The News Feed: Hither and Yon, 10/10/2009

Lots of people to thank for these. Not having the Baron's news feed contraption, I’m sure I left out a few tipsters. If you see your tip but not your nic, let me know.

Thanks to TB, JD, Flyboy, Fjordman, VH, Insubria, and AMDG.

The stories are as variegated as the colors in Joseph’s coat.

What a world we live in…from the UK to Canada to China to Libya to Sicily and back to a moonshine still in North Carolina.

Yon is here, too, talking about a British war correspondent.

[NOTE: Our ISP, which stores our images, seems to be out as I am posting this. The dividing lines between stories are actually images so they're not appearing at the moment. When connectivity is restored, I'll remove those plus sign dividers.]

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From Islam in Action blog

At least 30 people were arrested when a group demonstrating against Islamic fundamentalism clashed with anti-racism protesters in Britain on Saturday, police said.

Trouble flared as supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) and hundreds of activists from the Unite Against Fascism movement faced off in Manchester, northwest England.

Several hundred police in riot gear separated the EDL protesters, who waved placards saying “No More Mosques in England”, from the rival demonstration across a square in the city.

Police said a total of around 2,000 people took part.

A police spokesman said most of the arrests were for public order offences, but no one was injured.

It was the latest protest mounted by the EDL, after a similar demonstration in England’s second city, Birmingham, last month and a protest by an affiliated group in London on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
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Same story from the Daily Mail:

Hundreds of protesters face-off at anti-Islamic demonstration

More than 2,000 people were protesting in political demonstrations in Manchester this afternoon.

Anti-Islamic protesters from the English Defence League (EDL) were involved in a face-off with counter-campaigners from Unite Against Fascism (UAF)at the city’s Piccadilly Gardens.

A line of police officers, dogs and mounted police separated the two groups.

Police said 30 people had been arrested on suspicion of public order offences, including one on suspicion of carrying a weapon.

Four men were arrested ahead of the demonstration in a bid to avert problems.

The clashes were the latest of a series involving the EDL, which has provoked angry confrontations in Birmingham and London in recent weeks.

The EDL said it was taking to the streets in Manchester to protest against radical Islam and extremists. Its supporters carried placards reading ‘Patriotism Is Not Racism’ and ‘No More Mosques In England’.

The two factions stood on opposite sides of Piccadilly Gardens, which was blockaded by police officers in fluorescent jackets.

A UAF protester shouted through a megaphone: ‘There’s many more of us than you,’ and the crowd sang ‘Who are you?’.

A small group of EDL protesters walked among the throng of shoppers chanting:’ We love our country.’

The sight of a Union flag angered supporters of the UAF, prompting a large number of protesters to go in search of its holder.

Police issued a stern message to troublemakers. Chief Superintendent Gerry Donnellan said: ‘If people come to Manchester to protest they are legally entitled to do so.

‘As soon as they step over the line between lawful protest then we will be taking positive action against those individuals.

‘If you are going to come to Manchester and think you can get away with shouting racist, inflammatory remarks, you can expect us to respond.’

Chf Supt Donnellan said there would be a ‘significant spotting operation’ for known troublemakers with back-up from CCTV.

The UAF had earlier indicated that they planned to occupy Piccadilly Gardens to ‘keep the EDL out’.

EDL demonstrators had planned to meet there at 5pm for an address by an ‘expert speaker’, followed by a two-minute silence for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They planned to sing the national anthem.

The organisation denies it is racist. In a statement on its website it says it is a ‘multi-ethnic, multi-faith organisation’.
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America keeps pampering Islamabad [“a perfect recipe for disaster”]

It is absolutely shocking that the Obama Administration, in spite of all its talk of evolving a new, inclusive strategy to deal with Pakistan, has decided to dole out more American dollars to Islamabad without any strings attached.

The US Congress legislation that was passed last week will see Pakistan receive civilian aid worth $ 7.5 billion over a period of five years along with military aid of an unspecified amount. The aid package is ostensibly meant for democratic, economic and social development programs aimed at alleviating poverty and diminishing the allure of Islamist groups among Pakistani youth.

Had the Obama Administration really been serious about effecting a qualitative change in its approach towards Pakistan, this aid package represented a golden opportunity.

