For GOP only

[mr_genius]

LOL, i just read his history of insults

 

 

Pretty funny that he has gotten a total pass by the Dems in the MSM until now. Oh well, it eventually comes back and bites em in the ass (as usual)

[southsider2k5]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/23/mcc...n.ap/index.html

 

McCain: Bin Laden tape shows Iraq strategy workingStory Highlights

New Osama bin Laden tape shows "we are succeeding in Iraq," senator says

 

In latest message, bin Laden chastises followers for making mistakes in Iraq

 

On campaign trail, Sen. John McCain says troop escalation working in Iraq

 

PELHAM, New Hampshire (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain said that a new message from Osama bin Laden in which he scolds his followers in Iraq proves that U.S. efforts there are succeeding.

 

 

Flanked by police, Sen. John McCain greets crowds Monday at a store in Pelham, New Hampshire.

 

"Basically he encouraged the extreme elements -- al Qaeda in Iraq particularly in the Sunni areas -- to join together and be more effective in bringing terrorism and murder and suicide bombings to Iraq and to Anbar province," McCain said Monday.

 

"It's a clear sign that we are succeeding in Iraq because people got very tired of al Qaeda taking their young women, killing their young women, killing their people and acting in the most brutal fashion that they are."

 

In the audiotape played Monday on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden chastises some of his followers for lagging behind and making mistakes in Iraq, and for putting their personal allegiances ahead of their opposition to American forces.

 

Stopping to meet and greet voters at a country store, McCain commented in response to an undecided voter's question about his strategy for Iraq -- whether he would follow President Bush's path and stay in the war or reduce the number of U.S. troops there.

 

McCain said he is the only Republican candidate who criticized the conduct of the war under former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and that he believes the troop escalation over the past year has been effective.

 

"I believe if we set a date for a withdrawal we will be back," he said.

 

McCain also spoke to Denise Gionet of Pelham, whose son, Army Sgt. Daniel Gionet, was killed in Iraq in June 2006. Gionet told McCain that some in the military community are appalled that missing soldiers are being designated "duty stations whereabouts unknown."

 

"The category should be MIA. POW/MIA," replied McCain, himself a former Vietnam prisoner of war. "I do not understand, and we have written letters and we are in communication. That needs to be fixed."

 

McCain began a three-day campaign bus trip across New Hampshire on Monday. He was expected to file candidacy papers for the New Hampshire presidential primary on Tuesday in Concord.

[southsider2k5]

More fundraising fun from Camp Clinton...

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...=la-home-center

 

NEW YORK -- Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door.

 

And again not too far away, at 88 E. Broadway beneath the Manhattan bridge, where vendors chatter in Mandarin and Fujianese as they hawk rubber sandals and bargain-basement clothes.

 

All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 

Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.

 

At this point in the presidential campaign cycle, Clinton has raised more money than any candidate in history. Those dishwashers, waiters and street stall hawkers are part of the reason. And Clinton's success in gathering money from Chinatown's least-affluent residents stems from a two-pronged strategy: mutually beneficial alliances with powerful groups, and appeals to the hopes and dreams of people now consigned to the margins.

 

Clinton has enlisted the aid of Chinese neighborhood associations, especially those representing recent immigrants from Fujian province. The organizations, at least one of which is a descendant of Chinatown criminal enterprises that engaged in gambling and human trafficking, exert enormous influence over immigrants. The associations help them with everything from protection against crime to obtaining green cards.

 

Many of Clinton's Chinatown donors said they had contributed because leaders in neighborhood associations told them to. In some cases, donors said they felt pressure to give.

 

The other piece of the strategy involves holding out hope that, if Clinton becomes president, she will move quickly to reunite families and help illegal residents move toward citizenship. As New York's junior senator, Clinton has expressed support for immigrants and greater family reunification. She is also benefiting from Chinese donors' naive notions of what she could do in the White House.

 

Campaign concerns

 

As with other campaigns looking for dollars in unpromising places, the Clinton operation also has accepted what it later conceded were improper donations. At least one reported donor denies making a contribution. Another admitted to lacking the legal-resident status required for giving campaign money.

 

Clinton aides said they were concerned about some of the Chinatown contributions.

 

"We have hundreds of thousands of donors. We are proud to have support from across New York and the country from many different communities," campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "In this instance, our own compliance process flagged a number of questionable donations and took the appropriate steps to be sure they were legally given. In cases where we couldn't confirm that, the money was returned."

