Theodore's World

Wild Thing’s comment
This is what I think about all of this. I have thought long and hard to put into words to try and express how I feel. It has not been easy believe me. I am beyond angry at the left, and I distrust the enemy with all their lies. But I do know I believe in our troops and I have to have solid proof before I will even consider they did anyhing wrong. I stand behind them 100% if you don’t then you are in the wrong place.
I have done 4 parts to this.
Part One tells about Haditha and what it is like there
Part Two tells about Blood money and the money for lies
Part Three tells about Miguel Terrazas’ father and what he has to say about all of this
Part Four and this one which is my comment just an opinion of a girl that has never served our country but adores our troops and appreciates what they and our Veternas have done.
Let’s look at Murtha’s track record his MO regarding pulling out troops shall we.

1993
Murtha…. He’s been a pull-out artist for years. After terrorists attacked our troops in Mogadishu, Murtha asked President Clinton to pull U.S. troops from Somalia.
“Our welcome has been worn out,” Murtha said on NBC 9/93, a month after 4 troops were killed in Somalia by an IED.
But he said more: After 18 Rangers were killed in Mogadishu, Murtha visited Somalia and then told the world the 18 deaths had ruined the Rangers’ morale. “They’re subdued compared to normal morale of elite forces,” Murtha said. “Obviously, it was a very difficult battle. A lot of Somalis were killed, but it was a brutal battle.” Murtha then added,
“There’s no military solution. Some of them will tell you to get Aidid is the solution. I don’t agree with that.”
Sound familiar? Last week he said,
“the U.S. cannot accomplish anything further militarily. It is time to bring the troops home.”
Clinton took the advice and Osama Bin Laden loved it. He said in a ’98 interview on ABC (John Miller),
“Our people realize more than before that the American soldier is a paper tiger that runs defeat after a few blows…and left dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat.”

Murtha has appointed himself judge and jury instead of letting the Pentagon complete the investigation. Due process has completely gone out the window when it comes to Murtha, Clark and others. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? The more I find out, the more I am coming to believe there was NO “war crime” nor “Mistake” but simply an act of war. And act that is being reshaped and spun by terrorists and their Domestic Political lackeys to be something it was NOT.
Murtha has decided to convict his brother Marines before their trial! Murtha is an abomination to the Marines, to Congress and our entire country. I cannot believe he was a MARINE. I cannot believe he was in our military! He should be ousted from the Corp. ASAP!