But by clarifying that the aid was unconditional and, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry put it, a “real sign of friendship of the American people towards the people of Pakistan,” the US has squandered away what could have been a key policy initiative.

For all practical purpose what the aid package now boils down to is a blank cheque without any conditions or accountability. Islamabad can literally do whatever it feels like with the money and what policy-makers in Washington, DC, are saying is that they are fine with it.

Needless to say this is a perfect recipe for disaster.

That Islamabad has been diverting American aid - civilian and military - to finance terrorism and arm itself against India is no secret. Neither can the argument be made that the US is unaware of this reality. When you have a former Pakistani President openly admit in a television interview that he had used American aid meant for fighting terrorism to strengthen his country’s conventional military prowess vis-à-vis India, one would think that it would be adequate proof of Pakistan’s nefarious designs.

Yet the Obama Administration would like the world to believe that Pakistan can be reformed through nothing more than good old fashion TLC. The truth is Washington’s latest unthinking policy initiative is symptomatic of the fact that President Obama and his team have painted themselves into a corner on their much-touted Pak policy. With elections in Afghanistan not going according to plan and a Taliban that simply won’t go away - as the recent bombing of the UN World Food Program office in Islamabad showed - the US feels obliged to keep Pakistan in good humour.

So when Pakistani politicians made a hue and cry about the new US aid package seeking to subvert the sovereignty of their Government, the Obama Administration hurriedly made a slew of clarifications to reassure them that this wasn’t the case.

Unless and until Washington, DC, realizes it is time that it adopts the carrot-and-stick policy for Pakistan, it cannot hope to reverse the surge in terrorism emanating from that country.

Meanwhile, the world should brace for more terror attacks.
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Connect the Dots Between Them

by Walid Phares

… bypassing the noise of did-he-earn-it-or-not deliberations, let’s ask: What is the strategy behind the decision to grant this particular trophy to the sitting American president?

To answer this, we simply can connect the dots between the statements made by the grantor and the grantee. Naturally every American must be proud, and many people around the world are happy for such a decision to honor the White House, although some U.S. leaders wished the committee had granted past presidents such as Bill Clinton for his gigantic efforts in worldwide humanitarian assistance.

The alternative choices are arguable, but this particular gesture isn’t about past achievements, as the committee and the recipient have concurred. It is about supporting a specific policy, which has been enunciated firmly during 2009 and is now being grounded in layers of moral recognition.

This honored policy is to ensure that there will be no more American intervention overseas to provoke democratic change, let alone revolutions, particularly in the so-called “Muslim world.”

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Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM, in English), the branch of Al Qaeda in North Africa, has just published a statement in radical Islamist fora announcing the creation of the Institute of Al Andalus Media Productions, a propaganda unit that will have the main objective of “restoring the Islamic land usurped” by Spain. The new institute, explains the terrorist organization in the report, will develop and publish Al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks, unifying the communication strategy of the group. AQIM thus emulates its head office, which has its own media unit, As Sahab, since 2001.

AQIM emerged in late 2006, resulting from the union of the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (usually known by its French acronym GSPC, Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat) to Al Qaeda. The new branch sought to expand to North Africa the terrorist offensive that the GSPC had traditionally fought against the Algerian state, and pointed to Spain from the beginning among its priorities.

The importance that AQIM attaches to the recovery of the territories of Al Andalus, now Spain, is illustrated by the explicit mention in the name of its new media agency. “Why Al Andalus? Because it the Muslim lost paradise, a dominion of eight centuries, when Muslims established their religion and waved the banner of jihad, bringing God on earth”, as the statement of the terrorist organization explains. It continues: “The year 1492 saw its fall, when the Spanish crusaders occupied it due to the failure of the Muslims with regard to the duty of Jihad “….

[read the whole disturbing post]

Search google for AQIM alandalus…this story has been out there for awhile.

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Immigrants Landing in Gela, Mother Ship May Be Off Coast

Another group of immigrants landed this morning in Gela. Police have already stopped 15 people while they were walking near an ENI petrochemical plant. They were brought to the Civil Protection centre in Gela and given food and drink. In the area a search is currently underway for other non-EU citizens part of the same group. The coast guard is trying to locate the vessel used in the crossing. Yesterday 20 North Africans were stopped by police and Carabinieri after landing with an 8-metre inflatable boat in the ‘Bufala’ neighbourhood, 2km east of the city. All without any identifying documents, they said that they were Egyptian and Palestinian nationals. According to investigators, there may be a mother ship that is unloading the immigrants along the southern coast of Sicily.

