TUESDAY, JUNE 22D.

This is day 408 of my darling wife's deployment to Iraq.

One year, one month, three weeks.

I talked to my sweet wife last night. It concerns me to learn that she is having a tough time keeping a level perspective.

She tells me that whenever she gets excited over the prospect of coming home soon that her emotions then jump in and send her crashing down again, saying to her "remember what happened last time".

If you've been reading for some time you know that last time she had already begun the journey home...had made the dangerous convoy from deepest darkest Baghdad to the airport...had already turned in her ammunition...and then the word of the extension hit.

I have supposed since then that this was a huge blow, but I haven't come up against evidence of its residual effects until last night.

She tells me that "folks have noticed" that she often isn't her normal spirited self. Given that her spirit is her best asset, this is disturbing. I am concerned that perhaps the pressure has left her more fragile than I anticipated.

I'm praying there are no delays, no changes in plans for her and the others. I know now that even the most optimiistic among them do not look forward with any certainty...and thus life becomes truly day to day. Eliminating the future eliminates hope. Only home and hearth and hugs can restore that.

BINGO!

SCIENCE FICTION COMING TRUE?

Weapons that can incapacitate crowds of people by sweeping a lightning-like beam of electricity across them are being readied for sale to military and police forces in the US and Europe...

Meanwhile, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), based in Anderson, Indiana, will be one of the first companies to market another type of wireless weapon. Instead of using fibres, the $9000 Close Quarters Shock Rifle projects an ionised gas, or plasma, towards the target, producing a conducting channel. It will also interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.

"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep," claims XADS president Peter Bitar.

IN MY NEXT LIFE I WANT TO BE THIS SMART

Victor Davis Hanson puts it all in perspective.

I fear that we should expect over the next 50 years some pretty scary things coming out of Europe as its impossible postmodern utopian dreams turn undemocratic and then ugly — once its statism and entitlement economy falter; Jews leave as Arabs stream in; its shaky German-French axis unravels; its next vision of an EU mare nostrum encompassing North Africa and Turkey begins to terrify Old Europe; and its pacifism brings it real humiliation from the likes of an Iran or China. Indeed, despite Europe's noble efforts to incorporate the former Warsaw Pact, we are already seeing such tensions in the most recent EU elections.

We all like the Europeans and wish them well in their efforts to create heaven on earth. But in the end I still think we Americans are on the right side of history in Iraq — while they are on no side at all.

Do yourself a favor and go read the whole thing.

YEAH! WHAT SHE SAID!

While I'm out finding the good news, Sarah is doing the heavy intellectual lifting.

I bet you'll think "Man! That's what I was trying to say."

I know I did.

STOP THE PRESSES!

The New York Times carries a story that says we got it right!

A day after an American airstrike destroyed six homes in this flashpoint city, a senior Iraqi official said today that 23 of 26 people killed in the attack were foreign terrorists, including men from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen...

"The Americans had very good information," the official said. "It was like trying to catch a sparrow. They had a small moment to catch the fighters in those houses and they did."

QUITE POSSIBLY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL WITH THEIR LIVES

Recruiting goes well.

"The fighting we're seeing has made some parents concerned. It's worried the moms and dads, but it's also galvanized young men and women. We're meeting all our goals for recruiting."

Davis said the patterns seen within the Navy are the same across the military. Army officials said that as of the end of May, 48,939 people have signed up for active-duty enlistment, placing the Army 372 people ahead of its goal. Officials said 11,893 people have signed up for Army Reserves -- 268 people ahead of their mission.

"The war, if anything, has brought young men and women out," Davis said.

SOLDIERS CAN SEE IT. CPA MEMBERS CAN SEE IT. CELEBRITY GUESTS CAN SEE IT.VISITING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CAN SEE IT.

It seems it is only invisible to reporters.

The congressional VIPs visited only U.S. bases, wore body armor and was protected at all times. But Davis said that in visiting Iraq, she learned that the situation is unlike the one portrayed in TV news coverage.

"It's not like there's a bomb going off every minute," she said. "People thought I was nuts for going, but that's not what I saw when I got there.

"I don't want to take away from [that] it's a dangerous place," Davis said. "But it's in sections. Are there still people there who want us out? Yes.

"But our men and women, they're learning more every day about how to fight these insurgents, and they're doing a darn good job of it," she said. "We are doing the right thing. It is going to be something that's going to take a while. After June 30 happens, the violence isn't going to stop."

Davis said most Iraqis are going about their daily lives.

AND THERE IS THIS...

Mr. Peschang spent eight months in Iraq helping to restore utility service as part of Task Force RIE, or Restore Iraqi Electricity.

He returned to the Quad-Cities May 12, full of stories and a bit dismayed over what he feels is a one-sided view being shown in the American media.

