"America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war, America is at the mall."

Is America at War? | Mitch Lewis

Soldiers live by the warrior ethos: * I will always place the mission first. * I will never accept defeat. * I will never quit. * I will never leave a fallen comrade behind. These are the values they live by. Time and time again, they throw themselves into the breach to accomplish what needs to be done. Soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors are enduring extreme hardship and danger to accomplish the mission they’ve been given in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pundits tell us that Americans are weary of the war. They are tired of it. They want it to go away.

Unfortunately, making decisions out of stress, discomfort or anxiety is a horrible idea. Soldiers and Marines quickly learn that paralysis and fear never get you out of a jam or accomplish what needs to be done. Success requires keeping your head in the game and your eyes focused on the goal, even when everything is going to hell around you. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it is the ability to think and act despite your fear.

We cannot make decisions about this war based on fatigue, anxiety or self-interest. The stakes are too high for that. If the news is disturbing, don’t look at it until you can read it with your head instead of your gut. Eventually, find the courage to read beyond the “if it bleeds it leads” headlines. Choose to base your thinking on your intellect and will instead of on your weariness or fear. Choose to look beyond your own needs to the needs our nation and our world. As a nation, choose whatever strategy or course of action you think best achieves the greatest good and the members of the armed forces will execute it. Be courageous; the members of the armed forces that serve you are more courageous still. You cannot ask too much from them. They will march through hell if you are behind them.

Please read the whole thing here.

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Some Have Forgotten How War Works

CFP: Some Have Forgotten How War Works

If the West loses the current war against Islamofascism, it will be because some have lost all sense of what war really means.

Last week, in my weekly Sun Media column, I argued that it’s really not that big of a deal to make terror suspects like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed essentially do what any kid does at Halloween when he bobs for apples--except in the presence of the CIA, and with the prize in the terrorist’s case being lifesaving information.

That column triggered an email campaign spearheaded by the Daily Kos--the largest far-left blog in America--which appealed to the Sun’s new editor-in-chief from the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest leftist newspaper. As a result, after 2 years with the Sun and a hundred columns, my writing is now in search of a new home.

Really, has society lost its collective mind to the point where we’ve forgotten how to properly wage a war?

And now here we are, 60 years later, wringing our hands over how we should treat people who have made it abundantly clear that they would have killed us, if we hadn’t nabbed them first. What’s the alternative that the terrorist sympathizers are looking for? To tickle them until they cry uncle and promise to be good boys?

The UK Mirror reported this week that, according to British intelligence, Islamic terrorists are recruiting kids as young as 15 years old for civilian homicide bombings. (If leftists think that the US Army recruiting videos are seducing, just imagine the appeal of 72 babes for a pimply-faced kid.) And here some folks are, actually thinking that this whole issue of them wanting to wipe us off the planet can be handled in any sort of rational way.

It’s one thing for Sarkozy, the US, and various other players to agree that Iran shouldn’t be allowed to have nukes--which, by some reports, could be ready as early as 2009--but at some point, something much more has to be done. It’s like the kid playing with matches in the back room. If you don’t go in there and take them away, you know he’ll eventually burn the whole house down.

If the centrifuges keep spinning through any “talks”, and while any sanctions are being debated or imposed, then none of it really does any good, does it?

Just have a look at Pakistan. A supposedly US-friendly leader cuts a deal with Islamic terrorists to stay out of his hair and keep to themselves in the northern part of his country, rather than having the US take them out (and perhaps even nail Bin Laden in the process). Now, for all his kindness and appeasing of them, they’re trying to get rid of him so the jihadist nutcases can have full control of the country, its law, and its nukes.

War isn’t like divvying up the contents of a condo upon divorce so everyone walks away feeling good. It means people have to die. And sometimes even be forced to bob for apples with the CIA. Sorry, but that’s the way it has always worked. In the words of the A-bomb pilot: “I have been convinced that we saved more lives than we took.”

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Winning Iraq

Winning Iraq

If the old saw “no news is good news” has any truth to it, then things must be going very well indeed in the Iraq war. Increasingly obvious signs of success as a result of the “surge” under the able leadership of General David Petraeus have all but rendered the mainstream media speechless on the warfront. From the days of constant television showing video of black smoke billowing from burning car bombs in marketplaces, we have now reached a virtual blackout. When was the last time you saw a detailed listing of U.S. and Iraqi casualties in the top right column of the New York Times or Washington Post?

