Penfist

Editor’s Note: This was written more than a year ago by LtCol. Joe Repka (I made minor copy editing corrections). It still holds true today, and is worth rereading or reading for the first time:

Subject: I’m Tired

Two weeks ago, as I was starting my sixth month of duty in Iraq, I was forced to return to the USA for surgery for an injury I sustained prior to my deployment. With luck, I’ll return to Iraq in January to finish my tour. I left Baghdad and a war that has every indication that we are winning, to return to a demoralized country much like the one I returned to in 1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Maybe it’s because I’ll turn 60 years old in just four months, but I’m tired:

I’m tired of spineless politicians, both Democrat and Republican who lack the courage, fortitude, and character to see these difficult tasks through.

I’m tired of the hypocrisy of politicians who want to rewrite history when the going gets tough.

I’m tired of the disingenuous clamor from those that claim they ‘Support the Troops’ by wanting them to ‘Cut and Run’ before victory is achieved.

I’m tired of a mainstream media that can only focus on car bombs and casualty reports because they are too afraid to leave the safety of their hotels to report on the courage and success our brave men and women are having on the battlefield.

I’m tired that so many Americans think you can rebuild a dictatorship into a democracy overnight.

I’m tired that so many ignore the bravery of the Iraqi people to go to the voting booth and freely elect a Constitution and soon a permanent Parliament.

I’m tired of anti-war protesters showing up at the funerals of our fallen soldiers. A family whose loved ones gave their life in a just and noble cause, only to be cruelly tormented on the funeral day by cowardly protesters is beyond shameful.

I’m tired that my generation, the Baby Boom – Vietnam generation, who have such a weak backbone that they can’t stomach seeing the difficult tasks through to victory.

I’m tired that some are more concerned about the treatment of captives than they are the slaughter and beheading of our citizens and allies.

I’m tired that when we find mass graves it is seldom reported by the press, but mistreat a prisoner and it is front page news.

Mostly, I’m tired that the people of this great nation didn’t learn from history that there is no substitute for victory.

Sincerely,

Joe Repya
Lieutenant Colonel
U. S. Army
101st Airborne Division

To be fair, I disagree with Joe’s opinions about the treatment of captives. One thing that distinguishes us from our enemy is that we are human and moral. We treat our enemies better than they might deserve to be treated and it makes us superior to our enemies, in my opinion. Other than that I agree with the general sentiments of the above letter.

The city of Baghdad emits many noises which, while they have become famialiar to my ears, are still alien and sometimes unwelcoming.

Smalls arm fire can be heard multiple times daily. I now know when the cracking noises are warning shots, when they are gun battles and when they are coming from one of the many practice ranges within earshot. Warning shots are by far the most prevalent type of gunfire with practice ranges coming in second and gun battles a very distant third.

Then there are the explosions. We hear multiple booms most days. These are much tougher to distingiush by type. Mortars falling, in my limited experience, usually fall in pairs of two. They explode rapidly, within a few seconds of each other. IEDs and VBIEDs are often spaced further apart, and depending how far away they are, can be accompanied by a concussive shock wave. Mortars have a shock wave too, but I’ve only felt a strong shock wave once, on Christmas Day, when two mortars fell very close to where I was standing. The sound of a boom in Baghdad is sobering because it reminds me of the human cost of the metamorphosis that is taking place here. People are extinguished in the booms. Murdered unnecessarily.

Baghdad is a city of more than 7 million souls. The spiritual leaders here minister to their flocks through loudspeakers. This is perhaps the most surreal of the noise extravaganzas I have experienced since my arrival. The day most Americans worship is Sunday. Muslims worship on Friday. Every Friday, the air is filled with a cacophony of preaching. Imams here disseminate their homilies to the faithful via loudspeakers which blare across the city, each one apparently attempting to drown out the others.

Imagine if you would every pastor in your town mounting a 500 watt loudspeaker on his church steeple and loudly singing his sermon on Sunday morning. Now imagine that there are dozens of churches within earshot of your house. If you lived in Baghdad, your reality would be punctuated with these sermons whether you wanted them or not. I am sure many of the sermons are exhortations to live moral lives, follow the teaching of the Koran and to do good things, but to me it sounds like a competition to win the most followers.

I have experienced one noise here that soothes me. In one of Saddam’s former palaces where I live is a cage full of songbirds I can only assume were also here under the tyrant’s rule. They sing sweetly, unaware or uncaring of the daily struggle that exists all around them. They live in their own reality bubble – a pocket of joy, and their songs are good to listen too. It is said that ignorance is bliss, and sometimes I wish I had been born a songbird.

WEARE, N.H. (AP) — Residents on Saturday rejected a proposal to evict U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter from his farmhouse to make way for the “Lost Liberty Hotel.”

A group angered by last year’s court decision that gave local governments more power to seize people’s homes for economic development had petitioned to use the ruling against the justice.

On the positive side, the bid to take Souter’s property was replaced with a call to strengthen New Hampshire’s eminent domain laws in favor of individuals.

Who is to blame for the recent violence over offensive cartoons? Fundamentalist Muslims encouraged behind the scenes by those in Middle Eastern governments who benefit from any activities that stir anti-West sentiment. Does the name Assad ring any bells?

I’m reading through Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and was struck by part of the text where he discusses the failure of societies that refuse to embrace new technologies (which require embracing new ways of thinking). It’s interesting to me that modern fundamental Islam today is in the position of either embracing new ideas and becoming more tolerant of other belief systems or of being subsumed.

With each passing year, it becomes harder and harder to live in closed societies that fundamentally differ in their core values, especially when it comes to that most important value – the sanctity of human life.

The wars of the 21st century will be fought over two issues – individual rights and societal value systems. A society that doesn’t value human life is a society that will inevitably self-destruct. You cannot burn everything down and throw rocks at other human beings every time you disagree with someone. You cannot threaten to kill the rest of the world when it disagrees with you. It’s intolerable and has to be dealt with.

Burning the embassies of Denmark and Sweden are counterproductive and akin to collectively spitting in your own eye. Those calling for appeasement are wrong. Muslims are offended by cartoons? The rest of us are more offended by images of burning buildings and the signs calling for decapitation of anyone who disagrees with fundamental intrepretations of Islam. You embarass yourself if you do not stand against this sort of behavior.

Being offended is no excuse for acting barbaric. If you want to guarantee the failure of your society teach your children to think like the man in the photo above.

Most people want to live a long and healthy life. I want to redefine what that means. In the Bible, Methusalah lived to the age of 969. I see no reason why I shouldn’t have the same amount of time to figure things out here on Earth.

I’m not alone. I read an interesting article recently entitled The Man Who Wants to Live Forever. Forever I’m not sure about, but 1,000 years is a very reasonable amount of time to be here. At least, that is how I feel about it.

De Grey argues that society is caught in a “pro-ageing trance” which leads most of us to defend “the indefinite perpetuation of what it is in fact humanity’s primary duty to eliminate as soon as possible”. His forthright views, and the endearing zeal with which he expresses them, have attracted increasing amounts of attention, not only in scientific journals but also in the mainstream media. In the past year, he has been interviewed by several British broadsheet newspapers, and he recently featured in a 60 Minutes special on longevity on the US network CBS. In a profile of de Grey for the magazine Technology Review, Sherwin Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, concluded that “his stature has become such that he is a factor to be dealt with in any serious discussion of the topic.”

Go read for yourself. Technology marches on, whether we want it to or not.

Muslims need to work on their marketing savvy a little bit. I realize the vast majority of Muslims just want to live out their lives in peace the same way I would like too. But there is a segment of the practicioners of their faith that is vocal and violent and gives the rest of them a bad name. Peace loving Muslims will have to deal with these bad apples if they wish to improve their image in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Below is a perfect example:

What the sign says:
“Europe you will pay, Bin Laden is (the) way”

What people see:
“Islam is not the religion of peace”

Libertarians believe that for something to be a crime, there must be a victim. Therefore, we believe that consensual acts between legal adults cannot be crimes. They might be morally repugnant. They might be unhealthy and disgusting. They might be tasteless and silly. But they aren’t crimes.

Law enforcement would serve us better if they spent their time pursuing real criminals and stopped worrying about these ten crimes that aren’t:

1. Prostitution – renting yourself out may be lots of things but it shouldn’t be a crime.
2. Drug use – certain substances are OK if the gubmint says so and you’re too dumb to decide for yourself. However, you’re smart enough to elect your own politicians. Nuff said.
3. Seat belt laws – if you are too dumb to wear a belt perhaps you should be removed from the gene pool. Either way, government has no right to tell you must wear a belt. Unless you believe government owns your body. Do you?
4. Helmet laws – same as seat belt laws.
5. Licenses to practice various professions – Are you too stupid to figure out who you want to cut your hair? Too stupid to pick your own doctor? The state thinks you are. Shouldn’t that be insulting?
6. Minimum wage laws -get an education if you want to earn a decent living. How hard is it to figure out?
7. Speeding & other traffic laws – a) they are poorly and irregularly enforced b) there is no crime committed until an accident occurs, at which point there are plenty of laws to take care of the offender. Convince me our traffic laws make my driving experience any safer.
8. Laws against suicide – again, this is about who you believe owns your body, you or the government. Can you commit a crime against yourself? These laws are idiotic.
9. Gambling laws – you make a wager every day when you get out of bed. This is another example of the arrogance of the state, especially when states create a legal monopoly on gambling by offering a state lottery. How disgusting.
10. Pornography – human beings are born with a genetic drive to have sex. How can you be a victim of pornography? You can’t. Perhaps you can become addicted to it, but that makes you a victim of your own stupidity. Stop looking at pornography if you think it’s a problem.

I could list thousands of consensual or solo activities that Americans have foolishly allowed their government to make into crimes. But I’ll stop with these ten which are particularly irritating to me. Every time I read statistics about our per capita rates of incarceration I get infuriated. If you think these people are learning to lead productive lives in jail you are delusional.

I was wondering the other day what kind of soldier I am. Then I did some thinking.

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I’m not much of a warrior unless you count contests fought over streams of binary data. I’m a veteran of those and have won and lost many battles. I can shoot a number of different types of weapons accurately but have no desire to kill anyone by aiming my bullet stream at them. I would much rather try and talk to them about why it is we’re fighting. But some people have no interest in talking. These I would kill if directly threatened.

I know how to follow orders but often wonder why they’ve been given and have an innate need to understand the logic behind a thing before I will do it with all my heart and mind. This must be of constant irritation to my commanders. I would guess that from their perspective the soldier who just does it is much easier to deal with than the soldier who constantly asks why. I can type 100 words a minute when I’m typing from my mind but I slow down to 60 words a minute when I’m retyping something someone else has given me.

Some soldiers want to be in the thick of the action all the time. I prefer to stay as far away as I can. The action is where people get killed. I’m not sure if I am a coward but I certainly enjoy being alive. On the other hand, some fights must be fought. I think that is why I am here in this dangerous country. I think this fight needs to be fought. I don’t want to die here though. Memories cannot speak for themselves, they must be intrepreted by others. I don’t want to be intrepreted by others. I prefer to speak for myself.

I’m at my best when discussing ideas with a friend. I don’t need much of a social life, and therefore don’t make friends easily. I’m more comfortable alone in a room with a book than I am in a noisy crowd. Boastful people annoy the hell out of me. So do arrogant people. I cannot stomach bullies and I won’t tolerate rudeness. I try to pick and choose my battles so I’ll win most of them. I’m old enough to realize that I am not immortal and young enough to want to live forever.

