MORE ON THE FLEDGLING R&R PROGRAMS

If they can’t get to Kuwait, servicemembers in Iraq now have a special trip to help them escape. The land component command began offering four-day trips starting two weeks ago to Qatar, where servicemembers can have a beer and escape high threat levels.

The Army camp in Qatar isn’t Club Med — they still stay in a tent. But there’s a pool, air conditioning, recreation and, of course, beer.

Up to 120 troops are taken to Qatar on a military flight every day from one of three airfields in Iraq. Individual commands decide who can go on the trips, which are free.

The trip compensates for the fact that troops have no escape in Iraq because of the mission and dearth of commercial travel options.

“It gets them out of the combat environment,” Rowan said. “It gives them a chance to put down their weapon and relax.”

ABSOLUTELY HOME GROWN

Despite the e-mails from grateful soldiers and the media attention Mayo has received, she thinks her efforts are “no big deal.”

“All it takes is to do it,” Mayo said. “My mom is here. She’s 75, and she tells me about [similar efforts in] World War II, and this would’ve been no big deal.

“I sound hokey, but I’m just so sick of people being unpatriotic.”

Her patriotism has moved her to set up a “family-run” organization that has thus far enlisted the help of Home Depot, which donated 20 units; her local volunteer fire department, whose members help her box items; the Bear, Del., post office; and her brother Steve Nichols, who owns Nichols Excavation and offers the company’s heavy equipment when big shipments need to be moved.

Until recently, her 10-year-old daughter, Olivia, was her Webmaster. Things have gotten so crazy that Mayo needed to farm that out.

A ten year old web-master? Suddenly I'm embarrassed at my efforts.

Read the whole thing here.

July 30, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-89

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT ATTACKS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Aggressive measures were taken yesterday by Coalition forces in efforts to create a safe and secure environment in Iraq.

In the last 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 51 raids, 953 day patrols and 737 night patrols and conducted 142 day patrols and 145 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi Police conducted 16 day patrols and nine night patrols.

The total raids and patrols resulted in 559 arrests including two for murder, four for robbery, five for aggravated assault, 39 for theft two for controlled substance violation, 235 for weapons violations and 272 for various other crimes.

Three artillery pieces and some 50 caliber rounds that were found in the Fallujah area were destroyed by a 3rd ACR explosive ordnance team.


July 31, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-90

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE SOLDIER KILLED, TWO WOUNDED IN SMALL ARMS ATTACK

TIKRIT, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed and two were wounded in a small arms attack at a tactical operation center July 30 at approximately 11:45 p.m. about 40 km east of Ba’qubah.

The soldiers were evacuated to the 21st Combat Support Hospital for treatment.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.


July 31, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-91

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL LEADERS SUPPORT COALITION

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Karbala city council members publicly expressed their support for Coalition forces actions during recent demonstrations in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force area of operation on July 29. The Karbala city council said the Coalition is handling the security situation in Karbala properly.

At a Husaybah border-crossing checkpoint, an attempted improvised explosive device attack was prevented when 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers discovered it. The IED consisted of a propane cylinder connected to electrical wires and had wires connected that ran into an alley nearby. The local Iraqi Police dismantled and removed the IED.

During the last 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 44 raids, 1011 day patrols and 817 night patrols and conducted 136 day patrols and 136 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi Police conducted 16 day patrols and nine night patrols.

The total raids and patrols resulted in 161 arrests including 16 for murder, one for kidnapping, 10 for carjacking, eight for aggravated assault, four for burglary and eight for looting.

THURSDAY JULY 31st. The 81st day of CPT Patti's deployment.

TERRORISM FUTURES MARKETS

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this topic as it is only tangentially related to our focus here.

But just a word or two.

It occurs to me that very, very few people get up in the morning and set as their day's goal "to do something completely and ourtrageously stupid."

Yet, if you listen to the knee jerk reactions to the Terrorism Futures Market idea by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) you might be tempted to believe that someone at DARPA did just that.

Well, they didn't. In fact, if one takes the time to study the proposal one finds this to be an astonishingly refreshing example of "out of the box thinking" by the defense establishment.

Too bad the knee jerks killed it before even entering a debate (or studying the proposal for crying out loud).

Read about the idea here and here. And see what we missed.

In my view it beats the hell outta "Red, Orange, Amber, Yellow, Green".

Critics of these prediction markets, however, are simply attacking something they don't understand: Such markets have a good track record, could help tremendously in protecting the nation from terror, and pose no moral quandaries that Americans don't already grapple with.

To begin with, there's a good reason to think that idea futures would work pretty well when it comes to predicting terrorist attacks. Consider the following existing prediction markets:

The play-money Hollywood Stock Exchange (run by bond-trading firm Cantor-Fitzgerald) is much more accurate than movie studio's own models in predicting movie's box office grosses and stars' career trajectories.

The now defunct play-money Foresight Exchange accurately predicted that the Y2K computer glitch wouldn't be a big deal as early as 1997.

The Iowa Electronic Markets, which take real-money bets on political candidates, frequently outperform polls when it comes to predicting election outcomes. Several months before the 2000 elections, even as Al Gore showed a significant lead in the polls, his stock and Bush's traded at the same levels in the markets.

D'OH!

Perhaps he should have reconsidered his strategy. In an unwitting move, Saddam just helped our side.

Skeptical Iraqis seem to be coming to grips with the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons.

Some are now convinced Odai and Qusai Hussein are dead because of an audiotape that aired on the Arab satellite network Al-Arabiya on Tuesday. A voice said to be that of Saddam called them martyrs.

One Iraqi man said he believes the brothers are dead because Saddam is confirming it. Another who heard the tape is dismissing the latest call to arms against U.S. forces. As he puts it, “Saddam is nobody these days. He has no power, no army, no friends, what can he do now?”

Heh.

"A LITTLE BETTER EACH DAY"

Ambushes of our troops in the Sunni triangle have been described in excruciating detail on the evening news. Pessimism has been expressed as a nightly ritual, and the angry crowds in Baghdad have colored our country's view of Iraq's future...

Although the hit-and-run attacks continue, with every passing day, more militants are running than are hitting us. One of the aphorisms that our seasoned combat veterans routinely share with younger soldiers on approaching long deployments is especially fitting here: "Let's make things a little better each day."

This advice might just as well be proffered to media commentators, Congress and a concerned public regarding their expectations for progress in Iraq.

When you see soldiers on the street patrolling with the new Iraqi police officers, you know there is great hope. When you have seen the stark difference between the empty and frightened streets of early April and the bustling markets of today, you feel the hope. The well-publicized incidents of violence are spasms of resistance to a concept so compelling it cannot be denied -- freedom. The attacks themselves are generated by small bands of militants and hired guns at the behest of "return party" chieftains and terrorist financiers.

And when you have the chance to see the steely determination of American and coalition soldiers serving here through the heat of each day, you cannot help knowing that hope has already defeated tyranny.

WATER PROBLEMS

In the sun-scorched compounds occupied by 130,000 Army troops in Iraq, soldiers have two potential sources of water.

One is bottled in Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Greece and shipped to Kuwait, where stevedores wrestle crates of it off ships. Then, in giant, windswept marshaling yards, forklifts labor in ankle-deep desert grit to stack the stuff into cardboard-box mountains. Next, it is loaded onto tractor-trailer trucks that groan north in snaking convoys -- pallets of cartons, 12 bottles to a case, truck after truck after truck.

The military buys so much bottled water, from so many vendors, through so many different agencies, that no one knows precisely how much, at what cost, it takes to slake its thirst.

But oh, that water is sweet.

The other, traditional source is the 400-gallon steel tank sitting on a trailer in the desert sun. That's a Water Buffalo, in Army lingo.

The Buffalo holds water that's been purified by the ROWPU boys -- the soldiers who man the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units. Miracle workers of a sort, they can drop a hose into any green-scummed swamp or saltwater ditch and pump out something drinkable.

ROWPUs work by forcing water through a series of filters, which strain out various poisons and "most" smelly stuff, according to a recent Pentagon assessment.

Still, after the ROWPU water has been pumped into a Smifty (that's a Semi Trailer Mounted Fabric Tank -- basically a huge, rubberized bag on a flat-bed truck), hauled to a battalion headquarters and transferred to a Water Buffalo, what comes out when a thirsty grunt turns the spigot may be less than palatable.

Worse, in some units this summer, ROWPU water got a rap for something other than tasting bad: It was rumored to be making soldiers sick.

Has your soldier asked you to send powdered drink mixes? If so, it is for perhaps two reasons.

