If you said the main road to Baghdad Airport… you used to be correct. I’d like to see this report on the CBSNBCABC Evening News!
The Road To Victory – Mudville Gazette

For 2 1/2 years, the road was, in many ways, a symbol of the U.S. failure to secure Iraq. Military convoys roared past in a frantic attempt to escape the looming dangers of suicide bombers, grenades, rockets and booby-trapped litter. But insurgents’ relentless attacks claimed a steady toll.
Then, two months ago, the killings stopped. In October, one person was wounded on the road and no one was killed, according to the U.S. Army, which also calculated the April deaths. The turnaround was owed to simple, boots-on-the-ground military tactics, Army officials said.
And this is how. Many factors contributed to that success – but the one that can’t be overemphasized is the presence of trained Iraqi troops on the street.
The Iraqi soldiers, with a handful of U.S. troops by their side, walked the dusty dirt roads of the neighborhood. Weapons drawn, they searched alleys and courtyards. But mostly, they just walked, calling out greetings to Iraqis gathered outside their homes before the breaking of the fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The sweet scent of spice-infused meat and vegetables filled the night air, as women in black cloaks scurried home with stacks of piping-hot flat bread.
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Ali said the Iraqi soldiers had been influential in helping control the neighborhood, keeping the potential attackers from using side streets to reach the airport road. “We are Iraqis, and we know strangers from their faces,” Ali said. “We can stop them, and we know if they lie to us. The Americans don’t know.”

Bruce (GayPatriot)

Why does this article (like so many on the recent French riots) fail to mention that the youths rioting in France are Muslim? (Tammy Bruce has made much of this omission in her post which Bruce cites below.)
I think it’s because it upsets their narrative that U.S. intervention in Iraq causes Muslim unrest. France not only refused to participate in the liberation of Iraq, but actively sought to undermine it. Certain forces, independent of U.S. policies, are stirring up unrest among Muslim communities in Europe. And we need to figure out why, not merely for our own security — and that of our allies (even our sometime allies) — but also so we can better build bridges to those Muslims who deplore such violence.
The MSM does us a great disservice — instead of reporting this story, they omit certain elements key to understanding it. Without the blogosphere (and FoxNews), we wouldn’t know what was really going on.
(GP UPDATE @ 10:30PM: AP is reporting that the unrest has reached Paris itself)

Paris suburbs under siege by the elements of Islamic extremism….

Bands of youths roaming Parisian suburbs burned more than 500 vehicles and hurled stones at police Friday, as the worst rioting in a decade entered its second week and spread elsewhere in France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport via strife-torn areas.

Are these riots? Or a tactic?
Tammy Bruce contrasts Paris and Baghdad this week.

On the left is a picture of a country which has allowed multiculturalism and political correctness to rule. It is a place which refuses to acknowledge that we are at war with a savage enemy which lives only to destroy. On the right is a scene from the nation which has been on the front lines of that war where the savages have lost every single battle. Perhaps al-Qaida has chosen another front to pursue their “love of death?” And where would they go? Where ever the American military is not.
Bonjour Paris!

You are either with them or against them…..

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

See the video at The Other Iraq.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Here’s a great dispatch in today’s Weekly Standard from Michael Yon, an embedded blogger/journalist in Iraq. Michael contrasts and compares the Iraqi elections in January and October.
All Quiet On The Baghdad Front – Weekly Standard

I WAS IN BAQUBA during Iraq’s January elections, having hitched a ride with the U.S. Army to a polling site. There were bombs exploding, mortars falling, and hot machine guns. The fact that the voting was going great despite the violence was something few people expected. Until that day, I’d been skeptical about Iraq.
The courage of the Iraqi people that January day planted a seed of confidence. These were not timid or cowering souls. There I was: an American alone in a dangerous Iraqi city, at the very polling site that soldiers were wagering would be bombed. One after another, Iraqis came and shook my hand, showing me their children, laughing, smiling, saying over and over, Thank you, thank you, thank you. I felt like an honored guest, and I felt a twinge of shame that I’d been less confident in the Iraqis than they were in themselves. The voice of the Iraqi people had risen above the clamor of insurgent violence.

Michael was on full “tour mode” on Referendum Day last week as well.

