I participate in a group blog, specifically about the war. It is called Iraq War News, and it is hosted on west-point.org. The contributors are people from the West Point community - mostly graduates, some parents, and other people who have some relationship to the Academy.

Whether I post something here or there goes through a little algorithm in my head. Sometimes I put an item in both places. I do more commentary, here, and notification there.

I read a post on there today that is not a news item, but an editorial by a USMA '50 graduate, who went from graduation parade to troopship and showed up to his first assignment as a brand new 2LT as the company commander of a rifle company in the midst of the Korean War.

Read it. And there are folks like him out there today. If you saw the MSNBC story where Brian Williams was stranded in a Chinook after one of his flight was hit by a rocket, and then trapped by sandstorms, he thanks a LT Nye and his troops. LT Nye is USMA '99.

In this war, LT Nye won't see the devastating losses that were experienced in Korea. But he is putting his life on the line, for Brian Williams, and the rest of us, and a bunch of people that live in a country 10,000 miles from us, but he is fighting in today. I am sure that he knows that what he is doing is right, just like those who came before him.

I found my own answer 53 years ago when I stood on top of Hill 347 in Korea, as a 7th Cavalry Company Commander. I had lost all 6 of my officers, and 154 of the men I loved - killed, wounded or missing. Only myself and 15 men were left standing after the battle. We suffered a toll in casualties that would not be tolerated today. But we won. And it was important.

For Hill 347 still stands today on the dividing line. South of Hill 347 is a free and prosperous, even if often ungrateful, nation. North of that hill is only fear, misery, and a tyrannical state.

This Reuter's article on a 4-6 day "operational pause" is getting a lot of play. Not sure why. I guess it dovetails into the "Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld really screwed it up" theme. Of, course there are lots of issues with this. First of all, why would we be telegraphing exactly what we'll be doing for the next few days? Unless it is some disinformation, trying to either get the Iraqis to relax because we won't be attacking, or to try to get them attack us since they know where we'll be for the next 4-6 days. Second, haven't we been "paused" for the past 4-6 days? We've been 50 miles from Baghdad since Day 3.

Besides, what exactly is the rush to get into Baghdad to begin with? Everyone agrees that Hussein wants us in there, in urban combat that he can use human shields and our desire to minimize casualties to negate our strengths in firepower and high technology. That this is a bad scenario for us. Why wouldn't we sit where we are and wait for them to get out of their hidey holes next to the orphanages and hospitals, and get out on the roads for a little "Highway of Death" action? This seems to be working fairly well. The Fedayeen are making suicide runs with their pickups at our armored vehicles, and we are just wiping them out. When their armor goes on the move, B-52's pound them from the air.

And while every casualty is tragedy, the fact is that we have not lost all that many folks. We certainly lost more in the first Gulf War. We had POW's on TV Day 1 of that conflict.

How soon we forget.

In the Washington Post, an article about blogging the war. But I got the shortest blurb. I'm just ranting and raving. Hmmm. Guess I gotta work on that some.

And evidently you don't piss off Neil Cavuto.:

So am I slanted and biased? You damn well bet, professor.

I'm more in favor of a system that let's me say what I'm saying here than one that'd kill me for doing the same thing over there.

You have the right to be the self-absorbed, condescending imbecile you apparently are and I have the right to tell you that. You didn't give me that right, professor. My country did.

To the USA Today. On their front page today (print edition, not the website) they have a LARGE photo with 2 dead Iraqi soldiers. Not nearly as graphic as al Jazeera's videos, but gruesome enough. We just got through beating up on AJ for doing that. You would think they'd have better taste.

Just now on Fox - the reporter said that Iraqis had run a bus into the side of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle on purpose. So the US troops shot them with a 120mm cannon.

On purpose.

Heh.

We need to conscript Frank and put him in the PsyOps group now.

Sent to Jonah, and posted in The Corner:

As a Marine Corps Captain, I would like to pitch a gripe about all these headlines lately about the "elite republican guards" heading south toward the Marines. The headline should read "Republican Guards heading south on suicide mission toward Elite Marines."

This is going to suddenly look very one-sided. First, an Iraqi armor column decided to leave Basra.

The source said coalition aircraft as well as ground units were hitting the column, which he estimated at about 120 vehicles. The vehicles were moving south along Highway 6 .

Since they've only managed to tick us all off with that fake surrender stuff, the Republican Guard has decided it is going to come and get us out on the plains away from Baghdad. In this case:

A column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles was reported moving south Wednesday night toward Najaf, the scene of an earlier battle with U.S. forces, U.S. Army officers told CNN.

Michelle Malkin writes that perhaps we need to take a scrutinizing look at the Islamic soldiers in the US military.

Advantage, umm, me.

By something. There has to be something else going on Iraq. As I pointed out earlier, the numbers don't seem to add up. Could be there is a force waiting to come in from the West. Or maybe from the East. Maybe there is a lot more diplomacy than we know. Maybe the Jordanian's are playing along more than they say, or perhaps even the Saudis. Or weirder still, the Iranians. Drudge linked to an article that pointed out that Iraqi speedboats laden with explosives had been captured, and the coalition Naval forces were on the lookout for suicide attacks:

Three other Iraqi speedboats, which it is feared may contain similar amounts of explosive, got away when Iranian forces engaged Iraqis at the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab River, the waterway that marks the border between the two countries. The explosives were discovered after one of the Iraqi boats was run aground during the confrontation.

What is surprising is that evidently the Iranians reported it to us. Which says that they are somewhat less than neutral in this conflict. If they are passing intel to us, they are at least marginally on our side. I wonder if there is perhaps more to their support.

MSNBC and FoxNews have identified the soldier who carried out the grenade attack on the 101st Airborne. He is Sgt. Asan Akbar of the 326th Engineer Battalion. Fox adds:

But Heath did say Akbar had been "having what some might call an attitude problem." As a sergeant, Akbar commanded four to seven soldiers, Heath said.

Another Army spokesman, Max Blumenfeld, said the motive in the attack "most likely was resentment." No further details were available.

MSNBC reporting that two high-ranking military sources say Akbar was opposed to the war. He was not "disgruntled" about not being deployed, as first reported. He was opposed to the killing of Muslims.

A military source said the man was a Muslim who was upset by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a Muslim country.

"He's a Muslim, and it seems he was just against the war," the source, who did not wish to be identified, said.

• Item 1: Former Army sergeant is part of al Qaida team that attacked US embassies in East Africa.

  
  Ali Mohamed, a 48 year old Egyptian native and former US Army sergeant, was the first person to plead guilty or be convicted of murder charges resulting from the embassy bombings. On Friday, October 20, 2000, Mohamed told Judge Leonard Sand of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan that at the request of bin Laden, he had conducted surveillance of US, British, and French targets in Nairobi, including the US embassy.
  
  [...]
  
  Mohamed pleaded guilty to five federal counts of conspiracy, which included plotting to kill US citizens, destroy US facilities, and murder US soldiers in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. His plea was a major victory for US prosecutors. Mohamed is a naturalized US citizen, who worked as a supply sergeant in a Special Forces unit in Fort Bragg, North Carolina from 1986 to 1989, before going to work for bin Laden.
  

• Item 2: Terrorist cell leader joins Army Reserve for training

  
  The indictment charges that the five defendants purchased airline tickets to Hong Kong with the intent of traveling to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan via China and Pakistan. On November 2, 2001, Battle told his ex-wife and alleged co-conspirator, October Lewis, that the group had encountered difficulties crossing the border of China into Afghanistan. The indictment charges that on eight occasions Lewis wired money to Battle overseas with the knowledge that the money would be used to support his attempt to reach Afghanistan to fight with Taliban and al Qaeda forces. The indictment further charges that while in Bangladesh attempting to gain entry into Afghanistan, Battle caused himself to be discharged administratively from the United States Army Reserve, in which he had enlisted in order to receive military training intended for use against the United States. According to the indictment, three of the defendants, Battle, Ford, and Muhammad Bilal, returned to the United States in late 2001 and early 2002. They, and alleged co-conspirator October Lewis, are in the custody of federal authorities at this hour.
  

• Item 3: Muslim student encourages Muslims on the Internet to join US military to fight against the US.

  
  

  
  03-16-2003 08:12 AM

  
  El-Masri
  
  Junior Member

  
  Brother
  
  Registered: Feb 2003
  
  Location: U S of A
  
  Posts: 58
  
  Asalamu Alikum Wa Rahmatu Allah Wa Barakatu,

  
  I always thought (and still think) it's a great idea to join the US ground forces for a simple reason: they're all getting shipped off to the Middle East for FREE! So, you go there, free, with US equipment and weapons, yada yada yada, then when you get there, you change sides and fight the kufar! After changing your uniform of course! And while you're at it, you can sabotage some of their stuff from the inside!

