Live Fire with Chuck Holton

Good news from Iraq too often gets “stuffed in the trunk” by the Mainstream Media, just like the hapless college student in the story below.

It’s important to note that these Iraqi policemen did not seek nor require any help from American forces, and only alerted us about the incident after the fact. Because that’s the way a functioning sovereign country works…

BAGHDAD, January 13, 2008 – A high-speed chase ended in a life-saving discovery when Iraqi National Police pulled over three extremists and found a kidnapping
victim bound and gagged in the trunk of their car Jan. 2.
The driver and two passengers in the car were arrested after
they attempted to run a police checkpoint near Sadr City. Officers with
the 3rd Battalion, 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division gave chase,
and eventually forced them to a stop. When the National Police
approached the vehicle, they heard thumping sounds coming from inside
the trunk. When they opened it, they found a person inside.
The victim, a 24-year-old college student, said the criminal
militia had stopped him at an illegal checkpoint and demanded to know if he was Sunni or Shia. When he did not answer fast enough, they grabbed him. The victim was severely beaten.
When they were stopped, the militia members apparently tried to intimidate the police officers with their militia connections, said Capt. Michael Norman, a U.S. military advisor for the 3rd Battalion, 8th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Division. The policemen ignored their threats and arrested them, Norman said.

I quit watching the news years ago, and now use aggregators to keep abreast of what’s happening. I find it helps me be more objective and optimistic about the world.

As we move into 2008, I believe there are some trends taking place that should give us reason to hope. While the world might be going to heck in a handbasket, there are still many things to be optimistic about, not the least of which is the knowledge that a Sovereign, living God has his hand on your life, and loves you deeply. But if that weren’t enough (and it is!), here are some other positive trends:

• Conservatives are still far out-breeding liberals in the U.S. – this means that in a generation’s time, this country could become far more conservative than it is today.

Christians are adopting more babies than everyone else – this doubles the effect above, making a probable conservative from a probable liberal, and more importantly, saves one life while blessing another. If you haven’t adopted or done foster care, you are missing something wonderful. This isn’t to say that Christians are all conservatives, but in general, they are more concerned with issues like the nuclear family, stewardship and charity.

• On that note, Americans are still, by far, the most charitable group of people on the planet, having donated around $300 billion in 2007. And this bodes well for us. Almost eighty percent of that was given by individuals, not corporations, which in and of itself would set America apart as the world’s most charitable nation.

Our founding fathers espoused as part of our culture “the pursuit of happines.” Fortunately, a large part of the American population still understands that the path to achieve that reality is found in helping others along. As one U.S. Marine in Iraq was heard to say, “We’re Americans. That’s what we do.”

• More people are telecommuting – this bodes well for the nuclear family, I think, (I know from personal experience) and certainly should make you happy if you care about the environment.

The more people who work from home, the less fuel we’ll burn. And the less fuel we burn, the less money we’ll put in the pockets of those intent on our destruction.

I really think telecommuting as well as homeschooling (or public schooling at home, if you must) is a large part of the answer to kicking the oil habit. Hopefully, the side-effects will be a closer knit family.

• Enabling these changes will be the growth of internet speed and availability worldwide. This is something to be happy about. Already one sixth of the world’s population is wired – an astounding number of people when you think about it – and the number of people online is predicted to double in the next ten years. I bet it goes quicker than that.

The internet is becoming more and more ubiquitous already. My travels in 2007 took me to some very remote places – Burma, Iraq and hurricane-ravaged Mexico, to name a few. But I rarely had to go a day without checking email.

This trend will continue, despite the efforts of dictatorial regimes to quell its spread. The internet brings choice wherever it goes, and choice is the antithesis of opression. It also makes it easier to hold the media accountable for not providing balance in their reporting.

Lastly, hope can be found in the most unlikely of places – terrorism. As I recently witnessed first-hand in Iraq – every time a terrorist organization victimizes a civilian populace, they turn that populace against them. It’s not even paradoxical – a group of people who thrives on barbaric cowardice will come to be seen as cowardly barbarians. As Americans, as we continue to give compassionately as mentioned above, the terrorists lose and we win.

Bottom line, love conquers all. Be loving.

