Stars and Stripes reports that Yokosuka is more than ready to welcome the USS Kitty Hawk back home.

This is a base on the edge of its collective seat. With the Navy confirming that the USS Kitty Hawk and two of its escorts are expected home early next week, the place is ready to burst. Excited families are planning reunions and vacations; Navy officials are planning the "mother of all homecoming parties"; and local merchants are ready for a fleet of sailors with wallets fattened by the lack of any port calls during the four-month cruise. Everyone, including base officials, is getting ready for the return of some 6,000 sailors.

Quote of the Day - 2:

"Belgium and France will not guarantee our security. Germany will not guarantee the security of the Netherlands. I cannot imagine a world order built against the United States."

- Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, concerning a proposal from France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to create a non-NATO European defense force.

Quote of the Day:

"We ought to be beating our chests every day and saying, `We're Americans,' and smile."

- Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, while scolding reporters for dwelling on the shortcomings rather than the successes of the efforts so far by troops and aid organizations to restore civilian order and services throughout Iraq.

"Baghdad Bob" is still pathetic. Maybe Hillary could hire him to flack her new book, which purports to be non-fiction with about as much credibility.

Iraq's former information minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, who denied to the end the presence of US forces in Baghdad, was turned down by US troops after trying to turn himself in, said the London-based Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, citing a Kurdish official. Sahhaf had been at his aunt's house in Baghdad for the past four days and wanted US troops to arrest him so that "they can protect him" but they refused since he was not on their "most wanted" deck of playing cards, said the paper, citing Adel Murad of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Mr Murad said Sahhaf was in Mosul before going to Baghdad and that some PUK partisans saw him in the northern city and that he even asked some of them to intervene on his behalf with US troops, but "we told him that we didn't want to be party to this matter", the paper added. The Kurdish official told the paper that US troops regularly patrolled near Sahhaf's hideout on Palestine Street in the Iraqi capital and that he sent some of his relatives to inform them of his wish to surrender, but they turned him down.

Quote of the Day:

"Saddam Hussein turned 66 today. He celebrated quietly with a few close friends in hell."

- David Letterman, Late Show with David Letterman

Mansoor Ijaz has written a devastating indictment of the Clinton administration's malfeasance on Iraq and al Qaeda. I've been convinced for a long time that the captured Iraqi archives would prove deep connections between Iraq and terrorists of every kind. Recently translated documents are starting to show just that. Clinton and his cynical operatives have the blood of hundreds, maybe thousands, of Americans on their hands.

The unearthing of documents directly linking Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization to Saddam Hussein this weekend may have hermetically sealed the Bush administration's case that dismantling Iraq's Baathist enterprise was in part necessary to undo terrorism's dynamic duo. But closing that case may reopen a Pandora's box for ex-Clinton administration officials who still believe their policy prescriptions protected U.S. national interests against the growing threat of terrorism during the past decade.

The London Telegraph's weekend revelations raise deeply disturbing questions about the extent and magnitude to which President Clinton, his national-security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, and senior terrorism and State Department officials - including Assistant Secretary of State for East Africa, Susan Rice - politicized intelligence data, relied on and even circulated fabricated evidence in making critical national-security decisions, and presided over a string of intelligence failures during the months leading up to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Analysis of documents found in the rubble of Iraq's intelligence headquarters show that contrary to conventional wisdom, Iraqi military and intelligence officials sought out al Qaeda leaders, not the other way around, and ultimately met with bin Laden on at least two occasions. They also show that channels of communication between al Qaeda and Iraq were created much earlier and were wider ranging in scope than previously thought. The timing of the meetings sheds important new light on how grave the Clinton administration's intelligence failures may have been.

I believe that as we continue to unravel the spaghetti strings that bound al Qaeda and Saddam's regime together in the coming months, we are going to learn that Iraq provided expertise, financial, logistical and intelligence support to al Qaeda terrorists in an unprecedented manner. The terrorists, emboldened by their state sponsorship, were able to then carry out their suicide missions almost with impunity.

The silence of Clinton officials charged with the responsibility of securing U.S. interests around the world, when faced with this compelling timeline of facts, is still deafening. The American people deserve candid answers for the difficult questions posed by their actions in addressing the growing threat of terrorism, and failing repeatedly to respond to meaningful offers of assistance from the very nations who because of their sponsorship of terrorism, best understood those who rose up to attack us.

More evidence today that the old world order is finally being reconfigured - the heart of "Old Europe" wants to undermine NATO. This will end up making the U.S. even more dominant, since these countries are not really serious about taking action; it's all spite and inferiority. They will invest less & less in their own military and America's willingness to protect them will surely diminish. It'll be interesting to see how "New Europe" responds.

The leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg ended a mini-summit in Brussels by announcing plans for the creation of a joint military planning system by next year, and a multinational headquarters for European military operations in which Nato is not involved. The four countries - all members of Nato - also intend to set up their own rapid reaction force. They also want to launch a European Security and Defence Union, which others would be encouraged to join. Hopes that Europe was ready to move closer to a common defence and foreign policy have been left in tatters by the Iraq war, which split the EU into pro- and anti-war camps. The mini-summit has been criticised for worsening the rift - and critics pointed out that it had excluded the EU's biggest military power, the UK.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the US saw no need for the proposed new EU military command. He also played down the significance of the summit agreement on defence. "Four of the nations of the (European) union have come together and created some sort of a plan to develop some sort of a headquarters," Mr Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "What we need is not more headquarters. What we need is more capability and fleshing out of the structure and the forces that are already there."

The Washington Times has a tough editorial today essentially supporting the critique of the U.S. State Department offered last week by verbal bomb-thrower Newt Gingrich. Among other good points, they point out that Newt's criticism is a re-expression of a sober 1991 (pre-Bush) bipartisan report that recommended three things: creation of a Homeland Security department, Pentagon reform, and State Dept. reform. Two of the three are well underway.

Because, make no mistake about it, the issue of State Department ineffectiveness is a deeply substantive, structural matter of vital and immediate importance to our national security. There is a broad, currently silent majority in Congress - both liberals and conservatives — who are not at all sanguine about the State Department's bureaucratic ineptitude and resistance to both congressional and presidential guidance over the last decades. Congress only lacks leadership and courage on this matter to give full voice to their deep concerns.

