Petrified Truth

Honor killings

Courageous Athena, far from home, has posted her brutally honest observations about "honor killings" and the attitudes of women in seemingly modern Jordan. From my perspective, sitting here as the father of three thoroughly modern young women, what she describes can only be called primitive and appalling. Athena is visiting another time as well as another place. And it's not even the most medieval part of the Middle East by far.

Her conclusion?

Don’t believe it when people tell you how modern a lot of the people in Jordan are.

It's one big facade.

They may be one of the most modern Middle Eastern countries, and they drive their 8 series BMWs, the women have the nicest clothes, they engage in talks about “freedom” and “feminism,” they seek out capitalistic business ventures, and they can quote Locke and Marx and Hume all they want.

These people are living lies. All the women here are veiled, whether the physical fabric is covering them or not.

And the men are just as blind.

Tip via PoliPundit.

Blogalicious

This is sweet.

A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.

Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that blog, defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks," was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.

Eight entries on the publisher's top-10 list related to major news events, from the presidential election -- represented by words such as incumbent and partisan -- to natural phenomena such as hurricane and cicada.

Springfield, Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster compiles the list each year by taking the most researched words on its Web sites and then excluding perennials such as affect/effect and profanity.

Read the list via Merriam-Webster. No. 10 is an old favorite.

Jihadism examined

STRATFOR's George Friedman examines the history and evolution of jihadism in a report reprinted at The Braden Files. It's a useful summary of one dimension (out of many) of the challenges faced by the West in its evolving face-off with relentless enemies.

In the course of relatively few years, jihadism has burgeoned from a low-key movement seeking the ouster of corrupt regimes in the Muslim world into a global phenomenon that seeks to eradicate Western influence from that world. Though the movement is encapsulated in the minds of the public by the person of Osama bin Laden, it is important to understand that the phenomenon is not restricted to a particular group or brand of groups, but rather is a broad ideological movement to which many disparate groups -- separated by geography, individual motivations and even immediate political goals -- may belong.

For our purposes, jihadism is defined as an ideology espoused by a fringe minority of various extremist Muslim groups, all operating on the periphery of the Islamist political spectrum. The movement has appropriated the notion of jihad ( "righteous struggle") in calling for the use of force - against either military or civilian targets -- by non-state actors whose ultimate objective is to establish an Islamic state.

The movement, which has been propelled by a number of events during the course of the past half-century, today is being driven forward chiefly by two factors: the continued decentralization of al Qaeda and the U.S. occupation of Iraq....

Prior to al Qaeda's emergence, the jihadist movement lacked a standard-bearer. Instead, it was a grouping of religious scholars and activists, rallying to various interpretations of the Koran and Sunnah. To some extent, that reality continues today -- though the movement as a whole is heavily influenced by al Qaeda's Wahhabi extremism. However, al Qaeda does not represent the sum total of jihadism. Bin Laden views himself and his organization as a vanguard for the wider movement.

Ultimately, the jihadists are set apart from other Muslims by their use of jihad as a vehicle to establish an Islamic polity -- a departure from the classic conception of jihad as an affair to be conducted by Islamic authorities, such as the caliphates and various local or regional emirates. The philosophy that non-state actors can appropriate jihad - which has been the prerogative of a state entity -- is an unprecedented intellectual development in the history of Islam. More.

C.S. Lewis, prophet?

Today is the anniversary of the birth of C.S. Lewis -- author, scholar, Christian apologist, and former atheist who was, at a crucial moment in his life, persuaded by his friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien to believe in Christianity.

Chuck Colson marvels at how Lewis became "a true prophet for our postmodern age." (Tip via Michelle Malkin.)

Why was Lewis so uncannily prophetic? At first glance he seems an unlikely candidate. He was not a theologian; he was an English professor. What was it that made him such a keen observer of cultural and intellectual trends?

The answer may be somewhat discomfiting to modern evangelicals: One reason is precisely that Lewis was not an evangelical. He was a professor in the academy, with a specialty in medieval literature, which gave him a mental framework shaped by the whole scope of intellectual history and Christian thought. As a result, he was liberated from the narrow confines of the religious views of the day—which meant he was able to analyze and critique them.

Oddly, the anniversary of Lewis's death was just a week ago. Last year, this quote came to mind.

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality."

Meaning of Advent

Rev. Donald Sensing had a thoughtful (as always) sermon yesterday, reflecting on Fallujah, the end of history, and the meaning of Advent.

The Scripture for the first Sunday of each Advent season always looks forward to the return of Christ. The Advent season, celebrating Christ’s incarnation, is always begun with passages to remind us that the reign of God over human affairs is ultimate and for all time. Advent thus does not celebrate only Christmas, Christ’s first coming among us. It also looks ahead to the completion of God’s redemptive acts in the coming again of Christ in judgment. Advent’s first question is quite properly, “Are you ready for Christ?” rather than “Are you ready for Christmas?”

Yet the coming of Jesus in the manger and Christ’s coming again in judgment are not so very different. Business as usual describes not only the world when Christ will come again, but also the world when Jesus was born. After all, Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem in the first place because their taxes had been raised. There sure isn’t anything unusual about that!

The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was an act of God’s judgment on the world. No savior would have been born if the world had no need for a savior. When we celebrate Christmas we celebrate the judgment of God on each of us. To visit the manger is both to be indicted by God and invited by God to be reconciled.
More.

Church as counterculture

The ebbing of Christian, especially Roman Catholic, influence on European society is a huge social and moral change in European culture. Now the Catholic Church is responding with tactics like "urban missions" aimed at young people.

Now that it is often treated like a maligned minority, the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe has decided to start acting like one, too.

Taking a page from pressure-group tactics, the church is increasingly staging "Catholic pride" events in public, and it's training members to stand up for their faith on the world's most secularized continent.

This new self-confidence marks a sharp departure from the defensive stand the once-powerful church had taken since the 1960s in Europe, where religious practice has collapsed and Catholicism is often the butt of cruel jokes.

With such vital signs as baptisms, Sunday Mass attendance and new priestly vocations having fallen so low, some in the church think the only way it can go now is up.

"Something is changing," Brussels Cardinal Godfried Danneels told Reuters at a weeklong conference in Paris aimed at rekindling the faith in the not-very-religious French capital.

"The church had descended into the catacombs and was afraid of public manifestations. Now Catholics are a minority and, like all minorities, they don't have complexes. They are much less afraid of professing their faith than they were 20 years ago."

Europe's younger generation also has changed, Danneels said during the "urban mission" drive attended by Catholics from around Europe in late October.

"They are completely ignorant of most things about the Christian faith, but they are open to listen," he said.

The Paris "urban mission" effort — conferences and concerts attracting Catholics from around Europe — was part of a five-year drive launched in 2003 in Vienna and due to continue in coming years in Lisbon, Portugal; Brussels, Belgium; and Budapest, Hungary.

This campaign to strengthen Catholicism in Europe is a telling turnaround for a region once so solidly Christian that it sent missionaries around the world.

Short Straw

This is nothing short of repulsive.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has laid a wreath at the grave of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Mr Straw is meeting Palestinian leaders at their headquarters in the occupied West Bank, following talks in Israel. He has offered Britain's help in ensuring a smooth succession to Arafat. He earlier said solving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is his priority.

British writer Melanie Phillips understands.

Our Foreign Secretary progresses from supine to sick. A garland for terror and respect for mass murder. Who said New Labour had no continuity with British history?

Medal of Honor recognition

This was a welcome educational announcement earlier this month from Texas Gov. Rick Perry with support from erratic, but patriotic, billionaire Ross Perot.

Gov. Rick Perry today announced that 10,000 copies of the book “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty” have been donated to the State of Texas and will be made available to every school district in the state.

“Today, I am proud to announce that the book chronicling the personal stories of 116 Medal of Honor recipients will be made available to every Texas public school district free of charge,” Perry said. “To a great extent, the character of our country has been forged through the actions and sacrifices of these heroes. It is my hope that this book will inspire our youngest generation to ponder the great price that has been paid for freedom, and to make the same commitment generations past have made on its behalf.”

Joining the governor at the announcement were Medal of Honor recipients Mike Thornton, Bob O’Malley and David McNerney. Thornton was a Navy SEAL wounded while rescuing two comrades during an intense gun battle with more than 50 enemy soldiers. O’Malley is the first living Marine from the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor; he single-handedly eliminated an enemy stronghold and then helped his men evacuate. McNerney was an Army sergeant wounded after he assumed command of his company when his commander was killed in action; he then destroyed an enemy machine gun position and cleared a helicopter landing zone so his wounded friends could be evacuated.

“These remarkable stories of courage remind us of the great price that has been paid to secure our freedom, and I am proud to help make this book available to the schoolchildren of Texas,” said Ross Perot, who donated the books to the state.

“Over the years, Mr. Perot has shown an unwavering commitment to the education of our children and a profound support for our military men and women,” Perry said. “This generous contribution of 10,000 books continues in that spirit and I thank him on behalf of the people of Texas.”

The American Association of Publishers has agreed to pay for the shipping costs and the Resolve Corp., a distribution and fulfillment company, will coordinate the distribution of the books with the Texas Education Agency. The book was written by Peter Collier and published by Artisan Books.

Since 1861, the United States has recognized its most heroic soldiers by awarding the Medal of Honor to those who have gone beyond the call of duty in combat to accomplish critical objectives or save the lives of their fellow soldiers and innocent civilians. Of the 3,440 individuals who have received the Medal of Honor, fewer than 140 recipients are alive today.

“Since our country’s founding, our freedom has been purchased at great cost by men and women who have confronted evil with courage and placed themselves in harm’s way for the liberty of others,” Perry said. “For the future of our nation, and for the honor due these heroes, we have an obligation to pass on their stories to current and future generations.”

Related:

• Peter Collier - Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty
• U.S. Army Center of Military History - Medal of Honor Citations

Diana Krall takes off

Coolness: listen to pianist/singer Diana Krall's extended interview on NPR's Morning Edition.

Jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall became a Grammy winner putting her distinctive stamp on other people's music, bringing enormous emotional power to old standards. But now she's writing her own tunes, in an evolution unpopular with some of her fans and some critics, as well.

Her concert in Houston last July, as noted then, was first-rate, funkier and more soulful than expected. She's taking off in new directions.

Pat Tillman - SI Sportsman of the Year

Why vote for the late Pat Tillman as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year? Recall via John McCain's moving eulogy of this national hero.

Pat Tillman understood his obligations, no better than his comrades in arms, perhaps, but better than many of his contemporaries. He must have known that such debts are not a burden, but that their recompense earns us our happiness. So he volunteered to take his place in the ranks, and defend his country in a time of peril.

Then vote here.

• Backcountry Conservative
• BlackFive
• Blogs of War (includes voting tips)

Fun stuff

Shopping for children's holiday gifts? Eschew those meaningless shiny baubles in the toy aisles and pick out good books (that children will really like) instead. Visit Book Moot for expert recommendations.

The new home front

Daniel Henninger notes that the "home front" in the Global War on [Islamic] Terror is emerging spontaneously and finding its voice on the Internet.

Support for the U.S. soldiers fighting the war on terror is coming together in a traditional American way--as spontaneous, private, voluntary pro-soldier groups of like-minded citizens. This is the real American home front in the war on terror. It properly has little to do with Homeland Security, Defense, the White House or any other part of the government.

