SANDSTORM — A U.S. soldier emerges from a sandstorm created by helicopters landing in Tarmiya, Iraq, May 25, 2006. The helicopters were supporting a visit by members of the media to talk to the town's leaders about the changes that have taken place since the town was freed from insurgent control two months ago. Multinational Force-Iraq photo

"But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice – a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice – is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other."

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Surging Iraq Attacks Kill Dozens
CBS Cameraman, Soundman Killed in Iraq
Bush Vows to Win War for Fallen
Iraq Car Bombs Kill 46
CBS Correspondent Critical But Stable
U.S. Orders Troops Into Western Iraq
Iraq PM impatient with US troops killing civilians
Iraqi PM vows tough security action
Pentagon: Iraq insurgency steady until '07

Operation Enduring Freedom
Traffic Accident Sparks Kabul Riots
U.S. says brakes to blame in Afghan crash
Troops Keep Watch over Afghan Capital

Troops on Trial
Ongoing Probes Will Yield Facts
Families Discuss Haditha Deaths
Lawyer: Haditha Probe Not on Officers

Other Military News
Marines Bring Supplies for Quake Victims
Video: Marines Help Search

Worldwide Wackos
Iran wants fresh nuclear dialogue

Politics / Government
House Probes FBI Search of Rep. Jefferson's Office- Video: Illegal Entry?
Spitzer wins Democrats' backing for NY
Bush turns to financier Paulson to replace Snow - Video
Bush to host 'United 93' screening

In the Courts
Court rules no whistle-blower free-speech right

Oddities
Pedophiles to launch political party
Finders keepers for plane loader
Paris Hilton plans reggae, hip hop album
Cordless jump-rope can help the clumsy

Other News of Note
Man Saves Puppy From Gator
Jury Convicts Muhammad of Six More Shootings
Florida utility ill-prepared for major hurricanes

Fox News
Cops Interview 'Persons of Interest' in Bikini Killing
Paulson Gets Treasury Nod- Video: Bush Taps Paulson
Indonesia Quake Aid Arriving
Reid Defends Tickets Gift
FBI Ends Hoffa Body Search
Barbaro Has 'Good Week'
Search Suspended for Man Who Jumped Off Cruise Ship
Life Sought for Mom Accused Of Killing Her 9 Babies
Toyota Recalls 1M Vehicles
Space Center
Video Gaming Center

Reuters: Top News
Bentsen remembered as patrician with heart
China's longest river "cancerous" with pollution
Arctic "Noah's Ark" vault to protect world's seeds
US poultry experts using Google to beat bird flu
Slingbox TV-over-Internet device lands in Europe
In Bolivia, flamboyant Morales confidante becomes foe
Anti-AIDS drive still falling short after 25 years
Petition filing could halt S. Dakota abortion ban
Sorvino gives birth to baby boy
Brave new world for summer tie-ins
Goldman investors see Blankfein taking over
Albertsons deal gets shareholders' approval
FedEx's Watkins buy to be accretive - execs
Merck says Vioxx study results unchanged by error
AT&T wins network contract from RR Donnelley
Tribune settles SEC charges, sets share buyback
US stocks fall on worries about consumer spending
Marsh Supermarkets gets unsolicited bid, shares up
E*Trade to buy Texas investment adviser
Kinder Morgan shares rise slightly above buyout offer - Video
CA delays earnings, sees quarterly loss
Vodafone's high bar
Are TIPS hot or not?

AP World News
Study: Canadians healthier than Americans
Dow ends down 184, Nasdaq closes down 46
Astros remain hopeful of signing Clemens
Bonds scratched from lineup with sore back
Roddick retires in 3rd set at French Open
Pavarotti's farewell tour delayed again
Group: Consumer confidence slides in May

Military.com
Navy Developing Nanotech to Improve Ships
Number of Brigades may Fall
Patriotism, Pomp Presented for Veterans