So when did this war become a normal war?? What the heck is a ‘normal’ war’ anyway. What the hell does humane war mean? This is a war with Islamic fascists.
War is hell. We have all heard that, read that and been told that by Veterans and our troops today. Many movies and books have tried to show us how gut wrenching it is to be in combat, to loose a brother in battle, to be expendable when returning home or even when still in country and left behind as the POW’s have been in wars. Damn straight it is HELL!
Someday you should watch the films of the Marines on Iwo Jima who took a measure of vengeance against some of the Japanese Soldiers who had killed so many of their buddies. It was brutal, but understandable. To those that have experienced the “thrill” of combat only you would know how you might react in these circumstances.
How many politicians, anti-war chanters, and reporters have been issued a rifle and experienced a few firefights where they are actually desperately fighting for their life before they make any decisions regarding combat Marines or any of the branches that has seen combat? Terrorists routinely use women and children as human shields. There in lies the difference, the enemy and OUR troops. It happened in Nam often, it happens in today’s war fighting Islamic fascists. Women, children, bicycles, dogs you name are being used to kill our troops. IED’s strapped, hidden, carried you name it by all I just mentioned as well as other things used to hide IED’s. If they don’t want their women and children killed in firefights, don’t hide behind them to attack us.
Funny. All day long our Justice system makes sentencing judgments based on “Extenuating Circumstances.” But let the guys doing the absolute worst job in the world under the worse situation in the world make a mistake and the SAME people who cry for “Mercy” for every thug and street hood suddenly want to hang the Marines out to dry.
I will give you a for instance. Arab culture is intensely tribal. So terrorists often meet to conduct business in their homes with their families around them. Drop a bomb on them it is “Collateral Damage”, A Marine Team accidentally kills them in a firefight and arm chair lawyers want to hang the 20 year old Marines out to dry as “War Criminals” Funny….NOT! All this angst about “Damage to our Country” yet the New York Times, News Week and Time have done FAR more damage by falsely reporting NSA secrets and phony “Flush the Koran” or other atrocity nonsense. Yet the SAME people gunning for the Marines do NOTHING to punish REAL criminal behavior by the “News Media”. And why our government does not take a strong, firm stand on politicians or anyone speaking out against our military in war time shocks and is something I will never understand. What they are doing is treason and there is no other word for it.
Given the enormous damage Murtha, Kerry and other politicians, News Week, The Washington Post and others have done with wholly fraudulent reporting or slander and hateful comments about our troops, what measure of atonement/punishment can we expect our Civil Authority to impose on them? They have been actively aiding enemy propaganda in a time of war for years now. “Flush the Koran” The Phony CIA Prisons story, “GI raping Iraqi women” and dozens and dozens of other fraudulent stories. To those interested in “Justice” regarding these Marines, I ask you, when do we get Justice for this that I mentioned, that is doing FAR more harm to our war efforts?
War is NOT the fantasy played out on your Movie screens were the good guys never make mistakes and only the bad guys die. Our enemies know this high-minded moralizing and try to use it against us. They claim “torture” and “atrocity” so all the self righteous types will fall all over themselves screaming at OUR side to “Be better then them”. After Murtha’s comments the attacks increased against our troops they did not lessen from fear of so called cold-blooded killers. “Iraqi Civil Rights Group” just breeze in and out of there, as they want? Seems they must be working with the terrorist’s permission.
We did not start this. Saddam did in Kuwait in 1991. And YES there is complete and total linkage between Iraq, Afghanistan and the war against Islamic fascists. Just because Left wing POS’s scream there “is no linkage” does not make it so. There is one real simple linkage. We are busy killing terrorists THERE so we do not have to kill them in your local elementary school like the Russians had to in Beslan.
Politically Correct politicians that don’t have the testicular fortitude to level the place and kill the enemy. People who actually bomb innocent civilians, kidnap and assassinate teachers and government officials, and ambush our troops, using women and children as human shields, are labeled by the same MSM, as insurgents. It is 3 times harder to fight this war against terrorists, when you also have to fight the US Media and The Democrat Party of the United States. …the enemies within! The left will always believe the worst take the side that puts our men and women in the worst light.
My gut instinct is they did NOT make a mistake. What if it is a terrorist “Staged Atrocity”. Sort of like what the Pals accused the Israelis of doing in Jenin during the 1990s. Only this time Al Quada actually massacred some civilians to set up the Marines. The Claims of “Civilians made to knee and being shot while praying” is pure Al Quada tactics. It could also be the legitimate collateral damaged caused by Terrorist hiding among Civilians is being stage managed as a “Massacre”. And yes, it is possible someone lost it. We don’t know. Neither do those screaming the accusations in the Junk Media.
What the Left seems unwilling to grasp is this simple fact. No amount of money, peace vigils or encounter groups are going to keep them safe from people who are convinced their god wants all Americans dead. There is no ground for “peaceful coexistence” with the Islamic Terrorists. We have three choices, kill them, convert to Islam or die. Since I have no desire for the last two, the first is my choice.
Now we learn that the U.S. Troops in Iraq are getting Ethics Training. Well what about mandatory ethics training for “Journalists.
Our troops deserve better then to analyze every breath they take, every move they make. The sick JOY that the left and Murtha and his clones take in this incident only shows me how VILE Murtha and his ilk are and nothing more.
Did any of our troops get hurt in what happened??? I care about THAT! You have read on here how the enemy lies, so it does not take a brain surgeon to realize that maybe just maybe the lies flow from the Iraqi’s just as they do from the Kerry’s, Murtha’s, Clinton’s and Kennedy’s of our country.
What the Left seems unwilling to grasp is this simple fact. No amount of money, peace vigils or encounter groups are going to keep them safe from people who are convinced their god wants all Americans dead. There is no ground for “peaceful coexistence” with the Islamic Terrorists. We have three choices, kill them, convert to Islam or die. Since I have no desire for the last two, the first is my choice.
They did this to the guys in ‘Nam, they will NOT do it to these men. Democrats and the Leftist better wake up. They are taping a vein of rage that has been festering in many Americans for some 35 years. Either at the ballot box or in a cell, there will be a reckoning for this time.
When you see a service member from any of the military branches, go up to them and thank them!
Thank you Marines!

