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20041119
Another letter from my friend Ed in Iraq...
I am reposting this letter here which appeared in the El Defensor Chieftian --a Socorro, NM local newspaper. My friend Ed has been serving in Iraq for over 1 year.
Letter courtesy of the El Defensor Chieftian, Socorro, NM. ~Copyrights apply~
Who are they?
Just the other day, right outside of Camp Taji, a pipeline was sabotage by some insurgents. I could see flames as high as 60 feet in the air. We were told that the insurgents had taken over the town of Taji and had a hold on it for a few days. This was also the fifth day that we have had mortars falling inside the camp. In these past few days, I also had convoys coming from other camps, who received small arms fire and RPG attacks along the way. I could hear our convoys on the radios calling for support because they had driven into an ambush.
I wanted to know who these insurgents really are. So, I found a Syrian engineer that is working here and who has spent a lot of time with the Iraqis. I asked him if he could explain who the insurgents are and this is what he passed on to me: He said that during the first gulf war, the military that Saddam had sent to invade Kuwait was his Republican Guards. They number about 60,000 -75,000.
Saddam also had another group called the Special Republican Guard and they were the strength in Saddam's final circle.
This special Republican Guard was headed up by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay. They are a highly trained personal security force and served as praetorian guards, protecting the presidential site and escorting Saddam Hussein on travels around Iraq.
The Republican Guard was the only armed force allowed to enter the city of Baghdad and to sleep at Saddam's many palaces. He had 78 of them placed throughout the countryside of Iraq, but that is a different story.
Saddam did not trust his regular military because they were not very loyal to him, so he formed the Special Republican Guard, which mainly came from his home town of Tikrit.
When President Bush Sr. arrived in Kuwait with the might of the United States armed forces, one of the things he said to the Kurds, who live in the northern part of Iraq, was for them to stand up and fight. The Kurds did stand up and they fought back. When the U.S. pulled out of Kuwait, they pretty much left the Kurds to fend for themselves. The Kurds were the population in Iraq that Saddam had singled out to exterminate. That was done because the Kurds stood up to Saddam and fought him.
Now, when we returned to Iraq, the Kurds did not fight because of what happened before with President Bush Sr.
Saddam Hussein knew that he could not defend his country against the United States, so he told his Special Republican Guard to go out into the neighborhoods and live with them and to wait. He gave them weapons, explosives and money. He also paid billions of dollars to other countries so they would support his Special Republican Guards.
These cells have communication between each other and will do anything that they can to keep the fighting going. They want to disrupt the new government and keep them from getting a hold of this country because of their loyalty to Saddam Hussein.
The locations that the military is having so much trouble in are the towns where Saddam had his Special Republican Guards Brigade.
This is why, when we entered into this war back in April of 2003, we did not have a lot of resistance all the way to Baghdad, because the Republican Guards had already infiltrated the countryside.
So, I got my answer to who the insurgents are. For those of you who, like me, were wondering just exactly who the insurgents really are, now we have a better understanding.
Edward Britt
Socorro
From Taji, Iraq
Letter courtesy of the El Defensor Chieftian, Socorro, NM. ~Copyrights apply~
Who are they?
Just the other day, right outside of Camp Taji, a pipeline was sabotage by some insurgents. I could see flames as high as 60 feet in the air. We were told that the insurgents had taken over the town of Taji and had a hold on it for a few days. This was also the fifth day that we have had mortars falling inside the camp. In these past few days, I also had convoys coming from other camps, who received small arms fire and RPG attacks along the way. I could hear our convoys on the radios calling for support because they had driven into an ambush.
I wanted to know who these insurgents really are. So, I found a Syrian engineer that is working here and who has spent a lot of time with the Iraqis. I asked him if he could explain who the insurgents are and this is what he passed on to me: He said that during the first gulf war, the military that Saddam had sent to invade Kuwait was his Republican Guards. They number about 60,000 -75,000.
Saddam also had another group called the Special Republican Guard and they were the strength in Saddam's final circle.
This special Republican Guard was headed up by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay. They are a highly trained personal security force and served as praetorian guards, protecting the presidential site and escorting Saddam Hussein on travels around Iraq.
The Republican Guard was the only armed force allowed to enter the city of Baghdad and to sleep at Saddam's many palaces. He had 78 of them placed throughout the countryside of Iraq, but that is a different story.
Saddam did not trust his regular military because they were not very loyal to him, so he formed the Special Republican Guard, which mainly came from his home town of Tikrit.
