TOO HORRIFIC FOR WORDS

The following email came across my Blackberry the other day:

Hi Sean,

You don’t know me. My name is Rafi and I found seanlinnane on milblogging . . .

. . . I’ve spent the last few days compiling a list of military blogs, keeping the best ones on the list and filtering through. It has been a very meaningful and educational few days . . .

. . . It was a privilege sifting through and learning about life surrounding the military from you. I was in the army, though not the US Army (I moved to Israel a while ago and they draft pretty much everybody). Right now some of my friends in the Israeli army here are hunting two terrorists who slit the throats of two parents and 3 of their children in their sleep last Friday night in a town called Itamar (March 11), among them a 4 year old and 3 month old baby, and I know what it is to fight the enemy who, in some cases, have resigned their right to live among men on Earth . . .

. . . Rafi


Udi and Ruthie Fogel, aged 36 and 35, and three of their children – Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, barely three months old - were brutally stabbed to death in their sleep by terrorists who broke into their home in the Israeli community of Itamar.

Three Fogel children survived the attack. Twelve-year-old Tamar, who discovered the carnage, and her two brothers, Roi, 8, and Yishai, 2, who were miraculously left unharmed.

According to news reports, the terrorists managed to vault over a security fence and enter the Fogel house through the living room window. They then slashed the throats of the four Fogels whom they found asleep, and stabbed Ruthie to death as she exited the bathroom. Miraculously, they did not notice Roi asleep on the couch or tiny Ishai in his bed. After their rampage, the murderers locked the front door and escaped.


Relatives of the Fogel family approved the release of these photos to show the world the savagery of Islamist terrorism. Only these ghastly images can show the world what and who the State of Israel has to deal with:

BIASED REPORTING?

Israel demands CNN apology over attack coverage.

Meanwhile, our increasingly irrelevant mainstream media presented tendentious coverage of Saturday's gruesome murder in Itamar; CNN reporters actually questioned whether this was a terrorist attack. Israel's Government Press Office 'dumbfounded, astonished'


This brutal, senseless attack took place last Friday night, in Israel. My people brought it to my attention and quite honestly I was stunned. The news of the earthquake, giant tsunamis and the emergency conditions at the reactors in Japan absorbed my energies - I'm not a full-time, professional journalist, not by a long shot - I meant to get to this, but again, I was in a state of shock over this kind of violence.

I am a retired soldier and a security professional; off-duty I carry a loaded weapon concealed, and I hope & pray I never have to use it. We need to review this kind of material from time to time to remind ourselves that the world is full of evil people who only wish to do us harm, and to remind ourselves why we carry weapons, and as a reminder to take our training seriously at the firearms range. - S.L.


.

WAFA SULTAN

Wafa Sultan وفاء سلطان‎ is an author and well known critic of Islam. Born in Baniyas, Syria, Sultan trained as a psychiatrist in Syria and is a US naturalized citizen. Sultan has become notable since the September 11, 2001 attacks for her participation in Middle East political debates, with Arabic essays that circulated widely and some television appearances on Al Jazeera and CNN.





Wafa has taken part in Al Jazeera's weekly discussion program The Opposite Direction. Wafa Sultan has criticised Muslims for treating non-Muslims differently, and for not recognizing the accomplishments of Jewish and other members of non-Muslim society while using their wealth and technology.

A WORTHY CAUSE

I don't know if you are aware of Michael Yon.







"He's fearless ... provides a candid, soldier's-eye view ... from the very unique perspective of being there with them for weeks and months at a time ... delving deep into the human component."

-General DAVID H. PETRAEUS
Commanding General
Multi-National Force, Iraq



Micheal Yon is ex-SF, and he brings honor to the Regiment with his heroic work covering the wars going on out there, reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004. Read his creds HERE.

"No other reporter has spent as much time with combat troops in these two wars. Michael’s dispatches from the frontlines have earned him the reputation as the premier independent combat journalist of his generation. His work has been featured on “Good Morning America,” The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, ABC, FOX, as well as hundreds of other major media outlets all around the world."



Michael Yon is the 2008 Weblog Awards Winner for Best Military Blog.




As early as February 2005, Michael described the violence in Iraq as a civil war. In 2006, he said we were losing in Afghanistan. In 2007, he was the first reporter to claim the success of “the Surge” in Iraq. When he first voiced these opinions, they were extremely controversial. Now they are conventional wisdom.

Now Michael needs your help. He obviously does what he does for little or no pay:

"I cannot operate in the war without your support. If support does not substantially increase, I will be forced to abandon war reporting in September. There has seldom been much interest in the Afghanistan war. True interest has been starkly reflected in the support for this mission. Each journey into Afghanistan, since 2006, has bled out resources from my operations. Reporting from Afghanistan is not sustainable at this rate."

In his blog there is a fascinating story about helicopters in the war zone, specifically the static that lights up in the rotors (I've often observed this phenomena myself). Yon has coined it the Kopp-Etchells Effect, in memory of two KIA corporals; one American & one British.


Today is pay day - every G.I. out there is a millionaire. Go to Michael's site and crack the code on the PayPal thing. I am going to lead by example on this thing and scratch out a check for $25; if every one of my regular readers contributes the same, this will equal six months pay for Michael.

-SEAN LINNANE SENDS