Sixty-nine years ago: the battle of Betio Island on Tarawa Atoll in November, 1943

This account has a special significance to the Tunnel Dweller because 17 years later I was privileged to serve with the Second Marine Division for two years in Alpha 1/2. Always we wondered if we would have been as courageous as those Marines on Tarawa in 1943, often fearing we might not be.  TD

Battle of Tarawa Overview and history of the War in the Pacific

Battle account: Across the Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa
"The Tarawa operation became a tactical watershed: the first, large-scale test of American amphibious doctrine against a strongly fortified beachhead. The Marine assault on Betio was particularly bloody. Ten days after the assault, Time magazine published the first of many post-battle analyses:

Last week some 2,000 or 3,000 United States Marines, most of them now dead or wounded, gave the nation a name to stand beside those of Concord Bridge, the Bon Homme Richard, the Alamo, Little Big Horn and Belleau Wood. The name was "Tarawa."

Combat Photographer Recalls Bloodiest Battle

(Below) The 8th Marines makes its final assault on the large Japanese bombproof shelter near the Burns-Philip pier. These scenes were vividly recorded on 35mm motion picture film by Marine SSgt Norman Hatch, whose subsequent eyewitness documentary of the Tarawa fighting won a Motion Picture Academy Award in 1944.

1st Lieutenant Alexander Bonnyman (pictured, right) leads the assault on the command bunker "... 1st Lt. Bonnyman had inspired his men to heroic effort, enabling them to beat off the counterattack and break the back of hostile resistance in that sector for an immediate gain of 400 yards with no further casualties to our forces in this zone. He gallantly gave his life for his country."
Bonnyman's body was never found and the assumption is that he was buried in a mass grave near the bunker.

Below, the fight for the bunker. Filmed by Norm Hatch.

 .

How would the NY Times cover Tarawa today?  ..."Shortly after the battle, a New York Times editorial dealt with the numerous American mistakes at Tarawa by noting that "a cunning enemy like the Japanese will always present us with problems that can never be quite solved in advance." The editorial went on to say that the approach adopted by the enemy "makes the war against Japan a war of extermination in which there is virtually no quarter."

 

"Incredible! A paper that now worries about depriving captured terrorists of their sleep was writing in 1943 about a war in which enemy garrisons "will have to be killed off to the last man."

"One can only wonder how today's New York Times would have dealt with Tarawa and what the impact might have been on American public opinion."
Col. Theodore L. Gatchel (USMC, ret.), a monthly contributor, is a military historian and a professor of operations at the Naval War College. The views here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Naval War College, the U.S. Navy or the Department of Defense.

Morale boosting narrative of the battle here.


USMC Casualties after The Battle of Tarawa. WARNING: Contains Graphic Material!


With the Marines at Tarawa (1944) - Academy Award Winning Documentary

Video; Tarawa - Then and Now   "Scenes from the 1943 invasion and Military Historical Tours 2008 "Return to Guadalcanal and Tarawa" visit on the 65th Anniversary of the Tarawa Invasion."
At the 3:36 mark you begin to see relics from the battle as they are now.

The battle plan in 1943:

Betio today from Google Earth; solid streets and houses:

 

Battle of Tarawa - November 20-23, 1943  Excellent private post on Tarawa.

 

Aerial film of the battle in progress

 

Leatherneck Magazine has these photos 

ObamaCare on Schedule to Ruin Thanksgiving

American Thinker  "With Thanksgiving approaching, Americans reflect on what they can be thankful for.  Looking at the ObamaCare fiasco, it's evident that Americans can be thankful that one senator in particular, Mike Lee (R-Utah), has continued to propose plans to stop this train wreck.  ObamaCare was supposed to insure everyone in this country but instead has caused five million Americans to lose their insurance so far.  American Thinker interviewed Senator Lee and other Americans who have little to be thankful for since receiving a drastic wake-up call regarding their health insurance."....

In spite of all this, the left demagogues those who fear Obamacare with this propaganda:

cagle.com, Their cartoons may be commented on here.

 

Hat tip to Christy Waters in Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

The American People Rose Up to Repeal a Health Care Law Once Before. They Can Do It Again.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Heritage  "The law that promised health coverage for all has so far stripped 3.5 million Americans of their insurance. Meanwhile, fewer than 27,000 people merely “selected” plans—without necessarily purchasing them—on HealthCare.gov.

"To date, then, Obamacare keeps creating more coverage losers for every Obamacare “winner.” And many of those “winners” have been dismayed to discover that their trophy coverage is far more expensive than their former plans, or denies them access to the doctors and hospitals they’ve come to rely on—or both."

Reprise: The Top Ten Obamacare Disasters to come

Jeff the Chef's recipe for gourmet toast

Jeff’s Toast Of The Town
Ingredients:
·         Bread
·         Butter
·         Toaster
·         Jam, Jelly or peanut butter

Instructions:

·         Reach hand into bread bag far enough to extract two bread slices that are nowhere near either heel.

·     Remove bread slices and drop them into the toaster- only one slice per toaster slot please.

 

·     Press down bread to engage toasting process. Toast to desired toastyness- ensuring bread is cooked long enough to be considered toast. Eating undercooked toast can cause illness.

 

·     After toasting is complete, remove bread from toaster and lay flat on the counter. Toast is much easier to butter in the horizontal position (the toast, not you).

