Tillman honored for leading rescue in ambush

Pat Tillman will receive the Silver Star and a posthumous promotion. The announcement included more specific details of his final actions:

In announcing the Silver Star award, the Army Special Operations Command provided the most specific description of what happened to Tillman on April 22.

His platoon was split into two sections for what officials called a ground assault convoy. Tillman was leader of the lead group. The trailing group received mortar and small arms fire, and because of the cavernous terrain the group had no room to maneuver out of the “kill zone.”

Tillman’s group was already safely out of the area, but when the trailing group came under fire he ordered his men to get out of their vehicles and move up a hill toward the enemy.

As Tillman crested the hill he returned fire with his M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, a lightweight machine gun.

“Through the firing Tillman’s voice was heard issuing fire commands to take the fight to the enemy on the dominating high ground,” the award announcement said. “Only after his team engaged the well-armed enemy did it appear their fires diminished.

“As a result of his leadership and his team’s efforts, the platoon trail section was able to maneuver through the ambush to positions of safety without a single casualty,” the announcement said.

The announcement gave no other details of how Tillman was killed.

I’ve heard a lot of things like “Where do we find such men?” and “I wish there were more like him.” To be honest, I think we find men like Pat Tillman all over, and I think there are many thousands just like him. He gets the headlines because he’s someone we knew, at least as football fans, and he obviously gave up a lot of money to join the military. But I suspect that there are a lot more people like him than most Americans think.

George Bush and the Inability to Admit Error

My latest post on the Watchblog is up.

President Bush and Dick Cheney talked with the 9/11 commission yesterday. We don’t know exactly what was said, but it’s a pretty safe bet that Bush didn’t say “We could have done more. I wish that we had.”

Why is this administration so defiant toward anyone who asks if they might have done more? Why does the President joke and blunder his way past questions about mistakes or regrets? It’s completely clear that mistakes have been made. Why won’t he acknowledge that fact, point out what’s been done to prevent those same mistakes from being made again, and move on?

Almost as mystifying to me is the way so many writers jumped to Bush’s defense after his press conference a couple of weeks ago when he shrugged off several questions about mistakes that he might have made. Bush said he couldn’t think of any mistakes, and many writers who I respect applauded his responses and pooh-poohed the journalists who asked the questions. Yes, the questions were leading and would almost certainly be used in the great smoke-and-mirrors game that is American politics. But why concede points to the opposition when you can steal points from them by using their attacks for your own gain?

I realize that this is not a popular attitude among most Conservatives. I don’t really understand why. Go read and explain why I’m wrong.

Nuclear-powered strategic submarines worldwide—a comparison

Here’s a great write-up of current SSBN capabilities and deployments for all the world’s navies. Good stuff.

The current US administration plans to field 1,700-2,200 operationally deployed strategic warheads by 2012; though the lower number is derived by no longer counting the warheads on SSBNs in overhaul as being “operationally deployed.” Two Ohio[s], with 192 warheads each, are usually in overhaul at any given time.

Don’t forget, as the article notes, that the four Trident C4-equipped OHIO-class boomers are being converted to SSGN (cruise missile subs) over the next few years. (Go here and here for more info on that.)

Here are four pages of pictures from a soldier returned from Iraq. Not all of them have dates, but they seem to be from the invasion. Definitely some good stuff. WARNING: Some are very graphic. (via J-Walk)

THE ONLY WAY THEY WIN

Well, at least I don’t THINK I was…

Anyway, he noticed my post yesterday about the “press conference” with Honest Abe in 1864 and pointed out that he had mentioned similarities between this election and that one earlier in the month.

Is this now our generation’s Union summer of 1864, when things seemed stalemated and the war endless, when actually within months it was to become crystal clear that neither was to be the case?

Today’s enemy needs Americans to vote out Bush and replace him with the “war hero” McClellan — sorry, “war hero” Kerry. That is their only slim chance for some sort of victory. The question is: Will Americans give them that chance come November?