Drink mixes help the 100 degree water go down easier...even the good stuff.

And the drink mixes mask, to some degree, the strong chlorine taste (and "off smell") of ROWPU water.

Granted, the bottled water is a logistical pain - although hell, we contract food service in many places, seems we could contract water delivery as well. Ultimately though, ROWPU water that isn't consumed does no one any good at all.

I was once in charge of the Army Food Program...we did everything possible to MREs to make them better and better. And they are pretty good...but not for 90 days in a row. The plan called for MREs only for no more than 30 days in a row and then fresh food would replace them.

Seems to me that's the trick we are in with water. You can't drink pool-water for 90 days in a row (or more) especially when you require a gallon or more of it every day.

And as for "mental toughness" GEN Keane...somehow I think working every day for months on end with no day off in 115 degree heat and eating mostly MREs probably serves to meet the "mental toughness" threshhold.

At least, it would for me.

DOING BUSINESS IN TIKRIT

Saddam's home town...but the tide turns there as well.

Events culminating in Tuesday's raid, witnessed by this reporter, highlight what US commanders say are strong links between some of Hussein's most ardent loyalists and the well-armed militias that are carrying out lethal attacks on American soldiers in Tikrit and across central Iraq.

Over the past 10 days in Tikrit, four-man cells of paramilitary fighters known as Saddam Fedayeen have launched a string of attacks on US soldiers using RPGs, explosive devices, and small arms.

Wearing black clothing - including black veils - and operating at night, some of the men's hands bear the three-dot tattoo of the Fedayeen.

US commanders were especially struck by the fact that many of the Fedayeen fighters they are apprehending or killing have close family ties to Hussein associates or bodyguards.

On July 23, for example, a team of Fedayeen in black garb riding in a white pickup truck loaded with munitions fired RPGs at US soldiers in Bradley Fighting Vehicles in Tikrit. US troops returned fire, killing all four assailants. Local Iraqis helped identify one of the dead as the nephew of Mr. Musslit, and those details helped lead, in turn, to Musslit's capture in Tikrit early Tuesday.

"Those closely associated with Saddam appear to be very desperate - they are sacrificing their own 20-year-olds," Russell said in the aftermath of the raid.

Read the whole thing here.

SO WHERE ARE WE?

Good rundown by commodity on the status of postwar-Iraq.

SCHOOLS: The coalition has completed 585 projects to rehabilitate schools, many of which lacked maintenance for at least a decade under Saddam's government. But many schools have been looted, and some parents say they won't send their children to classes until the streets are safer. Most universities have reopened, and have just finished final exams that were delayed by the war.

Q&A

With Washington Post reporters on what they've seen in Iraq.

Frankfort, Ky.: Do you think the resistance of the Baathist party members will be eliminated when Saddam is captured or killed?

Anthony Shadid: That's definitely the pressing question here. My sense in spending time in the area north of Baghdad, where the attacks are concentrated, is that Hussein's death or capture will diminish the resistance. But I don't believe it will end it, and I think one trend that may emerge in the coming months is a more apparent Islamic opposition -- both home-grown and imported -- that we've only started to see recently.

ANOTHER OF OUR OWN

A 35-year-old township native who joined the Army five years ago to find himself and lately only wanted to come home for a backyard barbecue with his loved ones is among the latest soldiers killed in Iraq.

Spc. William J. Maher III died Monday when his Humvee vehicle, traveling in a convoy, was rocked by a homemade bomb dropped from a highway overpass in central Baghdad.

His battalion, which is in the 36th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Armored Division, is training new Iraqi policemen, Maher's family said last night...

Billy Maher was the one who made their family proud and was their living symbol of patriotism.

"I love America, and I love Americana," Kelly Massimini said of the dozens of collectibles that dot her town house. But her other brother, 33-year-old Bryan, said it best in a letter to Maher III recently.

"I'm proud to be an American. My brother is in the U.S. Army, and I can't wait to shake a veteran's hand," Kelly said, reading a passage of the letter to Billy, who was so moved by his brother's words that he wrote them to Kelly.

Please pray.

YA' THINK?

"But I'm going to take a little risk here and I'm going to tell you that, you know, intuitively I think we need more people," General Schoomaker said with far more candor than usually is on display at confirmation hearings. "I mean, it's that simple."

The Chairman-select of the Joint Chiefs to the Senate Armed Services Committee on whether we need a larger Army.

Interestingly this doesn't fit in with the perception that Secretary Rumsfeld isn't keen on the idea of a larger Army, coupled with Schoomaker's being hand-picked by Rumsfeld even though the General had been retired for two years.

We'll have to keep an eye on the Secretary for clues on this.

Story here.

PRESERVATION BY INTERDICTION

No small matter - that is 45,000 sticks of dynamite that can no longer be used against our troops.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons has created a new wave of informers willing to help American troops, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

After arriving in Iraq on Sunday and talking with soldiers in the north, Myers said that an element of fear among citizens has been lifted.

“What I found today was in the number of Iraqis coming forward,” Myers said. “There’s been a big spike in the numbers that are coming forward providing evidence of weapons caches, of where people are.”...

He pointed to the find of 45,000 sticks of dynamite and a cache of ground-to-air missiles as further proof that more Iraqis are willing to help coalition troops.

It is just the beginning of things to come, Myers hinted.

“More Iraqis now are feeling freer to come forward,” he said. “I mean, fear ruled this country. You wouldn’t dare come forward in the past without fear that your children or some member of your family would be tortured or killed or drug off to jail. So, as you remove elements of fear, things become possible.”

ITS CALLED QOL.

Quality of Life. And the brass seems to be taking it seriously in Iraq.

Of course - they need to.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Commanders for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) have new marching orders from their leader, Gen. David Petraeus: After getting the mission done, make quality of life a priority for your soldiers...

“Anything they can do, as long as it’s not illegal or dangerous,” is allowed, he said.

In Iraq, where summer temperatures soar to more than 120 degrees during the day and rarely drop below 90 degrees, even at night, the priorities are simple, Hodges said: Make sure there is enough power to air-condition sleeping quarters; there is running water for toilet and shower facilities; and there is plenty of clean, cool water.

“The goal is to get one refrigerator per platoon,” Hodges said.

Beyond those goals, Petraeus’ other metrics include Internet and telephone access, timely mail, and the chance every few days to purchase safe and tasty meals that bear no resemblance to Meals, Ready to Eat, Hodges said.

Troops should also be offered rest-and-relaxation trips, “so they sleep between sheets and shower eight times, if they want to,” Hodges said.

THIS HAS TO PASS

At issue, whether soldiers can keep unused leave days beyond the "peace time limits' if deployed for long periods in the Global War on Terror.

Though they differ on much in the 2004 defense spending bill, both houses of Congress agree that servicemembers fighting America’s war on terrorism should be able to carry 120 days of leave to the next fiscal year.

For almost two years, troops engaged in the war on terrorism have been able to seek waivers to carry up to 90 days of annual accrued leave, a month more than the 60-day peacetime limit.

But the war on terrorism has committed more and more troops to regions far from home, and now the Army is calling for yearlong deployments to missions in Iraq, prompting some lawmakers to seek ways to better compensate those deployed troops, said aides for both the House and Senate armed service committees.

The measure is tucked into the 2004 defense budget proposal, now in conference as the House and Senate work out differences. The bill won’t be worked again until House members return from their summer recess on Sept. 2.

PROGRESS

Neighborhood councils.

There are 88 neighborhood advisory councils in Baghdad alone. None of them existed a few months ago. Representatives from each neighborhood were chosen to form eight district councils. From there, a few were picked to form the city council, which is currently meeting twice each week...

The councils aren’t exactly running the areas they’re responsible for.

Rather, they serve as a forum to discuss issues and try to resolve problems. They make recommendations to the military units in their areas or to the appropriate Iraqi ministries.

“This will get Iraqis to respond to Iraqis,” said Lt. Col. P.J. Dermer, another officer assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority. “Instead of 10,000 screaming Iraqis in front of a ministry building, they have a body now where hopefully they can work things through”

REST AND RELAXATION

First mention of R&R for the troops in Iraq. As of now it is meager, but I'm sure every bit helps.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — To bystanders, the blue- and-white bus that pulled into the dusty headquarters of the “Bastogne Bulldogs” early Monday morning looked like any other old bus.

But to the small crowd of 101st Airborne (Air Assault) soldiers gathered at Qayyarah West Airfield, a former military air base about 30 miles south of Mosul, it was far from any old bus.