CENTCOM: News Releases
COALITION FORCES LOCATE AND DESTROY WEAPONS CACHE

TERRORIST DESTROY LUTAFIYAH CITY HALL

ANA, COALITION FINISH BRIDGE, CELEBRATE OPENING WITH CAHAR CHINEH DISTRICT RESIDENTS

2 BDE, AD CALL FORWARD FORCE RELOCATED TO IRAQ

ANA COMPLETES FIRST JOINT EXERCISE IN PAKISTAN

NEIGHBORS WORK TOGETHER TO DEFEAT IED THREAT

ENGINEERS BUILD EASY STREET FOR TROOPS

MEETING THE NEED, ONE VILLAGE AT A TIME

CRRB RELEASE 204 DETAINEES

AFGHAN MEDICAL CARE ADVANCING 'EVERY DAY'

EARLY MORNING RAID NETS IED CELL LEADERS

MND-B SOLDIER, CONTRACTOR AND TWO MEMBERS OF CBS NEWS CREW KILLED IN VBIED ATTACK

STATEMENT BY COALITION SPOKESPERSON, COL. THOMAS COLLINS REGARDING VEHICLE INCIDENT IN KABUL THIS MORNING

AFGHAN AND COALITION FORCES REPEL ENEMY ATTACK IN HELAMND

SEVEN TERRORISTS DETAINED IN RAMADI

THREE TERRORISTS DETAINED IN TAJI

OPERATION BARNSTORMER COMPLETES IN MND-N

CJTF-76 HONORS AMERICANS WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

Department of Defense
NATO Personnel Shape Iraqi Military Staff - Story
Additional U.S. Troops Move Into Province - Story
Casey: Iraqi Programs Aim to Promote Unity - Story

ON THE GROUND
Joint Operation Targets Insurgents in Ramadi - Story
Ogden Sailors Serve Meals at Oil Terminals - Story
Aerial Spraying of Iraqi Crops Concludes - Story

IN IRAQ
Iraqis Adapt British Military Academy as Model
Center Helps Iraqis Shape Military Culture
Troops Restore Base to Hand Back to Iraqis
U.S. Army Mechanics Train Iraqi Counterparts

IN AFGHANISTAN
'Fighting Deuce' MPs Patrol Afghan Mountains
Afghan Border Police, Villagers Secure Border

IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
U.S. Admiral, African Traditional Leader Meet

FACE OF DEFENSE
Immigrant Becomes Citizen, American Combat Hero

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Singer Toby Keith Entertains Troops - Story
Parade Honors Military Personnel
Pentagon Picnic Honors Troops
Group 'Thunders' Through D.C.
Indy 500 Pays Tribute to Troops
Grand Ole Opry Salutes Troops

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Terrorists Bomb Future City Hall
U.S. Soldier Killed in Mosul
Haditha Investigation Continues
Soldier, Contractor, CBS Crew Killed
Iraqi Foresees More Challenges
Troops Remember Friends
Insurgent Killed; Weapons Captured
Renewal In Iraq
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (PDF)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Convoy Accident Incites Unrest
Unit in Afghanistan Honors Troops
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Reagan Concludes Arabian Gulf Ops
U.S., U.K. to Increase Intel
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

