The second annual Milblog Conference kicked off today in Arlington, Va., with a surprise intro from President Bush.
Speaking via a pre-recorded message before a roomful of eager online pioneers, Bush stressed the importance of success in Iraq and thanked the inhabitants of the blogosphere for their efforts in getting their personal stories out.
Beaming smiles and giddy claps greeted the presidents virtual address from the largely patriotic crew of cutting-edge blog authors. Index fingers tapped furiously as the milbloggers produced live updates for their sites, no doubt showing off their new clout in this brave new virtual world.
The Bush address was followed by a similarly cheery update from Rear Adm. Mike Fox, who helps honcho the public affairs shop in Baghdad. He explained to the bloggers eager for war stories that the new counterinsurgency strategy is beginning to push back the evil and diabolical enemy America faces.
Were the good guys in this, he said to whoops and claps.
Keep a closer eye on the Milblogger conference with updated feeds and live streams at one of several links, including:
Bruce McQuain of Qando
Kevin Whalen of Pundit Review
Lorie Byrd of Wizbang
Streiff of Red State
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
The chief PAO in embattled Baghdad, which is still unsecured in “liberated Iraq” after four years, thinks the Iraqi occupation is going great!
No surprise. Perhaps he can convince the troops.
Zogby poll published February 2006:
An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows.
Or maybe in the last year he has, you think?
Guess you didn’t get the subtlety. Read some Milbank from the Post, then repost a comment.
Christian
…and, oh, whenever you want to accuse me of cheerleading, refer back to this story from yesterday.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,134624,00.html?wh=news
Don’t listen to the nattering nabobs of negativity, Christian. These same kind of people were standing on streetcorners in Minneapolis not long ago calling Bush a terrorist on a campaign visit here. Looking at some of them who looked like they badly needed a haircut, a shave and/or a bath (kind of like the Taliban), they sure had the gall to be using that kind of accusation. It doesn’t take much imagination to think of them with AK-47′s in their hand and shouting “Allehu Akbar” as they blast “eeviiiil” Republicans with bullets. They are ridiculous. Now they’re polling the troops to see what they think? How far will you go to help the terrorists win, eh Don Bacon? What’s next? Raising cash to send them weapons?
Max,
The Iraqis resisting the brutal US military occupation of their country don’t need my help, from the looks. But the US troops on their third or fourth rotation are getting a bit weary and suicide, divorce and PTSD are real problems, so have you considered contributing? If you’re too old to enlist then Halliburton has about ten pages of job openings on their website. Do it, Max, for us and to help our suffering military. They need motivated people like you over there, Max, because things are getting a bit sticky with the splurge resulting in so many casualties which the PAO thinks is a sign of progress, I guess.
When is Defense Tech going to get back to defense tech? Reading chickenhawk posts is boring.
Don,
You’re not going to convince anyone with that attitude. That’s not an argument, it’s just ridicule (same goes for you, Max).
It seems to me that the one thing Defense Tech always has and should embody is unwavering support of the American man and woman in uniform. Christian may be a bit more “pro-mission” than the old management, but at least he holds to this principle. Your bitter sarcasm and melodramatic lamentations do not.
It was a great time to be had by all, we were all laughing when Andi said “and for our opening address here is The President of the United States”. Most of us thought it was a joke (being milbloggers), you could have felt the jaws dropping as he started talking.
Speaking of “chicken hawk posts”, Don, I’ve spent six years on active duty in the Navy, and over a year and a half on deployments, some of which my ship was engaged in actual combat against Islamic terrorists. Does that make me a chicken hawk? How about you?
Stefan,
You’re confused. I did not ridicule Max, I merely suggested that rather than just being pro-war he ought to get in the war. That’s sensible, isn’t it? Makes sense to me. Actually Max ridicules himself with his sophomoric talk about commies and the Taliban–such an expert he is.
In fact Max ridicules opponents of the war. They need a haircut, a shave and a bath. How disgusting they are. Actually he’s talking about a majority of the American public and a majority of the Iraqi public as well as a majority of the troops. That’s a lot of folks to ridicule. Do they all need a shave? Hah.
Stefan, being pro-mission is not pro-troop when we’re talking about an invasion based on lies and a brutal occupation based on lack of planning. The troops deserve better–check out the latest issue of the Armed Forces Journal for an article by LTC Yingling. But I wouldn’t expect a squid to know anything about land combat, would you?
Glad to see you have the “ad hominem” attack all down, Don. In your next posts, I’d like for you to work in a “straw man”, or perhaps an “appeal to authority”.
I am used to this as a blog with journalism. Andjournalist should not support their government’s policy at all cost. They should therefore also not support every war of their nation. They should report teh truth as much as possible. Comments should be marked and not be part of the news themselves.
Concerning the war; the majority of about everything is against its. Iraqis, Americans, Europeans, Asians, Africans, young, elderly, soldier, civilian. The only reason for continuing it is that it’s so damn difficult to leave a war without losing face or winning.
But I bet another president would understand that there’s not much face to lose anyway.
By the way; I consider this as an international english-language blog – kind of for all allies. If this shall be a U.S.-american-only blog, please mark it with the flag somewhere.
Don,
I noticed that you didn’t answer my question. True, a sailor (or a squid) doesn’t know as much about land combat as a soldier; but I wonder, have you spent ANY time at all in the service? And if not, how does that make you more qualified to know about combat of any kind, let alone land combat? I’m waiting…
Oh, and might want to rename your Blog to:
“in DEFENSE of Bush’s blunders TECH”
and Truth, Justice and the American Way can take a backseat, while you “Patriots” wave the flag from the sidelines and cheer-on your own ideological delusion for a few more years, huh?
schmuck
1st. Mil blogs are great and I am happy to see a little support from them from the top when it feels like the DOD is pushing them down.
2nd. About the only way we are going to win hearts and minds is if we fight on all fronts, the net is great and blogs are awesome for this kind of thing. We have to fill the net with out point of view so they can all see it too.
3rd. In Iraq as much as many of us would like to just pull out, remember we broke it so we bought it. We need to stick it out or it will only be worst, anyone that thinks otherwise is not really paying attention to what is happening in Iraq.
A pleasure meeting you…
“Please give us the oppotunity to spread the neocon imperial plan. We’ll happily surrender our lives in order to “free” others”.
Orwell Rolls in his Grave
http://www.barstowclub.org
http://www.barstowclub.org
So I take my all cheap kamas to help you, because it is unworthy much money.
The chief PAO in embattled Baghdad, which is still unsecured in “liberated Iraq” after four years, thinks the Iraqi occupation is going great!
No surprise. Perhaps he can convince the troops.
Zogby poll published February 2006:
An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows.
But others actually need to practice the level laboriously from the first floor, make cheap Hellgate gold to buy the equipment laboriously, all the times upgrade to the high rank.
So I spent some mabinogi gold to study. After school study the lovable gray wolf became collapses at the first blow.
All imvu gold are used up by you because your waste.
Perhaps that I should not accept your gift and your Habbo Coins.
Finally, I gained have sufficed the LOTRO Gold, had the family. We were in together finally.
To buy NosTale Gold win you must not only use your strength as a team, with the new features they plan to add cheap NosTale gold late.
HAHA!You gotta be kiding me here man…Someone is
noding like crazy on my id…WIN pass through technology and bridging and it’s connected to milblogs.com….Since it doesn’t accept real input.You can have your milblogs…