A Very Happy New Year

Courtesy of frequent commenter NortonPete who sent this link, comes a story about a town that would not ignore a wounded veteran. In fact, they made sure that Jim Benoit and his wife Pam have a new home to live in. Wharton, New Jersey pulled together and built a house for the wounded Iraq veteran and handed him the keys in a ceremony on December 27 - a New Year present that could not be better for the Benoits, who can now move out of a cramped mobile home.  

Wounded veteran Jim Benoit was officially handed the keys to a new Wharton home Thursday, capping a year-plus long effort that enlisted hundreds of volunteers, help from 70 local companies and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to build it for him.

Benoit and his wife Pam are preparing to move out of a cramped trailer at nearby Picatinny Arsenal into the two-story, wheelchair-accessible, 2,400 square-foot Colonial in January.

Benoit joined the Army out of high school, had served a month in Afghanistan and was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when an explosive device detonated under the Humvee he was driving, nearly killing him.

The September 2005 blast blew a hole out of Benoit's backside that required 80 surgeries and sparked his hometown to rally around him.

Wharton Borough Council President Scott Hutchins enlisted support from the Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization Homes for Our Troops. Local companies donated everything from a floor heating system to portable toilets for the construction site.

Military personnel from the rank of private right on up through a general and lots and lots of local folks pitched in to make this come true for the Benoits.  

Fred Thompson’s Christmas Ad

H/T to Ed Morrisey who says it is the best one from any candidate. I agree with that assessment.

Shame

I read this in the Daily Mail and had to walk away from my computer and right out of my office. When I came back,it wasn't any better.

Soldiers who suffered appalling injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan were verbally abused as they swam in a public swimming pool.

During a weekly rehabilitation class at a council leisure centre, 15 servicemen – including several who have lost limbs or suffered severe burns – were heckled and jeered by members of the public.

One woman was so incensed that the troops were using the pool at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey that she told them they did not deserve to be there.

She became increasingly abusive, screaming that it was wrong for staff to rope off a lane exclusively for the injured personnel from the nearby Headley Court rehabilitation centre.

The swimmer, thought to be in her 30s, is understood to have said: "I pay to come here and swim – you lot don't."

The abuse was witnessed by 79-year-old Korean War veteran Charles Murrin, who said yesterday: "I could not believe what she was saying.

"The lane was roped off, which they do every week. It wasn't as if the pool was completely closed. Her group had the rest of the pool to swim in.

"She said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays money to come in the pool and they don't."

I do not think it is out of place to offer to take up a collection to offer this - for want of a better word - person a refund. So she can go find anther place more conducive to her selfish needs.

I suspect the public pool would be much improved by the removal of certain, unsavory elements. And the wounded soldiers wouldn't have to put up with the vulgar, thankless and ugly trash.

Making A Wrong A Right

The US Army has already tepped in to the case of a wounded soldier who was asked to return a portion of his enlistment bonus (original post here.) Jordan Fox will NOT have to return any of that money. The wording from the Army spokesman would appear to confirm that what I surmised was correct. This is a case of an overzealous REMF bean counter and the Army is going to rectify this as soon as possible.

KDKA contacted the Pentagon. Investigators there took a look. A military spokesman told KDKA's Marty Griffin the bill sent to Fox was a mistake.

Griffin asked Army Spokesperson Major Nathan Banks if the government was taking on Fox's case.

Banks said via phone, "We are. We are … definitely working it out. We have seen where the problems have been made, the system, and we're just making - you know, give us the opportunity to make a wrong a right."

Major Banks says Fox will not have to pay back his bonus. Fox says "fine," but he wants more.

"Hopefully this will turn into change for not only me but many other soldiers that have lost limbs, you know, become permanently deaf," he said. "I hope to see a change for everybody."

The Pentagon will not comment on allegations that thousands of other soldiers just sent home from Iraq and other invasions, including Afghanistan, will not receive these sorts of bills. They cannot comment on those cases.

I'd point out, again, that there is one report and the 'allegations' of thousands is really supposition. Extrapolating a trend from one data point is, frankly, stupid. We do not know at what level this error in judgment was made, but I would not be surprised if it was at the company level. (My son ran into company level pay problems that took a long time to get sorted out - and an appeal up the chain of command to get the company-level bean counter off of top dead center.)

