Vehicle Seized With Iranian Bombs

According to Voices of Iraq, a vehicle with 27 Iranian made bombs has been seized, and the driver arrested in Wassit, Iraq. Wassit is near Kut, and is about 80 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Afghan-Pakistan Clashes and Iranians in Iraq

I am glad to see that we will not afford our enemy a sanctuary across international borders (I wish we would do the same with Mexico), and we are engaging the enemy:

The Afghan Army clashed with the Taliban in the Pakistani tribal agency of Mohmand on June 10. While initial reports indicated the US conducted a targeted airstrike against a Taliban or al Qaeda target in the tribal agency, the aircraft appear to have been supporting Afghan troops. Pakistani soldiers were reported to have been killed in the fighting.

The fighting started after Afghan forces attacked a Taliban force as it attempted to cross the border. Between 10 and 13 Pakistani soldiers were killed after Afghan and US forces pursued Taliban forces fleeing into Pakistan.

“The militants launched a cross-border attack into Afghanistan,” an unnamed Pakistani security official told Reuters. “At least 10 of our soldiers were killed in a counter-offensive by forces in Afghanistan.” Geo TV reported 13 Pakistani soldiers, including a major, were killed. An estimated 50 Pakistani soldiers were manning an outpost in Suran Dara along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier. Only 10 have been accounted for.

Source: The Long War Journal

I wonder when we’ll start going across the border in Iran to stop their “Special Groups” and “Explosives Experts” from going into Iraq and killing American soldiers? When will people begin to realize that Iran has been at war with us since President Jimmy Carter installed the Ayatollah Khomeini and jump started the Iranian Islamic Revolution?

BAGHDAD – Coalition forces captured a suspected Iranian-trained Special Groups explosives expert Wednesday in Numaniyah, about 180 km southeast of Baghdad near Al Kut.

Acting on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted a suspected Iranian-trained improvised explosive device expert. Using information provided by Special Groups criminals already detained, the targeted criminal is believed to have traveled to Iran several times for explosives training. Intelligence sources also said the suspect has numerous Iranian contacts with whom he would meet when smuggling weapons and bomb-making materials into Iraq.

Coalition forces entered the suspected criminal’s residence and subdued him without firing any shots after the man made a move toward a weapon.

“Significance progress is being made, and Iraqi people are a big part of the operations to stop terrorists throughout Iraq,” said Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, MNF-I spokesperson.

Source: MNF-Iraq

Michael Yon Returning To Action

Citizen Journalist Michael Yon is heading back to cover the war:

I have left the United States and am heading back to the war.

Heavy promotion of Moment of Truth in Iraq is over. I conducted approximately 100 radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews, therefore was unable to do much more than track the war from afar. There are more radio interviews scheduled, but I’ll be talking from downrange. Moment of Truth in Iraq hit #6 on the Amazon bestseller list, and #2 on Barnes and Noble, which greatly surprised me.

Michael Moore has stopped the copyright infringement on my work, but his attorney has not responded to my attorney’s requests to negotiate a settlement. Out of courtesy, we’ll give Mr. Moore a little more time. But if he refuses to afford us the professional consideration of returning communications, we’ll have to file a lawsuit and meet them in court.

Source: Michael Yon

Godspeed, Michael. And I sincerely hope that you sue the pants off Michael Moore.

Progressives and Pauleroids Weep, For Bush Did Not Lie!!!

On many key judgments before the war, the report itself found that statements on Iraq’s biological weapons capacity, its nuclear and chemical weapons programs, the president and his cabinet secretaries generally followed the intelligence assessments of the spy services. On some issues there was disagreement. When Mr. Cheney said in September 2002 that he did not know if Al Qaeda and Iraq cooperated on the September 11, 2001, attacks, the CIA and FBI believed at that point there was no connection.

…President Bush believed the nation could not take the risk that they could. But on the question of meaningful links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, something the anti-war movement believes never existed, the evidence suggests a more nuanced picture than Mr. Rockefeller has portrayed. This is where Mr. Ford’s January 31, 2003, memo comes into play.

Mr. Ford’s memo came on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His words demolish a talking point for Democrats who still say Al Qaeda had nothing to do with Iraq until the coalition of the willing invaded. Mr. Ford wrote that the former emir of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi “has had a good relationship with Iraqi intelligence officials.” He added that intelligence on Qaeda “revealed the presence of safe house facilities in the city as well as the clear intent to remain in Baghdad. Also, foreign NGO workers outside of Iraq who are believed to provide support to al-Qaeda have also expressed their intent to set up shop in Baghdad.”

Source: Gateway Pundit

So much for Barack Obama’s vaunted “judgment” on being against the war in Iraq from the very beginning! Like most progressives and progressitarians, Obama let his Bush Derangement Syndrome dictate his actions and beliefs.

This reminds me of Quinn’s First Law: Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent.

Arabs Volunteer To Fight In Afghanistan Against al-Qaeda?

WASHINGTON — The leader of the tribal confederation that has fought to expel Al Qaeda from most of Iraq’s Anbar province is offering his men to help gin up a rebellion against Osama bin Laden’s organization along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

In an interview, Sheik Ahmad al-Rishawi told The New York Sun that in April he prepared a 47-page study on Afghanistan and its tribes for the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Kabul, Christopher Dell. When asked if he would send military advisers to Afghanistan to assist American troops fighting there, he said, “I have no problem with this, if they ask me, I will do it.”

