A busy week has kept the posting down here this week.  There have been a few items that I’ve wanted to comment on so here goes. 

Iraqi offensive: Operation Matador continues.  Rumors abound regarding the health of insurgent leader Zarqawi.  Check out Winds of Change for a great roundup.  My take is that bad guys are dying in large numbers and that’s good.  It still appears many foreign fighters are causing a fair portion of the damage in Iraq to this day.  I don’t think it would hurt if a stray bomb were to accidentally hit well inside the Syrian border or the Iranian border for that matter.   No, I haven’t forgotten about Saudi Arabia where there continues to be way too much support for extremist.  However we do have some in roads in that country and a US military approach is probably not the best option there. 

BRAC: The Base Realignment and Closer list is out and like every one of these list before this one it has stirred up many communities.  The effects of losing a major or even minor military base can be huge.  Local economies often rely heavily on the military presence for their survival.  In places where the military is the major employer the loss of jobs can ruin a town.  The other side of the closures is they do return enormous amounts of money back to the Government.  A military base is extremely expensive to run.  This money could go into funding items the troops actually need.  This will be a fight like always with local and state officials making every effort to keep the bases in their areas open. 

Disclosure of Classified or sensitive material:  Again someone in the Government has disclosed information that is not meant to be released.  Democrat senator Harry Reid spoke of an FBI background report the other day as if it’s ok to release this information.  It is not ok and there are rules in place for the Senate to discourage such releases.  In their desperation many in the Democrat party continue to disregard the law in an effort to “WIN.”  The most frustrating issue is that there seems to be no punishment for those whether Democrats or Republicans who violate basic security laws.  Remember former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.  He stole classified documents by stuffing them in his pants and socks.  He lost he’s clearance for three years and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.  Not much of a punishment by any standard. 

Current administrations will always have an advantage in classified material due to having de-classification authority.   

Our leaders may fight over policy and ideology but the national interest and security of the country must come before these battles.  Those that can’t put the Nation first need to be removed and in some cased jailed as any normal citizen would be.