Adventure, heroes and courage

Daily Mail [long post, Hat tip KG] – The mission began as the riskiest rescue operation in the history of British Intelligence – and ended in an astonishingly successful Royal Navy raid on the most heavily defended fortress in Western Europe. “Their cool, disciplined, daredevil gallantry turned what the outside world would have called a forlorn hope into a legitimate operation which met with far greater success than I had ever hoped.”

Those were the words of Admiral Walter Cowan about the men of the Coastal Motor Boats who attacked the Soviet Fleet in the Gulf of Finland on August 18, 1919, and they were well-deserved – two Victoria Crosses were awarded for the action. But only now can we learn of the full remarkable story of this great action.

A fascinating, minutely-researched and groundbreaking new book by former MI6 officer Harry Ferguson has put together for the first time the complete account of the Kronstadt Raid, which turns out to be a tale of adventure, honour and raw courage quite as extraordinary as anything found in fiction or on the silver screen. Many of the small force of Secret Intelligence Service agents and Royal Navy officers and men – along with the brave Finnish smugglers who helped them – have had their astonishing story told here for the first time, almost 90 years after the event.

Something to warm the heart

FOXNews [long post] – Their first real date lasted only 20 minutes. It ended because darkness was falling, when unimaginable new threats and nightmares could emerge on the streets of Baghdad. The American soldier and the Iraqi woman were fighting all the odds. They were in love and wanted to marry.

From 2004 to 2006, the two had carried on a friendship followed by a yearlong courtship conducted over the phone. Then one day after rehearsing in Arabic with an Iraqi friend, he proposed to her, and she accepted. Yet after that final meeting in early 2006, the soldier was returning home to Washington.

The sickness that ails the left

From May 19 Edition of National Review Online [The Week] – Clare Short, of Britain’s Labour party, is a longtime member of Parliament. She is also a longtime leftist — but she is by no means on the lunatic fringe. There’s her membership in Parliament, of course — and the fact that she served in Tony Blair’s cabinet, for six years. She resigned after the start of the Iraq War. Recently, she appeared on al-Jazeera, speaking to what must have been a very large Arab audience. And what did she say? That Blair and George Bush would one day be tried in the International Criminal Court. “There are brave lawyers who are waiting for this opportunity, which will come one day.” In her Jazeera appearance, she was speaking to people many of whom are ruled by tyrannical men. Any lawyers waiting for the opportunity to try them really are brave.

For Che Guevara, the lovin’ never stops. He must be the most adored totalitarian thug/murderer in the world. The 80th anniversary of his birth is upon us, and Andres Zerneri, a sculptor in Guevara’s native Argentina, is doing something about it. He has asked people worldwide to contribute “bronze keys, kitchenware, and old instruments for a statue” commemorating Guevara. (We quote from a Bloomberg report.) So far, some 15,000 people have contributed more than three tons of this material. About those “old instruments,” we wonder: Do they include instruments of torture?