Quote of the Day:

"It would be a very big miscalculation for any potential foe in the world to think there is some environment the U.S. Army can't fight in. We can fight anywhere."

- Col. David Perkins, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

Tony Parsons explains in The Mirror (UK) that he doesn't think "the British have it in them to truly hate the French... but it is different for Americans." As usual, Tony is on to something. Our distrust of France is building with each new revelation of duplicity by our sometime ally. GWB doesn't seem to me to be the kind of man who forgets treachery easily - and that's a good thing.

America has always distrusted France. Americans have found the French arrogant - which is a lot like George Best disapproving of someone because of their drinking habits. After the war with Iraq, that distrust has curdled into something much more vehement. In America today, there is a genuine hatred of France and the French, and it means that the Western alliance will never be the same again.

Americans feel that, only a generation ago, they set France free. This is true, of course - there are 75,000 American men and boys buried in European graves, and they are never given the respect they deserve. The French were also set free by the Russians destroying the German Sixth Army in the ruins of Stalingrad, and by the British, who faced down Nazism alone.

But the British and the Russians were fighting for their national survival. The liberation of France was a happy by-product of that battle. To Americans, who never had German bombs dropping on their cities, or German troops swaggering through their streets, the liberation of France looks more like a hugely costly act of charity. And are les bastards grateful? Non, monsieur.

"Why should we expect the French to help us get Saddam out of Iraq?" asked one American. "They didn't even help us to get Hitler out of France."

In America there is a massively popular website called Francestinks. com. As you would expect, it contains plenty of French jokes - "the only way the French were going in was if we told them we'd discovered truffles in Iraq" - but the overall tone is deadly serious. Americans died for a country that is ungrateful, decadent and yellow to the core.

The Times (UK) has a report on the "remarkable" escape of two British SBS commandos through Iraq and into Syria. This confirms reports from early April about an ambush in northern Iraq that could have ended badly.

Two British special forces commandos escaped capture by Iraqi forces by trekking up to 100 miles through enemy territory and desert to the Syrian border. One of the most stirring escape stories yet to emerge from the Iraq war ended with the two men being taken into custody by the Syrians, and the Prime Minister sending a personal envoy to Damascus to win their release. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence refuse to comment on an episode that had begun with the disastrous ambush of a secret British mission behind enemy lines, but details divulged to The Times suggest it was another case of triumph over adversity. Major Charles Heyman, Editor of Jane’s World Armies, said: “There’s no doubt whatsover this is the sort of high standard of evasion of the enemy on the ground we’ve come to expect of our special forces. It’s still pretty remarkable.”

The arrival home schedule for the USS Kitty Hawk has been announced.

The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk will return from the Persian Gulf to its home port near Tokyo on May 6. The carrier and ships in its battle group left the port of Yokosuka in late January to join the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 5, which had been deployed to the Kitty Hawk, will return to another nearby base on May 1, according to an announcement Monday from U.S. Forces, Japan.

Quote of the Day:

"We need to stay vigilant here. We haven't had the kind of long chains of transmission that we've seen in some other countries, but there is no reason why that couldn't happen here. So we are putting a high emphasis on early detection. We're putting a high emphasis on having the best possible containment in the health-care facilities, because that's where a lot of the community spread has started."

- Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

SARS has folks running scared -- and it's hard to argue with being too careful. Consider this a drill for biowar.

Parents and politicians expressed relief Sunday that an elementary school librarian who traveled to China, the country with the most cases of SARS, has decided to stay away from school for a week and a half. At least 10 parents were prepared to hold a protest at Bayview Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale today, after learning the school's librarian, Gayle Grossman, was expected to start back to work today. But citing concern for the parents' wishes, Grossman opted not to go to school until the incubation period for the virus -- 10 days -- had passed, officials said. 'She wanted to put the parents' minds at ease,'' said Kirk Englehardt, Broward County School district spokesman.

The search for WMD in Iraq took another turn this weekend. The Iraqis have practiced a high level of deception, but this may be the first solid find - there will be many, many more.

U.S. soldiers on Saturday found 14 barrels of chemicals in a vast weapons storage area in north-central Iraq, and three initial tests indicated that they contained a deadly mixture of cyclosarin nerve agent and mustard gas. The tan barrels were found in a 3.5-square-mile storage area that also contained missiles, missile parts, gas masks, protective gear, a stripped mobile weapons laboratory and large storage containers covered by camouflage netting. The area is two miles east of the town of Baiji in the Jabal Makhul, low, wind-worn mountains about 25 miles north of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

The barrels were on the ground next to a mobile laboratory that looked like a 1970s Russian truck with a cube on the back that was filled with sinks, a fermenter and other equipment. It had been stripped bare, apparently by looters. Lt. Col. Ted Martin, the commander of the 10th Cavalry unit that tested and secured the barrels, said the mobile lab had charts showing dosage amounts.

Lt. Victoria Phipps of Sherwood Ark., who heads the chemical reconnaissance team from the 10th Cavalry at the site, said three tests verified the presence of cyclosarin, a nerve agent, as well as a blistering agent, most likely mustard gas in liquid form, mixed together in a toxic slurry. The tests, she said, are 98 percent accurate. "There was so much intensity in that area it was hard to test further," she said. "The levels were very high."

Virtue is rewarded.

Pope John Paul has beatified a 17th-century friar credited with halting a Muslim invasion of Europe and in the process discovering the frothy coffee-drink cappuccino. More than 300 years after his death, Marco d'Aviano cleared the last step before sainthood, as the pope recognised the friar's miraculous work including curing a nun who had been bedridden for 13 years. History books also show that with a vast Ottoman Turk army beating a path to Vienna in 1683, d'Aviano was sent by the then-pope to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurring them to victory. As the Turks fled, legend has it they left behind sacks of coffee, which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk. The drink, now supped by millions around the world, was called cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged.

Another smoking gun has been uncovered in Iraq, again by The Telegraph (UK) , which is on a roll with documents found in the ruins of Iraqi intelligence offices. Can't help but wonder if solid evidence will be found linking Iraq with the September 11 attack. Clues abound.

Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in Baghdad by The Telegraph have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's regime. Papers found yesterday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service, reveal that an al-Qa'eda envoy was invited clandestinely to Baghdad in March 1998. The documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qa'eda based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia. The meeting apparently went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad.

"Quote of the Day:

“As a big fan of Tolkien I believe that there is absolute evil but there is no absolute good in this world. The Lord of the Rings is about this simple truth. There is no absolute good but there are moments when everybody who shares the same values must be united to fight absolute evil, which does exist.”

- chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov

President George W. Bush gave an interesting interview this week with Tom Brokaw of NBC News, mostly about the Iraq war. GWB opened up quite a bit and we get a more detailed glimpse of his decision-making process. NBC has posted the transcript and video clips on the MSNBC site - it's worth checking out.

I was hesitant at first, to be frank with you, because I was worried that the first pictures coming out of Iraq would be a wounded grandchild of Saddam Hussein - but Saddam Hussein, who was not there at the time we started making the decision, would never show up - that the first images of the American attack would be death to young children.

And this is an interesting moment, because as time went on during the day, or that evening, the intelligence got richer and richer. In other words, the guy on the ground was calling in to the CENTCOM headquarters, who was immediately calling in to the White House more and more information. For example, he discovered that there was a bunker a hundred feet away from one of the houses - a bunker that had so much concrete and was likely to house Saddam when he arrived, and his kids, his boys.

And as the intelligence got richer, I got more confident with the notion that Saddam would, in fact, be there. And at 7:15 p.m. that evening, I gave the order for Tommy to proceed with an attack....

Stars and Stripes has a new story telling us about how one family back home in Yokosuka deals with separation from a husband & dad serving on the USS Kitty Hawk. The Internet is helping them stay in touch - one of the blessings of technology.

At 8 a.m., an inaudible garbled voice came through the baby monitor in Cindy Williams' living room. "That's Mercedes," Cindy says, running upstairs to see to the just-waking 2-year-old. Moments later, Cindy carries the toddler, still pajama-clad, downstairs. This is the official start of Cindy's workday. She is the wife of USS Kitty Hawk sailor Andrew Williams, a petty officer second class who spends much of his time away from the family. He has to because his country needs him. But that need leaves Cindy - and thousands of other spouses just like her - to play both mom and dad in a temporary one-parent home.

"We get to e-mail each other a couple times a day," she says. The night before, the two were online at the same time. "It was almost like a conversation." Andrew says he e-mails as often as he can - but it all depends on when the ship's server is working. And all the e-mails he receives, he saves on disk. Even toddler Mercedes gets typing time, he says. "She just bangs away at the keyboard. It looks like the Tasmanian Devil talking."

Wiliam McGurn has a thoughtful Opinion Journal article about the ongoing role of ROTC at Notre Dame University, including insightful comments by Father Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus, and the example set by Lt. Dustin Ferrell, a Marine officer seriously wounded in Iraq.

As long as we live in a world stained by original sin, [Father Hesburgh] says, nations will need armies. And as long as we require military forces, he believes it ought to be part of the university's mission to ensure they are populated with men like Lt. Ferrell.

"It's proper to all the things we do here and the patriotism we owe our country," says Father Hesburgh. "It's standing up for freedom, even when it's tough." This is not some Donald Rumsfeld clone; this is a man who helped start up the Peace Corps and put the first signature on a local peace petition questioning the Bush administration's entry into the Iraq war. And Father Hesburgh has company in Rachael Ferrell, the young lieutenant's wife, who gently lets it be known that honoring her husband's service does not necessarily make one a hawk.

"I don't have a problem with people who choose pacifism," [Lt. Ferrell] says. "But we're idealists too. And the officers I know believe that in choosing to serve we're living up to our ideals, not putting them aside."

Quote of the Day:

"It's very difficult to assess the value of various military options that the United States has because although we can know their feasibility, we can't know the North Korean response. North Korea is so impulsive and so unpredictable that logic may not apply. Relatively modest measures may bring catastrophic results. It's conceivable that even a naval blockade could result in a nuclear attack by North Korea on South Korea.

- Loren Thompson, military analyst - Lexington Institute

Again, the State Department seems to be working according to its own set of priorities. If this Reuters report is true, then heads need knocking.

North Korea first told State Department officials in March it reprocessed spent nuclear fuel, but the information was kept from officials in other parts of the government, presumably so as not to scuttle talks with Pyongyang, U.S. officials said on Friday. The incident, which was confirmed by two other sources, appears to underscore the bitter division and competition within the Bush administration -- particularly between the State and Defense Departments -- over North Korea policy.

The Washington Times has a detailed article about the risks of "fratricide" posed by the use of the Patriot anti-missile system. The Patriot has improved dramatically since the Gulf War but was the cause of three friendly-fire fatalities during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lt. Nathan White from the USS Kitty Hawk was one. The Patriot is a huge asset but obviously there's more to be done to safeguard the good guys based on post-campaign professional military analysis.

In his last e-mail message home before he died, 30-year-old Navy pilot Lt. Nathan White described the challenges his F/A-18C would face over Iraq. One of his top concerns was avoiding American Patriot air defense missiles. White, who graduated as the top pilot in his flying class, was shot down by a Patriot missile near Karbala, Iraq, on April 2, as he returned from a mission. With more than 1,000 aircraft over Iraq every day, White described the chaos of launching from an aircraft carrier and flying into the war zone. After an hourlong briefing on his mission, he would climb into the cockpit and be catapulted off the deck, reaching 140 mph in two seconds. Then he would navigate the system of "airborne highways" created by the military to keep planes from crashing into each other "and of course steer you clear of the army's Patriot batteries," White wrote. It was not a joking reference.

Terrific and lengthy list of what patriotism used to mean in Hollywood was published today at The Braden Files. Check out the whole thing.

Alec Guinness (Star Wars) operated a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.

James Doohan ("Scotty" on Star Trek) landed in Normandy with the U.S. Army on D-Day.

Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape) really was a R.A.F. pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.

David Niven was a Sandhurst graduate and Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.

James Stewart flew 20 missions as a B-24 pilot in Europe.

Clark Gable (Mega-Movie Star when war broke out) was a waist gunner flying missions on a B-17 in Europe.

more...

