Bill interviews a Marine in Iraq and he is a volunteer. Why did he choose to be there?

One of my good friends who I'd gone to high school with, he joined the Marines right out of high school, and he got married to another one of my good friends, we all went to high school together. And they moved to Washington state.

But anyway, he came over here - he was in Ramadi - and I think he was two weeks 'till he came home. And they got ambushed one night, and they couldn't get anyone on the radio, so he stepped out of the humvee. He was the vehicle commander.

Right when he stepped out, the guy on the roof hit another IED and it killed him. The sad thing was, he was supposed to be home in two weeks and his little girl was supposed to be born in three. And, I don't know, it really bothered me. I had to bury him, and right after I buried him my unit asked me if I wanted to volunteer, and I was like "Hell yeah."

The Marine is a Jacksonian. I wonder is he knows that?

For the Times it is a rather surprising piece. It seems they have finally found a group of people who are not reflexively antiwar and they chose to publish it anyway.

The decision to increase the American military presence in Iraq is being greeted with a blend of optimism and anxiety among American soldiers and their families, those most directly affected by the change. Unlike in Congressional corridors and across the civilian landscape of the country, there seems far more support than outrage, more cheer than cheerlessness, and a hope that maybe this will do it.

At the same time, especially among relatives of National Guard members dispatched to battlefields they never expected to stand on, there is plentiful disappointment and even anger at the prospect of prolonged disruptions in lives that have not been normal for a long time.

The expansion calls for more than 20,000 additional troops, including five active-duty combat brigades, to be sent to Iraq in the next few months. Some National Guard units will have their tours lengthened. The Pentagon has also relaxed the rules for mobilizing Guard members, so that units will return to battle quicker than anticipated.

It sounds a bit creepy, but it could be the answer to a lot of the world's hunger problems. You remove a lot of the problems such as disease and space needed to house the livestock and other variables without introducing too many additional problems. I wonder if we can get past the creepy factor and the ethical problems? Science is moving to fast not to consider things like this.

The whole point of stem cells (embryonic, placental, uterine, or adult) is that they can be made to grow into any kind of cellular tissue needed; and you needn't grow the entire organism in order to produce, say, pancreatic tissue, liver cells, or neurons. Or, for that matter, muscle tissue, grown from a "myoblast" stem cell... which brings up a very interesting scenario.

What is another name for the muscle tissue of a steer, a castrated male bovine? Try ribeye steak, or T-bone, or rump roast. Another name for the muscle tissue of a pig is pork roast or bacon or sausage.

All right, you're way ahead of me; but the scientists are way ahead of us both, because I didn't even think about this until I read this article: biological researchers in the United States and the Netherlands have been experimenting in growing meat directly from animal stem cells, without having to grow the entire pig or steer

Like it or not, we are about to make a lot of decisions that will shape the course of the future. Dafydd looks at it from a Sci-fi vantage, I suggest we look at it from an ethics vantage. A 'Brave New World' indeed.

Addendum: It seems A Jacksonian  has been looking at this from an engineering standpoint. I agree it is amazing  how quickly science turns into mere engineering.

James Lewis thinks so and makes some impressive points. I wish I could quote it all but 'fair use' is the law...

The Euroresponse when America was attacked on 9/11 was beyond pathetic. Not just in Iraq, which European media famously claim is an overreach in response to 9/11. But even in Afghanistan, which Europe acknowledges to be the home of the 9/11 attackers, the Taliban and Al Qaida. German soldiers were sent to Afghanistan at one point with explicit instructions not to fight anybody. The Dutch are pretending to have a separate peace with the enemy, to show us how to be loved. The French... but I repeat myself, as Mark Twain once wrote. So much for NATO's mutual defense treaty.

They seem to forget that there are a finite number of other nations they can feed to the wolves before they are the only food left. I suggest they think about this.

It is pretty clear that Senator Hagel is a mealy mouthed fool. In WW2, we were attacked in Hawaii by Japan, declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy and the invaded Morocco. Our first rout in that war was in Tunisia against the Germans, not a single Japanese service member anywhere near.Did we pack our bags and retreat across the Atlantic? No, because the objective at the time was to attack the place that that would most hurt the Axis. The idea now is that flipping Iraq hurts the radical Islamics the most. Hagel is a fool.

SEN. HAGEL:  Let’s be clear about one thing at the beginning of this debate, Tim.  No one in Congress that, that I’m aware of wants a collapse of Iraq.  Everyone in Congress that I know of, and I think most of the American public, if not all, is very much aware of the critical stakes that are in play.  That’s not the issue here.  The issue is whether an escalation of military involvement in Iraq, as the president proposed, not just 22,000 more American troops, but the escalation regarding carrier strike forces and Patriot missile batteries, and more threats, and pursuing the Iranians and the Syrians, is that the appropriate, responsible course of action to take?  I don’t believe it is.  

The US Supreme Court is hearing a case on that exact principle now. Here is to hoping that not only does the NEA lose, but is forced to refund every dollar it has take from people against their will. People should not be forced to engage in a particular form of speech in exchange for the 'privilege' of being a teacher.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Washington v. Washington Education Association. This is an appeal of the judgment by the Washington Supreme Court that the state National Education Association's First Amendment rights were violated by a 1992 law adopted by the voters in referendum. The law requires that the union get opt-in approval from nonmember teachers before deducting from their paychecks the portion of fees used for political purposes.

It was something the Nato allies considered.

