Wishing you all a joy-filled Christmas 2011!

Isaiah 9:2-7

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

***

Vivaldi – Gloria: 1. Gloria in excelsis Deo – Trevor Pinnock – The English Concert

***

Fort Carson in my city of Colorado Springs welcomed home 200 soldiers from Afghanistan and another 100 from Iraq this week. God bless all our servicemen and women and their families this Christmas season.

Never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice:

***

An explosion near a Catholic Church in Nigeria’s capital city on Christmas morning and the cancellation of Christian masses in Iraq remind us of the ever-present persecution and threats to followers of Christ around the world.

Please don’t forget those who have remained steadfast in the face of death — including apostate Pastor
Yousef Nadarkhani, who faces the death penalty in Iran because he refuses to renounce his Christian faith. As the ACLJ notes:

“Christian persecution takes no holiday.”

***
What are your favorite Christmas memories, hymns, and/or traditions? Share via comments or e-mails.

**Written by Doug Powers

Clueless Joe is at it again:

In an interview with Leslie Gelb in Newsweek, Vice President Joe Biden says:

Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us.

NPR might agree with Biden, along with select NY Times op-ed contributors, but the 9/11 Commission report — the recommendations of which Biden voted “yes” on implementing — does not agree:

The Taliban seemed to open the doors to all who wanted to come to Afghanistan to train in the camps. The alliance with the Taliban provided al Qaeda a sanctuary in which to train and indoctrinate fighters and terrorists, import weapons, forge ties with other jihad groups and leaders, and plot and staff terrorist schemes. While Bin Ladin maintained his own al Qaeda guesthouses and camps for vetting and training recruits, he also provided support to and benefited from the broad infrastructure of such facilities in Afghanistan made available to the global network of Islamist movements. U.S. intelligence estimates put the total number of fighters who underwent instruction in Bin Ladin-supported camps in Afghanistan from 1996 through 9/11 at 10,000 to 20,000.

Ah, but wait — maybe Joe just didn’t want to say anything too negative about the Taliban while this is going on. Unlikely though. When it comes to keeping secrets, Biden makes Cindy Brady look like an unbreakable confidant, so those beans would have more than likely been spilled during the interview.

Read all about it in the latest issue:

Update: The White House stands by Biden.

(h/t Lachlan Markay, Newsbusters June 2011)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Very bad news from Afghanistan:

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — The U.S. military was reeling Saturday after a helicopter went down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 31 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs, a U.S. military official told CNN Saturday.

In the single deadliest incident since the start of the decade-long Afghan war, an Army Chinook carrying a team of U.S. special forces and U.S. and Afghan soldiers went down in Wardak province. Insurgents are believed to have shot down the helicopter, the military official said.

The majority of the Navy SEALs who died belonged to the same covert unit that conducted the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, though they were not the same men, the official said.

Karzai, President Barack Obama and others offered condolences.
[...]
“Information is still coming in about this incident. I think it’s important that we allow investigators to do their work before jumping to too many conclusions,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

More from the Associated Press:

President Barack Obama mourned the deaths of the American troops, saying in a statement that the crash serves as a reminder of the “extraordinary sacrifices” being made by the U.S. military and its families. He said he also mourned “the Afghans who died alongside our troops.”

The death toll would surpass the worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 – the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded. It was the highest one-day death toll for the Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

All these brave men and their families are in our thoughts and prayers. Their service and sacrifice will not be forgotten.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

This is no surprise, because the “elect me and the world will love us” rhetoric from 2008 was an illusion from the start, but some may be surprised to learn that not only is US popularity in most Arab countries plummeting, but it’s actually falling lower than when Bush was president:

With the 2008 election of Barack Obama, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. more than doubled in many Arab countries. But in the two years since his famous “Cairo speech,” ratings for both the U.S. and the President have spiraled downwards. The President is seen overwhelmingly as failing to meet the expectations set during his speech, and the vast majority of those surveyed disagree with U.S policies.
[...]
After improving with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, U.S. favorable ratings across the Arab world have plummeted. In most countries they are lower than at the end of the Bush Administration, and lower than Iran’s favorable ratings (except in Saudi Arabia).