The media are not going to report good news, which leaves Americans with the impression that the war is going as poorly now as it was a year ago. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If the old saw “no news is good news” has any truth to it, then things must be going very well indeed in the Iraq war. Increasingly obvious signs of success as a result of the “surge” under the able leadership of General David Petraeus have all but rendered the mainstream media speechless on the warfront. From the days of constant television showing video of black smoke billowing from burning car bombs in marketplaces, we have now reached a virtual blackout. When was the last time you saw a detailed listing of U.S. and Iraqi casualties in the top right column of the New York Times or Washington Post?

The media are not going to report good news, which leaves Americans with the impression that the war is going as poorly now as it was a year ago. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.

You've got to be kidding me. Can't we just say: US deaths in Iraq down dramatically in the past few months? The rest is obvious.

2007 Projected to Be Deadliest on Record for U.S. Troops in Iraq

With just under two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.

At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year — the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures.

In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the U.S. so far, 850 American troops died. Most were killed in large, conventional battles like the campaign to cleanse Fallujah of Sunni militants in November, and U.S. clashes with Shiite militiamen in the sect's holy city of Najaf in August.

But the American military in Iraq has increased its exposure this year, reaching 165,000 troops — the highest levels yet. Moreover, the military's decision to send soldiers out of large bases and into Iraqi communities means more troops have seen more "contact with enemy forces" than ever before, said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

"It's due to the troop surge, which allowed us to go into areas that were previously safe havens for insurgents," Danielson said. "Having more soldiers, and having them out in the communities, certainly contributes to our casualties."

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Thousands return to safer Baghdad

Thousands return to safer Iraqi capital - Yahoo! News

In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al-Qaida control — the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

The uprising originated in Iraq's west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of al-Qaida control.

At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.

But, U.S. officials say, al-Qaida overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off al-Qaida's grip.

...the U.S. military working with the neighborhood council is handing out $2,000 grants to shop owners who had closed their business. The money goes to those who agree to reopen or first-time businessmen.

Al-Azawi said he's trying to get one of the grants to open a poultry and egg shop that his brother would run.

"In Khadra, about 15 families have returned from Syria. I've called friends and family still there and told them it's safe to come home," he said.

Sattar Nawrous, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said the al-Azawi family was among 3,100 that have returned to their homes in Baghdad in the past 90 days.

"In the past three months, the ministry did not register any forced displacement in the whole of Iraq," said Nawrous, who is a Kurd.

The claim could not be independently verified, but, if true, it would represent a dramatic end to the sectarian cleansing that has shredded the fabric of Baghdad's once mixed society.

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Iraq has been won

Osama, read it and weep | Herald Sun

THERE is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue. Here it is: The battle is actually over. Iraq has been won.

I know this will seem to many of you an insane claim. Ridiculous!

After all, haven't you read countless stories that Iraq is a "disaster", turned by a "civil war" into a "killing field"?

Didn't Labor leader Kevin Rudd, in one of his few campaign references to Iraq, say it was the "greatest . . . national security policy disaster that our country has seen since Vietnam"?

You have. And you have been misled.

Here is just the latest underreported news, out this week.

Just 27 American soldiers were killed in action in Iraq in October -- the lowest monthly figure since March last year. (This is a provisional figure and may alter over the next week.)

The number of Iraqi civilians killed last month -- mostly by Islamist and fascist terrorists -- was around 760, according to Iraqi Government sources. That is still tragically high, but the monthly toll has plummeted since January's grim total of 1990.

What measures of success do critics of Iraq's liberation now demand?

Violence is falling fast. Al Qaida has been crippled. The Shiites, Kurds and Marsh Arabs no longer face genocide.

What's more, the country has stayed unified. The majority now rules. Despite that, minority Sunni leaders are co-operating in government with Shiite ones. There is no civil war. The Kurds have not broken away. Iran has not turned Iraq into its puppet.

And the country's institutions are getting stronger. The Iraqi army is now at full strength, at least in numbers. The country has a vigorous media. A democratic constitution has been adopted and backed by a popular vote. Election after election has Iraqis turning up in their millions.

Add it all up. Iraq not only remains a democracy, but shows no sign of collapse. I repeat: the battle for a free Iraq has been won.

Now the task is one familiar to every democracy, and especially any in the Middle East: eternal vigilance.