When President Bush Sr. arrived in Kuwait with the might of the United States armed forces, one of the things he said to the Kurds, who live in the northern part of Iraq, was for them to stand up and fight. The Kurds did stand up and they fought back. When the U.S. pulled out of Kuwait, they pretty much left the Kurds to fend for themselves. The Kurds were the population in Iraq that Saddam had singled out to exterminate. That was done because the Kurds stood up to Saddam and fought him.
Now, when we returned to Iraq, the Kurds did not fight because of what happened before with President Bush Sr.
Saddam Hussein knew that he could not defend his country against the United States, so he told his Special Republican Guard to go out into the neighborhoods and live with them and to wait. He gave them weapons, explosives and money. He also paid billions of dollars to other countries so they would support his Special Republican Guards.
These cells have communication between each other and will do anything that they can to keep the fighting going. They want to disrupt the new government and keep them from getting a hold of this country because of their loyalty to Saddam Hussein.
The locations that the military is having so much trouble in are the towns where Saddam had his Special Republican Guards Brigade.
This is why, when we entered into this war back in April of 2003, we did not have a lot of resistance all the way to Baghdad, because the Republican Guards had already infiltrated the countryside.
So, I got my answer to who the insurgents are. For those of you who, like me, were wondering just exactly who the insurgents really are, now we have a better understanding.
Edward Britt
Socorro
From Taji, Iraq
From the Desert Fathers...
This is a quote from the Desert Fathers that I found on Huw's page. I liked it so I reposted it here. It sure says a lot!
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the lives of the founders of monasticism abound with dire warnings that monasticism, especially the strict asceticism of past centuries, will be just about impossible in the latter days. Once, when "the Holy Fathers were making predictions about the last generation, they said, "What have we ourselves done?" One of them, the great Abba Ischyrion replied, "We ourselves have fulfilled the commandments of God." The others replied, "And those who come after us, what will they do?" He said, "They will struggle to achieve half our works." They said, "And to those that come after them, what will happen?" He said, "The men of that generation will not accomplish any works at all and temptation will come upon them; and those who will persevere in that day will be greater than either us or our fathers".
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the lives of the founders of monasticism abound with dire warnings that monasticism, especially the strict asceticism of past centuries, will be just about impossible in the latter days. Once, when "the Holy Fathers were making predictions about the last generation, they said, "What have we ourselves done?" One of them, the great Abba Ischyrion replied, "We ourselves have fulfilled the commandments of God." The others replied, "And those who come after us, what will they do?" He said, "They will struggle to achieve half our works." They said, "And to those that come after them, what will happen?" He said, "The men of that generation will not accomplish any works at all and temptation will come upon them; and those who will persevere in that day will be greater than either us or our fathers".
20041116
This will probally make Seraphim cry...
I saw this and I thought of my friend Seraphim. It is also pretty funny.
The article is courtesy of the AP and Copyrights apply.
Derailment Spills 20,000 Gallons of Beer
CHILHOWIE, Va. (Nov. 11) - Fourteen cars of an 83-car Norfolk Southern train derailed near an industrial park, leaving the area smelling like a brewery Thursday.
About 20,000 gallons of beer leaked from three cars of the Roanoke-bound train, said railway spokesman Robin Chapman.
No one was injured when the cars skipped the tracks about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Chapman said.
Investigating officers said the leak did not contaminate any nearby water sources nor affect any highways.
"Everything was contained away from the creek," said Jack Tolbert Jr. of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the derailment. All trains scheduled to use the tracks through Chilhowie were held until they were cleared Thursday evening.
The article is courtesy of the AP and Copyrights apply.
Derailment Spills 20,000 Gallons of Beer
CHILHOWIE, Va. (Nov. 11) - Fourteen cars of an 83-car Norfolk Southern train derailed near an industrial park, leaving the area smelling like a brewery Thursday.
About 20,000 gallons of beer leaked from three cars of the Roanoke-bound train, said railway spokesman Robin Chapman.
No one was injured when the cars skipped the tracks about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Chapman said.
Investigating officers said the leak did not contaminate any nearby water sources nor affect any highways.
"Everything was contained away from the creek," said Jack Tolbert Jr. of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the derailment. All trains scheduled to use the tracks through Chilhowie were held until they were cleared Thursday evening.
The political view...
This post is courtesy of the Ockhamist. He has a cool page and I thought this was hilarious.
C O W S
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.
NEW YORK CORPORATION
You have fifteen million cows.
You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas.
C O W S
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one.
NEW YORK CORPORATION
You have fifteen million cows.