 

The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.

 

And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.

 

Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment.

 

Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders. Some said they wanted help on immigration concerns. And several spoke of the pride they felt by being associated with a powerful figure such as Clinton.

 

New take, old game

 

Beyond what it reveals about present-day campaign fundraising, Chinatown's newfound role in the 2008 election cycle marks another chapter in the centuries-old American saga of marginalized ethnic groups and newly arrived immigrants turning to politics to improve their lot.

 

In earlier times, New York politicians from William "Boss" Tweed to Fiorello LaGuardia gained power with the support of immigrants. So did politicians in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and other big cities.

 

Like many who traveled this path, most of the Chinese reported as contributing to Clinton's campaign have never voted. Many speak little or no English. Some seem to lead such ephemeral lives that neighbors say they've never heard of them.

 

"This is a new game," said Peter Kwong, a professor at Hunter College in New York who studies Chinatown communities across the country. Historically, Kwong said, "voting in Chinatown is so weak" that politicians did not go out of their way to court residents.

 

"Today it is all about money," he said.

 

The effort is especially pronounced among groups in the Fujianese community. More than a decade ago, Fujianese cultural associations ran gambling operations and, more ominously, at least one was home to a gang that trafficked in illegal Fujian native immigrants.

 

The human-smuggling problem came to a head in 1993, when a cargo ship, the Golden Venture, ran aground off New York City. As shocked police and immigration officials looked on, hundreds of Fujian natives who had spent weeks below deck struggled to make it to shore. Several died in the attempt.

 

A crackdown by the FBI's organized-crime task force led to the indictment of more than 20 Fujian native traffickers. Today, the problem has substantially dissipated, says Konrad Motyka of the FBI's New York field office, who participated in the investigation of the Golden Venture.

 

Although Motyka is wary of the havoc wreaked in the past by Fujianese organized crime, he said: "I welcome signs that the community is participating in politics."

 

High hopes

 

At his tiny restaurant in the south Bronx, which has one table and a takeout counter, Chang Jian Lin displays a prized memento: a photo of himself and Clinton. The picture was taken at a fundraising banquet in Chinatown this spring.

 

Lin and his wife, who also works in the restaurant, said through an interpreter that they believe Clinton, if elected president, will reunite their family. The Lins' two teenage children remain in Fujian, a mountainous coastal province in southeastern China opposite Taiwan.

 

"If she gets to be the president, we want our children to come home," Chang Jian Lin said.

 

Campaign officials point out that Clinton has sponsored legislation aimed at family reunification; the proposals failed. And immigration measures being discussed in Congress would assign a lower priority to family reunification, which tends to bring in poor people, and give preference to immigrants with more-lucrative job skills.

 

Moreover, the Lins appeared to have an exaggerated impression of a president's ability to change such things as immigration laws single-handedly.

 

Kwong thinks Clinton may be "exploiting the vulnerabilities of recent immigrants."

 

Nonetheless, Lin is planning to attend another Clinton fundraiser, a birthday bash next week. He said his support rested on more than his hope for reuniting his family. "Besides the immigration issue with my kids, the overall standard of living will improve for the Chinese people" living in the U.S., he said.

 

He has never before supported a U.S. politician and, not yet a citizen, he is barred from voting. But when Fujianese community leaders asked him to donate to Clinton, he said, he eagerly contributed $1,000. Immigrants who have permanent resident status can legally make campaign contributions.

 

Coming up with the money was hard, Lin acknowledged, adding: "The restaurant is really small."

 

Missing persons

 

The tenement at 44 Henry St. was listed in Clinton's campaign reports as the home of Shu Fang Li, who reportedly gave $1,000.

 

In a recent visit, a man, apparently drunk, was asleep near the entrance to the neighboring beauty parlor, the Nice Hair Salon.

 

A tenant living in the apartment listed as Li's address said through a translator that she had not heard of him, although she had lived there for the last 10 years.

 

A man named Liang Zheng was listed as having contributed $1,000. The address given was a large apartment building on East 194th Street in the Bronx, but no one by that name could be located there.

 

Census figures for 2000 show the median family income for the area was less than $21,000. About 45% of the population was living below the poverty line, more than double the city average.

