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President Barack Obama is expected to tout the end of American military involvement in Iraq during his Thursday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, but a prominent tribal leader who helped end the Iraq War is now asking Obama, “Why did you leave Iraq to Iran?” Eli Lake of The Daily Beast reports that Ahmad Abu-Risha, a member of the coalition of Sunni Arab tribal leaders opposed to al-Qaida that helped turn the tide in Iraq, is displeased that the U.S. has broken off communications after pulling out troops in December 2011. During the troop surge of 2007, the...

Great photos at the link.

Iran has focused its intelligence efforts on the U.S. military presence in the Gulf. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran was bolstering intelligence operations against the American military presence in Iraq and Gulf Cooperation Council states. The community said Teheran was also using its proxies to spy on American troops. "Iran is enhancing its focus on U.S. intelligence activities and relies on foreign intelligence partnerships to extend its capabilities," the intelligence community said in a report. The Teheran regime has been expanding intelligence operations through such proxies as Hamas, Hizbullah and Venezuela. The report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment,"...

The video linked here shows almost 3 minutes of  hirabists training with weapons and other such poor quality offerings, but when you get to 3:00, the viewer is treated to close-ups of a dead coalition soldier.  The video is grotesque and shocking.  The soldier's dog tags are removed at  3:55, and video of his body continues until 4:06.  The video then shifts to showing an arsenal of weapons - those more astute than I can probably tell us what those weapons are - and then the video zooms in at  4:50 on a set of dog tags, presumably from the...

The nation's third-highest medal for valor. Texas girl (Lake Jackson, near Houston). A nineteen year old kid (I'm allowed to say this at my age and I am not objectifying her). Under gunfire and mortar fire, she helped move wounded comrades to safety, at times shielding them with her own body. Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees. "We stopped the convoy. I...

Voters from Southeast Rashid raise their hands in favor of a candidate during elections at Joint Security Station Doura in southern Baghdad, March 5. The elections were the first of their kind, providing the people with seven representatives to the Government of Iraq. Photo by Pfc. Nathaniel Smith, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. BAGHDAD — In the United States, “Decision ‘08” is getting into full swing with political parties holding primaries and caucuses in states around the Nation. In southern Baghdad, the story is no different as the people of East Rashid held elections this week to determine...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2008 – A military spokesman in Iraq today praised soldiers of an Army brigade that will soon redeploy to the U.S. and mark the first reduction in the number of surge forces sent to stabilize Iraq last year. Multinational Force Iraq officials announced March 6 that some 2,000 paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, will return to Fort Bragg, N.C., in the next several weeks, reducing the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 19 to 18. “On behalf of the men and women of (Multinational Force Iraq), I want to thank the 2nd...

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the...

Why return to the Air Force Academy after Winter Break? So after our sunburns have faded and the memories of our winter break have been reduced to pictures we've pinned on our deskboards, and once again we've exchanged T-shirts and swim suits for flight suits and camouflage, there still remains the question that every cadet at U.S.Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has asked themselves at some point: Why did we come back? Why, after spending two weeks with our family would we return to one of the most demanding lifestyles in the country? After listening to our 'friends' who...

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan - A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the...

<p>With the end of the first week of March, there has so far been only a single American fatality this month (incurred in a non-combat Iraqi helicopter crash). If that were to continue (and it could change tomorrow), we are in a period in which the entire war could be redefined as something analogous to ongoing operations in Afghanistan or even the Balkans. And that, coupled with Iraq’s strong economic performance and political improvement, would radically change the Obama message of Iraqi as an ungodly horror worthy of abject withdrawal.</p>

Civil Liberties for Terrorists But Not for American TroopsBy Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | June 21, 2006 In recent years the ranks of alleged victims championed by civil libertarians on the political Left have swollen to include everyone from the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay, to anti-American radicals, to environmentalist ultras and illegal immigrants. But there’s at least one group ineligible for victim status under the legal Left’s guidelines: American troops.  This seems to be the lesson of the “Camp Pendleton Eight.” A group of seven Marines and one Navy corpsman, they are currently being held--reportedly under excessively harsh conditions--at the Camp...

