Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused.
If you find something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". Welcome!
TO IRAQ...
Word is that the biggest firefight of the war is on around Karbala and Najaf, in the middle of a huge sandstorm that deprives the allies of A-10s and attack helicopters, but also deprives the Iraqis of any chance to use chemical weapons. Unlike Iraqi vehicles, the U.S. forces have thermal sights that can see through a sandstorm - and their JDAMs still work as well. Go, 3ID! Go 7th Cav! Gary Owen!!! (Got a link now, via Command Post)
I haven't sent you to Phil Carter's excellent weblog "Intel Dump," have I? My bad... he does great work, thanks to a combination of his military and legal backgrounds.
Radio reports that Colin Powell has invited France to join the USA and Britain to plan Iraq's post-war future. Why don't we just surrender to Saddam now and get it over with?
Iraqi dissident, democrat and human right activist Kanan Makiya. We've noted his excellent war diary before, and the significance of his observations. Today's entry is another must-read.
Exhibit A: There may be a civilian insurrection going on in Basra. British troops firing in support of it. If the city is indeed out of water, Saddam's boys are in trouble because it really is becoming do or die for the population... you can go without food for weeks, but water is more like 5-7 days. (Hat Tip: The Agonist)
Editorial: artillery in support? They're mortaring the rebels, damn it! Confirm what's going on, and if true get the hell in there and help! Update from SkyNews says that may be about to happen. (Hat Tip: watch/)
I've got a full article on the Basra uprising now - and why we must do the right thing.
Sean-Paul also reports Marines near Ad Diwaniyah, and a possible breakthrough by the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment (Hat Tip: reader Steven A. Mitterer). Is that at Al Samawah and across the Euphrates, or at Karbala? Reports are confused. Either way, if true it's another step toward Baghdad.
Speaking of which, Misha has a reminder or two for y'all. So does John Hawkins.
Chuck Watson is offering some real-time satellite monitoring of key Iraqi locations.
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We've moved all of the basic military and Iraq reference materials into their own post. Presenting the Winds of Change.NET Essential War Briefing.
We also have a consolidated post for ways you can support the troops.
Given reports of Iraqi preparations to use chemical weapons, see "Devils in the Details" at Techcentralstation.com. It's my analysis of Saddam's chemical and biological options on the battlefield, and an honest look at both allied weaknesses and potential responses. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who sees this as likely.
Sean-Paul is reporting tank battles with British forces around Basra (UPDATE: photos look like an Iraqi BMP armoured troop carrier), lots of artillery and subsiding fighting in An-Nasariyah, and a plan that calls for the allies to take up positions around Baghdad today but not assault it immediately. The last entry, about the bridges at Nasariyah, is unintentionally hilarious - that's unconventional warfare!
Almost time for Ansar's Islamofascists to go bye-bye. The air strikes are just a prelude.
Matt Welch memorializes fellow L.A. native Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who died in battle Friday at Umm al Qasr.
Announced casualties to date. Via Reuters, so take it with a grain of salt. (Hat Tip: The Agonist) See also this report, which indicates the 3rd has killed about 500 Iraqis over the last couple of days.
Todays's map lesson comes from Vodkapundit. Al Fallujah? Al Musayyib?. Read and learn why those names matter. Then take a deep breath and read "Not Your Father's Gulf War".
The Washington Post has an article that covers the latest developments with the turkeys in Turkey.
Sgt. Stryker sees interesting transformations in some of the embedded journalists. Nothing like a dose of reality. Some of the rest is pretty funny.
Speaking of our Polish Sarge - here's a Polish Special Forces profile. They were involved in the battle for Um Qasr, and no doubt they've moved on to other missions.
And a big thank you to the Australians, too.
"Urban Warfare: Options, Problems and the Future." Conference proceedings address the challenges, the prospects for reducing the difficulties of urban operations, and the broader options the United States has for avoiding costly urban engagements. (Hat Tip: The Agonist)
Ibidem saw the Al-Jazeera video, and gives his impressions of the 2 captured Apache pilots.
Donald Sensing has a post about punishing the murderers of American POWs, and other Iraqis who violate the Geneva convention. Interesting points re: "The Malmedy Massacre" in WWII.
Instapundit reports on telephone conversations with Iraqis in Baghdad and Basra, plus an interview his paper recently did with a local Iraqi exile, and the parallels between Saddam's regime and the last days of Ceausescu in Romania.
Great exchange between Andrew Sullivan and Tom Friedman. Friedman writes: "It seems to me conservative hawks are not facing up to two issues here and liberal hawks at least one...."
...AND BEYOND!
For an example of the politicized bias, dishonesty, and abuse of authority for indoctrination purposes in a U.S. high school, you can't do any better than Lone Dissenter's blog.
"Intercepting Deadly Cargo" is a NY times article that looks at how U.S. customs is coping with the challenge of trying to stop nightmare scenarios like dirty bombs et. al.
We always try to end on a more humourous note. Tired of silly celebrities? This devastating response looks at some of the celebs you've hear the most from, and the folks in Bush's cabinet, and asks a simple question: Who is smarter, the political figures or the celebrities?
As a former member of the unit, I can tell you with confidence that it is the 3rd Squadron (not Battalion) of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment.
Garry Owen!!! (that is the motto of the Seventh Cav. I don't know why, Custer picked it out, and after he was killed, they couldn't change it.)
"Garry Owen" is the name of a famous song, usually played on the Bagpipes (you'd recognize it the moment you heard it - in the movies it is almost always used as incidental music when the Brit troopies show up).
It was Custer's fav. song.