I believe that a civilized man is worth more than a savage and sometimes I can tell the difference between the two. I am an idealist and a pragmatist. One day, if we don’t destroy ourselves first, humans will evolve beyond physical war. For right now though, I am a soldier doing my best to defend what I love – my life, my belief system and my loved ones. I will not sit in a hole cowering while the world goes to hell.

Now you know what kind of soldier I am.

Cartoons seem to be upsetting people lately. A series of cartoons published by a Danish newspaper has infuriated some Muslims and generated death threats and acts of violence. Michelle Malkin has written several blog entries discussing the controversy.

Meanwhile, here is the latest cartoon penned by an American supporting the troops in Iraq:

Way to go, Tom Toles. I’m sure you made all those young men who have sacrificed so much of themselves for their nation feel a lot better. You are helping them so much with your oh so witty cartoon.

I wonder how many death threats from the Western world Tom Toles will get over his distasteful image? The Pentagon is certainly being civil and reserved in its response letter in stark contrast to Islamofascists everywhere, who are willing to threaten to kill or actually kill over any tiny little perceived offense. Hell, they’ll cut off your head just because they can.

Are you starting to understand the importance of this war yet? Hmm? You don’t have forever to figure it out you know. If we lose the war in Iraq what else do we lose? Think about it.

Well, nearly every war is riddled with disappointment and pain, Iraq certainly included. But judged fairly, Iraq has been much less costly and debacle-ridden than the Civil War, World War II, Korea, and the Cold War—each considered in retrospect to have been noble successes.

Go read the whole thing. Print a copy and put it in your favorite liberal’s desk. Highlight this passage:

At one base where I was embedded for a time, a car loaded with explosives pulled up to the front gate and detonated. Construction of the bomb was botched, however, and the badly burned driver survived long enough to talk to guards at the entrance. It turned out the wife and children of the driver (who was handcuffed to the steering wheel) had been kidnapped, and he was informed they would be killed if he didn’t drive the car as instructed. A triggerman in a following vehicle actually initiated the blast, wirelessly, then fled.

Gently remind your misguided friend that these people want to export this sort of behavior and will if they aren’t dealt with on their home turf. Tell them that if they want to be helpful instead of counterproductive and obfuscatory, that they should make a donation to one of many charities that help the people of Iraq.

Here are a few I trust:

CARE USA
Lutheran World Relief
American Refugee Committee

It should be no secret that what Iraq needs most to succeed is hope. Hope is the most precious commodity here. It’s the one thing terrorists need most to destroy. The insurgency has allies back in the U.S. who want us to pack up our bags and get out. Those people don’t understand that Americans are merchants of hope. We’re the only optimists in this country half the time and we’re the ingredient holding everything together.

I cannot believe that Democrats and their co-conspirators do not understand that their continuous demands for immediate withdrawal, if met, would result in a vacuum of hope here in Iraq, which would be immediately followed by a bloody power struggle and a quick return to a fundamentalist theocracy or a sociopathic dictatorship. The cost of withdrawing would end up costing the world 20 or 200 times what has been spent from the invasion until now. The cost in human lives would be immeasurable.

Send some hope to Iraq. In the short term, Iraq needs law & order. In the long term Infrastructure, Internet and English are the three things the country needs most to move into a state compatible with the reality of the 21st century. Send a donation to a charity. Send the editorial I mentioned to all your fence sitting and anti-war friends and most important of all let us stay and finish the job we started!

Hat Tip: Instapundit

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I wonder how many of the city’s residents will not live to see sunset. Life expectancies are being artificially shortened by the insurgency. But this too shall pass…

My Islamic friends say, Inshallah, which means if God wills it. We Americans tend to think God helps those who help themselves and I hope our way of thinking rubs off. Fatalism isn’t conducive to long lifespans. A proactive approach may be painful, but as I’ve said before, you don’t ignore cancer until you have an inoperable tumor. The insurgency is a cancer.

There sure are a lot of calls for impeachment of public servants these days. The latest one is by George Mason University economics professor and columnist Walter E. Williams, and the targets are the Kelo 5, those Supreme Court justices who decided it was OK for government to legally steal your property for any reason, as long as it benefits the “community.”

This kind of government tyranny should be disavowed by every decent American. Stepping up to the plate is Branch Banking and Trust Company, headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C. BB&T is a full-service bank with 1,100 offices throughout the Southeast. On Jan. 25, BB&T announced that it will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.

On behalf of its board of directors, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison explained, “The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact, it’s just plain wrong.” Mr. Allison added, “One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won’t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.”

Read his editorial discussing the backlash against this decision and his call for Congress to impeach those responsible. Only one Supreme Court Justice has ever been impeached, and the effort failed. All I can say – we live in interesting times.

X Prize, the people that spurred the development of the first privately built and sucessfully tested spacecraft to leave Earth’s atmosphere, has announced something exciting:

By creating the first private race to space, the X PRIZE Foundation gave birth to a new industry with dramatic technological, social and investment opportunities. As a result of the dramatic nature of this achievement, the X PRIZE is now widely recognized as the leading model to foster innovation. The X PRIZE model is very unique. Rather than awarding money to honor past achievements or directly funding research, the X PRIZE spurs innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirits. We are now evolving the X PRIZE Foundation into a world-class prize institute to create additional radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. We are actively researching the feasibility of new prizes in space, energy, genomics, education, nanotechnology, and prizes in the social arena.

What’s this mean? That libertarians everywhere may have the satisfaction of being able to say – see, we can advance without the help of a nanny state!

I’m particularly excited to see what will happen in the field of nanotechnology as the result of this potential development.

Hat tip: Better Humans 

I slept poorly last night. Someone or many someones had a fire or fires going again.

The acrid taste of smoke in my mouth kept waking me up. That stuff can’t be particularly good for me. Especially not when I wake up with a burning throat and black crap in my nostrils. I wonder what they’re burning?

Baghdad (or at least my part of it) is often overcast because of various soot clouds coming from different directions. I’ll try to get a good picture illustrating this sometime in the future.

Author’s note: Some of you may read this and get the impression that I’m a contrarian. You’d be partly right. I often disagree with popular opinion. Some of you may read this and get the impression I’m anti-government. You’d be partly right. I am anti-big government. Some of you may read this and get the impression I talk too much. You’d be partly right. I like talking. It’s usually better than fisticuffs. Some of you may read this and think am an idiot. I admit, I have my moments. But I love freedom and I love America in that order. Read my thoughts and say your piece. This post is my opinion only, as a private citizen. As a soldier, I follow and obey all lawful and moral orders from my chain of command all the way up to the President to whom I am respectfully writing this response.

Are we really that divided right down the middle? The Democrats were being a silly bunch of pouting babies during the President’s State of the Nation address. The expressions on the faces of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were particularly illustrative of what I consider to be the general attitude of the Democratic leadership – sour, non-cooperative and non-productive.

What about the speech? The full transcript is, of course, available right here. My response to the speech is below:

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These are in the order of priority from most to least important. Every one is critical for the health of the nation as a whole.

1. Education
2. Tax system
3. Two-party system
4. Dietary habits
5. Television habits
6. Tolerance for lobbyists and lawyers
7. Dependence on social services
8. Idolization of idiots (Paris Hiltonitis)
9. Overmedication
10. Concept of personal responsibility

What ten things would you change?

The video song has been taken down. I don’t know the reasons, but I can certainly guess. The author’s eloquent response to criticisms of his product is still worth reading. Author “Patrick Henry” contacted me yesterday and stated that he wouldn’t do an e-mail interview with me out of concerns about the safety of his family. You might be able to watch the video here.
Watch the (possibly offensive) video song “It’s in the Koran.”

Then read the creator’s comments:

Until now I haven’t answered the criticisms people have made of my song. My reason was that I doubted that the critics would understand my answer any better than they understand the song. But I’ve decided to try to explain myself once, after which I won’t intrude again.

Many commenters argue that the Koran doesn’t say what the song claims the Koran says. To everyone who holds this view, I answer — and this is very important, so I’ll state it again below — I agree with you. I agree that the Koran says what you claim it says. Islam is one of the world’s great religions, and I don’t believe that billions could have followed it if it weren’t, at its core, beautiful and life- engendering.

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What book is is important enough that I read it once a year? The Law by Frederic Bastiat. Written in 1848 as a response to socialism in France, this book essay is just as relevant today as it was then.

What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right–from God–to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?
If every person has the right to defend — even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.

My copy of The Law is filled with highlighted yellow phrases. Among them:

But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
How has this perversion of the law been accomplished? And what have been the results?
The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. Let us speak of the first.

Every legislator should be forced to read Bastiat’s The Law once a month for their entire term and write a synopsis of how they have upheld the ideas contained within it. The tome should be taught in our school systems. It should be drilled into every citizen’s head from birth until death.

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Thanks a generous reader, the essay contest prize is now $300. I have only received two entries to date, and the deadline for receiving entries is Feb. 15, about two weeks away. So encourage someone you know who has been to Iraq or is in Iraq serving with the coalition military to submit an entry.

To all of you who made the contest possible through your donations, thanks so much. The same goes to those of you who have posted links back to the contest page. If you can post a link or banner, please do so. Instructions are here.

I’m implementing a new feature called Feed of the Week. This week’s selection: Winds of Change. Last week’s is still up as well. Go read.

If you haven’t noticed, there is a link the The Basement in the top menu bar. You’ll see some nifty words fired out of the “assault weapon.” Every word goes somewhere neat. Explore.

So you are anti-war. You think we invaded Iraq “illegally.” You think we’re over here slaughtering innocents and trying to extend an American empire into the heart of the Middle East. You’ve protested. You want to impeach Bush. You believe America is headed down the wrong path. And you’re completely wrong about all of it. If you’re still willing to listen I’ll explain why…

Ideal World: I sit on my hill in rural Georgia, minding my own business and living peacefully, content in knowing my neighbors and I can pursue completely different lives right next to each without any conflict and that bliss extends outward around the world.

Real World: My ideas and lifestyle are unacceptable to certain fundamentalist groups of human beings who wish to either convert me to their way of thinking or wipe me from existence. Hence, I find myself voluntarily transported halfway around the world to a messy place where people die daily in the battle to determine whose has the superior set of ideas and memes.

This isn’t about Iraq. It isn’t about America. It isn’t about Saddam Hussein and it’s certainly not about George W. Bush.

What is it about? Let me try to explain.

This is about the world shrinking. This is about a clash of cultures that started long before I was born in 1971 and will continue until one of them either annihalates the other or until they can learn to coexist. This is about a new world where isolationism and neutrality are recipes for the destruction of your way of life.

Are you still reading? Good.

Here is how the world works today. In less than 24 hours, someone can move from any point on the globe to your front door and kill you because they disagree with something you believe, something you espoused or something you did. First, you must accept that ideas are viral, and that people are willing to kill over disagreements about these ideas. Second, you must understand that there are entire cultures who espouse killing every other culture wholesale over disagreements about whose viral ideas are superior. Having accepted these two facts, you have to reconsider your anti-war stance. Because if you don’t, you will, sooner or later, be wiped from existence. To survive in this modern world, you must exhibit a will to exist. You must be willing to fight for your ideas because the world is shrinking.