While I was gone in Iraq, CBN aired the story of my friend Glenn Carlson on the 700 club. Shooting the piece was a blast – I got to play around in a kayak and rappel on the same day.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5SGhX5Z4o]

seabees pose with Oliver North

Originally uploaded by ChuckHolton

Commander Jim Liss and his son Ryan, both U.S. Navy Seabees, happened to run into each other in Kuwait on December 21. One was leaving Iraq after a six-month tour in Tikrit, and the other was headed into Iraq for his first tour with Naval Aviation. It was by sheer chance that these LaCrosse, Wisconsin natives were able to meet and spend a couple hours together just a few days shy of Christmas. For the elder Liss, especially, it was an emotional reunion, judging by the bone-crushing hug his son got when they first met.

These are the kind of people who make me proud to be an American.

with Matt Sanchez

Originally uploaded by ChuckHolton

On the way out of Iraq, I bumped into Matt Sanchez, a writer for WorldNetDaily who has been covering Iraq for some time. Matt is originally from California, but currently lives in New York, and may possibly be the last conservative living north of the Chesapeake bay. So spending months in Iraq and Afghanistan is probably a respite for this guy. Anyway, he wrote a very nice article on WND about Oliver North, which I highly recommend. While you’re there, read some of his other articles, too. Matt’s got a good handle on what’s happening over there.

As I wrap up my thoughts from this most recent embed in Iraq, I’ve put together my ten most memorable moments from the trip. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Listening to a breathless Iraqi Captain describe confirming that a dump truck turned in by a local citizen was indeed wired to explode. When we complimented him on his bravery, he simply said, “We came here to fight, not to sit.”
2. Watching a U.S. Army medic bandage the finger of a little Iraqi boy. It’s not that the wound was so grievous, but that the medic was willing to take the time even for something as small as a band-aid.
3. Walking through Jurf-A-Sukhr without my Kevlar helmet, haggling over the price of bananas with the owner of a shop who sixty days ago wouldn’t have been able to sell his produce on that street due to violence. It was an intensely human moment – and wonderful to be able to do something so mundane among the people of this war torn country.
4. Spending a night atop a roof along the limit of the U.S. advance – the other side of the street was still considered “no go” Al Qaeda Country. Sharing a meal with the “Concerned Local Citizens” by lamplight, learning that they were both Shia and Sunni, and had until recently been the enemy.
5. Watching an Iraqi citizen shinny up a disused lightpole with an Iraqi flag clamped in his teeth. Listening to his compatriots cheer as the flag was unfurled atop the pole. A supremely hopeful moment.
6. Helping a combined team of U.S. Soldiers and Iraqi citizens form a human chain and pass sandbags from one to the other as they fortified a checkpoint – providing a perfect picture of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation.
7. Standing atop a windswept hill overlooking the mountainous desolation of the Iranian border. Seeing the hand-dug trenches stretch away to the horizon in both directions as a chilling monument to the miseries of the Iran/Iraq war.
8. Listening to the varied stories of the interpreters that I worked with throughout the trip. One was an Iraqi whose father had been murdered by Saddam’s henchmen. Another was an Iranian who had been tortured by his own government and had escaped from prison and then was smuggled across the border into turkey by friends. These kinds of stories are a constant reminder of just how soft I really am, and renew my commitment to share the wealth I’ve been given with those less fortunate.
9. Attending a reenlistment ceremony at Al Faw palace in Baghdad, where almost 300 soldiers of the third infantry division volunteered to continue this fight. Though most of them received bonuses in the neighborhood of $6,000 per year for five years, the ones I interviewed had deeper reasons for reenlisting. One sergeant told me, “the army changed my life, and I love what it’s done for me.” Many of those who reenlisted did so with “indefinite” contracts, meaning they’ve pledged to go all the way and serve at least twenty years. These men and women believe in what they are doing.
10. Watching the live feed from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle as a hellfire missile dropped out of the sky and vaporized the vehicle of a known bad guy as it sat in his driveway. Imagining what must have gone through the man’s mind when his car disappeared in a ball of flame for no apparent reason. Realizing that while the commander I was with had the go-ahead to blow up the insurgent himself, he chose to bide his time in order to save the man’s wife and children, who were in his house with him. I doubt the terrorist would have given any of us the same consideration. We are a truly honorable people.