Rambling On

I wish the rain would stop so I could play in my garden, oh well, it means a pretty spring. Bored and housebound I checked on Iraq and here are a few items I found.
From General Casey, courtesy of Defend America
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BAGHDAD, March 6, 2006 — The crisis generated by the bombing of the Golden Dome in Samarra has subsided. As I said last week, Iraq has passed a crucial test in their journey to becoming a democratic country. There is a terrorist threat here that will stop at nothing to undermine the formation of this constitutionally elected government, a government of national unity and a government that that represents all Iraqis. They tried to make the bombing of the Golden Dome mosque the straw that broke the camel’s back and it failed. Iraqis rose to the occasion. Have no doubt, there are still sectarian tensions that the Iraqis will have to work through. However, throughout this sensitive period the Multi-National Force - Iraq will continue to monitor the situation and support the government of Iraq.

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And this.
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By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service


WASHINGTON, March 9, 2006 – The people of Iraq are rising up against an insurgency bent on derailing democracy in the country, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said today.
"The people of Iraq are uniting against the insurgency," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said during a news conference from Baghdad. "Out in al Anbar, the terrorists and foreign fighters have become the enemy to the people."

People in that province have collectively turned against Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his network, Lynch said. Seven of Zarqawi's leaders have been killed in Anbar since September, and insurgent access to Ramadi has been physically blocked, he added

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We are also removing the means for jihadist murders to carry out their evil plots as reports from Centcom show like this one.
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THIRTY CACHES DISCOVERED IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS

Release Date: 3/10/2006

Release Number: 06-03-01PA

Description: BAQUBAH -- Over the course of 11 days, Soldiers with the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the 5th Iraqi Army Division and the Patriot Military Transition Team with 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, have together discovered 30 hidden weapons caches.
Each discovered cache prevents anti-Iraqi forces from wounding or killing innocent civilians and military members. One of the caches was found after a detainee provided its whereabouts during an Iraqi Army intelligence interrogation. It also happened to come out of the same field the detainee was arrested from, which had already been searched and produced an earlier cache.
“This type of operation denies the anti-Iraqi forces resources. It costs them their money, it costs them their mobility and it costs them their time,” said Maj. Thomas Baccardi, the S-3 operations officer in charge for 3rd HBCT, 4ID, Task Force Band of Brothers. “Efforts in this regard disrupt their tempo and facilitates our ability to target their nodes.”

Total items seized from all 30 caches were:

Seven AK 47s
One Russian PKC machine gun
One Russian RPK machine gun
One Fabricated sniper rifle
One Rifle with a silencer
Seven Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers
Three 60 mm mortar systems
Two 82 mm mortar tubes
46 RPG anti-personnel rounds
21 RPG anti-tank rounds
14 60 mm mortar rounds
Four 82 mm mortar rounds
Two 120 mm mortar rounds,
20 SPG (anti-tank) nine rounds
Nine 90 mm rockets
Two 3.5-inch high explosive rockets
187 M6 mortar fuses
Seven MP6 mortar fuses
13 90 mm rocket primers,
Two 40-pound bags of propellant,
Five Assorted hand grenades,
Two Unknown rounds,
50 Rounds of PKC ammunition
1000 Rounds of AK ammunition
Nine Trip flares
Three Flak vests
Five Scopes,
Three License plates
35 feet of IED wire,
14 Assorted radios,
12 IED control boards,
Six IED timers,
10 Black brick 5 x 7 with batteries
30 AK 47 magazines
10 AK 47 ammunition vests
One RPG back pack
One Set of binoculars
One Vehicle periscope
One 60 mm mortar level (and)
One 60 mm mortar sight

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE AT EDWARD.LOOMIS@US.ARMY.MIL, JEFFREY.ALLEN1@US.ARMY.MIL, TERRY.L.WEBSTER@US.ARMY.MIL AND CHRISTOPHER.PEAVY@US.ARMY.MIL.

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Sounds like some fun stuff, speaking of guns I am looking for some opinions on which .300 mag. load is best. input on gun smiths is welcome as well. I like what I have learned of Dakota Arms above the traditional makers. If I have any historic carbine experts that happen to click on, I need some help IDing a .35 cal. carbine made on a browning patent , it looks like a browning shotgun from the chamber back, it has a double barrel design different from the sks, which is the closest match I can find so far. My dad's was stolen by his widow's son, water under the bridge, though I would like to find another one.
I have to close with the incomperable Mark Steyn.
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This week's Voldemort Award goes to the New York Times for their account of a curious case of road rage in North Carolina:
"The man charged with nine counts of attempted murder for driving a Jeep through a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last Friday told the police that he deliberately rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle so he could 'run over things and keep going.' "
The driver in question was Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.
Whoa, don't jump to conclusions. The Times certainly didn't. As the report continued: