The...NEW AND IMPROVED...Release The Hounds!...Is Here!!

Out with the old, in with the new as they say. After almost three years Release The Hounds! has a new home and has undergone a much-needed facelift. So go visit the new site here and check out all the neat goodies.

Audio Update Linked!!

Click the button to get an audio update from me.

You Can Now Hear Me As Well As Read Me!

This is a pretty nifty little add-on that allows me to post audio snippets of me telling you what to do! Seriously, I can call in an audio file to this blog in lieu of sitting down at my keyboard to keep you all updated even more quickly. On today's maiden voyage, listen to hear what's coming up tomorrow on Radio Hounds!

How Compromise Leads To Disaster In The Battle Of Civilizations

Today was a difficult show to do on Radio Hounds! It is always difficult to be reminded that we live in a world that values compromise over what is morally imperative. That places expediency above what is right. That places the same value on all competing ideologies no matter how bankrupt or evil one may be. That's the world we live in and, today at least, it has me down. I started the program with a story about how Muslim groups do not want our government to associate the word "terrorist" with Islam for fear of backlash. We spoke about the criticism President Bush has received for using the term "Islamic Fascists" not just from abroad, but from members of Congress. I reported the story of the Muslim couple who were arrested in the U.K. as part of the thwarted airline hijack attempt who were going to use their six-month old child as cover to enable them to sneak liquid components for explosives onboard an airline. We spoke at length about the U.N. resolution bringing about the current (and, as always, temporary) cease-fire and how it simply returns everyone to the status quo ante, and delivers a major political victory for Hizbollah. In this regard, we heard from our friend from Israel regarding how nearly 70 percent of his citizens wanted Israel to hit harder and deeper into Lebanon, but how "world opinion" got the better of their leaders, who instead chose to follow rather than lead. This is all the result of the merging of the leftist doctrines of political correctness with multi-culturalism. The notion that there is no true correct answer or that no one is truly right or truly wrong leads to the foggy morass we find ourselves in. A place where there seems to be no desire or ability to distinguish good from evil, but instead where compromise and appeasement trumps all. This sort of thinking every time results in victory for wrongdoers because it requires those in the right to step away from principle in order to find a "middle-ground" with those that have no moral authority, but as a consequence of a non-judgmental effort at compromise, have had it bestowed upon them. When those in the right compromise with those in the wrong, the former will always be perceived (justly so) as defeated in some measure. This is all part of the larger leftist concept of political correctness and multi-culturalism, where there is no desire to determine what is better or worse, true or false, since there is no absolute answer to anything. If that is so,the thinking goes, it is foolhardy then to try to divine which side to stand for since there is no real way to make that determination. Thus, Hizbollah and Israel are placed on an equal moral plane despite the fact that one intentionally seeks to inflict death and destruction on innocents while the other attempts to avoid that very same thing. Despite the fact that one places martyrdom above motherhood while the other builds bomb shelters to protect its people. We are at a cross-roads. If we do not recognize who our enemies are, and label them as such, we will have little chance emerging victorious in this battle of civilizations [You can also find and vote for this piece at RealClearPolitics]

UN Cease-Fire Plan Already In Jeopardy...and it ain't the Israelis

No sooner said then done. I just got off the air after having spoken to Eugene of Live From An Israeli Bunker when I saw this report. We were talking about the foolishness of this cease-fire plan and I had suggested that the only positive is that Hizbollah will sooner rather than later violate its terms. Well, it seems that the Hizbollah-influenced Lebanese parliament has come to the rescue agreeing to "allow" (as if they could prevent them) Hizbollah to keep arms hidden in areas south of the Litani river. This is in contravention to the terms of Resolution 1701 that stipulates that the only armed forces south of the Litani river will be UNIFIL and the Lebanese army. Keep an eye on this.