On the eve of the election, I wanted to be fully prepared for combat in the morning. Once we started out, we’d have no idea how long we might be away, so I headed as quickly as possible to my room, showered, and managed to fall asleep. While I slept, terrorists knocked out electricity to most of Baghdad. Iraqis pulled out their lanterns.
I walked through the morning darkness to meet the soldiers, who were laughing at the terrorists: Don’t those dumbasses know that the voting will happen during the daytime? When it comes to winning hearts and minds, cutting off the electricity didn’t win any support. I have been saying it for many months: The terrorists are losing. But today was litmus-day.
There had actually been somewhere between 300 and 350 total attacks on the January election day. And the army would later say that there were 89 total attacks during the voting last week. Who knows? I know that it was quiet from my perch, and that the guns had been silenced long enough that we could hear the Iraqi voice speak for a second time. The voice was louder, stronger, and prouder than it had been in January.

My biggest question is this: With the money, toil, and treasure of the American people on the line in Iraq, why didn’t doesn’t the Mainstream Media have more comprehensive reports like Michael’s on a daily basis?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

The famous Rhein-Main Air Force Base was turned back over to Germany today as US forces are redeployed in our post-9/11 world.

The airstrip south of Frankfurt airport was used to keep West Berlin from the Soviets during the 1948 blockade and served as a major staging point for later conflicts, including Vietnam, the 1990 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
U.S. hostages held captive in Iran and throughout the Middle East during the 1980s and 1990s also passed through Rhein-Main on their way to freedom back home and Elvis Presley went through the air base after finishing his military service in 1960.
Washington said last year that a total of 30,000 troops would leave Germany as part of plans to bring forces back from Europe and Asia over the next decade, reflecting revised priorities after the end of the Cold War.

Goodbye, Old Europe! You are either with us or against us in the war against Islamic fundamentalism. I’m happy to take our economic-generating bases to one of our true allies in this new world war.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Deal Would Make Merkel German Chancellor – Yahoo.com

BERLIN – Conservative leader Angela Merkel said Monday she had reached a “good and fair” deal that will make her Germany’s first female chancellor in a power-sharing agreement that would end Gerhard Schroeder’s seven years in office.

Post 9/11 Election Scorecard now stands at….

Bush War On Terror Coalition: – 7 (Bush, Blair, Howard, Merkel, Koizumi – Japan, Karzai – Afghanistan, Talabani – Iraq)
Al-Qaeda: – 1 (Spain’s post 3/11 election)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

“Sir” David Frost is joining the al-Qaeda News Network, also known as al-Jazeera.
Unbelieveable. I guess Al Gore, media magnate-in-his-mind, is next to join the budding conglomerate front organization for the Islamic fundamentalists?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

No, Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror.
U.S. Snags Al Qaeda No. 2’s Letter to Zarqawi – FOX News

The United States has intercepted a letter from the No. 2 Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri (search) to the terror network’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Pentagon officials told FOX News. The letter says that Muslim terrorists have developed a detailed plan for creating an Islamic state centered on Iraq and including neighboring countries as well as the destruction of Israel.

But the following is the attitude of one of our nation’s supposed leaders about Iraq.

“Today was an opportunity for the President to be candid with the American people about the status of democracy in Iraq, and when he will bring our troops home. Instead, the President offered little more than empty rhetoric, claiming that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror — a position that is simply not supported by the facts.” — Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), would-be Speaker of the House.

A reminder of what the President said yesterday.

The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror.
[T]he militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia. With greater economic and military and political power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda: to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.

The letter from al-Zawahiri shows that President Bush knows the stakes in this global war and has the facts on his side. Yet the “loyal opposition” would rather criticize and demean the war effort than outline a plan to protect Americans against the worldwide threat of Islamic fascism.
Again I ask, is the Democratic Party an “enabler” of our enemy, just as they were with the Communists during the Cold War? So far that is the only clear message the LibDems are giving to the public.
UPDATE: Third suspect in NYC subway terror plot arrested…. in Iraq – ABC News.com

Alarmed by the informant’s report of a plot to attack city subways with as many as 19 bombs in bags and possibly baby strollers, U.S. forces in Iraq arrested two suspected plotters who had been under close surveillance until Thursday morning, officials said. The third escaped until his arrest Friday.

Meantime, in Washington DC today, the Rayburn House office building was evacuated due to a suspected bomb threat, and the Washington Monument and streets around it were cleared due to a possible threat. Luckily nothing happened at either place.
UPDATE TWO:Omar at IraqTheModel reports that Zarqawi is defying the instruction in the letter from al-Zawahiri and will continue to target Iraqi civilians who work toward democracy.