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The truth about IraqBodyCount.

FrontPage Magazine

So what is the group IraqBodyCount? What exactly does it do and what is its database on civilian casualties in Iraq?

Reinsford: IBC is an Internet group that counts civilian casualties in Iraq based on reliable news reports. It maintains a public database of incidents in which civilians were reported killed. It makes no discernment between those who were killed intentionally in terror attacks, or those killed collaterally by security forces trying to stop the terrorists. It openly lays the blame for each death on the U.S. and the 2003 decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

The group's numbers are far more reliable than some of the wilder estimates out there, such as the ridiculous surveys published in The Lancet.

FP: How much interest did the IBC devote to the Iraqi civilians that were killed by Saddam?

Reinsfold: Absolutely none.

The only dead Iraqis that interest IBC are those whose demise can be blamed on the Americans -- however tenuously, that is.

Not only are terrorists the ones killing Iraqis these days, but ultimately it was Saddam's choice to go to war by refusing to comply with international law and the terms of the cease-fire that he agreed to in 1991. This point seems to be lost on IBC.

FP: What is flawed about the IBC’s data?

Reinsford: There is an obvious tension between the anti-American agenda and objective reporting. This affects the methodology of compiling data as well as the presentation of it.

Originally the group hoped that its numbers would reflect civilians killed in combat. This would support the political statement that they wished to make about the ethics of war. Unfortunately for them the real war ended quickly and the vast majority of civilians who have been killed since have died unnecessarily at the hands of terrorists. The group plays games to hide this fact from the casual visitor to their site.

Part of this includes artificially inflating the incidents and casualties in which Americans actually are involved (such as firefights and air strikes) by applying lower journalistic standards to the reporting of these events. Examples include an over-reliance on single, local sources that are not confirmed by more reliable news organizations.

In order to further exaggerate US-related incidents, IBC usually personalizes both the victims and the so-called aggressor in its description, using terms like "children" and "US troops." However it actively depersonalizes incidents not involving the Americans. In my analysis of the first six months of 2007, I could not find a single case in which IBC used the words "al-Qaeda" or "terrorist." And only once did it describe the attacker as Shia or Sunni.

FP: The bottom line is that if Islamic terrorists stopped waging terror and if Shiites and Sunnis stopped killing each other, then there wouldn’t be any civilian casualties at all and no war period. How much of its energy and reporting does the IBC devote to this fact?

Reinsfold: If not for Islamic terror, the rest of Iraq would be as free, safe and successful as the northern Kurdistan region. The only American troops there would probably be embassy guards.

So far, the Americans have literally been spilling their own blood to provide this sort of future for Iraqis, while the "Holy Warriors" of Islam have been doing everything in their power to prevent it from happening.

IraqBodyCount does not appear to have any interest in making this truth known. In fact, they are actively distorting it.

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The elite media’s coverage of Iraq is a fiasco.

Clifford D. May on Iraq & Media on National Review Online

Start with lack of information: The average news consumer probably has no clue that Gen. David Petreaus’ new strategy has crippled al Qaeda in Iraq, that Americans and Iraqis are now fighting side-by-side against both Sunni and Shia extremists, and that the elimination of terrorist safe havens and weapons caches has improved security for average Iraqis in parts of the country that a few months ago were snake pits.

As for misinformation, how many people still believe that guards in Guantanamo flushed Korans down the toilet, that U.S. Marines committed a massacre at Haditha, and that American soldiers ridicule women disfigured by bombs, run over puppies for sport and desecrate graves for a laugh? All of this was reported in such mainstream publications as Newsweek and The New Republic. None of it is true.

Meanwhile, the barbarous violence committed by al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq is scarcely noted.

Where can one go to learn what is really happening in Iraq? Michael Yon is a former Green Beret. He has been reporting from Iraq’s battlefields, mostly for his own blog (www.michaelyon-online.com). No journalist has revealed more about al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), including its “reputation for hiding bombs intended to kill parents in the corpses of dead children they'd gutted.”

He has photographed Iraqi and American soldiers as they “disinterred the remains of adults and children” from killing fields. “In one grave,” he noted, “soldiers recovered the heads of decapitated children, some with still partially recognizable remnants of flesh and hair.”

Why have the elite media not covered such atrocities — while spilling barrels of ink over the abuses at Abu Ghraib? In part, perhaps, because the conventional storyline is that Iraq is Vietnam redux: Americans are the “occupiers” and anyone who fights them must be “the Resistance.” Reporters who dispute that narrative are apt to dine alone.