"Quote of the Day #2"

"He looks French."

- Unidentified White House adviser, on why John Kerry may be a loser in his presidential bid

Quote of the Day:

"They should not leave this series of discussions that have been held in Beijing with the slightest impression that the United States and its partners, and the nations in the region, will be intimidated by bellicose statements or by threats or actions."

- Colin Powell, Secretary of State, on North Korea

150 SAS troops from Australia played an important role in the Iraq campaign. They are starting to tell their story... with typical Australian bravura.

The SAS may specialise in reconnaissance and stealth but in this war they took on a new dimension. It was not simply a matter of calling in air strikes or other forces to deal with an identified enemy: the SAS took on that task themselves, initiating numerous conflicts. Their targets were suspected sites for weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles from which troops of neighbouring states could be attacked. Using rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns mounted on their long-range patrol vehicles or shoulder-mounted Javelin anti-tank missiles, they destroyed many in the opening days of the conflict. Along the way they encountered Iraqi forces trained especially to counter US, British and Australian special forces teams. They used modified utilities carrying heavy weaponry and often they disguised themselves as civilians or Bedouin tribesmen. They were, the commander says, "very experienced, very aggressive and very good at what they did".

Australian F/A18 bombers helped with air support. "It was nice to listen to an Aussie voice on the other end of the radio," the commander says. "It was even better when they told us we had won the World Cup."

Quote of the Day:

"I didn't shoot down an Apache or anything else.

"All that happened was that I went to the field, as I usually do early in the morning, and was surprised to find some bodies on the ground. I began to rub my eyes to make sure that what I was seeing was true or whether I was imagining it. When I realised that it was really true, I was overcome by fear and rushed to the nearest government post to inform them that there was a plane in my field.

"A large number of [Ba'ath] party members and security men came with me to investigate. They told me that it was an American Apache aircraft and made me stay with them until someone who they said was a senior official arrived. I didn't know who he was. They asked me to say what you have heard on the TV satellite channels - that I shot down the plane with an old gun, a Brno."

- Ali Abid Minqash, elderly Iraqi farmer, once widely reported to have downed an Army Apache attack helicopter in Iraq

Russian public figures seem to have lapsed into incoherent rambling. Perhaps too much vodka trying to cope with the implications of the muscular Coalition victory in Iraq, which has stunned the lumbering Russian politico-military establishment.

On a visit to France on the invitation of another friend of his, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Vladimir Zhirinovsky stunned journalists with the information, saying he was perfectly sure of the following facts: He said that Saddam would spend about a year underground. Then, for fear of the establishment of a radical Islamic state in Iraq, the United States will agree to restore Iraq to the way that it previously existed. Then, Saddam Hussein will be back in power. Finally, Iraq may become a federative state in which larger powers and authority will be given to the Kurds.

Russia last night warned of an imminent catastrophe in the Korean nuclear crisis, despite signs that progress had been made in groundbreaking talks yesterday between North Korea, the US and China. "It is probable that, as early as tomorrow, there will be a catastrophic development of events," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said. Mr Losyukov claimed the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms program had "reached an extreme stage", but failed to give more details about his warning or what he meant by catastrophic.

Empty-headed Natalie Maines and the other Dixie Chicks are looking for sympathy, scoring a pandering interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC. They enjoyed the high of cheers and applause when they dissed the President in London, but now can't handle the subsequent hangover of bad publicity. Their discomfort is entirely deserved, and I'd still like to be near Greenville, SC next week for the start of their U.S. tour. The patriotic citizens of the Palmetto State may have a thing or two to say to these shallow performers.

In an interview airing on Primetime Thursday, Maines and her bandmates Emily Robison and Martie Maguire spoke to ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer about how they feel about the boycott of their music, the personal threats against them, and what led up to Maines' controversial comment. Maines said she made the remark "out of frustration. At that moment, on the eve of war, I had a lot of questions that I felt were unanswered." The comment was not scripted, Maines said, and it wasn't until the show was over that the band realized there would be a big reaction. "We don't plan things that we're going to say. And sometimes it backfires," Maines said. "We didn't walk off the stage going, 'Oh my God, I can't believe I said that.'"

Quote of the Day:

"I don't think that I would characterize what's going on in Iran as a democratic system. I don't think I would say that it fits the principles that I've just indicated. I think there are an awful lot of people in Iran who feel that that small group of clerics that determine what takes place in that country is not their idea of how they want to live their lives."

- Donald Rumsfeld, when asked if an "Islamic republic" like Iran would be acceptable as a future for Iraq

Breaking news! The Washington Post has located more anonymous officials in Washington who are wringing their hands about how unprepared and clueless we are in the effort to win the peace in Iraq. Sounds like the same cadre who were convinced we couldn't win the war. Maybe they're right, but maybe it's just a difficult, fluid situation and that's what we expected. (Adaptablity is a strength, not a fatal weakness.) Note that, despite this being a Page One story, the only named sources are two "former" officials quoted in the last paragraphs. "Journalism?"

As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites' organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country. The burst of Shiite power -- as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands who made a long-banned pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala yesterday -- has U.S. officials looking for allies in the struggle to fill the power vacuum left by the downfall of Saddam Hussein.

So, it turns out that Senator Feinstein's hubby has a big piece of the action with a defense contractor. What are the odds that the Left will cry "URS" as an epithet instead of "Halliburton" anytime soon? Two chances, neighbors: slim and none.

A planning and engineering firm co-owned by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband has been awarded a five-year Pentagon contract that could be worth up to $600 million. San Francisco-based URS Corp. announced Monday that the Army had hired one of its divisions and a partner to help with troop mobilization, weapons system training and anti-terrorism assessment. Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, serves on the company's board of directors and controls about 24 percent of its stock. The new contract is the latest lucrative defense job to be won by URS, which also works with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration among other federal departments. The firm was awarded an Army engineering and logistics contract in February that could be worth $3.1 billion over the next eight years.

Newt Gingrich has unleashed a fierce attack against the State Department and its culture of appeasement and Arabism. We can only hope this is the first signal of the beginning of a regime change at Foggy Bottom; State works routinely and tirelessly against the President's agenda. It has been appalling to watch Colin Powell either go native upon arrival in office, or show his true nature by siding with this permanent bureaucracy.

