Air Force Voices

Chrenkoff Signs Off

I was a bit surprised by this bit of news...Chrenkoff...a great source of inside information from the front lines in the Global War on Terror has signed off. 

Many bloggers (including the higher volume blogs) regularly linked his stories.  As far as the information war goes...this is a setback for now.

Yet, Chrenkoff foreshadowed this here and here.  An excerpt from both posts follows (emphasis added):

"A few days ago, I accepted a new job. Unfortunately, one of the conditions is that I will not be allowed to blog, or indeed write much on my own. As you can imagine, it has not been an easy decision. Oh, what the hell - it has been a damned difficult one. I have enjoyed blogging immensly, and I have enjoyed meeting all of you - virtually - over that time. I will, of course, write a bit more on this topic in due course, but in advance of that, a big thank you to all my readers and my fellow bloggers who have made the last eighteen months of my life so fantastic and so rewarding."

I found this interesting (emphasis added):

"...the ban on blogging and writing relates to the fact that when you're on a relatively junior level (as is your immediate boss), it doesn't particularly matter what you write - as long, of course, that it's not defamatory or inflammatory - but as you move higher up in the chain, the powers that be get increasingly paranoid that you might write something that might embarrass or reflect badly on both your (now higher profile) boss and the government in general, so no risks will be tolerated at all.

Hmmm...what does that say about our leadership?  More to follow.

Chenkoff...you will be missed.

Compare and Contrast

I have another busy day ahead of me...thus, little time to post.

However, for those of you new to Air Force Voices (and the blogosphere in general)...there is an abundance of weblogs for you to explore.

The best source of information on the Global War on Terror comes from the weblog Mudville Gazette (published by "Greyhawk").  In the interest of time, I would like to direct you to Mudville's daily Dawn Patrol...kind of like the Early Bird except you can compare and contrast what is gettting reported in the media with what is being reported first-hand by troops on the ground. 

Occasionally Air Force Voices will join in Mudville's Open Post...plus, we are a member of the milblogs ring (look on the right sidebar).

Anyway...Enjoy!  I am off to work!

Where is the Outrage??

I have been following the Newsweek scandal...wrote tons about it...then later deleted it (read previous post).

Anyway, I like what Dennis Prager wrote yesterday (HT: RealClearPolitics).  Here is an excerpt:

And now a word about the rioters. They have desecrated their religion and their holy text far more than the alleged flushers of Koranic pages.

Did any Buddhists riot and murder when the Taliban Muslims blew up the irreplaceable giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan?
Did any Christians riot and murder when an "artist" produced "Piss Christ" -- a crucifix immersed in a jar of the "artist's" urine?

When all Christian services and even the wearing of a cross were banned in Saudi Arabia? When Christians are murdered while at prayer in churches by Muslims in Pakistan?

Have any Jews rioted in all the years since it was revealed that Jordanian Muslims used Jewish tombstones in Old Jerusalem as latrines? Or after Palestinians destroyed Joseph's Tomb in 2000 and set fire to the rebuilt tomb in 2003?

It is quite remarkable that many Muslims believe that an American interrogator flushing pages of the Koran is worthy of rioting, but all the torture, slaughter, terror and mass murder done by Muslims in the name of the Koran are unworthy of even a peaceful protest.

Good point!

Related:  I guess religious intolerance can only be charged when/if evangelical Christians simply ask people to accept Christ as their savior (see previous posts on the Air Force Academy).  But when other religions torture, slaughter and burn...where is the outrage?  Cricket cricket....cricket cricket.

Our Strategy is Working

Need some good news about the Global War on Terror?  Check out Security Watchtower and see how the war is proceeding at the strategic level.  Here is an excerpt:

If the intent was to draw a sizeable presence of al Qaeda fighters into Iraq, it has worked. Iraq is now the central front in the war on terrorism, only the perception in some circles is that's a bad thing. In absence of action to remove the Saddam Hussein regime, this fight would've transpired somewhere, perhaps the U.S. border. Instead al Qaeda has lost thousands of fighters, their leadership continues to be on the run, and they've managed to lose the hearts and minds of Iraqi's. Not only that, their vicious attacks against the Iraqi people have changed perception of their organization among fellow Muslims, many of whom strong disagree with the terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people.

