An Iraqi tank crew member loads a .50 caliber machine gun during a live fire training exercise with an M1 Abrams tank, in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 14.

A few more at DVIDS.

A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft flies a combat mission June 17, 2009, over Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Robertson/Released)

Noticed this tidbit in Afghanistan airstrikes highest since July 2008:

Over Iraq, the use of bombs continues to be rare. AFCent reported only two bombs were dropped in 742 sorties in October.

Two bombs in a month.

After the elections in 2006, Nancy Pelosi said this about Iraq:

We cannot continue down this catastrophic path. And so we say to the president, ‘Mr. President, we need a new direction in Iraq. Let us work together to find a solution to the war in Iraq.’

In 2005 she said the war in Afghanistan “is over”:

“I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?” she said to a reporter.

A few moments later, she said: “This isn’t about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over.”

The war that was “over” more than four years ago sees the most bombs dropped, 647, in the past 15 months and the war on the “catastrophic path”, the one where she fought tooth and nail to surrender or at least prevent the “surge”, saw two.

Let’s just keep that in mind as this crowd decides what to do in Afghanistan.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Instapundit publishes this observation from a reader:

The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.

President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/09, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting.

C-RAM in Action

U.S. Army Awards Northrop Grumman Major C-RAM Systems Integration Delivery Order

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has received a $58 million delivery order to install additional systems and continue maintenance of existing installations for the Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortars (C-RAM) system at forward-operating bases in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Under this delivery order, announced October 9, Northrop Grumman will provide systems engineering, production, deployment and logistics support for the C-RAM system. The delivery order was awarded by the Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Program management and technical direction will come from the Director, Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar Program office, in the Army’s Program Executive Office, Command Control and Communications Tactical.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard anything negative about this system. I first posted on it in 2005: R2-D2 vs. Mortar Rounds. And here’s more info on the Block 1B Phalanx.

Of course, being Newsweek, the worry is that Nidal Malik Hasan May Be a Symptom of a Military on the Brink.

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions right now, but we do know this: Thursday night, authorities shot and then apprehended the lone suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. A psychiatrist who was set to deploy to Iraq at the end of the month, Hasan reportedly opened fire around the Fort Hood Readiness Center, where troops are prepared for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. And though this scene is a most extreme and tragic outlier, it comes at a time when the stress of combat has affected so many soldiers individually that it makes it increasingly difficult for the military as a whole to deploy for wars abroad.

and

Hasan’s perspective is unknown. He had yet to fight abroad. But the accusations against him can’t help but bring to mind the violence scarring military bases all over the country after the duration of two long, brutal wars.

So after spending some time making the case that soldiers who have spent too much time in the combat zone on repeated deployments are close to the breaking point, he finally mentions that Hasan has never deployed.

He then goes into the whole “transferred PTSD” thing. Sure, we get it. Counselors are not immune to the horrible stories they hear.

None of the following words appear in the article:

• Muslim
• terrorist
• militant
• extremist
• religion
• I gave up trying at that point

And no mention is made of reports that Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, confirmed or otherwise.

He concludes by suggesting that by deploying more troops to Afghanistan like Gen. McChrystal has requested, the military may be inviting more shooting rampages.

Of course, the vast majority of those under that stress, no matter how brutal, will not pick up a gun and shoot indiscriminately, like Hasan did.

The “vast majority.” Is he saying that 9 in 10 won’t become mass murderers? 99 out of 100? 99,999 out of every 100,000? Hmm. Let’s see. How many troops that have deployed so far have become mass murderers? Only one?

Oh, no. That’s not right either, is it?. So far NO US troops that have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan have become mass murderers. Zero. “Vast majority” my ass.

But the situation is bad, and getting much worse. From there, it isn’t much of a leap to argue that to further tax our military would do as much as anything to guarantee that the homegrown terror on display today could well repeat itself in the future.

Whoa, buddy. If we’re going to talk “isn’t much of a leap,” there are a few other leaps that should be in the conversation. Leaps involving religion. Leaps involving diversity policies and political correctness concerns that allowed a guy with what appear to have been fairly obvious issues to stay in the system. Leaps involving self defense on military installations. Leaps involving people seeming to hope for another Timothy McVeigh homegrown terrorist. Leaps involving the media actively working to distort the facts.

