bigexpensiveanimal

A Farewell to Arms

2006-11-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

I have been home for several weeks now, enjoying time with my family and friends. I still cannot believe how much we as Americans take for granted and how petty we can be. It is as though we are fat, petulant, spoiled children. We, as a nation, are the greatest the world has ever seen, and yet we could and should be so much more.

I have been reticent about my experiences. I spoke to a church group who had prayed for me and that led to an article in a local paper, but I have actually avoided talking as best I can.

I am not embarrassed or ashamed of my service, quite the contrary; but I very much want to put it behind me. I met some good people and worked with many fine people, and I will remember these people and moments of reward and accomplishment fondly. But as a whole, the deployment was not a time I will look back upon with alacrity. It was an ugly job that was necessary and I did it and now have moved on.

I have a renewed faith in Jesus Christ. Not in religion or even in my church, but in God the Man. I can look back and see that I did not live always as I should, did not approach my worship or my service with the willingness that was deserved and required. I read in Stephen Ambrose how many WWII veterans returned home with a heightened sense of urgency. These veterans, having survived war at its most brutal and cruel, realized an immediacy about their goals that would suffer no trifles. Though I will not compare my war experience to those storied heroes, I can understand the energy they felt upon coming home.

And so goodbye. I have blogged here for almost two years and I have said whatever I wanted to say. I no longer have much interest in politics or even pop culture (though baseball will still find a way to distract me). I may start a new blog that focuses more on faith, or maybe a collaboration similar to faithcommons. Either way, I bid you, reader, a pleasant farewell and the blessings that only God can bestow.

Happiness is Tikrit, Iraq in our rearview mirror

2006-10-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

I remember a song from the 70s, I think Mack Davis sang it, about happiness is Lubbock, TX in the rearview mirror. I've never been to Lubbock, so I cannot say if I agree with what seems to be a very disparaging sentiment.

I have spent some time in Iraq, and I can say with honesty, that I was happy to leave. I walked onto the plane and never looked back. Likewise, when we left Kuwait, I walked onto the plane calmly, without drama or emotion, took my seat and settled in for a long flight.

Being home is great, but we are still outprocessing from the Army, so it does not seem real yet. But it was great to be out of danger.

I prayed every day to God for our safety and I know that many prayed for us as well. We were very fortunate to not lose anyone and we suffered no serious injuries. As deployments go, we were very successful.

I watched the news and saw the news from Iraq, news of which I was no longer connected. The insanity goes on there. I will continue to pray for the safety of our soldiers and for the Iraqi people. I pray that God will not harden their hearts, that their can be peace in the region.

Anyway, it is good to be back, happy to look forward and not to look back.

A long shelf life

2006-09-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

This from yahoo.com buzzlog. Do we really still ban books? I am sitting here in Iraq "instilling democracy" and some yahoo (sorry for the pun, could not resist) makes a list about free thought and independent ideas that should be suppressed. The irony is delicious.

I am proud to say that I have read 14 of the 25 books on the list. If you go to the link, make sure to read the comments at the bottom, some good stuff. One person asked why the Bible was not on the list, and I think I have seen a banned book list where it was banned.

Makes me want to get on amazon and order them all, and the yahoo list provides handy links to help you do just that!

Goodbye Kirkuk

2006-09-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

As my unit prepares to leave Iraq, I have come back to Kirkuk for one last mission – training my replacements. Good mission, the one for which I have been waiting.

Of all the cities, towns and villages I have visited in Iraq, I have spent the most time and become closest to Kirkuk. Called “Little Iraq” because of its multi-ethnic population, Kirkuk is aptly named. It is a microcosm of the larger country and at the same time, a promise of the Iraq that may be.

Predominantly Kurdish in the north, Arab in the south, with a few neighborhoods of Turkomen people in the center, Kurkuk is also called home by Chaldeans and Assyrians, many of whom are Christian. More than a melting pot, though, the residents of Kirkuk live side by side and for the most part at peace.

Kirkuk sits atop roughly half of the oil reserves in Iraq, and almost 6% of earth’s oil reserves. Money, the hope of money, hangs in the air as thick as the gas fumes that everyone notices in their first few moments off the helicopter. At night the skies glow orange as the excess gas is burned off from the oil refineries and on more than one occasion, we have watched as the mid day bright blue was covered by an oily black blanket as attacks on the pipelines resulted in massive plumes of smoke that choked the sky.

I break out some of my pictures from Kirkuk. There are pictures of smiling, waving Iraqi children and plenty of thumbs up from people on the sides of the road. These bring back good memories. I also see scenes of soldiers kicking in doors, of families waiting outside their homes, people scared, people crying, men in cuffs and blind folded, being led away from their families for questioning. In my mind’s eye, I see vehicles on fire and other, indescribable sights that I hope to forget.

I leave here with mixed feelings. I deeply want there to be peace in this area, I want this to be a thriving, healthy place for people to live and work and raise their children. This can be Kirkuk’s future. But Kirkuk is an Iraqi city, and Iraq is a mess. Violence, fear and uncertainty live side by side with hope for the future.

If the future means Kurdistan, then I am hopeful, but also apprehensive, because I know that Kurdistan will be a child borne of great pain. If Kirkuk remains in Iraq, then I fear the future will be as problematic, but maybe with less bloodshed.

Too much blood has been shed, but in this region, blood has been shed for years, for decades, for centuries, perhaps millennia. The political question that is so frequently posed is whether US forces have done any good here. If the political reporter is standing on a balcony of an air conditioned Baghdad hotel, then Baghdad presents an indication that our presence here has been a gross failure. From Kirkuk, though, the qualitative indication is not as certain. The Kurds are free from political oppression and have a hope for the future.

So as I leave, I leave with a hope for the future, uncertainty if I did any good or made things worse, and a somewhat selfish sense of relief. I will go home to where the streets are safe, homes are made secure by police we trust and laws that protect, and our thoughts are free to reach beyond immediate wellbeing. But no matter what, beyond the hopes, apprehensions, uncertainties, fears and longings, one thing is for certain. I can say goodbye.

Goodbye Kirkuk.

Kirkuk, Kurdistan

2006-09-10T05:41:00.000-07:00

This geographic misnomer is a political time bomb. Recent news broadcasts from Kirkuk and the entire northern area of Iraq, to include the cities of Erbil and Souliminaya, highlight for the world what we have known for the past year but have not talked about. Add Kurdistan to the list of semi-autonomous regions of the world that long for outright independence.

In my official duties, I still cannot comment or give the appearance of favoritism, or even to speak objectively about honest observations regarding a decided lack of unity in Iraq. We have been spreading the gospel about the benefits of a unified Iraq and how much progress is being made. And everything reported is factual, certainly; but there is a larger truth of which we could not report.

Images of the colorful red, white, and green striped flag with a centered golden sun have made the news lately, but we have seen it almost everyday while in Kirkuk. Army guidance required us to minimize the flag to the point of not showing it; we were supposed to highlight the new Iraqi flag. This was especially problematic during the elections last December when the Kurdish flag flew ubiquitously in storefronts, on cars, and the hands of enthusiastic, hopeful voters. Women wore bright red, white, and green dresses, children played in the streets dressed as purposefully as Scarlet Prynne, and there was a sense of Kurdish nationalism displayed openly, unapologetically and even somewhat defiantly.

Sitting atop six percent of the entire world’s known oil reserves, and over forty percent of Iraq’s oil, Kirkuk is the sweetest plum. I believe many Arabs in the region would not be hard pressed to concede the Kurdish secession, but losing Kirkuk will not be allowed without a struggle. And Kurds will not accept independence without Kirkuk.

As we prepare to leave, I look out across these neighborhoods and can only hope that this region does not plunge into the same hell Baghdad has become.

Red and yellow, black and white

2006-09-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

I was sitting outside our office in Kirkuk, Iraq looking at the orange
sky glowing uncompromisingly against the approaching night. The
sky was not orange because of the setting sun but rather from the
oil fields just north of here. The refineries are old and inefficient
and the Iraqis burn off the excess gas and so there are huge fires
that burn continuously, making a desert scape that looks like a
scene from the film Blade Runner.

I thought about what I can take back from this experience. One
thought I will keep with me is how our country is getting better in
terms of being a multi-cultural, pluralistic society. Relatively
speaking, I think we are doing well. I can go home and eat with an
African American, be neighbors with an Asian American, spend
time getting to know Hispanics and people from all backgrounds
and we are all Americans. I read a lot of troubling stories about
immigration concerns at home, and many of these concerns are
viable; but trust me, our diversity is our strength.

Here in Kirkuk, I see the Iraq that may be. There is a large Kurdish
population, Sunni and Shia Arabs, a thriving Turkomen community
and large groups of Assyrians and Chaldeans. Many third country
nationals working here are from Turkey, Nepal, and the Philippines.
There are ethnic and religious lines, to be certain, but the people
live together and there is hope for a brighter future.

It is amazing to think that when my father was a child, just 40 and
50 years ago, black people were unwelcome in some restaurants
and hotels. A person could expect to receive radically different
treatment by virtue of the color of his skin. Growing up, I heard
racial epithets in conversation as common as I heard discussions
about anything else. Voting districts were drawn to dilute the
votes of minorities and the purpose was not only invidious, but
plain and unhidden.

We’ve come along way in a short time, and if you go out into the
world, you can see we are an example of a society that can be.

I recently met a news producer named Omar. He is Kurdish, and
we are the same age. When he was 13, his family was kicked out
of Kirkuk by the Arabs in power and forced to leave their home and
move farther south. Omar described what “being kicked out”
meant by relating a scene where his father’s car was hurriedly
packed while impatient armed men watched. When I was 13, I was
playing little league baseball and sitting on my parents couch
watching MTV.

Four years ago, Omar was shot during a riot that he was
videotaping. His arm was horribly injured and he still bears a
forearm long, disfiguring scar. He is lucky to still have the arm.
His associates took him to the nearest hospital, where he received
the most rudimentary first aid and was then directed to where he
could find another treatment facility. The hospital would not admit
him because he was Kurdish. That was 4 years ago.

What news comes out of Africa describes more racial separation
and injustice. I read a TIME magazine article about how MILLIONS
of Congolese people have been killed, wounded or displaced since
1998, largely due to racial, ethnic, and religious tensions. The film
HOTEL RWANDA was difficult to watch; not only because of the
atrocities dramatized, but that I have no memory of those events.
In 1992, I was a college graduate and regularly read the newspaper
and watched the news, and yet a racial genocide that killed
hundreds of thousands went unnoticed. The ongoing tragedy in
Darfur continues, whether media cameras capture the images or
not.

More and better communication will fix most of the wrongs of this
world. When people live together as equals, get to know each
other, raise children together, worship together, work and play
together, then their differences can become as thin as the outer
layer of skin.

Break Up Iraq to Save It

2006-08-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a post from the LA Times.

Getting Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to relocate might be the only way to salvage the state.

By Michael O'HanlonMICHAEL O'HANLON is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
August 27, 2006

WITH THE IRAQ mission on the brink of outright failure, some analysts are contemplating a "Plan B" — pulling out and trying to prevent the war from spreading to other countries. But rather than accept complete disaster, outright civil war and the likelihood of genocide, we should try to develop a strategy for achieving some minimal level of stability, even if it requires discarding our loftier aims for Iraq.

There is what might be called a "Plan A-" option — facilitating voluntary ethnic relocation within Iraq while retaining a confederal governing structure. We should offer individuals who want to protect themselves and their families the chance to move to an Iraq territory more hospitable to their ethnicity and/or religion.

To a substantial extent this is happening already, but the 100,000 or more internally displaced Iraqis have received scant help or protection to date. With Plan A- as a policy, not an accident, the international community and Iraqi government could help offer housing and jobs to those wishing to move, as well as protection en route. Houses left behind would revert to government ownership, to be offered to individuals of other ethnic groups who wanted them, in what would largely become a program of swapping. Funds for some new home construction would be needed as well.

Obviously, this idea would only work if Iraq's government, through a strong consensus of its Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds, endorsed it. Most Iraqis, in fact, still say they want an integrated country, but if the civil war gets much worse, that option may no longer exist. In that case, reluctant Sunnis could be persuaded if it was made clear that the confederal governing body would distribute all Iraqi oil revenue equitably on a per capita basis, not by geography. Former Baathists, up to a certain rank in the party, also should be quickly "rehabilitated" and allowed to hold jobs and run for office.

For Americans who cherish the notion of multiethnic democracy, actively facilitating voluntary ethnic segregation would be a tough pill to swallow. Some might even go so far as to claim it unethical, making a mockery of the moral purpose we claimed to be furthering when we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein's cruel rule.

But what would truly mock our initial goals would be outright defeat followed by genocide — perhaps similar to what happened in Bosnia in the early 1990s. There, 200,000 people died; in Iraq, which has five times the population, the death toll could be much worse.

Although we should generally favor and support multiethnic democracy, it is not our most important objective — especially not in today's Iraq, where it may no longer even be achievable. For people trying to cope with the country's daily perils, staying alive is a higher priority than living in a diverse neighborhood.

THIS PROPOSAL shares many elements with those that have favored the partitioning of Iraq. But partitionists have never explained how we would get to their preferred solution without massive and violent ethnic cleansing. Confederacy, along with safe passage, property swapping, job-creation programs and oil revenue sharing, provides at least a plausible path forward while in fact avoiding formal partition and holding out hope that the country could someday regain its cohesiveness.

The Bosnia experience is again instructive. We declared a victory of sorts there in 1995, even though a previously diverse society was ultimately divided into three ethnically homogenous pieces through a terribly violent war.

Iraq still has a chance to turn out better, even if our current strategy fails. If we can encourage future ethnic relocation to occur voluntarily and peacefully, rather than through murder, rape and intimidation, we can still salvage an imperfect but real success that ultimately leaves most Iraqis better off than they were under Hussein. And in contrast to Bosnia, where land swaps occurred only after the civil war had largely run its course, Iraq might use such a policy to nip a broader war in the bud.

To move in this direction, no one need immediately decide that Iraq will heretofore be a land of three or four major segregated populations. Rather, individuals can decide themselves where they feel most secure. To the extent that many take up the offer of government help in relocating, the program could be expanded. Much of the resettlement is likely to be within Baghdad, with many Sunnis relocating to neighborhoods west of the Tigris River while Shiites head east.

Radical solutions far different — and far more promising — than "stay the course" need to be designed now. "Give up hope" is not one of them.

If it bleeds, it leads

2006-07-24T03:08:00.000-07:00

Spc. Cassandra Groce

KIRKUK, Iraq (July 24, 2006) – These are your news networks, ladies and gentlemen – a constant barrage of death counts throughout the world. If it bleeds, it leads as the statement goes, and I guess the morbid fascination kicks in as yet another death toll is rung throughout the states.

I am beginning to wonder if the major news network “reporting” is truly a reflection of American public interest, and if so, would that mean newspaper readers just scan the obituaries and throw out the rest of the paper?

What do we not hear due to this constant infatuation with who has killed who this week? The general American public is probably unaware of it, but in the last week the Iraqi Army led a large cordon and search, Operation Guagamela, in the majority of the Kirkuk province.

I spent a little over three days in temperatures exceeding 120 degrees, drinking water the temperature of coffee, sleeping in a humvee and spending around 12 hours a day photographing Soldiers searching houses.

It was so hot in fact, my toothbrush melted in the air conditioned humvee. This however, is just to illustrate the kind of conditions that your military personnel worked under to complete this mission.

Over 72 relentless hours in the field, several most wanted insurgents were captured as well as numerous large weapons caches. One of the most impressive aspects was that one of the cities searched was Hawija, rated the number one most dangerous hot zones in Iraq by Newsweek in April. The Army officials here were highly concerned this operation would turn into a deadly affair, yet not a single shot was fired over these three days.

Some bad men were brought down, some significant caches found and an auto shop that built Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, VBIEDs, was shut down. Nobody was hurt. With a large interest-push on how many are dead in Iraq this week, nobody being hurt was good news by itself.

My public affairs team immediately produced a video package and sent it up to the major news networks. This was a success story for Iraq.

The following night we anxiously watched the news for a story over the mission and insurgent captures. A solid hour went by as we watched streaming announcements about Lebanon and Israel and who had killed who. As the stories started recycling it became obvious that the news was not impressed with most wanted being captured or weapons caches. In fact, Iraq had been all but forgotten.

Needless to say, it was disappointing.

The very next day a couple of people in my unit went into Kirkuk for an Iraqi press conference over Operation Guagamela. While there, a VBIED exploded a block over killing 20 people. Imagine our surprise when within hours the story broke through the Israel/Lebanon coverage to report 20 deaths.

If it bleeds, it leads.

While I feel that coverage over the events of the world is important; that what happens throughout the planet, can and will influence us; only reporting the negative events is not a true reflection of our lives.

It worries me that the only way to gain the attention of the media, is at the expense of a human’s life. What worries me more, is that the media plays its stories to what they know Americans want to and will watch.

There and Back again

2006-06-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

I have not made an entry in a while, in almost two months. I left Iraq and went home for a much needed break and some pleasant time with my family. I think the official military designation is Rest and Recreation (R&R) but I think a better moniker would be Renewal and Refreshment. I was able to wash away the desert and all thoughts of this place and once again be a husband, father, son, grandson, cousin, friend, and neighbor.

I was asked many times about my experiences and what I thought about our War in Iraq. I have observed before how veterans of prior conflicts great and small have been reluctant to share their experiences. I never understood this until I went home. I answered questions politely and honestly, but the truth of the matter was that I did not want to talk about Iraq or my small part in the war on terror.

At first I thought it was because I was on vacation and I had not seen my family for many months and I just wanted some quiet, fun time. I also attributed part of my reticence to the gregarious nature of my job as a public affairs officer and that I was tired of talking and telling the Soldiers’ story and basically selling the ideas associated with our current defense policy.

For whatever reason, I did not want talk about Iraq and when it came time to post another entry to my blog, the introversion manifested itself as writers block. I have sat in front of this blank screen so many times and no words form on the page. I begin writing and am easily distracted. I go back to work, or go exercise, or read, or check the baseball scores or anything else.

There was a time when I loved to blog, when I posted several times a day, when I thought about and looked forward to what I would share with the world of the blogosphere.

Maybe I’m just burned out, maybe I’m just tired, but I just have nothing else to say. I am so tired of politics and reasons why, when there seems to be no reason. And I don’t blame President Bush; I don’t hate the player, but I do dislike the game. If anything, when it comes to politics I am even more of a fervent libertarian than before.

I think if I blog more it will be about someone I meet or a unique idea that strikes me as significant. I would also like to explore more thoughts on faith.I have spent a lot of time on FaithCommons.org. Reido, Bill, and Brian have been a great source of strength and spiritual renewal. Not being able to attend my small group back home made me long for more faith interaction and I have gotten that at faithcommons.

When I was back at home I did see all of my small group brothers and sisters and that was great, I really missed that experience.

So that’s all for now. I will not post as frequently as I have until I get back my muse or my inspiration or whatever reason I need to type words into the ether.

Propaganda front: a response

2006-04-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

Here is one view of Kimberly Johnson's blog post, taken from an e-mail:

I know a Marine that recenetrly came back from Iraq and is now going to community college......and that guy says nothing but racial slurs when referring to Iraqi's. I obviously am out of the loop, and can't possibly relate to what it's like over there, but I think as PA folks you must be careful not to drink the kool-aid that you are trying to sell. Is it reasonable to think that 18-20 year-old soldiers are going to behave like politicians when a journalist is nearby? It's just my opinion, but this war is a war of perceptions, and as much as it hurts to admit it, the perception isn't good.

Also, I would have written...."we've come for the sheep!" on the grenade.

Kimberly Johnson: The propaganda front

2006-04-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Excellent story! I have met LTC Hutson. He is tough, but also very intelligent and deeply concerned about the well being of his soldiers. He is a model battalion commander.

HAWIJAH, Iraq - Lt. Col. Marc Hutson, commander of 101st Division's 1stBattalion, 327 Infantry Regiment, came by for a visit yesterday. He had read my latest installment and was complimentary about my description of the raid, save one sentence. The inclusion of the detail about the grenade inscribed with "Ethnic Cleanser" had disturbed him. He wasn'tangry with me, he said as he pressed his lips together into a tightline. He realized I had only reported what was there.

When he came to see me a second time within the hour, however, I realized that sentence was becoming an issue. Details like that could play into insurgent propaganda, he said.

Also, he wouldn't tolerate demeaning behavior from his soldiers. All ofthe battalion's ammunition would be inspected by day's end to ensure there were no other rounds with offensive graffiti.

"The guy who reacted most to that comment was me," he said. "I don't want it to impact my boys and girls," negatively, he later explained.

For centuries, soldiers have used crude and vulgar language directed at their enemy, and also among themselves. What has changed is how easily that information is now conveyed into public consciousness by the media. Iraq, more than any other war, is a fight playing out in a 24-hour real-time cable news feed under constant public scrutiny. It's a war based largely on perceptions.

Military leaders have to plan information campaigns right alongside battle plans. Commanders, for example, readily exploit insurgent attackson civilians and Iraqi security forces as a basis for statements released to local newspapers and talking points for soldiers out on patrol. It's all an effort meant to sway locals away from the influence of militants. On the other side, insurgents quickly post videos of attacks on websites in an effort to foster a sense that they are powerful. The recent debate over whether U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked a mosque shows how critical perceptions are in this war. The U.S.military in a statement denied it was a mosque and said the building was filled with insurgents, but Iraqi politicians suspended talks to form agovernment to protest the attack. They resumed talks Tuesday.

In this environment, commanders have to worry about off-handed remarks by troops. "If someone takes a comment out of context, it creates more work to undo something that was never done," Hutson says.

"Fundamentally, this war has desensitized young men and women," Hutson continued. He ran his hands over the top of his head as he weighed his words and leaned back in his chair. "It's not all horrible things, like gore and guts. You just drive through this country and you see poverty.After a while, you get used to seeing it. Not necessarily accepting it,but you get desensitized."

Aggravating that is the unrelenting faceless enemy and unwelcoming locals. "After a while, you're not feeling a lot of love," he said offering a slight grin.

Hutson was emphatic that desensitization has not affected his soldiers' performance. "I know that's not how they think," he said referring tothe grenade's slur. But when soldiers are sitting around, joking around and goofing off, "that bravado and desensitization all comes together,"he said.

Hutson acknowledges that many in today's all-volunteer military don't trust the press. "Young soldiers are influenced by what they've heard,"he said. "There's always a story about how the media got in the way,"although he said he has never seen any evidence of that. Realizing the media's place in modern warfare, the military has in recent years started educating soldiers on what can be said to reporters while maintaining security. "The most important piece is making sure soldiers understand the media isn't something to dread."

The commander says he's actually in favor of having journalists embedded with his battalion because it's a way to tell his soldiers' story."There are risks associated with that," of course. But, he added, "I'm going to turn you loose and hope for the best."

