SOMETIMES YOU JUST don't know what it is that you just don't know. Referring to the "Proxy Marriage" article posted on May 28th in which the Mother of the Bride stood in for the Groom who was deployed, an old Army buddy of mine wrote

"Hey, Just finished going thru latest update to the 'CPT Patti' page. I must comment on the Army times article on the Proxy marriage of the deployed soldier.

You might be interested to know that you actually know someone who was married this way over 19 years ago. The situation (husband, a dashing no-time-in-grade 2LT, sent to Germany for first assignment, while future wife...[waited behind in the USA]...made it necessary for the couple to use the proxy method.

We became aware of this method when a Russian Dissident made the news by using it to escape the USSR. His girlfriend made it to the west and he was able to use the Montana Proxy thing to legally leave the USSR."

Curiouser and curiouser.

I'VE BEEN CRITICAL of the ORHA in the past because Iraqi anger will ulitmately be taken out on our soldiers. I know it is easy for me to sit here and snipe about what is happening over there, but it seems to me that - with a couple of million folks out of work in the city - a suitcase full of dollars could probably organize some sort of impromptu garbage service. And the power still isn't on?

In the tightknit Kemp al Arman section of central Baghdad, there are often just two hours of electricity a day.

Many families have been forgoing meat for more than a month, water only trickles from the taps, and garbage is piling up knee-deep on the street corners.

Read the rest here.

HELLO IRAN, SYRIA...is anyone listening? Secretary Rumsfeld authored this piece for USA Today.

No one with a knowledge of history would expect Iraq to go from a Stalinist system to a stable and secure free nation in a matter of weeks, or even months, or to do so without facing a series of difficulties.

Coalition countries are working effectively to help Iraqis restore order and essential services. It is a task that will take time and patience, trial and error. But this much is certain: The world community has a stake in Iraq's success -- because if Iraqis can build a free nation on the rubble of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, the effects on the region and the world could be significant.

Emphasis mine.

I KEEP SEEING stories like this in various media outlets. I don't know if this is literally true...if it is, those of us living here have not been told about it. What we have been told is this community will close in three years and will relocate to Bavaria. That is significantly different than reported in this story.

This change is occurring swiftly and dramatically. The 17,000 member 1st Armored Division, most of which was sent to Iraq from Germany, will not return there. The Pentagon will be removing most of its troops from the old cold war bases in Europe and basing them in the territories of its new found friends. It will be former communist countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic that provide the new bases for U.S. power in the region and a growing voice of support for the United States in the game of global politics.

GETTING TO KNOW Baghdad, taking those first tentative steps, the second brigade is about a week and a half ahead of our own first brigade. Mansur is in the Southwestern quadrant of Baghdad. Read the whole thing here.

For the next six months, and probably longer, 1st Lt. Ed Lauer’s platoon will essentially own a 6-square-mile zone in downtown Baghdad.

The unit’s area includes Mansur, a well-to-do district of restaurants, fine homes and bustling businesses; the Grand Mosque, Saddam’s largest and still-unfinished center of Muslim worship; and a complex of bombed out Iraqi Intelligence Service buildings now inhabited by dirt-poor squatters.

“It’s like Tijuana,” said Lauer, a San Diego native who speaks Spanish. “You have the First World right next to the Third World.”

This is the new home of the Baumholder, Germany-based soldiers.

ANOTHER GLIMPSE into the disappointment of the 3d ID can be found here. But one battalion commander sort of sums up the bottom line.

“They may not like it. Even I don’t like it,” Marcone said. “But we’re soldiers and understand our duty.”

SATURDAY MAY 31st, the 20th day of CPT Patti's deployment. She is somewhere in Baghdad, east of the Tigris river.

AS IF THE 22d Amendment ever had anything to do with one's longevity...Sheesh, what an idiot.

Clinton said the amendment, passed after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a record fourth term, should be changed simply to keep a person from being elected to more than two consecutive terms as president.

"I think since people are living much longer ... the 22nd Amendment should probably be modified to say two consecutive terms instead of two terms for a lifetime," Clinton said.

Read the rest here.

INTERESTING COMMENTARY by one of my favorite columnists, Jonah Goldberg.

The Civil War wasn't just about slavery, World War II wasn't fought to end the Holocaust and Saddam wasn't toppled solely to stop the barbarity of the Baathists. But in the aftermath of such efforts, the moral arguments swamp all other considerations.

Someday Hollywood, or its equivalent, is going to make movies about the horrors of Africa and North Korea taking place right now, and people like you and me are going to be stunned that so many good and decent people didn't do more to stop it.

Read the rest here.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING completely different. Did you even know you could buy one of these?

I GUESS WE have officially arrived in cyberspace. We are now recognized by Google. Just search on CPT Patti.

YEAH. That'll happen.

Communism in Iraq: Country's oldest party blasts U.S. occupation, plans swift comeback.

AH YES, THE VAUNTED Arab Solidarity. I find it interesting that OPEC is sitting on its duff when it comes to rejuvenating the Iraqi Oil Industry.

Thamer al-Ghadhban, the (Iraqi Oil) ministry's interim chief executive, also said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that he feels estranged from his counterparts in OPEC as he struggles to restore Iraqi oil production to prewar levels.

None of the other 10 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has contacted Iraq's oil ministry since al-Ghadhban took over.

Read about it here.

ALRIGHT! JUST received an "official" update from the 1st Brigade. Here are the highlights.

