AN Australian journalist held captive by Iraqi insurgents for less than 24 hours over the weekend has been released unharmed.

John Martinkus, a veteran freelancer who was compiling a report for SBS’s Dateline program, was seized outside his Baghdad hotel about 5pm on Saturday Australian time (10am Baghdad time).

My guess is that after some questioning it became apparent to the terrorists that John Martinkus was on their side so they they released him to continue his work as one of the anti-coalition/pro-terrorist journalists. As an aside in this article from stopthewar.com journalists quote the ‘country mile’ when they say

News of Mr Martinkus’s kidnapping came as a car bomb exploded near the Australian embassy in Baghdad, killing seven people, and as Mr Downer confirmed the government had rejected a United Nations approach for Australian troops to help protect UN officials in Iraq.

near the Australian embassy turns out to be half a kilometer from the Embassy which in CBD terms could be the next suburb. Still, maybe it looks better or worse, depending on your viewpoint, if Australia is seen as being the target. Drawing a long bow, methinks.

A sergeant in Iraq phones his wife and spills the beans on the rotten Army sending him on a dangerous mission. Left wing fools pick up on it and try and turn the word of a recalcitrant into an indictment of the US. Lets turn the clock back and put it into perspective. It’s 1970 and by some weird time warp I have a mobile phone in Vietnam. I’ve received my orders to take a patrol into the ‘Light Green’ looking for the ever elusive ‘Charlie’ and I don’t like it one little bit. So on the eve of the patrol I phone my wife back home in Brisbane.

“G’day Sweetheart..Yeah. I still love you..OK, social shit over. Just wait till you hear what’s been going on over here. You wouldn’t believe what the bastards have got me doing now, Joan. Tomorrow I have to patrol the ‘Light Green’. I told you last call that there’s minefields down there and we don’t know exactly where they are. I mean, how’s that for totally ignoring Work Place Health and Safety. On top of that we’re being inserted by APCs and everyone knows they’re way over on service schedules due to, and how?s this for a piss-weak excuse, the exigencies of war. Just because we’re fighting a war here, we’ve had a lot of contacts this week and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment drivers haven’t slept, they think they can get away without servicing the vehicles.

Warming up to the theme I remember other unbelievable indictments of the Army. I mean, hulloooo..where’s the armour plating?

I’m getting sick of this shit. Only last week I had to do a convoy protection run and the Land Rover didn’t even have armour plating…like it was a convertible..no roof..no sides. One tropical downpour and we’d all be soaked not to mention the obvious problems associated with being ambushed. I mean, I might have been shot.

I sent this photo to Joan and when she saw it she thought of phoning the press. She told me later that just one look at the dark shadows under my eyes clearly meant I was doing too many ambush patrols. Just not on! (You can just see the Nokia down by the butt of my M16) Yeah, well, we all know that?s bullshit. If it had have happened I wouldn’t have led the patrol anywhere. I’d be in hospital recovering from the beating my Sergeant gave me and contemplating a post-military career. And rightly so. Well, I think rightly so, but guys over at Road to Surfdom seem to think that similar behaviour in Iraq by a platoon of logisticians is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the evil empire that is the US.

This is an unbelievable indictment of the Bush adminsitration:

says Tim Dunlop who has obviously learnt how to upload to his web site from Neptune or somewhere else out there because he is sure as shit can’t be from any planet I know Read the initiating article here and then check in at The road to Surfdom Be sure to read the comments.

The Washington Post reports local insurgents terrorists are getting sick of the foreign terrorists and psychopaths coming in from all over the Moslem world to help keep Iraq in the 12th century.

Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials.

To paraphrase one of Murphy’s Combat Laws, never share a foxhole with someone who is braver more psychopathic than yourself..it only leads to arty and F-16 strikes.

Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. The disputes have spilled over into harsh words and sporadic violence, with Fallujans killing at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses.

Good stuff. Another step in the right direction They heap particular contempt on Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian whose Monotheism and Jihad group has asserted responsibility for many of the deadliest attacks across Iraq, including videotaped beheadings.

“He is mentally deranged, has distorted the image of the resistance and defamed it. I believe his end is near,” Abu Abdalla Dulaimy, military commander of the First Army of Mohammad, said

First Army of Mohammad…a bit presumptuous, don’t you think. I bet the previous generations of terrorists are pissed off with Dulaim claiming to be the first. I mean to say, what about all their beheading, amputations, infanticide and otherwise uncivilized behaviour…doesn’t that count? Oh, and Dulaimy, your end is near as well. Animals.