Soon to be spotted somewhere in the Middle East:

The poll also found that the killing of Osama bin Laden drove down US favorability in much of the Middle East, so next time it might be wise for certain voters to ask what kind of countries their candidate has made it a goal to befriend before assuming it’s a good thing for America.

(h/t Newsmax)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

If somebody, say, puts a crucifix in a jar of urine and calls it “art,” some on Capitol Hill not only won’t press for hearings, but they might even give it federal funding in spite of how many Christians it might offend. But in this instance free speech seems to be subjective:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday that some members of Congress were considering some kind of action in response to the Florida Quran burning that sparked a murderous riot at a United Nations complex in Afghanistan and other mayhem.

“Ten to 20 people have been killed,” Reid said on “Face the Nation,” but refused to say flat-out that the Senate would pass a resolution condemning pastor Terry Jones.

“We’ll take a look at this of course…as to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know,” he added.

Lindsey Grahamnesty:

“I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war. During World War II, we had limits on what you could say if it would inspire the enemy.

Hamid Karzai has requested that Congress formally condemn Koran burning. However, some are saying that it was Karzai who helped provoke the riots in Afghanistan in the first place.

People were murdered in Afghanistan and members of Congress are pondering how to clamp down on somebody who burned a book in Florida. Now that’s problem solving, DC-style.

Jim Treacher’s headline from last week also helped put things in perspective:

The President of the United States bombs a Muslim country, and some nobody in Florida burns a Koran. Guess which one’s to blame for rioting in Afghanistan?

Meanwhile, President Obama is closely monitoring the entire situation today.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

From the USO Dallas/Ft. Worth Facebook page:

This morning at DFW Airport, George and Laura Bush greeted 150 (very surprised) troops as they arrived home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their expressions were so priceless!

Some pictures:

A few more photos (larger size) are here.

Welcome home to our troops and thanks to George and Laura Bush for greeting them!

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Monsters. Evil monsters.

Via the Christian Science Monitor:

The execution-style killings of 10 people working for a Christian medical team in a remote region of northern Afghanistan fit into Taliban insurgents’ stated shift in tactics: Target Western civilians, especially Christians, as “foreign invaders.”

The Taliban took credit for one of the deadliest attacks yet on aid workers in Afghanistan, saying the Christian charity workers were proselytizing to poor villagers – a charge that the International Assistance Mission, which dispatched the team, denies.

The bodies of six Americans, a Briton, a German, and two Afghan interpreters were discovered Friday in a forested part of Badakhshan Province in remote northern Afghanistan – until now considered a relatively peaceful region known mostly to adventure travelers. The only person in the party not killed was a local translator who offered proof he was a Muslim by quoting the Koran, according to the Associated Press.

The attack represents the largest single toll of American civilian deaths in Afghanistan since December, when a suicide bomber killed seven members of a CIA team. It also points to the operational viability of Taliban insurgents’ stated intent to target foreign aid workers as combatants.

Via BBC, the Taliban spokesman crowed: “They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all.”

Via the NYT, more on the murder victims, including the six American doctors:

Tom Little raised three daughters with his wife in Afghanistan, avoided kidnappings during the Russian occupation, hid in his basement for months during the Taliban rule in the 1990s, survived rocket attacks and endured arrests for one reason, friends and family members said: to provide eye care for indigent Afghans.

After four decades in the country he came to call home, Mr. Little, a 61-year-old optometrist originally from upstate New York, was returning from treating people in a remote valley in Nuristan Province when he was among the 10 aid workers ambushed in the woods and killed.

Another was Dr. Karen Woo, a 36-year-old surgeon from Hertfordshire, England, who specialized in women’s health. She had blogged about being a tomboy who loved “sexy dresses and high heels,” as well as her passion to help Afghan people.

And even more on Dr. Little’s mission:

Tom Little never sugar-coated the outreach work he and wife, Libby, did in Afghanistan.

