Kamikaze Bombers – Then and Now

Some 60 years ago, when the Flying Tigers were involved in their first conflict, the Japanese unleashed a terrible weapon the likes of which the West had never seen – the kamikaze suicide bomber. Kamikaze, or divine wind, was named after the storm that arose to destroy Kubla Kahn’s Navy which was about to invade Medieval Japan. Rather than drop bombs on US and British ships attacking the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, the pilots of the kamikaze bombers flew their aircraft right into our ships – killing thousands of United Nations (that what we called our alliance back then) troops along with the pilots.

A strange and horrible weapon – but an understandable one. The target, after all, was the United Nations navies.

Fast forward to yesterday, to a Shia’ Mosque in al-Musayyib, Iraq. Here, the jihadist kamikaze doesn’t target US troops, but a mosque full of Muslim worshipers. Over 90 innocent civilian Iraqi Muslims were killed by a suicide bomber who, one can assume, claimed to be fighting the "Christian Crusaders" and their "Jewish Zionist" allies.

It would be as if the Japanese kamikaze of WWII spotted a US fleet, turned his plane around, headed back to Tokyo, and crashed his bombed-filled aircraft into a Shinto temple filled with Japanese worshipers.

Indeed, we are facing an enemy the likes of which we have never seen before. One, thankfully, that is doomed by his very irrational fanaticism that sees everyone on the planet (save a very select few) as falling into one of two categories of legitimate targets: either kifur (non-Muslims) or apostates (folks just not Muslim enough.)


Could there be an enemy more worthy of destruction and defeat? Certainly not. And the 8-229 Aviation Flying Tigers are proud to be doing our part to bring an end to such killers and their psychotic philosophy.

Al Qa'ida Crimes Against Humanity Continue in Iraq

Yesterday, in a Shia' neighborhood of Baghdad, a US patrol stopped to hand out candy and toys to the local kids. I've been on a couple of these "meet and great" patrols. It's for PR, you might say. But, let me tell you something, most of us do it regardless of the political impact on the locals. We do it, simply, because we can't help but fall in love with the local kids.










But yesterday, on this particular patrol, a car-bomb drove into the crowd of US soldiers and Iraqi kids, killing at least 27 locals. One US servicemember was killed. According to a local hospital which collected the Iraqi bodies, 24 of the 27 Iraqis killed were kids.

You should all know that the vast majority of car bomb drivers aren't Iraqi. They're typically from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, from Syria, or Algeria. They are Al Qa'ida operatives here killing Iraqis.

Just in case you thought Al Qa'ida crimes against humanity somehow came to an end because of their outrage in London, they haven't. The madness that is their Jihad continues to kill innocent men, women, and children, anywhere they can.

What the 8-229 Flying Tigers do in Their Down Time

One of the readers of the Flying Tigers in Iraq blog, Lewis, wanted me to remind everyone that, even in an aviation attack battalion in the middle of the Sunni Triangle, there’s a lot of pretty normal activities going on here. Of course, Lewis is right. The soldiers here can spend their time doing things like going to the laundry, or working out at the gym, or just chillin’ during their time off.

We actually have a softball league on the FOB (Forward Operating Base.) And, there is as much free non-alcoholic beer as you want here, too.


Of course, we relax in shifts. You're not going to find the entire battalion taking a snooze at any given time of the day or night. That ain't happening. This is a war zone, after all.

As well, I want to thank the folks who send us Girl Scout Cookies. Okay, this might not rate highly on the Army’s list of health foods. But, it sure is a boost. Not that the Army food here at FOB Speicher is so bad. Ribs, steaks, and even lobster gets served at the Eagle’s Nest DFAC.

Still, Girl Scout Cookies are a nice break.

British Muslim Leader Blames Blair for London Bombings

The following is an extract from Al Jazeera’s website:

Masoud Shadjareh of Britain's Islamic Human Rights Commission told Aljazeera.net that he was not surprised by the attacks. "Tony Blair has put his own citizens in the line of fire by his failed policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more generally in the war on terror. This is not being articulated at the moment by the British media, but it needs to be."