 

In the busy heart of East Broadway, beneath the Manhattan Bridge, is a building that is listed as the home of Sang Cheung Lee, also reported to have given $1,000. Trash was piled in the dimly lighted entrance hall. Neighbors said they knew of no one with Lee's name there; they knocked on one another's doors in a futile effort to find him.

 

Salespeople at a store on Canal Street were similarly baffled when asked about Shih Kan Chang, listed as working there and having given $1,000. The store sells purses, jewelry and novelty Buddha statues. Employees said they had not heard of Chang.

 

Another listed donor, Yi Min Liu, said he did not make the $1,000 contribution in April that was reported in his name. He said he attended a banquet for Clinton but did not give her money.

 

Clinton "has done a lot for the Chinese community," he said.

 

One New York man who said he enthusiastically donated $2,500 to Clinton doesn't appear to be eligible to do so under federal election law. He said he came to the United States from China about two years ago and didn't have a green card.

 

Out of the periphery

 

A key figure helping to secure Asian support for Clinton is a woman named Chung Seto, who came to this country as a child from Canton province and has supported Bill and Hillary Clinton since the 1990s. She called Fujian natives' support for Hillary Clinton the beginning of civic engagement for an immigrant group that had long been on the periphery.

 

She said she stationed translators at the entrance of one event to try to screen out improper contributions.

 

Qun Wu, a 37-year-old waiter at a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, saw a reference to a Clinton fundraiser in a Chinese-language newspaper. He took a day off from work to go. Though he only makes $500 a week, he considers his $1,000 donation to be money well-spent. He got his picture taken with Clinton, hung it prominently in his house, then had color reprints made and sent to family in China.

 

"Every day I go home and see it," he said. "I see my picture with Hillary, and I feel encouraged. It's a great honor."

 

Many, on the other hand, said they gave for reasons having more to do with the Chinese community than with Clinton. He Duan Zheng, who gave $1,000, said of the Fujianese community: "They informed us to go, so I went.

 

"Everybody was making a donation, so I did too," he said. "Otherwise I would lose face."

 

peter.nicholas@latimes.com

 

tom.hamburger@latimes.com

 

Times staff writers Dan Morain in San Francisco and Walter F. Roche Jr. and Jordy Yager in Washington, and Times researchers Janet Lundblad, Vicki Gallay and John Jackson in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.

[EvilMonkey]

LOL, i just read his history of insults

Pretty funny that he has gotten a total pass by the Dems in the MSM until now. Oh well, it eventually comes back and bites em in the ass (as usual)

You know, if he was a Republican, the Dems would be calling for him to resign by now.

[southsider2k5]

So the analysis of Al Gore's movie gets deeper and deeper into "errors" made in the movie.

 

A British court already counted 9 errors...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;in_a_source

 

While this site counts 35...

 

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton/goreerrors.html

[Cknolls]

THE DEBATE IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :

[southsideirish71]

The democratic comedy hour keeps on rolling.

 

 

Hurray, we are all saved. Edwards is going to save this country, and turn us into Switzerland.

 

His plan.

 

End the war, by giving up.

No F-22. Hell keep the 30 year old jets, maybe we can go back to propeller technology.

No missle defense. Who wants to shoot missles at us.

 

Universal health care.

College for Everyone.

Adequate Housing.

everyone has an equal opportunity.

 

Socialism is kewl.

 

Fantasy to control nuclear weapons. He will lead an effort to rid the world of nukes. LOL

 

[Texsox]

What terrible goals.

 

College, no nukes, housing what an idiot.

[mr_genius]

What terrible goals.

 

College, no nukes, housing what an idiot.

 

he is forgetting about free cab fares, free xbox360, free food, free season sox tickets, and some other stuff I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR!

[Balta1701]

So the analysis of Al Gore's movie gets deeper and deeper into "errors" made in the movie.

 

A British court already counted 9 errors...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;in_a_source

I'm glad you're willing to accept the thinking of that British judge's decision. I really am. Because the results of that court decision are, to anyone who reads anything except for the major media version, i.e. actually goes to the raw documents, the decision looks like a disaster for anyone who doesn't believe in anthropogenic climate change.

# turn to AIT, the film. The following is clear:

 

i) It is substantially founded upon scientific research and fact, albeit that the science is used, in the hands of a talented politician and communicator, to make a political statement and to support a political programme.

