with decorations.

A 5-pound can of cookies, candy and snacks.

Gifts for sharing, such as board games, DVDs and videos.

Christmas CD and a greeting card signed by supporters for each Marine.

Christmas letter written by elementary school students for each Marine.

A filled Christmas stocking for each Marine. Stockings will be filled with items such as shower powder, body lotion, foot ointment, board games, phone cards, hard candy, beef jerky and granola bars.

To make a donation
For the 9th Communication Battalion, contact:

Vicky Mohler at vmohler19@qwest.net or (253) 686-9947 or 1002 6th Ave. SW, Puyallup, WA 98371

Information: www.marinecorpsmoms.com

To adopt a group of Marines, Contact: Deb Conrad, deb@marinecorpsmoms.com or Connie Riecke, Riecke@marinecorpsmoms.com

Overseas holiday mailing dates : Visit the U.S. Postal Service Web site at www.usps.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041022-0830-cnssanta.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

US Army wants to lift ban on women in combat: report

Fri Oct 22, 3:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Army is reportedly negotiating with the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s civilian leaders a plan to eliminate a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq (news - web sites) in January.


Citing unnamed defense department sources, The Washington Times said Army blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions included plans for postings of women-men units.


A spokesman said the Army is now in discussions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's staff to see whether the 10-year-old ban in this one area should be lifted, The Times said.


The ban prohibits the Army from putting women in units that "collocate" with ground combatants.


"When that policy was made up, there was a different threat," the paper quotes Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Rodney as saying. "We imagined a more linear combat environment. Now, with the nature of asymmetrical threats, we have to relook at that policy."


Rodney cited the fighting in Iraq as typifying the new threat whereby all soldiers, support or combat, face attack by rockets, mortars, roadside bombs and ambushes, the report said.


Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Army has lost 24 female soldiers.


The Army is not seeking to lift the ban on women in direct combat units, such as infantry or armor, The Times reported.


What is being examined, the paper said, is the part of the exclusion rule that says mixed-sex support companies may not be positioned with ground combat teams.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041022/pl_afp/us_iraq_military_women_041022192841


Ellie

[thedrifter]

October 25, 2004

Pentagon takes aim at roadside bombs
Makers of improvised explosives are elusive

By Megan Scully
Special to the Times


After pouring billions of dollars into systems designed to defeat high-technology weapons, the U.S. military is scrambling to combat a far less sophisticated threat: roadside bombs.
In Iraq, no weapon has been as deadly as these bombs, which cause roughly 90 percent of the Army’s casualties there each month, Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, said during a luncheon speech last month.

Between 500 and 600 of the so-called improvised explosive devices go off each month in Iraq, and roughly half of those harm U.S. personnel or damage vehicles.

As the operation in Iraq has continued, insurgents have altered the bombs and their tactics for employing them, adapting quickly to some U.S. countermeasures and changes in military strategy.

The threat has grabbed the attention of the Pentagon’s top leaders, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who created a joint task force in July to study and defeat the IEDs. The task force is modeled after a similar group the Army established last year.

The 83-member task force is essentially launching a widespread “campaign against the IED threat,” one member said.

The campaign includes input from the other services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the CIA and the FBI. Other countries that have dealt with terrorist threats for years, including Britain and Israel, also are sharing their insights.

No silver bullet

In terms of technology, the task force has not yet identified a “single silver bullet out there that can stop this threat,” a task force member said.

Perhaps one of the most effective technology solutions has been the Warlock electronic countermeasure system, 700 of which have been sent to Iraq to neutralize the roadside bombs, said Thomas Killion, the Army’s chief scientist. Similar systems also are being used in Afghanistan.

Defense officials were reluctant to comment on the specifics of the Warlock system and asked that details not be published, citing operational security concerns.

However, Edward Bair, an Army program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, said the system features an “adaptable” countermeasure architecture that, so far, the enemy has been unable to defeat.

Also in the works are “change detector” sensors for unmanned aerial vehicles. UAV program officials are seeking payloads and software that can be added to the service’s fleet of unmanned vehicles to monitor roadways and report any changes.

So far, the Army has tested several technologies, but has not found one that works well enough to deploy, a top UAV official said this summer. Most UAV technologies can survey areas for changes, but typically are effective in dealing with objects much larger than IEDs.

Information on lessons gleaned from particular incidents or any input on changes in enemy tactics or technologies is sent immediately to the Army’s Center for Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where IED task force members and base officials rapidly adapt the Army’s strategic response.

