Syrian Boy Has Imaginary Friend...Named "Obama"

On "Powerful" "Assault" Weapons

The AR-15 and like weapons fire the .223 caliber round, sometimes referred to as the NATO round. It is erroneously described as "powerful", but is much smaller and lighter than the 30-06 round our fathers fired from their Springfield rifles in WWII. The doctrine behind the NATO round is that wounding a soldier is more effective than killing him out right. You kill one soldier, you've eliminated one combatant. You wound the same soldier instead, and roughly ten to twelve men will be tied up caring for his wounds and transporting him for medical attention.
While any bullet from the lowly .22 short or .25 can be lethal with the proper placement, the .223 was designed to be less lethal than previous weapons of war, to tie up the enemy's resources and to possibly allow some of its fighting men to live, to return home after the fighting stops.

Consider that 103 people were shot in Orlando and over half of them, so far, survived the shooting. Knee jerk reactions to ban the AR style of rifle may have the unintended consequence of putting even more lethal firepower into the hands of some future evil assassin.

See also:
A Response to Yet Another Knee Jerk Reaction to the Orlando Shooting

This Last Week's Poll

This Last Week's Poll question was: What do you think Obama's response to Syria will be?

Do nothing. (11%)

Fire a few missiles for no apparent reason (Do nothing useful) (52%)

Declare a moral victory. (30%)

Lecture us on Race. (27%)

Bush did it. (22%)

The clear victor, something we cannot expect from Obama in any of his Kinetic Military Actions, is "Fire a few missiles for no apparent reason (Do nothing useful)"


I apologize for not having the foresight to offer "Punt and blame Congress" as an option, as a variant on "Do nothing". Maybe next time!


Multiple choices and Obama's crack budget office accountants may account for totals greater than 100%

Thank you for your participation!
Not a scientific poll. Respondents are self selecting. Questions are drawn from fortune cookies, hieroglyphics and tomorrow’s New York Times.

Please make your opinion known in this week's poll.

Barack Obama, Chickenhawk?

If there's one thing we know about the Left, it's their consistency and dedication to principle. (Stop laughing!) And so it struck me as odd, that I have not heard any on the Left calling President Obama a "chickenhawk". You know, someone who didn't serve in the military but is all in favor of sending others to fight.

Now, I know the military has lawyers, but I don't think they have community organizers, so I'm pretty sure that Barry didn't serve in uniform. And to what extent has Obama favored sending others to fight? In addition to maintaining troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last three years, Barry O has sent troops into Pakistan, bombed Libya and sent military "advisers" to Uganda, and utilized fighter aircraft and drones in Yemen.

Now, realistically, if this were a Republican President with the same lack of military service, don't you think we'd be hearing the "C" word every day? But Obama's followers, rather than berating him as a "chickenhawk", are praising him for "his" military accomplishments. The cretins who hate the military, march in the anti-war demonstrations, and protest "torture" and the lack of prisoner's due process at Gitmo (which Obama promised to close and hasn't) , are bragging about Obama's "kills".

What's with the sudden blood lust among liberals? They get their undies in a bunch if we pour water on the face of terrorists, but if you shoot them in the face or pour hellfire from the sky in the form of a Predator drone, they wet themselves trying to give Obama all the credit. And in the case of Qadhafi, the Obamabots are waving their foam fingers in the air (carved, no doubt, from Obama's phony Styrofoam Greek columns) giving credit to Obama for what the rebels have done (without a trial or "due process", we might note).

In short, the one thing that is consistent about liberals is their hypocrisy. Nearly all of the complaints made against Bush in Iraq could have been made against Clinton in the Balkans, but weren't. Nearly all of the complaints made against Bush in Iraq could have been made against Obama for the last three years, and crickets chirp in the anti-war Left.

Where's Cindy Sheehan when you really need her? Doonesbury?? Nightline??? Beuller????

Obama's "Libya: Days Not Weeks" Anniversary

The five month anniversary of Obama's first "Days Not Weeks" speech was last Thursday.