Alpha Co. sees progress in Iraqi Police

2006-04-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

KIRKUK, Iraq (12 April 2006) - When an Iraqi factory worker found a bag containing what he believed to be IED making materials, he knew who to call – the Iraqi Police station in Taza.
Such a call would seem to be a matter of course for Americans, but in Iraq this kind of action demonstrates a positive step forward for the Iraqi people’s confidence in their police.
“What I like is citizens seeing something out of place and calling the local Iraqi Police. It has taken awhile for local people to trust the coalition forces and the Iraqi Security Forces, but we are starting to see the benefits of the investments in time we have made,” said 2nd Lt. Jeremy Fox of 1st Platoon, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
In visits to two towns in the Kirkuk region of north central Iraq, Fox and his platoon saw first-hand the progress made by the Iraqi Police and Army, and the corresponding trust given by the Iraqi people.
While patrolling the Taza marketplace with local Iraqi Police, coalition forces assisted the IP with handing out flyers providing local citizens with telephone numbers and requests for support.
“Passing out flyers works. The flyers have local telephone numbers that people can call to report trouble and some of these calls have resulted in vital intelligence gathered, some weapons caches found and IED identification,” said Staff Sgt. Brian Anderson of Rochester, NY.
Gathering information on possible insurgent activity, and at the same time building relationships with the Iraqi people, works in outlying areas the same as it does in town.
After leaving Taza, Fox’s platoon and an Iraqi Army company traveled to Marimbak, a farming village of about 500 Sunni Arabs. Fox and an Iraqi Army leader met with the village muktar, a local official similar to a mayor, who talked about politics and how he and his village have come to rely on the IA and IP.
“The more we see them relying on the Iraqi Security Forces, that’s the direction we want to be moving in,” said Fox. “We are trying to set them up for self-sufficiency and self-governance, and all this is geared towards us handing over maneuver space back to the Iraqis.”

Dr. Ron Paul: Sanctions against Iran

2006-04-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment. Sanctions do not work and only hurt the economic activities of both countries without affecting significantly any political conflicts. In a word: Cuba. Embargos have not worked since President Jefferson's time, they have not worked in Latin America or China and will not work against Iran. This is a political expedient, a "something must be done" cop out.

As the drumbeat for military action against Iran grows louder, some members of Congress are calling to expand the longstanding U.S. trade ban that bars American companies from investing in that nation. In fact, many war hawks in Washington are pushing for a comprehensive international embargo against Iran. The international response has been lukewarm, however, because the world needs Iranian oil. But we cannot underestimate the irrational, almost manic desire of some neoconservatives to attack Iran one way or another, even if it means crippling a major source of oil and destabilizing the worldwide economy.

The black burkah

2006-04-19T03:14:00.000-07:00

This is an essay written by one of my soldiers, but the writing was deemed too insensitive for our publication. I post it here as I see it as both accurate and balanced; though somewhat biased by her western perspective. Still, good words that need saying.

KIRKUK PROVINCE, Iraq – (April 16, 2006) The black burkah, that is often pulled out to demonstrate the ultimate depth of women oppression in the Arabic world, is an outfit I rarely see. While there are women who sport this traditional garb, most of the women I have seen throughout mid-Iraq wear a marvelous display of color.
The scarves that cover their hair are often splashed with brilliant shades of the rainbow and fringed with beads. The robes underneath are sometimes equally colorful and may not even match the scarves. This gypsy-like hodgepodge of pattern and color has often made me wonder if it is a secret statement of expression.
Is their clothing an artistic exhibition of all that is veiled by their culture’s archaic ways? Once while out with a civil affairs unit to look at schools being built, we were surprised to discover that at a co-ed school, there were only boys there. When we asked where the girls were, the principal of the school shrugged and said, “Who cares? They are only girls. It really doesn’t matter.”
It really doesn’t matter? While I might blow off most rumblings about women back home, this was a different matter altogether. Women here truly are oppressed. Besides the lack of effort to ensure a female’s education (which, yes, there are exceptions to this) a woman’s involvement in the country of Iraq is rare. The numbers have increased since the removal of Saddam Hussein, but over all pale in comparison to other democratic nations.
I met a woman once who was leaving to train as an Iraqi Policeman. I told her she was my hero to be carving this path in her culture. I was told by one of the police liason’s that most the women did not make it through the academy. Not because they were incompetent, but because the men here would beat them and constantly torment them for being out of society’s place.
If you pay close attention to the cars passing on any given day in Iraq, women are often in the backseat while all the men ride upfront. It reminded me of the 60s, only this dealing with gender. Again, there are exceptions, but I’ve never even seen a woman driving a vehicle.
I am so use to the Iraqi men ruling the culture, and “business” activities, that I was extremely surprised while in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, the unit I went out with had a local female interpreter. The whole day, as she spoke to contractors, business officials and police leaders, I wondered if the men cringed at being forced to communicate through this woman.
She obviously had to have been an exception to the Iraqi girls “not mattering” when it came to education since she spoke fluent English. The first moment I had to speak with her I asked her how she came to be an interpreter. She told me female interpreters were more common in Baghdad (a city I haven’t been to) but that they were still rare. Most women were scared to be interpreters because some of them wound up dead at the hand of their own people.
For a woman to do such a thing it would be considered a disgrace, and she smiled and whispered, “It makes the men feel threatened.” Her family supported her though and she said she wasn’t scared of people trying to hurt her. This was what she wanted to do. I personally, thought she was beautifully fierce.
I have numerous photographs I have taken of the women in this country. Women with eyes downcast, some boldly staring back at the camera, most shadowed by men. While I’m not one to rock the religious belief boat, I recognize that there are women here with dreams beyond flat bread in the morning. I hope that each of these can find her voice in more than mere clothing.

Guarding the Pipeline

2006-04-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

Kirkuk, Iraq – The Iraqi Strategic Infrastructure Battalion (SIB) soldier stands on top of a liquid gold mine. That is, he stands atop six percent of the world’s known oil reserve, deep beneath the sands of northern Iraq, in and around Kirkuk.
The SIB, partnered with Bastogne Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, are the guardians of the pipelines that move the oil throughout the country.
“The SIB is a focus for the coalition forces,” said 1st Lt. Jacob Bailey, a Clyde, Texas native and platoon leader from 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Zarqawi said that he will focus on the infrastructure, and so are we.”
Ensuring that the Iraqi soldiers are prepared to guard the pipeline means working closely with the Iraqi leadership at the company and platoon levels.
“The focus is on the platoon leadership, making sure they have a training plan and that they are actively implementing that plan,” said Staff Sgt. Chris DeMarsico of North Adams, Mass. DeMarsico explains the finer points of standing watch to the Iraqi soldiers, quizzing them and their leaders to ensure standards are understood and maintained.
“I want you to take that next step and teach your soldiers; I want you to be a good leader to them,” DeMarsico told one of the Iraqi non-commissioned officers.
Teaching basic leadership and organizational management to the SIB is a challenge, Bastogne Soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts face everyday.
“We teach and instruct the soldiers many times a day to make sure they do what they must,” said Iraqi SIB 1st Lt. Ghasan Ibrahim Ronaye, a platoon leader responsible for several SIB guard posts. “Insha Allah, God willing, we will not be attacked. But if we are we will be trained and ready to act to defend our pipeline.”
“This new teaching is different from our old army instructions, which was based upon an old British model. This is very different, so it will take us time to adapt and to learn this new way; but, this new way is better, more simple and easy to understand,” adds Ronaye.
“I am hopeful for the future,” said Ronaye, “that we will get better at our jobs and that we will be able to protect our country’s oil and our people.”

Medevac in Tikrit

2006-04-15T03:39:00.000-07:00

Story by Michael Pfaff
Tikrit, Iraq – You never know when the call will come and within seconds you’ll be sprinting toward a Blackhawk helicopter, donning your armor and lifting off.
Soldiers with the 542nd Medical Company keep their gear on their Blackhawk while it’s parked on the flight line because their lives in Iraq revolve around the oath that within ten minutes after a medevac call comes in they will be off the ground and hurtling through the air toward whomever needs their help.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” Spc. Brandon Baskin, a native of Colville, Wash., explained about what it’s like immediately after the call comes in. “You go from zero to sixty like that. There’s no slack time.”
Baskin was thrust into a team chief spot, typically not given to specialists, and it’s early in his crew’s 75-hour work shift. He’s doing his rounds, making sure everything is squared away like a good team chief should do when a call crackles over his handheld radio.
It’s another member of his crew; a medevac has been called in.
“When you hear the ‘medevac, medevac, medevac!’ you just grab your weapon, grab your shirt, and you’re en-route to the aircraft,” Baskin said. “I consider every call urgent until I find out otherwise, which means I’m running.”
Baskin accelerates to sixty and begins rushing toward the helicopter where he finds his crew already beginning to prep the Blackhawk for flight.
Within minutes of the “nine-line” medevac being called in, the Blackhawk is kicking up dust and taking off. Baskin doesn’t hesitate to let in on the secret to getting off the ground quickly.
“Practice; it’s just flat-out practice,” he said.
1st Lt. Samuel Sinclair, the pilot and Versailles, Mo. native, explained the necessity of the intensity and speed of getting the bird off the ground quickly.
“Every minute counts,” he said. “Any amount of time that we can give the medic so that he can provide quality care to the patient helps to save that patient. We’ve got to be very quick about what we’re doing.”
In this case, the patient was stable. An Iraqi Army soldier with a gunshot wound needed to be transported to the medical cache at Contingency Operating Base Speicher for further treatment. But, there are times when the patient isn’t stable. In those cases, every second counts.
Once the Blackhawk made it to the landing zone, medics attending the Iraqi soldier on the ground hastily carried the patient on a litter to the bird. And, within seconds of preparing an IV, the helicopter was off again.
Inside the cabin of the helicopter, basically a portable emergency room, Staff Sgt. Atwon Thompkins, a flight medic and Warrenton, Ga. native, tended to the hurt Iraqi soldier as the Blackhawk flew to the medical cache.
“It’s kind of tight, you just got to know what you are doing,” he said. “You have to stay current with your medical skills.
Thompkins trains every day on his medical skills in order to stay sharp. Today’s mission was during the daylight hours, but there are times when night missions happen and he has to be precise with his treatment.
The entire mission took less than an hour and ended with the Blackhawk dropping the wounded Iraqi Army soldier off with the ground medics.
From start to finish, Sinclair said the medevac crew performed exceptionally, especially with the help from the ground medics who he boasts are really “the stars of the show”.
“This mission was very text-book,” Sinclair said. “If you showed everyone the highlights of this mission, they’d be looking at a bottled medevac mission.”
-30-

Shielding soldiers' families

2006-04-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

Fred Phelps and his group are at again. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. — which showed up outside Fort Campbell in February to praise the death of soliders — says it will picket at the Capitol and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center today.

The demonstration in front of the Capitol is to protest a bill that Rep. John Tanner, D-Union City, is co-sponsoring. The Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act would impose a 500-foot restriction on demonstrations at national cemeteries. It also would require that no demonstrations occur an hour prior to and after services at a federal-run cemetery and establishes monetary fines and prison sentences.

Phelps and his followers have shown up at such funerals with the twisted and spiteful message that soldiers are dying in Iraq with God's blessing because of U.S. tolerance toward homosexuals. In addition to the Capitol, the Phelps group plans to go to Walter Reed with a message for injured soldiers recovering from their wounds that they need to foresake the "godless" U.S. Army.

When six members from the Westboro church — minus Phelps himself — showed up at Fort Campbell on the day a memorial service was being conducted on post, they were met by much larger, peaceful counter-demonstrations, which is the American way.

A group of volunteers called the Patriot Guard Riders also have been attending some military funerals in an attempt to shield family members from the demonstrators.The bill in Congress would not silence Phelps. He and his group would still be able to hold demonstrations.

But Washington has long set rules on where and when demonstrations can be legally staged on federal property. You can't, for instance, simply walk into the Capitol building and start screaming out grievances against the government and not expect to be arrested.

People whose loved ones are being buried in federal cemeteries already have lost so much. The least they deserve is some peace as they put their heroes to rest.

Ted and Barry

2006-04-10T01:02:00.000-07:00

There has been so much talk about Bonds lately and his alleged steroids use and his proximity to two of the most beloved records in all of sports,records transcending baseball and becoming a part of American culture. Bonds can pass Babe Ruth and Hand Aaron and become the all-time homerun champion, perhaps this season.

The question is not so much that he will take the records but that if and when he does, what will his name atop the record books mean if he has been the beneficiary of illegal drugs? Will the record forever be "tainted" and should there be an asterisk by his name?

Baseball has such a long history that records will be broken by men playing in different eras. Should Bonds be required to get drunk before games and eat hot dogs during games? Bonds has no doubt been the target of shameful, cowardly rascist attacks, but to the same degree as Aaron? If Bonds doped himself up and breaks the record and then dies three years from now due to drug related damage to his body, maybe that would be a fitting enough sidenote to his name in the hallowed records of the game.

But I guess since I am over here serving in the military, I am thinking of another ballplayer who is not mentioned in the recent talk.

Ted Williams, arguably the greatest player ever, was also something of a black hat. Surly and foul-mouthed, he shared with Bonds a disdain for the press and lacked the fan affection offered to Ruth and Aaron. Only after his career did he doff his hat to the Boston fans who longed to know him. But his accomplishments on and off the field leave Bonds behind.

From the ages of 24-26, at an age when Barry Bonds, almost 50 years later, would begin his petulant journey through the sports pages,Ted Williams joined ranks with hundreds of thousands of his generation and fought in WWII. And Williams did not tour with the USO and shake hands,he flew airplanes and fought, risking his life. Seven years later he would sacrifice almost another two years when he flew during the KoreanWar.

Williams finished his Hall of Fame career with 521 homeruns, at the time third behind Ruth and Jimmie Foxx. But he had lost three years of his career, years that to many other athletes represent prime years. He averaged 31 HR a season, and so add those lost years, plus the better part of the two Korean War years to his total, another 155 HR, and then Williams has 672,more than Mays. Extrapolate the idea that these were prime years and that he may have hit more and then Williams may be in the race today.

Perhaps more than the number of fourbaggers hit, is the influence each had on the sport. Barry Bonds represents outstanding play but with a selfishness and disregard for the image he displayed. Williams also represented outstanding play but was also a hero to millions and who stood for ideals greater than himself. If he was ill-tempered and passionate, then he was a serious man who would not be trifled with - and I cannot imagine a scenario where he would wear a wig and dress.

So if or when Barry Bonds surpasses the records, remember and compare these two. One who selfishly played a game for himself, another who played a larger role and on a greater stage.

2006 Baseball season begins

2006-04-08T00:40:00.000-07:00

Another season begins and I am once again distracted by the military, (sigh). Last year I was preparing to come over here and so missed most of the season and this year I am here and will miss almost all of this season. Maybe I can get home to see the Series, that would be great. At least I have the internet, that is a good thing.

The first day showed us that the Yankees are as alive as ever with a 15-2 thumping of Zito's Athletics. A slow breaking curve ball is all fun and games until you get jumped on by 200 million dollars worth of fast swinging lumber. Roy Oswalt proved with a 1-0 opening day pitchers duel win that he is the next big thing atop the mound and this should be another big season for him.

As for over here, the Middle Eastern people desperately need baseball. We had a Lebanese reporter come through and he asked me about "America's sport" baseball. Well, if he really wanted to know then he asked the right person, if he was just seeking rhetoric, then he got a bonus. I broke it all down for him and even waxed poetic about the ballet that is the 6-4-3 double play. Beautiful.

World Baseball Classic

2006-04-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the Japanese team and to Cuba for making it there. Good show.

Sporting News's Ken Rosenthal said it best:

In an era of sober statistical analysis, endless contract talk and growing steroids indignation, the passion displayed by Latin American fans during the WBC is a reminder of what the game is supopsed to be about: fun.

Here's what some guys on Sportingnews.com had to say:

I could have cared less about the World Baseball Classic, but what I saw shocked me. I saw MLB players laughing, joking, and at the same time, playing ball to win! Isn't that waht sports are about? We've all wanted the talent of the pros to be combined with the passion of college. For a brief moment, I saw that. I saw it in the ballclubs and in the fans and I loved it.

Czech soldier understand Iraqi frustrations and struggles

2006-04-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

Kirkuk, Iraq (Mar. 26, 2006) – It’s 1989 in Czechoslovakia, and the children have the day off from school for a mandatory “fun day”. Only, instead of drawing chalk lines on the sidewalk for a game of hopscotch, or climbing through the iron web of a jungle gym, they spend the day donning gas masks, throwing plastic grenades, and navigating through the wilderness with a compass.

Long before she went through basic training for the U.S. Army, Pfc. Jana Rutherford was one of the those children participating in the mandatory fun days in communist Czechoslovakia before the revolution that would lead to the creation of the Czech Republic. Rutherford, 25, is now a driver with the 426th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division stationed in Iraq, after joining the Army in January of 2005. Rutherford’s history with the military began long before then.

She met a Soldier in the U.S. Special Forces, with whom she would later marry and move to Germany. After his tour in Europe was over, she moved with him back to Fort Bragg, N.C.

“When I first came to the states, I didn’t know any English,” she said. Rutherford joked that her English was limited to only a few phrases.

“I knew how to say, ‘Hi, how are you? What is your hobby?’” At Fort Bragg, she found a job at the officer’s club and improved her English. Language wasn’t the only thing she learned though; she also learned a lot about military culture. Rutherford decided she wanted to be a part of that culture.

“The idea of seeing other people being so strongly attached to one another, when you see men and women standing at attention and tears are coming down when the National Anthem is being played, I guess I just wanted to be a part of something like that,” she explained. Rutherford signed up a few years later with the intentions of going to airborne school and returning to Fort Bragg. Her plans didn’t quite happen as expected though, and she was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Soon after, the 101st deployed to Iraq.

“One of the biggest reasons why I joined was that I did want to come to Iraq,” Rutherford said. “I wanted to get that experience my friends were talking about; the friendship among Soldiers. And, I wanted to help the people of Iraq to change to being democratic.”

Rutherford can empathize with a people who have not known the concept of living in a democratic nation. When her native country was being formed from the remains of communist Czechoslovakia, she witnessed firsthand how the transition can be difficult.

“It’s a long process,” Rutherford explained. “It’s not like one day we were Czechoslovakia and the next day Czech Republic, everything was changing and it was affecting a lot of people. It didn’t happen overnight.”

Rutherford now reflects on growing up in a communist country and being so poor that college seemed out of reach. In democratic nations like the United States, she said she has a chance at going to college and pursuing whatever her heart desires. Her stay in Iraq and sacrifice for a country experiencing trying times, much like her native country once did, will hopefully help do the same for a young Iraqi child who wants to go to college one day and pursue a dream. -30-

Army Staff Sergeant Russell Lee Klika

2006-04-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

SSG Klika was recognized by DefendAmerica.mil for his talent in the field. Click on this link and see his photo gallery of images from his last two years over here.

Les imbeciles

2006-04-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

The French have become caricatures of themselves; it takes a Frenchman to properly satirize the French. If you took the most liberal minded, socialist leaning worker in America, that person would still admit that you must work for your salary, and if you don’t perform or if your position is no longer needed, then you get let go, or the very least re-assigned. These French students want guaranteed employment, should they also protest that they should be guaranteed happiness and self-esteem?

The protesters are a bunch of wine drinking, croissant munching, Maurice Chevalier accent speaking, 35-hour a week working, smoke break taking, oxygen stealing crybabies.

SOMA: A Kurdish english language newspaper

2006-03-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

I met Iason Athanasiadis the other night and he introduced me to this new publication. As a matter of fact, the issue he gave me was only the third issue printed.

Lots of good articles written by people who live here and have a vested stake in how all this plays out. He agreed with my "asymmetrical civil war" theory and one of his articles also comparesthis situation to Beirut.

Here is a good exercpt:

The worst aspect about being a Kurd, both raised and living abroad, like I have been, is one that we see coming from miles away, a conversational train-wreck inexorably careening towards you in slow motion.

Michael Yon and the civil war

2006-03-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

There has been alot of talk about a civil war here and maybe the definition is different than what we expect. There is no "force on force" that is apparent, but decentralized, asymmetrical warfare at the local level may be a better, more accurate description of the problems here. Perhaps similar to Lebanon of the 70-80s.

THE MESOPOTAMIAN not so much pessimism but rather realism

2006-03-21T04:11:00.000-08:00

THE MESOPOTAMIAN

I like this guy. He is optimistic but realistic at the same time. I guess that makes him a pragmatist.

I was eating in the DFAC and we watched a retired general tell us that Iraq is in civil war.

Meanwhile, outside the local Kurds were celebrating a local holiday and a mission returned from having passed out medical supplies and candy to children. The children here are like kids anywhere, wanting to play, wanting to have fun.

This is a complicated mess, nothing simple about it. Saying we are winning or that we are losing, or that there is now a civil war does little to affect the labyrinthine realism of Iraqi children at play and their parents trying to survive and of us going out on missions and eating chow and thinking about calling home.

Bastogne Soldiers Foil Attack

2006-03-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

KIRKUK, Iraq — Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team foiled an attempted rocket attack on their forward operating base near the village of Hawijah March 1, after the Soldiers witnessed insurgents setting up for the attempted attack.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment observed a white pick—up truck parked at a known enemy firing position north of their FOB. Three insurgents were setting up a rocket system when the Soldiers notified the battalion’s operations center.

On hearing the news, Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Marc Hutson from Grand Junction, Colo., ordered an artillery strike on the position. When the terrorists heard the artillery guns firing, they immediately ran from the area toward a nearby village.

Rep. Ron Paul: How Government Debt Grows

2006-03-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

When government borrows money, the actual borrowers- big spending administrations and politicians- never have to pay it back. Remember, administrations come and go, members of congress become highly paid lobbyists, and bureaucrats retire with safe pensions. The benefits of deficit spending are enjoyed immediately by politicians, who trade pork for votes and enjoy adulation for promising to cure every social ill. The bills always come due later, however. Nobody ever looks back and says, "Congressman so-and-so got us into this mess when he voted for all that spending 20 years ago."

1st BCT trains Taza soldiers in fine points

2006-03-16T03:13:00.000-08:00

TAZA, Iraq — Infantry Soldiers here work hard every day to train an Iraqi army company to take over the mission of security in northern Iraq.

Members of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team teach Iraqi army soldiers the finer points of infantry tactics in this primarily Arab village south of Kirkuk.

“Taza, as a community, is primarily Arab and Turkomen, heavily influenced by Arabs. Here there is not so much a Shia to Sunni rivalry as there is a difference between Arabs and Kurds,” said Capt. Nathaniel Conkey, Co. A commander. “The Iraqi company, though, is a good ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen.”

The 4th Company, 2nd Battalion Iraqi army soldiers train in the Taza compound but are new to the area, having recently transferred from an Iraqi army base north of Kirkuk.

“Moving soldiers to different areas has caused problems,” Conkey explained. “However, the younger soldiers are very motivated and want to learn, and become better soldiers for Iraq.”

Helping the Iraqi army soldiers to become better soldiers is what these US trainers seek to accomplish daily. “The training we give was a part of the Iraqi army basic training, so this is a refresher, “said Staff Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who conducts the “react to sniper” course.“

The Iraqi army troops are very motivated to learn,” Anderson said. “The troops have learned about how to react to contact and react to sniper and first aid tasks. We teach the Iraqi Army [noncommissioned officers] to give hip-pocket training and to keep the training of their soldiers as a priority.”

Making training a high priority is also a main concern for the Iraqi army leadership.

“Iraqi soldiers are motivated to learn and want to become better soldiers,” said Iraqi army Capt. Dillshad Majmal Al-Deen, training officer for 2nd Battalion.

