Cheap Flight International

Last last minute deals on air fare? My wife and I would like to travel somewhere this weekend. She gets off of work today at 5pm and we are willing to go to the airport, with our bags packed and fly pretty much anywhere. I remember a long time ago, different flights would DEEPLY discount their tickets if you were there like an hour before take off. Do they still do that? Can anyone recommend how I could go about getting the cheapest flight prices for this weekend? way! they use to be called X-fares and they were primarily used by college kids and transient types that could fly at the drop of the hat. my buddy flew somewhere for $99 when the ticket was orginially $400. sure, he had to wear a flight attendant uniform or something, but who cares.

IS IT CHEAPER TO BUY AIR PLANE TICKETS TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IN ADVANCE OR LAST MINUTE? i will be going to the dominican republic once again in march and would like to know if it is cheaper to buy the ticket now or last minute. where can i find deals or cheap prices? i do not need accommodations just the flight. i live in canada.

Cheap last minute or standby air tickets? I'd love to show up at the local airport and get a real 'deal' for a departing flight that has empty seats. Doesn't matter where it's going. I'm told this isn't possible as people would do this all of the time rather than buying regular tickets. Yet, it makes sense to me that if the plane's leaving shortly with empty seats, the airline would rather get something than nothing. Anybody know of any airlines flying out of anywhere in the US that will do this?

Any penalties for skipping a connecting flight? I am looking for last minute deals on air fares this weekend to Chicago and the best price I can find is a connecting flight thru Chicago: NY to Chicago to Cleveland. Will I be penalized in any way if I book this flight and then just walk out of the Chicago airport? I have an important flight in two weeks (with another airline) and I don't want to cause any holdups on that flight. What if I just tell them in Chicago that I have decided to arrange alternate transportation plans from the airport? This is a one-way trip. My return plans are not yet set. I will probably take the greyhound or a different air carrier back from a different destination.

I am going to London in the mid July. Any tip how can I save money on air a ticket? Is it true that prices generally rise close to the date of flight? Any particular day of the week is preferable? Last minute deals? Thanks!

Is paying $500 for two one way flights to, and from Europe a good deal? I am anxiously awaiting a return trip to Europe after Christmas. I will be going for two weeks, sadly it cant be longer, but booked two one way flights, costing $500 total. Is this a good price? I was going to wait, but chances are the fares will increase, and I dont want to wait for any last minute deals. I like to know way in advance. 1st Flight Boston to London Virgin Atlantic $240 Non Stop 12/27 2nd Flight Dublin to Los Angeles Air Lingus $260 Non Stop 1/12 These prices are after taxes. I think I got a decent deal.

Holiday idea's...? In the beggining of august i'm flying out to New York to meet my boyfriend (who lives in Vancouver) for about 5 days and than i'm getting a coach to Penn State uni to study for a few months. It would be good to fly out to NY but to fly back from State College in Pennsylvania, but to do that i would have to get single air tickets..... Is it cheaper to get a return to NY than to get 2 single flights?? Plus i'm not sure whether you can buy single tickets with immigration control etc and a student visa? Is it cheaper to get last minute deals on flights or to book in advance? We're not sure to either book a hotel with one of our flights so it's a package thing or if it's cheaper to book a hotel room seperately or to go out there and just look for a B&B; if they do them out there? We want to stay some where fairly decent, preferably a hotel but what's the best way to get it as cheap as possible?

Opinion Poll: What would you do in this Flight Attendant situation? You are a flight attendant. It is Christmas Eve, and there is chaos all around. The winter storm is almost nation-wide, and the delays have been maddening. You feel sorry for the ticket agents dealing with angry passengers. For most of the day, you have been dealing with passengers who are generally happy; between the time that they have made it on the flight and are going home, and the time they find out their luggage has been lost. You are well rested. Despite full hotels the company had managed to secure rooms for you and your fellow crewmembers, but you heard other crews were not so fortunate. This 5-hour cross-country flight will bring all the crewmembers home. You promised your 6 and 7 year old kids that Santa would come through, that you would be home for Christmas... but you should have been home 3 days ago. Repeated cancelled flights and last minute scheduling changes has led to this unfortunate situation. You are the in-charge flight attendant, there are six others on board. They are mostly new-hires, not senior enough to take these days off. Then again, you couldn't get these days off either. You have been together for the past five days. Today in particular has been very long, this will be your third flight. Your duty time is about to run out. You already received an extension, but that too is running out. You have been on this plane trying to depart for the past 4 hours now. The plane had been deiced, but weather came in. The pilots waited for the weather to clear, but needed to be deiced again. Then sitting in line to depart for so long burning gas, the plane needed to be refueled. Then deiced again. Once again you are in line to depart. You look at your watch. That's it. If you took off right now and the flight time was all timely, you would arrive 1 minute over your duty time. You would be knowingly violating company policy. You may also be violating federal air regulations as well, but you don't know for sure. You look up at a fellow flight attendant. She too is looking at her watch. She looks up, forces a smile, then quickly looks away. Does she know? The two pilots will be making their first and only flight of the day, but you and your six fellow flight attendants are all in violation. Nobody says a word... You are called to the flight deck. The captain looks at you and tells you "Alright. Forecast weather at the destination is very good, so lots of guys diverting there. Dispatch tells me average hold time to land is about 45 minutes. Good thing we refueled, we can hold for hours if we have to. Here everything is shutting down. Some really bad stuff is blowing in from the west within the hour. Good thing we're eastbound. Couple guys were asked to return to the gate, but apparently there are no gates to return to. Some arrivals have been waiting 30 minutes for ramp crews to move empty planes out of the gates. They aren't letting any departures go. Heard some guys who were waiting for pushback, are now deplaning. Glad that wasn't us. Now I don't know what is going on, the runways look fine. They probably ran out of deicing fluid, or maybe someone crashed their truck on the ramp. Nobody's letting me know." You listen to the roar as another aircraft departs. "We'll probably be the last plane to leave today. Four hours behind schedule, but it will be good to be home. Just wanted to update you on the situation before take-off. The passengers aren't getting anxious are they? Is the crew still ready to go?" The first officer looks over to the Captain and tells him they're next for take-off. What do you do?

Opinion Poll: What would you do in this Flight Attendant's situation? You are a flight attendant. It is Christmas Eve, and there is chaos all around. The winter storm is almost nation-wide, and the delays have been maddening. You feel sorry for the ticket agents dealing with angry passengers. For most of the day, you have been dealing with passengers who are generally happy; between the time that they have made it on the flight and are going home, and the time they find out their luggage has been lost. You are well rested. Despite full hotels the company had managed to secure rooms for you and your fellow crewmembers, but you heard other crews were not so fortunate. This 5-hour cross-country flight will bring all the crewmembers home. You promised your 6 and 7 year old kids that Santa would come through, that you would be home for Christmas... but you should have been home 3 days ago. Repeated cancelled flights and last minute scheduling changes has led to this unfortunate situation. You are the in-charge flight attendant, there are six others on board. They are mostly new-hires, not senior enough to take these days off. Then again, you couldn't get these days off either. You have been together for the past five days. Today in particular has been very long, this will be your third flight. Your duty time is about to run out. You already received an extension, but that too is running out. You have been on this plane trying to depart for the past 4 hours now. The plane had been deiced, but weather came in. The pilots waited for the weather to clear, but needed to be deiced again. Then sitting in line to depart for so long burning gas, the plane needed to be refueled. Then deiced again. Once again you are in line to depart. You look at your watch. That's it. If you took off right now and the flight time was all timely, you would arrive 1 minute over your duty time. You would be knowingly violating company policy. You may also be violating federal air regulations as well, but you don't know for sure. You look up at a fellow flight attendant. She too is looking at her watch. She looks up, forces a smile, then quickly looks away. Does she know? The two pilots will be making their first and only flight of the day, but you and your six fellow flight attendants are all in violation. Nobody says a word... You are called to the flight deck. The captain looks at you and tells you "Alright. Forecast weather at the destination is very good, so lots of guys diverting there. Dispatch tells me average hold time to land is about 45 minutes. Good thing we refueled, we can hold for hours if we have to. Here everything is shutting down. Some really bad stuff is blowing in from the west within the hour. Good thing we're eastbound. Couple guys were asked to return to the gate, but apparently there are no gates to return to. Some arrivals have been waiting 30 minutes for ramp crews to move empty planes out of the gates. They aren't letting any departures go. Heard some guys who were waiting for pushback, are now deplaning. Glad that wasn't us. Now I don't know what is going on, the runways look fine. They probably ran out of deicing fluid, or maybe someone crashed their truck on the ramp. Nobody's letting me know." You listen to the roar as another aircraft departs. "We'll probably be the last plane to leave today. Four hours behind schedule, but it will be good to be home. Just wanted to update you on the situation before take-off. The passengers aren't getting anxious are they? Is the crew still ready to go?" The first officer looks over to the Captain and tells him they're next for take-off. What do you do?

How is 0bama's HOPE and CHANGE working for you now - Chicago 2016 Olympic Games? Chicago's Loss is a Blow to Obama, Too Play Video ABC News 'The Note': Obama's Olympic Pitch Misses AP U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama leave the stage after they made a presentation By JENNIFER LOVEN and JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writers Jennifer Loven And Julie Pace, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 27 mins ago WASHINGTON – OK, so it wasn't health care, climate change or war. Still, President Barack Obama's high-profile failure to win the Olympics for Chicago could feed negative narratives already nipping at his heels — that he's a better talker than closer, more celebrity than statesman. And this could hamper his efforts on the weightier issues. Despite Obama's fabled charm and powers of persuasion, his in-person plea for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games fell flat. It was a hugely embarrassing defeat. His adopted hometown — considered a front-runner heading into Friday's voting — didn't just lose, it took last place, shocking nearly all by getting knocked out in the first round while the remaining three contenders moved on. The defeat could soon be a distant memory, and may never be more than a quixotic-blip trip. But if, for whatever reason, bigger losses start piling up in Obama's corner, his performance in this case could be regarded as emblematic. Obama tried to put the best face on his trip, saying upon his return to the White House, "One of the things that I think is most valuable about sports is that you can play a great game and still not win." He said he was proud of everyone's effort. However, almost every aspect of his involvement this week in the Olympics quest recalls a strain of criticism that has been gaining ground on him: • He's trying to do too much at once. The line is familiar by now: It's nuts for Obama to tackle the dismal economy, the overhaul of two wars, a remaking of the U.S. health care system and climate change all in one year, and with other difficult issues on the agenda as well. He has achievements to be proud of in less than nine months in office. But with most of the bigger issues still in the air, voters — even some in Obama's own Democratic Party — are beginning to wonder whether he's someone who tries a lot but succeeds at little, and whether he has the sense to focus on the most important things. A jaunt across the Atlantic, and an extraordinarily expensive one at that, doesn't help. • He doesn't have what it takes to close a deal. The why-Chicago-lost story has many contributors, with Obama's last-minute flight to Copenhagen for an emotional appeal probably among the least of them. Regardless, he is now tied inexorably to Chicago's defeat, and that verdict isn't good. • He is a celebrity, for sure, but is that always a good thing? Remember how Republican John McCain tried to stoke doubts about Obama during last year's presidential campaign by calling him all flash and no pan? A bit of that is in play here, too, where some perceive Obama as arrogantly relying too much on his celebrity status and not enough on the nitty-gritty work of winning votes. For instance, some IOC members resented the fact that Obama blew into Copenhagen for just five hours, jetting back down the runway toward Washington hours before the result was even announced. "It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect," said former IOC member Kai Holm. • He's too casual with the use of his own time. This White House has been drawing questions about its tendency to turn to Obama as its only closer, with not much of a bench. Other White Houses have been more judicious about deploying their most precious resource, the president — doing so only when really needed, and usually only when they know they can win. This reduces the chances of overexposure reducing his effectiveness. It might have been wiser to know more about the vote count before he boarded Air Force One. In hindsight, there was plenty of reason to doubt Chicago's chances. • He's junior varsity-league, still learning on the job. The votes of IOC members are notoriously hard to count ahead of time. But so are those in the U.S. Capitol. Will Obama do as poorly predicting how health care votes are leaning in Congress, and make similarly ill-fated strategic decisions as that long and complicated debate unfolds through the fall? Keep in mind: If Obama had not gone to Denmark and Chicago lost, he no doubt would have been blamed for not making an effort. He tried, as he often does, to thread the needle — make the trip, but make it a quick one to deflect questions about taking time away from the pressing health care and Afghanistan debates. Aides said the president viewed the trip as worth it, despite the painful outcome. "If you can't do more than one thing at a time," said spokesman Robert Gibbs, "the president wouldn't have gotten through the first day." But the president risks seeing the pool of his easy doubters g