"Blog Soldiers" Up And Running Under New Management

John Bambanek of Part-Time Pundit has taken over as the proprietor of Blog Soldiers, a blog-only traffic exchange. Visit Blog Soldiers, sign up and watch traffic to your site steadily climb. It's pretty cool.

This Week On Radio RTH! (aka Radio Hounds!)

Tomorrow (8/15) at 8:00 am (Pacific) I'll be talking to Eugene, the Israeli blogger from Haifa whose site Live From An Israeli Bunker has become a bit of a sensation. This will be our second get together. On Wednesday(8/16) also at 8:00 am (Pacific), I'll be interviewing Michael Hayutin the author of Character Immunization: How To Raise Children Strong Enough To Resist Popular Culture.

More Reasoned Debate From The Left

These photos were taken at rallies in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Couple this with the Kos Kids' enamourment with Iranian president Ahmedinejad, and you have all the evidence you need for social pathology that has progressed to very frightening and disturbing proportions. The hate these folks harbor has completely and absolutely overwhelmed their ability to think clearly. [HT: LGF]

We Get Ourselves A Bit More Culturated

Please note on the masthead our new quasi-Shakespearian motto: Cry "Havoc!" and let slips the Hounds of W.A.R. I wish I could say it was the result of the combination of my creativity and literary knowledge, but I'd be fibbing. So I give thanks to an erudite Radio RTH! listener from Texas who goes by the moniker of "Gawains Ghost".

Tomorrow Night (8/13/06) on Radio RTH!

I will be talking again to Eugene from Haifa about what is going on in northern Israel. You can read his reports at Live From An Israeli Bunker. Listen live from 8-9 pm (Pacific) at Wide Awakes Radio.

Today on Radio RTH! (8/11/06)

Very interesting and crazy morning. Spoke to a caller from Texas who gave me a great suggestion for a radio show tag line...I've placed it on the banner of the blog as well. Then spoke to Brendan from Down Under for the Aussie perspective on what's going on here in the States. We discussed the aging and increasing senile Mike Wallace and his agitprop interview with Iranian president Ahmadinejad. Best line was that Wallace didn't believe that he was an anti-Semite. We also discussed the following: The ACLU has threatened a Louisiana parish because of a plan to create a Hurricane Katrina memorial that will feature a cross. The memorial is to be on private property. The funding is all privately raised. California wants to treat persons stopped for driving without ever having had a valid drivers license more kindly than those driving on a suspended license, and impound the car of the latter for 30 days but of the former for only...one day. Get it? If you are a person who has never held a valid California drivers license (read: illegal alien) and are caught, you need only give up your car for one whole day. If you had a license but it had been suspended for some reason, and you were pulled over, your car would be gone for thirty days.