``There is danger there, but it is not as dangerous as they show,'' he said. ``At least 95 percent of my experiences with the Iraqi people were good. They wanted us there, they were happy with what we were doing, they could see we wanted to do good things for them.''

He went to Iraq to work on a transmission line from Hartha to Al Kut. It, as well as other power lines, had been torn down by Saddam Hussein's regime.

While there, he worked within a 700-kilometer stretch in seven major cities and more than 100 villages. ``I got to see so many people, and I covered a lot of ground,'' he said. ``What I saw were happy, smiling faces and a lot of hellos and thank yous.''

He said it was easy to become friendly with several of the people he met, including the Iraqi guards who gave protection while he was working on the power lines.

One villager gave him a piece of jewelry to show his appreciation of their friendship. Another man began calling him ``brother'' after Mr. Peschang helped get him to a hospital for medical attention.

And editors of local newspapers can see it!

IT WAS THE incredible disappearing story, one that seemed to confirm much of the public’s suspicion that the American media are unwilling to acknowledge any good news coming out of Iraq.

Early on Wednesday morning, June 9, National Public Radio’s first news broadcast of the day included brief mention of “a breaking story” —a report that American commandos had succeeded in a daring rescue of three Italians and a Pole held hostage for more than two months by insurgents. No further details were available at the moment.

Apparently no further details were available forever after, because the story disappeared from the radar screen. A steady listener dial-hopping during a six-hour trip from southern Connecticut to northern New Hampshire never heard another word about the rescue, not even so much as a repeat of the previous story.

It can only make a news addict wonder how many other success stories in Iraq are getting short-shrift or deep-sixed.

Many people with family members serving in the military, however, have no doubts.

They are so fed up with what they say is one-sided, bad-news-only reporting that they have set up several Web sites to get the truth out about the many successes and good deeds achieved by their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in uniform. And in letters to the editor about Big Media’s blatant bad-news bias, the word they often use is “shameful.”

Geez, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, New York Times et al. What does it take?

BREAKING THE CODE

On May 1, Ryan called a meeting of all the tribal and religious sheiks at a milk-bottling plant.

The first two hours saw a relentless tongue-lashing from the sheiks, a litany of perceived injustices by U.S. troops. Ryan said it was hard to take at times.

Then for six hours, Ryan did some things U.S. officers say is ``outside the box.''

First, he told the sheiks both sides had made mistakes.

``Just saying we've made mistakes - we've been afraid to say it because people will blow it out of proportion - makes a huge difference,'' Ryan said. ``... Their faces light up and they are ready to talk.''

Then he offered a clean slate, or as they say in Arabic, a white page. If the sheiks took responsibility for security, Ryan told them, he promised that his soldiers would not raid their homes. Further, he said, if the sheiks promised that members of their tribes sought by U.S. forces would stop carrying out attacks, the troops would stop hunting them.

All the sheiks agreed, and the deal has become known as ``The White Page Truce.''

``This is the best move the Americans have made yet,'' said Sheik Sadi al-Khinani, a senior tribal leader. ``The people will see that the Americans have come here to help them, not what others have said, which is that the Americans have come here to abuse them.''

Ryan said that in the six weeks from March 1 to April 12, 28 U.S. soldiers were wounded and two killed. In the six weeks since the truce, there have been no casualties...

Higher officials have sent people to study Ryan's methods. In many ways, he has done on a small scale what the United States will do on June 30: give Iraqis their sovereignty.

TAKING CHARGE!

Well said, Sir!

Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, cemented his credentials as a "strong man" yesterday by warning that he could impose martial law.

He also welcomed US air strikes in Fallujah that killed up to 26 people. Mr Allawi, who will officially take charge of Iraq on June 30, announced a radical overhaul of the Iraqi security forces designed to take on insurgents determined to destabilise his government.

"They are trying to destroy our county and we are not going to allow this," he said. "This struggle is first and foremost an Iraqi struggle. We are prepared to fight and, if necessary, die for these objectives.

THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER REQUESTS MORE BALANCED NEWS COVERAGE FROM THE US PRESS

And how many news outlets I can find carrying that story? One. The Defense Department's public affairs office.

Pathetic.

Iraq's deputy prime minister implored the American press to provide more balanced coverage of operations in Iraq.

Barham Salih, a prominent leader from Kurdish northern Iraq, made his plea June 19 to American reporters traveling in Iraq with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

"I hope you from the American press will be able to tell people back home … that (through) this mission you are giving an entire nation an opportunity to be rid of their challenges," he said.

"These soldiers are helping renovate schools and so on, and very, very little of that is reported," Salih continued. "We have to be grateful to those young men and women who have come from afar, sacrificing their lives to defend our security and our freedom."

He said context is important, and many American papers don't put things in the proper context. For instance, he said, "Many of the op-ed writers before the war predicted that Kirkuk would become the scene of the most vicious civil war," he said, referring to the northern Iraqi city that has been the site of problems between Kurds and Arabs.

