SFC Paul Ray Smith - Medal of Honor Recipient

To date, there has been only one Medal of Honor recipient in the Iraq War - Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith.

Ralph Kinney Bennett tells the story in today's Opinion Journal.

We join our Hero in the middle of a firefight near the Saddam Hussein International Airport in April of 2003:

Under intense fire, Sgt. Smith's men heroically extracted all three wounded crewmen from the APC. Sgt. Smith then entered the vehicle, ordering Spc. Michael Seaman to join him as driver and "keep me loaded" with ammo belts. Sgt. Smith popped up out of the turret hatch and grabbed the grips of the .50-caliber machine gun mounted on top.

The Iraqis were practically on top of him. Coolly grasping the situation, Sgt. Smith ordered Spc. Seaman to back the APC south into the compound to a position half way down the eastern wall. There he could arc the big machine gun back and forth, from the gate entrance to the north, all along the western wall of the triangle, to the Iraqi occupied tower in the southwest corner to his left.

To fire the machine gun, Sgt. Smith had to stand in the APC's main hatch, his body exposed from the waist up to a withering fire coming at him from three directions. On the ground through the blur of combat, Sgt. Matthew Keller saw Sgt. Smith grimly firing measured bursts from atop the APC even as a hail of bullets hit around him.

As Spc. Seaman, crouching in the adjoining hatch, fed him ammunition belts, Sgt. Smith directed an expert and murderous fire with the long-barreled M2, hitting Iraqis who tried to enter the compound through the gate or over the wall. He tried also to suppress renewed fire coming from the Iraqis in the guard tower to his left.

Finally, one of his fellow sappers, First Sgt. Timothy Campbell, led a small fire team which stole up to the tower and killed all Iraqis inside. But by this time, Sgt. Smith's machine gun had fallen silent. The attack had been broken. Nearly 50 Iraqi dead lay all over the area. Others were in retreat.

Sgt. Smith's machine gun had fallen silent because he had been hit by one of the last bullets fired from that tower.

Sgt. Paul Ray Smith was killed in action on April 4, 2003, almost 3 years ago.

His wife and children received his Medal of Honor, our nations's highest decoration for bravery, from President Bush at the White House on April 4, 2005.

Blog Carnival on German-American Relations

I'm late on this, but wanted to make sure you checked out the second edition of the Blog Carnival on German-American Relations.

There were over 40 submissions from German and American bloggers, and the three blog carnival hosts have presented selections in their carnival coverage.

Jorg of Atlantic Review presents his selections in English from a German perspective.

Marc Schulman of American Future in English from an American perspective.

And Statler from Statler & Waldorf in German from a German perspective.

There are some great pieces from blogs/bloggers like GM Roper, Winds of Change, TCS Daily, Erik Svane of ¡No Pasarán!, and David's Medienkritik featured in the carnival, so don't miss it!

Support the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act

This just in from our friend Ingrid. She and her fiance Tony, who returned from a deployment in Iraq last year, are Patriot Guard Riders.

You have an opportunity to participate in the process and support legislation by signing this on-line petition.

The petition and comments from citizens will be presented to the House Veterans Affairs Committee at an April 6th hearing in Washington by Sen. Mike Rogers of Michigan, who will be introducing federal legislation to prohibit demonstrations at funeral services of fallen service members.

I encourage you to go to www.mikerogers.house.gov/fallenheroes.aspx and help...

Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act

Rogers: On-Line Petition Supports Ban on Funeral Protests

Thursday, March 23, 2006 – Americans who believe that U.S. soldiers killed in combat deserve a dignified funeral and a time for family and friends to mourn in peace, can help make that possible.

“America honors and respects our soldiers, and none more than those who die defending freedom and our nation,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, MI-08, who is introducing federal legislation banning protestors from military funerals. “We are asking citizens to help protect the funerals of those soldiers and their mourners from the disrespect of protestors who disrupt funeral and burial services and add to the pain of losing a loved one.”

Rogers’ legislation, the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act, would ban demonstrations at funerals in national cemeteries. It also urges all 50 states to adopt similar laws for all military funerals.
( ... )

Rogers drafted the legislation after attending the funeral of a Michigan soldier who died of combat wounds suffered in Iraq. Protestors attempted to disrupt the funeral by shouting vile and harassing slogans at the family and other mourners.

“No family burying a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a brother or sister, should be faced with the insults, verbal attacks, and intimidation that these protestors were screaming or displaying on signs,” said Rogers, a former soldier and brother of an active duty soldier. “At first it made me very angry, but then I quickly realized that we must do something to stop it, and that is what this legislation will do, it will make it illegal to show disrespect, or harass the funeral of a soldier and his or her family and friends.”