If you can’t, don’t or won’t defend and protect your own culture and society, men who believe their ideas are superior to yours will be coming by shortly with some new ideas which they will happily enforce upon you and those who you hold dear…

Ask anyone who lived in Iraq under Saddam. Ask anyone who lived in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Ask someone from Lebanon, Syria or Iran whose ideas were different in any way from those of the people in charge. If you are still anti-war you are probably a fool, a stubborn jackass or both. You should be repeatedly forced to watch movies of people having their heads sawed off for having the wrong ideas.

Feel free to disagree with me – I come from a culture and society where you are allowed to do so, up to and until you start encouraging others to kill me over our disagreements. When that happens, I’m willing to fight for my right to exist on my own terms.

Google has a lot of really neat, really powerful tools at its disposal. In light of the recent decision to provide filtered search results to 1 billion Chinese, some people are upset with Google. Would it be worth the tradeoff if you decided to:

Use a different search engine? Stop using Google Earth? Start a petition to boycott Google?
Just wondering….

Hamas in the Past

Hamas in the Present

To be fair, this photo depicts Fatah members rioting.

Hamas in the Future

My advice to Hamas leadership: less dressing up of the babies. More reading variety. Reading is good for your brain. Spend money to sign every Palestinian up for a Book of the Month club.

His name is Steve Kubby and he has adrenal cancer. He will die from it at some point. He believes marijuana is the only thing keeping him alive.

In prison, law enforcement has had different reactions to Steve. Some are sympathetic, others go out of their way to remind him that he no longer has any rights and is a prisoner. Some completely ignore that Steve has a medical problem and needs special care. One female officer would not let Steve cover himself with blanket while she interrogated him, even though he teeth were chattering and the blanket was sitting right next to him. When Steve gets chills, he is inclined to get pneumonia.

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How do you negotiate with a nation of people who are uninterested in being reasonable?

Imagine if Mexico had an election in which the political party that won had the stated goal of destroying wiping the United States from the world map. Israel is facing that exact situation today with Palestine.

What sort of diplomacy options are left in such a ridiculous situation? We will all have to stay tuned. This isn’t a positive development.

If you have the time, read this transcript. The transcript in question is of a weekly summary given to the press by Major General Rick Lynch (who I indirectly work for) of what’s happening in Iraq. Notice that after he discusses a positive piece of news, the press doesn’t ask a single question about it. Why? I don’t presume to know. But here is a synopsis of the positive news from the transcript:

GEN. LYNCH: I’d ask you to stop with Major Glenn (sp) and get a copy of the letter that the mayor of Tall Afar sent to General Casey. And I’d like to share with you excepts from that letter, which reflects the appreciative nature of the people of Iraq for operations that were conducted to liberate them and provide an environment where they could participate in a democratic society and participate in the elections in a safe and secure environment. This is the letter from the mayor of Tall Afar, Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri, and he talks to General Casey specifically. And you’ll get a copy of the letter, but I’d like to read a couple of excerpts.

He wrote to General Casey that “our city was overrun by heartless terrorists, Zarqawi and his followers, who unloaded their bloodthirsty and voracious action of evil on this city for several months by indiscriminately killing men, women and children. Tall Afar was a human slaughterhouse. Simple services were not possible, causing the people to suffer, till the day you dispatched your troops, who were our lion-hearted saviors. Your troops came to rescue Tall Afar led by our heroes, whom Tall Afar will never forget. After the major operation, your wonderful soldiers started nursing the wounds of this city by rebuilding the damaged lives and buildings with great compassion and speed. These soldiers have done more than their original mission required of them. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

If you pop over to Marketing in Iraq (written by a soldier in my unit), you’ll find that he thinks the above news is positive. But if you go Google and enter:

1. Tall Afar, Iraq
2. Mayor of Tall Afar, Iraq thanks U.S.
3. Positive progress in Tall Afar

You won’t find any related stories from CNN, Sky News, Fox News, BBC or any other mainstream news outlet. Why? Tall Afar was “a human slaughterhouse,” according the mayor. He credits U.S. troops for going above and beyond the call of duty in rectifying the situation and calls the soldiers wonderful heroes. Seems newsworthy to me. Please help me tell the story of Tall Afar.

Click here for a PDF of the letter in question. Send it to your favorite news outfit. Ask them why you haven’t seen a story about Tall Afar. Don’t let the blue ribbon clip art fool you either. The letter is real. Iraq doesn’t have access to the nice typesetting and printing equipment we are used to in the U.S.

More photos have been uploaded. Click the one below to enter the gallery and see them all.
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Who are the insurgents? What motivates them?

They’ll always end up showing their true colors and run from the firefight – cowards, all of them. They key to these guys is peer pressure and simply a lack of anything better to do. They have no job. Their friends fight the coalition and are an influencing factor, similar to the good kid who gets into trouble because he hangs around with the neighborhood bully. They engage in anti-coalition attacks the same way a teenager at home shoots street signs, stealing something on a whim, or breaks a window with a rock. Most don’t even know why they do it. They’ll instinctively spout off a few verses of the Koran as a conditioned reflex, or as an excuse, and participate because other guys their age are doing so. This is the majority of the insurgency. 25%

Read the full text of an excellent analysis.

Hat tip to Gringoman. By the way, Gringoman has been trying to get to Iraq as an independent blogger. He’s having problems because he isn’t part of a mainstream news outfit. I hope the military will continue to revise and reconsider how it views bloggers. We are already a major source of news about what’s happening here in Iraq, and my personal opinion is that indepedent journalists have just as much to offer to the national and world dialogue as anyone else.

As a transhumanist, I had high hopes for The ImmortTalist Manifesto. I should have taken the time to read all the Amazon.com reader reviews first (about half the reviews appear fake, which is telling in and of itself). This book is written at a high school level from a perspective of arrogance and self-righteousness. It’s a litany of copy editing mistakes accompanied by immature socialist diabtribe about ending war for all time and building a new world order based on the unrealistic and incomplete “Immortalist” worldview.

You doubt me? Read this:

My childhood friends have all grown old, fat and ugly. I now look more like their son than their classmate or peer. I am still getting carded by bouncers at bars and clubs. I will outlive my enemies and marry their children.

The above is certainly not expressive of the attitude of a human being with the potential to build a political alliance capable of changing the world. The above words are typical of a man who rambles extensively in his manifesto about how we have a social responsibility to offer immortality to the rich and poor alike on a sliding scale but whose web site offers to teach the secrets of immortality for the price of only $1 million. The book most certainly gives no practical advice on extending one’s own life. The “wisdom” contained within is nebulous at best and is outright useless at worst.

“Elixxir” wants to smash poverty, terrorism and war through an Immortalist world government and via socialism. He espouses using the world’s military budgets for longevity research. This is an appealing (to me) if highly unrealistic idea. The first nation to follow this advice would be invaded by its enemies shortly thereafter. Imagine the United States making a declaration tomorrow that all military budget dollars will immediately be used to extend the human lifespan. I wonder who would pick up the pieces after the nation destroyed in civil war and China got through ravaging what remained.

The manifesto itself is poorly copy edited yet the writer claims to be a Yale graduate. The writing style is best described as disjointed. Rather than presenting a concise synopsis of some realistic plan for extended longevity or actual immortality, this book reads like a drug addict’s rambling tale of the first time he did heroin – how great it was to fall in love with the drug. Switch heroin for immortality and you have The ImmorTalist Manifesto. The only difference is that “Elixxir” is in love with immortality and claims to have the secrets to live longer yet manages to ramble for 223 pages without giving any of them away in a concrete or practical fashion.

If you are interested in living longer, this is not the book for you. If you are interested in a personal guru – a fakir who will gladly take your life savings – then by all means, purchase The ImmorTalist Manifesto. You’ll need to have a million dollars to actually have any “secrets” revealed to you. Narcissism, hypocrisy and immortality don’t go together in my worldview, so I will avoid any further publications by anyone calling themself “Elixxir.”

If you’ve been thinking about buying The ImmorTalist Manifesto, please visit Immortalism: The Official Site first, for a taste of the true emptiness that awaits you.

I’d like to live as long as possible assuming I’m healthy and happy. I’d probably committ suicide if a self-inflated narcissicist like “Elixxir” ran the world.
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Sorry folks I’ve been quite busy lately. Usually when I post thes I like to do a bit of research for them. And I have done a bit tonight for y’all.

These links are for those still drinking the Microsoft kool-aid.

• Just say no to Microsoft – A list of Microsoft alternatives
• Boycott Microsoft – The Blue Screen of Microsoft’s Death
• Living without Microsoft – a blog about living without Microsoft
• I hate Windows – a fun look at the evil monoply
• F#$% Microsoft – the link says it all

And where I found a lot of links tonight,

• The Gates of Bill – a list of links a Microsoft hater cannot live without. Oh and one last tidbit of trivia. The Microsoft start-up sound was created on a Macintosh. True. This link tells you the history – Keep looking, it’s right above the Discography section.

The New Libertarian has an excellent post that is important because it a) debunks Democratic defeatism about Iraq and b) contains some of the actual facts about improvements in the country during the last few years.

Perhaps Mr. Murtha will read it and settle down a little bit.

Canadians voted to switch governments yesterday. The current political climate in the land of “free health care” bears watching. I was born there, and a number of Canadians stop by the blog from time to time. Let’s see how the conservatives handle things.

Keep in mind that Canada has been an experiment in raging Socialism for 40 years now. Stay tuned to Small Dead Animals for updates.

On Sept. 1, 2005 I traded my comfortable shoes for boots. That’s the day I was no longer a civilian employee and information technology manager, the day I became a full time soldier instead of a weekend warrior. I traded the tranquil rolling hills of north Georgia for sandstorms, gunfire and the sonic disturbances of frequent explosions. This morning a mortar blast rattled the door of the modular trailer I work in and set off car alarms nearby.

I was never in any immediate danger, because I work under a heavy concrete parking garage. Most of the soldiers I know aren’t as lucky. Most of the soldiers here have to navigate perilous territory every day. They have to face dangers head-on, and must worry about more than the fabled “golden mortar.” That’s not so for average Iraqis and it wasn’t so for average Americans who worked in the World Trade Center. Then or now, average people are the real victims in political power plays. Some with political power try to minimize innocent death during power struggles. Others attempt to maximize it. You figure out who is who.

Having been in Baghdad for several months now, I’m more cognizant than ever of my own mortality, and of the expiration date that all of us have. I want my life to make sense and mean something. I think it does, despite all the rowdy people back home who scream and slobber about the “illegal war,” poking at what is being done over here with a stick, afflicted by intellectual myopia, making the wounds worse by offering stinging criticisms but no positive alternatives to the current course of action. They ask so many questions, but are never satisfied with the answers. They gloss over the evil that is Saddam Hussein and the mass graves of somewhere between a quarter-million and half-million human beings. They ignore the brokenness of civilization in this part of the world and spend their precious breaths blaming instead of actively helping.

Partway through my first and what I hope will be last war, I’m more convinced than ever that war actually does change history, sometimes for the better. Whether this war, my war, will make the world better or worse remains to be seen. It’s up in the air. Much progress has been made, infrastructure built and lives improved. That is one side of the coin. There is the other, uglier side too. Many people have died. Many wonder for what? I don’t have all those answers and the daily shrieks of the superpundits on both sides have grown almost intolerable.