"There are tensions in Kirkuk," he said, "but no civil war."

New Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer explained his belief that 90 percent of what's happening in Iraq is good news, and 10 percent in bad. "The media is magnifying the 10 percent, ignoring the 90 percent," Yawer said.

IN SPITE OF THE TERRORISTS

The momentum is building...and the bad guys can make it ugly and difficult, but they can't stop the progress.

Iraq has began pumping more than a million barrels of crude per day to Basra’s loading terminal, a US based tanker company said.

“Crude oil is being pumped to the Basra terminal at the rate of 42,000 barrels per hour, which is just slightly more than a million barrels a day,” said Mohammed Hadi, head of operations for Baghdad for Norton Lilly International.

An official in Dubai from Inchcape Shipping Services said a pipeline damaged by insurgents last week had been repaired and had been pumping crude since yesterday.

"THE NEXT CHAPTER IS YOURS TO WRITE"

Between sips on an iced mocha at Shockoe Espresso & Roastery last week, Smith recalled a few harrowing moments in Iraq but said he still supports President Bush's decision to go to war.

"I left feeling very satisfied and proud I served as a small part of the CPA," he said.

Smith said the front-page and TV news images of violence in Iraq are every bit as awful as they appear but are separated by "hours and days" of advancements.

"We are making everyday forward gains," he said. "Those random acts of violence are not the true reaction of the Iraqi people."

Smith views the violence more as a reflection of the strength of terrorists in the Middle East than asmistakes made in the Bush administration strategy.

"We need to be there," he said, "because terrorism is a threat to our generation."...

He said he felt a great sense of accomplishment planning a national conference of Iraqi fire officials. He said last month's conference showed Iraqis of all political and ethnic backgrounds working together with a shared vision.

"That was sort of a capstone moment for me because that's what we were working for," he said. "We looked to the Iraqis and said, 'The next chapter is yours to write.'"

PROGRESS CONTINUES

Some won't appreciate the magnitude of this...believing this is how things are "supposed to be".

But isn't that the point? It wasn't this way under Saddam...even without the maniac insurgent terrorists running around blowing stuff up.

Way to go guys!

It was an engineering success on the order of stringing the first cables for the Brooklyn Bridge or coaxing the first glimmer of starlight through some giant telescope to help explain the structure of the universe.

But when it occurred late last month, the achievement remained cloaked in absolute secrecy, marked only by a quiet celebration among participants who might remain forever unknown to history.

Raw sewage was treated in Baghdad.

The stream of treated water that eventually found its way into the Tigris River was hardly more than a trickle, roughly 20 million gallons a day from a city that produces raw sewage at something like 10 times that rate or more. But the accomplishment is all but epoch-making in a city where the sewage plants are in such disrepair that for the last 10 to 15 years, every drop of that muck was poured untreated into the river, fouling everything from boat landings to drinking water systems downstream.

Successes like this one were just what Congress envisioned when it appropriated billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, hoping the improvements would convince Iraqis of America's good will.

THOSE YELLOW RIBBONS

How'd that get started?

There is no established genesis of yellow ribbons, which blossomed in January 1981 to welcome the American hostages home from Iran.

A 1981 Library of Congress report notes that in a 1981 CBS broadcast, Penelope Laingen, wife of the U.S. charge d'affaires in Tehran, Bruce Laingen, was shown outside her home in Bethesda, Md. "It just came to me," she said, "to give people something to do, rather than throw dog food at Iranians. I said, 'Why don't they tie a yellow ribbon around an old oak tree?'"

The Library of Congress further noted that a song, copyrighted in 1972 under the title "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," was recorded by 30 vocalists in the late 1970s. The hit version was done by the vocal group Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.

The song sketches the story of a convict riding the bus homeward after three years in prison who is hoping his sweetheart ties a yellow ribbon on a roadside oak tree if she will have him back -- and finds the tree is covered with yellow ribbons.

In 1949, the Library of Congress added, Argosy Pictures released a motion picture starring John Wayne and Joanne Dru, which was called "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon." The picture was popular, and the theme song, "Round Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," was a hit.

But according to Gerald arsons, writing for the American Folklife Center News, various versions of the song have been around for about 400 years.

Look at the latter verses to discover the ribald rest-of-the-story.

If you aren't familiar with the song "Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"...you can find the lyrics here. This song is a traditionial "Jodie Call"...one of those songs sung by Soldiers marching in formation.

Meanwhile, here is another take on the yellow ribbon tradition going back to the Civil War.