Pet Owners. What do you think of the first ever Pet Airlines? Details inside->? Paws up: All-pet airline hits skies NEW YORK – One trip for their Jack Russell terrier in a plane's cargo hold was enough to convince Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel that owners needed a better option to get their pets from one city to another. On Tuesday, the first flight for the husband-and-wife team's Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y. All commercial airlines allow a limited number of small pets to fly in the cabin. Others must travel as checked bags or in the cargo hold — a dark and sometimes dangerous place where temperatures can vary wildly. Binder and Wiesel used their consulting backgrounds and business savvy to start Pet Airways in 2005. The last four years have been spent designing their fleet of five planes according to new four-legged requirements, dealing with FAA regulations and setting up airport schedules. The two say they're overwhelmed with the response. Flights on Pet Airways are already booked up for the next two months. Pet Airways will fly a pet between five major cities — New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. The $250 one-way fare is comparable to pet fees at the largest U.S. airlines. For owners the big difference is service. Dogs and cats will fly in the main cabin of a Suburban Air Freight plane, retooled and lined with carriers in place of seats. Pets (about 50 on each flight) will be escorted to the plane by attendants that will check on the animals every 15 minutes during flight. The pets are also given pre-boarding walks and bathroom breaks. And at each of the five airports it serves, the company has created a "Pet Lounge" for future fliers to wait and sniff before flights. The company will operate out of smaller, regional airports in the five launch cities, which will mean an extra trip for most owners dropping off their pets if they are flying too. Stops in cities along the way means the pets will take longer to reach a destination than their owners. A trip from New York to Los Angeles, for example, will take about 24 hours. On that route, pets will stop in Chicago, have a bathroom break, play time, dinner, and bunk for the night before finishing the trip the next day. The rest of the story is in this link if you want to check it out-> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_airlines_pet_airways_6

The Usual Quest- To Get Married During College Or After BUT What If He's Joining the Airforce? Here's my deal, I don't want the "You're too young answers" I want an opinion about something else. So my guy and I are freshman in college, I've kept an honor roll status all throughout high school and my pre-college classes. I'm studying to be a Radiologist which could take me up to four years plus some because of the waiting lists the colleges around me have for that field. My problem is this, My guy is going off to college and we have discussed waiting to get married our Sophomore/Junior year. I was fine with that, because my guy is doing Air Force ROTC in college to become an officer etc; when he graduates to become a pilot. Last night he told me that maybe we should wait another four years until after he's graduated college because he doesn't know how he's going to afford "us" plus studying and working. Then he has harder class years ahead. Well, here's my deal I can't marry him when he just graduates because he'll be off to basic training THEN he'll be working to get into the Air Force flight school. I may not have even finished school so if he has to move somewhere I may not be able to go. So he says to give it one semester to see if we could get married soon. He doesn't want to live in the studio apartment my parents own, which would be at the most $100 a month for heat/ac/water etc; no joke. And where it is, is in the middle of our colleges so it would be thirty minutes either way. We wouldn't have to work as hard and worry about being kicked out and stuff. I have a job and make good money each week, and I don't have a strict schedule, I have a car and all the things I need for life down and don't have to worry about money. I don't think he realizes that whether we get married second year or not, his classes are going to be hard no matter what, and yes he will have ROTC to deal with. But from everyone else I've talked to, they say to go for it, and it won't be that hard. I need another "third party" view here BUT without the "you're too young" things please.

Travel to Ghana (from Dallas)? I would like to visit a friend in Ghana sometime in September, but i've never done anything like this before & it is pretty confusing for someone who's not a seasoned international traveler. Any/all info would probaby help me out. At this point I'm mostly interested in the flight: What airline should I go with? Any air travel websites you recommend or advise I stay away from? How can I get the best deal on my tickets? *My dates are flexible and I would also be comfortable doing a last-minute or a stand-by flight if I am likely to get a significant savings.* (I just don't really know how to look into the feasability of those kind of options.) I assume I'll need to fly out of DFW, but Love Field would be wonderful. Does a flight with more stops mean more savings? It looks like most flights from Dallas to Accra stop in Amsterdam, London or Frankfurt-are any of those airports especially easy/friendly or especially confusing? Will I need a "real ID" or is a passport ok?

i am writing this story say i am 11 is this really good for a 11 year old? Chapter 1 The Big Surprise I cant believe I am actually going I have been begging my mom forever to take me to Louisiana now you may not think Louisiana is a big deal for me my what I said mom is actually my foster mom but my real parents and family live in Louisiana and mom “mom” does not know that but I am still working out how I will get the time to find my real family I don’t know what is so important about the time my mom chose to go it is the worst weather they have now over oh say 100 degrees but I don’t care about the weather I just cant believe I am actually going!! So on July 16 I will really find out who, I, am,. “So I am all packed and ready to go mom” “Ok sweetie I will be right down I just have to pack a few last minute things” “ok I will be out in the car”. As I was walking out to the car and putting my things in our little 83’Honda Civic I saw one of my friends from school. Her name was Isabella, Isabel for short. ”Hey Isabel!” I said “Oh hi” she said as she ran across the street graceful as ever. She got to my side and gave me a hug but as she turned around her eyes tuck to the royal blue duffle bag with a tag that stated Makayla Green. She said “Really, Really do you finally get to go!!” her voice about as enthusiastic as I have ever heard it.” Yes I did I can’t believe it, it seams so surreal “She gave a big bear hug and held me tight. It was like she was my mom and I had won some big contest, and I said “what?” “Oh Makayla Green for the 8 years we have been best friends I have never seen you stick to something and come out with what you wanted I know I sound like a mom but I am so proud of you.” I gave her a big hug” Thanks” “Ok girls time to say good bye for a month our plane leaves in an hour” My mom said “Ok I will call you as much as I can ok” “Ok” she said “I will miss you” “I’ll Miss you to” We smiled at each other and then she departed with a small tear on her cheek. Me and my mom headed for the air port. So as we pulled up to the Arkansas international air port a small slender girl about 20 21 said “can I help you guys with you luggage?” “No thanks” My mom said sounding tired and panicked at the same time “Ok” she said her voice still as sweet as ever and strolled back to the air port. “Ok here is the plane tickets and our bags now lets head in the check in is to the left of the door show the person at the desk our tickets and give her our luggage while I go get in line for security” And if you cant tell she is a little stressed about the trip she is always stressed about the big things that are happening around her. So I checked in us and the luggage and I met my mom in the security line and then we made it just in time to jump on the plane. And as I sat down in the seat 13 B to be more specific I said to my self “This is where my journey begins.” The plane speeded down the run way and we got up to 10,000 people got out there laptops, I pods, cell phones, etc. I think I was the only one to open up a book, I was reading the novel called “Three Miles Away” it was about a girl in Hawaii who nearly escapes a volcano eruption alive. It is pretty good so far. So as I sit in my seat reading my book the flight attendant comes up in the monitor and says “Please buckle your seat belts and turn off all electronics Please we will be coming down the runway in about 15 min” so I did what she said and waited anxiously, excitedly 15 minutes seemed like an eternity but finally the attendant came up and said “Welcome to Louisiana”. those where the three words I had been waiting to hear for a long time I had heard it in dreams and in my head but I was finally hearing it for real I am FINALLY here. So me and my mom got off the plane and got our luggage and headed out, as I took my first step out I breathed in the hot humid Louisiana air crisp and hot as ever and oddly that was the perfect weather I preferred. And at that we headed for the hotel. On the way my mom asked me “Why where you so dead set on going to Louisiana anyway no one in our family or anybody that you know lives here?” and in my head I thought “from what you know of” and then I said “well I am just so interested in all of the sight seeing and I love it here in New Orleans “ “Ok” My mom said with curiosity in her voice as if she knew there was more to the situation than that. So we pulled up unloaded our luggage and headed up to room 104 not the best but it was a room. It had a queen size bed with a television cabinet with a 24” flat screen and a mini fridge and a bathroom and sink, Dark red carpet with cream walls. In my mind I said to my self “I am here”. Chapter 2 Finding Family So that night me and my mom just rested all then when she finally fell asleep the second she did I open up the laptop and went to my files and I had found the name of my uncle

Can you spare 3 minutes to READ this? An American Thing from a Freind to You! 15 Sep 2006 17:38:42 -0600 When WW III Started **** 1979 This is not very long, but very informative. You have to read the catalog ue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, disregard the Nuke problems with North Korea and Iran, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years. US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary. AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP! That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (when more than 3,000 Americans were killed) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed !" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seize d the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years. America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then-President Carter had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start. Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued. In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continue s her slumber. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept. Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked. Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA F light 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988 , killing 259. Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war. The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again. Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US A ir Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep. The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep. And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep. In the news lately we hav e seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979. I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year - this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come. Whats a matter Can't handle the Truth?

Pitch trim failure - if this situation was to arise, how would you deal with it? A former colleague of mine (captain Bob Jones, BA 747) invited me to have a flight on a fixed 747 simulator down in Coventry recently. I willingly accepted and so last Friday afternoon, we met up, had a nice lunch and then met the chap who owned this simulator. After a pre-flight briefing by captain Jones, we took off from 07L at KLAX and headed towards PHNL. Two hours into cruise at FL400 along R567, captain Jones decides to take a break and the owner of the simulator, Andy, relieves him of his position for 30 minutes. As soon as Andy assumes position of first officer, making myself captain as it would do on a real flight, he decides that the aircraft is about to suffer a complete trim tab failure. He sets elevator trim to full negative. The aircraft's nose immediately lowered and eventually caused the autopilot to disengage as the 747 was now over its operational limitations. I instantly disengaged the autothrottle via the throttle levers, opened the throttles immediately to raise the nose and pulled back on the control column, whilst captain Jones and Andy watched. Soon after, the aircraft's nose went up beyond 30 degrees, altitude and airspeed was substantially lost and so, I pushed the control column forward and closed the throttles in order to lower the nose. I knew that these cycles were going to continue because I have read reports and training articles from previous air accidents, most notably JAL123 and UA232. However, I eventually found myself at 3000' and in a 28000fpm dive. I then crashed into the Pacific Ocean. What I want to know is, reflecting back on this accident, would any [airline] pilots react differently to how I did? I've been trained on twin engine airlines on how to deal with a complete loss of engine or hydraulic power but never a full trim tab/elevator deflection, like the Alaska Airlines 261 incident, which has clear similarities with my incident. Feel free to discuss.

Are Liberals too tired to read this? Read this and pass it to everyone you know, or you too can hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. This is not very long, but very informative. You have to read the catalog of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary. AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP! That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years. America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union, when then President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of Ame rica's inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start. Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued! In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept. Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked. Fifty-nine days later in 1985< /U>, a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259. Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war. The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still, this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again. Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Keny a and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep. The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep. And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep!!! In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979. I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough! Ameri ca needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year, this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come. If you believe in this please forward it to as many people as you can-- especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just delete it and go back to sleep Lindsay, Bush was only the President for a very short time, BEFORE 9/11. Clinton held back the keys he needed to the offices of the FBI, and CIA from him 2 months prior to Mr. Bush taking office. Did you think Mr. Bush was psychic? He was ill-informed, the same way Condoleeza Rice, and Andrew Card were, due to Clinton's hatred of the Bush Family, and doing the right thing by you, as an American. If Clinton wanted to do the right thing, he would have accepted the free offer of bin Laden the 7 times, he was offered up to America, by Syria.

Is America Asleep? WWIII Started in 1979 > > > > This is very informative. You have to read the catalogue of events in this > brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all > we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the > snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In > case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979... that alarm has > been ringing for years > > US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, > Pensacola , Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It > is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this > action is so necessary. > AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP! > > That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more > than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it > should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has > been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and > roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. > > It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a > religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked > and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright > attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most > powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this > sovereign U. S > America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and > had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, > had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. > The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's > inability to deal with terrorism. > America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the > end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly > organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was > doomed from the start. > Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and > killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her > citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US. > > In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven > into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 > people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once > more. > > Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down > with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US > Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. > America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. > Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is > driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait , and America continues her slumber. > The following year, in September 1984 , another van was driven into the > gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept. > > Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a > restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. > Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the > main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the > snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually > attacked. > > Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked > and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the > passenger list and executed. > > The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when > they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most > tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing > 259. > > Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still > trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war. > > The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. > > The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America . In January 1993 , > two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in > Langley, Virginia. > > The following month, February 1993 , a group of terrorists are arrested > after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground > parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are > killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of > war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again. > > Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in > Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. > > A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 > yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys > the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over > 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that > America does not respond decisively. > > They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US > embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with > precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and > goes back to sleep. > > The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 > October 2000 , when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded > killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but > we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep. > > And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans > think this was the first attack against US soil or in America . How wrong > they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose > to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep. > > In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high > officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But > if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see > exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the > National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing > since 1979 . > > I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue > until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of > Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to > be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life > continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and > again and roll over and go back to sleep. > > After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all > we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to > disseminate to terrorists around the world. > > This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this > is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our > children in years to come.

