Theodore's World

China to allow U.S. carrier into Hong Kong after all
BEIJING
(Reuters)
China refused permission for a U.S. aircraft carrier and accompanying vessels to visit Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving holiday visit — and then changed its mind.
The USS Kitty Hawk group and its crew of 8,000 airmen and sailors had been expected in Hong Kong on Wednesday, but the U.S. State Department said the visit had been blocked by China.
Hundred of relatives of crew members of the Kitty Hawk had flown to Hong Kong to celebrate Thanksgiving. Hong Kong, especially its Wanchai bar district, has been a regular port of call for U.S. sailors on “R & R” (rest and recuperation) since the Vietnam War.
The Chinese move came as a surprise just weeks after a visit to China by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, which he said he hoped would lead to a long-term dialogue.
But the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday the carrier would be allowed to dock in the former British colony after all.

“We have decided to allow the Kitty Hawk to stay in Hong Kong during Thanksgiving,” spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.

“It is a decision based on humanitarian considerations only.”

He did not say why the ships had been blocked in the first place, but there are issues that may have prompted Beijing’s action including U.S. plans to sell Taiwan a $940 million upgrade to its missile system and last month’s meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who Beijing considers a traitor.

Last year a Chinese submarine surfaced uncomfortably close to the Kitty Hawk near the Japanese island of Okinawa, an incident that highlighted the potential for friction between the two powers.
Beijing’s move coincided with “airspace controls” introduced on Wednesday which the Xinhua news agency said affected the air travel plans of 7,000 people in south and east China.
The controls had been ordered for “unspecified reasons.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
France learned that it isn’t good to tick off the American consumer and now it’s the chicom’s turn.
I may be wrong, but my understanding is that U.S. Navy port calls are scheduled months in advance, (nrmally before leaving the U.S.)so this was a snub of the U.S. Usually, there is a confirmation of the arrival of the Navy ship one to two weeks ahead of the port visit by the State Department so that the tugs, food delivery, fuel and water/electricity can be formalized and payments arranged. In Hong Kong the ships anchor in the harbor and require shuttle boats to be hired to transport the liberty party to the pier.

High Court to Weigh Ban on Gun Ownership
WASHINGTON
(AP) …for complete article
The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms” in nearly 70 years.
The justices’ decision to hear the case could make the divisive debate over guns an issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections.
City officials said the law is designed to reduce gun violence, noting that four out of every five homicides this year was committed with a gun. Opponents of the ban pointed to the level of violence to make their case that Washington residents should be allowed to have guns to protect themselves in their homes.

“This is clearly going to be one of the biggest … cases decided this year,” said Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett. “It is one of the very few times when the Supreme Court has the opportunity to interpret a provision of the Constitution … unencumbered by previous Supreme Court rulings.”

The government of Washington, D.C., is asking the court to uphold its 31-year ban on handgun ownership in the face of a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the ban as incompatible with the Second Amendment. Tuesday’s announcement was widely expected, especially after both the District and the man who challenged the handgun ban asked for the high court review.
The main issue before the justices is whether the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns or instead merely sets forth the collective right of states to maintain militias. The former interpretation would permit fewer restrictions on gun ownership.
Gun-control advocates say the Second Amendment was intended to ensure that states could maintain militias, a response to 18th-century fears of an all-powerful national government. Gun rights proponents contend the amendment gives individuals the right to keep guns for private uses, including self-defense.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
It is abhorrent that the Supreme Court should be permitted to consider the question.
“Whether the following provisions — D.C. Code secs. 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02 — violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?”
If you ask me, the Court has already tipped thier hands by substituting “state-regulated” for “well regulated”.
There is a difference.
“State-regulated” = doing the state’s bidding.
“Well-regulated” = equipped, competent, functional, coordinated – but not necessarily under gov’t control.

“Islam should not be blamed for terrorism,” UN conference
Hindustan Times
The international community should counter the spread of Islamophobia partly due to “misinformation and misperceptions”, participants at a UN counter-terrorism conference said.
Speaking at the 3-day conference, experts said there is a need for the international community to counter the spread of Islamophobia, which they noted has been growing in recent years partly because of misinformation and misperceptions about the religion.
The emergence of “misguided groups” that have deviated from the straight path to fanaticism, violence and extremism, attributing their acts to Islam, in no way justifies associating this phenomenon with the Islamic faith, they said during the conference titled “Terrorism: Dimensions, Threats and Countermeasures” in Tunis.

“It profits from weak State capacity to maintain law and order,” said co-chair and Tunisian Culture and Preservation of Heritage Minister Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour, during the concluding session on November 17.