It was “The Big Blue Bus” — destination, two nights’ fun, rest, and freedom from stress, worry and work.

“Basically, we get to relax,” said Pfc. Cristal Schorn, a 20-year-old from Schaumberg, Ill., who was busy repacking her bag before boarding the bus.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

July 29, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-88

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WEAPONS SIEZED IN MULTIPLE RAIDS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Possible attacks were prevented through the removal of enemy weapons during multiple raids throughout Iraq on July 28 by Coalition forces in support of the effort to create a secure environment.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) conducted a raid on a local café in search of a person who allegedly attacked various police stations in the Mosul area. The soldiers detained 10 individuals and confiscated two AK-47s and 400,000 Iraqi Dinars.

A large weapons cache was located at a café in the Layal area by the 4th Infantry Division. The soldiers confiscated a number of weapons including two 120 mm mortars, two 82 mm mortars, two 60 mm mortars and three rocket-propelled grenade launchers. More than 2000 RPG rounds and an unknown number of 82 mm and 60 mm mortar rounds remain in the café, which is being guarded by Coalition forces.

Coalition forces detained three Iraqi males and confiscated one van, three AK-47s, and ammunition when the 4th ID closed an illegal checkpoint in the vicinity of one of its base camps. Another 4th ID patrol confiscated 1,000 grenades that were hidden in a haystack in the vicinity of Salman Pak.

Another 4th ID patrol located a cache of weapons in Samarra in an area normally filled with vendors. All of the vendors fled the area as the patrol approached. Confiscated weapons include two tubes of C4 plastic explosives, eight AK-47s, 18 strips of detonation cord, 32 silencers, 49 blasting caps, 15 sticks of dynamite, three improvised explosive devices, two grenades, 2,500 various small arms rounds and an ammunition container filled with NATO 5.56 rounds.

Possible attacks were prevented by a 1st Armored Division explosive ordnance disposal team who conducted a controlled detonation of 10-107 mm rockets in the Baghdad area.

In the last 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 58 raids, 973 day patrols and 797 night patrols and conducted 167 day patrols and 137 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi Police conducted 20 day patrols and 11 night patrols.

The total raids and patrols resulted in 176 arrests for various criminal activities including 17 for murder, two for kidnapping, five for car-jacking, five for aggravated assault, 10 for burglary and two for looting.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30th. The 80th day of CPT Patti's deployment.

Philieas Fogg would be home by now. CPT Patti is not.

THEY PUBLISH BODY COUNTS, WHY NOT THIS?

Today's Raped-By-Uday Count Stands at Zero

Go see it here.

(via Instapundit)

"I WANT TO HELP THEM HELP ME"

BAGHDAD, July 29 — Sitting at a rickety desk with only a ceiling fan to cool Baghdad's searing summer air, Sajida hopes learning English will help her talk to the U.S. soldiers she sees as saviours.

It could also save her life.

She and the four other students in her beginners' English conversation class at Baghdad's Mamoun language institute are trying to gain an upper hand in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq -- where the streets are largely ruled by U.S. soldiers.

Few soldiers have a command of Arabic and misunderstandings have been blamed for more than one fatal checkpoint shooting.

But Sajida has other aims in learning a language she feels will open up a world previously closed to her by Saddam.

''If I have any information about Fedayeen or Saddam's followers, I must tell them. We must make friends with the Americans. I see them as angels. I call them God's army,'' said Sajida, a Shi'ite Muslim who says her two brothers were killed by Saddam...

At Mamoun, around three dozen students hope the barely audible decades-old language tapes they are using will help win them jobs at U.S. companies they expect to pour into Iraq.

''Saddam Hussein made us backward,'' one student said. ''We didn't learn the computer. We didn't learn English language very good.''

Asked if they feel anything other than gratitude toward U.S.-led troops who have occupied Iraq for more than three months, the students clam up and avert their eyes.

But when pressed, they say they are less than satisfied though keen to get along.

''The electricity is not very good. The water is not good,'' said Jaafar, a student trained as a maths teacher who said he was denied work under Saddam.

''We have not seen anything from the United States of what they promised,'' he said. ''I want to help them help me.''

You know what brother? We can work with that.

(via Instapundit)

A SIGN I'VE BEEN TOO FOCUSED?

"It's not too often you have three receivers who can all run 4.3 40s," Walker said. "We all complement each other. The way we are, defenses can't really key on one person because we all have the speed to be vertical and we have the speed to go the distance. With a quarterback like Brett, hopefully, we can perform like we are all capable of, and he'll stick around even longer knowing what he will have to throw to."

Less than two hours into the first practice of camp, Favre rifled a 30-yard spiral that teased Ferguson, who zipped behind a defender but needed to extend his body in the air for the catch. Packers fans went agog at the sight of the reception. Favre got a brief second of inspiration and moved on to the next play.

"By far, this is the most talent at that position that I have ever played with as a whole," Favre said. "There is a lot of inexperience. In some ways, it's fun. There is a lot of energy. It is a lot easier to deal with guys when they make mistakes at full speed. I think the potential is there to put up a lot of points. It's much like the Rams several years ago. There is a lot of size, speed and ability."

I failed to note, until today, that football teams are in training camp.

Me, I happen to like the Packers (the Army had me 3 years in Wisconsin, during which time they won the Super Bowl...uh, I sort of HAD to become a fan out of sheer self preservation...)

Anyway - with CPT Patti in Baghdad, it tends to be the weekends that stretch out interminably for me. Start of the Football season should help that problem a bit.

For the record, though...CPT Patti is a football fan too.

Her favorite team? Whoever I'm pulling for. What a wonderful wife.

C'mon home soon, darlin'. I miss ya.

DEAR SADDAM

An open letter to Saddam by Art Buchwald.

I know you are not happy that the U.S. Army preferred to have your sons dead, rather than alive. You have every right to be unhappy. There were hundreds of soldiers outside their house and not one read them their rights.

Saddam, I know you are having a tough summer. But as time goes on the pain will heal.

You must be getting thousands of sympathy cards and e-mails. You may not even read this one. But I had to write it.

I know that when someone dies, he will be greeted by 17 virgins. Despite the number of virgins the Hussein boys deflowered on Earth, I am sure the two will demand their share when Allah meets them in Heaven.

You have my condolences,

Art

Thanks to Defense Contractor guy for the tip.

HEAT FELLING THE BRITS

While CPT Patti says her company will all be air-conditioned this week, the Brits seem to have a problem further south.

They are a lot closer to the gulf, and it would seem suffer higher humidity rates than those found in Baghdad.

Concerns include tents with no air-conditioning in 120F, having to drink "blood-temperature" bottled water because of a shortage of refrigerators, and fly-infested chemical toilets.

While the cash-strapped Czech Republic has provided its military police detachment under UK command with cooled sleeping quarters and cold drinks, British troops are suffering exhaustion from working in temperatures of more than 110 degrees during the day and then being unable to sleep in humid night conditions where the thermometer seldom falls below 70 degrees.

One military policeman, recently evacuated by air suffering from heat prostration, said: "There were 40 others from the brigade in the same condition on my flight alone. Servicemen and women are being expected to live in conditions which have not improved since the war.

"The only thing that's changed is the temperature. It's gone up by 30 degrees."

A corporal added: "If you can't sleep because of the heat, your efficiency and general health decline rapidly. People are in a state of collapse after three or four days. Most of us are still 'bird-bathing' in water from bowser trucks poured into metal or plastic basins.

"The chemical Portaloos are unusable between eleven in the morning and five at night. They become individual ovens, stinking and filled with flies. We were better off using shovels to create our own individual toilets out in the desert."

A Scottish private said: "The biggest problem is having to get at least 10 litres of water down your neck every day to avoid dehydration. None of it is cool. Most of it is blood temperature. Even the EFI, the forces shop, doesn't have enough refrigeration capacity.

"During the conflict, everyone expected to have to rough it. Three months down the line, you'd think the Ministry of Defence would at least get us a few more fridges ... The people in Whitehall should try living here for a few days."

Oops! Wonder if that last comment will invite punishment much as did the candid remarks to reporters by US troops...

MOMENTUM

BAGHDAD, Iraq July 29 — Iraq's Governing Council, the 25-member body set up by the U.S.-led coalition to run Iraq as an interim administration, elected a nine-member presidency Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, American soldiers overpowered and arrested a bodyguard who rarely left Saddam Hussein's side and said they obtained documents and information that could help them close in on the former dictator.

Read the whole story...good details here.

