From the Halls to the Shores

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force issued a statement saying it was “conducting offensive operations ... to foster a secure and stable environment for the people.” It went on to say that "some have chosen to fight. Having elected their fate, they are being engaged and destroyed.”

[In a statement released early Saturday, the Marine Corps said it was carrying out "offensive operations in Falluja in order to foster a secure and stable environment for the people" of Al Anbar Province. The statement offered no details about casualties but indicated that marines were moving swiftly to crush the insurgents.]

Female Saudi journalist Wajiha al Huwayder, fired from the Saudi newspaper Al Watan because she “damaged the foundations of the nation and wrote about issues not permitted by Shari’a,” has posted an incredibly biting article on the web that attacks “the pathetic men of the East:” Single life beats marriage to an emasculated man.

“Most Arab men have been emasculated since they were young. They have no power to give, and therefore they are incapable of granting a respectable life to anyone. There are no exceptions here, according to the rule that says: A person who lacks something, is unable to give it.”

From here Al Huwayder embarks, together with her female readers, on a journey around the Arab countries.

“Let’s begin with the original land of the Arabs, Saudi Arabia. The most important characteristic borne by the men of this country is the impotence complex....

Matty: Ok, Harvey, what's the plan?

Harv: We just go in, and ask Glenn politely to please, in the spirit of international cooperation, return the nation's supply of real Guinness and not do mean things to the poor, besotted Irish anymore. And to pretty please be nice from now on.

Matty: I said "Harvey", not "Kerry"!

Harv: Oh. Sorry. Go in, kick Glenn's ass, and rescue the Guinness with extreme prejudice.

Mike: OOOO! Me likey!

Dear Families and Friends of XXXX,
All of XXXX (reinforced) units have safely reached their respective Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) in Iraq. The majority of the [Marines are] located at FOB XXXXXXXX XXXX in XX XXXXXX, Al Anbar Province.

Here at XXXXXXXX XXXX we have a chow hall that serves three good meals daily in clean and pleasant surroundings. Our showers are now operational but the hot water is used up quickly. Telephone and internet service are provided in three tents located at various places on the camp with between 12-20 computers and 6-12 phones each. Time on these is limited to 30 minutes including log in time. Depending on the time of day we can wait from 5 to 30 minutes for an available phone or terminal. There are as well three weightroom tents with machines and free weights, they are small but well equipped.

Your Marines and Sailors are living in hardside tents with concrete floors, heat, and air conditioning but a tent roof. Most have bunk beds of dubious quality but still a step up from a cot. They spend most of their days preparing for or conducting missions.

This FOB is operated by the XXXXXX of the Army's 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kansas. They have been here for six months and will be here another six. We work for them and they work for the 1st Marine Division. They are treating us very well.

[Other Marines are] located some distance from us at FOB XXXXX with some other units. Their life is much more austere, living in bunkers and eating MRE's. We are working on upgrading their conditions. The people in their area seem to be very pro coalition and genuinely friendly.

The Marines and Sailors are doing very well and demonstrating all that is best about America. Three Marines this past week stood out in their professionalism and humanity; while participating in a vehicle patrol with an Army unit. The Patrol encountered an overturned truck in a canal and due to the gathering crowd could not pass. When the Marines learned an Iraqi man was trapped underwater in the truck they dismounted the vehicle, Sergeant Lxxxx established a secure perimeter while Sergeants Bxxxx and Wxxxx dropped their gear and entered the canal pulling the driver out. While the driver could not be resuscitated by an Iraqi doctor on the scene, the attitude of the crowd was noticeably and favorably changed when the Marines emerged from the water. Sergeants Lxxxx, Bxxxx, and Wxxxx demonstrated the very definition of our ethos "No better friend, no worse enemy." You should be proud of these Marines, I am.
Keep us in your prayers, my time on the internet is about up.

Semper Fidelis

The USS Midway (CVA-41) is now berthed at the Navy Pier at the foot of Broadway in downtown San Diego and is in the process of being converted into "The San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum" (SDACM). The opening date is targeted for the first week of June, 2004 to coincide with the anniversary of the Battle of Midway.
....