Sorry I missed it!

Cross posted at Say Anything

"Cost of War in Afghanistan will be Major Factor in Troop-Reduction Talks"

Obama's Proposed Afghan Air Force

This is your post Memorial Day "Oh, crap!" moment, brought to you by the Obama administration!

Of all the statistics that President Obama’s national security team will consider when it debates the size of forthcoming troop reductions in Afghanistan, the most influential number probably will not be how many insurgents have been killed or the amount of territory wrested from the Taliban, according to aides to those who will participate.

It will be the cost of the war.

Someone should tell the Commander in Chief, that when you have men and women on the battlefield, some dying for their country, this is not the time to "go cheap".

Military and civilian officials agree that the cost of the Afghan mission is staggering. The amount per deployed service member in Afghanistan, which the administration estimates at $1 million per year, is significantly higher than it was in Iraq because fuel and other supplies must be trucked into the landlocked nation, often through circuitous routes. Bases, meanwhile, have to be built from scratch.

Here's a clue for the Obama people:
A) Figure out what your objective is.
B) Figure out how you will accomplish your objective
C) Budget for that

Anything else will be like those commercials where the guy only buys part of a car, or a car without wheels because "it was all he could afford".

I have the feeling that this country in general and the military in particular "can't afford" this president.

H/T Memeorandum

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Casualties in Aghanistan Under Obama Exceed Those Under Eight Years of Bush

via Gateway Pundit

As was pointed out a little over a month ago (Staff Sgt.Brian Piercy Laid to Rest),July set a record for the most US casualties in Afghanistan in a single month, breaking the previous record that was set the month before in June, yet the MSM was for the most part conspicuous in their silence on the matter.

What a difference two years makes! A couple of years ago, every casualty in Iraq was front page news. Tallies of casualties could be seen on the front pages of newspapers, commentators would slowly recite the names of the fallen, even Doonesbury would print a list in the Sunday comics. It was Bush's war then, and people needed to see just how heartless he was wasting the precious lives of our service men and women over there!

Where is Code Pink? Where are the Cindy Sheehans of the Left? Why is no one camped out on the road to Martha's Vineyard, or his Hawaiian vacation villa, or the many golf courses he frequents? Is it that there are just too many of them? Or was it never really about the deaths of soldiers for the Left? Was it all just a crass excuse to try to gain and retain political power for themselves and their cronies by playing on our sympathies?

And now, that there have been more casualties in the last twenty months than were seen in eight years of George W. Bush, one would think that the same players, if their protests were genuine and sincere, would be every bit as vociferous against the current president as they were against the last president, wouldn't you?

As I stated in the post "Obama Has His Own Halliburton":

It was always my contention that nearly every criticism of Bush during the Iraqi war could have been leveled at Clinton in the Balkans but wasn't. Expect the same deafening silence from those who did not criticize Halliburton under Clinton, criticized it under Bush and will fall silent once again for this Democrat President under the sheer weight of their own hypocrisy!

I haven't heard a snarky reference to Halliburton and Bush in...nearly minutes!
War involves casualties. Each and every loss of American service men or innocent civilians is a tragedy in its own right. But, in the interest of honesty, isn't this hypocrisy writ large when the so called "anti-war" movement is absent under Clinton, vociferous under Bush and silent again under Obama?

Cross posted at: Lady Cincinnatus, Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

H/T Rob Port

Staff Sgt. Brian Piercy Laid to Rest

Rest in Peace

Staff Sgt. Brian Piercy was killed by an IED, just one month shy of the end of his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. He was laid to rest yesterday in his hometown of Clovis.

I first became aware of the story driving down to Fresno, when I started hearing about Sgt. Piercy's funeral on a local Fresno station. Sgt. Piercy was the ninth soldier from the small town of Clovis, California to give his life in either Iraq or Afghanistan. From Buchanan High School, where he graduated, three of his classmate from the class of 2001 suffered a similar fate. Seven in all from the same school.