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Two Hundred Ethiopians in Libyan Detention Camps to Go Home

The liberation and repatriation of 200 Ethiopians appears imminent. They are currently being held in Libyan detention centres after having arrived without documents. The news was reported by the Ethiopian press, stating that a diplomat from the Ethiopian embassy in Khartoum (authorised to act in Sudan, Central African Republic and Libya) is working in Tripoli in this direction assisted by officials from the International Organisation for Migration. With the help of local interpreters, 200 Ethiopians have been identified. They have been living in the detention centres for the last two years because they were discovered without documents, and the diplomat was able to provide the clearance for repatriation. The operation, which is being carried out with the approval of the Libyan government, will end shortly with the organisation of a flight which from Sebha, where the Ethiopians are located, will carry them home to Addis Ababa.

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Culture Wars: Mr. Jennings and “Gay” Bachelor Tribes

The recent effort by President Obama to force Mr. Kevin Jennings upon all our children as Safe Schools Czar brings to mind Eric Rofes cult status book, Reviving the Tribe: Gay Men’s Sexuality and Culture (1996). Here, veteran gay activist, PhD, sexologist and “tribal” celebrity Rofes writes of homosexuality as a tribal union, a bachelorhood of men and men and men and boys.

For an excellent background and discussion of Mr. Jennings I suggest Professor of Political Science-Emeritus, University of Illinois-Urbana, Robert Weissberg’s recent essay “The Long March of Kevin Jennings” at this link.

Without entering the statistical fray about higher or lower rates of crime, I agree with Dr. Weissberg that due to the current promotion of sexual deviance in society and by school sex “educators, “added policing is a “correct response” to safer schools.

Like most homosexual leaders on record, Rofes was early victimized by “soft pornography” and sexual abuse. He reports first sex at sixteen when he “kissed mouths crowned by moustaches.” Rofes, like Jennings, is a major advocate for “school sex education.”

Rofes says that “safe sex” workshops did not prevent AIDS and other STDs because, “[i]s it desirable for gay men facing a future filled with [….infection, illness, deformity and death….] suffering and loss to embrace survival above all else?” He writes that his “tribe” continues to practice unsafe (masochistic) sex.

Therefore Rofes says the “tribe” must “create forms of life that are worth living. An emphasis on quality of life, rather than length of life, may offer a modicum of hope….We need to ask “How can gay men create lives worth living?”

Good question and one equally appropriate for any bachelor group absent marriage to women, fathering of children and family protection as their genetic charge or dedicating ones life to God or other piteous value. Under the heading of “bachelorhood” the Reisman and Johnson research on “Partner Solicitation Language as a Reflection of Male Sexual Orientation,” compared the views of heterosexual versus homosexual bachelors on “marriage,” fidelity, monogamy, sexual violence and several other key variables.

Rofes’ analysis of a “life worth living” was in agreement with the findings from “In Search Of” advertisements in the Washingtonian (largely liberal, urban, white mainstream, upscale, heterosexual bachelors) and The Advocate (largely liberal, urban, white mainstream, upscale, homosexual bachelors).

A representative random sample of 10,292 “In Search Of” ads, (7,407 Advocates, and 2,885 Washingtonians) from 1988-1992, were coded for the same questions of men seeking companions. Five key variables coalesced: bachelors seeking 1) time-bound relationships, 2) non sexual activities, 3) prostitution, 4) sadism and 5) sex with a teen age male or female.

86% of heterosexual Washingtonian bachelors identified “time” in ads to meet versus 2% of Advocates. Nearly half of Washingtonians versus 3% of Advocates mentioned non-sexual hobbies or interests (supporting the finding of low “gay” commitment to a time-bound relationship).

5% of Washingtonians versus 63% of Advocates identified prostitution in their ads. Under one percent of Washingtonians versus 25% of Advocates publicly cited sadism preferences. Almost no Washingtonian ads sought teen-age-girls; 15% of Advocates sought teen-age-boys. This supported the historical, biographical, travel, film, novel, pornographic and self report data on homosexual suborning of sex with underage, immature youths.

