And first on the ground is 82nd Airborne, my hometown terrorist killer. I wish them well. As General Patton said "No b*stard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b*stard die for his country". I hope our guys and gals heed it well.

President Bush's speech may be scheduled for tonight, but the troop surge in Iraq is already under way.

ABC News has learned that the "surge" Bush is expected to announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday.

An additional battalion of roughly 800 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. Eighty percent of the sectarian violence occurs within a 30-mile radius of Baghdad, so that is where most of the additional troops will be concentrated.

Michael Yon continues to walk the line with CSM Mellinger through the Al-Anbar province. From IEDs to Mosul to Ramadi, he has it covered. Plus more pictures then you could believe.

This war is fraught with more paradoxes and seeming contradictions than I can track, but one thing I’ve encountered on every embed is the high number of people who know the most, and suffer the most, still believe we are winning. For the most part, anyway. While most of the young soldiers still hold hope for a good outcome here, others think it’s a lost cause. The same is true for Iraqis. Many are still pushing for better days, while others guzzle apathy tea.

Part 1 is here.

Mohammed at ITM says that things are getting plenty noisy at the moment.

The sounds of furious battles filled Baghdad's skies for the past two days. In the largest battle Haifa street and its surroundings were the field in which all sorts of guns were used.

Actually yesterday was the first time in months that I hear the familiar characteristic sound of the 30 mm cannon that is usually mounted on A-10's and Apache helicopters. This particular weapon is an indication of the seriousness of the battles even though was fired only a few times. Anyway, military aircrafts are still roaming the skies above us occasionally at low altitudes and making significant sounds.

The battles left more than 50 militants killed and more than a dozen captured, seven of whom are Syrians and this supports what we reported in our last post that eyewitnesses said. Meanwhile there have been more clashes in Al-Aamil district in western Baghdad yesterday and we learned that all roads and bridges leading to that area are now closed, with helicopters hovering above.

Jason has a funny Halo video up at the moment. Check it out.

It seems to me a few years back gas prices were a lot lower than this. It wasn't an emergency then. They have just gotten used to gouging us and really want to continue banking on our misery.

Oil ministers are today expected to continue yesterday's frenzied round of telephone calls after the price fell below $54 a barrel, triggered by mild weather, particularly in the US.

The oil markets initially shrugged off an escalation of an oil pipeline dispute between Russia and Belarus, and some OPEC members fear that the price will fall further unless the organisation agrees to cut production.

Yep until March 28, 2000 they were aiming for $22 - $28 a barrel. What changed to make $54 an 'emergency'? I vote greed.

Until the March 28, 2000 adoption of the $22-$28 price band for the OPEC basket of crude, oil prices only exceeded $23.00 per barrel in response to war or conflict in the Middle East. With limited spare production capacity OPEC has abandoned its price band and for close to three years was powerless to stem a surge in oil prices which was reminiscent of the late 1970s.

But Dave could use a little help. He's a good guy... honest!

If he is correct... Then the Dems are toast... But is he? Look at what he has and make your own decision.

Eighty-four percent of Americans clearly support being in Iraq for a minimum of one more year. Now forget the word surge that has been bandied about. The word in itself means nothing.

Ask yourself this, with a baseline of 84% supporting a continued presence in Iraq for a minimum of a year, what do you suppose they would say if you asked:

Given your support for one more year of war in Iraq, what would you say if military commanders felt a relatively small increase in troops could reduce the commitment to ten months and save American and Iraqi lives?

It is sad that it has come to this, but even in the lefty swamp a voice or reason tries to educate. It is too bad they can't escape BDS long enough to actually debate the point. I wish the poster lots of luck because he is dead in lefty world.

The bottom line is clear. WHETHER the United States enters war or CONTINUES at war is the exclusive decision of the Congress. Bt the CONDUCT of that specific war, subject to Congress power of military rulemaking (on torture, the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions, etc.), belongs exclusively to the President.

The Congress' power here seems clear to me. IT can END the Iraq war. But it can not dictate how it is conducted on military questions. That power belongs to the President.

My thanks to QandO.

I had heard about the Kurdish General but 12,000+ Peshmerga? That is news. Yes, Kurds are primarily Sunni but they don't identify with either Iraqi sect really. If this is really happening... I mean a fairly neutral Iraqi fighting force in Baghdad? It sounds like a fantastic idea.