Major training and technique changes can be made in as quickly as 24 hours, and rarely take longer than three or four days to turn around, the task force member said.

“We’re looking for rapid solutions … to save lives. We are not looking at long-range programs,” the task force member added. “We are trying to stop the killing and the bleeding now.”

Megan Scully is a staff writer for Defense News.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-448148.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

October 22, 2004

Troops, insurgents clash near former Saddam stronghold

By Denis Gray
Associated Press


BUHRIZ, Iraq — U.S. troops and insurgents battled near a central Iraq town on Friday, exchanging gun, rocket and artillery fire as U.S. forces scoured palm groves in search of hidden rebel weaponry, the military said.
The fight flared after dawn when Iraqi rebels fired on an Army 1st Infantry Division patrol with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, Maj. Neal O’Brien said in a statement.

U.S. troops later shot six 155-millimeter artillery shells at rebel positions and American soldiers searched for insurgent weapons caches in palm groves on the western outskirts of town, O’Brien said.

Between 20 and 25 insurgents were in the fight outside Buhriz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Lt. Col. Keitron Todd told The Associated Press in nearby Baqubah.

U.S. forces killed one suspected insurgent, but no Americans were reported dead, said Todd, the executive officer of 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. Insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. observation helicopter, but missed, he said.

Witnesses told Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera that four Iraqis had been wounded.

The U.S. military handed security responsibility back to local leaders in Buhriz in June after hammering Sunni Muslim insurgents in three days of clashes that left 19 militants and one U.S. soldier dead.

The deal called for American troops to pull back, and for Iraqi police to step in and establish security in the town of 40,000, U.S. military officials said.

Under the plan, local security forces will conduct patrols and keep insurgents at bay while the Americans will hang back and conduct only sporadic patrols.

The Americans reserved the right to return in force should their patrols be fired upon, although no U.S. officers said Friday that had happened.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-466310.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Grunts, Battery battle insurgents in Haswa



by Lance Cpl. Zachary R. Frank
24th MEU


FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- Combined arms tactics have been a part of Marine Corps warfighting doctrine for years. It allows Marines to dial up their intensity to overcome their enemies. In Iraq, the practice is working well.

Recently, while conducting a counter-mortar patrol in the town of Haswa, Iraq, a squad of Marines from Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, used combined arms when they were ambushed by a group of Iraqi insurgents.

The insurgents opened up on the squad with small-arms fire as they were passing through the vicinity of Haswa's old police station.

The Marines then began returning fire, and an intense firefight ensued.

M-240G machine gunners began laying down a base of fire as the rest of the squad worked to gain fire superiority over the enemy who was well hidden in the surrounding buildings.

With the squad laying down a heavy amount of fire, enemy rounds continued to bounce off their vehicles. Three Marines were injured, two of them seriously. With no way to stop the enemy's barrage of gunfire from their hiding places in the building's, Marines called the battalion's headquarters for fire support.

One of the injured Marines, Pfc. Michael P. Savoie, of Westwego, La, had his Kevlar helmet shot. The round entered his helmet and penetrated deep enough to cause a cut to the left side of his head before exiting the helmet. The enemy round struck him early in the engagement, but his wound didn't keep him out of the fight. He jumped back on his gun and continued to fire, having to wipe blood out of his eyes to see.

The battalion then forwarded the squad's fire-support request to the Marines of Bravo Battery, who responded with blazing guns.

After receiving and processing the request, the cannoneers sent six rounds hurling toward targets called in by Alpha Company.

With the added firepower, the squad easily overpowered the enemy and began to assess their damage and care for the wounded.

"Once artillery started firing, (the insurgents') rate of fire dropped drastically," said Sgt. Robert Ballance, 24, a Springfield, Ill., native and squad leader with Alpha Company.

Within three minutes of receipt of the call, the battery had launched its fire mission to support the infantryman.

"We have a very real concept of this situation, and we're ready to quickly assist whenever necessary," said Staff Sgt. Richard W. Musard, 38, the battery operations chief, and a native of Richmond, Va. "We have the capability of putting out a round in thirty seconds if needed."

"Our mission is to provide accurate and timely artillery fire every time it's necessary," said Musard.

"It was pretty much over once they started firing," Said Savoie.

ly. With no way to stop the enemy's barrage of gunfire from their hiding places in the building's, Marines called the battalion's headquarters for fire support.