Zarqawi said that Islam doesn’t distinguish between people on the basis of civilian vs. military but on the basis of Muslim vs. kaffir (infidel) and that “an infidel’s blood should be spilled regardless of his occupation or position unless he had a treaty or a promise of peace”.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Wooooo hoooo! Dubya takes the gloves off and says the things I’ve been saying for over a year….. the ferocity of the 9/11 attacks had much more to do with the weakness of the United States’ previous response (under Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan and Carter) than it did about the first 8 months of the Bush 43 term.
Bush finally said what the 9/11 Commission was too politically-whipped to say: Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, Madeleine Albright, Al Gore and Richard Clarke all bear primary responsibility for 9/11 by their sleeping on the job for eight years while al-Qaeda plotted and repeatedly attacked America.
President Bush: Clinton Weakness Led to 9/11 – NewsMax.com

“The terrorists saw our response to the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings in the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole,” Bush noted, after getting an update on the war on terror at the Pentagon.
“The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves and so they attacked us,” the president added, in quotes picked up by United Press International.
Four of the six terrorist attacks cited by Bush took place on Clinton’s watch, with the first two coming during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Bush Firm on Iraq Policy as Antiwar Forces Plan Protest – NY Times

The president asserted at a news conference afterward that terrorists had studied the American responses to the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration, the bombing of United States Marines’ barracks in Lebanon during the Reagan administration and the first terror attack on the World Trade Center during the Clinton administration, among other events.
“The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves, and so they attacked us,” the president said. “The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission.”
“For the safety and security of the American people, that’s not going to happen on my watch,” he said.

Same story, different sources, different quotes by the President used. Same message.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hat tip: ConservativePunk (gotta love that name!)
We Need American Troops – Iraqi President Talabani in the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21, 2005

There is no more important international issue today than the need to defeat the curse of terrorism. And as the first democratically elected president of Iraq, I have a responsibility to ensure that the world’s youngest democracy survives the inherently difficult transition from totalitarianism to pluralism. A transformation of the Iraqi state and Iraqi society is impossible without a sustained commitment of soldiers from the United States and other democracies.
Without foreign intervention, the transition in Iraq would have been from Saddam’s bloodstained hands to his psychopathic offspring. Instead, thanks to American leadership, Iraqis have been given an opportunity of peaceful, participatory politics. Contrary to the new conventional wisdom, Iraq and the history of 20th-century Europe demonstrate that force of arms can implant democracy in the most arid soil.
To contain these tensions, and to defend our young democracy, requires the support of American and other troops. Foreign forces are needed to train and equip the new Iraqi armed forces and to give Iraq its own counterterrorism capability. Only the United States and its closest allies are able to provide such assistance.
Creating these Iraqi forces has not been easy, but Iraqis have been undaunted by the difficulties. Every terrorist attack on Iraqi forces leads to a surge in military recruitment–the opposite of the appeasers’ myth that resisting terrorism causes more terrorism.
American forces are in Iraq at the invitation of the democratically elected government of Iraq, and with the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Your soldiers are in my country because of your commitment to democracy.
Americans should be proud of what its soldiers have achieved. The presence of foreign forces has prevented a renewed civil war in Iraq–renewed because there has already been a civil war in Iraq. For 35 years, Saddam and his Baath Party made war on the Iraqi people. The liberation of Iraq ended that civil war.
Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism.

Elections matter…. I doubt there would have been a democratically-elected President of Iraq to write this piece if John Kerry had been elected President. He wanted the Jan. 30 election delayed, and US troops to be withdrawn.
Elections matter….
(Related story – Update from the Iraqi Theatre in the War on Terror from Michael Yon, a truly embedded blogger.
Funny, I haven’t heard about this on CBS News. All I know from the MSM is that there is a car bomb in Iraq on days that news coverage of Katrina gets slow. Now, why is that?? I guess it is because they are ‘stuck on stupid.’)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Via the Newark Star-Ledger.

Three lab mice carrying deadly strains of plague have turned up missing from separate cages at a bioterror research facility in Newark, sparking a hushed, intensive investigation by federal and state authorities.
Officials said the animals could have been stolen from the center or simply misplaced in a colossal accounting error at one of the top-level bio-containment labs in the state.
“The FBI has expended substantial resources and put many agents into this investigation to satisfy — among other things — the most compelling question of whether public safety is at risk,” said Special Agent Steve Siegel, a bureau spokesman.
He said the investigation was continuing. The agents on the case are members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and experts in biological agents that can be turned into weapons of mass destruction.

This is a story to keep your eye on. It may be nothing… hopefully it isn’t.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)