"On a stifling July day in 1918, 18,000 officers and soldiers posed as Lady Liberty on the parade [drill] grounds at Camp Dodge." [This area was west of Baker St. and is currently the area around building S34 and to the west.] "According to a July 3, 1986, story in the Fort Dodge Messenger, many men fainted-they were dressed in woolen uniforms-as the temperature neared 105 degrees Farenheit.

The photo, taken from the top of a specially constructed tower by a Chicago photography studio, Mole & Thomas, was intended to help promote the sale of war bonds but was never used." (Grover 1987)

Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000
Total men:  18,000 


See more amazing examples of Mole & Thomas' patrotic photographs created with U.S. servicemen at


The Camp Dodge Story  í here


and at Ricco/Maresca

People Pictures   í here  (including one of Woodrow Wilson not on the Camp Dodge site)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Says Iranian Meddling Destabilizes Iraq, Region

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said he’s “increasingly concerned about Iran’s activity, not just in Iraq, but throughout the region.”

“I believe recent events, especially the Basra operation, have revealed just how much and just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability,” Mullen said. “Their support to criminal groups in the form of munitions and training, as well as other assistance they are providing and the attacks they are encouraging continues to kill coalition and Iraqi personnel.”

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq who is in line for the top U.S. Central Command job, is preparing a briefing that details these activities, Mullen said. The report is expected in the next couple of weeks.

The recent findings prove [Iran] is not living up to its pledge several months ago to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that it would stop meddling in Iraqi affairs, Mullen said. “It's plainly obvious they have not,” he said.

“Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way,” the chairman said. “I think actions, certainly here, must speak louder than words. And the actions just don't meet the commitments on the part of their leadership.”

While conceding that he has “no smoking gun” to prove high-level Iranian government involvement, he said he’s “hard-pressed to believe the head of the Quds Force is not aware of this.”

The Quds Force is a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that organizes, trains, equips and finances foreign operatives.

Citing the “great downside potential” of this influence, Mullen emphasized the need to “to continue to press, using all available means,” to get Iran to reverse course.

“While all options certainly remain open, I'm convinced the solution right now still lies in using other levers of national power, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure,” he said.

But “we are not taking any military elements off the table,” the admiral added.

Mullen said he has no expectation that the United States will get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future, and conceded that “a third conflict in this part of the world would be extremely stressing for us.”

He emphasized, however, that the United States has reserve capability, particularly in the Navy and Air Force and based in other regions. “So it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability,” he said.

“But in terms of having another conflict in that region, I certainly don't think that would be where we'd want to go right now,” he said.

Al Qaeda Recruits Children, Women for Terror Missions

Five training tapes recovered in a December raid show as many as 20 boys, most thought to be younger than 11 years old, carrying automatic weapons and grenades, storming homes in mock kidnappings and assassinations, and sitting in a circle chanting their allegiance to al Qaeda. Portions of the tapes were aired for journalists at a news conference in Iraq today.

“Al Qaeda in Iraq wants to poison the next generation of Iraqis and hopes to continue the cycle of violence they have brought upon Iraq,” Multinational Force Iraq spokesman Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith said.

In the videos, with what appears to be a July 13, 2007, date stamp, the boys carry weapons, including pistols, machine guns and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. Pictures show a small boy in a checkered head scarf, carrying a pistol. Another boy with his face covered brandishes an automatic weapon.

As the children carry out training sessions, adults can sometimes be seen providing instructions from the background. In one scene, seven children with their heads and faces covered stop and capture an adult twice their size riding a bike. Another shows the children, again with their faces covered, scaling a courtyard wall, attacking a house and taking its occupants prisoner. Later, in what appears to be the same house, seven boys sit in a half-circle on the floor chanting and singing their allegiance to al Qaeda.

Smith said that this not the first such recovery of videos and photos showing al Qaeda training children, but that the “the volume and content was the most significant and disturbing we’ve found to date.”

Smith said the videos most likely were produced as training and recruiting films.

Forces also recovered in December a proposal to produce a film showing terrorists training children, Smith said. The script was to include children interrogating and executing victims, planting bombs and conducting sniper attacks, he said.

Al Qaeda often refers to children as the “new generation of the Mujahidin,” or warriors engaged in a jihad, he said. There are also reports of al Qaeda entering schools and distributing its propaganda. Thousands of al Qaeda-sponsored Web sites target children, Smith said.

Recently, two 15-year-old boys were used in suicide bombings in Iraq.

Al Qaeda also appears to be increasing the use of women as suicide bombers. Before 2007, only five women had reportedly carried out suicide attacks. In 2007 there were 10, and four such attacks already have taken place in 2008, Smith said.

The two women suicide bombers in last week’s deadly attack in Baghdad were mentally handicapped and likely were unwitting pawns in al Qaeda’s efforts to ramp up violence there, he said.

“The events in recent weeks further remind us of the morally depraved nature of Iraq’s enemy,” Smith said.

Smith contrasted al Qaeda’s motivation with that of Iraq’s government.

“Iraq’s democratic and elected government is building schools, training engineers, police officers and doctors, and offers the children of Iraq hope for a peaceful and prosperous future,” Smith said. “Al Qaeda Iraq, on the other hand, sends 15-year old boys and mentally handicapped women on suicide missions, builds car bombs and is trying to teach children how to kill."