The groups have names like Adopt a Platoon, Homes for Our Troops, Soldiers Angels, Operation Mom and Operation Gratitude. The larger, traditional organizations are also there--the VFW, the American Legion and the USO. The Intrepid Museum Foundation, which runs the famous battleship site in Manhattan, has a strong program called the Fallen Heroes Fund.

It's better that home-front support for the troops should come bottom-up like this rather than from the government. Many in the U.S. are still having difficulty coming to grips with the nature of the war on terror or are discomfited by the war in Iraq. World War II was fought on many well-known fronts and without each bad day or explosion elevated to top-news status (with today's electronic world, we'd have never made it to 1944). Now we have a volunteer home front for a volunteer army. More.

Related:

• America Supports You announced
• Ways to Help

Post-Thanksgiving

Well, back now from a 5:30 a.m. trip to CompUSA's post-Thanksgiving supersale, along with other diehards and insomniacs. Scarfed up a Motorola wireless router for $9.99 after rebates and a few other goodies. Lots of folks lining up at the malls, etc.

Don't know what President Bush is doing today, but it sounds like he had a good Thanksgiving Day yesterday.

President Bush spent a down-to-earth Thanksgiving Day at his ranch eating leftovers and riding his mountain bike — a world away from Baghdad, his secret destination a year ago.

Bush also called members of the military stationed around the world, most of them deployed to the Middle East.

It was a dual celebration: His twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, marked their 23rd birthdays on the family's ranch. Also at the home were Laura Bush and her mother, Jenna Welch, and the president's parents, former President Bush and Barbara Bush.

The family worked on leftovers from Wednesday's luncheon meeting with Spain's King Carlos and Queen Sofia. That meal had a Thanksgiving theme, with free-range turkey and gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, bass caught at the ranch, stuffing, pan-roasted vegetables, pecan and pumpkin pies with ice cream. There was cake Thursday for the twins' birthdays.

Bush also rode his bicycle on the trails at the 1,600-acre ranch, and chopped cedar, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

Our feast yesterday was also great and we anticipate succulent leftovers too.

Salute to the Armed Forces

This is 100% schmaltz, and commercial schmaltz at that, but it's really good schmaltz: Homecoming, by Ford Motor Co.

Tip via ...right justified

T-Day

Thanksgiving Day is mostly about family and friends, for which we are profoundly grateful. But let's not forget some important neighbors serving far away. This editorial from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sums things up pretty well.

Pause a moment over your Thanksgiving turkey to remember those whose only repast today will be labeled MRE, for "meals-ready-to-eat."

Two days ago, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and police commandos began an offensive against Sunni Muslim insurgents in a group of lawless towns southwest of Baghdad, popularly known as the "triangle of death." Call it Fallujah, Round Two.

Americans being Americans, the U.S. military dubbed the new push Operation Plymouth Rock. It began in the town of Jabala but was planned to reach across the Sunni area southwest of Baghdad, where rebels rule the streets after scaring off police.

It's the gritty urban warfare that many observers warned would come. The enemy wears no uniform. Civilian casualties haunt young Americans to whom the deaths of innocents is an abhorrent reality.

What they face today and tomorrow is almost impossible for most of us to imagine -- like missing a meal, or taking Thanksgiving dinner out of plastic stamped "MRE."

On this day -- and every day -- we remain grateful for the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.

Tip via Target Centermass.

UPDATE: Via the omniscient InstaPundit, here's a very comprehensive list of ways you can support our military and their families. Pick one.

Gravy on the keyboard...

Uh-oh.

It's that time again: the internets are closing for the holiday. Anyone caught posting after, say, 7 PM Wednesday evening or before 1 PM next Monday is officially a pathetic, internet-addicted loser.

Tip via Terry Teachout.

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Here is President Bush's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.

All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God.

Almost four centuries ago, the Pilgrims celebrated a harvest feast to thank God after suffering through a brutal winter. President George Washington proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, and President Lincoln revived the tradition during the Civil War, asking Americans to give thanks with "one heart and one voice." Since then, in times of war and in times of peace, Americans have gathered with family and friends and given thanks to God for our blessings.

Thanksgiving is also a time to share our blessings with those who are less fortunate. Americans this week will gather food and clothing for neighbors in need. Many young people will give part of their holiday to volunteer at homeless shelters and food pantries. On Thanksgiving, we remember that the true strength of America lies in the hearts and souls of the American people. By seeking out those who are hurting and by lending a hand, Americans touch the lives of their fellow citizens and help make our Nation and the world a better place.

This Thanksgiving, we express our gratitude to our dedicated firefighters and police officers who help keep our homeland safe. We are grateful to the homeland security and intelligence personnel who spend long hours on faithful watch. And we give thanks for the Americans in our Armed Forces who are serving around the world to secure our country and advance the cause of freedom. These brave men and women make our entire Nation proud, and we thank them and their families for their sacrifice.

On this Thanksgiving Day, we thank God for His blessings and ask Him to continue to guide and watch over our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 25, 2004, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship to reinforce the ties of family and community and to express gratitude for the many blessings we enjoy.

Amen to that.

Thanks for life itself

Troops serving in Iraq have their own priorities for giving thanks this week.

Six hundred thirty times since the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment arrived in Iraq last March, they have been attacked by the enemy.

Sometimes a roadside bomb blows up next to a truck. A mortar explodes in the middle of the base. Insurgents pop out from hidden positions and open fire with AK-47 rifles on a whole convoy. In Iraq, the front lines are nowhere, and they are everywhere.

At a base like FOB MacKenzie, home of the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, it is hard to find an infantryman, engineer, supply sergeant, pilot or clerk who hasn’t had a close brush with death. Most have had several.

They’ve lived through things they’ll never share with anyone except other combat veterans and fought fear beyond anything most civilians will ever feel. The experience has changed some of them in ways they don’t yet realize.

“These guys are battle-hardened. There isn’t anybody who hasn’t been under attack,” said Maj. Kirk Dorr, 38, of Marlboro, Mass., the squadron’s operations officer. “The logisticians and convoy supporters see just as much contact as our line troops.”

Seven 1-4 Cavalry troopers and one civilian from MacKenzie have died in the nine months since the unit took over the former Iraqi airfield 20 miles east of Samarra. More than 50 others have been wounded.

Hundreds of 1-4 Cavalry soldiers have dodged death by a whisker, aided by luck, pluck or divine providence. Almost everyone here can name three or four or more occasions he should have died, but didn’t.

“I can’t even count them,” said Spc. Joshua Burgess, 25, of Arlington, Texas, a member of Troop B. He has lived through two bomb attacks on his convoy the same day and countless pot shots he describes as “nothing really significant.”

For thousands of soldiers in the war zone, life itself is something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

“I’m thankful for having all my fingers and toes,” said Spc. Jose Bartual, 26, of New York City.

The truth about Fallujah

Here is more of the ugly reality being learned following the long overdue battle for Fallujah in Iraq.

U.S. Marine officers said today that U.S. and Iraqi troops sweeping Fallujah have uncovered enough weapons to fuel a nationwide rebellion and that clearing the former insurgent bastion of arms is holding up the return of civilians.

Most of Fallujah's estimated 250,000 civilians left the central Iraq city ahead of the devastating Nov. 8 assault and "it will be probably several more weeks" before significant numbers of them can return, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

"We are looking at a very dense city, of some 50,000 structures -- each and every one of them has a potential (weapons) cache hidden inside," he told reporters.

Searching out and disposing of weapons is "very tedious hard work for the Marines," he said. "People still have to be patient, they need to have a safe and secure environment before they can go back."

Without providing details, Wilson called the amount of arms uncovered in Fallujah "stunning."

"The amount of weapons was in no way just to protect a city," said Maj. Jim West, a Marine intelligence officer. "There was enough to mount an insurgency across the country."

A huge store of weapons and explosives was discovered at the mosque of Abdullah al-Janabi, a Muslim cleric and insurgent leader, according to a report on The New York Times' Web site. Al-Janabi is thought to have fled the city.

The Times said the mosque compound in a residential area had sheds stacked with TNT, mortar shells, bombs, guns, rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition. A naval mine was in the street outside, it added.

Military officers told the Times there were no arms in al-Janabi's nearby house, but they said they discovered files on people who had been tortured and executed for cooperating with U.S. authorities and their allies.

Marines clearing houses in Fallujah have found Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and heavy-caliber cannon -- with weapons caches often marked by a brick hanging by a string on homes' outside walls.

U.S. and Iraqi forces moving into the city smashed much of the insurgents' weaponry, bending gun barrels to prevent future use. Many large weapons caches were blown up quickly with only a cursory attempt at inventory.

West noted that insurgents stashed arms in mosques. "Even gravesides were used to bury weapons," he said.

West said U.S. forces turned up a "cook book" with instructions on using mercury nitrate and silver nitrate and descriptions of nerve agents. He didn't elaborate.

West said the majority of the weapons caches were in the south, as the insurgents likely expected the attack to be initiated from there.

Via Winds of Change, here's a 59-slide PowerPoint deck prepared by an exploitation team presenting photographs and other astounding and disturbing details.

Via BlackFive, here are first-hand reports from the Marines who took the city back from jihadist fanatics at point-blank range. The word "heroism" comes to mind immediately. God bless them all.

Iran's nuke program

Here's new information from the CIA confirming suspicions about the connection between Iran's nuclear program and Pakistan.

A new report from the CIA says the arms trafficking network led by a Pakistani scientist provided Iran's nuclear program with "significant assistance," including the designs for "advanced and efficient" weapons components.

The unclassified version of the report, posted Tuesday on the agency's Web site, does not say explicitly whether the network led by A.Q. Khan sold Iran complete plans for building a warhead, as the network is known to have done for Libya and perhaps North Korea. But it suggests that U.S. intelligence agencies now believe that the bomb-making designs provided by the network to Iran in the 1990s were more significant than the U.S. government had previously disclosed.

Until now, in discussing Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials have referred publicly only to the Khan network's role in supplying designs for older Pakistani centrifuges used to enrich uranium. But American officials have also suspected that the Khan network also provided Iran with a warhead design.

The CIA report is the first to assert that the designs provided to Iran also included those for weapons components.

Related: CIA Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions.

America Supports You

Here is a worthy cause for you to support in a time of great stress on our military and their families. Read the story.

The Defense Department has launched a new program to showcase America's support for the men and women of the armed forces and the myriad ways the country is expressing that support.

"America Supports You" is designed to gather information about the many activities and programs Americans have launched to show support for the troops — and most importantly, to ensure they and their families know about it, Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told Pentagon reporters today.

Abell said communicating America's support for servicemembers and their families is a big morale booster for "those who are fighting to defend our freedom" and communicates America's "recognition and appreciation of the courage and commitment of those who serve."

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Americans have come together as never before, united in their resolve against their terrorist enemies, Abell said. "And in the three years since Sept. 11, 2001, throughout our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere around the world, the American people have stood solidly behind our military personnel, both men and women, and their families," he said.

That support spans every segment of society — from individuals and families to schools to local communities to major, multinational corporations, Abell said, "all doing their part to show their appreciation for the dedication and sacrifice of America's fighting forces."

