A must read

Frank Turek wrote an excellent column outlining Sen. Barak Obama's lack of experience in foreign policy and his consistently wrongheaded positions on the war in Iraq.

Turek Wrote:

How can a serious candidate for President of the United States have a long-standing goal to end the war rather than win it? Great presidents don’t end wars—they win them. The only way the American military can be defeated is when American leaders forfeit the fight for them. And that’s exactly what Obama has wanted to do for years.

By forfeiting this war we will embolden Islamic radicals who will be free to turn Iraq into a new oil-rich haven where they will finance and launch a fresh round of terror attacks. We are fighting a suicidal enemy who will stop at nothing to end your freedom and mine. They will not be reasoned with, placated or appeased. They can only be defeated.

Obama seems oblivious to these facts. He has long been more concerned with placating head-in-the-sand liberals than defeating our enemy and protecting our freedom. Government’s most fundamental duty is to protect its citizens from harm, and Obama fails to meet the most basic requirement for the job.

Well said! Great presidents don't end wars, they win them.

Bush has remained committed to winning and thanks to his steadfastness, progress continues.

Iraqi interior minister visits troops

Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani visited wounded U.S. soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center today, thanking the troops for their sacrifice on behalf of his country.

Through and interpreter, Bulani expressed his "gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifices made by these great warrior-soldiers, in the freeing of the Iraqi people and in helping us in Iraq to recover from tyranny and dictatorship,” according to a DoD report.

Bulani also thanked the families of U.S. service member's for their sacrifice on behalf of his country.

When asked about a time frame for withdraw of U.S. troops, Bulani said that would depend on all kinds of considerations that could come into play.

Bulani seems to understand what so many U.S. politicians and citizens fail to grasp. Circumstances on the ground must dictate the withdraw of troops, not timetables based on wishful thinking or political expedience.

279 new Iraqi police officers

On Tuesday, 279 new Iraqi police officers graduated from a 45 day training program in Wassit, a province in eastern Iraq, according to Aswat al-Iraq, an independent Iraqi news source.

Othman al-Rubaei, a media source for the Wassit Police Department, said the officers graduated from the border forces training center in Kut.

“The new cops received during 45 days of theoretical lessons on ways to use different weapons, drills on security raids, investigations, dealings with suspects and human rights,” he said.

The new officers represent the continued efforts of the Iraqi government in taking on more security responsibility in the country.

A profundity

"How many in the media have expressed half as much outrage about the beheading of innocent people by terrorists in Iraq as they have about the captured terrorists held at Guantanamo not being treated as nicely as they think they should be?"
-Thomas Sowell

I can't add a thing.

U.S. winning war in Iraq!!!

The Lexington Herald-Leader said so on their front page this morning.

The story was actually written by AP writers Robert Burns and Robert H. Reid.

Nice of the main stream media to catch up.

Burns and Reid still couldn't help getting a dig in at Pres. Bush when they wrote:

That does not mean that the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had.

While Bush did announce and end to "major combat operations" in 2003 speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, he did not say the battle was over. He explained that the offensive phase had ended (which it had), and a new phase, that of securing the country and establishing democracy, was only beginning.

In the years since the press has never given the military credit for what they accomplished in the spring of 2003. They crushed the 4th largest military in the world in a matter of weeks.

Bush was recognizing that accomplishment on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Unfortunately, the images of the banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished", which was actually directed toward the ships crew who were heading back to port, has haunted the administration.

Still, nobody recognized at the time the difficulty and bloodshed that was still to come. I think both the military and politicians underestimate the work ahead. Uncertainty and fluidity come with warfare.

But on the other hand, Bush never claimed an easy path to ultimate victory. In fact, part of his speech proved somewhat prophetic.

"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We have begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We are helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. And then we will leave — and we will leave behind a free Iraq," he said. (emphasis mine)

One can fault Bush for many things, but history will record that he refused to back down and stood his ground in Iraq. He has prosecuted the war without regard to the polls or his own popularity and his determination has turned things around in that country.

