One of the four men killed and mutilated in Fajullah has a local connection here. As reported in the Ocala Star Banner, Scott Helvenston left family both in Ocala and to the south of us in Leesburg.
He apparently led a life worthy of a Tom Clancey novel with his Navy SEAL training, and after military work in movie production, stunt work, personal training and entrepreneural business startup.
According to FoxNews Scott was a devoted dad, spending time with his kids in outdoors activities. I've no doubt the horrific images out of Iraq weighed heavily on these family members. I pray these images don't outweigh the memories of the wonderful times together as family. They have expressed pride in Scott and the work he was doing, but that pride is surely tempered by the sorrow of loss. Our hearts go out to the family and we pray for their comfort.
At the same time, we still wait for the military response. Paul Bremer has said the atrocities will not go unpunished. While the arrogant terrorist of Fajullah are daring the military to come, senior commanders say a response is forthcoming, at a time of their choosing, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt characterizing that response as "deliberate, precise and it's going to be overwhelming."

It has been a while. Duties, work, long hours and exhaustion have taken it's toll the past week. I've been too busy to give more than a cursory look to the news, to tired to care enough to write.
Now the past 24 hours, the images coming from Falluja, the weariness and emotion of the human toll in Iraq. The US went into Iraq because a tyrant threatened the world even as he ground his heel in the neck of the people he ruled.
Now, while an ABC News poll reflects the feelings and attitudes of the Iraqi people toward the war and it's aftermath very positively, a small minority of Saddam loyalists struggle to erode American resolve Mogadishu style.
The news has been filled with word and pictorial images of the mob scene in Falluja. The desecration of the bodies of Americans, killed and mutilated just because they are Americans. These people want the US military out of Iraq so they can turn their despicable acts on common Iraqis whose lives have improved immeasurably since Saddam, despite the continued violence.
Now as the rhetoric flows on all sides, the shouting will begin to erupt in earnest from the leftist and Bush detractors. "Leave! Leave NOW!" Should we cut and run as in Mogadishu?
Absolutely not! The news is filled with the pictures of the perpetrators of this act. The military should hunt them down and arrest, or should they resist, take them down. A heavy hammer, directed pointedly against those who committed this atrocity, not broadly, should be administered.
Let those in Falluja and elsewhere know there is a price to pay for their crimes. Let terrorists know everywhere the US will not "cut and run" any more. We have a strong leader and our resolve is firm. Terrorism must cease, or be stomped out.