“These vulnerable areas are exploited by terrorists to mobilize recruits and justify violence. None of the religions are a cause of political radicalism and extremism. Religious doctrine may be ‘tools of mobilization,’ rather than a direct cause,” he said at the conference which was jointly organized by the UN’s Department of Political Affairs and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Participants agreed that terrorism flourishes in environments where there is discontent, exclusion, humiliation, poverty, political oppression and human rights abuses, as well as in countries engaged in regional conflicts.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Well isn’t this special, the UN counter-terroism conference sponsored & attended by Islamic states decree: “Islam should not be blamed…”. sheesh!
Um, the Islamofacists clearly STATE that they are doing acts of terror in the name of Islam. The UN is giving them time to reload again. Most of the UN, of the 190 countries there are muslim and have histories from islam. Evil grows from evil.

House Democrat calls Pentagon ‘despicable’
Murtha denounces Defense Department for ‘scaring people’ in funds fight
msnbc
WASHINGTON
In their latest tussle with the White House on the Iraq war, two leading House Democrats said Tuesday the Pentagon was using scare tactics to try to goad Congress into passing another war spending bill.
And Reps. David Obey and John Murtha said they won’t bite.
Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Murtha, D-Pa., head of the panel’s Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said they won’t support more money for the war this year unless President Bush accepts a timetable for troop withdrawals. Story continues below ↓advertisement
Last week, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would keep operations afloat for several more months, but sets a goal of bringing most troops home by December 2008. After Bush threatened to veto the measure, Senate Republicans blocked it.

“If the president wants that $50 billion released, all he has to do is to call the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and ask him to stop blocking it,” Obey told reporters.

and this……….
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday signed a memo ordering the Army to begin planning for a series of expected cutbacks, including the layoffs of as many as 100,000 civilian employees and another 100,000 civilian contractors, starting as early as January.
and this……………
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military has only limited transfer authority.

“Those who think we have some sort of flexibility here are simply misinformed,” Whitman told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ve entered into a very serious period here.”

Murtha said the Pentagon was issuing “irresponsible” propaganda.

Murtha sees no credibility at Defense Department “They’re scaring people,” he said. “They’re scaring the families of the troops . . .That’s the thing that’s so despicable.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
The despicable one in this scenario is Murtha himself. Murtha is a traitor and Obey continues to show that he meant what he said on the floor and his apology was a farce! This is more filthy treasonous rhetoric from another treasonous liberal rat.
Murtha has done everything in his power to demoralize the country, undermine the troops, and to try to make us lose this war. Now that we are clearly, incontrovertibly winning, he chooses to continue his vicious, depraved assaults on so many people much better than he is. Murtha is scum.

This video was made by the person that has a blog named Le Blog Drzz
The person that made the video titled it….”Tribute to US troops in Vietnam “…..
Music: Paul Potts
Here is a translate page if you want to see the blog translated from the French to the English.
http://translate.google.com/translate_t?langpair=ar|en
It is well done, and I am always glad to see others thanking our Vietnam Vets and praying tribute to them.
Thank you to the person that made this video. And a HUGE thank you to our Vietnam Veterans. – from Wild Thing

Soldier re-enlists hours after IED injury
4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division PAO
Multi-National Division – North PAO
FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq
A U.S. Soldier re-enlisted in the Army just hours after being seriously wounded in an improvised explosive attack near Zaganiyah, Iraq, Nov. 13.
Spc. Christopher Hoyt, an infantryman with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., suffered severe lacerations to his legs and torso when an IED exploded near him while conducting a dismounted patrol. Two of his fellow Soldiers were killed in the attack.
Hoyt was rushed to the emergency room at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, where he decided to re-enlist for four more years in the Army.

“He said he wasn’t finished,” said Hoyt’s battalion commander Lt. Col. Mark Landes, who re-enlisted the Soldier. “He said, ‘I still have a job to do.’ I’ve never seen the like.”

Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell, the brigade’s top noncommissioned officer, was also on hand for Hoyt’s reenlistment.

“It takes a person of very strong character to go through an incident where another Soldier five feet away was killed and he was severally wounded and still say ‘I believe in what we are doing and I want to stay on the team. I want to support the United States Army and my country.’

“Spc. Hoyt is the epitome of what a Soldier should be,” Troxell continued. “He is a model for what all men and women should be, and that is very patriotic and very selfless.”

Hoyt, whose hometown is Clemente, Calif., is currently recovering in an Army hospital in Germany.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
What totally awesome Americans we have in our military. Men like Spc. Hoyt deserve our respect and appreciation. Those that do not get it, do not want to support our troops, will never know the bursting pride and humble feeling it is to be able to say thank you sir, Spc. Hoyt for serving our coutnry.

