Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
Permalink

The Lafayette Flag Brigade is currently organizing a HUGE rally to remember and remind us of the terrible attacks of September 11th, 2001 at the hands of bloodthirsty terrorists.

The rally will honor the lives of those lost in the towers as well as all those soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen or guardsmen who have fallen in the line of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The rally will take place as a demonstration of American flags on the freeway overpass of El Curtola Blvd in Lafayette, CA over Highway 24. Click here to see their website for more information, maps and directions:
http://www.nevereverforget911.com/

The Lafayette Flag Brigade has helped MAF by supporting many of our events, especially in Berkeley. LFB provided sound equipment for MAF during our rally on February 12th against Berkeley’s City Council. And the LFB also helped to organize the Eagles UP! rally on March 22nd.

Here is a picture from that rally

I encourage all MAF supporters in the northern California area to make the trip and be there.

I think it is extremely important that we attend these memorials. As time goes on and we reach now the 7th year since these heinous attacks, we must remind ourselves that the threat from islamofascists is very real.

Thinking back to my recollection of what happened that morning, I am faced with the reality that try as hard as I might, I cannot, and I don’t think anyone can, accurately remember the fear and the pain and the anguish that we as Americans, all of us collectively, felt when those towers went down.

They were symbols of our own high-minded sense of superiority, a sense that was shattered when we realized we no longer lived in a world where conflict between nations was tempered by diplomacy and discussion, or security agreements and treaties.

We then realized that we lived in a world where rogue states or small groups of criminals, unmitigated by their allegiances to any nation or group of people, could wreak havoc upon the free world if we leave them to do so.

But our troops fought back bravely and victoriously, following the terrorists and fighting them on their turf, in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan or in the urban streets of Baghdad in Iraq where al-Qaeda declared they would rally their forces against the United States.

Now seven years later, the War on Terror continues. But we must never allow ourselves to forget that no matter how well our troops perform on the battlefield, no matter how consistently our military routes those terrorists and defeats them every time, that we must always remain resolute and watchful that they will try again.

9/11 served as a huge wake up call. Our nation SLEPT through Beirut, the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole and other attacks. 9/11 woke us up. We cannot afford to forget, lest we give those terrorists the opportunity to wake us up again.

Most of us Americans go about our daily lives not thinking about the War or the threat posed by these terrorists. Either because we don’t concern ourselves with it, or because we have never lost a loved one, or sent a son or daughter to fight for our country.

That is a grave danger, because the longer we go without reminding ourselves, the more complacent we grow, and that can ONLY lead to another disaster.

So please take the time this September 11th to say a solemn prayer for those who have been lost or have fallen in the line of duty. Remember what they did to us. Resolve yourself again to stand defiantly in the name of freedom and tolerance. Redouble your support for our troops, and show it by attending this rally and telling everyone you see “I Remember”

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

One of the most sickening issues to arise in the war in Iraq has been the ongoing prosecution of troops on murder. Murder? Yes. In a war zone. Now, we all now that a wayward troop could do something like this, but the evidence against those who’ve been charged so far has been weak. What is even most galling is when so-called leaders, such as Rep. Jack Murtha, call our troops “cold-blooded murderers” even before a jury has had time to hear the evidence.
So here we are again. Another Marine has been acquitted of specious allegations. Where does he go to get back his good reputation>

By CHELSEA J. CARTER

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (Aug. 29)—Jurors wept and embraced former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. after acquitting him of voluntary manslaughter in the killings of unarmed Iraqi detainees during a fierce 2004 battle.
Tears rolled down Nazario’s cheeks and courtroom spectators openly sobbed and cheered Thursday. He is the first U.S. veteran tried by a civilian court for alleged actions in combat.
Minutes after the verdict was read, jurors shook hands with and hugged Nazario and his sobbing mother, Sandra Montanez.
Nazario’s attorney, Kevin McDermott, said he believes the verdict will curb similar federal prosecutions in the future.
“I don’t think they are going to put on a case in the future with a lack of evidence,” he said.
Nazario, 28, was the first former military service member brought to trial under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which was written in 2000 and amended in 2004 primarily to allow prosecution of civilian contractors who commit crimes while working for the U.S. overseas.
It also allows the prosecution of military dependents and former military service members accused of committing crimes outside the United States.

Go to this link for the rest of the story.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – The U.S. Air Force has deployed in combat for the first time, the guided bomb unit-54, Laser Joint Directed Attack Munition – or LJDAM.

The GBU-54 is the U.S. Air Force’s newest 500-pound precision weapon, equipped with a special targeting system that uses a combination of GPS and laser guidance to accurately engage and destroy moving targets.