These facts are all well known to bi/trans/homosexual communities. That a deviant culture, overwhelmed by erototoxic pornographies is breeding epidemic sexual brutality by men, women and children is a given. Encouraging sexual conduct by promoting bi/homo/transsexual or heterosexual experimentation among youths is inexcusable.

The facts should be known to parents, legislators, judges, educators, doctors, mental health professionals, television reporters and talk show hosts, counselors, and others examining the answer to Rofes’ question, “How can gay men create lives worth living?”

Historically, sodomy laws were enforced largely to protect society from public sex and boy solicitations-both easily carried out under archways and in parks. Instead, by brainwashing school children into the Kinsey fraud, that “one in ten of you” are biologically “bi/trans/homosexual” and the like, children are seduced into what Rofes calls a future of “infection, illness, deformity and death,” for which we pay millions in taxes and to which millions lose their children.

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Polish president ratifies EU Lisbon treaty

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has signed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty.

His signature means the Czech Republic is the only one of the 27 EU member states left to sign the treaty.

It must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can come into force.

Mr Kaczynski, a eurosceptical conservative, signed the treaty at a ceremony
in the presidential palace in Warsaw attended by senior EU officials, including the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Before signing he stressed the EU remained a union of sovereign nation States and it must remain open to new members including countries in the Balkans and Georgia.

On Friday Czech President Vaclav Klaus set out his terms for signing the reform treaty, demanding an exemption to protect Prague from post-war property claims and safeguard the sovereignty of the judiciary.

Mr Klaus’s demands further complicate the European Union’s efforts to implement reforms to give the bloc more global influence.


Is Hope Worthy of Prizes? [Lisa Schiffren]

Some people have noted that Barack Obama has not actually achieved peace, anywhere, or diminution of hostilities, or the destruction of even one nuclear weapon, (or even any of his domestic agenda). But, as the Nobel Committee announced, this award is about a new climate of hope.

Of course, it’s a serious question, as readers of the Greek story about Pandora and her box know, whether hope is one of the world’s blessings or curses. I’ve always leaned toward the view that hope is an opiate (yes, like Marx’s view of religion), which lulls people into passivity. It wasn’t in that box with war, plague, poverty, and famine by accident. The esteemed classicist Mabel Lang used to teach that it was left in the box because it eats at people from within, instead of attacking in plain sight.

[According to some Christians, the three theological virtues - faith, hope, and charity - are intertwined. For Obama, hope is extracted and lies limp and enervated, attached to some nebulous “change” That’s why hope would have to end up in Pandora’s box with the other uglies.

On the other hand, a poet I used to know called hope “a matter of lowered expectations”…your call.

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It’s China’s world. (We just live in it)

After a shopping spree for natural resources, the Chinese are shifting to automakers, high-tech firms, and real estate. Where will they strike next?

Oil in Nigeria (and the Congo and Brazil and Kazakhstan and …). Natural gas in Iran. Iron ore in Australia. China’s hunt for natural resources around the globe, which began in earnest earlier this decade, has intensified as never before.

In September alone, China’s sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corp.(CIC), shelled out nearly $1 billion to buy an 11% stake in JSC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, a Kazakhstan oil and gas company. Just a week earlier CIC paid $850 million to acquire 14.9% of Noble Group, the Hong Kong commodity-trading powerhouse. Earlier this summer the China Development Bank lent Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company, $10 billion to help fund exploration in deep waters off Brazil.

So far this decade China has spent an estimated $115 billion on foreign acquisitions. Now that the nation is sitting on massive foreign-exchange wealth ($2.1 trillion and counting), it is eager to find something (anything!) to invest in besides U.S. Treasury debt.

Though still focused mainly on the natural resources that power its economy, China is now, slowly but surely, broadening its foreign-investment horizons. Both the government and private firms are beginning to look beyond the developing world for assets.

Already the Chinese have bought stakes in foreign banks, utilities, and semiconductor companies. This is a hugely consequential step, both for China and for the global economy.

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The Prize as Propaganda: President Obama and Amira Hass

What Do These Two Awardees Have in Common?

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
…And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats wrote The Second Coming just after the first World War but it is an apt commentary on almost everything, including President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize and Amira Hass’s upcoming Courage in Journalism Award.

