This exchange, three years ago, between comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien and Chris Kyle shows why the retired Navy SEAL was so beloved. At the time of the interview, Kyle was touring to publicize his book, American Sniper.
In the nearly-five minute interview, Kyle admits that he wished he had tried out for SEAL Team 6. Considering Kyle was the best sniper in American military history, that comes as a surprise to many.
Conan gets the good-natured Kyle to laugh throughout, asking him about the more than mile-long kill shot Kyle touted in his book. Kyle, in his usual humble way, says he was just a ‘monkey on a gun,’ a suggestion at which O’Brien scoffs.
In a striking show of respect, after Kyle repeatedly addessess Conan as ‘sir’, O’Brien says:
You don’t have to call me, sir. I’m just a talk show host. You’re up here and I’m down here.
The three-year-old interview is a refreshing change from the kind of attention that Kyle has been getting since the movie version of American Sniper hit the screen. Hollywood and media critics have taken pot shots at both Kyle personally, and the movie itself.
Despite criticism, American Sniper continues to shatter box office records. A remarkable, and earned, success that the proud military veteran and humble author deserves.
Here's the latest from friend and radio colleague Larry Johnson, who is posting from Europe. (As previously noted, Larry was formerly employed by the CIA and the State Department; today he's consultant and frequently quoted on counterterrorism, intel and international matters.) This appeared on his blog, No Quarter. A seasoned and reasonable observer/commentator, Larry discovered something -- unreported elsewhere -- while in Paris.
Something is going on in Paris, at least last night. Police were out in massive numbers surrounding the U.S. Embassy and the British Embassy. No public warning was issued, however.
I happened to be walking with the wife along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on the Champs Elysee last night heading towards Place de La Concorde. Couple of blocks west of Place de la Concorde we ran into a gauntlet of police. Vehicles parked bumper to bumper. Officers kitted out, some with body armor and automatic weapons.
But the real concern is with the Americans still in Baghdad. The first tell was Obama finally authorizing the deployment last week of an additional 350 troops to the Green Zone. The threat from ISIS is not abating. Chatter is hot and heavy about something happening on the anniversary of 11 September.
I am not enjoying the delicious irony of Mr. Nobel Peace Prize Obama (granted that prize for simply being a nice looking black man with no accomplishments) conducting more drone strikes than George W. Bush and reversing course on carrying out military operations in Iraq. It is just the reality. Unfortunately, Obama is worried more about managing the domestic political consequences of taking action against ISIS than he is in crafting a genuine strategy to deal with the menace.
Doubt is never hard to come by when you're talking about the Obama Administration's foreign policy. (Bonus doubt points: White House spokeshole Jay Carney lies about it with a straight face.)
Robert Mugabe and Saddam Hussein -- in better times...
South African fast food chicken outlet, Nando’s, has hit a home run with a new, holiday-themed ad campaign. This time it has taken its hunger for parodying current events to the world of dictators, with a new YouTube video (below) featuring a man who bears a striking resemblance to long-standing Zimbabwean commander-in-chief, Robert Mugabe. The ad features “Mugabe” sitting at a dinner table alone reminiscing about the good times he had with his “friends” — all deceased dictators. The star-studded cast features Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and South Africa’s P.W Botha.
The President addressing the 10th Mountain Division Thursday at Fort Drum:
"First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it posthumously."
As we all know, SSG Sal Giunta, of the 173rd Airborne, was the first living recipient (2011) of the MOH who fought in Iraq/Afganistan. SFC Jared Monti, 10th Mountain Division, was KIA in Afghanistan in 2006. He was posthumously awarded the MOH by Obama in 2009. (See accompanying photos...)
How does the Commander-in-Chief mix these heroes up? He put that medal around Giunta's neck and he stood with Monti's parents as they grieved. These fallen heroes leave such a great legacy, and we should know all their names. The ironic part of the speech, and this comes after the announcement of the politically pressured drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, was Obama's closing remark, "Know that your Commander-in-Chief has your back." (h/t: "Blackfive")
She might want to consult with the Libyans buried under that pile of rubble...
A photo of yesterday's NATO bomb damage to civilian areas in Tripoli (taken on a Qaddafi government-sponsored tour)...
The 90-day mandate calling for Congressional support of U.S. hostilities (aka: The War Powers Act) came and went this past weekend...and as if to signal the ongoing futility, waste and inefficiency that is our war in Libya, a NATO strike on Tripoli resulted in the deaths of almost a dozen civilians.
Now, as America and Congress -- on both sides of the aisle -- begins to tire of this third war, the voices against the conflict are growing louder.
Except for left-wing, anti-war and uber-Obama supporter U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)...
In a video report filed by San Francisco Chronicle political reporter (and John Batchelor Show radio colleague) Joe Garofoli, Boxer extols the virtues of this third of four wars we're now embroiled in (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen).