One of the injured Marines, Pfc. Michael P. Savoie, of Westwego, La, had his Kevlar helmet shot. The round entered his helmet and penetrated deep enough to cause a cut to the left side of his head before exiting the helmet. The enemy round struck him early in the engagement, but his wound didn't keep him out of the fight. He jumped back on his gun and continued to fire, having to wipe blood out of his eyes to see.

The battalion then forwarded the squad's fire-support request to the Marines of Bravo Battery, who responded with blazing guns.

After receiving and processing the request, the cannoneers sent six rounds hurling toward targets called in by Alpha Company.

With the added firepower, the squad easily overpowered the enemy and began to assess their damage and care for the wounded.

"Once artillery started firing, (the insurgents') rate of fire dropped drastically," said Sgt. Robert Ballance, 24, a Springfield, Ill., native and squad leader with Alpha Company.

Within three minutes of receipt of the call, the battery had launched its fire mission to support the infantryman.

"We have a very real concept of this situation, and we're ready to quickly assist whenever necessary," said Staff Sgt. Richard W. Musard, 38, the battery operations chief, and a native of Richmond, Va. "We have the capability of putting out a round in thirty seconds if needed."

"Our mission is to provide accurate and timely artillery fire every time it's necessary," said Musard.

"It was pretty much over once they started firing," Said Savoie.


http://www.dcmilitary.com/marines/hendersonhall/9_41/national_news/31766-1.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Charges Dropped Against Marine in Iraqi Abuse Case <br />
<br />
From a Times Staff Writer <br />
<br />
<br />
CAMP PENDLETON — Charges have been dropped against a Marine officer accused of condoning the abuse of Iraqi...

[thedrifter]

Fallujah Insurgents Fight U.S. Marines for Second Day (Update2)
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Marines engaged rebels on the outskirts of the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Fallujah for a second day, the U.S. military said in an e-mailed statement.

Fighting began at about 4 p.m. local time when insurgents aimed mortars and gunfire at Marines near the mainly Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad. ``Marines are countering these attacks with substantial and proportionate ground fire,'' the military said. No details were given of any casualties.

The U.S. has carried out daily strikes on Fallujah since stepping up operations against insurgents in the city on Oct. 14. The governments of U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi have said they plan to regain control of Fallujah and other rebel-held areas before elections slated for January.

In the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi National Guard soldiers raided the al-Norain Mosque, seeking people suspected of making bombs, the U.S military said in a separate statement. Insurgents fired on the Iraqi troops using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the U.S. said.

One civilian received ``minor wounds,'' according to the statement. No troops from the U.S.-led multinational forces entered any part of the mosque building or surrounding grounds, the military said.

Rumsfeld on Insurgency

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed any suggestion the insurgency was putting the U.S. into a ``quagmire,'' a term some historians have used to describe U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Still, ``it is correct that if one looks at the data that the incidents of violence have gone up, as we predicted,'' as Iraq moves toward national elections, Rumsfeld told reporters. ``It's also true that it's very uneven around that country -- there are 18 provinces and in 14 of them, the number of incidents per day is five or less,'' he said.

Today's fighting in Fallujah follows skirmishes yesterday outside the city, when Marines used ground fire and air strikes against insurgents who fired on them, the military said in a statement e-mailed yesterday. Seven people were killed and three were wounded in Fallujah, al-Jazeera said on its Web site, citing Saleh Hussain, a doctor at the city's general hospital.

The U.S. military says Fallujah harbors wanted terrorists including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose Tawhid wal Jihad group has claimed responsibility for attacks and beheadings in Iraq, including the killing in May of Ezzedine Salim, leader of the Iraqi Governing Council.

Rumsfeld repeated his assertion that rebels were receiving funding and support from Iran and Syria. The insurgents likely have ``hundreds of millions'' of looted Iraqi bank dollars, he said. ``They are funded -- that's no surprise.''



To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Peter Torday at ptorday@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 22, 2004 16:23 EDT

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a79VO_gCh7R0&refer=top_world_news

Ellie

[thedrifter]

October 20, 2004

Samarra desertions show challenge of training Iraqi recruits

By Jim Michaels
USA Today


BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 300 Iraqi soldiers abandoned their 750-man unit after they were deployed to Samarra earlier this month as part of a U.S.-Iraqi operation to retake the militant-controlled city. Like similar incidents earlier this year in Fallujah and Baghdad’s Sadr City, the desertions are prompting coalition officers to improve training for Iraqi recruits.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Iraqi forces are needed to help retake and hold the toughest insurgent strongholds, including Fallujah, where as many as 1,000 militants are believed to be entrenched. Releasing the militants’ grip on these areas will be key to holding elections, scheduled for January, and handing security over to Iraqi forces.