* Mudville Gazette
Also linked at:
* Midnight in Iraq ( A Marine in Fallujah)
* The Gun LIne
* Blackfive
* Cat House Chat
* MVRWC
* Michelle Malkin
* BIG DOG’s blog

Father of Marine backs son’s Iraq comrades
Exactly what happened that day remains unclear. Miguel Terrazas’ father, Martin, said the Marines his son fought with told him that after the car bomb exploded the Marines took a defensive position around his son’s battered vehicle. Insurgents immediately started shooting from nearby buildings, and the insurgents were using women and children as human shields, Martin said he was told.

The Marines shot back because “it was going to be them or” the insurgents, Martin said of what his son’s fellow Marines briefly described to him.

“It’s very hard for me, I don’t even listen to the news,” Terrazas said of reports of the mass killings.

Marine officials initially gave the same story, that 15 civilians were killed Nov. 19 in the explosion and a subsequent firefight that also killed eight insurgents. Several months later Time magazine and then Arab television stations obtained a videotape of the scene, showing the bodies of women and children. The video, Iraqis’ accounts of the day and other emerging details sparked a criminal investigation.
Terrazas said he has met with many from his son’s unit who told him they did only what was necessary to survive. He wouldn’t say when he spoke with them.

“Those Marines just did their job,” he said. “Some of these kids were saying, ‘We have to live with it’.”

Former Marine Luis Terrazas, Miguel’s uncle, said Marines are trained to stay cool under pressure.

“Jarheads don’t just go out and kill because they get frustrated,” Luis Terrazas said. “Their training is exquisite. It just doesn’t make sense.”

I have done 4 parts to this.
Part One tells about Haditha and what it is like there
Part Two tells about Blood money and the money for lies
Part Three tells about Miguel Terrazas’ father and what he has to say about all of this
Part Four and this one which is my comment just an opinion of a girl that has never served our country but adores our troops and appreciates what they and our Veternas have done.