Al Qaeda's failure's in Iraq thus far are notable:

1. They failed to prevent an interim government from being put together
2. They failed to prevent the January 2005 elections
3. They failed to prevent the formation of Iraqi security forces
4. They failed to drive the United States from the battlefield
5. They failed to win popular support in Iraq
6. They failed to prevent the elected government from forming
7. They failed to cause a civil war among different religious groups

I am glad the Iraqi people haven't listened to our enemies and so-called "friends."  We must continue to support their democratic goals and defeat the "insurgency" once and for all.  The Iraq strategy (and the success of the Iraqi people) is the best way to combat terrorism worldwide...it won't eliminate it...it just means it will no longer be tolerated.

The rest of the post makes a number of great points.  These are the things you would never hear in the MSM/DNC. 

Now is the time to drive the point home.  Military members need to keep speaking up about our successes in order to dilute the negative the anti-American American crowd keeps spinning.

Who Cares?

I care.

There used to be a media frenzy whenever classified information was leaked by government officials.  Things are especially sensitive when Top Secret/Sensitive Comparmented Information (TS/SCI) material is mishandled.  I am just now learning more details of the incident even though I have been watching more news now that my research project is complete.  (Surely the sensationalism surrounding Paula Abdul is more newsworthy)

Have we gotten so complacent about the effects of such leaks due to the numerous scandals over the last decade? 

Or are we getting used to the cavalier attitude our top government officials seem to have in leaking information to the press?  See this recent NYT story (emphasis added):

A half dozen Pentagon civilian and military officials were discussing the outlines of [JCS Chairman General Myers' report to Congress] on Monday as it was being officially delivered to Congress; one government official provided a copy to The New York Times. The officials who discussed the assessment demanded anonymity because it is a classified document.

The New York Sun has this to say:

Will the FBI investigate who gave the New York Times this week a classified assessment of American war fighting capabilities? When reporters, lobbyists, and foreign officials are leaked tidbits that advance the CIA or Foreign Service's agenda, nothing is said. But when the leaking is done by the bureaucracy's foes, reputations are ruined with whispers of treason. It's a moment to remember that those who petition the government, as Aipac and scores of other American organizations do, are protected by the exact same First Amendment prohibitions on the Congress that protect the press.

Will the FBI investigate?  It is difficult to know for sure...though I doubt it.  Why? Because I hate to assume anything and it is the government we are talking about here.

Which brings me to Michelle Malkin who has been following the treason charges of USAFR Col (ret) Larry Franklin in a story that is slowly gaining "legs."  In the mean time, the spin is already taking place.

Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce of Newsday.com have part of the story.  Here is an excerpt:

An analyst in a controversial Pentagon intelligence office was charged yesterday with passing top-secret information to two staff members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group here.

Charged was Larry Franklin, an Iran specialist who worked in the Office of Special Plans, established by Pentagon Undersecretary Douglas Feith in order to give Pentagon civilians an independent source of intelligence that could bolster the case for war with Iraq.

He was charged with passing highly classified information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to two individuals identified by sources as staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in June 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Also, David Horovits of the Jerusalem Post offers these details:

...AIPAC had deliberated long and hard in recent months about how to handle the developing story, which broke last summer in sensational fashion: CBS led its August 27 Nightly News with the claim of a "full-fledged espionage investigation under way," in which the FBI was about to "roll up" a suspected Israeli "mole" in the office of the secretary of defense in the Pentagon.

Then last December, The Jerusalem Post's Janine Zacharia detailed the dimensions of the affair, describing how the FBI "set up AIPAC." It used Franklin, she reported, to draw two senior AIPAC officials – Steve Rosen, the director of research, and Keith Weissman, deputy director of foreign policy issues – who already knew him into a lunch meeting with him in July 2004 and into accepting what he described to them as classified information...

Hmm, the FBI allowed TS/SCI information to be leaked in a sting operation.  If so, then Col Franklin is the ultimate fall guy. 

Also,

...Some in AIPAC have long urged that the lobby group make its officials available to the media in a concerted effort to demonstrate innocence, while others have counseled maximal discretion, arguing that the affair would play itself out without causing real damage.

