Maybe God Had A Reason

It'll pull at your heartstrings, it will.

A Heart of Gold.

GW: Quiet Giant

Not going to change a thing. A grateful hat tip to Gateway Pundit:

George W. Bush restored the Iraqi marshes.
In early 2003, less than 10% of the Mesopotamian Marshlands remained. By early 2004, 40% of the marshlands had been re-flooded. Since the liberation of Iraq the marshes have been restored to over 85% of their former glory.
A photogragh in 1977 of the marshlands before Saddam drained the land of water. (Nik Wheeler)
George W. Bush not only liberated 50 million people from two of the most brutal regimes in history, he also brought life back to the Iraqi marshes.

But, that's not all.
The EPA’s latest report shows that air pollution levels in every category fell from 2001 to 2007.
Sacrates's Academy reported, via Free Republic:

The latest findings are significant because they stand in sharp contrast to a refrain among some environmental campaigners and the media that air pollution is getting worse, and to the assertion that the Bush administration was “rolling back” the Clean Air Act. Final data for 2008 won’t be available for several months, but the EPA’s latest report shows that air pollution levels in every category fell from 2001 to 2007; moreover, air pollution levels in most categories fell at a faster rate than during the first seven years of the Clinton Administration.

Thanks Gateway Pundit

Gary Sinise: We Can't Do Enough For Our Veterans

When real Stars shine. "We are lucky we have such people. What would we do if no one wanted to serve to defend the freedoms we all enjoy?"

A while back, a friend of mine suggested that I take a look at a film that a buddy of his had made about his two brothers serving in Iraq.

Having spent some time there myself, I was eager to see it. Once I did, I wanted to do all I could to help the filmmakers find a distributor and get this wonderful film into the theaters.

I was honored to be asked to come on board as executive producer of the film, "Brothers at War," an honest and inside look at our military service members. It's told through the point of view of one brother who is in search of answers as to why his two younger brothers are serving in Iraq and what they and their families are doing during these long deployments.

I got involved with the film "Brothers at War" because I believe it shows a side of our military that is rarely seen. The call to duty that many of our military members share is depicted in the film through Isaac and Joe Rademacher.

Read it all...

Spread the Word

h/t to Blackfive

The First Ever Public Christmas Celebration In Baghdad

"All Iraqis are Christian today!" - Iraqi Interior Department spokesman.

CNN reports:

From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag.From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag.

Welcome to the first-ever public Christmas celebration in Baghdad, held Saturday and sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Once thought to be infiltrated by death squads, the Ministry now is trying to root out sectarian violence -- as well as improve its P.R. image

The event takes place in a public park in eastern Baghdad, ringed with security checkpoints. Interior Ministry forces deployed on surrounding rooftops peer down at the scene: a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel; a red-costumed Santa Claus waving to the crowd, an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders; a red-and-black-uniformed military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols.

On a large stage, children dressed in costumes representing Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups -- Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Arab Muslims not defined as Sunni or Shiite -- hold their hands aloft and sing "We are building Iraq!" Two young boys, a mini-policeman and a mini-soldier sporting painted-on mustaches, march stiffly and salute.

An Iraqi soldier walks in front of a billboard with an image of Jesus Christ during a Christmas festival in Abu Nawas park in Baghdad December 20, 2008. (REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ)


It's ashame you probably won't find this on your local-yokel news stations. A damn shame.

Success in Iraq: Why is no one reporting it?

The news is good for the Iraqi's. The news is good for the US. But not so according to the American media or to the Democrats. They regard the war in Iraq as defeated. Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid who declared the war was lost, a year ago on the floor of the Senate. And Barack Obama's constant ranting that "this war is lost."

THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed forward with a long-promised offensive in Mosul, the last urban refuge of al-Qaeda. So many of its leaders have now been captured or killed that U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, renowned for his cautious assessments, said that the terrorists have "never been closer to defeat than they are now."

Iraq passed a turning point last fall when the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign launched in early 2007 produced a dramatic drop in violence and quelled the incipient sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites. Now, another tipping point may be near, one that sees the Iraqi government and army restoring order in almost all of the country, dispersing both rival militias and the Iranian-trained "special groups" that have used them as cover to wage war against Americans. It is -- of course -- too early to celebrate; though now in disarray, the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr could still regroup, and Iran will almost certainly seek to stir up new violence before the U.S. and Iraqi elections this fall. Still, the rapidly improving conditions should allow U.S. commanders to make some welcome adjustments -- and it ought to mandate an already-overdue rethinking by the "this-war-is-lost" caucus in Washington, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

An interview with Michael Yon on Fox and Friends: "The progress is unbelivable."

video

Seriously, it boggles the mind.