Local children find mortar, Concerned Local Citizens find caches
By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO
FORWARD OPERATING BASE Kalsu, Iraq
Three weapons caches were found in separate incidents in the Hawr Rajab and Arab Jabour regions Nov. 11.
Concerned Local Citizens in Hawr Rajab located a cache consisting of one 155mm mortar and one 130 mm mortar round. The CLCs brought the ordnance to Paratroopers of Troop B, 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska, who were conducting a roadside security mission.
Local children in Arab Jabour discovered a 57 mm mortar, which they brought to Soldiers of Company B, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., Fort Stewart, Ga.
The third cache was discovered in Arab Jabour by Soldiers of Company A, 1-30th Inf. Regt. while conducting operations in the area.
The cache consisted of one 120 mm mortar and one 125 mm mortar.

“It is good to have the [improvised explosive devices] or bombs off the streets because it makes the community safer,” said Sgt. 1st Class Gerald Newton, from Texarkana, Texas, 1-30th Inf. Regt., tactical command post noncommissioned officer in charge. “The more we work with the CLCs the safer we can make their communities.”

All three caches were destroyed in controlled detonations by explosive ordnance disposal teams.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Good! Of course this would be very upsetting to Reid, and Pelosi and others to know that there actually were people wanting our troops to help them and that they were glad our soldiers were there.

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Horkey holds his nine-month old son, Colton, while standing in formation Wednesday to be dismissed from active duty with the 79th Military Police Company.

”He’s big,” Horkey said of Colton, who was born after Horkey was deployed for Iraq. Horkey was given leave to be home for Colton’s birth, but he hadn’t seen the boy since.

November 17, 2007
(by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky)
2nd BCT, 3rd Infantry Divison Public Affairs via F-16.net
F-16.net
Two Air Force F-16s destroyed a mobile insurgent mortar team consisting of three al-Qaeda members, a mortar launcher and van Nov. 14 in Adwaniyah using Maverick laser-guided missiles.
Paratroopers from 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, currently attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, responded to an initial small arms fire engagement against a Concerned Local Citizens checkpoint in Adwaniyah. After driving the insurgents away, the Paratroopers performed an aerial reconnaissance of the surrounding areas.
While conducting the scouting mission, Coalition aircraft spotted the insurgent mortar team loading a van with a mortar tube and tripod. A pair of Air Force F-16 fighter jets were called to engage the van after three men entered it and began driving away.
The jets engaged the van with one Maverick laser-guided missile, resulting in the destruction of the weapons systems and three enemies killed.
The insurgent casualties brought the estimated deaths of al-Qaeda members in Iraqi to 20 over the past two days. On Nov. 13, an estimated 15 insurgent fighters were killed in a day-long battle in Adwaniyah.
Al-Qaeda has stepped up attacks in the recent days due to the implementation of a Concerned Local Citizens program in Adwaniyah. Al-Qaeda has been attacking the newly-formed program in an attempt to stop residents from standing up against them.

“This operation is typical of al-Qaeda in our operational area. They attempt to use intimidation and attack where they think they can cause the local population to feel unsafe,” said Maj. Stephen Lutsky, plans and operations officer, S3, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. “We were prepared this time and worked in conjunction with both the Iraqi army and Concerned Local Citizens to ensure they stopped al-Qaeda from destroying the security we have emplaced in the town of Adwaniyah. They will try again and will fail again.”

An example of the success similar Concerned Local Citizens programs are experiencing, was seen in two separate incidents Nov. 14 in Arab Jabour and Hawr Rajab.
In both instances, concerned citizens brought a suspected member of al-Qaeda to Coalition Forces.
One detainee was taken to Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 30th Inf. Regt., 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., Fort Stewart, Ga., and the other to Paratroopers of Troop A, 1-40th Cav. Regt. Both men were detained for questioning.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
I love military euphemisms:
“The jets engaged the van with one Maverick laser-guided missile, resulting in the destruction of the weapons systems and three enemies killed.”
In other words, we blew the crap out of them.
Way to go F-16s!!! And to the pilots!

Grim over at Black Five has a must read on the subject of PTSD. PTSD is not about weakness or strength and this write up is excellent in discussing it.

“What you need to know, first and last, is that so-called PTSD is not an illness. It is a normal condition for people who have been through what you have been through. The instinct to kill and war is native to humanity. It is very deeply rooted in me, as it is in you. We have rules and customs to restrain it, so that sometimes we may have peace. What you are experiencing is not an illness, but the awareness of what human nature is like deep down. It is the awareness of what life is like without the walls that protect civilization.
Those who have never been outside those walls don’t know: they can’t see. The walls form their horizon. You know what lays beyond them, and can’t forget it.”………………..