As I noted earlier somewhere, if this turns out to be a simple case of a PTSD case “just snapping”, it will be used as a broad brush to paint the entire military as a bunch of loose cannons “on the brink.”

If, on the other hand, this turns out to be a simple case of religious jihad, it will be portrayed as one lone nutjob and anyone who thinks otherwise is probably a racist and a bigot.

I would maybe be one of the first to jump to the conclusion that this was a “jihad” attack by a Mujahadeen, but this dude was a 15+ year veteran of the army, and a Major at that. I doubt he spent that long merely waiting for a chance to let off a few rounds at an army base. I could be wrong (and would be the first to admit), but i suspect this was just an army psychiatrist who finally had enough. Soldiers come home everyday not being able to process what they saw, and Major Hasan was there, everyday, listening to their stories, for him it would be like having PTSD 100x. [emphasis Murdoc's]

Ah, not only the Transferred PTSD excuse, but at 100x. Not only did this guy ‘catch’ PTSD, it was way worser than ever.

Hundreds and thousands of specialists have been dealing with troops coming home from the war zone for 8 years. Exactly one of them “finally had enough” and shot up a bunch of fellow soldiers. He’s the one who was shouting “Allahu Akbar” before he did it.

So this “transferred PTSD” theory is basically a bullshit excuse for a mass murderer. If you’re comfortable being an apologist for that sort of thing, go right ahead.

A New York City bicycle cabbie who mocked the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and posted a prayer on the Web calling for the murder of Jews is now sending a “Get Well Soon” message to the suspected Fort Hood gunman, the New York Post reported.

Yousef al-Khattab, a Muslim convert and known jackass, runs RevolutionMuslim.com. He states that the victims of the shooter deserved to be massacred.

“These people are soldiers in a volunteer army,” al-Khattab told the Post. “They expect to see combat. They know the danger.”

If he considers himself a revolutionary (which is possible, but he might be just a lonely guy pretending to be all militant and everything) he should also probably “know the danger.”

Muslim Jackass Yousef al-Khattab

If I took the events of the past couple of days, inlcuding this idiot, and wrote it in the form of a novel, I’d be dismissed as a bigotted, intolerant, hateful hack with not motive but to generally discredit Muslims.

I wonder where this guy rates on the “Muslim scale.” Is he taken seriously by Muslims outside of the radical circles? Or is he just considered a tastelss joke, like the Westboro Baptist crowd is among Christians?

If, when the evidence is in, this turns out to be a case of a loyal American soldier “losing it” due to the stress and horrors of war, this lone killer will be held up as an example of how such things are a terrible risk in the US military and that it’s a huge issue that needs to be addressed as many, many more could do the same thing at any moment.

If, on the other hand, this turns out to be a jihadist who put his faith before his country (as seems likely from what I’ve seen so far), he’ll be dismissed as lone wacko. One in a million. Move on. Nothing to see.

The truth is probably somewhere in between somewhere.

Guess he was just giving a “shout-out” before getting things going.

Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said that they have not officially confirmed that Hasan made the opening remarks.

Cone said Hasan was hospitalized in stable condition and that investigators hope to interrogate him as soon as possible.

I’ll bet they do. They’re probably lined up around the block hoping for a chance to interrogate this guy.

AP story by David Guttenfelder:

The villagers said they just wanted to be left alone. They claimed they had asked the Taliban to stay away, and wished the Americans would do the same.

But now the Americans were back, determined to stop the Taliban from passing through the village to attack U.S. targets. And shortly afterward the gunfire from the hills above served notice that the Taliban had no intention of leaving.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division return fire after their patrol in the Pech Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province was ambushed by Taliban fighters Nov. 3. David Guttenfelder/AP photo

Go read the whole thing at Army Times.

The Pakistani military said it has retaken control of the Ladha Fort in South Waziristan after heavy fighting in the region.

The Ladha Fort, which has been under Taliban control since August 2008, was retaken today, the military said. Back in July 2008, the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force responsible for security in Pakistan’s tribal areas, abandoned the Ladha Fort and all of the outposts in the Saam region in South Waziristan.

It’s tough to tell what’s really going on over there, but it sure would be a welcome sign if the Pakistani operations are really as successful as they’re claiming.

Go read the whole thing by Bill Roggio.