I'm sure the Army will rectify this - and let the bean counters who caused the problem know exactly how much they appreciate the black eye given to the military.

Rear Echelon Springs Into Action

There is quite a lot of justifiable outrage over this report. (There is also quite a lot of posturing from some people who frankly only care because it can be used politically.) At least one soldier has been dunned to return part of his re-enlistment bonus after he was unable to complete his full commitment - because the military discharged him after he was seriously wounded in Iraq. Is it a travesty? Yes it is. Will it stand? No it wont. Is it widespread? Well, there is one report from one soldier.

The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.

He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. In each box is a care package that will be sent to a man or woman serving in Iraq. It was in his name Operation Pittsburgh Pride was started.

Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.

A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.

This is, frankly, idiotic on the part of the military - but I'd be interested to know who - from what level - sent the letter. Was it from the top levels of the Department of Defense or was it from a fairly low level in the military bureaucracy? One thing is for sure, the company-level people can be, frankly, idiots on a lot of things. (So can the whole chain of command up the non-combat side of the military.) There is a term for folks like this in the Army: REMFs. The first two letters stand for 'Rear Echelon'. You can figure out the rest. This is a classic REMF move - not worried about the good of the Army - worried about the pile of beans they are responsible for counting.

This will be fixed - in a hurry - when someone with more brain cells than the bean counter REMFs gets involved. (They likely already have.) This was a dumbass unforced error and someone will get pounded for it. (And it will not be long before another bean counter makes just as big an error in judgment.)

Gifts Of Thanks

Major Elizabeth Robbins, deployed in Iraq, thanks America and Americans for the "paper love" sent to the troops deployed overseas. It means the world to the men and women serving our country in distant places.

Those of us overseas know that "support the troops" is more than a slogan. Here we are besieged by what my master sergeant calls "paper love," the cards, letters, posters and other gestures of support sent by people across America. The paper love is often accompanied by packages of snacks and comfort items. Some mail comes from family members, but even more is sent by private citizens and troop support organizations. The war has inspired a remarkable level of civic involvement that goes largely unnoticed — except by those of us in the field or recovering stateside.

All of us are volunteers. We're in Iraq because we want to serve. We are well educated and physically fit and could have pursued a variety of other life options. But, to paraphrase Defense Secretary Robert Gates, we are driven by the romantic and optimistic ideal that we can improve the world. We are seeing real progress on the ground, and we are helping Iraq to change.

Idealism, however, does not diminish our longing for home or the pain of missing family. It does not dispel all fear and doubt, and it does not heal our wounded or fallen friends. So when we are feeling disheartened, we open the care packages and read the letters.

Please read the whole thing. And please, if you can, donate to Project Valour-IT. The button is at the top of the sidebar. It is another way to show your support for those who serve.

Armistice Day

Harry Patch is the very last British veteran of the trenches of World War One. (I first posted about Mr Patch when he helped kick off the annual Poppy Appeal in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset late last month.) Today Mr. Patch calls for support for the troops while they are serving or when they first come home - not 80 years later. 

So now, on Remembrance Sunday, it is up to me to speak out for all those fallen or forgotten comrades. But today isn't just about my generation. It is about all the servicemen who have risked or given their lives, and the soldiers who are still doing so.

My comrades died long ago and it's easy for us to feel emotional about them. But the nation should honour what we did by helping the young soldiers of today feel worthwhile, by making them feel that their sacrifice has been worth it.

Remember the men in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't make them wait eight decades, like my generation had to wait, to feel appreciated.

The time for really remembering our Forces is while they are at war or in the years immediately after they return, when they are coping with the shock and distress or just the problems of returning to civilian life.

That is what upsets me now. It is as if we have not learned the lessons of the war of 90 years ago.

Last year, the politicians suggested holding a commemoration service at Westminster Abbey to honour the remaining First World War veterans. But why? What for? It was too, too late…….

……Somebody told me the other day that at homecoming parades for our men in Iraq and Afghanistan, barely anyone turns up. I was shocked. Even in our day there would at least be some kind of welcome.

I hope that today people will take the time to remember not just those who have died but those who are alive and fighting for our country. Please don't forget them - or leave your thanks until it is too late.

