Here’s a first hand account of our warriors in Afghanistan, written by a French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman serving with them:
“And they are impressive warriors ! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.”
The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”
During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.
“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”
After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.
“I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us,” the corporal said. “It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.
Don’t rely on Lamestream Media to report any of this. They won’t!
Only a week after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. said that the government bailouts had stabilized the most important financial institutions, plunging stock prices forced it to step in again, both to make another direct investment and to guarantee that losses would be contained from $306 billion in possibly toxic assets on Citigroup balance sheet.
The government injected an additional $20 billion into Citigroup, on top of the $25 billion it invested in the bank a few weeks ago.
It also said that it would cover 90 percent of the losses on those $306 billion in securities after Citigroup suffers the first $29 billion of losses.
That amount, more than the nation has spent over the past six years in Iraq, would rival the sum Congress committed last month to rescuing the country’s financial system. It would also be one of the biggest public spending programs aimed at jolting the economy since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Obama seems to think the economy needs a jolt. Where will it end?
From almost $4.00 to $1.34 a gallon once the election was over. Was oil manipulated to destroy the United States economy in the run up to the election. I am highly supicious.
A long time ago a group of “plumbers” broke into a Washington hotel to get some dirt on another politician, they received jail time and a President resigned. Ohio officials illegally reveal information about an American citizen and they get a 2 - 4 week vacation. If they were Republicans the press would still be demanding justice.
From my history lessons, the Soviet Union wanted its satellite states to be a buffer against another Blitzkrieg attack on Russia from Europe. Condi Rice is really pushing the envelope when she wants to place anti missile systems in countries bordering Russia. It’s one thing to try to contain the bear but it’s really not a good idea to poke the bear and expect to escape unscathed. In the Reuters story. “Russia rejects U.S. missile proposals” the bear responds.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last week he planned to deploy missile systems near Poland’s border in retaliation for U.S. plans to install elements of the proposed missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
It goes on…
Washington says the shield is needed to protect the United States against missile strikes from what it calls rogue states, specifically Iran.
“We’ve been very clear with regards to the intent and purpose of the missile defense site in Europe and what it’s designed for and have offered any number of ways and means to mitigate some of the Russian concerns,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters
He said Iran’s announcement on Wednesday that it had test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missile was another reminder of the importance of establishing the shield, “to defend the U.S. and Europe against a threat that is developing in Iran.”
Do you think Iran would be so stupid to launch a missile against the United States or Europe? If Iran attacks us it will be a bomb on a ship, truck or airplane in a major US city, certainly not by a missile that can be tracked back to Iran.
Has Cold War II started as Russia pushes further into the Western Hemisphere? Chavez is the new Cuba and we are on the way to a new crisis on our Southern Border.
I had seen this a while back and thought it was a great idea. Now it will be a reality in a few years. If you have ever seen the land fill on the Florida Turnpike near Ft. Lauderdale this is an incredible technology. It’s a plant that consumes garbage and produces enough electricity to power 50,000 homes. When the process is complete the garbage is consumed and the only thing left is a glass block which could probably be used for construction. Mike Chino at Inhabitat has the details. “Plasma Plants Will Vaporize Trash While Generating Energy”
The co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he’s officially sworn into office. She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to “rule” on day one.
The only person that made the McCain/Palin ticket palatable to me was, Sarah Palin.
Now after the election is over and the McCain side lost, everyone is piling-on Sarah Palin for the loss.
Not so fast there buckos! Sarah Palin was a breath of fresh air. Sarah Palin is a amazing example of an American woman. She was energetic, optimistic, tireless, and represented the best of what it is to be an American. When she says she serves the people, it’s from her heart not from the coaching of some campaign level advisor.
It’s embarrassing to think that Republicans from the McCain camp would turn on such a valuable asset to their ticket. According to Rasmussen, 69% of GOP Voters Say Palin Helped McCain. There’s more…
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.
Rest assured: Their cowardly character assassination of Sarah Palin won’t be forgotten.
The finks turned to Newsweek and Fox News to spread petty rumors about Palin’s intellect and character.
The magazine peddled anecdotes from sources horrified that Palin greeted top advisers at her hotel room, gasp!, “wearing nothing but a towel” and “wet hair.”
Fox News reporter Carl Cameron breathlessly reported that his unnamed McCain sources told him Palin lacked “a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate” because, they claimed, she didn’t know which countries were parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement and “didn’t understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself.”
Let’s assume for a moment that the McCain rumormongers are telling the truth about Palin (and I don’t believe they are). Who would it damn more: Palin or McCain and his vetters, who greenlighted her for the vice presidential nomination? Don’t need a fancy Ivy League degree to figure that one out.
According to his post ”Palin and Africa, Etc.” Rich Lowry of National Review Online writes about her briefing…
I talked to Steve Biegun, the former Bush NSC aid who briefed Sarah Palin on foreign policy, and he considers the leaks against her on the international stuff “absurd.”
He says there’s no way she didn’t know Africa was a continent, and whoever is saying she didn’t must be distorting “a fumble of words.” He talked to her about all manner of issues relating to Africa, from failed states to the Sudan. She was aware from the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, which is followed closely in evangelical churches, and was aware of Clinton’s AIDS initiative. That basically makes it impossible that she thought all of Africa was a country.