All I can offer from this vantage point is to add my labors to the vast effort here and hope. And I can honor those who have died at the hands of the savages.

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Today, I am dedicating my remaining service in this country to one of the good guys who is gone from us. His name is Sgt. Mike Stokely and he was killed on August 16, 2005. I didn’t know him but his memory is worth honoring. He was a caring individual who gave up his life trying to make a positive difference. When I get up in the morning with a bad attitude, I’m going to change it because of Mike. When I want to quit, I’m going to think of Mike. When I’m pissed off because someone is micromanaging, thinking of Mike will help me calm down.

What motivates you? For the remainder of my journeys in Iraq, my motivation will be honoring Mike and other fallen citizen soldiers who were willing to give up their lives for the nation they loved.

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You can honor Mike too. Donate to his memorial fund:

MIKE STOKELY FOUNDATION
2795 East Highway 34
Newnan, GA 30265
678-416-1387

Mike’s dad was kind enough to share video of Mike’s memorial with me, as well as these photos. Thank you, sir. Your son was a decent human being, and I’ll remember and honor him the rest of my days. His life was important. It rippled outward.

Dwayne set the brake of the truck and slipped out of the driver’s seat into the parking lot of Little Beaver’s Liquor Store. It was a cool May evening, and the snow had all but melted in the small town of Yampa, Colorado. The Wolichek brothers had finally convinced Spookytooth to join them on a trip to Texas. Spookytooth reluctantly excepted after Brisco picked him up and threw him inside the truck-cab of their father’s septic-tank pumper. His mother finally gave in to the pressure to let Spookytooth go, but only after the brothers promised to pump her septic tank when they returned. Occasionally, the rancid smell of raw sewage backing up forced the family to eat their meals outside the home.

Spookytooth had never set-foot outside of his state, and was a bit nervous about leaving his mother alone in the cabin tending to his father. There was, however, some improvement in his father’s bout with scoptophobia. He was venturing outside of his room now, but had to be blindfolded to avoid being looked at. The brothers felt Spookytooth needed a break.

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Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life is a positive look at the life of author-philosopher Ayn Rand and was obviously lovingly made by people who have read her novels and were part of her inner circle of friends. No matter where you find yourself in the political spectrum, Ayn Rand’s viewpoints have probably touched you, directly or indirectly, through the power of her ideas and her philosophy of Objectivism, which has gained a firm foothold among libertarians and individualists. Objectivists are now fairly easy to find anywhere you go.

This movie is of interest to anyone who has explored one of her novels. If you have an interest in collectivism and how it can shape people, this is also a good movie to watch. Rand’s life was full of highs and lows, personal tragedies and lofty achievements. It is worth examining. A Sense of Life is a positive portrait of her as a human being, and glosses over her personal flaws. And that is OK with me, because from my perspective, Ayn’s life had a far more positive impact on humanity as a whole than her personal flaws had a negative impact on her inner circle.

Lives ripple outward, and Ayn Rand’s body of work has touched millions of people. Whether you agree or disagree with her worldview, A Sense of Life celebrates Rand and her important ideas. If you’ve made it through Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, and found anything in them that left you spellbound or wide eyed, then this biography will likely hold your interest. A Sense of Life may not be the perfect biographical movie, but it’s a good examination of a life worth examining.

Special Note: I would like to thank all those of you who have been sending books and movies. Especially Stan and Dad Chance. You guys are great! It wouldn’t be the same over here without your support.

I’ve conducted another radio interview with the BBC. I was pretty tired the night it occurred.

In retrospect, if I could do the interview over, I would try to be more clear about some of my comments – I am truly convinced that this war is about making a compelling case that what the West has to offer Iraq is far superior to what the insurgency has to offer Iraq. And the Army is one of the primary vehicles for showing people what the West has to offer Iraq.
We are – in our hearts – builders. The insurgency is filled with destroyers. They have no Corps of Engineers, they have no sanitation technicians, water purification people, competent medical staff and no educators worth a damn. They don’t value science, technology or consensual, cooperative relationships. They use force first. We use force last.

We value freedom, even if we sometimes don’t value it enough. They value control over everything and the resulting despair and despondency that accompanies taking away basic choices about which direction a person’s life should take. So what if the Army is trying to ensure that its message gets into the public’s bloodstream? As long as it does so honestly, then it is doing what it should to win.
The freedom of an individual to pursue his or her own pathways in life, to a large degree, is what hangs in the balance here. At least in my eyes. We’re not just deciding for Iraqis, we’re deciding for the entire world. The battle for the future of Iraq is one small fight in a much larger war that is being waged worldwide constantly. Most people are oblivious to it but it’s going on here and it’s going on back home. It’s going on in Britain too, where the radio show I talked too is hosted.

I am glad to be in a place in time and space where I was allowed to speak my mind on a radio show listened to by an audience halfway around the world from me. If I had been British, I wouldn’t have been allowed on the show. That’s sad.

This morning I was performing my duties as a public affairs soldier when I had one of those moments where something burns itself into your retina forever.

Amid the hustle and bustle of a Baghdad day beginning, I saw a soldier sitting alone against a wall, reading. In the midst of managed chaos next to a checkpoint with dozens of people moving in different directions while guards check IDs and people argue about why they should have access to a particular place was this solitary figure tranquilly reading a book. I wish my camera had been with me, but even if I had it, I wouldn’t have been allowed to publish the photo due to the location.

I have to draw a word picture instead. Imagine yourself in a place where everything is fortified and everyone is constantly on guard. You hear explosions close or far several times a day. Tempers flare easily. Everything moves more slowly than it should because there are murderers lurking about looking for opportunities to practice their craft. Everyone must be checked and approved to proceed everywhere they go. Convoys of heavily armed wary soldiers from different nations speaking different languages roll in and out without warning, scanning everything. Communication is fragile at best. There are usually at least four to five different languages in play. The background noise is constant. Rumbling vehicles. People shouting at each other. Women crying. Men loudly arguing. Laughter now and then, sometimes strained. The scrape of metal barriers being dragged out of the way and then back into place. Warning shots being fired from all around intersperse these other noises. They are the punctuation marks of life in Baghdad.

There against the wall is an American soldier reading his book. I ask him what he is reading. He tells me. I thank him, and make a mental note to read the book too. But the scene is still surreal, and would be even if I had been to war before.

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The latest Spookytooth video is here! It’s just a short selection of Spookytooth’s best attempts at learning the Iraqi banjo.

Some might think he is a progidy and others may see room for improvement. Either way the key is to enjoy! Keep your eyes peeled for another installment in the Spookytooth verbosity saga. Rocket is tapping, tapping, tapping somewhere on a keyboard.

If Digital Rights Management hasn’t penetrated your consciousness, it’s time to start letting it seep in, at least peripherally.

I’m not going to upgrade my copy of iTunes (currently 4.9) until JHymn is upgraded to match the version Apple is pushing. Because when I pay for something, then I, and not Apple, should control how I use that something.
iTunes tries to control how you use your music by limiting you to using it on pre-approved devices, which are all, shockingly, made by Apple. JHymn conveniently removes this control mechansim and lets you use the music you paid for the way you want too. What a great program.

This issue is much larger than Apple because ideas are like viruses, and they spread. If consumers yawningly allow Apple to control how and when they listen to music they have purchased through Apple, then every other music seller will be jumping on the bandwagon. Sony is a great example of another megacorp that would love to own everything in your living room. Sony loves creating proprietary technology so that devices made by Sony won’t work with devices made by anyone else. They are robbing themselves of market share and losing clients with this shortsighted and somewhat idiotic approach. I won’t buy Sony anymore. I used to be a loyal customer.
I am not willing to have to beg to be able to listen to music I purchased, when and where I wish. Nor are most of my friends. Megacorporations should stop trying to control us and start listening to what we have to say.

Don’t fall for the “The Best Blonde Joke Ever.” Unless you are the type of person who enjoys kicking yourself in the arse. If you come across a link to “The Best Blonde Joke Ever” you have been warned.

Remember who your friends are. You will need them one day.

If you’ve already fallen for it, I hope you didn’t click more than three times.

Thanks for nothing, Stan.

William Ammons, 18, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability. He was being held at the Broward County jail on $5,000 bond and a hearing was set for Tuesday.

Two other teens, Brian Hooks and Thomas Daugherty, face murder charges in the death of Norris Gaynor, 45, and aggravated battery charges in the beating of Jacques Pierre, 58, police Capt. Michael Gregory said.

These kids make me sick to my stomach. They’re like human disease vectors. Let’s make sure they can’t pass on their genetics to someone else. In fact, let’s just go ahead and have a court appointed officer administer the exact same treatment to them that they so obviously enjoyed handing out to random homeless people. I just don’t get it.

I don’t think I could beat someone to death with a baseball bat unless they had been trying to kill me moments earlier and it was a matter of survival. Disgusting little wretches.

Rebecca Blood of Rebecca’s Pocket wrote this 200 page tome in 2002. I finished reading it in 2006. I would say about half of the information provided is dated or anachronistic. While her blog is full of interesting reading material for a technophile, the book needs a major overhaul.

Where is it useful? It’s filled with practical advice as the title suggests. Most of that practical advice is more related to being a decent human being than it is to blogging. The Weblog Handbook is a good read if you are ethically challenged or prone to getting into flame wars with other citizens of the virtual reality we called the Net. It’s a good read if you want to blog for the long term and aren’t sure what sort of writing will make people come back to visit you again and again.

What isn’t useful? Blogging is, like most new technology, a rapidly evolving animal, and this book should be updated annually to keep up with the state of the genre. Blogging is just now emerging as a serious alternative source of valuable information about the world. Also, if you’re looking for advice that will help you pick the best tool to blog with, this book is not going to help at all. In fact, no book will help much with that. A single author blog, in my opinion, here in 2006, should be written and published, in every case, with WordPress. It’s by far the most elegant tool out there.

The Weblog Handbook doesn’t mention either it or Movable Type, which is what Rebecca’s Pocket is based on.
If you need help figuring out how to blog in a civilized fashion, so that you will actually find and keep an audience, then The Weblog Handbook might need to go on your reading list. Other than that, I would say avoid this book unless it is re-released with more relevant information about the current state of blogging. Technology books have a very short shelf life.
Rebecca herself is a class act, and so is Rebecca’s Pocket. However, a major overhaul of The Weblog Handbook is long overdue.

See my other Amazon.com book reviews.

Rebecca read my review and noted that she has hand coded the site up until six days ago. I never visited her site during the hand coding days. Rebecca certainly practices what she preaches in the The Weblog Handbook and is a maven when it comes to dispensing sage advice regarding blogging etiquette.

I still believe that The Weblog Handbook would be a more useful tome if it included a chapter or two on current blogging tools and if it was updated annually or every other year.

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If you live in any large American city, chances are that you are being watched as you move about. Do you know who is watching you today? Bruce Schneier asks if you know who is watching them watching you.

Two council CCTV camera operators have been jailed for spying on a naked woman in her own home.

We face two threats in this era of internal and external security threats. One is from external fanatics bent on imposing their worldview on everyone else. The second is from internal fanatics bent on exposing all of us to their scrutiny and judgement at will.
It’s a new take on Scylla and Charybdis. Look around. Who is behind that camera watching you?