The last seven months have involved six months of diplomatic failure and one month of military success. The first days after military victory indicate the pattern of diplomatic failure is beginning once again and threatens to undo the effects of military victory.

The military delivered diplomatically and then the military delivered militarily in a stunning four week campaign. Now the State Department is back at work pursuing policies that will clearly throw away all the fruits of hard won victory.

America cannot lead the world with a broken instrument of diplomacy. America cannot lead in the age of democracy and 24 hour television with a broken instrument of international communications. America cannot help develop a vibrant world of entrepreneurial progress where countries grow into safety, health, prosperity and freedom for their people with a broken bureaucracy of red tape and excuses.

Columnist Tony Parsons is trying to talk Tony "Vanity" Blair out of a long-standing fascination with tighter bonding to the EU. Parsons is smart - let's hope Blair is too. Having already endured the public contempt of Old Europe, just-as-old Britain should know better by now.

Yes, winning a war breeds stupendous vanity in a Prime Minister. But if the one-sided scrap with Iraq taught us anything, it's surely that we need to break free from the European Union, not mate with it.

For all the rampant anti-Americanism in this country, there can surely be no argument that we share a bond with the United States that no country in Europe can compare to. We are tied to America by language, culture, blood, history and instinct. When I think of America, I think of Mark Twain, John F Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Martin Scorsese, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Sugar Ray Leonard, Robert Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Stevie Wonder, Orson Welles, and on for ever, the countless American men and women who have shaped our dreams and the way we look at the world.

You could put a loaded gun to my head and I couldn't even name you one Belgian.

The war with Iraq proved that this country has no bond with its continental neighbours. They are a bunch of oil-hungry cynics, inveterate cowards and committed peaceniks. Perhaps if we shared their sorry histories we would be more like them. But we are not.

Richard Tomkins, UPI White House correspondent, was embedded with Bravo 1/5 - Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines - in Iraq. He's written his farewell report just prior to leaving for home; it's insightful and even emotional. In fact, he may have forfeited his credibility in the eyes of the journalists who did not get to observe American heroes close up and still believe their own deluded stereotypes. Some say the experiences of 500+ embedded correspondents may eventually change the anti-military and anti-American perspective of mainstream journalism - only time will tell, but maybe Tomkins has made a down payment.

It's difficult to convey the rich texture of the men who make up Bravo 1/5 and the special camaraderie among them. Words just aren't adequate enough. But they are truly a band of brothers. Even the company oddball, the Marine who somehow never seemed to fit in or pull his own weight, was looked out for and protected with the concern like that of a big brother looking out for an awkward sibling. Bravo 1/5, in a sense, proves two truisms this correspondent has discovered in 30 years of reporting, much of it in war zones: Sharing a foxhole is the ultimate bonding experience, and the word "cliche" needs a new definition.

According to the American Heritage College dictionary, "cliche" is "a trite or overused expression or idea" or stereotype. All too often it is used with a negative cast. Yet cliched characters and generalizations are based on truths. Take the characters in any war move you've ever seen. There is the jokester, the screw-up, the smart mouth, the lothario, the kindhearted sergeant with a tough-as-nails exterior, the good-natured medic and the caring-but-firm commander.

It's no wonder these characters exist on paper and celluloid. They exist in real life, just as the scenes of GIs passing out candy to civilians, sharing their last smoke or holding up a magazine pin-up to troops in a passing convoy. Cliched in the context of Bravo 1/5 should be a label of honor, because it mirrors America and is replicated throughout our society and military services.

Stars and Stripes reports on a memorial service in Atsugi, Japan, for the USS Kitty Hawk's pilot lost over Iraq.

Lt. j.g. Mike Odom stood before 1,000 people in the flight hangar at Atsugi Naval Air Facility on Thursday and quietly spoke of the selfless devotion of his colleague and friend, Lt. Nathan D. White. White died April 2, after ejecting from his F/A-18 Hornet over Iraq. He is the first member of Atsugi's close-knit community - and from the USS Kitty Hawk Battle Group - to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"Lieutenant Nathan White selflessly sacrificed himself above and beyond the call of duty," said Odom, who is officer in charge of the beach detachment of Carrier Air Wing FIVE, of which White's squadron was a part.

Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

- The Collect for Easter-Day, The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Quote of the Day:

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger that the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right;
Faith and Hope triumphant say
Christ will rise on Easter Day.

- Phillips Brooks

Quotes of the Day:

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
- C. S. Lewis, "Is Theology Poetry?"

"Behold! we are not bound forever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

The Left's ideas of "free speech" are disturbing and wholly self-serving.

Men and women pretending to be Red Cross officials have been calling families of troops deployed in Iraq, falsely telling them their loved ones were killed or are missing in action. "I'm astounded someone could be so cruel," said Sue Richter, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, which has set up a toll-free hot line (888/309-9679) for people to report such incidents. A spokesman for Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in San Diego, said he knows some families at that base have been victimized by these "absolutely false" phone calls. "We have a crisis response center here, where families of [deployed] Marines can call to get information. The crisis response center started getting a few calls from some very distraught wives, who had been telephoned by people who identified themselves as Red Cross representatives and who told them their husbands had been killed," said the spokesman, 1st Lt. Dan Rawson.
*********

"If possible, avoid wearing of the uniform when dining in public places." - from a "Protective Measures Awareness" notice sent to San Antonio's U.S. Army personnel by Maj. Gen. Darrel R. Porr on Friday. April 11, 2003, will be remembered as one of the saddest dates in Alamo City history. Because of recent instances of harassment of uniformed personnel, Porr, the commanding general at Fort Sam Houston, felt compelled to warn the men and women who serve under him to use caution when traveling, shopping and dining in San Antonio.

"Two separate incidents against military personnel have occurred," Porr reported. "In the first incident, two males on the city's Northeast Side made threatening gestures and pounded on the car window of a drill sergeant and his spouse while they were on their way home. The second incident involved two sailors, in uniform, who were accosted by several males who said, 'You'd better not go to war,' as they departed a River Walk restaurant."