When he spoke to friends from the Capital Region churches who supported the efforts of the NOOR Eye Project, he talked about how his three daughters grew up being able to tell the difference between incoming and outgoing missiles by listening from the basement of their Kabul home.

And he talked about once having the doors of an eye clinic he supervised locked by government officials. He had to creep into the clinic at night to retrieve some of the expensive medical equipment, placing it at a new site so he could continue to provide desperately needed care, just as he had done for more than 30 years.

Little, a 61-year-old optometrist who maintains a residence in Delmar with his wife, Libby, and was originally from the Kinderhook area, was one of 10 members of the Christian-sponsored medical team murdered in Afghanistan last week. The Taliban has taken responsibility for their deaths, alleging the volunteers were spying and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Support the International Assistance Mission here.

***

Must-read backgrounder from Bill Roggio at Long War Journal.

***

One of the slain Americans was Colorado dentist Tom Grams:

A 51-year-old Colorado dentist was among 10 members of a medical team gunned down in Afghanistan earlier this week, a nonprofit dental group said Sunday.

Dr. Thomas Grams had quit his dental practice four years ago to work full-time giving impoverished children free dental care in Nepal and Afghanistan, said Katy Shaw of Global Dental Relief, a Denver-based group that sends teams of dentists around the globe.

“This just breaks my heart,” she said…Shaw described Grams Sunday as “a sweetie pie” who was quiet and shy but opened up around children. She said the group got word of his death Saturday.

We spend Memorial Day weekend honoring our heroes past and present, but I thought an “on the lighter side” story would be appropriate, provided it featured one of those heroes.

Via HotAirPundit, here’s one Marine who’s pretty impressed with “the hottest cougar in the Republican Party”:

So it is, however. Within minutes of meeting Marines who patrol this former Taliban stronghold from the Yellow Schoolhouse, a rundown former Afghan school here, I was asked my opinion about Palin, a hero to many politically conservative Americans. Before I had a chance to answer, however, I was introduced to fun-loving Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping’s left butt cheek.

Sure enough, there’s a realistic caricature of Palin there, perhaps four inches wide and five inches tall. She’s wearing her trademark glasses and smiling, her hair in a bun.

Lepping is attached to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. Lepping, a technician with 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., said he got the tattoo last June while on a routine assignment in Alaska. He and a few colleagues were sent there to clear ordnance from Air Force bombing ranges, and apparently had quite a bit of fun enjoying the nightlife after work each night.

“On the way back, I decided I wanted to get a tattoo that reminded me of Alaska, because we really had a good time,” said Lepping, currently attached to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. “I decided, ‘What could be better than getting a tattoo of the hottest cougar in the Republican Party?’”

So, how’s it look?

From this point on, it’s difficult to tell what will be Gunnery Sgt. Lepping’s greatest challenge: Fighting the Taliban, or trying to keep Joe McGinniss from tattooing his likeness on the neighboring cheek.

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

You want a glimpse of the future that crime-coddling Eric Holder and the White House will be bringing up en masse?

Right now, in New York City, jihad scientist Aafia Siddiqui is on trial.

See here, here, here, and here for background on the MIT-trained microbiologist/suspected KSM operative who went missing after 9/11 — and was caught, shot, and extradited two years in Pakistan after threatening to kill American soldiers.

The Pakistani government is paying for part of her defense. She has used the civilian court system to shout anti-American propaganda and spew hatred against Jews, cause legal chaos, and make a mockery of the rights she has been granted. al Qaeda has been trained to game the system. The Western-educated Siddiqui is milking it for all it’s worth.

On Monday, she was thrown out twice for outburts. Her defense team is now asking for, you guessed it, a mistrial.

A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist linked to al-Qaida got into trouble again Monday in federal court after twice interrupting the sometimes tearful testimony of an American solider who claimed he shot her in self defense in Afghanistan in 2008.