The Moonbats Have Come Out

The conspiracy theorist losers have come out in droves. Their mantra is that the "Code Red" issued by Homeland Security as a result of the thwarted terrorist plot is actually a politically motivated ploy by the Bush Administration. Look here and here and here for a representative sampling. Here's a great counter-comment posted by "Paul" at Americablog. He obviously has a functioning brain: I've decided that since reasoning with moonbats is functionally impossible, I will offer my earnest help by offering up more conspiracy theories you guys haven't had the imagination to think up yet. Ever wonder how Bush could be a mastermind of 9/11 yet so stupid that he's confused by children's books? Aside from the overly simplistic and not-sufficiently-convoluted reason that Cheney is pulling all the string, it should be obvious by now that the reason Bush is Supreme World Leader has to do with Roswell. Yep, that UFO that crashed in Roswell in the 1940s is the explanation behind Bush's seemingly UNEARTHLY grip on world power. Ever since the crash, scientists have trying to crack the secrets, but by sheer dumb luck, the U.S. military-industrial complex finally managed to decode the secrets right before Bush became President. The military, being angry with Clinton-Gore, then used the new-found advanced technology to manipulate the Florida race so that Bush would win by a few hundred votes. This advanced alien technology is the reason why the New York Times, Miami Herald, and a dozen other big newspapers who were allowed to examine and count the votes themselves years after the election, all concluded that Bush did in fact win. The same alien technology also handily explains how Bush-Cheney could have masterminded 9/11 without the plot being uncovered, even allowing the U.S. military-industrial complex to clone artificial human being who only looked like Muslim men from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But that was nothing compared to REAL application of the Roswell technology, i.e. Afghanistant. I mean, think about it, a country that has successfully beat off thousands of years of attempted invasion by outside powers from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, gets pounded into dust in a matter of weeks by air power alone. It only makes sense if you accept the idea that the U.S. was testing weapons derived from Roswell. Iraq is pretty much explained similarly. One of the largest militaries in the Middle East, funded by billions of dollars of Food-for-Oil money via UN diplomatic funnels, is felled in a matter of weeks by a force that is just a fraction of its size. Roswell. It only makes sense if you accept Bush wields Roswell's secrets.But Roswell isn't just about weapons of minor and mass destruction, oh no! It also explains the incompetent spineless idiocy of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. That's right - you can already guess what I'm about to say. Mind-control. Bush now wields mind-control technology from the Roswell flying saucer and has been using it to keep the Democratic leadership in total disarray since 9/11. It makes absolute sense if you think about it, because mind-control devices enhance the qualities of wielder's mind. Bush is a monkey, so when he puts on that mind-ray cap, some of that simian-level intelligence is transmitted into Pelosi and Reid's minds. That video of Bush and Blair joking at the G8 summit? What that they were laughing about was they were making coded jokes about fooling around with the mind-control device. The "sweater" that Tony jokes he knitted for Bush is a old-boy joke about the Brit improvements to the mind control hat. Which all comes down to today's terror bust. No, it's not because terrorists exist in the world. It's not because terrorists are called terrorists because they think of different ways to kill innocent people spectacularly. The most recent "Code Red" terror plot is just Bush field-testing a new Roswell technology. Obvious, isn't it? The new devices is a new WMD, one designed to induce fear into mass populations. The terror alert is just to allow the scientists to fine tune the device. But as it turns out, luckily, the kind of electrochemical patterns generated in the human brain by thinking thoughts like "Bush is Hitler", "Bush planned 9/11" and "Bush Bush Bush" creates a kind of neurological interference that blocks the effects of the device. Only people who think these thoughts ALL THE TIME will remain immune to the mind-manipulating effects of the Roswell Weapon of Mind Destruction. So what does it all mean? Just wait and see! You ain't seen nothing yet! Roswell, I tell you...Roswell explains everything.

Craziness In The Middle East And At Home

Check out this video at MsUnderestimated and then tell me that we can "dialogue" with these mad-as-hatters. Like I was saying this morning during Radio RTH! we need to come to grips with the fact that, for whatever reason, these people do not see things (e.g. life, death, family, society) as we do and never will. Why they don't is irrelevant. It has been the same for literally thousands of years and it doesn't factor into the equation. It is the same as the proper response to the argument that "most" Muslims are "good" or not fanatics or radical Islamists. That's probably true, although I suspect that a very large percentage, although perhaps not willing to strap a bomb belt on and meet Allah, are in tacit approval with those who do. Nevertheless, the point is that even if most Muslims are "good" it makes absolutely no difference. It is completely irrelevant...irrelevant...irrelevant. Doesn't change a thing about what needs to be done and how. I'm sure there were many "good" Germans in the 1930s, but that quite obviously didn't stop Hitler and the Nazi party from taking control. Either the good ones couldn't or wouldn't speak out then as perhaps is the case now. But it didn't matter then, and doesn't matter now. As for the nutjobs on our left, check out this little bit of tinfoil-hat-wearing which is beginning to ripple thru the lefty blogosphere. Incredible!

Today (8/9/06) on Radio RTH!