USING THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN

A new audiotape attributed to Saddam Hussein and broadcast Tuesday on Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya acknowledges the death of the ousted dictator's two sons last week.

The tape - the third attributed to Saddam this month - begins with a verse from the Quran. The speaker says Odai and Qusai, killed in a gunfight with U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, would be martyrs in heaven.

"Thank God for what he destined for us, and honored us with their martyrdom for his sake,'' the speaker said in the broadcast, which was monitored in Cairo.

Disgusting.

I admit I haven't read the Q'uran lately, but if the heaven it proposes includes those two, well count me out.

GOOD NEWS HERE

"It's quite extraordinary to see the way American soldiers are welcomed. To see the work that they're doing — and not just rolling up these filthy networks of Ba'athists and jihadists — but building schools, opening soccer stadiums, helping connect to the Internet, there is a really intelligent political program as well as a very tough military one."

Because the daily lives of Iraqis are improving and political stability is increasing, Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot reports from Najaf that, "The majority aren't worried we'll stay too long; they're petrified we'll leave too soon."

AMAZING PROGRESS

This is in Fallujah, the most dangerous of Iraqi cities.

Alarmed at attacks by angry relatives, U.S. Army officers in Fallujah did something unusual for the American military but common in rural Iraq. In an effort to ease the desire for revenge, they delivered formal apologies to local tribal sheiks and paid blood money for every dead and injured person deemed not to be a combatant.

The compensation payments -- $1,500 for a death and $500 for an injury -- are regarded by Fallujah's political, tribal and religious leaders as one of several bold strategies employed by U.S. commanders here over the past few weeks to appease a city brimming with discontent. Officers have ordered soldiers to knock on doors before conducting most residential searches. They have also permitted the mayor to field a 75-member armed militia and doled out nearly $2 million on municipal improvements instead of waiting for private American contractors to arrive...

In the turquoise-domed Abdelaziz Samarrai mosque, prayer leader Mekki Hussein Kubeisi used to rail against the presence of U.S. troops in this city. On Friday, he urged hundreds of men in ankle-length tunics to "be patient" and not to tolerate people who resort to violence.

At city hall, the U.S.-endorsed mayor, Taha Bedawi, said residents "have become much happier because they don't see as many American Army vehicles on the streets."

"The tension is reducing every day," he said. "We are seeing a change. People are starting to realize that the soldiers are not here to occupy Fallujah forever -- they're here to help us rebuild."

Even Saleh, whose right foot was amputated after the school shooting, has mellowed. "I have nothing against them now," he said as he showed off five crisp $100 bills he received from the U.S. military by way of the mayor.

He said that U.S. soldiers have visited his house four times -- to apologize, to provide a medical check-up and twice to assess damages to his property. "They've changed my opinions," said Saleh, 41, who hobbles around on crutches. "I used to hate them, but now I realize they made a mistake and they really want to help us."

Read the whole thing here.

GOOD LOCAL COVERAGE.

Giving us a glimpse of reunion.

His mother recognized the difference immediately. Physically, Army Pvt. Michael Chavez was a little thinner, a little older looking. He walked with more confidence, and his maturity found its way into every conversation.

War had changed Chavez. The sleepless nights. The close call when a mortar shell exploded 15 feet from his truck. The two weeks without a shower. The children begging for food. The new appreciation for having a roof over his head.

"He's actually a man now," Rebeca Corona said of her 21-year-old son.

Corona and Chavez are among the families in the Northern San Joaquin Valley reuniting after months of worrying and waiting during war.

Sunday at his house in Newman, Chavez dressed in blue jeans and a blue plaid button-down shirt -- a nice change from the brown Army uniform he had lived in for months.

"I thought about home everyday," he said. "You appreciate everything a lot more after coming through something like that."

Chavez's unit -- the 123rd Signal Battalion -- was one of the first groups to arrive in Kuwait in early January. In the months before the war, the troops spent the days training in the desert.

"Every now and then we'd build a sand castle just to keep the morale up," he said.

'A THEATER OF THE ABSURD"

Moqtada Sadr is an angry young man. He is also a suspect in a double murder investigation, but that's not official yet. For now he is simply a pest.

He is a pest to the point that the United States' First Marine Division has designed a psychological operations campaign just for him, which they are relatively quite about. They don't want to confer the legitimacy as an anti-American firebrand that he seems to crave. So they publicly ignore him, and in subtle ways undermine him where they can.

"He's more of an annoyance than a threat," says Lt. Col. Christopher Conlin, the commander of the Marines' 1st battalion, 7th regiment, in residence at a dusty technical college on the outskirts of the city.

Conlin doesn't look like your stereotypical Marine. He's lithe and small, with thick black brows that arch over clear gray eyes and make him look perpetually bemused. Conlin is credited by both headquarters and the lowest grunt in his unit for his deft touch with the notoriously touchy Iraqis. The city, the spiritual center for Shiites the world over, should have been a powder keg for the U.S. occupiers. Instead it has been an oasis of tranquility relative to Baghdad, just 60 miles north.

Take last Sunday: Some 4,000 of Sadr's supporters (though Sadr says there were 10,000) staged a demonstration on the college that serves as home to the small military team charged with restoring Najaf. It holds the tomb of Ali, who, as the son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Mohammad, is the martyred father of Shiites.

Conlin is all for pubic demonstrations -- what better way to practice democracy? But this one was getting ugly. Marines in town had been roughed up, and a quick reaction force had to be called out to guard the barracks.

Conlin has worked long and hard to win the trust of the people of Najaf through his soft-power approach: His Marines don't wear body armor when they are out in town. They pass out candy to kids. They take off their sunglasses when talking to people, so they can look into the Americans' eyes and know they are not threat. It works. Not a single Marine has died in Iraq from hostile fire since April 20. The Army has lost nearly 40.

These demonstrators -- hooligans, by Conlin's estimation -- were not from Najaf. They had come down in buses and cars from Baghdad and Fallujah at Sadr's urging, specifically to cause trouble.

The Friday before, Sadr preached at the nearby Kufa mosque against the Americans, feeding the fears and hostility of his predominantly out-of-town congregation. Before they boarded buses for home, some of them beat up a newly minted blue-shirted Kufa police officer who had been directing traffic.

On Saturday, Sadr called the local television station -- there is only one -- with a cry for help. His house, the house of his late and beloved father, was under siege by the Marines. They had surrounded him and were going to take him to jail, or worse.

The station manager aired the report, despite the fact his reporters on the scene were unable to detect an American presence, Conlin said.

"We don't even know where he lives," he said. "We weren't there."

Sadr's followers came to his rescue the next day, marching on the partially built university that serves as home to the government support team, soldiers and Marines overseeing the rebuilding of hospitals, schools, roads, sewers, electricity and much more.

As the crowd surged toward the compound singing songs in praise of Sadr, Conlin had his Marines sing back to them the songs they use to keep time when running. Not the baudy ones, he noted with a sheepish smile.

"We were trying to orchestrate a theater of the absurd," Conlin laughs.

But when the crowd turned angry, he ordered the guards to "fix bayonets" -- strap a knife to the end of their rifles and prepare for hand-to-hand combat. It would kill fewer people than using the guns. If these demonstrators wanted trouble, they were going to get it.

"You don't hear that order every day," one of his officers laughed later. "Pretty much not since World War II."

The threat of bayonets did the trick. The crowd, made up of young men who have lived with the constant threat of violence under the Saddam Hussein's Baathists for so many years, backed down, and Conlin told them his men did not surround the house.

"You write up your statements, and I'll write up mine, and we'll present them to Sestani and let him decide," Conlin told the demonstrators. They did not take him up on his offer.

They boarded their buses for the north -- many for "Sadr city" the vast Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad, but not before Sadr had accomplished his goal. The dramatic footage from the protest condemning the U.S. occupation of Iraq was broadcast around the world on CNN and al-Jazeera. Sadr was now one to watch in the eyes of the media.

The station manager, apparently in league with Sadr, resigned his post on Monday. The Marines found out he was pocketing a large percentage of the generous salaries they had arranged for the 42 employees in an attempt to kick start a free media. He was given a choice: Retract the statement and resign, or they would tell the staff about the money he had been stealing from them. He recanted the report and quit his job.

Back at the Marine post, the crowd had trampled a local farmer's new crop and broken his irrigation pipes. The Marines paid for their repair.

"He's got little green shoots already, did you see it?" Conlin said.

Read the rest here...you will be glad you did.

