One of Ours

At least eight Palestinians were injured yesterday in the center of Nablus when a gunfight broke out between Hamas and Fatah activists.

The gunfight took place against the backdrop of elections to the student council of the Open Al-Quds University, based in the city's Rafadiyeh neighborhood.

Palestinian sources said it began as a brawl between Hamas activists, who were looking to set up a campaign booth on the university grounds, and Fatah youth, who wanted to stop them.

The brawl and shouting match soon turned into a knife fight, the sources said, adding a large group of Fatah activists then arrived on the scene and set fire to furniture and office equipment belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad opposition groups on campus. Shortly thereafter, the gunfight began...

...WALLACE: As a senator, do you think we have reached that stage [where Rumsfeld should resign]?

Senator Evan Bayh: No, Chris, I don't, and for the following reason, having thought about his response, I don't really think that his stepping down would placate those in the Arab world who have a problem with us at this point...I don't think Donald Rumsfeld ought to be made a scapegoat for that. Finally, I'd say, Chris, I suspect that if he does step down, it's going to be to try to alleviate any political problems the president has. And that's not an honorable way to do things. You don't throw a subordinate over the side just to save your own skin. So as long as he's carrying out the president's policies, and the president is satisfied with his behavior, then it's for the president to keep him...

[...]

WALLACE: Senator McCain, same question to you. What do you think Secretary Rumsfeld should do? Should he step down, and who should decide?

Sen. John McCain: I think it's the president's decision...I think it would be very premature. I, as I said, I think Secretary Rumsfeld is an honorable man who has served his country for many, many years...I certainly think it would be terribly premature to call for his resignation at this time...

[...]

MCCAIN: ...America is defined by its greatness, its goodness, and one of those factors is defined by our treatment of our enemies. We cannot be equated with those people. That's why we're in Iraq, to bring them a better life, to bring them freedom and democracy in an open society...

[...]

WALLACE: ...As you well know, some people are saying, "Let's not go overboard here. The treatment of prisoners all across the Middle East is far worse than what went on at Abu Ghraib, and you, perhaps, suffered much worse treatment during your five years in Vietnam." How do you respond to that?

MCCAIN: I respond by saying America's greatness is defined by the treatment of our enemies. And if we came to Iraq to install a regime, or just replace one authoritarian regime with another that's not quite so bad, it's not worth the sacrifice of over 700 American lives.

And we came there as a beacon of hope and liberty. And many of these kinds of words are being disparaged by many so-called "realists" now. But that's what America's all about. And if we treated prisoners the same way that — or to a lesser degree, but in a violation of the rules of war, and the clearly laid out Geneva Conventions, then we have to apologize, and we have to make sure that it never happened again.

And, again, to state the obvious, Chris, these young men and women are superb. They're wonderful. They're magnificent. Pat Tillman, I will celebrate his life and mourn his death for as long as I live. And their reputations are besmirched by this...

Current Projected Tally:
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Electoral Votes: Bush 227 Kerry 311
Popular Vote: Bush 47.13% Kerry 51.04%

The President's numbers have taken a definite hit from the Iraqi prisoner abuse story. As a result, the latest Election Projection shows Senator Kerry with a substantial lead. In fact, it's the biggest lead he's had this year. Adding in state polls doesn't change the result. Kerry's lead right now is pretty solid. He leads by almost 4% in popular vote, 51.04% - 47.13%. The electoral vote picture is even rosier for Mr. Kerry where he now has a 311-227 advantage. Both Florida and Ohio have switched sides since the last update and are now colored blue...

Iran has denied trying to build nuclear weapons, but journalists and international nuclear weapons inspectors have found otherwise. It is thought that Iran might assemble its first working nuclear weapon as early as this year. The Islamic conservatives who dominate the Iranian government, and run the nuclear weapons program, loudly and regularly proclaim that Israel and the United States are the greatest enemies of Islam and must be destroyed. Israel made a similar raid on an Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981. The targets are 1600-2500 kilometers away. Getting through Jordanian air space is not a major problem, as the use of surprise and electronic warfare techniques can disable Jordanian air defenses temporarily. Getting through Iraqi air space is not a problem either, although there will probably be an "understanding" that American jets and anti-aircraft missiles in the area will not fire on the Israelis. Israel has smart bombs and electronic warfare weapons that give it bombing capabilities comparable to that of the United States. The major risks in such an air raid would be that one of Israelis Boeing 707 aerial tankers would be shot down while refueling the Israeli warplanes.

Such an air raid would raise an enormous stink in the Moslem world, but the danger of Islamic radicals in Iran getting nuclear weapons is too great to ignore...

Meet Brian Chontosh...

...And a genuine hero.

The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.

At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow.

That’s a big deal.

But you won’t see it on the network news tonight, and all you read in Brian’s hometown newspaper was two paragraphs of nothing. Instead, it was more blather about some mental defective MPs who acted like animals.

The odd fact about the American media in this war is that it’s not covering the American military. The most plugged-in nation in the world is receiving virtually no true information about what its warriors are doing.

Oh, sure, there’s a body count. We know how many Americans have fallen. And we see those same casket pictures day in and day out. And we’re almost on a first-name basis with the pukes who abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we know all about improvised explosive devices and how we lost Fallujah and what Arab public-opinion polls say about us and how the world hates us.

We get a non-stop feed of gloom and doom.

But we don’t hear about the heroes.

The incredibly brave GIs who honorably do their duty. The ones our grandparents would have carried on their shoulders down Fifth Avenue.

The ones we completely ignore...

When I didn’t find the time yesterday to post an article I realized that we are in some kind of peak point in business and work here in Baghdad, I didn’t even find enough time to open my personal mail, and when a friend of mine from Basra said that he would e-mail me about something important three days ago and I didn’t receive any thing yet because he is busy with a contract about rehabilitation of 100 schools there, and when I received information about two Iraqi companies and another group of companies wins the bid to clean the mess and rebuild Faluja , and when I receive information about an Iraqi company joining with Ukrainian company to invest more than hundred millions dollars in one of the most important steel factories compound in Iraq and supplying job opportunities for more than 4000 Iraqi’s besides training ………..Then I would be sure that the peak is not only here in Baghdad its every where in Iraq. What’s more important that I am not the only one to see this and for sure that’s not every thing. Much more is being done.

Last Friday I took my family for lunch in one of the social clubs here in Baghdad, Where usually families gather for lunch and children play, men may discuss business, some may use the internet café, and people stays for the day. And there were hundreds of them. Nobody was talking about Mahdy militia or Abo Ghraib.

Not because we don’t care, actually we care too much but its very obvious that thing are heading to be solved and those who are wise enough are concentrating on how to achieve their goal in life.

Here in Baghdad any one can see that the media is talking about Abo Ghraib more than the Iraqis themselves.