We covered a wide variety of items today starting with the controversy over Reuters' use of doctored photos, which apparently has spread to the AP. We discussed a study linking listening to raunchy and sexual song lyrics to earlier sexual activity...and provided an example of these popular lyrics during our "Hip-Hop Minute". A bit of time was spent on the eleven missing Egyptian students now being sought by the FBI, and why we even issue student visas to persons from countries that aid and abet terrorism. I mentioned the piece by John Stossel regarding the effective of lawsuits on our overall safety, and finally discussed why Mel Gibson may not actually be a bigot. I analyzed the harm the left-left-left wing of the Democratic party is doing to its own as evidenced by the campaign against Joe Lieberman. Oh, yeah...we also managed to mention The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. Next Wednesday (8/16/06) I'll be interviewing Michael Hayutin, the author of Character Immunization: How to Raise Children Strong Enough To Resist Popular Culture during the eight o'clock hour.

The Ninth Circuit Begins To Feed On Itself

Check out this post at My Newz'n Ideas regarding the in-fighting at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the long awaited speaking out against the most liberal justices that infect that court.

Today On Radio RTH!

On today's show we talked about the book I'm in the middle of entitled The Truth About Tolerance by Brad Stetson and Joseph Conti. We're following the story of the alleged rape and killing of an Iraqi girl and her family by members of U.S. military. We talked about the pieces by The New Republic editor Martin Peretz and by Lanny Davis, both liberals but both actually making a whole lot of sense when discussing Joe Lieberman's fight for his political life. We also discussed L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's kowtowing to his Arab constituency and apologizing for attending a pro-Israel rally. What's a cowardly pol supposed to do these days!? I also gave out the number if you wanted to call the White House and thank the President for his support of Israel: 202-456-1111 Tomorrow, among other things, I'll explain why Mel Gibson is not a bigot. ***UPDATE*** As expected, the piece by Lanny Davis has brought out from under various rocks the left wingnut frag machine. Check out what is happening on this front at The Real Ugly American.

New Sponsor of Release The Hounds!

The radio version of Release The Hounds! (which is broadcast on the Wide Awakes Radio network) has a new sponsor...Zager Guitars. I personally own two of these beautiful instruments and actually solicited Dennis Zager, Jr. to be a sponsor. His dad, and the driving force behind the company, was one-half of the famous duo, Zager and Evans (remember the song "In The Year 2525"?) I own the acoustic/electric version in the photo above, and a lovely jet black fully acoustic model. These are modified Martin guitars and are a joy to play no matter what your experience level.

The Saga Of Floyd Landis

The "B" sample of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has come back positive for elevated levels of testosterone. The testosterone found was a synthetic variety not supposedly produced by the human body. This would undermine Landis' assertion that the elevated levels were naturally produced. Landis seems rather dead in the water on this one. However, there are a few questions that come to my mind and, before you conclude anything, I'm not a Floyd Landis fan (never even heard of him before this year's Tour) nor am I an American apologist or conspiracy theory freak. I'd like to know what the significance is of the fact that Landis was tested eight other times during the Tour and all these tests came back negative. That would seem to mean that he certainly wasn't injecting (?) synthetic testosterone earlier during the Tour. I'd also like to know if the injection of synthetic testosterone a day or two before a race will produce any positive effect for the rider, or does the testosterone need to build up in your metabolism for a period of time before it can help you any. These would appear to be the crucial questions in this story and, to date, I haven't been able to find an answer.

Next...A Guest Column By Raul Castro

When I first saw a link to this piece published today by the LA Times I presumed it to be just another anti-Bush, anti-American screed by one of its bloviating leftist columnists. I therefore paid it no nevermind. Thanks to Hugh Hewitt, I've learned that the piece was written by Syria's ambassador. The ambassador from the country that is supporting Hizbollah both financially and militarily. I think I'm going to re-subscribe to the LA Times so I can cancel again.

I Guess We'll Be Spared "The Passion Of The Deuce"

Rob Schneider refuses to work with Mel Gibson.

