(By Ray D.)
Here is one for the limousine liberals like Bill Maher and his Eurosnob cousins in the German media who like to call US military personnel "cowardly" for "lobbing cruise missles" from a distance:
This is a story of how ten US citizen soldiers in three Humvees guarding a convoy of trucks fought back against an ambush by dozens (40 to 50) of Iraqi insurgents. Not only did they hold their own despite suffering three wounded, they put at least 26 of the islamo-fascist, Saddamite attackers six feet deep for good. So the next time Bill Maher or German media "experts" decide to open their mouths about the US military, perhaps they ought to talk to these soldiers.
For starters, they should talk to one of the two American women involved in the battle. Just take Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who said of the ambush:
"When we first started taking fire, I just looked to the right and saw seven or eight guys shooting back at us — muzzle flashes. At first, I shot one guy, I saw him fall."
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester: Put a bullet in a terrorist and saw him drop, then helped her nine fellow soldiers defeat an intense ambush by a much larger force and kill over two dozen enemies.
Hmmm...I wonder if the German media will appreciate this sort of woman power. Somehow I doubt it...
Training pays.
Posted by: PacRim Jim | March 26, 2005 at 08:35 AM
I wonder what Alice Schwarzer thinks about this Frauen-Power!
Posted by: lemmy | March 26, 2005 at 08:36 AM
Arnold would call her a manly girl and it would be a compliment.
Posted by: PacRim Jim | March 26, 2005 at 11:39 AM
Oh yeah! Don't misunderestimate Frauen-Power. I've seen a female soldier pick up a Hummer tranny and throw it in the back of a 2.5 ton truck. And, you didn't want to make her angry.
Posted by: James W. | March 26, 2005 at 03:31 PM
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester is a prime example of why women add to our military force. Good for her!
Posted by: GC | March 26, 2005 at 04:34 PM
26 Head cutters sent to their 72 virgins. Well done Sergant Hester!
Posted by: George M | March 26, 2005 at 05:28 PM
@ George
I must be getting old. Where does one start with educating 72 virgins. Hard for me to equate Paradise as being sent back to Middle School.
Posted by: Jeff | March 26, 2005 at 05:48 PM
(OT)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back -- more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a new survey.
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050326/2005-03-26T132941Z_01_L26474730_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-GERMANY-WALL-DC.html
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This reminds me of an incident in a gasthaus near Munich a few years ago. Great place, great people, then it got weird while once we went downstairs for breakfast. It was one of the continental breakfasts - juice, hard rolls, fruit, etc. Just as we were about to enter a group of about 20 or so older Germans barged in. Then cleaned up! Took almost all the food and GLARED at my wife and I like we were dog crap. They were loud and rude. Their clothes looked different than what we were used to seeing in Bavaria - it is hard to describe, except the clothes they were wearing looked about 20 years old. They also had a "hard" look to them. It was that noticeable.
As we checked out an hour or so later, the owner of the gasthaus apologized to my wife and I, explaining that they were East Germans, as if they can't help being rude and pushy because of where they are from. This was about 5 years ago, and I don't know if these chauvanistic attitudes still exist.
Posted by: Lou Minatti | March 26, 2005 at 08:55 PM
Or maybe the attitude isn't chauvanistic, but realistic. Perhaps being pushy and rude is what develops after living under communism for 40+ years.
Posted by: Lou Minatti | March 26, 2005 at 08:58 PM
@ Lou Minatti:
Lou, they probably were Prussian too. That could explain the rudeness.
Have a great Easter Holiday!
Posted by: vs | March 26, 2005 at 10:45 PM
Some individuals, once living a life of privation, become greedy, hoarding and grasping when times are better and there is more offered. It can be a nationality characteristic as well, unfortunately.
Posted by: jane m | March 27, 2005 at 01:51 AM
The poster may be appropriately appreciative of the bravery of soldiers under fire. That was not the context of Bill Maher's comments. They had to do with the reflexive use of the epithet "coward" for what should have been called evil, dastardly, reprehensible, and so forth. If a general were to say, "You should not underestimate the capabilities and determination of the enemy," he would simply be stating a truism. When Bill Maher said it in his admittedly Maherish way, the right wingers took it out of context, as they are wont to do, and used it to attack his career. I wonder how many of the U.S. forces in Iraq were agreeable to calling the enemy "cowardly" after the battle of Fallujah?
Posted by: Bob | March 27, 2005 at 04:25 AM
Bill Maher?????......That great piercing intellectual light of......Blah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HAAAAAAAAAA Ha Ha Ha HA HA choke?!?! Gasp!!!!...HAAAA Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Posted by: SwampFox | March 27, 2005 at 07:33 AM
And the man isn't even funny.
Posted by: SwampFox | March 27, 2005 at 07:36 AM
I love that the ones who got away have to go back and explain that the ambush failed because they got their asses handed to them by women. I wonder if you can get kicked out of the jihadi clubhouse for that...
Posted by: Doug | March 27, 2005 at 08:38 AM
In re Bill Maher: It is not courage to kill yourself (and a fair number of women and children with you) if you truly believe you're going directly to an all-virgin orgy in heaven because of it. It's homocidal selfishness.
And the term "politically incorrect" was a term of art used exclusively by the campus left (without irony, I might add) to describe non-liberal thought on issues like abortion and affirmative action. I know because I used to use the term, too. The phrase didn't take on a more general meaning until right-wing critics (like Dinesh D'Souza, the man behind the Bill Maher dust-up, by the way) started to document freedom of speech abuses in the 90s.
Posted by: Sean | March 27, 2005 at 10:50 AM
@ Bob,
I would call kidnapping unarmed civilians and beheading them, along with holding an entire city of civilians hostage "cowardly." That is precisely what the fanatics who had to be extricated from Falluja did.
As far as what the US military called the enemy in Falluja...I think the proper terms are: 1. dead 2. captured 3. ran away to commit cowardly terror acts elsewhere
---Ray D.
PS Let's not forget the timing of Maher's comments, shortly after 9/11. His comments were absolutely inappropriate.
Posted by: Ray D. | March 27, 2005 at 05:03 PM
kudos to the tenn. n.g.!
Posted by: henry | March 28, 2005 at 08:09 AM
Ah - the Bill Maher "Bravery" comments re the 9-11 murderers
I do wonder - would Maher so describe a fanatical SS man who stayed behind and continued killing prisoners as the Russian tansk were approaching the gates of Birkenau in Jan 1945?
After all - such a man would know he was facing certain death in his choice - yet he would continue to kill those innocents even knowing it would mean his own death in moments.
So by the Maher standard - is our hypothetical SS man to be called "brave"?
I do wonder how Maher would answer that one.
Posted by: Pogue | March 28, 2005 at 06:57 PM
Another Photo
http://www.armytimes.com/Photos/index.php?d=20050325&i=2
Posted by: fmj | March 29, 2005 at 10:33 AM
Just another part of the vast right-wing plot to turn guys like Maher into girlie-men...
Posted by: Cassandra | March 29, 2005 at 02:14 PM
How humiliating, especially for an Arab, to be vanquished by a woman!
Posted by: James | March 30, 2005 at 12:54 PM
She's THE BOSS!
Posted by: MGS 3 | June 17, 2005 at 04:48 AM
I am very happy to say that I went to High School with Leigh Ann here in Bowling Green, Ky. She is a great person, and I am very proud she is serving our country! Congratulations Leigh Ann!
Posted by: Jon Smallwood | June 18, 2005 at 01:09 AM