But despite the outpouring of support, said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, servicemembers aren't always aware of it. "We've heard troops in the field asking if Americans are still supporting them," she said, "and we were determined to be able to answer that question in a meaningful way."

The America Supports You program will ensure servicemembers know about their many acts of gratitude — including activities conducted at the local level, said Barber, who will run the program.

The program encourages people to visit a Web site and share details about their project or activity. By doing so, they can sign up to receive a military-style dog tag with the "America Supports You" logo that provides a tangible symbol of their support.

Then visit the website. Show your support.

Alexander the not-so-Great

If the idea of dishonest Oliver Stone filming a mammoth biopic of Alexander the Great gives you pause from the get-go, your already low expectations are being confirmed by film critics. Here's David Elliott in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Working on a scale so vast that his head exploded, Oliver Stone clearly lost direction.

That probably won't make the blurbs in ads for the movie, but sounds like as succint a summary as we really need. Recommendation: avoid.

Better choice: In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, the eloquent 1998 documentary by scholar-filmmaker Michael Wood.

The Bush insurgency

Invoking the term "insurgency," Fred Barnes explains how George W. Bush has steadfastly refused to be "housebroken" by the Beltway establishment that presides in Washington, D.C.

The scheming in Washington as President Bush prepares for his second term is easily explained. It's the insurgents versus the Washington establishment, and the insurgents are winning.

Mr. Bush finds himself in the unusual position--for a president, anyway--as leader of the insurgents. Unlike other presidents who came to Washington with bold plans, Mr. Bush has not been housebroken by establishment forces. Even Ronald Reagan made peace with Washington. Mr. Bush hasn't. He wants to impose a breathtakingly conservative agenda in his second term, one that has prompted cries of protest from establishment figures like David Gergen, aide to four presidents, and the voice of the Beltway, the Washington Post.

By Washington standards, Mr. Bush is a misfit. He's different. He barely socializes at all and on weekends and holidays makes a beeline for Camp David or his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He'd rather invite Christian musician Michael W. Smith and his wife to the White House for dinner than eat out. If Mr. Bush really wanted to soothe establishment types, he'd invite them to state dinners at the White House, after which their names would be in the paper. But he's held fewer state dinners than any president in memory.

Mr. Bush is also a seriously religious man in a largely secular town. This has brought him no end of criticism. He also refuses to hide his loathing of the press, probably the most dominant force in Washington. In short, Mr. Bush hasn't tried to fit in.

If Mr. Bush is anxious his insurgency might fail, he hasn't let on. On the contrary, he exudes confidence that, despite the establishment, he'll succeed in his second term. Mr. Bush did make one bow to the establishment last week. He showed up in a tuxedo at the British embassy for a party honoring Ms. Rice. "One tux a term," a White House official said. "That's our idea of outreach to the Washington community."

Trapped like rats?

This from The Telegraph in London sounds encouraging.

Hundreds of Iraqi insurgents are trapped inside the "Triangle of Death" following the American assault on Fallujah and the blocking of key escape routes by the Black Watch, according to a British military intelligence officer.

He said a "hornet's nest" of insurgents had been stirred by the arrival of the Black Watch and the Queen's Dragoon Guards three weeks ago.

"British troops and US forces have sealed off the insurgents' escape routes and they have nowhere to go," he said. "They are fixed in that area and they are angry.

"There are still some routes out but they are along small, winding roads where they can get bogged down or where they might run into British or American patrols." British and US troops were moving slowly into the "nest", setting up roadblocks, searching for insurgents and seeking intelligence that would help to identify them.

UPDATE: Here's some new information from the U.S. military via AP.

Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive Tuesday aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella in Babil province, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. Jabella is 50 miles south of Baghdad.

Insurgent violence has increased in the areas south of the capital in "an apparent attempt to divert attention" away from the U.S-led assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah, the military said.

The cluster of dusty, small towns located south of the capital, has been a major area for insurgent activity. U.S. and Iraqi forces have come under repeated attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms fire in the area.

The region has become known as a "triangle of death" for the numerous attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs on Shiites, Westerners and members of the Iraqi security services.

In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents in the area, the statement said.

It would seem that this campaign is aimed at the urgent situation described earlier by Iraqi blogger Alaa at The Mesopotamian in posts here and here.

Fallujah results

Here's a report from a brigade commander in Iraq on just some of what was accomplished in Fallujah, shared via NRO's The Corner.

The insurgents used 60 of the Mosques as fighting positions and weapons caches during the battle - that's 3 of every 5 Mosques in the city. 653 IEDs were found and detonated by coalition forces - 11 IED "factories" were also found, not to mention the slaughter houses and just run-of-the-mill weapons stockpiles.

What a rat's nest has been cleaned out.

UPDATE: PowerLine has even more:

It's horrifying reading--cages, blood, masks, blood-stained knives, bloody handprints on walls, facilities for torturing and murdering prisoners. Over it all, a banner that says: "There is no God but God."

Plane crashed on way to pick up Bush 41

Tragic news from our area this morning, with an extra-creepy angle for Houston:

A small passenger plane that crashed along Beltway 8 this morning, killing all three on board, was on its way to pick up former President Bush as its passenger, his office said.

The plane was about to land at Hobby Airport when it crashed between Wayside and Cullen, raining down debris on drivers and closing the tollway in both directions.

Just 1-1/2 miles from Hobby's Runway 4, the plane clipped a light pole in the fog just past the Wayside exit's toll booth, then plunged into a field north of the beltway. Debris flung from the plane damaged at least three cars on the tollway, narrowly missing those inside the cars and apparently causing no injuries.

Investigators said the aircraft was a private Gulfstream jet capable of carrying about a dozen passengers, but it was believed to be carrying only a flight attendant and two pilots traveling from Dallas Love Field to Hobby to pick up passengers. One of those passengers was former President Bush, who canceled a trip to Ecuador after the crash.

UPDATE: Blogs of War has been cataloging the paranoid ravings at Democratic Underground as they heap their scorn and hatred on this tragic event. Ugh.

Iran and the EU

Harvard arms control specialist Matthew Bunn was interviewed on NPR this morning about Iran's aggressive nuclear weapons development program.

Bunn pegs his hopes on the U.S. joining the EU-led negotiations. But the editors of the Wall Street Journal, after a review of Iran's duplicitous track record, understand the real story here.

All of this should make it obvious that Iran fully intends to develop the nuclear bomb into which it has sunk some $16 billion over the years. It also seems obvious that Iran is using its so-called dialogue with the Europeans to win the time and diplomatic wriggle room to do so. So why are the Europeans going along with this charade? Maybe they really believe that Iranian good faith can be purchased by what they have to offer in terms of carrots and sticks. But we doubt it. Europeans are not as self-deceived as all that.

A more plausible explanation is that the Europeans are complicit with Iran in this diplomatic charade. That's not to say Berlin, London or even Paris welcome the idea of a nuclear Iran. But they see it as a soon-to-be fact of international life that will have to be managed, just as other unsavory nuclear powers such as the Soviet Union and China were managed.

By contrast, what the Europeans really seem to dread are the potential consequences of a more determined American effort to halt Tehran, especially if that effort includes a pre-emptive military strike against Iranian nuclear installations.

This, then, is what the latest Iranian-European deal is about. It is not mainly intended to stop Iran from getting a bomb. Mainly, it is intended to stop the U.S. from stopping Iran.

We are not suggesting that the only feasible alternative to Europe's current effort is military action. But as Mr. Bush considers his options, it's important that everyone acknowledges just what the Europeans are offering. It is not diplomacy with the country of Iran. It is pre-emptive capitulation in the war on terror.

It doesn't seem likely that our President will go down that fruitless path. Everyone just keep in mind why.

Europe, thy name is cowardice

Via David Kaspar, read a "blistering" attack on Western appeasement of radical Islam by outspoken German publishing executive Matthias Döpfner.

Appeasement stabilized communism in the Soviet Union and East Germany in that part of Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo and we Europeans debated and debated until the Americans came in and did our work for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore 300,000 victims of Saddam’s torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, to issue bad grades to George Bush.

For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy—because everything is at stake.

While the alleged capitalistic robber barons in American know their priorities, we timidly defend our social welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive. We’d rather discuss the 35-hour workweek or our dental health plan coverage. Or listen to TV pastors preach about "reaching out to murderers."

These days, Europe reminds me of an elderly aunt who hides her last pieces of jewelry with shaking hands when she notices a robber has broken into a neighbor’s house. Europe, thy name is cowardice.

Tip via Tim Blair.

Note the apocalyptic post from Steven den Beste in the Comments.

Little Melissa

RJ, an Army Reserve chaplain in Iraq, has been blogging as Strider172 from Deep in Mordor, where the Shadows lie. His unit is scheduled to come home in a few weeks. On day of 306 in theater, he pauses to pass on the heartwarming story of Little Melissa.

Little Melissa comes home from first grade and tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks, "will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?"

Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," she says.

"Why Osama Bin Laden?" her father asks, in shock.

"Well," she says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little. And if other kids saw what I did and sent valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."

Her father's heart swells with pride and he looks at his daughter with new found pride. "Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard!"

“I know," Melissa says. "And once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could blow the $&@# out of him."

As RJ says:

HAVE YOU PRAYED TODAY FOR THE SAFETY OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS? FOR GOD TO SEND CONFUSION TO THE ENEMY? FOR THE WICKED TO BE BOUND WITH THE CORDS OF THEIR OWN INIQUITY? IF NOT, PERHAPS NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO DO JUST THAT!

Consider it done. Come home safely, RJ.

Bush rescues his Secret Service agent

Don't mess with Texas, indeed.

President Bush broke up a fight last night between his lead Secret Service agent and a Chilean security detail, pulling the agent through a wall of men trying to bar his bodyguard's access to a state dinner.

Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush arrived at 8 p.m. local time yesterday at the Estacion Mapocho Cultural Center for the official dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

After the first couple posed for photos with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his wife, the four entered the doorway with a line of Chilean security guards and uniformed police closing quickly behind him.

The president's lead agent approached the line of men as quickly as it closed and demanded to be allowed through. Within a few seconds, the confrontation began to escalate with voices being raised and shoving in all directions.

"You're not stopping me! You're not stopping me!" yelled the agent, as captured by several television cameras. "I'm with the president."

During the fracas, another Secret Service agent was roughly pulled from the tumult and pushed against a concrete wall by Chilean security. A few seconds later, after posing for yet more pictures about 15 feet inside the doorway, Mr. Bush and the rest of the party turned to enter the dining room. But the president quickly turned his head to the growing din just outside.

Mr. Bush calmly turned right as the other three continued on and inserted himself into the fight. The president reached over two rows of Chilean security guards, grabbed his lead agent by the shoulder of his suit jacket and began to pull.

A few Chilean guards turned their heads and noticed that the arm draped over their shoulders was that of the president, and the line softened. Mr. Bush pulled his agent through, who was heard to say, "Get your hands off me" as he passed roughly through the doorway.

Mr. Bush then adjusted his shirt cuff and said something to the first dignitary he passed as a grin crossed his face. More.

Tip via PoliPundit. Photos via Yahoo! News. Video via The Daily Recycler

No protest to the United Nations. No public trashing of his security detail like John Kerry. Just do it. And that's why we re-elected him.