From the Fresno Bee:

A soldier from Clovis who was within a month of completing his Army service was killed in Afghanistan on Monday, his brother said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Brian Piercy, 27, was killed during a foot patrol north of Kandahar when an improvised explosive device detonated, said his brother, David Piercy.

The Clovis solider, a 2001 Buchanan High School graduate, would have completed his second tour of Afghanistan in about 30 days and was planning to move back to California from North Carolina with his wife, Christina,

Fresno and Clovis are what some might consider "flyover country" between Sacramento and L.A. What is it about small towns in flyover country that instills a sense of honor and duty among its citizens?

"He believed in the values of the Army and in the mission of what he was doing in Afghanistan," -David Piercy, 35

A hushed silence filled Peoples Church on Friday as the montage of photographs traced Brian Piercy's life -- on Christmas Day, at the piano, with his brothers, in his Buchanan High School letterman's jacket, on his wedding day, in the military.

At each step in his short life, Piercy won friends and influenced people, those closest to him recounted.

A loyal friend and gifted musician who grew into a leader, Piercy was laid to rest in a quiet spot along an American flag-lined drive at the back of the Clovis Cemetery following his funeral at Peoples Church.

Piercy, a 27-year-old Army staff sergeant who served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, died July 19 of injuries from an improvised explosive device set off in Afghanistan's Arghandab River Valley

And not to take away from the ultimate sacrifice that Brian Piercy made, but I learned another thing from the Fresno radio coverage: July set a record for the most US casualties in a single month, breaking the previous record that was set...last month. Let me ask you, those who look to the MSM for their news coverage: Did you know that June had set a record for the number of US casualties in Afghanistan? Neither did I. Look for equal coverage of the new record set back to back with the old one. To NPR's credit, they did post this:

In a summer of suffering, America's military death toll in Afghanistan is rising, with back-to-back record months for U.S. losses in the grinding conflict. All signs point to more bloodshed in the months ahead, straining the already shaky international support for the war.

Six more Americans were reported killed in fighting in the south — three Thursday and three Friday — pushing the U.S. death toll for July to a record 66 and surpassing June as the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly nine-year war.

But, has this message permeated the MSM, or do you have to go searching for it to ferret it out?

What a difference two years makes! A couple of years ago, every casualty in Iraq was front page news. Tallies of casualties could be seen on the front pages of newspapers, commentators would slowly recite the names of the fallen, even Doonesbury would print a list in the Sunday comics. It was Bush's war then, and people needed to see just how heartless he was wasting the precious lives of our service men and women over there!

Where is Code Pink? Where are the Cindy Sheehans of the Left? Why is no one camped out on the road to Martha's Vineyard, or his Hawaiian vacation villa, or the many golf courses he frequents? Is it that there are just too many of them? Or was it never really about the deaths of soldiers for the Left? Was it all just a crass excuse to try to gain and retain political power for themselves and their cronies by playing on our sympathies?

Take a moment today to remember Staff Sgt. Brian Piercy and his family. They deserve the honor, the respect and the thanks of our country. And then, take a moment to ask yourself, if George Bush were still in the White House, do you think that record numbers of our soldiers dying in Afghanistan might have commanded a bit more attention than the subject is garnering under Barack H. Obama?

Wonder why that is?

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything, Lady Cincinnatus

General Petraeus Rallies the Troops

"Protecting those we are here to help nonetheless does require killing, capturing or turning the insurgents. We will not shrink from that."

-General David Petraeus to the troops in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan – "We are in this to win," Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday as he took the reins of an Afghan war effort troubled by waning support, an emboldened enemy, government corruption and a looming commitment to withdraw troops even with no sign of violence easing.

Petraeus, who pioneered the counterinsurgency strategy he now oversees in Afghanistan, has just months to show progress in turning back insurgents and convince both the Afghan people and neighboring countries that the U.S. is committed to preventing the country from again becoming a haven for al-Qaida and its terrorist allies.