The Palestinian-Arab Idea of Effective and Mature Political Discourse

Read about it here. More about it later.

The Liberal Idea Of Effective and Mature Political Discourse

Read about it here. More about it later.

Many Thanks To Robert Spencer

Many thanks to Robert Spencer (author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, et al) for being my guest this morning on the radio version of Release The Hounds! If you missed the interview, it will be re-broadcast during the 8-9 am (Pacific) hour of my show this Friday, August 4, 2006. Just click the "Listen Live" button on the right sidebar, or go to Wide Awakes Radio. The response to the interview has been great so, if you missed it, give a listen this Friday.

Cowardice And Moral Equivalence

Recently, I attended a personnel meeting at my firm to deal with a dispute that had developed between two employees. I have come to not look forward to these systematized efforts at "resolution" because rarely do they do resolve anything. Instead, they leave both sides feeling vindicated and empowered in some way or another. As I left the meeting, I thought to myself that, sadly, this process is much like what passes for diplomacy in the Middle East generally, and as between Israel and Hizbollah specifically. As the EU calls for an immediate end to hostilities followed by a "sustainable" cease fire, and an American congressman goes on record as saying that he is not one to "choose sides" between Israel and Hizbollah, I began to think about the lack of moral clarity that pervades much of post-modern thought, as well as the almost pathologic fear of deciding which side is right and which side is wrong. Just like the manner in which much of corporate America deals with personnel issues, the same namby-pamby approach, masquerading as some form of judiciousness, pervades global politics. Many, many times and in many, many different circumstances, one side is in fact in the right and, conversely and necessarily, the other is in the wrong. This is not to say that the party with logic and justice on its side has acted pristinely or perfectly. However, perfection in words or actions is rarely the sole province of any party to a conflict, and such a lack of perfection on one side does not necessarily define that party as the moral equivalent of the other. Returning to my personnel issue, I was convinced based upon my evaluation of the facts that one party clearly had the upper hand when it came to the justification of his actions. Those actions were a completely appropriate response to the provocations from the other. The fact that some lesser criticisms could rightfully be levied did not, in my mind, create anything resembling an equivalence between to two actors in this office drama. Unfortunately we live in a world of cowardice and moral equivalence (I consider the latter to be a subset of the former) where the desired result is one where a totally unfullfilling "middle ground" is reached, and where no one is deemed officially to be completely right or completely wrong. Thus, neither party was clearly criticized or remonstrated and the truth, as usual, was found to be "somewhere in between." This may be a tolerable approach in the world of personnel management, but it is absolutely dangerous in the world nations inhabit. The need to take sides is of paramount importance because it sends various salutary messages. It tells all involved, and just as importantly all interested observers, that we have evaluated your respective conduct and, in so doing, we have reached a determination of who is deserving of support versus opprobrium, that we are not frightened to reach these conclusions, and that appropriate action will be taken thereon. Israel is the aggrieved party here who was prompted into action by the completely reprehensible and unjustifiable conduct of Hizbollah. To treat it's response to this aggression as in some manner morally equivalent to that of its attacker because, in the minds of some, legitimate criticisms of Israel's conduct may be raised, is to turn the entire process on its head. That may not come back to haunt in a personnel dispute, but it most certainly will in the Middle East.