(I see that the Riverwalk situation did have a happy ending)

One unofficial source I talked to said he had seen the police report of the incident on the River Walk, and he provided this description of the confrontation: "Some Marines who were nearby saw what was happening and went to the sailors' aid. The matter was then taken care of by combined military action."
**********

Actor Tim Robbins pleaded with listeners at the National Press Club yesterday to "defy the intimidation that is visited upon us daily in the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism" after calling some members of the press "Aussie gossip rags" and "talk-radio patriots." Mr. Robbins took special aim at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, whose president canceled his appearance at an April 26 anniversary fete in Cooperstown, N.Y., for the 1988 movie "Bull Durham" because of antiwar remarks made by him and his live-in partner, actress Susan Sarandon.

Mr. Robbins dodged a question about news reports accusing him of physically threatening a Washington Post columnist at a post-Academy Awards party last month. The Post reporter had interviewed Miss Sarandon's mother, a Republican who said the couple had "brainwashed" her grandson about the war. In his speech yesterday, Mr. Robbins called the writer a "sadistic creep."

Quote of the Day:

"Pentagon officials say our military did not use the majority of the ammunition we brought to Iraq. They still have a lot of their ammunition. Which is not good news for Syria. That can’t be good news for Syria."

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Former CIA director James Woolsey supports the idea that "our current struggle against terrorism and rogue regimes" means we are engaged now in World War IV (the Cold War against Soviet Communism being no. 3, which we won). That's a useful way to think about the world today, and pretty much literally true as well.

Victory in this world war will depend not only on our skill in battle and our effectiveness in rolling up terrorist cells. It will depend on our being able to split as many potential adherents as possible away from our main totalitarian enemies: Sunni Islamists (al Qaeda, its fellow travelers and financiers), Shiite Islamists (Tehran's mullahs, Hezbollah), and Syria, Libya, and Sudan (each with a somewhat different ideological cover story to justify oppression). We will not be able to do this by being feckless--a terrorist prosecution here, a cruise missile there. We have tried that, and it brought us Sept. 11. The democracies must rather change the face of the Middle East, as they have changed Europe.

To do so we need to move smartly to make common cause with the many millions of decent Muslims who want to live in freedom and at peace. Today our potential Muslim allies, even in this country, are often silent because they are intimidated by Islamists and theocratic fanatics. But the Muslim equivalents of Walesa, Havel, and Sakharov are out there. They need our help, and we need theirs. To avoid a clash of civilizations and to reduce the need for the clash of arms, we need to forge another alliance for freedom in this war like the one that won World War III.

A hero is retiring at age 94. Simon Wiesenthal may be one of the most dedicated men in human history. His experience is an inspiration, and a reminder that important, difficult things don't happen quickly. We will need his kind again and again, until all the tyrants and murderers are gone - one day.

Renowned Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was quoted as saying on Thursday he would soon close his files after nearly half a century because his work to track down the perpetrators of the Holocaust was complete. "I found the mass murderers I was looking for, and I have outlived all of them. If there's a few I didn't look for, they are now too old and fragile to stand trial. My work is done," the 94-year-old told the Austrian weekly magazine "Format." "It is very difficult to get the public to really understand the crimes of these people," Wiesenthal was quoted in a statement released ahead of the magazine's publication on Friday. "Still I have to bother with people and groups that claim that the Holocaust never happened."

Wiesenthal spent decades tracking down more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals responsible for the mass murder of Jews in World War II and played a role in the capture of Adolf Hitler's close associate Adolf Eichmann.

Quote of the Day:

"On day three of the war I lost my CBOX oil pressure and had to set down in a field... We were approached by a local who was dirt poor but still proud, proud of his mud hut, his son, his 20 goats and his tomato patch. He spoke not a lick of English and I thought at first he was asking for food. Then I thought he wanted to sell me a box of tomatoes. In the best tradition of Arab benevolence and pride, he was offering us a box of his best tomatoes. It was all he had. All he could offer. Saddam's boys would surely put a bullet in his head if they knew. Wars bring out the best and worst in people. When he approached my boys were edgy and ready to waste him. We all learned a good lesson that day."

- Lt. Col. Steve Heywood, U.S. Marine Squadron Commander of HMLA-267, a Cobra 'gunship' helicopter squadron in Iraq, in a letter home

NPR's Michele Norris had a moving audio report Thursday from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home of the U.S. military's largest mortuary. She interviewed some of the military personnel who care for the bodies of Americans who have died in the war in Iraq, including the Dover Honor Guard. The unit's Sgt. Mack said quietly, "We want it be picture-perfect." Everyone interviewed exemplified dignity, respect, and a strong sense of duty. The American military continues to impress.

Regardless of their rank or the circumstances of their death, the war dead that pass through Dover, and for now they're still arriving, are honored at every step as heroes.

Two new articles based on AP reporting paint a profile of Navy Lt. Nathan D. White, a USS Kitty Hawk F/A-18 pilot who was lost over Iraq. Sounds like he was a good guy.

USA Today:

Aviation was Navy Lt. Nathan White's passion. "Regardless of the destination, I feel I am trained and prepared for any mission or contingency," he wrote in an e-mail to his family. "I have to have faith that those at the helm have fully weighed the consequences and have determined that the resulting good will far outweigh the bad."

"He wasn't afraid of following his dream," his sister, Ana Mitchell, said. "Whatever Nathan did, he gave it 300%."

San Jose Mercury News:

A Navy pilot killed when his fighter jet was apparently shot down by friendly fire over Iraq was a dreamer who constantly sought out challenges, his sister said Tuesday. Lt. Nathan D. White, 30, was killed April 2 when his F/A-18C Hornet was apparently shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile. The military said the incident remains under investigation. "He just had the nicest personality. There wasn't anyone who knew him that didn't like him. He could tell great stories. He was just captivating," said Ana Mitchell, White's oldest sister.

He graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and moved to Mesa, Ariz., to take a management job with a Dillard's department store. After a year in Mesa, White applied to law school and the Naval aviation program, deciding eventually to enter the Navy. "Nathan was a dreamer. The sky was really the limit for the possibilities he had," Mitchell said from her Provo home. "It sounded exciting. It sounded challenging, intense."

The Financial Times has a brief article describing further breakdown in the security relationship between Great Britain and France, nominal NATO allies.