In an era of exponentially powerful technology, culture clashes and government growth blended with an often apathetic and self-indulgent voting public, it will be interesting to see where we journey here on Planet Earth. Someone out there must be building the new Noah’s Ark…if it’s you, e-mail me.

The Will to Exist is now a three-author blog, at least until we leave Iraq as a unit. Rocket will be guest authoring here. I’m not sure what all he plans to write, as his first entry is entitled The Adventures of Spookytooth, Volume I. However, we’re at war, and writing is a good outlet for stress. So I’m going to let Rocket do his thing and maybe get some feedback.

Rocket is of course, a member of the same military unit that I am attached too. Jeff, Rocket and I are brothers-in-arms.
Anyhow, you may now see entries from Trevor, Jeff or Rocket, in no particular order.

It was a blistering cold winter night in Colorado. Spookytooth was sent outside by his mother to gather firewood for the wood-burning stove. It was just the two of them now. His father was suffering with scoptophobia, a rare phobia causing him to fear being looked at, and had locked himself in his room for more than two months. She was trying to make ends meet by working at a local fish-food plant that served many trout hatcheries in the area.

Life was hard on the two-acre plot. Leased to Spookytooth’s father 13 years ago by a timber company, the business had abandoned the site in 1993 upon the discovery of the state-endangered boreal toad on the land. Now, it was hard for the family to sleep at night during the summer with the constant burping of the over-abundant amphibians. Before     Spookytooth’s father became ill, he swore he would kill “every damn one of those frogs” before it drove him mad.

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Walter Cronkite is saying we should get out now.

Sometimes, it’s best to fade away gracefully. Of couse, Walter is entitled to his opinion. I’m thankful he no longers holds much influence over the public. Get out now, and then what would be my question Walter. If we left today, would Iraq follow the same path Vietnam has? I doubt it.

PASADENA, Calif. – Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he’d say the same thing today about Iraq.

Question: Is it possible to have a real conversation with someone like Jamal? He used to drop by my blog fairly regularly to complain and disagree, but I haven’t seen him recently. He’s certainly still pushing his viewpoints though:

Pentagon Shuts Soldiers Blogs

Filed under: Media, Politics, Current Affairs, War

I came across this one over at Independant Christian Voice. Ive previously stated I’m Sick of Blogs Written by Soldiers, and that its Impossible To Justify Military Service. Finally, U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are clamping down on military Web logs, known as milblogs by the hundreds of soldiers overseas keeping Internet journals about the heat, the homesickness and bloodshed of the illegal war they fight.

Milblogs

Jamal almost sometimes has a good point to make, but he’s so full of conspiracy theories and rhetoric he borrowed from other people I find it hard to fathom having a real conversation with him. What about you?

Dean of the aptly titled Dean’s World has a thought provoking essay you should read:

Furthermore, large corporations like Wal-Mart, due to the artificial advantages that they have over the everyday businessman–you know, an actual PERSON who runs a business, who has a face, who has to answer to people, who has the limitations of a human being–gets squeezed out by these giant collectivist enterprises we call corporations. Which, I remind you again, could not happen if the state had not created the entire phantasmic idea in the first place.

I’m not in 100% agreement with Dean, but I do think he might be on to something. Further thought is required on my part. What do you think? Are megacorporations an artificial construct only made possible because of government’s blessing?

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New photos up.

Hint: Click the photo above to see more photos.

Note: One of this month’s photos is slightly racy and may be offensive to some individuals.

Note #2: Easily offended individuals are not a part of this blog’s desired demographic.

Lowry will want to read this editorial by Dana Blankenhorn entitled, “So why do people hate Windows?”

Paul answered with some great comparisons on issues of security. Security is one way to measure durability.

But durability is another way to measure durability. And when it comes to having a system that lasts, Windows has some “issues.”

While I write about Linux for a living, I have in fact been the owner of many Windows boxes. I even have a copy of Windows 1.0, hand-signed in the manual by Bill Gates himself, from the software’s launch party.

What I’ve noticed is that Windows winds down hardware. As time goes by, patches and updates and upgrades and necessary applications load my box up with code that hogs my memory, and takes up CPU cycles, until the memory and cycles needed for new work magically disappear. Then you’re supposed to replace the box, and over time buy new software.

It’s a form of built-in obsolescence that has nothing to do with a PC’s features becoming tired. The PC itself just becomes slow and clunky. The only way to extend its life, eventually, is to reload Windows itself. No way to spend a day, that.

Lowry is a hater. 🙁 On the other hand, after having read this article, it’s hard not to at least partly agree with the Lowrys of the world. On the other other hand, when you consider how many more things Windows can do than any other operating system, and how many more developers create their apps for Windows, then you do have a choice. At least not if you’re into niche applications or PC gaming.

I am ready for a Mac though, now that Apple has switched to UNIX and Intel processors. This one looks real nice, if somewhat unaffodable:
“

Congress seems to be involved in just about everyone’s business these days. I wonder how many nations they think we can handle the management of at once?

Representative in the US Congress are considering whether to compel companies to refuse to abide by laws restricting access to information in repressive regimes such as China. To certain extent, I understand their frustration.

Go read Handling Repressive Governments by John Carroll.

I want to congratulate my fellow soldier, SPC Harold Lewis Jr. on the birth of his daughter. I’ll post her name here when I get it. Welcome to this crazy world, Alyssa!
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I am posting this Stayin’ Alive video (requires a WMV player) for the benefit of my wife. The rest of you can watch too if you want too. Nothing special here. Just me doing my thing.

Thanks, LaRon.

Well, it’s about time!

An onboard radar system, automated acceleration and braking controls, and a night-vision display are among the features that Mercedes describes as the most advanced available in cars today.

Mercedes-Benz has finally introduced some driving technology worth raving about. Sounds like a car I would love to own.

Go read the Wired article!

What we do or do not do in our short lives has a ripple effect. This is a basic truth, as far as I am concerned. And that is why I believe you should read Catch and Release, a compelling blog entry over at Michael Yon’s place.

Mr. President,

You have truly said that “We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them.”

You have rightly promised that, “We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest.” To that end, you have promised that, “We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

Read the entry, and then write to someone powerful if you feel so compelled. Robert Stetham’s life mattered. Now go make it ripple outward. Refuse to let him be forgotten.

Captain Danjel Bout is leaving Iraq. We’ll miss him. Godspeed sir.

Do not mistake my words. I am not broken, nor am I damaged. The story of our mission is not a tragedy, despite our losses. The deepest etchings on my soul, the ones that will remain in both this life and the next, were the incandescent examples of valor, courage, and brotherhood I witnessed each and every day. The men who served at my side were bound to me, and I to them, with tidal forces that have no equivalent in the sterile formality of the living world. Back home the concept of “self” is a rigid construct, a domain mapped with the formality of a land agreement. But here on the bleeding edge we became more something greater than our individual parts. We became a family.

Go wish him safe journeys and thank him for his service.

H/T goes to Gringoman.

Editor’s Note: Some of us here in Baghdad are worried about Lowry’s rapidly failing mental health. Stay tuned.

Who’d thought that I’d come half-way around the world to fall in love with cranberry juice. It’s true. From the looks of things it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one either. These 8-ounce bottles of joy are like gold here. KBR can’t keep in stock fast enough. If people see them, they’re gone. It’s crazy.

There’s plenty of free milk, colas, coffee, tea, non-alcoholic beer, energy drinks, and of course bottled water. KBR even supplies us with assorted box juices. The only thing they run out of though is cranberry juice. Why is that? I don’t know. Maybe it’s that they’re in American packaging, but the beer is in its American packaging. Maybe cranberry juice is truly the nectar of the gods, maybe it has some addictive quality to it. Whatever it is, they always run out. Maybe it’s the nice burgandy hue, or the small little bottles that makes them so appealing. I don’t know these are just mere guesses.

I clamor for them when they run out, and I horde them when they’re back in stock. Cargo pockets come in handy when KBR restocks cranberry juice. Today I commandeered six from the dining facility. Usually the DFAC (dining facility) runs out about the time I go to lunch, but not today. I was one of the lucky ones today.

This guy I don’t know, William M. Arkin, of the Washington Post, writes a long editorial on the military’s consideration of “exclusive editorial content” for some milbloggers. He opines:

Blogs, however, are the epitome of independence, perspective, and rebellion. For the Army to blog, its bloggers would need to have an opinion, show some emotion, make a joke, make a case. We all know that the moment some public affairs flunkie strayed from the official happy talk and openly engaged in the information fight, he or she would get nuked.

You know, it’s funny, I’ve been writing this blog on active duty for months now, and I work in Public Affairs, and I have not been nuked. I’ve actually made a joke or two, made a case or two, and by damn I’ve even shown emotion once or twice. I even did a radio interview with the BBC.

Maybe William M. Arkin and the Washington Post should be reading my blog, which I am not paid extra to write. I am also not coached on any of the content herein.

My blog was my idea, and it contains many non-official opinions which may or may not be easily digestable by echelons above me in rank. They get to tell me what to do with my time while I’m here in Iraq, but they certainly don’t have a switch that determines what I think and while there are legitimate security concerns that must be dealt with, I’m basically free to say what I want to say, which is as it should be. After all, I’m a National Guardsman who volunteered to serve my country.
Get a clue, my friend. I am not going to be nuked. I am a soldier, not an idiot. The people who lead me are officers, not overseers (with an exception or two in the crowd). Most of the milbloggers I know are conscentious and hard-working individuals who love their country and their fellow human beings and want to make the world a better place. Some days they actually make progress and for them to want to tell their stories, good and bad, is perfectly natural.

Guess what, Mr. Arkin, the good news from Iraq is underreported, and the Army has every right to try and change that. If it doesn’t, this war will be for nought, and the deaths of 2,000+ of my fellow servicemen will have been dishonored. How do you like them apples?

So, our tax dollars are going to get used so the Army can just add to its propaganda machine, shoveling “content” to like-minded bloggers?

Do you want to accomplish anything in Iraq, Mr. Arkin? I do. This is an information war as much as it is one of guns and bombs. What don’t you get? Why should the Army have to fight with one hand tied behind its back while you get to play pundit from the safety of your comfy leather chair in whatever office you sit in?

Doesn’t sound too fair to me. Let us do our job.

And while you’re doing it, go read the 1100+ milblogs that aren’t censored or paid for by PR firms, the US Army or the Bush administration.

I did find a really great blog to link while I was doing reading related to the military’s experiment with “seeding” information into blogs: One Hand Clapping, a neighbor from nearby Tennessee, has been blogrolled.

What an idiotic question.

According to an an article I read today, many Iraqis believe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi doesn’t exist. Americans made him up. Of course we did.

I don’t know why human beings delightfully and willfully embrace ignorance and bad memes over and over, but they do. It’s almost viral.

The real challenge here in Iraq, and yes, in America too, is educating people so that they question and investigate for themselves. The United States certainly didn’t make up Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. We didn’t make up Osama bin Laden. We didn’t fly remote controlled planes into the Pentagon or blow up the World Trade Center.

The Coalition kills bad guys, mostly. We build schools, provide medical care and fix things that are broken. Sometimes we’re inefficient. Sometimes bad people with few redeeming qualities get put in positions where they can abuse their authority. They usually get punished.