UPDATE: Paul at Wizbang speculates on how other presidents and wannabe presidents would have handled the scene.

UPDATE: Paul at Wizbang has second thoughts now, about the potential security risk to President Bush when he reached into a melee. Methinks he frets too much, but it's not unfounded.

A seed change in the American imagination

Ground-breaking author Ray Bradbury is growing impatient waiting for America to return to space. What will spur us on? A challenge...

In this time when our freeways are frozen in place, space travel suffers the same terrible winter. Years have passed since Apollo 11, with only faint cries for a lunar rediscovery, then Mars and beyond.

How can we thaw this deep-freeze to unlock our vision so that we see the stars once more with the same fever that we knew that fabulous night we took the first Giant Step?

What we need now is a competition of hatreds and loves. The final reward on Mars might well be not spices or gold, but the squashing of egos and a promise of immortality.

In any event, time is running out. Congress, as usual, is imitating Sleeping Beauty. It is time to waken from the slumber.

That footprint on the moon is being filled with eternal dust and Mars still waits to have its canals filled with our dreams. Where, oh where, is the technological madman to wake us from our slumbers and provide us with the proper destiny?

Tomorrow morning, may that madman be born.

Iraq intensifies

Tough action is happening across the deadly Sunni Triangle in Iraq, including many areas of Baghdad itself.

Baghdad exploded in violence Saturday, as insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol and a police station, assassinated four government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and nine were wounded during clashes that also left three Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.

Some of the heaviest violence came in Azamiyah, a largely Sunni Arab district of Baghdad where a day earlier U.S. troops raided the capital's main Sunni mosque. Shops were in flames, and a U.S. Humvee burned, with the body of what appeared to be its driver inside.

U.S. forces and insurgents also battled in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, where clashes have been seen almost daily. Nine Iraqis were killed and five wounded in Saturday's fighting, hospital officials said.

Zeyad at Healing Iraq says the fighting has been happening right on his doorstep.

I was supposed to leave for Basrah this morning, as soon as I walked out of the front door I was face to face with ten or so hooded men dressed in black carrying Ak-47's and RPG's. They had set up a checkpoint right in front of our door.

Someone barked at me to go inside. Nabil was also about to leave for his school. His driver had just called him and said that he was turned back at the street entrance by another checkpoint. We looked at the main intersection and it was swarming with armed men running about and motioning drivers and pedestrians to leave the area.

We watched them from behind the door with my mother frantically trying to get us inside. There was an exchange of fire and someone was bellowing "Where are the National traitors? (referring to the National Guards) Let them come and taste this." More shooting followed.

Tens of voices on the street were chanting "Allahu Akbar" and the ground beneath us suddenly shook from a nearby explosion. The shooting was frantic now and a series of explosions followed. Everyone in the house rushed to open windows to prevent their shattering from the pressure.

BlackFive has gathered an impressive set of frontline reports about the Battle of Fallujah, testaments to the fortitude and courage of our Marines and soldiers.

Fallujah was just the beginning of an entire campaign, which will involve both proactive and reactive engagements, as predicted some days ago by Belmont Club as the "River War."

[I]t is likely that while the battle for Fallujah is ending, the campaign for the Sunni Triangle is just beginning.

It's a campaign, not a battle for a single town, and at issue is the destruction or survival of the Sunni insurgency. The enemy is maneuvering to strike at his chosen points and at US lines of communication. It's safe to say the foe will pull no punches. They won't be holding anything back for tomorrow. Allawie has also crossed his Rubicon and so, perhaps, has CENTCOM.

As for the sources of the resistance, World Tribune.com reports this very plausible, if so far publicly unconfirmed, account:

Insurgents captured in Fallujah have told Iraqi military interrogators that most of those fighting in Fallujah were former security officers for the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The insurgents said Saddam organized special operations units, starting in 2001, to counter any foreign invasion in Iraq. Most of those units, the insurgents said, are still active in the Sunni Triangle.

Officials said the Sunni insurgency was being directed from Syria. They said Saddam loyalists were receiving funding and orders from senior aides of the former Saddam regime based in Damascus, including ex-Vice President Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri.

Iraqi Interior Minister Faleh Hassan Al Naqib said his government and the U.S.-led coalition faced a revolt throughout the Sunni Triangle, Middle East Newsline reported. Al Naqib said the revolt was being directed by a unified command and control network led by Saddam loyalists. He said the insurgents sought to prevent or disrupt national elections scheduled for Jan. 27.

Best children's books

If you have kids, or otherwise care about recommendations of the best children's books, check out Book Moot. Lots of good stuff there.

True friends vs. false ones

Keep in mind who are our true friends around the world, and who are not.

At least six NATO allies are refusing to send military instructors to help the United States train Iraqi officers, another impediment in the Bush administration's drive for support for its effort to pacify Iraq.

The six nations — Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg and Greece — had refused to contribute troops to the U.S.-led coalition that overthrew President Saddam Hussein and to the postwar campaign against insurgents.

The administration was hoping to forge a consensus on postwar peacemaking. The project to train Iraqi officers will not involve combat duties and is part of a broader security program.

A State Department official close to the dispute said Friday that all 26 NATO allies voted on Wednesday at alliance headquarters in Brussels for the training program and agreed to help fund it. However, at least six held out from playing any active role and refused to send officers to NATO staging areas in Norfolk, Va., and Mons, Belgium.

Still, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that all NATO allies, including the holdouts, approved the plan by consensus and were committed to paying a share of the costs.

Hungary, which is withdrawing its troops from Iraq, will contribute a company to help protect the training officers, the official said. Fifteen other NATO countries will contribute trainers, protect troops, or both.

So, buy Hungarian, not French, Spanish, etc. These allies-in-name-only deserve no support from Americans.

Support the Marines

There's a lot to say about the absurd, wrong-headed press reaction to the well-deserved dispatching of one more "insurgent" by a young Marine in Fallujah, but this e-mail written by a Marine serving in Iraq and shared with NROs' The Corner is truly indispensable.

This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.

This is just one most don't hear:

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag. But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.

This is the story everyone hears:

A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded. Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face.

The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!"

The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead.

Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for committing a war crime. Unlawful killing.

And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, i too would have done the same.

For those of you who don't know, we Marines, Band of Brothers, Jarheads, Leathernecks, etc., do not fight because we think it is right, or think it is wrong. We are here for the man to our left, and the man to our right. We choose to give our lives so that the man or woman next to us can go home and see their husbands, wives, children, friends and families.

For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of you recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. See what I've seen, walk where I have walked.

To those of you who support us, my sincerest gratitude. You keep us alive.

I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. They do not represent those of the Marine Corps or of the US military, or any other.

Show your support. In particular, write your Congressman and Senator. Now. Today. Stand behind those who are willing to fight on behalf of all of us and our country.

CIA purge, continued

Former CIA director Stansfield Turner sees parallels between his tenure at the agency and the current period of unhappy change under new director Porter Goss.

Turner says the reaction to his cleanup and Goss's are similar. "I came in and tried to clean that up, and [the staffers] came after me," Turner says. "And the leaks in this instance are indications of fierce opposition to anybody who criticizes them."

He goes on to say that it shouldn't be unexpected. The intelligence community has suffered huge blows: the failure to predict the 9/11 attacks, the incorrect estimate about Iraq's possession of mass destruction, and the several committee reports that have censured their performance. "The leaks and this whole reaction to Goss is irresponsible in the midst of a war," Turner says. "But you've got to expect it - [CIA officers] are experts at disinformation; that is what they do for a living."

Turner's reforms were, in hindsight, not the right changes. But his observation about resistance through leaks is correct, especially in the context of an agency that has veered into overt opposition to the current President.

Goss has issued fair warning to the agency's management and staff:

Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

"As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road."

While his words could be construed as urging analysts to conform with administration policies, Mr. Goss also wrote, "We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker.''

"I am committed to sharing these changes with you as they occur,'' Mr. Goss said in the memorandum. "I do understand it is easy to be distracted by both the nature and the pace of change. I am confident, however, that you will remain deeply committed to our mission.''

Mr. Goss's memorandum included a reminder that C.I.A. employees should "scrupulously honor our secrecy oath'' by allowing the agency's public affairs office and its Congressional relations branch to take the lead in all contacts with the media and with Congress. "We remain a secret organization,'' he said.

Courage under fire

Old-time liberal Nat Hentoff pays his respects to the dogged courage of attorney John O'Neill and journalist Thomas Lipscomb, both of whom were unafraid to confront John Kerry's actual record in Vietnam.

Of all the targets of vitriol and attempted ambushes during the presidential campaign, I most admired John O'Neill of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for his calm determination to stand his ground on his charges against John Kerry's Vietnam service in Unfit for Command, the book he co-authored.

[O]n Election Day, historian Douglas Brinkley -- who wrote a hagiographic book on Kerry, Tour of Duty, triumphantly told the Financial Times that the mainstream media have ''exposed Kerry's critics as liars and frauds.'' I would not take a course with that careless historian, but I respect O'Neill for his courage and his public service for having enabled many Americans to look much more closely as John Kerry's presidential qualifications. And, indeed, the Swift Boat Veterans did a lot to keep Kerry from the Oval Office.

Tip via Power Line.

As a point of reference, Hentoff is a regular columnist at the Village Voice.

Nightline again

Interesting: here's how ABC News, in its daily e-mail blast, set up tonight's planned Nightline segment on Condi Rice.

President Bush nominated National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice to be the Secretary of State, and the first African American woman nominated for the cabinet position. If she's confirmed, she'll have a tough job explaining what many around the world see as a flawed US foreign policy. The war in Iraq isn't going well and the US bears most of the responsibility.

It's edifying to learn that ABC doesn't ascribe things not "going well" to the enemy or anything. The other segments look about that unbalanced too, in the same spirit as their selective video editing on Veteran's Day.

CIA vs. Porter Goss

More resignations at the CIA were revealed today, via leaks not announcements, indicating that Porter Goss's shake-up continues.

The two top officials running the CIA's clandestine service resigned this morning, following a series of clashes with director Porter J. Goss's chief of staff. Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of operations, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, announced their resignations at a senior staff meeting, according to former CIA officials.

A CIA spokesman declined to comment, but another intelligence official confirmed that the departures had occurred.

Stephen Hayes explains what's really going on and the role that the media is playing in helping the CIA insurgency.

After hundreds of words from the [Washington] Post we still have very little idea of what, exactly, Goss is doing that has caused so much heartburn at the agency. But if he's aggressively reforming the bureaucracy, he should most certainly not stop what he is doing. In fact, the concern among critics of the agency is that Goss faces a nearly impossible job and will not do nearly enough to change the dysfunctional culture of the agency.

On Friday, the CIA lost Michael Scheuer, a senior official who headed the agency's bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999. The agency had allowed Scheuer to write two books critical of the Bush administration as "Anonymous." But as he gave media interviews upon the publication of his most recent book, Imperial Hubris, he became more critical of the agency. He was then silenced by his CIA superiors.

"As long as the book was being used to bash the president," said Scheuer, "they gave me carte blanche to talk to the media."

That has been the modus operandi of the CIA for years. Goss wants to end it. He'll have to fight.