  
  Aaah, just some thoughts that are coming to my mind!

  
  Wa Asalamu Alikum Wa Rahmatu Allah Wa Barakatu.

  
  __________________
  
  BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU! ALLAH IS WATCHING YOU!
  
  MSA of GVSU

  
  Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

  
  03-16-2003 07:59 AM
  

  
  Referenced below, via LGF.
  
• Item 4:
  
  
  
  • a: Wahhabist institution provides majority of Muslim clerics to US Army

    
    Leesburg, Va. -- The graduation ceremony at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (SISS) last week had all the trappings of any other American university conferring advanced degrees -- caps and gowns, a musical entrance march, a robed faculty and a guest list of joyful families and friends. The only difference with this graduation was that its focus was on Islam and its meaning in the modern world.
    
    [...]
    
    Currently, there are two Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military. With last week's graduation, however, the number of Islamic clergy in the armed services has increased to six. Their training has become one of the school's main focuses.

    
    The U.S. Department of Defense requires that chaplains prove that they have trained at an appropriate institution. Al-Alwani mentioned at the graduation that he is in discussions now with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to train chaplains for the different institutions around the country.
    [NOTE: This is from 1999. I saw a report that there are now 13 Muslim chaplains, 9 of which are from SISS.]
    

  • b: SISS is raided by government, suspected of being part of terrorist financial network.

    In the aftermath of those appalling attacks, Federal officials formed Operation Green Quest, aimed at tracing the money trail to Islamic terrorism. In the course of their investigation, agents raided more than a dozen Saudi-funded organizations, such as the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Virginia.
    

  
  

If they can, and do, infiltrate our civil institutions for the purpose of furthering their terrorist agenda, then we should definitely be on the lookout for it in our military ones.

Remember, President Sadat was killed by members of his own Presidential guard. Members of the military. They were following the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of which is the #2 guy in al Qaida.

The embedded reporters and those in Baghdad have been providing very good, live coverage of a part of the war - the part we already knew about, the push from the south. However, the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force are getting the coverage, but they certainly don't add up to the 250,000 troops we are supposed to have in theater. Even given that many thousands of those are afloat and in the Air Force, we have a lot more ground troops there than are accounted for in the news reports. The 101st, which just suffered an attack, perhaps a terrorist attack, at a base camp in Kuwait, is sometimes reported as accompanying the 3d ID from the South, but that seems to be a poor employment of an Air Mobile asset. I have also heard that they are in Northern Iraq, working with the Kurdish resistance. Plus, early on, it was reported that "boots are on the ground" in the North and West - it has been widely reported that this has been the work of special operations troops, which has been true since well before the war started.

We have a fair accounting of who is moving up from the South, so that means that the unaccounted for numbers are going to be in the West and North. Various reporting:

• From GlobalSecurity.org's Order of Battle: "An unknown number of personnel are being staged from Jordan and are conducting operations in Iraq according to various news reports from Fox, ABC, etc. Numbers at the moment are extremely vague though it is possible that the 173rd Airborne Brigade could be in Jordan." Also: "The II Marine Expeditionary Force is now believed to be located in Jordan. This analysis is based on news reports coming out of North Carolina indicating that some 11,000 Marines in addition to the 2nd MEB have departed Camp Lejeune."
  
• From CNN: "Thousands of U.S. airborne troops are expected to fly into northern Iraq from eastern Jordan over the next seven days, bypassing Turkish airspace, Kurdish sources tell CNN."
  

U.S. Troops Attacked in Kuwait; 13 Wounded. Very strange circumstances. There is a soldier in custody, and a civilian. The soldier is a Muslim American.

Interesting, in light of this post over on LGF:

El-Masri
Junior Member

Brother
Registered: Feb 2003
Location: U S of A
Posts: 58
Asalamu Alikum Wa Rahmatu Allah Wa Barakatu,

I always thought (and still think) it's a great idea to join the US ground forces for a simple reason: they're all getting shipped off to the Middle East for FREE! So, you go there, free, with US equipment and weapons, yada yada yada, then when you get there, you change sides and fight the kufar! After changing your uniform of course! And while you're at it, you can sabotage some of their stuff from the inside!