So, no, he wasn't just whistling "Dixie" at Little Big Horn. ;-)
B
USAF Band plays Garry Owen:
http://www2.acc.af.mil/music/ceremonial/tunes/46a-owen.mp3
The Air Force has kindly provided quite a bit of martial music for download, poke around from the above link it's easy to find.
Nice detailed history of the song/quickmarch here:
http://www.us7thcavalry.com/legend.htm
Joe:
OK question, what happens next to Canada? It's obvious we'll be shut out of the reconstruction, so I won't wail about a lost opportunity. Yet I ask myself what retribution will we face?
With all due respect to Cellucci, we're not bound by the American constitution; the mother of one of the POWs found out via a Filipino channel while the military dithered; I don't read anywhere of the American ambassador at that country blast the network. My advice let's all chill a bit before we become dumber
xavier
Xavier, that's a whole other post... but here the short version. Canada needs a whack or two across the nose, so Canadians understand that soothing our inferiority complex at Americans' expense is something that carries real costs. The whacks don't have to be substantial, but they have to be visible.
Otherwise, the attacks will escalate in frequency and vitriol as the use of American power abroad feeds the Canadian inferiority complex by making our relative positions more and more inescapably apparent. Anti-American sentiment already dangerously close to bigotry and hate in too many cases. Worse, the government encourages it through its pattern of words and conduct.
The U.S. Ambassador made the news today by publicly noting this. Better yet, our film and culture industry (probably the most virulent America-haters around) just got a warning from one of its own officials that anti-Canada sentiment and pressure to keep film productions (like Chicago, filmed here in Toronto) in the USA is growing sharply in L.A.
Please sir, can I have another...
Niccceee pagee
The french say no war for oil.
But the french do, Food for oil and just
send My AMERICAN MONEY to a bank in
Switzerland..What a bunch of phony
bastards..That is why they are against the
U.S. for screwing up there deal with Sadam.
France is the lowest of the low..
IRAQ’S : “QUAGMIRE” for WHOM ?
You’ve heard the question making the rounds -- Are we in a quagmire in Iraq?” This is one of those issues that allows liberals and conservatives to take up opposing positions and start blasting one another in newspapers, on TV talk shows and via the Internet.
Participants in this debate tend to overlook one important thing -- they ignore the quagmire that has engulfed the 25 million people of Iraq.
Let’s look at it. Their country has been occupied by a foreign army, members of which are killing, maiming and torturing people with abandon. When these occupiers pushed their way into Iraq, they poisoned the country’s water and soil with their depleted uranium weapons. These occupiers have also curtailed the basic civil rights of Iraq’s civilian population. Finally, the Iraqis have no ideas as to when these occupiers will leave -- if ever.
But with all this going on, American right-wingers and progressives alike obsess over whether it is the US that is facing a “quagmire”! The real quagmire demanding the world’s attention and action is the one faced by Iraqis. Therefore, remember your government has been pre-empting the resistance fighters by manufacturing the Insurgents by importing them from Palestine and elsewhere in the Muslim world to kill Iraqis in order to instigate sectarian violence and discredit the resistance and be eliminated by US forces en masse. Iraq is has become the killing field for the young, restless and faceless r radical Muslims who would face certain death by the vicious American trained Shi‘it forces .
Sectarian violence is accomplished in a perverted fashion, making them kill each other and by massive propaganda blame the resistance and confuse the issue. The fact that Americans are in Iraq for the long haul and they have no intention of ever getting out of Iraq is not mentioned anywhere. Iraq is the epicenter of attracting the young radicals who are lured by various intelligence agencies to come to Iraq and be murdered by Shi’it Death Squads so the US should not face them at home. This brutal strategy was successfully used by Britain in destrying Mao Mao Rebellion, as explained fully in Touch of Evil.
Even so-called well-intentioned progressive intellectuals raise the “quagmire” question and manage to miss the point. When they say “quagmire,” they are talking about the white, Christian occupiers of Iraq -- and don’t seem to waste much time about the humiliation, pain and suffering those occupiers inflict on Iraqis each day.
This isn’t the left’s only blind spot connected to this issue. The left prefers to present the Iraq war as a mistake based on misinformation -- rather than as the result of premeditated plan rooted in lies and deception.
Similarly, the left ignores the implications of the Downing Street memorandum, which exposes the lies behind most, if not all, of the disinformation spread by the corporate media during the run-up to the war.
It’s enough to make one wonder how far the US corporate elite has succeeded in co-opting the American left. Instead of enunciating a policy of withdrawal, and a plan to prosecute those who engineered this illegal war, the left prefers to cover its eyes and play word games with the Fox News crowd -- without ever drawing attention to the corporate elite’s ultimate goals in Iraq.
No one should have any illusions about the final objective of the devastation being inflicted on Iraq -- the collapse of that country. The growing rift between Shi’ites and Sunnis (which, I believe, is being fomented by the occupiers) will ultimately lead to the break-up of that country as presently constituted into squabbling fiefdoms. A divided Iraq can be easily stripped of its oil reserves, at low cost, by the energy pirates.
Progressives need to keep in mind that much of the violence between Shi’ites and Sunnis is the outcome of foreign intelligence operations. In order to pave the way for Iraq’s division, first the nationalist element in the resistance must be broken.
Here’s a message for any progressive who is still pondering the “quagmire” question -- while you enjoy life in the consumerist heaven that is the US, don’t forget that Iraqis are right now enduring hell. You are the colonizers, and Iraq is being colonized. When you call the Iraqi resistance “insurgents,” you overlook the fact the resistance is fighting for national liberation and you belittle this cause.
The left is trapped right in its own quagmire of confused thinking. It needs to escape this quagmire before it can confront the corporate elite and its Fox News lackeys.