 

ii) As Mr Chamberlain persuasively sets out at paragraph 11 of his skeleton:

 

"The Film advances four main scientific hypotheses, each of which is very well supported by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC:

 

(1) global average temperatures have been rising significantly over the past half century and are likely to continue to rise ("climate change");

 

(2) climate change is mainly attributable to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide ("greenhouse gases");

 

(3) climate change will, if unchecked, have significant adverse effects on the world and its populations; and

 

(4) there are measures which individuals and governments can take which will help to reduce climate change or mitigate its effects."

 

These propositions, Mr Chamberlain submits (and I accept), are supported by a vast quantity of research published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide and by the great majority of the world's climate scientists. Ms Bramman explains, at paragraph 14 of her witness statement, that:

[Texsox]

he is forgetting about free cab fares, free xbox360, free food, free season sox tickets, and some other stuff I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR!

 

Not only should you not have to pay for it, the GOP WILL CUT YOUR TAXES!

[mr_genius]

Not only should you not have to pay for it, the GOP WILL CUT YOUR TAXES!

 

 

hell yea. no taxes, and EVERYTHING IS FREE!!!!!!!

 

omg omg omg omg omg omg

 

 

[Texsox]

 

hell yea. no taxes, and EVERYTHING IS FREE!!!!!!!

 

omg omg omg omg omg omg

that's our problem.

[mr_genius]

that's our problem.

 

no it is not! texsox, what you don't understand about socialism is that it works perfectly. no one has to work, things like free housing and tuition magically appear, everything gets done on time... it's perfect. but, I wouldn't expect someone from Texas to understand these principles. so, why don't you just go to the rodeo or whatever and talk about how great you think GW Bush is. good day sir.

Edited October 24, 2007 by mr_genius

[Texsox]

no it is not! texsox, what you don't understand about socialism is that it works perfectly. no one has to work, things like free housing and tuition magically appear, everything gets done on time... it's perfect. but, I wouldn't expect someone from Texas to understand these principles. so, why don't you just go to the rodeo or whatever and talk about how great you think GW Bush is. good day sir.

 

And you are missing the beauty of telling voters that they can have all this stuff and someone else will pay for it. The GOP way. They cut our taxes with the promise that all those deficits, with interest, will be paid by other tax payers.

[mr_genius]

And you are missing the beauty of telling voters that they can have all this stuff and someone else will pay for it. The GOP way. They cut our taxes with the promise that all those deficits, with interest, will be paid by other tax payers.

 

Actually, tax cuts have increased government revenue through growth of the economy. Of course, if you spend a trillions of dollars to blow stuff up in Iraq, you will still end up with a deficit. However, the Iraq war will end and that spending will curtail. However, the Democrats plan to give everyone everything for free is an expense that they plan on keeping for the foreseeable future. So what exactly aren't you and other believers in the Democrats entitled too? Ok, free house, free food, free energy resources, free tuition, free health care, and free transportation is what is on the list now. What is next?

 

I do think the government should help people who really need it. I am even in favor of free tuition and health care for truly poor people. But that is not the democrat plan, everything for free for everyone. government takes it all for you.

Edited October 24, 2007 by mr_genius

[kapkomet]

Actually, tax cuts have increased government revenue through growth of the economy. Of course, if you spend a trillions of dollars to blow stuff up in Iraq, you will still end up with a deficit. However, the Iraq war will end and that spending will curtail. However, the Democrats plan to give everyone everything for free is an expense that they plan on keeping for the foreseeable future. So what exactly aren't you and other believers in the Democrats entitled too? Ok, free house, free food, free energy resources, free tuition, free health care, and free transportation is what is on the list now. What is next?

 

I do think the government should help people who really need it. I am even in favor of free tuition and health care for truly poor people. But that is not the democrat plan, everything for free for everyone. government takes it all for you.

Without the sarcastic tones - why is this true? Seriously, it's not far off.

 

[southsider2k5]

Actually, tax cuts have increased government revenue through growth of the economy. Of course, if you spend a trillions of dollars to blow stuff up in Iraq, you will still end up with a deficit. However, the Iraq war will end and that spending will curtail. However, the Democrats plan to give everyone everything for free is an expense that they plan on keeping for the foreseeable future. So what exactly aren't you and other believers in the Democrats entitled too? Ok, free house, free food, free energy resources, free tuition, free health care, and free transportation is what is on the list now. What is next?