The Oct. 1-2 offensive in Samarra was the first major test of newly trained and equipped Iraqi security forces since April, when several battalions of national guard and army troops refused to fight in Fallujah and Baghdad’s Sadr City after revolts.

Since then, the U.S.-led military coalition has upgraded training and provided more equipment and weapons to their Iraqi counterparts.

Coalition officials point out that the remaining 450 soldiers in the Iraqi Army’s 7th Battalion performed bravely during the two-day battle in Samarra. The operation, which involved 2,000 Iraqi forces and 3,000 U.S. soldiers, succeeded in taking back the city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

“Those are the guys who did well in Samarra,” said British Army Brig. Nigel Aylwin-Foster, deputy commander of the coalition office for training and organizing Iraq’s armed forces.

He said the deserters were spooked by an attack on Sept. 19, about a week after they had been deployed from Baghdad. A car bombing at a checkpoint killed one of the battalion’s officers and injured eight soldiers, Aylwin-Foster said. About 100 deserted afterwards.

By Sept. 24, even before the offensive kicked off in Samarra, 300 had left. Senior Iraqi officers were sent there in an effort to rally the battalion’s remaining soldiers. Iraq’s new security forces have been regularly targeted by insurgents in an effort to affect troop strength and morale. Tuesday, a mortar attack killed at least four Iraqi national guardsmen and injured 80 at a base north of Baghdad.

Iraqi national security adviser Kassim Daoud said Tuesday he was not aware of the incident involving the 7th Battalion.

U.S. military officers say the operation in Samarra was a success despite the AWOL problems. The U.S. and Iraqi troops that retook the city in two days killed more than 100 insurgents and drove several hundred more from the city. “They performed very well,” said Army Maj. Neal O’Brien, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division based in Tikrit.

While the offensive in Samarra was considered a success, the desertions illustrate the challenges facing the coalition as it builds Iraqi security forces, a critical part of Bush administration plans to support Iraq’s move toward a stable, democratic state.

Aylwin-Foster said it is difficult to know how a unit will perform in combat until the first bullets fly. The 7th Battalion soldiers who stayed behind to fight are sound soldiers. “It sounds bad, but what we were left with was the toughest soldiers,” he said. “Those who left the fight will get punished.”

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-462035.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Craig Marine loses eye in Fallujah explosion
Michelle Perry

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Cory Hixson, 21, of Craig, who is serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, lost his left eye during a five-hour battle in Fallujah, Iraq, this weekend.

According to his father, Jim Hixson of Craig, Hixson's unit had been checking on enemy pickups they had attacked and were returning to their vehicles when a mortar round exploded on the ground near Hixson.

Jim Hixson, who also served as a Marine, said that a mortar round is fired out of a tube and explodes when it hits the ground. A piece of shrapnel caught Hixson in the eye.

He was transported to a hospital in Baghdad before being taken to Germany, where he is undergoing treatment. Doctors there attempted to save the eye in surgery but were unsuccessful.

"He's supposed to be leaving Germany soon and coming back stateside," Jim said. "I'm hoping we'll get to see him at the end of this week or the beginning of next week."

Hixson soon will travel to Balboa Hospital in California for further treatment, including possible reconstructive surgeries.

A lance corporal, Hixson is a squad automatic weapon gunner, known as a "grunt," with the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines I Company. His brother Greg, who also is a Marine deployed to Fallujah, still serves there.

"They got to see each other and they got to hug each other," Jim said. "Cory's pretty down on it, pretty depressed, but he'll be all right."

Jim said he's shaken up by his son's injury but is thankful the incident wasn't worse. Hixson's mother, Linda Nichols, agreed.

"I've been in shock the last three days," she said. "I've had trouble sleeping.

"I guess that's what kept me going, is knowing he's alive. It could have been a lot worse. He could have lost a leg, or his life."

Linda said Cory was worried about what was going to happen to his gear, which is still in Iraq, and to his job in the Marine Corps.