“Iraqi soldiers get a great benefit from the classes and enjoy working with coalition troops,” Al-Deen said. “Iraq is still a country at war and soldiers need to continue training and getting better. A soldier’s job is to train for action on the battlefield.

“I do not make any difference between ethnicities, Arab or Kurd, all are Iraqi soldiers.”

Building a cohesive team of soldiers across ethnic lines is a challenge, but it is paying off as training continues.

“The challenge will be for the Iraqi government to get them what they need to be successful like training, equipment, and controls,” said Sgt. Winston Weaver, who sets up squad leader training.

“They take the training seriously but at the same time they like to learn and they have fun and are very motivated.”

28 insurgents caught, IED materials found

2006-03-16T03:09:00.000-08:00

KIRKUK, Iraq — Bastogne soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, working with police in Kirkuk, detained 28 insurgents during search missions last week — thanks in part — to a new method of processing information.

"Within 48 to 72 hours of receiving intelligence information, we detained the insurgent," confirmed Sgt. 1st Class Lawson Adkins, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the intelligence shop for the 1st Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion. "The goal is to take action while the information is still current."

Though every search might not turn out according to plan, the majority of missions are successful, even in areas outside of Kirkuk.

In a recent mission, soldiers from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, conducted a combined search with Iraqi police during which they detained nine suspected terrorists. One of those detained is known to be involved in attacks against Iraqi Security Forces working in and around Kirkuk.

Another of the detainees, a security guard employed by the Northern Oil Company, is linked to attacks against Coalition Forces and is known to transport Improvised Explosive Devices and weapons to and from the nearby village of Hawijah.Hawijah has been a hotbed of insurgent activity since the Bastogne Brigade arrived in Iraq last November.

In another cordon and search, soldiers from Company C, 2nd Battalion detained one terrorist and confiscated material from the IED assembly workshop set up in his home.

Three days later, after receiving another intelligence report of activity in the area, Bastogne soldiers returned to the same residence to find that yet another suspect had reopened the IED workshop with twice as many materials.

In addition to the 28 captured terrorists, the discovery of the workshop filled with IED materials, weapons and fake documentation, soldiers have collected information on a number of insurgent groups working in the area.

"Most of the detainees are leading to more suspects," Adkins said. "Hopefully we will see a drop in their activity and reduce the current threat in Kirkuk."

Michael Pfaff: Bastogne Soldiers bring smiles to sick Iraqi children

2006-03-15T00:16:00.000-08:00

Kirkuk, Iraq — Hamed is a 7-year-old boy from Kirkuk. He's been hospitalized for the last two weeks with a respiratory condition — nothing to smile about.

On March 5, however, he was all smiles when "Bastogne" soldiers from the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, visited the children's hospital where he and many other sick children spend their days.

"Our mission was to just help bring a smile to the children's faces," said Capt. Todd Claypool, battalion chaplain. "We want to show we care and build good will within the community."

The soldiers passed out candy and toys donated by several churches that have been in touch with Chaplain Claypool, a native of Shelbyville, Ky.

"It's great of these churches to send toys and candy for the kids," Claypool said. "They really care about the Iraqi people."Soldiers also distributed water and shoes to other needy patients at the hospital.

Claypool noted the gifts not only affected children, but also parents of the sick children."The reception from the parents was phenomenal," he said. "When you have a child that's sick, you're thankful for help. That speaks right to their heart."

Claypool said a mission of this nature is important to STB soldiers as well. They often don't get the chance to participate in humanitarian missions, so it was a break from some of the more stressful missions they normally run.

"If soldiers just see the bad stuff, it's not good for them," Claypool said. "That's really just a small percentage of this country. These people aren't all that different from us; they're just going through a tough time."

Claypool said he takes such missions to heart."I have kids of my own, three wonderful boys," he said with pride. "There's nothing like holding a baby and seeing a child's face light up and knowing you've made a difference in that child's life."

Army Staff Sergeant Russell Lee Klika

2006-03-15T00:14:00.000-08:00

SSG Klika is one of our National Guard photographers over here and may be one of the best photographers in the country. Here is a link to DVIDShub.net, where alot of our work ends up and here is a gallery of some of his work.

Kimberly Johnson: USAToday dispatches from Iraq

2006-03-13T03:32:00.000-08:00

I was able to meet Ms. Johnson and she seems to be a good journalist. She has worked in Mosul but will now work closer to us here.

Anti-Castro sign sparks uproar at WBC

2006-03-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a great illustration of freedom of speech at work. I love how the Cuban official is reminded where he is and that the protester has the right to hold the sign. Another good example is that games officials then asked that provacative signs not be displayed so as not to insult the guests and also to lessen the distraction on the games.

World Baseball Classic

2006-03-13T03:20:00.003-08:00

This is alot of fun to keep up with. I think this is a great way for the sport to grow and to recognize the contributions and interests of other countries.

I did hear one commentator saying how this brings more division in a time when we need less. (sigh) This is a sporting event similar to the Olympics and more people are brought together to watch the games and celebrate the athletes.

Good stuff!

Voices in the Desert

2006-03-04T03:37:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months I have talked to hundreds of soldiers, officers, civilians, and Iraqis about what is going on over here. The only consistent theme I can glean from all this information is that there is no consistent theme, no overall consensus of what is right or wrong, what needs to happen or what should happen.

I am curious to see how historians will categorize this adventure. I am afraid it will be more like Vietnam that World War II, more of a speculative debacle than a clear victory.
There have been books written about Operation Iraqi Freedom and no doubt there will be many more, and I have no desire to write anything beyond what I am doing on this blog, but if I were to write a book, I would call it something like, “making the most out of a bad situation,” or maybe “chicken salad”. But without a doubt, the book would be, and must be, a tragedy. Too many lives have been lost, on all sides, for there to be any truly happy ending. And for our recent history’s champion, World War II, and The Greatest Generation who fought it and won a clear victory, I think I can be a representative voice from many over here and write that the Generation Xers who are here wish that our fight was more simple, more easily understood. When the GIs went home in ’45, they had a lucid idea that they had saved the world. When we get home, I am not certain that we will have the same euphoria.

The official line is that we ousted a tyrannical ruler who oppressed his own people and who harbored terrorists and ill will towards western civilization. Now we are training up the Iraqi Army, Police and security forces to take over and will remain until they are ready.

Those two sentences above speak volumes and are as controversial as anything I could write, even though on their face they are true.

Anyway, for what it is worth, below is an eclectic list of quotes from various sources and positions, voices in the desert, scattered and disconnected but poignant and real, having been spoken here.

“Riding in a convoy is like playing Russian roulette. At least in a firefight you have a chance with superior weapons and training, but if you roll across an IED, it was just your time to go.”

“I am a God fearing man, and most of the people here are decent, but if Hawija were tomorrow to fall off the face of the earth, that would not be a bad thing.”

“I don’t trust Arabs.” (I have heard this a lot)

“Revenge is an idea that we Americans just don’t get. The Kurds are just waiting to get payback, once they get it, everything else around here will fall back into place.”

“Saddam’s worst punishment would be to make him president again, or worse, mayor of Baghdad.”

“The Arabs want us here, we are standing in front of the Kurds.”

“Would I come back over here and get paid $100,000 a year to drive a bus? You bet I would.”

“70% of the Muktars and 90% of the Imams are crooked.”

“Most of us (Iraqis) love that you are here, but we will be glad for you to go also.”

“There are only two parts of Iraq that I don’t like: the area between Kuwait and Turkey, and then that part between Syria and Iran.”

“I sure would like a beer.”

“I know I am in war and sometimes it’s just ugly.”

“When I get back, I am buying a more energy efficient car.”

“This is better than Bosnia, the food is better and you get more hot showers.”

“I feel like a cop on a beat, I drive through bad neighborhoods and get lied to everyday.”

Kevin Smith Film Festival

2006-02-27T02:35:00.000-08:00

We recently spent five consecutive nights with a Kevin Smith Film Festival. We watched, in order one on each night: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. I found myself looking forward to each night's get together. Our audience included another captain, our first sergeant, a major for a couple nights, and for another couple nights two civilian journalists waiting for a flight to Baghdad.

Chasing Amy may have been my favorite and I liked Dogma too. You may have just scanned to the top of the blog to check and yes! I am a Christian. It was somewhat irreverent but not overtly blasphemous and made some good points.

I think what I like best about Smith's work is the dialogue. Similar to Quintin Tarrantino (another video store alumni) his dialogue is realistic and believable if a little more erudite than Tarrantino. The Silent Bob soliloquy is always worth the wait.

Richard III and Jake LaMatta

2006-02-27T02:33:00.000-08:00

One nice diversion from the ongoing tedium of the war on terror, or the Iraqi war, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, or whatever we are calling it this week, is watching DVDs.

From Amazon.com I got a copy of Ian McKellan's 1995 film Richard III with Annette Benning and Robert Downey, Jr. I have seen the 1955 archetypal film version with Laurence Olivier and even the farcical rendition with Richard Dreyfuss in the Goodbye Girl. This version (cut down to a manageable length, thank you) is set in an alternate reality Britain of the 30s and the War of the Roses has just ended having been fought with tanks and machine guns. Ian McKellan is entertaining giving his mischievous asides and going about his murderously ambitious plans. I like that his Richard's "rudely stamped" handicaps are evident but minimal.

One thing that occurred to me was that Martin Scorsesee must have been inspired by Richard III when he filmed Raging Bull. Both protagonists share an anti-heroic villainy, and reveal glimpses of a paranoid, narcissistic man-child. Both Richard and LaMatta lament their physical shortcomings; Richard says he is "unfinished" and LaMatta says, "I got little girl hands." Finally, there is a noticeable change in both when each ascends his goal. King Richard becomes even more paranoid and turns jealously on Buckingham, whereas LaMatta evolves from a reticent, but determined brute to a comic, pitiful characature of his former self. Finally, each is connected with images and symbols of a swine; Richard as a boar, and Jake as a pig.

Michael Pfaff: Females in the Army find brotherhood

2006-02-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

This story partially refutes what was previously reported in Stars and Stripes about females in the military. I sent this to Stars and Stripes and suggested that in the spirit of fairness and objective journalism, that this story should be printed. They declined, so here it is.

This is a good representation of the non-polarized reality of life over here. I guess it is more sensational and news-worthy to report controversy and to suggest wide degrees of variance among different soldiers, whether they be males-female, white-black, Christian and non-Christian, but the truth is usually not like that.

I am about as white as Mayberry, and myself and some other white soldiers attended a February Black history month celebration and were welcomed in and we enjoyed the event with other soldiers and civilians present. Later on TV I heard a commentator remark on how polarized the nation was between black and white in a matter of fact way that would suggest this is obvious. I went and talked with another soldier who is black about this and asked if from her perspective, our nation is polarized. Her answer was straight up: "Not really, you have some ignorant people, but not really. Maybe to people in the press it is."

FOB McHenry, Iraq (Feb. 1, 2006) – On this small infantry base outside of the dangerous city of Hawija, two female Soldiers have volunteered to extend their time among the legion of infantrymen stationed here. “You imagine that typically portrayed infantry mentality before you get here, but it’s not like that at all,” said Spc. Merinda Karn-Sterner, a combat medic with C Co. 426th. “Everyone here has got each other’s back, regardless of male or female.”

Karn-Sterner was attached to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, and sent here to assist at the aid station. Admittedly, she was nervous about coming to the area.

“They showed us the map of our [area of operation] and the place that had most of the action was Hawija,” she said. “It was kind of intimidating to know that we were going to be working here.” The danger here is obvious in the scorch marks from mortar attacks on the barriers which are called “hescos” and the Soldier’s faces, battle hardened from daily small-arms fire and IED attacks outside the base. Despite the danger and rugged lifestyle, compared to other bases where you can find new gym complexes and coffee shops, Karn-Sterner and another female combat medic, Pfc. Wendy Frie, have both volunteered to extend their stay here.

Initially, the rotation was supposed to be 45 to 90 days, but the female Soldiers have found a home at Forward Operating Base McHenry.

“There aren’t a lot of comforts like other [FOB’s],” Frie said. “But, it’s comfortable to be here.”A large part of that comfort comes from knowing that you are in good hands, Karn-Sterner said.

“I was nervous more than anything to meet my chain of command,” she said. “But, it turns out that the chain of command here is amazing.” A huge part of why the medics decided to volunteer to stay in such a dangerous place is because in a combat-ridden area like this they could learn a great deal from the infantrymen and put their training to use. “A lot of medics spend 90 percent of their time training and never get to put it to use,” Karn-Sterner explained.

“Out here, we put our training into action. This is where the rubber meets the road.”

The medics had an opportunity to put the rubber the road as early as the second day at the base. “The day after we got here we had our first trauma,” she said. “It was disturbing because I knew the guys, but it was great to be there so we could comfort them and know they were in the hands of great doctors. It’s a great satisfaction knowing because of me these guys are going to go home alive.” Frie elaborated, explaining that at larger bases medics are assigned to specialized groups to provide medical assistance, but here the medics are involved in everything from working sick call to stabilizing trauma patients.

“It’s very challenging out here,” Frie said. “But, it’s also fun and great because we’re learning something new. We learn a lot from these infantry guys.” Both Frie and Karn-Sterner said they’ve had no problems being surrounded by infantrymen. “All the guys here have been really polite,” Karn-Sterner said. “Everyone is [equal opportunity] conscience. It’s almost like sometimes they are even scared to talk to you.”

Despite being a little intimidating, Frie said it doesn’t deter the infantrymen from being compatriots. “These guys help us out a lot,” Frie said. “They’re pretty much like our brothers-in-arms. They look after us as much as we look after them.” Frie and Karn-Sterner will continue to provide medical aid to Soldiers they’ve come to know as brothers at a place that feels like home to them, despite the frequent mortar attacks.

“This place is everything a deployment should be and more,” Karn-Sterner said.

Right to Blaspheme

2006-02-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

We watched the scenes of protest and just shook our heads, this is tiresome. What about all the millions of dollars in earthquake aid? And why was the American flag being burned?

As a Christian, I am supposed to love these people, and I do, but stuff like this makes it difficult.

I have not talked to this with any of the Muslims with whom I come into contact, I just really have not wanted to get into it with them.

The temptation of belief

2006-02-24T05:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a link I discovered from one of my favorite sites, Faith Commons, that is featured on my blogroll. This is a posting from a practicing Buddhist who went to visit her Christian cousin and made some observations.

From a Christian perspective, this kind of observation is like gold. Here is a non-believer looking at us from the outside at how we look and how effective we are at spreading the gospel.

What also is interesting is her honest admissions of being turned off by a very frank and open discussion by a Christian.I share my faith with someone because I want to share something valuable and meaningful. My faith is more about a celebration than a mourning, more liberating and empowering than limiting. This is what I share.

One thing very interesting is her empathy with the members of the church she visits. She sees these people as sharing a desire she has, to attain enlightenment, to know how and why to live, searching for meaning in life.

Muslim cartoon protests a good lesson for Christians

2006-02-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

There has been so much talk and concern about the protests over illustrations of Mohammed that it occurs to me there is a great lesson here for Christians. Muslims worldwide are now seen as intolerant and bigoted, intent on violence and needing only a premise to justify bellicose reaction. Moderate voices are drowned out by the cacophony of rioting mobs. But these voices should be the loudest. A religion that claims it stands for peace and the love of others should be the most vocal when members of that same religion act contrary to its accepted doctrine.

The lesson for Christians? The Westboro "baptist" church to begin with. This group spouts hatred and division and call themselves Christian. Church leaders should lead non-violent protests against such groups and foster the message Jesus sent about love and forgiveness.

Detractors will point to the Crusades, apathy towards slavery, the Catholic Church's silence during the holocaust, gay bashing, ect. We can only move forward, but we need to move forward in a positive manner, and in reflection of the example Christ left for us.

The following is part of an e-mail sent to one of my soldiers that he shared with me. This message represents concern and frustration over Muslims worldwide. As Christians, we should make sure that such a contradiction never applies to us.

a.. Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City.
b.. No Muslim outrage.
c.. Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed.
d.. No Muslim outrage.
e.. Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school.
f.. No Muslim outrage.
g.. Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq.
h.. No Muslim outrage.
i.. Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt.
j.. No Muslim outrage.
k.. A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six.
l.. No Muslim outrage.
m.. Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back.
n.. No Muslim outrage.
o.. Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics.
p.. No Muslim outrage.
q.. Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
r.. Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured.
s.. No Muslim outrage.
t.. Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder.
u.. No Muslim outrage.
v.. Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali.
w.. No Muslim outrage.x.. Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons.y.. No Muslim outrage.
z.. Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world.
aa.. No Muslim outrage.
ab.. Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge.
ac.. No Muslim outrage.
ad.. Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged. Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wondering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.

I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

Where is the outrage?

MSM and blasphemy

2006-02-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a great post from Andrew Sullivan.

He writes: The real reason that many mainstream papers will not publish any of the Danish cartoons is that the owners and editors feel rightly responsible for the safety of their employees. A decision to publish puts a lot of people at risk for their lives. An individual blogger may feel free to put herself at risk, but an editor and publisher have broader responsibilities. I just wish the MSM were honest about this and confessed that they are making a decision based on legitimate fear of violence against them. That would clarify things, at least. If the NYT can publish "Piss-Christ" and the Virgin Mary made out of dung, then it cannot logically claim to be a paper dedicated to respecting religious sensitivity. It respects religious sensitivity when the religious threaten violence. And this stance therefore rewards the violence.

Iran invites cartoons of holocaust

2006-02-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a class act. I feel confident that no matter what is printed there will not be mass demonstrations and no one will get hurt and property damaged. What a bunch of knuckleheads.

And besides, what does Israel have to do with any of this? The cartoons are satirizing islamafascism and the ridiculous contradictions between a religion and those who profess to follow that same religion. When a Christian shows himself to be a knucklehead and a hypocrite, exposed as a contrarian and self-aggrandizer in the place of a professed theological trust, he is correctly lampooned and shamed.

Read this: "The cartoons touched a raw nerve, partly because most Muslims forbid any illustration of the prophet for fear of idolatry and partly because several drawings portrayed Mohammed as a man of violence."

Mohammed led an army!!! He raided caravans!!!

Spin Doctors and Public Affairs Officers

2006-02-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

First of all, to get semantics correct, I have never lied in my job and have never ordered any of my soldiers to do so. This subject is one that we have discussed at some length on more than one occasion. Do we try and place the military's story in the best light? Sure. Do we conceal facts when the military looks bad, NO. Does this sometimes create some grey area? You bet!

The linked essay goes a long way to shedding some light on this subject. How can you provide free speech whithout security? What about free speech about that security? What is coercion and what is publication our of appreciation? Good stuff.

From wikipedia: In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics. Politicians are often accused of spin by their political opponents.
Because of the frequent association between "spin" and press conferences (especially government press conferences), the room in which these take place is sometimes described as a spin room.

Muslim Anti-Cartoon Clashes Turn Deadly

2006-02-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

Say what you want about whether or not US foreign policy is correct, but if you think Muslim extremism and islafascism is not a problem, then you are mistaken. Recall when people were killed over a Newsweek story that alleged, not proved, alleged that copies of the Koran were damaged.

Here's the lead:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan security forces opened fire on demonstrators Monday, leaving at least four dead, as increasingly violent protests erupted around the world over published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. European and Muslim politicians pleaded for calm.

Ethnic Tensions Rising in Kirkuk

2006-02-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a post from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. This article also mentions Hawija. This is a bad place west of here where troublemakers run rampant a cause problems for everyone. Also, there was a flyer distributed lately to the Turkomen community telling them to arm themselves and fight against the Kurds.

City’s ethnic and religious groups are warning of creeping sectarianism.

By Samah Samad in Kirkuk (ICR No.162, 1-Feb-06)

Marwa As’ad, a Turkoman resident of Kirkuk, is heartbroken. She had been planning to marry a local Kurdish man but her family broke off the engagement after her brother was carjacked by a Kurd. She believes rising tensions among different ethnic and religious groups in Kirkuk contributed to her break-up.

Like many others interviewed in this ethnically and religiously diverse city, As’ad said the atmosphere has deteriorated since Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in April 2003. The province of Kirkuk - home to about a million Kurds, Turkoman, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Armenians - is sometimes referred to as a little Iraq or as Iraq's melting pot, but some believe the area, in particular the city of Kirkuk, is a powder keg waiting to explode.

The situation has worsened since Iraq changed from a one-party dictatorship under Saddam's Ba'athist regime, maintain local leaders and residents. Political parties in Kirkuk, most of which represent ethnic or religious groups, are battling for control of the city and its surroundings.

While there are no reliable statistics on the ethnic and religious make-up of the province, Kurds are believed to be the largest ethnic group. Indeed, Kurdish slates won five of Kirkuk's nine parliamentary seats in the December elections, and they hold the most seats on the provincial council. Saddam had tried to reduce the Kurdish majority in the area by moving significant numbers out of Kirkuk city and replacing them with mainly poor Arabs from the south.

But now Kurds are fighting to bring Kirkuk city back under Kurdish political control. The move isn't popular among its other communities who effectively control certain neighbourhoods, which are adorned with often-confrontational flags and banners.

"You see many provocative slogans such as 'Long live Turkoman; 'Long live Mam Jalal' (a reference to Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani); or 'Kirkuk is an integral part of Kurdistan'," said Omar Muhammad, a 29-year-old Arab resident.Muhammad said the problem grew worse during parliamentary elections, and that political parties have fuelled sectarianism.

On January 29, several car bombs went off near churches in Kirkuk, killing one person. Silvana Buya Nassir, a Chaeldan Assyrian, said Christians were concerned about safety prior to the bombings. "We used to hold evening ceremonies to pay tribute to Christ, but because of the deteriorating security situation and violence against our group, we have to do it during the day," she said. "The tension has forced many families to emigrate and seek asylum in European countries to escape this terrible situation." Ali Mahdi, vice president of Turkoman Iliy party, accused Kurdish parties of fomenting division by working only for their own interests and demanding the city return to Kurdish control. "They are following the same path as the Ba'ath regime to create hatred and differences among Kirkuk's people to the extent that it has affected daily relations between people," he said. "They are responsible for planting the seeds of segregation in Kirkuk.

"But Kurds themselves are also falling victim to the growing tensions. Waleed Ali, a 30-year-old Kurd from Hawija in southern Kirkuk province, moved to Kirkuk city's suburbs after several Kurds were killed by Arab militants, although local Arab tribesmen insisted the killers had no connection with their community.

"I lived in Hawija for 30 years, but after the fall of regime their views towards us changed. They accused the Kurds of helping the Americans to topple Saddam," said Ali. Just as Kurds are blamed for helping the Americans, some in Kirkuk now equate Arabs with Ba'athists. "They hold us accountable for what Saddam and his regime did, as if all Arab people participated in those acts," said Sami al-Ne'mi, a 32-year-old Arab. Kurdish leaders in the area insist that they are not behind the tensions. "We don't differentiate between ethnic groups," said Nasreen Khalid, a Kurdish member of Kirkuk provisional council. "We work for the interests of all of Kirkuk's people.

"Khalid insisted that bonds between groups are much stronger than they were in the past. "Contrary to claims by some factions and satellite channels that civil war will break out in Kirkuk, coexistence is strong here," she said.But local observers are not so sanguine.

