Michael Yon email

Greetings in the United States and dozens of other countries:

Filmmaker Michael Moore is using my work without my permission. Please click for details.

Very Respectfully,

Michael

And, just a little off color humor...

Operations ongoing in Mosul

Bill Roggio over at The Long War Journal reports that Al Qaeda “Prince” reported captured in Mosul

• Iraqi security forces, backed by US forces, are pressing the offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq and allied insurgent groups in Mosul and Ninewa province. The operation, which initially was called Lion’s Roar but has morphed into Operation Mother of Two Springs, has netted more than 1,100 al Qaeda and insurgent operatives. Today, the Iraqi Army reported it captured the “Prince of Ninewa” during a raid. The Iraqi government is planning an amnesty and may be forming an Awakening in Mosul proper, a source told The Long War Journal.

To get an Iraqi perspective on the Mosul operations we have Mohammed over at Iraq The Model with his Iraq Hunts Al-Qaeda in Its Last Urban Stronghold which he has posted in it's entirety over at Pajama's media.

• Operations are now underway in Mosul to rid the city of al-Qaeda. The streets are calm, indicating that the terrorists realize they are too weak to fight.

Another good read from ITM

Omar over at Iraq The Model has Iraq Quietly Confronts Iran With Evidence of Weapons Trafficking which is another good read.

• The Iraqi minister of defense pushed the debate with the Iranians over their provision of weapons to Shia militias one more step on Monday. Minister Abdul Qadir Obeidi indirectly confronted the Iranians, without naming them, with new findings that prove their involvement in the arming of Shia militias.
  On Monday, state-owned al-Sabah published a statement by the minister in which he spoke of the capture of a certain type of rocket that was never found in militia-held caches until now:

In case any of you are still checking in from time to time

I'm going to put up a few posts tonight to try and get back on track with the blogging.

For starters there is Mohammed over at Iraq The Model who posts Do Iraqis Want an Arab Nuclear Bomb? which is a pretty interesting read on some Iraqi viewpoints on Iran wanting to develop a nuclear bomb, not that they'd ever consider doing that...

• The change that took place in Iraq was not only a political one but also, and more importantly, a change in awareness; something that isn't easy to detect.
  This is what I see clear in the nature of Iraqi dialogue among the public, and I'm always pleased by the degree of awareness and open-mindedness that emerged in the years that followed the change. I believe it is an important indication about the future.
  
  Recently I've been reading through one of the BBC forums whose topic is basically "do Arabs have the right to possess nuclear weapons?". I didn't hesitate to read all the contributions, which numbered over 600 from various Arab countries. I wasn't surprised by the nature of Iraqi contributions to the discussion. I had always called these "singing outside the Arab flock".
  This "singing" is almost always faced by attacks from the rest of Arabs who often generously use the word "traitors" when addressing their Iraqi counterparts just because they have different views about one issue or another.

Yon's "Moment of Truth in Iraq"

Yep, I got a review for you. No, not by me, I'm only half way through it and have absolutely no way to tell you if he's right or wrong on his take, but Michael J. Totten does. He has his review of it in his The Real Iraq

• Iraq is where ideologies go to die. Arab nationalism, Baathism, anti-Americanism, al-Qaidism, Donald Rumsfeldism, and Moqtada al-Sadrism have either died there or are dying. Conventional liberal opinion, more or less correct about the foundering American war effort from 2004 to 2006, has been severely bloodied—along with Iraq’s worst insurgent groups and militias—by General David Petraeus’s leadership of the American troop surge. Even post-9/11 fear of Islam has proven unsustainable for those who regularly interact with ordinary Iraqis. Independent journalist Michael Yon, who has spent more time embedded with combat soldiers in Iraq than any other reporter, is a refreshingly unideological analyst of the war. His self-published dispatches have earned him a loyal following around the world, and he has set out to reach even more people with the publication of a terrific new book, Moment of Truth in Iraq.

And, I also recommend the book, even though I haven't finished it yet. It really does look to me like Pulitzer. The cover has his photo of Farah, the Iraqi girl killed by Al Qaeda in, what I still consider to be, the photo and story that captures the Iraq war like nothing else ever could.

Well done Yon and to all of you who contributed to keep him in camera's and equipment.

And he thinks he's ready to be President

President Bush delivered a speech yesterday in Israel to members of the Knesset. This part is from the text of the speech from The Wall Street Journal.

• Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Reading that you see a pretty large blanket aimed at Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, and tons of people that feel we need to sit down with the terrorists and talk. This asinine idea is the last thing any right minded individual would recommend, but the liberals all over the world keep promoting it.

No one said a word about it until Obama decided it must have been aimed at him. Instead of doing the wise choice and just letting it go he responded thusly.

• "It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said.

  "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel,"

What a moron...

White House reaction to Obama.

• The White House said Bush's comment wasn't a reference to Obama.
  "It is not," press secretary Dana Perino told reporters in Israel. "I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that the president, President Bush, thinks that we should not talk to. I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you. That is not always true. And it is not true in this case."

Man those hanging curve balls can really get launched, can't they?

The Democrats are all up in a tizzy now, which is even more entertaining since this part of his speech is exactly the same thing he's been saying for years. Obama just went ahead and put the shoes on...

Cool