Sign the petition here.

C-17 Globemaster Fleet Passes One Millionth Flying Hour Mark

Congratulations and thank you to the aircrew and aeromedical evacuation team on this historic flight. You represent one million hours of the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by all of our evac teams.



Photo by Master Sgt. John E. Lasky

MILLION MILESTONE: 791st EAES sees C-17 surpass millionth flying hour

Members of the 791st Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron on a routine air evacuation mission from Iraq helped see the C-17 Globemaster fleet past the one millionth flying hour mark on their return to Ramstein Monday.

The C-17, from the Mississippi Air National Guard’s 172nd Airlift Wing, arrived here after a more than 14-hour mission that started late on Sunday.

The aircraft first delivered 43,000 pounds of cargo to Al Asad, Iraq. Then it flew to Balad to pick up 16 patients, including some critically wounded. The turnaround at Balad went like clockwork, said Col. William Hill, 172nd AW commander.

“We were in and out of Balad quickly,” he said. “Everything went real well.”

On board, the aircrew and aeromedical evacuation team focused on the patients. The team was a mixture of active duty, Guard and Reserve Airmen. There was even a flight lieutenant from the Royal Air Force on board. For them, the mission did not end until the patients were safely aboard ambulances bound for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, about six miles away.

“It was a good flight. There were no emergencies in flight. Even the one critical care patient did well,” said Capt. David Strickland, nurse and guardsman from the Mississippi Guard’s 183rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. “The C-17 is made for this kind of mission − it’s the best plane for the job. It’s very ‘air evac’ friendly.”

From Aero-News Network:

Earlier this week, Boeing and the Air Force announced the fleet of C-17 Globemaster III airlifters currently in service reached one million flying hours -- the equivalent of one of the cargo jets flying continuously for more than 114 years. The million-mile mark was achieved on a mission Monday evacuating injured US troops from Iraq, and transporting them to Germany for medical treatment.

The Air Force selected this C-17 and its crew -- comprised of active duty US Air Force (USAF), Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Royal Air Force members -- to represent the entire fleet.

Soldiers' Angels Mourns SSG Brock Beery

From Cathy of the Soldiers' Angels Living Legends Team:

We have a fallen SA hero, Brock Beery.

Staff Sgt. Brock A. Beery, 30, of White House, Tenn., died in Habbaniyah, Iraq on March 23, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his LMTV followed by enemy small arms fire during combat operations.

Beery was assigned to the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 123rd Armor Regiment, Bowling Green, Ky.

He is survived by his wife, Sara and daughter, Elissa (age 7).

Thank you for supporting the families and Angels of our fallen heroes.

Cathy

Army Staff Sgt. Brock A. Beery tribute at the Soldiers' Angels Fallen Heroes blog.

This Week in the Information War

Pour It On , from Daniel Henninger at the Opinion Journal:

For those of us who've complained for more than two years that this White House was ill-serving the troops in Iraq by not making the public case for Iraq, that changed this week in Wheeling, W.Va.
( ... )
By noontime, Mr. Bush was in Wheeling delivering the third in a series of public speeches to defend the Iraq war.
( ... )
Holding a hand microphone, Mr. Bush walked around a stage before a few thousand people giving a largely extemporaneous talk on Iraq and his presidency. It was mesmerizing.

The appearance included this military couple asking the President why media coverage on Iraq was so negative, generating loud applause. The incident was followed up by this article in which ABC was forced to admit that the vast majority of viewer messages received agreed that the media were biased.

Over the last 24 hours, ABC News has been reading hundreds of messages sent in by viewers in response to President Bush's claim that the media are undermining support for war in Iraq.

Viewer opinions ran the gamut, but the vast majority believed the media were biased in their Iraq coverage.

Piling On

Tim Graham of the NRO notes that the third anniversary of the war for a free Iraq occasioned a wrong turn for the media.

On Tuesday, NBC’s Today planned to discuss media coverage of the war — certainly an underexplored angle — with Laura Ingraham and James Carville. NBC’s question: "Is American getting a fair picture of what’s actually happening in Iraq?" Ingraham came out of the blocks with fire, doing something no conservative does who wants to be invited on TV ever again. She went straight at her hosts:

The Today Show spends all this money to send people to the Olympics, which is great, it was great programming. All this money for "Where In The World Is Matt Lauer?" Bring The Today Show to Iraq. Bring The Today Show to Tal Afar. Do the show from the 4th ID at Camp Victory and then when you talk to those soldiers on the ground, when you go out with the Iraqi military, when you talk to the villagers, when you see the children, then I want [challenge] NBC to report on only the IEDs, only the killings, only the reprisals.