"REPUBLIC OF FEAR"

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) ''Republic of Fear,'' the chilling portrayal of Saddam Hussein's brutality, was a landmark in its exiled author's long intellectual journey of discovery. Now, Kanan Makiya has returned to an Iraq his words helped expose and says he finds it a vexing and complex landscape.

Makiya returned to Baghdad on April 21 for the first time in 34 years. He said the return has been an exhilarating ride meeting long-unseen relatives, old friends, reclaiming the family's Baghdad home on the Tigris River and negotiating access to government documents in now in U.S. hands...

''There won't be any clarity in this country for many, many years to come,'' Makiya, the son of a wealthy architect, said in an interview. ''Nothing simple is happening here, nothing simple is going on here.''

His countrymen, he said, aren't ready for the massive changes Iraq must undergo. Many fellow Iraqis, he said, can't shake the fear that is a legacy of Saddam's brutality.

Makiya, who was a leading member of the anti-Saddam Iraqi National Congress, pointed to the deep disbelief among some Iraqis over news that Saddam's sons Odai and Qusai were killed.

''They are afraid to even allow themselves the liberty of thinking that (the sons) might be dead. This is the fear and terror that was deeply instilled in the very inner fiber of their being,'' he said...

To make it work, Makiya insisted, Iraqis must understand the full magnitude of Saddam's crimes.

Toward that goal, Makiya set up the ''Memory Foundation,'' a non-governmental body that will catalogue and index 2.4 million regime documents captured by the Kurds during their 1991 uprising against Saddam and 800,000 others seized by the U.S.-led force that retook Kuwait from the Iraqi army in the 1991 Gulf War.

With those, in addition to new documents seized by the U.S. military in the war that ousted Saddam, Makiya predicted the foundation would have the tools to help Iraqis learn what happened to missing loved ones.

He said he would raise money for ''the Iraqi version of a Holocaust museum'' in Baghdad where Saddam built a monument of two crossed swords to commemorate Iraq's 1980-88 war with neighboring Iran...

Makiya said he saw the U.S. decision to invade Iraq and remove Saddam as a reflection of a post-Sept. 11 policy of breaking with authoritarian Arab regimes that, while friendly to U.S. interests, had become breeding grounds for Muslim militants.

Of 19 hijackers who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, 15 came from Saudi Arabia and one from Egypt two of Washington's closest Arab allies.

Makiya, like many in today's Iraq, accused Arab governments and the Cairo-based Arab League of maintaining silence about Saddam's crimes in return for the dictator's largesse.

''We in Iraq have the ability to turn this around, but if the Arab world is not willing to come along, we will do it alone. We'll try to do it alone,'' he said, conceding that ''the chances of failure are high.''

HOME

Pfc. Joel Niemann was in the first group of army soldiers across the Kuwaiti border when president bush ordered the invasion of Iraq back in March. He is visiting his wife and family this week at his folks' home in Connecticut and he says his biggest fear was poison gas...

How does it feel to be home?

"It almost didn't feel like reality...coming home and seeing my family," he says.

"It felt like you're away for so long and it's hard to keep in contact with them."

Don't we know it, friend.

SEPTEMBER 1ST FOR COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS?

It will be interesting to see if this happens, and mark it on our PROGRESS scale.

British Airways Plc and Deutsche Lufthansa AG are among more than 20 airlines that have applied to fly in and out of Baghdad International Airport once it opens, the New York Times reported on its Web site.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV is already listing Baghdad in its reservation system with four weekly flights starting Sept. 1 provided it gets approval, the newspaper said. American administrators in Baghdad are expected to initially grant permission to only one or a few airlines to fly in and out of the airport, the newspaper said.

"THE PRIMARY TARGET WAS ACHIEVED"

More progress in Tikrit.

TIKRIT, Iraq -- Early-morning raids in Tikrit on Tuesday netted a Saddam Hussein bodyguard and two associates of the deposed Iraqi leader, a U.S. military official said.

"The primary target was achieved," according to Lt. Col. Steve Russell of the 4th Infantry Division. "It worked out very well."

"It was the very close associate bodyguard of Saddam Hussein -- longtime bodyguard -- inner circle to his immediate family."

According to Russell, the Army captured all the people targeted in the raids.

"Saddam's close associates seem to be very desperate," he said.

TWO THINGS ARE ALWAYS TRUE.

Somebody has it better than you, and somebody has it worse.

This unit has worse living conditions than CPT Patti's crew in downtown Baghdad.

Any garrison-based soldiers unhappy with their current living conditions might like to try a few months out here at Qayyarah West Airfield, a former military air base about 30 miles south of Mosul in northern Iraq...

The airfield where the brigade’s headquarters element of roughly 150 people stays defines the word “austere.”

Looking out from the sidewalks of the main headquarters compound on a glaring Saturday morning, there is nothing but dirt piles and broken concrete revetments as far as the eye can see.

The baking heat adds to the desolation, although soldiers here say that the fierce sun is beginning to abate slightly, July traditionally being the hottest month. In practical terms, that means the nights are almost tolerable, even without air conditioning. But daytime temperatures still soar into the 100s.

Troops typically get up around 5 a.m. for physical training, so they can get the job done while the weather is bearable. They are then assigned to 12-hour work shifts...

Soldiers here use Army standard burn-out latrines. Human waste goes into barrels, which are filled with gasoline and burned every evening, filling the air with an unmistakable aroma.

There are usually two hot meals served daily, breakfast and dinner. Lunch is Meals, Ready to Eat. Occasionally breakfast does not materialize, but “it’s more rare to miss a hot meal” than to get it, Hayes said.

FUN ON THE TIGRIS

For soldiers who paid attention during high school history classes, a trip on the Tigris River has more significance than a typical patrol through the capital city.

“This is like you read it in the text books,” Pfc. Justin Brown, says as he scans the banks of the river for possible trouble. “It’s just awesome.”...

“Our section got volunteered for this mission,” said the native of Chico, Calif. “I didn’t know how much fun it was going to be.”

“Fun” is not a word generally used to describe a patrol in Baghdad. And there are certainly elements of the river patrols that aren’t fun.

The reservists, who hail mostly from Oregon and Washington, have been conducting the patrols since April. They’ve come under fire several times. And they know they’re more vulnerable while they’re riding the waters.

But it’s a change of pace for most soldiers. Brown’s battalion usually rides around in tanks, although his job is working in supplies.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

July 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-86

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, THREE WOUNDED IN CONVOY ATTACK

BAGHDAD, Iraq--One 1st Armored Division soldier died and three others were wounded at approximately 11:40 a.m. July 28 when an unknown number of individuals dropped an improvised explosive device from an overpass onto their convoy as it was traveling through the Al Rashid district of Baghdad.

The soldiers were taken to a nearby medical facility. Two of the soldiers have been returned to duty.

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The incident is under investigation.


July 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-87


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN A VEHICLE ACCIDENT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Army soldier died and one was injured in a vehicle accident at approximately 2:30 p.m. on July 28, while traveling south along Highway 1 north of An Nasiriyah.

The soldiers were evacuated to a nearby medical facility.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The incident is under investigation.

TUESDAY. JULY 29th. The 79th day of CPT Patti's deployment.

WHAT ONE SOLDIER SHARES WITH HIS MOTHER ABOUT BAGHDAD.

Recently I've received some mail from loved ones of other soldiers deployed to Iraq.

It occured to me that they might have news from their soldiers to help the rest fill in our own mental picture of what it is like over there.

Here, the mother of SGT Ryan (I wont use last names) of B Co, 16th Engineer Brigade shares with us anecdotes she has received from her son.

I talked with him on the phone recently and he sounded the best I've heard him since being in Baghdad. He was very up beat and said he was doing well. He had been pulling guard duty and patrols, but recently he has been building a wall around the base camp.

In one of our conversations he talked about the children and how they hang around the soldiers and say things like, "We love you Americans". "

He said "The children want to touch me and they hold up Iraqi money with Saddam's face on it and spit on it and say pooie"

He said "the Iraqi people seem friendly most of the time, but I do what you told me to do Mom and I watch my back all the time"

At one point they went to a house and went inside to search it and he said there was 6 kids there in a room all under the age of 5 or 6 years old and they were all crying and scared and he would smile at them to try and keep them from being scared.

He said " Mom, I don't know how people live like this, the conditions are so bad it's hard to believe that people live in some of these places".

And hard to believe our soldiers are making freedom possible for folks who live in those places.

Thank you SGT Ryan for what you are doing.

