BlackFive

There is both a good and a bad side to the media's fawning lovefest with Obama. The downside (for me) was evident in the uber-cool reference to Barry's backwards hat. We had plenty of commenters take me to task for caring about it. I still believe that a man coming into such an important office with a resume as wafer-thin as his on national security and foreign affairs might want to attempt to look like something more than a frat boy. It shows a lack of seriousness and reinforces the idea that he believes he is cool enough to charm everyone into agreeing with him. Well even Barney Frank has disabused him of that notion, so I think it's time to put on a shirt and some big boy pants and start acting like he'll be President in three weeks.

The up side is that President Obama will not have to fight both our enemies and the press to anywhere near the extent President Bush did. The media were as completely invested in defeat in Iraq as the MoveOn left was and I think it is entirely fair to say they deserve some of the blame for the difficulty winning the Iraq War. They kept morale at home artificially low and they gave our enemies there hope that the cut & run crew would prevail. Aid and comfort? Probably not in the classic definition, but they certainly gave them hope. Their conduct since the 2000 election has been to hold not just an adversarial relationship with the Bush administration, but one actively undermining the efforts of our duly elected government. Heck even the NYT eventually admitted that Bush won after they counted the ballots, but their paper continually leaked classified information adn sought to handcuff the President's ability to prosecute the war in Iraq and around the world.

Well the press is so head over heels over Obama that they may actually act as an ally in our efforts to make the world a better place. The question is how soon will they begin to bail if he doesn't begin veering leftward. He has a ton of good will to use initially, and if the media act in a supporting role it amplifies his message-making ability tremendously. The problem is that any logical moves in the foreign policy arena for an American President rarely jibe with the progressive appeasement mentality of the press herd. This will be doubly tough given the current Israeli-Palestinian battles. The media overwhelmingly support the poor terrorists in Gaza and Obama has said and his mouthpiece Axelrod confirmed, he supports Israel's right to lay some wood on them. This will be a good test to see if they will stay on board with him if he toes America's line rather than theirs.

This photo was sent to me. I don't know who took the shot, but it's one helluva photo (in fact, I think the guy in the lower right needs some retraining). DoD photo from last June.

I have decided that the Obama has some potential, but crap like this is hardly Presidential. You are 47 years old and about to assume the most important job in the world. 29 is the cut-off for wearing your hat backwards, and while it's fun to flip the shaka, act like a big boy Barack. Keep your shirt on and quit trying to be the coolest kid in your geeky frat.

Reuters thinks it's Uber-Cool. Grow up Reuters and stop the ball-washing.

The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards, flipped the shaka to a crowd of about 30 people as he left a gym on a Marine Corps base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is vacationing.

Jonn Lilyea and William Teach of Right Wing News have alerted me to an ANSWER sponsored protest at the State Department in DC tomorrow at 4:30 pm. I will be there with bells on. I will need to wash my formal Keffiyeh, Heh.

The following quote sums up my thoughts on the current actions by Israel to deal with the actions of the terrorists who live next door to them.

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

If he manages to avoid the howling mob of Israel haters on his left and stick to what he said when he visited Israel last year, me and this Obama guy just might get along.

Look at the Old Media running for the first plane out....

The United States' three top broadcast television networks have quietly stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq, industry watchers say.

"The war has gone on longer than a lot of news organizations' ability or appetite to cover it," said Jane Arraf, a former Baghdad bureau chief for CNN who has remained in Iraq as a contract reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.

My guess is that the second statement has a lot more in it that is veiled than most people would recognize.  I ran the words "ability or appetite" through my Old Media Language Transmogrifier and came up with "Ability" most likely means, with viewer-ship continuing to drop like a stone and Advert revenue being spent in markets and on media that people actually watch and see; the Old Media likely have a great deal less money to spend to cover the bar tabs and security details for the propagandists who run around Iraq looking for the next "victim" of US Forces.

"Appetite" turns out to mean that without car bombs going off every hour, or any operations where US Forces can be shown "oppressing" the populace; that they have no "appetite" to broadcast anything related to the Victory narrative.

And what with the Obamanation Coronation coming up, they are likely coming home to line up to fawn and slobber over "the One."

I am also going to postulate that as the picture of the magnitude and breadth of the victory we have won in Iraq becomes more and more clear, no one in the Old Media will be there in Iraq to give any coverage to it.

