Entries from August 2006 ↓

I read stories like this and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  On the surface it’s almost funny but the underlying threat isn’t.

A man has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to racketeering charges in connection with a scheme to buy cigarettes in North Carolina and then sell them in other states to raise money for the Hezbollah.

Nothing out of the ordinary here; just your typical arab gangster trying to make a quick buck for him, his cronies and Allah. 

He was arrested in March and indicted, along with nine other men, in connection with a scheme to sell cigarettes, counterfeit rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra.

Counterfeit rolling papers?  Isn’t that… like making counterfeit pennies?  Really makes you wonder about these people.

Portions of the profits were funneled to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, the government claimed.

U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy said the men conducted the operation from 1996 to 2004.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 18 men were involved in the scheme overall.

It’s not funny though when you think of how many cells may be out there exploiting our government loopholes and working our system to stuff the coffers of the ill-minded and self-destructive.

If the situation in Iraq seems confusing to a soldier who is actually here, I can only imagine how much more confusing it seems to someone back home, whose only source of information is the confusing stream of images and stories being thrown at you on television and in print media.

Contrary to what you may be seeing or hearing though, there is a coherent plan for improving the situation here.

It has three main facets: unity, security and prosperity. In my opinion, these three go in order of precedence and are predicated upon each other. Unity is the most important. Without a desire for a unified Iraq, the violence will continue. Once Iraqis desire unity more than they desire whatever other goals they have in mind, it will be possible to begin achieving real security. Once inroads have been made in achieving security for average Iraqis, then prosperity can begin. The coalition can only achieve so much. The real work must be done by the Iraqi politicians and by the Iraqi military.

The work being done in Baghdad now is very important. The nature of the hopes and goals of the current operation are reflected in its name - Operation Together Forward.

“I think what’s really important is that we, as a team, treated the people with dignity and respect, and that the locals appreciated the way Iraqi security forces treated them when they were out patrolling and clearing for the security of their areas,” Shields explained.

“I think the confidence of the people has gone up with the Iraqi security forces … The Iraqi Army, the National Police and Iraqi Police have been instrumental in improving the perception of security within these areas,” he said.

Even with those successes, Shields admitted there is a lot of work still to do.

As I’ve said many times, the road ahead for Iraq is a long one. The nation is in a struggle to save its own soul and emerge reborn as a country, instead of a group of squabbling tribes and disparate groups who are all at odds with one another. It will take more than a generation for real change and improvement.

I often wonder why the military has such a hard time keeping its most talented people. And I think I know at least one of the answers.

There are four methods for achiveing desired responses from human beings through the process of reinforcement. Here are those four types:

Positive Reinforcement. The examples above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.

Negative Reinforcement. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.

Punishment. Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.

Extinction. When you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased.

Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment.

Guess which type is most popular in the military? Punishment. I don’t disagree with punishment as a tool for achieving desired behaviors. However, over the long term, constant punishment coupled with a tendency to fail to reward a soldier when he or she performs at or above expectations will simply drive people away from a career in the military.

My command probably won’t want to hear this, but I can honestly say that the way I’ve been treated during this tour has been unprofessional and demotivating. You cannot deal with a middle aged business professional in the same way you deal with a middle schooler and expect to achieve positive results.

A perfect example of this counterproductive mentality is the way we deal with vehicle maintenance in the unit. A vehicle maintenance checklist is due once a week. Understandably, due to constant personnel shuffling, schedule changes and various unexpected things that happen in the type of environment we live in people sometimes forget to turn their checklists in. Rather than simply asking the section where the checklist is, or saying something like “have it on my desk in the next hour,” our unit just takes the vehicle away if the checklist is late. This is a punishment mentality. In the long run, it causes more harm than good.

People who have no vehicle are severely limited in their mobility, which is counterproductive. The soldiers who have had their vehicles taken away also tend to feel resentment. It takes them longer to get to work and to get home. They have to scrounge rides or take the bus system. The school marm mentality that produces this sort of “solution” to the problem of paperwork being turned in late will be remembered by each soldier down the road. They will have to ask themselves - do I like being treated like a child? Do I want to sign up for another three to six years of punishment?

When adults work together cooperatively great things can be achieved. This is no less true in the military than anywhere else. The problem is that many military leaders have the wrong mentality. Instead of looking for ways to reward hard work and achievement, they focus on petty bureaucracy and punishing banal minor deficits. The end result is that self-motivated professional soldiers are driven to other units or back into the civilian world where they have a much higher chance of finding employers who will value and appropriately reward their strengths.