"We are in this to win." Despite the carping of the Mooove On dot Org types, who called him "General Betray Us", Obama's tapping of someone who actually has the expertise to make that win happen, if he is not hamstrung from the top, may yet disappoint that far left wing of Obama's base that wants to see the American military suffer defeat.

Good for him.

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Ronald Reagan on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day

A stirring tribute to the heroes of D-Day. Maybe the best thirteen minutes you'll spend all day!

H/T Weasel Zippers
Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus, Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Remembering D-Day June 6, 1944

Sixty six years ago today, an amphibious invasion of over 160,000 troops took place at Normandy. The beaches, the skies and the countryside ran red with blood.
Over 425,000 men between the Allies and the Germans were either killed, wounded or were M.I.A.
It is said that war is diplomacy by other means. Let us pray that our diplomats have learned the lesson that tyranny cannot be appeased!

Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus, Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

Ron Paul, On Why he Should Never be President

Coincidentally, today seems to be "pick on Ron Paul day". It was not intentional.



Here we have the blind leading the blind! Don Imus calls the Israeli interdiction a "botched raid"*. Botched in what way? The ship was stopped, its murderous crew killed or captured, and the weapons cache, meager as it was (it could have been missiles) was kept out of the hands of individuals who would use them on Israeli civilians. I do not see how anything was "botched", other than the fact that the Israelis would have been justified in sinking the ship with all hands on board, risking no harm to their own men, but chose rather to let many of them live. (It would have been all of them, except for the armed resistance they met!)

In one breath, Paul calls himself a "non interventionist" (read: isolationist), who believes we should mind our own business and "worry about our borders."

In another breath, he says what Israel is doing is very much our business. He gets his facts wrong about an embargo on "food and medicine". The Israelis are allowing food and medicine. They just aren't allowing uninspected ships to to come and go, with possible cargoes of weapons of war.

He calls the blockade "atrocious", "an act of war". What? 4000 missiles fired into Israeli wasn't??? What planet has this guy been on lately?

"People are starving...almost like in concentration camps..." Why do I feel that Paul is pandering to his white supremacist friends here? Ron Paul is a champion for the constitution and has an impeccable record on all things domestic, but here he sounds like a member of the radical Left, comparing Jews to Nazis.

Imus gets it right. People are not "starving" because they did not receive the sling shots, or clubs or gas masks on the "humanitarian aid" ships.

Paul equivocates over Hamas being an "elected government". Well since you brought up the Nazis, Dr. Paul, I believe Hitler was elected, too! Does that mean that we should not have engaged them because they were a legitimately elected government? Please!

And for the CIA "rigging" elections...any thing in particular you'd like to share there, Dr. Paul?

I wonder if he sees any irony in saying that we should "worry about our borders", but object when Israel worries about theirs!

Additional irony: This video is posted on You Tube by someone who thinks Ron Paul should be President!

H/T Gateway Pundit

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything

*Update: Jonah Goldberg referred to the action as "Israel’s botched raid of six “humanitarian” ships bound for Gaza". I personally don't see it, but maybe there's something I'm missing.

Update II:Saberpoint had this picture of a marketplace in Gaza from last December, that illustrates Dr. Paul's assertion that Gaza is like a "concentration camp".


Update III: In the latest Republican Presidential Debate, Ron Paul praises JFK's handling of the Cuban missile crisis, where Kennedy set up a military blockade to interdict weapons to be delivered to neighboring countries. Sound familiar?

Happy V-E Day!

Sixty five years ago in 1945, on this day, the Allies accepted the formal surrender of Germany's Third Reich.
If you know a WWII vet, thank him today!

Just Desserts, or "I Wasn't Expecting to Meet my 72 Virgins Just Yet!"

Apparently, we have the technology to track incoming mortar rounds and zero in return fire in as little as two to three shots. From the time this guy fired his first shot, he had about twelve seconds to live.

He was praying to meet his God and the Marines were there to make the travel arrangements!