ASTUTE COMMENTARY ON IRAQ

If the United States is going to succeed in its campaign to remake Iraq, its proconsuls here must find, draw in and then rapidly get out of the way of Iraqis ready to erase the cruelty of Hussein's regime. That is a huge task in a country with a population so traumatized by a half-century of tyranny, constant war and isolation that it is wary about openly engaging in politics, and where a sizeable minority benefited from Baath Party rule.

Traveling on a U.S. military transportation network that spans Iraq's insular, fragmented regions, I found in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Salahaddin and Kirkuk and elsewhere a still uneven mosaic of American-Iraqi cooperation that must now be rapidly extended. This nascent cooperation was evident across the region north of Baghdad and the so-called Sunni triangle, and in the Shiite south. Outside the Sunni triangle, as the area where most Sunnis live has come to be known, Iraq is much calmer than I expected from daily dispatches and television accounts that rarely treat sustained progress as news. The joint American-British occupation authority is making real progress in handing over responsibility to local authorities.

American generals in the north recognize their most urgent challenge far better than the occupation authorities in Baghdad. "We don't want other American troops to replace us," an Army one-star general from the 4th Infantry Division said at a background briefing in Kirkuk. "Turning things over to another U.S. military unit doesn't solve the problem here. We have to turn over to Iraqis."...

The needs of Iraqis for security, electricity, water and their own political leadership -- in a sense, for the freedom to cross the street -- cannot be delayed in interminable fashion while the State Department pursues a regional strategy that gives priority to Arab politics over Iraq's development, while the Pentagon lets bureaucratic norms determine the shape of a new Iraqi army, and while the two departments fight each other at every step for American, not Iraqi, reasons.

In his cavernous office in one of Hussein's more grotesque Baghdad palaces the other day, President Bush's special representative, L. Paul Bremer, argued that U.S. engagement can succeed here -- over time. Bremer may be right, but my question is whether he will have that time, whether American impatience can be contained while progress moves at an ambiguous pace and setbacks get broadcast loudly in our 24/7 media. Fortunately, Bremer suddenly seems like a man in a hurry, ready to turn over greater responsibility to Iraqis whom he initially treated with great wariness...

Petraeus has put his considerable energy and prestige behind that sentiment. He charged ahead on establishing militia units in the Mosul region while the idea was still being debated by other commanders. He tells his subordinates that "money is ammunition in this struggle," and exhorts them to find and complete community action tasks as quickly as possible. School counts, rather than body counts, are his measuring rod of progress.

The 101st has spent $6.5 million on 1,398 projects so far in a spurt of unabashed nation-building that has cost U.S. taxpayers nothing. The Commanders Emergency Response Funds that Petraeus has tapped into come from $1.7 billion in Baathist regime assets seized in U.S. banks and $795 million in Hussein's cash seized by American soldiers.

"It makes a difference that on the day after we have to go into a neighborhood and kick in the gates to find bad guys that we come back to repair the gates, pass out soccer balls and roasted chickens and pay the kids to paint over bad graffiti," Lt. Col. Michael Meese told me.

Read the whole thing.

OH OH.

BAGHDAD, July 28 — A U.S. patrol was attacked with a grenade in broad daylight in central Baghdad on Monday, and two soldiers were badly wounded and possibly killed.

PROGRESS

Early attempts at governing.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27 — After years of dictatorship, local Baghdad councils met for the first time in joint session Sunday to discuss the capital's infrastructure and how to improve the lives of residents.

In a scene unimaginable before the capital fell to U.S. invaders 3 1/2 months ago, the Baghdad Interim City Advisory Council, the Interim Advisory Neighborhood Council of Baghdad's 88 neighborhoods, and representatives from the U.S.-backed Governing Council held their first joint meeting.

Local leaders trooped to the podium to talk about life in the city.

''It is the beginning of enfranchisement of the Iraqi cities, especially in Baghdad,'' said Samir Shakir Mahmoud, member of the Governing Council who attended the meeting...

Al-Thawra, a sprawling Shiite-majority slum in Baghdad known for years as Saddam city, was named al-Sadr City after the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who was killed by Saddam's regime in 1999. The April 7 district, named for the day when Saddam's Baath Party was created, was renamed April 9, the day Baghdad fell to the Americans.

Heh.

THOSE WHO JUST CAN'T STAND SUCCESS

Seems these days it isn't about what you stand for - rather what you stand against that defines you.

And many outside the US define themselves as anti-America, while many inside define themselves as anti-Bush, even at the peril of being apologetic over the emerging success in Iraq.

Who's the odd one out here? The BBC, CBC and most of the European media have constructed an alternative universe and are content to frolic on its wilder shores.

Time stands still in this world: Even though the confidently predicted civilian death tolls and humanitarian catastrophes never arrive, nobody minds. There's no reason why reality should ever intrude.

Unfortunately, Dean, Gephardt and about half the other Democratic candidates still live in the real world--or, more to the point, their would-be constituents do. These candidates are obliged to be, in Bill Clinton's words, ''politically viable.''

At the BBC and Le Monde and the Sydney Morning Herald, anti-Americanism is the New Universal Theory: It explains everything; it's the prism through which every event is viewed. But it's an unlikely strategy for American electioneering.

One anti-Bush Democrat at a protest the other day carried a sign reading ''FRANCE WAS RIGHT!'' That's not a winning slogan, even in Vermont.

What happened this week is a foretaste of what the party can expect in the next 15 months: Reality will keep intruding, and if the Dems keep moving the goalposts ever more frantically, pretty soon they'll be campaigning from Planet Zongo.

This week, Tom Daschle insisted that Odai and Qusai were all very well, but where was the Big Guy? Why hadn't that slacker Bush caught him yet?

Read it all, please.

GOOD LOCAL COVERAGE ABOUT ONE OF OUR OWN.

The job for Decker and his unit -- 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, 2-37 Battalion -- includes conducting night patrols, staffing checkpoints, participating in a quick-reaction force, and finding and marking unexploded bombs and ammunition in neighborhoods.

Decker and his platoon of tankmates also trained Iraqi civilian guards to work their sector of Baghdad and have provided security assistance at what is considered the most important power plant in the city. The plant controls the nation's power grid.

Iraqi support

Those tasks have put Decker in contact with many Iraqis. Saddam City is a large slum area where mostly Shiite Muslims live. The Shiites were oppressed by Saddam Hussein, who is a Sunni Muslim. Thus, most people in the area welcome the Americans, Decker said.

"The kids are always waving, give us the thumbs up and saying ‘We love America,'" Decker said. "There are always people who give you dirty looks, but most people are generally happy we're here."

But that doesn't lessen the danger.

Not long after Decker arrived, a mine exploded, killing one soldier and wounding a second. But there have been no more such incidents in the 1st Armored territory since night patrols began sweeping roads and bridges for explosives.

July 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-84

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SECURITY TOPS HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) continue to graduate police officers from academies throughout the Mosul area while 1st Armored Division soldiers are training the Iraqi Police Services in modern policing techniques.

The 101st AAD’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, nicknamed the “Rakassans,” graduated 60 police officers July 26 from their academy in Sinjar. The new police officers will serve as future cadre for the academy. New classes are scheduled to start this week.

Soldiers from the 101st AAD have also started training a new class of officers for the Iraqi Facility Protection Security Force. The FPSF provides security at power plants, water treatment plants and at other infrastructure locations. The long-term goal of the FPSF is to take over the duties of American soldiers and Iraqi police who currently guard key sites.

Soldiers from the 101st AAD have also started a three-day Correctional Officer Course. The course is being held at the Temporary Juvenile Prison near Mosul. Although course content between the various academies varies, classes basically include instruction in security duties and responsibilities, medical first aid, apprehension techniques, professionalism and ethics, weapons safety and rifle marksmanship.

Military Police from the 1st AD began training the second class of Iraqi police officers July 26 as part of the Training Integration Program in Baghdad. The program is designed to introduce modern policing techniques to the IPS. The 1st AD soldiers are teaching IPS officers about crime scene investigation, application of citizens’ rights, appropriate use of force and level of response and police response to incidents and complaints.

The current class includes 200 IPS officers. Once the program is fully operational more than 4,000 Iraqi police will have completed the training.


July 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-85

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION FORCES CONTINUE PATROLS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces continued to conduct patrols and raids throughout Iraq, removing former regime loyalist, in support of the effort to create a secure environment.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) detained two former regime loyalist brothers confiscating $100,000 to $200,000, 30-40 million Iraqi Dinar and three AK-47s in the process.