On not knowing what countries are in NAFTA, Biegun was part of the conversation that led to that accusation and it convinces him “somebody is acting with a high degree of maliciousness.” He was briefing Palin before a Univision interview, and talking to her about trade issues. He rolled through NAFTA, CA, and the Colombia FTA. As he talked, people were coming in and out of the room, handing Palin things, etc. She was distracted from what Biegun was saying, and said, roughly, “Ok, who’s in NAFTA, what’s the deal with CA, what’s up the FTA?” her way, Biegun says, of saying “rack them and stack them,” begin again from the start. “Somebody is taking a conversation and twisting it maliciously,” he says.
As far as greeting advisors “wearing nothing but a towel” and “wet hair” Sarah Palin has denied that ever happened. Frankly with the number of family members she had travelling with her does that really meet the smell test?
Michelle Malkin goes on….
Hollywood savaged Palin. Journalists mocked her. Liberal blogs slimed her. Opponents cursed her, Photoshopped her, hacked her e-mail, hanged her in effigy, called her a bigot, Bible thumper and bimbo, and attacked her husband and children.
But nothing Palin endured during the election season compares to the treatment she’s receiving from these backstabbing blabbermouths who worked on the same campaign she poured herself into over the last three months.
I certainly agree, Where is John McCain’s apologies for his staffs behavior? I don’t hear it!
After America took the biggest lurch to the left in it’s history having a red white and blue color scheme just doesn’t seem to fit anymore. A feeling of mourning has come over me. I have decided to change the colors to grey white and black. Links have a bit of color still but that is subject to change soon.
What does the triumvirate of Obama-Pelosi-Reid offer?
Rep. Barney Frank is calling for new tax hikes on the most successful and a 25 percent across-the-board slash in national defense. Sen. John Kerry is talking up new and massive federal spending, a la FDR’s New Deal. Specifically, we can almost surely expect:
Swift amnesty for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens and a drive to make them citizens and register them, as in the Bill Clinton years. This will mean that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona will soon move out of reach for GOP presidential candidates, as has California.
Border security will go on the backburner, and America will have a virtual open border with a Mexico of 110 million.
Taxes will be raised on the top 5 percent of wage-earners, who now carry 60 percent of the U.S. income tax burden, and tens of millions of checks will be sent out to the 40 percent of wage-earners who pay no federal income tax. Like the man said, redistribute the wealth, spread it around.
Social Security taxes will be raised on the most successful among us, and capital gains taxes will be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent. The Bush tax cuts will be repealed, and death taxes reimposed.
Two or three more liberal activists of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg-John Paul Stevens stripe will be named to the Supreme Court. U.S. district and appellate courts will be stacked with “progressives.”
Special protections for homosexuals will be written into all civil rights laws, and gays and lesbians in the military will be invited to come out of the closet. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” will be dead.
The homosexual marriages that state judges have forced California, Massachusetts and Connecticut to recognize, an Obama Congress or Obama court will require all 50 states to recognize.
A “Freedom of Choice Act” nullifying all state restrictions on abortions will be enacted. America will become the most pro-abortion nation on earth.
Affirmative action – hiring and promotions based on race, sex and sexual orientation until specified quotas are reached – will be rigorously enforced throughout the U.S. government and private sector.
Universal health insurance will be enacted, covering legal and illegal immigrants, providing another powerful magnet for the world to come to America, if necessary by breaching her borders.
A federal bailout of states and municipalities to keep state and local governments spending up could come in December or early next year.
The first trillion-dollar deficit will be run in the first year of an Obama presidency. It will be the first of many.
Oson Scott Card has the details of the Creulest Tax of All….
Instead, he’s planning to make it so expensive to generate electricity that only the rich can afford to use their appliances whenever they want.
Why? It’s all in the name of Obama’s True Belief in Global Warming. He says it himself—he’ll take coal off the table as an “ideological matter.” Even if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, he’s opposed to pursuing it.
He wants to put a huge penalty on companies that emit carbon—which means that starting up new coal-powered electrical plants will be prohibitively expensive. In Obama’s own words, “It will bankrupt them.”
“Cap and trade” plans have already been tried, and they don’t work—they cost too much, and people find ways to get around them. But Obama promises us that he’ll take that failed idea and be “as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s” plan.
In other words, if it doesn’t work, let’s do more of it!
This is Obama the New Puritan. We’ve found his real religion: Political and Environmental Correctness.
For the New Puritans, Global Warming is the vengeful god that must be placated. Our economy is the sacrifice to that deity. In the name of Global Warming, we must destroy our quality of life—and, like sales tax, it will hurt the poorest people first and most.
The Democrat and Republicans In Name Only, (RINO)s, have lost touch with the American People. They have become the political elite and We the People have become "fly-over country." I am not a Nazi, a terrorist, a member of the KKK, a racist, or a member of an angry mob. I'm not a birther, teabagger, truther or astroturfer. I do, however believe in the original intent of the Founding Fathers, the United States Constituton and the rule of law. I believe that Government should serve the People, not the other way around. I’m an American and conservative to my very core.
