Victory in Iraq

Over at Zombietime is a list of bloggers who are acknowledging that the US has achieved victory in Iraq. Inspite of the efforts of the Democrats we have prevailed. I understand why Obama wanted to have the Iraqi government delay until after the transition any agreement such as the one recently made. It would have allowed him to claim victory rather that accept that we have already achieved it.

Rather that wait for the media to grudgingly announce victory, which it will never do, I wish to join with my fellow bloggers and celebrate today, November 22, 2008 as:


Micheal Yon the intrepid photo journalist was quoted over at Instapundant.com making this very observation.

November 14, 2008

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis, 'do you think the violence will kick up again,' but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they're usually dour." There's a little bit of violence here and there, but nothing that's a threat to the general situation. Plus, not only the Iraqi Army, but even the National Police are well thought of by the populace. Training from U.S. toops has paid off, he says, in building a rapport.

He says the big problem everybody is talking about now is corruption. But hey, we have that here, too. He'll be heading to Afghanistan next week. "Afghanistan is a bad situation, but on Iraq I can't believe things have turned out so well."

He thinks that Obama will be able to pull troops out, and send some to Afghanistan, without creating problems in Iraq. Michael will be reporting from Afghanistan soon, and sending back video, so stay tuned. Things aren't going swimmingly there...

...MORE: Yon emails this correction: "Actually, NONE of them have fired their weapons in combat during this tour, and about half of them are combat veterans from Afghanistan and/or Iraq." Sorry, I had misunderstood that bit.

Many thanks to the men and women who have served so faithfully. They deserve much more that the media has given. They deserve the presteige and praise of true sons and daughters of liberty as Shakespeare wrote in Henry V:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen [at home] now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

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Iraq, Media, Politics,

UN to Stop the Somali Pirates

I first wrote about the Somali Pirates three years ago. It seemed like an odd situation that would be handled quickly, except that America was busy. The UN and other international organizations applied the same remedies to this problem that they have to all others, they let it fester while making it impossible for the victims to protect themselves.

Arming the merchant ships makes too much sense. Like the politicians here who try to disarm the law abiding citizens because they want to address the rising crime rate, the international nitwits will not allow merchants to enter ports armed. So they are left to deal with pirates with RPGs armed with only a shotgun and pistol. What harm would it do to allow merchants to mount a rotary cannon on the bridge? Cut a few pirate boats in two and let the sharks clean up the mess and the pirates will go back to robbing farmers like they were last year. Since nothing has been done to stop them every one with a boat and five friends with automatic weapons has become a pirate.

Don't despair. The UN Security Council is coming to the rescue.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to impose new sanctions meant to reduce the flow of arms into Somalia and the lawlessness and piracy that have flourished there.

How incredibly clueless are these people? Somalia is a stinking whole and their only solution is sanctions? It is a wonder that the Troglodytes of this world have not yet taken over.

I'm thinking that to make it in this world I'll either get a ship loaded with 20 mm cannons and a sign that says "For Rent" and sit out in the Indian Ocean or buy a parrot and an eye patch.
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The Day After

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are





H/T Tom from Gainesville

Great Expectations

Bryan Pick over at Q&O blog has expressed his reaction to this election in the very same manner as I find myself.

What am I doing now, then, in lieu of respectfully joining the celebration? The same thing I've been doing for some time now: thinking.

* I'm thinking about the war in which we are engaged.
* I'm thinking about the financial crisis, and quite frankly I'm thinking about the men who caused a sharp recession to sink into the Great Depression.
* I'm thinking about Supreme Court justices who I believe will, for the rest of their lives, do violence to my fellow Americans' liberties.
* I'm thinking about taxes, and what they'll do to members of my family.
* I'm thinking about all the Democrats who have insisted that the greater their advantage in power over Republicans, the more they will reach across the aisle, so to speak.
* I'm thinking about how to perform a holding action against a Democrat-dominated government.
* I'm thinking about entitlements (including refundable tax credits) that will create their own constituencies of dependents, and become stubbornly entrenched.
* I'm thinking about the other legislative "positive feedback loops" that the Democrats may pass now, rubber-stamping one after the other, to shift the political landscape itself in their favor.
* I'm thinking of the movement we must build to overcome those feedback loops, and to minimize and perhaps reverse this damage.

I also wonder as he does what the masses will be doing when they find the expectations of the campaign are a far cry from the delivered results. Of course any problems will be blamed on the Republicans no matter how much time elapses.

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Obama says Burn Coal, Go Bankrupt

January, 2008 in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Sen. Obama was explaining his cap and trade plan. He told the interviewer:

"Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

The paper of course did not mention in it's article that he said this. Good-by jobs in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Indiana.
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