While conducting a routine patrol, a unit of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment discovered large caliber ammunition, consisting of several primers and 130 mm rounds, at a house in the area. Seven individuals were detained for questioning. Third ACR engineers destroyed the ammunition.

Military Police of the 4th Infantry Division confiscated a weapons cache, consisting of 48 57 mm anti-aircraft rounds, in Samarra on July 27. An Iraqi man was detained for questioning.

Two high-ranking former regime loyalists were detained in separate raids on July 26. 1st Armored Division detained a former colonel in the Babil area. The 101st AD detained a high-ranking individual in Irbil.

A 1st Marine Expeditionary Force weapons company discovered an incomplete assembled improvised explosive device consisting of a 120 mm round with a grenade attached to it. The IED was located near a bridge on a heavily traveled road in the Al Hillah area. An explosive ordnance disposal team was dispatched to dispose of the IED.

Also in the Al Hillah area, Iraqi Facility Protection Service guards prevented armed thieves from entering the bus assembly plant by engaging them with small arms fire.

In the last 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 29 raids, 1,096 day patrols and 889 night patrols and conducted 122 day patrols and 139 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi Police conducted 13 day patrols and 14 night patrols.

The total raids and patrols resulted in 241 arrests for various criminal activities including four for murder, one for kidnapping, 19 for car jacking, six for aggravated assault, 16 for burglary and 10 for looting.

MONDAY, JULY 28th. The 78th day of CPT Patti's deployment.

WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

Read them both, please, then make up your own mind.

The first story is published by Reuters on July 25th (please keep that date in mind when you see dates mentioned in the story...not only can they not substantiate their accusations, they can't even find accusations that are less than a month old.)

The second story is a Blog (like this one) kept by a warrant officer in Iraq who is responsible to operate a prison facility for the POWs and captured criminals in Iraq.

And keep in mind that Saddam simply opened the gates to all prisons as his army melted away. So every murderer and rapist in Iraq is on the streets...or was when we took over.

Anyway - please read both and then ask yourself which rings true in your ear.

Story 1. BAGHDAD - Iraqis detained by U.S. troops have complained of torture and degrading treatment, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

There were also reports of troops shooting detainees, the London-based human rights watchdog said in a report based on interviews with former prisoners of the Americans across Iraq...

"Detainees continue to report suffering extreme heat while housed in tents; insufficient water; inadequate washing facilities; open trenches for toilets; no change of clothes, even after two months' detention," Amnesty said.

Amnesty has said thousands are held in prisons run by U.S. troops. They include Abu Ghraib, one the most feared jails under Saddam, and Camp Cropper near Baghdad's airport.

The human rights group said it had received several reports of cases of detainees who have died in custody, "mostly as a result of shooting by members of the coalition forces."

Amnesty said 22-year-old Alaa Jassem was killed when soldiers fired on detainees during a riot on June 13 at Abu Ghraib. Demonstrators threw bricks and poles at the soldiers.

And now the other piece.

Story 2: Yes they live in extremely hot conditions, where the mean temperature inside the tent is over 120 degrees. Well welcome to our world. Hello, we live in there country right along side them, where the mean temperature outside is over 130 degrees, what do you expect. We all live in the same kind of tents under the same conditions with out air conditioning. Why isn’t someone complaining about our conditions?

Yes we have thousands of prisoners, there was a war here you know and now we have criminals running around out of control. Most of the military personnel have been released (except a handful of generals) leaving only the criminals who have been out murdering, stealing, and committing crimes against humanity like rape. What should we do just let them out to run through the streets committing additional crimes. Hello, we still have Americans being killed, give me a break. Whose side are these people on?

Even so, regardless of their crimes, we feed the prisoners plenty of food twice a day, food prepared right next to where my food is prepared. We make every effort to provide them with food of their own liking, ethnic food as close to their own as possible. Prepared by people from this region of the world. We buy food right off of the economy in this region.

We give them new t-shirts, new jump suites, additional clothing when ever needed, slippers, flip flops, socks and on and on. They get plenty of supplies, so much that many of the prisoners save the additional items for their families. They have soap, shampoo, towels and all the other stuff necessary for their needs. Many of the prisoners have had huge boxes of saved up supplies they would like given to their families when they come to visit. We provide them with cots to sleep on, blankets when necessary, and cot mattresses if wanted. The medics come by every morning to see if they have any ailments. They have showers, plenty of water, soccer balls, and many other items for their comfort.

This is a prisoner of war camp, now transitioning over to being a prison. If you were to look at a list of why these men are being detained you would see that most of them are here because they have either committed some violent crime or have attempted to attack or kill an American. Regardless of their crimes we continue to believe in their human rights and make every effort to consider their needs. How many people in the world would believe in the rights of a criminal who has just been arrested for trying to kill one of their own? I have seen interrogation teams from all over the world conduct interrogations, witnessed first hand their approaches and techniques, which has only reconfirmed by belief that we are the only nation following the Geneva Convention, and with out a doubt we treat our prisoners better than anyone else in the world. Go be a prisoner in somebody else’s camp. Even the Iraqi generals have commented in amazement for the treatment they have received from us.

When are we going to get true and honest reporting that doesn’t have some twist to it put on by some self-promoting special interest group. Why do we have to put up with the inaccuracies of these myopic self-proclaimed voices of the people?

Even in our interrogations I have yet to see any abuse of the prisoners. We do not and have never used torture as means to acquire information, unless you call taking away a prisoners cigarettes as cruel and unusual punishment. Lets see, I did make a prisoner sit out in the sun once for an hour. All of our approach techniques involve psychological methods of extracting information, seeing torture as an inefficient method to break these people. You might get information but its truthfulness might be in question.

I am always so astonished at the extent to which these special interest groups will go to promote their cause knowing full well they are not divulging the whole story. Now with the Internet enabling all of us to connect directly with the source of the information, we can call these would be informants on the carpet. They make a claim of prisoners being shot and killed but they fail to divulge the rest of the story. The fact that the prisoner was coming at the guard holding a large piece of wood in an attempt to strike the guard after being warned to stop, the guard firing several warning shots into the air, what would you do?

PATROLLING AMBUSH ALLEY

A flash shattered the darkness, and a bomb blew up in front of Sgt. 1st Class Mike Mizell's tank. Within seconds, a rocket-propelled grenade whistled overhead.

''Driver, stop! Gunner, reverse to the left!'' the 35-year-old tank commander from Orangeburg, S.C., shouted into his radio.

For commanders like Mizell, the attack along the dangerous Highway 1, dubbed ''Ambush Alley,'' wasn't unexpected. The goal on this patrol, like many others, was to bait the enemy into attacking armored infantry units and draw them away from more vulnerable targets.

''It's as dangerous as hell,'' 68th Armored's commander, Lt. Col. Aubrey Garner, 39, said. ''But soldiers are willing to put themselves in danger to kill the enemy.''

The gunners sprayed machinegun tracer fire toward a line of palm and eucalyptus trees where the attacker took cover to fire the grenade. Two Apache helicopter gunships clattered in to chase down anyone running away. The other pair of tanks in Mizell's patrol fired their machineguns toward the spot, guided by the initial tracer rounds. It was impossible to tell if any Iraqi fighters were killed or wounded.

FRIENDLESS

Suddenly Saddam feels his age. Deprived of the elaborate security apparatus that maintained him in power for more than three decades, the 66-year-old deposed Iraqi dictator spends his days scurrying from one safe house to another, desperately trying to avoid the clutches of the American special forces who are now hot on his trail.

As coalition forces yesterday continued to interrogate several of Saddam's personal bodyguards, who were picked up on Friday in a raid on a house in al-Ouja, the dictator's birthplace, there was mounting confidence among coalition commanders that the former Iraqi leader is running out of places to hide.

Certainly, if Saddam were to be caught now it is unlikely that he would look anything like the confident, dark-haired, moustachioed figure depicted in countless portraits and statues. Just as his sons had grown beards and adopted traditional Arab dress to help conceal their true identities, so Saddam today would most probably be found sporting long grey hair and a long grey beard.

During the Gulf war in 1991, Saddam evaded capture by driving around the country in a camper van. A former bodyguard of his eldest son Uday last week claimed that Saddam had used a similar tactic during the present conflict, even driving around Baghdad in beaten-up old bangers after the Americans had taken control of the Iraqi capital.

The big difference between the last conflict and this, however, is that the Iraqi people now appear to have found the courage to betray their former leader.

WHEN THE DEVIL COMES TO CALL.

His buying habits also changed.