In 1950s-era Germany, the British forces which had been stationed there after World War 2 were understandably nervous about an invasion from the Soviet Union. The Cold War had begun, the Iron Curtain was in place, and Stalin was making every effort to compromise Germany's capacity for another war despite attempts by the U.S. and England to rebuild Germany as the economic center of a stable Europe. Additionally, amid tensions, Stalin had split off the Soviet sector of Germany as a communist state. It was generally perceived that the Soviet Union possessed overwhelming superiority in conventional weapons, and the threat of a new war with the communist USSR was looming over Europe. As part of the preparations for such a conflict, British forces developed a new kind of landmine to leave behind if they were forced to withdraw from Germany. It was codenamed the Blue Peacock, and it was essentially a nuclear landmine.

MsU offers the video here.

He has ordered his men to stand down and blend in.

Mahdi Army militia members have stopped wearing their black uniforms, hidden their weapons and abandoned their checkpoints in an apparent effort to lower their profile in Baghdad in advance of the arrival of U.S. reinforcements.

"We have explicit directions to keep a low profile . . . not to confront, not to be dragged into a fight and to calm things down," said one official who received the orders from the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr heads the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest Shiite militia, headquartered in Najaf.

The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to reveal the militia's plans.

Militia members say al-Sadr ordered them to stand down shortly after President George Bush's announcement that the U.S. would send 17,500 more American troops to Baghdad to work alongside the Iraqi security forces.

The decision by al-Sadr to lower his force's profile in Baghdad will likely cut violence in the city and allow American forces to show quick results from their beefed up presence. But it is also unlikely in the long term to change the balance of power here. Mahdi Army militiamen say that while they remain undercover now, they are simply waiting for the security plan to end.

The ball is in our court now. Allahpundit has more.

They’ve moved their heavy weaponry out of Sadr City too, allegedly.

Perhaps there will finally be justice in Durham for the Duke lacrosse players.Nifong is out,  AG Cooper's office will take over the investigation.

The state attorney general's office agreed Saturday to take over the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case at the request of the embattled district attorney.

"I wish I could tell you this case would be resolved quickly," Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "Since we have not been involved in the investigation and prosecution, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges will require careful review."

Facing ethics charges that could lead to his disbarment, Mike Nifong Durham County district attorney quietly asked to be removed from the case Friday, faxing a letter to the state attorney general asking for a special prosecutor to take over the case that is sure to define his nearly three-decade career.

According to Amir Taheri, the Iraqis are relieved.

'A SIGH of relief!"

So one resident of Haifa Street, in the heart of Baghdad's badlands, reacted to the new plan to secure the Iraqi capital with the help of thousands of additional American troops.

"Maybe the Americans aren't running away after all," said the resident, a Sunni Arab, over the phone moments after President Bush unveiled his new plan. "The message seems to be that the United States will remain committed as long as Bush is in the White House."

Some 70 percent of Baghdad's violence is concentrated in five neighborhoods, where both Shiites and Sunnis have been the targets of rival death squads for months. Other Baghdadis say the population of those areas will greet the American troops with sweets and flowers.

The fear that the United States, bedeviled by internecine feuds, might cut and run has been at the root of the violence since Iraq's liberation in 2003.

Jihadists have fought not because they hope to win on the battlefield, but to strengthen the antiwar lobbies in the United States and Britain. Some in the new political elite have become fence sitters because they regard the United States as a fickle power that could suddenly change course. Others have created or expanded militias, in case the United States abandons Iraq before it can defend itself against internal foes and predatory neighbors.

The new Bush plan has raised Iraqi morale to levels not known for a year. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had been dropping hints he might resign because of sheer fatigue, now says he is committed to restoring Baghdad's sobriquet of Dar al-Salaam (The Abode of Peace) by clearing it of al Qaeda and Saddamite terrorists, militias and death squads.

The Dems have been scaring the Iraqi civilians for a long time now. Perhaps we will get some progress now.

Bill says in 2004:

That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for. So I thought the President had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, "Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process." You couldn't responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks. I never really thought he'd [use them]. What I was far more worried about was that he'd sell this stuff or give it away. Same thing I've always been worried about North Korea's nuclear and missile capacity. I don't expect North Korea to bomb South Korea, because they know it would be the end of their country. But if you can't feed yourself, the temptation to sell this stuff is overwhelming. So that's why I thought Bush did the right thing to go back. When you're the President, and your country has just been through what we had, you want everything to be accounted for.

Who wouldn't link? Amanda's footage is by far the best, probably cause she is by far the hottest.

All but at war with the drug cartels and gangsters, he seems to be doing well.

Felipe Calderon is determined to take back his country. His war parallels that which the U.S. is fighting for Iraq’s freedom but he doesn’t have the luxury of fighting it in another country.

He’s fighting the same caliber of thugs the U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq. They are gangsters, they are thugs, they traffic in contraband and they behead their victims. They are as vile as anything Mexico has ever known and world class in the beastliness, every bit a match for Sadr’s bloodsoaked gang thugs in Iraq.

Wish Mexico well. Even more then a wall, the end of corruption drives illegal immigration. If he beats the slim odds, it will really help.

Powerline gives us something to think about.

At any rate, the industry there is already falling apart to competition from Asia and problems with opening tariffs, and even at three bucks an hour is one of the highest paying jobs in the region. Needless to say, a jump up to the proposed minimum wage would be the last nail in the coffin of the tuna industry there.

I think the exception is not due to any patronage by Del Monte to Pelosi, but rather continuing a policy already in place that American Samoa does not need to match the minimum wage, since the wages there are already high for the region, and there is no way the industry there could survive a hike. I got all this from the Department of Labor website.

Something to think about.