Here’s a challenge for you military unit leaders - find ways to use positive reinforcement. Those of you who spend more time rewarding your troops for the good things they do than punishing them for the minor mistakes will reap the benefits of loyalty and high morale. No one wants to be kicked like a dog for every petty mistake they make. And if that’s your leadership style don’t be surprised when you get snarled at every time you come around.

Khairi Abaza is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; a foundation focused on reforming the middle east through democracy.  I’ve outlined some very interesting points from his article:  Khairi Abaza: Socio-political roots of Arab terrorism

After being dominated by foreign powers during the first half of the 20th Century, the Arab street was buoyed by hopes of “liberation” following World War II. Instead, colonial rule was replaced with oppressive and inefficient national governments. These regimes have failed to secure economic or social progress, and have denied political liberties. Most damaging, they redirected the desire of their citizens for a restored sense of pride to an external cause: the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the “Zionist enemy,” on which they blamed all the region’s woes.

Arab nationalism, the misused ideology in these conflicts, was created by Arab Christians in the Levant in the late 19th Century, as a way to unite the Arabic-speaking population of the Mideast and North Africa on a cultural-ethnic ground, rather than a religious one — namely, Islam. The Arab-nationalist ideology eventually became the legitimizing ideology of every Arab dictator. But it failed to “liberate Palestine” or to create a unified Arab world. The ensuing conflicts with Israel led only to defeat upon defeat, deepening humiliation and frustration. Its main legacy: uniting the Arab public in humiliation, pain and sorrow, increasing the desire to vanquish Israel and thus restore lost Arab pride, at any cost.

All of them exploit the Arab public’s sense of humiliation to mobilize support for their personal ambitions.

Already, there is pressure on the Bush administration from both the right and the left to give up on the administration’s dream of a democratic Mideast. But this would be a terrible mistake.

A return to the so-called realism in which tyrants are tolerated as long as they keep their restive populations contained and their fiefdoms stable will ensure only that the Mideast remains the number-one recruiting ground for terrorists. Good governance won’t solve every problem of the Mideast, but it must be part of the solution.

What seems like a lifetime ago, I dedicated my service in Iraq to the memory of Mike Stokely. I got this e-mail from his dad today:

On August 24, 2005, at approximately 5:00 p.m., I went to Hartsfield Atlanta to meet the most important flight I had ever met. I went alone, wearing a favorite blue blazer, grey pants, and red tie with navy stripes - the same I had worn to a prayer vigil for the Georgia National Guard 48th Brigade held by the Governor at the State Capitol in Atlanta a week earlier. It was an outfit that I felt very comfortable and fit me “good” and respectful dress for the passenger I was meeting.

As I stood in the office of the US Airways air cargo office and watched through the glass office door to the cargo bay, a motor tram pulled forward to the front of the air cargo hanger and stopped. Two Sergeants in dress uniform stepped forward as the cargo cart stopped. One Sergeant had come in on the flight I was meeting and pulled out paperwork and with the other Sergeant started comparing the paperwork with that of the crate on the air cargo tram. Once satisfied, they broke the shipping seals and began to remove the crate, revealing a casket with a box on top.

The two Sergeants carefully removed the contents of the box and as they did, in the best way I knew how to do, having never been properly trained, I came to attention and saluted as they unfolded an American Flag. I remained at attention and full salute, tears streaming down my face as the two Sergeants were ever so meticulous as they drapped the American Flag over the casket. Pain stabbed my heart even as it swelled with pride. An office full of people who were at that moment busy with the typical noise of an office suddenly became quiet and I could feel their eyes watching me. For the next few minutes, not a sound could be heard as the office staff seemingly froze in place with me, tears now dropping off my cheek and onto my shoulders and lapel. Then the flag drapped casket was loaded in a hearse and I crisply ended my salute as the two Sargeants then turned and saw me. Their eyes and nods of approval were reassuring.

I then walked outside to get fresh air, collect myself and called my wife, Retta. As she answered the phone, I said to her, tears welling in my voice, “Our boy is home.” We sobbed together a few moments. She was worried and asked if I would be OK, for she loved him as her own and we had never been us without him. She knew I would be, but had to hear me say I would. Then, I got in the hearse to make a thirty plus mile ride to the funeral home, a route taken many days over may years when I took my boy home after visitation weekends, holidays, and summers. Every mile had a memory, and a new welling of tears inside, but I kept them in as the Funeral Home Director drove. While I talked to conceal my heart breaking inside and to keep nervousness at bay, I was thinking of this time or that time with my boy at various points along the route. Too many memories to even begin to share in this writing, but a king’s treasure of beautiful memories from a toddler to a grown man just married and about to go off to war.

