10/31/07: The following post has caused some confusion. Please not this post was written as a parody of sorts. While the news story and some of the facts surrounding my deployment are indeed true, "Operation Upstream" as depicted in this post is fictional.

As a United States Marine with secret security clearance (one level below top secret clearance), I'm privy to certain information ordinary civilians are not. This sort of information is understandably intended to be kept within our ranks.

However, a covert US military operation was recently declassified and leaked to the press as a result of its failure, and can now be openly discussed (or in this case, blogged) among the general public.

Its name... Operation Upstream.

Background

I first became familiar with OpUp (as we called it) in mid-September 2005. At the time, I was running missions in support of US Army SpecOps teams just south of Baghdad, near Babylon.

After a patrol in which a particular Army officer was impressed with my (and my team's) performance, I was summoned to the TOC (Tactical Operations Command) shortly after returning to base. During the patrol, I had made a joke in the presence of the same Army officer, comparing our night operation to night scuba diving (chest and back heavy gear, hoses from our camelback water systems to our mouths, limited vision, flashlights, eye protection, sign language communication, etc.).

The Army officer requesting my presence at the TOC got a kick out of my scuba diving mindset, as he himself was an avid scuba diver.

I entered the TOC under the cover of night and was greeted by ranking officers of from the Marines, Army, Navy, and even the Air Force. The mood was lighter than usually found in a given TOC. I remember this was also the first time I encountered a team of Navy Seals (later in my deployment I would embed and run missions with a Seal team just outside Fallujah).

Involvement

For the sake of brevity, I'll spare you the details of the few hours I spent being briefed on Operation Upstream. Why I was chosen to be "let in" on this operation, I still do not know. At the time, I didn't really worry about the "why me" question as I was just excited to be in "the know."

My involvement in OpUp ended the second I left the TOC that night. I only knew of the operation - and had no part in the implementation. I guess the Army officer who involved me just wanted to clue me in on some of the underwater tactics the US military implements to fight the war on terror - specifically in Iraq.

Yes, underwater... in Iraq.

Fallout

Unfortunately, as we found out last week, Operation Upstream has failed. I know what you're aking...

"What is Operation Upstream!?"

OpUp was a covert underwater experiment, led in research and implementation by the US and British Royal Navies, that pitted Great White sharks against our enemies. Yes, sharks.

US and British officials concocted the operation to utilize sharks to spy on and yes, even assassinate terrorist cells up and down the Euphrates River... get this... using trained Great White sharks gathered from Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.

The sharks were trained and fitted with intelligence gathering electronics at an undisclosed military installation in San Diego and then flown to Iraq using the same technology designed for moving Whale Sharks to the Georgia Aquarium.

Last week, one of these sharks died in the battle waters as it penetrated the Euphrates River.

The 110kg white shark was caught yesterday near the village of Al-Fidhaliyah, close to the city of Nasiriyah and more than 150km from Gulf waters.

Doctor Nazah Rasool, dean of the College of Science in Nasiriyah where the animal was taken, said the find was rare but the shark did not survive for long.

...

"It is the first time that we have found a shark in the river," he said. "It is rare."

It also appears that this was just the latest instance in the series of Operation Upstream.

Bull sharks, a species with a grey belly, can survive for a short while in fresh water and have been know to attack bathers in various rivers, even as far upstream as Baghdad in the Tigris, Iraq's other mighty river.

President Bush is expected to give a statement later this week.

=)

Setting aside the obviously humorous aspect of his comment, Romney again makes the very important point that when it comes to electing someone to run an enterprise as large and as important as the United States of America, we might want to consider someone with actual experience.

"[Hillary] hasn’t run anything, and the government of the United States is not a place for a president to be an intern. You need to have experience actually leading and running things."

Considering his impeccable business background, Hillary doesn't hold a candle next to Romney on the issue. In fact, I don't think you can make a stronger managerial argument in favor of any other candidate - Democrat or Republican - in comparison to Romney.

Dear Congressman Paul:

Your Presidential campaign has drawn the enthusiastic support of an imposing collection of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 “Truthers” and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists.

Do you welcome- or repudiate – the support of such factions?

More specifically, your columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press –a publication of the nation’s leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the “comforts and amenities” provided for inmates of Auschwitz.

Have your columns appeared in the American Free Press with your knowledge and approval?

As a Presidential candidate, will you now disassociate yourself, clearly and publicly, from the poisonous propaganda promoted in such publications?

As a guest on my syndicated radio show, you answered my questions directly and fearlessly.

Will you now answer these pressing questions, and eliminate all associations between your campaign and some of the most loathsome fringe groups in American society?

Along with my listeners (and many of your own supporters), I eagerly await your response.

Respectfully, Michael Medved

"If 9/11 was really an inside job, you wouldn't be driving around with a bumper sticker bragging that you were on to it."

-- Mark Steyn, War, like life, is not a movie

Think about it.

More evidence of the failure that is national/socialized health care from our friends across the pond.

Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.

And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.

The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.

Keep in mind, folks: this is the sort of health care top Democrats want to force upon Americans.

Hat tip: Crush Liberalism

Defending Islamofascism by Christopher Hitchens.

It's a valid term. Here's why.

If you're looking for a conservative candidate willing to take a tough stance on Iran and its nuclear pursuit, perhaps Romney is your candidate.

Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday he would be willing to use a military blockade or "bombardment of some kind" to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.

The former Massachusetts governor's comments came as the Bush administration announced new sanctions designed to isolate the government in Tehran. Romney applauded the move, while several Democratic presidential contenders spoke out against it - and used it as an opportunity to criticize front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Here's a little humor for your day.

Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid: As you know, one reason that we have the fires burning in Southern California is global warming. One reason the Colorado Basin is going dry is because of global warming.

Reporter: Senator, on the California fires, you said that the reason the fires are burning in California is global warming?

Reid: No. Here's what I - I didn't say the reason the fires were burning in Southern California was global warming...

I guess he said it before he didn't say it.

Admittedly, we all forget statements we have made in the past... just usually not within a few minutes.

Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Be sure to hear it for yourself.

Hat tip: DP/HH

Following the death of a bid to censure Congressman Pete Stark for his disgusting and grotesque "amusement" comment - which I believe marked a new low in Democratic rhetoric - last week, Stark took to the floor of the House today and issued a tearful apology.



Even though Stark was initially reluctant to apologize for his repulsive remarks, I give the man credit for doing so.

For those of you who haven't been following the story, Rush Limbaugh recently put up the stupidity of Harry Reid (and other prominent Democrats) for bid on eBay. And by "stupidity" I of course mean the time and effort these Democratic leaders put into a signed letter denouncing Rush's clearly-taken-out-of-context "phony soldiers" comments.

:: WATCH THE VIDEO ::

As of 10:00 PST this morning, the bidding ended and the letter raked in a whopping $2,100,100.00, courtesy of philanthropist Betty Casey. 100% of the winning bid will be donated to one of Rush's favorite charities, the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation; of which Rush is a board member.

Brilliant! A classically beautiful way to turn the idiotic efforts of 41 politicians into something good for a worthy cause.

But the story doesn't end there...

Perhaps realizing that he had been schooled, it appears as though Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate earlier today has attempted to take some sort of credit for the money raised.

Rush Limbaugh should know that this letter that they’re auctioning is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause. I don’t know what we could do more important than helping to ensure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty have the opportunity for their children to have a good education. Think of this, more than $2 million — that will really help. that’s, again, an understatement. There’s only a little bit of time left so i would ask those that are wanting to do more, that they can go to Harry Reid letter and it will come up on e-bay. I encourage anyone interested with the means to consider contributing to this worthwhile cause. I strongly believe when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people. This does that, madam president. More than $2 million for a letter signed by this senator and my friends.

Haha! Does anyone else see the irony/hypocrisy/pathetic humor in that?

Read the transcript or watch the video and judge for yourself.

Pelosi's Armenian Gambit By Charles Krauthammer.

There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide.

(a) Did it happen?

(b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now?

(c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

The answers are:

(a) Yes, unequivocally.

(b) No, unequivocally.

(c) God only knows.

I truly hope those of you reading this post (on the right as well as the left) are as disgusted with Congressman Stark's recent comments as I am.

:: WATCH THE VIDEO ::

"You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

For the president's amusement? What a putrid statement from a leader in the Democratic Party. Has a more putrid statement been made about President Bush? I'm not sure one has, and that's no easy feat to accomplish these days.

I would enjoy believing we could all agree Stark's comments are out of line. A poster to the DemocraticUnderground labels Stark's comments ill-advised and correctly purports they actually hurt Democrats.

This kind of talk, along with the General BetrayUs type of approach, just helps Republicans paint Democrats as, frankly, unstable or un-American on foreign matters.

We need to chart a winning and responsible alternative to the Republicans' unilateral and overly aggressive approach. Stark didn't help any.

Wow. That's actually quite accurate. However, many leftist commentors on that post hold a different view. Further, on his program last evening, leftist nutter-and-a-half Keith Olbermann finds Stark's refusal to apologize for the remarks "refreshing". So I'm forced to wonder how many liberals agree with Stark's crass and intellectually deficient analysis.

I believe it was Dennis Prager who has made the case that liberals believe conservatives are bad, while conservatives believe liberals are wrong. Stark's unapologetic comments are directly to Prager's point.

The correct response to the justified outrage Stark's comments have incurred, would be to apologize and fully retract the notion that President Bush is amused with the death of American troops.

I won't hold my breath...

From Hugh Hewitt:

Dr. Wayne Grudem is a professor of theology at Phoenix Seminary, a former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and a hugely influential thinker in Christian academia.

Dr. Grudem endorses Mitt Romney in a column just posted at Townhall.com. This is another huge endorsement for Mitt Romney --one certain to be taken very seriously in evangelical leadership circles.

Props to Berkeley locals for standing up against nutter groups like CodePINK, who "support the troops" by defacing Marines' place of work.

Flag-waving demonstrators far outnumbered a group of peace advocates who were protesting a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center in downtown on Wednesday.

...

Protests in Berkeley are nothing new.

A protest of a protest is unique -- even in Berkeley.

On one side of the street was CodePINK, Grandmothers Against the War, Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers, Women in Black and other peace groups holding "no war" signs and chanting "out of Iraq."

On the other were military veterans, mothers and fathers of soldiers, members of the UC Berkeley College Republicans and Melanie Morgan, whose conservative talk show airs on KSFO. They waved American flags and chanted "USA, USA, USA."

...

"This is 2007, and we support our troops. We are not going to let CodePINK disgrace our military heroes," yelled Deborah Johns, a Granite Bay woman whose 23-year-old son is preparing to head to Iraq for his fourth tour of duty. "My son is a hero, and so are all the others who served this country."

It appears as though Senator Sam Brownback will be backing out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination tomorrow.

Sen. Sam Brownback will end his bid for the presidential nomination on Friday, two sources close to the Kansas Republican tell The Associated Press.

A campaign source tells CNN "all scheduling put on hold pending a major announcement."

As the article points out, Brownback is a solid conservative, but has been unable to break into the top tier of Republican candidates.

While I agree with much of what Mr. Brownback proposes, I've never been a fan of running Senators for the presidency.