On, Aug. 12, 2008, F-16s from the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, successfully executed this “combat first” when the weapon was employed against a moving enemy vehicle in Diyala province, Iraq.

“This employment first represents a great step in our Air Force’s ability to deliver precise effects across the spectrum of combat,” said Lt. Gen. Gary North, U.S. Air Forces Central commander and US Central Commands Combined Force Air Component commander. “The first combat employment of this weapon is the validation of the exacting hard work of an entire team of professionals who developed, tested and fielded this weapon on an extremely short timeline, based on an urgent needs request we established in the combat zone.”

Identified as an urgent operational need in early 2007, the Air Force completed the GBU-54’s development and testing cycle in less than 17 months, fielding it aboard 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing aircraft in May.

“We have consistently used precision-guided weapons to engage stationary threats with superb combat effects,” said Brig. Gen. Brian Bishop, 332nd AEW commander. “This weapon allows our combat pilots to engage a broad range of moving targets with dramatically increased capabilities and it increases our ability to strike the enemy throughout a much, much broader engagement envelope.”

Go here for the rest of the story.

UN report hails progress in war against opium trade in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan has been fueled by radical Islam and the illegal trade of opium. About 50 percent of the country’s GDP has been from opium, but that’s changing, thanks to drought and some hope that farmers can make money in other crops.

The United Nations reports today that the opium trade has dropped for the first time since 2005. This is great news for the war against radical Islam just as more U.S. troops are moving into Afghanistan as Iraq is stabilized. The criminal terrorists make their money for weapons from the sale of opium.

The Times Online reports:

The tide may have turned in the war against Afghanistan’s £2 billion drugs industry, the United Nations said today as it revealed a decline in opium cultivation and production for the first time since 2005.
An annual report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) attributed the downturn less to security improvements than to factors including drought and a 198 per cent increase in wheat prices, which had encouraged some farmers to stop growing poppies.
Afghanistan produces 90 per cent of the world’s opium and the report offered a rare glimmer of hope for the country amid growing public anger about civilian casualties and the slow pace of development since US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.

“The opium floodwaters in Afghanistan have started to recede,” Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of UNODC, said in the report.

“The time to act is now. Unlike coca, opium is a seasonal plant. In a few weeks farmers will decide whether or not to plant opium for the 2008-09 harvest.”

Last year the UNODC estimated Afghanistan’s opium output at a record 8,200 tonnes and exports of the drug at $4 billion — or 53 per cent of GDP. It also said that the Taleban earned about $100 million from the trade.

The report said the country was expected to produce 7,700 tonnes of opium — a decline of 6 per cent — but did not give a figure for exports or profits reaped by the Taleban. The area under cultivation had dropped by a larger margin of 19 per cent, to 157,000 hectares (388,000 acres), because of higher yields per hectare.

Another positive sign was that the number of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces that were now poppy-free had increased from 13 to 18, it said.

The report attributed these successes partly to drought and to strong leadership from governors, tribal elders and religious leaders.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

As certain canidates, uh-hum, try to cover their hindends about failures to believe in our troops, the United States is set to hand over another province to Iraqis. This was a bloody Sunni battleground in the dark days of the Iraqi war. But our troops did their jobs, and some of our politicians believed in them. Believed and gave them the tools to do their work.

So here’s another win in freedom’s column:

Iraq: U.S. to hand over former Sunni battleground
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) — The US military will next week hand over to Iraqi forces security control of Anbar, a Sunni Arab province where some of the war’s bloodiest battles have been fought, the provincial police chief said on Thursday.
“September 1 is the official date for the transfer of the security file of Anbar from US forces to the Iraqi military command,” Tareq al-Dulaimi told AFP.
“We’ve been ready for several months, and our forces are completely ready to take over responsibility.”
It will be the first mainly Sunni Arab province where security control is being handed over from US to Iraqi forces.
The announcement came after US Marine General James Conway said on Wednesday that Iraqi security forces were now ready to take over responsibility for the province—Iraq’s largest and a former bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents.
“The change in the Al-Anbar province is real and perceptible,” Conway said in Washington.
Anbar will be the 11th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over by the US-led coalition, which currently has 28,000 soldiers there, down from 37,000 in February, according to US army figures.
The number of Iraqi soldiers and police in Anbar has grown to 37,000 from just 5,000 three years ago.
Of the 10 provinces already handed over, three are Kurdish and seven Shiite.

Go to AFP for the rest of the story.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

And they’re correct. America can not lose, she can not fall – unless the rot from the inside gets her. That is why we must stay strong, resolute, as our men and women right for our freedoms.

Rasmussen Reports conducted a poll that shows the highest number ever in his poll of Americans believing in victory.

Go here for the entire story