Veteran's Day in the United States, Remembrance Day in Britain and the other Commonwealth nations. I am not sure what they call it in France. But it was once just Armistice Day. The day the guns fell silent.

SILENCE FALLS
The echoes die, the smoke-clouds thin and pass,
The cannons are, like statues, dumb and cold:
Silent the crosses wait, and in the grass
The spent shells gleam like gold.

All spent he lay and dreamed till the moment came:
Now, waking with a cry, he looks, all wonder
To see the empty sky hurl down no flame:
To hear no crack of thunder.
- Henry Weston Pryce, 11 November 1918.

Harry Patch my be the last Tommy as he puts it, but he is certainly not the least. Support them, honor them and respect them for what they do for all of us. Don't wait 80 years to do so. It is not so very much to ask.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah has more thoughts from all over. Callimachus has still more at Done With Mirrors.

Our Back Pages

Peter Collier reminds us that the relegation of America's heroes to the back pages of our national consciousness isn't a good thing for us. Collier knows a bit about heroes, having interviewed living Medal of Honor recipients for a book. He recounts the stories of just a few of these men in today's Opinion Journal.

Yet their stories were not only about killing. Several Medal of Honor recipients told me that the first thing they did after the battle was to find a church or some other secluded spot where they could pray, not only for those comrades they'd lost but also the enemy they'd killed.

Desmond Doss, for instance, was a conscientious objector who entered the army in 1942 and became a medic. Because of his religious convictions and refusal to carry a weapon, the men in his unit intimidated and threatened him, trying to get him to transfer out. He refused and they grudgingly accepted him. Late in 1945 he was with them in Okinawa when they got cut to pieces assaulting a Japanese stronghold.

Everyone but Mr. Doss retreated from the rocky plateau where dozens of wounded remained. Under fire, he treated them and then began moving them one by one to a steep escarpment where he roped them down to safety. Each time he succeeded, he prayed, "Dear God, please let me get just one more man." By the end of the day, he had single-handedly saved 75 GIs.

Why did they do it? Some talked of entering a zone of slow-motion invulnerability, where they were spectators at their own heroism. But for most, the answer was simpler and more straightforward: They couldn't let their buddies down.

Big for his age at 14, Jack Lucas begged his mother to help him enlist after Pearl Harbor. She collaborated in lying about his age in return for his promise to someday finish school. After training at Parris Island, he was sent to Honolulu. When his unit boarded a troop ship for Iwo Jima, Mr. Lucas was ordered to remain behind for guard duty. He stowed away to be with his friends and, discovered two days out at sea, convinced his commanding officer to put him in a combat unit rather than the brig. He had just turned 17 when he hit the beach, and a day later he was fighting in a Japanese trench when he saw two grenades land near his comrades.

He threw himself onto the grenades and absorbed the explosion. Later a medic, assuming he was dead, was about to take his dog tag when he saw Mr. Lucas's finger twitch. After months of treatment and recovery, he returned to school as he'd promised his mother, a ninth-grader wearing a Medal of Honor around his neck.

But, as Collier points out, these men are treated almost as a curiosity these days. Leftovers from a long-forgotten tradition that is no longer fashionable. The danger of consigning men such as these to the back pages is that without such bravery, there can be no freedom. Go read the whole thing - let's try to bring these men off the back pages at least on this one day when we are supposed to honor them and all the others who have fallen in the service of this land of the free.

Some Have Not

The vote of the 218 politicians in the House of Representatives yesterday proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that some have forgotten what support for the troops in time of war means. Despite all the promises before the vote that funds would never be cut off for troops in the field, the Pelosi-Murtha bill that passed by the slimmest of margins yesterday effectively does exactly that. And the situation will get worse in a short time as funds run out and the pork-laden abomination that the House passed goes exactly nowhere in terms of actually becoming a law. The Senate will not pass their version of the bill. They will not be able to invoke cloture. Pelosi and Murtha, along with 216 other members of the House may have forgotten how to support the troops.

Some have not.

WASHINGTON - Laura Brown, a mother with a son who fought in the Iraq war, is trying to improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — one laptop computer at a time.