What do you think!!!!!! PLEASE HELLPPPP (quick narrative)? A Series of Memories Carissa Phelan 3A My day started out as usual, usual for a morning at the airport anyway. It was 3am and the fog was just setting in, a long drive to the Portland airport. Along the way talking to my mom about how much fun California will be and assuring her I would take plenty of pictures (which was not going to be the case). I had begun to reminisce of my life and my childhood. The last time I saw my father was about two years before. He wasn’t a deadbeat dad type at all he worked hard for barely any money and when there was enough money he would spend it all to send me there, and would take care of me as if I had never left. He and my mother split when I was kid and I live with my mother. My parents always reassure me that they both love me equally and no matter if my father lives far away, he cares just as much as my present mother. Arriving at the airport we parked the furthest place possible from the terminal and I of course had two very heavy bags of clothing and shoes. We were already late and not making any progress. “My mother is always late” I thought as I read the trillion signs that had said “Take your parking ticket with you!” We finally arrived at the correct terminal and at about 20 minutes from take off, we get to the line where we would usually quickly stream to the front so the service desk can check our bags but not this time. The line was about the size of a roller coaster, “you’ve got to be kidding me!” my mother said at the top of her lungs. I had at that point pretended I didn’t know her and I was just a single passenger standing alone next to a crazy woman. My skin color helped this situation, but eventually I decided to be her daughter again and we mutually decided to just take the next flight instead of trying to catch the near impossible one. I landed in California and I could immediately feel the climate change. The humidity had collected droplets of sweat on my forehead. I had just turn 17 the week before, summer birthdays by the way suck. So embracing my new age I walk down to the crowded passenger lounge trying to make out my father in the hundreds of people standing before me. And sure enough he was there standing looking for me too I looked at him and I saw myself I had never realized how much I looked like him before. We set off into L.A and I was already settled in just by being back. Rolling down the streets of Inglewood interesting people roamed, it reminded me of downtown Portland only less clothing and more color. We arrive to my dad’s house and I reunite with my brother and sister. My brother was 22 and my sister seven, so I was the middle child. Quality time with my family is the best I could ever ask for I don’t get much of a bonding time with my family members. During this trip I hadn’t known it but id be going on my very first trip to Disney land, this was a big deal for me I had before felt so deprived of the experience. A few days before I had to go home we had gone to the beach as well, I had a surfing competition with my brother that day and he left with a huge ego and I left with a sprained wrist and bruised ankle. One of the nights I was there I got to spend a night with just my bro and me and I went to a party with him but because I was there we had to be back by midnight. We ended up at his friend’s house and we were both greeted and introduced as brother and sister. So he had told his friends about me that really made me feel like a big part of his life. The next day was the best so far we had arrived at Disney land and my inner child was released like air from a balloon. I had finally been to there, the place where dreams come true. I knew I would get made fun of by friends when I got back and I told them but I didn’t care. It didn’t feel like I was 17 when I was there, it had felt like I was seven again. This I felt was a right of passage no matter how crazy it sounds. Arriving at the airport again I had a whole different set of emotions I was happy I got to see my dad, I was sad because I was leaving my new home, excited to see my mom again I had missed her more than ever, and mad that my parents hadn’t stayed together so that I could have both and not just one. Sometimes two is better than one, but everything happens for a reason and I know that it was best for all of us. I landed back in Portland and it was cold again and my eyes had still been red from crying. But when I got out to the passenger pick up my mother was there and when I got to hug her again I was happy. My life changed for the better this summer and I got so many new memories I can cherish for the rest of my life.

what do you think????? narrative essay? A Series of Memories Carissa Phelan 3A My day started out as usual, usual for a morning at the airport anyway. It was 3AM and the fog was just setting in, a long drive to the Portland airport. Along the way talking to my mom about how much fun California will be, and assuring her I would take plenty of pictures (which was not going to be the case). I had begun to reminisce of my life and my childhood, the last time I saw my father was about two years before. He wasn’t a deadbeat dad type at all he worked hard for barely any money and when there was enough money he would spend it all to send me there, and would take care of me as if I had never left. He and my mother split when I was kid and I live with my mother. My parents always reassure me that they both love me equally and no matter if my father lives far away, he cares just as much as my present mother. Arriving at the airport we parked the furthest place possible from the terminal and I of course had two very heavy bags of clothing and shoes. We were already late and not making any progress. “My mother is always late” I thought as I read the trillion signs that had said “Take your parking ticket with you!” We finally arrived at the correct terminal and at about 20 minutes from take off, we get to the line where we would usually quickly stream to the front so the service desk can check our bags but not this time. The line was about the size of a roller coaster, “you’ve got to be kidding me!” my mother said at the top of her lungs. I had at that point pretended I didn’t know her and I was just a single passenger standing alone next to a crazy woman. My skin color helped this situation, but eventually I decided to be her daughter again and we mutually decided to just take the next flight instead of trying to catch the near impossible one. I landed in California and I could immediately feel the climate change. The humidity had collected droplets of sweat on my forehead. I had just turn 17 the week before, summer birthdays by the way suck. So embracing my new age I walk down to the crowded passenger lounge trying to make out my father in the hundreds of people standing before me. And sure enough he was there standing looking for me too I looked at him and I saw myself, I had never realized how much I looked like him before. We set off into L.A and I was already settled in just by being back. Rolling down the streets of Inglewood interesting people roamed, it reminded me of downtown Portland only less clothing and more color. We arrive to my dad’s house and I reunite with my brother and sister. My brother was 22 and my sister seven, so I was the middle child. Quality time with my family is the best I could ever ask for I don’t get much of a bonding time with my family members. During this trip I hadn’t known it but id be going on my very first trip to Disney land, this was a big deal for me I had before felt so deprived of the experience. A few days before I had to go home we had gone to the beach as well, I had a surfing competition with my brother that day and he left with a huge ego and I left with a sprained wrist and bruised ankle. One of the nights I was there I got to spend a night with just my bro and me and I went to a party with him but because I was there we had to be back by midnight. We ended up at his friend’s house and we were both greeted and introduced as brother and sister. So he had told his friends about me that really made me feel like a big part of his life. The next day was the best so far we had arrived at Disney land and my inner child was released like air from a balloon. I had finally been to there, the place where dreams come true. I knew I would get made fun of by friends when I got back and I told them but I didn’t care. It didn’t feel like I was 17 when I was there, it had felt like I was seven again. This I felt was a right of passage no matter how crazy it sounds. Arriving at the airport again I had a whole different set of emotions I was happy I got to see my dad, I was sad because I was leaving my new home, excited to see my mom again I had missed her more than ever, and mad that my parents hadn’t stayed together so that I could have both and not just one. Sometimes two is better than one, but everything happens for a reason and I know that it was best for all of us. I landed back in Portland and it was cold again and my eyes had still been red from crying. But when I got out to the passenger pick up my mother was there and when I got to hug her again I was happy. My life changed for the better this summer and I got so many new memories I can cherish for the rest of my life.

My Friend Lies sooo much, what's his deal? Since the day I met him, he's done nothing but lie.. I love him he's a Gay African American, 21 yrs old.. Here is a list of some lies he's told.. He told me he was born in Russia.. LIE. He told me his sister is a princess in Africa...LIE (questioned about it later, and he said his sister had the same name as a African princess.... But that's not how he meant it when he first said it) He told me his Mom is a famous singer... LIE. (was questioned about it a month later? and said "i meant that my mom had the same name as a famous singer.....But if you were there that's not how he meant it) He told me he was Jewish...LIE. He said he was half white...LIE..... And once said to my friend who questioned him.. " You telling me I'm not white is like telling a Jewish person that there was no such thing as the holocaust" He told me he was in college... LIE, I found out he doesn't even have a high school diploma.. He tells me that he shut off his phone.. When actually it was turned off.. He told me he was a stripper at one time... He told me he is working 2 jobs.. When actually he is only working 1.. He knows of my dream of living in NYC and being a Flight attendant.. So a few months ago, he told me he got a job as a flight attendant for SWA his base is in Atlanta.. So I go home and look at the website.. And there is no base in Atlanta.. LIE! He told me last week, that in DEC he's moving to North Carolina to go to college... LIE. He told me today that he's moving to NYC, and threw in a insult "I'll be living in NYC and you'll still be stuck at this job"... He told me before that he leaves me money in my car everytime I give him rides, cause he knows I won't take it if he offers... LIE! He told me today that he's not gay anymore, he gave it up.. LIE! He told me he is making 2 k every 2 weeks at his job.. LIE! (Why is he living in a pay by income apartment then?) He told me that he only has to be around foreigners for a few minutes, and he can start speaking their language fluently.. I've been friends with him for years.. But it's really getting old now.. And he has a superiority complex, he walks around with his nose in the air... This guy at work wanted to shake his hand.. And my friend says "I don't shake hands".. He's out of control now.. Does he have a condition or something? Why would someone lie about everything in their life? I know for a fact that he's lying about all of this.. Cause his Mom's lifelong friend works with us, and she knows everything.

What does everyone think after reading this? >> WWIII STARTED IN 1979 >> >> If you understand and believe we are at a crucial point in our history > please forward this to as many people as you can-- especially to the young > people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick > to > protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just > delete it and go back to sleep and learn to pray in Arabic! >> >> This is not very long, but very informative You have to read the > catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can > take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from > Iraq, > sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever > bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November > 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years >> >> US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, > Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is > an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this > action is so necessary. >> >> AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP! >> >> That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more > than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it > should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has > been > buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll > over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. >> >> It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a > religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked > and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright > attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most > powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this > sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 > years. >> >> America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience > and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President > Carter, > had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. > The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's > inability to deal with terrorism. >> >> America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since > the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly > organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was > doomed from the start. >> >> Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped >> and > killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her > citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued! >> >> In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven > into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 > people. > The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. >> >> Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden > down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US > Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. > America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. >> >> Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives > is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her > slumber. >> >> The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the > gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept. >> >> Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in >> a > restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. >> >> Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into > the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and > the > snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually > attacked. >> >> Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is > hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of > the > passenger list and executed. >> >> The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners > when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most > tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing > 259. >> >> Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still > trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war. >> >> The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. >> >> The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, > two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in > Langley, Virginia. >> >> The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested > after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground > parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are > killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of > war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again. >> >> Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in > Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. >> >> A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 > yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys > the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over > 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that > America > does not respond decisively. >> >> They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two >> US > embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with > precision. > They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back > to > sleep. >> >> The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 > October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded > killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but > we > sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep. >> >> And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans > think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong > they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose > to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep!!! >> >> In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high > official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But > if > you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see > exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the > National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing > since > 1979. >> >> I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will >> continue > until we as a people decide enough is enough! America needs to "Get out of > Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to > be > ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life > continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and > again and roll over and go back to sleep. >> >> After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems > all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we > need > to disseminate to terrorists around the world. >> >> This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year >> this > is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our > children in years to come. >> >> Remember, Freedom is not free. There was a price to obtain it and a > bigger price to maintain it. The enemy will not negotiate. The enemy is > bent > on killing every American they can �???? all of us if possible. The enemy > is > seeking world domination. The enemy will behead you, your children and > your > neighbors. You cannot negotiate or ignore a rabid dog you have to put it > down.