“I feel sorry for you,” Aafit Saddiqui blurted out at one point at her attempted murder trial in Manhattan. After a judge had deputy U.S. marshals remove her, she pointed at the witness and muttered something else before disappearing behind a side door.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman allowed Saddiqui to return later, but kicked her out again amid another rambling tirade about injustice. At the end of the day, the defense argued that the removals made her look bad in front of the jury and asked for a mistrial, which the judge denied.

“It’s highly appropriate for her to be escorted out of the courtroom when she acts out,” he said.

Siddiqui – a specialist in neuroscience who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University – has insisted in previous courtroom rants that she’s innocent. She also has refused to work with her defense attorneys, including some paid for by the Pakistani government.

The soldier described Siddiqui’s 2008 ambush:

He testified Afghan authorities had told him Siddiqui had been restrained, and was shocked when she sudden appeared from behind a curtain wielding his M4 rifle and yelling, “Allah akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”

“It was pretty amazing she got that thing up and squared off,” he said. “She was looking at me and aiming dead at me.”

Hearing the rifle go off, the officer said he followed his military training and pulled his pistol. Siddiqui was wrestling with an interpreter when he shot her in the stomach.

“I operated within the rules of engagement to eliminate the threat,” he said.

Two jurors were also let go after a man sitting in the courtroom pointed at them, used his finger as a gun to pretend to shoot them, and mouthed an obscenity.

Reports the NYPost: ” The unidentified man in a white headdress was taken into custody but it was unclear if charges were filed following the incident in Manhattan federal court.”

An al Qaeda suspect given free reign with her tongue in a public courtroom. Jurors threatened. Prosecution in jeopardy.

Now, imagine the scene being repeated in 12 or 20 or 25 more courtrooms across America simultaneously with similar high-value suspects and the jihadi dregs of Gitmo.

Are you ready? It’s coming.

Wishing you all a joy-filled Christmas!

“Gloria in excelsis Deo” – King’s College Choir:

Please keep our troops in your prayers. In Afghanistan, our soldiers are hard at work:

”This is my third Christmas away from family, the first two were in Iraq and then one here,” Sgt. David Nix, from Charlotte, North Carlina, said, adding that he misses waking up on Christmas morning with his wife and kids. ”It’s the only thing that goes through my mind … being around my family,” he said.

“A Soldier’s Christmas Poem,” written by LCDR Jeff Giles, CS, USN, stationed in Al Taqqadum Iraq:

A Christmas video from the soldiers of the Dragon Brigade:

Here’s a look at the plight of Christians in Iraq.

Pope Benedict XVI recovered from the bizarre attack yesterday well enough to deliver Christmas Day mass this morning.

Lombardi identified the woman who toppled Benedict as Susanna Maiolo, 25, a Swiss-Italian national with psychiatric problems. He said Maiolo, who was not armed, was taken to a clinic for necessary treatment.

She was the same woman involved in a similar incident at last year’s Midnight Mass, Vatican officials said. In that case, Maiolo jumped the barricade but never managed to reach the pope and was quietly tackled by security.

In both cases she wore a red sweat shirt.

During Thursday night’s service, Maiolo jumped the barricade and lunged for the pope as he processed down the aisle toward the altar. As security guards brought her down, she grabbed Benedict’s vestments and pulled him down with her, according to witness video obtained by The Associated Press.

After a few seconds on the floor, Benedict stood up with the help of attendants, put back on his miter and took hold of his staff, and continued to process down the aisle to the cheers of “Viva il Papa!” (“Long live the pope”). He continued to celebrate the Mass without incident.

It was the first time a potential attacker came into direct contact with Benedict during his nearly five-year papacy. Security analysts have frequently warned the pope is too exposed in his public appearances.

After getting up, Benedict, flanked by tense bodyguards, reached the basilica’s main altar to start the Mass. The pope, who broke his right wrist in a fall this summer, appeared unharmed but somewhat shaken and leaned heavily on aides and an armrest as he sat down in his chair.

Benedict made no reference to the disturbance after the service started or on Friday.