Did you ever wonder where the Yellow Ribbon Tradition came from? Most Music Historians trace the Custom to a 19th Century Civil War Song. The tradition of wearing yellow ribbons may date back to the Civil War when the U.S. Cavalry was symbolized by yellow piping on their uniforms. Women who were married to or dating soldiers wore yellow ribbons as they waited for their sweethearts to return from battle. It served a dual purpose because of the reputation of the calvary soldier: it kept away unwanted suiters and also provided a threat of reprisal from a calvary soldier should any harm come to his girl. The early song was done for cadence as the soldier rode in formation.

TAKE THAT, FLY BOYS!

The ground-pounders finally get their due.

The Air Force is no longer America’s overwhelming choice as the most important branch of the armed forces due to the conflict in Iraq, a new Gallup poll shows.

Americans consider the Army or the Marine Corps just as important, while the Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard are far behind, the survey found. However, twice as many people named the Marine Corps as the “most prestigious branch” compared to the rest.

The poll represents a significant shift in opinion, which has traditionally favored the Air Force. The public has long considered the Air Force as the service “most vital to the nation’s defense” dating back to similar polls in the 1940s and 1950s.

But the tremendous amount of media attention zeroed in on ground forces in Iraq has changed public perceptions, Gallup found.

WHY THOSE CARE PACKAGES ARE STILL VERY IMPORTANT!

On Camp Lima, the Post Exchange might just be trying to drive some troops crazy. It sells French onion dip, bean dip, cheese dip and salsa, but there are no chips. It sells three different types of cereals, but no bowls or milk. There are different canned meats, jellies and sandwich spreads, but no bread. And the kicker? They sell phone cards, but there are no phones on the camp that accept the cards.

Camp officials say some products simply sell faster than others, leaving odd pieces to what would be a great snack.

"I'M TRYING TO KEEP MY WIFE'S HOPES DOWN"

Some of our guys...and they say they'll believe they are headed home...well, when they are headed home. If even that.

Though there’s talk of going home, the 1st Armored Division soldiers in Karbala said they were extended the first time for a reason: to take care of the bad guys.

And if push comes to shove in the days before the June 30 handover in Iraq, their ability to get those bad guys just might make them too good to send home again, troops said.

Army officials have announced that the Germany-based division should be home by mid-July, but senior noncommissioned officers on the ground said this time their troops are “stone cold” about the buzz.

“There’s no emotion,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Flum, platoon sergeant for Company B, 16th Combat Engineer Battalion out of Giessen, Germany. “We’ve been told many things that have not come to pass.

“Also, you got to think, do we really have faith in the 1st Calvary to get things done?” Flum asked.

The task force built around the 1st Battalion, 37 Armor Regiment, known as “The Bandits,” was sent to Karbala to help fight militia of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In 21 days of fighting, 1st AD soldiers captured militiamen, cleared out weapon’s caches and drove the rest of the militia out the city.

When troops were satisfied the militia was gone, the Army transitioned from fighting to rebuilding.

Since the militia left the city May 21, the Bandits have fixed up public land and buildings and created a safe environment for local businesses, the soldiers say...

Now, with the handover right around the same corner as some dates of departure, troops said they’re going to have to see it to believe it.

“I won’t believe it until I’m home, for about two months, just sitting down. Then I might think we’re really not coming back,” said Sgt. Ketwon Moore, a track vehicle mechanic with Company B, 16th Engineers.

Some troops said they were even trying to quash family hopes of an early extension return.

“We’re a little skeptical about hearsay. I know it sounds weird, but I’m even trying to keep my wife’s hopes down. Last time, it wasn’t too pretty,” said Sgt. Thomas McKnight, another track vehicle mechanic with Company B, 16th Engineers.

1st ARMORED DIVISION BEGINS ITS HOMEWARD JOURNEY

Now it is not for us in 1st Brigade land to get too excited yet...but the first ADVON (Advanced Echelon) elements of the 1AD arrived home over the weekend...not OUR home...but the 2d Brigade in Baumholder. Second Brigade went downrange before us (1st Brigade), so it is right they begin heading home before us as well.

Meanwhile...we cross our fingers...

At precisely 12:30 a.m., a few hours after their C-17 landed at Rhein-Main Air Base, soldiers and officers marched into Baumholder’s flag-bedecked gym, filled with friends, banners, balloons, bouquets and welcome-home signs.

After a brief prayer, an even more-to-the-point welcoming speech by Capt. Jonathan Cornett, the 2nd Brigade rear detachment commander, and the playing of the national anthem and the official Army song, the soldiers were really home.

Being safe in Germany and out of the unrelenting heat and danger of Iraq is “like starting your life again,” said Spc. John Seawell, 21, with Headquarters, Headquarters Company of the 2nd Brigade.

“It’s like breathing again,” added Pfc. Pedro Vasquez, 23, of the same company. “It’s like you’ve been holding your breath and now you can start breathing normally again.”

MONDAY, JUNE 21st.

Day 407 of CPT Patti's deployment to Iraq.

One year, five weeks, six days.