Does this sound interesting to you? It's long -- but , i'll add more if you like it. History Dylan’s eyes glistened the way they always did when he seen his one year old son Adam. His face his eyes, it made him feel welcome just to know that he was a part of him. That Adam shared both him and the woman he loved more than anything. How could there be a more perfect child? He loved them both, although he was seventeen and she was sixteen it didn’t matter. Why should it all matter? It wasn’t important -- no, it wasn’t. He was young and had more life and love than most people over seventy bragged over. Yes, he was foolish of course he was but what man at any age can claim not to be. Dylan was seventeen but he also had something else on his hands something that no ordinary eighty year old man could even consider as real let alone experience. He had fangs, not some crazy deformity from birth well it could be it all depends on how you analyze the situation, but Dylan had fangs because he was a vampire. Dylan had more challenges than that just connecting him too a world which should not exist, But who can really say what should be real? Who can judge what is normal and not When so many different creatures do exist, alone and forgotten. Dylan had family, and as explained they do not compare yes they are connected to that unexplainable world and some dig deeper and are a whole new creature on there own. Although Dylan’s family fit in very well they had money good looks, friends, and charm. The last thing on his families mind was not fitting in. Who cared about that most of them were grown up and in love. His father and mother included, although His mother loved his father deeply it was a one ended arrangement and Harvon was Re-married to another woman, Misty. His mother Harriot had been in other non-successful marriages but only one produced the satisfaction of love. Dylan had what he expressed as an uncountable amount of siblings. There was Selena who was twenty-eight, married and had two wonderful young children. Selena was a very intelligent clothing designer for a New York company which played a crucial role in the Design industry. Caitlin the most happily married of the children, although it didn’t always seem that way, she was twenty six years old and married to Riann James. Riann and Caitlin had four young children who were the most blessed miracle. Jessie and Jade were the twins wild, crazy and known for excessive travelling. Jessie settled down in New York City, with her husband Ian and their daughter Abbigail. Jade resides in Australia with his wife and baby. And then there’s Jamie. Jamie is only twenty years old, he has two lovely children and a wife named Lorrie. Jamie is a very talented surgeon. Dylan is the youngest of his family until Misty has her baby, the surprise that they all have to deal with. The official joining of two families, these days marriage is hardly the sealing of the deal. Although Dylan knew deep in his heart that for him, marriage would be everything how can people separate. How can people out there leave there children? It just didn’t make sense, it never would. How do people spend years together touching them as if the world depended on hearing there voice, on the touch, seeing them fall asleep. How could any one in there right mind leave a family that they had built upon for any length of time. This world is corrupt, and unjust. One thing that Dylan was for sure of he was in love with primrose, and he loved his friends more than anything in the world. His what? One friend, Donald Bass was his step brother. Dylan loved him as though he was his own brother. Possibly more, Don was the one person that Dylan could see and not be jealous of, not because he was better. No, just because he loved him. Don was just there, he hadn’t always been although Dylan wished he had been. Don was one of the most precious and meaningful things that Dylan had ever been blessed with. How many people are given the chance to live with there best friend? How many guys could just look at there best friend and be reassured that he was loved. Yes, he knew that he was sometimes he was out of place and mean. Although if Donald only knew that when Dylan got sad, or down sometimes he just snuck into his room and watched him. Never for long, and never letting him see that he was watching. That didn’t change the feeling. Yes, Dylan loved many people in many different ways His siblings for being there, his parents unconditionally and the heart stealing, emotion burning love for his girlfriend and child, the love for don which almost compared on the scale of Primrose. And that was saying something strong. The day had passed without any consideration for the fact that he was at school or learning. Dylan was one of the Most straight A students, and took all advanced courses. It amazed people that he was so smart, everything just came to him. Dylan was going to a very high quality private school and was what middle class would consider as “Elite”. He was part of one of the most craved, and envied society. People wondered how Dylan could even be considered normal. Dylan was as known everything but normal. As he stared into space at the ceiling of the dim lighted cafeteria which was designed with divine British taste, he wondered what a cafeteria needed leather sofas at a wall, and gallery art work presented around the room for. Dylan assumed it was the schools way to say that they meant business. There was a lounge for students, although none of them recognized it as good enough after all they were rich. The lounge had a deep almost mahogany wood flooring, and the walls were covered with paintings that didn’t seem to belong in a school, with a fire place and books for leisure close by, also there was a pool table, and almost invisible among the artwork Plasma television. Strangely enough as Dylan walked through the oak doors to the lounge many young men and women were gossiping and moping around. He never understood why the rich always seemed unhappy although with great acting accomplishments to the outsider would seem as though they had one a much awaited prize. Dylan sighed and went over to a couch sitting next to a couple of girls talking about how this girl in his English class Becky? Was it Becky? Was pregnant and going for an abortion and then for help. Dylan cringed trying not to think of attacking the girls. Gossip was worse enough without talking about killing children and spreading mean rumors. His mind was filled with the thought of Adams smiles, and Rosie’s beautiful face, he wished he could break out of this school and go see primrose, although she was also attending school, public school and he doubted that she enjoyed two hours of lunch breaks, since she was given forty. His mind continued wondering he had to work later, why again. His father was teaching him good values and he was accepting the task hands on. Suddenly Dylan had a new thought and an urge, he grabbed his leather bag and bolted. Knowing that there was over an hour left of lunch. Dylan ran out of the school and hopped in a cab. Dylan sat in a little café by himself and he silently walked around his mind again, more alone. Dylan reflected on when he grew up, when it all began. Dylan thought about his past about California when he Was little, he missed California some times but Don seemed to insist that they lived in New York. Where Dylan’s friend didn’t live, well the ones besides Donald and Primrose he wished that he was in California. He thought about running through the field near his manor, where he could play for hours, he thought about the shores and swimming. He loved to run around those fields picking wild roses, and flowers. He enjoyed California so much, the bustling city and the movie stars. How he missed it there. And that was where Dylan was going.. He was going to California. Dylan got into another cab and quickly was sped off to the airport. Was he insane? Of course he was.. he’d always been that was such an understatement. Dylan bought plane tickets for the first flight that led to Los Angeles. He knew he’s be in a lot of trouble, at school and with his father. Although Dylan knew if he lived with his mother Harriot it wouldn’t be a problem, actually his mother did live in California that would be his savoir Dylan was going to go to his mothers. Just for a few weeks. He thought about how Rose would feel as he boarded the plane. He knew that she would think that he was just avoiding her. It may seem that way but he would never. Dylan loved primrose more than anything in the world, more than life. Dylan loved plane rides, endless thinking time he loved to be alone and thinking. He always did, always. Thoughts raced everything from his breakfast and school to what he was going to do at his mothers for two weeks. As Dylan endlessly thought he fell asleep. *** Dylan awoke to the sound of the captain asking every one to put on there seat belts. As he brought himself back to consciousness he stared out the window at the fast approaching ground. Dylan loved the outdoors and walking out of that airport and catching the California air was a feeling he could not describe as anything else but pure bliss. The car rental office was barely five minutes away by walking and he ran down to the doors. It took all but five minutes to rent a Porsche and Dylan set off down the road driving as far as the speed limit would allow him. The drive was the perfect opportunity to reflect on the life that he would be stepping back into for a few weeks. He would have his father send him his school work, it would be so easy to keep up, after all homework was a fifteen minute job. Dylan drove to his mothers with only his darling girlfriend on his mind. His mother greeted him with the warmest and most welcoming hug that Dylan had received in ages. “Dylan! Oh my god – why are you in California? Does your dad know?” She practically screamed at him in joy and shock. “Whoa mom, calm down naw I’ll tell dad later, and I was just kind if bored.” “ you came to California because you were bored! It’s a school day!” “Yeah, I’m gonna take a little break from school and stay here for two weeks, if I can.” “Well Dylan, if you’ve thought it through, then of course you may.” “Kay, I’m going to go up to my room mom.” “Mm hmm” Dylan rushed up to his child hood bedroom where he had spent his more childhood years. It had barely changed. The bed still had a blue and black soft blanket on top with five mega pillows, the couch was still black, and his television still had many DVD’s scattered on the top of it. This was home, his home. He reached for his phone the one refuge that the room still held as an attraction. He dialled carefully making sure not to miss a number. 1-293-555-3489 And as Dylan hoped Brady picked up. “Uh, hello?” Dylan hesitated for a moment before answering. “uh, hey Brady?It’s your old best friend? You know Dylan?” “Oh, my god! Are you serious Dylan I haven’t seen you in years and years! How are you doing man?” “oh, I’m good as you know I live in New York City. “Yeah, okay dude.. you know where I live same old come visit me tomorrow, like – ten am kay?” “Yeah, of course see you then.” After seventy minutes of pointless catching up the phone was hung up and Dylan went into his bathroom. The plane ride had really messed with him.

