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A few months ago, I found a Web site loaded with pictures and videos from Iraq, the sort that usually aren't seen on the news. I watched insurgent snipers shoot American soldiers and car bombs disintegrate markets, accompanied by tinny music and loud, rhythmic chanting, the soundtrack of the propaganda campaigns. Video cameras focused on empty stretches of road, building anticipation. Humvees rolled into view and the explosions brought mushroom clouds of dirt and smoke and chunks of metal spinning through the air. Other videos and pictures showed insurgents shot dead while planting roadside bombs or killed in firefights and...

This September, Senator John McCain's youngest son, Jimmy, 18, will report to a U.S. Marine Corps depot near Camp Pendleton in San Diego. After three months of boot camp and a month of specialized training, he will be ready to deploy. Depending on the unit he joins, he could be in Iraq as early as this time next year, and his chances of seeing combat at some point are high. Of the 178,000 active-duty Marines in the world, some 80,000 have seen a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, and there are 25,000 bearing the brunt of some of the worst...

The Marines pride themselves as being no better friend, no worse enemy. David J. Danelo’s book “Blood Stripes: The Grunt’s View of the War in Iraq” respectfully shows both sides of that picture. “Blood stripes” is the term for the red stripe that runs down each side of the dress blue pants of non-commissioned and commissioned officers in the Marine Corps, and it is a fitting title for this book. The text focuses on a handful of Marine NCOs, who wear those “blood stripes” between February and September 2004 when they, their men or the enemy are bloodied in and...

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (June 28, 2006) -- Marines of Company A, 2nd Tank Battalion are supporting the grunts of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment by maintaining a constant presence with their M1-A1 Main Battle Tanks along the main highways in the battalion’s new area of operations. “We’re operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Gunnery Sgt. Michael J. Kadlub, a tank commander for 2nd Platoon. “There’s always somebody out there.” The tanks followed Darkhorse to Habbaniyah when the battalion moved west from Fallujah at the end of May. The transition to the new battle space was eased...

GET this book. Get it and read it. "Blood Stripes" is exactly what the subtitle claims: a grunt's view of combat in Iraq. You'll never get a better one. There already have been plenty of books about our recent wars - most written by (and, of course, starring) generals and journalists. "Blood Stripes" isn't about the generals' war. It's about the Marine corporals' war: bare-knuckles-close and brutal. Author Danelo served as a USMC junior officer in Iraq, commanding convoys and studying his comrades. He doesn't write about himself, but about Marines he knew - the men who did the fighting...

Washington, DC, May. 25 (UPI) -- A small unit of Marines raided a house in Husaybah, Iraq, recently during a neighborhood "cordon and search" operation to find a handful of snipers who had fired on Marines in the Syrian border town. They gathered all the men in the house in one room, for safety reasons, and to question them. But the lone Iraqi woman in the house wouldn't enter the room with the men. "She was obstinate," said Capt. Andrew J. Nelson, a company commander with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. The Marines insisted. She refused. Ultimately she capitulated,...

May 19, 1:22 AM (ET) The land crew waits for the arrival of the USS Nimitz into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii May 18, 2005. The... Full Image Google sponsored links Eliminate Your Debt Today - Consolidate Your Loans Into Easy Affordable Payments & Start Saving! www.next-day-loans.com Get out of Debt - Free consultation on your options from professional counselors Preceptfinancial.com By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives committee retreated from a sweeping ban on women in combat support and service units, and instead put into law the Pentagon's policy barring women from direct ground combat...

Medalgate Posted: September 30, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 David H. Hackworth Recently in Iraq, an Army two-star general put himself in for the Silver Star, a gallantry award, for just being there, and for the Combat Infantryman Badge, an award designed for infantry grunts far below the rank of this division commander. During the war, members of an Air Force bomber crew were all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for lobbing a smart bomb from 30,000 feet onto a house where Saddam was rumored to be breaking bread – even though Saddam's still out there somewhere sucking desert...

Hackworth Accuses Leadership of Not Responding to the Reality of Enemy Tactics Hackworth just made the same points some of the lib press has been making for a few days. The difference is that the press is taking solace, while Hackworth is sounding the alarm. His contentions are (paraphrasing): - The generals planned for a traditional ground war, and are encountering a guerrilla war. - The grunts in the field are not happy with the tactics so far. - The brass is trying to adapt, but had better do so fast. - The brass is making some of the same...

Garland of brothers...Remember them forever!

Who is the baddes of all our special forces? Rangers? SEALs? Other?