Plans to allow the French government open access to details of the new [$4.4 billion] British aircraft carrier, discussed by Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac at their Le Touquet summit in February, have been blocked by the British government. Ministers are keen to promote co-operation with the French on defence procurement, partly in the hope of winning orders for British companies when Paris commissions a second aircraft carrier this summer. But the souring of Anglo-French relations over Iraq rang alarm bells in government over the proposed extent of co-operation between the two governments on carriers.

STRATFOR published an analysis today, stating: "London's move is likely more than a matter of pique generated by diplomatic acrimony over Iraq. Instead, it appears that officials may have genuine concerns that sharing sensitive military information with France poses a security risk."

France is not an ally and an ongoing problem - more than an annoyance. Hard to see how this can improve without "regime change" in Paris.

The gray New York Times marvels at the wartime success of Fox News, ponders something called "the Fox effect," worries about the future of "objective" TV journalism, and profiles MSNBC's attempts to imitate Fox. They just don't get it, and probably never will.

This was supposed to be CNN's war, a chance for the network, which is owned by AOL Time Warner, to reassert its ratings lead using its international perspective and straightforward approach. Instead, it has been the Fox News Channel, owned by the News Corporation, that has emerged as the most-watched source of cable news by far, with anchors and commentators who skewer the mainstream media, disparage the French and flay anybody else who questions President Bush's war effort.

Fox's formula had already proved there were huge ratings in opinionated news with an America-first flair. But with 46 of the top 50 cable shows last week alone, Fox has brought prominence to a new sort of TV journalism that casts aside traditional notions of objectivity, holds contempt for dissent and eschews the skepticism of government at mainstream journalism's core. News executives at other networks are keeping a wary eye on Fox News, trying to figure out what, if anything, its progress will mean to them.

Quote of the Day:

In any conflict, however, this nation's greatest single asset is the kind of men and women who put on the uniform of the United States. The methods of war have changed, but the need for courage has not. And we've seen, once again, the courage of the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America. These are young Americans who engaged in furious battles -- then carried wounded enemy to medical treatment. These are young Americans willing to accept any danger to rescue one of their own. These are the kind of people who, when they are wounded themselves, ask to rejoin their comrades in battle. Some of our soldiers and Marines will never be returning to their families. And these are the men and women who our nation will honor forever.
- President George W. Bush, at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Headquarters, Boeing F-18 Production Facility, St. Louis, Missouri

New Web site, WhichCountryIsNext.com, allows visitors to vote for their candidates for liberation. At the moment the vote leader is France, followed by Syria, Canada, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. Personally, I'd vote for the U.S. State Department, which would then make dealing with all the others much easier.

"Why should North Korea and Iran get all the glory? You Decide!"

via Best of the Web Today.

The price of freedom is so damned high. And our soldiers have so much courage. Don't click here unless you can take a few minutes for some emotions.

As he lay there in the desert, a medic ran up to him, stepped on a mine and lost a leg too. These were the guys who were side by side. The soldier who had lost both legs said, in response to B. B. asking him what he could do for him, "Sir, I am fine. I have everything I need. I have nothing to complain about."

via The Braden Files.

Details of the lightning-fast preparation and execution of the March "decapitation" attack on Saddam Hussein have been told for the first time.

Two pilots from the Black Sheep squadron, deployed to al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, got the call. The leader was a lieutenant colonel nicknamed "Tooms." His wingman was a major named "Fuji." Air Force officials asked that their real names not be used. Their unit is normally stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico. Tooms was not thrilled. A typical stealth fighter mission requires six hours of preparation. He had less than two. To reach Baghdad, some 700 miles to the north, before dawn, they had to be airborne by 3 a.m. local time. "We really needed to get into the airplanes," Tooms said.

Nor was he certain the mission would actually come off. The pilots had been through several false starts and scrapped missions in the days before the war. Adding to the uncertainty, they would be dropping some new bombs, using a new technique. Each plane carried two one-ton EGBU-27 Advanced Paveway IIIs, bunker-busters newly modified to use satellite guidance to find their target. They had not seen combat before. Only a few hours before the mission, test pilots in the United States dropped two of them simultaneously from a stealth fighter. Their next test would come over Baghdad.

Good news this morning for the crew of the USS Kitty Hawk and their families back home.

Now that the air war over Iraq is winding down, the Navy is seeking to send home, within days, two of the three aircraft carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf, the commander of all naval forces in the Gulf said Saturday. Vice Adm. Timothy Keating told reporters in a videotelecast news conference from his Gulf headquarters that the first to head home will likely be the USS Kitty Hawk, whose home base is Yokosuka, Japan. He said the USS Constellation, based in San Diego, may go home soon, too. He stressed that the decision is up to Gen. Tommy Franks, the overall war commander, and that no orders have been issued yet.

"We're anxious to get those folks back to their home ports as soon as we can,'' Keating said.

As explained by The Times (UK), imported terrorists have been, and still are, integral to Saddam's plans for resisting the Coalition invasion of Iraq. Tough for our troops, but it's sure been more convenient to kill these fanatics in Iraq instead of having to track them down inside their home countries later.

President Saddam Hussein imported hundreds of well-trained Islamic guerrillas before the war to spearhead his fight against American and British forces, Documents and captives seized by British troops in Basra reveal that the recruits were arriving in Baghdad from Muslim countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen as little as ten days before the war began. They came to wage jihad against the Western military, and provided some of the fiercest resistance as the coalition advanced northwards. Survivors are still mounting occasional attacks in Baghdad and other cities.

U.S. officials are seizing on the guerrillas’ presence as evidence of links between Saddam and Usama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist organisation — links that the Bush Administration has long cited as a justification for the war. The foreign fighters provide a "direct tie between Saddam Hussein and terrorist organizations", a Pentagon spokeswoman said last night.

British investigators are more cautious, but one officer involved in questioning the survivors told The Times: "These are not just zealots who grabbed a gun and went to the front line. They know how to employ guerrilla tactics so someone had to have trained them. They are certainly organised, and if it’s not bin Laden’s people, its Al Qaeda by another name. But they certainly came here to fight the West." Identity documents show the men came from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The Americans say they have also captured Chechens fighting with Fedayeen units close to Baghdad. The guerrillas were also in a different league from the rag-tag collection of volunteers who arrived in Baghdad before the war on buses from Jordan and Syria.

