Live Fire with Chuck Holton

The future is bright in Baghdad.

On Saturday, I’ll be boarding the first of four flights on my long-overdue return to Baghdad. It’s been two years since I was embedded with the 42nd Infantry Division in Tikrit, Samarra and Baqouba and I can’t wait to see how these places have changed.

You may have heard that things are going well, despite the media’s insistence on finding the cloud in the silver lining. What you may not have heard is just HOW well things are progressing across that war-ravaged country.

For instance, if your friend called today with tickets to an upcoming Philadelphia Eagles football game, would you refuse to go along because you consider that city to be too dangerous? What if you found out that more U.S. Citizens were murdered in Philadelphia (30) in October than were killed in all of Iraq? (28) If you don’t believe me, see the previous post about media bias.

Rather than reporting those kinds of numbers, the left-leaning media is digging deep to come up with stories like this one, hailing 2007 as the “deadliest year for U.S. troops.” Imagine the warm fuzzies that story provides to the enemies of our country.

It’s amusing now, though, to watch even traitorous U.S. politicians scrambling to appear to side with the victors, just in case.

Another side of this story that you may not have heard: thousands of American citizens are coming together every day online and on their knees to pray for the city of Baghdad. About the time that President Bush announced the “surge” last spring, Wayne Dillard decided to do something big to give it an extra push. He started the Baghdad Prayer Patrol to get concerned believers around the world praying for peace in that troubled city. Every day the BPP targets one specific troubled neighborhood in Baghdad and prays for the people there – one of the best uses of Google Earth I’ve ever seen. And it appears to be working miracles – even U.S. commanders on the ground are astounded at the success of the “surge,” saying that it is surpassing their most optimistic predictions.

Consider joining the Baghdad prayer patrol – it only takes one minute a day to contend for the people of Iraq, and God is listening.

At any rate, I’ll be spending the next three weeks on the ground in Iraq, and will be calling them like I see them on this blog every chance I get. Stay tuned.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoTBpTlsiA]

This piece about Donny Rakes aired today on the 700 club. I shot, produced and edited this while we were at home in West Virginia last month.

Donny and his wife will be working with Brian’s Safehouse in Beckley.

“Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980.” That was the lede in an Associated Press article November 17. Mainstream media outlets were quick to jump on the bandwagon – NBC’s Brian Williams gushed “the number of desertions from the U.S. Army is way up in the six years we’ve been at war.”
Not surprisingly, there’s a whole lot more to the story. In fact, troop desertions remain a fraction of one percent, and have now only returned to pre-9/11/01 levels. Desertions in the Marine Corps, the service which has arguably carried the lions’ share of the burden for the war in Iraq, are down. Military recruiters are exceeding their goals each year, and reenlistment rates, especially in combat zones, are way up.And think about this…these recruiting and retention numbers are better despite the fact that a growing number of parents and guidance counselors are discouraging their children from nobly serving our country, something which I find shameful.

Read more

It’s time to announce my next book project – over the last few months I’ve had the distinct priviledge of working with Oliver North on his new book, American Heroes, with the official title of editor.

The book is a history of the Global War on Terror as told by the men and women who were, and still are fighting it.

Forget what the pundits say. Don’t listen to the whiners and critics – this will be the real stories of the Men and Women who have volunteered to stand in the gap for our country. It’ll be chock-full of photographs, like a scrapbook from the war.

American Heroes will be out in May, 2008. To see a full-sized version of the book’s jacket, including the back cover copy, click here.

,
originally uploaded by andrewlee1967.

Probably not.

ANOTHER respected meteorologist decries global warming.

“It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create in allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the ‘research’ to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus… I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party.

[Meteorology] is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it… There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril… In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling.” —John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel

Ty Ziegel.

They did it for you.
They didn’t want to get hurt, but they knew it could happen. They went anyway.
Some said it was a worthless cause. They knew better. They still do.
To remember them is to honor their noble choice – your freedom over their comfort. Your comfort over their youth. Your safety for their own.
Like Christ, they wagered their lives to bring freedom.
They did it for you.

…to Petra, that is. I can’t believe it’s been three years since my good friend Dean Peters (of Blogs4God.com) and I traveled to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the first time on a press trip. It was ten eye-opening days of walking through Biblical history that I’ll never forget. Some of the photos of my trip are here.

Well, Dean scored a return trip, and this time has been busily video-blogging every day as they explore places like Mount Nebo, Jerash and Gedara. But the rose-red city of Petra will always be my favorite, and one of the most adventurous places I’ve ever been. So check out Dean’s videos when you get a chance.

Maybe someday I’ll get to return as well. But if I do, I’d better bring my wife…she’s not going to miss out on the Dead Sea Spa a second time without serious repercussions.

Here’s a video I finally got around to uploading. It’s from one of our expeditions this year to the island of Coiba, off the Pacific coast of Panama. For those of you coming here from the Panama Eagle, welcome…and enjoy this “bonus feature” from this month’s paper.
Click here to watch the video.