“There is no peaceful coexistence among ethnic groups as is claimed by politicians and the media," said Muhammed al-Jabar, a sociologist." As different governments have come to power (after Saddam's regime) and different policies have been laid down, mistrust has been created among the different groups and tensions are rising."

"The policies of the political parties and sectarianism have infiltrated everything," said As'ad. "It even affects family relationships, like what happened to me. We hoped for so many years for democracy and freedom to come to us, and this is the price we are now paying."

INSHA ALLAH

2006-02-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

I believe that in order to gain a more complete understanding of this part of the world, one must know and understand this term: Insha Allah.

Literally this translates to “God willing” or “If God wills it”. So, on the surface this sounds like a reasonable saying for what is clearly a very religious people. An outsider like me at first saw this as a verbal declaration of submission, that God’s will would triumph over whatever man had planned.

However, in application and in contextual use, this more closely translates to something like “whatever” or “who cares” or even “screw it”. The person will say it, shrug, and offer a tired smile. The message invariably delivered is of a casual indifference to the outcome.

I have not studied the Koran, but if this phrase is still meant in a theological abstract, then the notion of freewill is in this instant absent from their discourse.

I have heard this said in casual conversation and in more formal settings. I was present at a meeting of a prominent local Sunni Arab sheik and the local side of the conversation was liberally sprinkled with Insha Allah this and that. He sounded more formal and solemn when he said it, but truth be said, I don’t hang out with sheiks that often.

So, maybe it is the company I keep that delivers the less formal variant. I have always steered more toward the beer and pizza crowd anyway, though neither of those are anywhere around here that I can tell. And I have also heard this more from Arabs than Kurds or Turkomen. The only Assyrian I know is a Christian and he never says it. I don’t know any Chaldeans. Maybe I should get out more … Insha Allah.

A day of ordinary violence in Iraq

2006-02-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

This from the Arab Monitor. The IP and IA are heroic. You will hear about some corruption and yes this happens (as the first part of this story indicates), but they volunteer to put themselves on the front line day in and day out. We drive around in up armor, they ride in the open back of old pickup trucks. The day after this attack on recruits, the line had formed again, more were ready to sign up and become police.

Notice the first part of the story: US soldiers attacked and killed Iraqis. True on the surface, but they had been planting IEDs. Another story a few weeks ago reported some protests about some arrests. Those arrested had a garage full of bomb making material. The only thing reported, though, was of the arrests. I liken this to Palestinian reporting, where you will read about Israelis opening fire on some civilians. What is not reported is that the civilians had the day before opened fire on an Israeli camp.

The truth here is more complex than the reporting.

Baghdad, 22 January - US occupation troops opened fire yesterday night at four civilian cars in Baiji, 200 km north of Baghdad, as they were driving on the main road to Tikrit. All of the cars were destroyed and three people were killed, who turned out to be US-trained Iraqi soldiers.

Four more people were wounded and six, who were unharmed, were arrested by American soldiers. The arrested men also were US-trained Iraqi soldiers who had been on their way to their base in Samarra.

In a separate development, Iraqi police found the bodies of 23 police recruits who, along with 12 others, had been captured last week. The 35 recruits had been ambushed last Tuesday, as they were on their way to the Samarra base.

In Iraq, militants coordinate bombings near Christian churches

2006-02-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Here is an article from the Catholic News Service (pretty high speed) about some of the church bombings here. I copied only the first three paragraphs, but click the link and get the whole story.

By Carol GlatzCatholic News Service
ROME (CNS) -- Unidentified militants planted explosives near several Christian churches and the Vatican Embassy in Iraq, causing few casualties but triggering fresh fears among the minority Christian population.

The near-simultaneous attacks Jan. 29 in Baghdad and Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, were launched just as some Sunday afternoon services had ended. A blast targeting a Chaldean Catholic church in Kirkuk left one parishioner and two passers-by dead and one person injured.

Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad told Catholic News Service, "We thank God there was very little damage" and so few victims.

NPR, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin: What Defines a Journalist?

2006-02-01T04:26:00.000-08:00

Here is an excellent essay on the nature of free press in a war zone and our defense structure's relationship with free expression. Being a PAO is also cool because I get to meet many interesting people, including two of the journalists mentioned in this piece.

The answer is both simple and very complex.
Here is the short version: people who work in news and information, in print and broadcasting, call themselves journalists because journalism is what they do. But some listeners increasingly ask, "Says who?"
That question of labeling journalists emerged on Dec. 31, when NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday aired a story by a Baghdad-based photojournalist, Bill Putnam. It reported that some members of the Georgia National Guard found a baby in Iraq who was suffering from spina bifida. The Guard then arranged for her to be flown to Atlanta for treatment.
'Good News' From Iraq on NPR?
It was a "good news" story from a region where there has not been much good news to report. It was also appropriate for the holiday season.
But one listener, Ms. Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi wrote to object. Not to the story, but to the person who reported it. Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi thinks Putnam has no right to call himself a journalist, because of what he used to do.
Putnam is a recently discharged soldier, now working in Iraq as a freelance reporter and photojournalist, embedded with one of the units. While in the army, Putnam performed similar duties with the Army Public Affairs Office. The Office publicizes the non-military side of life, and stories generated by that group are often found in smaller hometown newspapers that can't afford to send their own reporters to Iraq.
Putnam says he is a journalist, because his audio diaries have been heard on his stateside public radio station in upstate New York -- North Country Public Radio -- and he has published articles in magazines. He also maintains a blog about his daily life and impressions.
Dual Loyalties?
Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi says because of Putnam's military background, and because he is embedded, he must have conflicting loyalties between his previous military life and his present employment. In reporting this "good news" story on NPR, she wonders if Putnam is painting a too-rosy picture of the good works performed by military personnel. In short, she asks, was NPR "snookered" by Bill Putnam?
Not at all, says Gwen Thompkins, editor of Weekend Edition Saturday:
Other than the suspicions of this listener, we have no grounds to believe that we have been snookered by Mr. Putnam, or his report. From the very beginning of our interactions, we knew he was former military. He told us so. We can't vouch for his personal views, or for any unspoken design on his part to put a positive spin on the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Nor can we assume -- as the listener does -- that the Bush administration is in cahoots with Mr. Putnam, spinning a story about a girl with spina bifida to make Americans, or Iraqis, change their minds about the occupation. Weekend Edition Saturday gave 3:30 minutes to a straightforward account of how a National Guard unit responded to the medical needs of an Iraqi infant with spina bifida. This does not rise to the level of the Manchurian Candidate.
I agree with Gwen Thompkins. The report itself was well within NPR standards. And NPR has presented many of the horrors of the war with some outstanding coverage from correspondents such as Anne Garrels, Deborah Amos, Eric Westervelt, Jamie Tarabay, Ivan Watson and others. These reporters and their excellent work are familiar to most NPR listeners.
Who Is Bill Putnam?
But Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi raises a question that other listeners have also raised: Why do some freelancers appear on NPR without any explanation? What is their background? Is NPR right to ask listeners to implicitly trust the work of these freelancers? In my opinion, the sudden arrival of Bill Putnam on NPR needed some additional explanation beyond this "tag" read at the conclusion of his report:
WERTHEIMER: That was photojournalist Bill Putnam reporting from Baghdad.
North Country Public Radio was able to fill in some of Bill Putnam's background. Martha Foley Smith is that network's news director. Her stations have broadcast some of Putnam's radio diaries. Smith says they give the listeners a good sense of what it's like for the soldiers from that part of upstate New York -- Fort Drum -- who are in Iraq. But Smith insists Putnam's reports are aired only if the listeners are completely aware of his background:
We were always very clear with listeners about who he was and who he really worked for, and the nature of the material he was sharing with us... but they weren't presented as reported stories, rather as events in Bill's life there, from his point of view as a(n ex-) soldier, and a person with obvious sensitivity to events and people around him.
We feel comfortable about that relationship. Bill's morph(ing) into a freelancer is more complicated for us, of course. We were careful to find out who he works with, and through, now.
... I think he's particularly valuable to us because no, I don't think we hear enough about Iraq, or about what soldiers really do there. That's his assignment from us: his account of who these guys are, what they're doing, what it's like there for them, and so on.
Iraq From A Soldier's Point of View
I contacted Bill Putnam and asked him if he thinks his report on the child with spina bifida was just a bit of pro-war propaganda, as Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi suggests:
I understand her... um, concern about media manipulation. It's one of the reasons I left the military. I couldn't accurately reflect the reality "down in the trenches." If you need examples, read my CJR article in their September/October edition entitled "My Aim Is True."
If she feels "snookered" that's her opinion. The only thing I wanted to cover as a journalist was war and/or conflict. Since it's very dangerous for Americans to run around Baghdad unilaterally, covering this war from the inside, [it's] really my only option. I've done the unilateral thing and woke up to truck bombs a block away. Part of the game but covering it while living on a FOB (Forward Operating Base) seems the better option.
... my background, I think, is an advantage. But I don't know if distance is a good thing or not. It's really up to the individual journalist. I waited six months before returning. Not only did I need the break but I wanted to wait until everybody I knew in theater left. But 10 years in the Army and multiple deployments have given me an in that not many other journalists have. I know how to operate in the field and talk to Joe or Jane without coming across like an idiot.
... (being) fair is all subjective. The conservatives are screaming we're not covering the "good" things like food distribution and schools being refurbished. Liberals are screaming the country's falling apart. Well, both are partially true. We're trying to cover a very dangerous war here where both sides are targeting us, either intentionally or unintentionally. If I could afford to hang out in a hotel and roam the countryside, I would. But I can't. My life is at risk here more as a journalist than it was a soldier. This definitely isn't Bosnia or Kosovo.
So that's it from my end, sir. Take care.
Questions Raised About NPR's War Reporting
For me, there are two issues raised by Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi's question and by the answers from Gwen Thompkins, Martha Foley Smith and Bill Putnam:
• Do news organizations need to do more to explain how a reporter's past experiences are of benefit to the journalism?
I think the answer is yes, of course. The NPR Web site might be a good place for those background explanations of who the reporter is. And…
• Can NPR -- or any news organization for that matter -- report so-called "good" stories from a war zone without it sounding like pro-war propaganda?
I think it can, but only if great care and candor is taken about what is being reported and by whom.
Efforts by the military to assist in the reconstruction are not the main story. The main story has been the insurgency and attempts by the United States to implant some form of democracy in a country with little or no democratic traditions. Reports about how the military has reopened schools, reconnected the electrical grid or built a new sewage treatment plant are legitimate, but secondary. Any time these stories have aired I have received e-mails of complaint from an increasingly skeptical public about how the media is being "snookered."
Different Views From Iraq?
At the same time, there should be room for Bill Putnam's type of news stories from Iraq, whether by freelancers or NPR reporters. But listeners need to be reassured (as has been done by North Country Public Radio) that this reporting is not happening at the expense of the overall war coverage. In my opinion, NPR has done an extraordinary job in reporting this war in all its unpleasant facets. But there should be room for those stories of humanity and compassion in a war zone.
Finding that journalistic balance is no small challenge for any news organization.
Ms. Ghamari-Tabrizi should be thanked for raising an important issue about labels, and questioning what constitutes a journalist, especially at a time when all journalism is seen as much too porous when it comes to influences exerted by governments and pressure groups, including the U.S. military.

JOHN R. GUARDIANO: Reporting for Duty

2006-01-30T22:39:00.000-08:00

This from the Wall Street Journal. As a pubic affairs officer, this was an issue that I could see clearly from the ground. As I have written before, it is easy to sit in an air-conditioned office in the LA Times and pontificate about 1st Amendment issues and defense policy. And I'm not beating up on all journalists, I meet brave men and women everyday who are here, on the streets of Iraq, passionate about telling the truth from where the truth is happening. A good freind asked me the other day whether she should cheer for civilian journalists over here and I replied, yes, she should. Whether you agree with their opinions or how they write, they are putting their lives on the line to cover an event that effects us all.

So allow the Iraqi people and the people of this whole region that same respect. The publishers of Iraqi newspapers know full well what they report and what they publish. They can make a decision to run a piece just the same as anyone else. If they choose to run an article for the US military they can, their paper, their freedom of press.

Mr. Guardiano makes his point well:

The latest Iraq "scandal" the politicians and the media have discovered is the U.S. military's alleged covert purchase of favorable articles in the Iraqi press. This alleged "propaganda campaign . . . violates fundamental principles of Western journalism," reports the New York Times.

This is not surprising, insofar as Iraq does not yet enjoy "Western journalism." Journalists there are murdered, blackmailed and bribed. They and their families are routinely threatened and coerced by terrorist/insurgents. Newspapers often serve as propaganda arms of various political and religious factions. The widely viewed Arab network Al-Jazeera works diligently to promote terrorism and undermine Iraq by disseminating lies, distortions and misinformation.

In light of this reality, the U.S. military has a choice: It can accept this deleterious state of affairs, play by Marquess of Queensberry rules, and wait decades for the emergence of "Western journalism." The result would be a heady propaganda win for the terrorist/insurgents, a prolonged conflict, and more unnecessary violence and death. Or the U.S. military can work within Iraq's present-day constraints to try to ensure that Iraqis hear the truth about what is happening in their country.

The U.S. military wisely has decided to pursue the latter course of action. But contrary to the Times and other self-anointed paragons of journalistic virtue, this is nothing new. I know because while serving as a Marine in Iraq in April 2003, I volunteered to write newspaper articles and radio and television scripts for dissemination in-country. Yes, I was a not-so-covert Iraqi journalist.

I say not-so-covert because everyone--U.S. Marines and Iraqis alike--knew who I was and what I was doing. It was not a secret. But I seriously doubt that anyone in Washington knew of our activities. We never sought high-level approval. Ours was a tactical decision made on the ground in response to the threat that we faced.

After major combat operations had ended in April 2003, it quickly became apparent to us Marines that ours was as much a war of information and ideas as a war of guns and bullets. We had won every military engagement; our difficulties lay with the popular Iraqi perceptions that the ex-Baathists, Saddam loyalists and Sunni overlords were lying low and would soon return to power after we Americans had left--which would happen soon, ordinary Iraqis were told. Moreover, blatant lies were spread about our supposed misdeeds: that Marines became Marines after they had murdered a family member; that we were raping Iraqi women and plundering Iraq's oil riches.

It is obviously more difficult to secure the cooperation of a people to rebuild their country if they are intimidated and misled about what you are doing and why you are doing it. That's why we founded our own Iraqi newspaper--which we clearly labeled as such--and that's why we broadcast radio and television clips.

The radio clips were given to the local radio station in Al Hilla, which aired them as they saw fit. As for television, an enterprising young Harvard graduate and physics major, Marine Corps Lt. Seth Moulton, founded his own television show, "Moulton and Mohamed." (Lt. Moulton, incidentally, is no conservative, but he was a fine Marine Corps officer. His presence in the Marines may show that there is more ideological diversity within the U.S. military than on the typical college faculty or newsroom.)

"Moulton and Mohamed" featured the lieutenant and his translator, who ventured into town together and reported--truthfully--on what was happening. New medical supplies today arrived at the hospital and a destroyed elementary school was rebuilt. The local Iraqi town council met to discuss how to increase the output and availability of electricity. The Americans provided jobs to 300 Iraqis, who now have been tasked with cleaning up the Babil Province.

National Public Radio heard of our efforts and sent one of its reporters to visit us from Baghdad. Ivan Watson and his producer courageously trekked 60 miles to Al Hilla, where Mr. Watson interviewed Lt. Moulton and me. His report aired on "All Things Considered" on Aug. 25, 2003.

"Public relations initiatives," Mr. Watson informed NPR's listeners, "include this TV show called 'Moulton and Mohammed'--or the 'M&M show.' It's a half-hour program on U.S.-Iraqi cooperation, hosted by Lt. Seth Moulton and translator Mohammed Fawzi. The production standards are crude, and yet the show has turned one of the hosts [Lt. Moulton] into a minor celebrity."

Everything we wrote, published, aired and disseminated was factual and accurate. I can tell you that was true in 2003; according to the U.S. military, it is also true today. Iraqis are better informed, not less informed or misinformed, because of U.S. military information operations.

If the media and the politicians have their way, the U.S. military will be denied this key tool of 21st-century warfare. Yet what is urgently needed in Iraq and elsewhere is more and better information operations. What is won on the battlefield today can be lost in the media tomorrow.

The U.S. military understands this, but has yet to develop the same level of skill, cunning and sophistication within its public affairs teams as it has within its ground combat forces. The former consider themselves professionals; the latter warriors--and therein lies the problem.

Warriors win wars, professionals make us feel good. Military public affairs officers may satisfy and placate our media and political class, but they are doing too little to help us win in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. They have yet to realize that they are, or at least ought to be, 21st-century frontline troops. That's why they shun information operations, which instead are administered mostly by military intelligence units. (Our efforts were an exception, the spontaneous work of several enterprising Marine grunts and civil affairs personnel with no military intelligence support or genesis.)

The administration of information operations by military intelligence units is a serious mistake. Intelligence personnel have little understanding of journalism. They don't understand the complex ways that genuine news can both inform and motivate. They risk confusing propaganda with journalism. And they bring with them professional baggage that might cloud their judgment and render their work suspect and ineffective.

The U.S. military need its intelligence units to concentrate on intelligence operations. Military public affairs units, meanwhile need to understand that there is a premium now on the battlefield for their skills. Indeed, they have a major role to play in winning the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere; and they must embrace, not shun, that role. This will require a marked change in their modus operandi; but any successful military--and the U.S. military is the most successful in the history of the world--always adapts to changing times.

America has one great advantage over the enemy: The truth is on our side. It exposes and weakens them while strengthening and supporting us. Thus, we have no need for dishonest propaganda. We do need, though, to strongly propagate the truth about American intentions, actions and results.

The global war on Islamofascism ultimately is a two-front conflict that must be waged both domestically and overseas. In that sense, we are, as Shakespeare explained, the masters of our fates; but only if we recognize that that is so.

The U.S. can and will win in Iraq, but only if we win the larger-scale media war. Correcting misperceptions--in Baghdad and Washington, New York and Tikrit--is not somebody else's job; it is the job of the U.S. military. For unless the truth is widely known and shared, no military victory in the 21st century can ever be complete.

Mr. Guardiano is an Arlington, Va.-based journalist. He served in Iraq in 2003 as a field radio operator with the Marine Corps Reserve's Fourth Civil Affairs Group.

Supporting the Troops

2006-01-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

Never say I don't spread the love!

"The first definition of patriotism is keeping faith with those who’ve worn the uniform of the United States of America. Our obligation is to keep faith with the men and women of the American military and their families-whether they are on active duty, in the National Guard or Reserves, or veterans. We must be mindful of what America has always asked of our servicemen and women. It takes a special individual to see your buddy get hit, and put yourself between him and incoming fire so that medics can tend to him. It takes a special person to work day by day in an environment where it is impossible to distinguish friend from foe. But they do it. And they do it well.

They are sustained by the bonds they share within their unit, and by the love and strength they draw from home-from their families, their spouses, their children, their parents. Military families are unsung heroes who receive neither medals nor parades-giving everything they can to the men and women they love, men and women who have been called to war. They answered the call.

And so must we-with a new commitment to smarter defense policies and better care for military families. Those who have stood for us should know that we stand with them, today and always. Each of us here today can do something to ease their burden – but truly supporting our troops requires that we act not just as individuals, but as a nation.

We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military force in the world, and we owe them the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they and their families will be taken care of if they sacrifice life, limb or the ability to sleep without war’s nightmares. We owe our veterans the honor and respect of a grateful nation.

We owe the men and women of the American military and their families not just thanks and best wishes, but action, and action in our nation’s capital. In today’s ever-changing and perilous world, there is not a moment to lose. "

Senator John Kerry

Dr. Ron Paul: Federalizing Social Policy

2006-01-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

As the Senate prepares to vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito this week, our nation once again finds itself bitterly divided over the issue of abortion. It's a sad spectacle, especially considering that our founders never intended for social policy to be decided at the federal level, and certainly not by federal courts. It's equally sad to consider that huge numbers of Americans believe their freedoms hinge on any one individual, Supreme Court justice or not.

Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, but not because the Supreme Court presumed to legalize abortion rather than ban it. Roe was wrongly decided because abortion simply is not a constitutional issue. There is not a word in the text of that document, nor in any of its amendments, that conceivably addresses abortion. There is no serious argument based on the text of the Constitution itself that a federal "right to abortion" exists. The federalization of abortion law is based not on constitutional principles, but rather on a social and political construct created out of thin air by the Roe court.

Under the 9th and 10 amendments, all authority over matters not specifically addressed in the Constitution remains with state legislatures. Therefore the federal government has no authority whatsoever to involve itself in the abortion issue. So while Roe v. Wade is invalid, a federal law banning abortion across all 50 states would be equally invalid.

The notion that an all-powerful, centralized state should provide monolithic solutions to the ethical dilemmas of our times is not only misguided, but also contrary to our Constitution. Remember, federalism was established to allow decentralized, local decision- making by states.

Today, however, we seek a federal solution for every perceived societal ill, ignoring constitutional limits on federal power. The result is a federal state that increasingly makes all-or-nothing decisions that alienate large segments of the population.

Why are we so afraid to follow the Constitution and let state legislatures decide social policy? Surely people on both sides of the abortion debate realize that it's far easier to influence government at the state and local level. The federalization of social issues, originally championed by the left but now embraced by conservatives, simply has prevented the 50 states from enacting laws that more closely reflect the views of their citizens. Once we accepted the federalization of abortion law under Roe, we lost the ability to apply local community standards to ethical issues.

Those who seek a pro-life culture must accept that we will never persuade all 300 million Americans to agree with us. A pro-life culture can be built only from the ground up, person by person. For too long we have viewed the battle as purely political, but no political victory can change a degraded society. No Supreme Court ruling by itself can instill greater respect for life.

And no Supreme Court justice can save our freedoms if we don't fight for them ourselves.

Michael Pfaff: Iraqi Police makes way for Hajj in Kirkuk

2006-01-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

Mike Pfaff is a journalist I work with here and he has agreed to let me use some of his posts on this site.

The streets of Kirkuk ran red with blood today. On many days in this city, a city marred by an ethnic divide and an infestation of insurgents, blood spilling onto the streets denotes a setback for prosperity of the people and safety of coalition forces.

But, today that blood wasn’t the blood of innocent citizens or coalition casualties. Today was the first day of Hajj, an Iraqi holiday spanning four days, and the people of a northern Kirkuk neighborhood carve into a cow, preparing it for a feast. They will feast in their homes warmed by electricity, their kids will play in unpolluted streets, and they’ll do it trusting that local police will protect them. The people weren’t expecting as much during their holiday.

Three days ago, Soldiers from the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion mounted their armored humvees and, in a joint effort with the Iraqi police, visited this neighborhood.

The neighborhood, found in a sector of Kirkuk reported as a problem area, is a place where public sentiment for coalition forces was dangerously low and attacks occurred frequently. When they arrived, they found a derelict cityscape, grim and smothered in trash. The people were reluctant to exit their homes and businesses to interact with the Soldiers.

An elderly man approached and began shouting that he was upset.

Staff Sgt. Ignacio A. Betancourt, a civil affairs team sergeant with the 451st, was one of the Soldiers there to hear his complaints.