CASUALTIES
Defense Officials Identify Casualties - Story

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut
An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
1035 - Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders
1087 - German emperor Henry IV crowns his son Koenraad
1381 - English boer uprising begins in Essex
1434 - Battle at Lipany
1498 - Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America
1522 - French troops driven out of Genoa
1536 - English king Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour
1539 - Spanish explorer Fernando de Soto discovers Florida
1574 - Henry III follows brother Charles IX as king of France; Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)
1584 - Earl Adolf van Nieuwenaar/Meurs becomes viceroy of Gelderland
1588 - Spanish Aramada under Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England
1631 - France/Maximilian van Bavarian signs Accord of Fontainebleau
1635 - Emperor Ferdinand II & Saksen sign Peace of Prague
1646 - Spain & Netherlands signs temporary cease fire
1783 - Benjamin Tower of Philadelphia publishes 1st daily newspaper in US
1808 - Napoleon annexes Tuscany & gave it seats in French Senate
1814 - 1st Treaty of Paris, after Napoleon's 1st abdication
1821 - James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose
1822 - House slave betrays Denmark Vesey conspiracy (37 blacks hanged)
1832 - Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)
1842 - John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria
1848 - 2nd battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians; México ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million
1848 - William G. Young patents ice cream freezer
1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Missouri Compromise opens north slavery
1858 - Hudson Bay Company's rights to Vancouver Island revoked
1862 - Battle of Booneville MS - captured General Beauregard evacuates Corinth, MS; Battle of Front Royal, VA
1864 - Battle of Bethesda Church, VA; Cavalry fight at Old Church (Totopotomoy Creek) VA
1868 - Memorial Day 1st observed, when 2 women in Columbus MS placed flowers on both Confederate & Union graves
1872 - Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy
1883 - Rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse caused a stampede that kills 12
1889 - The brassiere is invented
1896 - 1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (NYC)
1908 - 1st federal workmen's compensation law approved
1908 - Aldrich Vineland Currency Act - forerunner to Federal Reserve System; Paris advocate E. Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane; US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, UT authorized
1909 - National Conference on the Negro is held; Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv
1912 - US Marines sent to Nicaragua
1913 - 1st Balkan War ends, Treaty of London
1913 - New country of Albania is formed
1921 - Memorial to Captain Eddie Grant, killed in WWI, unveiled at Polo Grounds; Salzburg Austria votes to join Germany
1922 - Latvia & Vatican sign accord; Lincoln Memorial dedicated
1924 - Socialist Matteotti falls in Italian parliament by fascists
1925 - British mariners shoot on demonstrators
1925 - Peter DePaolo became 1st man to average over 100 mph at Indianapolis 500
1933 - Patent on invisible glass installation
1935 - Babe Ruth's final game, goes hitless for Braves against Phillies
1937 - Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago police shoot on union marchers at Republic Steel Plant in Chicago, 10 die
1941 - 1st anti semitic measures in Serbia; English Army enters Baghdad, chasing pro-German coup government; German capture Kreta
1942 - 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WWII; Reichsführer Himmler arrives in Prague; US aircraft carrier Yorktown leaves Pearl Harbor
1943 - French General De Gaulle arrives in Algiers
1943 - US troops reconquer Attu Aleutians
1944 - Transport nr 75 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1946 - United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (New York) 42 die
1949 - East Germans constitution approved
1955 - Said el-Mufti forms Jordan Government; Tunisia begins domestic self governing
1956 - Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee, FL; Mickey Mantle misses hitting 1st homerun out of Yankee Stadium by 18"
1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in WWII & Korean War buried in Arlington
1959 - Iraq terminates military assistance pact with US due to neutrality; President Somoza ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua; President Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament; World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England
1961 - Dutch DC-8 crashes after takeoff at Lisbon - 62 die
1965 - Viet Cong offensive against US base in Da Nang begins; Vivian Malone, is 1st Black to graduate from University of Alabama
1966 - 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam; US launches Surveyor 1 to the Moon
1967 - Biafra declares independence from Nigeria; King Hussein of Jordan visits Cairo; Robert "Evel" Knievel's motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles
1968 - President De Gaulle disbands French parliament; University church in Leipzig German Democratic Republic, blown up; West German Parliament accepts emergency crisis law
1969 - Gibraltar adopts constitution; People revolt in Willemstad, Curaçao
1971 - US Mariner 9, 1st satellite to orbit Mars, launched
1972 - 3 Japanese PFL terrorists kill 24 and wound 72 at Tel Aviv's Lod International Airport
1975 - European Space Agency (ESA) forms
1976 - Bobby Unser sets world record for the fastest pit stop (4 seconds)
1979 - Percom Data Company Inc release Microdos for Radio Shack's TRS-80; Ted Coombs begins a 5,193 mile roller skate from Los Angeles to NYC
1980 - 1st papal visit to France since 1814
1981 - "Nightline" extends from 4 nights to 5 nights a week (Friday); Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is shot by group of rebel officers
1982 - Spain becomes 16th member of NATO
1984 - Bomb explodes in rebel leader Eden Pastora headquarters in Nicaragua
1986 - Ariane-2 (ESA) launched; Bobby Rahal is 1st to average over 170 mph in the Indianapolis 500
1987 - West German Mathias Rust lands airplane on Red Square
1990 - Earthquake (6.4) hits Peru, killing 135
1991 - Supreme Court rules prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police & can be held accountable
1992 - UN votes for sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia to halt fighting
1997 - Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, set afire by 12 year old grandson