The best report on this situation so far.…….Wild Thing

Haditha: Blood Money, Lies and Videotape?
Much of the media commemorated Memorial Day weekend by using the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November to smear US Marines. Over 40 stories Memorial Day weekend named Marines as “murderers” guilty of “atrocities” and called the incident a “massacre”.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter pace says, “it would be premature for me to judge….” President George W Bush says: “I am troubled by the initial news stories. I am mindful there is a thorough investigation going on. If in fact laws were broken there will be punishment.” Marine Second Lt. Ilario Pantano who was charged with war crimes only to see the charges dropped after autopsy results presented at trial contradicted testimony that he had shot insurgents in the back. Pantano spoke out about US Rep John Murtha’s rush to judgment in the Haditha case in a May 28 letter to the editor of the Washington Post. Said Pantano, “Members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq need more than Mr. Murtha’s pseudo-sympathy. They need leaders to stand with them even in the hardest of times. Let the courts decide if these Marines are guilty. They haven’t even been charged with a crime yet, so it is premature to presume their guilt — unless that presumption is tied to a political motive.”
From their air conditioned comfort, heedless media commentators and members of Congress rush to sit in judgment of US Marines’ conduct in combat. Worse their eager frenzy comes before the military investigation is complete, before any charges are filed and before any military trial is held. But even worse—they are doing so on the word of local Iraqi sources. There is a possibility these Iraqi sources’ credibility may fall apart in the event of a trial. It has happened before in similar cases. The reasons are deep rooted in Iraqi culture.
In a May 27 Washington Post article, the chain of events in Haditha is described in detail based on interviews conducted by an unidentified Washington Post “special correspondent”. Often western media outlets depend on freelance Arab reporters with questionable loyalties to work combat zones.
Notable about the account are the sources. They are all Iraqi locals. The first source sited is: “Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home”. Fahmi is later described as also being a friend of five men in a taxi who were killed by Marines during the IED attack on their convoy. The Post points out that, “The descriptions of events provided to The Post by witnesses in Haditha could not be independently verified, although their accounts of the number of casualties and their identities were corroborated by death certificates.” Another source was the Post’s special correspondent’s interview with doctors at the local hospital who described bodies riddled with bullet holes. This information does not answer the question of who killed the civilians. Were the civilians killed by insurgents who took over their homes to detonate the IED? Was it Marines? Were the civilians killed accidentally in a firefight or as Murtha charges—“in cold blood”? It is known that a large firefight occurred in Haditha on November 19 about 1/3 of a mile away from the site of the IED attack which killed 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, of El Paso, TX and either killed or led to the death of 15 Iraqi civilians and 9 deemed hostile.
One person, Aws Fahmi, claims to live next door to the house where the massacre allegedly occurred and also claims to be a friend of the men killed in the taxi.
According to the Post, “only 13-year-old Safa Younis lived — saved, she said, by her mother’s blood spilling onto her, making her look dead when she fell, limp, in a faint….Townspeople led a Washington Post reporter this week to the girl they identified as Safa. Wearing a ponytail and tracksuit, the girl said her mother died trying to gather the girls. The girl burst into tears after a few words. The older couple caring for her apologized and asked the reporter to leave.”
This account differs slightly from an ABC News report which shows a video of Safa Younis. She calmly says yes to leading questions from an off-camera interviewer describing Marines throwing a grenade into the bathroom of her home and killing the other seven members of her family. She responds with amazing composure for one who has witnessed the murder of her parents and siblings. She does not mention her mother’s blood spilling all over her. She says she is 12 years old. Is it staged testimony? This can only be discovered in an investigation or trial.
ITV news March 30 carries yet another interview—this time with a ten-year-old Iraqi girl named Iman Walid. Like Safa, Iman calmly describes the murder of seven members of her family by US Marines in Haditha on November 19.
A non-Iraqi account comes from Lance Cpl. James Crossan who was sitting next to Terrazas when he was killed. Wounded in the IED explosion, Crossan was evacuated and did not see any of the action after the explosion. He therefore has no eyewitness story to tell about any possible massacre of civilians. This does not keep the media from splashing selectively quoted pieces of his speculation all over the airwaves anyway.
Another of the Marines in Haditha that day, Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones of Hanford, CA, describes the removal of bodies after the incident in a May 29 Los Angeles Times article. He was part of a crew dispatched to take the bodies to the morgue. He says he did not witness their deaths.
All accounts of the incident describe 15 civilians being killed—with the cause of death in dispute. There is dispute over whether the nine other deaths were hostiles. The total is 24 deaths. Is it possible that Marines entered two separate homes, killed seven or eight civilians—including women and small children–in each home and in each case left a young girl in each home as the sole witness? Is it not impossible—but since all the reports depend entirely on Iraqi witnesses and the possibly coached testimony of two young girls, it is worth taking a look at other cases where these type of charges fell apart at trial.
There is another case which speaks directly to the credibility of local Iraqi witnesses and to the Iraqi tradition of “blood money”. On trial were seven British soldiers charged with murder stemming from a May, 2003 incident in Ferkah, Iraq. The trial collapsed November 3, 2005 after it became clear that many of the key Iraqi witnesses were lying in order to gain “blood money”. The BBC describes the collapse of the trial as follows:
“…it has become clear to everyone involved as the trial has progressed that the main Iraqi witnesses had colluded to exaggerate and lie about the incident.”
Three women had admitted lying about being assaulted by British soldiers and one witness had told the court that Mr. Abdullah’s family encouraged others to tell lies, Judge Blackett said.
Witnesses some distance from the scene “could not possibly have seen what they said they saw”, he added.
And Iraqi court witnesses had used the case to seek “compensation to what were patently exaggerated claims”, he said.
One witness at the court martial, Samira Rishek, a Marsh-Arab who had claimed to have been brutally beaten by the soldiers while she was pregnant, admitted to the court it was a “wicked lie”.
The court heard that Mrs. Rishek, along with other witnesses, was paid $100 a day to give evidence at the trial and that she only agreed to give evidence after being told she would be paid.
BBC correspondent Paul Adams said there was an “underlying sense” that some of the witnesses were “out to try and get something for themselves”.
A number of questions were going to be asked about why the trial had been mounted, he added.
Roger Brice, solicitor for defendant Pte Samuel May told BBC News there had never been a case to answer.
“What the judge has done today is stop the case when the prosecution have concluded… there was never a case for any of the defendants to answer.
“He summed up the fact that the evidence as it came out in these last two months has been one of acknowledged lies.”
Why all the lies? The tribal tradition of demanding “blood money”. A February 2, 2004 BBC article explains the workings of the blood money system:
On the side of a road in a ramshackle tent tribal elders have gathered for a court case, but it is not an ordinary law court, it’s a tribal court. The case defies logic – one brother has killed another, but the tribe they belonged to is blaming a rival tribe for the killing.
Their argument is that if there had not been a feud with the other tribe, the killing would not have taken place; they are now demanding $20,000 in blood money….
At the tribal court, the discussion is heated, but not about guilt or innocence. Through a complex network of tribal support, both sides know where they stand, now it is just a matter of agreeing the money.
Eventually the price is knocked down to $4,000 and a woman, her value to be determined in later negotiations.
For many Iraqis it’s a system that works, and in a violent region recompense appears much more practical than locking someone away.
The logic in the British case and possibly in Haditha is simple: If the coalition did not have a fight with the insurgents, the deaths would not have occurred. Therefore the coalition owes blood money regardless of who actually killed the 24 people in Haditha or the circumstances of those deaths. In this system the payment of blood money is not an admission of guilt, it is a balancing of tribal obligations.
What tribal Iraqis would understand as blood money has already been paid by US military representatives in Haditha. According to the May 31 New York Times payments totaling $38,000 were made “within weeks of the shootings” to the families of 15 of the 24 dead. The Times continues:
In an interview Tuesday, Maj. Dana Hyatt, the officer who made the payments, said he was told by superiors to compensate the relatives of 15 victims, but was told that rest of those killed had been deemed to have committed hostile acts, leaving their families ineligible for compensation.
After the initial payments were made, however, those families demanded similar payments, insisting their relatives had not attacked the marines, Major Hyatt said….
The list of 15 victims deemed to be noncombatants was put together by intelligence personnel attached to the battalion, Major Hyatt said. Those victims were related to a Haditha city council member, he said. The American military sometimes pays compensation to relatives of civilian victims.
The relatives of each victim were paid a total of $2,500, the maximum allowed under Marine rules, along with $250 payments for two children who were wounded. Major Hyatt said he also compensated the families for damage to two houses.
“I didn’t say we had made a mistake,” Major Hyatt said, describing what he had told the city council member who was representing the victims. “I said I’m being told I can make payments for these 15 because they were deemed not to be involved in combat.”
The description of compensation “within weeks” of November 19 places the payments in mid to late December. Time magazine broke the Haditha story in its March 19 edition. Time says it was January when they gave US military spokesman Col. Barry Johnson, a copy of a video of the Haditha aftermath. The video was purportedly made on November 20 showing the aftermath of the incident. That would place the release of the video to Time just after the payment of compensation to some—but not all–of the families. Could the release of the video have been motivated by demands for blood money?
There is another unsavory connection involving the video. According to the Time article:
A day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with Time. This video is the source of all the images being spread across the international media purporting to show the aftermath of the Haditha incident.
The “internationally respected” Human Rights Watch (HRW) has been accused of anti-Israel bias and is funded by numerous left-wing foundations including George Soros’ “Open Society Institute.” HRW accuses US forces of “torture” in Iraq and Afghanistan which in one report it describes as, “interrogation techniques including hooding, stripping detainees naked, subjecting them to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light, and depriving them of sleep….” HRW advocates putting US soldiers under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court which would make them subject to the whim of pink Belgian bureaucrats.
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia describes blood money traditions throughout the Islamic world:
In Islamic and Arab traditions, blood money is the money paid by the killer or his family or clan to the family or the clan of the victim. It is unlawful for a believer to kill a believer except if it happens by accident. And he who kills a believer accidentally must free one Muslim slave and pay ‘Diyat’ to the heirs of the victim except if they forgive him. The tradition finds repeated endorsement in Islamic tradition; several instances are recorded in the Hadith, which are the acts of the Prophet Mohammad.
The Blood-Money tradition has found its way into legislation in several Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. Some of these countries also define, by lawful legislation, a hierarchy of rates for the lives of people; religious affiliation and gender are usually the main modulating factors for these Blood Money rates.
Would Muslims lie in order to obtain blood money payments? Some insight comes in this response to the collapse of the British trial posted online by a Baghdad-based US contractor.
I’ve been in Iraq for about 18 months now performing construction management. It is simply not possible for me to exaggerate the massive amounts of lies we wade through every single day. There is no way – absolutely none – to determine facts from bulls*** from these people.
To be fair to individual Iraqis, lying and deception is an integral part of their culture. It is not even considered lying to them; it is more akin to being clever – like keeping your cards close to your chest. And they don’t just lie to westerners. They believe that appearances–saving face–are of paramount importance. They lie to each other all the time about anything in order to leverage others on a deal or manipulate an outcome of some sort or cover up some major or minor embarrassment. It’s just how they do things, period.
I’m not trying to disparage them here. I get along great with a lot of them. But even among those that I like, if something happens I’ll get 50 wildly different stories, every time. There’s no comparison to it in any other part of the world where I’ve worked. The lying is ubiquitous and constant.
Obviously in the case of these soldiers, the “witnesses” were lying with malice for profit – saving face had nothing to do with it.
But every Westerner here has been taken totally by surprise by the lies upon lies upon BS and lies. It makes it impossible to form any agreements, impossible to plan anything, and impossible to investigate anything….
Remember this every time you see news reports where Iraqi “witnesses” say that American planes killed a bunch of civilians somewhere…. First, those people are living under the threat of terrorists in their midst – what do you think they are going to say when a western camera is thrust into their face, nice shot America! Death to the terrorists! They’d be dead in 5 minutes.
It drives those of us who work closely with the Iraqis absolutely mad. It makes me sick and alarmed to think of any westerner being brought up on charges of any kind based strictly on the words of an Arab. I’m sure the prosecutors were informed by field officers and others about the Iraqi propensity to lie about everything all the time. Shame on them (the British Ministry of Defense) for going forward without any other evidence.
The British Ministry of Defense spent the equivalent of about $18 million dollars on the investigation and the trial which collapsed in November, 2005—over 29 months after the initial incident. The Haditha charges could also collapse, but not until the media and politicians have enjoyed months of free reign to slander US combat troops’ conduct in Iraq. If the British case is a model then the investigation will be followed by a trial which could drag out until early 2008. Investigators, defense attorneys and the honest media need to dig out the truth and defend our troops before their sacrifices in Iraq are swept away in a sea of lies.