At least the bars won't be as crowded....

This is apparently the mantra of the MSM nowadays in Iraq.  Over at the sublime NYT, they post up that bureaus have moved on.  What they are light on, is WHY?

Quietly, as the United States presidential election and its aftermath have dominated the news, America’s three broadcast network news divisions have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.

Notice, they post that the THREE BROADCAST networks have stopped sending.  Methinks this is more a dig on them to enlighten us that the NYT still has a bureau there and is reporting 'from the ground'.  While they posit that budgets are the primary reason for the cuts, I'm more inclined to believe that there are fewer 'bleeding is leading' stories for them to cover.  I mean, gosh, who wants to cover Iraqi's leading a normal life? 

In my mind, covering the 'reawakening' of Iraq post-Saddam would be a major series to cover.  Also, covering the feeble attempts by the remnants of the insurgency to attack this new 'nomalcy' and show the miscreants that attempt it for what they are would be good stuff.  Heck, given that they could base it as a BHO 'win' under his admin should make it more palatable.  But no, I don't think they are going to do that.  Not enough body bags involved.

Who do you think will cover the first soldiers to patrol WITHOUT their heavy armor?  Keep a watch here on Blackfive.  We've got some stuff coming up- people going in, and we want to maintain the coverage as our troops continue to help the Iraqi's security progress to even lower levels of violence.  Recall that Iraq even passed the US in murders earlier. 

Could a COIN strategy work in Detroit or DC?  Should it?  Heck, should we be putting up walls and compounds there to reduce violence?  Seems to have worked in Baghdad...

As the article says, you will be seeing much more from the Afghanistan front in the coming months.  As the weather clears in the spring, more emphasis will go to that area, and the new surge of troops (I don't care- it is what it is) will further help to stabilize the western regions.

I also believe that the 'cover' of Paks moving troops away from the border is more to do, in reality, with opening up a front for the Coalition to do missions than the Paks wanting to fill the Indan border with troops.  Lack of Pak troops along Afghanistan = more room for the Coalition to work.

Wolf

Chaplain Capt. Andrew Cohen leads the Sabbath evening worship during the sixth day of Hanukkah at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a celebration of the victory over Greek oppression, the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days. Cohen, a rabbi with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Chapel, is deployed from Andrews Air Force Base, Md.  Photographer: Airman 1st Class Jason Epley, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing.

On Christmas Day...

Coalition Forces Kill 11 Taliban During Firefight
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - Coalition forces in Afghanistan killed 11 Taliban militants and detained two suspects during a firefight with members of a major roadside-bomb emplacing network in Kandahar province on Dec. 25.

In Maiwand District, west of the city of Kandahar, coalition forces targeted a Taliban network responsible for local roadside bomb attacks, including recent assaults that killed several International Security Assistance Force soldiers. Militants barricaded inside the compounds refused to surrender and opened fire on the coalition forces with machine guns and AK-47 rifles.

Coalition forces first held their fire to allow women and children to exit the compounds, after which they were moved to a safer location. Coalition forces then engaged the militants with small-arms fire and hand grenades.

Eleven militants were killed during the firefight. Coalition medical personnel tended to a wounded female bystander and evacuated her to a hospital for further care.

Coalition forces found dozens of land mines, at least 15 rocket-propelled grenades, several machine guns and AK-47 rifles, as well as bomb-making materials hidden in the compounds. Coalition forces destroyed the weaponry.

"No martyrs here, just militants who put down roadside bombs that kill innocent Afghans and then hide among civilians putting them at even greater risk," said Army Col Jerry O'Hara, a U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesperson. "Coalition forces take on extraordinary steps, even giving up the element of surprise to ensure only militants were engaged."

Over at Castle Argghhh!, the Donovan comments on the recent Taliban murders of civilians and has a blue-ribbon comment from COL O'Hara...

Brilliant barely begins to cover this. From Chuck Z and his Code Monkey.

I was trolling around on the dark side of the internet today to see how the hippies were responding to Gaza. I decided to see how the nitwits in pink were reacting and typed what I thought was their web page address into the address bar.

WARNING:  Clicking the link below while consuming a beverage may be bad for the health of your monitor and/or keyboard!

Now trust me on this one and click here:

http://www.codepinkforpeace.com

Oh the irony...

-Code Monkey