Tune in to the Fox News Channel Sunday, September 4th at 8 PM eastern. They are wisely re-running "In the Company of Heroes," the dramatic documentary that reveals the character and grit of today's American soldier. It is a careful, nuanced portrait—not blind, rah-rah patriotism. The producers have assembled dramatic shots that have never seen air before and more importantly, ably tell the stories of real soldiers fighting in Iraq. If you liked "Band of Brothers," you will love the real thing.

For those who like to look over the horizon, I recomend checking out this blog by the Reform Party of Syria. The last Ba'athist dictatorship is tottering, and the democratic resistance, small and embattled though it is, has been heartened by the liberation of Iraq, the other Ba'athist thug government.

Michael Rubin, the AEI scholar, has a great eye for detail—and a good ear for jokes. Humor can reveal a lot more about the mood of Baghdad than say, ABC News. Here are two telling jokes that he recently heard in Iraq.

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Joe Gandelman, a blogger who calls himself "the moderate voice," is going after syndicated columnist Robert Novak. He faults Novak for famously walking off a CNN set. Here's Gandelman’s view:

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I just got an e-mail from Brian Gaffney, the former Dateline producer
who has been making some fabulous documentaries for Fox News Channel.
Remember the Oil-for-Food one a while back? That was his. Tonight's
will be even better. If it culled from hundreds of hours of never-before broadcast battle footage from Fallujah, if my memory of an earlier conversation is correct. It is called &qout;Company of Heroes." Here's Gaffney's Blackberry summary: "it's on the marines who led the charge into Fallujah and their families back home." Watch it. You won't be disappointed.

When Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick interviewed now former finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu, she thought he was struggling with something. It turned out to be his momentous decision to resign. Her column is the best analysis of that decision and its consequences that I have seen. She doesn't mention it, but I know that she has worked for Netanyahu and knows him relatively well. Her view: Netanyahu is acting out of principle and she may well be right. She is right about one other thing that she barely touches on: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, National Review and the major blogs have all but ignored the Gaza pullout or the national security consequences (for the United States) of creating a terrorist state with its own seaport and a land border with Egypt, which has funded terrorist operations in the past. What if Gaza becomes an al Qaeda haven? What will be the political consequences if the next president has to take military action for the mistakes of the Bush Administration?

The U.S. news media are only showing bits of the al Qaeda video recently aired on al Arabiyya. Here is a link to the full video, with English subtitles supplied by Memri, the invaluable Israeli translation outfit.

Bring home the troops? Maybe. But what about the thousands of contractors in Iraq? asks Michael Rubin. As usual, he makes some smart on-the-ground observations in Iraq. Worth reading.

Mark Eichenlaub, one of my e-mail with a very close eye for War on Terror detail, ask an interesting question: Is the Associated Press making U.S. military operations just a little too public for the enemy to know?

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When Prime Minister Tony Blair let stand a "shoot to kill" policy of London's Metropolitan police, the usual suspects were quick to complain. Innocents could die and so on. Of course, many more innocents could die if the suspect triggers a backpack bomb. A shot to the chest or leg could provoke the bomber to detonate his device, even if only by reflex. Former CIA operative Wayne Simmons, who recently debated an NYCLU official on Fox News, sent me an e-mail explaining why a head shot is actually the best policy:

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