Market Garden: A Remembrance During Time of War

Kandahar City, Afghanistan

Slowly, surely, the city is being strangled.  Signaling the depth of our commitment, security forces are thinner in Kandahar than the Himalayan air.  During the days and evenings, there were the sounds of occasional bombs—some caused by suicide attackers, and others by firefights.  The windows in my room had been blown out recently and now were replaced.  We came here to kill our enemies, but today we want to make a country from scratch.

A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas.  Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division.  Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City and getting through about forty minutes of dangerous territory to the military base at Kandahar Airfield. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, General Petraeus, Kandahar City, Maggie Megellas
Posted Oct 12th 2009 at 5:38 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 24515813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/10/12/market-garden-a-remembrance-during-time-of-war/Market+Garden%3A++A+Remembrance+During+Time+of+War2009-10-13+00%3A38%3A38Michael+Yon

Afghanistan: Obama’s Setup and Payoff

Skillfully written screenplays are frequently structured around a series of setups and payoffs.

The most rudimentary example is, of course, the pistol in the desk drawer: revealed in Act I, and then in Act II, the gun is used to kill someone.

For an intensive workshop in cinematic setups and payoffs you should screen the Back to the Future series, where setup and payoff are elevated to an entirely new level.

It’s kind of fascinating, watching Obama construct the setup for his Afghanistan policy. He follows a familiar dramatic structure:

1. Anguished self-reflection, all quite public in order to display nobility of character. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, appeasement, General McChrystal, General Petraeus, Hamas
Posted Oct 7th 2009 at 8:21 am in Military, Politics | 241054108 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ravrech/2009/10/07/afghanistan-obamas-setup-and-payoff/Afghanistan%3A+Obama%27s+Setup+and+Payoff2009-10-07+15%3A21%3A49Robert+J.+Avrech

Bullshit Bob

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Tags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, British 2 Rifles, British Minister of Defence, Censoring Helmand
Posted Sep 26th 2009 at 5:12 am in Featured Story, Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 23611840 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/09/26/bullshit-bob/Bullshit+Bob+2009-09-26+12%3A12%3A20Michael+Yon

Sangow Bar Village

16 July 2009
Ghor Province, Afghanistan

On a per capita basis, Afghanistan is becoming more dangerous for British and American troops than Iraq ever was. For those who fought in places like Anbar, Basra, Baghdad, Diyala and Nineveh, that’s saying a whole lot. On a per capita basis, there are strong indications that Afghanistan will prove more deadly than Iraq during 2006-2007. One can only imagine how many days and nights Secretary Robert Gates and his advisors must have agonized over troop levels here. On the one hand, we have a fraction of the troops we need, but on the other, increasing troop levels increases hostility toward us. Secretary Gates has made it clear to me that his biggest concern is that we will lose the goodwill of the people and they will turn against us. This happens to be my own biggest concern. The agony is in knowing we need more medicine and the medicine can be highly toxic here. Many people have complained that the new restrictions on air strikes will hurt us, but from my boots, General McChrystal (the new boss here) has fulfilled the intent of his boss, and that the decision, though tough, was wise; if we lose the widespread assent of the Afghan people, it’s all over but for the bleeding. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Anbar, Baghdad, Basra, Cesarean births
Posted Jul 16th 2009 at 3:43 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 18503423 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/07/16/sangow-bar-village/Sangow+Bar+Village2009-07-16+22%3A43%3A38Michael+Yon

Barbara Boxer: A Bad Actor

Barbara Boxer’s snippy confrontation with Brigadier General Michael Walsh on Capitol Hill on June 16, 2009 (Don’t call me “Ma’am,” call me “Senator”) wasn’t a display of a lack of proper military respect for Boxer, it was an open display of contempt from Boxer towards the people who serve in the military.  That the Senator’s contempt was open and obvious shows Boxer’s lack of acting skills – most liberals have mastered the art of at least acting like they respect the men and women in the armed services. 

–

Liberal contempt towards those who take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States has deep roots in the hard left that Boxer epitomizes.  Look at how Boxer manipulates concern for the casualties of war to ram home her political attack against former President Bush in this email from 2007:  (more…)

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Tags: "Call me Senator.", "Don't call me Ma'am", Barbara Boxer, Brigadier General Michael Walsh, Chuck Devore
Posted Jun 18th 2009 at 12:41 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Video | 16442612 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cdevore/2009/06/18/barbara-boxer-a-bad-actor/Barbara+Boxer%3A+A+Bad+Actor2009-06-18+19%3A41%3A01Chuck+DeVore

Wanted: A Vaccine for Liberalism

Whenever I have suggested that left-wingers aren’t normal human beings, and have wondered if perhaps they’re some weird interplanetary life form like the pods in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the liberals accuse me of indulging in ad hominem attacks, and I suppose I am.  But I am honestly bewildered.  It just doesn’t seem plausible that Americans could find good things to say about tyrants like Castro, Chavez and Ahmadinejad, while at the same time reviling the likes of Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and General Petraeus.

Left-wingers side with the so-called Palestinians and insist that their country was stolen from them by the Jews, but when you ask them just exactly where the country was located, what their flag looked like and who their president was, they huff and they puff and they denounce you as a tool of the Jewish lobby. (more…)

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Barbara Boxer, Castro, chavez, CIA
Posted May 21st 2009 at 9:42 am in Politics | 137590One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/05/21/wanted-a-vaccine-for-liberalism/Wanted%3A+A+Vaccine+for+Liberalism2009-05-21+16%3A42%3A45Burt+Prelutsky

Part 2: Interview with ‘Brothers at War’ Director, Jake Rademacher

Cpt. Isaac Rademacher — Jake Rademacher

Note: Part 1 of this 4 part interview can be found here.

J.R. Head:  Tell me about the time frame of the film.  ”Brothers at War” was shot in 2005?

“Brothers at War” Director, Jake Rademacher:  Isaac departs in 2004, I join him in August 2005, and events in Iraq and on the Home front go through 2006.

JRH:  So, that’s pre-“Surge”.  But one of the things I noticed from the film was the advancement that the Iraqi Army was making.  I was encouraged by the individual efforts of people like [Marine] Staff Sergeant Allier and others to– (more…)

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Tags: Brothers At War, General Petraeus, Iraq War, Iraqi Army, Isaac Rademacher
Posted May 20th 2009 at 6:39 am in Entertainment, Military | 138326No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jrhead/2009/05/20/part-2-interview-with-brothers-at-war-director-jake-rademacher/Part+2%3A+Interview+with+%27Brothers+at+War%27+Director%2C+Jake+Rademacher2009-05-20+13%3A39%3A04J.R.+Head