what is the theme of this? Flight to the South Pole 1 Thanksgiving Day, November 28th, brought what we wanted. At noon, the Geological Party radioed a final weather report: "Unchanged. Perfect visibility. No clouds anywhere." Harrison finished with his balloon runs, Haines with his weather charts. The sky was still somewhat overcast, and the surface wind from the east southeast. Haines came into the library, his face grave. Together, we went out for a walk and a last look at the weather. What he said exactly I have forgotten, but it was in effect: "If you don't go now, you may never have another chance as good as this." And that was that. 2 The mechanics, Bubier, Roth and Demas, went over the plane for the last time, testing everything with scrupulous care. A line of men passed five-gallon cans of gasoline to several men standing on the wing, who poured them into the wing tanks. Another line fed the stream of gear which flowed into the plane. Black weighed each thing before passing it on to McKinley and June, who were stowing the stuff in the cabin. Hanson went over the radio equipment. With de Ganahl, I made a careful check of the sextant and the watches and chronometers, which were among the last things put aboard. For days, de Ganahl and I had nursed the chronometers, checking them against the time tick broadcast every night from the United States. We knew their exact loss or gain. 3 The total weight was approximately 15,000 pounds. 4 Haines came up with a final report on the weather. "A twenty-mile wind from the south at 2,000 feet." I went into my office and picked up a flag weighted with a stone from Floyd Bennett's grave. It seemed fitting that something connected with the spirit of this noble friend, who stood with me over the North Pole, on May 9th, 1926, should rest as long as stone endures at the bottom of the world. 5 There were handshakes all around, and at 3:29 o'clock we were off. The skis were in the air after a run of 30 seconds--an excellent takeoff. A calm expectation took hold of my mind. 6 Had you been there to glance over the cabin of this modern machine which has so revolutionized polar travel, I think you would have been impressed most of all--perhaps first of all--with the profusion of gear in the cabin. There was a small sledge, rolled masses of sleeping bags, bulky food sacks, two pressure gasoline stoves, rows of cans of gasoline packed about the main tank forward, funnels for draining gasoline and oil from the engines, bundles of clothing, tents, and so on ad infinitum. There was scarcely room in which to move. 7 June had his radio in the after bulkhead on the port side. From time to time, he flashed reports on our progress to the base. From the ear phones strapped to his helmet ran long cords so that he might move freely about the cabin without being obliged to take them off. His duties were varied and important. He had to attend to the motion picture camera, the radio, and the complicated valves of the six gasoline tanks. Every now and then, he relieved Balchen at the wheel or helped him to follow the elusive trail. 8 McKinley had his mapping camera ready for action either on port or starboard side. It was for him and the camera he so sedulously served that the flight was made. The mapping of the corridor between Little America and the South Pole was one of the major objectives of the expedition. 9 Balchen was forward, bulking large in the narrow compartment, his massive hands on the wheel, now appraising the engines with a critical eye, now the dozen flickering fingers on the dials on the instrument board. Balchen was in his element. His calm, fine face bespoke his confidence and sureness. He was anticipating the struggle at the "Hump" almost with eagerness. 10 It was quite warm forward, behind the engines. But a cold wind swept through the cabin, making one thankful for heavy clothes. When the skies cleared, a golden light poured into the cabin. The sound of the engines and propellers filled it. One had to shout to make oneself heard. From the navigation table aft, where my charts were spread out, a trolley ran to the control cabin. Over it, I shouted to Balchen the necessary messages and courses; he would turn and smile his understanding. 11 That, briefly, is the picture, and a startling one it makes in contrast with that of Amundsen's party, which had pressed along this same course eighteen years before. A wing, pistons and flashing propellers had taken the place of runner, dogs, and legs. Amundsen was delighted to make 25 miles per day. We had to average 90 miles per hour to accomplish our mission. We had the advantages of swiftness and comfort, but we had as well an enlarged fallibility. A flaw in a piece of steel, a bit of dirt in the fuel lines or carburetor jets, a few hours of strong head winds, fog or storm-- these things, remotely beyond our control, could destroy our carefully laid plans and nullify our most determined efforts. 12 Still, it was not these things that entered our minds. Rather, it was the thought of the "Hump," and how we should fare with it. 13 Soon after passing the crevasses, we picked up again the vast escarpment to the right. More clearly than before, we saw the white-blue streams of many glaciers discharging into the Barrier, and several of the higher snow-clad peaks glistened so brightly in the sun as to seem like volcanoes in eruption. 14 Now the Queen Maud Range loomed ahead. I searched again for the "appearance of land" to the east. Still the rolling Barrier--nothing else. 15 At 8:15, we had the Geological Party in sight--a cluster of beetles about two dark-topped tents. Balchen dropped overboard the photographs of the Queen Maud Range and the other things we had promised to bring. The parachute canopy to which they were attached fluttered open and fell in gentle oscillations, and we saw two or three figures rush out to catch it. We waved to them and then prepared for settlement of the issue at the "Hump." 16 Up to this time, the engines had operated continuously at cruising revolutions. Now Balchen opened them full throttle, and the Ford girded its loins for the long, fighting pull over the "Hump." We rose steadily. We were then about 60 miles north of the western portal of Axel Heiberg, and holding our course steadily on meridian 163° 45' W. with the sun compass. 17 I watched the altimeters, of which there were two in the navigation department. The fingers marched with little jumps across the face of the dial--3,000 feet; 3,500; 4,000; 4,500. The Ford had her toes in and was climbing with a vast, heaving effort. 18 Drawing nearer, we had edged 30° to the west of south, to bring not only Axel Heiberg but also Liv Glacier into view. This was a critical period. I was by no means certain which glacier I should choose for the ascent. I went forward and took a position behind the pilots. 19 The schemes and hopes of the next few minutes were beset by many uncertainties. Which would it be--Axel Heiberg or Liv Glacier? 20 There was this significant difference between flying and sledging: we could not pause long for decision or investigation. Minutes stood for gasoline, and gasoline was precious. The waste of so little as half an hour of fuel in a fruitless experiment might well overturn the mathematical balance on which the success of the flight depended. The execution of the plan hung on the proper choice of the route over the "Hump." 21 Yet how well, after all, could judgment forecast the ultimate result? There were few facts on which we might base a decision. We knew, for example, from Amundsen's report that the highest point of the pass of Axel Heiberg Glacier was 10,500 feet. We should know, in a very few minutes, after June had calculated the gasoline consumption, the weight of the plane. From that we could determine, according to the tables we had worked out and which were then before me, the approximate ceiling we should have. We should know, too, whether or not we should be able to complete the flight, other conditions being favorable. 22 These were the known elements. The unknown were burdened with equally important consequences. The structural nature of the head of the pass was of prime importance. We knew from Amundsen's descriptions and from what we could see with our own eyes, that the pass on both sides was surrounded by towering peaks, much higher than the maximum ceiling of the heavily loaded plane. But whether the pass was wide or narrow, whether it would allow us room to maneuver in case we could not rise above it, whether it would be narrow and running with a torrent of down-pressing wind which would dash a plane, already hovering near its service ceiling to the glacier floor--these were things, naturally, we could not possibly know until the issue was directly at hand. 23 I stood beside Balchen, carefully studying the looming fortress, still wondering by what means we should attempt to carry it. With a gesture of the hand, Balchen pointed to fog vapor rising from the black rock of the foothills which were Nansen's high priests, caused no doubt by the condensation of warm currents of air radiated from the sun-heated rocks. A thin layer of cloud seemed to cap Axel Heiberg's pass and extended almost to Liv Glacier. But of this we were not certain. Perhaps it was the surface of the snow. If it were a cloud, then our difficulties were already upon us. Even high clouds would be resting on the floor of the uplifted plateau. 24 There was then a gamble in the decision. Doubtless a flip of the coin would have served as well. In the end, we decided to choose Liv Glacier, the unknown pass to the right which Amundsen had seen far in the distance and named after Dr. Nansen's daughter. It seemed to be broader than Axel Heiberg, and the pass not quite so high. 25 A few minutes after 9 o'clock, we passed near the intermediate base which, of course, we could not see. Our altitude was then about 9,000 feet. At 9:15, we had the eastern portal on our left and were ready to tackle the "Hump." We had discussed the "Hump" so often, had anticipated and maligned it so much, that now that it was in front of us and waiting in the flesh--in rock-ribbed, glacierized reality--it was like meeting an old acquaintance. But we approached it warily and respectfully, climbing steadily all the while with maximum power, to get a better view of its none-too-friendly visage. 26 June, wholly unaffected by the immediate perplexities, went about his job of getting the plane fighting trim, less heavy. He ripped open the last of the fuel cans and poured the contents into the main tank. The empty tins he dropped overboard, through the trapdoor. Every tin weighed two pounds, and every pound dropped was to our gain. June examined the gauges of the five wing tanks, then measured with a graduated stick the amount of fuel in the main tank. He jotted the figures on a pad, made a few calculations, and handed me the results. Consumption had thus far averaged between 55 and 60 gallons per hour. It had taken us longer to reach the mountains than we had expected, owing to head winds. However, the extra fuel taken aboard just before we left had absorbed this loss, and we actually had a credit balance. We then had enough gasoline to take us to the Pole and back. 27 With that doubt disposed of, we went at the "Hump" confidently. 28 We were still rising, and the engines were pulling wonderfully well. The wind was about abeam and, according to my calculations, not materially affecting the speed. 29 The glacier floor rose sharply, in a series of ice falls and terraces, some of which were well above the (then) altitude of the plane. These glacial waterfalls, some of which were from 200 to 400 feet high, seemed more beautiful than any precipitous stream I have ever seen. Beautiful yes--but how rudely and with what finality they would deal with steel and duralumin that crashed into them at 100 miles per hour. 30 Now the stream of air pouring down the pass roughened perceptibly. The great wing shivered and teetered as it balanced itself against the changing pressures. The wind from the left flowed against Fisher's steep flanks, and the constant, hammering bumps made footing uncertain in the plane. But McKinley steadily trained his 50-pound camera on the mountains to the left. The uncertainties of load and ceiling were not his concern. His only concern was photographs--photographs over which students and geographers pore in the calm quiet of their studies. 31 The altimeters showed a height of 9,600 feet, but the figure was not necessarily exact. Nevertheless, there were indications we were near the service ceiling of the plane. 32 The roughness of the air increased and became so violent that we were forced to swing slightly to the left, in search of calmer air. This brought us over a frightfully crevassed slope which ran up and toward Mount Nansen. We thus escaped the turbulent swirl about Fisher, but the down-surging currents here damped our climb. To the left, we had the "blind" mountain glacier of Nansen in full view; and when we looked ahead we saw the plateau--a smooth, level plain of snow between Nansen and Fisher. The pass rose up to meet it. 33 In the center of the pass was a massive outcropping of snow-covered rocks, resembling an island, which protruded above and separated the descending stream of ice. Perhaps it was a peak or the highest eminence of a ridge connecting Fisher and Nansen which had managed through the ages to hold its head above the glacial torrent pouring down from the plateau. But its particular structure or relationship was of small import then. I watched it only with reference to the climb of the plane; and realized, with some disgust and more consternation, that the nose of the plane, in spite of the fact that Balchen had steepened the angle of attack, did not rise materially above the outcropping. We were still climbing, but at a rapidly diminishing rate of speed. In the rarefied air, the heavy plane responded to the controls with marked sluggishness. There is a vast difference between the plane of 1928 and the plane of 1937. 34 It was an awesome thing, creeping (so it seemed) through the narrow pass, with the black walls of Nansen and Fisher on either side, higher than the level of the wings, and watching the nose of the ship bob up and down across the face of that chunk of rock. It would move up, then slide down. Then move up, and fall off again. For perhaps a minute or two, we deferred the decision, but there was no escaping it. If we were to risk a passage through the pass, we needed greater maneuverability than we had at that moment. Once we entered the pass, there would be no retreat. It offered no room for turn. If power was lost momentarily or if the air became excessively rough, we could only go ahead or down. We had to climb, and there was only one way in which we could climb. 35 June, anticipating the command, already had his hand on the dump valve of the main tank. A pressure of the fingers--that was all that was necessary--and in two minutes, 600 gallons of gasoline would gush out. I signaled to wait. 36 Balchen held to the climb almost to the edge of a stall. But it was clear to both of us that he could not hold it long enough. Balchen began to yell and gesticulate, and it was hard to catch the words in the roar of the engines echoing from the cliffs on either side. But the meaning was manifest. "Overboard--overboard--200 pounds!" 37 Which would it be--gasoline or food? 38 If gasoline, I thought, we might as well stop there and turn back. We could never get back to the base from the Pole. If food, the lives of all of us would be jeopardized in the event of a forced landing. Was that fair to McKinley, Balchen, and June? It really took only a moment to reach the decision. The Pole, after all, was our objective. I knew the character of the three men. McKinley, in fact, had already hauled one of the food bags to the trapdoor. It weighed 125 pounds. 39 The brown bag was pushed out and fell, spinning, to the glacier. The improvement in the flying qualities of the plane was noticeable. It took another breath and resumed the climb. 40 Now the down-currents over Nansen became stronger. The plane trembled and rose and fell, as if struck bodily. We veered a trifle to the right, searching for helpful, rising eddies. Balchen was flying shrewdly. He maintained flight at a sufficient distance below the absolute ceiling of the plane to retain at all times enough maneuverability to make him master of the ship. But he was hard pressed by circumstances, and I realized that, unless the plane was further lightened, the final thrust might bring us perilously close to the end of our reserve. 41 "More," Bernt shouted. "Another bag." 42 McKinley shoved a second bag through the trapdoor, and this time we saw it hit the glacier, and scatter in a soundless explosion. Two hundred and fifty pounds of food--enough to feed four men for a month--lay strewn on the barren ice. 43 The sacrifice swung the scales. The plane literally rose with a jump, the engines dug in, and we soon showed a gain in altitude of anywhere from 300 to 400 feet. It was what we wanted. We should clear the pass with about 500 feet to spare. Balchen gave a shout of joy. It was just as well. We could dump no more food. There was nothing left to dump except McKinley's camera. I am sure that, had he been asked to put it overboard, he would have done so instantly; and I am equally sure he would have followed the precious instrument with his own body. 44 The next few minutes dragged. We moved at a speed of 77 nautical miles per hour through the pass, with the black walls of Nansen on our left. The wing gradually lifted above them. The floor of the plateau stretched in a white immensity to the south. We were over the dreaded "Hump" at last. The Pole lay dead ahead over the horizon, less than 300 miles away. It was then about 9:45 o'clock (I did not note the exact time. There were other things to think about). 45 Gaining the plateau, we studied the situation a moment and then shifted course to the southward. Nansen's enormous towering ridge, lipped by the plateau, shoved its heavily broken sides into the sky. A whole chain of mountains began to parade across the eastern horizon. How high they are I cannot say, but surely some of them must be around 14,000 feet, to stand so boldly above the rim of the 10,000 foot plateau. Peak on peak, ridge on ridge, draped in snow garments which brilliantly reflected the sun, they extended in a solid array to the southeast. But can one really say they ran in that direction? The lines of direction are so bent in this region that 150 miles farther on, even were they to continue in the same general straight line, they must run north of east. This is what happens near the Pole. 46 We laid our line of flight on the 171st meridian. 47 Our altitude was then between 10,500 and 11,000 feet. We were "riding" the engines, conscious of the fact that if one should fail we must come down. Once the starboard engine did sputter a bit, and Balchen nosed down while June rushed to the fuel valves. But it was nothing; to conserve fuel, Balchen had "leaned" the mixture too much. A quick adjustment corrected the fault; and, in a moment, the engine took up its steady rhythm. Moments like this one make a pioneering flight anything but dull; one moment everything is lovely, and the next is full of foreboding. 48 From time to time, June "spelled" Balchen at the controls, and Balchen would walk back to the cabin, flexing his cramped muscles. There was little thought of food for any of us--a beef sandwich, stiff as a board from frost, and tea and coffee from a thermos bottle. It was difficult to believe that two decades or so before the most resolute men who had ever attempted to carry a remote objective, Scott and Shackleton, had plodded over this same plateau, a few miles each day, with hunger, fierce, unrelenting hunger, stalking them every step of the way. 49 Between 11:30 and 12:30, the mountains to the eastward began to disappear, dropping imperceptibly out of view, one after another. Not long after 12:30, the whole range had retreated from vision, and the plateau met the horizon in an indefinite line. The mountains to the right had long since disappeared. 50 The air finally turned smooth. At 12:38, I shot the sun. It hung, a ball of fire, just beyond south to the east, 21° above the horizon. So it was quite low, and we stared it in the eye. The sight gave me an approximate line of latitude, which placed us very near our position as calculated by dead reckoning. That dead reckoning and astronomy should check so closely was very encouraging. The position line placed us at Lat. 89° 4 ½' S., or 55 ½ miles from the Pole. A short time later, we reached an altitude of 11,000 feet. According to Amundsen's records, the plateau, which had risen to 10,300 feet, descended here to 9,600 feet. We were, therefore, about 1,400 feet above the plateau. 51 So the Pole was actually in sight. But I could not yet spare it so much as a glance. Chronometers, drift indicators, and compasses are hard taskmasters. 52 Relieved by June, Balchen came aft and reported that visibility was not as good as it had been. Clouds were gathering on the horizon off the port bow, and a storm, Balchen thought, was in the air. A storm was the last thing we wanted to meet on the plateau on the way back. It would be difficult enough to pass the Queen Maud Range in bright sunlight; in thick weather, it would be suicidal. Conditions, however, were merely unpromising: not really bad, simply not good. If worse came to worst, we decided we could out-race the clouds to the mountains. 53 At six minutes after one, a sight of the sun put us a few miles ahead of our dead reckoning position. We were quite close now. At 1:14 Greenwich mean time, our calculations showed that we were at the Pole. 54 I opened the trapdoor and dropped over the calculated position of the Pole the small flag which was weighted with the stone from Bennett's grave. Stone and flag plunged down together. The flag had been advanced 1,500 miles farther south than it had ever been advanced by any American or American expedition. 55 For a few seconds, we stood over the spot where Amundsen had stood, December 14th, 1911, and where Scott had also stood, thirty-four days later, reading the note which Amundsen had left for him. In their honor, the flags of their countries were again carried over the Pole. There was nothing now to mark that scene: only a white desolation and solitude disturbed by the sound of our engines. The Pole lay in the center of a limitless plain. To the right, which is to say to the eastward, the horizon was covered with clouds. If mountains lay there, as some geologists believe, they were concealed, and we had no hint of them. 56 And that, in brief, is all there is to tell about the South Pole. One gets there, and that is about all there is for the telling. It is the effort to get there that counts. * * * * Sunday, Dec. 1 57 . . . Well, it's done. We have seen the Pole. McKinley, Balchen, and June have delivered the goods. They took the Pole in their stride, neatly, expeditiously, and undismayedly. If I had searched the world, I doubt if I could have found a better team. Theirs was the actual doing. But there is not a man in this camp who did not assist in the preparation for the flight. Whatever merit accrues to the accomplishment must be shared with them.