As to why lower military casualty rates and fewer insurgent attacks are not seen as newsworthy, CNN’s Barbara Starr told media critic Howard Kurtz that it was not yet clear that such developments represent “a trend.” But the lines on the graph have been heading south since at least June. Is there any doubt that if U.S. forces had been losing ground for five months it would be a huge story?

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Iraq's largest dam in danger of collapse, could kill up to 500,000

Iraq dam failure could kill up to 500,000 - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.

Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.

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Freed Sheiks "Al-Qaida has condemned us to death, but we have a strong uprising".

ABC News: Freed Sheiks Describe Kidnapping Ordeal

It had to be done quickly. Rogue Shiite militiamen were holding hostage a group of Sunni and Shiite tribal sheiks who had joined a revolt against al-Qaida. For the Iraqi government and its U.S. backers, the seven men represented a rare symbol of national unity.

A daring rescue operation secured their freedom.

A meeting Tuesday between most of the former captives and military officials including the Iraqi commander of the rescue operation offered the first detailed picture of the tense and fast-moving events: the kidnapping, the slaying of one captive and the seven-hour rescue mission Monday converging on an area that was "not fit for rats."

The sheiks, recounting their 30-hour ordeal to a small group of reporters including The Associated Press, said they were tortured and humiliated. At least three of the sheiks were visibly bruised. One man's left eye was red and swollen. The two others had bruises on their backs, arms and legs.

But they insisted that they emerged from captivity more determined than ever to continue their fight.

"We already forgot the pain and the wounds from our ordeal," said Haroon al-Mohammedawi, the bearded leader of the group from Khalis, a region in Diyala province where the terror organization has a heavy presence. "We pledge to you, the people and leadership of Iraq, that we will stay the course."

Al-Qaida militants, the sheiks told Iraqi and U.S. commanders, had prevented food rations from reaching them for a year, cut off power supply to their villages and ruined their orchards.

"Al-Qaida has condemned us to death," said al-Mohammedawi, a Shiite. "But we have a strong uprising and we have volunteers from the age of 14 to 75."

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Iraqis donate $1000 to San Diego fire victims.

This is important. I know it's "just" $1000, but it's a lot of money in Iraq. The generosity of these Iraqis is heartening!

OPFOR: What goes around - Comes around

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims Thursday night at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya's San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California.

The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy.

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Desecrator of Marine's grave caught

Apparently, he was stealing wire stands to sell to florists. Even if true, it was an evil thing to do.

Hattip to bh!

FOXNews.com - Texas Police Arrest Suspect in Vandalism of Marine's Grave - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Texas police arrested a man accused of vandalizing the gravesite of a Marine killed in Iraq to sell parts of floral arrangements left in his memory.

Lance Cpl. Jeremy Burris, 22, of Liberty, Texas, was killed in Iraq on Oct. 8 by an improvised explosive device. After burial services, workers at the Cooke Memorial Cemetery found flags, posters and flowers ripped up at the gravesite.

"This town had turned out in such huge numbers to bury Corporal Burris," Liberty Police Chief Mike Cummings told FOXNews.com. "To have something like this happen right on the heels of that ceremony, it was like a blow to the gut."

Liberty police arrested Wallace DeBlanc Wednesday night on state felony charges of criminal mischief at a place of human burial and felony theft. DeBlanc faces up to two years in jail and up to $20,000 in fines.

DeBlanc confessed in a statement to police to stealing the flower wire stands from the gravesite to resell them to florists, Cummings said. DeBlanc profited less than $100 from the ordeal, Cummings said.

Police tracked down the stolen items from the gravesite leading to DeBlanc, who has a previous criminal history.

Brent Burris, Jeremy's father, said the family was relieved that the suspect was caught.

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Italians can't try US soldier

Italians 'cannot try US soldier'

An Italian court has thrown out a case against a US soldier charged over the killing of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in March 2005.

The court ruled that Italy had no jurisdiction in the case against Mario Lozano, who was on trial in absentia.

Italy and the US have drawn very different conclusions over the shooting and Washington refused to hand Spc Lozano over for trial.

US soldiers opened fire as the car Nicola Calipari was in approached a roadblock.

The US military said the vehicle was travelling too fast, alarming soldiers, who feared it was an insurgent attack.

