Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

The Big News For June

I graduated high school.......for the last time.

This has been a hectic month because Josh, the youngest of our progeny, finally graduated high school. Doesn't he look happy?

Click for larger image in a new window.

Josh had some ear trouble back in elementary school. By the time we figured out the problem, he had lost a year of education. So we held him back a year and things got better.

Then he started following the example of those who shall remain nameless and pooched a few classes. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. And that's how it was with his grades. He graduated with no credits to spare, but he was going strong the whole year long. He attended night school. He studied more. He got the job done.

He demonstrated to me that he has what it takes to push forward across whatever obstacles life tosses in his path. And he's one of the nicest people I know.

I'm proud of all my kids for one reason or another. But I'm especially proud of Josh right now. He's my bud.

by Dann 

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Dead Cat Chronicles

It is amazing the things one finds lying about the house.

by Dann 

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So You Think You Know About The Surge....

I came across two very interesting items recently regarding our Iraqi campaign in the larger war on terror. The first comes from David Kilcullen over at the Small Wars Journal; a blog about counter-insurgency operations. David is an advisor to the multi-national forces serving in Iraq.

This post is not about whether current ops are “working” — for us, here on the ground, time will tell, though some observers elsewhere seem to have already made up their minds (on the basis of what evidence, I’m not really sure). But for professional counterinsurgency operators such as our SWJ community, the thing to understand at this point is the intention and concept behind current ops in Iraq: if you grasp this, you can tell for yourself how the operations are going, without relying on armchair pundits. So in the interests of self-education (and cutting out the commentariat middlemen—sorry, guys) here is a field perspective on current operations.

The second item is the most recent edition of The Glenn and Helen Show over at Instapundit. The two guests were Jim Dunnigan of Strategypage.com and Austin Bay. Austin is a college professor, an author, and veteran reserve military officer that served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jim is a long time foreign policy analyst. You can download the podcast by right clicking this link and doing a "save as".

Jim and Austin cover some of the same territory as David Kilcullen. They also provide other information along with personal assessments and views.

Towards the end of the podcast, Austin makes the statement that the current administration has made many significant mistakes in prosecuting the war on terror in the Middle East. But the one thing he thinks the administration got precisely correct was the decision to invade Iraq for the twin purposes of ending any threats from Saddam Hussein as well as fostering a functioning democracy in the Middle East. In his opinion.....and mine as well.....a functioning democracy in the Middle East will act as a model to other moderate, educated Muslims. It will show them that it is possible to displace the fringe religious extremists from power and create the sort of progressive country that most Muslims want to live in.

Moderate Muslims want to live in a democracy. Moderate Iraqis of every faith have demonstrated at the ballot box that they prefer democracy and compromise to bomb vests and bullets on several occasions. They have a chance, a window of opportunity to create something better. An opportunity that they desire and opportunity they would not have if we had not invaded their country.

Austin has some other surprising things to say as well.

I think both of these are worth your time. Without them, you know far less about Iraq and the war on terror than you should.

by Dann 

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