Conservatives at home heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" in their heads. One of the TV networks finally allowed someone to say they were unfair, unbalanced, and even lazy. Ingraham lectured:

To do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military to go out with the Iraqi military, to actually have a conversation with the people instead of reporting from hotel balconies about the latest IEDs going off.

( ... )
But the interview caused a wave of reaction. Bill O’Reilly gave Ingraham another chance to push her message.

And Hugh Hewitt appeared not once but twice this week on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, the second time with Michael Yon. Transcript here, and video here.

By the way, one of the other reporters on Cooper's panel was Michael Ware. This is what military historian and author Victor David Hanson had to say about Ware's appearance on CNN during Hugh Hewitt's radio show last night (from Radio Blogger):

HH: Now Victor Davis Hanson, how do you respond to that?

VDH: Is that man a journalist?

HH: Well, he's the Time Magazine Baghdad bureau chief.

VDH: That's just a mockery of what we would call sober and judicious reporting.

Over on this side of the pond, don't forget Eric Staal's appearance on the German talk-show Berliner Runde, which he summed up in a subsequent TCSDaily article:

While it would be unrealistic to expect that European officials charged with managing relations to the United States defend policies they do not support, it should not be too much to ask for them to avoid indulging in anti-American propaganda.

Whoops

Meanwhile, back at ABC, Matt Drudge has an exclusive on a 2004 email from one ABC exec to another:

A top producer at ABC NEWS declared "Bush makes me sick" in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

John Green, currently executive producer of the weekend edition of GOOD MORNING AMERICA, unloaded on the president in an ABC company email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

"If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke," Green complained.

Then there was this revealing confession from another media executive that Christopher Hitchens told Hugh Hewitt about the other day:

This is not a guy who's in any way a conservative, and said you know, we've known each other for a bit. He said you know, I'm beginning to think you must be right, because it really worries me what we're doing, when we are giving the other side the impression that all they need to do is hang on until the end of this administration.

Perception or Reality?

Tim Graham offers some data to back up these widespread observations:

Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center laid out the general negative pattern of Iraq coverage in studying the first nine months of evening news coverage in 2005.

He found 61 percent of the stories were dominated by a negative focus or pessimistic analysis, compared to only 14 percent that featured achievements or optimistic assessments.

Two out of every five stories featured car bombings, assassinations, or other terrorist attacks.

Just eight stories recounted episodes of heroism by U.S. troops, and another nine featured soldiers helping the Iraqi people.

But 79 stories focused on allegations of combat mistakes or egregious misconduct by U.S. military personnel.

Related:

Christopher Hitchens and ABC on the MSM's Iraq Coverage
Take the German MSM - Please!

US, British Troops Rescue Hostages (Updated)

According to Reuters, US led forces today rescued three Christian peace activists who have been held hostage in Iraq since November. The body of one of the original 4 hostages, American Tom Fox, was found two weeks ago. He had been tortured before being murdered.

Rescued were Canadians Jim Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, and Britian Norman Kember, 74, from the group Christian Peacemaker Teams.

In a statement on the CPT website, the hostages are referred to as having been "safely released", with no mention of the rescue operation.

Well, if the freed hostages and the CPT won't do it, then we will: Thank you to the US and British troops who risked their lives to help others. Well done and congratulations on a successful operation.

But we're not surprised. We know you guys and what you're made of, we meet you all the time.

h/t Michelle Malkin

Update: From the Multi-National Force – Iraq release.


Sgt. Daniel Feria of the 101 st Airborne Division provides security while his team completes an area engagement south of Baghdad during operation Glory Light on Wednesday. An operation today released three people being held hostage by terrorists.
(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Karl Johnson, 363 MPAD)

“We detained two suspects this morning, the detainees gave us intelligence that led us to the rescue of the three hostages,” Lynch said during an afternoon press conference. The hostages were rescued only three hours after Coalition Forces received the intelligence, Lynch said.

In that time, the troops determined the intelligence was credible then planned and executed the mission, he added.

Lynch would not go into great detail because he did want to reveal any information that might jeopardize future rescues.

Update 2: A belated thank you on the CPT.org site, from Leaning Straight Up:

Addenda
23 March 2006, 9 p.m. ET

We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda:

We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues. We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers.