The story (with video below):
The NATO airstrike that killed 15 people -- including three children -- early Monday is sure to add fuel to a burning question in Washington: What is the U.S. doing in Libya and why isn't President Obama seeking Congressional approval?
Boxer was not one of them. She just does not want to see U.S. soldiers "boots on the ground."
"I think what they're doing is working," Boxer told The Chronicle/SFGate.com's Shaky Hand Productions. "I think that we have to make sure taht we stay close to these rebels, so that they understand what democracy is."
"Moammar Gaddafi’s decision to voluntarily surrender his nuclear-weapons program made the US significantly safer as a direct result of the Iraq War. Had we not invaded Iraq in 2003 and captured Saddam Hussein in December of that year, Gaddafi would hardly have felt compelled to protect himself from similar American action at the time. We found out shortly afterward that Libya had succeeded in making weapons-grade plutonium, and oh by the way also had 44,000 pounds of mustard gas. In fact, Gaddafi’s rush to demonstrate his good citizenship only ended in 2007, when domestic opposition to Bush’s efforts in Iraq emboldened Gaddafi back into defiance."(h/t: Hot Air)
The idea of creating massive amounts of destruction was never a stranger to Saddam Hussein...
From WIRED: "By late 2003, even the Bush White House’s staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But for years afterward, WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction. An initial glance at the WikiLeaks war logs doesn’t reveal evidence of some massive WMD program by the Saddam Hussein regime — the Bush administration’s most (in)famous rationale for invading Iraq. But chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam’s toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict — and may have brewed up their own deadly agents."
If this is all true, and there doesn't seem to be a reason to doubt this material, you've got to wonder how this will play with mainstream media and the Left. (OK, guessing time is over - it won't be covered...)
Early victims - Kurds - of Hussein's WMD program...
Full disclosure/providing balance: My radio colleague, Larry Johnson (former CIA officer, State Dept. counter-terrorism officer, CT consultant), writes the following at his prize-winning blog, No Quarter: "Many Americans still don’t understand that WMD was pretext to justify our invasion of Iraq. It had nothing to do with the reality. The only Weapon of Mass Destruction aka WMD is a nuclear weapon and Saddam’s nuclear program had been dismantled. Chemical and biological weapons are always referred to as WMDs but the fact of the matter is that those types of weapons do not cause “mass destruction.” They are potential mass casualty weapons, but are difficult to use and their effect neutralized by temperature changes and weather factors such as wind. Saddam also did not have biological weapons. He and his cronies held onto some remnants of Chemical weapons but they did so for only one reason–FEAR OF IRAN."
After what can only be described as the strangest (or lamest) decision in PR history - to let a Rolling Stone reporter chum around with a military leader - and the ensuing reportage detailing derision aimed at the civilian leaders in the Obama Administration by Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff, the president removed the general for "exercising poor judgment."
To his credit, the president did it all just right.
When the story first came to light, it was hard to imagine why Barack Obama, the Commander in Chief, wouldn't get on the hotline to McChrystal and summarily boot the general. After all, he is the Commander in Chief and public insubordination, disrespect or dissent cannot be tolerated among his military.
Instead, he had the SpecOps warrior hightail it to the White House for a face-to-face. Not only did it give the general one last opportunity to explain what he had done (or hadn't), it also gave the president the opportunity to get The Next lined-up.
The Next just happened to be Gen. David Petraeus - the author of the Iraq Surge (George W. Bush's general) - who also had been McChrystal's boss.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...
My longtime colleague, Tunku Varadarajan (in The Daily Beast) writes, "Barack Obama, who has in recent days turned haplessness into an art form, played a masterstroke today, making perhaps the canniest, wiliest, even wisest decision of his generally rudderless presidency. I refer, of course, to his appointment of David Petraeus to the Afghan war command, in place of the Rolling-Stoned Stanley McChrystal. In doing so, Obama has, at a stroke, taken Petraeus out of the 2012 presidential race."
Been there, done that - a previous dressing down of McChrystal by Obama...
Regardless of whatever strategies went into Obama's choice, it's a good one. Petraeus is a brilliant commander with a record of achievement. Even if the president/his team saw the new Afghanistan chief as less of a political threat if he were dealing with Taliban, it was probably the very best choice he could make.
What will be interesting now is to see how much - if any - McChrystal's plans and execution differ from Petraeus'. Since the latter was the former's boss (and is actually thought to be the architect of the overarching strategy), the bet is not will be apparent. He's unlikely to be on the battlefield on SpecOps with his troops (like McChrystal was known to do), but he'll likely get more traction on Capitol Hill - and with allies - than his sometimes combative and seemingly indifferent predecessor did.
Defense Sec. Robert Gates, Obama and Petraeus at today's news conference...