“The trash, the electricity, and no police,” Betancourt explained. “The people had three complaints when we first visited the area.”

Betancourt said the Iraqi police immediately contacted the Joint Command Center, a centralized communications hub for Iraqi security forces, and within 20 minutes a truck was sent out to fix the electricity.

“[The Iraqi police] got the electricity fixed on the spot before we left,” Betancourt said. “So, the people were happy.”

Getting the electricity fixed would only be the first step in helping this community. Soldiers from the 451st and Iraqi police returned the following two days and focused on the other two complaints.

Betancourt recalled how the people’s demeanor had shifted when they arrived in the neighborhood on the second day.

“On the first visit, the Iraqi police got the electricity turned on for them,” Betancourt said. “So the people said, ‘wow, these guys are out here actually taking care of us’. So, they started feeling comfortable with them.”

The next issue that needed to be taken care of was the excessive trash in the streets that locals explained was over six months worth of build up. Coordinating with the Department of Sanitation, Betancourt said the Iraqi police enlisted five trucks, a bulldozer and ten workers to remove the trash.

The Iraqi police were involved in the first two visits, but on the third visit they would focus on interacting with the people.

“The third visit the people realized the Iraqi police really meant business,” Betancourt said. The Iraqi police spent time talking with the locals and handing out toys and candy to the children in the neighborhood. An Iraqi police colonel was among the police that visited and talked with the people.

“The colonel started talking with the people, letting them know the police are there to help,” Betancourt said. “By today’s visit, people started coming out and thanking us. But at the same time, we told them, ‘it wasn’t us.’ It was the Iraqi police.

“[Locals] were actually out there shaking hands with the Iraqi police, patting them on the back and letting them know they were happy to see them there spending time with the people.”

Thanks to the Iraqi police and the 451st Civil Affairs Detachment, the people in this neighborhood can spend their days of Hajj visiting and relaxing with each other instead of worrying about their children being cold or waist deep in filth. Betancourt said unlike other foreign countries, where civil affairs might be building schools or digging wells to promote a community, in Iraq there is something different that needs to be built. It’s a trust between a community and its protectors; something you can’t touch, but can definitely see.

“Coalition forces are not going to be in Iraq forever,” Betancourt said. “If a trust is not built between the Iraqi police and the local populace, we’re basically defeating ourselves. However, if we start letting the Iraqi police build a relationship with the local populace, it is helping us pull out of the country eventually and feel comfortable knowing the Iraqi police and Iraqi people are working with each other.”

Happy News: 9 steps to living a more abundant life

2006-01-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

Happy News is really a great site, lots of positive articles and feel good stories. Here's one about living more abundantly.

National Geographic: Kurds in Kirkuk

2006-01-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

From the January issue of National Geographic, journalist Frank Viviano and photographer Ed Kashi paint a vivid portrait of present Kurdistan. The article prominently features Suleimaniya and Kirkuk.

Iraqi Army soldiers who were formerly peshmerga have a difficult time finding loyalty for Iraq.

I asked an officer who works closely with them if he sees a civil war on the horizon. He did not believe so, not soon, but he also believes we are holding back progress. In his words, we are trying to leap frog this culture into the twentieth century and they are not ready. Harsh changes that need to be made would have been murderously forced by Hussein, and but our watered down, politically correct civil affairs will only work with limited effectiveness. Iraq, or Kurdistan, needs a strong leader. Not a genocidal megalomaniac, but a tough, strong willed leader with a vision.

Daniel's Tomb

2006-01-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

We visited Daniel's tomb the other day. THE Daniel, the old testament prophet who prayed to God all night and survived the lion's den. His tomb is in the old citadel in Kirkuk, Iraq.

The citadel is an interesting site by itself. This is on a short list of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, one study claimed it to be over 5,000 years old. Parts of the citadel seemed older than others and some structures were almost completely intact. Apparently the old walled city has been the home of various peoples over the melinium and one group has built atop the ruins of the last. The last to occupy the site as a defensive structure were the Turks. It reminded me a little of the old cities in Peter Jackson's LOR films. One officer said that Saddam had started to tear parts of the citadel down.

"Why would he do that?" I asked.
"Why did he do alot of the things he did," was the response. Fair enough.

As I walked through, looking at buildings in various stages of ruin, I saw two vehicles parked in front of one house that seemed less demolished than the rest. I also noticed some laundry hanging up and a moment later two children ran up and waved, wanting their picture taken. It was a little girl, perhaps 8 or 9, and her little brother of 6 or 7 years old. As the little boy smiled for his picture I noticed he was missing his front two teeth.

A tall, more or less intact minaret marked the site of the prophet's tomb. As we walked towards the tomb, we passed a small cemetary. My research later would tell me that these graves date back to the 1300's. Daniel's tomb is in a more modern structure, intact and clean. Inside there are three short, low to the ground sarcophagi covered with green fabric. Our interpreter, a Kurd from the area, explained that the first grave was of the prophet Haneen, the second (in the middle) was Daniel, and the one closest to the door was the prophet Assiz. Muslims also respect Daniel as a prophet and so his remains have been cared for and kept.

I looked on the internet, and also talked with a chaplain who was with us and both confirmed that there are other sites in the Middle East that make the claim of housing Daniel's remains. However, local tradition holds that this is the place and I was sufficiently impressed.

We only stayed for a few minutes. The evening was coming quickly and in the cold air we heard gunfire in the distance. We left the ancient walled city behind and moved out into the modern city of Kirkuk and back to the base.

Roe v Wade v Alito

2006-01-13T06:32:00.000-08:00

I agree that nominees to the Supreme Court should be grilled by the Senate and asked some tough questions. I even think that if the process works correctly there are some nominees that will not make the cut. No doubt Robert Bork and Harriet Miers are outstanding jurists, but for various reasons their nomination was not accepted. I even feel that the court should demonstrate some degree of representation of our national demographics, ie there should be some minorities on the bench and diverse ideologies should meet to decide the constitutionality of our laws and the legality of our executive's actions. To a degree these conditions are met on our court today.

What bothers me about this process now, though, is the singularity of one question and that is whether or not the nominee agrees with Roe v Wade. No doubt, this is an important question, and one that should be addressed, but it seems as if Alito's confirmation hinges largely upon this one case.

There are a great many legal scholars who will say that Roe v. Wade is bad law. Additionally, many who would otherwise agree with a right to privacy in this context will also disagree that this should be a federal question. The term "viable fetus" is a legal fiction and one that should be addressed from the perspective of what we know today about embryonic development.

Yep, I'm a Christian, and yep, you guessed it, I'm against abortion; but even from a purely secular standpoint, should not this question even be allowed to come up before a panel of jurists who have not already decided beforehand?

I have reprinted below an excerpt from an article by collumnist JB Williams. A large portion of the linked full article is partisan harumphing, but the part I have quotes below is dead on. Democracy means a diversity of opinion, often opinions and beliefs we may not agree with. Justices should be able to look at each case before them with an open mind and with a career of legal experience and their rulings on any one issue should not be filtered through this politics.
*****
Roe vs. Wade: If you have been watching the hearings and listening to the preamble in the weeks leading up to the hearings, you know that 22 democrats are NOT going to support the confirmation of ANY nominee who refuses to state unequivocally that they strongly support the Roe vs. Wade decision.

For these 22 democrats, the qualifications for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court boils down to one qualification; support of Roe vs. Wade and the right to continue terminating the life of over a million innocent unborn children a year - the use of abortion as an unrestrained form of after-the-act, birth control.

Contrary to popular rhetoric, the majority of Americans do not support such a notion and anyone able to read at or above a second grade level, knows that our constitution has no such language. So liberals frame the discussion not around the missing language concerning abortion, but rather around a right to privacy.

Of course nearly every American, certainly every conservative, believes in a true right of privacy, self-determination, absolute personal liberty and self-governance, including Alito. But no honest thinking American believes that any of these rights include the right to take the innocent life of another, even if it is your own child. Those are the cross-hairs Judge Alito finds himself in today…

If Alito in any way indicates that he does not fully support the Roe vs. Wade precedent, they will accuse him of instead, not supporting a right of privacy. On this basis, they will once again seek to paint him a card carrying member of the alleged Bush Imperial Dictatorship and thereby, attempt to derail his confirmation.

But does our very real “right of privacy” really include a very deadly right to take the innocent unborn life of another, for mere convenience sake? We know of at least 22 Democrat senators who believe that it does. We also know that there is nothing Alito can say that will gain the support of even 1 of these 22 senators. So who is driven by political ideology here; Alito or the 22 senators? Alito has stated that he will approach ever case with an open mind, which is obviously more than we can say for the 22 senators.

Can 22 senators block the otherwise all but certain confirmation of a very qualified candidate? Even if they could, should they? Would they be representing the will of the people if they did? All interesting questions and I bet the answers are as ideologically biased as the 22 senators themselves.

Bruce Sutter but not Bert

2006-01-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

I keep up with sports as best I can and the Baseball Hall of Fame is one of favorite subjects. I am very glad that Bruce Sutter was finally vote in, he is certainly deserving. Maybe next year Lee Smith can be recognized for his excellent career as a reliever as well.

One travesty that continues, however, is the repeated failure to include Bert Blyleven. Bert pitched 22 years, recorded 287 wins, and played for some bad teams: Twins, Indians, and Angels, his time on the WS Pirates in 79 and 87 Twins his only post-season highlights and he was 4-1 with 2.47 ERA and 36 strikeouts in the playoffs and WS; won 17 or more games 7 times and was a 20 game winner in 73. Had he spent more time on better clubs he would have been well over 300 wins. He is 5th all time in wins and 25th in Ks. Something else to consider, 29 HOF pitchers have fewer career wins, and only Roger Clemons and Randy Johnson have more career strikeouts, and there is little doubt either will miss many years on the eligible but not yet in list.

If I had a vote, Pete Rose and Bert would be on my first ballot.

Voice of America: Turkey Moves Closer to Iraqi Kurds

2006-01-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

Good article about how the Kurds, as a separate and distinct group are moving towards greater autonomy. Another significant point about this story is greater Turkish acceptance of the growing Kurdish influence.

By Amberin Zaman Ankara04 January 2006
Zaman report - Download 537k Listen to Zaman report

In December a private Turkish airline began flying between Istanbul and Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish-controlled northern region. Company officials say booming business between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds propelled their decision to become the first Turkish airline company to connect Turkey to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara on the increasingly cordial relationship between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds.

The commander in chief of Turkey's Armed Forces, General Hilmi Ozkok, recently summarized Turkey's new policy when he said the country needed to adapt to what he called the "changing conditions" in Iraq.

Until recently it would not have been surprising for General Ozkok's colleagues in the military to threaten an invasion of northern Iraq if the Kurds were to seek to establish their own state.

But Iraq's newly approved constitution creates a federal model that gives the Kurds greater autonomy than they have ever enjoyed.

Safeen Dizayee is in charge of foreign relations for the largest Kurdish faction in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party called KDP for short. Mr. Dizayee recently told VOA that Turkey has come to accept that the federal model has been embraced not only by the Kurds, but by most Iraqis and has revised its policies accordingly.

"Recently as you know the referendum on the constitution was passed where there is a constitution [sic] within that constitution it gives legal status for the situation of Kurdistan, for self rule, self administration of the Kurds and this is recognized by the Iraqi people and also per the United Nations program it is documented and has gained recognition by Iraqi people, by the national assembly therefore we feel there is much more of an understanding by Turkey that the will of the Iraqi people is being respected and the pragmatic position and the approach of the ruling party, the A.K. party seems to be more positive," he said.

Before the U.S.-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. and British warplanes that patrolled a no-fly zone over the Kurdish region to protect it from possible attack by Hussein's forces were based in Turkey. Under allied air cover, the Kurds created their own de-facto state that many Turks fear will become a magnet for Turkey's estimated 14 million Kurds.

Mr. Dizayee says that one way of helping to overcome that suspicion is to promote trade.

"The volume of trade between Turkey and Kurdistan has increased especially in the construction sector," he explained. "There is a huge demand and most of the companies functioning in Kurdistan are Turkish companies. There are almost $1 billion worth of contracts [that] have been awarded to Turkish companies and that is excluding household goods, electrical goods and foodstuff which is also coming from Turkey."

Analysts say that alongside trade, a far more crucial step towards bolstering ties between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds would be cooperation in combating terrorism.

About 5,000 Kurdish rebels that had been fighting the Turkish army since 1984 retain mountain bases in northern Iraq. After a five-year lull, the group known as the PKK, which is on the State Departments list of terrorist organizations, has resumed attacks against government forces in predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Hasim Hasimi is an independent Kurdish politician from Turkey. He believes that the Iraqi Kurds can play an important role in helping mediate a lasting truce between Turkey and the PKK.

Like many Kurdish politicians in Turkey, Mr. Hasim argues that the best way to solve the PKK problem is for the government to issue an amnesty for PKK fighters.

In October, Turkey's national intelligence chief, Emre Taner, traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to meet with KDP leader Massoud Barzani. They are widely reported to have discussed possible joint measures to address the PKK problem. But hawks within Turkey's security establishment continue to favor military action against the rebels.

Mr. Hasim counters that more than two decades of fighting has failed to extinguish the PKK. He says that alternative means need to be explored if Turkey is to solve its Kurdish problem.

Scandals are a symptom not a cause

2006-01-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

Another post from the good Dr. Paul:

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. James Madison

The Washington political scandals dominating the news in recent weeks may be disheartening, but they cannot be considered surprising. We live in a time when the U.S. government is the largest and most powerful state in the history of the world. Today's federal government consists of fifteen huge departments, hundreds of agencies, thousands of programs, and millions of employees. It spends 2.4 trillion dollars in a single year. The possibilities for corruption in such an immense and unaccountable institution are endless.

Americans understandably expect ethical conduct from their elected officials in Washington. But the whole system is so out of control that it's simply unrealistic to place faith in each and every government official in a position to sell influence. The larger the federal government becomes, the more it controls who wins and who loses in our society. The temptation for lobbyists to buy votes-- and the temptation for politicians to sell them-- is enormous. Indicting one crop of politicians and bringing in another is only a temporary solution. The only effective way to address corruption is to change the system itself, by radically downsizing the power of the federal government in the first place. Take away the politicians' power and you take away the very currency of corruption.

Undoubtedly the recent revelations will ignite new calls for campaign finance reform. However, we must recognize that that campaign finance laws place restrictions only on individuals, not politicians. Politicians will continue to tax and spend, meaning they will continue to punish some productive Americans while rewarding others with federal largesse. The same vested special interests will not go away, and the same influence peddling will happen every day on Capitol Hill.

The reason is very simple: when the federal government redistributes trillions of dollars from some Americans to others, countless special interests inevitably will fight for the money. The rise in corruption in Washington simply mirrors the rise in federal spending. The fundamental problem is not with campaigns or politicians primarily, but rather with popular support for the steady shift from a relatively limited, constitutional federal government to the huge leviathan of today.

We need to get money out of government. Only then will money not be important in politics. It's time to reconsider exactly what we want the federal government to be in our society. So long as it remains the largest and most powerful institution in the nation, it will remain endlessly susceptible to corruption.

Partisan Politics, War, and other things you find beneath rocks

2006-01-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

What follows is the body of an e-mail someone sent to one of my soldiers and he forwarded to me. If you have read this blog long you will know that I am not a republican and that I generally find partisan politics distasteful. You will also have read in this blog how I have been somewhat critical of the handling of this war, while still supporting the troops and the heroic job I see going on day in and day out. It is in this regard that I reprint this e-mail. I cannot attest to the veracity of the statements, but what I do know about American History leads me to believe they are generally, technically true, if certainly overly simple. I will say that comparing WWII to this conflict is apples and oranges, but my point is to illustrate the disfunctional state of attaching partisan goals to soldiers lives. Partisan politics has been a big part of our foreign policy and defense strategy for a long time.

Things that make you think a little:

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January.
In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the
Month of January. That's just one American city,
about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq.

When some claim that President Bush shouldn't
have started this war, state the following:

a. FDR led us into World War II.

b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did.
>From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 112,500 per year.

c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea.
North Korea never attacked us..
>From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 18,334 per year.

d John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.
Vietnam never attacked us.

e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire.
>From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ..
an average of 5,800 per year.

f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us.
He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three
times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on
multiple occasions.

g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush
has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled
al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and, North
Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who
slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking.
But It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno
to take the Branch Davidian compound.
That was a 51-day operation..

We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons
in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find
the Rose Law Firm billing records.

It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the
Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard
than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his
Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.

It took less time to take Iraq than it took
to count the votes in Florida!!!!

Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB!
The Military morale is high!

The biased media hopes we are too ignorant
to realize the facts

But Wait .
There's more!

JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR)
Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13

Some people still don't understand why military personnel
do what they do for a living. This exchange between
Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum
is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive
impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one
man's explanation of why men and women in the armed
services do what they do for a living.

This IS a typical, though sad, example of what
some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
"How can you run for Senate
when you've never held a real job?"

Senator Glenn (D-Ohio):
"I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps.
I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions.
My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different
occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my
checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was
not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the
daily cash receipts to the bank."

"I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day...
to a veteran's hospital and look those men ...
with their mangled bodies . in the eye, and tell THEM
they didn't hold a job!

You go with me to the Space Program at NASA
and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans
of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee...
and you look those kids in the eye and tell them
that their DADS didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in
Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends
buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch
those waving flags.

You stand there, and you think about this nation,
and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job?

What about you?"

For those who don't remember ..
During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney
representing the Communist Party in the USA.

Now he's a Senator!

A Pistol Hot Cup of Rhyme

2006-01-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Asking yourself what group of knuckleheads can spin the most believable yarn is a little like asking would you rather a bear eat you, or a lion? I guess the best answer is that I prefer the bear eat the lion. But I am lost in a none too cogent simile.

I have collected here a list of quotes that are contextually related to the subject of personal freedoms, civil liberties, and a Dennis Learyesque view of foreign policy, stated whilest drunk, chain smoking and brain dead from a weekend with the Stones.

Just for fun, read these with the voice of Baby Stewie from Family Guy. Enjoy!

"The very reason for the First Amendment is to make the people of this country free to think, speak, write and worship as they wish, not as the Government commands." —Justice Hugo L. Black

"...every unjustifiable intrusion by the Government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment."—Justice Brandeis (Olmstead v. US)

The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech. Justice Anthony Kennedy

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin

America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children. W

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror - and America is honored to be their friend. W

LBJ: "I would say that we have a commitment to Vietnamese freedom ... Our purpose is to train [the South Vietnamese] people, and our training's going good."

What Christians Believe

2006-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

As often as I can I try to attend worship sevices on post. There is always a couple of services on Sundays and several other bible studies and gospel meetings throughout the week. Last night I had the great opportunity to talk with a young soldier who has only been married a couple of years and is here and is going through some tough times. It felt strange to be the older Christian, the more experienced married man who has been on deployments before who can give him some words of advice and encouragement. My pastor back home told me God has a plan for me and I think certainly he brought us all together last night. I have said it before, the chaplains cors does great job and they should be commended.

I have linked to a passage from Christianity Today about an article from Lee Strobel. All good words and they help to erase doubts that creep in about our faith. Here especially, we need faith to cling to. I have reprinted some, butcheck out the whole article.

Lee Strobel was 14 when he decided God didn't exist. The loss of what little faith he had took place after a biology teacher introduced him to evolution.

In the years that followed his "conversion" to atheism, Lee studied journalism at the University of Missouri, received legal training at Yale Law School, and eventually became an award-winning legal editor for the Chicago Tribune. Somewhere along the way, he married his high school sweetheart, Leslie, who eventually became a Christian. Lee was not only stunned by her newfound beliefs, but also fascinated by the way faith had changed her life for the good. He decided it was time to take another look at God and Christianity.

Like a good journalist, he carefully investigated the facts behind faith and eventually found himself bowing before the Creator he once rejected. And to help others check out the facts of faith for themselves, Lee has written The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ (Zondervan).
Now the teaching pastor at California's Saddleback Valley Community Church, Lee said he'd gladly try to answer some of the toughest questions we could toss his way. Keep reading for his answers.

Why do Christians insist Jesus is the only way to heaven?

Because Jesus said he was the only way. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Now anybody could make that claim, but Jesus backed it up by living a perfect life, by performing miracles in front of skeptics and cynics, and, ultimately, by being raised from the dead.But Christianity sounds so narrow and exclusive.

There are so many sincere followers of other religions. Why would God reject them?

Imagine two student clubs everybody would love to join. To get into the one club, you've got to do a bunch of good things. You've got to be an honor student, a nice guy and a great athlete. If you can't meet the club's high standards, you don't get in.
Then there's the other club. No matter who you are—great grades or bad grades, incredible athlete or horrible athlete—this club is wide open to you. And your dues have been paid in full by the club leader! That club is an example of Christianity.
Does the second "club" sound narrow to you? Actually, I think other religions are a lot more exclusive, because you must live up to all kinds of rules, and even then, you still can't know if you've done enough. But Christianity says, "Jesus has met the requirements. The dues have been paid. Come on in!"

So, you don't have to do anything to get to heaven but repent of your sins. That means God will let in murderers and rapists, which doesn't seem fair to those who have lived a good, moral life.It may seem unfair because we don't completely understand sin. We might think we're nowhere near as bad as Timothy McVeigh or Adolf Hitler. We can't imagine how anybody like that could ever be forgiven. After all, we haven't killed anybody. Most of us haven't even committed a crime. But the Bible says our sin—any sin or wrongdoing—separates us from God. We all fall short of God's holy standards. We all need forgiveness so this separation can be ended and we can have a relationship with God.
When Jesus was asked "What is the greatest law?" he didn't say "Do not murder." He said "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). We're all guilty of breaking God's greatest law of not loving God with complete devotion.
We may think it's too easy to get into heaven. All you have to do is "repent." But think about what that means. We must truly regret our sins. We must admit we can't do anything to get to heaven, but accept God's forgiveness. For stubborn, proud humans, that's very hard to do.
Even more than that, though, we must understand salvation is not cheap. It's very costly. Imagine that I give you a new Corvette. You then say, "Wow, what a great free gift!" And I say, "Yes, it is free to you, but it cost me a lot of money!"
That's kind of like what Jesus did for us. He offered us a free gift of forgiveness so we could have eternal life. But it cost him everything—his very life. That's the price tag of eternal life.

Everything you're saying depends on whether or not the Bible is true. How do we know it's true?

When I was an atheist, I had many questions about whether or not the Bible was true. So I researched it. I concluded that the Bible is a dependable record of history. And recent archaeological discoveries give more evidence that supports events, people and places mentioned in the Bible.

When I worked on The Case for Faith, I talked to Dr. Norman Geisler, a brilliant Bible scholar. He pointed out many instances where skeptical archaeologists have been forced to revise their thinking because recent archaeological discoveries have supported what the Old Testament and New Testament say. Archaeology can't prove all Scriptures are true, but it certainly has helped establish the Bible as a reliable historical work. When you combine that with the Bible's incredible fulfillment of ancient prophecies against all mathematical odds, there's little reason to doubt its reliability. Because of that, it's not hard for me to take the next step and say it really is what it claims to be—the unique Word of God.