To the ignorant and the blind out there on the other side of the blast walls from me with all your conspiracy theories and your complaining, most of us are doing our best to help your country. So don’t waste time in idle chatter. You can help us or work against us. When you do the latter, you’re only making the process longer and more painful for everyone involved.

Monsters are real and Al-Zarqawi is one of them.

Consider purchasing one, some any or all of these books if you are interested in the libertarian way of thinking:

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Do you have any complaints, questions or feedback? See something you think should be here? Comment here or contact me.

I’ve been extremely busy with my new webmaster job, which means I haven’t updated here in a few days, other than to work on my site redesign, which has filled the moments while I wait for files to upload on the other system.
Have you checked out the photo gallery recently? I try to add new stuff all the time.

[image:132:l:s=1] I’ve dropped 22 pounds since arriving in Baghdad, and have been recently described as “gaunt” by a fellow soldier. I can’t imagine that bodes well, but there is work to be done, and so I’ll do it. As someone once said, I’ll rest when I’m dead. Hopefully, that will be no time soon. Click on LaRon now and vote for your favorite photo.

Remember that despite all the negativity you’re being exposed to elsewhere, good things are happening in Iraq every day. They just don’t get front page very often. It’s a shame.

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UPDATE: I’m done playing with the design. Sorry about that. It’s an obssessive behavior for those of us who love code. I hope I didn’t inconvenience anyone. I’ve already received some feedback in addition to the voting. If you’re voting that the new design is worse, please leave a comment here letting me know what’s bad about it. Thanks!

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Hanan, a 22-year-old Iraqi translator, defied terrorist threats to work in the U.S.-controlled Baghdad area known as the green zone. She ignored the threats. Then she disappeared.
A few days later, a video was sent to her family showing the terrified woman seconds before her death. She lay on her back and screamed as a sharp knife slit her throat and then cut off her head.
Like many others in Iraq today, Hanan paid the price for standing up to terrorist warnings not to cooperate with Americans who are trying to help rebuild the country while stamping out a brutal insurgency. Her last name, like others in this story, has been withheld to protect her family.”

I defy these animals masquerading as human beings to try and justify anything they’ve done. I will fight such people with every ounce of my being. Every heinous act by an animal in human skin is one more reason for me not to regret my having volunteered to come and try to help in this nation plagued by murdering wolves. And make no mistake, the wolves would be worrying at different sheep if the United States hadn’t come here to make things right.

How would you like to be sent a video of your sister or wife being held down and having her head chopped off? All you have to do is ignore what’s happening in Iraq. Or better yet, blame America for the actions of subhuman barbarians and call the President a dumb monkey some more. Whine. Complain. Obfuscate. Lampoon. Belittle. Harass. Mock. Castigate. Do anything unhelpful you can think of.

The wolves will appreciate your foolishness when they come to eat your family.

I’ve added two new and fairly important pages to the blog recently. They are:

a) Will to Exist banners page so people can grab banners that they can use to link from their sites to mine. I’ll reciprocate the link in most cases.
b) banners for the Essay Contest so you can link back to it

If you would like a banner in a different size, please e-mail me.

The GIGO Theory and the power of filters

Have you heard of GIGO? Go read the Wikipedia entry. We live in a world of garbage information. Everyone needs filters to minimize the impact of the GIGO effect. If you put enough garbage into your brain, you’ll get nothing but garbage out.

Chances are, if you stumbled across this page, you already have some basic filters in place. Are they as good as mine? Maybe. Maybe not.

Take a look at the books on my sidebar wish list – perhaps you’ll be inspired to read something. Or check out the Book Reviews or Movie Reviews I’ve written.

You might as well see if my filters help you pre-filter things to your own liking, because we live in a busy world, and you, dear reader, aren’t getting any younger. Go check some of the stuff I mentioned out! If you like what you find, then I’m one of your new filters. Pick ’em wisely because time is the most precious commodity any of us have.

I don’t know that this statue is Hammurabi, but I think of him when I see the statue, because Hammurabi’s Code represents the beginning of civilization in my mind.

“Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world’s first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi’s reign ([1795-1750 BC]) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King….as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . .

By far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.

The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society.”

This statue might represent someone completely different and if you know how it is I’d love to hear from you via e-mail. Whoever it is, I hope that it is still standing here when Baghdad is once again a prosperous and civilized place where people can go about their day freely without worrying about the killers who currently harry and harass. Baghdad won’t be a war zone forever. Iraq will be a civilized nation once again. These things take time.

Why do I spend time writing reviews of stuff? Because I hate crappy products that waste my time and money. So I try to save other people some grief or point out something I think they might really like when I come across it. This is especially important to me while I’m in Iraq, because if I have to deal with a crappy product here, it’s a heck of a lot harder to get the item replaced, repaired, or whatever.

Anyhow, the Kensington power adapter I bought for my laptop is awesome. I originally bought it because I wanted something I could use in my truck back home, and I ended up liking it so much I’ve been using it as the primary power adapter and carrying it around in the war zone for a few months now.

What’s great about it? It works with anything. Any computer at all. It came with a little black bag to carry it around in that has every kind of attachment for any computer that uses a power supply up to 75 watts. I like how small it is and I did like the self-retracting slimline cord a lot. Of course, I broke that part pretty quickly, and I think if you are a little bit rough on stuff, you will break that part too, if you buy one of these. But it hasn’t mattered because the rest of the unit is really solid and has taken the beating I’ve given it with no problem.

Anyhow, the bottom line is this – the adapter comes with everything you need to hook up anywhere, whether you’re at home, on the road, in a plane or fighting a war in a foreign country. I’ve used it several times to recharge a friend’s laptop too, and that’s pretty awesome. I would buy one of these again in a heartbeat, but if I did, I would want something with more wattage capability, because a lot of the bigger laptops suck more than 75 watts.

The Kensington Retractable Laptop Power Supply would get a Best of Show if it wasn’t for that retractable cord minder breaking.

The discussion forum was broken due to a programming error I introduced and it wasn’t allowing people to log in or was sending them to the Microsoft web site. Doh! If you haven’t visited, go register now. You can make polls and do other time wasting activities that won’t earn you any money. Good stuff.

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I have reorganized my photo albums a little bit. Enjoy. Since I just got a Canon 20D thanks to the benevolence of others back home, the photo uploads will probably skyrocket in the near future.

I know some people prefer Nikon, but I am a fan of Canon all the way. Yes, I’m talking to you Pitcher. Why would you want a four megapixel camera when you can have an 8 megapixel camera for half the price, especially considering the image quality from the Canon.

There are things you know.
There are things you know you don’t know.
Then there are things you don’t know you don’t know.
What the bleep do I know?
What the bleep do we know!?
I know that is a good site.
The movie changed me. It wasn’t necessarily overnight or earthshattering, but it did.
The main thing I took from it is we can choose how we react to different situations. You have a choice to affect your emotions.
It’s pretty simple, but it’s also pretty profound IMO.

Hackers in Austria (English version here) are using some interesting tricks to defeat surveillance technology.

Members of the organization (Austrian civil liberties group Quintessenz) worked out a way to intercept the camera images with an inexpensive, 1-GHz satellite receiver. The signal could then be descrambled using hardware designed to enhance copy-protected video as it’s transferred from DVD to VHS tape.

The Quintessenz activists then began figuring out how to blind the cameras with balloons, lasers and infrared devices.”

Read the full Wired Magazine article.

Life is going to be interesting in this century. At least, it will be for me since I really enjoy all this geeky new technology we keep inventing, and the cultural paradigm shifts caused by it. Where are we going? It’s going to be an interesting ride.

Speaking as an observer who has many friends with libertarian instincts, I would point out that terrorism is a much more formidable opponent of political liberty than government. Government acts almost as a recruiting station for libertarians. Anyone who pays taxes or has to fill out government paperwork develops libertarian impulses almost as a knee-jerk reaction. But terrorism acts as a recruiting station for statists. So it looks to me as though we are headed for a triangular system in which libertarians and statists and terrorists interact with each other in a way that I’m afraid might turn out to be quite stable.”

Neal Stephenson in a Reason Magazine interview

The man quoted above has changed my worldview slightly with each of his novels as I have read through them. His work comes highly recommended and I think he has a good point. Pick something below and I can assure you of a few quiet evenings curled up with a book. You’ll be spellbound. Cryptonomicon is by far the best of the below listed novels, and I’ll be reviewing in here in the future.

JP at Milblogging.com has agreed to sponsor my Essay Contest, and I’m truly grateful. I already have one entry sitting in the hold bin, and the contest will be running another 45 days. I hope that I get 100 entries or more but it will all depend on whether or not the military blogging community supports me in spreading the word. This contest is one more way to get insider’s viewpoints about what is happening in Iraq out to the public.

I watched a portion of one of the Doha Debates recently and I have to say, there are a lot of armchair quarterbacks out there who think they have something more to offer Iraq than the U.S. military does. My question for all of those who voted for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops is: why aren’t you here in Iraq if you care so much? In fact, how come almost no one in the audience was from Iraq? I only saw one audience member who was an actual Iraqi speak, and he said that troops should stay until the infrastructure in Iraq has been rebuilt. No one was really listening though. They were too busy blaming everyone for the mess and voting on an idiotic question that if it became an overnight reality, would only make things worse.

Homer Simpson should have been the moderator. Doh. Ha. Iraq needs the U.S. a while longer.

Today there seems to be a great deal of insurgent activity. Explosions and gunfire were the heralds of the New Year here in Baghdad. The gunfire was mostly celebratory, but the explosions hardly were. I was awakened by more explosions. I don’t really react anymore, other than to note mentally or verbally how close and what type I think the explosion was. Mortar or bomb? 100 yards? 1,000 yards? None of it really seems relevant to me, because I have a job to do, and the bomb or mortar hasn’t disabled my ability to do it.

The insurgency certainly might kill me, but they’re further away then ever from convincing me that they have anything valid to offer the world. I want them all dead. Is that wrong?

The barbarians are at the gates clamoring for more death and destruction, and they will get it, but the sword they wield is double-edged and has no handle. Meanwhile, we soldier on. Happy New Year, everyone. The world gets smaller every year.

Here is a video to illustrate New Year’s Eve from a perspective you probably haven’t had and don’t want. The audio is much more useful than the video. Due to the darkness, it is nearly useless. Enjoy.

Swofford’s tale is one that strikes me as very honestly told, and his prose is compelling. I am a former Marine, currently serving in the second chapter of the war Swofford fought. His description of life as a Marine is riveting, even to another Marine. As much as anything, Jarhead is a the tale of being lost. Swofford is a thinking Marine, while many of his companions in war are not. The world is a big scary place in this novel, and it’s easy to lose yourself in a dark corner where you die forgotten. Thinking about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it only makes things darker and harder.

Military life can be harsh and unforgiving, chewing up those who fight mercilessly and Swofford brings this home in Jarhead. I have served with so many who think that war is something glorious, something to be proud of, something you’ll be able to boast about after you’ve done it. Read Jarhead, and if you still think war is glorious, you are clinically insane. Jarhead should haunt you. If it doesn’t you might have sociopathic tendencies.

War may be necessary sometimes, but I’ve always thought that older men should fight it. If only the old men fought wars, I would always know they were necessary. If you want to see a little bit of the inside of a war, or if you are fascinated by dark places, real places that exist inside men’s heads once they have been to war and survived, then read Jarhead.

