Michael Yon reports on a September 2007 find near the Syrian border of 10 tons of ammonium nitrate. They found it under a suspicous tarp in a wadi.  Enough to kill thousands in one spectacular blast or in hundreds of car bombings.  He notes that it appeared to be from Russia.

Maybe that's why the Russian economy is doing so well.  The export business is strong.

Note: A wadi is a river during the heavy rains or the rainy season and a dry bed during most of the year.

Michael Yon blog story

sharp

The fight is on two major fronts in Iraq and is at THE single turning point right now. The next few weeks will determine whether Iraq is likely to fall back into chaos or become a strong and true democracy.

Mosul - the last stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq is under heavy attack by Iraqi and American forces, along with local militias who have turned on Al Qaeda.  This would be a blow to the credibility of Al Qaeda that they may never recover from if they are routed completely out of the country.

Basra - in the most positive development since the government took power, Maliki is putting Iraqi forces into action in putting down the formidable Shiite militia leader Al Sadr and his followers.  This is important for two reasons:

1) It demonstrates to the Sunnis and Kurds that the Shiite government is serious about being an Iraqi government and not just a weapon of the Shiites against all others

2) It takes on the sleeping bear.  Al Sadr was waiting for British and then American troops to leave the country and then his assault would have been for control of Iraq.  Instead, the government is striking first and necessarily, in order to pave the way for a single Iraqi governing power. 

For America's sake, for Iraq's sake and for the world's sake, we must do what it takes to make Al Sadr successful.  I hope the Congress is as ready to fund this opportunity as they are to bail out banks and borrowers who made insanely dumb commitments they couldn't hope to keep.  This may not get them votes, though and they're more focused on winning the White House, so the American military and the brave Iraqi army may have to make do with far less than they should.

sharp

This is the 2nd post concerning lessons from the movie "Charlie Wilson's War".  

The first was simply:  Hollywood tells stories, not the truth.  That should be obvious to anyone as that is their goal and business purpose.  But the truth is sometimes important.

The second has two parts:

1) Did anyone else notice that rooting for the Afghan rebels was precisely like rooting for the insurgents in Iraq?  From my perspective our involvement and presence is certainly different than Russias, but it's not hard to see why others don't share that view.

2) The last line of the move, "we (messed) up the end game".   The message of that was clear.  Finish the job and rebuild Iraq.  If we do that right, we'll benefit, and the free world will benefit, for a century.  If we don't, we'll have another Afghanistan or another Iran on our hands.  Or worse.

Nothing is certain, but at least we know from history what doesn't work. 

May God Bless our leaders, the troops and the people of Iraq.

sharp

And there's been a very good reason.  I don't know what the heck is going on. 

Recession or Depression or Blip? 

Between the Fed and the Congress there's been enough liquidity pumped in (or on the way) to keep the flu symptoms from showing.

My major concern about all that is this:  Recessions are normal.  Brain surgery is very risky.

sharp

It seems we only have 70 or so years to wander aimlessly on this planet and this week is one we won't get back (unless Shirley Maclaine is right).

I hope that whatever you have to do, you can do it with joy.

And I hope you find a way to make corner of the world better for having you in it.

To my Democrat friends, enjoy the rush this summer.  This kind of passion for a Presidential candidate only happens about once every 20 years (FDR, Kennedy, Reagan, Obama/Hillary?)

God Bless each of you through His Son Jesus Christ.

sharp