H&I* FIRES 21 JAN 2008

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

Well, since nobody else seems to have anything to say, I'll jump in here...

In preparing to conduct an interview, I've done some extra reading and found a lot of interesting news about Iraq from the last week... most of it very good. It still seems to ride a razor's edge and so much can still go wrong, but the good signs just keep accumulating.

We'll start with the BBC, which reports that the IMF and the UN expect a good year for Iraq on political and financial fronts. The UN Secretary General also lauded the improved security situation.

Speaking of security, the holy city of Karbala passed through Ashura without bloodshed for the first time since Saddam fell, an excellent sign of the effectiveness of Iraqi and coalition security forces. There were a couple of suicide bomb attacks in the last week, and what is being described as a "cult" created a great deal of bloodshed in southern Iraq, but the Karbala success is huge.

Of course, part of that success is credited to GEN Petraeus. This bit of reportage, entitled "The General and the Iranian Pilgrim" is fascinating, both for the image it offers of Petraeus "out and about," and for the discussion of border security measures and engagement with Iran.

On a more disturbing note, there is some confusion but it seems the number of Iranian-provided EFPs spiked significantly in the first two weeks of January. They're already back down, but it's obviously something being watched very closely.

Good news for the AD Army: Chief of Staff hopes to return combat tours to 12 months by summer. - FbL

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Thanks to Eric of Grim's Hall, I have a new favorite milblogger: "LT G," who blogs at Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal. He's an excellent writer who reminds me of the best of the first generation of front-line milbloggers, and I suspect he has a book in him, somewhere. He's only been deployed about a month, so he's not too hard to catch up on. After you've read that first link, just start back at the beginning (scroll down to the bottom three posts), and see if you can stop there... I suspect you won't. It's good stuff. - FbL

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Assuming that Obama gets the nomination for the Dems, and McCain gets it for the Republicans (neither of those things a certainty at this point) doesn't it look a lot like 1996? Running a eld member of the Old Guard against a young fresh face, because it's the eld guy's turn? Wasn't that a recipe for disaster last time? It's one thing to let Bob Dole have his run against a popular incumbent, not much to lose - but that situation doesn't apply here, this is an open seat that will likely define the next 8 years. Just a thought. Of course, I've about given up on the Republicans managing to put up an electable candidate, and am wondering if they can hold on to enough House and Senate seats to keep the Dems in check. And, will the have the gumption to do so. Because I'm pretty sure if the Dems get control of all the Trifecta, unlike the Republicans, they'll ram through their entire agenda, bi-partisanship be damned. And they'll claim a mandate to do it - leave aside that for most of us, this isn't about voting for who we think is going to do the best - it's about getting the least objectionable into office. That's not a mandate, that's simply being the next-to-the-last guy picked for the dodgeball game.

Remember - on the issue of bipartisanship:

“A Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb deciding what to eat.”
“A Constitutional Republic, is an armed lamb demanding a recount.” (var. usu. misattributed to Franklin) -the Armorer

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Doc in the Box posts his first report from Iraq (for the 4th time). It involves pink and a chick. - FbL

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You know, there is plenty to be said about the No Child Left Behind Act, good and bad. One thing I've found interesting is that my niece, who is in kindergarten, is learning to spell and write sentences, using appropriate capitalization, along with some interesting reading, reasoning and logic skills that I am certain I did not learn until I was in first or second grade. How long ago that was, I will not tell, but it is definitely more. Still, I find some comments on the educational system to be not only telling, but down right ironic.

In a piece on the NYC school system, a man lamented his son getting "D" on his report card. Not in the way that my father would have lamented (ie, disappointed in my performance, expectations for improvement, grounding if it didn't...that's what I got when I got a "C" on time in pre-Calculus by the way). No, this gentleman lamented:

"This is hurting my son's education," he said. "It's all based on the faulty premise that school tests are measuring what kids are learning."

One thing the gentleman lamented that I could agree with was the lack of emphasis on social studies or history. Math and reading are extremely important, but a nation must be balanced in its people and instructions if it is to maintain its freedom.

In a piece on Dr. King's "Well of Democracy":

The failure to significantly increase civic knowledge among college students has immediate practical consequences: The more civic knowledge a student gains in college, the survey data demonstrated, the more likely he or she is to vote and participate in other civic activities.

It also has profound consequences for the longer term. As King argued, the rights enshrined in the Declaration, protected by the Constitution, and eventually redeemed by all Americans through decades of civil struggle and reconciliation, are universal and irrevocable.

If we forget what they are, we will forget who we are: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Today, I am re-reading "The Federalist Papers" (I'm on 9). I've read Paine, Adams, Franklin's autobiography, Locke and Hobbes, Milton's Paradise Lost amongst others in the last year (I just finished Justice Joseph Story's Book III Commentaries on the Constitution), re-acquainting myself with some principles that, as a young person, sometimes seemed like the words of old fogies who couldn't possibly relate to our modern problems. I'm happy to have re-made (or recently made) their acquaintance. It's reminded me considerably about what we're supposed to be doing here. -Kat