Smash at The Indepundit has some thoughts, shots and a roundup.

So does Joe Gandelman.

David Kaspar posts about the reaction of German media - short answer: they’re surprised - and includes the entire text of a Heidelberger who wonders whether the new pope can save old Europe.

Locusts and Honey has some interesting thoughts on “evangelicals and demonstrated morality” in the light of Gallup and Barna surveys.

It was 10 years ago today that Timothy McVeigh parked a big Ryder truck outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Moments after he had cleared the area on foot, the truck blew up, having been packed with two tons of Ammonia-Nitrate Fuel Oil explosive. ANFO is not a powerful as TNT, but it is easy to make and stable enough to transport in barrels on a rental truck.

Men, women and children died savagely, 168 of them. The injured number 850. The blast damaged or destroyed 350 other structures and was heard 50 miles away. McVeigh was arrested for a traffic violation later in the day and was nearly released before the police station alerted on him as a suspect. He was tried, convicted and executed on June 11, 2001. His accomplice, Terry Nichols, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no hope of parole.

I was nearing the end of my Army career 10 years ago. I was on the special staff officer for Headquarters, US Army Criminal Investigation Command in Falls Church, Va. (It moved shortly afterward to Fort Belvoir.) My office saw the first reports coming in on CNN; the explosion was initially attributed to a gas main detonation. It was not for quite some time that it became evident the cause was something else. The news video and images coming from the scene were horrific.

We at CID Command became apprised only the next day (IIRC) that a military recruting office had been located in the Murrah building. Army members were casualties. That gave CID a jurisdiction for the investigation. Under federal law, all domestic terrorism investigations were to be led by the FBI, which quickly took control. CID, like all other law-enforcement agencies, became subordinate to the FBI for the investigation.

Attention quickly shifted to answering the question of the source of all that ammomium nitrate. It happens to be a key ingredient of ordinary lawn fertilizer. McVeigh was a Gulf War veteran, having been a Bradley gunner assigned to 1st US Infantry Division (mechanized). The “Big Red One” was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. The FBI’s first attention was directed to Fort Riley and an investigative team was sent there. The Fort Riley CID field office became a beehive of activity. Had McVeigh obtained the explosive ingredients there? The post’s golf course became a center of attention because it bought and used very large quantities of fertilizer.

Rumors ran amok that enormous amounts of fertilizer could not be accounted for. But two CID agents inventoried every bag and every invoice and hand receipt of use. None was missing. No other leads connecting McVeigh to the post - and there were hundreds or more - bore fruit. After several days the FBI left and finally the media did, too.

I worked many long days coordinating with the Fort Riley CID office about the progress of the investigation. As the chief of public afairs for all CID Command, I was also a hub for interaction with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense and the Dept. of the Army (CID is a “major command,” meaning its commanding general reports directly to the Army chief of staff). So we were pretty busy.

After the action at Riley died down, the CID office there sent me this coffee cup.

It is one of the most-treasured “awards” I received in the Army.

May God continue to help the families of those lost, and those who suffered.

The author of Mike’s Noise blog was in the city on this day 10 years ago and has a series of posts, including his own photos of the day.

After two years of persistent French opposition to the liberation of Iraq, a small contingent of French troops arrived in Iraq today. A military source whom I have known for many years sent me the link to video of their arrival. Tres bien? Hardly!

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope this afternoon in Vatican City. He will take the name Pope Benedict XVI.

The BBC opines,

The new Pope has been chosen from what could be termed the traditional side of the Catholic Church. To some, he heralds intellectual salvation during a time of confusion and compromise. To others, his record as Pope John Paul II’s prefect of doctrine showed the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to be an intimidating “Enforcer”, punishing liberal thinkers, and keeping the Church in the Middle Ages.

Both Ratzinger’s friends and theological opponents agree that he is quite orthodox and very conservative. He is also either 77 or 78 years old (both ages reported by media today) and is already being referred to as a short-termer and a signal by the College of Cardinals to the worldwide Catholic Church that the basic nature of Vatican theology and policy under John Paul II will not change. (If anything, Ratzinger is more conservative than John Paul was.)

I am personally surprised to see another European elected; there were very strong candidates from South America and Africa. Vatican watchers will be paying careful attention to Pope Benedict’s early moves in the office.