You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some fat cow from Arkansas.
20041109
Post election...
Well, it has been a few days since my last post. I have been terribly busy and not feeling so well but I wanted to get this post on the blog this morning. There has been a huge amount of talk and actions since President Bush won the election just a few nights ago. Some actions, which are rather sad, like a Georgia man traveling to NYC to commit sucide at the World Trade Center. Apparently, the man found his way into the 'off-limits' section of the WTC in NYC and killed himself because the President won re-election. The man was a supporter of Sen. Kerry but one has to wonder did he vote? There are better ways to express your frustration than taking your own life.
This morning I found an article from MSNBC about how the media is pounding not only President Bush but those Christians who voted for him. Mr. Scarborough makes a good point as to why the democrats and the media are so out of touch with the rest of society. Maybe we are begining to see the reversal of some the liberal 'freedoms' that have bull doesed their way into mainstream society. Sorry folks but I just can't support gay marriages, raising taxes, the pro-abortion movement, stem-cell research, and the overall concept of the idea that as long as no one gets hurt than it must be okay. This article is worth reading that is for sure!
The article is courtesy of MSNBC and Copyrights apply.
November 8, 2004 | 10:55 p.m. ET
Religion Bating - The Elite Media declared open season on the President and his supporters (Joe Scarborough)
A nasty streak of religious intolerance is rearing its ugly head in America. And it's coming from America's cultural elites.
The election of George W. Bush has exposed an ugly anti-Christian streak in many of those who work in America's most powerful newsrooms. A flood of vicious opinion pieces over the past few days have generalized Christians who helped elect the President as a group of knuckle dragging neandrethals whose aims are nothing less than anti-American.
Not surprisingly, some of the most offensive, bigoted rhetoric came from the opinion pages of the New York Times, a paper that at one time embraced diversity of thought and belief. But apparently those positions of convenience are closeted away when it comes time to opine on conservative Christians.
The day after George Bush's victory, the Times ran an Op Ed by famed historian Gary Wills --who questioned whether a people who believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus can be called an enlightened nation. Wills suggested that because of those Christians who helped elect George Bush, America now shares more in common with Al Qaeda and Saddam's Sunni loyalists than modern Europe. Wills wrote, "Americans wonder why the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous...They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed."
So according to the Times Op Ed page, if you believe in the Bible's account of Jesus' birth, you are on par with those terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th. Strip it down anyway you want, but that is what lies at the base of Wills' jihad argument.
Thomas Friedman, long one of my favorite columnists on all matters foreign,
concluded that Mr Bush was elected by Christians who are hell bent on legislating social issues and "extending the boundaries of religion so hard that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution and not electing a president."
Rewriting the constitution? Just because George Bush carried Ohio by 100,000 votes? Talk about one of our most gifted writers losing all perspective.
Meanwhille, the Washington Post's EJ Dionne swung wildly at windmills blasting away at the "exploitation of strong religious feelings" and the "radical efforts to destroy the achievements of progressive government."
George Bush and Christians radicals want to destroy American government? Oh really? I guess I missed the debate when the W. laid out that plan of attack.
Michael Moore blasted the President, of course, for pandering to the Christian conservatives, while Maureen Dowd accused Mr Bush of taking America into "another dark age, where we replace science with religion and facts with faith."
The Pulitzer Prize winner concluded that "The new evangelicals challenge science because they have been stirred up to object to social engineering on behalf of society's most vulnerable: the poor, the sick, the sexually different."
Dowd also accused the President of running a "jihad along the fault lines of fear, ignorance and religious rule."
Never in my life as a practicing attorney, a newspaper publisher, a Congressman or a news host have I witnessed America's cultural elite become so unglued over any historical event. And most distressing is the fact that these opinion leaders are singling out a group of Americans for no other reason than the God they worship.
To paint all Republican Christians as angry, hate-filled, science-loathing, right wing beasts only helps explain why the Mainstream Media continues to lose market share and why those Democrats who take solice in their bigoted anti-Christian screeds remain out of power for another four years.
It leads me to wonder, can we only be good Americans if we turn our backs on our faith, or become champions of abortion on demand, stem cell research without reservation, and marriage defined in a way that conflicts with the spiritual beliefs of a majority of Americans?
Isn't it interesting that when pluralism and diversity of thought become politically inconvenient, it is the cultural and media elites who become the most close minded and bigoted.