The 50-year-old from Cody, Wyo., was chatting on the Internet with the mother of a wounded soldier two years ago when the mother mentioned she had to print out her son's e-mails and take them to him at Walter Reed because there weren't enough laptop computers to go around.

Brown, whose own son had recently returned safely from the war, thought the solution to that problem seemed incredibly easy.

"It just kind of hit me," she said. "If one person needed one, then there's others. … I mean, my son had e-mail in Iraq. I was really stunned."

So Brown formed a group, Laptops for the Wounded, to raise money for the cause.

Since its fundraising effort began in November 2005, Brown's organization has donated 27 computers to military hospitals around the country — 24 of them to Walter Reed.

On Friday, Brown flew to Washington to deliver 10 donated laptops to the hospital in person.

Those computers, which were upgraded and refitted with new equipment, included Web cameras so soldiers could lay eyes on their families from afar.

"She basically just made it her mission," said Lisa Ramdass, a case manager at the hospital who has been working with Brown to coordinate the donations.

Ramdass said the laptops are used for more than e-mail. One soldier who worked with a donated laptop couldn't speak, and was able to communicate with his family and his doctors by typing on the computer. Others who have eye injuries use the laptops to watch movies or television up close.

This is one woman who has not forgotten or turned her back on the troops. This is not Operation Valour-IT, which this site and many others have and continue to support. This is one woman's efforts to help. This is the website for Laptops for the Wounded.

Seattle Paper Covers Watada Court

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer actually has a pretty straightforward report on the court martial of Ehren Watada. The reporters, Mike Barbar and Kery Murakami do a pretty well even handed report. There are protests and counter protests planned and giant puppet heads will be in attendance.

Operation Support Our Troops expects to counter Watada supporters with rallies from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today on Exit 122 off Interstate 5. The bridge, festooned with yellow ribbons and red, white and blue streamers, is named "Freedom Bridge" for the group's longtime rallies supporting the military and the troops.

Watada's supporters say they also support troops, but do so by wanting them out of Iraq. They expect to gather in force for a peaceful demonstration today at Exit 119, where they have held peace vigils in the past.

Sunday, both sides rallied to the cause.

"Look. Look at all the people waving and honking," said Jordan Haines, a retired Air Force veteran who was on the overpass at Exit 122, waving back at motorists with his hand and flag.

Sentiment there was nearly unanimous that Watada had chosen to join the military knowing he might be called on to go to war and that, as the Army contends, he was betraying his fellow soldiers by refusing to fight.

"How does the guy who took his place (in Iraq) feel?" Haines asked. "We don't hear from them because they're over there."

Operation Support Our Troops website is here (the P-I story has a bum link).

UPDATE: Others: Gateway Pundit, The Moderate Voice (Polimom writing, cross post at her blog).

The Difference

Blackfive (Uncle Jimbo writing) brought this one to my attention. It seems William Arkin of the Washington Post's Early Warning blog took a shot at the troops who spoke out in the NBC video report I posted yesterday. Uncle Jimbo does a very, very thorough job of dismantling Arkin. I have agreed with some things Arkin wrote in the past, but here he is grossly out of line. And he is taking a lot - a real lot - of heat in his comment section for it. I will not go off on Arkin, others have already done so. But I will point you instead to the post my son sent me a few days ago and let you read the difference between Arkin's desire to stifle the troops valid opinions and my son's protest against a hateful website, done in a calm and logical manner. And then his dismissal of those who do not support the troops, with a promise that he and his fellow soldiers would, nonetheless, continue to defend the rights of those people to express their opinions.

Who's the better person? You figure it out.

UPDATE, Inserted just for people misdirected here from Lawyers, Guns and Money. Greetings. I suppose that the quick link to this post was misdirected, since I really don't pile on to Arkin, even though I think he's wrong. But the post that directed you here says this:

Obviously, photos are incomplete representations; they are incapable of providing "context" (or the rationalizations that Jonah Golberg would prefer); they require other forms of discourse to make them meaningful. But Americans' "right to know" was, contra Goldberg, quite well-informed by Adams' photographs and the film footage captured by Vo Su, the NBC cameraman who was working with Adams that day. Americans had a right to see what was being done in their name.