We will continue to lift Jill Carroll up in our prayers for her safe return. In addition, we will continue to advocate for the human rights of Iraqi detainees and assert their right to due process in a just legal system.

I guess a belated thank you mixed with comments about their commitment to nonviolence (if the rescuing soldiers had needed to fire shots, would they still be thankful?) and the human rights of Iraqi detainees is better than none.

And don't miss the report at Freedom Folks on the moonbatty CPT celebration of the hostages' "release".

Take the German MSM - Please

While we often despair at the biased coverage of the American MSM, it may be time to look at the bright side.

What is the bright side, you ask?

Well, the bright side is it could be worse. Much worse.

Take - please! - the German MSM, for example.

Today Jorg of the Atlantic Review asks Why is Abu Ghraib a cover story again, but not Darfur? (h/t David's Medienkritik).

But WAIT! Don't click on that link yet. Before you do, a warning about what you will also see on that page. There is a graphic from David's Medienkritik with a collage of covers from Der Spiegel, one of Germany's leading weekly news magazines.

If you're not used to seeing this stuff, it can be shocking.

An endless series of covers with headlines such as, "Blood for Oil: What it's really about in Iraq", "The Iraq Trap: Bush's Vietnam", "The Afghanistan Trap: America's Bombing War and the Ghost of Vietnam", "US Soldiers in Iraq: The Torturers of Baghdad", "The Helpless Global Power" (with photo of the WTC in flames and the second plane about to hit), "Operation Rambo: The US Secret Special Forces", "The Little Sheriff" with caricature of President Bush as a cowboy complete with a revolver in each hand, "USA Against Iran: The Next War?" with photo of President Bush smiling and giving the thumbs-up sign.

I mean, seriously, folks. When was the last time the name Rambo even entered your consciousness? And as to the cowboy caricature, well, that's another 80's thing. European reaction to Ronald Reagan ring a bell? You know, the guy that brought down the Iron Curtain?

And layer that on top of the old, worn out Vietnam analogy so loved by the American left. Are you feeling sorry for us conservatives (German and American) in Germany yet?

Anyway, you get the idea. Actually, that would be enough to digest for one post, but we're just getting started here.

Back to Jörg's article:

Why is the German media reporting again about the horrible Abu Ghraib pictures taken by dishonorable US soldiers, but not about the even more horrible Darfur pictures taken by an honorable former U.S. Marine?

Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine captain, was a member of the African Union team monitoring the conflict in Darfur, where he took hundreds of photographs documenting atrocities. The U.S. Holocaust Museum (sic!) published many of his pictures and his Wash Post Op-ed. Some photos serve to shock nearly as well as the Abu Ghraib photos. He is currently on tour in the US increasing awareness for Darfur.

Although Darfur is much closer to Europe than the US, the mass murder, expulsions and rapes in Darfur (some call it "genocide") seem to be covered more extensively in the US than in the German media. American NGOs devoted to Darfur are more vocal than German NGOs.
( ... )
Fabrice Weissman, head of Doctors Without Borders in West Darfur, writes:

"In these towns controlled by government forces—like garrison outposts—the living conditions, although improved, remain prison-like. The people living in these open-air jails still cannot—and do not want to—return home because of the continuing insecurity outside these sites."

So why not focus on these prisons as much as on the Abu Ghraib prison?

Why not indeed? Jorg has his theory.

And speaking of prisons, Eric Staal, press secretary of Republicans Abroad Germany, recently subjected himself to a discussion on the nationally televised German talk-show Berliner Runde (we owe you a beer, Eric).

The subject was - surprise! - Guantanamo Bay.

From his article, Gitmo Better Blues, about the experience in today's TCSDaily:

[Karsten] Voigt [the German government's coordinator for German-American relations] accused the U.S. government of violating international law by detaining members of al Qaida in Guantanamo Bay. The other guests on the program went even further. Roger Willemson, who recently published interviews with a mere five of the detainees released from Guantanamo, repeated his broadly publicized claims that as a policy the United States systematically commits acts of torture in Guantanamo.
( ... )
To his credit, Voigt eventually acknowledged that European governments consider it sufficient to prosecute the Guantanamo detainees under domestic criminal law, whereas it is U.S. policy to apply the law of war, i.e. the Geneva Conventions.

The merits of each approach are debatable - not least the consequences that Voigt is willing to see hundreds of terrorists in Guantanamo be set free. Sadly for the viewers of the Berliner Runde, after refuting all the outlandish accusations and lectures about European moral superiority, there was little time to engage in a serious exchange about what is really at stake.