Do you think WWIII started in 1979? When WWIII Started****1979 > >This is not very long, but very informative. First you have to read the >catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can >take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from >Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will >ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in >November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years. > > US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air >Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last >month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and >why this action is so necessary. > > >AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP! >That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than >3,000 Americans were killed). Maybe it was, but I think it should have >been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing >since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for >a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then. > >It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a >religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked >and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright >attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most >powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this >sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 >years. > >America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and >had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had >to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The >ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's >inability to deal with terrorism. > >America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the >end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly >organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was >doomed from the start. > >Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and >killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her >citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued! > >In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven >into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 >people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once >more. > >Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down >with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine >Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America >mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. > > > > Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives >is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. > >The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate >of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept. > >Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a >restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. > >Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the >main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main. 22 are killed and the >snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually >attacked. > >Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, is hijacked >and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the >passenger list and executed. > >The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when >they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 and kill 4. Then in a more >tragic bombing, they get Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in >1988, killing 259. > >Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying >to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war. > >The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. > > >The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two >CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, >Virginia. > >The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested >after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground >parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are >killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of >war? The Snooze button is pressed again. > > Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in >Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. > >A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 >yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys >the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over >500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America >does not respond decisively. > >They move to coordinate their attacks in simultaneous attacks on two US >embassies in Kenya and Tanzania . These attacks were planned with >precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and >goes back to sleep. > >The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 >October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded >killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but >we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep. > >And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans >think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong >they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose >to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep!!! > >In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high >official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But >if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see >exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the >National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since >1979. > >I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue >until we as a people decide enough is enough! America needs to "Get out of >Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to >be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life >continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and >again and roll over and go back to sleep. > >After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all >we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to >disseminate to terrorists around the world. > >This is not a political thing to be hashed out in an election year. This >is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our >children in years to come. > > > Remember, Freedom is not free. There was a price to obtain it and >a bigger price to maintain it. The enemy will not negotiate. The enemy is >bent on killing every American they can--all of us if possible. The enemy >is seeking world domination. The enemy will behead you, your children and >your neighbors. You cannot negotiate or ignore a rabid dog. You have to >put it down. > > >If you understand and believe we are at a crucial point in our history >please forward this to as many people as you can-- especially to the young >people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick >to protest such a necessary military action. > > > I am really sorry it was longer than I thought, forgive please!!

past idea i had. the first chapter.i stopped and started another story which is awesome what do you think? Chapter 1 The rustling engines of a Boeing jet planes could be heard as they took off one by one. Travelers scrambling around the airport, luggages by their side looking for their terminals while some of them waited for their planes to arrive. Some Travelers could be seen holding their shoes and hurrying to their gates."Now arriving at gate 32B Flight 343 from Lagos, Nigeria, for those of you waiting to board it would only take us a couple of minutes to deboard and get the plane ready, thank you for your patients" a female voice echoed through out the airport. "Sir, how was your stay in New Jersey?" said the immigrations officer not making eye contact but looking at the computer screen. "It was enlightening" replied the man on the other side of the bulletproof glass. There was a period of silence while the officer looked up his information on the computer and stamped the necessary documents. "Welcome to Los Angeles and have a good day Mr. Cypher" said the officer with a smile on her face which appeared to be forced. The man walked out of the airport dragging along one of those suitcases that has the retractable handle. Cypher walks up to one of the taxi cabs parked next to the sidewalk. "Where to Sir?" said the cab driver in an African accent. "333 Millbrook Road" replied Mr. Cypher as he closed the cab door. "So Sir, How was your trip?" asked the Cab driver as he looks through the rearview mirror. "It was a nice flight...you can call me Jonathan." "Ok Sir...i mean Jonathan, my name is Adebayo." replied the cab driver. "Hmmm that sounds like a Nigerian name" wondered Jonathan who was now looking outside of the window. "Yes it is... have you been to Nigeria?" Adebayo said nodding his head "Yes i have" "Where you there for pleasure or for business?" "was there for business" said Cypher with a smile appearing on his face. "It turned out to be a really successful deal" he continued. "That is wonderf--" "I don't think you should be taking that route," said Jonathan cutting the driver off in midsentence "there is going to be a lot of traffic at this hour" "Sir don't worry i know where i am going" said the now offended cab driver. "I think if you take 125 you will dodge the traffic" said Jonathan now looking at the cab driver. "Ok Sir you are the boss" he said in a strong inflection. "Is this your first time in L.A?" asked the cab driver who was surprised to find out that Jonathan was right about the traffic. "No, i was born and raised here" replied Cypher "Do you mind turning that up?" He said refering to the radio which was playing a melodious classical tune by Camille Saint-Saënswas being played. Jonathan Cypher an averagely built caucasian with sky blue eyes who is in his twenties lived in L.A during most of his youth until the incident that changed the rest of his life. It was the second of March the third year of the twenty first century, Micheal Cypher, Jonathan's Father was took him out to the park for a little father-son time. Jonathan Cypher who was thirteen at the time, was very into the game of soccer. He was raising the soccer ball into the air like a hacky sac while his father went over to the hot dog stand to get a little snack for both of them. As Jonathan kicked the ball into the air there came a shriek full of fear from the hot dog stand. Jonathan who was startled by the scream lost concentration and let the ball drop to the ground as he looked towards the direction of the scream. There where people scampering about the park as the air began to fill with fear. He looked towards the direction of his father who was now looking at him with a smirk on his face... "Jonathan we have reached three hundred and thirty three Millbrook Road" said the cab driver looking at the house which looked like no one has lived in for years. The House on number 333 Millbrook Road was owned by Micheal Cypher which was passed down to his son during his demise. The house which had most of the front covered in glass that shun in the light as the orange red color of the house glowed. the fences around the house where made out of rocks with the number 333 on one of the rocks close to the stone steps. "Here is your money Adebayo" he said as he opened the door to the taxi. "Keep the change" "Thank you Jonathan, hope to see you around." said the Adebayo as he stepped on the gas and drove off down the street. The last time that Jonathan ever stepped foot into his house in Millbrook Road was when he was trying to pack most of his things to catch a plane out of Los Angeles to New Jersey. He was in a hurry and therefore left most of his valuable thing behind. When he opened the door to his house, the house was a mess. It looked like a mini-hurricane had passed through his house leaving the wall intact. The men that were looking for him might have found out where he lived and decided to pay him an unwelcome visit. Jonathan felt a chill down his spine just thinking about the men finding o