Warren Christopher, Democrats and a More Inclusive Foreign Policy

Warren Christopher, former secretary of State under Bill Clinton, remains without a clue as evidenced by his recent Washington Post op-ed piece. Whenever you begin to think that liberal foolishness has its limits, someone like Mr. Christopher comes along to remind you that it knows no bounds. I can't help but think of a joke that made the rounds while Warren Christopher was Secretary of State. A conflict had arisen somewhere in the world...I cannot remember precisely where and when...but it was of the sort that, in the mind of many, called for some sort of decisive action by America. The punchline to the joke was: "If Warren Christopher were alive, this wouldn't be happening." How true that remains. But what an excellent reminder it is of what we would be witnessing if there was a Democratic administration struggling to deal with this incarnation of the Israel-Hizbollah conflict. Like most of the anti-war, effete intellectual left, Christopher's first objective (which, of course, serves as a criticism of the Bush Administration's approach) would have been to negotiate an immediate cease-fire. As support , he points to his 1993 and 1996 efforts to reach such a negotiated cessation of hostilities when Hizbollah began lobbing rockets into Israel on his watch. What is left out of his trip down memory lane is the obvious. The 1993 cease-fire obviously did not have much of a salutary effect inasmuch as three years later another had to be negotiated. And we're at it again, only with more powerful weapons being fired at Israel by Hizbollah. However, the inevitable repetition of this deadly song and dance should have been obvious, and likely was obvious, since Christopher now writes: "Achieving a cease-fire will be difficult enough without overloading the initial negotiations with a search for permanent solutions." Forbid the thought that any considerations of a "permanent solution" to this terrorist aggression against a sovereign state unduly burden the initial negotiations. Or apparently any and all subsequent negotiations, at least based upon the past success achieved in bringing these unilateral attacks to a halt. But that should come as no surprise since Mr. Christopher and most of the left draw little distinction between Israel, who has been living up to its obligations in the region, and a terrorist organization who has steadily stockpiled weaponry and now taken up kidnapping as a tool of warfare. And that is the crux of the matter. Warren Christopher is the archetype for the sensitive and inclusive leftist foreign policy wonk to whom there are no legitimate distinctions between sovereign states and terrorist organizations, and for whom "peace" however ill-obtained and transient is a more than appropriate substitute for a permanent resolution. Warren Christopher may not be alive, but his fatuous thinking thrives. [Vote for this post at RealClearPolitics]

A Short Course In Lebanese Politics

Read this post from Big Pharaoh for a bit of background on the fractious Lebanese political landscape.

Check Out This Canadian Blogger

It's good to know that there are sane folks to the north. shlemazl: Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, pro-Israeli rally in Toronto#links

Bunker Blogger On A Much Needed Break

Eugene, the young Israeli man whose blog, Live From An Israeli Bunker, has become such a sensation, will be out of commission for a few weeks while he leaves Haifa for a pre-hostilities planned trip to Canada. I had the opportunity to interview him a little over a week ago, and he was kind enough to mention me and Wide Awakes Radio in his most recent post.

Andersen v. King County

I spent some time this morning on Wide Awakes Radio discussing the Washington Supreme Court case that held the state's ban on gay marriage was constitutional. It was reviewing the challenge to Washington state's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by a number of same sex couples who sought to be married under that state's laws and claimed that the DOMA was discriminatory against gays and lesbians. I have taken the time to read the entire 62 page majority opinion. Let me point out its most significant aspects, for I expect that its detractors will mischaracterize what this court has done. First of all, the court held that homosexuality/homosexuals are not a "suspect class" such as those based upon race, religion or national origin. Therefore, the heightened standard of review applied to laws arguably affecting members of a suspect class are not to be applied here. Instead, the court is to simply determine if the legislature had a "rational basis" for the law being challenged. The court found that the legislature did. The Washington state Supreme Court also very clearly stated that it was not it's role or function to pass on the wisdom of the law (i.e. substitute the judgment of the justices for that of the legislature) but merely to determine if there was a rational basis for the law. Finally, the court discussed the legislature's basis for passage of the DOMA and recognized that the policy of encouraging same sex marriage and the formation and maintenance of traditional "nuclear families" was a legitimate goal advanced by the DOMA. It referenced studies showing that children raised by a mother and a father in an intact family generally out-perform both academically and socially those from single-parent families or from families where there is not both a male and female role model. This is very important stuff. But remember that the court was not endorsing heterosexual unions over same sex unions. It was simply, but effectively, doing its job by showing the proper deference to the legislative branch of the government rather than legislating from the bench.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

One-Wing F-15 Landing

You have GOT to watch this video of an F-15 being landed with only one wing remaining!! Talk about American technology and know-how. Apparently, the builders of the F-15, McDonnell Douglas, said that it was impossible for their plane to fly with only one wing. [HT: Wild Bill]

Guess Who Flies The Yellow Flag?