Iran's war with America

US News & World Report has a lengthy, comprehensive review of Iran's role in keeping the insurgent pot simmering in Iraq. Iranian subversion there is yet another front in the mullahs' long war with American power.

In the summer of last year, Iranian intelligence agents in Tehran began planning something quite spectacular for September 11, the two-year anniversary of al Qaeda's attack on the United States, according to a classified American intelligence report. Iranian agents disbursed $20,000 to a team of assassins, the report said, to kill Paul Bremer, then the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq. The information was specific: The team, said a well-placed source quoted in the intelligence document, would use a Toyota Corona taxi and a second car, driven by suicide bombers, to take out Bremer and destroy two hotels in downtown Baghdad. The source even named one of the planners, Himin Bani Shari, a high-ranking member of the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group and a known associate of Iranian intelligence agents.

The alleged plan was never carried out. But American officials regarded Iran's reported role, and its ability to make trouble in Iraq, as deadly serious. Iran, said a separate report, issued in November 2003 by American military analysts, "will use and support proxy groups" such as Ansar al-Islam "to conduct attacks in Iraq in an attempt to further destablize the country." An assessment by the U.S. Army's V Corps, which then directed all Army activity in Iraq, agreed: "Iranian intelligence continues to prod and facilitate the infiltration of Iraq with their subversive elements while providing them support once they are in country."

With the Pentagon's stepped-up efforts to break the back of the insurgency before Iraq's scheduled elections in late January, Iran's efforts to destabilize Iraq have received little public attention. But a review of thousands of pages of intelligence reports by U.S. News reveals the critical role Iran has played in aiding some elements of the anti-American insurgency after Baghdad fell--and raises important questions about whether Iran will continue to try to destabilize Iraq after elections are held.

Many of the reports are uncorroborated and are considered "raw" intelligence of the type seldom seen by those outside the national security community. But the picture that emerges from the sheer volume of the reports, and as a result of the multiplicity of sources from which they were generated, leaves little doubt about the depth of Iran's involvement in supporting elements of the insurgency and in positioning itself to move quickly in Iraq if it believes a change in circumstances there dictates such action.

Iran clearly has the potential to stir up far more trouble than it has, particularly in the largely Shiite southern half of Iraq. But so far, as it continues its elaborate dance with the West over its ambitious nuclear program, the Islamic regime has yet to turn the heat up full blast in Iraq, evidently secure in the knowledge that it can do so when and if it sees the need to. "I would not put it past them to carry out spectacular attacks," says David Kay, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, "to demonstrate the cost of a hostile policy. That is the policy issue--can we learn to live with Iranian nuclear capacity?" More.

No time-outs

Read Ralph Peters's homage to the critical, difficult role of the infantry in military operations.

Urban warfare is formidably difficult and dangerous. The utility of our wonder-technologies plummets when we have to fight inside wrecked industrial plants or in the labyrinths of ancient cities. Past a point, the intelligence systems can no longer see. The troops at the tip of the spear engage enemies at short range in abruptly chaotic circumstances. Who lives or dies is decided with rifles, grenades and automatic weapons.

Viewed from a distance, our victory in Fallujah was impressive from the opening round. But the sense of ease we get from 24/7 summaries isn't shared by the Infantrymen fighting their way through a booby-trapped city defended by enemies who seek death as a blessing.

In urban combat, the physical difficulties and psychological stresses soar. There are few clear fields of observation and fire. Everything seems a deadly muddle. The enemy might appear from any angle, in front of you, behind you or on a flank, firing from a window or a rooftop, waiting in a ruin to detonate a booby-trap or popping up from a tunnel or a cellar with a rocket-propelled grenade.

For the Infantry squad — sometimes reduced to a half-dozen members — there's no time-out. Even during pauses to bring up ammunition or water, the danger meter always pegs out. The adrenalin rush of combat alternates with weariness of body and soul. Nerves move outside the skin. All senses intensify.

That's when all the rhetoric about "bands of brothers" gets real. Each soldier must trust his life to the handful of young men with whom he's trained, lived, argued, shared and suffered. Junior NCOs barely older than those they lead must command the confidence of their subordinates. Battle drills have to work, the soldiers have to function as a team and follow procedures instinctively. And if one goes down, bleeding in a gutter, the assault can't stop.

More shouting. Orders can barely be heard. But the squad seems to share a common intelligence. Weapons bark over the clink of empty shell-casings. Fresh magazines snap into rifles. Fire teams work their way forward, a machine-gun is rushed to a rooftop. The rifleman in the best position to take out the target is out of grenades. Another soldier thinks he hears firing behind him. Someone yells that friendlies are in the field of fire . . .

The sniper's killed. Or he fades away. The squad leader calls in a status report, if the buildings don't block his transmission. The soldiers take up firing positions on a rooftop. Ammunition is shared — "cross-leveled." The Marines or soldiers are hungry, but too wired to realize it. They're thirsty, and they do know that much.

Second squad needs support. Move out. A burst of fire tears into the wall ahead of the soldier on point. And it all begins again. . . .

This isn't even a hint of the war the Infantryman must fight. No words written in the comfort and safety of America could do justice to the young men who faced the streets of Fallujah.

This is war's guts, where all of the wonder weapons give way to flesh and blood. This is warfare as it was in Jericho and Jerusalem, in Aachen and Manila, in Hue and Mogadishu.

And it will always require an Infantryman.

More.

CIA turmoil?

Internal warfare has broken out between the CIA's old hands and new director Porter Goss. The weapons of choice by CIA insurgents: selected resignations and leaks to the press; e.g., the Washington Post:

The deputy director of the CIA resigned yesterday after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff that have left the agency in turmoil, according to several current and former CIA officials.

John E. McLaughlin, a 32-year CIA veteran who was acting director for two months this summer until Goss took over, resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said.

Yesterday, the agency official who oversees foreign operations, Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes, tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Murray. Goss and the White House pleaded with Kappes to reconsider and he agreed to delay his decision until Monday, the officials said.

Several other senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave, current and former agency officials said. "It's the worst roiling I've ever heard of," said one former senior official with knowledge of the events. "There's confusion throughout the ranks and an extraordinary loss of morale and incentive."

Current and retired senior managers have criticized Goss, former chairman of the House intelligence committee, for not interacting with senior managers and for giving Murray too much authority over day-to-day operations.

Related: New York Times - New Chief Sets Off Turmoil Within the C.I.A.

Elsewhere in the Times, David Brooks explains the urgency of why President Bush must get this rebellion under control.

Now that he's been returned to office, President Bush is going to have to differentiate between his opponents and his enemies. His opponents are found in the Democratic Party. His enemies are in certain offices of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Over the past several months, as much of official Washington looked on
wide-eyed and agog, many in the C.I.A. bureaucracy have waged an unabashed
effort to undermine the current administration.

At the height of the campaign, C.I.A. officials, who are supposed to serve the president and stay out of politics and policy, served up leak after leak to discredit the president's Iraq policy. There were leaks of prewar intelligence estimates, leaks of interagency memos. In mid-September, somebody leaked a C.I.A. report predicting a gloomy or apocalyptic future for the region. Later that month, a senior C.I.A. official, Paul Pillar, reportedly made comments saying he had long felt the decision to go to war would heighten anti-American animosity in the Arab world.

White House officials concluded that they could no longer share important arguments and information with intelligence officials. They had to parse every syllable in internal e-mail. One White House official says it felt as if the C.I.A. had turned over its internal wastebaskets and fed every shred of paper to the press.

The White House-C.I.A. relationship became dysfunctional, and while the blame was certainly not all on one side, Langley was engaged in slow-motion, brazen insubordination, which violated all standards of honorable public service. It was also incredibly stupid, since C.I.A. officials were betting their agency on a Kerry victory.

As the presidential race heated up, the C.I.A. permitted an analyst - who, we now know, is Michael Scheuer - to publish anonymously a book called "Imperial Hubris," which criticized the Iraq war. Here was an official on the president's payroll publicly campaigning against his boss. As Scheuer told The Washington Post this week, "As long as the book was being used to bash the president, they [the C.I.A. honchos] gave me carte blanche to talk to the media."

Nor is this feud over. C.I.A. officials are now busy undermining their new boss, Porter Goss. One senior official called one of Goss's deputies, who worked on Capitol Hill, a "Hill Puke," and said he didn't have to listen to anything the deputy said. Is this any way to run a superpower?

Meanwhile, members of Congress and people around the executive branch are
wondering what President Bush is going to do to punish the mutineers. A president simply cannot allow a department or agency to go into campaign season opposition and then pay no price for it. If that happens, employees of every agency will feel free to go off and start their own little media campaigns whenever their hearts desire.

If we lived in a primitive age, the ground at Langley would be laid waste and salted, and there would be heads on spikes. As it is, the answer to the C.I.A. insubordination is not just to move a few boxes on the office flow chart.

The answer is to define carefully what the president expects from the intelligence community: information. Policy making is not the C.I.A.'s concern. It is time to reassert some harsh authority so C.I.A. employees know they must defer to the people who win elections, so they do not feel free at meetings to spout off about their contempt of the White House, so they do not go around to their counterparts from other nations and tell them to ignore American policy.

In short, people in the C.I.A. need to be reminded that the person the president sends to run their agency is going to run their agency, and that if they ever want their information to be trusted, they can't break the law with self-serving leaks of classified data.

This is about more than intelligence. It's about Bush's second term. Is the president going to be able to rely on the institutions of government to execute his policies, or, by his laxity, will he permit the bureaucracy to ignore, evade and subvert the decisions made at the top? If the C.I.A. pays no price for its behavior, no one will pay a price for anything, and everything is permitted. That, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk.

Legitimate bipartisanship

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum has some specific ideas about the right (and wrong) ways to build more consensus between the parties in Washington. The no. 1 priority: foreign policy.

As commander in chief, the president bears the responsibility for waging and winning the nation's wars. The ferocious partisan dissension that has broken out at home over the war on terror dangerously subtracts from the nation's war-fighting effectiveness.

Partisan warfare at home has given credibility and confidence to America's enemies abroad. It should have been sobering to everyone, Democrat and Republican alike, to hear Osama bin Laden alluding to scenes from "Fahrenheit 9/11" in his pre-election videotape. Most Democrats privately have little use for Michael Moore's conspiracy-mongering. But in their anger at President Bush, Democrats who really should know better (plus, of course, President Carter) have legitimated Mr. Moore's work--and that of other anti-American haters.

Partisan disunity has damaged America's alliances. It ought to have disturbed even Democrats to hear Europeans whispering that their willingness to support America in Iraq would vary according to the outcome of the presidential election. Instead, some Democrats responded by agreeing that the Europeans were justified in their attitude--inviting European governments to take sides in an American election in hope that they, not U.S. voters, could choose the president with whom they would cooperate.

Hyperpartisanship has weakened America's own war-fighting strength. In every war, there will be mistakes, often very grave ones. It's essential to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. But in this war, the Bush administration knew that any attempt to identify and fix errors would be savagely exploited by domestic opponents. Burdened by that knowledge, the administration has often succumbed to denial and intransigence when learning and improvement were most called for. The administration has won an election. But the anger left behind by the election risks making losers of us all.

So what to do?

At home, normal politics should continue--as it did even during World War II, when Republicans and Democrats differed over issues from union power to farm policy. President Bush has plans to reform Social Security and taxation and to nominate conservative judges. Democrats will do everything they can to stop him. That's the way the game is played.

