Update to last post

Update to the article I posted regarding the Father of a fallen Marine and his litigation against the Westboro Baptist Church, titled, A Father fights back.

The jury has also awarded other damages, which takes the verdict to 11 million dollars. Here is a direct quote from the article on CBS News,

"The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress."

"Snyder's attorney, Craig Trebilcock, had urged jurors to determine an amount "that says don't do this in Maryland again. Do not bring your circus of hate to Maryland again."

A Father fights back

I was just going through the afternoon news and this headline immediately caught my undivided attention.

"Jury Awards Father $2.9 Million in Funeral Protesters Case"

Click here for the full story.

If you recall, the father of a fallen Marine had filed litigation against the Westboro Baptist Church and its founder for a multitude of actions resulting from their picketing his son's funeral.

This is the same church that routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have enacted laws prohibiting the church's picketing and that has had little impact on their protesting. Perhaps handing over a few million dollars will change their attitudes. We can only hope that this award is not overturned.

The disgusting signs and comments made by the church towards our fallen men and women has only enraged people to do something to stop their protesting. We can only hope this verdict stays and finally puts an end to the church is protesting

Invisible Tank

A story this morning from the UK caught my eye as I was wondering the news services. It was headlined; "British Defense Researchers Create Invisible Tank" and once I saw it there was no way my imagination would allow me to pass it up.

Click here for the full story.

The British have actually done it, I was thinking as I began to read the story. Of course, I was waiting to read how they would create invisible soldiers next, but that was not to pass.

I have seen this invisibility trick done on the military channel before. They were going over the new Army's battle gear called, Land Warrior and already in use in Iraq. On the show they used tiny cameras and a parade of other photo gear to create an invisible soldier standing there. Unfortunately, unless that solder has about three million bucks worth of camera gear he will not repeat it on the battlefield.

It turned out the invisible tank was the same thing, many cameras, just a trick, but it does look pretty cool.

They are still at it

Most of us have read or written stories about the disgusting antics of the Westboro Baptist church. I have written a few articles, one was Phelps Information which went into a bit more detail on the actions of these individuals.

Honestly, for me to write more on the group would be a total exercise in futility. Their actions towards our fallen service members are well documented and already a matter of public record. In brief, the CBS article stated, "the Westboro Baptist church's members have picketed the funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the deaths are punishment for the country's tolerance of homosexuality."

I recall the mixed bag of emotions that went through me while reading about their protests at service members funerals. Besides the anger and disgust, I could not understand why someone had not filed litigation against the church. Then I began reading many of the already published articles on the church and learned that many of the family running the church were practicing attorneys.

In short, they always stayed on public property and insured they were within their constitutional rights. That knowledge disgusted me to no end.

Now, the father of a Marine killed in action, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder is taking the church on in court.

Here is a direct quote from CBS news, "The father of a Marine killed in Iraq took the stand in his invasion of privacy suit against a fundamentalist church that pickets soldiers' funerals, saying protesters carrying signs at his son's burial made him sick to his stomach."

"Albert Snyder said he had hoped for a private funeral for his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder."

The father, Albert Snyder is asking for assistance in his litigation against the church and has setup a web site with information, www.matthewsnyder.org/.

Ben Stein: The Real Stars

Ben Stein puts it all into perspective. It is about time someone spoke up.

Ranter

The Dalai Lama

China has never ceased to amaze me with their attitude regarding the Dalai Lama. Of course, they control his homeland and nothing on this earth will make them give it back.

For example, here is a quote from a CBS News article on President Bush giving the Dalai Lama an award.

"China, which reviles the 72-year-old monk as a Tibetan separatist, vehemently protested the elaborate public ceremony."

Now, if that does not hate for the sake of hate, then I cannot think of any other comment that would demonstrate it any better.

Here we have a man of peace, serenity and the spiritual leader to thousands, if not millions. The act by China of taking over his homeland and listing him as a separatist reeks of the fear China has towards him. Yes, fear and they fear him so badly that they will risk whatever they have to insure he does not return, never.

Disgusting, that is what it is, pure and simple disgusting. The Dalai Lama is a man of such high religious stature that throngs of humanity revere him and follow his words. This is what scares China to pieces and it is the sole reason they hate him.