Now on MSNBC. Embedded reporter on MSNBC with 3d ID is saying that radio chatter says that the Iraqi 11th Division, an armored division, has surrendered and is out of the game. This is one of 3 Iraqi divisions in Southern Iraq.

My hotel doesn't have FNC, but the local Fox affiliate is rebroadcasting.

A reporter in Amman, Jordan, is saying that television there is showing a battle for the city of Basra. The Guardian is reporting:

Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade launched a helicopter and hovercraft assault on "Red Beach" where the strategically vital Shatt-al-Arab waterway meets the Gulf. There were also reports that British and US marines had taken the port town of Umm Qasr on the way to Basra.

Watching Fox, 3d Infantry Division is in Iraq now.

U.S. Marine Chopper Down in Kuwait; First Coalition Casualties Reported

A U.S. Marine helicopter carrying 16 American and British troops crashed in Kuwait, killing everyone on board, the Pentagon said.

The crew of 12 U.S. and 4 British soldiers are the first coalition casualties of the one-day-long invasion of Iraq.

We have taken the port city of Umm Qasr, and that the Pentagon says expect more things to happen. If you look at the map of Iraq, this city is just over the Kuwaiti border, at the mouth of the Shatt al Arab, a waterway at the head of the Persian Gulf. I suspect that the "things" will include amphibious landing of Marines through that port.

Boots on ground in north and west of Iraq. That's all they were cleared by the Pentagon to say.

One of those retired general commentator guys on MSNBC described how the strike went - he said that F117's dropped 4 GBU27 laser guided bombs - these are 2,000 lb penetrators into a bunker to "crack it open, " then TLAM's (Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles) hit the opened up bunker with regular HE warheads, and then, for good measure, dropped submunition warheads (lots of little bomblets) on top of that.

Let's hope that plenty plus more was enough.

UPDATE: Pics:

GBU-27

TLAM

Source photos pointed out in The Corner. I Gimped it and came up with this:

The left hand side is from a picture with Dan Rather. The right a video cap of the speech. I think the nose looks a little less bulbous on the end from the video, the eyebrows bushier and too high behind those glasses, the forehead and hair covered by the beret. I am hearing reporting that we are not sure whether we got him, and at a minimum, we know it was taped, not live.

Watching the tape of Hussein on Iraqi TV being played on MSNBC. What's with those specs? The mustache looks very light. He doesn't look fat enough. He just doesn't look right.

If that was a double, then we may have had success.

Rummy gets an early start.

It's weird. All day this deadline was looming. And Vegas is, well, Vegas. I was eating dinner at Bellagio, the stunningly beautiful casino that starred in Oceans 11. (yeah, I know, Clooney was in it, but I liked it anyway.) , and the Sidekick rang off the "email arrived" sound. It was the CNN Breaking News email I had signed up for. "American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger," it said. The war was on.

And Vegas was still, well, Vegas. I walked through the casino in my hotel after dinner, and people were still gambling, and the bars had basketball on the tube - except for one with CNN. Just feels kinda weird.

I still don't understand the world's fascination with George Bush saying "nu-cu-lar" vs. "nu-cle-ar." John Derbyshire makes mention of it in a column on NRO. A lot of people hear it and cringe, and a lot of others note that its just proof that Bush is a moron. I wish people would break out their tapes of President Carter, current darling of the crowd that hates Bush. Ever hear how he pronounces the word? It is sometimes "nu-cu-lar," and sometimes "nu-kee-ar." Remember - this is the guy that Walter Cronkite thinks is the smartest President he ever met. And in case you've forgotten - Carter was a Naval Academy graduate, and in the Navy, he was a submariner. A nuclear submariner. From his bio at the Jimmy Carter library:

Chosen by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the nuclear submarine program, he was assigned to Schenectady, N.Y., where he took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics, and served as senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf.

Michelle Malkin has some thoughts on how you can help. Among the things you can do:

4. Be always prepared. Take nothing for granted in your daily life: your trips to the mall, your commute across the bridge, your stop at the library or Home Depot. Sharpen your powers of observation.

I just had the weirdedst thing happen. I was going to do a post on this:

Iraqi Republican Guard military units south of Baghdad may now have chemical munitions filled with a form of VX nerve agent as well as mustard gas, U.S. military officials Tuesday told CNN.