Unsurprisingly, one of four Courage in Journalism awards to be presented by Christiane Amanpour and Irshad Manjie, among others, will go to the Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, whose critique of Israel constitutes a veritable Blood libel. Hass describes Israel as an “apartheid” state. Her columns in Ha’aretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, are often stomach-turning.

Hass is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I have met a few such Israelis-on-a-Holy Mission who are absolutely obsessed with the Palestinians and truly see them as the “new Jews.” Perhaps they are, belatedly, trying to rescue their parents or their collective ancestors by focusing on the tragic plight of yet another people-and by so doing, perhaps ensuring “special” treatment for themselves in any future Islamist Reich.

No matter that Hass has sometimes also criticized certain Palestinian policies and leaders. She used to live in Gaza and now lives in Ramallah. I wonder how many more Israelis could safely live in either Gaza or Ramallah….none, really. The areas are “judenrein.” But Hass is a “special” kind of Jewish Israeli-one even more useful than the South African jurist Richard Goldstone. She is worth more to the Palestinians and the Arab League alive than dead…

[Chesler nails it. Finish reading post here]

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Lisbon Treaty: Europe’s Slow-Moving Coup d’État

Supporters of the Lisbon Treaty say its purpose is to cement European integration by “streamlining” decision making. But in its essence, the Lisbon Treaty, which has been called a “slow motion coup d’état,” is all about the centralization of political power by an unelected ruling clique in Brussels who desire to rule Europe free from the constraints of democracy.

The Lisbon Treaty also promotes European aspirations far beyond Europe, which is why Americans should take notice. Indeed, European globalists hope the Lisbon Treaty will transform the EU into a superpower capable of counter-balancing the United States in global affairs.

European strategists have long been frustrated by Europe’s inability to speak with one voice, a debilitating weakness that often neuters Europe’s economic and political weight on the global stage, especially vis-à-vis the United States. The Lisbon Treaty is designed to remedy this deficiency by imposing a European president and foreign minister at the top of the European edifice.

More specifically, the Lisbon Treaty is meant to avoid a repeat of European divisions in the lead up to the Iraq War, when France and Germany were frustrated in their attempts to present a unified European front to block the American invasion. At the time, a fair number of European countries broke ranks with France and Germany and joined the United States in a “coalition of the willing,” much to the anger of the Brussels elite.

By giving unelected EU bureaucrats jurisdiction over questions of war and peace, the Lisbon Treaty will usurp the national prerogatives of its member states on the use of military force. This will make it far more difficult for European allies to support the United States in unpopular wars in the future.

The Lisbon Treaty will push the EU in a direction that should be deeply disconcerting to Americans and Europeans alike…

[excellent essay. This is just a small clip from the middle. Go to the link. It has a thorough history of the antecedents to the EU]

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Why There Might Not Always Be an England

‘The gravest of all problems’: Be tougher on litter louts than muggers, says judge

Magistrates have been told to hammer litterers with big fines because environmental crimes are ‘arguably the gravest of all problems’ facing Britain.

Guidelines endorsed by a leading judge say courts should take a role ‘equal to Greenpeace’ in saving the environment and fighting against pollution and waste.

They propose a fine of £600 for an offence such as not taking home rubbish created by a party at a village hall - more than double the average fine for assault - while dog foulers should be hit with £150 fines, according to the Magistrates’ Association document.

Such heavy fines for ‘environmental crimes’ compare with relatively modest court penalties for many serious criminals which see sex offenders whose crimes are deemed suitable to be punished by a fine pay an average of £285, along with £237 for violent offenders and £286 for fraudsters.

The handbook, written for JPs across the country, states ‘there has been some concern that the levels of fines and sentences given in environmental cases are not high enough’.

Observers said the guidelines showed how out of touch the courts have become with ordinary people’s values, and contrasted the ‘coercive’ approach of using harsh fines for littering with the ‘leniency’ routinely showed towards muggers and shoplifters.

In the foreword to the manual, Lord Justice Sedley writes: ‘The despoliation of the environment is arguably the gravest of all the problems we are going to hand on to our children and grandchildren’.

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The Return of the Serf

It’s not just America but the whole world that is in transition. To be successful the globalist elite had to take down the superpower whose main ideal was freedom and liberty. The one country that the Free World counts on for its existence.