Peace and Prosperity in 2006

2006-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here's another great post from TX Rep. Ron Paul, from his column Straight Talk. Notice what he says about the situation in Iraq. A couple of people I spoke to today were not pleased with their government so far (I told them it doesn't get alot better anywhere). But seriously, they have real complaints, like no electricity, no water, open sewage, etc. Something else one of them said that was poignant: that his neighborhood was composed of many ethnicities and were all united behind the need for better municipal services. Kind of twisted, but one good thing is that the people protested and were not gunned down. I pointed this out and he shrigged, admitted that was true, but still would like his lights turned on.

Here's the post:

The ongoing war in Iraq, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and congressional scandals all served to make 2005 a tough year for America. We can hope and pray that 2006 is a happier and more peaceful year for our nation.

All Americans, regardless of their views on the Iraq war, can share the hope that the killing in that country will end in 2006-- and that our troops can begin to come home.

Our goal in Iraq at this point must be self-determination for the Iraqi people, nothing more and nothing less. Nation building doesn't work and we can't afford it. We should seek to get our troops out of the country as soon as possible and remain neutral toward the various factions still vying for power. The ultimate solution may be for Iraq to break up into several countries based on ethnic and religious differences. Regardless of the outcome, we must have the courage and integrity to admit that our founders' wise counsel against foreign entanglements was correct.

Once the rationale for the war shifted from weapons of mass destruction to installing democracy, our credibility became dependent on true Iraqi sovereignty-- even if the government that emerges is not to our liking. True sovereignty for Iraq cannot be realized unless and until we end our occupation and stop trying to engineer political outcomes.

Meanwhile, prosperity at home cannot be achieved if we allow government to engage in the kind of runaway spending that marked the final months of 2005. The fiscal year 2006 budget, already bloated with billions of dollars in unnecessary and counterproductive spending, became an 11th hour Christmas grab bag for every group or industry seeking a handout. Several federal agencies and bureaucracies needlessly received even more funding than originally requested by the administration.

Dangerous foreign aid spending also grows next year, sending more of your tax dollars overseas to fund dubious regimes that often later become our enemies- as we've seen in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress cannot continue to increase spending each year and expect tax revenues to keep pace. No reasonable person can argue that a $2.4 trillion budget does not contain huge amounts of special interest spending that can and should be cut by Congress, especially when we are waging an off-budget war in Iraq that costs more than $1 billion every week.

It is easy for us to lose sight of the primary responsibility of our government during troubled times, and many Americans are anxious to have the administration spend any amount and ignore the Constitution to achieve some mythical standard of security. Yet we should not forget that peace and prosperity are best secured by a government that secures liberty for its citizens.

The best formula for securing liberty is limited government at home and a noninterventionist foreign policy abroad. Americans deserve better from their government in 2006 than huge deficits, scandals, domestic spying, and mindless partisanship.

Freedom of Speech

2006-01-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years to everyone. I wondered if I would be able to continue blogging. The army is getting more and more restrictive on internet use and I have been blocked out for several days. Feels like radio free Europe in 1942, can you hear me?

I understand the reasons for greater security, OPSEC, operations security. Obviously there are those who would risk operational readiness for the sake of speaking their minds. Some soldiers would brag about what they are doing and / or want to tell the world about what we are doing over here. I do too, but am cognizant of dangers and do not disclose positions, missions, timetables, routes, etc.

And these machines and the network upon which they connect are owned by the government, and I, as an employee, can use these only with express permission and for stated uses. The Army does not restrict my first amendment rights in this narrow field of endeavor, because I have abrogated my own freedoms by accepting this job.

Still, it is good to be supported in the very freedom for which I strive. As a public affairs officer I am keenly aware of the power and importance of a free press, and beyond that, of freedom of speech. I like to have freedom of speech myself and felt constrained when I was unable to type these words.

Imagine for a moment that the government had restricted the rights of a free person, told all of us that we could not blog because we may talk to the media, or to terrorists, or give away secrets, even unwittingly. See how close we come to the limits of the first amendment. Agree that we can sacrifice our rights in a time of war? Sacrifice our most basic rights?

How we speak, how we worship, how we express ourselves, how we live our lives is a decision we have and like integrity, we can not lose it without our choice. We cannot have it taken, but must give it away. I have given up some freedoms for a short time, while I serve this country, promise me and promise yourselves, you will never voluntarily give up our freedoms without a choice, without a voice, without at the very least a very critical, question of "Why?"

Domestic Surveillance and the Patriot Act

2005-12-26T21:36:00.000-08:00

This is from Ron Paul's Straight Talk, and makes some great points. It reminds me of 1 Samuel 8:11, "He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots."

We are over here defending our freedoms, I truly believe that, but free people can question their government, they can disagree with me being over here, they can question the ability of their elected leader, and when they cannot, what freedom am I defending?

Recent revelations that the National Security Agency has conducted broad surveillance of American citizens' emails and phone calls raise serious questions about the proper role of government in a free society. This is an important and healthy debate, one that too often goes ignored by Congress.
Public concerns about the misnamed Patriot Act are having an impact, as the Senate last week refused to reauthorize the bill for several years. Instead Congress will be back in Washington next month to consider many of the Act's most harmful provisions.

Of course most governments, including our own, cannot resist the temptation to spy on their citizens when it suits government purposes. But America is supposed to be different. We have a mechanism called the Constitution that is supposed to place limits on the power of the federal government. Why does the Constitution have an enumerated powers clause, if the government can do things wildly beyond those powers-- such as establish a domestic spying program? Why have a 4th Amendment, if it does not prohibit government from eavesdropping on phone calls without telling anyone?

We're told that September 11 th changed everything, that new government powers like the Patriot Act are necessary to thwart terrorism. But these are not the most dangerous times in American history, despite the self-flattery of our politicians and media. This is a nation that expelled the British, saw the White House burned to the ground in 1814, fought two world wars, and faced down the Soviet Union. September 11th does not justify ignoring the Constitution by creating broad new federal police powers. The rule of law is worthless if we ignore it whenever crises occur.

The administration assures us that domestic surveillance is done to protect us. But the crucial point is this: Government assurances are not good enough in a free society. The overwhelming burden must always be placed on government to justify any new encroachment on our liberty. Now that the emotions of September 11th have cooled, the American people are less willing to blindly accept terrorism as an excuse for expanding federal surveillance powers. Conservatives who support the Bush administration should remember that powers we give government today will not go away when future administrations take office.

Some Senators last week complained that the Patriot Act is misunderstood. But it's not the American public's fault nobody knows exactly what the Patriot Act does. The Act contains over 500 pages of detailed legalese, the full text of which was neither read nor made available to Congress in a reasonable time before it was voted on- which by itself should have convinced members to vote against it. Many of the surveillance powers authorized in the Act are not clearly defined and have not yet been tested. When they are tested, court challenges are sure to follow. It is precisely because we cannot predict how the Patriot Act will be interpreted and used in future decades that we should question it today.

Happy News

2005-12-26T03:25:00.000-08:00

Check out this site. They get AP press releases ans is objective and accurate, but only publishes news that is positive. CNN.com did a story about them, they get over 100k views a day. Happy News picked up our Army Band story.

Soldiers’ Night Before Christmas

2005-12-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

T’was the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney with presents to give,
And to see just who in this home did live.

Looked all about, a strange sight did I see,
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
No stocking by mantle, just boots filled with sand,
On the wall hung pictures of far distant lands.

With medals and badges, awards of all kinds,
A sober thought came through my mind.
For this house was different, it was dark and dreary,
I found the home of a soldier, once I could see clearly.

The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.
The face was so gentile, the room in such disorder,
Not how I pictured a United States soldier.

Was this the hero of whom I’d just read?
Curled up on a poncho, the floor for a bed?
I realized the families that I saw this night,
Owed their lives to these soldiers who were willing to fight.

Soon round the world, the children would play,
And grownups would celebrate a bright Christmas Day.
They all enjoyed freedom each month of the year,
Because of the soldiers, like the one lying here.

I couldn’t help wonder how many lay alone,
On a cold Christmas Eve in a land far from home,
The very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to my knees and started to cry.

The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice,
“Santa, Don’t cry, this life is my choice;
I fight for freedom, I don’t ask for more,
My life is my God, My country, my corps.”

The soldier rolled over and drifted to sleep,
I couldn’t control it, I continued to weep.
I kept watch for hours, so silent and still,
And we both shivered from the cold night’s chill.

I didn’t want to leave on that cold, dark night,
This guardian of honor so willing to fight.
Then the soldier rolled over, with a voice soft and pure,
Whispered, “Carry on Santa, it’s Christmas Day, all is secure.”

One look at my watch, and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, and to all a good night.

MLB reapplies for Cuba permit

2005-12-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

I can only talk about Iraq so much.
I've been following this in the papers and want to scream. First of all, who is the United States government to tell its free citizens they cannot visit or do business with Cuba, much less prohibit a baseball game. Secondly, the intent of the policy is based upon faulty logic. Cuba actively trades with over 100 other countries, are we trying to starve Castro into submission? Plenty of Europeans could care less if Cohibas are produced by state employees and just enjoy overpriced cigars instead. Besides, we have the greatest communist buster known to 21st century man: the dollar. If we really wanted to damage communism, we should flood the island with money. Enough aging revolutionaries start negotioating with Hyatt, McDonalds, and Las Vegas casinos and socialism will be as prioritized as Neil Sadaka covers at a Kiss concert. Che Guevara was a boorish, loutish violator of human rights, but place his likeness on a t-shirt selling for $20 a pop, and we're talking about a revolution of a different sort. Let them play ball.

Dreams of “The other Iraq” Kurdistan

2005-12-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

In the prior regime and even in most plans for the current economic plans, all money from oil and natural gas deposits is sent to Baghdad (central planning) and then what comes back is a trickle compared to what went out – another reason Kurds push for greater autonomy, more federalism. Factions even support a free and sovereign Kurdistan, which has never existed throughout history. Greater Kurdistan would be an amalgam of present day Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria; so there is little doubt why this plan has few backers outside of those who consider themselves Kurdish.

Sunni Arabs regret losing power and influence and especially bemoan the loss of influence over women, a group whose increased political power means a dramatic shift from the more traditional Islamic mores and may become a rallying point for conservatives who feel disenfranchised due to western intervention. Kurdish culture is more open and far more tolerant than Sunni Arab traditions, even though most Kurds are Sunni Muslim, choosing not tot follow the more fundamentally dogmatic Shiites.

Kirkuk is at the crossroads of the political, economic, ethnic and religious changes taking place in Iraq. Multi-ethnic and pluralistic, Kirkuk is situated near major oil and natural gas deposits and geographically and demographically closer to Turkey and Iran with a strong Kurdish population and influence.The struggle for a free and independent Kurdistan has been shaped by two groups: The PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party). The two are still factious but highly organized and effective and more likely to work together for the common purpose than more diverse, more factional Arab interests. Iraqi President Talibani is a Kurd and is leader of the PUK. These groups once fought one another and were played against each other by Hussein. These groups may also have ties to Kurdish terrorist organization in Turkey. Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga, have assimilated into the Iraqi Army, but as in other regions, these soldiers bear more allegiance to their native province than they do to a unified Iraq.

Evidence of the Kurdish organization and drive for modernization is the PUK website:www.puk.org

This from that website:Bayan Rahman, who chairs the Kurdistan Development Corporation, is launching an initiative to draw foreign investment to Iraqi Kurdistan, where the main attractions are relative stability, resources of oil, water and agriculture and potential for tourism. Under the slogan of “the other Iraq”, Kurdistan is marketing itself as the gateway to Iraq. Land prices are shooting up and a construction boom has led to shortages of concrete and labour.

A key clause negotiated by the Kurds in the constitution provides for “new” oilfields to be run by the regional governments. Even without the contested region of Kirkuk, whose future political status is undetermined, Iraqi Kurdistan claims to have 45bn barrels of oil reserves. Recent news from the far north, adjacent to the Turkish border detailed formalized agreements between local Kurdish officials and a Norwegian oil company, where Baghdad was left out of the negotiations.

Americans have it made and what you won’t see on TV

2005-12-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

One thing all of us here commented upon and which was very obvious to us was that these people showed courage to come out and vote and took this vote very seriously. Many had heard rumors about violence and came out anyway, some knew of threats and possible politically based repercussions for voting one way or another, and still came out. This was not just supercilious, myopic support for Dems or Reps, this was real political divisions decided in a civil manner on a hostile stage.

One Kurdish man with a nine inch scar running from his chin to above his ear said this, “Today is a holy day; we came to vote and choose our leaders democratically.”Americans have it made, have no clue about how good we have it. I would like to see knuckleheads from both ends of the political spectrum, conservatives and liberals, come here and live for about a month and I am certain the whining and complaining would diminish exponentially. Solving the world’s problems is simple from behind a keyboard. To political pundits, commentators, apologists and instigators I say this – get out of your comfort zone, look at the rest of the world, and realize how good you have it.

One thing that we saw too much of today, but will not be published due to our goal of being impartial was the massive turn out of Kurdistan partisans. There were Kurdish flags everywhere and we could use none of those pictures, for fear of the perception we are supporting Kurdish autonomy. You will not see it from any military press release or any image that we released to the media, but support for a free and independent Kurdistan, and for increased Kurdish political clout within a free and democratic Iraq, was ubiquitous today in Kirkuk.

Election Day in Kirkuk

2005-12-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

All was quite here as citizens awoke early and began walking to polling places set up throughout the city. For two days prior to the elections, roads had been closed for all vehicles except those displaying an Election Day sticker. These stickers were distributed at Iraqi Police stations and were difficult to get. Lists had been prepared for political party members and election officials; no one else could not get one, and so would not be allowed to drive in the city on Election Day.

“My brother is on the list,” one man explained,” I am just here to get one put on his car.”

The IP official was not sympathetic. “Then you must go get your brother, only he may receive a sticker.” The driver protested that his brother was sick and could not come in. “Then no sticker will be placed on the car.” Security was a priority and rules would be enforced strictly.

Women led children with them to the polling places and many had dressed formally for the occasion. Young girls wore dresses with brightly colored ribbons and sequins. Men wore suits and proudly waved flags. Many flags of Kurdistan were displayed, one being held in the hand of an infant who was dressed in the Red, Green, White and Yellow of the hoped for sovereign state.

One Turkomen family dressed their young son up in the light blue colors representing the Turkomen ethnicity. The child wore a light blue blanket that had the white Turkomen crescent embroidered upon it.Many people interviewed were proud and visibly excited about this historic day. One woman, speaking excellent English proclaimed, “This is the beginning of a happy time!” When asked if she thought the violence would continue, she responded, “Yes, for a short time, but we will begin to move on our own.”

Photographers from various news agencies found ample opportunity to take pictures of people showing off their purple fingers, some holding their right index finger up, others holding up two fingers in a peace or victory sign. One little Turkomen boy held his hand up in a “Hook ‘em horns” gesture with his index and pinkie finger extended. The purple die was applied to the right index finger of all voters to signify they had successfully voted and to prohibit multiple votes.

Anderson Cooper: Soldiers say media miss Iraq story

2005-12-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Anderson Cooper writes this report from Baquoba. We had some of our soldiers in Baquoba not too long ago. I'll forgive Mr. Cooper some self-promotion because he is filing an accurate story on CNN.

'So much of what happens here never makes the nightly news.' Best quote of the story, kudos to Mr. Cooper for getting to the main issue.

This situation here is far more complex than what is generally described in the media and for him to report how most soldiers feel about the media's bias and lack of objectivity is good. The area is getting crowded with media from all over, we picked up some NY Times guys last night and some Hungarian TV reporters were here yesterday. I can only imagine the chaos in Baghdad.

We are hunkering down for the elections. There is a great sense of excitement and hope for the future mingled with apprehension and a touch of fear. Intelligence reports tracking suicide bombers and many are wary but still plan to vote. One man I spoke with needs to travel a fair distance to get to his polling place but would not miss the chance to decide his country's future.

Go to www.IECIRAQ.org to see the list of political parties and coalitions vying for positions, well over a hundred. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days and weeks.

Kirkuk braced for showdown as Iraq election looms

2005-12-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

This is from Reuters AlertNet and was writen by Aref Mohammed

KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Kurdish leaders scrambled on Sunday to get over 200,000 Kurds reinstated to Kirkuk's electoral roll, highlighting tension ahead of this week's ballot in one of Iraq's most volatile and important cities.

"We filed a complaint days ago and they only returned one person out of 218,000 to the voter roll," Razgar Ali, a senior Kurdish politician in Kirkuk, told reporters on Saturday.

Hussein al-Hindawi, chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), told Reuters on Sunday that the IECI had reviewed the Kurds' complaint and all the names removed from the list would now be able to vote on Dec. 15.

With Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs, both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, as well as Arab Christians, living side by side, Kirkuk is a flashpoint for sectarian tensions, stoked by its proximity to over 20 percent of Iraq's vast oil reserves.

Campaign posters plaster Kirkuk, including those of Sunni Arabs, who largely stayed away from January's landmark election.They have decided to contest this ballot, which will elect the first full-time government since Saddam Hussein was deposed, and are campaigning across the city.

"These elections will see a high Sunni turnout that will change the balance of power in Iraq because, we Sunnis will try to elect a Sunni list to try and rule again," said Ahmed Hasan, a 31-year-old oil engineer.

The lack of reliable opinion polls make the result here difficult to predict. But Kurdish politicians privately say they hope to win three to five of the nine parliamentary seats up for grabs in Kirkuk's Tamim province in Thursday's poll.

Securing a majority would boost their campaign to add Kirkuk to Kurdistan. It could also aid claims for the return of property taken from them by Saddam Hussein.

A mechanism to reinstate property was agreed under the new constitution, but it has not made much progress so far."We want Kirkuk back. That is fair," Hero Talabani, wife of Iraq's Kurdish president Jalal Talabani, said last week.

ARABISATIONThe former regime forced thousands of Kurds from the city and replaced them with Arabs and although the Arabisation of Kirkuk pre-dates Saddam, he went at it with a brutal intensity.

Recent reports of Arabs being targeted for arrest and removal by Kurdish security police has reinforced distrust. Kurdish parties are also accused of relocating thousands of supporters to Kirkuk to boost their electoral clout."Kurds don't trust the Arabs. Arabs don't trust the Turkmen," said Shwan Dawoodi, editor-in-chief of Hawal, a Kurdish-owned newspaper headquartered in Kirkuk. "Unless you solve this problem, nothing else will work, even if Kirkuk becomes part of Kurdistan in an independent province."Kirkuk will hold a referendum to decide its future by December 2007. Kurdish neighbours are nervous."We could lose Kirkuk," said Sadettin Ergec of the Iraqi Turkmen Front. "Kirkuk is a national treasure and we reject a referendum being held there only," he said on Tuesday.

With the stakes so high, all political parties have mobilized to maximise voter turnout."Everyone will participate this time round. Security is relatively good, especially if we compare it to the previous elections," said Nour Abdullah, a teacher and a Turkmen, who said he will vote for former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi.

Security and the basic provision of public services like water and electricity are a big issue in Kirkuk, in common with the entire country. But voters are still expected to back political lists that represent their ethnic group.

Kurds do not have a lot of choice but to vote for the Kurdish list, which has co-opted all the main Kurdish parties with the exception of the Kurdish Islamic Union, which broke away and will campaign for itself.

Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, could score well among voters drawn to his reputation as a hardliner on security. Opponents certainly see him as a threat: many Allawi campaign posters have already been torn down in Kirkuk.

Iraqi Parliamentary Elections: Horses of different colors

2005-12-06T01:10:00.000-08:00

Kirkuk is the most “normal” of the Iraqi cities I have seen thus far. It looks some what run down, but not beat up like Tikrit or Balad, and Isahki looked like a third world village. Kirkuk has some money and some style and looks progressive. Shops advertise, bricks are stacked in front of empty lots were new building projects take shape.

We arrive at the TV station, a modern building guarded by men wearing stylish black jackets, fashionable denim jeans and AK-47s. The thought that they were the kind of “muscle” Mario Puzo illustrated crossed my mind. Very expensive cameras stood in rows as western dressed men worked casually at putting together an evening news program. I was reminded of how proactive the Kurds had been at attracting foreign investments.

Our reason for attending was the political show airing next: a debate between candidates vying for positions in the upcoming elections. The station workers were well-mannered and friendly, smoking (everyone here smokes – I saw a boy of about 13 toking away and resigned myself to the probable fact that he would be smoking in a few years anyhow so he was just showing some initiative) and busily going about their duties.

Only two candidates arrived and so the show began in earnest with interviews of both. One thing I notice is how openly people here address each other in ethnic or religious monikers. For instance, the two candidates present were the “Arab” candidate, and the “Turkmen” candidate. Later in the week I had the chance to meet and talk with a very prominent Sunni candidate. Imagine a debate at home with, rather than the democrat and the republican candidate forum, we were entertained and enlightened by the white guy, the black guy, a Latino and a Jew. Sounds like a joke where they all walk into a bar together: “So an Arab, a Turkmen, and a Kurd all walk into a TV station … “

Listening to my interpreter perform an outstanding job at translating the political discourse into English (imagine rapidly shoveling Arabian manure into the Thoroughbred stall next door) I gathered that both had learned well from our carnivalesque political influence. But one thing I also gathered was a fairly open attack on the Kurdish candidate not present. The groups who were slow to leave the gate in the last election are intent on making up ground and were not shy in their queasiness about ever increasing Kurdish political clout. One good thing I noticed was a thematic discourse on working together against the common enemy of insurgency. Also important was the growing keenness of Sunni Arabs to re-enter political life, this time without the “muscle” of Saddam Hussein.

Fast Times in Kurdish Northern Iraq

2005-12-06T00:49:00.000-08:00

Kirkuk is a major oil producing city in Northeastern Iraq and is a major city in the struggle for a free and independent Kurdistan. About 750,000 people call this sprawling complex of neighborhoods and markets home. Kirkuk is roughly one third Kurd, one third Turkmen, and one third Arab. Kurds are the more dominant group with a forward looking, progressive mind-set, and because of greater western influence and assimilation, are the most dynamic group. I had done some research before I arrived, and everything I read and heard told me that beneath the relatively calm exterior of infrequent insurgent attacks was a powder keg of emotion and future interest and ambition. This place was at the crossroads of many struggles: of a newly emerging Iraq, of hopes for a free and independent Kurdistan, of regional political struggles, of key geographic transportation between Turkey, Iran, and Syria; and all the while sitting atop one of the regions most profitable oil fields. No stranger to conflict, Kirkuk is on the site of an ancient Sumerian village dating back almost 5,000 years and had seen more than its share of struggles.

This from Global Security.com: “Claiming to be the oldest site of continuous occupation in Iraq, Kirkuk sits on archaeological remains that are 5,000 years old. It reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Historically an ethnically mixed city populated predominantly by Kurds and Turkomen, Kirkuk is important to Kurdish national identity. Kirkuk is also the center of the Iraqi petroleum industry and thus strategically and economically important to the Iraqi state”. Incidentally, Kirkuk is also the supposed resting place for the bones of the Prophets Daniel and Ezra.

