A masked Iraqi soldier stands guard at a checkpoint in Baquba, about 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, July 31, 2008.
FTA- "The monthly U.S. toll in Iraq fell to its lowest point since the war began, with at least 10 American deaths as July drew to a close Thursday after the departure of the last surge brigade.
Iraqis also are dying at dramatically lower numbers with the war in its sixth year. July saw the lowest civilian toll since December 2005, though a series of suicide bombings this week and rising ethnic tensions in northern Iraq reflect the fragility of the security successes."
Proving the war is going well, Libs yell and scream.-Riley
LAS VEGAS - An Air Force official says the crash of an F-15 jet in the Nevada desert during a training exercise has left one pilot dead and the other injured.
Air Force spokesman Andrew Dumboski says the two-seater plane went down at about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on the Nevada Test and Training Range outside of Goldfield, Nev.
Iraqi and U.S. forces now control virtually all of Iraq and Baghdad's troops might be able to take on security responsibility for the whole country by the end of 2009, the senior U.S. general in Iraq said on Monday. General David Petraeus told Reuters in an interview that progress in Iraq in the past year had been "very dramatic" but he said suicide bombers would still slip through security nets.
I think the good Senator McCain is figuring out that 'nice guys' do indeed finish last, especially in politics. Escpecially when 90% of the Main Stream Media is in Barry's back pocket and really refuses to call him on his anti-Patriotic garbage. This is an excellent campaign ad detailing the fact that Obama lost interest in visiting wounded troops as soon as it was not going to be a photo op.
The 1950s was the decade of the test pilot and the experimental aircraft, as aviation technology turned to the jet engine and pushed its limits in both speed and endurance. With the world divided in Cold War, the stakes were high. Jet aircraft dominated both U.S. and Soviet arsenals and the data returned by subsonic and supersonic test flights had implications for the coming space race as well.
Sen. Barack Obama scrapped plans to visit wounded members of the armed forces in Germany as part of his overseas trip, a decision his spokesman said was made because the Democratic presidential candidate thought it would be inappropriate on a campaign-funded journey.
"Barack Obama is wrong. It is never inappropriate to visit our men and women in the military," said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the Republican contender.
Ailing Fidel Castro said Wednesday that Cuba's president was right to adopt a ''dignified silence'' over a Moscow newspaper report that Russia may send nuclear bombers to the island, and said Cuba doesn't owe any explanation to Washington about the story. In a brief, cryptic essay posted on a government Web site Wednesday night, the 81-year-old former president neither confirmed nor denied the Monday report
Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.
Only 16% now think the terrorists are on top, while 27% view it as a stalemate. Prior to this week's survey, the number who believe the terrorists are winning had never fallen below 20%
FTA-"Arab League states have agreed to introduce a biometric system to protect their borders and also speed security procedures.
Arab border security chiefs have endorsed the procurement and installation of biometric systems at airports and sea ports. The chiefs convened in an Arab League session in Tunisia on July 17 as part of efforts to bolster security coordination."
We can't build a fence to close our borders because we might offend someone or it's to expensive. But it seems the Arabs have taken a proactive stance that somehow seems to complex for us. Check this out...
Britain is determined to prevent Iran developing nuclear arms, Gordon Brown is due to tell the Israeli parliament.
In the first speech to the Knesset by a UK prime minister, he will call Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threat to wipe Israel off the map "abhorrent".
It is doubtful that too many ordinary Afghans know or care who Barack Obama is. Nevertheless, the messiah disembarked in Kabul this morning after a brief stop in Kuwait to visit the troops. He is scheduled to travel to a base in eastern Afghanistan today and get a briefing from the military on the situation and meet with President Karzai tomorrow.
The U.S. media has at last woken up to the realities of the Afghan war and the news couldn't be more grim. Judging from the tone of the coverage the entire rebuilding effort in Afghanistan is near collapse. Here in Canada reporters and editors have picked up the theme. If a senior Canadian soldier or official dares point out that there has, actually, been some progress in Kandahar, he is quickly dismissed.
Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a "killer of soldiers."
Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body.
The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents. Production of the first capsule -- consisting of two sealed rooms that can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft -- has already begun.
THESE days in Peshawar, where al-Qaeda was founded 20 years ago, the only glimpse of Osama bin Laden comes on little green packets of safety matches strewn around town by American officials (see picture). They bear the portrait of the world’s most wanted man, along with the promise that America will pay up to $5 million for information leading to his capture.
It is an appropriate image. Like one of these matches, Mr bin Laden caused a flash with the September 11th attacks on America in 2001, then vanished into smoke, leaving a burning trail of militancy stretching from Indonesia to Afghanistan, Iraq, north Africa and Europe. And despite the reward offered for his capture, now $25m, nobody has yet betrayed the whereabouts of “the Sheikh”, who periodically emerges on the internet to deliver some doom-laden warning to the West.
President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision. But a second, overlapping 5-to-4 majority of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ruled that Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody in Charleston, S.C., must be given an additional opportunity
Now it's time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won. more»
Army Cpl. Kevin Shope, a 25-year-old Hamilton High School graduate, was cutting through Canada on his way from Michigan to report to Fort Drum in New York, according to his father, David Shope of Hamilton.
(Thanks to our man Pistol Pete for the submission)
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.
A female squaddie who fought off a suspected Iraqi insurgent has swapped guns for glamour and won a place in the final of Miss England 2008.
Katrina Hodge, 21, dubbed 'Combat Barbie' after being honoured for saving the lives of members of her regiment, will represent England at Miss World 2008 if she wins in July.
"We've been waiting for a good freaking death ray for, oh, about 70 years. So when Boeing says, " ... directed energy weapons are relevant to today's battlefield and are ready to be fielded," we pay attention."
"Defense officials are criticizing what they say is the failure to capture or kill top al Qaeda leaders because of timidity on the part of policy officials in the Pentagon, diplomats at the State Department and risk-averse bureaucrats within the intelligence community."
But we have to keep the bureaucrats from wetting their pants. -Riley
Here we go again. You’ll all remember how the MSM brought us the first Fauxtography-fest in the summer of 2006. Well, the photo fakers and their dupes in the media are baaaack. And the blogosphere’s all over them.
Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. or Israeli attack, state television reported.
Oil prices jumped on news of the missile tests, rising US$1.44 to US$137.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
If you want to have your own F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, look no further because Stephen Trimble—from the always-good The Dew Line—has sent us high resolution instructions showing Lockheed Martin's construction process. Piece by piece, the instructions look straight from the Pentagon's Lego set. Grab yours after the jump, along with the shopping list with all the materials you need and actual images of some of the steps.
American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror. more»
Murtha slandering the troops again...... how shocking. He's also lying about the benchmarks reached by the Iraqis. America is still waiting for his apology for calling our innocent troops cold-blooded murderers. What a disgusting, vile individual.
Oh, he's a Big Supporter of Barack Obama and says he'll do what he can to help get him elected... no surprise there.
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