President Bush will shortly propose a "new direction" for the United States in Iraq. It is widely believed that part of this new direction will be the deployment of an additional 20,000 or more US troops. That would bring the US forces in Iraq to 160,000 or more.

The New York Times reports that the Iraqi prime minister "agreed…to match the American troop increase, made up of five combat brigades…by sending three more Iraqi brigades to Baghdad." The Times went on, "They [American officials] said two-thirds of the promised Iraq force would consist of Kurdish pesh merga units to be sent from northern Iraq, and they said some doubts remained about whether they would show up in Baghdad and were truly committed to quelling sectarian fighting."

I Know the former mayor doesn't approve.

The jurisdiction of the national Iraqi government does not operate in the Kurdish area, where residents hate and fear both Shia and Sunni. While I pretend no expertise on the ability of the Iraqi army to fight to keep peace in any part of Iraq, it seems unlikely that Iraqi forces who are religiously at odds with the residents of the area that they seek to subdue would be effective. The introduction of Kurdish troops into the areas of Baghdad currently under the control of the forces of Moktada al-Sadr can only inflame the sectarian strife and civil war. What are needed are Shi'ite soldiers willing to arrest and kill if necessary the al-Sadr led militants.

He prefers we try to blackmail our other non-Iraqi allies.

We should immediately issue the ultimatum that I have urged over the last year, warning our allies that if they don't come in now, we are out -- now. If the president won't do this, the Congress should use its power to end our presence in Iraq by directing that the expenditures of funds authorized by the Congress may not be used to send additional troops to Iraq. All monies authorized should be used to protect US soldiers in place and for their exiting the country.

I'll take armed peshmerga forces from a people that once declared "We can become your 51st state and provide you with oil".

There are no insurgents in Kurdistan. Nor are there any kidnappings. A hard internal border between the Kurds’ territory and the Arab-dominated center and south has been in place since the Kurdish uprising at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. Cars on the road heading north are stopped at a series of checkpoints. Questions are asked. ID cards are checked. Vehicles are searched and sometimes taken apart on the side of the road. Smugglers, insurgents, and terrorists who attempt to sneak into Kurdistan by crossing Iraq’s wilderness areas are ambushed by border patrols.

The second line of defense is the Kurds themselves. Out of desperate necessity, they have forged one of the most vigilant anti-terrorist communities in the world. Anyone who doesn’t speak Kurdish as their native language—and Iraq’s troublemakers overwhelmingly fall into this category—stands out among the general population. There is no friendly sea of the people, to borrow Mao’s formulation, that insurgents can freely swim in. Al Qaeda members who do manage to infiltrate the area are hunted down like rats. This conservative Muslim society does a better job rooting out and keeping out Islamist killers than the U.S. military can manage in the kinda sorta halfway “safe” Green Zone in Baghdad.

I know it is NPR, but if it is true it is very relevant to note. Audio at the link.

The Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is preparing for war in Sadr City, the vast Baghdad slum.

Announcements on Iraqi TV last night said that the cleric will force every man in Sadr City between 15 and 45 to join his militia.

Sadr supporters believe they will be targeted by U.S. and Iraqi government troops after President Bush unveils his new Iraq strategy Wednesday night. The Mahdi Army is rumored to be distributing grenades to every family in Sadr City, a district already brimming with weapons.

Michael makes his way into S. Lebanon with a pair of guides and a friend from a news magazine. The pictures he posts are eerie and dark but the responsibility is all Hezbollah's. If you want to know what happened in southern Lebanon during the war I suggest you read on. A small taste:

Israel may have over-reacted in July and selected targets (the milk factory, bridges in the north, etc.) that should not have been hit. But the stark scene on the hill of Maroun al-Ras demonstrated that the Israeli military did not bomb indiscriminately as many have claimed. Unlike Hezbollah, the Israelis are able to hit what they want and they don’t shoot at everything. That mosque wouldn’t be standing if they dropped bombs and artillery randomly in the villages.

“My mother is from Deir Mimas,” Said said. “In July Hezbollah brought their weapons out of the caves and valleys and into the village. My family has a small house there that was burned during the war.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Eh,” Said said. “It’s okay. It is fixed now. Anyway, at first Hezbollah fired their missiles from groves of olive trees. Then they got hit by the Israelis. So they moved into Deir Mimas because the other nearby option was Kfar Kila. Hezbollah didn’t want the Shia villages hit, so they moved into Christian villages instead.”

