Army issues campaign ribbons for GWOT

From Military.com 

Washington D.C. – The Army will begin recognizing the heroic contributions of its units toward the Global War on Terror June 15 with the award of campaign participation credit to units that served and/or are serving in the theater of operations supporting the GWOT.

Three new streamers will be awarded to those units who qualify: one for service in Afghanistan, embroidered “AFGHANISTAN;” one for service in Iraq, embroidered “IRAQ;” and one for service in other such geographic regions as Kuwait, Qatar or the Horn of Africa, embroidered “GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM.”

Bush needs no defending, but I’m going to

Venting never accomplishes much except to make you feel better for the moment. It’s time to stop the chorus of catcalls aimed at George W. Bush — we knew where he stood on immigration when we voted him into office in 2000, and we knew where he stood when we voted him in again in 2004. Please don’t even think to pretend that you never heard him utter the words “guest workers” in his campaign speeches. If I didn’t know better, I would think that some Republicans have lost will to persevere and and are now trying with the democrats to get our president impeached. That will be the result if we continue this much longer.

I am happy that some Republicans are finding out what the democrats knew by mid-2002 — that once George W. Bush settles on a principle he does not waver from it. You and I might not agree with his stance on immigration, nor his stance on border protection. Crabbing about it is ineffective, and has potential to impact greatly more important priorities. We are nearing the fifth year in the global war on terror, and it’s time folks remembered what priorities are. If you need a reminder, please go visit the milblogs, or counterterrorism blog awhile. Or just visit this post at Gateway Pundit. It wasn’t a mistake that George W. Bush called it the third world war the other day.

I would like better border protection, and an end to importing poverty, and other things, but crabbing at Bush doesn’t aid the cause a whit. Just as the Maginot line was a joke, so too in the end will be a fence on the border without interior enforcement. Yes, we should do what we can, but we cannot afford to be distracted from the war, unappetizing as it is, nor can we afford to lose the senate or house. [Note: Advice not followed, we lost both in 2006.]

If you want to have impact, please focus your efforts instead on the Senate. Focus your efforts on your local law enforcement agencies, your state and city legislatures. They after all are the ones who have decided that enforcing federal drug and saftey belt law is important, but that enforcing immigration law is something they can ignore. It would be a wonderful thing to have ballot initiatives in most states this November making it manditory for state, city, and county law enforcers and public agencies to enforce our federal laws – right now they are being selective.

In the states where they choose not to do this they will suffer over time, but maybe you can help fix your state.

Work on your congress critter to enhance process and funding between local agencies and ICE, if we were spending as much money there as we are on drug intervention, then over the next two to three years we could easily decrease the illegal immigrant population by several millions just leveraging the local agencies and law enforcement resources in place. No matter how many ICE agents we put in place, they are never going to be as effective as your local agencies.

Hamas vs. Fatah, none dare call it Civil War

As the friction between the warring Palestinian factions heats up and the deaths mount, where are the worried-looking talking heads speaking of insurrection and civil war? Maybe they aren’t there because they haven’t figured out an angle to pin this on President Bush yet. You know they would be recounting this round the clock if this sort of thing were happening against the Government in Iraq. See full report at Gateway Pundit, more at Little Green Footballs.

Update: maybe somebody is reading my scribbling here. Either that or I take it back.