Italian officials said the car was travelling at normal speed and accused the US military of failing to signal there was a checkpoint.

Spc Lozano, both countries agree, fired the fatal shots.

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Israeli doctors treat Iraqi children, parents afraid of retribution by terrorists back home.

CANOE -- CNEWS - World: Israeli doctors treat Iraqi children

Israeli doctors screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease Tuesday - a rare case of direct co-operation between the Jewish state and the Arab country.

The Iraqi children and their parents gathered at an outpatient clinic in the Red Crescent Hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Most of the families were Sunni Muslims of Kurdish origin who live in northern Iraq. Also among them were three Sunni families who live in Baghdad.

One child screened Tuesday was four-year-old Mustafa, who Houri said was diagnosed with crossed arteries and would need two surgeries in Israel soon to unfold them before they harden.

Mustafa's mother, a Kurdish woman who identified herself only as Suzanne because she feared reprisals from militants in Iraq, said travelling to Israel made her "anxious. Not because I'm going to a country considered an enemy of Iraq, but because I'm afraid of retribution by Iraqi militants, by the terrorists back home."

"I'm afraid and it's not easy for me at all, but I'm willing to take the risk to save my beloved son's life," she said as she caressed Mustafa.

"Israel is a good country. It's a country that has mercy on other people," she added.

Abu Ahmed, 36, a taxi driver from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said his 12-year-old daughter, Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel last year.

"The Israeli doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart," he said. "They told me today that she recovered completely, and I'm grateful to them and their country for helping us out."

"They (Israelis) are not our enemies," he said. "They helped me a lot and didn't make me feel like they were enemies. Many Muslims have a wrong idea about Israelis."

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Guess who wants us to lose? Don't question their patriotism.

FOXNews.com - FOX News Poll: Nearly 1 in 5 Democrats Say World Will Be Better Off if U.S. Loses War - Polls | AP Polls | Gallup Poll | Opinion Polls

Nearly one out of every five Democrats thinks the world will be better off if America loses the war in Iraq, according to the FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll released Thursday.

The percentage of Democrats (19 percent) who believe that is nearly four times the number of Republicans (5 percent) who gave the same answer. Seven percent of independents said the world would be better off if the U.S. lost the war.

Click here for results of the poll.(pdf)

Overall, 11 percent of Americans think the world would be "better off" if the U.S. lost the war, and 73 percent disagree.

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Iraq MP arrested at Al Qaeda meeting

Not much but a blurb....

Iraq MP found at alQaeda meeting - US military - Israel News, Ynetnews

A member of Iraq's parliament is in US custody and being questioned after an Iraqi special forces raid on a suspected al Qaeda meeting, the US military said on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Iraqi parliament said the lawmaker was from the assembly's main Sunni Arab bloc.

"The man being held is one of the 275 members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives," the military said. (Reuters)

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The 5 things he saw that made him support the war

Townhall.com::Marine Hero: The 5 Things I Saw that Make Me Support the War::By Marco Martinez

I was honored to have been given the opportunity to fight in Iraq on our country’s behalf. And it was that experience—and five things I saw firsthand—that illustrate the foolishness of those who would equate American military power to that used by thugs and tyrants.

1. Mass Graves

I was part of a group that was tasked with guarding Saddam’s mass graves. And let me tell you something: anyone who could look straight down into those huge holes at the skeletons and remains and see what that monster did to 300,000 of his own people would have no doubt that we did the right thing in removing him from power. Saddam’s henchmen would tie two people together, some with babies in their arms, stand them at the crater’s edge, and then shoot one of the people in the head, relying on the weight of the dead body to drag them both into the hole. This would save on rounds and also ensure that both people died, one from a gunshot, the other by being buried alive.

2. Tongue-less Man

You never know how precious freedom of speech is until you meet somehow who has had it taken from them—literally taken from them. During a patrol we came upon two hungry Iraqi men scavenging for food. When our translator began speaking with the men I noticed that one of them had a stub for a tongue. Through the translator we learned that the tongue-less man had spoken against the regime and that Saddam’s henchmen had severed his tongue. Saddam had quite literally removed the man’s freedom of speech.