The success of the Anbari tribal rebellion known as the awakening spurred Multinational Forces Iraq to try to emulate the model throughout Iraq, including with the predominately Shiite tribes in the south of the country. Today, the tribal-based militias formed to protect Anbaris from Al Qaeda are forming a political alliance poised to unseat the confessional Sunni parties currently in parliament in the provincial elections scheduled for the fall and the federal ones scheduled for 2009.

During his nomination hearing for taking over the regional military post known as Central Command, General David Petraeus said one of the first things he would do would be to travel to Pakistan to discuss the current strategy of the government in dealing with Al Qaeda’s safe haven in the Pashtun border provinces. A possible strategy for defeating Al Qaeda would be an effort there along the lines of the Anbar awakening to win over the tribes that offer Osama bin Laden’s group protection and safe haven.

Source: Michael J. Totten

No wonder the Legacy Media doesn’t cover the war in Iraq (or Afghanistan) very much these days. These kind of stories do not fit the America-hating template of failure.

Still, things are not all rosy in Afghanistan, or even in Pakistan.

McCain To Obama: Let’s go To Iraq, Little Man!

Republican John McCain on Monday sharply criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for not having been to Iraq since 2006, and said they should visit the war zone together.

“Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost,” the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting told The Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator’s last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.

Source: CBS News

Hat Tip: Pirate’s Cove, especially for the title!

Commentary

I daresay I knew the Surge would be a success before Obama. I have blogged about it extensively. [Iraq posts just since the end of January]

And President bush has accomplished most of the goals of the surge as announced in January of 2007. (Please note that he was opposed every step of the way by the Democrats in General, and Barack Hussein Obama in Particular).

I am working on a post detailing the successes of the Surge, and the utter failure of the democrat Opposition to the Surge. If we had followed the advice of the Democrats…we would not have an ally in Iraq…Iran would.

Putting Democrats in charge of our Foreign Policy is suicidal.

Iraqi Army Continues Dismantling Mahdi Army Supplies

You know, if our Media was worth anything, they would be covering our successes in the Iraqi Theater of Action, and the successes of our allies, the Iraqis.

In 5 short years, they have gone from a defeated foe to ally we have helped rebuild, and retask. Theses men have risked their lives, and the lives of their families by just signing up to fight alongside us.

The Iraqi Army has gone from using the failed doctrine of Arab-style warfighting to learning how we fight. And they have learned marvelously.

Part of the success of our doctrine includes a well-oiled logistics network, and disrupting the logistics network of our enemy.

From The Long War Journal:

Less than one week after pushing into the northern two-thirds of Sadr City from the walled southern neighborhoods, the Iraqi Army is uncovering substantial weapons caches in the Mahdi Army stronghold. Iraqi and Coalition forces continue to press against the Mahdi Army in Baghdad as the New Baghdad district begins to heat up.

The Iraqi Army raided numerous Mahdi Army weapons caches in Sadr City May 22-23, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The Mahdi Army has stockpiled weapons throughout the district. Eight of the armor piercing, Iranian-made explosively formed projectiles have been found along with chlorine poison, eight roadside bombs, and large quantities of explosives, weapons, ammunition, and materials used to make bombs.

Iraqi troops raided a school in Sadr City on May 23 and uncovered a substantial weapons cache. “Two bottles of chlorine poison” were found amongst a remote-controlled improvised explosive device, six 155 mm artillery rounds, an artillery warhead, five grenades, two PKC light machine guns and 450 rounds of PKC ammunition, a Katusha rocket launcher, and radios used to remotely detonate roadside bombs.

The largest cache was found by Iraqi soldiers on May 22. The cache consisted of “one explosively formed projectile; one homemade mine; more than 2000 7.62 mm rounds; 393 5.56 mm rounds; one 80 mm rocket-propelled grenade; RPG launchers, warheads and tails; one cannon ball; grenades; spools of wire; blasting caps; AK- 47 rifles; AK-47 and M-16 magazines; two body armor vests; a Kevlar helmet; two radios; and other assorted military equipment.”

The Welcome Home Screamin’ Eagle Show

Snooper’s Son is home from Iraq, and he will be on the Show with Snooper for two hours this Tuesday night from 7pm to 9pm. I will be embedding the show in case you forget.

Read more about it at A Newt One.

Welcome Home, Screaming Eagle!

Terrorists Join Progressives Against Blackwater (updated)

One of the memes I’ve been pushing just got a lift:

Insurgents have put together hundreds of propaganda videos ranting about how oh-so-terrible the American troops in Iraq are. But this is the first flick I’ve seen that directly and exclusively targets the private military contractors like Blackwater that have become a hallmark of the Iraq occupation.

Earlier this week, the Sunni insurgent group Islamic Army of Iraq released “Bloody Contracts,” in English, Spanish, French and Arabic. “Crimes against Iraqis happen on a daily basis done by unleashed barbarians dressed in security uniforms, criminals protected by law and instructed by the Bush administration to murder for the sake of killing,” the IAI’s deadpan narrator tells his audience. A cartoon of a masked gunman shooting at a black helicopter is in the background.

Source: Danger Room

Blue NC

Blue NC

Blue NC

Blue NC

**update** April 24th 10.59pm The America-haters at Blue NC just posted another piece on Blackwater. I remember the days when soldiers of fortune were entrepreneurs who didn’t have the benefit of companies like Blackwater. It was a rough time. Now, the guys get medical, paid vacation, and retirement…but they have to punch a time clock. No more just taking one or two jobs a year. It’s been turned into an industry.

Iraqi Freedom Journal for April 14th

Just in case you can’t find it elsewhere.

Download a copy for yourself.