Bryan Strawser

Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands — (applause) — Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. (Applause.) As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their sacrifices.

From the beginning, America has sought international support for our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country. (Applause.) [Whitehouse news]

Hassan Ghul, described as the most senior associate of Osama bin Laden found in Iraq, was picked up last week in the northern part of the country by Kurdish forces, the official said. “He was a senior facilitator who was caught coming into the country,” the official said. Speculation was that Ghul, a Pakistani, was scouting out what al Qaeda could do in the future against U.S. forces, the official said. [Washington Post]

Everyone needs to read their Dooce now and then.

I know I had this dream because I just read about the whole nipple stimulation technique, that there are some doctors who recommend that a pregnant woman past her due date try twiddling her nipples for up to three hours at a time.

I’m suprised this even went to court - can’t they read the Illinois constitution?

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Friday that former Gov. George Ryan was within his authority in commuting the sentences of all prisoners on the state’s death row.

The governor may grant reprieves, pardons and commutations on his own terms, and the decisions are “unreviewable,” the court said. [New York Times]

The price of freedom is high. You might think you would not sacrifice your life for it, but maybe you don’t have to. After all, 20-year-old Americans are doing it for you, every day. [The Age (Australia)]

I was driving in to work this morning, past the carrier piers, where USS JOHN C. STENNIS and USS NIMITZ are parked.

The oldest, most grizzled Master Chief, up on that flight deck, watching the color ceremony with a gimlet eye and brass in his voice, a veteran of two desert wars and perhaps Vietnam was once a seaman recruit. His leading chief had fought in Korea, and perhaps as well in World War II. That chief as a seaman served with a man who had sailed around the world in the Great White Fleet. His chief had sailed up the Mississippi at full speed, damning the torpedoes. And so on, back to the infant Navy of 1775, the fighting men who sailed with John Paul Jones, and David Farragut and Hopkins who first flew that Navy jack, and by flying it meant to clear the decks and prime the guns for combat. These are our fathers and our grandfathers. [Neptunus Rex]

Two snippets from Victor Davis Hanson’s latest article Our Primordial World

Of course, we are not immune to insecurities, but there are a few mitigating factors that render us less prone to hemorrhaging pride and tribal angst. First, we are the world’s most powerful state — indeed, whether we like it or not, the most powerful entity in the history of civilization. With twelve carrier battle groups and another twelve marine transport carriers, we don’t have to talk ad nauseam about something as small and insignificant as the Charles de Gaul. When we refer to the Marine Corps we mean a military larger than any single land army in Europe.

Apart from the model of our forefathers who crushed and then lifted up the Germans and Japanese, we could find no better guide in this war than William Tecumseh Sherman and Abraham Lincoln — in that order. The former would remind us that our enemies traffic in pride and thus first must be disabused of it through defeat and humiliation. The latter (who turned Sherman and Grant lose) would maintain that we are a forgiving sort, who prefer restored rather than beaten people as our friends.

From National Review

I’ve spent my life watching sky and sea change colour hypnotised by
The beauty of it all
And you ask me why I’m singing
Well it is good for me, it can be good for you

And I’ve woken to the sound of sweet dawn music
Where a hundred thousand songs are sung
While the earth and ocean changes
Four thousand million into one

- Hothouse Flowers