IRAQ

I have not ventured into political discussion on my blog thus far, but I do want to share the comments of one my very best friends who is serving our country in Iraq. The below are comments from a Naval Officer who is on the ground in Iraq and who works everyday to keep our Soldiers, Marines, Air Men and Sailors safe as they work to build a peaceful and democratic Iraq.

I'm happy to report that May had the lowest casualties over here since March of 2004. So we are really feeling the effects of a counter-insurgency strategy that IS working.

I think the media do a terrible job of sharing the story about this war with our citizens back home. So if you don't mind I'll get on my soapbox for a moment since I brought up the status of the counter-insurgency strategy. I worry that we will lose face here if folks don't understand a little more about this place and what we are accomplishing here.

First off, I think Iraq has fascinating potential and wonderful people. I have a tendency to be little cynical since I have been sent on deployment three times in the last four years, but when I bury my resentment about leaving my family I can truly see a lot of potential in this place. When I am out in town I see hundreds of piece-of-crap (normally I would use profanity there, but I'm sensitive to the fact that not everyone uses a sailors vocabulary piece-of-shit...so I am not going to say it) cars driving around. Then I think, "You know what. These guys have some fantastic mechanics that keep these cars running." When I look at the complexity and sophistication of the IED trigger devices that they try to detonate against us I am impressed by their electrical engineering skill. Then when I talk with the people there is a yearning for education. You don't see this sort of "yankee ingenuity" in so many other parts of the world and by this point I have been to so many armpits of the world I consider myself a fair judge.

The bottom line for me has nothing to with the reasons we came here in the first place....that is a political issue. The real fact is that WE ARE HERE, and WE SAID WE WOULDN'T ABANDON THESE PEOPLE. The Iraqi Security forces have made incredible gains in the last year. In fact the current operations in Basra, Mosul and Sadr City reflect a capacity to plan and Iraqi leadership initiative that has been critically missing prior to 2008. In another generation we will all be taking our kids here to see the fascinating origins of human society.

For example, Mosul is the modern name for Ninevah, where Jonah refused to go in the bible story. Ur, Abraham's home is here and the ziggurat there may pre-date the egyptian pyramids. The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is truly beautiful. The hot desert is only out west and I exaggerated the temperature a little bit in the beginning of this note.

Anyway, I am now the Officer in Charge of a Mobile Training Team that travels all over the country training folks on Counter-IED best practices. When I got here I focused on counter Radio Controlled IED's because the Navy's contribution right now is defeating these devices. However, I now teach a full spectrum course on defeating IED's, protecting yourself from the detonation if IED defeat efforts fail, and finally I teach tactics, techniques and procedures for identifying, capturing and killing the mother-hubbards that make these bombs. (Again I would have used profanity there, but if a person reading this does not like "shit" then I'm pretty sure they'd really be offended if I called an insurgent a mother-fucker. So I'm not going to do that.)

You know what....I take that back. I am willing to call some of these insurgents mother-fuckers and feel no shame. The insurgency here deserves every bit of our scorn and hatred. The things I have seen perpetrated by them against the citizens of this country exceed the perverse and demented limits of your collective imagination. I won't even write about it because no one needs to have those sorts of images in their head, but you would no sooner leave your baby in the pit with a rottweiler than abandon these people to Al Queda if you knew how vile and disgusting those men are.

Say a prayer and remember our Armed Forces daily and remember in November when you vote that your vote will decide the fate of the new Iraq.