Is this a great story so far or what? I'm 14 and I think im creative. the twilight saga is amazing in my opinion. so I decide to try, but unsuccessfully finish a supernatural romance story. Instead of vampires i was thing about using zombies, but they aren't gross, they are quite good looking thankyouverymuch. i just can't finish it, so if you could tell me if i should continue or give up because it's a lost cause, it would be greatly appreciated. (sorry it's long, thanks for your time) This is it: The day was unusually sunny and beautiful. As if the whole world was happy that my little world was coming to an end. I sat by the little stream, which was about a half a mile from my house, to think out my situation. I mean sure, I cannot say that I was completely blind sighted by this whole ordeal. I could still hear Grandma Edans’ unusually boastful voice playing over in my head: “Really, Aleene, women would get married at ages younger then sixteen when I was growing up. I was married to your grandfather, bless his soul, at age 13.” I hadn’t argued back because the cause was hopeless, and it wasn’t only grandmother I had to convince, it was-if I had to get an estimate- every member of my family. We lived in the ‘past’. Generations after generation of the woman in my family have been married off to the men in the city of Berkenshire. That was how my mother came to marry my father. She was 17-the oldest and last of grandmothers’ daughters to get married- and father had been 34. It was a year after the marriage that I was conceived. After the birth mother had taken ill, fathers’ angry disposition only got worse. I remembered that everyday after my work had been done, I would sit by mother in her bed. We would chat for a while about the people in town and the pleasant parts of her childhood and-when we were sure no one could hear- teach me lessons from schoolbooks. Father never really liked these lessons and he made it very, very clear that he didn’t want them going on. Mother never listened. She said that she was going to teach me even if it was the last thing she did. And it was. Whenever father had caught mother teaching these lessons he’d kick me out of the room and lock the door so that he could “talk” to mother privately. The funeral was the day after one of these talks. “It was what she had deserved.” Both grandmother and father agreed to this. My mother deserved much more. They thought of her as a disease waiting to be cured and finally gotten rid of. And now here I was in here following in her foot steps-she would be so ashamed of me. I was being shipped away like a piece of furnisher. Grandmother thought that I was being foolish. “You should be ecstatic”, she yelled, “In time like these you’re lucky to even find a man willing to marry.” That was all fine and dandy, but being forced to move halfway across the world-it seemed- was just a little unorthodox. I couldn’t comprehend how they could be so impatient. Surely, if we were to wait a few more years there would be another man and then there wouldn’t be a reason for me to leave. I had grown up in this town-the memories here weren’t always pleasant- but it was the only place I knew, felt secure in. Outside of Berkenshire was unknown. “Aleene! Where are you, girl?” the voice interrupted my train of thought. I stood up warily; as to revile my hiding spot- I wouldn’t be using it anymore anyway. “Yes, over here!” “Hurry up and start packing, the cab will be coming for you tomorrow early. They’ll be no time to pack anything in the morning.” It was so like my grandmother to be able to scream that loud. Sighing, I turned to stomp back to the house. The word ‘house’ hardly described the vicinity in which my father, grandmother and I resided in. The out side walls had been nailed together so quickly they were only half in the wall, you could even see the ends of some sticking through the wall. The word walls were hardly a good word to call them, also. There were gaps between each plank and you could, basically, see the inside of the house from the outside. The inside was no better, but the details are as insignificant for there really wasn’t much there. There were four “rooms” and as I opened the door, I walked into the first one. My father sat in a wooden stool in the corner the furthest away eating a piece of bread. “Serve the food.” He said without really acknowledging me. I hurried quickly to the other side of the room that my Grandmother was on. She was mixing a large pot of some bean, I think. I was a much better cook then her, but she couldn’t work on anything other then the cooking. I took a plate and dumped a big clump of the beanie looking substance onto it. “Here you go, sir.” I said, carefully trying to hide the disgust in my voice. He nodded and turned his attention full onto the food. Grandmother was next to sit down. She hobbled noisily over to the second stool, as soon as she got as comfortable as possible she called to me to bring her food. As soon as they were done eating, I washed their dishes and ate a piece of bread. As soon as all the dishes were done, I went back outside. My life is completely pitiful, I thought, how can anyone in their sane mind be upset about leaving this place? My whole life had been full of beatings, loses, and disappointments. Leaving it all behind should be a relief and exciting. I’d hardly ever been off the little land my father owned and now I was traveling to a new and exciting place. New and exciting was what I had hoped for at least. Father and Grandmother still hadn’t told me where I would be going, ‘unimportant’ they had both called it. “How can something like this be unimportant?” I had asked. “Don’t you worry your little uneducated mind about it,” father had sneered. “You shouldn’t be so noisy! Don’t you want to be surprised when you get there?” grandmother had harshly teased. Well, it won’t be long now until I figure out, exactly, where they are shipping me off, too. At that thought I look up at the sky, it was getting dark. Only a few more hours to live like this, hopefully the next life I was being carted away to would be more promising. I let my mind drift to when I should start my packing. A normal person would have started packing much more in advance, but normal people have many possessions. Myself, I had only a few particles of clothing and one or two books- that father knew nothing of, of course. I could just stuff them into a bag in a matter of seconds- finding something to carry my few possessions in would most likely take longer then packing them. I looked up at the sky again and sighed, might as well get it over with. My room was the size of a small closet. There was a makeshift bed on the floor and a little candle in a tine sardine box. The floor was made of dirt and it was moist since it had been raining. I took my blanket and laid it flat out on top-of what could be considered under the category of-a mattress. I decided that was the only, thing I would ever be able to find suitable for carrying things-I didn’t plan on sleeping much tonight anyway. On top of the blanket I placed the few shirts and skirts I owned, hidden beneath that I placed my two books. Finally, I tied the ends of the blanket together and ‘done’. Sighing again for the millionth time to day, I laid down on my so-called mattress. Staring up at the ceiling, I could see the sun and the bright ocean sky had been replace by the moon and a background of dark velvet. “Not much longer now”, I mumbled. Grandmother had said the cab, that was going to take me to my new life, would be here before noon. So, that gave me only a few hours to myself. I hadn’t wanted to fall asleep-what a waste of a last day it would be- but I fell asleep anyway. I walking down a bright sunny road, the sky even brighter then it had been today. The plants were swaying in the cool summer breeze and of in the distance I could hear the sound of a creek running against stones. The sun felt marvelous, the perfect temperature, heating my skin so I, even with the cool breeze, couldn’t even think about shivering. It looked like a giant glowing pearl lost in a sea of light blue. I was all alone on the sunny road, but I felt better that way- somebody else with me would’ve ruined the moment. I sighed and took a deep gulp of the fresh air. Suddenly something flashed. It looked like someone was reflecting a mirror off the sun. I curiously stumbled forward- what could be reflective here. It flashed again except this time it was in a different direction, infact; it looked like it was moving- running, maybe. I started to pick up my pace until I was flat out sprinting after the flashing object. How could something move so quickly? I kept urging my legs to move fast but I could hardly keep the object within the seeing distance. Suddenly, my bright warming sun was replaced by a barren land with a heavy clouded overcast. I froze- my lungs were burning from the lack of air from all of the running I had done- above my head was a coal black cloud. It was massive in size and seemed to stretch further then the eye could see. Lighting and thunder struck and mumbled from inside the cloud, but the storm hadn’t started yet. The wind was more fierce then the cool gentle breeze before, I put my head down, but a figure a few yard away from my caught my eye. It was a man older then thirty, but not old looking in anyway. He was disturbingly beautiful- I, almost, wanted to bow or at least look away. However, he was much too beautiful, his feature dangerous, as if warning me to try to get away. I was completely enthralled. He kept taking steps- one slowly at a time- towards me. He was ten feet away when I could clearly see his features. He was pale-like he had been looked in a dark room for months. His hair was black and below his ears. He had a piercing that went through the center of his nose. He was muscular and the black cloak he wore showed that perfectly. I got to his eyes and gave a horrified gasp. They were pitch black, darker then a nightmare. My heart beat furiously, as if telling me to run, in my chest. The man gave a wide smile revealing a pair of razor sharp blades of teeth. “Welcome home, my wife.” He purred. He lunged at the speed of light. I gave a horrified scream, but it was pointless his razor teeth were dripping with blood as he went for another bite….. I woke up screaming; my heart pounding so heard it felt like a bomb was about to explode inside of me. It was a horrible feeling, indescribable. I held my chest and it took me a few more seconds to realize I was still screaming. “I swear I could kill that wretched girl. She’s lucky its here last day here or I might’ve made it her last day on this world.” Father was grumbling from the outside of his door. I quickly got up and walked-out of one of the large holes in my wall- outside. Fathers’ angry heavy footsteps had just started stomping to my room. He was mumbling something hurtful and I was in enough pain from my dream- I wasn’t really in the “mood” for a much more physical beating. The sky was blossoming again, brighter-if possible- then yesterday. The sun felt nice against my skin, but felt like nothing compared to how it had in my dream. I was leaving in a mere few hours and I felt almost ready. There was still something I had to do. The path to my mothers’ grave was covered in weeds from lack of use. I, myself, only came up once a month at the least- I should’ve made the trip more often, but it hurt for some reason. If my mother could only see me now, she’d be so disappointed. She spent her last days trying to make me become something important and I end up going down the same path she tried so hard to prevent. She claimed, in one of our lessons, that as long as I didn’t end up as she had, that she would be proud of me. Surely, this can be a different path. This new husband of mine will not take advantage of me. The little apple tree my mother was buried on came into view. The tree itself would hardly be considered a bush, my mothers’ grave was crumbling, and covered in weeds, the grass was growing untamed and wild. I always used to make an effort to try to clean up- in the earlier years of my mothers’ death- but there was no use. Every time I cleaned up her grave the next time I came back it was n even worse shape. I sat down, resting my back against her grave. “Well, mother…I’m sure you’ve heard… I am getting married. Now, I know it’s not exactly the career choice you wanted for me, but I’m learning to deal with it. Maybe it won’t be quite so bad. I’m sure that father and grandmother didn’t do me any mercy with the man they chose, but you have to roll with the punches the father and grandmother throw.” I laughed at my pitiful little joke. The tears just started to pour out after that. I hardly ever cry and I wasn’t really sure what had provoked me, too. Maybe it was the fact that I was going completely insane and talking to a bunch of fallen rocks or the fact that what lay ahead of me was dangerous and unknown. Whatever the reason the tears just wouldn’t stop falling. It felt like I was sitting there for hours, my eyes were sore from all the crying. I sullenly got up and with one last regretful apologetic look and started to walk back to what-soon wouldn’t– be my home. My feet my scraping sounds as I slid them depressingly along the dirt path. I kicked a small stone lost in thought, so I tripped a few times. Whenever I was lost in thought, I was unusually clumsy. I looked up, after what seemed like ages, to find my barely sanding house, Parked next to it was a yellow taxicab. The cab was small and all the windows were open. My heart skipped beats. I can’t believe this is it- I’m starting all over from this point on. I am now no longer going to be Aleene Abel- or whatever my new last name will be. I wonder if father and grandmother will come to my wedding- if I’m having one at all. I laughed aloud at the thought. Grandmother and father doing something for me and besides, I wouldn’t want them to be at my wedding anyway. However, they are the only people I would know to invite. I was suddenly feeling excited, I guess the thought of an unknown future excited me. After all, it was the only excitement of the sixteen and a half years that I’d ever felt. As I approached the “door” of the front of my home, I felt myself truly and genially happy for the first time in a while. I didn’t even know why. “Aleene, is that you?” I heard my grandmothers’ high piercing voice ask from the other side of the door. “Yes, grandmother”, I said as I opened the door and stepped inside. My father was slouching on a chair against the wall, his eyes fixed in a mesmerized gaze at the man sitting tall and elegant in the stool in the middle of the room. The man was older then fifty, but he was still good-looking. Not like the handsome kind of good-looking, but like the grandfatherly type. He looked like the kind of person who you could tell secrets and jokes to, the type person who would give you candy and tell you old exciting stories. Though he was old, he hardly showed traces of age. The only wrinkles on his head were those on his forehead from his raised eyebrows, as he waited patently. He had a full head of hair that was a dark brownish-gray. His eyes looked black, but when the glint of the sun caught his eye, I saw a bit of green-were the most terrifying enthralling part of him. After a few minutes of my observing him, the man finally spoke, “So, my dear, it’s a pure pleasure to be in your presence. I’m called Powell. My master has a strong delight in beautiful women, I highly doubt he will be displeased.” At that note my father snorted, a cruel hateful laughing sort of thing. “Aleene? Beautiful? She’s a monster. She wreaks havoc wherever she stands. A disaster waiting to happen.” The man, named Powell, just turned and gave my father a patient waiting stare. “Well…whatever. She’s your…problem now.” Father managed to blurt out before he became mesmerized again. “Aleene? That’s a beautiful name. It rolls of the tongue lovely. How old are you my dear?” “I’ll be 17 in a month.” I replied it emotionlessly. Any of the excitement I had felt had vanished once I looked into this mans eyes. They looked like the eyes of the monster from my nightmare. Powell seemed to sense my fear because he turned to my grandmother and asked if it was alright if we departed. “Yes I suppose it’s best you leave now.” Then grandmother turned to me, “I’ll miss you, now I’m going to be stuck doing all of the work. Your lazy ass of a father sure as hell won’t” “Shut you mouth, Hag!” My father retorted waking from his trance. I walked down the steps, my little bag of clothes in one had, for the last time. Powell met me at the stairs, took my little clothes bag, and put it in the trunk. Then he ran swiftly to the door and held it open for me. The leather seat felt cool against my legs and the wind blew playfully through the open windows. The countryside speeded by like pictures. The smell of wildflowers growing, wafted through the windows lulling my into a claming state. I soon fell into a deep sleep. “Aleene, dear? Wake up we are almost to your new home.” I groggily opened my eyes-in a matter of seconds I was wide-awake. We were riding through the strangest town I’d ever seen. The buildings were made of different shapes and there seemed to be a path along every street that shielded you from the sun. “There’s your new home.” Powell said boredly. It was as if he’d said it a hundred times before. In the center of the madness of this city, there was the largest house I’d ever seen. It looked like it could’ve been pretty at one time, but now just looked like it was inhibited with the living dead. “Um…Powell? I’m not sure if I should be doing this, would taking me back home be a option?” “Sorry, my dear, but we have arrived at your new home. It’s a few hours to late to turn back.” I sighed, this whole thing is much more complicated then I thought. The cab slowly halted. “Well, Aleene, I suggest you take a deep breath to steady yourself. You’re looking a little shaken.” “This is really my new home?” I was in shocked, the place was massive. “Yes.” He sounded annoyed, “What reason would I have for lying?” I decided that it was a rhetorical question and a stepped out of the car onto the gravel driveway. The house was a bright reddish brick, but most of it was covered in thick thorny vines. There were many plants, or what was left of them. Everything near the house was dead, the trees had no leaves and bushed looked like they would turn to dust if you touched them. Parts of the brick not covered by the vines were crumbling and it was eerie and unusually quite, even though the town was only a few minutes away I thought it was amazing. “Now, Aleene dear, I know the place it looking a little depressing, but I’m sure with you help we can have it looking tip-top in no time.” Powell said reassuringly. “Why would I want to change anything? It’s so interesting looking. How old is this house?” “It was built in Victorian times. One of the best time to live in, in my opinion.” He said with a distant look in his near black eyes. “I can see why you would say that, this place is beautiful.” “As were many things back then,” he eyed me, ”Well, I suppose now if as good a time as ever to introduce you to your new family.” They appeared as if they had been called for, four dark figures appeared. It took me by surprise for I hadn’t seen or heard them coming. “I apologize did we frighten you?” The older looking man said. I couldn’t answer, their eyes… “Aleene Abel, Master. Isn’t she a work of art? She has lovely looking kin doesn’t she, Master?” Powell spoke with such respect you’d think he was talking to royalty. “Her skin does look very soft, Powell.” The man said, if you could call him that. I, also, didn’t like how they were talking about me as if I was a enatiment object, but I was still held in shock by those eyes. The man looked at me curiously for a few seconds before he slapped his hand to his head and cried out in surprise, “Oh my, where’s my manners?! I was rude enough to not introduce ourselves. My name is Duff Isis, I’m the lucky husband.” He smiled reveling his teeth, which were blindingly white and unusually sharp, were blanketed with ruby red lips that seemed to pop off of the extremely pale face. His features were sharp and flawless and he looked like the type of man who would send twenty year old women out of their minds. His eyes were a extremely dark browm- they seemed to have the same cloudy blackness that Powell’s had. His brown hair hung in a loose pony tail reveiling a tattoo in the shape of a cross with a snake on it. “He seemed to see me staring at it, “I got into some trouble when I was younger. I was a silly kid luckily, I’ve grown up.” He smiled wide again. “This is my daughter Dominique. She’s nineteen.” Great I have a step daughter older then me. Dominique had the same horrifying look as Duff, but her beauty was blinding. Her velvet brown hair hung in perfect curls below her shoulders and reflected off her pale skin beautifully. Her body was full of perfect curves and made me a little self-consciousness of my twig like self. Her eyes were also a dark blue but they seemed lighter then Duffs. “This is my son, Chasen, he just turned twenty.” Chasen looked like one of the highschool jocks you’d see in movies, only a hundred times more musculed and way better looking. He had eyebrows that shadowed his eyes, which were dark enough. He had a army looking cut which made him look even more ferocious. “And this is my nephew Evan Swift, he was my sister’s, bless her souls, son. Evan looked my age maybe a little older and he was probable the most beautiyfullest person I’ve ever seen in my life. His skin was pale, but not as pale as his snow white family members.He had a very slender body-almst as slim as mine- but he still seemed to be very strong. He had shggy black hair which was laying over his eyes. Though that wouldn’t stop you from noticing them, they were light and looked like water from a stream… “Your eyes..”, I mumbled unintelligently. “They aren’t black.” Even looked at me shocked, “Excuse me?” I almost fainted when I heard it, his voice made my heart pound with love and admiration. It also didn’t help that he stared at me intensely with those heavenly eyes. “Well, maybe we should move this conversation on till later. You look tired Aleene dear, maybe you would like to rest?” Duff asked, though it was more like a command. “I’ll show her to her room, Master.” Even Swift was still staring at me when we reached the door- it was a wonder he didn’t trip over anything. I kept my head down so I could avoid his gaze. When we climbed up the five flights of stairs to my room- I seemed to be the only one breathing heavely. Duff once said they could move my room down a floor or two later on. When we finally did get to my room everyone vanished except Powell. “I hope you like your room, Aleene.” “It’s very… purple.” And it was. Every square inch of the room seemed to be covered in a velvety purple drapery. Even the lights seemed to send of a purple glow. “Yes, my Master enjoys color coordnation.” “I can deffenetly see that.” It went on awkwardly like this for a few more minutes before Powell made up a imagionary problem just so he could leave. “What is going on?” I thought out loud. “Nothing of importance- oh, sorry.” Evan said when he saw he startled me. “It’s not your fault, you guys are just really quite.” “Yeah, I guess. Sorry though, I should have knocked. Dinner will be served soon.” “Oh, ok thank you.” “You pack very lightly for a person who just moved.” He said eyeing my little blanket filled with clothes. “It was hardly a home, and I like to repress and rid myself of bad memories.” “I see”, Evan said thoughtfully. “So if you don’t mind me asking, what happened to Mrs. Isis?” “She fell off a cliff.” He said boredly. “Oh my gosh! Was she pushed?” “I don’t know I wasn’t there. Duff brought her body back.” “Oh.” The last sentence didn’t really comphort me. We sat in silence for a while, I kept wondering when he would make up a excuse about being somewhere. “I hope you don’t mind eating alone. Duff, Dominique and Chasen won’t be joining you. I could if you wanted..” He added peeking at me under his eyelashes, his beautiful eyes glowing. “Um… if you really wanted to, I don’t want to be a bother. Why aren’t they eating?” “We ate already.” “Well, if you ate too I won’t have you sit with me.” “It’s ok. I’ve nothing better to do anyway.” He smiled wider then Duff had, those his Evan’s wasn’t as intimating. “So”, I said we had been chatting openly while I ate my food, “What’s up with your eyes? Is it some new rich fad, or something?” “I’ve no clue what you’re talking about.” “Of course you do, how could you not? You and your family have- what?” When I said the word family his face twisted in disgust. “Nothing. You’re just mking a big deal over something foolish.” He replied coldly. I felt my face get hot, maybe I was getting worked up over nothing… It was probable just a coincidence that I had such a strange dream, or maybe I’m just imagioning the color of their eyes… “Are you okay?” Evan asked curiously. “Yeah, just thinking.” “So does your family miss you?” He said this the way Powell had said before, as if he’d said it a hundreds of times before. I don’t know what took over me at that moment, but I just poured my guts out on the table. “My father and grandmother hate me,” I started, watching his face carefully, “they consider me to be the biggest waste of space. They probably also think that me moving out was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” He stared at me dumbfounded- probably wondering what had possessed me to tell him all this, I wish I knew. “What about your mother? Surely there’s someone who would miss you.” “My mother di- she was killed. She used to love teaching me things, father didn’t approve. One day he decided that enough was enough.” I felt my eyes watering, “she expected so much more of me, if she saw me now she’d be so disappointed.” I added mostly to myself. Evan looked at me with such concentration that he seemed to resemble a statue. I took the moment to fully look at him. He was beautiful. Every square inch seemed to be carved to perfection. No, nobody would be able to carve that. Finally he spoke, “I’m so sorry. Loosing someone is extremely hard. I… It’s… Sometimes,” It seemed to me that he was trying to choose his words carefully. “It’s okay, I don’t need sympathy. It happened a long time ago.” “What I’m trying to say is if you ever need to talk, I’ll be here.” “Thank you. Ummm…so I have a somewhat strange question. Since Duff is my….well, you know. What does that make you?” Evan smiled politely, “Duff isn’t particuarlly interested in marrying you in the proper sense. He just doesn’t want to arouse suspision. It’s sad what the neighbors seem to find interesting.” “So he took me from my home, just to have me play a role?” I was shocked, this wasn’t how I had imagined things. Evan looked down at the floor and seemed suddenly sad “For the moment, yes, that is all he wants from you. And”, he said trying to smile, “This place has to be a step up from your origional home?” “Yes. But maybe I could visit sometime. My mothers’ grave is their.” “Yes, maybe someday.” The same pained look came into his eyes. “What is it? Is there something wrong?” “Nothing at all”, He recovered perfectly, maybe I was imagining things again. “You look tired. I’ll walk you to your door.” I didn’t relize how tired I was. Evan had to hold my arm up-his hand was ice cold. I shivered. “Sorry”, he mumbled using his sleeve to cover his hand. As soon as I was in my room