Did you know there are seven young Marines and a Navy corpsman sitting in a military brig right now in leg and wrist shackles – despite the fact that they've not been charged with any crime? The men are in solitary confinement, locked in 8-by-8 feet cells at San Diego's Camp Pendleton, as investigators probe an April 26 incident involving the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They are behind bars 23 hours a day; family members can only see them through inch-thick Plexiglas. Military blabbermouths have told the press that the service members are suspected of kidnapping and...

American troops are developing a hate-hate relation with journalists. The basic problem is that soldiers and marines in Iraq have access, usually via the Internet, to what the mass media is saying about what they think is happening in Iraq. These news reports, all too often, do not reflect what the troops experience. It gets uglier when the troops realize that reporters are spending most of their time in the Green Zone or some well guarded hotel, leaving it to local Iraqi stringers to collect information and photos for the reporters stories. Relations are a bit better with the few...

Clerics Warn of Anti-American Feelings Over Alleged Body Burnings Thursday, October 20, 2005 KABUL, Afghanistan — Islamic clerics expressed outrage Thursday at television footage that purportedly shows U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban (search) fighters to taunt other militants and warned of a possible violent anti-American backlash. President Hamid Karzai (search) condemned the alleged desecration and ordered an inquiry. The operational commander of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, which launched its own criminal probe, said the alleged act, if true, was "repugnant." Worried about the potential for anti-American feelings over the incident, the State Department said it...

Supporting the troops means more than wishing them a safe return. It means believing in their mission. If that grows hard with each day of new attacks by insurgents, that is a call to all of us to show but a fraction of the steel spines our fighting forces muster each day. If they can dodge insurgents' bullets and car bomb shrapnel, the least we can do is refresh our familiarity with what wars are. They are hard, sometimes long and always bloody. This Christmas finds thousands of our military friends and family stationed in barren locales, enduring those hardships...

U.S. troops, caution in Mosal, Iraq, 11-24-04 US soldiers in Afghanistan, 11-24-04 U.S.troops after terrorist attack in Baghdad, 11-24-04 US soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) stand guard on the roof of a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. 11-24-04 A soldier from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) patrols in the northern city of Mosul. 11-24-04 Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. troops coupled with Afghani government forces. 11-24-04 A U.S. Army soldier covers the scene from a rooftop while others search a building in Mosul, Iraq 12-24-04...

Soldier in Iraq: "We're Doing Good Work Here" Written by J. B. Williams Saturday, October 16, 2004 To: JB Williams Subject: Fw: Letter from a proud father! Mr. Williams, I send the letter from you along with my attachment to my son in Iraq (1st Lt. Richard Hallett - the Cobra pilot) Here is his answer to me - I know you will enjoy it. Bob ---------------- From: Hallett 1stLt Richard D Subject: RE: Letter from a proud father! Hey Dad.. good correspondence. Keep it up. I think that you are probably fighting your own sort of war of ideologies...

U.S. Forces Advance Toward Najaf Shrine 18 minutes ago By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI, Associated Press Writer NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. forces Monday drew near Najaf's revered Shiite shrine, engaging in fierce battles with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as the military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to hand over the holy site to religious authorities. Al-Sadr followers claimed that U.S. airstrikes overnight damaged an outer wall of the Imam Ali Shrine compound, which remains in control of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. The U.S. military said the strikes targeted militants south of the shrine who fired on U.S. troops,...

In Germany, U.S. troop withdrawal plans raise jitters in many towns 45 minutes ago TONY CZUCZKA BERLIN (AP) - German officials voiced concern Monday that their country has the most to lose with President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s announcement that tens of thousands of troops will return to the United States over the next decade. With some 70,000 U.S. soldiers based in Germany, thousands of local jobs - from bakers to maintenance workers and office personnel - depend on the Americans, who first came as occupying forces after the Second World War. European and Asian countries with...