Two missing US soldiers found in Iraq...tortured and with booby-trapped bodies

I decided not to comment on this story until enough time had passed that I was sure the families had been notified. Also, I wanted to poll some of my military sources to find out a few more facts on exactly what happened and what condition the bodies were found in. (thanks AK, Captain Lou and Hi Five)

PFC Kristian Menchaca, 23, from Houston, Texas and Pfc Thomas L. Tucker, 25, from Madras Oregon, both of the 101st Airborne Division were reported as missing in action after an attack Friday on their checkpoint in Yusefiya, an al Qaeda stronghold. It's pretty certain that the raid was made with the express purpose of grabbing a couple of American soldiers to butcher with the idea of bucking up the mujahadeen's morale and giving the new leader a chance to `make his bones' as it were.

The bodies were found yesterday. It took the troops who discovered the bodies 12 hours to clear the bombs and booby-traps planted around the bodies to target recovery teams.

Both had been tortured in barbaric fashion and the bodies had been desecrated to the point of making a visual ID impossible. DNA testing was necessary to finally verify their identities.

`Credit' was claimed by the Mujahadeen Shura Council, which claimed credit for snatching the two Americans. They stated over the Internet that "the leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir had been graced by Allah with the implementation of sentence."

Predictably, the reaction from the Angry left has been either to not give a rip `because these guys are mercenaries that volunteeered' or at best, to cite this as more evidence that need to yank the troops out forthwith and to hell with the consequences. Or, as the once sensible Jane Harman (d-IL) put it on `it's not cut and run, it's uh, cut and win!'.

The merits of the Iraq war aside, I am still waiting for these people to admit that the people we are fighting are evil. I am still waiting for one of them to tell me how a retreat helps defeat that evil, or how it makes it go away.

I have a feeling that I would die waiting..which is one reason I don't trust any of these people in the slightest to defend the West. They have no clue as to the basic nature of the enemy we face.

The families and comrades of Privates Menchaca and Tucker, I can only offer this small consolation: My heart goes out to you. These brave men died defending our freedom, doing a job that both of them signed on to do because they knew it was worth while doing. When the call came, they answered, and that is no small thing.

Their blood will be avenged, and if the manner in which they died sends a message to some of their fellow Americans, the sacrifice they made will not have been in vain.

As long as brave men are willing to pick up the gun to defend our liberty, we will keep it. RIP.