The full transcript of President Obama’s long-delayed speech on Afghanistan is here. You can watch it in full here.

Bush-bashing? Check.

Noxious complaining about the cost of fighting a necessary war? Check.

Disingenuous denial that he dithered? Check.

“Let me be clear”s/”clear”s = 9.

Self-congratulations for sticking to Gitmo closure policy = 1.

Self-referential “As your Commander-in-Chief”s = 2.

References to global jihad = 0.

Charles Krauthammer tonight called the speech “strange,” “defensive,” “hedging,” and full of “uncertainty compounding uncertainty.”

Way to restore America’s standing in the world, eh?

***

Pray for our troops tonight and every night. They need ‘em now more than every.

***

Andrew Ferguson has a different take on the speech:

Obama is the first Democratic president in forty years to call for a significant deployment of American troops in the national security interest of his country. This is very big news. His predecessor, President Clinton, could give a stirring address dispatching bombers over Bosnia and be confident of the support of his fellow Democrats, because the show of power was purely humanitarian and had nothing to do with keeping us safe from our enemies. With great courage, Obama is trying something that hasn’t been tried within the living memory of most of the members of his party. He may even recall the era when liberal Democratic presidents — Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson — could lead a fight because it was in the interest of the country to fight.

This is a historical moment, and one we should be grateful for. It’s worth an extra twenty minutes of presidential gassing off. It’s even worth a lot of guff about beginning to pull the troops out by a date certain, no matter what. (I’ll believe it when I see it.) If this is what he needs to mollify his political supporters, let him talk and talk and talk.

Alas, Obama’s “gassing off” is not so much a matter of spouting “essential platitudes” as it is a down payment on future pandering to the Left that will not be in the national security interest of our country.

Paul Mirengoff is dead-on:

Earlier today I wondered whether President Obama’s speech about Afghanistan would sound more like a description of a war plan or a structured settlement of a legal dispute. What I heard tonight tilted decidedly in the latter direction. To be precise, the speech sounded to me like a slick lawyer trying to sell a dubious settlement to a skeptical client or, in this case, set of clients.

Consistent with slick salesmanship – as well as the president’s character – the speech was quite self-referential. Providing a potted history of our military efforts in the war on terrorism, Obama took shots at his predecessor and attempted to cast himself as the hero throughout. Thus, he patted himself on the back for opposing the war in Iraq, on which he blamed the current difficulties in Afghanistan.

Obama also patted himself on the back for bringing the war in Iraq to a “responsible end.” But he failed to mention the surge in Iraq, which was instrumental in turning the tide to the point that it became possible to speak of a responsible end.

The omission was odd inasmuch as Obama was pitching a similar surge in Afghanistan. This meant that the Iraq surge was more relevant to tonight’s speech than any other element of Obama’s potted history. Yet he was too partisan, and too embarrassed by his own opposition to the surge, to mention this vital decision.

It was therefore rank hypocrisy for Obama latter to decry the partisanship that has plagued the war on terrorism.

***

Bonus emetic: Chris Matthews referring to West Point as the “enemy camp.” But we already knew which side he was on. Vid via Allahpundit:

That’s right. Matthews smeared the cadets for behaving properly and not showing overt political preferences for Obama. He wanted to see more “warmth” — e.g., twitching legs, tears of joy, and fainting a la the Obamedia.

Oh, and yes, MSNBC was still as monochromatic tonight as it is monodogmatic.

***

If West Point is the “enemy camp,” what does Chris Matthews call Gitmo?

Here’s a clear-thinking cadet who was in the audience sending a clear message of unwavering resolve. Matthews won’t get a leg tingle, but he might wet his pants over it:

Several readers note the active service campaign ribbons and medals on the man’s chest and identify one of them as the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, showing he has been an Infantry Soldier under Combat. D. O’Brien writes: “The Cadet pictured in your piece on President Obama’s speech at West Point (December 1, 2009) is not a ‘traditional’ cadet. He is a former enlisted man – and an Infantryman who wears the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. This award is given only to Infantrymen who have participated in direct-fire engagements against the enemy.”