Actually, a man of peace without any hidden agendas is a wonderful thought. He does not ask for millions in donations to build his universities. He does not make statements that God will call him home of his goals are not meant. He desires peace among the world; he does this without beating on your door and ramming his political philosophy down your throat. He supports religious freedom for all faiths, barring none.

China fears this man for many reasons and most of all because they realize he is right, they are wrong, and that really scares the devil out of them.

Security in Iraq

Since it became a public word, Blackwater has taken more heat than any security organization in Iraq. We have seen media reports, television documentaries, you name it and it has been written about private security in Iraq, Blackwater in particular.

The media loves to portray them as high paid mercenaries, body armor and automatic weapons at ready for any attack. What they normally fail to address is that the majority of the security in Iraq are highly trained, Seals, Special Forces, SAS and other special operations personnel. These are the individuals that our country and others once called our best, our elite, the cream of the crop and governments have spent millions of dollars training and equipping these individuals to go out and perform jobs that no one else was capable of doing.

Now, they are no longer within the fold of the militaries they once represented and because of this, the media calls them killers, mercenaries, anything, but what they once were.

The media loves to say the word mercenary, they love to portray these individuals as shoot first and ask question later and let God sort them out, this sickens me.

We place these individuals in harm's way, dissociate them from any coverage or protection afforded the military and tell them if you shoot someone you will be tried under that government' s law and as a murderer in your own country. This is just wonder job security and yet, individuals work in these high risk situations.

If one or more of these individuals make mistakes and people die, then they alone should be tried for their crimes, not the entire security community. The same applies to outright homicide, if this is done, then those individuals should pay, not the entire community.

This entire mess has sickened me and the sad footnote to it all is that it is far from over.

And he could not spell potato!

The fact that Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize for his film, an Inconvenient Truth has me wondering why I never won one. I mean, I have told many untruths in my day, okay, lies, but the fact remains, if he can win, so can anybody.

Gore has always liked to tell a few tales or two. What can we expect from a man who publicly stated that he invented the Internet!

Since the film, Inconvenient Truth was released many questions have been raised about whether some of the science used in the film is correct. In fact, this week a judge in the UK ruled that schools could not screen the film without accompanying notes, which give a balancing view to some of his claims.

Apparently, an Inconvenient Truth has left out a few truths, in any case, it managed to give Gore a few awards and now the Nobel, go figure.

Gore was no stranger to inconvenient truths, he managed to take on the show, Murphy Brown for their story line of an unwed mother and lose. One thing that bothered me was how a man who could not spell potato was able to write anything at all.

It is quite an honor to take home the Nobel and we cannot take that away from him. However, it makes me wonder just how much politics played as a deciding factor.

A nominee that was passed over for the Gore award, Irena Sendler, was in many opinions more worthy of the award. Sendler is a great woman who risked her life during WWII to save 2500 children from the Holocaust, later captured by the Nazi's and severely beaten. Sendler managed to escape and today is living in a nursing home in Poland.

If you are not familiar with the Irena Sendler story, then I suggest you click here for the Wikipedia overview. She should be an inspiration to the world and her story needs to be told.

Family Values

We all are very aware that the world has become a hotbed of insanity. It has become even more evident with the current rash of school shootings being reported. The latest, a 14 year old Pennsylvania home schooled youth had compiled an arsenal and planned a repeat of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado.

In an AP article this morning, CBS News correspondent Maggie Rodriguez reported that officials knew the young suspect's motive: he felt bullied by the students at Plymouth Whitemarsh. But the plot for revenge was foiled when the young man tried to seek out an accomplice who led police to the suspect's house and a disturbing arsenal.

Acting on a tip from a high school student and his father, police on Wednesday found the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks in the boy's bedroom, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said.

The article also states that the youth's Mother, Michele Cossey was being charged for purchasing firearms for her teenage son. Here is the quote from the page, "Michele Cossey bought her home-schooled son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, authorities said."

After reading this I was struck with the thought that back in the early 1960 era, my Grandfather had given me a 22 rifle for a gift. He then spent the entire summer teaching me gun safety and the proper manner to conduct yourself on a hunt.