This from the Washington Post: “Kirkuk, a city of almost 1 million, is home to Iraq's most combustible mix of politics and economic power. Kurds, who are just shy of a majority in the city and are, growing in number, hope to make Kirkuk and the vast oil reserves beneath it part of an autonomous Kurdistan. Arabs and Turkmens compose most of the rest of the population. They have struck an alliance to curb the ambitions of the Kurds, who have wielded increasing authority in a long-standing collaboration with their U.S. allies.”

Those US allies, according to officials here in the city, are straining to hold the Kurds back. One officer described the situation like this, “It’s like holding two teams of horses, one is the Kurds and the other is the Arabs. The Kurds are charging ahead, they’re organized, economically and politically sophisticated, and they have a clear vision of what they want from the future. The Arabs are more backward looking, living in the past of what once was and what might have been. We want to stay impartial, want the region to grow independent with stability. So we have to try and hold the Kurds back and push the Arabs on; so this big team of horses is just racing around in a circle.”

Kurds and Arabs alike, however, have a narrow, egocentric view of life, with a very small circle of influence – people often fail to find importance beyond an immediate scope of family, tribe and clan. The Kurds, though, are more westernized, having been exiled by the Saddam Hussein regime and many spent time in Germany, and England, and US where they learned business practices, politics, and economics.

US military civil affairs are helping to build a democratic infrastructure from the ground up. Much Sunni leadership in the area, predominantly cronies of Hussein, departed prior to the present US occupation. This has left a political vacuum that Kurds are quickly filling. “Many Sunnis wanted to boycott the elections,” one officer explained, “and we told them this was a bad idea. Now that most Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police, and government agencies are controlled by the Kurds, they realize their mistake.” As in many areas of life here, the once powerful Arabs are playing catch up to an increasingly ascendant Kurdish population.

Jeff Pirozzi's letter: War Based on a Lie

2005-12-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

I have linked not to Captain Prozzi's letter, but to the responses his letter that appeared a couple days ago.

Some commentators have asked if he will be court martialed. Article 88 of the UCMJ, Contempt Towards Officials, addresses this issue but I do not think he will be prosecuted. In his letter, he does not name any official by name and any "lies" are general and inplied.

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am all about free speech and disagreeing with our government does not make you anti-American. However, Pirozzi, many feel that he is a Marine based on his stated location and job title, makes many wild generalizations and unfounded, or at least poorly established, claims. His statements about Europeans "hanging from the trees" are anachronistic and erroneous and his assumptions about Middle Eastern culture is oversimplified at best. His opinions are just that, his opinions, and not based upon any empirical data or quantified research.

The greatest trouble I see is that he has compromised his position as a leader. As an officer, I do not discuss politics with my troops, and try as best as I can to stay positive, seeing as my duty to inspire and motivate. On my worst days of missing home and uncertainty, I never reveal those kinds of doubts to my soldiers, exhibiting instead a confidence in our system and an optimistic outlook on what we do here. The "bottom line" is that an officer's job is to look out for his soldiers, get them home safely, and why we are here is a separate, subordinate issue.

My advice to Pirozzi? Either keep it to yourself, or start your own blog.

Al Jazeera: Resist the U.S. hideous war crimes

2005-12-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, this from the front page of today's Al Jazeera online. I think at one time I made the comment that Al Jazeera was more objective than many westerners give them credit, so let me now recant that statement based on this front page editorial. This is not objective journalism by any stretch, but a rambling soliloquy about supposed war crimes and anti-American defense policy.

Even if someone believes that President Bush committed war crimes, they must make that case in a logical, effects based argument. And if a news agency reports such a claim, that media source must remain impartial, objective, and report the accusation as such. No where in this article, with no By-line, is there a statement identifying this claim as editorial, commentary, or opinion, so this essay is being peddled as news. Al Jazeera, though, has used its medium as a soap box to espouse opinion in the guise of journalism, commentary in the place of equitable reporting. They have done this at the expense of their credibility.

"Michael" the Christian

2005-12-03T00:40:00.000-08:00

Not all Iraqis are Muslim, especially not in the north, where peoples descended from ancient civilizations were able to withstand the coercive Arabization programs of the Ba’athist Party. One Christian I met serves as an interpreter for the US forces. Because of genuine concern for his and his family’s safety, he goes by a nickname. Just to be safe, I call him a different name here, I will call him Michael. Of Assyrian heritage, Michael has an easy smile and a soft, friendly voice. Like many Assyrians and Chaldeans, who trace their heritage back before the arrival of the Arabs and of Islam, he is a Christian. Although he has enjoyed working for the Coalition Forces, he plans to take his young family away from Iraq and go to Australia where some other family members and friends have immigrated and have found jobs. I ask him if he has hopes of a better life for younger Iraqis, and he says, “Yes, certainly, things will be better. But me? I’m leaving as soon as we can work out the visa paperwork, I’ve seen enough.” I cannot say that I blame him, I just got here and I’m ready to leave.

Michael and I were on a mission recently when an IED attack occurred in another part of the city. Throughout the night, he received calls on his cell phone about the extent of damage. I never got the complete total but up to 17 people were killed and I could tell that this bothered Michael, though no one he knew was injured. This loss of life was painful to comprehend, innocent people who were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed not by an accident but by an intentional act to kill, hurt, and destroy; to terrorize. I started to ask if any Americans had been killed, but thankfully stopped myself from being so insensitive. Michael had lost neighbors, and so if I can call him my Christian brother, and be allied with him, then I lost people too.

Information Operations, Media Bias, and the LA Times story showing up ‎everywhere

2005-12-01T02:34:00.000-08:00

As expected this hypocrisy is showing up everywhere, CNN, NY Times, Al Jazeera, all ‎the usual suspects. Apparently some mellon head in Congress has demanded a full ‎investigation. That investigation should be wrapped up with a phone call and a Google ‎visit to the DOD Information Operations manual. Unfortunately those above me are ‎getting in character as deer-in-the-headlights bureaucrats and so the MSM hellhounds ‎will smell blood like knuckle dragging lycanthropes on a T-bone and I’ll be dealing with ‎this nonsense for months to come.‎

Yes, we support local media and often this means funding. We also fund building ‎projects like bridges, schools, and hospitals. And yes, we submit press releases, stories ‎and images to local media sources. Are they coerced into running these stories? No. ‎Are the stories factual? Yes. I also send press releases to American news services and ‎frequently find that they are not run, passed over for more “if it bleeds it leads” ‎sensationalism. One Iraqi editor was quoted in the original piece as saying that he liked ‎the US military, that he supported our efforts and chose to run the stories submitted. ‎Only after he was hounded by main stream media types did he acquiesce to “investigate” ‎the veracity of stories he received.‎

These reporters would have the public believe there is some clandestine propaganda ‎machine existent to warp the minds of otherwise innocent Iraqi locals who are bullied, ‎intimidated, and lied to by American Psychological Operatives. The truth is more along ‎the lines of providing security and stability, allowing a free press to operate independent ‎of government mandates. And if we submit some stories along the way about how we ‎fund schools, bridges, and hospitals and how we capture and kill Syrian and Iranian thugs ‎who kidnap, intimidate, and murder, what is the harm done? Have we violated ethical ‎journalistic standards? When I submit a story or press release it has my name and ‎organization, phone number and e-mail address and an invitation to call if they need ‎additional information. What’s surreptitious about that?

‎Let’s see, why does the military public affairs support local free press? Because there ‎was no free press before we got here. What media there was were controlled, bullied, ‎coerced, intimidated, and sometimes shot for expressing any views but the hard party ‎line. A hard party line kind of like LA Times editors and publishers who are offered a ‎good news story about the War on Terror but opt instead to run a slanted opinion piece. ‎Also, local media are free to criticize the government without fear of reprisals and are free to criticize the US. I'd say the local reporters here are more free than an LA Times reporter who has a story about high morale here in Iraq.

There is only one reporter in this area who asked hard questions, who resembles a ‎western reporter in his dogged quest for truth … and he is a Kurd, emboldened by years ‎of struggle beneath a fascist regime. The rest are still learning the game, and are getting ‎some lessons in cynicism and subjectivism from the American MSM.‎

Iraqi Constitution

2005-12-01T02:31:00.000-08:00

Here is the text of the Iraqi Constitution as it was passed by an open referendum of the ‎Iraqi people.‎

Preamble – We, the people of Iraq, who have just risen from our stumble, and who are ‎looking with confidence to the future, through a republican, federal, democratic, ‎pluralistic system, have resolved with the determination of our men, women, the elderly ‎and youth, to respect the rules of law and to reject the politics of aggression, pay attention ‎to women and their rights, and the elderly and their concerns, and children and their ‎affairs, and spreading the culture of diversity and defusing terrorism.‎‎

101st Airborne Division Commander Thomas R. Turner said of his mission, “We are ‎anxious to begin our work in helping you build a new Iraq, a nation at peace with its ‎neighbors, with a government that respects all Iraqis, and one capable of preventing a ‎safe haven for terrorists.” That last line is the most important for us here. “preventing a ‎safe haven for terrorists.”

‎Points of Interest – ‎Iraq is an independent state

Religious rights are guaranteed (This is a mammoth statement that will draw ire from ‎many in this region, most notably the Shiites in neighboring theocratic Iran. But to ‎boldly place this in the Constitution is a major step forward. Now all the Iraqis must do ‎is implement, and since we have phone books full of First Amendment lawyers, they’ll ‎need our prayers)‎

Any entity or program that incites, facilitates, glorifies, promotes or justifies racism or ‎terrorism will be prohibited. (Sounds good and is certainly understandable considering ‎what this people has been through, but makes me wonder about civil liberties down the ‎road as well as opportunities for the overzealous to corrupt this preventive measure into ‎autocratic distortion – Washington take note as well as Baghdad.)‎

The constitution is the supreme law (Rule of Law statement similar to our Supremacy ‎Clause and necessary to prevent further centrist tyranny – Washington take note as well ‎as Baghdad)

‎All Iraqis are equal (Wonderful statement, but see my First Amendment comment ‎upstairs, implementing this will be dicey, and beware Pigs on the Wing and that some ‎animals are more equal than others)‎

All citizens, male and female, have the right to vote, to elect and be nominated (The ‎advent of women’s rights in this fledgling democracy cannot be overstated. Again, this ‎enfranchisement will draw criticism from the more fundamentalist in the region, but a ‎plurality of the electorate is a brave step forward.)‎

People with low incomes will be exempted from paying taxes in a way to preserve the ‎minimum income needed to live (An interesting approach to welfare economics, ‎however, I have heard again and again how difficult it is to tax these people anyway, so ‎once again, heady declaration, will need some craft to put into practice.)‎

Every citizen has the right to health care (Notice the distinction here, not the guarantee of ‎health care, but the right to obtain health care. This falls into the same line as the all ‎Iraqis are equal provision and the denunciation of racism)‎

Education is a right provided by the state (Here there is a guarantee and from what I ‎gathered an important caveat to this stipulation is the equal apportionment of educational ‎services and facilities. Kurdish and Turkmen people were nudged out of the educational ‎trough by big pig Sunni Arabs and their biggest pig Hussein. The minority populations, ‎though, seem to have developed a Spartan mentality and have grown educated anyway, ‎and intent on seizing this moment of open window political opportunity.)‎

Liberty and dignity will be protected

The state guarantees, in a way that does not disturb public order and morality: freedom of ‎expression, press, and freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration. (God Bless ‎them, as I sit here typing away on a blog. Of course, some discretion regarding “public ‎order and morality” leaves a twinge of nervousness when coupled with the Iraqi ‎neighborhood and its recent history

Kevin Sites and IWPR

2005-11-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have added these two sites to my blogrolling, check them out. Kevin Sites is traveling around the country for Yahoo, hope I get to meet him. He has some excellent insights, and seems to be a sharp photographer.

IWPR stands for Institute for War and Peace Reporting and supports democracy by supporting a free and fair press. Good stuff.

Objective journalism and the LA Times

2005-11-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

Click on the title and you re linked to an article in the LA Times entitled: U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press. Here is the lead and the bridge:

WASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Please read the entire article and find one quoted source. Can you? I see US military officials, Senior Pentagon officials, a private contractor, and then some Iraqi editors who seem to be responding to leading questions. Then, in a fit of frustrating irony, the authors criticize the Iraqi media for failing to disclose their sources!!

I am a Public Affairs Officer, and working with the media is what I do here. I believe that these reporters began with a pre-conceived idea towards discounting US support and came up with this story. Certainly they can protect their sources, and some sources are understandibly in danger from insurgency, but this kind of media bias aganist the US occurs all too often, and it is ironic that the LA Times would publish this kind of swill under the guise of objective journalism.

One reporter recently worked for a number of days with an infantry battalion. She was shown alot of good work going on, work with local populace, building relationships, Soldiers being painstakingly accurate when singling out insurgency activity from Iraqis trying to go about life. Her story reflectednone of this and instead focused on one aspect of military life that may be lacking. After having spoken to dozens of Soldiers and officers, she quoted two who were disgruntled and unhappy, and many of these quotes were of ambiguous context.

Certainly many readers of the LA Times will read with passive support and continued criticism of the military and the current administration. Like the reporters they blindly read, their objectivity is founded upon pre-conceived ideas.

On Patrol near Isahki

2005-11-30T00:18:00.000-08:00

Isahki is a village of about five thousand with another twenty thousand in the surrounding area. In American parlance and typical commuter functionality it would be a suburban, bedroom community to larger, more urbane Balad immediately to the southeast. But in Iraq the difference of only a few kilometers makes Isahki an altogether different place where tribal factions create greater geographical isolation. Whereas two American towns this close would be simply two contiguous exits on the interstate, where rival high school football teams’ play on Friday nights and neighbors meet at the same churches and work together, Isahki and Balad are made separate and distinct by clannish distinctions that influence lifestyles, workplace, and even concern for personal safety. To compare this place to a bad neighborhood is to oversimplify the deep undercurrents of cultural, ethnic, and religious divisions that manifest in sociological caricatures of what westerners imagine as normal.

We moved out for a patrol. Soldiers told me that Isahki was not necessarily friendly. Three weeks prior to my arrival, three American soldiers had been killed when their HUMVEE struck an IED. Cars pulled over to the side of the road and let our convoy have the road. Upon reaching Isahki we passed the government building guarded by a squad of Iraqi Police armed with AK-47s and moved into a sprawling neighborhood that would have made an American zoning official break down in a Peter Tosh convulsion. Houses sat next to markets, which stood beside empty lots where kids ran out to wave at us. “The kids are great,” one staff sergeant told me,” you get the usual weird looks from the older people, but the kids love us.” This seemed to be a succinct, astute observation as children with big grins ran happily past adults. The adults displayed expressions ranging from stoic acceptance to cold observation. I did notice a couple of women who, smiling held up smaller children so the younger ones could watch us roll past. The soldiers returned the waves, but stayed alert.

Several doors, windows, and gates, maybe as many as a third of those in the village, were adorned with a “W” spray painted in blue. I asked the soldiers if this was in support of Bush, as if the “W” was a mythical rune meant to ward off evil. A more pragmatic explanation might be to exhibit support to lesson the chance of an American raid. None of them gave me a definitive answer, so I’m still unsure as to the whole story behind the “W”.

We stopped in front of a house to check on a little boy whose legs had been burned and an American medic had provided first aid a few weeks prior. The soldiers told me that they regularly stopped in to check the health of the boy. We also visited a house that the soldiers believed either housed or at least supported people who made, supplied, or was somehow supportive of IED making. I asked how they knew, and they just told me that you spend enough time in the area and you talk to people and you see things. I definitely had the feeling I was with cops on a beat.

This feeling of working with law enforcement was further proven when we left the town and drove along the pipeline that runs through the outskirts of the town. Our gunner spotted a truck carrying 55 gallon drums that looked suspicious. We spun around and caught up quickly and overtook what turned out to be four trucks and then drove up to get in front. One man was detained and the rest let go with a stern warning and the drums were destroyed. “Stealing fuel really hurts the local economy,” the lieutenant in charge explained to me,” by acting outside the law, they’re really only hurting themselves and promoting more violence and instability.” It occurred to me that a few years before, anyone caught stealing may have been shot on sight or the perpetrators may have received far worse punishment.

Chaplains are needed on the battlefield

2005-11-27T22:11:00.000-08:00

A few days ago someone wrote a Letter to the Editor of “Stars and Stripes” with a message entitled “US shouldn’t fund chaplains.” The basis of the letter was that this was a flagrant abuse of separation of church and state (a phrase that of course cannot be found in actuality in the constitution but is rather a concept derived from precedent) and that Christian chaplains engage in inappropriate proselytizing. I am always sensitive to constitutional issues, particularly those where government may be overstepping bounds. Chaplains, however, perform far more than evangelical work; they are counselors, advisors, trustees, and friends with a rich heritage of military service. I was glad to see that in today’s “Stars and Stripes” several letters were published that championed the cause of chaplains and supported their efforts.

One soldier, a chaplain’s assistant, stated “A majority of US soldiers have a faith system of one type or another, and those are the soldiers we serve. It has never been, nor will it ever be, our place to push religion on anyone”. Well said. I have spoken to several chaplains recently in preparation for a video feature we are doing and my questions have touched on this issue. One chaplain told me that of course as a Christian it is his duty, as is the duty of all Christians, to share the gospel with all people. Jesus gave us all the great commission that His disciples should preach to all nations. However, as a military chaplain, as an officer, he has a leaders’ obligation to serve all the troops, even those who are not believers, those who do not practice their faith and even soldiers who worship a different religion. To these soldiers he does not push his faith, but rather facilitates the free expression of their way to worship. The chaplain gave a remarkable anecdote concerning a soldier who came to see him and who practiced Wicca. The soldier told the chaplain that he did not want to pray with him, but had some problems that he needed to work through and he needed help. The chaplain advised him and helped the soldier to solve the problems by positive enforcement and forward looking optimistic pragmatism. One of my favorite people once told me, “You don’t have to hit someone with the Bible to share God.”

Another soldier wrote this, “Chaplains are soldiers. They train with us, they deploy with us. They share our joy and our pain and are sometimes the only people with strength left enough to encourage the people whose lives are affected by this war.” As men of faith, men of God, chaplains have a unique perspective on how God works in the lives of people and how bad things will happen but faith helps us to overcome the obstacles that will inevitably occur.As soldiers, chaplains serve as a moral force to facilitate fair and humane treatment. One chaplain I spoke with told me how the Romans, Huns, Mongols, Nazi, and Soviet armies had no chaplain corps. He equated the immoral looting and pillaging of the spoils of war, the rape and atrocities committed against defeated peoples with the ethical bankruptcy present in an army where the means of destruction was not checked by a moral guide among leaders and side by side with soldiers. The chaplain corps acts as the conscience of the military.

A writer from Germany expounds upon the power chaplains have to motivate. They have the gift to articulate reasons why people should do what is often difficult and dangerous. He writes, “Atheists may be found in foxholes, but hardly in sufficient quantities to fight a war.” People of faith, whether Christian or otherwise, believe in something. They have a foundation of idealism that is greater than themselves. Critics may read this and imitate John Lennon by saying something to effect that religion has caused all of history’s wars. This accusation simply has little credibility. Wars may be supported by those who are religious, and may even have religious implications, but religion, more often than not prevents wars. The teachings that people should live in peace and should love each other and should behave in decent ways acts to inhibit a baser, more brutal instinct. What is the cause of war? Money, wealth, land, possessions, ideology, race … difference. The haves and the have nots. Religion, faith in something greater than you, restrains the desire to take and destroy. Did Hitler use religion to promote his hateful campaigns, or Napoleon, or the Soviets when they were purging the party of dissidents or the Hutus when they slaughtered the Tutsis in Rwanda? To say that religion causes wars is the equivalent of stating that seat belts cause people to be trapped in their cars and killed. This statistical anomaly may happen, but far more likely is that the seat belt prevents greater harm, and saves lives. So too does religion prevent greater aggression by the strong against the weak, and on the battlefield, the chaplain is the voice of religion, reminding commanders and soldiers of their moral duties.

Finally, chaplains provide organized spiritual support to the far reaches of our forward deployed military. Frequently, our government sends service members to parts of the world where there are no houses of worship. Without chaplains, soldiers would either not practice their faith or would be compelled to organize their own fellowship. Chaplains provide religious organization that benefits the individual soldier, the deployed military, the country for whom the military fights, and the global community that is not held at the mercy of a destructive force with no conscience.

OPSEC, Hugh Hewitt, and the War on Terrorism

2005-11-26T23:21:00.000-08:00

Hello readers, yes I'm still here. I have been out in the field covering our Soldiers and what they do. OPSEC stands for Operational Security, and for me and this blog it means I have to be careful and sensitive to very real dangers. I do not want to say that I will be here or there on a certain date or that members of this or that unit are in this town and doing whatever. Speaking in generalities, luckily, is a talent I have developed over years and of which I am well versed.

I will have some good posts once I get out of the field and have some time in between what's happening and when I was there. The last thing I want to do is endanger anyone.

Hugh Hewitt has some good thoughts on how to argue for our presence here, I have linked to his site but here are some highlights:

From 1998, during President Clinton's watch: On Wednesday when U.S. and British forces launched strikes against Iraq, I stated that we were pursuing clear military goals. And as President Clinton has announced, we've achieved those goals. We've degraded Saddam Hussein's ability to deliver chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. We've diminished his ability to wage war against his neighbors. Our forces attacked about 100 targets over four nights, following a plan that was developed and had been developed and refined over the past year. We concentrated on military targets and we worked very hard to keep civilian casualties as low as possible. Our goal was to weaken Iraq's military power, not to hurt Iraq's people.

As Richard Spertzel, an Iraq Survey Group member who also had served with the United Nations Iraq weapons inspections team,explained in the Wall Street Journal, "Documentation indicates that Iraq was training non-Iraqis at Salman Pak in terrorist techniques, including assassination and suicide bombing. In addition to Iraqis, trainees included Palestinians, Yemenis, Saudis, Lebanese, Egyptians and Sudanese."

I don't like being here, the sports are difficult to follow and there is not a Cracker Barrel to be found, but there are legitimate reasons to fight this fight.

France has allowed rogue groups to assert power

2005-11-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

Columnist Jack Kelly, writing from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, makes several good points about the ongoing violence, mayhem, and vandalism in France. I know, it is somehow difficult to feel genuinely sorry for the French, but people are being hurt and lives are made worse and, sincerely, that is bad.

But almost as bad is the reluctance of the French government, and the world media as well, to acknowledge that Muslims mainly cause the trouble. Far be it from me to ridicule or cast dispersions on Muslims. I’m only spending more than a year away from my family, putting my career on hold, and generally having a less than Disney time because of Muslim extremists and their asshole tendency to forget that the world does not revolve around them. No offense, but I did distinguish between the vast Islamic majority who are like most everyone else and just want to live a peaceful, happy life. And certainly violent and repulsive extremism is not exclusive to Islam, as evidenced by the ridiculous demonstrations organized and carried out by the Westboro “Baptist Church” (I placed Baptist Church in quotations because calling this group Christians is like referring to meth lab troglodytes as pharmacologists). Extremism is a problem for the Muslim world, and because of the very real affects of globalization, it is all of our problem.

Tactics used “bear an eerie resemblance to those used by Chechen rebels against the Russians in Grozny” quotes Kelly from the blog “Belmont Club”. Discovered caches of Molotov cocktails provide further evidence that the wanton vandalism may be organized.

