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November 29, 2005 [LINK]

The view from the "sandbox*"

Strangely enough, the troops on the ground in Iraq don't see the war the way it's portrayed by the mainstream media. Fortunately, an article in the Christian Science Monitor took a step toward rectifying that deficiency. Key excerpts:

Yet as perceptions about Iraq have neared a tipping point in Congress, some soldiers and marines worry that their own stories are being lost in the cacophony of terror and fear

"We know we made a positive difference," says Cpl. Jeff Schuller of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines... "I can't say at what level, but I know that where we were, we made it better than it was when we got there."

Part of the reason that such stories usually aren't told is simply the nature of the war. Kidnappings and unclear battle lines have made war correspondents' jobs almost impossible.

That last bit shows why pro-war folks should refrain from too-heavy criticism of the mainstream media. Trying to be objective isn't easy when you're the target!

* "Sandbox" is military slang for "Iraq," for you folks in Rio Linda.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, often regarded as the lonely conscience of the Democrat Party, recently traveled to the "sandbox," and points to many signs of improvement there. He reminds wavering Americans that it would be a "colossal mistake" for the U.S. to withdraw its forces right now. See opinionjournal.com, registration required. (via Instapundit)

The Sunnis and terrorism

Well, of course, all of the Sunnis cannot possibly be terrorists, but it is getting harder and harder all the time to find any who are not sympathetic to the mass murderers who lurk in alleys throughout the "Sunni Triangle." James Dunnigan in strategypage.com, writes of the desperation the Sunnis find themselves in, as the insurgency alienates the non-Sunni population of Iraq. I think they brought it on themselves, and we may have to accept partition of Iraq as a result of the failure of enough moderate Sunni leaders to step forward. It would be reasonable to suppose that Saddam had nearly all such prospective leaders executed while he was in power.

Saddam on trial

Speaking of which, the next phase of the former dictator's trial has just resumed. Saddam Hussein tried to disrupt the court proceedings, and from what I could tell from C-SPAN, the judge was unflappable. With any luck, most Iraqis will make the connection between Saddam's Baathists and the surge of vicious terror being inflicted upon their country.

Odom: darling of Left

After reading the anti-war essay and comments by retired Gen. William Odom last week, I became curious about his connection to right-wing dictators when he served in the Reagan administration. While Googling on that (I didn't find much), I came across a curious fact: Virtually all of the top-ranked Web sites that have quoted him lately are leftists! I know that politics makes strange bedfellows, but this is ridiculous! Are those folks even aware of how disdainful he was of human rights activists during the Cold War?

Murtha: not a "hawk"

The standard template in the MSM is that, until very recently, Rep. John Murtha was a stalwart pro-war, pro-military Democrat. Well, in May 2004 his opposition to the war was already so strong that it earned him a feature one-on-one interview with Ted Koppel on ABC's Nightline. See newsbusters.org.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 29 Nov 2005, 3: 55 PM

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