Call Them What They Are

A great idea from Mark Levin: Call them "anticonstitutionalists". I'm a big fan of descriptive nomenclature.

Speaking of which, if you have a hard time understanding your anticonstitutionalist friends when they speak, here's a handy Democratic Nomination Translation Table.

Return of the Warrior Poet

Mudville Gazette has links to some recordings made by soldiers in the field. Amazing what you can do with a guitar, a laptop, and a cheap mic hung in a tent. Go listen. If you can keep your eyes dry while listening to My Pretty Ones you're a better man than I am.

Coming Home

A roundup of the past month's good news from Afghanistan.

"It was the first time we have ever seen an election," says Barak. "It was good to see people choosing their own leader." Rasoli adds: "I know when I go back that people are going to say bad things about America, about Jews and Christians. . . . I am going to tell them no. They are wrong. It is not like that."

Perhaps we need more such exchanges to build understanding between Afghanistan and the West. Since we can't all swap places with a family in Kabul for a month or two, it would be good to have comprehensive and balanced media reporting to build a clear picture of the realities, challenges and successes, not just disjointed glimpses when something goes wrong. Here are the past five weeks' worth of stories from Afghanistan that you might have missed.

Drivers Wanted

Note that at VW driver is apparently German for lap dancer. Auf viedersen, Herr Schröder.

Stay the Course

Michael Ledeen references an "enormously important post" from the Belmont Club.

The fourth SEAL, who survived, evaded superior numbers until he escaped. Sixteen more Special Operations soldiers died in an attempt to reinforce the recon team when their MH-47 was shot down. The US response to the loss of the recon team was not to run but insert hundreds of troops into the area to find the missing men and possibly to complete the unfinished mission. The Al Qaeda might ask themselves what manner of men these are, who fight to the death rather than surrender, and who though injured evade over high and cold mountains until they have outdistanced their unwounded pursuers. It's not an idle question. One of Osama Bin Laden's strategic assumptions when he wrote contemptuously of the US in his 1996 fatwa was that he was facing cowards

Read the whole thing.

The Same Old, Same Old...

VDH delivers an anatomy of the London bombings, and a reminder of how this war is being faught by the enemy.

Look for the same scripted crocodile tears and “concern” from the Middle East’s illegitimate leaders, even as much of the Islamic Street takes a secret delight in the daring of the jihadists, and the governments sense relief that the target was Westerners and not themselves.

Anticipate Western leaders condemning the terrorists in the same breadth as they call for “eliminating poverty” and “bringing them to justice” — as if the jihadists and their patrons are mere wayward and impoverished felons.

In the short term, Bush and Blair will appear as islands in the storm amid an angry and anguished public. But as 7/7 fades, as did 9/11, expect them to become even more unpopular, as the voices of appeasement assure us that if they just go away, maybe so will the terrorists.

It is our task, each of us according to our station, to speak the truth to all these falsehoods, and remember that we did not inherit a wonderful civilization just to lose it to the Dark Ages.