Then, the ride was over - my last ride taking my boy home. It was time to share him with others. My boy had come home a man’s man who was a fallen warrior. He gave as much as he had to give to his God, Family, Duty, Honor and especially his Country. In return, he asked for nothing.

Even now, I wince and cry as I think about that August 24th evening. Privileged to say the least to be there and have that time with my boy, and never to forget.

Robert Stokely

proud dad SGT Mike Stokely

KIA by IED 16 Aug 05 at 2:20 a.m. near Yusufiyah south of Baghdad

A man who lived for a just cause and died just because…John 15:13 no greater love

Blackhawk UH-60 Lomo

Originally uploaded by the.myrmidon.

I’ve never experienced anything like the helicopter ride I took over northern Iraq recently. I felt as if I was trapped inside the devil’s hair dryer the entire time. We flew over endless barrens randomly interspersed with signs of a hardscrabble life below. The picture here shows one of the greenest areas we flew over. All life is clustered around the water sources.

Amazingly, I saw shepherds and sheep out in the middle of places that looked completely barren of any life. I don’t know what they were surviving on. There must have been hidden water I could not see. People manage to eke out an existence in some environments that are incredibly daunting. Everytime we flew over children, they waved. The adults are much more cautious.

by Julie of Degree of Madness

If you owe back taxes to the federal government, the next call asking you to pay may come not from an Internal Revenue Service officer, but from a private debt collector.

Within two weeks, the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers  each of whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes  to three collection agencies. Larger debtors will continue to be pursued by I.R.S. officers. (link)

So now, private firms will have access to our tax information, or at minimum how much you (may or may not) owe to Uncle Sam. Our tax information is private. Or it was up until now.

Within two weeks, the I.R.S. will turn over data on 12,500 taxpayers  each of whom owes $25,000 or less in back taxes  to three collection agencies. Larger debtors will continue to be pursued by I.R.S. officers. (my emphasis).

And the IRS isn’t too particular about the business ethics of the firms they select to receive our tax data:

One of the three companies selected by the I.R.S. is a law firm in Austin, Tex., where a former partner, Juan Peqa, admitted in 2002 that he paid bribes to win a collection contract from the city of San Antonio. He went to jail for the crime.

Last month the same law firm, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, was again in the news. One of its competitors, Municipal Services Bureau, also of Austin, sued Brownsville, Tex., charging that the city improperly gave the Linebarger firm a collections contract that it suggested was influenced by campaign contributions to two city commissioners.

And how will these debt collectors be paid? They will receive 25% of what they collect. Whether or not the tax bill is accurate or actually owed at all (the IRS is in a league of its own when it comes to mistakes, errors and general incompetence), will not be the concern of these collectors.

And the privacy issue is not insignificant. It’s not clear whether these firms will be given the taxpayer social security number, but:

Private collectors will have authority to set up installment payment agreements, and gather financial information about those targeted, presumably to assess their ability to pay or to locate assets that might be attached.

Private collectors will have the authority to gather our personal financial information. Authority handed over to them by the federal government. Most everyone is aware of the aggressive, heavy-handed methods of collections agencies. I guess a partnership with the IRS just makes sense. A marriage made in heaven, so to speak.

The federal government already has too much access to our private financial information. And the ability of the IRS to audit at will, with no constraints or accountability is something we should not tolerate. And should not be forced to tolerate. And now private firms can get in on the action. And profit from it. At our expense.

There are so many good reasons to support the Fair Tax. Preventing the IRS from giving our private financial information to outside firms is just one more.

With the Fair Tax, the IRS will be abolished. No other tax plan under consideration abolishes the IRS. This is important. The IRS operates under the “guilty until proven innocent” theory. And however unjust that may be, that’s the way it is. It will never change. The IRS has power that most politicians only dream about. And IRS abuses are legend. And most of the abuses never make the headlines. They are relatively small in nature but very significant to those involved.

The convoluted tax code is an outrage. The enforcer is an even greater outrage. Leave your Constitutional rights at the door when the IRS shows up, ’cause you no longer have any. The IRS has virtually free will to demand access to every single detail of your financial life. With no probable cause.

Some things just can’t be reformed. Our tax code is one of them. The IRS is another. With the Fair Tax, we will all pay our fair share, but we won’t have to give up our privacy, or our sanity, to do it.

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.

A recent article about an Australian acquitted of a terrorism charge after returning from an al qaeda training camp had me wondering; doesnt that make him a terrorist?

Melbourne man Jack Thomas has been acquitted of terrorism offences in Victoria’s Court of Appeal. His convictions for receiving funds from a terror group and using a false passport were quashed on Friday. Mr. Thomas was earlier sentenced to five years in jail.