That type of steadfastness defines leadership and I for one am thankful that we've had a true leader in office through this time.

DoD on Afghanistan

U.S. military officials called the situation in Afghanistan a mixed bags and cautioned the media not to take a "sky is falling" perspective in their reporting.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that commanders in Afghanistan were asking for more troops, and acknowledged that Taliban activity has increased in some areas, particularly along the border with Pakistan, but also pointed out progress in other areas.

"I think we're all getting a little bit -- overwriting, perhaps, some of this stuff, which is that the sky is falling Afghanistan. I don't think that the secretary believes that is the case. It is a mixed picture in Afghanistan; we are seeing some areas clearly where there has been an increase of violence -- most notably in RC East, where we have seen, because of a lack of pressure on the Pakistan side of the border, an increase in the flow of foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan, and that is causing real problems for our troops there," he said. "But I think you can point to other areas in Afghanistan where there has clearly been progress. The Marines have made real headway against the Taliban in RC South.

"Additionally, we've seen consistent progression in the size and the capability of the Afghan national security forces. So -- additionally, and I think this may be the key component, is the secretary has heard from commanders on the ground who tell him that the enemy actions that we are seeing in various parts of Afghanistan are disconnected from one another, so there is no sort of cohesive enemy offensive that is threatening the Afghan government. But there clearly are pockets of problems, real problems that need to be dealt with, and more forces are necessary to do that."

I have not seen one main stream media report pointing out the enemy activity lacks cohesiveness.

Lack of respect

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barak Obama canceled a planned visit to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany when the Pentagon advised him that he could only visit as a member of the Senate, not as a political candidate accompanied by his media entourage and campaign staff.

The Obama campaign said they were afraid the visit would appear inappropriate.

A New York Times story reported that Scott Gration, a retired two-star Air Force general who advises the campaign and is traveling on the Obama trip, said Obama intended to visit, but didn't want it perceived as a political event.

“Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country,” he said. “Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go.”

Some left leaning blogs imply the Pentagon scrapped the visit, and others even contend Sen. John McCain sabotaged the visit.

The Pentagon denies discouraging Obama from visiting, emphasizing Obama was welcome to visit, but simply had to abide by the military's policy that forbids political campaigning at military hospitals.

“Senator Obama, in his official capacity, is always welcome to visit Landstuhl or any other military hospital. But it is not permitted to bring with him campaign staff. His team was notified of that, and they made a decision not to visit the hospital. But we were ready and willing to host him there. In fact, we had made arrangements for his campaign plane to land at Ramstein, and to take care of the campaign staff and press in a passenger terminal there, while the senator and senate staff, if he liked, went on to visit wounded warriors. They made a decision based on their own calculations not to visit. Senator Obama, like any other member of the senate, is always welcome to visit our wounded warriors or our military hospitals around the world. But they do so in their official capacity, and not as a candidate. He can come in and bring enate staffers as well, if he likes, but campaign staffers and press are not permitted to accompany him. That would be a violation of DoD directives.”

According to an AFP report, Obama could have visited, but he was only allowed one Senate staffer and appropriate security personnel.

McCain criticized Obama's statements, saying it is never inappropriate to visit troops.

Sean Hannity reported that Obama utilized the void in his schedule to work out.

Reading between the lines, it appears Obama canceled the visit when it became obvious it would provide no photo opportunities, no nightly news story, and no potential bump in the polls.

Why not make the visit out of respect for the men and women who have literally shed blood for this country?

I think Obama's refusal to visit says a lot about the man who could potentially become commander in chief. He has shown a total lack of respect, communicating that wounded soldiers have value only insofar as they provide a prop for his political campaign.

While Obama contends he did not want the visit to have the appearance of a campaign event, the fact that he was welcome to visit without all of the hype that has surrounded the rest of his trip to the middle east and Europe, shows that a campaign event was exactly what he was looking for.