The Death of Jihad in Sudan

Al-Bashir, the man that brought Jihad to Sudan, today signed a peace accord with John Garang, the Christian rebel leader, in Sudan. The peace treaty between the Islamic central government and the Christian rebel south calls for freedom of religion, abolishes the law that requires the President of Sudan to be a Muslim, and calls for elections.

The peace treaty is designed to put an end to a senseless religious war, a religious war egged on since the ‘90s by the likes of Osama Bin Laden, a war that has resulted in the death of two million, mostly Christian, Sudanese. The type of jihad waged by the Islamists in Sudan was particularly brutal, one in which food and famine were used as weapons.

All in the name of God.

Hopefully, the peace treaty puts a solid nail in the coffin of jihad, that murderous madness that masquerades as religion, in Sudan.

Sudan has decided to step out of the Dark Ages of religious warfare and into the bright sunshine of democracy and human rights.

We wish them well.

The Horror and the Shame

Lest anyone forget who the 8-229th Flying Tigers are fighting in Iraq, it’s Al Qa’ida.

The same Al Qa’ida that planned and carried out the massacres on 9-11 in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C.

The same Al Qa’ida that bombed tourists in Bali. The same Al Qa’ida that blew up trains in Madrid. The same Al Qa’ida that killed this week in London.


Yes, they are the same Al Qa’ida that sends car-bombers to kill Iraqis here in Iraq. The total death toll is in the thousands, 700 Iraqis killed by terrorists in May alone. Attacks have gone down in number since then, but the killing continues.







The horror, the horror.

And yet, there are Americans, believe it or not, who think the fight against Al Qa’ida in Iraq has nothing to do with the fight against Al Qa’ida anywhere else in the world.

Or, that’s what they say.

Me, I believe they know damn well who the fight in Iraq is against. They just don’t want to admit they haven’t the guts to stand up and fight Al Qa’ida. They would rather sit on their couches and make convoluted arguments about why NOT risking their own lives to defend their homes, their families, and their country is really A-Okay.

Such Americans truly are cowards, pure and simple.

The shame, the shame.

Unleash The Peshmerga and the Badr Corps

What armies existed in Iraq when US forces rolled into Baghdad in 2003?

There were three: Saddam’s Army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and the Shia’ Badr Corps.

The US military rolled over Saddam’s Army in a few short weeks, scattering the fourth largest army in the world, with all their troops, tanks, artillery and aircraft, to the four winds quickly and completely, a clear demonstration of “shock and awe”. It was magnificent.

But, the US did it with help on the inside, from the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps.

Even before US troops entered Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga had, with US Special Forces and CIA help, fought Saddam’s army to a standstill, and created their own Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, which they call Kurdistan. You don’t hear about a lot of terrorist attacks in that part of the country because the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia, has pretty much wiped out the pro-Saddam terrorist groups in that part of Iraq.

In the South, the Shia’ Badr Corps had been fighting Saddam’s army ever since the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s. The Badr Corps is the military wing of the the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI.) In January 2005, the SCIRI has won the largest portion of votes in the election in Iraq.

It is the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps that have a stake in the future of a new, democratic Iraq. Politically, the Shia’ and the Kurds are in control of the Iraqi government

The policy of arming the Peshmerga in the North has been very successful in wiping out pro-Saddam and Al Qa’ida cells. And, in the Shia’ South, which is dominated by the Badr Corps, neither Al Qa’ida nor pro-Saddam forces have been very successful.

These two militias need to be armed to the teeth and brought into the Sunni Triangle to hunt down and destroy all Ba’athist and Al Qa’ida terror cells, just like they so effectively have done in the North and the South. This would allow US forces to move out of the center of Iraq and instead focus on closing the border with Syria, and shutting down the the dangerous flow of Al Qa’ida and Ba’athist terrorists that has been killing so many Iraqis up to now.

Old Glory and 8-229th Aviation Flying Tigers Regimental Colors proudly displayed inside our Tactical Operations Center in the Sunni Triangle, Iraq.