But in this war on terror, we have to get Republicans and Democrats back on the same team. And graceful as were the concession and victory statements by John Kerry and President Bush, words alone won't get anyone very far. There are, however, some actions that might help President Bush introduce some useful bipartisanship to American foreign policy. More.

Arafat still at room temp

While Yasser Arafat's funeral happens today, pay no attention to the slippery intonations of soft-brained reporters and well-calibrated politicians. Jeff Jacoby, solitary conservative at the Boston Globe, nails the coffin shut on the terror master who will be missed by no one except perhaps his Swiss bankers and the murderers on his payroll.

Yasser Arafat died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent to early graves.

In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.

How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the rise of modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, and children whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Laden were on his deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdered on 9/11?

It would take an encyclopedia to catalog all of the evil Arafat committed. But that is no excuse for not trying to recall at least some of it.

Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was the introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 1974, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and a child whom they found at home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terrorists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrorists exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. By the time the horror ended, 25 people were dead; 21 of them were children.

Thirty years later, no one speaks of Ma'alot anymore. The dead children have been forgotten. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls the names of his victims?

So let us recall them: Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of who died at Arafat's command.

Compare this historical record with the cold-blooded hypocrisy of former president Jimmy Carter:

Yasser Arafat's death marks the end of an era and will no doubt be painfully felt by Palestinians throughout the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.

He was the father of the modern Palestinian nationalist movement. A powerful human symbol and forceful advocate, Palestinians united behind him in their pursuit of a homeland. While he provided indispensable leadership to a revolutionary movement and was instrumental in forging a peace agreement with Israel in 1993, he was excluded from the negotiating role in more recent years.

Makes the skin crawl.

"He's done"

ABC's Nightline aired video footage tonight from the battle in Fallujah, showing a squad of Marines "pinned down" by sniper fire. But check out the AP video that shows the rest of the story -- see how the Marines calmly, methodically dealt with the sniper and then moved on. (tip via BlackFive) The operative words were, "He's done."

Believe your own eyes: selective editing by ABC left an entirely false impression of this skirmish.

UPDATE: November 16 - more Nightline imbalance.

Liberators in the best tradition

Remarks by President Bush for the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary:

Veterans Day is set aside to remember every man and woman who has taken up arms to defend our country. We honor every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coastguardsman who gave some of the best years of their lives to the service of the United States and stood ready to give life, itself, on our behalf. Twenty-five million military veterans walk among us, and on this day, our nation thanks them all.

These are the hidden heroes of a peaceful nation: our colleagues and friends, neighbors and family members who answered the call and returned to live in the land they defended.

Our veterans are drawn from several generations and many backgrounds. They're Americans who remember the swift conflict of the Persian Gulf War; and a long Cold War vigil; the heat of Vietnam and the bitter cold of Korea. They are veterans in their 80s, who served under MacArthur and Eisenhower and saved the liberty of the world. And still with us in the year 2004 are a few dozen Americans who fought the Kaiser's army and celebrated the end of the Great War on this day in 1918. The last doughboys are all more than 100 years old. Our nation will always be proud of their service.

Some of our veterans are young men and women with recent memories of battle in mountains and in deserts. In Afghanistan, these brave Americans helped sweep away a vicious tyranny allied with terror and prepared the way for a free people to elect its own leaders. In Iraq, our men and women fought a ruthless enemy of America, setting the people free from a tyrant who now sits in a prison cell.

All who have served in this cause are liberators in the best tradition of America. Their actions have made our nation safer in a world full of new dangers. Their actions have also upheld the ideals of America's founding, which defines us still. Our nation values freedom -- not just for ourselves, but for all. And because Americans are willing to serve and sacrifice for this cause, our nation remains the greatest force for good among all the nations on the Earth.

Some of tomorrow's veterans are in combat in Iraq at this hour. They have a clear mission: to defeat the terrorists and aid the rise of a free government that can defend itself. They are performing that mission with skill and with honor. They are making us proud. They are winning.

Our men and women in the military have superb training and the best equipment and able commanders. And they have another great advantage -- they have the example of American veterans who came before. From the very day George Washington took command, the uniform of the United States has always stood for courage and decency and shining hope in a world of darkness. And all who have worn that uniform have won the thanks of the American people.

Today, we're thinking of our fellow Americans last seen on duty, whose fate is still undetermined. We will not rest until we have made the fullest possible accounting for every life.

Today we also recall the men and women who did not live to be called "veterans," many of whom rest in these hills. Our veterans remember the faces and voices of fallen comrades. The families of the lost carry a burden of grief that time will lighten, but never lift. Our whole nation honors every patriot who placed duty and country before their own lives. They gave us every day that we live in freedom. The security of America depends on our active leadership in the world to oppose emerging threats and to spread freedom that leads to the peace we all want. And our leadership ultimately depends on the commitment and character of the Armed Forces.

America has needed these qualities in every generation, and every generation has stepped forward to provide them. What veterans have given our country is beyond our power to fully repay, yet, today we recognize our debt to their honor. And on this national holiday, our hearts are filled with respect and gratitude for the veterans of the United States of America.

May God bless our veterans and their families, and may God continue to bless our great nation. Thank you.

Normal

There's really no one quite like Peggy Noonan.

Veterans Day

From President Bush's Veterans Day proclamation:

Americans live in freedom because of our veterans' courage, dedication to duty, and love of country. On Veterans Day, we honor these brave men and women who have served in our Armed Forces and defended our Nation.

Across America, there are more than 25 million veterans. Their ranks include generations of citizens who have risked their lives while serving in military conflicts, including World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and the war on terror. They have fought for the security of our country and the peace of the world. They have defended our founding ideals, protected the innocent, and liberated the oppressed from tyranny and terror. They have known the hardships and the fears and the tragic losses of war. Our veterans know that in the harshest hours of conflict they serve just and honorable purposes.

Through the years, our veterans have returned home from their duties to become active and responsible citizens in their communities, further contributing to the growth and development of our Nation. Their commitment to service inspires all Americans.

Amen to that. Thanks to all veterans, especially those now battling our mortal enemies in Iraq.

Arafat assumes room temp

Palestinian terrorist leader Yasser Arafat, who lived with the blood of thousands on his hands, is finally dead -- not only merely dead, but really, most sincerely dead. Hell just got a bit more crowded.

President Bush visits wounded troops

President Bush and Laura Bush visited wounded troops at the justly famed Walter Reed military hospital earlier this week. Here's an excerpt from the story as filed by the Associated Press:

President Bush paid a bedside visit to wounded soldiers Tuesday, then predicted victory for their comrades in Iraq in their battle against terrorists "who want to stop democracy" there.

The president and his wife, Laura, went from room to room in two wards of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit with 42 soldiers being treated for injuries from broken bones and minor wounds to missing legs and severe skull injuries.

The president also met with the family of a soldier who was in surgery.

"Every time I come to Walter Reed, I'm struck by the courage and bravery of our men and women who wear the uniform," Bush said after his meetings.

"It's so uplifting to see their spirit, their drive to become rehabilitated, their love of their country, their support of the mission."

It was Bush's sixth visit to wounded troops at Walter Reed since the war on terror began in late 2001. The hospital has treated 3,612 patients from the Iraq war, 868 of them with combat injuries.

Bush also has visited with wounded troops at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

You can read President Bush's full comments via the White House.

Sidenote: the story also was reported by NPR, Newsday, the NY Post, UPI, and others. A quick survey seems to indicate that only Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times chose to frame her version thusly:

As thousands of American-led troops continued their attack on the city of Falluja on Tuesday, President Bush spent two hours with wounded service members at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and afterward wished godspeed to the troops in Iraq.

Mr. Bush, who had not been to Walter Reed since March, chose to visit on a day of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. Military officials in Baghdad said that 10 Americans had been killed since the assault on Falluja began, and that there were reports that two Iraqi soldiers had been killed. There were no reports on how many insurgents or civilians had been killed.

Bumiller was on C-SPAN recently (Real) lamenting that she gets so much reader e-mail accusing her of being biased. Wonder why?

Otherworldly violence

Belmont Club continues to analyze closely the press reports of fighting in Fallujah. Here's a snippet, but read the whole thing.

Though the enemy is to be frank, very brave, news reports report them falling back everywhere.

The enemy withdrawals have sometimes been explained by suggesting that the enemy is suckering in US forces into a trap. But this is impossible. Their backs are to the river and the Marines are across that. Every retrograde movement compresses the enemy into a smaller area and forces them to leave behind prepared positions painstakingly stockpiled with food, batteries and ammo. Running backward with wounded, they can't carry much ammunition and won't find any unless a prepared position is already available. And how does anyone stand fast in the face of the otherworldly violence of the American onslaught?

More Fallujah details at The Adventures of Chester.

Stop pretending

Jim Geraghty at NRO's Kerry Spot makes a useful comparison between how Democratic pols and their abettors in the Media have handled last week's presidential defeat.

[R]eally, who had more on the line in this campaign? A professional politician has ups and downs in his or her career; you win some races, and you lose some. But the press bet the house against Bush this year. Democrats may have recognized Kerry's faults and seen his vulnerabilities, but many members of the press were the "true believers" of this campaign.

The fun question will be whether members of the press learn from this experience and either A) are more open in acknowledging their liberal leanings and inability to comprehend life in the red states or B) realize they have gone too far and start trying to be more objective again. I think most folks on the right would be happy with either scenario - admitting their political leanings up front, or trying to give conservatives a fair shake. Just stop pretending to be fair or balanced while acting like the media wing of the DNC.

The Battle for Fallujah

The U.S. Marines and other Coalition forces have begun their long-awaited assault on the snakepit of Fallujah. The Associated Press reports on their preparations.

As U.S. forces prepared for what is expected to be the biggest Marine-led urban assault since Vietnam, U.S. commanders pumped up troop spirits today, saying they were no different from the storied heroes of Iwo Jima and Korea.

Standing before some 2,500 Marines who stood or kneeled at his feet, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, told them that they would be at the front of the charge.

"This is America's fight," Sattler said. "What we've added to it is our Iraqi partners. They want to go in and liberate Fallujah. They feel this town's being held hostage by mugs, thugs, murderers and terrorists."

Two Marine battalions, along with a battalion from the Army's 1st Infantry Division, will be the lead units sent into a Fallujah attack. They will be joined by two brigades of Iraqi troops.

"God bless you, each and every one. You know what your mission is. Go out there and get it done," Sattler said.

More than 10,000 U.S. troops massed around the Sunni Muslim city are expected to take a role in the assault on Fallujah, whose green-lit minarets are visible from the U.S. base near the city.

Sgt. Maj. Carlton W. Kent, the top enlisted Marine in Iraq, told troops Sunday the coming battle of Fallujah would be "no different" than the historic fights at Inchon in Korea, the flag-raising victory at Iwo Jima, or the bloody assault to remove North Vietnamese troops who occupied the ancient citadel of Hue in the 1968 Tet Offensive.

"You're all in the process of making history," Kent boomed in a clarion voice. "This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done -- kick some butt."