The "foreign legion" stunned British troops with their skills and fanaticism.

Be sure to check the April 11 Day by Day. Too funny.

Quote of the Day:

"It's an amazing thing when you see a person wounded, sitting there in a wheelchair or bound up in bandages and these different-looking metal things sticking out of them to hold them together. A young man looks you in the eye and says, 'I can't wait to get back to my unit. I hope I'm healed fast enough to get back to Iraq.' [These are] people who are willing to sacrifice for something greater than themselves, and I feel lucky as an American to be a part of a country where citizens are willing to do that."
- President George W. Bush, after visiting more than 70 wounded service members and their families at two military hospitals

The Moscow Times reports that the Russians are feeling serious FUD - fear, uncertainty and doubt. It would appear that major powers on this earth are living in a dream world, or have been taking seriously the uninformed ravings of the Left. One would think that the first responsibility of military leadership would be to observe. Apparently, not so.

As the war in Iraq winds to its inevitable end, uneasy reflections are taking over Russia's political and military elite. No one in Moscow ever seriously believed that Saddam Hussein might indeed "defeat" the allied forces. But the speed and decisiveness of the offensive has bewildered many. Many Russian generals truly believe that a bombing campaign that leaves some buildings still standing is ineffective. Precision-guided munitions are widely considered to be costly pranks -- not real weapons. In Chechnya, we tried to use some of these gadgets, but they did not work, as most Russian officers and men have not been trained in how to use the limited number of modern weapons our military inherited from the Soviet armed forces.

The worst possible outcome of the war in Iraq for the Russian military is a swift allied victory with relatively low casualties. Already many in Russia are beginning to ask why our forces are so ineffective compared to the Brits and Americans; and why the two battles to take Grozny in 1995 and 2000 each took more than a month to complete, with more that 5,000 Russian soldiers killed and tens of thousands wounded in both engagements, given that Grozny is one tenth the size of Baghdad.

Russian generals were expecting another prolonged so-called non-contact war, like the one against Yugoslavia in 1999, in Afghanistan in 2001 or the first gulf war in 1991, when a four-day ground offensive was preceded by a 39-day air bombardment. It was believed that the Americans were afraid of close hand-to-hand encounters, they would not tolerate the inevitable casualties, and that in the final analysis they were cowards who relied on technical superiority.

via BlogsOfWar.com

The Axis of Envy is trying to back up and go sideways at the same time. Note this story is on page A29 of the Washington Post. That seems like a good working definition of irrelevance.

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany today attempted to patch up deep differences with the United States and Britain over Iraq, saying after a meeting here that what mattered now was addressing the humanitarian crisis and the apparent anarchy besetting the country. Conferring just two days after the fall of Baghdad, the three heads of state generally avoided restating their opposition to the war. But they stood by their position that the United Nations, not U.S. and British forces, should oversee Iraq's reconstruction.

James Taranto had a perceptive comment in a Best of the Web blog this week, after reviewing more of the continuing inanities from the Left. Good words to keep in mind - the struggle is not futile.

Reading this stuff, it's easy to become dispirited. What hope is there for a world in which so many deluded people side with evil? Then again, they lost their fight to keep Saddam Hussein in power--and American democracy remains healthy, despite the malign influence of the antiwar left. (Time will tell whether the same can be said for the Democratic Party.) If that's true here, who's to say it can't be in the Arab world too?

Was referred to this compelling MSNBC link via Donald Sensing's blog. His comments:

MSNBC today broadcast video from Monday of the thick of a firefight by a 3d Inf. Div. supply column, some of the best video of the war. Cameraman Craig White, who has covered other wars, said on MSNBC that the fighting was so intense that he almost picked up a rifle and started shooting himself. He said the chaplain actually did so. Most of the soldiers were not infantrymen; White said it was the first time most of them had seen battle.

via DonaldSensing.com

Lots of concerns, many legitimate, about women in combat. But we can't deny that lots of 'em have shown their quality for all to see.

Air Force Capt. K.C., a 27-year-old woman, was flying an A-10 attack plane above Baghdad when 150 bullets from anti-aircraft artillery fire riddled the tail of her aircraft and caused a fire, searing the exhaust pipe. "I could feel the jet get hit; I could hear the jet get hit," K.C. said. "I lost all hydraulics instantaneously, so I completely lost control of the jet. It rolled left and pointed to the ground, which is an uncomfortable feeling over Baghdad." She acted fast, trying to regain instrument power in the A-10. Then she grabbed the flight stick with both hands and pulled hard on the heavy instrument.

Finally K.C., a member of the Flying Tigers 23rd Fighter Group from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina, made a rare emergency landing with no hydraulic power back in friendly airspace. The landing, with no instrument control of the aircraft, had been tried only three times in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, something not lost on K.C. at the time.

Less than 12 hours after she landed her plane, she was back into another A-10 cockpit, scrambling a combat search and rescue operation for her fellow A-10 pilot who lost his plane and had to eject over western Baghdad.

The embedded AP reporter onboard the USS Kitty Hawk has filed a good overall profile of life on the great ship.

Once a day, Capt. Thomas Parker's voice crackles through the small speakers built into virtually every room aboard ship. His message is simple. "Getting planes off the front end, that's what we're here for," the ship's commander says. "Getting warheads on foreheads." Once they start, though, the work sounds anything but uncomplicated. There's a loud whump, and a shudder runs through the ship, followed by a grating rattle. Through the network of pipes comes a constant hum; through the walls, an incessant hiss like a television broadcasting static. Noise aside, the 41-year-old Kitty Hawk - the U.S. Navy's oldest active ship - remains a giant, single-purpose machine out of German expressionist filmmaker Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis."

Like the movie's subterranean city, the world below the Kitty Hawk's decks is a melange of levers, gauges, cables, pipes, rivets and bulkheads, maintained by coverall-clad workers. Upstairs, the jet-fired strike planes bombing Iraq leave and return with deafening regularity, day and night. They are launched with the help of steam-powered catapults, and stopped by cables drawn across the deck. Then they do it all again.