Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The failed attack on U.S. forces escorting a currency convoy in the Iraqi city of Samarra Sunday represents a failed but highly significant attempt at escalation by guerrilla forces and confirms their centralized, sophisticated command structure and confidence.</p>

The Nexus of Culture and Foreign PolicyBy Herbert London In policy disputes culture – however ambiguously defined – trumps most other characteristics including money, enthusiasm, even courage. By culture I’m referring to the habits of mind that are cultivated by the institutions in a given society. If one relies on a Tocquevillian interpretation of national character, the U.S. he observed was a nation that encouraged liberty and individualism, but it also fostered associations and communal ties. More recently, David Putman argued that Americans have been so seduced by television viewing they are accustomed to watching alone and “bowling alone”....

CIA Fact book on Uruguay and Puerto Rico site there, too. The story of the Puerto Rican flag. I'm wondering where is Hugo Chavez?

<p>September 12, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. military forces in northern Iraq captured 80 foreign fighters from several Arab countries on suspicion that they are part of a new al Qaeda offensive against American troops, officials said yesterday.</p> <p>Pentagon officials said the suspected terrorists were nabbed by the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment between Mosul and the Syrian border.</p>

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Three Iraqis were arrested Friday in the possible abduction of two U.S. soldiers north of Baghdad, a military spokesman said.</p> <p>U.S. troops in Baghdad searched for two missing U.S. soldiers and their Humvee Thursday.</p> <p>Sgt. Patrick Compton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the three suspects were being interrogated. No other information on the arrests was immediately available.</p>

Iraqi Exiles Go to War . . . From the April 7, 2003 [Weekly Standard] issue: Led by an impressive special forces colonel. by Stephen F. Hayes 04/07/2003, Volume 008, Issue 29 Near the Iraqi border A group of bleary-eyed soldiers has gathered at 3:45 Thursday morning in the truck bay of the firehouse they call home. They've come together for the most serious of purposes--to send soldiers to battle. Most of the American soldiers gathered here sport a "high-and-tight," military jargon for a crew cut. The exception is Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hammack, a Special Forces officer commanding this ad...

MANILA, Oct 3 (AFP) - The Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnap gang is flexing its muscles in the southern Philippines, staging bombings and abductions two months after US troops ended an anti-terror campaign. A daring bomb attack that shook the relatively peaceful southern port city of Zamboanga late Wednesday and killed three people, including a US soldier involved in relief work, has been blamed on the notorious group. The blast occurred just as a motorcyclist carrying the bomb drove in front of a karaoke bar where the victims were gathered, officials said. National police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said...