I haven't forgotten.

On Mumbai

From Sebastian D'Souza, the picture editor and photographer at the Mumbai Mirror, who took this photo of a killer in action that flashed around the world:

"I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."

I'm sure Sebastian is not the only one. Regarding the police on the scene, he relates ""At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

Ever argue whether a CCW could defend against terrorists? "I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera." Strong words from an unarmed man who could have done so.

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable."
~Sun Tzu

Never Forget

The first shots fired from Al Quaida were not at the World Trade Center.

To date, there has been no retaliation for the sailors who lost their lives in the terrorist war against the United States on 12 October 2000.

Read more here, at The Flopping Aces.

What Doesn't Add Up

From Houssien A. Zorkot's website: "The Start of My Personal Jihad (in the US)
الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَهَاجَرُواْ وَجَاهَدُواْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً عِندَ اللّهِ وَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَائِزُونَ

Zorkot was apprehended in a public park wearing face paint and toting a loaded military style rifle of the Kalashnikov persuasion. Zorkot is apparently in the US going to medical school, to become a physician. There are some in the gun community who are not wanting to call a spade a spade here. I suppose they want a bit more than a blacked out face and dark clothes combined with a little weapon carrying in a public place before an arrest, lest their own rights be jeopardized.

I'll state it simply...... Legitimate physicians and medical students do not usually slink about the night in an outfit designed to hide their presence, carrying a loaded Kalashnikov rifle. I'm sorry, they don't. Not in their backyard, or in public parks. Maybe Bubba from the trailer park exhibits this behavior on the weekends when he isn't working on his mud hogging proficiency and porking his wife's sister, but you can usually spot him by the wad of tobacco in his buccal pouch. Oh...... Chances are he will have spent his entire life in Pigsnort Hogfart, Mississippi. If he has a website, it is probably a MySpace page covered with Confederate flags and his computer probably crashed from porno spyware three months ago.

No, I will be frank. Men and women who are truly planning on becoming physicians do not exhibit this behavior. They just don't. It is unlikely there will ever be another person on a student visa attending flight school that will not be closely scrutinized. Medical school is another animal though. Medical schools are filled with foreign students, many from the Middle East. The administration is largely liberal and desirous of the money that a foreign student brings. The altruism of advancing medicine worldwide, and peace through international understanding and exchange is very seductive. Medical schools are fertile fields for the introduction of terrorists into the United States. Not all people enter medicine for altruistic reasons. For them the white coat and stethoscope is just window dressing for ulterior motives, be it money, power, self loathing or otherwise.

In the U.S. every person is innocent until proven guilty. That is true. There is also ample evidence in this case to create reasonable suspicion, regardless of it's circumstantial nature. While not convicting the accused prematurely in the media, we must also guard against the other extreme. Mohamed Atta's group succeeded not because they were devious, but because we were in denial. Let's not allow that again.

Houssien A. Zorkot......Heard of 'em?

Move on along.....Nothing to see here.........

Hat tip to Catfish

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

I had already seen four patients that morning, dispensing wound care in the homes of those North of my city. I swung into the office on my way South, to pick up some supplies and new orders. It was about 10:15 CST. That's when I heard.

As I walked into the office, Denise, the office manager informed me two planes had hit the World Trade Center in New York. I thought "Oh, two planes.......collision, debris hits buildings......." I gathered my supplies and orders and blithely left the building. At the next patient's home, the lady of the house was upset because The Price Is Right was being preempted. She had turned off her television. I did my job and moved on. The next patient had no television. Then, I was off to a community fifty miles East of town. I popped some Smokey Robinson in the tape deck, and set the cruise control on the home health assault vehicle forged eastward.

There, I watched in horror on my next patient's television as the twin towers fell again and again. I watched as tape was played over and over of the inferno erupting from the second crash. Events became clear. I knew the United States had been attacked. I did not know what was occurring at Barksdale AFB.

I left that patient's home after completing my work, and drove to my six year old daughter's school. I removed her from class, and took her with me to see the rest of my patients that day. At each home, as I cared for wounds, I caught another glimpse of the scorched and smoking wound that radically changed US history and foreign policy. I do not know why I removed my little girl from class that day. No, actually I do. I wanted her close. I wanted her to feel safe with her daddy nearby, and I wanted to know if death were to randomly visit me that day, she would be with me.

I thought about re-enlisting. I knew we would be going to war. There was no question of that. My body had changed over time though. I was no longer the young warrior I once was. September 11, 2001 was the day I realized I was becoming an old man.

Sign of the Times

They work to keep guns out of schools, right?

Hat tip to Sharp as a Marble.

Jeff Cooper on Terrorism

May 2002 - "So it appears that the 'home of the brave' includes citizens who may be intimidated by the presence of a plastic knife! One may only be terrorized if he allows himself to be. 'Terror' is a bad word and should be abandoned. Apparently, we are living in an age when word usage may be dictated by the timid, the cowardly and the dishonorable. Let us turn that around and set up proper English usage to suit people who are worthy of it. Just as you cannot be enslaved against your will, you cannot be terrorized against your will. We inherit a noble tradition. Let us now resolve to live up to it!"