 

I do think the government should help people who really need it. I am even in favor of free tuition and health care for truly poor people. But that is not the democrat plan, everything for free for everyone. government takes it all for you.

 

The irony is that without the wars in Iraq and Afganistan we would be right about a zero deficit right now. I don't know the exact number, but it wouldn't be much at all.

[Texsox]

Does anyone know where to find the number of wage earners in the US by year?

 

Couldn't some of the growth be attributed to population growth? Each year more people are entering the workforce than are leaving. So tax revenues go up. Very much like a Ponzi scheme. In this, the new tax payers pay the old ones. True cuts come when we have a surplus in the treasury and can pay for the tax cuts. Then you and out the new XBox and college educations. Not by taking loans from China.

 

Tax cuts are nice, but spending cuts have to go with it. How about a temporary Iraq war tax increase?

[southsider2k5]

The BLS is the place to go for the official statistics

 

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[EvilMonkey]

Does anyone know where to find the number of wage earners in the US by year?

 

Couldn't some of the growth be attributed to population growth? Each year more people are entering the workforce than are leaving. So tax revenues go up. Very much like a Ponzi scheme. In this, the new tax payers pay the old ones. True cuts come when we have a surplus in the treasury and can pay for the tax cuts. Then you and out the new XBox and college educations. Not by taking loans from China.

 

Tax cuts are nice, but spending cuts have to go with it. How about a temporary Iraq war tax increase?

TEMPORARY increase? Sure, and then when the Dems get into power, it becomes a permanent increase. The government, whoever is in power, hates to give back money that isn't thiers to begin with.

[Texsox]

TEMPORARY increase? Sure, and then it becomes a permanent increase. The government, whoever is in power, hates to give back money that isn't thiers to begin with.

\

Fixed and I agree.

[southsider2k5]

TEMPORARY increase? Sure, and then when the Dems get into power, it becomes a permanent increase. The government, whoever is in power, hates to give back money that isn't thiers to begin with.

 

Good point. Remember the income tax itself was supposed to be temporary, and the AMT was only supposed to affect 155 households.

[southsider2k5]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21444614/

 

BAGHDAD - October is on course to record the second consecutive decline in U.S. military and Iraqi civilian deaths and Americans commanders say they know why: the U.S. troop increase and an Iraqi groundswell against al-Qaida and Shiite militia extremists.

 

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch points to what the military calls “Concerned Citizens” — both Shiites and Sunnis who have joined the American fight. He says he’s signed up 20,000 of them in the past four months.

 

“I’ve never been more optimistic than I am right now with the progress we’ve made in Iraq. The only people who are going to win this counterinsurgency project are the people of Iraq. We’ve said that all along. And now they’re coming forward in masses,” Lynch said in a recent interview at a U.S. base deep in hostile territory south of Baghdad. Outgoing artillery thundered as he spoke.

 

Lynch, who commands the 3rd Infantry Division and once served as the military spokesman in Baghdad, is a tireless cheerleader of the American effort in Iraq. But the death toll over the past two months appears to reinforce his optimism. The question, of course: Will it last?

 

October troop death toll: 28

As of Tuesday, the Pentagon reported 28 U.S. military deaths in October. That’s an average of about 1.2 deaths a day. The toll on U.S troops hasn’t been this low since March 2006, when 31 soldiers died — an average of one death a day.

 

In September, 65 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

 

Part of the trend can be seen in a volatile and violent band of lush agricultural land on Baghdad’s southern border.

 

The commander of the battle zone — Lt. Col. Val Keaveny, 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry (Airborne) — said his unit has lost only one soldier in the past four months despite intensified operations against both Shiite and Sunni extremists, including powerful al-Qaida in Iraq cells.

 

Keaveny attributes the startling decline to a decrease in attacks by militants who are being rounded up in big numbers on information provided by the citizen force — which has literally doubled the number of eyes and ears available to the military.

 

The efforts to recruit local partners began taking shape earlier this year in the western province of Anbar, which had become the virtual heartland for Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida bands. The early successes in Anbar — coming alongside a boost of 30,000 U.S. forces into the Baghdad area — led to similar alliances in other parts of Iraq.

 

“People are fed up with fear, intimidation and being brutalized. Once they hit that tipping point, they’re fed up, they come to realized we truly do provide them better hope for the future. What we’re seeing now is the beginning of a snowball,” said Keaveny, whose forces operate out of Forward Operating Base Kalsu, about 35 miles south of Baghdad.