1st Brigade has "closed" on Baghdad...that is Army speak for all units are now in Baghdad. It was a 590 Kilometer trip (366 miles) from Camp Udairi.

1st Brigade's sector is Central Baghdad, from the east bank of the Tigris river. Their sector includes approximately one million Iraqis. 1st Brigade actually takes over authority for that area on June 5th, conducting a relief in place with their counterpart in the 3d ID

Status of telephones is really bad...as in about none. However the Brigade is projecting they will establish e-mail communications in a week or ten days. How nice would that be!

Everyone is living in buildings and is eating one hot meal per day (the other two meals are MREs)

The shops downtown are opening. The Iraqi people themselves are cleaning up their streets, replacing glass, picking up garbage, etc.

People wave at you.

Main soldier desires are for baby wipes and disposable cameras. (Note, CPT Patti could use baby wipes - I hear the Lever 2000 brand is the most preferred because they leave the least residue on the skin and are thus cooler - but CPT Patti has a digital camera with her down range, so no need for the disposables, unless you want to donate one to a soldier.)

They received 7 five-ton trucks full of mail yesterday. All for 1BDE. It really boosted morale. (This is a HUGE step forward...)

Mail from Germany was taking 3-4 weeks to get to Kuwait. We believe it will take an additional 2-3 weeks from mail to move from Kuwait to our soldiers in Baghdad. They ask that you do not mail liquids....water, ice tea, gatorade. It is very possible that some of it will be broken and any breakage will damage a lot of other mail. The kool-aide and gatorade powders are very popular.

Mail to the Brigade from the States is also taking longer due to the volume going through the Frankfurt Air Terminal mail center (FRAT). We are approaching volume levels normally only associated with the Christmas period and have comparitively reduced resources to deal with it.

That is the best of the update. I hope that makes you feel better. Sure does me.

THEN THERE IS the "Scumbag" factor. Interestingly, I have found this story only from non-US media...and the place I've found it most is in the Arab media...draw your own conclusions.

"There are still some regime thugs," said Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "They are not significant and are relatively easy to take out," he said, describing them as ill-trained "scumbags."

SOMEBODY FORGOT to tell the Iraqi's the war's over, says a Sergeant in the 1st Armored Cavalry Regiment in this story.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, said the war "has not ended" and described the attacks as combat activities organized by small but determined holdouts of Saddam's regime.

"We are not fighting a conventional army," he said. "Those who oppose the coalition are dressed in civilian clothing and are using terrorist techniques."

A SURPRISINGLY FRANK discussion here about the tension in the ranks of the 3d ID. Important to us because if the 3d ID convinces V Corps it is too broken to go to the hot spots, guess who may go then...

Senior leaders and logistics experts in the 3rd Infantry say most of the division is not ready for combat. They complain that they have received almost no spare parts to repair damaged tanks and armored personnel carriers _ what the military calls Class IX supplies _ since they left Kuwait on March 22.

"He is going to get U.S. soldiers needlessly killed if he expects us to go into battle," a senior noncommissioned officer in the 3rd Infantry said of McKiernan. He spoke on condition he not be named for fear of retribution.

The 3rd Infantry's supply line was a constant problem during initial fighting for control of Iraq. After the fall of Baghdad, senior officers determined the division would be leaving within weeks _ and its vehicles would be taken out of service _ so they never filled orders for parts.

One battalion's operations officer said he has more than 2,600 parts on order and that all the tanks in his unit require extensive repairs. A commander said his Bradley Fighting Vehicles all had two-page lists of parts that were ordered but never delivered.

"None of my Bradleys are fully mission capable," said Capt. Chris Carter, an infantry company commander.

Maintenance personnel report that the treads that propel tanks forward are worn, and the vehicles' suspensions are badly damaged. That means the tanks could be easily immobilized in battle and could not move well under fire.

One brigade-level officer wrote a four-page letter to the division commander detailing why his unit was not ready for combat operations, a senior officer said on condition of anonymity.

Asked about spare parts for the division, McKiernan insisted there were plenty of supplies available.

"I wouldn't say they are lacking repair parts. I would say a lot of them were shot up during the campaign, a lot of them have had to have maintenance performed on them," he said. "Those soldiers, if they are asked to go and occupy another piece of ground in Iraq and conduct combat operations, they will be all over it."

Officers in the division said they will follow any orders, but all expressed concern about the possible cost.

THEY ARE CALLING it "The Order From Hell". Understandably.

"This will mean that most of the 3rd Infantry Division will stay through August," he said.

Lt. Col. Mike Birmingham, the division's spokesman in Baghdad, said the 1st Armored Division had trained to take its place. However, small pockets of resistance east and north of Baghdad are preventing the transformation of Iraq.

"The 3rd ID is being directed to those trouble spots because it has demonstrated its abilities to close with and capture or destroy the enemy," Birmingham said.

You can read the rest here.

FRIDAY, MAY 30th, the 19th day of CPT Patti's deployment. No confirmation yet that the convoy arrived in Baghdad, however the absence of any news stories that can be interpreted otherwise probably bodes well for our girl.

A REMINDER AS to why we are doing this.

"No one knows what freedom means," said Salima al-Majali, 29. "When were born, we opened our eyes to Saddam and everything was forbidden. Our life was all about fear."

Once-banned books, satellite dishes and video CDs are now sold on the streets. A throng of freewheeling newspapers, radio and television stations have sprung up to replace the turgid, sycophantic media under Saddam.

Read the rest here.