The "keep quiet" advocates have prevailed thus far. But the notion that AIPAC can afford to confidently believe that it is off the hook does not square with the fact that it dramatically parted ways with Rosen and Weissman, the longtime officials to whom Franklin allegedly passed his classified information.

The more I read, the more questions I have.  I expect more details and commentary will emerge.  In the mean time, there are two points to consider:

First, I agree with Lucianne.com commenter "uffda" (emphasis added):

Remember folks, the document that Franklin allegedly passed was classified Top Secret/SCI-- meaning compartmented classified information. While "classified" information is leaked often in Washington, TS-compartmented information is a different story. The additional SCI classification puts documents so classified into another realm - as anyone who has ever been given an SCI clearance knows. The indictment also states that Franklin admitted to the FBI that, in addition to passing the TS/SCI document to two unidentified U.S. persons, he also, without authorization, disclosed classified U.S. information to a foreign official and media members. That is more in line with what other posters have alluded to--but is not what is the basis for the charge against Franklin. People have lost jobs for mishandling TS/SCI material just within their office spaces- the unauthorized disclosure of TS/SCI information is serious business and shouldn't be trivialized by apologists.

Second, silence is never a good option.  Soon enough the cyberwaves will be filled with analysis and spin...can AIPAC or the Pentagon afford to remain quiet?

Stay tuned for more details. 

Grief and Compassion

UPDATE:  More details are emerging around this photo:

Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days....