What do you think? Email me at JScarborough@msnbc.com
November 7, 2004 | 7:28 p.m. ET
This morning I found an article from MSNBC about how the media is pounding not only President Bush but those Christians who voted for him. Mr. Scarborough makes a good point as to why the democrats and the media are so out of touch with the rest of society. Maybe we are begining to see the reversal of some the liberal 'freedoms' that have bull doesed their way into mainstream society. Sorry folks but I just can't support gay marriages, raising taxes, the pro-abortion movement, stem-cell research, and the overall concept of the idea that as long as no one gets hurt than it must be okay. This article is worth reading that is for sure!
The article is courtesy of MSNBC and Copyrights apply.
November 8, 2004 | 10:55 p.m. ET
Religion Bating - The Elite Media declared open season on the President and his supporters (Joe Scarborough)
A nasty streak of religious intolerance is rearing its ugly head in America. And it's coming from America's cultural elites.
The election of George W. Bush has exposed an ugly anti-Christian streak in many of those who work in America's most powerful newsrooms. A flood of vicious opinion pieces over the past few days have generalized Christians who helped elect the President as a group of knuckle dragging neandrethals whose aims are nothing less than anti-American.
Not surprisingly, some of the most offensive, bigoted rhetoric came from the opinion pages of the New York Times, a paper that at one time embraced diversity of thought and belief. But apparently those positions of convenience are closeted away when it comes time to opine on conservative Christians.
The day after George Bush's victory, the Times ran an Op Ed by famed historian Gary Wills --who questioned whether a people who believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus can be called an enlightened nation. Wills suggested that because of those Christians who helped elect George Bush, America now shares more in common with Al Qaeda and Saddam's Sunni loyalists than modern Europe. Wills wrote, "Americans wonder why the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous...They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed."
So according to the Times Op Ed page, if you believe in the Bible's account of Jesus' birth, you are on par with those terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th. Strip it down anyway you want, but that is what lies at the base of Wills' jihad argument.
Thomas Friedman, long one of my favorite columnists on all matters foreign,
concluded that Mr Bush was elected by Christians who are hell bent on legislating social issues and "extending the boundaries of religion so hard that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution and not electing a president."
Rewriting the constitution? Just because George Bush carried Ohio by 100,000 votes? Talk about one of our most gifted writers losing all perspective.
Meanwhille, the Washington Post's EJ Dionne swung wildly at windmills blasting away at the "exploitation of strong religious feelings" and the "radical efforts to destroy the achievements of progressive government."
George Bush and Christians radicals want to destroy American government? Oh really? I guess I missed the debate when the W. laid out that plan of attack.
Michael Moore blasted the President, of course, for pandering to the Christian conservatives, while Maureen Dowd accused Mr Bush of taking America into "another dark age, where we replace science with religion and facts with faith."
The Pulitzer Prize winner concluded that "The new evangelicals challenge science because they have been stirred up to object to social engineering on behalf of society's most vulnerable: the poor, the sick, the sexually different."
Dowd also accused the President of running a "jihad along the fault lines of fear, ignorance and religious rule."
Never in my life as a practicing attorney, a newspaper publisher, a Congressman or a news host have I witnessed America's cultural elite become so unglued over any historical event. And most distressing is the fact that these opinion leaders are singling out a group of Americans for no other reason than the God they worship.
To paint all Republican Christians as angry, hate-filled, science-loathing, right wing beasts only helps explain why the Mainstream Media continues to lose market share and why those Democrats who take solice in their bigoted anti-Christian screeds remain out of power for another four years.
It leads me to wonder, can we only be good Americans if we turn our backs on our faith, or become champions of abortion on demand, stem cell research without reservation, and marriage defined in a way that conflicts with the spiritual beliefs of a majority of Americans?
Isn't it interesting that when pluralism and diversity of thought become politically inconvenient, it is the cultural and media elites who become the most close minded and bigoted.
What do you think? Email me at JScarborough@msnbc.com
November 7, 2004 | 7:28 p.m. ET
20041102
I Voted!
Well I hope everyone who could have got out and voted today. I voted this afternoon and I got lucky because I beat the crowd who will be getting off work in a few hours.
I voted for President Bush for lots of reasons but mostly because I think he is a much better President than Sen. Kerry could ever make. Hopefully (with lots of prayers) this next four year will bring about some unification in this country.
There are still a few more hours left so if you haven't gone and done it...GO VOTE!
I voted for President Bush for lots of reasons but mostly because I think he is a much better President than Sen. Kerry could ever make. Hopefully (with lots of prayers) this next four year will bring about some unification in this country.
There are still a few more hours left so if you haven't gone and done it...GO VOTE!