I have done 4 parts to this.
Part One tells about Haditha and what it is like there
Part Two tells about Blood money and the money for lies
Part Three tells about Miguel Terrazas’ father and what he has to say about all of this
Part Four and this one which is my comment just an opinion of a girl that has never served our country but adores our troops and appreciates what they and our Veternas have done.

This is an article from last August (2005)

Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel
Taken from Jihad Watch , FrontPage Magazine and The Guardian
The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon.
The Guardian has the complete article

One of last week’s victims was a young man in a black tracksuit. Like the others he was left on his belly by the blue iron railings at the bridge’s southern end. His severed head rested on his back, facing Baghdad. Children cheered when they heard that the next day’s spectacle would be a double bill: two decapitations. A man named Watban and his brother had been found guilty of spying.
With so many alleged American agents dying here Haqlania bridge was renamed Agents’ bridge. Then a local wag dubbed it Agents’ fridge, evoking a mortuary, and that name has stuck.
A three-day visit by a reporter working for the Guardian last week established what neither the Iraqi government nor the US military has admitted: Haditha, a farming town of 90,000 people by the Euphrates river, is an insurgent citadel.
Two groups share power. Ansar al-Sunna is a largely homegrown organisation, though its leader in Haditha is said to be foreign. Al-Qaida in Iraq, known locally by its old name Tawhid al-Jihad, is led by the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. There was a rumour that Zarqawi, Washington’s most wanted militant after Osama bin Laden, visited early last week. True or not, residents wanted to believe they had hosted such a celebrity.
That Islamist guerrillas were active in the area was no secret but only now has the extent of their control been revealed. They are the sole authority, running the town’s security, administration and communications.
A three-hour drive north from Baghdad, under the nose of an American base, it is a miniature Taliban-like state. Insurgents decide who lives and dies, which salaries get paid, what people wear, what they watch and listen to… Monday, August 22, 2005

.