Marine battalion commander Lt. Col. Mike Ramos said many of the young fighters would be dashing into battle for the first time. In the barracks, Marines could be seen packing up gear, strapping anti-tank missile tubes to their packs. They would also be carrying gas masks in case of chemical weapons, a threat Ramos deemed unlikely.

"They're sharpening their K-Bar fighting knives; they're cleaning their weapons for the last time; they've fueled their vehicles and they've rehearsed the plan," said Ramos, 41, of Dallas.

Ramos predicted that "freedom and democracy" would prevail in Fallujah within days.

"Make no mistake about it, we'll hand this city back to the Iraqi people," he said. "I think it will be rapid."

During the fight, rules of engagement allow U.S. troops to shoot and kill anyone carrying a weapon or driving in Fallujah, a move aimed at allowing U.S. troops to fire on car bombers, Ramos said. Military age males trying to leave the city will be captured or turned back.

"If I see someone who looks like a martyr, driving at high speed toward my unit, I'll send him to Allah before he gets close," Ramos said.

Blogs of War has established ongoing monitoring of the situation.

Belmont Club has insightful commentary, as we have selfishly come to expect, including thoughts on what it means that even experienced war journalists may choose to sit this one out.

Many of these reporters are experienced men who have been under some type of fire before. But the urban combat facing the troops they will accompany will probably consist of small units in constantly moving through a very dangerous kind of environment, full of IEDs, snipers and close-range engagements. In this situation, getting lost may well mean dying from enemy fire or blue on blue. Sticking close to Marine infantry advancing under fire is only slightly more palatable. Everyone knows the saying that 'war is hell, you cannot refine it'; but Sherman might have added, 'you cannot describe it'. The Marines and many reporters will come to know what can never be described and what no sane person should ever hope to experience at first hand.

Alaa in Iraq has some strong advice for the Allies (and the folks back home):

Friends and allies: this is War and a very serious and dangerous one too. Do not underestimate the enemy. In Iraq you have at least 80% of the population on your side and desirous of change and success in creating the new society. Anybody who tells you otherwise is simply a liar. Wars are terrible and cruel but what must be done must be done. Remember what it took to defeat Nazism, Fascism and Japanese Militarism- the flattening of most of Europe and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, horrible as that may have been. Yet both Europe and Japan recovered and eventually enjoyed tremendous prosperity and peace, and the outcome of the horrors of war was entirely in the interest of all the “conquered” peoples. Why was that? Very simple! The right side won the war. The right side must win this war too, for the sake of our future generations and world peace.

Amen.

EPCOT blogging

A quick note from Orlando: now visiting EPCOT and nearby points of interest. The fireworks tonight were splendid as usual.

Posting will be light. This Disney hotel only has a slooow dial-up connection. Be back soon.

Blue city

Many residents of New York City are despondent about the presidential election outcome. Lest you feel sorry for them, check out what they think of you:

Some New Yorkers, like Meredith Hackett, a 25-year-old barmaid in Brooklyn, said they didn't even know any people who had voted for President Bush. (In both Manhattan and the Bronx, Mr. Bush received 16.7 percent of the vote.) Others spoke of a feeling of isolation from their fellow Americans, a sense that perhaps Middle America doesn't care as much about New York and its animating concerns as it seemed to in the weeks immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center.

"Everybody seems to hate us these days," said Zito Joseph, a 63-year-old retired psychiatrist. "None of the people who are likely to be hit by a terrorist attack voted for Bush. But the heartland people seemed to be saying, 'We're not affected by it if there would be another terrorist attack.' "

City residents talked about this chasm between outlooks with characteristic New York bluntness.

Dr. Joseph, a bearded, broad-shouldered man with silken gray hair, was sharing coffee and cigarettes with his fellow dog walker, Roberta Kimmel Cohn, at an outdoor table outside the hole-in-the-wall Breadsoul Cafe near Lincoln Center. The site was almost a cliché corner of cosmopolitan Manhattan, with a newsstand next door selling French and Italian newspapers and, a bit farther down, the Lincoln Plaza theater showing foreign movies.

"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."

"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.

His friend, Ms. Cohn, a native of Wisconsin who deals in art, contended that New Yorkers were not as fooled by Mr. Bush's statements as other Americans might be. "New Yorkers are savvy," she said. "We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say."

"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."

Dr. Joseph acknowledged that such attitudes could feed into the perception that New Yorkers are cultural elitists, but he didn't apologize for it.

"People who are more competitive and proficient at what they do tend to gravitate toward cities," he said.

Yep, that's a splendid display of liberal tolerance and diversity.

Agincourt

Peggy Noonan savors President Bush's victory on Tuesday and hands out some acknowledgments:

Who was the biggest loser of the 2004 election? It is easy to say Mr. Kerry: he was a poor candidate with a poor campaign. But I do think the biggest loser was the mainstream media, the famous MSM, the initials that became popular in this election cycle. Every time the big networks and big broadsheet national newspapers tried to pull off a bit of pro-liberal mischief--CBS and the fabricated Bush National Guard documents, the New York Times and bombgate, CBS's "60 Minutes" attempting to coordinate the breaking of bombgate on the Sunday before the election--the yeomen of the blogosphere and AM radio and the Internet took them down. It was to me a great historical development in the history of politics in America. It was Agincourt. It was the yeomen of King Harry taking down the French aristocracy with new technology and rough guts. God bless the pajama-clad yeomen of America. Some day, when America is hit again, and lines go down, and media are hard to get, these bloggers and site runners and independent Internetters of all sorts will find a way to file, and get their word out, and it will be part of the saving of our country.

Last note. As much as anyone, the POW wives of Vietnam, who stood against the Democratic nominee for president and for the Republican, can claim credit for the Bush victory. Everyone with a computer in America, and a lot of people with TVs, saw their testimony about the 1970s, and their husbands, and John Kerry. You could not come away from their white-haired, soft-faced, big-eyeglasses visages without thinking: He should not be commander in chief.

Oh, another last note. Tuesday I heard three radio talkers who refused to believe it was over when the ludicrous, and who knows but possibly quite mischievous, exit polls virtually declared a Kerry landslide yesterday afternoon. They are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. The last sent me an e-mail that dismissed the numbers as elitist nonsense and propaganda. She is one tough girl and they are two tough men. Savor them too.

Loser

Biggest loser of the 2004 campaign: gazillionaire capitalist George Soros, who spent $26.5 million solely to defeat President Bush. His deep thought:

Obviously, I am distressed at the outcome of the election.

Brilliant.

The unashamed American

These words, written by expatriate correspondent Janet Daley in London on election eve, won't comfort the shell-shocked leftists of the UK and Europe who cannot believe that America chose George W. Bush yesterday.

George W Bush is not hated here and in Europe because he removed a genocidal tyrant in Iraq and failed to anticipate the chaos that followed.

He is hated because he is the embodiment of everything that the United States is, and Europe is not: not just enormously powerful, militarily and economically, but brashly confident and fervently patriotic. Where Europe is steeped in historical guilt and self-loathing - so immersed in its own unforgivable past that it is trying to fashion a constitution that actually prohibits national pride - America is profoundly proud of the success of its own miraculous achievement.

What it has succeeded in doing is cracking the great dilemma of modern history: how can disparate and ethnically diverse people live together? How can people of differing and deeply felt religious convictions survive, with their beliefs intact, in a single unified country - evangelical Protestants such as Mr Bush alongside practising Catholics with Jewish roots such as Mr Kerry - without their cities turning into Belfast or Beirut?

The answer lies not in the post-religious, anti-clerical mania of the European Union which has just rejected a commissioner for espousing mainstream Catholic principles, but in that patriotism so despised by European elites. It is the unifying force of national self-belief with all those ridiculed school rituals - pledging allegiance to the flag, reciting the preamble to the Constitution - that makes America whole and at one with itself.

Bush is the personification of that unashamed America and that is why Europe cannot bear the sight of him.

Well, now they have to, for four more long years. Tant pis, Monsieur Chirac.

Bush winner

Pending the demands for recounts, legal challenges, endless tallies of absentee ballots, etc., it looks like President Bush has been returned to office. Now we can breathe again.

Let the attack on Fallujah begin.

Election Day

So, today is decision day. You can choose this man:

Or you can choose this one:

But choose wisely. There's a lot at stake. For me, the choice is clear, in large part because of the events, decisions, and thoughts reflected in what has added up now to over 2,000 posts on this site: Bush is right man, at the right time. My vote is cast. The final decision is now in the hands of our fellow citizens.

Not Greater Belgium

Keen-eyed pundit Mark Steyn reviews the final moments before the American people choose their president and says, " It's not just the economy, stupid."

This is, supposedly, the 9/11 election. But, in fact, on one side of the divide there's remarkably little interest in the war on terror and Iraq beyond the pro forma sloganeering. Mooching around New Hampshire these last few days, I've seen just one lone sign that any Democrat is even thinking about the subject: in the yard of a Kerry/Edwards supporter on Route 10 just north of Hanover was a placard that read "Support Our Troops. Bring Them Home". Tell it to the Marines, lady. Bring them home, discredited and defeated, to sit safe in their barracks and be told, don't worry, from now on you can be just like the Canadians and the Europeans – safe at home except for the odd stint as international traffic cops benignly presiding over some UN-mandated ethnic stalemate for decades on end. That'll do wonders for recruitment.

No, the big date for a lot of these people is not 9/11 but 11/7 - November 7, 2000, the date Al Gore had his election victory "stolen" from him.

It was, with hindsight, foolish to think that the differences between America and most of the rest of "the West" would somehow not also be manifest within America itself. For all those who complain with feigned ennui about the choice of candidates – the lesser of two evils, the evil of two lessers, yawn – the political system has contrived to throw up two men who are almost perfect embodiments of the choice facing the country.

John Kerry, with his pining for summits, his aspirational French, his boundless retrospective wisdom after some other fellow's taken the difficult decisions he ducked, his modish embrace of the Viet Cong and the Sandinistas and even Saddam in his Kuwaitswallowing days, is almost a parody Eurograndee.

But America cannot be a Greater Belgium or a Greater Canada or a Greater Spain. The only thing that enables Belgium to be Belgium and Canada to be Canada and Spain to be Spain is that America is America. If everyone in the civilised world's torpid and ineffectual and semi-non-aligned, it's not gonna work. Americans will not choose transnational complacency over national resolve.

Norman Schwarzkopf smacks down the DNC

Retired general Norman Schwarzkopf, victor over Saddam Hussein in Operation Desert Storm, has issued an important statement about the presidential campaign.

"The Democratic National Committee is making fraudulent phone calls claiming that I have endorsed Senator Kerry. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I demand that they stop immediately.

"Senator Kerry opposed the Reagan defense build-up that won the Cold War. Senator Kerry opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Senator Kerry proposed billions in intelligence cuts after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Senator Kerry voted against funds to equip our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition.

"I am supporting President Bush for reelection, because he is the candidate who has demonstrated the conviction needed to defeat terrorism. In contrast to the President's steadfast determination to defeat our enemies, Senator Kerry has a record of weakness that gives me no confidence in his ability to fight and win the War on Terror. His attempt to make up for these deficiencies by falsifying my endorsement only confirms my impression that he is not the man we need to lead our nation."

Mansoor Ijaz makes his choice

Savvy internationalist Mansoor Ijaz responds to Osama Bin Laden's videotaped ramblings and draws the only logical conclusion about the presidential election.