Update: There seems to be a large consensus that this is a video of incompetence rather than accuracy. It is true that if the mortar becomes too hot through rapid fire, a round can cook off in the tube. (Wasn't there a scene in We Were Soldiers, where Lt. Col Hal Moore had his men urinating on a mortar tube to cool it down?)
But, whether little Johnny Jihadist killed himself through his own carelessness or was a victim of return fire, there is one less jihadist in world, who was not expecting to meet his 72 virgins just yet!

H/T The Blog Prof
Cross posted at Say Anything

"A Slow Motion Train Wreck"

Former UN ambassador John Bolton on Obama's Afghanistan policy making.



Hat tip Hot Air

Fox NFL Sunday in Afghanistan

Am I mistaken? Or has the Fox NFL Sunday team spent more time in Afghanistan with the troops than the Commander in Chief?

During Sunday evening's postgame show The OT, FOX Sports announced that it would broadcast a two-hour special FOX NFL Sunday on Nov. 8 (11 a.m. ET) from an undisclosed military installation in Afghanistan.

The team of Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson and Jay Glazer will do the special just three days before Veterans Day as a tribute to the dedication of America's service men and women.

Maybe they could leave a teleprompter over there to entice the current CinC?

...Prior to their departure to the Middle East, Bradshaw, Long, Johnson and Strahan expressed their excitement over this momentous trip:

Terry: "We did a show a few years ago aboard the USS Harry S. Truman and it was the most incredible experience. To be there with our men and women of the military, the Navy and Secretary of Defense William Cohen was absolutely incredible. The viewers loved it, we loved and we're inspired just by being there."

Howie: "You wish every American could get the opportunity to be around these brave young men and women. They are extraordinary. It was a trip of a lifetime, as I'm sure this will be."

Jimmy: "It will be great for us just to say, 'Hey, we appreciate what you do for our country.' Just anything we can do to say thank you."

Michael: "My dad is a retired Major in the Army, so I grew up on the base. I remember when I was 13 years old, Herschel Walker came. That was the biggest, most inspiring thing. Hopefully by us going to Afghanistan, we can give a little hope but I think it's going to be better for us. We're going to get the most out of this trip."

FOX Sports Chairman David Hill: "Our men and women in the military put themselves in harm's way to protect everything we hold dear, and none more so than those who are stationed in the Middle East. It is our privilege and honor to take FOX NFL SUNDAY to them in November, right before Veterans Day. Amidst the fun and football, it's our hope to showcase the dedication of these men and women who have to defend against a lot more than the wildcat."

Update: Here's a little video via Gateway Pundit:

Call for Joe Biden's Resignation...

...from the Left! Arianna Huffington:

I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention, and do what generations to come will always be grateful for: resign.

To be sure, Arianna is just parroting the anti-war Left's talking points, which stand in rich contrast to remarks made by our Commander-in-Chief just a few short weeks ago:

This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is a — this is fundamental to the defense of our people.

-Barack Hussein Obama, August 17, 2009

She concludes her article:

Newsweek's profile makes much of Joe Biden's loyalty. He's a "team player," one close friend says. And after he dissented on Afghanistan this spring he "quickly got on board."

I have no doubt that Joe Biden is a loyal guy -- the question is who deserves his loyalty most? His "team" isn't the White House, but the whole country. And if it becomes clear in the coming days that his loyalty to these two teams is in conflict, he should do the right thing. And quit.

Obama may be no drama, but Biden loves drama. And what could more dramatic than resigning the vice presidency on principle? And what principle could be more honorable than refusing to go along with a policy of unnecessarily risking American blood and treasure -- and America's national security? Now that would be a Whisky (sic) Tango Foxtrot moment for the McChrystal crowd -- one that would be a lot more significant than some lame, after-the-fact apology delivered in a too-late-to-matter book.