After reading that article I didnt think so but I always like to do a little digging.  It didnt take long before I came up with this:

 In the interview, the applicant admitted that he had altered his passport in order to conceal the amount of time he had spent in Pakistan. He was concerned that questions might be asked about his associations and activities whilst absent from Australia, which included his contact with members of the al Qaeda terrorist organisation and his having been in Afghanistan (more specifically, at the al Faroq camp at which al Qaeda training was conducted). He also stated that the ticket and money had been provided to him by a man named Khaled bin Attash, who was an associate of Osama Bin Laden and a high ranking al Qaeda operative.

Yup.  Sounds like a terrorist in the making to me.  People who attend al Qaeda training camps arent there for unleavened bread recipes. 

All he got was five years… what the hell is that?  That doesn’t set much of precedent does it?   Don’t people do harder time for stealing cars?

I’ve become a victim of my own success. Now that the MNF-Iraq.com web site is up and rolling, I’m going to be participating in lots of trips “outside the wire.”

This leads me to reflect somewhat on the nature of safety. In the months that I’ve spent in Iraq, I’ve noticed that a lot of people are pretty carefree and relaxed when they are inside Iraq’s biggest forward operating base - the fabled Green Zone. There isn’t much that’s green about this place. Rocket and mortar attacks are frequent. I don’t see any advantages, safety wise, to living where I live.

So I’m not sure what there is to worry about outside the walls of the Green Zone that I shouldn’t be worried about inside the walls of the Green Zone. Maybe snipers are a bigger concern, but snipers have a much smaller chance of killing me than a direct hit by a mortar or rocket. I’ve been outside the wire a number of times now, and not once has a rocket or mortar attack occurred. Iraqis are generally either reserved or friendly, but none have been openly hostile. Most are struggling to maintain a life, a family and looking for opportunities in a country that has long denied them such.

The vestiges and trappings of millenia old religious memes are still the driving force behind so much of society here. Everything that happens is “inshallah” or God’s will. Life is cheap, and the citizens of the country are reminded of that constantly by the sectarian fighting between Shia and Sunni. I met an Iraqi colonel the other day who represents the future of what I’d like to see Iraq become. He is a Sunni married to a Shia and they have two children. One is named a Shia name, and the other named a Sunni name. He leads Iraqi soldiers from both sects of Islam, and does not tolerate strife between the two.

For Iraq to become a modern, prosperous state, it must become a nation where Sunnis can marry Shia and vice versa, without having to worry about being murdered for it. Who do we blame for the current environment? Religious zealots from all over the Muslim world, but primarily from inside Iraq and Iran. Who will save Iraq? People like Colonel Ali, who refuse to judge people based on their names, or their religious sect.

Thanks to all my readers

Several of you have noted recently that I seem really busy. You’re right, and I am. This doesn’t mean I don’t read your e-mails or comments. I’m just behind, and unlikely to catch up until long after I return to the United States. But thank you so much. Especially those of you who have sent soccer balls and other gifts. They will be distributed to Iraqis and if I can, I’ll post some pictures here.

I’ve been getting postcards and care packages and personal notes in my in-box that have really meant something.  The support of several of my regular readers and commenters has been absolutely invaluable to helping me maintain a healthy mental state on days when I just wasn’t coping very well. This year has been very hard on my wife and I, and support from back home has really been important. Thanks. It makes a difference.

It’s a problem that will cost lives again; just like it did on September 11, 2001.

Just ask Michael Tuohey, the ticket agent who gave the boarding passes to Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Alomari.  Clearly a product of liberal conditioning; he allowed who he instinctively knew to be terrorists to board the plane:

 

I said to myself, ‘If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.’ Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it’s not nice to say things like this,” he said. “You’ve checked in hundreds of Arabs and Hindus and Sikhs, and you’ve never done that. I felt kind of embarrassed.”

Embarrassed until the jet crashed into the WTC.  Im glad I don’t have to live with that.

Even with testimony from an agent who readily admits his training and instincts spotted a terrorist isn’t enough to convince civil right dingbats like the ACLU that the human being is the best judge of friend or foe.  Let me share a quote from Johnah Goldberg’s column from The Kansas City Star:

Our concern is that giving TSA screeners this kind of responsibility and discretion can result in their making decisions not based on solid criteria but on impermissible characteristics such as race,” the ACLU’s Gregory T. Nojeim told the Journal.

Obviously Gregory Nojeim isn’t familiar with Michael Tuohey’s dance with the devil that morning of September 11th.

I don’t believe racial profiling is the end-all to screening out the filth hell-bent on America’s destruction but I definitely don’t think it should be a forbidden factor either.

Im sure Michael Tuohey would say the same.