It was not the first time that I have accompanied him on a hunt, but it was the first that I was taught the ins and outs of hunting and the proper gun safety procedures.

Then it all fell into place for me, this was something that had stopped across America, gun safety, one of the male members walking the younger through that rite of passage, Today, we are bombarded with school shootings, gang shootings, the list is endless.

As a result of this new threat, our children are no longer safe inside of a school, in fact, they may even be on more danger, just attending a class.

It completely amazes me how far our society has sank into the pits of hate and despair. Back when I was given that gift, the world was different. We had strong family values, Sundays consisted of church in the morning and a mandatory dinner in the evening where the entire family sat down together.

On many Sundays, we would all pile into our Father's non-air conditioned car and head to the local ice cream shop. Those were days that are now lost to the youth of today and along with them are the family values that they once taught.

It is truly sad to see what is going on today and even sadder to think that family values in America died with my youth.

Britney and the Paparazzi

I normally fill my mornings with massive amounts of caffeine, surfing through various news services and reading even more on the internet. While going about my usual routine I have began to notice something that is either interesting or sick about celebrities, well, actually one in particular, Britney Spears.

I did not start out to read about her insane antics, but it quickly turned in that direction once I began to notice that I was seeing nothing but stories on her. I felt that she was either so newsworthy that she was pushing normal stories to the back page, or she had entered into some type of unholy alliance with the paparazzi. Little did I know that the two were feeding off one another in some form of insane plan of the universe.

Good old Ms. throw back a few beers, snort a line or two, cause a media circus by shaving her head in public, scream at the paparazzi while attacking their cars with an umbrella and then use her genuine Hollywood "get out of jail" card issued to every person who joins the celebrity crowd –REHAB!

What began as every news service and gossip magazine going for the money shot of her getting out of vehicles while blatantly exposing herself, slowly turned into exposing the truth about Britney and the paparazzi, they live for and off of one another.

This became evident when I began to see photos of paparazzi ordering food for Britney. Now, before anyone says this is silly, hear the rest of the story. We had Britney and her sister sitting in a car at a fast food drive up window. Britney was trying her best to order food for the two of them and the person at the drive up could not make out what she was saying.

Why, you may ask, well it was because Britney had not opened her window and kept repeating the order through the closed window. The parade of paparazzi cars behind her took pity and ordered for her.

Next, we have Britney pulled over on the highway with a flat tire; does she call a repair service? No, a few of the paparazzi pull up, get out of their vehicle and change her tire for her. While her car was being serviced, Britney sat in the car singing Christmas songs to her tiny dog all dressed up in a Santa suit.

After that, I see many photos on different occasions of Britney at a gas station getting gasoline. Of course, the paparazzi do not allow her to pump her own gas, no, they get out of their car and pump the gas for her while other paparazzi clean her windows and check her oil!

This went on and on and thankfully, I became sick of the research. Not only do the paparazzi survive off Britney, but they also work hard to insure she is around for more photographs, which she obviously loves to pose for, clean-shaven or not.

Now, I promise from this day forth never to mention her again.

Nothing ever changes

Everyone by now has hear the comments made that America is a paper tiger and normally we only fight a war until the losses begin to mount, then we bring the troops home.

I recall pondering this question when I first heard, or read that bin Laden made the comment. At that point, we had pulled, rather quickly out of our peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu after the now famous Blackhawk down incident.

I recall too, the feelings that I had inside of me towards the people of Mogadishu after reading the book, Blackhawk down. At that time, I knew well the feelings that the soldiers of the Ranger and Delta units involved in that fiasco and believed as they did that we needed to finish the task before pulling out.

America does have a very short attention span when it comes to war, we always have and perhaps, always shall. The people who make up our great nation tends to tire easily when trying to fix other countries problems with superior firepower.

The basic problem we now face is not the insurgents or suicide bombers, but the feelings of exasperation over trying to give democracy to a country that has no idea what to do with it, or for that matter, cannot stop fighting amongst themselves long enough to form a better government.