A Kerry victory would only return Clinton-era retreads, officials who first fueled bin Laden's rise to a hydra-like monster: Susan Rice, Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke — all softer on terrorism now than before, all devoid of new ideas on how to confront the mutating terrorist threat, and all genetically incapable of understanding why the terrorists hate us so much. A Kerry administration would serve bin Laden well because it would give him the much-needed time and reprieve to regroup and reconstitute his jihadists, who increasingly show signs of internal chaos and confusion.

A Kerry victory would also give power to the growing idea among jihadists that democracies and their constituent voters can be intimidated. No commuter-train bombings were required, the arch-terrorist would argue to his cadre of supporters; a mere appearance was enough to scare the American voter into changing governments. And then he would stake his claim on a messianic cult-like vision that he has been sent by his God to rule the earth and bring the likes of George W. Bush to account for their misdeeds against Muslims everywhere.

If George W. Bush wins, the policy of preemption will continue, giving bin Laden the fuel of anger, hatred, and division throughout the world and allowing him to continue recruiting unabated, even if his new recruits don't know what they are doing and can't pull off a 9/11-style attack. Martyrdom is blind to experience, and bin Laden's marketing slogans are all wrapped in martyrdom.

Al Qaeda does not have the capacity to strike out at the United States on our soil with the precision and uniformity of a September 11 attack — a function largely of the Bush administration's strategy to hotly pursue terrorists where no other nation will go. The vicious attacks on children at Beslan and the mendacity of Abu Musab Zarqawi's Iraqi terrorists to kidnap even the most benign well-wishers of Iraq's future are proof enough that soft targets are all they have left in their arsenal to terrorize.

And so, it is time for the American people to send the terrorist a strong message on Election Day: We will never be intimidated by him, and to even try to intimidate us is to give us all the more reason to pursue the strategy that is working in tearing down al Qaeda's increasingly decrepit terrorist franchise.

Bin Laden's global vision of jihadists crawling from the cracks in every enemy state to strike out at infidels with weapons of mass destruction is drowning among senior jihadist ranks in a swamp of confusion and chaos about whom to attack next, how to do it, and for whose benefit. In short, global jihad has turned on itself and is being destroyed from within, one botched and wretched attack at a time.

Thank George W. Bush for that. Iraq may be a mess, and one that he will have to clean up in Redux II, but the chaos among Muslim mercenaries must be increased to the point where Islamist terror evaporates in the heat of their internal confusion and dissension. Islam's civil war is not of America's doing, but America has no choice as the leader of the civilized world to engage Muslims everywhere and raise them up so they don't one day become so desperate to tear us down.

We are locked in a confrontation of good vs. evil that is at the very heart of mankind's concept of justice and morality. John Kerry and George Bush are moral men who clearly have the best interests of their nation in their hearts. But one of them, John Kerry, does not understand the evil that drives our enemy, or that our enemy is cleverer and more patient than all of America put together.

George Bush understands this simple equation, and its impact on America's future. Most of all, he understands that if we don't get the jihadists now, we may never be able to. The choice is clear.

Related: ABC News has obtained the full transcript of the 18-minute videotape, which ABC says "contains an even more intense attack on President Bush, supporting the notion that al Qaeda leader is trying to tilt the U.S. elections against Bush."

Do the right thing

The Hon. Rudy Guiliani, mayor of America, has a message for the voters.

On September 11, our nation faced the worst attack in our history.

On that day, we had to confront reality. Our people were brave in their response.

At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, "Thank God George Bush is our President." I've been saying that every day since.

We needed George Bush then; we need him now; and we need him for four more years!

President Bush is making certain that we are combating terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in our streets at home.

John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on combating terrorism gives us no confidence he'll pursue such a determined course.

Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It had been festering for many years.

President Bush will not submit America to a "global test" from other countries that seek to dissuade us from what is necessary for our defense.

Under President Bush, America will lead rather than follow.

President Bush is the leader we need for the next four years because he sees beyond today and tomorrow. He has a vision of a peaceful Middle East and, therefore, a safer world.

And together we have a responsibility to do all we can to give President Bush has four more years to continue winning the War on Terror and making the world safer.

Talk to your family, your friends, your coworkers and your neighbors. Make sure they understand the dramatic contrast between the President Bush and Senator Kerry.

And make sure your fellow Americans understand the power of their vote on November 2nd--and proudly tell them that, like me, you'll be voting for George W. Bush for four more years!

Sincerely,

So do the right thing, today and tomorrow.

Related: Rudy Guiliani's address to the Republican National Convention

Media tilted to Kerry

In case you were wondering, there's more evidence:

Sen. John Kerry has gotten the white-glove treatment from the press, garnering more praise from journalists than any other presidential candidate in the last quarter-century, according to a new analysis of almost 500 news stories released today by the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

"It's not just that John Kerry has gotten better press than President Bush before this election, he's gotten better press than anyone else since 1980. That's significant," said Bob Lichter, director of the D.C.-based nonpartisan research group.

"Kerry also got better press than anyone else in the days before the primaries as well," Mr. Lichter added.

In October alone, Mr. Kerry had a "record-breaking 77 percent positive press evaluations," compared with 34 percent positive for Mr. Bush, the study states.

Tip via Wizbang

Osama's ravings

Expert at translating the Arab and jihadist media accurately, MEMRI offers a corrected translation of Osama Bin Laden's recent televised statement and some insightful commentary (tip via PowerLine).

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state") to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security."

The Islamist website Al-Qal'a explained what this sentence meant: "This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn't treat all American people as if they're the same. This letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are connected to what will come after the elections."

Like Belmont Club, MEMRI agrees that this new video is an acknowledgement of weakness.

Another interesting aspect of the speech is the fact that while bin Laden made his specific threat to each U.S. state, he also offered an election deal to the American voters, attempting to influence the election by these means rather than influencing it through terrorist attacks. This peace offer is a theme that follows up on his April speech directed to Europe, in which he offered a truce. The Islamist website Al-Islah explains: "Some people ask 'what's new in this tape?' [The answer is that] this tape is the second of its kind, after the previous tape of the Sheikh [Osama bin Laden], in which he offered a truce to the Europeans a few months ago, and it is a completion of this move, and it brings together the complementary elements of politics and religion, political savvy and force, the sword and justice. The Sheikh reminds the West in this tape of the great Islamic civilization and pure Islamic religion, and of Islamic justice..."

Another conspicuous aspect of the tape is the absence of common Islamist themes that are relevant to the month of Ramadan, which for fundamentalists like bin Laden is the month of Jihad and martyrdom. Noticeably absent from the Al-Jazeera tape was his usual appearance with a weapon, and more importantly the absence of references to Jihad, martyrdom, the Koran, the Hadith (Islamic tradition), Crusaders, Jews, and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad on the duty to wage Jihad against the infidels. For the followers of the Al-Qa'ida ideology, this speech sends a regressive and defeatist message of surrender, as seen in the move from solely using Jihad warfare to a mixed strategy of threats combined with truce offers and election deals.

Meanwhile, the NY Post noted that Al Jazeera only played an excerpt. The rest of the tape was more explicit in its fear and loathing of President Bush, which amounts to an implied preference for John Kerry (or why else send the tape?).

Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military's unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

Exit polling and vote projections

Getting ready for Tuesday: after their debacle in the 2000 election, the TV networks are promising better quality and more rigor in their vote projections.

They're putting their money on the AP, which may or may not be a good idea. AP has been one of the news organizations most relentlessly biased against President Bush this year, which is saying something. But they do have lots of resources and will be under intense scrutiny, so maybe professionalism will end up on top.

Determined to avoid a repeat of high-profile failures in 2000 and 2002, television networks will rely on new systems on Nov. 2 to help project election winners and analyze why voters made their choices. And they have turned to The Associated Press to count the vote for them.

The six news organizations that have formed the National Election Pool -- ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and the AP -- say they're confident things will go better this time, based on test runs and the experience of people involved.

Still, the TV networks said they would be careful projecting winners after prematurely declaring Florida, and the 2000 election, for George W. Bush. (The AP did not declare Bush the winner on election night). The election wasn't ultimately determined for weeks after vote recounts and court fights.

"We're just going to really, really be cautious," said Marty Ryan, Fox News Channel's executive producer for political coverage. "When we think we have it, we'll wait a few minutes and look again. Then we'll wait a few minutes and look again."

The networks blamed Voter News Service, the company they had formed to count votes and conduct exit polls, for faulty data that led to the wrong calls in 2000. VNS tried to rebuild its system, but it broke down on election night 2002 and failed to provide usable exit polling information. VNS was then disbanded.

This time, the news organizations contracted with two veteran polling companies -- Mitofsky International and Edison Media Research -- to conduct exit polls. They agreed that the AP -- which has been tallying votes in elections since 1848 -- would be their sole source for vote counts, and the news cooperative has significantly beefed up its system in response.

Each of the organizations will use data provided by NEP to make its own projections election night. The organizations also have promised, for the first time in a presidential election, not to call states that span two time zones until all of the polling places have closed.

One flaw exposed in 2000 -- the failure of VNS to account for the increased use of absentee ballots -- has been corrected, said Linda Mason of CBS News, an NEP spokeswoman. Telephone surveys of people voting by absentee ballots will be conducted in 13 states this year, instead of just three.

Mason said two other technical adjustments were made to increase reliability: NEP will conduct exit polling in more voter precincts and have access to a greater number of past vote counts to use on a comparison basis.

"The things that clearly went wrong four years ago, it's hard to imagine them going wrong again with what they've done with this system," said David Bohrman, CNN's Washington bureau chief.

Both the exit polls and vote counts worked with no serious problems during the 2004 primaries and in stress tests, network officials said. Full dress rehearsals will be conducted on Oct. 23 and 30.

Several networks promised to do a better job explaining to viewers how they make projections and even to assign correspondents to their decision desks. ABC has increased training given to its election night team, and CNN is hiring its own statistical analysts to pore over data.

"Every election is different," said Bill Wheatley, NBC News vice president. "In this one, we're cognizant of the fact that additional absentee ballots are being cast, registration levels are up and there may be additional disputes over the reliability of voting machines. We'll factor all of these into our deliberations."

Four years ago, the networks relied on VNS for its count of the actual votes and used the AP's vote-counting as a backup. Now, the AP will go it alone.

The AP will have stringers calling in results from each of the nation's 4,600 counties. Hundreds of people will be assigned to input the information into computers, and others will monitor the systems to guard against problems. In all, a total of about 5,500 people will be working on AP's vote count on election night.

"We have real confidence in the reliability of the AP's vote count," said Kathleen Carroll, AP senior vice president and executive editor. "We also have enormous confidence in the journalists in the field and the bureau chiefs who will be using the data and their experience when they call winners in the race."

The AP relied on that experience on election night 2000 to resist calling the election for Bush, despite enormous pressure after the networks had made their projections.

Most of the AP election night staff has done the job before, said Tom Jory, the cooperative's director of elections tabulations. The AP also has built in new system redundancies to protect against computer or telephone system failures, he said.

Precautions are being taken to guard against human error as well. Using past elections as a guide, the AP's computer system is designed to spit out a warning if figures are entered that are significantly at odds with expected patterns -- just to make sure the numbers are rechecked.