CALIFORNIA YANKEE

"Asphyxiated With Defeatism"

Don't miss Sgt. Joe Roche's op-ed piece in today's Washington Times. "Wonderful Time To Be A Soldier" is absolutely required reading.

Sgt. Roche criticizes the main stream media for being "asphyxiated with defeatism:"

The message from most journalists would lead you to believe that we soldiers are getting out, that no one is joining anew and that we want to stop fighting. This simply isn't true.

Yes, recruitment is lower, but the caliber of those who are signing up and the rates of re-enlistment are both extremely high.

[. . .]

Before September 11, a lot of soldiers were happy to just enjoy the benefits. Since that day, those soldiers have left. That is fine and not the disaster that defeatist reports are making it seem. Such soldiers were never the types to want to go on long deployments and face combat. Yes, they were heroes for signing up and being in a job that could go that direction, but they had other priorities that made their service contingent on enjoying the benefits rather than serving in war.

That changed on September 11. Now, just as we are told to expect when joining, we are going to combat and many soldiers are getting injured and killed. This is our job, and it is what we know can happen. I don't know why the media insists on trumpeting the idea that all of us are tired and worn out and just want to stop fighting. I don't, and I am not alone.

The fact is that we are not experiencing casualty rates anywhere near past conflicts, nor for that matter as bad as during peacetime.

[. . .]

This is a very proud and important time to be serving. Considering that out of a population of 285 million, less than one-tenth of one percent are going to war right now, and considering the huge impact we are having on the world, this is a wonderful time to be a soldier in the U.S. Army.

Sgt. Joe Roche is with the 12th Aviation Battalion and stationed at Fort Belvoir and served in combat duty in Iraq with the 1st Armored Division.

We are truly blessed to have men and women such as Sgt. Roche defending us.

Arab League Criticizes Iraq's Draft Constitution

The BBC reports that Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa calls the failure of the Iraqi draft constitution to describe Iraq as an Arab state "dangerous:"

The draft constitution says the Arabs in Iraq are part of the Arab nation, but Iraq as a whole is not.

This is seen as a major victory for the Kurds and other ethnic minorities who are not Arabs, and a disaster for the Arabs and their brethren in Iraq.

[. . .]

Playing down the Arab identity of Iraq is viewed as a great setback to the cause of Arab unity.

Amr Moussa's only seems concerned about pan-Arabism or Arab unity. Iraq may be one of the founding members of the Arab League, but I have always thought of Egypt's Nasser, not Saddam Hussein, as being the primary progenitor of pan-Arabism.

Traveling

We are taking our son back to school. Not likely to post more today.

Could Al-Sadr Unite Shi'ites and Sunnis Against American Forces

The Washington Times reports that firebrand Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is gaining support among Iraqi youth, raising fears he could eventually unify Shi'ites and Sunnis against American forces.

Followers of al-Sadr have been engaged in two days of violent clashes with the rival ian-trained Badr Brigades in the holy city of Najaf:

Fighting between the Mahdi militia and the Badr Brigades -- the military wing of the leading Shi'ite political party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) -- began after Sheik al-Sadr's followers tried Wednesday to reopen an office in Najaf.

Armed men moved to stop them, setting the office on fire and killing four al-Sadr followers. The Mahdi militia blamed the Badr Brigade and retaliated by attacking SCIRI offices in several southern cities.

According to the Washington Times, the clashes reveal a struggle for influence among the Shi'ites of south and central Iraq, with Sheik al-Sadr emerging as a liberating figure for many angry and alienated youth. But he also is attracting support from Sunni militants not connected with the religiously driven followers of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi.

Babak Rahimi, a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, said he was taken aback by the dedicated following accumulated by the young cleric over the past two years:

"This is an anti-American resistance movement, and he will eventually exploit this, he will eventually merge with the Sunni insurgents," Mr. Rahimi predicted. "This would prompt a stronger force against American troops in Iraq and he will have a lot more followers," he said.

It's hard to accept the idea that Muqtada al-Sadr could unify Shi'ites and Sunnis against American forces. I think a lot will depend on what Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani has to say. Al-Sistani is still Iraq's most respected spiritual leader even if, as Rahimi believes he is losing support among disaffected young Iraqis.

Pirro's Bad Day

Jeanine Pirro's campaign for the Republican nomination to run against Senator Hillary Clinton next year had a bad day Thursday.