While not trying to draw direct parallels between 1864 and 2004, it’s important that we try to remember that what seems painfully obvious today wasn’t so yesterday. Or on September 10th, 2001. Or on December 6th, 1941. It also wasn’t clear in 1965 what our involvement in Vietnam would end up looking like, and it wasn’t clear in 1938 what events in Europe would lead to.

Today it looks like it should have been clear what was happening at those times, and of course there were those at the time who accurately predicted events. But it wasn’t unambiguously obvious like it appears in hindsight. And hindsight, despite what they say, isn’t 20/20 anyway.

This isn’t primarily a forest/trees problem, though there’s a lot of that going on as well. The problem is that even if we try to look beyond the trees, we might find out we’re not even in a forest. We don’t know where we are or what we should be looking for. We’re searching for the forests of the past, trying to make sense of where we are and where we’re going. A lot can be learned from the past, to be sure, but WHICH lessons of the past apply to today’s scenarios? We don’t know.

We pays our money, and we makes our choice.

Quote of the Day

I realize this is a little behind the times, but I’ve been busy. From All AgitProp:

(Courtesy of Juliette)

“I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”
–US Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif) at Pro-Abortion Rally Sunday, April 25

Bwahahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, crying shame, that, Maxine.

That has got to be one of the stupidist things I’ve ever heard. That’s worse than McDermott’s Peldge of Allegiance idocy.

Bush Boom: Best Economy in 20 Years

Bill Hobbs notes

By the way, the last time the economy was this good, an incumbent Republican president who was strong on national defense issues defeated a weak-on-defense tax-raising liberal Democrat from Massachusetts.

Reminds me of the job rate post I put up almost three months ago.

Mr. Lincoln Gives a Press Conference—September 1, 1864

You all know I love half-baked analogies. Not because I think they truly explain what’s happening today, but becasue they can help us get our minds around things that we really don’t. Here’s one by Victor Davis Hanson that should be checked out. Really.

Mr. Lincoln, would you please respond to General McClellan’s charges at the recent Chicago convention that with the establishment of the Emancipation Proclamation you misled this nation in the reasons you gave for this war. Is it not true, Mr. President, that you assured Americans that you have started this war to preserve the Union and protect federal property in the South? Yet now you claim that in fact our sons are dying to free slaves and provide equality to the Negro? What was the real reason, Mr. Lincoln, that you cooked up this war and got us into this mess, and why did you not tell us the full story when the shooting started?

Am I suggesting that we compare GW to Abraham Lincoln? Of course not. But go back 150 years for a moment and try to imagine what things must have looked like then to people who were in the MIDDLE OF EVENTS.

Do you think that maybe there were one or two people who thought we should get the hell out of the South? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, there were some folks who thought that freeing black Americans wasn’t worth the cost in treasure and blood? Do you think that perhaps some folks wished that government would just be honest about what was going on and what they were trying to do, like in the good old days?

The article hasn’t gone into the archives yet, so there’s no permalink. The link is to the front page of the site. It’s the April 28, 2004 entry. I’ll update the link if/when I can. (via Donald Sensing)

Rep. McDermott Forgot ‘Under God’, Civil Rights Act

When I read this story, I thought Mr. Ott was joking when he wrote that Rep. Jim McDermott claimed he didn’t say “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance because he had learned the Pledge when he was young, before the word were added in 1954.

Apparently it’s true. Is it just me, or is that possibly the lamest cop-out you’ve ever heard.

I’m trusting that Scrappleface IS joking about McDermott forgetting all about the Civil Rights Act. Actually, I’m PRAYING that Scrappleface is joking about McDermott forgetting all about the Civil Rights Act.

ARMORED DOGS ON IRAQ PATROL

DefenseTech points out some Marine dogs who have been outfitted with Kevlar body armor. I fully realize that there’s more to fighting a war than fancy gadgets and high-tech weaponry, but our DOGS have better protection than the insurgents do. That can’t be good for insurgent recruiting.

Also, the military is adapting the armor our humans wear based upon experiences over the past couple of years.