That sounded right. I recently saw Kfar Kila from the Israeli side. The town is literally right on the border, only twenty feet or so from the fence next to the Israeli town of Metulla. I saw no damage whatsoever in Kfar Kila – and this was one day before the end of the war – but I did hear machine gun fire in the streets ominously close to where I was standing.

You really should go and look, if only for the pictures.

Senator McCain has dropped by Powerline to offer his own take on the surge in Iraq. His statement is at the link. I invite all to go read it, but I won't offer any piece of it here. I believe it should be read in full.

It seems Mitt Romney is having all the luck this week. Sen DeMint is one of my favorite Senators. If you have a conservative outlook, DeMint is one of only a few in the Senate you will agree with 95% of the time. Here is a bit of the endorsement letter he wrote:

America’s success and strength emanate from the private sector: traditional faith-based values, families, churches, volunteerism and free enterprise. We must elect a President who understands the strength of America. Governor Romney has spent most of his life outside of government. He has been a successful businessman and national leader. As governor, he has taken Massachusetts from large debts to surpluses while holding the line on taxes. He has been married to his wife Ann for 37 years; they have 5 boys and 10 grandchildren. Their lives reflect the best of America’s traditions and values.

Governor Romney has helped to start and manage national and international companies. He understands the global economy, capital formation and the need to make America more competitive. When the nation needed him to save the failing and bankrupt 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Mitt Romney volunteered to take over the leadership of an event which was headed towards a national embarrassment. He served for over two years with no salary and even contributed Senator Jim DeMint* $1 million of his own money to make sure the Olympics went forward. His leadership resulted in one of the most successful Olympics in history. Mitt Romney made America proud.

* I think this was a typo.

 

It looks like Iraqi forces have decided to crack down on Baghdad hard. With American troops in full support of course. It might actually work after all check out the Iraqi General in charge of taking on Sadr's boys. He's Brig. Gen. Fadhil Birwari and he's Kurdish.

As the United States prepares to 'surge' more troops in Iraq, about 20,000 to 30,000 American soldiers and Marines according to most press accounts, the Iraqi government announced over the weekend it was conducting its own operation to secure the city. The targets of the Iraqi led operation are said to be both Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. "Military commanders said operations against the al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in its Sadr City stronghold would be left largely to a joint force made up of U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi Special Operations Command division under Brig. Gen. Fadhil Birwari, a Kurd," the Associated Press reported. "Soldiers in the division are a mixture of Kurds and Arabs from both the Sunni and Shiite sects." Over 20,000 Iraqi Army soldiers are said to be participating in the operation.

The Federal Excise Tax, a tax on telephone service ended in August 2006. You may be eligible for a refund for as much as 60 dollars. From an e-mail I received:

A SPECIAL ONE TIME TAX CREDIT ON YOUR 2006 TAX RETURN

When it comes time to prepare and file your 2006 tax return, make sure you
don't overlook the federal excise tax refund credit. You claim the credit
on line 71 of the long form 1040 and line 42 on the short form 1040A.

What is this all about? Well the federal excise tax has been charge to you
on your phone bill for years. It is an old tax that was assessed on your
toll calls based on how far the call was being made and how much time you
talked on that call.

The IRS has now conceded this is obsolete.  Phone companies have been given
notice to stop assessing the federal excise tax as of Aug 30, 2006. You
will most likely see the tax on your September cutoff statement, but it
should NOT be on your October bill.

But the challengers of the old law also demanded restitution. So the IRS
has announced that a one time credit will be available when you and I file
our 2006 tax return as I explained above. However, the IRS also established
limits on how BIG a credit you can get. Here's how it works.

If you file your return as a single person with just you as a dependent, you
get to claim a $30 credit on line 71 of your 1040.

If you file with a child or a parent as your dependent, you claim $40.

If you file your return as a married couple with no children ,you claim $40.

If you file as married with children, you claim $50 if one child, $60 if
two children.

In all cases, the most you get to claim is $60.


One final point - this credit is a refundable credit. That means you get
this money, no matter how your tax return works out. If you would end up
owing the IRS a balance, the refund will reduce that balance you owe. If
you end up getting a refund, the credit will be added and you get a bigger
refund by that $30 to $60, depending on how many dependents are on your
return.

Both Snopes and the IRS have appear to confirm it. So at tax time make sure you check it out.