It is difficult for Mothers and Fathers, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers mourning their loved ones who have given the ultimate act of selflessness, their own lives, when the country they died for, Iraq, cannot stop arguing or killing their own people.

If we place all of the frustration, fears, death and many casualties into the picture, it is rather easy to understand the growing movement for withdrawal. However, from the standpoint of an old warhorse like me and many of my brothers and sisters, we have problems grasping something like this when the task is left unfinished.

We are not war hungry individuals, waving the flag at every chance we get, we have just grown tired of our country committing the military to a cause and bowing to public pressure, withdrawing before that cause is ever seen.

Perhaps it is time for the draft to once again raise its ugly head into the political arena, perhaps it is time for many things to happen, but one thing it is not time for is to abandon another country and leave the people of that country to die for nothing more than assisting our military when it was there.

It would be nice to just once finish the job, if people have a problem understanding this, ask a veteran of Viet Nam, Mogadishu or many other places in the world.

Turkey and the PKK

The major question being pondered by military analyst and armchair generals alike is what will happen should Turkey cross into northern Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels they are holding responsible for two recent bomb attacks.

Sky News is reporting that Turkey has given the green light to its military to "take all necessary measures" against Kurdish rebels held responsible for two recent bomb attacks.

Analysts are predicting that an invasion, even a limited cross border incursion could affect Turkey's ties with the United States.

Sky News is reporting that they have seen Turkish military build-ups before, but they were always limited to hot pursuit border crossings, which due to the heat of the moment do not require prior approval. However, other analysts are reporting that America is presently urging restraint within the northern region, which is normally one of the only remaining peaceful portions of Iraq.

"In the past 10 days more than two dozen people - soldiers and civilians - have been killed in southeastern Turkey in attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party - the PKK," the article from Sky News stated.

This is an interesting development, according to Wikipedia; the PKK, aka, Kurdistan Workers Party is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the USA, NATO and the EU. More than 37,000 people have been killed in the Turkey-PKK conflict since 1984, most of which were civilians, 4,568 being military personnel.

It never ceases to amaze me that throughout history our country has aligned itself with various military and quasi-military organizations in order to accomplish various military objectives. Then, after the fighting is over and the group is well equipped and trained by our own military and intelligence agencies, we always end up at odds with them, their leadership, and end up having to fight that group later on.

Traditionally, we have only felt sorrow for the people of Kurdistan, as Saddam Hussein did everything that he could, including dropping poison gas among entire civilian populations. Along these same lines, it is very easy to forget that the people of Kurdistan have been waging their own wars.

A Turkish cross-border incursion to battle the PKK just may ignite more sparks within Iraq, we will have to wait and see how it progresses.

Who is on first?

During my time that I just spent in never land, cloistered from television images and newsprint I kept hearing discussion of what would become of the nuclear weapons in Pakistan if President Musharraf lost everything to al Qaeda.

Of course, the logical answer to that is absolute terror within the free world as well as those that are not. If that were truly the case, that al Qaeda assumed control of weapons of mass destruction, Pakistan probably would not exists for more than twenty minutes before one of the nuclear powers dropped a multi megaton warhead on top of them to put an end the question.

Israel, for example, there is no way on this green Earth that they would permit this to occur. The state of Israel has the resources to put an end to the question and would be completely justified in using them.

The media loves to portray Pakistan standing side by side with America, fighting terrorism and bringing the good old red white and blue to the rest of the world, makes for good press, however, it is a total lie.

Pakistan only fights those along their border that they have a problem with. After all, why else would bin Laden be living there and building bigger and better forces. If we are fooled into thinking that Musharraf is America's pawn, we had better think again. He is only doing exactly what he is forced to do, nothing more.

Personally, I have grown tired of all of things that go bump in the night that our government constantly tells us is waiting to drop the big one on top of our head. Perhaps the think tanks and talking heads are correct and we are fueling terrorism instead of putting the fires out.

It just may be time for us to sit back and take stock of the situation, instead of looking for terrorists hiding under the rug all of the time. Then again, it may be time to build that bomb shelter, only time will tell.

Back soon

Today is a wonderful day; at least it feels that way to me. Due to severe vision problems, I have spent so many days alone with my thoughts lately, unable to read the news or even blog about it.