The Paris suburbs seem to be brimming with the same vitriolic hatred and Theo-fascist thuggery whipped on by shadowy Imams responsible for violence from Bosnia to Indonesia. This is a war of information, a war of ideology, and a global contest of the rule of law versus terrorism.

Balad

2005-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Our Army operations and intelligence guide explained that this is a city of about 70,000, with another 70,000 in the immediate area. Domed roofs and needle-like minarets give the city its characteristic, unmistakably Muslim skyline. At night one mosque is lit with bright green neon lights. The Tigris River flows along the northern boundaries of the city and tributary canals provide irrigation for the contiguous farms. Balad is a predominantly Shia town amidst a larger regional Sunni population. In the suburbs and outlying villages, Sunnis and Shia live together. In peace? I ask. “Some will tell you they live and work together peacefully, but they don’t always,” he says, “there is some tension.”

An army captain who works with the local governments told me that here in the Sunni triangle differences between Sunnis and Shia are significant but not insurmountable. “You will see a Sunni marry a Shia and vice versa,” he says,” then one will just choose which family to live with, and thus which sect to follow.” Therein lies the greatest difficulty here: strong tribal factions that color most every decision and serve as an ongoing impediment to greater autonomy. “Tribal and family bias is the biggest problem here,” the captain explains. If he has a contractor that is from the neighboring village of Isahki, that contractor likely cannot work in Balad, or in another area. We looked at a map of the area with the captain’s Iraqi translator. I notice the areas they are pointing to are next to each other. Looking down at the scale I see that the distance between the areas is not quite twenty kilometers. The translator, a Shiite from Balad, points to Isahki and says, “These people are bad guys, and we don’t go there.”

This problem becomes more pronounced when the contractors are newly hired members of the Iraqi Police or the Iraqi Army. “Many people will refuse to go to another area and work. They are from Balad and expect to stay there close to their family. We have to explain to them that this is not the Balad Army, but an Iraqi Army and a soldier has to go where they are needed,” explains another captain who works with the transitional army team. Being a member of the Army or the Police is dangerous but provides a good living for most. In this principally rural, agrarian quarter an Iraqi making the equivalent of $100 a month is doing good and the IA or IP pays three or four times that.

One thing the army is proud of and the sergeant was not shy to tell me about were the elections. The elections held earlier this year and those being planned for local governments have been held with great success. How do you quantify success? “Very little violence,” a soldier explains. There is some, but mainly the US presence and the newly invigorated Iraqi army has made positive improvements. He told me that the Iraqi Army has made great progress since he came here about ten months ago. “Basically, they didn’t do anything, they were just here. But now they and the IP (Iraqi police) have better training and they are taking care of the business themselves. The people respect them a lot more now.” Also now, the Iraqi Army and Police are beginning to lead their own raids and bring in their own detainees for questioning. They are beginning to bring the rule of law back to their country.

Apparently from what I have read on the Mesopotamian (www.Mesopotamian.blogspot.com), tensions between Shia and Sunni is one of the main causes of strife in not just the immediate area, but in the Arab / Muslim world. According to the writer in the Mesopotamian, Iraq is the only sovereign nation where Shiites represent a majority, and the Sunni minority can, for the most part live with them. He says that the Sunni majority in the surrounding countries has a problem with this, and especially since US intervention has effectively created a Shiite government. This is what makes upcoming elections so important, in local Iraqi government and in regional stability. Can Iraq have a competent, effective government internally and be recognized by its Sunni neighbors as legitimate? One can smell the Arabic rhetoric as far away as one can smell a paper mill. Questions of legitimacy will arise due to US intervention and sustained involvement. Never mind that Shiites represent a majority and forget that most insurgents are foreign mercenaries and Islamic terrorists who have little stake in a democratic Iraqi government.

The situation in Balad then is an illustrative microcosm of what is happening to Iraq as a nation. In the Balad neighborhoods, the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority can live together with tension, but can still exist concurrently. What tensions there are, though, are exacerbated by outside, factional interests competing for their own political and theological agendas. And in that sense, the situation in Balad represents the federalism problem in this country, where the decisions of the local populace are sublimated for a supposed greater national good.

Tikrit to Balad

2005-11-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

We boarded the UH-60 Blackhawk, crowding in soldiers from three different units and three different destinations and took off from Tikrit. I was loaded in with my own bag and one of our photographer’s tripod in my lap. My M-4 was squeezed in between me and the soldier beside me, with my M-9 on my other thigh, jammed in beside our videographer. I could not move and soon realized that her weapon was digging into my ankle. This would be a fun ride, kind of like piling into an ’83 Chevette with four cousins and heading down to a vacation in Florida. Except this was Iraq, in ’05, and we were heading outside the wire.

For the most part I stay cool about being here. Fatalistic indifference I call it. When the good Lord calls me home is none of my business, I just have to be ready. So I don’t worry about it. But I have to admit a faint tinge of excitement heading out on my first mission.

Not too far below us (why were we flying so low?) the ground was the same flat, dirt colored desert that we had learned to ignore for the past few weeks. Vehicle paths cut into the bland landscape and carved out doughnut tracks and crazy curves. Then I noticed a rectangular pattern cut into the earth that must have been planned for agriculture. Then another and another, and then one had an adjoining building alongside. The flat roofed boxy structure reminded me of pictures I had seen of pueblo houses in New Mexico. This one looked fairly new but the next one I saw looked ancient and closer inspection revealed part of the roof and one side were missing.

As we flew on, the landscape became more deliberate, with obvious agricultural plans and farming intent. I have read about Iraq’s great experiment with irrigation and here it was below me. Canals, ducts and ditches spread out below me in a chaotic web. Instead of the traditional western vertical shafts we are accustomed to in the States, these wells were wide horizontal trenches with plumbing extending out of them and pump buildings connecting them to long, arched irrigations trolleys that were capable of rolling in great circles. I have seen similar designs in Kentucky and Indiana.

The land below us became more and more planned out, a patchwork of various shades of green and brown that came to identify this area as a farming community. I saw several herds of sheep, a couple herds of goats, and one herd of camels. Some of the farms had pick-up trucks and tractors, most did not. Some had walls and fences, cows, horses, and chickens, but most were the simple mud hut pueblo, single garden variety. The further south we flew, the more green it became, but it never did get to the solid, lush green of Tennessee, but remained a picture with a dusty, brown border overall. The scene made me think that these Iraqis must live a hard life.

The people I saw below us, from what I could see of them from the helicopter’s height, were simple farmers doing what farmers do. Some were in the fields, others were driving tractors, women in black robes stood and talked. Some of the people raised their hands high like a field goal as we passed. I guess that gesture could go either way. “Yeah, Americans!” or “Get the hell out of here!” I was high in a loud helicopter, so I’m not sure. I saw one group of children dressed in red and pink jumping, playing some game that required them to run and jump. Kids are probably the same most anyplace on earth.

Then we passed over suburbs, lots of flat roofed houses with streets and cars and lots of people. Then the city and then we flew over buildings with sandbag roofs and I knew we were at the FOB.

Truth from Iraq

2005-11-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

“My arrival in town was not mentioned by any of the society columnists”

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Finally here after so many months training and preparing, worrying, stressing, wondering what lay ahead. We started with a couple of phone calls, giving us the heads up that we were “on the radar”, a hot unit being looked at for an alert order. And then the order came in almost as the phone was being hung up. More phones calls, more discussions, and the careful, nervous, sensitive talks with wives and children that we had to go. Then plans and more plans, and changes, and more planning. Training began in Kentucky, then continued in Indiana, and then moved to a forward staging base in northern Kuwait.

And now we are here north of Tikrit. There is a contrast with Kuwait because here there are dusty, scraggly trees, some scrub and when I stepped far enough away from the C-130’s hot backside, the air was noticeably cooler, bordering on being cold. Also unlike Kuwait City, what signs I could see of civilization are older, poorer, and obviously the worse for years of war. We are living in an old house, that probably once housed an Iraqi air force officer and his family, that has bullet holes in the courtyard walls and a big chunk of sidewalk is missing from a mortar.

The major who came to pick us up pointed to a tree on the side of the road and said, “See that tree? That’s where Saddam hung a guy.” We looked over toward where he pointed and tried to figure out which tree he meant. Then he started laughing and said those stories are everywhere and about most anything Saddam may have done. “You’ll hear stories about heads on stop signs, black rooms in palaces with iron rings fixed into the walls.” Who knows what is true and what is legend, exaggerated or just made up. It is almost a running joke – “See that house? Saddam’s crazy kid shot a guy in there.” Embellishment becomes hyperbole and then slides into tautology.

There are plenty of bad stories with enough truth to them to allow for the stuff of BS legends to creep around. Plenty of soldiers and newly enfranchised citizens eager to lend a believing ear.

Juxtapose this with revelations that recently discharged Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey was lying about atrocities he said were committed by him and other marines. Massey found a ready public to believe that Americans were behaving like Nazis storming a ghetto. Embedded reporters with Massey’s unit have stated that none of his claims were substantiated, none were corroborated, and now Massey himself has begun to backpedal and admit that he himself did not witness the shootings, but instead was told by others.

What does this artistic license mean? Same as anything else as far as I can tell, people believe what they want, gleaning information from whatever context suits the position they favor. This freedom of misinformation is the dark underbelly of the Information Age, what the strikeout is to the homerun, the evil cousin of the fast moving information highway: information moves free and fast, veracity be damned.

For my part, I’ll try and be objective. But commentary is part of the game.

Thinking more about why we are here

2005-10-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

As has been written in other places and observed by objective journalists, soldiers rarely waste their time discussing politics. There is some interest, as most any story in the paper will generate if it is good enough, but often no more than a casual invitation from one soldier to another to read the editorials. Partisan politics rears it’s ugly head some amongst the most devoted, but usually little more than an argument for argument’s sake and then mostly just for fun.

Politics is not why we are here. “We” meaning the collective whole of all the individual soldiers here. Politics may very well be why the US military is here, but individuals are here because for whatever reason, we volunteered. Some liked the military; others saw a good paying, steady job; some had truly patriotic, altruistic ideas about service. Most volunteered out of a combination of these reasons and others too numerous to write. We signed a contract, and this is one of the conditions of that contract. This is a job, and for many a career. Many soldiers I speak to add this deployment to their growing list of places they have seen and missions with which they have been involved. Deployment is a vital part of being a soldier and so “down range” is where they want to be. Just as a firefighter will go to the fire, so too these professional soldiers will go to the fight.

Every soldier has a family and a life back home. You ask them why we are here, and invariably their answer centers on this fact. “I am defending our home.” Or “I am defending freedom.” Another good answer is “We were attacked and so I am bringing justice to those who attacked us.” Good stuff. But why are we here in Iraq? This involves a more focused answer, one where many soldiers may say something like “Iraq was a place of tyranny where terrorism had a home, we have brought democracy and freedom to an oppressed people.” A more cynical, less idealistic minded soldier may just fall back on “I’m a soldier, and I’m just doing my job.” That’s OK too, because it’s true.

Very rarely, though, do I hear a soldier who genuinely does not think that we, all of us in the US military, should be here. Whether he truly believes in what the proponents of this war say, or whether he is less sympathetic in this action but nonetheless supportive of the military as a whole, most soldiers will agree that we should be playing a decisive role at this time in our history.

I think I know why. First of all, I must count myself in the latter group. Afghanistan seemed like a good idea, increased focus on Special Forces and counter terrorism efforts seems like the way to go. I think we rushed into Iraq. I do not believe that the government lied, but rather was over zealous and acted on incomplete information. And that may have been warranted. Could we wait to get attacked again before we acted? Attacked with weapons of mass destruction? Critics will point to the fact that no empirical data now supports those earlier fears, but at the time Congress and many of those same critics supported military action. My support of the Iraqi policy is halfhearted, but irrelevant to my overall support for our soldiers. I could be in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Indonesia, or wherever the military sent me. The location is not as important as the action itself. What I am interested in is our soldiers and by extension the home for which those soldiers fight.

We ARE fighting for our homes, our families, our lives; we are fighting for America. The fight is indirect and the clarity of the goal is as indistinct as the terrorists we fight, but I am certain that what we do is important.

We are demonstrating strength.

We were attacked and someone was made to pay. Is it fair? Is it right? My answer is callous and may sound cold, but my answer is this: life is not fair and oftentimes life is brutal and mean. Better to be strong. Ask the Kuwaitis, ask the Iraqis, the Iranians, the Bosnians, Armenians, Kurds, Croats, Israelis, Palestinians, Koreans … ask just about any group and this immutable fact will be confirmed. When I need to look deeper into my situation and find some guiding principle that provides meaning I will know that because of men like me, no foreign army will invade America. No group of soldiers will bomb my house; no foreign power will rape my country. If that means that we scare the hell out of the rest of the world, then that’s just how it is. Because we are strong we may be hated, but our families, the families of these soldiers, are safe.

Strong words from a Christian? Yes, unfortunate that so many are made to suffer because of our strength, but better our strength and our policies than others. Are we fascists as some commentators have suggested? Have we lined up noncombatants and summarily executed them? Have we treated combatants with inhumanity or brutality as per organized policy? When enemies have been treated poorly, have not our own soldiers been disciplined in accordance with due process? Are we imperialists? Have we claimed any territory or seized natural resources?

We are here as a demonstration of our strength to protect our homeland and to help to make the rest of the world a safer place in which to live.

Stars and Stripes

2005-10-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

As a deployed unit, we get daily issues of the “Stars and Stripes” for free. Getting what has become my morning paper after breakfast and reading it over a cup of coffee has become a morning ritual that I enjoy. It is a good paper. We get the Middle East edition and so most of what is reported concerns goings on in this part of the world. Most of the articles come from the Associated Press, but contributions from other sources can be found daily as well. The reader can find local news about the Middle East; stories from back home in a state-by-state USA Today format, editorials, comics, sports and weather. There is also a crosswords puzzle but I have not had the time to spend on that.

As for TV, we get a satellite feed of Armed Forces Network (AFN). This is usually tuned into ESPN, Sports Center, although we can get games as well. Because of the time delay, eight hours here, I have had to get up early in the morning to see a World Series game. This morning at breakfast we were able to watch the Monday Night Football game between Atlanta and the Jets. When the program would ordinarily go to commercials, AFN broadcasts public service announcements and information pertinent to the military deployed.

Hurricane Heroes

2005-10-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a great story from Christianity Today about how the Southern Baptist convention stepped in to make a big difference for hurricane victims throughout the Gulf Coast.

God has a plan

2005-10-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

When I first learned that I would be deployed and would be required to leave my family for over a year, the first thing my wonderful wife said to me was that God had a plan for me. This simple statement of faith and acceptance of God’s supremacy has been an enormous source of comfort and inspiration for me while I have been away.

We can make it through the trials of life when we first remember that God is in control. We then approach life’s obstacles and difficulties with the knowledge that what God has planned has inherent blessings from which we can take benefit. Our chaplain this morning made an excellent point by revisiting the early years of David while he was pursued by King Saul. God prepared His servant David for a life as a responsible sovereign during these early years as a fugitive. David developed his skills as a soldier and leader, especially in regard to his duties to care for the impoverished. First Samuel 22:2 records that “everyone who was distressed, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.” But most importantly, during these times is when David came closest to God. It was during his most difficult trials that his relationship with and his faith in God became the strongest. It was also during these times that David wrote most of his Psalms. The Psalms written in his later years is colored by the man David had become because of these early tough times.

Joseph was probably the greatest example of this theme. Taken from a family where he was treated well, he first became a slave and then a prisoner. But his faith in God never wavered. God transformed not only Joseph through his years of servitude and hardships but also transformed his circumstances, moving him into a position whereby Joseph could influence the lives of generations to come.

The Army chaplain that led our worship service this morning made a powerful prayer: “Change me, O Lord, no matter how bad it hurts.” Just like a drill instructor hardens the mental and physical attributes of his soldiers through arduous challenges, and just as professionals are focused after years of intensive education, so too are Christians made stronger in their relationship with God though life experiences that require them to draw closer to God.

When I get back from this, I’ll be a stronger man. A better husband, a better father, and a better instrument for God’s purposes.

Kuwait City, the Highway of death and Starbucks

2005-10-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

We drove down past Kuwait City yesterday to Camp Arifjan, which is about as big and developed as Fort Campbell. This is a big operation, millions of dollars having obviously been spent and it looks like we are here to stay. Someone told me that the US has a lease there for 90 years so the comparison to Guantanomo Bay came to mind. Of course the host nation is more friendly but I still could not buy a Cohiba.

I asked what Kuwaitees do, what kind of economy exists besides the very obvious oil and natural gas business and received a surprising answer. Turns out it is good to be a Kuwaitee, most of them do not work. Being part of the clan is better than being made like a Goodfella, they receive 15-20k a month and just live off rich daddy. Good digs if you can get it, but just being born here does not guarantee citizenship, you must be descended from Kuwaitee blood. So they hire lots of TCNs (third country nationals) to do the work. We see lots of Pakistanis, Indians, Phillipinos, etc. I understand that 14 years ago many of the border guards were hired TCNs. Now they sleep soundly because there are lots of heavily armed Americans living here. Do they pay income tax? Oh we pay them, that's right. Again, good digs if you can get them.

Speaking of heavily armed GIs ... we passed by part of the infamous Highway of Death. That's right 12 years later and you can still see two bigs junkyards of busted up, bombed out vehicles as far as you can see. I still am amazed at the ineptitude of the Iraqi leadership for ordering their soldiers to certain death and destruction at the hands of an enemy with clear air superiority. The scene from Farewell to Arms where the Italian Army walks toward retreat and officers are pulled from the lines and shot for having allowed the Austrians entry makes me think that deplorable tactic would have made more since with the Iraqi military brass. A notable observation was the sign beside the wreckage prohibiting photography.

Like many passed of the world, Kuwait enjoys its auto racing, except here they have an active amateur circuit. We were driving a topped out 120 km, or about 72 mph and cars were blowing past us. Lots of western vehicles: Chevys, Fords (they like the Crown Vic), Mercurys, GM, Jeeps, Land Rovers and plenty of Mitsubishis, Toyotas, and Nissans. Also worth mentioning is the habit of leaving wrecked cars on the side of the road. We passed at least five cars and trucks that had been abandoned after damage. Our driver told us that it is common to leave the wreck on the side of the road for weeks.

We passed by miles of suburbs, all of them made up of huge, three and four story houses. We were told that these houses were not just for single families of the Western mom-dad-three-kids variety but for the Eastern idea of the whole patriarchal clan. So Great-grandpa lives upstairs and his four sons and all their families live there as do all the kids and whatever families they have. Big houses, big families, and rich Daddy paying all the bills. Good times, ain't we glad we got 'em!

We also saw herds of camels tended by there atv driving, tent dwelling Bedouin masters and I saw a jackal. He looked like a little dog with big ears.

Finally, we found a Starbucks next to the Arifjan PX. Walking in it smelled like, looked like, and sounded like our favorite coffee house from home. I got the mocha frappucino with a shot of espresso. I had to finish it before we reached the gate since it is Ramadan and we are not supposed to eat or drink in public out of deference to our hosts who are fasting all day. As we drove home and the sun went down we passed several cars that had stopped along the side of the road, spread out a blanket, said their prayers, prepared a meal, and lit cigarettes.

Control Room

2005-10-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

While waiting on our movement north, I have had some time to watch some of the DVDs we brought with us. We have an eclectic mix of war movies, action, comedy, and some documentaries.

Control Room is a film about the Al Jazeera coverage of the initial US led attacks in 2003. Insightful and thought provoking, we especially liked the movie because it deals with our job, military journalism, and the sometimes in your face reality of working with a wide spectrum of media types. What was something of a surprise was a fairly objective account of the Iraqi invasion told from an Arab perspective. Notable was the Al Jazeera producer who tackled the very question we as Army journalists face regularly, how do you remain objective and is there such a thing as pure journalistic objectivity. I think not. LT Josh Rushing, a Marine PAO (public affairs officer) is a ubiquitous feature in the filming, also makes some candid observations that with which I can empathize.

* Side note, since the films release, Rushing has left the Marine Corps and has accepted a job with Al Jazeera, working out of their Washington Bureau.

Rushing has some great lines, the best follows an introspective, very honest appraisal of his reactions to two nights of broadcast casualties, the first Iraqi and the second American. The first bothered him only a little, the second very much. Rushing opens up to admit this troubled him to realize that all death did not affect him the same way. Here's the quote:

"It makes me hate war, but it doesn't make me believe that we're in a world that can live without war yet."

And therein lies the complication. No doubt the US was heavy handed in this latest invasion, no doubt there was a great many needless innocent deaths and casualties. But the US was provoked to attack by an audacious attack from militant islamafascists who are as much a threat to their own culture as to western civilization.

But here too is at least part of the solution. Jesus says that the truth will set you free. Journalism, open and free expression of thought, should lead to greater understanding and more honest relationships among people. If Al Jazeera makes people angry because of a more relaxed policy of propriety that western media, then maybe people should be angry to witness how ugly war can be. It cannot hurt to see another side of a problem.

Look to the right column and notice that I have a link to Al Jazeera on this blog. Are they clearly objective? Not always, but more truthful than you may realize. Are they biased? Hell, yes they are. But is CNN, or Fox, or the Armed Forces Networks? The truth lies in between and more information is a good thing.

Fishes and barley loaves

2005-10-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

This morning the chaplain led us in a message about when Jesus fed five thousand with a basket of food received from a boy. Along with the miracle and how everything is possible with God, the chaplain focused our attention on an aspect of that story that I had not considered before. Andrew brought a child with him who possessed the food. Have you ever known a child to share food, much less give all of it away. Here is an example of a person, a child, who not only shared what he had, but turned it all over to God and then no doubt watched with amazement at what his gift turned out to accomplish.

From this unknown youth we gain an insightful message about the importance and significance of giving all of ourselves over to God and letting Him work his miracles with the resources He entrusts us.

When I deployed here, I prayed that all I had was for God and for Him to work though me. Maybe my small offering can accomplish a little of what that child with the basket did.

Initial impressions of Kuwait

2005-10-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

When we were leaving the airport in Indianapolis, I stepped outside and noticed the smell of rain, and I took that to be a good sign of things to come. I read once about someone who had a near death experience and recaled that Jesus smelled like rain.

While in the terminal waiting for our plane to arrive, members of the Utah Jazz came by and wished us luck. This is representative of how so many people feel about our service, sincerely thankful and appreciative that we do this job. Although, far fewer, but still enough to notice have seemed cool and almost hostile to my military service right now. I showed one person my military ID after she requested to see an ID, and she seemed repulsed and wanted to see another ID instead.

Flying in to Kuwait City, I was struck at what a beautiful city it is, with many high rise hotels and the tall eastern towers and minerrettes visible throughout the city.

The sand here is very fine, almost like a dust. The only wild life I have seen have been birds, one was a huge white dove or pigeon. It was so big I wondered if it was a predator, but a soldier who I suppose knows such things identified it is as a dove. Looked like a big white pigeon to be. Oh well, I don't claim to be an ornithologist, but I do like chicken.

The evenings are pleasant but once the heater (sun) comes up it is stifling hot, like an oven. And then I have to remember that this is October and it is only 102. In August Kuwait gets to 130. I'll have to break out my copy of Dante's inferno but that is like sixth circle hot isn't it?