Sept 11 Five Years Later

9/11

A Tour of Abu Ghraib

Inside the 100-yard long cell block the smell of excrement was overpowering. Four to six prisoners shared each of the 12ft by 15ft cells along either side and the walls were smeared with filth. The cell block was patrolled by guards who carried long batons and shouted angrily at the prisoners to stand up. Access to the part of the prison containing terrorism suspects was denied, but from that block came the sound of screaming. The screaming continued for a long time.

Prisoners interviewed in the presence of their jailers said they were frightened for their safety. They complained that chicken and milk had been cut from their rations, leaving them on rice and water. They also complained about the oppressive heat. Outside the prison, relatives of some of the inmates said they were being tortured by their captors. One woman, who gave her name as Omsaad, said: "My son Saad [who was arrested in Fallujah as a suspected insurgent] said he is being tortured to confess the name of his leader. I met my son and he told me they were being treated badly.

Abu Ghraib became synonymous with abuse after shocking pictures were published in 2004 showing prisoners being tortured and humiliated, galvanising opposition to the US presence in Iraq. This tour occured just days after the Americans formally handed over control to the Iraqi authorities on Sept 1.

Some of the small number of prisoners who remained in the jail after the Americans left said they had pleaded to go with their departing captors, rather than be left in the hands of Iraqi guards. "The Americans were better than the Iraqis. They treated us better," said Khalid Alaani, who was held on suspicion of involvement in Sunni terrorism.

Link

What was old is new again.

A Father's Anger

Assailants wearing black veils beheaded three Christian schoolgirls and seriously wounded a fourth in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi. The girls were among a group of students from a private Christian high school who were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Major Riky Naldo said. The heads of three victims were found several kilometres from their bodies. Two were left near a police station and another in front of a newly built Christian church.

On several blogs more eloquent than mine, extreme anger has been expressed at these killings of religious motivation. That's right, not senseless killings, but killings of religious motivation. Get used to it. They are fighting a jihad whether we are willing or not.

I will not speak any of my religious or political anger over this act of barbarism, although it is ample. I will speak as a father. These girls no doubt had fathers and mothers who loved them very much. Parents who worked to afford to send them to school. As a father, my anger is righteous and to the core of my being. It does not matter to me what religion these girls practiced. It does not matter to me where they were traveling, or what the motivations of their killers were. The killers of these girls are savages. They do not qualify even as animals. Do not dismiss these killings as religiously motivated. They were motivated by hate, not a peaceful religion. When the killers are caught, they will no doubt plead religious motivations. If that is accpetable, then a rational man must also accept that the religion involved is one of hate and intolerance. Once that is accepted, reality has arrived.

But beside all that, if my little girl were among these innocents slaughtered and desecrated under the mantle of religous righteousness, I would hunt down the killers myself, and take great pride and great pleasure in sending them to hell. Regardless of the consequences. If these children's fathers do the same, who can blame them?

UPDATE

"I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational," Prince Charles stated, "I will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week." Chuck, you just might want to keep your limey butt at home. Who the hell do you think you are anyway? The King of England?

In Memoria: The Men of the USS Cole

At 11:18 on the morning of October 12, 2000, as USS COLE (DDG 67) was refueling in Aden Harbor, Yemen, suicide bombers detonated an explosive-laden boat directly against the port side of the ship. The resulting blast killed 17 Sailors, wounded 37 others, and tore a hole forty by sixty feet in the ship's hull. In the aftermath of the explosion, the crew of USS COLE fought tirelessly to free shipmates trapped by the twisted wreckage and limit flooding that threatened to sink their ship. The crew's prompt actions to isolate damaged electrical systems and contain fuel oil ruptures prevented catastrophic fires that could have engulfed the ship and cost the lives of countless men and women. Skillful first aid and advanced medical treatment applied by the crew prevented additional death and eased the suffering of many others. Drawing upon their Navy training and discipline, the crew heroically conducted more than 96 hours of sustained damage control in conditions of extreme heat and stress. Deprived of sleep, food and shelter, they vigilantly battled to preserve a secure perimeter and restore stability to engineering systems that were vital to the ship's survival. By their sacrifice and bravery in the face of daunting adversity, the crew of USS COLE personified Honor, Courage, and Commitment. After a successful 14-month effort to repair the damage, USS Cole (DDG 67) departed Pascagoula, Miss., on April 19 2002, and returned to its homeport of Norfolk, Va.

What remains to be told is why our then President, William Jefferson Clinton, placed one of our ships pierside in a hostile country for refueling. Underway replenishment is an everyday occurence in the US Navy, and pierside refueling is only a politically motivated occurence. Gen. Tommy Franks said the decision to refuel in Yemen, which was designated as a safe haven for terrorists in the State Department's annual report on terrorism, was based on "operational as well as geostrategic factors and included an assessment of the terrorist and conventional threats in the region." Yemen was far from alone in being deemed a high risk area, the general said, noting that "As of December 1998, 14 of the 20 countries in the USCENTCOM AOR (Area of Responsibility) were characterized as 'High Threat' countries." It is often lost in history that this terrorist attack was one of the first by Osama Bin Laden against the United States of America. The response by the Clinton administration was so weak that it emboldened Al Quaida, arguably leading to the terrible events that followed. Bombing a US Navy ship is an act of war. The United States failed to respond appropriately.