Today, I am pleased to announce that due to a wonderful eye doctor and the miracles of medicine, I am once again writing this with near perfect vision.

It was a long and winding road for me, beginning eighteen months ago, with many an obstacle to overcome. It took four surgical procedures and numerous quantities of eye drops, but now that all appears to be in the past.

The glaucoma was effectively brought under control with surgery and then as fate would have it, I was hit with severe cataracts that left me totally without vision. The last procedure on Tuesday corrected that problem. They removed the affected lens from the eye and replaced it with a corrected lens, which has given me perfect vision without the use of glasses or any of, the new laser procedures.

I am in the healing process this week with many more eye drops and a bandaged eye at night, but it all appears to be in the past now.

So, hopefully I will be back in the saddle soon.

I want to thank everyone for all of the kind words and get wells I have received during this time.

Thanks

Ranter

Update

I had mentioned in my last post, due to severe vision problems, I will not be able to actively participate in my blog for approximately one more week and I wanted to take a moment to explain what is going on.

During the last year, I was affected with glaucoma, which quickly baffled my eye physicians by not responding to any form of non-evasive treatment. The normal range of eye pressure runs anywhere from eight (8) to twelve (12), unfortunately the range of pressures I was experiencing was in the high forty (40) to the high fifty (50) ranges.

The major side affect of pressures of this high of a range is severe, irreversible damage to the optic nerves within the eyes, which is exactly what happened in my case. At the time of my initial diagnoses, my vision was correctable to normal ranges with glasses. Within six months of my diagnoses,I had lost forever, approximately fifty (50) to sixty (60) percent of my vision.

My eye physician's were actively waging a battle for my eyesight; however, it soon became evident that the standard courses of medication and laser surgeries were not accomplishing anything for me. At that point, I underwent the full glaucoma surgery a Glaucoma Filtration Procedure (Trabeculectomy), where a passageway was surgically created in the upper region of my eyes that allowed excessive fluid and subsequent pressures to escape.

That procedure was a success, but as luck may have it, I was soon hit with cataracts, once again severely limiting my vision. This will be corrected soon and hopefully I will once more be able to do the things that I care about. Until then, blogging is far too difficult. I will return soon.

Thanks,

Ranter

Important news

It never fails, every time I think my vision problems are behind me, the rise up from the ashes of fate to bite me in the butt.

They have the glaucoma under control and I am hit with severe cataracts, leaving me once again without my vision. However, unlike the glaucoma, which could be controlled with drops, the only course for cataracts is more surgery.

Unfortunately, there is a chance this may not be cataracts, but the optic nerve degenerating, as they have stated may yet occur. I will not know anything until the 17^th, if it is cataracts; I should be back to normal as soon as surgery removes the bad lens and inserts a brand new one.

Until that point in time, I will not be blogging. This small bit of information has been very difficult to write. I am using all of the vision tools I can find and it is still difficult.

Thank you,

Ranter

This and That

There is so much going on in the news that it is rather difficult to pin one thing down. After a bit of thought, I felt this is a good day for a bit of "This and That".

President Bush is apparently trying to show the embattled Iraqi President, Al-Maliki that we still support him. This is a load of hogwash and everyone, including Al-Maliki knows it to be so. The man does not even have the support of his own government, who are ready to send a vote of no confidence his way.

Click here for the full article….

President Bush also made the statement that we are in this war to win and nothing else will do. The President also made reference to Viet Nam and the fact that, yes, we did learn from our mistakes.

I applaud his sentiment and strength of his conviction, it would be a wonderful sight to see that our country learned from Viet Nam, however, it will take a lot more than rhetoric to convince my generation; we will all wait and see on this one. Especially, knowing that when he leaves office this dedication may leave with him as the next President will no doubt see things differently.

However, this article, titled, Pentagon sets goals to hit before end of Bush term, just may back up the Presidents words. Again, we will have to all take a wait and see attitude.

Click here for the full article….

Iran has been using the Iraqi border as their own personal freeway, arming and training anyone and everyone who will fight American forces. We are constantly finding their military markings on the remains of IED's as well as weapons stashes with their serial numbers. Yet, the constant denial from their government is so reminiscent of the Chinese doing the same with the VC in Viet Nam that it is darn near déjà vu.

