MUST READING
H. N. OShannasey is the pen name of an active duty Marine Corps officer. In her latest column on Defense Watch, she takes a hard look at how our news media is serving us. One important issue she addresses is the "public's right to know."

Is it my right to gawk at a distraught father and son embracing on their front lawn, upon hearing the news of a brutally executed family member? Is it my right to watch Iraqi people desecrate the bodies of slain American contractors? Is it my right to stand next to a Marine sniper on a rooftop, breathing down his neck, analyzing his every move? Should I really be playing judge and jury to the actions of every service member in the heat of combat while I sit on my couch glued to the television?

This is something that first occurred to me during the OJ Simpson trial. Defense attorneys and the news media were picking apart every action of the police and declaring every discrepancy proof of a frame-up. Could anyone survive extreme scrutiny of their every move with their reputation intact? Not likely. Come to think of it, the media hasn't fared too well under scrutiny either.

You can read the rest of this excellent column here.

MORE GOOD STUFF
No reading list would be complete without at least one Michelle Malkin column. Today I have three.

-The ambulances-for-terrorists scandal exposes a tactic that is becoming more common, especially in Iraq. You wouldn't know it by reading this bit of "journalism" by the BBC.

-This column looks at Islamic extremists behind bars.

-Breeding Terror looks at the spread of Islamic extremism in America's prison system. Scary stuff.

FOX News is reporting that the Army is going to implement the stop loss program for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Someone needs to go to DC and tell those political types that we need the same size Army we had in the 80's. We don't need more stop losses, we don't need the draft, and we don't need to keep all of the reserves on active duty indefinitely. We need a bigger Army, and it's going to cost more than what we've been spending. It's time to admit that the Peace Dividend was a bust. We got conned into blowing our money on the fiscal equivalent of junk bonds. Lesson learned (?).