A few bytes of news.

A visit to A Soldier’s Perspective made for some good news. Cj was discussing the arms caches uncovered lately and calculated how many of our troops lives were saved:
Cj: “My personal conservative estimate is that at least 530 IEDs could have been built with these caches had they not been found. This equates to about 3710 lives saved that would have been affected, either by death or injury, by these illegal weapons. This number does NOT include the small arms and rocket fire that would have been associated with some of the attacks.”

Now that is great news and a wonderful way to start a Monday. News such as this should be in the morning newspapers. Now that really would be a refreshing change. Just think of it, positive news about our military!

Well, we can all sleep better at night, not worrying about Mr. Sick-creep himself, Saddam Hussein and his 11-day hunger strike. The Iraq Sun reports his court-appointed attorneys convinced him to stop. Either that or it finally hit this megalomaniac that no one really cares. I get a kick out of watching him dress down the judges, demanding to be called, Mr. President. They should be calling him, Mr. Soon-to-be-deceased. Come-on folks, we all know we want this, or at least deep down in the dark spots of mind we do. Remember all of the Saddam and Bin Laden targets the firing ranges were selling? They sold out of them too. Someone bought them.

Personally I feel the Iraq judges are in a severe catch-22 with the trial of Mr. Sick-creep Saddam. If they allow him to live, they have a troublemaker on their hands that will never go away. The second he returns to his cell will be the moment he begins his plans to return to power. If they execute him they now have a martyr on their hands, his name on every terrorist lips.  Of course our military will do their best to insure it is not uttered, but the fact remains, either way creates problems.

News this morning is German Intelligence Gave us the Iraqi Defense Plans before our troops boots hit the sand. The reporters are making statements that are driving me nuts. “Did Germany leak the plan for the defense of Baghdad to the U.S. before the invasion?”
Of course they did all of you sensational-happy, where’s my Pulitzer, shock exacerbating reporters! So what? Someone needs to take a reporter off to a side, shake him and say, “That’s called intelligence you dingbat!” The medias first thought when they get wind of something is how can they create a ruckus with it.

Now, Reuters now reports Germany denies they gave us the plans. Of course they deny it now! The reporters are all making a big story how it was provided to us by two German spies operating in the Iraqi capital before the war. The German Intelligence Agency, German Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz / Counterintel is not going to admit they were acting as spies. There are no spies in the world, just ask one. Reporters, you absolutely amaze me.