Several noncommissioned officers returning from a 15-month stint in Iraq are challenging recent arguments that the "surge" is turning the tide of the Iraq war — a viewpoint they call "surreal":
"To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day," they wrote in a New York Times op-ed.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Al Gore didn’t directly challenge young Kansans to fight the plans for new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb, but some of his recent words could apply to them: "I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants," the former vice president told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Gore seemed to suggest that "treating the Earth’s atmosphere as an open sewer" posed a threat as serious as terrorism.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The pro-life community has been abuzz with speculation about why Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller’s clinic was closed for three weeks. David Gittrich, state development director of Kansans for Life, wrote in a letter to The Eagle that his group suspected the clinic was closed because Tiller (in photo) couldn’t find another Kansas physician willing to “rubber-stamp bogus diagnoses for late-term abortions.” Tiller is facing misdemeanor charges alleging that a physician he used for second opinions wasn’t legally and financial independent from him, as required by Kansas law.
But Julie Burkhart, executive director of ProKanDo, a pro-choice political action committee, said that the clinic was closed because of vandalism, and that it reopened Monday. On July 4, two masked vandals drilled a hole in the roof of the clinic, inserted a garden hose, then glued the water spigot open, flooding a room in the clinic, according to the Wichita Police Department, which hasn’t yet made an arrest in the case.
Burkhart said the clinic thought it had cleaned up all the damage but then discovered mold in the walls. “It was a bit of a problem,” she said. Tiller’s attorneys said in a statement that the clinic was temporarily closed “to make absolutely certain that these acts of sabotage have not created any physical or medical risks to his patients.”
Meanwhile, Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue said on the anti-abortion group’s Web site that it was “thanking God” for the closure and would not “stop praying and working until Tiller’s abortion business is permanently closed.”
Is the group also praying that the vandals will be arrested?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Rudy Giuliani deserves praise for his leadership on Sept. 11, but he should be careful not to overplay his role. For example, Giuliani had to backtrack from comments he made claiming that he had been at the ruins “as often, if not more” than the cleanup workers. His mayoral archive for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001, shows that he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, while many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts, the New York Times reported.
I’m currently reading “102 Minutes,” a compelling nonfiction book about the people inside the Twin Towers. It notes how Giuliani scoffed at concerns about locating the city’s Office of Emergency Management in one of the World Trade Center buildings, which had to be evacuated and collapsed. Giuliani also never ordered a joint practice drill with the police and fire departments at the center or followed up on an earlier recommendation to arrange a single radio frequency that police and fire commanders could share during an emergency. A lack of coordination between the two departments significantly hindered the rescue effort.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Recent history has taught Wichita to be cautious about counting on more jobs from an Air Force refueling tanker deal. Still, Friday’s forecast by Jim Albaugh, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems president and chief executive, that a Boeing tanker contract could mean “well in excess of several thousand” jobs rightly raises hopes in Wichita, where both Boeing Wichita and Spirit AeroSystems likely would see tanker work. With Boeing having delivered nearly 2,000 tankers over its 75-year history, it’s also hard to argue with Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, against a U.S. deal with Europe-based Airbus. “Should we rely on a foreign rookie? No,” he said. “You go with the best.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