Birthdays
1220 - Alexander Nevski [Aleksandr], Russian great ruler (1252-63)
1524 - Selîm II Sari the blonde, sultan of Turkey (1566-74)
1672 - Peter I "the Great" Romanov, tsar of Russia (1682-1725)
1757 - Henry Addington Viscount Sidmouth, British PM (1801-04)
1812 - John Alexander McClernand, Union Major General
1830 - Edward Winslow Hinks, Union Brevet Major General
1832 - George Doherty Johnston, Confederate Brigadier General
1845 - Amadeus I duke of Aosta/King of Spain (1870-73)
1881 - George von Küchler German fieldmarshal (Invasion Netherlands); Iman J. van den Bosch, Belgian resistance fighter
1894 - Hubertus J. van Mook, Dutch minister of Colonies (1942-45)
1904 - Ernesto de la Guardia, Jr., President of Panamá (1956-60)
1908 - Hannes OG Alfvén, Swedish physicist (Nobel 1970); Mel[vin Jerome] Blanc, voice (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd & Porky Pig)
1915 - Jerome Bert Weisner, military scientist/disarmer
1916 - Dr. Joseph W. Kennedy, scientist (1 of 4 discoverers of plutonium)
1925 - Gerard John Toorenaar, political commissar in Amsterdam (1975-79)
1928 - John Keith Wright, English economist/assistant Secretary of State (1971-84)
1934 - Alexei A. Leonov, cosmonaut (Voskhod II, Soyuz 19)
1938 - Wilfried A. de Pree, Dutch MP (PvdA)/theologist
1942 - Dan Miller (Representative-FL)
1946 - Candy Lightner political activist/founder (MADD)

Passings
1035 - Boudouin IV count of Flanders (988-1035)
1252 - Ferdinand III the holy King of Castilië/León
1431 - Joan of Arc, burned as a witch by the English at Rouen at 19
1434 - Prokopius Bohemian leader of taboriets, dies in battle
1574 - Charles IX King of France (1560-74)
1840 - Dominique J de Eerens Governor-General of Dutch-Indies, dies at 59
1864 - James Barbour Terrill US attorney/Confederate Brigadier-General, dies at 26
1865 - William Clarke Quantrill criminal/Confederate bushwhacker, dies at 27
1912 - Wilbur Wright, US aviation pioneer
1918 - Georgi V. Plechanov, Russian revolutionary theorist
1938 - Raden Sutomo, Indonesian freedom fighter, dies at 49
1945 - Irma Laplasse Flemish farmer/Nazi collaborator, executed
1971 - Audie Murphy, WWII hero/actor (Sierra), killed in plane crash at 46
1981 - Ziaur Rahmen, President of Bangladesh, is assassinated
1983 - Alfred M. Gruenther, US General/NATO-commander (1953-56), dies at 84
1986 - Hank Mobley US jazz saxophonist, dies at 55
1987 - Frank Carlson (Governor/Representative/Senator-KS), dies at 94
1992 - Karl Carstens President German Federal Republic (1979-84), dies at 77
1994 - Baron Marcel Bich, Italian/French baron/pen manufacturer (Bic), dies at 79
1996 - John Cameron, judge, dies at 96

Reported Missing in Action
1962
The following civilians abducted from the The Ban Me Thuot Leprosarium by the V.C.:
Gerber, Daniel A.

Mitchell, Archie E., (WA)

Vietti, Elanor A., (TX); taken from Leprosarium

1966
Hatcher, David B., USAF (NC); F105D shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Mehl, James P., USN (NY); A4E shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

1968
Iodice, Frank C., USMC; escaped June, 1968

Potter, Albert J., USMC; escaped - deceased

Smith, Lewis P. II, USAF (PA); O2A shot down

1970
Duke, Charles R., Civilian; abducted (w/Mark)

Ishi, Tomohara, Civilian - CBS (Japan); abducted in Cambodia

Mark, Kit T., Civilian; abducted (w/Duke)

Hi all,
Hubby and I took a road trip for Memorial Day - saw some neat things and took some pictures.

Will resume normal posting later this afternoon.