3. Adrenaline-Fueled Fedayeen Saddam

I couldn't for the life of me understand why the ninja costume-wearing terrorists we encountered in a series of hellish firefights just wouldn’t go down—even after being shot. Once my fire team and I cleared a terrorist-filled house in a close quarters shootout, I saw dead bodies all around the kitchen. I looked up at the countertops. Scattered everywhere were vials of adrenaline, syringes, and khat (pronounced "cot"), a drug similar to PCP that gives users a surge of energy and strength. That’s when we realized that our zombie-like attackers were zealots who came to fight and die.

4. Human Experiment Pictures

I still can’t shake the pictures out of my head. We discovered them inside a strange laboratory we found inside a Special Republican Guard barracks that had been plunked down inside an amusement park. When I cracked open the photo album, my jaw dropped. There in front of me were the most horrifying images of experiments being performed on newborn and infant children. Picture after picture, page after page, the binder was filled with the most extreme deformities and experimental mutations one could imagine. One baby had an eye that was shifted toward the middle of its head. We turned the books over to our lieutenant as valuable pieces of intelligence.

5. Bomb-Making Materials In a Mosque

Well after the invasion we were tasked to conduct city patrols and build rapport with local sheiks and mosque members. On one occasion we revisited a mosque where the sheik had previously been warm and friendly. Yet this time something seemed a little off. As we made our way through the mosque compound, we were told there were certain "praying houses" we weren’t allowed to enter. But when a Marine walked through a side hallway and passed by a door that had been left ajar, he spotted a huge bottle of nitroglycerin and assorted bomb-making materials.

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Five terrorists killed, 19 suspects detained during operations targeting al-Qaeda

Multi-National Force - Iraq - Five terrorists killed, 19 suspects detained during operations targeting al-Qaeda

Coalition forces killed five terrorists and detained 19 suspected terrorists Friday and Saturday during operations throughout Iraq.

Intelligence led Coalition forces to a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq meeting location southwest of Samarra Friday, where ground forces captured a suspect believed to be the key communications link between senior leaders of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda in Iraq. The targeted individual is also alleged to be responsible for the movement of numerous suicide bombers into Iraq. In addition to the targeted individual, Coalition forces detained nine suspected terrorists on site.

In another precision operation in Samarra Friday, Coalition forces were engaged by small arms fire when they approached a target building. The ground force continued to receive fire from the building and, responding in self-defense, called for close air support to defend against the enemy force, killing five terrorists. During the operation, Coalition forces discovered rocket-propelled grenades, rifles, ammunition, and an improvised explosive device on site. Three buildings and the large cache of weapons were safely destroyed to prevent further use by terrorists.

During operations southwest of Tarmiyah Saturday, Coalition forces captured an associate of an al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leader operating in the northern belt around Baghdad, and responsible for foreign terrorist facilitation, kidnapping and weapons trafficking in the country. The targeted individual identified himself to Coalition forces, and five other suspected terrorists were detained during the operations.

Farther north in Mosul, Coalition forces detained three suspected terrorists while targeting an alleged al-Qaeda in Iraq suicide bomber. The targeted individual is believed to organize, plan and direct car-bombing operations in Kirkuk and is tied to foreign terrorist networks in the region. Two of the suspects are believed to be relatives of the targeted individual.

“We’re continually hitting al-Qaeda in Iraq and its networks,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesperson. “Iraqi and Coalition forces are disrupting their operations, keeping them off-balance and hindering their ability to harm innocent people.”

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Since 2003 we've killed 19,000 terrorists.

19,000 insurgents killed in Iraq since '03 - USATODAY.com

More than 19,000 militants have been killed in fighting with coalition forces since the insurgency began more than four years ago, according to military statistics released for the first time.

Since the insurgency began after Baghdad fell in spring 2003, 19,429 militants have been killed in clashes with coalition forces, statistics show. The numbers do not include enemy killed during the invasion.

The deadliest month for militants was August 2004 when thousands of militia fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with American forces in Najaf in southern Iraq. That month, 1,623 militants were killed. The U.S. military lost 53 troops in fighting during the same time.

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What Will Happen In Iraq If We Leave?

It will not only be Iraqi Christians who will be slaughtered, you know.

clipped from www.onenewsnow.com CAPITOL HILL - A Christian activist who recently visited Iraq says Iraqi Christians will be slaughtered and America will have blood on its hands if U.S. troops are removed too quickly. Mahoney said it's "morally reprehensible" to call for a precipitous U.S. withdrawal. He warned that if that happens, "the decapitated bodies of Christians will litter the streets of Baghdad."

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