If you are a young man, I cannot tell you that reading Jarhead will make you want to avoid going to war, but it should at least change whatever illusions you may have about what the life of a modern warrior is like. Many young people wear the cloak of illusionary immortality around themselves. If you know one of these, have him or her read Jarhead. If anything other than a personal brush with death will change their minds, this book might be the recipe.

You won’t emerge from Jarhead the same as you were when you dived in. You have been warned. Dark places and haunted memories come to life within the pages. Like a virus, they may become a part of you through the infectious power of Anthony Swofford’s personal narrative.

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The text is dry, to say the least, which made the book less than palatable to me. I had a hard time reading this book, but felt that it was an important piece of history that I should digest.

I was right. Many of the ideas expressed by administrators and progenitors of The War of the Running Dogs are still in use today. A perfect example of this is found on page 179 when author Noel Barber discusses a slogan that became famous during the war, “The battle for the hearts and minds of the people.”

It is a slogan I’ve heard bandied about more than once during my own war here in Iraq.
One of the central characters in War of the Running Dogs is Bob Thompson, a highly placed government administrator who comes up with the idea that common people should be able to receive tours of how the war is being conducted. The idea is a very successful one – one that should work again and again throughout the ages. Modern wars are won or lost now based on public opinion more than anything other single factor.

Often times, this book is less of a war novel than it is an ode to competent bureaucracy. While bureaucracy is a necessary evil, it isn’t a glamorous thing, and I find reading about the exploits of bureaucrats rather boring. On the other hand, the struggle between colonial imperialism leading to a form of capitalism versus communism leading who knows where is historically significant.

The War of the Running Dogs reiterates a point that has been made personally clear to me in recent years; while I might have disagreements with the government in charge, I certainly wouldn’t want to trade it for a bunch of murdering thugs who don’t even pretend to care about rule of law. Terrorism is not a valid or morally sound form of political expression, and is not a realistic method of toppling a government unless it can maintain popular support from a large majority of the citizenry.

The Communist terrorists in Malaya fail on many levels by combining wanton brutality with bribery, blackmail and bombastic bamboozlers as representatives. This makes it almost impossible for the British government working in conjunction with Malayan sultans and Chinese locals to fail.

Both the insurgents and the reigning bureaucrats promise independence for the nation and in the end, British bureaucracy wins the day. One point that author keeps reiterating is that the British masterstroke was insisting on civilian rule even in wartime (this despite the fact that Churchill chooses a general to run the war).

In the end, the war was won largely because the British offered a better more benevolent method of rule than their would be competitors who time and again proved that they would resort to brutality and horrific acts of violence against the general population of Malaya in order to try and achieve power.

The same cycle seems to be playing out again here in Iraq. The most interesting aspect of War of the Running Dogs has been the parallels between what happened 50 years ago and what is happening now while I watch and participate.

Dry reading, but historically significant, The War of the Running Dogs will appeal to history buffs and government administrators but not many others.

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[image:92] New photos up to look at. Check them out. If you haven’t figured it out yet the photos are all available here.

I just finished a BBC interview in which fellow soldier Specialist Stacy Sanning and I were asked a number of questions about the nature of warblogging which is now commonly known as milblogging.

I’m not sure how I sounded but that’s not really relevant. The good thing is the milblogs are being recognized as one valid source of information about what is happening in any given war. Information is like water in a modern and interconnected world. It finds the path of least resistance. It’s good that we have a policy on milblogging from our commanders. But it’s also great that we have a venue that completely ignores the chain of command and allows anyone from a Private on up to have an outlet. We all need to have a voice. Milblogging isn’t going to change the military world overnight, and it certainly shouldn’t be a military person’s only outlet for venting. It’s just another tool in the toolbox. Like any tool, it should be used carefully.

If you’re reading this because of the program I would encourage you to go check out other warblogs at Milblogging. Take a second to read Kevin Anderson’s article about Milblogs as well.

I do have one correction for the BBC folks – Sergeant Jeff Lowry, my roommate, was the author of the post “Things I Miss” not I. He guest writes on this blog and his posts have his name listed under them.

UPDATE: Here is the entire audio stream for last night’s interview with the BBC’s World Have Your Say program. Thanks Kevin. I enjoyed the chance to participate.

Missions are keeping me too busy to write much at the moment. Perhaps a photo or two will keep you folks back home in tune with what’s happening here:

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Don’t forget to tell anyone you know who is serving in Iraq, or did recently, or will soon, about my essay contest. Help me spread the word about what we are doing in this nation, from a perspective that most of the American public isn’t exposed too on a regular basis – the perspective of the people who have to deal with this war daily. Let’s spread the word about what’s happening between car bombs and mortar attacks. The good guys have a side of the story to tell too, you know.

Yesterday I posted Things I Miss. In fairness of equal time here is my list of things I don’t miss.
Traffic, smog, paying for meals, paying for rent, my car.

Only five days left to nominate people for this year’s most prestigious award involving liberty. Do you know someone who has been instrumental in advancing human liberty?

The Cato Institute is pleased to invite nominations for the third biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. The prize, which carries a $500,000 award, will be personally presented to the winner at a dinner on May 18, 2006, in Chicago, where Milton Friedman lived and worked for many years.

The winner needs to meet only one criterion: to have made a significant contribution to advancing human liberty. Nominees may be from any and all walks of life. Scholars, activists, and political leaders have been among the hundreds of nominations submitted for the first two prizes.

Go over and nominate someone now.

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

Have you ever heard the term TMI? Too much information? Well, government officials in Britian are going to have WAY too much information. And it is going to be abused, misused and generally taken advantage of, because government officials are petty and human just like the rest of us. I don’t think government officials need two years worth of your movement records on file. I would have to work to circumvent this system if I were British. I would imagine that a new market for tracking circumvention electronics will soon be thriving in Britian.

But don’t listen to me, listen to noted security expert Bruce Schneier.

I miss spicy fried chicken from Popeyes with red beans & rice and a soda from a soda fountain instead of a can.

It’s only been a couple of months I know, but here are some other things I miss. Going to hockey games, ‘sleeping in’ in the mornings, being alone, alcoholic beverages, cold weather, rain, and real toilets.

This Christmas, if you happen upon my blog, please take a moment to remember and honor the life of Mike Stokely, a fellow Georgian. His father wrote a touching letter that I will share a portion of here:

Life is hard when you lose a child; you have children and you think of them burying you and not the other way around. But war brings a new perspective to the parent child relationship, for the parent is put in a position that they are unable to fulfill a basic parental instinct – protect your child. Losing a child, especially in war and especially with media attention focused on your loss, is difficult. I find myself counting time in weeks – every Monday at 6:20 p.m., I silently remember, maybe with a tear, that X weeks ago Mike died at what was 2:20 a.m. his time on Tuesday; then as the evening goes on, I think, Mike was dead X hours at this time; I then awake on what is my Tuesday mornng, and at 7:00 a.m., I remember the call to my home and the voice saying “Mr. Stokely, this is Maj. Hulsey – please come to the door, you dog won’t let us up the driveway and we need to speak to you” and then remembering my fast gait to the driveway and asking, before they can say anything “is my boy dead” and the the words they spoke, with humble sadness in the eyes of Maj. Hulsey and the Chaplin that was with him “we regret to inform you….” But the pain,while there, is more manageable. I think it must be like the rigors and harshness of war – it is always the same, you just adjust.

No pity for me is needed, for as a friend said to me, I am lucky to have a son who has brought such honor to his father and the entire family. My son was a man who had a heart that cared deeply for others, and they likewise cared for him. In all of this, so many stories of his simple kindness have been shared with us and touched us. My favorite is the one where he and his buddies had been on continuous duty for several days (their normal day was 22 hours long). He and one of his fellow soldiers had to pull guard duty after being on missions for that continuous period without any sleep. He told his buddy to take a nap and he would stand watch and then they would swap out. For the next six hours, he let his buddy sleep while he stood the whole watch.

We miss him so much. We hurt inside. But we burst with pride in our son and brother. His memory will not fade nor will our love for him. When Mike was just becoming a teenager, I tried to imagine what he would be one day. I often told people I wasn’t sure where life would take him, but I knew he would do something different and be very well known in his chosen field. I never dreamed he would become an American Hero who would serve his country so well.”

I’ll be remembering Mike this Christmas as I think of my family and friends back home. I love you all.

[album:3,1:r]I’ve been taking five photos each of people in the unit to share with their loved ones on Christmas Day. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me via this blog and other means on this most special of holidays. This morning, as I was leaving breakfast, the insurgents tried to give me a Christmas present in their soulless manner. They dropped two mortars near my location. They missed. I suppose wars don’t stop because one side or the other is celebrating something, but it still seems uncivilized to try and randomly blow people up on Christmas Day. I woudn’t do it.

Enjoy the pictures, and remember to enjoy your own loved ones today. It would be so easy for someone evil to come and take them away from you. I’m away from my family, but I want them to know I love them, and I believe that what I am doing here, in some small way, is going to ripple everywhere.

Christmas has a lot of meaning for me. It evokes images of family and friends celebrating together. I’m sorry to miss that this year. I especially want my wife to know that she’s missed. Have a good day with Mom & Dad today honey. Enjoy your time together, I’m glad we got to talk on the phone.

For the family and friends who are here to get a glimpse of your own loved ones, enjoy! And to my unit, I hope that you have many more Christmas celebrations ahead, and that your son, wife, aunt or cousin enjoys a glimpse of you today.

Neal has a lot to say in Command Line.

First and foremost, I walked away with the following impression: in the world of Neal, Windows is a necessary but doomed operating system. Neal explains why as only he can. He also tells you why Apple is doomed and Microsoft might be. Furthermore, Neal explains that there are better operating systems available and makes a case for why you might want to try them out: they are free, and they don’t crash. These two operating systems are Linux, which is a variant of UNIX and BeOS, which is the product of a mad Frenchman but which has many merits that outweigh the product’s French origins.

Command Line is filled with memorable statements that sometimes border on or are in all actuality, profound.

For instance: “Contemporary culture is a two-tiered system, like the Morlocks and the Eloi in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, except it has been turned upside down. In The Time Machine, the Eloi were an effete upper class supported by lots of subterranean Morlocks who kept the technological wheels turning. But in our world, it’s the other way round. The Morlocks are in the minority, and they are running the show, because they understand how everything works. The much more numerous Eloi learn everything they know from being steeped from birth in electronic media directed and controlled by book-reading Morlocks. That many ignorant people could be dangerous if they got pointed in the wrong direction, and so we’ve evolved a popular culture that is (a) almost unbelievably infectious, and (b) neuters every person who get infected by it, by rendering them unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands.”

In other words, Neal is saying, there are the people who read the book and there are the people who only watch the movie that is made about the book, and the people who read the book are the people who really know what the author was saying. The people who watch the movie don’t really get it, because they get the filtered version, the dumbed down version, the version built for mass consumption by those who are less intelligent or perhaps just not as focused.

Command Line isn’t for everyone. It’s for Morlocks, or those who want to be Morlocks. If you’ve never owned a pocket protector, opened your computer case up or tinkered with the innards of any of the plethora of electronic devices you own, then you probably won’t consume this book with relish, as I did.

Now, if you’ve stuck with my review to this paragraph, you likely are the type who will enjoy Command Line. Most importantly, you are, in all probability, the type to ponder on and eventually benefit from Neal’s closing, in which he compares God to an engineer and remind his readers that, “If you don’t like having your choices made for you, you should start making your own.”