Read more at Michael Yon: Online Magazine

~~~~~~

The American soldier, sailor, airman, and marine are truly people of honor and compassion.  They do their duty day in and day out despite all the attacks and slants from those on the left.  The picture below commands your attention.

Niles Latham of the NY Post has an article featuring this picture.  Here is an excerpt (HT: Michelle Malkin):

May 4, 2005 -- This dramatic picture captures the awful human toll caused by latest upsurge of terrorist violence in Iraq — and the American effort to help.

This was the horrifying aftermath of a terrorist bombing attack on a U.S. military patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul — but the victim, this time, was a little innocent child.

Taken on Monday by an Army photographer, the moving photo shows a gallant U.S. soldier, clearly distraught, cradling the dying child in his arms.

Pardon My English has a great tribute that should inspire every service man and woman.   

I simply do not understand how the MSM/DNC can continue to cheer for our enemies when they cause young children to die.  It makes me sick. 

However, I am very proud of our young men and women who are sacrificing every day to guarantee not only our freedom, but the freedom of the Iraqi people who lived under years of totalitarian rule.

God Bless the USA and God Bless our troops.

Milblogs: 2nd/3rd Order Effects

We already know the effect military blogs have had on reporting stories and facts that go unreported or keeping the MSM/DNC honest about its portrayal of events in Iraq.  However, there are several positive about second and third order effects taking place with the rise of milblogs...

Here is a great story on the impact of a military weblog in the lives and education of young readers as well as the Marine returning from duty overseas...

Amy Doolittle of the Washington Times reports (here is an excerpt):

Students at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School at Gallaudet University had used e-mail and a school Web log to get first-hand accounts of the insurgency in Iraq and the daily survival of a U.S. Marine stationed there.

Yesterday, the 42 students met their personal link for the first time.

Sgt. Earl "Jay" Beatty, 31, joined the school's sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at a homecoming ceremony on Gallaudet's campus in Northeast. He returned home to Mitchellville March 18.

The students, who are deaf or have partial hearing loss, used sign-language interpreters to thank a tearful Sgt. Beatty and his wife, Donna, 30, for their contributions to their country and for their correspondence with the students.

"People who went to Vietnam didn't get thanks. Just to see how important this was to these kids means a lot," Sgt. Beatty said. "But to have a young man come up and give me a hug who has a hearing impediment and may not get the chances I have, and have him thank me for what I'm doing -- wow!"

The article goes on to detail how the students gained an appreciation for US Troops serving our country.  The article is a good read.

My point:  This was not part of an official public affairs campaign...it appears to have been a grass-roots activity.  I am sure the students got to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in their correspondence with the Marine Sergeant.

We need more stories like this...as well as more initiatives by our men and women serving our country to educate and inform young minds before they enter liberal academia and get brainwashed by left-wing propaganda. 

Milblogs seem to fit the bill...hence the second and third order effects.  Just something to think about.

Terrorist Strategy is Failing

If you have been listening to the MSM/DNC, you would be inclined to think the terrorists were winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and that American troops should quickly withdraw.  More importantly, you would believe the Administration was terribly wrong for bringing real freedom to the Iraqi people and use these MSM/DNC distortions to prove your point. 

However, the terrorist strategy is failing.  Ralph Peters (yes, he's the anti-Air Force dude), has an excellent column in today's New York Post that details this failure. 

All military members can agree on this column, plus, there are plenty of accounts published each day on Mudville Gazette that confirm Ralph Peter's point of view.  Here is an excerpt:

Terrorist and insurgent activity is down by half, free elections succeeded and a multi-ethnic government has been formed in Baghdad. The enemies of the new Iraq have failed to achieve a single one of their goals. They must be shocked and embittered.

Not one extremist strategy worked. The Coalition couldn't be dislodged, voting couldn't be stopped and the terrorists have had to watch supportive regimes in the neighborhood totter. All that our enemies have left is the dwindling hope that they can outlast America — that we'll succumb to impatience, our greatest national weakness...

...With national elections looming, the extremists went on a rampage, pulling out all the stops to derail the voting. Politicians, professors, doctors, teachers, policemen and security-force recruits were murdered in cold blood — en masse, whenever possible.

It was a desperate, foolish tactic to employ against Iraqis. Blinded by rage, the terrorists and insurgents proved more naive by far than Western generals. In a clan and tribal society, the murder of one innocent schoolteacher or municipal worker makes you hundreds of enemies. Iraq's "occupiers" looked pretty good in comparison...

...Iraq may prove to be the defeat that destroyed the allure of terrorism for hundreds of millions of discontented Muslims. Terrorists won't disappear, but the spotlight of Iraq has revealed them as savage, indiscriminate, blasphemous and, worst of all, incapable.

Read the entire column...lots of great news to report.

Real Superstars

This is worth re-reading (HT: Spouse Corner).  Ben Stein wrote his final bi-weekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's" and dedicated his final column to some real superstars. 

Morton's is a famous chain of steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.  Ben Stein would write about the many Hollywood stars he would see at Morton's and what they would say to him during dinner.

It is well worth your time to re-read Ben Stein's last column.  Here is an excerpt:

Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.

A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament. The policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery. The teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children. The kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse.

Now you have my idea of a real hero.

The rest of Ben Stein's final column is equally as good. 

Air Force Voices concurs with Ben Steins words.  Sometimes it is good to be reminded that there are Americans who appreciate the efforts of men and women sacrificing and serving worldwide.  We need more stories like this.

A Hero's Welcome

Tony Perry of the LAT has a heart-warming article about a patriotic group of Americans in Bangor, Maine who brave blizzards in the middle of the night to make sure all returning veterans from Iraq receive a Hero's Welcome.  Here is an excerpt: (HT: Michelle Malkin):

Composed mostly from the generation that served in World War II and Korea, they call themselves the Maine Troop Greeters. They have met every flight bringing troops home from Iraq for nearly two years — more than 1,000 flights and nearly 200,000 troops.

"Here they come. Everybody get ready," said Joyce Goodwin, 71, her voice full of excitement, undiminished by the hundreds of times she has shown up to embrace the returning troops.

As dozens more Marines came down the corridor, the applause grew louder and was accompanied by handshakes, hugs, and a stream of well wishes: "Welcome home." "Thank you for your service." "God bless you." "Thank you for everything."

Faces brightened. Grouchiness disappeared. Greeters and Marines alike began taking photographs. The Marines were directed down a corridor decorated with American flags and red, white and blue posters to cellphones for free calls to family members.

They found a table with cookies and candies. Plates of homemade fudge circulated.

Air Force Voices salutes the MAINE TROOP GREETERS (and the returning veterans too).  The efforts of these fine Americans are greatly appreciated and make me proud to be an American.