And So It Begins

Not us. We’re not going.’

Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart
Stories by KELLY KENNEDY - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Dec 8, 2007 14:32:57 EST

Spc. Gerry DeNardi stood at the on-base Burger King, just a few miles from downtown Baghdad, hoping for a quick taste of home.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Just two weeks earlier, the 20-year-old DeNardi had lost five good friends, killed together as they rode in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that rolled over a powerful roadside bomb.

As DeNardi walked up the three wood steps to the outdoor stand to pick up his burger, the siren wailed.

Wah! Wah! Wah! “Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!”

The alarms went off all the time — often after the mortar round or rocket had struck nothing but sand, miles from anything important. Many soldiers and others at Taji had taken to ignoring the warnings. DeNardi glanced around at the picnic tables to make sure everyone was still eating. They were. The foreign nationals who worked the fast-food stands hadn’t left; so he went back to get the burger he had paid for

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The mortar round hit before he could pick up his order.

“I turned around and all of Burger King and me went flying,” DeNardi said.

He’d lived through daily explosions in 11 months with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, at nearby Combat Outpost Apache, a no-frills fortress smack in the middle of Adhamiya’s hostile streets. He had rushed through flames to try to save friends and carried others to the aide station only to watch them die.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lightning doesn’t strike twice,” DeNardi said, “so I went back. But there were body parts everywhere.” The first man’s leg had been blown off, his other leg was barely attached and he had a chest wound. “He was going to die,” DeNardi said.

The other wounded man had shrapnel to his neck. DeNardi peeled off his own shirt and fashioned a bandage out of it as other soldiers started streaming in to help.

Then, “all clear” sounded over the loudspeakers as medics arrived and took over.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After these and other bloody attacks, killing this platoons soldiers, the remaining members got together and said no more. They told their commanders that their rage was so great that they feared committing a massacre if they went on patrol in Adhamiya, an especially violent place in Iraq. Some might say you can't have soldiers doing mutiny in a war zone. As a veteran myself, that was my first impulse. I despise the war in Iraq and have since the beginning, but it's normally bad business to refuse orders. However, after reading this article, I have to a large degree, changed my mind. This whole event is reminiscent of the latter days of Vietnam when entire units refused orders to patrol the country side. And as we know, MyLai happened. Please read this important article and mark of more to come in Iraq.

Triple Car Bombs in Iraq-But They say Al Quaida is Defeated

Today their was a triple car bombing in southern Iraq that as past events indicate has the hallmarks of Al Qaida in Iraq.. But wait a minute, hasn't Al Qaeda been wiped out of Iraq as declared by wingnut blogger The Strata-Sphere

Add to that this news about al-Qaeda’s migration back to Pakistan and Afghanistan and we see the retreat of a defeated movement.

But this horrendous event as reported by Reuters begs to differ that the defeat of AQ in Iraq have been greatly exaggerated.

By Aref Mohammed

AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Three car bombs ripped through a busy street in the Shi'ite city of Amara on Wednesday, killing 40 people and wounding 125 in one of the deadliest attacks in southern Iraq this year, police said.

The attacks came just days before Britain is to complete the handover of security for the four southern Iraqi provinces it has controlled since 2003, and tensions have been high among rival Shi'ite factions competing for influence.

The street was a scene of chaos, with cars torn apart. A blocked gutter along one street was red with stagnant blood washed from pools on the pavement next to a child's shoes.

The Anti-Theist/Terrorist Hordes Are Coming For You

I had not planned to blog about the tragic killings over the weekend at two Colorado churches. The young man responsible was obviously disturbed to do such a thing which unfortunately is happening in our country way to often. I don't know why this occurs, since I'm not any kind of expert in criminal sociology, and any ideas I have on the subject would be pure uninformed speculation. However, the wingnut brigades seem to claim wisdom on all things violent in and outside the United States. After stumbling across this gem of wingnuttery from the Vox Popoli I followed the first link as their main source and discovered that wingnuts have their own private Intelligence Service right here in the states that provides them with the latest on the terrorists hiding behind your tree.