Can anyone make an intelligent, educated counter argument to this? Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat, and had sunk more than four hundred British ships in their convoys between England and America for food and war materials. Bushido Japan had overrun most of Asia, beginning in 1928, killing millions of civilians throughout China, and impressing millions more as slave labor. The US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans and Congress wanted nothing to do with the European war or the Asian war. Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had not attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies. France was not an ally (Are they ever? General Patton once said, "I'd rather have a battalion of Germans in front of me, than a battalion of French behind me!") the Vichy government of France aligned with its German occupiers. Germany was not an ally, it was an enemy, and Hitler intended to set up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, it was intent on owning and controlling all of Asia. Japan and Germany had long-term ideas of invading Canada and Mexico, and then the United States over the north and south borders, after they had settled control of Asia and Europe. America's allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia, and that was about it. There were no other countries of any size or military significance with the will and ability to contribute much or anything to the effort to defeat Hitler's Germany and Japan, and prevent the global dominance of Nazism. And we had to send millions of tons of arms, munitions, and war supplies to Russia, England, and the Canadians, Aussie's, Irish, and Scots, because none of them could produce all they needed for themselves. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy, except Russia in the east, was already under the Nazi heel. America was not prepared for war. America had stood down most of its military after WWI and throughout the depression, at the outbreak of WWII there were army units training with broomsticks over their shoulders because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have tanks. And a big chunk of our navy had just been sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor. Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England that was the property of Belgium and was given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler. (Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day anyway just to prove they could.) Britain had been holding out for two years already in the face of staggering shipping losses and the near-decimation of its air force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brit's were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later and turning his attention to Russia, at a time when England was on the verge of collapse in the late summer of 1940. Russia SAVED America's ass by putting up a desperate fight for two years until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany. Russia lost something like 24 million people (24 MILLION) in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow, 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a million soldiers. More than a million. Had Russia surrendered then, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire campaign against the Brit's, then America, and the Nazis would have won that war. Had Hitler not made that mistake and invaded England in 1940 or 1941, instead, there would have been no England for the US and the Brit's to use as a staging ground to prepare an assault on Nazi Europe, England would not have been able to run its North African campaign to help take a little pressure off Russia while America geared up for battle, and today Europe would very probably be run by the Nazis, the Third Reich. Isolated and without any allies (not even the Brit's), the US would very probably have had to cede Asia to the Japanese, who were basically Nazis by another name and the world we live in today would be very different and much worse. I say this to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. AND we are at another one. There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world, unless they are prevented from doing so. France, Germany, and Russia, have been selling them weapons technology as recently as 2002, as have North Korea, Syria, and Pakistan, paid for with billions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the "Oil For Food" program administered by the UN with the complicity of Kofi Annan and his son. The Jihadi's, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs - they believe that Islam, a radically conservative (definitely not liberal!) form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world, and that all who do not bow to Allah should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel and purge the world of Jews. This is what they say. There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East - for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation today, but it is not yet known which will win - the Inquisition, or the Reformation. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadi's, will control the Middle East, and the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies, the techno-industrial economies, will be at the mercy of OPEC - not an OPEC dominated by the well-educated and rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadi's. You want gas in your car? You want heating oil next winter? You want jobs? You want the dollar to be worth anything? You better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, and live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away, and a moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge. We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We cannot do it everywhere at once so we have created a focal point for the battle now, at the time and place of our choosing, in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris, or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we did and are doing two very important things. (1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11 or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades. Saddam is or was a terrorist, a weapon of mass destruction, who is responsible for the deaths of probably more than a million Iraqis and two million Iranians. (2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad guys there and the ones we get there we won't have to get here, or somewhere else. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed. The Europeans could have done this, but they didn't, and they won't. We now know that rather than opposing the rise of the Jihadist, the French, Germans, and Russians were selling them arms - we have found more than a million tons of weapons and munitions in Iraq. If Iraq was not a threat to anyone, why did Saddam need a million tons of weapons? And Iraq was paying for much of these French, German, and Russian arms with money skimmed from the UN Oil For Food Program that was supposed to pay for food, medicine, and education, for Iraqi children. World War II, the war with the German and the Japanese Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before America joined it. It officially ended in 1945 - a 17 year war - and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . a 27 year war. World War II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP - adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars, WWII cost America more than 400,000 killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action. The Iraq war has, so far, cost the US about $180 billion, which is roughly what 9/11 cost New York. (What will the next hit cost in $ & lives if we wait until the Jahadist have nuclear weapons???) It has also cost over 2,000 American lives, which is roughly 2/3 of the lives that the Jihadist snuffed on 9/11. But the cost of not fighting and winning WWII would have been unimaginably greater - a world now dominated by German and Japanese Nazism. Americans have a short attention span, conditioned I suppose by 60 minute TV shows and 2-hour movies in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. Always has been, and probably always will be. If we do this thing in Iraq successfully, it is probable that the Reformation will ultimately prevail. Many Muslims in the Middle East hope it will. We will be there to support it. It has begun in some countries, e. g. Libya, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. If we fail, the Inquisition will probably prevail, and terrorism from Islam will be with us for all the foreseeable future, because the Inquisition, the Jihadist, believe they are called by Allah to kill all the Infidels, and that death in Jihad is glorious. The bottom line here is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it (or are defeated by it), whenever that is. It will not go away on its own. It WILL NOT go away if we ignore it. If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an "England" in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates. The Iraq war is merely another battle in this ancient and never-ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons unless WE prevent them. The Iraq war is expensive, and uncertain, yes. But the consequences of not fighting and winning it will be horrifically greater. We have four options: 1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons. 2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is). 3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East, now, in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America. 4. Or we can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany, which is well underway, and maybe most of the rest of Europe. It will be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier then. Yes, the Jihadist say that they look forward to an Islamic America. If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law as dictated by the Qur'an), an America that resembles Iran today. We can be defeatist peace-activists as anti-war types seem to be, and concede, surrender, to Jihad, or we can do whatever it takes to win this war against it. The history of the world is the history of civilizational clashes -cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like (usually dominated by religious dogma), and the most determined always win. Those who are willing to be the most ruthless win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them. In the 20th century, it was Western democracy vs. communism, and before that Western democracy vs. Nazism, and before that Western democracy vs. German Imperialism. Western democracy won, three times, but it wasn't cheap, fun, nice, easy, or quick. Indeed, the wars against German imperialism (WWI), Nazi imperialism (WWII), and communist imperialism (the 40-year Cold War that included the Vietnam War, itself a major battle in a larger war) covered almost the entire century. The first major war of the 21st Century is the war between Western Judeo/Christian Civilization and Wahhabi Islam. It may last a few more years, or most of this century. It will last until the Wahhabi branch of Islam fades away, or gives up its ambitions for regional and global dominance through Jihad, or until Western Civilization gives in to the Jihad. Some say we went to Iraq without the needed troop numbers. Indeed, one senior general was forcibly retired because he claimed we needed more troops. We went with the troop levels General Tommy Franks asked for. We deposed Saddam in 30 days with light casualties, much lighter than we expected. The real problem in Iraq is that we are trying to be nice - we are trying to fight a minority of the population that is Jihadi, and trying to avoid killing the large majority that is not. We could flatten Fallujah in minutes with a flight of B52s, or seconds with one nuclear cruise missile - but we don't. We're trying to do brain surgery, not amputate the patient's head. The Jihadis amputate heads. That we went to Iraq with too little planning is a specious argument. It supposes that if we had just had the right plan the war would have been easy, cheap, quick and clean. That is not an option. It is a guerrilla war against a determined enemy and no such war ever has been or ever will be easy, cheap, quick, and clean. This is not TV. That we proved ourselves incapable of governing and providing security is also a specious argument. It was never our intention to govern and provide security. It was our intention from the beginning to do just enough to enable the Iraqis to develop a representative government and their own military and police forces to provide their own security, and that is happening. The US and the Brit's and other countries there have trained over 100,000 Iraqi police and military, now, and will have trained more than 200,000 by the end of next year. We are in the process of transitioning operational control for security back to Iraq. It will take time. It will not go with no hitches. Again, this is not TV. Remember, perspective is everything, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind. The Cold war lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Forty-two years. Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany. World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50 million people, maybe more than 100 million people, depending on which estimates you accept. The US has taken a little more than 2,000 KIA in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism. In WWII the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WWII lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far. But the stakes are at least as high . . . a world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . . or a world dominated by the radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihadist under the Mullahs and the Sharia. I do not understand why America does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis. In America, absolutely, but nowhere else. 300,000 Iraqi bodies in mass graves in Iraq are not our problem. The U.S. population is about twelve times that of Iraq, so let's multiply 300,000 by twelve. What would you think if there were 3,600,000 American bodies in mass graves in America because of George Bush? Would you hope for another country to help liberate America? "Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate where it's safe - in America. For this privilege, they should thank U.S. veterans. Why don't we see Peace Activists demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places in the world that really need peace activism the most? The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc. Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy. If the Jihad wins, it will be the death of Liberalism. HEY ESKIMO...I DID ENLIST, US ARMY 2002, WHERE HAVE YOU SERVED???