Which is all well and good, but it also completely ignores the "context" of the times the picture was taken in. And maybe, just maybe, a few of you visiting will click the link to this site and ask what else your imparted wisdom has missed informing you about. Because context is everything and the US policies in the height of the Cold War did not exist in a vacuum. Other people with other agendas were also making decisions. That is what tortured Eddie Adams, the context was missing. And LG&M did not provide you with a link to WHY it tortured him:

On Nguyen Ngoc Loan and his famous photograph, Adams wrote in Time :

The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?'

Adams later apologized in person to General Nguyen and his family for the irreparable damage it did to Loan's honor while he was alive. When General Nguyen died, Adams praised him as a hero of a just cause.

In other words, you are being manipulated. Try clicking the links LG&M did not provide you. Ypu'll be surprised at how interesting it is to think for yourself instead of relying on imparted wisdom.

End Update.

UPDATE: We appear to have a brewing blogsplosion going off on this one. Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrisey, Powerline, Allahpundit, Hugh Hewitt, LGF, Andrew Olmsted, Sister Toldjah, Spyral Notebook, Tiny, Op For, QandO, Redstate, Brutally Honest, Cadillac Tight, Instapundit, Jammie Wearing Fool, Ace, Wizbang, Jawa Report, Ed Driscoll, Simply Kimberly, Bits Blog, Keith Milby, What the Heck, Dan Riehl, Stubborn Facts, Dinocrat, Les Infants Terrible, Irons in the Fire, Flopping Aces, Leaning Straight Up, Jules Crittenden, Sundries Shack, Fuzzilicious Thinking, Discerning Texan, Noble Duty, Soldiergrrl, Buck Creek Station,

Read This

This is really important. All of you politicians, all of you fair weather supporters of the troops. This matters. Do not read beyond this point until you have read what is written over at the link.

Is there a lot of just plain bitching in that? Yup, sure is. Is there a lot of truth with a capital "T"? Oh, yeah. If you separate out the, for want of a better term, typical soldier gripes (issues about uniforms and the like) the author has hit on a lot of real, serious issues. The steady, relentless assault against our troops and their efforts at home exact a price on morale in the field. The endless posturing by would-be presidential candidates, announced or not have a real cost on the ground in the war zone.

That cost is paid by American volunteer soldiers. For obvious reasons, I take that very, very personally.

The endless, mindless political positioning going on in this country costs lives. It costs us, as a nation, some of the best and brightest. Not the dregs of society, uneducated and unskilled, as certain overtly anti-American, botched joke wielding junior Senators would portray them. Good, decent Americans who believe in this country and are willing to fight for it and what it stands for.

They are not children, they choose to serve. And they do it with a magnificence and a steadfastness that humbles me. And should humble the people in Washington that should be standing behind them. Not standing in the wings endlessly carping and trying to undermine them and put them in greater danger.

Your political posturing plays games with people and with their lives. Your senseless drive for higher political office or influence, no matter what the cost, has a price. You can drive hard to undermine the office of the president you seek with such naked lust. But ask yourself this: after you have done your best to gut the office to get to it, will it be worth having? Will the blood on your hands of those you betrayed on the way to your goal ever be washed away? Will there be a great nation left to guide or a greatly reduced nation waiting to be further humiliated by savages acting out seventh century barbarisms you were too frail and spineless to face?

It is not too late to stop this self-destruction. But the window is only open a bit longer. Shame on all of you for what you are doing. Shame.

Grassroots Support

[My son sent me an email to be posted here. I will not link to the site he describes for rather obvious reasons.]

Hello fellow readers of the Boulevard.

Many apologies for the lack of posts in the past several months. I call Gaius all the time and say, "I'm thinking about writing about [insert news item]." He says to send him something, and invariably a mission comes up or a sporting event comes on television, etc. The point is, I've been awful at communication of my thoughts and opinions. While that may be a relief to some, many of you have been very supportive of my situation and for that you deserve my thanks. No promises of future content, but I'll try to work on it a bit more. If you have any questions you want answered please leave it in a comment. I'll tell you anything I can (some questions I can't answer because of security concerns).