And as so often when listening to the American MSM, many US politicans, and almost all Hollywood stars, you are left wondering if America needs enemies when blessed with such "friends".

Eric makes a similar conclusion about our European friends:

While it would be unrealistic to expect that European officials charged with managing relations to the United States defend policies they do not support, it should not be too much to ask for them to avoid indulging in anti-American propaganda.

No, it's not too much to ask.

Operation Beef Jerky: House of Jerky to raise $10,000 for the Soldier’s Angels Foundation

PRESS RELEASE

Operation Beef Jerky has been enacted by the House of Jerky to raise $10,000 for the Soldier’s Angels Foundation

Janie Honeycutt
House of Jerky
Phone: 812 624-0186
Email: janie@houseofjerky.net
WWW.HOUSEOFJERKY.NET

OPERATION BEEF JERKY

Evansville, Indiana March 15, 2006 (IMMEDIATE RELEASE) - Operation Beef Jerky has been enacted by the House of Jerky to raise $10,000 for the Soldier’s Angels Foundation. For every pound of jerky purchased through the House of Jerky/SA fund site, House of Jerky will donate $10 to help the Soldiers’ Angels Foundation continue to provide the love and support our armed forces desperately need.

Soldiers’ Angels Foundation is a not for profit organization that is dedicated to ensuring that our military know they are loved and supported during and after their deployment into harms way. With the donations by House of Jerky, Soldiers’ Angels will be able to continue to provide aid and support not only to our military heroes, but also their families. Projects like “Blankets of Hope” that provides homemade blankets given with love to wounded heroes and “Armor Up” which provides Kevlar blankets for under-supplied troops are examples of the many beneficial Soldiers’ Angels projects.

Join Operation Beef Jerky and help House of Jerky support our troops, purchase jerky for yourself, or purchase jerky for any soldier with free shipping to APO addresses. House of Jerky, “the best jerky in any house”, is one of our troops most requested items.

Go to the House of Jerky/SA fund site today or call (812) 624-0186.

To learn more about the Soldiers’ Angels Foundation and how you can support our armed forces by adopting them or donating time or money, go to www.soldiersangels.org today
or call (615) 676-0239.

Many thanks to Janie and our good friends at the House of Jerky!

Update: Tom reminds us in the comments section that House of Jerky also provides free shipping and gives a 15% discount on military orders (which they have always done, being the great company they are). See also Angels' Favorite Online Shopping Sites.

Happy 79th, Hans-Dietrich Genscher!

Today Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German Foreign Minister from 1974 - 1992 and one of the greatest statesmen of post-WWII Germany, celebrates his 79th birthday.

Genscher started his political career as a Liberal party member in the former East Germany. He left East Germany in 1952 and joined the Free Democrats (FDP) party in West Germany. After being elected to Parliament in 1965, and becoming the FDP's chairman in 1974, he led it into a coalition government with the Social Democrats (SPD) and became Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister.

Genscher split with the SPD in 1982, which brought down the coalition government. Despite the controversy surrounding the split, Genscher remained one of the most popular politicians in Germany. He engineered a new governing coalition between Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the FDP, and continued to hold his posts as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister.

From the German Embassy's website:

Genscher will always be remembered as the "Foreign Minister of Unification," a fitting tribute for a man who left his hometown of Reideburg near Halle in the German Democratic Republic in 1952 for the freedoms and opportunities of the West, but who never abandoned the hope that his homeland could be unified peacefully.
(...)
In his memoirs, Genscher describes the day in 1989 when he announced to East German refugees camped out in the Federal Republic of Germany's Embassy in Prague that they would be allowed to travel to West Germany as the most moving time of his life. The words Genscher spoke from the balcony of the Embassy on September 30 to the more than 4,000 refugees crowded on the grounds were heard round the world:

"Dear Fellow Citizens, I have come to you today to inform you that your journey into the Federal Republic of Germany is now imminent!"

For Genscher the announcement was the culmination of tense days of negotiations to allow the refugees, including others at the Embassy in Warsaw, to travel directly to West Germany.

Negotiating Table: Foreign Minister Genscher, left, Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev, center, and Chancellor Kohl during negotiations in the Caucasus in July 1990.

Genscher is credited by many with being the driving force behind the success of the months-long and now-historic reunification negotiations with the Soviet Union, illustrated by his presence in this photo. As a sign of recognition, Mikhail Gorbachev personally insisted that Genscher take a seat at the "stump" before the photo was taken.

On September 12, 1990, the "Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany" was signed by the two German states and the four allied powers, the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union.