Midway fighters accounted for both the FIRST and the LAST air combat victories of the Vietnam War!

Therefore, the drive is underway to raise the required $40,000 necessary to authentically paint and prepare for display aboard Midway, an F-4 Phantom II in the colors and markings of The Freelancers of Fighter Squadron Twenty-One (VF-21) and The Chargers of Fighter Squadron One Six One (VF-161). The names of the "first & last" aviators listed above, will be placed on the canopy rails in the traditional manner. The names of all Midway Mig killers will be placed on the intake ramp of the aircraft.

Because this aircraft represents the Beginning through the End of air-to-air combat in Vietnam, it symbolically commemorates the combat operations conducted by all Navy Phantom squadrons, and salutes the courage and dedication of all Navy Phantom flyers and Phantom fixers of the Vietnam War.

- Mike the Marine, 2004

Here’s how I see the conversation:

Venezuelan: The US only went into Iraq because of the oil. They're going to take all of the oil, and sell it to fund their global imperialism.

Jeff: Well Christ I hope so! Ya know, we could have done that back in ’91 (like all you nutjobs accused us of then, too) when we had the older, wiser Bush, a REAL international coalition, and over twice the manpower! I mean, we could have been BATHING in crude for over a decade, but NOOOO. We had to go and let Saddam, Kofi Annan, the French, and the Russians get all the goodies out of that whole “Oil for Food” Program. That should be OURS! I’m tired of winning wars in oil rich countries only to watch my gas prices go up for a year. Oh yeah… regular unleaded is up to $1.70 a gallon! If I’m not paying pennies to fill my tank by the end of the year, we’ll have to invade Iran.

Hey, I just thought of something… if we were stealing all the oil back in ’91 (as I’m sure you were shouting then, too) how can we be stealing it again? Shouldn’t Iraq be totally DRY by now?

Venezuelan: United States free trade has killed the Venezuelan economy and they're on the path to do it again.

Jeff: Wait… you guys have an economy? That’s news to me… What do you use down there? Shells? Beads? Oh wait…. Bolivars. Hey, what’s the current exchange rate on the Bolivar? Hey it’s only 1976 Bolivar to the Dollar today. Yep, the bottom is falling out of the Bolivar. But it has been since the middle of the Clinton Administration so THAT’s nothing new. Before that… who knows? Apparently nobody cared enough to find out until 1995.

Venezuelan: I think that 9/11 wasn't enough. The United States is going to fall in my lifetime because they shit on everyone else in the world

Jeff: It’s not that we shit on everyone. We just don’t care. I mean think about it. How much does the average Venezuelan know about… sayyyyy… Andorra? I mean it’s a small country, on another continent, that produces nothing, and has no impact on Venezuela’s policies or day to day life. Well… YOU’RE our Andorra. We don’t give a flying fuck about you. You could fall off the world tomorrow and we wouldn’t even notice. America – love us or hate us – if we imploded tomorrow, EVERYBODY would feel it somehow. But all you little guys… whatever.

So why don’t you stop getting high on your own supply, and go get me a cup a coffee there, Juan Valdez. Oh wait… he’s not Venezuelan? Well, see? I DON’T CARE. Get to stepping Juan… lots of sugar, lots of cream.

More irritating than even that kid who you took a dislike to at school, you'll live on as one of the many reasons you'll never want to go back to being a child. The annoying laugh, that needling competitiveness with everything you do, the desire to be better, meaner, first, first, first, first, first ...

Remember when you taped his buttocks together, hung him from a tree and then swung from his gonads, chanting "I am the monkey king"? Even a full scale nuclear apocalypse won't shake off the little bastard, apparently.

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

“... Bush officials act as though they own 9/11, even while refusing to own up to any 9/11 mistakes.
Because of 9/11, they think they can suspend the Constitution, blow off investigators, attack nations pre-emptively, and keep Americans afraid by waging a war against terrorism that can never be won.”

Ahem…. SCREW YOU, YOU SYPHILITIC HAG.

"I know some of them may think it (the council action) is a bit late, but it's better late than never and we will do whatever we can to support them”