It is evident the Middle East war will never be totally over, not as long as Iran and Syria are controlling their Iraqi puppets. Along with this intervention is the realization that this war not only is being fought in Iraq, it must be. However, if we are going to fight these silent puppet masters then we need to do it all the way.

It is constantly stated that al Qaeda and its boss, bin Laden have been searching for nuclear weapons. As it stands now, they are but a heartbeat and a coup away in Pakistan. Now that Iran, Syria and company are in the picture, this may become more than a quest.

We can only hope that the next administration has the round ones to do what it takes, either that, or if al Qaeda manages to get their dirty mitts on nuclear weapons, the world will change forever.

Troops need rest

The respected military.com has an auricle shedding a truthful outlook on our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, titled, Army's Fighting Force Nearly Exhausted.

The opening two paragraphs set the tone for this insightful look in what is happening with our military.

"WASHINGTON - Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring."

"The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press."

Click here for the full article…

This is already known within most circles; however, seeing it in print really hammers it home. Many of us have been privately discussing this growing trend, exhaustion of the troops and I do not believe that anyone has come up with a solution, other than implementing the draft.

Our military is the greatest in the world, bar none and the men are women are dedicated to the outcome, but they need rest.

If what this article is saying is the truth, then something does need to be done. One thing that needs to be kept in mind is the military is not broken, as some are saying. Needing rest is one thing, broken is another. Ask a soldier how they feel.

Red moon rising

It was not that many years ago that we all sat transfixed to our televisions watching the celebration in Berlin as thw wall came tumbling down.

A new era of freedom for the East Berlin residents held captive by the Russians for all those years. It was also the beginning of the demise of the once strong and proud Russian military.

Soon, news reports were filtering out of Russia of general staff officers begging for money amd standing in bread lines to feed their families. This was accompanied by the Russian military offering military junkets for anyone with enough bucks who wants to come and shoot any of their failing weapons systems or fly MIG's until the fuel runs out.

We began seeing American and Russian pilots flying one another's aircraft they had once trained to blow out of the skies. Peace had peeked her head into Russian skies lrsving the government did not have enough money to pay its military.

Former Russian KGB agents came to America and wrote books speaking of their spy game days. A few of the Russian leaders were making big bucks selling anything and everything on the black market, you want a nuclear submarine, no problem, MIG's, no sweat!

Russian President Boris Yeltsin did not help much, he may have been instrumental in freedom, but now he was too ill from years of alcohol abuse. Enter Vladimir Putin, once the leader of the dreaded KGB, now the President of Russia and changes are on the way.

Today, the Russian military is working hard to regain the military ,ight they once had and honestly, this should cause a lot of concern for world leaders.

Where all of this will end is anybody's guess, one thing is clear, it appears the Russian's want to be a world power again and very badly too.

News that needs to be told

We have been hearing reports of the Iraqi police and citizen groups fighting al Qaeda and kicking them out of their neighborhoods. This news should be getting a lot more media time than it is.

Of course, if the media begins telling tales about Iraqi's fighting the insurgents and removing them from their areas it might look good for the Bush administration and we know the media is not about to do that.

The Stars and Stripes is reporting in an article by Joseph Giordono , that Iraqi police and armed residents in the southern Baqouba district of Buhriz waged a fierce battle with as many as 60 insurgents and killing 21 of them. Iraqi police requested airstrikes by American helicopters and effectively kicked al Qaeda out of their neighborhood.

The battle was not without casualties, the civilian fighters suffered 14 dead and as many as 20 wounded, but they made a stand and that is what is important.

Click here for the full article….

A spokesperson stated that the police and citizens were assisted by American and Iraqi forces operating within the area and liberated Baqubah — the so-called capital of the Islamic State of Iraq — from al-Qaida.

This and the other stories I have been seeing on many military sites are vital news and should be reported by our media as they are occurring. As General Patton was fond of saying, American's love a winner and do not tolerate a looser, it is a shame the great man is not here today to kick the media in the ass and get them to report all of the news, not just what makes Washington look bad.