I came away from reading Command Line thoroughly convinced that I need to explore BeOS when I return from the war I’m currently fighting. And of course, I will continue making my own choices whenever possible, rather than letting others make them for me.

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Other members of my unit are blogging. Some of them told me and some of them I had to find myself. But no one can hide from Trevordamus for long.

Drop them a well wish or two for Christmas:

Stacy Sanning – My Iraqi Saga
Bobby Laron – Gyspy Life
Mikal Calvert – Marketing in Iraq

Don’t forget Orlando Claffey’s Clafftastic Adventures.

Real perspectives from real people, with no media filters inserted in between you and them. That is what makes new media so vital. Read it and decide what you want to for yourself. The tradeoff is that you spend a lot more time digesting. The benefit is that you aren’t a myrimidon relying on others for your opinions.

It’s too bad none of my fellow warriors is savvy enough to use WordPress.

In the past, I’ve been using proxy filters to try and minimize the spam comments being received to this site. While that does cut down somewhat on spam traffic, it has also filtered out some of my legitimate users, and they complain to me about, which is perfectly understandable.

Anyhow, I’ve been pondering a change for some time now, and in my reading, I’ve come across Bad Behavior, by fellow blogger Michael Hampton. It’s implemented and the old filtering software is gone.

Please let me know if you have problems leaving legitimate comments, and hopefully, I won’t have to manually delete 10-20 big ass and big tits spam comments a day anymore. I’m getting pretty darn sick of the digusting stuff that litters the net, especially when I have to spend significant time picking it up and putting it in the trash.

I’ve uploaded a few more photos, including this one of someone I don’t know left by someone I never met who lived in this place before I worked here. Check out the other photos too.

The unit is starting to get lots of mail from people over at Any Soldier. I think we’re going to be busy writing to folks a lot more than I anticipated. The Saddam trial also resumed today. That means lots of work for our unit.

Only four days until Christmas. I wonder if we’ll get the day off?

Notice the flat tip of the round.It landed in a parking lot. I posted the celebratory gunfire story that goes with this photo a while ago.

Iraqis shoot into the sky for many reasons – all of them foolish, in my opinion. People shouldn’t have to be injured and killed because someone else is letting off steam.

I’ve added a photo management tool named Coppermine to my blog. So from time to time I’ll be adding to the photo album(s). Go have a peek if you’re interested.

Here is the reason I haven’t been around for the past couple of days, and probably won’t have much to say tomorrow. Sam Clemens is the newest member of the Quick household. He is a seven year old Pomeranian I adopted from a Bay Area rescue agency.”

This story about Sam Clemens, the rescued dog, is for my wife, who loves happy endings.

If a dog doesn’t like you, you must not be any good at all.

I recently came across an old doom and gloom editorial at Anti-War.com by some guy named Juan Cole entitled, Iraq Elections a Disaster in the Making. That article was so wrong I thought I’d post a few notes about December’s elections for you:

Facts about the Iraqi elections on December 15, 2005 that you might be interested in:

10-11 million Iraqis voted
Sunni turnout was high
19 attacks on polling stations
79 terrorist attacks total during the elections
Iraqi security forces were the primary forces providing security

Contrast that with the January elections where many more polling stations were attacked and the overall number of attacks was much higher while voter turnout was much lower.

Progress is happening, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Doom and gloom or optimism and hard work? You choose.

Note: When I first published this entry, I accidentally stated that Shiites turnout was high. It was, but what I meant was that Sunni turnout was high. That is significant because Sunnis have boycotted earlier elections and referendums in large numbers. That appears to have changed in the most recent election.

As President, I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and I have no greater responsibility than to protect our people, our freedom, and our way of life. On September the 11th, 2001, our freedom and way of life came under attack by brutal enemies who killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans. We’re fighting these enemies across the world. Yet in this first war of the 21st century, one of the most critical battlefronts is the home front. And since September the 11th, we’ve been on the offensive against the terrorists plotting within our borders.”

President’s Radio Address, December 17, 2005

Good point. I’m in 100% agreement that the United States Government needs the ability to effectively stop terrorism at home and abroad if it is directed at U.S. citizens or U.S. interests.

Yet key provisions of this law are set to expire in two weeks. The terrorist threat to our country will not expire in two weeks. The terrorists want to attack America again, and inflict even greater damage than they did on September the 11th. Congress has a responsibility to ensure that law enforcement and intelligence officials have the tools they need to protect the American people.

The House of Representatives passed reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Yet a minority of senators filibustered to block the renewal of the Patriot Act when it came up for a vote yesterday. That decision is irresponsible, and it endangers the lives of our citizens. The senators who are filibustering must stop their delaying tactics, and the Senate must vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act. In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment. “

Here is my question, with all due respect to the President. If the Patriot Act is so essential in protecting Americans from terrorism, then why are we putting in anti-methamphetamine clauses? That is a domestic industry that has nothing to do with terrorism. Certainly, methamphetamine manufacturing is illegal, but unrelated to the security of the nation.

There are many other problems with the Patriot Act. It is stopgap legislation that has been on the books for too long. It should be rewritten.

I believe in what we are doing in Iraq, and I believe my President is a sincere and honest man with a thankless job who is doing his best. I believe him when he says that revealing classified programs is wrong. But I’m not convinced the Patriot Act is good legislation.

The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I’m the President of the United States.”

I’m with you on that, sir. Oh, sir, by the way, thanks for your service to our Nation. You have a job I wouldn’t want.

An alternative viewpoint from Dean’s World.

1. In Windows you have to go to Start to stop Windows
2. Outlook doesn’t like the Verdana font
3. No tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer
4. Windows is slow
5. Microsoft programs are expensive
6. Outlook changes fonts unnecessarily
7. The black screen of death, wait until Longhorn
8. No Ctrl+Shift+S for Save As in Word
9. Microsoft programs are virus prone
10. It’s micro, and it’s soft

Hello, my name is Jeff. I will be a guest author on here for the deployment. Thanks to Trevor.
Fortunately or unfortunately I’m also his roommate for the deployment.
J/k as readers know he’s a pretty cool guy.

A recent hot topic on here from what I understand is whether we should pull out of Iraq.
IMO the answer is yes, but it shouldn’t be anytime soon. I keep reading about Iraqis who think the same way. They don’t ncecessarily want us here, but if the United States and other coalition forces pull out anytime soon the end result would be chaos. It would be far worse if we were to leave, not only here in Iraq, but also the United States and any other freedom-loving nation.

Regardless of what you and I think of whether the United States should have started this war is up to debate. I’m still struggling with that myself. The fact though is that we’re here now. We should stay until the mission is complete. Coaltion Forces and Iraqis are making improvements to Iraq everyday. That the elections went off relatively peacefully is testament to that.

Editor’s Note: Jeff is my roommate.

I understand that sometimes people need to be monitored. On the other hand, governments need to be monitored even more.

The current headlines about domestic spying are garnering my interest.

The revelations come amid a fierce congressional debate over reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Patriot Act granted the FBI new powers to conduct secret searches and surveillance in the United States.

Most of the powers covered under that law are overseen by a secret court that meets at Justice Department headquarters and must approve applications for wiretaps, searches and other operations. The NSA’s operation is outside that court’s purview, and according to the Times report, the Justice Department may have sought to limit how much that court was made aware of NSA activities.

Public disclosure of the NSA program also comes at a time of mounting concerns about civil liberties over the domestic intelligence operations of the U.S. military, which have also expanded dramatically after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Should we spy on people we think are terrorists? Probably. Should we have secret courts that make decisions about who terrorists are? Probably not, in my humble opinion. I think we need to tread really, really carefully here. I’m not a fan of the Patriot Act. Not at all.

A conference report by Senate and House negotiators to extend for four years provisions of the USA Patriot Act includes a comprehensive anti-methamphetamine package restricting the sale of products containing ingredients needed to cook the drug and providing new tools to police and prosecutors to combat dealers.”

We are already seeing extra-special drug war clauses getting thrown in. Drug addicts are not terrorists. What else will Congress add as the years go by? Mission creep is gonna get us if we’re not careful.

The renewal of the Patriot Act has been blocked. Good. Let’s talk about it some more before we do anything most of us will live to regret.

I read this book while in Iraq serving as a soldier, and the narratives involving the Taliban and the mentality of rule by terror and intimidation all ring very true and were made that much more poignant by the explosions that sometimes rocked my trailer while I read. The characters in the novel were never far from my own heart.

The Kite Runner flawlessly shows us our modern world, where the past and the future come together, where heaven and hell are only a plane ride away, and where self-discovery is still the most important journey in life.

Buy this book, read it in the quietest place you can find. You won’t regret the time you’ve invested.

Thanks, Dad Chance, for sending me The Kite Runner. I’ll review the other books as well, as soon as I can get too them. Also, anyone who buys me an item from my Amazon Wish List should expect to see a review here along with a thank you note.

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Today, pictures of smiling Iraqis holding up purple fingers are being broadcast all over the world. I’m glad.

They came, they voted, and now they will get a new government of their own choosing. Certainly, the process is far from perfect. It’s also a far cry from the 100% Saddam Hussein received when he held “elections.” Iraq is being reborn. The direction is being decided by everyone instead of one man. Which election do you think Iraqis felt better about?

I am glad I was here to see this happen.

The contest is over.

Will to Exist “Why am I Here?” Essay Contest Winner

Will to Exist “Why am I Here?” Runner Up #1

Will to Exist “Why am I Here?” Runner Up #2

The Will to Exist is sponsoring an essay contest open to soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines serving with Multi-National Force Iraq (anywhere in the country of Iraq). If you left MNF-I within the last year, or have orders to MNF-I, or are currently serving here, you’re eligible to enter the contest.

In 500-1000 words, explain why you are in Iraq.

Contest submissions should be e-mailed to The Will to Exist. We will accept submissions from December 16, 2005 until February 16, 2006. All submissions become the property of willtoexist.com and Trevor Snyder.

Currently, a cash prize of $250 is being offered to the winner. The winning prize may increase as donations are received from readers of this blog. Additional prizes may also be awarded to runners-up as donations are received. Winner(s) will be selected by Trevor Snyder. The winning essay will be published on this blog and other blogs on March 1, 2006 and may be republished elsewhere. The winning author(s) will receive a byline.

The goal of this essay contest is to promote the American public’s awareness of the situation in Iraq and to help spread a better understanding of what it is like to be an American serviceperson serving in theater.

Please include appropriate contact info with your entry. At minimum, we need an e-mail address and mailing address that will remain active through March, 2006.

This contest has its genesis in the idea that this war will be won or lost based not on weapons or troop strength but based on public perception. Without the support of the American public, Iraq will not become free.

Want to help spread the word?

If you’re reading this and aren’t entering the contest but like the idea, and you blog too, how about helping to spread the word? Post a link to this page, or contact me and let me know you want to trade links. I’ll happily post a link to your blog in exchange for one that spreads the word about this contest.

Just pick an image below, cut and paste the code below that image into your blog or web site and that’s it. Thanks for you support!

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alt=’Military Essay @ Will to Exist’ title=’Will to Exist Essay Contest’
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January 31, 2006

Due to a generous reader contribution, the prize amount has been increased to $300.