I have done 4 parts to this.
Part One tells about Haditha and what it is like there
Part Two tells about Blood money and the money for lies
Part Three tells about Miguel Terrazas’ father and what he has to say about all of this
Part Four and this one which is my comment just an opinion of a girl that has never served our country but adores our troops and appreciates what they and our Veternas have done.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld delivers his commencement speech to the 2006 graduating class of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 31. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN)

“Violent extremists are trying to terrorize and intimidate free people into submitting to their will,” Rumsfeld told the graduating airmen in Colorado Springs, Colo. “Our country has sent its finest young men and women in defense of the ideal that people, when faced with paths either leading to tyranny or freedom, will forever choose freedom.”

He said the graduates are well-prepared to meet the terror threat head on. “Everything you folks have done in your life before, what you’ve studied, your experience, your accomplishments, has prepared you for this moment,” he said.

The war against terror is more than just a struggle between opposing sides. The terrorists’ goal is to control or destroy the United States, he said. “These extremists are waging a war against society itself,” he said.

“The U.S. armed forces must constantly adapt to meet the terrorist threat, and pointed to operations in Afghanistan as examples, Rumsfeld said.

“From the moment they landed in Afghanistan, our forces began adapting to the circumstances on the ground,” he said. “They ended up riding horses that had been conditioned to ride through machine-gun fire.”

He said some of those forces operating in Afghanistan were Air Force combat controllers. “And those airmen likely thought they would have sooner found themselves riding jet aircraft rather than horses,” he said. “But they joined the American tradition of daring and ingenuity that has defined America for generations.”

The United States must continue to transform and streamline its military forces to meet future challenges, he said. People who want change always face resistance, Rumsfeld said, and urged the airmen to challenge inherited assumptions and seek out better approaches.
“I urge you to make that the bedrock of your careers,” he said.

( Please CLICK
above graphic to watch
the presentation of The Doolittle Raid)

 

Three members of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders were present for the commencement ceremony. The raiders were volunteer airmen from the Army Air Forces, predecessor of the Air Force, led by then-Army Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who flew a daring mission to bomb Japan just four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I remember as a boy the electrifying emotion in our country when America learned what that small band of airmen had done,” Rumsfeld said of the raiders. “They inspired our country. They gave the American people the strength to persevere on behalf of human freedom.”

Rumsfeld also spoke about the raiders’ legacy to today’s young airmen.

“That is the force you join today,” he said. “A force where the improbable can become the norm, where individuals are dedicated to securing our liberties no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the odds.”

Rumsfeld closed his remarks by thanking the graduating airmen, the first class to enter the academy after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, for volunteering to defend America.

“You raise your right hands to say, ‘Send me to serve others,'” he said. “So to each of you, I thank you for what you do. I thank you for all you are. Go out and make history.”

Famous country music star Toby Keith performs a free concert for Soldiers at Freedom Rest in central Baghdad on Memorial Day. Hundreds of Soldiers turned out to watch the performance and to remember the legacy of the nation’s fallen heroes.
June 01, 2006
By Master Sgt. Denise Slater – 138th MPAD
MOSUL, IRAQ (May 28, 2006) –Soldiers from Forward Operating Base Marez started lining up three hours in advance to get a good seat for the appearance by Toby Keith on his yearly United Service Organizations tour.
As the temperatures neared 100 degrees, Morale, Welfare and Recreation personnel passed out water to cool the crowd, and pulled out as many folding chairs as they could to make room in the MWR tent.
Contests that were held during the month afforded a lucky few front-row seats for the event. Sgt. Wayne Morey and Staff Sgt. James Sullivan from the 511th Military Police Company, Fort Drum, N.Y., won their front row seats during a volleyball tournament.

“It shows his support for us.” Morey said.

Keith arrived by helicopter, and after taking a short break was whisked away for a ride on a Stryker vehicle. Meanwhile, the doors were opened to hundreds of fans who were happy to come inside and take a break from the rising temperatures. Seats filled quickly and isles were taken up by a standing crowd anxiously awaiting his return.
Keith came back to a packed house, and was a big hit with the audience. He played songs new and old but, the biggest hit was the song “American Soldier.”