Fellow Republican candidate former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer posted a video on his website entitled "She's a Liberal's Liberal:"

"She's not running to beat Hillary Clinton, she running to be Hillary Clinton," said the 30-second television spot.

According to Newsday, strategist John McLaughlin said the ad would begin airing on cable channels next week.

The Newsday article also reported that Edward Cox, who is also seeking the GOP Senate nomination, announced the backing of Washington County GOP Chairman John Aspland.

The Aspland endorsement was of particular note because his was among the names of 46 county GOP chairmen _ out of 62 _ appearing on a June 20 letter urging Pirro to run for the nomination.

While Aspland said Thursday he couldn't even remember signing the letter, "at that time I wanted any viable candidate coming forward."

"That was then. This is now," Aspland added.

As if that wasn't enough bad news for one day, the Journal News reports that New York's Lobbying Commission is looking into a tardy reimbursement Pirro gave to a pharmaceutical company for attending a party during last year's Republican National Convention in Manhattan:

The company, AstraZeneca, is the subject of the inquiry, not Pirro, officials stressed.

At issue is a reception hosted by the company on Aug. 30, 2004, billed as a tea with the wife of Gov. George Pataki. The Lobbying Commission is studying whether tickets to the reception (valued at $350) violated New York's ban on gifts valued above $75 to officials and their relatives — or whether the ticket constituted a gift at all since it was repaid.

The governor and other top Republicans paid the company in advance. But Pirro and another person with ties to the administration didn't pay until months later. A Pirro spokesman said she paid within a week of getting notified about the cost.

Nope, not a good day for Pirro.

Michael Yon's Gates of Fire

Michael Yon has posted his latest dispatch from Iraq, Gates of Fire. It's worth reading all the way through.

Reading Gates of Fire is the first time I heard that there is a catch-and-release-terrorist problem in Iraq:

The terrorist turned out to be one Khalid Jasim Nohe, who had first been captured by US forces (2-8 FA) on 21 December, the same day a large bomb exploded in the dining facility on this base and killed 22 people.

That December day, Khalid Jasim Nohe and two compatriots tried to evade US soldiers from 2-8 FA, but the soldiers managed to stop the fleeing car. Then one of the suspects tried to wrestle a weapon from a soldier before all three were detained. They were armed with a sniper rifle, an AK, pistols, a silencer, explosives and other weapons, and had in their possession photographs of US bases, including a map of this base.

That was in December.

About two weeks ago, word came that Nohe's case had been dismissed by a judge on 7 August. The Coalition was livid. According to American officers, solid cases are continually dismissed without apparent cause. Whatever the reason, the result was that less than two weeks after his release from Abu Ghraib, Nohe was back in Mosul shooting at American soldiers.

LTC Kurilla repeatedly told me of--and I repeatedly wrote about--terrorists who get released only to cause more trouble. Kurilla talked about it almost daily. Apparently, the vigor of his protests had made him an opponent of some in the Army's Detention Facilities chain of command, but had otherwise not changed the policy. And now Kurilla lay shot and in surgery in the same operating room with one of the catch-and-release-terrorists he and other soldiers had been warning everyone about.

How catch-and-release-terrorists be tolerated, especially in Iraq?

Italians Hid Iraqi Insurgents

Caving in to terrorists, Italy hid four Iraqi insurgents from U.S. forces and had them treated by the Red Cross in exchange for the freedom of two Italian aid workers kidnaped last year in Baghdad.

According to the Associated Press, in exchange for the release of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were abducted on Sept. 7 and freed Sept. 28,

"The mediators asked us to save the lives of four alleged terrorists wanted by the Americans who were wounded in combat," Scelli was quoted as saying. "We hid them and brought them to Red Cross doctors, who operated on them."

They took the wounded insurgents to a Baghdad hospital in a jeep and in an ambulance, smuggling them through two U.S. checkpoints by hiding them under blankets and boxes of medicine, Scelli reportedly said.

Also as part of the deal, four Iraqi children suffering from leukemia were brought to Italy for treatment, he said.

Giving in to such demands encourages more kidnaping by the evil doers. One more example of the lesson - terrorism works.

Hawaii Caps Wholesale Gas Prices

The Associated Press reports that Hawaii has become the first state in the U.S. to set caps on the wholesale price of gasoline:

The state's Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday that, beginning Sept. 1, wholesalers in Honolulu may not charge more than $2.1578 a gallon for regular unleaded, or about $2.74 a gallon when taxes are included. The commission set the caps, which will fluctuate from week to week, at different levels for other islands.