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Mohammad al Askari, a spokesman for Iraq’s Defense Ministry, also briefed reporters alongside Smith. He said there has been a recent trend by al Qaeda to kidnap children and hold them for ransom to fund their operations. He showed a video of a rescue of an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped. Al Qaeda had asked for $100,000 for the boy’s return or, they said, he would be beheaded, Askari said.

Askari said that these acts showed the signs of desperation on the part of al Qaeda.

“Al Qaeda is losing not only his safe havens, but also his resources like funding. … This could be the end of al Qaeda in Iraq,” he said.

‘We Will Prevail in This Ideological Struggle,’ Bush Says

During a speech at the Emerald at Queensridge venue in Las Vegas, Nev., Bush laid out a strategy for winning what he described as an ideological struggle between those who advocate the march of freedom and those favoring chaos through asymmetric war.

“We will prevail in this ideological struggle because liberty is powerful; liberty is hopeful,” he said. “The enemy we face can only convince people to join their cause when they find hopelessness.”

Describing the second tier of his plan, Bush advocated staying on a daily, relentless hunt “to find (extremists) and bring them to justice.” He said conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are not separate, but rather they’re part of the same war on terrorism, which must be conducted with fervor.

“It's hard to plot, plan and attack America if you're running and hiding. It's hard to recruit if you're cutting off money. It is hard to spread your poison if other reasonable people join the cause,” he said. “And so we spend a lot of time doing everything we can to keep the pressure on these folks, and we got some good people working it.”

Before U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan, Bush said, the Taliban-governed country presented a hopeless life for its residents.

“These thugs didn't believe in freedoms. They didn't believe in women having equal status. They didn't believe young girls should be educated,” he said. “And if you dared express your opinion that didn't mesh with theirs, you'd be whipped in the public square or killed.”

Bush said Operation Enduring Freedom liberated 25 million people and gave them a chance to realize the blessings of liberty. Since toppling the Taliban and routing al Qaeda from Afghanistan, he said, a safer Afghan populace has voted for a president and a parliament, girls are free to go to school, and highways and health centers are being constructed, Bush added.

“It's in our interest to help them because we believe that liberty is transformative, and a part of the world that was once a safe haven for an enemy to attack us will be a more hopeful place when freedom takes hold,” he said.

On Iraq, the president said the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was correct and that the world is better off without him in power. Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bush said, Iraqis have written a constitution and participated in democratic elections.

In what he described as a surge by Iraqis, the country’s citizens created 100,000 new soldiers and police in addition to 80,000 local citizens who volunteered to help patrol their own neighborhoods.

The original decision to begin military operations in Iraq was a tough one, based not “any Gallup poll or focus group,” but on sound judgment from military people and “a lot of folks who were following Iraq.”

“It was based upon what was right for the future of the United States, and that is, as opposed to pulling troops out, send more in,” Bush told the audience.

Bush noted that the surge, which was initiated in early 2007, marked an influx of forces that included more than just members of the U.S. military. Diplomats and public service officials also surged, he said, improving life in areas where insurgents had been purged.

The president said pursuing enemies requires cooperation by all U.S. assets: sharing information across intelligence communities, applying muscle with military forces, and ratcheting up pressure from allies.

“America must not relent,” he said. “If our most important job is to protect the American people, we have got to stay on the offense and defeat the enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at home.”

Bush conceded that there are cynics who doubt freedom’s ability to take hold in parts of the world, but said he concluded that “liberty is transformative.”

“People want to be free and, if given the chance, will be free, do the hard work necessary to be free. And liberty has got the capacity to transform an enemy to an ally,” he said. “Therefore, we ought to have confidence in liberty's power to bring the peace we want, and not shy away from helping people realize the great blessings of freedom.”

Al Qaeda Remains Coalition’s, Iraqi’s Biggest Target

Smith gave an update on Operation Phantom Phoenix and a short history of al Qaeda’s operations in the country. He also spoke about Iran’s influence in Iraq.

The effects of Operation Phantom Phoenix have been substantial, Smith said. “Since January 1, Operation Phantom Phoenix has conducted 18 battalion-level operations, detained 1,023 terrorists and killed 121 terrorists,” Smith said during a news conference. Coalition and Iraqi forces have captured or killed 92 high-value targets and found and cleared 351 caches, 410 improvised explosive devices and three car bomb and suicide bomb factories, and uncovered four tunnel complexes.

Smith told reporters attacks using deadly explosively formed projectiles have fallen off following a surge in attacks using the Iranian-supplied weapons earlier this month. “The number of signature weapons that had come from Iran and had been used against coalition and Iraqi forces are down dramatically except for this short uptick in the EFPs in the early part of January,” he said.

“It’s uncertain, again, what is happening in Iran that's leading to that occurrence,” Smith said. Coalition officials said they believe Iran continues to train Iraqi insurgents and fund Shia insurgent organizations.

But even with the problems caused by offshoots of the Shia Jaish al-Mahdi special groups, al Qaeda in Iraq remains the biggest threat, Smith said.

Al Qaeda infiltrated Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Its purpose was to purge the coalition, which it refers to as “the infidels” – from the country. “Al Qaeda senior leadership, who by that time had been driven into northwestern Pakistan, saw Iraq as its caliphate, its center of struggle and dominance for establishing its Taliban-like ideology in the heart of the Ar