So the guy that "got on board" is now going to stand on principle???
So much comedy on the Left, so little time!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Di Fi Tells Obama: Listen to Your Generals

On This Week on ABC, Dianne Feinstein was asked about Afghanistan.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You met with the president this week. He had a group of members of Congress and senators down to meet with him. And I -- we -- we know -- and you saw Secretary Clinton say that, as well -- the president seems to have ruled out immediate withdrawal...

FEINSTEIN: That's correct.

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... from Afghanistan or a major increase of troops, in the hundreds of thousands. But did he reveal anything else about his thinking? And what did you recommend to him?

FEINSTEIN: Well, what he revealed was his thinking up to this point, and that the fact that he wanted to hear from various members, and some of us spoke up. And I'll tell you what I said. I reviewed all of the intelligence and looked at the situation, and it was pretty clear to me that violence was up 100 percent, 950 attacks in August. The Taliban now controls 37 percent of the people in the areas where these people are. Attrition in police is running 67 percent, either killed or leaving the service.

And the mission is in serious jeopardy. I think General McChrystal, who is one of our very best, if not the best at this, has said a counterterrorism strategy will not work. The president said to us very clearly, just as you said, George, we will not pull out.

Now, if you're going to stay, you have to have a way of winning. The question is, what is that way? And I think the counterinsurgency strategy, which means protecting the people, not shooting from afar, but securing, taking, holding, and providing security for a period of time is really critical.

The money quote is in this next exchange:

STEPHANOPOULOS: That leads to -- that leads to a key question that I know the White House was debating, actually, this week. In order to defeat Al Qaida, do you need to completely defeat the Taliban or can you learn to live with the Taliban?

What's your answer to that question, Senator Feinstein?

FEINSTEIN: I think it depends on what you mean by "Taliban." I think if you take the Haqqani network, which I gather was generally responsible for the bombing of the interior ministry in Kabul, I think they're hardcore fanatics.

If you look back, too, at Taliban control, when it had more in the earlier days, and I've got to tell you, I particularly worry about women in Afghanistan, acid in their face of children, girl children who go to school, women who can't work when they're widowed, huddled on the streets, begging, women beaten and shot in stadiums, you know, Sharia law with all of its violence, I mean, that's one element of the -- of the Taliban.

I think we need to look for those warlords that we can work with, those Pashtuns who want to work for stability, for good, solid governance. I don't think we can make the country into a Jeffersonian democracy, but I do think you -- you've got to stabilize this country.

You leave this country, and the Taliban are increasing all of the time. They're taking over more. It will have a dramatic impact on Pakistan one day. I really believe that.

FEINSTEIN: Now, should we stay there for 10, 12 years? General, I don't think so. I don't think the American people are up for that or want that. But I think -- I don't know how you put somebody in who was as crackerjack as General McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out.

If you don't want to take the recommendations, then you -- you -- you put your people in such jeopardy, just like the base in Nuristan. We lost eight of our men. We didn't have the ability to defend them, and now the base is closing, and effectively we're -- we're retreating away from it. And so I think the decision has to be made sooner, rather than later.

Dianne Feinstein is one of two Democratic Senators from California.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Forty Thousand Troops? How About Sixty Thousand?

Washington - Gen. Stanley McChrystal's troop request for Afghanistan includes an option to send at least 60,000 additional American forces to buttress the war effort there – a higher troop request than previously known.

General McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, included in his classified troop request a "menu" of options, with the high number thought to be about 40,000 reinforcements. But Obama administration officials are confirming privately that the high end is more than 60,000.

The higher number, reported first by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, may be McChrystal's straw man – likely to be knocked down but useful as a negotiation point in getting more troops than he might otherwise. Some experts, though, say the military is not prone to playing a numbers game to try to hedge its bets.

"The military doesn't do that as far as I know," says Karin von Hippel, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. McChrystal "was doing a very realistic assessment."

Was the 40,000 number released to blur the lines of what's really needed to win in Afghanistan?

Cross posted at Say Anything

"The Fork in the Road"

They should have given the Nobel to Michael Ramirez