My post today involves the myspace phenomenon. Whatever your feelings on the website that purports to be "a place for friends," I'll admit that it's a handy way to keep in touch with and rediscover old friends. Today a friend pointed out a group on myspace that is anything but friendly, a veritable slap in the face to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. In a search, the name of this group shows up as "Hug the Troops," but upon clicking the link one finds a giant yellow ribbon with the words "F*** the Troops" on it. There follows several anti-U.S. videos borrowed from YouTube and a line of text accusing U.S. troops of being "responsible for the slaughterings [sic] around the world." I am sad to report that at the time of this writing, this group had 109 members.

By and large, the people of the United States have shown overwhelming support for the military, something those of us in uniform speak of often and with a touch of awe. After my first tour I visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. wearing my military garb. I felt like a celebrity, with so many requests for photos that my planned one-hour stay ended up closer to three. When I arrived at the airport with five fellow soldiers for R&R leave last summer, we were treated to a completely spontaneous standing ovation from a very crowded terminal. Soldiers need this kind of grassroots support in a conflict such as this one, where politics and negative media coverage have overshadowed the accomplishments and sacrifices made by those in the military. To those who support us, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those who wish failure and tragedy upon us, we have no use for you. As long as you are a U.S. citizen we will staunchly defend your right to say as you will as it is enumerated in the First Amendment. We will defend your right to burn the flag and trash the United States publicly. We ask only that you remember there are very few places in the world where such things are allowed.

Oh, there's one final part to this story. The item that brought this group to my attention was a bulletin posted calling for a petition to have this group removed from the site. First Amendment or not, such a message board should not exist in "a place for friends." I'm pleased to report to you that I added my own virtual signature to the list, which has nearly 800 names on it. Count it. An eight to one advantage.

Thank you for your support, America.

UPDATE: Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for the link. Visitors, please do take a look around while you're here. If you have not already signed the pledge, please consider doing so. More posts from my son are under the "Foreign Correspondence" category on the sidebar.

UPDATE: Thanks also to KT at the Scratching Post and the good doctor at the Jawa Report for the links. Thanks also to The Influence Peddler.

The War We Have

Bryan from Hot Air has just returned from Iraq and files a report that describes the situation he saw over there. He was embedded with a unit operating out of Forward Operating Base Justice. The report he files follows very closely quite a few things that my son has told me when we have had a chance to talk. It is important to read it. It discusses the realities and the mistakes made to date. I'm just going to pull one excerpt that I think is vital to understanding the situation over there.

2. Leaving Iran alone. An intelligence officer in Iraq (not at Camp Justice), used the phrase “uninterrupted flow of weapons and ammunition” when I asked him how much Iran was influencing the violence in Iraq. The fact is, Iran has been sending more and more weaponry into Iraq in the past year to 18 months, and it has been assisting the insurgents and the militias (Shia and Sunni alike) in supplying what the Army calls “explosive force projectile” IEDs. These EFP-IEDs are easily hidden and incredibly destructive, and their construction is simply beyond the ability of the warring groups within Iraq. Iranian Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guard trainers have been directly assisting and training the militias as well, making them more dangerous to the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi people and to our troops. Iran must be dealt with and it must be taken out of Iraq, or Iraq will remain a violent, lethal place for our troops and its people. As long as Iranian arms and expertise get into Iraq uninterrupted, Iraq will not become stable and our troops will have to remain there in large numbers. The Iranians want Iraq to remain unstable and they want us to have to keep a large force there dealing with the insurgents, terrorists and militias, which is why the ISG’s belief that chaos in Iraq is against Iran’s interests was met with such derision by the troops in Iraq. And believe me, it was.

There is a lot more there, of course. It is worth reading it all.  Mistakes made; lethally bad reporting by the media; destructive feedback loops between the left in the West and the Iranian-backed terrorists. Much, much more. But the Iranian involvement is vital to understanding what has happened and is happening. That flow of weapons needs to be stopped.

UPDATE: Others: INDCJournal, Confederate Yankee, Townhall.com, The Jawa Report, Don Surber, Gun Toting Liberal, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Captain's Quarters, Flopping Aces,

A Blog Advent Calendar

From Reader I Am  from Done With Mirrors at her personal blog site, Either End of the Curve. (Incidentally, an absolutely great catch phrase for the blog!) A musical Advent calendar and tribute to the troops at that. Great music, great idea.