Jim and Linda don't know what to expect.

Right now they are looking forward to seeing Cory and still worrying about Greg as he continues to serve overseas.

Michelle Perry can be reached at 824-7031 or at mperry@craigdailypress.com.

http://www.craigdailypress.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/14289


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted Oct. 23, 2004

Local group adopts Marines in Iraq

By Tara Meissner
Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — A Manitowoc psychologist, with help from a number of local businesses, has adopted a platoon stationed in Al Qaim, Iraq.

Dr. Judith Krings and her staff at Riverhill Psychological Associates on Friday loaded boxes with various care items and money, to be sent to the troops.

Her friend, Denise Howard of Las Vegas, Nev., is very grateful. Howard’s son, Marine Sgt. Ken De Lozier, is serving a seven- to nine-month tour of duty in Iraq.

“I am overwhelmed that people in Wisconsin who never heard of my son and his guys are helping,” Howard said. “It is not only going to stun him, it is going to boost morale for the whole platoon.”

Krings said she and her husband, Ken, decided to “adopt” the platoon to support their friend.

“I imagined what I would feel like if my own sons, Sean and Jason, or daughter, Jackie, were away from home in a war,” Judith Krings said.

The 25-year-old De Lozier was deployed Aug. 26, seven years into an eight-year enlistment.

His mother sends cards or letters every week, but he has only received two to date, because the mail service is slow. Also, e-mail communication is limited. She gets to talk to him for just three to 12 minutes every eight to nine days, most recently on Monday.

“Hearing his voice, at least I knew he was okay,” she said during a phone interview Friday from her Las Vegas home.

According to Howard, the Marines need upgraded equipment as they work in Iraq. The family’s goal is to raise $19,000.

Krings then enlisted the help of friends and colleagues to open their hearts and wallets for their adopted Marine family.

— Dowco President Chuck Webster provided the entire company with life-saving Streamline M-6 Laser Lights with high intensity strobes.

— Towsley’s Inc. donated caps, t-shirts, and many other supplies.

— About 275 employees from Manitowoc Ice Inc. and its Contributions Committee paid for all the shipping of the items, and also made an undisclosed contribution toward the Marine Corp Equipment Fund.

— Boxes of cheese were donated by Pine River Pre Pack.

— Agricultural Forest Products in Two Rivers is designing a wooden plaque for the platoon.

“As far as the people of Manitowoc, I can’t thank them enough,” Howard said.

The 2nd Platoon containing De Lozier’s unit arrived in Iraq with 46 men, and is now down to 39.

Howard said she received one letter from her son which said the U.S. troops are definitely needed in Iraq.

“These people really need our help,” Howard said. “He doesn’t question the mission they are on, although he didn’t necessarily want to go. They need to know we care.”



Tara Meissner: 920-686-2137 or Tmeissner@htrnews.com

http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/news/archive/local_18329756.shtml

Ellie

[thedrifter]

POLITICS1 Goes to War with the
1st Battalion/23rd Marines

Editor's Note: Politics1 "adopted" the 1st Battalion/23rd Marines -- an infantry battalion of reservists from Texas (and neighboring states) deployed to Iraq in August 2004. Lt James Crabtree, a regular Politics1 reader, belongs to the battalion and he submits regular dispatches to us. Anything you can do to show support for these brave yound men and women is greatly appreciated (regardless of whether or not you support the war). If you'd like to send them any care packages -- and they'd certainly be appreciated -- please send them to: Lt Crabtree, 1/23 H&S Co, Unit 41900, FPO, AP 96426-1900 -- and James will distribute whatever you send to many of the Marines in the 1/23d.

Editor's Second Note to the USMC Families: I've received notes from several of you unhappy with the heavy Democrat slant of the banner ads that run in the left-side column. It takes money to run Politics1, and those are PAID ads. If a campaign -- or a political group -- wants to buy an ad here, I'll only reject it in the rarest of circumstances. We've run ads in the past from candidates associated with the Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties (plus MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, New Yorker magazine, Fox, and others). If your favorite candidate buys an ad: I'll likely run it.



http://www.politics1.com/usmc.htm


Ellie

[thedrifter]

If the Dead Could Talk

Victor Davis Hanson

They’d teach us about war.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

This past summer I followed the route of the U.S. Army’s drive from Normandy into Germany in 1944–45. It is quite something to visit Aachen, Mainz, the Hürtgen forest, Bastogne, Omaha Beach, and Pointe du Hoc and then juxtapose such visits with the daily pabulum in the International Herald Tribune, CNN, and the European dailies. And after two weeks, I think most would prefer the wisdom of the noble dead to the ignorance of the shameful living.