“This is a salute to every one of you sitting here today,” he said before he started playing.

The song was interrupted several times by applause from the crowd and ended in a standing ovation.
“This is a labor of love for us, we really appreciate what you guys do over here,” Keith said.
Between songs Keith talked about making time in his schedule every year to perform for Soldiers. This tour had Keith performing six concerts at six bases in two days. It was a short engagement at FOB Marez, but there was a big impact on the Soldiers.

“It’s a big moral booster,” said Spc. Renee McFarland, 47th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

At the end of the show, Keith was awarded several plaques for his support. It was then announced that he would be sticking around to take some photos with Soldiers. Long lines again formed to wait to see the performer and get some one-on-one time.

“It was awesome of him to come and support the troops,” said Spc. Jamie Guillen, 47th CSH out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

Country singer Toby Keith stands in an air gunners hatch of a Stryker Brigade Combat Vehicle. Keith performs for Soldiers and civilians on Forward Operating base Marez, Mosul, Iraq.

This photo released by the Iraq Government on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 is said to show Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi, who was arrested by a terrorist combat unit on Monday in Baghdad, according to the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office. The Iraqi Government said in a statement that terror suspect al-Batawi confessed under questioning that he beheaded hundreds of Iraqis in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces. (AP Photo/Iraq Government)
Wild Thing’s comment…..
Let’s see, our troops are finding these people from hell, protecting the people so they could vote for the first time, building schools, bringing them better living conditions with running water and electricity where it had not been before, fixing roads and bridges, the list goes on and on. And at the same time fighting the Islamic Fascists, IED’s everywhere, and summer heat of 130 degrees with all their 80 pound gear on.
Yessss our troops ROCK alright, they are why the sun shines brighter and the smiles are broader and the sleep is safer for all of us. Thank you!

Thu Jun 1, 9:38 AM ET – Eddin Barakat Yarkas (C), also known as Abu Dahdah, during a trial of suspected Islamist militants in Madrid, September 26, 2005. Judicial sources on Thursday said Abu Dahdah would serve 12 years in jail for leading a terrorist group rather than the full 27 years to which he had been sentenced. (REUTERS/Juanjo Martin/Pool)
6/1/2006 – 8:18:00 PM
MADRID, June 1 (UPI) — Spain Thursday acquitted a man who had been suspected of helping plot the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, El Mundo reported online.
Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas will, however, serve 12 years in prison for leading a terror group.
Yarkas was originally sentenced to 27 years for being a member of al-Qaida, and for playing a role in plotting the attacks while being the leader of the terror group in Spain.
Wild Thing’s comment….
Oh Man don’t get me started on this one! More touchie feelie justice! Helloo Spain, don’t call us we’ll call you.(not)

Soldiers Discover Weapons Caches & Capture Terror Suspects
DOD
WASHINGTON, June 1, 2006 –
In separate incidents in Iraq, U.S. soldiers discovered a large weapons cache May 30 and captured 10 suspected terrorists May 23, military officials reported today.
Soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s Troop A, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a large weapons cache and ammunition aboard a wheat dump truck northwest of Baghdad May 30 at about 6 p.m.
Soldiers had stopped the truck May 9 and discovered seven fuses, 15 mortar tips and wire commonly used in roadside bombs. However, it wasn’t until May 30, while the unit was looking for more evidence, that they found the weapons hidden under bags of wheat in the bed of the truck.
The cache consisted of Katusha rockets, anti-personnel land mines, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, an RPG launcher, mortar systems, mortar rounds, rocket-propellant sticks, and other bomb-making materials.
The driver of the truck was detained May 9.
Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, also discovered a weapon cache while conducting a cordon and search operation of buildings in western Baghdad yesterday at about 11 a.m.
The cache consisted of four Russian-made bombs and three hand grenades.
Elsewhere, while conducting multiple assaults along Southern Lake Thar Thar on May 23, coalition forces captured 10 suspected terrorists and destroyed two vehicles and one tent used as a terrorist safe house.
The troops also found ammunition and electronic equipment used for making improvised explosive devices at the terrorist camps.
All family members at the scene were unharmed and released once the area was secured.

Please click HERE to wacth this VIDEO, you will not be disappointed.
Wild Thing’s comment……..God bless all our troops may God watch over all of you and keep you safe.