One likely - positive - outcome: it's safe to bet that Petraeus will be able to buy more time now for his troops to beat the Taliban. Originally, 2011 was the start date for withdrawal and it's hard to imagine the U.S. will have vanquished the Islamist militants by then. Petraeus will likely get more support from the Democrats in Congress in an effort to boost Obama, including more time to finish the job we set out on years ago.
Bonus item: the future Commander in Chief at his future general's Iraq hearings. Because he was busy building a personal highlight reel, he didn't really get any questions to Petraeus. Telling/typical...
Last week, Joe “Plugs” Biden appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” to talk about all of the wonderful things the administration is doing.
Among the accomplishments Plugs said Team Obama deserved credit for was…wait…wait…wait…Iraq! Yes, that dusty killing field that General David Petraeus & the Surge essentially cleaned out despite opposition from…wait…wait…wait…the Democrats.
Coupla great guys...
According tothe LA Times, here’s what Joey Plugs had to say:
“I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government. I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.”
Larry King in better days...
Pretty amazing. Especially since the previous administration handed the success to the current one on a silver platter (on the way out).
BTW, during the interview with The World’s Oldest Living Fossil, Biden did not elaborate on what all the administration's other "great achievements" were so far.
Joey Plugs visits Mesopotamia...
What’s really interesting, though, was what happened shortly thereafter when the White House Press Corpse called the administration on Plugs’ claim.
Telling it like it is...
The following is supplied by a source within the Press Room who asked to remain unidentified. (The “Robert” and “MR. GIBBS” is Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The “Q” is an unidentified journalist in the Press Room.)
Q: Robert, the Vice President last night said that Iraq could end up being one of the President's great achievements. Given that the Vice President was in favor of a partial partition of the country and the President opposed the surge that helped stabilize it, how is that one of the President's great achievements?
MR. GIBBS: Well, putting what was broken back together and getting our troops home, which we intend to do in August of this year.
Q : But the Status of Forces Agreement to bring troops home was signed before the President took office.
MR. GIBBS: Something that -- something that I think the political pressure that the President, as a then-candidate, helped to bring about.
Look, I think that we will long debate Iraq. We will long debate whether at a very important moment in our efforts to root out terrorism particularly in Afghanistan and on that border region with Pakistan, whether we took our eye off the ball. I think historians will debate that long after we're gone. I think they will come likely to the conclusion that no single event took our eye off of what needed to be done in order to -- in order to occupy a country that, until we got there, didn’t have a single member of al Qaeda.
So, look, obviously -- look, the Vice President has been deeply involved in fixing the political process there so that elections can be held and so that our troops can come home as scheduled this summer.
Opposite day: Remember the “Bizarro Jerry” episode of “Seinfeld?” In it, the character of Elaine Benes discovers a world that is 180 degrees different from the one she occupies. In the present day, real world, Vice President Joe Biden (D-Amtrak) appears to occupy that bizarre space.
Just the opposite...
When it comes to Afghanistan, Delaware Joe is foursquare against any build-up in Talibanland. In fact, he’s pushing for a drawn-down. We know, based on Mr. Biden’s performance record that the exact opposite should be done.
Let the record speak for itself: “Biden voted against the successful Persian Gulf war of 1991, voted for the Iraq invasion of 2003, proposed dividing Iraq into three sections in 2006 and opposed the additional troops credited by many with turning Iraq around in 2007. ‘When was the last time Biden was right about anything?’ Thomas E. Ricks, a military writer, wrote in a blog on Sept. 24. Mr. Ricks is affiliated with the Center for a New American Security, a research organization founded by Democrats.”
The Lonely Conservative chips in with this additional bit of Biden history: “In his first U.S. Senate campaign in 1972, he called for cutting and running from Vietnam. He later voted to cut off funding for South Vietnam and spoke out against the war. After we did withdraw, communist forces conquered South Vietnam as well as Cambodia, where Pol Pot carried out a campaign of genocide. In the 1980s, Mr. Biden opposed President Ronald Reagan’s national security approach on almost every front, including funding for the Contras in Nicaragua, building missile defenses, and increasing military spending.”
“Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban — or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged — that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can. …But this is not simply an American problem — far from it. It is, instead, an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London and Bali were tied to al Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and in Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan. The safety of people around the world is at stake.”
Just remember: whatever Joe Biden tells you to do when it comes to matters of war, do the exact opposite and you’ll be OK…every single time.
Tens of thousands of American Service Members are deployed in hostile and remote regions of the world, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, and on ships throughout international waters. The physical conditions they must endure are difficult and they may be separated from loved ones for long periods of time.Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces by sending care packages addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed in harm's way.** Operation Gratitude care packages contain food, hygiene products, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support.
Through Collection Drives, Letter Writing Campaigns and Donations of funds for shipping expenses, Operation Gratitudeprovides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. Military in an active, hands-on manner.
Learn more - and help out - by visiting Operation Gratitude's website!