There are more than 10,400 Americans resting in the World War II cemetery at Saint Avold in the Lorraine—more dead here than at Normandy. No sitting American president, I am told, has ever visited the graveyard. One should.

The necropolis of thousands of uniform white crosses and Stars of David leaves the visitor mute—sadly, unlike the experience of visiting many of the World War II museums in Holland and Germany. The inscriptions at American graveyards admonish the visitor to remember sacrifice, courage, and freedom; they assume somebody bad once started a war to hurt the weak, only to fail when somebody better stopped them. In contrast, the “folly” of war—to paraphrase Barbara Tuchman—is what one gleans at most World War II museums in Europe. The displays, tapes, and guides suggest that a sudden madness once descended equally on normal-thinking Europeans and Americans at places like Nijmegen and Remagen. “Stupidity,” a European visitor at Arnhem lectured me, best explains why thousands of young men killed each other for no good reason over “meaningless” bridges. Perhaps—but I suppose the answer to that also depends on whether in September 1944 you ended up on the German or on the Allied side of Arnhem.

At places like Nijmegen one now reads less about the Holocaust, the invasion of Poland, and the Nazi hijacking of German culture and much more about the need for eternal peace, along with notes about the necessity of stopping racism and oppression. Europe now really does believe that such evil disappeared spontaneously, without Willies and Joes driving to their flaming deaths in thin-skinned Sherman tanks to stop SS murderers in 70-ton Tigers. But then, in a continent where George Bush last year was said to be a greater threat to peace than Saddam Hussein, why should one be surprised that affluent Westerners feel that SS killers led by Sepp Dietrich were as much victims of war as the defenseless Belgian civilians they butchered? It was not always so: The message at the graveyards of Verdun is not just the wastage of a million men but also the courage of the outmanned and outgunned French turning back and stopping a different—and far worse—vision of Europe’s future.

In recent months Islamic terrorists—right out of Gibbon’s pages on Attila—have been caught with the heads of their victims in their refrigerators in Saudi Arabia while Britain and the United States squabble over the extradition of an Islamic fascist whose career was dedicated to convincing Muslims in the West to destroy the United States while whining that infidels were occupying the ancient caliphate. In fact, the opposite is true: Detroit contains one of the largest communities of expatriate Arabs in the world outside the Middle East. Emigrants flock to gracious hosts in Michigan to live under tolerance and freedom impossible in their own Arab countries.

In response, crazy al Qaeda videos keep airing on its official mouthpiece, al Jazeera, depicting Western interlopers squatting on “Arab lands.” Can someone please tell the Arab world that its millions are stampeding to the Christian infidel West and that very few Americans want to go to the “Holy Lands.” Saying that Western workers have no business in Saudi Arabia is like saying that a million Arabs have no business in the American Midwest.

So the genius of bin Ladenism is that it promulgates lies that make Hitler’s best perfidies seem mild. And such untruths do seem to galvanize an Arab world that is increasingly guilty of an inability to sort truth from fiction. The receptive Arab Street lives in a perpetual world of asymmetrical thinking—nursing fantasies, inventing false grievances, and above all demanding from the West what it would never offer to others. After all, the Middle East once was furious at “Baghdad Bob” (Saddam Hussein’s minister of information), Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, not because he lied daily but because his lies were proven ludicrous and then humiliating on the world stage by the U.S. military.

So for the record: More Arabs go to the West than Westerners go eastward. Most U.S. troops are leaving Saudi Arabia; billions of American dollars flow to Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. We have even given billions to that wretched Arafat kleptocracy and saved Muslims from Kuwait to Bosnia. U.S. jets, not deranged riffraff from Afghanistan, stopped Milosevic. Beware of perceived grievances that have everything to do with pride, envy, and honor and nothing to do with reality. In fact, the Arab world had no more legitimate complaint against the Western democracies than Hitler did when annexing Czechoslovakia or the Japanese did in Manchuria. Just because the Japanese whined that cutting off U.S. petroleum forced them to bomb Pearl Harbor didn’t make it true.

