A few things today, first up is Jed Babbin on National Review Online who has a good running war blog and today brings up the role that special forces, and particularly sniper/scouts, are playing in Baghdad with little or no fanfare. I listened this morning to the press conference given by three wounded soldiers detailing the action in which they received their injuries. It was highly illustrative of the quality of the men and women in uniform and should make every one of us confident that the "grunts" are confident and extremely able. Of course, CBS news radio chose to parse the one line by a soldier, Moran I believe was his name, about how he expected the Iraqi soldiers to roll over and was surprised that they didn't. CBS conveniently chose this singular quote rather than the paragraphs devoted to the heroic effort of these guys in killing and capturing these same Iraqi's during this engagement. Not to mention the fact that while the Iraqi's are actually putting up a fight, once they are confronted with face to face combat, rather than taking potshots dressed in civilian clothes, they are either killed or surrender pretty quickly. This is just another example of the media focusing on the tactical side of the news and not the strategic. We must always remember that the nature of news is to report the out of the ordinary. The fact that we have superior forces is not news, as such, and only when we encounter resistance, no matter how relatively light, does the press seem to get interested. Not to mention the fact that operational security has probably dictated that some of our more successful maneuvers are not going to publicized at this time. At least logic would seem to dictate this.

If you're tired of celebs spouting of, I can give you one real rock band that actively supports our troops. Their name is 3 Doors Down and they have toured extensively for USO and even include the military in their "When I'm Gone" music video. I have to confess to getting a lump in my throat myself when I saw it while channel surfing the other night. So, if you like rock music and want to support a band worth supporting, give 3DD a try!

Finally, regarding my comments yesterday about the size of the force we have in place, please realize that I have complete confidence in the forces in place and that we will win with what we have. Also, I know that more troops are on the way and this is all part of the "rolling start" outlined by Secretary Cheney and the DoD. I just think that more is always better and that those troops should have been in place before engaging. It would have been a lot easier to "roll" those troops in from Kuwait after a week than from Texas, Colorado, and via the Suez canal in my opinion. Hopefully, this will cause us to rethink this strategy a bit. But you know what? History will be the judge. God bless America and Protect our troops.