Well, anyway, that is a subplot to this post. The main story is the analysis of our paranoid friends in the wingnutosphere. It seems, according to Vox Populi, this was a hate crime/terrorist attack by an atheist , and more sinister an anti-theist individual. I' not sure what the difference is but VP does so it's cool. Much of this, I suspect comes from an anonymous law enforcement source who stated the shooter, Mathew Murray "hated Christians".

Anyway VP deduces his hate crime/terrorist theory on this anonymous "law enforcement source" neglecting to consider several items of Mr. Murray's past that would tend to disprove his theory.

Things like the fact Mr. Murray wanted to be a missionary since being homeschooled within a very religious family. Also, that he had attended a program at one of the attacked churches and had been kicked out several years ago for health concerns. VP also fails to consider that Murray attended church regularly.

Now it's fair to say Murray was angry at the church for dropping him from a program that would have trained him to do what he'd dreamed about becoming --a missionary. You could even stretch that to say he hated Christian's or churches. However, this kind of anger or hatred does not seem to fit the meaning of hate crime as I understand it. His rage appears to come not from someone who has a broad ideological beef with religion but more of a specific disappointment that progressed into despair from a sense of personal failure. Any way, below is the first paragraph of the VP post with a link to the etire post.

Atheist killers
My, my, what a coincidence. As expected, yet another shooter turns out to be a militant anti-theist:


According to a law enforcement source, the man professed to "hate all Christians," and reportedly left a note or letter that he intended to murder as many Christians as possible

Following is a comment from one of VP commenters who is not buying VP's silliness.

But let's get the whole picture: "The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household."

Not sure how truly atheist he was, but he was certainly disturbed. Well, at least he didn't go to public skools--
Skillet

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other fascinating nugget of info I mentioned is the wingnut intelligence bureau, or whatever. Their full title is

Our Mission:

The mission of the Northeast Intelligence Network consists of the following:

# To use our heavily screened and well-qualified informational and operational assets to investigate potential terrorist threats which threaten the safety and security of our nation, our neighborhoods, and our families.

# To provide accurate and well-sourced information via our web site to educate our site visitors to the true nature of the terrorist threats we face.

# To provide accurate information about incidents, events and potential terrorist threats by conducting on-site investigation by our qualified personnel.

# When appropriate, offer relevant political commentary and occasional satire where it serves to illustrate a defect in our security and defense against future attacks.

# Through a fee-based subscription to the HQ INTEL-ALERT Private Intelligence Report, we offer specific information about a variety of issues, events and security matters that we feel are too sensitive to place in the public domain. Although some of the information contained in our newsletter is obtained directly from confidential sources within various government agencies, we never violate any laws prohibiting the unlawful dissemination of classified government information. The cost of this newsletter helps us to underwrite the expenses involved in conducting on-site investigations.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Winterpills - Threshing Machine

I just love this group. Their harmonies are unique and haunting

What We Are Fighting For In Iraq

Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 9, 6:14 PM ET

BAGHDAD - Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.

The religious fanaticism for south Iraq Shia Islamists always make one cringe with horror. These events though are barbaric even by Iraqi standards. Fourty women killed simply because they were not dressed right. Mubarak of Egypt warned Bush before his invasion of Iraq that it would open Pandora's Box.

One more bit of good advice ignored by Bush and now Iraqi women are being murdered because of how they dressed. This is what you created in Iraq GWB. Their blood and the blood of thousands more civilians and US soldiers is on your hands for eternity. Some day you'll get to face the God you claim supports your bloody visions of democracy through the barrel of an M16 assault rifle.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Led Zepellin

Catch 22

Here's an example of our Constitutional governmental system stuck of stupid.
From the Washington Post :

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk

Congressional officials say the groups' ability to challenge the practices was hampered by strict rules of secrecy that prohibited them from being able to take notes or consult legal experts or members of their own staffs.

So our congresscritters get briefed on waterboarding and other fun and enhanced interrogation techniques, and are not allowed to tell anybody about what they were told. Please explain how congress is going to do oversight with this kind of non-sense. No wonder American's opinion of their government is at the barrels bottom.