I know a young man who is in desperate need of help. His name is PFC Hunter Levine. He is 20 years old and hails from Houston, TX.

He was in my company and was wounded on 9 May, 2008 while conducting combat operations in East Baghdad. He received a very serious injury to his face, resulting in the loss of his entire bone structure, mouth, nose, and vision.

He was evacuated to Walter Reed Hospital where the doctors performed numerous surgeries to repair his face. I was fortunate enough to attend a Purple Heart Ceremony at Walter Reed while I was home on leave in June. I was also able to meet with Hunter’s father Beau.

PFC Levine is now in the VA hospital in Palo Alto California, but he’s seriously depressed. A care package, card, or letter would be nice. Find out how to help at the very excellent ParentsZone blog for military families.

Hat tip (and happy birthday) to Michelle Malkin.

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I ran across it.

The editorial was based on the report released last week by the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence. Of course, the lamestream media jumped all over Senator Rockefeller’s–the committee’s chairman–comment that the report “proved” that Bush lied (only, of course, Rockefeller stopped short of using the word “lie” himself).

But the Washington Post’s Editorial Page Editor, Fred Hiatt, actually did something novel: he took a look at the report itself! And look at what he found:

But dive into Rockefeller’s report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.

On Iraq’s nuclear weapons program? The president’s statements “were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates.”

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president’s statements “were substantiated by intelligence information.”

On chemical weapons, then? “Substantiated by intelligence information.”

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.” Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? “Generally substantiated by available intelligence.” Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.”

I sense a recurring theme here… “substantiated by intelligence.”

Here’s the money quote:

…(T)he phony “Bush lied” story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.

And it trivializes a double dilemma that President Bill Clinton faced before Bush and that President Obama or McCain may well face after: when to act on a threat in the inevitable absence of perfect intelligence and how to mobilize popular support for such action, if deemed essential for national security, in a democracy that will always, and rightly, be reluctant.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology from the Daily Kooks, Keith Olbermann, Al Franken, Congressional Democrats, etc. If anything, just as those who claimed in their day that the earth was round, or that the earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa, expect Mr. Hiatt to be treated like a heretic by the Left. Indeed, you only need to see some of the comments posted to this editorial to see that this is already happening.

Tonight, while surfing the web with NBC News on in the background, what did I see? Why, a promo for a PBS Frontline piece tonight on Haditha! The piece is titled Rules of Engagement: What Really Happened in Haditha. If I were a betting man, I would NOT wager so much as a penny that the Marine intel report gets mentioned (let’s just say the PBS reporter called Haditha “Iraq’s My Lai” on camera).

Anywho, here’s video, first from NBC and then two previews from PBS Frontline:

Sgt. Michael McNulty, a 26-year-old Marine from Chicago, had his car keyed allegedly by a jerkball lawyer as he visited a friend before he left for his second tour in Iraq.

Charges against the lawyer, 55-year-old Jay Grodner, might be upgraded to a felony, and there’s word that he’s being investigated by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Tomorrow he gets his day in court while Sgt. McNulty is in Iraq defending us.

The story was first brought to the world’s attention by the outstanding military/veteran blog Blackfive and has been covered by Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass–it seems no one else in the MSM gives a rat’s patootie. Although I’m sure if Sgt. McNulty had taken matters into his own hands, he’d've made front page of the New York Times.

The good news is tons of good people–veterans, military, civilians–have come forward to help Sgt. McNulty. And this includes lawyers who’ve offered to take the case for Sgt. McNulty, free of charge (there’s hope for the legal profession after all). Meanwhile Kass notes in his column that Grodner is avoiding his phone calls.

Why would a divorce lawyer avoid someone’s calls, I wonder?

U.S. Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele, a senior commander of the Camp Cropper detention center west of Baghdad, has been transferred to Kuwait for the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, a military spokeswoman told The New York Times.

Steele faces nine possible charges, including aiding the enemy, “retaining classified material, conduct unbecoming an officer, for relationships involving an interpreter and another Iraqi female, failure to obey lawful orders” and “dereliction of duty” regarding government funds, Lt. Kyung Choi of the Navy, a spokesman at Central Command in Tampa, Fla., told the Times.

The war in Iraq “is lost” and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.

“I believe … that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,” Reid told journalists.

Reid said he had delivered the same message to US President George W. Bush on Wednesday, when the US president met with senior lawmakers to discuss how to end a standoff over an emergency war funding bill.

“I know I was the odd guy out at the White House, but I told him at least what he needed to hear … I believe the war at this stage can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically.”

Well, at least we can agree with Reid on one thing: he IS an odd guy.

Tens of thousands of Shiites — a sea of women in black abayas and men waving Iraqi flags — rallied Monday to demand that U.S. forces leave their country. Some ripped apart American flags and tromped across a Stars and Stripes rug.
ADVERTISEMENT

The protesters marched about three miles between the holy cities of Kufa and Najaf to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. In the capital, streets were silent and empty under a hastily imposed 24-hour driving ban.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered up the march as a show of strength not only to Washington but to Iraq’s establishment Shiite ayatollahs as well.

Now the bad news:

• The world has taken its eyes off Iran’s developing nuclear capacity
• Ahmadinejad used this entire incident, including the release of the sailors and marines, for propaganda purposes (including a photo-op of him shaking hands with the hostages)
• As reported by Glenn Beck on his radio show this morning, the world is ignoring two particularly horrific recent incidents in Iran (you’ll have to download the MP3 files to hear more about them, but one involved mutilating the tongue of someone who criticized the government, the other involved a female protestor getting sodomized with a baseball bat, resulting in her death days later)

Well, at least the 15 hostages have been released.

Read the rest here.