According to the AP, the Hawaii law does not establish a cap at the retail level. But if retailers keep their usual 12-cent-per-gallon markup, prices for regular unleaded in Honolulu could in theory rise to about $2.86 per gallon.

I don't see how capping wholesale prices will accomplish anything other than reducing supply which will drive up prices.

At The Eclectic Econoclast, John Palmer posts that gasoline is expensive in Hawaii because transportation and refining costs are higher there. A price ceiling will cause nothing but confusion, anger, and inefficiencies.

At A Stitch in Haste, KipEsquire has more and agrees that a wholesale price ceiling can actually lead to higher retail price.

At Knowledge Problem, Lynne Kiesling refers to this Forbes article explaining that Hawaii's law requires the price ceiling to be set based on an average index of prices in New York, the U.S. Gulf Coast and Los Angeles markets. Because the pricing mechanism is market-related the hope is that it reduces the risk of a physical shortage.

Bolton Urges U.N. to Step Up Pace of Reforms

John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, tells other U.N. on that time is running out on efforts to reform the organization.

The New York Times reports, the United States wants to scrap more than 400 passages in a 38-page draft prepared under the General Assembly president, Jean Ping of Gabon, that was being readied for a summit conference next month:

"Time is short," Mr. Bolton said in a letter to the 190 other United Nations ambassadors. He proposed immediate negotiations, starting with Mr. Ping's draft, and urged his fellow envoys to remain "open to alternative formats if they help us achieve consensus."

According to the Times, the changes under consideration include:

Substitution of the Human Rights Commission with a more powerful Human Rights Council that would no longer allow rights violators onto the panel;

Creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to help countries emerging from conflict;

Defining terrorism to exclude its justification as a national resistance or liberation tool; and

Empowerment of the international community to intervene in countries that fail to protect their people from genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Ambassador Bolton's efforts to reform the U.N. come shortly after Bolton obtained a promise from the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that the UNDP will work to avoid financing one-sided political campaigns as it did recently in Gaza. In Gaza, T-shirts and posters distributed by Palestinian Arabs and urging future Israeli concessions bore the U.N. agency's logo:

Today Gaza, Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem

Not a bad start for Ambassador Bolton.

Prosecution of Illegal Aliens Increases 65%

Prosecution of Illegal Aliens now represent the most common federal prosecutions in the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security recommended prosecution of 65 percent more immigration cases in 2004 than the previous year.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found a 345 percent increase in immigration-related prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney's Southern District of Texas from fiscal year 2003 to 2004. More than 80 percent of prosecutions in the District were for illegal entry.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the TRAC study found increases nationwide in immigration prosecutions:

Nearly a third of all federal criminal prosecutions are related to immigration, topping drug cases, the study said.

The TRAC study also found that the government referred 18,000 immigration cases for prosecution in the Southern District of Texas last year, more than the other five border districts combined.

It's too bad that there aren't similar records in other districts. The vast majority of illegal aliens captured by the Border Patrol are sent back to Mexico the same day instead of being prosecuted. According to the Houston Chronicle, Border Patrol agents made 1.1 million arrests of illegal immigrants along the border last year. But fewer than 27,000 people were prosecuted on immigration charges that year, according to TRAC.

The Arizona Republic reports that the dramatic results in the South Texas District are due to the leadership former prosecutor Michael T. Shelby. Shelby led the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston to treat undocumented immigration as a crime.

Shelby was responsible for a radical increase in prosecutions from 2003 to 2004. His judicial district, much of which borders Mexico, accounted for nearly half of about 38,000 immigration prosecutions brought in 90 districts nationwide.

The increase in illegal alien prosecutions stemmed mostly from the 345 percent increase in Shelby's district alone. Absent the South Texas numbers, the increase would be a mere 5 percent for regions adjoining the southwestern border with Mexico, and 11 percent for the rest of the United States.

27,000 prosecuted out of 1.1 million illegal aliens arrested along the border leaves little room for hope. Nevertheless the increase in prosecutions in the South Texas District offers a slim hope that if we ever become truly dedicated to controlling the nations borders, it might be possible. Give us more officials like Attorney Shelby. Lots more.