 

Civilian, security force deaths also decrease

While U.S. death figures appear to be in sharp decline, the number of Iraqi civilians and security forces show a less dramatic drop. And any significant attack — by insurgents or civilians caught in the crossfire — could quickly wipe out the downward trend.

 

The current pace of civilian deaths would put October at less than 900. The figure last month was 1,023 and for August, 1,956, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

 

The AP tally is compiled from hospital, police and military officials, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers. Insurgent deaths are not included. Other counts differ and some have given higher civilian death tolls.

 

While the decline in deaths is notable, it is only one of many measures of potential progress in Iraq, said Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon analyst now with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

 

Cordesman said a more balanced picture needs to include factors such as wounded civilians and soldiers and the number of people fleeing their homes. The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that between 1,000 and 2,000 Iraqis still leave their homes each day for safer havens in the country or in neighboring nations. “It’s just been going up slowly,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort in Geneva.

 

“The numbers we’re dealing with here are only major acts of violence, the number of times people are killed,” said Cordesman. “This is certainly progress ... but it has to be put in perspective.”

 

Civilians fight against extremists

Lynch’s mission also shows the slow pace of reclaiming areas from militants. His troops and their new local allies must work town by town, village by village.

 

Sunni Sheik Emad Ghurtani is among those helping.

 

“Honestly, I’m not going to hide this from you,” Ghurtani told Lynch as the two stood talking at a newly established tribal check point near Haswa, a village just north of the Kalsu base.

 

“There is some al-Qaida here in this area. But, God willing, we will get rid of them. ... The citizens are coming out. They’re not afraid any more,” the tall and handsome tribal leader said. Three scruffy young men watched, AK-47s slung over their shoulders, in the sandbag bunker at the check point.

 

Lynch, hatless on the balmy autumn day, answered in staccato sentences.

 

“What we really need is information. You know where al-Qaida is. You know who they are. You have to tell us. We can use all our capabilities to take out the enemy. But you have to tell us where they are, because you know. You’ve got our total support.”

 

The sheik, who made Lynch promise to return for lunch one day, responded with striking eloquence.

 

“Because of what the American forces have accomplished, instead of us moving step by step we’re going to start running toward the enemy ... Instead of walking, we’re going to start running now. We just need the weapons and ammunition,” Ghurtani said.

 

A common enemy

The guard force at the checkpoint changed during the conversation. Three young men barely out of their teens, ancient Kalashnikovs in hand, strolled town the dirt road that led back into Ghurtani territory. Their U.S.-provided uniforms are a vest with a reflective orange band akin to what road crews wear in the United States.

 

Ghurtani complained they hadn’t been paid the $100 a month the Americans had promised.

 

“If I get some of the money they need I can get them shoes, some vests and some ammunition. If they can find me cheap weapons, we can start getting these men ready. God willing in the next few days,” the sheik said.

 

Most heartening, Lynch said, was the checkpoint just across the road and over an irrigation canal. It was run by Shiites.

 

Lynch said the checkpoints on opposite sides of the road highlighted a kind of reconciliation by necessity: not fighting each other but protecting themselves from a common enemy.

 

“They have to be convinced that we’re not leaving. That’s the issue. If they were to think we’re leaving we’d have also sorts of trouble,” Lynch said, clambering over a makeshift earthen bridge across the canal.

 

Fighting against al-Qaida

The local Shiite sheik wasn’t at the checkpoint.

 

He was in a hospital recovering from injuries in a car crash. Two ragtag fellows in their 20s stood up from their sandbag bunker and told Lynch they needed money to buy weapons. “Al-Qaida has all kinds of weapons. We just have these old rifles,” one of them said pointing to his dilapidated Kalashnikov.

 

“OK. We just continue to work together to get you the money so you can buy better weapons, better ammunition, uniforms. Improve your check point. We just have to work together,” Lynch said, spinning on his heel and marching back to his nine-Humvee convoy.

 

On to Haswa, down a road known for Iranian-made roadside bombs, a Kiowa gunship clattered above as protection. Back at division headquarters, public affairs officers were hammering out more press statements about how Concerned Citizens were leading soldiers to militant weapons caches and turning in extremists fighters.

 

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[BigSqwert]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21444614/

Good. Maybe we can start sending our brave men and women home soon and let them solve their own problems.