Those who follow bin Laden may be poor and confused; so too were many of the Hitlerjugend who murdered their way into Normandy. But, like the Hitler Youth, for the killers of the mujahideen all efforts at compromise and mutual understanding are mere parlor games of the academic. We do not need to educate the Arab world that we are better than bin Laden any more than we had to beg Arab immigrants to try out new lives in an “unknown” United States. They know what we are about. At this point the American message of religious tolerance, equality of women, democracy, and secularism is too well known—and it is no more welcome to Islamicists than the idea of tolerating Jews was to an SS Panzer division. Yet, like Hitler’s young minions, the masked men in bathrobes with machetes have not yet learned to fear the power of Western democracy that could, if it so wished—as the 10,000 resting at Saint Avold have so proved—put a stop to their cowardly murdering rather quickly and thus end the Arab tolerance of these beheading fanatics.

Meanwhile, the United Nations scolds Israel about its fence to keep out suicide murderers to the applause of the European and Arab worlds. Yet both sit mostly powerless while Arabs systematically mass murder black Africans in the Sudan. Can we at least drop the falsity? In the new global CNN media circus, an Arab must kill 1,000 innocents deliberately to warrant the condemnation that the world allots to a Jew who kills one Arab inadvertently.

Back at home, we are told that the 9/11 Commission is to be praised for its pedestrian conclusions that we cannot afford more Taliban-like rogue regimes and thus must provide a message to match our bullets. How brilliant! But while the commission members are basking in unearned praise—remember the grandstanding of Messrs. Ben-Veniste and Kerrey to the cheap applause of the gallery—would they please tell us what to do about real problems, such as an Iran that is building a bomb, has harbored many of the 9/11 terrorists, and is the natural depot of al Qaeda planners from Saudi Arabia? Preaching that we must avoid another terrorist badlands is easy; warning that we cannot any longer tolerate a fascistic Iran, well, that is another thing altogether. That raises nasty, hurtful ideas like deterrence, collective action, and, yes, that evil notion of preemption.

Worse still, the commission has helped to resurrect the fable that we are hated for what we do or don’t do to Muslims rather than who we are. But the collective brain power of the commissioners could not adduce a simple explanation as to why the French and Germans are busy rooting out plots to blow up their own citizens—despite billions of E.U. money sent to terrorist organizations like Hamas, support for Arafat, and cheap slurs leveled at America in Iraq. Why do Muslim radicals hate Europe when Europeans have no military power, no real presence abroad, give billions away to the Middle East, despise Israel, will sell anything to anyone anywhere at anytime, and have let millions of Arabs onto their shores? Are daily threats to Europeans earned because of what Europe does—or is it because of who they are?

For rare honesty in a dishonest age, I would prefer to return to the wisdom of those inscriptions on granite in our military resting places abroad than listen to the new global nonsense, which is as intellectually dishonest as it is dangerous in conveying the lie that ignorance, rather than evil, causes war—or that wars break out over craziness rather than the murderous intent of an aggressive party. I don’t think those asleep at Saint Avold would like to hear that we fought the German Nazis and Japanese fascists the “wrong way” by relying too much on the Third and Seventh Armies and too little on education, mutual understanding, and “getting the message out.”

The Belgians in places like Wiltz and Saint Vith were not complaining about Americans “exporting democracy” when Panzers were stopped from renewing their murderous work in their countryside. They did not believe that America needed quickly to join the League of Nations or that the next election in Germany would bring them a reprieve.

And the tens of thousands sleeping under their white marble crosses in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg from the Meuse-Argonne to Hamm would not agree that, had we only been more reasonable and less bellicose, we would have been more popular and liked. You see, they would not concede that millions followed Hitler because America did not offer the German people an alternative to barbarism. In fact, they didn’t much care why Germany hated America, only how to defeat it and then—but only then—to guide it on a new path away from its savage past.

Indeed, if our dead could rise out of their graves they would surely rebuke us for our present blasphemy—shaking their fingers and remonstrating that bin Laden and his followers, both active and passive, are no different from Hitler and the other evil killers of their own age, who deserve to be defeated, not reasoned with or apologized to or understood. The voices of our dead abroad murmur to us, the deaf, that a nation is liked not for being good and weak or bad and strong but only for proving both principled and resolute.

Sleep in peace, you ten thousand of Saint Avold, and let us pray that we, the smug beneficiaries of your ultimate sacrifice, may still wake up from our own slumber.

http://www.hooverdigest.org/044/hanson2.html

Ellie