''Normally, he took about four or five pieces of bread every day,'' said Sheik Shahir al Khazraji, 31, who owns a bakery across the street from Zaydan's house. ''All of a sudden, about three weeks ago, he started buying 40 pieces of bread every day. On the night before the American attack, he brought 60 pieces of bread.''

Jaboori said people in the neighborhood began to tell him stories of Zaydan's behavior. His friend had begun visiting a tobacco shop down the street and buying cigars. He usually smoked cigarettes. One day, a store owner across the street told Jaboori that Zaydan had come in and asked for ''the biggest bag of the best rice they had.''

Jaboori said he finally confronted Zaydan, who acknowledged that four men were staying in his home, ''and they have a big problem with them.''

''The way he said that, it suggested that the `big problem' was a person,'' Jaboori said. ''But when I asked him to tell me what this problem was, he said he couldn't tell me.''

Jaboori now thinks the ''big problem'' was Saddam Hussein. Sadi Ahmed Pire, director of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's Mosul office, said Kurdish spies in the area reported that as soon as Zaydan left his house on the morning of the attack, another car left Zaydan's home with three men inside.

CPT PATTI CALLS.

As I was driving 102 mph on the Autobahn, my cell phone rings.

It's CPT Patti. She was supposed to call on Saturday, but she was a day behind. No matter, I'll take the conversation when I can get it. I pulled as far off onto the shoulder as I could.

She sounded great. Much better this week than last.

She said that was due in part to her receiving something over 20 care packages. Most were from me but she also mentioned Dave & Deb, and Kyle and Kristi specifically as senders of boxes received this week.

I asked her if she and the troops ever got to have any fun. She said well, they play volleyball occasionally or the games I sent a couple of weeks ago (sent all sorts of card games, plus dominos, backgammon, checkers, chess, and such).

But, she says, mostly there is just no time to do much in the way of having fun.

She said that tomorrow the "super generator" is due to arrive at her site. I'm not sure that this thing is, but it will push a HUGE amount of current - enough to run airconditioning and ceiling fans in all the sleeping quarters.

Things are getting better.

She and the 1SG have rigged up some sort of mini-kitchen using his Coleman camping stove. With the power generator arriving however, I'll be sending her a two-eye electric burner and some basic cooking utensiles in the near future.

And she told me they finally have TV in a common area for the entire battalion.

Folks she is very grateful for the continued support to her, and to her soldiers, especially from those of you who adopted soldiers.

She indicated that while no-one is happy they are to be there an entire year, well, at least now they know. And they can quit worrying about that, and drive on.

But she sounded great.

And I thank those of you who had a special part in that late last week - you know who you are.

MORE CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

July 26, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-81

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, TWO WOUNDED IN ATTACK

BAGHDAD, Iraq – One soldier was killed and two were wounded when their convoy was attacked with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and possibly an improvised explosive device on Highway 10 near Abu Ghuraib on July 26 at approximately
1:05 p.m.

The soldiers were with an engineer unit attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. Two soldiers were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital for emergency treatment where one subsequently died and the other is in stable condition. A third soldier was treated on site and returned to duty.

Three Iraqis were also wounded in the attack.

Names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

An investigation is currently underway.


July 27, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-82

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, ONE WOUNDED IN RPG ATTACK

BAGHDAD, Iraq – One soldier was killed and one was wounded July 27 at approximately 2:30 a.m. when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the patrol they were on in the northern Babil province near the village of Al Haswah.

The soldiers, attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were evacuated to 28th Combat Support Hospital.

The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.


July 27, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-83

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CLARIFICATION REGARDING DESCRIPTION OF CASUALTY

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Press release 03-07-82 dated July 27, 2003 regarding a soldier killed in a rocket-propelled attack in the northern province of Babil near the village of Al Haswah described the soldier as being attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

This casualty was a soldier in the U.S. Army and therefore should not be described as a Marine, but as a soldier.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES.

There are lots of them today...I'll break them up into a couple of posts.

July 26, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-77

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION FORCES CONFISCATE WEAPONS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces continued to conduct patrols and raids, confiscating weapons and ammunition throughout Iraq July 25, in support of the effort to ensure lasting freedom.

First Armored Division conducted raids at two former regime loyalists’ homes. Both are reputed arms dealers. The two individuals were detained along with nine other individuals. Confiscated weapons consisted of 15 AK-47s, one pistol and one pair of night-vision goggles. Also seized were $10,000 and two gold bars.

Additionally, a 1st AD patrol prevented an improvised explosive device attack in Baghdad when they noticed up to five Iraqis placing a tripwire that was attached to grenade across the road. The patrol fired at the Iraqis, killing one. The others fled the area.

Meanwhile, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force supported the Iraqi Police as they raided a residence suspected of containing a weapons cache. They detained two individuals and captured an anti-aircraft gun, 10 rocket-propelled grenades, eight crates of antipersonnel mines and a number of mortar and anti-aircraft rounds.

In another raid, after receiving a tip from the Mahmudiyah police, 1st MEF captured another arms cache containing 50 rocket-propelled grenades, three launchers, three 81-mm mortar tubes, four boxes of 25 mm rounds, an anti-aircraft gun, three hand grenades and detonation cord.

In the last 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 35 raids, 1,168 day patrols and 912 night patrols and conducted 144 day patrols and 145 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi Police conducted 14 day patrols and 8 night patrols.

The total raids and patrols resulted in 242 arrests for various criminal activities including three for murder, eight for car jacking, three for aggravated assault, 11 for burglary and 19 for looting.


Release Number: 03-07-78

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION ESTABLISHED AERIAL GUNNERY RANGE

TIKRIT, Iraq – Coalition forces set up an aerial gunnery range near here allowing Coalition helicopter pilots to train with their weapons, thereby allowing them to better protect the security of the Iraqi people.

The range, which started operation July 21, will remain open until August 17. Coalition forces will use the range for training purposes only. Since it is a Coalition training area members of the local population are cautioned to stay clear. Concrete blocks on the trails leading to the range will have warnings written in Arabic stating that the area is off limits.

Although the area in which this range is located is sparsely populated, Coalition forces stress their concern for the safety of Iraqi citizens and reiterate the importance of staying clear of the area.

Note: Please notice the location. Saddam's home town. If you have never witnessed first hand helicopters firing their weapons, well, lets just say it can't help but get your attention. It is an awesome display. I believe it is no coincidence this training range has been set up right where those with the most probability of knowing the whereabouts of the Butcher of Baghdad live.

Heh.

Release Number: 03-07-79

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION HELPS WITH CLEANUP AND SANITATION

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces assisted Iraqis by helping with waste management issues in the towns of Al Asriya, Mosul, Fallujah and Ar Ramadi.

In Al Asriya, a rural town about 15 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, Coalition forces used bulldozers and dump trucks to remove waste piled throughout the village. The large amount of trash in this town posed a serious health risk to the families living there. Combat engineers worked for three days to move dirt and debris to a burn pit and into an impromptu landfill.

In addition, Coalition forces provided the people of Al Asriya with two large “city limits” signs to post along Highway 1. The town has recently changed its name from Al Faris, which means “of the family of Saddam,” back to its pre-Saddam name of Al Asriya, which means “Model Town.” Coalition forces are also in the process of refurbishing three schools and modernizing utilities in Al Asriya.

In Mosul, Coalition forces involved with Operation Clean Sweep have contracted with the local municipal offices to clean up the Rashadia Quarter. The effort has provided employment for more than 50 Iraqis who are operating tractors, large trucks and front-end loaders.

In Fallujah, Coalition forces worked with Iraqi trash removal services to remove approximately 50 truckloads of trash. To date, Coalition forces have removed approximately 2,470 truckloads of trash from Fallujah.

In Al Qaim, which is in the Ar Ramadi area, Coalition forces provided money from the Commander’s Emergency Relief Program to help the town with waste management issues. Coalition forces provided $3,100 for vehicle parts to repair trucks used to pick up trash. In the nearby town of Ubaydi, Coalition forces provided another $4,400 of CERP money to fix a sewer high-pressure cleaning vehicle and repair sewer lines.


July 26, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-80

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THREE KILLED, FOUR WOUNDED IN GRENADE ATTACK

BA’QUBAH, Iraq – Three 4th Infantry Division soldiers guarding the Ba’qubah Children’s Hospital were killed and four were wounded in a grenade attack here at approximately 11 a.m. July 26.

The soldiers were evacuated to a U.S. medical treatment facility.

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next-of kin.

SUNDAY, JULY 27th. The 77th day of CPT Patti's deployment.