• A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
• Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
• Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground by Robert D. Kaplan
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History by T. R. Fehrenbach
• Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
• The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides; R. Strassler, ed.
• Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
• The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis

http://www.marines.mil/unit/tecom/mcu/grc/library/Pages/mcrl2.aspx

WASHINGTON–Osama bin Laden has been killed, President Barack Obama announced Sunday night.

CNN and other news agencies reported that the US is in possession of the body and that identification has been absolutely confirmed. No details of bin Laden’s death have been yet released.

The operation that killed the al-Qaida leader in a mansion outside of Islamabad was apparently the culmination of weeks of intelligence gathering and no less that five top secret national security meetings between Obama and his war cabinet.

Bin Laden was apparently killed in a “human operation” that was based on actionable intelligence in a mansion outside of Islamabad, Pakistan, according to CNN. He was killed in a highly secure compound, built in 2005, that was a virtual fortress of 15-foot-high walls and barbed wire.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/bin-laden-dead-pakistan/2011/05/02/id/394741

“Coinciding with a surge in gun purchases that began shortly before the 2008 elections, violent crime decreased six percent between 2008 and 2009, including an eight percent decrease in murder and a nine percent decrease in robbery.

Since 1991, when violent crime peaked, it has decreased 43 percent to a 35-year low. Murder has fallen 49 percent to a 45-year low.2 At the same time, the number of guns that Americans own has risen by about 90 million.

Predictions by gun control supporters, that increasing the number of guns, particularly handguns and so-called “assault weapons,” would cause crime to increase, have been proven profoundly lacking in clairvoyance.

There are well over 250 million privately-owned firearms in the U.S., including nearly 100 million handguns and tens of millions of “assault weapons”—the types of firearms that gun control supporters have tried the hardest to get banned5—and the number of firearms typically rises about 4 million per year.

Annual numbers of new AR-15s, the most popular semi-automatic rifle that gun control supporters call an “assault weapon,” are soaring. In 2008, there were more than 337,000 new AR-15s configured for home defense, competition, training, recreational target practice and hunting.

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=206&issue=007

An Afghan policeman is seen alert at a check post as his colleagues check cars for Taliban insurgents that escaped from a prison in Kandahar. (Associated Press / April 26, 2011)

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan— By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

“The Taliban on Saturday declared the start of a spring offensive in Afghanistan, warning that insurgents plan to attack foreign troops, Afghan security forces and government officials in coming days.

In a statement, the Taliban warned civilians to avoid public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as government buildings.

“All Afghan people should bear in mind to keep away from gatherings, convoys and centers of the enemy so that they will not become harmed during attacks of mujahedin against the enemy,” the statement said.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-spring-20110501,0,1570621.story