Saddam Punked By Texan

If you don't have Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Just Google "Google Earth" and download it.

Tonight I felt like doing some traveling so I went to Baghdad via Google Earth. I wanted to explore around town to see how it is looking. Well, Baghdad is looking pretty good. I saw no bombed out buildings.

It is fairly easy to find the Green Zone. Just follow the Tigris or Euphrates River as it winds through town. When you see an awful lot of blue dots you are likely in the Green Zone. The Blue dots indicate pictures. Or information.

There are many pictures of Saddam's former palaces. They were bombed early on. They appear to have been restored. You can check out the new U.S. Embassy. All over Baghdad there is interesting architecture.

Including several impressive bridges, including at least one suspension bridge.

In the Green Zone I did see something that was just a tad embarrassing to me, me being a Texan, with very thin skin, thus easily embarrassed.

A Texan had graffitied a poster of Saddam and put the Lone Star Flag over Saddam's face, writing, "Iraq Good. US Good. Saddam Donkey."

Eventually I tired of Iraq and Baghdad and decided to go to Iran to check out Tehran. I saw no Texas graffiti in Tehran. Or Lone Star Flags. But I did see a lot of impressive freeways and very cool buildings. I saw no Ayatollahs or nuclear bombs under construction. But I didn't look very hard.

D-Day Anniversary & Google Earth

Yesterday, if my math is correct, and I admit my math is often faulty, was the 64th Anniversary of D-Day.

I knew a computer whiz once, named Dale, who had no idea what things like D-Day or Pearl Harbor Day were. I found that appalling.

So, for you Dale's out there, here is the short version of what D-Day is.

Way back in the last century there was this massive war caused by Germany and Japan going nuts and violently taking over other countries. This became known as World War II.

A couple years after starting the war, Germany tried to take over Russia, which was then known as the Soviet Union.

But that invasion didn't go so well for Germany. The Soviets began pushing the Germans back to Germany where they belonged. The dictator of the Soviets was an evil man named Stalin. Stalin wanted his Allies, those being, mainly, America and England, to open a second front in the west.

The Allies took awhile to agree on the idea of how to open a western front. Roosevelt, who was the American President, was gung-ho on the idea of taking on the Krauts in France, but the English leader, Churchill, feared a bloodbath.

By 1944 the Soviets were rapidly advancing on Germany. The Americans and Brits knew they had to move fast so as to prevent the Soviets from taking over all of Germany. And so on June 4, 1944 the largest amphibious invasion in history began with landings on the beaches of Normandy. Normandy is a province of France. France is a country that Germany invaded in 1940. By the end of D-Day the Allies had control of the beaches and were moving inland.

The Germans were soon in full retreat on all fronts.

In a coincidence, regarding yesterday, and D-Day. I am currently reading a very good book by Joseph E. Persico called Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. On the anniversary of D-Day I was at the point in the book were Roosevelt had changed his mind on who was to be the General in charge of Operation Overlord, that being the code name for D-Day. Roosevelt decided to have Eisenhower run the show instead of General George Marshall.

And, on another D-Day note. Yesterday I went to the beaches of Normandy. I visited via Google Earth. If you've not installed Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Go here and get it. Yesterday I also went to Baghdad. That was very interesting. You can check out the Green zone and go all over Baghdad. I had no idea there we so many cool looking buildings in Baghdad.

Google Earth has a lot of features packed into it. Like if you go to Mount Rushmore an audio tour starts up. Some areas are done in extremely high resolution. Like I can almost read the license plate on my vehicle. If you've not been to Mt. St. Helens, go via Google Earth. Las Vegas is another locale that is in extremely high resolution. You can get down to street level and see exactly what it is like to vist Vegas. I'd not been to Disneyland since Disney California opened, so that was interesting to see how that has all changed.