I remember what came before, too. I was a brand new 1st Lieutentant, and circumstances had worked out that I was in command of my detachment temporarily. We moved it from Greece to Italy in July of 1990. Our CONEXes full of stuff arrived late in the month. We were in the office, and CNN Headline News came on AFRTS - the President was announcing the deployment of the 82d Airborne to Saudi Arabia due to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Almost immediately after the speech was over, our phone rang - it was our higher command. Call me on the STU (Secure Telephone Unit) was the message. So I called the secure number, and the guy on the other end asked "do you guys have your chemical gear?" I answered, yes, but it was still packed in the shipping containers. "Get it out and count it." That was pretty much it. We dropped everything else, and dug through the CONEXes to get our gear out and inventory it. Of course, the post commander came by when we had it all strewn throughout our office for his first visit to our unit since our arrival on post - it looked a mess, a great first impression. And I couldn't tell him why we were doing it.

A little more time passed, and I switched units in Italy. I remember being in there when that message came in, and the talk about the "dusty mustard." And what all this would mean for what was already an impending war.

At first, when I heard about mustard and VX again, I thought, man, they are recycling intelligence from last time. A rehash of the stories from the first Gulf War, as part of the "information component" of this war, designed to make the enemy appear that much worse. And I thought, we were really worried about it, last time. But it wasn't as bad as we expected. In fact, officially, the Iraqis never used any chemicals on the US during the first Gulf War.

But I don't know that this is entirely true. I know a lot of people who think that they encountered chemical weapons in the Gulf War - there are a large number of Gulf War vets who think that their post-war illnesses are related to exposure - and the DoD has lessened the hard stance they had that it was impossible, because there were no chemical weapons.

I guess my final gut is that they used them on us before, they'll do it again. And it will have just as much effect. But this time, we won't play it down.

I flew out of Dulles this morning to Vegas. I didn't see anything which seemed augmented on either end of the flight. In fact, today was the first time in a while that I haven't been pulled out for a second or third security check. Lines through security went pretty quickly.

Maybe we're just getting better at this.

Mark Steyn. Donald Rumsfeld. Great together.

Gee, thanks guys.

When asked why the situation would change matters, Levitte said that "no army is allowed by treaties to use chemical and biological weapons. This is absolutely forbidden and if Saddam Hussein were to use these weapons then he would a create a completely new situation for the whole world."

Levitte also said France would want the United States to go back to the United Nations and participate in a Security Council resolution that would include humanitarian aid and assistance for a post-Saddam Iraq.

Not really surprising. Stay alert. Make sure you've got your kit inventoried. Especially the stuff you used up during the snow.

In DC, they've decided no way they can do a full-scale evacuation here. If it were necessary, just "affected areas" would be evacuated. I wonder about the problems with that - like the spread of whatever it is that causeed the evacuation. A dirty bomb or chemical attack will get the contamination spread further - biological attack too. Seems that they wouldn't want to evacuate the affected area, but rather quarantine it. No way that we could do that.

In the end, we are better off stopping the people who want to do this kind of thing. And that's why Jose Padilla is in the brig in Charleston.

If you wondered (and I did) where our resolute President went, he's on TV right now, making a speech. Tough, tough words. And I don't doubt he means them all.

48 hours for Saddam and his sons. And a request to the Iraqi military to allow our troops in peacefully. That's an interesting call. I hope Commando Solo is broadcasting this now. Also, like the first Gulf War, I am sure we are also broadcasting directly on the military frequencies, too.

How great would that be? Our troops entering Iraq without having to fire a shot? Without having a shot fired at them?

The UN dithering is now over. For good. Apparently, an ultimatum is coming. Or has been issued. I can't tell. At any rate, if Hussein doesn't leave in the next few days, its go time. I don't know that anyone expects Hussein to leave. So now the course is set. We are going to war with Iraq. The question will be when. How many days will we give Hussein to quit Baghdad? Because if he is not expected to leave, then we can expect that those day will be used by Hussein to improve his position. He may decide to attack - Kenneth Pollack in "A Threatening Storm" says that Hussein thinks that not attacking the US first in the first Gulf War was a mistake. However, in order to do so, he's going to have to move stuff in the Southern no-fly zone, which we are still patrolling. Artillery on the move in that region is going to get pounded. Whether that actually triggers the go signal is a different story.

However, the thing is, we are currently ready to go at this date - if he starts something, he won't be catching us off-guard and throwing us into his timetable. We're on our own schedule now.

Check it.