The photo above is of a U.N. "observation" post in Lebanon. I'm sure you all recognize the powder blue flag of the United Nations, but do you recognize the yellow banner flying higher? That would be the flag of Hizbollah. Yeah...I'm sure Israel deliberately targeted those U.N. peacekeepers.

Gay Marriage Ruling To Be Discussed

Tomorrow during my Wide Awakes Radio show (7-9 am Pacific), I will be discussing and analyzing the Washington State Supreme Court's opinion in Andersen v. King County which upheld that state's ban on gay marriage. Don't miss it!

CentCom

Visit U.S. Central Command to find out what our military is really doing in the Middle East. You can also click on the logo appearing in the right sidebar.

A Pearl From The Nuge

Don't know if the following is true...but it oughta be: Rocker Ted Nugent was being interviewed by a French journalist. The journalist asked, "What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before you shoot him? Is it, "Are you my friend?" or is it, "Are you the one who killed my brother?" Nugent replied, "Deer aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, "What am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the French."

This Is Who We Should Be Paying Attention To

Read about the letter reproduced below from one of our Marines: "To The Editor: In response to Lee B.'s letter on Haditha: I guess you were there at Haditha to witness these acts of desperation. I am a Marine combat veteran who served at Haditha in Iraq's Al Anbar province. Maybe I missed you there when my fellow Marines would get ambushed on a daily basis in Haditha, or when my patrol was shelled by mortars and two juveniles were spotting for the insurgent mortar team. I guess you were there when two Marines from my company were killed when their patrol was ambushed in the city, hit by an IED (improvised explosive device) under the watchful eyes of Iraqi civilians in the area who did nothing to warn them it was there. An IED is usually an artillery round, sometimes several artillery rounds tied together and set off by a remote control device. It is intended to cause massive trauma and death. The insurgents use this indiscriminately and they don't care if civilians are near our patrols. Were you there when we found 10 Iraqi civilians beheaded, left on the side of the road by insurgents? Or when our sniper team caught two individuals planting two IEDs along our patrol route. One of them was a police officer, the other was a teenager. They were eliminated under our ROEs (rules of engagement), which define what they were doing as a hostile act and hostile intent. I'm sure you remember going house to hourse, clearing each building in Haditha, or getting shelled every day while you set up and guarded a voting site for the citizens of Haditha. We were willing to provide escort for them because of the insurgency in Haditha, but I read there were no insurgents there, just women and children. Haditha is a very active insurgent region. I can's answer for my fellow marines with Kilo 3/1 because I was not there with them. But I have experienced their struggle and fought in the same area. You say the firs casualty of war is truth. Well then, with all due respect, go to Iraq and see the truth for yourself. It will open your eyes. Semper fi. Rene A.Alamo, Texas." Maybe if more of us would listen to what our fighting men and women had to say, we would be a little less misinformed. [HT: GM's Corner]

Robert Spencer to be interviewed on Wide Awakes Radio

I will be interviewing Robert Spencer, the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, and founder of the websites Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch on Tuesday, 8/1/06, at 8:00 am (Pacific). Here's the link to my post at Wide Awakes Radio for further information.

"Live From An Israeli Bunker"

I just had the privilege to interview on WideAwakesRadio a young man who has been blogging from just outside of Haifa, Israel. His site is called Live From An Israeli Bunker and he has been posting in realtime while Hezbollah rockets are dropping. It was an amazing 30 minute discussion and, with any luck, we will be rebroadcasting the interview tomorrow evening between 8-9 pm (Pacific).