While Obama took his sweet time, our men and women in uniform will now be sent scrambling. Wait, wait, wait..now, hurry up!

President Obama has decided to expedite the deployment of 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan over the next six months, in an effort to reverse the momentum of Taliban gains and create urgency for the government in Kabul to match the American surge with one using its own forces, according to senior administration officials.

In bringing the total American force to nearly 100,000 troops by the end of May, the administration will move far faster than it had originally planned. Until recently, discussions focused on a deployment that would take a year, but Mr. Obama concluded that the situation required “more, sooner,” as one official said, explaining some of the central conclusions Mr. Obama reached at the end of a nearly three-month review of American war strategy.

… The new strategy draws heavily on lessons learned from President George W. Bush’s “surge” and strategy shift in Iraq in 2007, which Mr. Obama opposed as a senator and presidential candidate. Mr. Obama’s advisers are even referring to his troop buildup as an “extended surge.”

However officials said that Mr. Obama in his speech will give a time frame — something Mr. Bush did not do — for when the United States will start pulling the reinforcements out and begin turning over security responsibilities to Afghan forces one province at a time.

Mr. Obama’s aides would not say how specific he would be on Tuesday night about the time frame of the American presence. But clearly it would be well more than a year. That would take him to 2011 or 2012 — when Mr. Obama is up for re-election — before the troop levels would begin to fall again to fulfill the president’s oft-repeated assertion that he would offer no “open-ended commitment” to the Afghan government.

It is that date that is bound to be the focus of attention for his own party, at a time when many Democrats are openly opposed to sending more troops. Some have questioned how Mr. Obama can simultaneously argue for a troop increase and a relatively quick pull-back. But in interviews, administration officials said that without the accelerated deployment, there was little hope of being able to stabilize the situation in the region enough to start withdrawals.

“This is to speed the process,” one said.

If you haven’t watched the video of VP Cheney’s remarks blasting Obama for projecting weakness, go here.

Somebody needs to say it.

***

John Hood sums up The Obama Doctrine: “We Surrender” — Pretty Soon.

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the U.S. bombarded the outpost with airstrikes after leaving, as well as the local police headquarters.

“This means they are not coming back,” Mujahid said. “This is another victory for Taliban. We have control of another district in eastern Afghanistan.”

“Right now Kamdesh is under our control, and the white flag of the Taliban is raised above Kamdesh,” Mujahid said.

A senior official of the Nuristan provincial government confirmed Taliban forces were in control of the village and Afghan police and soldiers had withdrawn from the district. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Provincial police chief, Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, said the pullout “has had a direct affect on the morale of Afghan forces.”

“If Afghan soldiers are losing support, how can they stay there?” he asked. “We need the coalition to send their forces back. We need more police, more soldiers.”

The battle marked the largest loss of U.S. life in a single skirmish in more than a year. Besides the eight Americans slain, three Afghan soldiers and an estimated 100 insurgents died, according to NATO.

Via Breitbart/AP.

This is the least we can do.

Please join me in contributing to the Combat Outpost Keating Relief Fund. Please.

COP Keating was one of two outposts attacked this weekend in the siege at Kamdesh.

Mothax at the American Legion’s Burn Pit blog writes that “[i]n the battle for Combat Outpost Keating, the men of Bravo Troop 361 Cavalry lost every possession they had, save for the clothes on their backs.” Read the entire post.

Then read this account from milblog ArmyHousehold6.

Then use and spread this information to everyone you know:

Here is where to donate online using your credit card.

Here is where to mail checks:

COP Keating Relief Fund
PO Box 1954
Indianapolis 46206

Here is an online form that you can send in with your checks. Make sure you have COP Keating Relief Fund on the check so we can allocate it correctly.

If you want to send stuff today, and do it completely on your own, please mail to:

CSM Robert Wilson
TF Mountain Warrior
FOB Bostick
APO AE 09354

Support the troops who support our freedom.

Remember: We are the land of the free because of the brave.