 

·     Spread butter across the toast in a left to right manner ensuring even butterness. Using margarine or “buttery spread” is forbidden. While using a knife is OK, a spreader is recommended because it will be more gentle with the toast. Avoid using Disney’s so-called “Pooh Spreaders” because that just sounds gross.

 

·     Once you have achieved buttery perfection choose your favorite final coat. This can be peanut butter, jam, jelly or honey. If you are making toast for your kid brother you may also use hair gel, barbeque sauce or furniture wax.

 

·     Spread final coat in the same manner as the butter layer. Eat and enjoy! Especially you, Little Brother.

Jeff Hayden, Plano, TX

Getting rid of old regulations is much too hard

Marginal Revolution posted this column from the New York Times business section with the comment:  TYLER COWEN: Getting Rid Of Old Regulations Is Much Too Hard. Yes, it is….

 More Freedom on the Airplane, if Nowhere Else   "Conservatives typically complain about too much regulation, but liberals should be concerned, too, because pruning away rules we don’t need should help usher in an economy with more job creation and stronger economic growth.

"The total number of federal regulatory restrictions is now more than one million. And they’re not all necessarily good ideas. For instance, the Food and Drug Administration has banned some useful asthma treatments because they have a slight negative impact on the ozone layer. The nation has medical-device regulations that take longer to satisfy than those of the European Union."....

 TYLER COWEN is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

This Is A Delicious Take Down Of Nancy Pelosi. By David Gregory Of All People.

Chicks on the Right
Notice she continues to lie and attempt to change the subject
 

Alan Caruba: Is Obama Brilliant or Stupid?

This are the very words I had been hoping to write because they all need to be said:

Warning Signs

 

..."Playing devil’s advocate, I would argue that Obamacare is the ultimate example of how utterly stupid liberal programs to alter the nation’s economy are. Why would anyone think that the government could possibly take charge of one sixth of the nation’s economy and arguably the finest healthcare system in the world, and not completely ruin it?"

....

"The government took over the nation’s educational system and it has been failing students for decades...The government took over the environment and, instead of being responsible for removing pollution from the air and waters, now have an agency that is undermining all aspects of the economy, from access to energy reserves to increased costs of manufacturing.

..."Obama’s handling of the nation’s foreign affairs has been a dismal failure. Either he is stupid or his advisers are dumber than he is..."

 

But as liberals such as Chris Mathews would claim, all these problems caused by this president would be just fine with us on the right if only Barack Obama were white. TD 

Obama’s sorry story/ The President struggles to salvage his health reform law, and his credibility

NY Daily News  "Desperate times call for desperate measures, so on Thursday one desperate President, Barack Obama, attempted to sell the idea that he had found a way to keep his Obamacare pledge: “If you like your insurance plan, you can keep it.”
"This exuberantly delivered and oft-repeated sales pitch for the program that has dominated his presidency “ended up not being accurate,” as Obama mincingly put it.
"He had no choice — not when health insurers complying with his regulations have canceled policies for millions of Americans."  Read more:

27 Democratic senators who promised you could keep your health coverage

Byron York  "How many Democrats made the promise? There's no comprehensive list of all of them, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office has compiled a list of 27 Democratic senators who pledged that Americans could keep their coverage under Obamacare. The list includes the entire Democratic leadership in the Senate as well as Democrats facing tough re-election races in 2014, like Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich, and Kay Hagan. Here is that list, compiled by McConnell's office:"....  The list.

OK, you can say these people all lied, but you must never, never say President Obama lied if you know what is good for you.

Tingles Sees Racism Driving Republicans To Call Obama A “Liar”…
"The “lie” Cheney referred to was Obama’s promise that if people liked their health plans, they could keep them, which turned out to not be precisely the truth."

When a Palestinian teen shed the last traits of humanity

Times of Israel   "I cannot get the vision of Eden Atias, stabbed again and again and again, and bleeding to death in his blue fabric seat on a bus at Afula bus station on Wednesday morning, out of my head. And I’m sure I’m not alone in the abiding sense of horror and despair.
....
 "The main enemy of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation is the hatred for Israel that is being nurtured daily in the hearts of so many in the West Bank and Gaza — the constant peddling of the narrative that says Israel has no right to exist, and that its people are rapacious invaders who must be struck down. Sixteen years filled only with that despicable falsehood brought Hussein Rawarda to the moment, on Wednesday morning, when he shed the last vestiges of his humanity and took away Eden Atias’s life."

UnitedHealth drops thousands of doctors from insurance plans: WSJ

Yahoo News   "UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
"The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company's other healthcare business. The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.
"The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment."...

....
"UnitedHealth is participating in about a dozen new state insurance markets that launched on October 1 to offer subsidized health coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul."

ISN’T THIS KIND OF AN ADMISSION THAT THE OBAMA “RECOVERY” STINKS?

Via Instapundit;   Obama Pushes To Save The Holiday Season For A Million Unemployed People  "The Obama administration on Friday came out strongly in support of extending long-term unemployment insurance past its current expiration date.
Top economic adviser Gene Sperling said in a statement to The Huffington Post there is "no question" that Congress should extend emergency unemployment insurance for the more than 1 million workers who could be affected when benefits expire between Christmas and the New Year.
" 'We have always done so when unemployment is this high and would make little sense to fail to do so now when we are still facing the burdens of the worst downturn since the Great Recession," Sperling said. "It is high bang for the buck for the economy, reduces poverty and helps workers who lost jobs due to no fault of their own get back on their feet.'"