There has now been a major shift in the priority of governments, not only in America but worldwide.

It’s called UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, and just two of its cornerstones are the elimination of private property and vehicle ownership.

Making you sustainable means wiping you out. No meat, no air conditioning and so many no more other things for the Middle Class.

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ALE agents seize 929 gallons of moonshine

Wilkesboro, N.C. - State Alcohol Law Enforcement agents seized 929 gallons of moonshine Wednesday and arrested a Wilkesboro man, authorities said Friday.

Roger Lee Nance, of 1117 Shew Ridge Mission Road, was charged with possession of non-tax paid liquor, possession of non-tax-paid liquor for the purpose of selling, and possession of equipment and ingredients intended for the use in the manufacture of an alcoholic beverage.

“This is one of the biggest seizures of white liquor I’ve seen come out of the mountains in my career,” ALE Director John Ledford said in statement.

The arrest follows a two-month investigation by ALE agents, assisted by the state Highway Patrol. In addition to the liquor, large amounts of sugar and other items were seized during a search of Nance’s property, authorities said.

[It’s the economy, stupid. Moonshine is a fact of life when people can’t find work]

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Extra MEP for Wilders’ PVV party

The government will give the rightwing PVV Freedom Party an additional seat in the European Parliament if and when the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.

The Netherlands, which currently has 25 MEPs, will have 26 under the Lisbon Treaty. During the tally of June’s European elections it was found that the assignment of that extra depends on the exact method of calculation. With one method the seat goes to Geert Wilders’ rightwing party, with another to the Animal Rights Party, which currently has no MEP. The cabinet is now agreed that residual seats can only be assigned to parties which already are represented in the parliament.

[The Animal Rights Party?? Lord love a duck…what’s next? The Tree Party?]

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Chinese dissidents let down by Obama Nobel

China’s dissidents are voicing unease about President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, saying that the award could have been effective in promoting human rights in their country.

Some in China’s democracy movement are outraged at what they see as a weak stance on rights by Obama, who the same week as Friday’s announcement avoided a meeting with Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama that would have upset Beijing.

Chinese activists had been tipped as Nobel contenders on this year of anniversaries, when China marked 60 years of communist rule, 50 years since the Dalai Lama’s flight and 20 years since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square democracy uprising.

Potential laureates included Hu Jia, locked up since December 2007 after exposing government abuses and the plight of China’s AIDS sufferers, and Wei Jingsheng, a onetime electrician who spent 18 years in prison after brazenly challenging former leader Deng Xiaoping to bring democracy.

Huang Ciping, an engineer turned activist who is executive director of Wei’s Washington-based foundation, said that China “has come to such a turning point that the prize might have helped.”

“The Nobel Peace Prize committee has the full right to decide to give coal to those who suffer and struggle or to present flowers to the powerful,” she said.

But she said of the decision: “It is both a pity for the Chinese people and a danger to world peace.”

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Michael Yon: A Story from War

Anthony Lloyd, the famed British war correspondent and author has seen much in war. Years ago, when I read his book My War Gone By, I Miss It So, the idea of taking up the pen and going to war had never been in the question. After reading Anthony’s book it was definitely out of the question. War correspondence is a horrible profession. Taking inventory of battlefields, psyches and body parts is an inevitable, recurring theme. The horrors are too many to remember or attempt to recount, if there were desire. And there was Anthony, one of the most experienced war correspondents, and he was going to the same British unit that I was embedded with. Though Anthony’s journey with British 2 Rifles partially coincided with my own, mostly we were at different bases…

…As years roll by and more soldiers have done two, three, four or even five long tours, writing about war has changed. In the early years most of the soldiers and correspondents were green to war and were on equal footing, but these days only a handful of correspondents remain who keep going back and their numbers are diminishing, while the concentration of highly experienced soldiers is increasing. The increasing and probably irreversible imbalance means that fewer correspondents will share common experiences with current veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and very few writers will possess the experience to render so fundamentally accurately what Anthony Lloyd captures in this story from war.

[Click on Yon’s link to see impressive photo]

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Quote of the day, from a commenter at The Belmont Club (paraphrase):

“Giving Obama the Nobel Prize is like giving Clinton Viagra. It will only swell his narcissism.”