MEET THE ENEMY

The bloodbath began on Saturday when gunmen in military garb opened fire on the Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre building, housing offices of major Western oil firms, before storming into compounds containing oil services offices and employees' homes.

"There were pools of blood, blood is everywhere," said a member of the staff at the upmarket Oasis compound, adding that freed hostages told him there had been more than four attackers.

The hotel where the foreign hostages were held was still sealed off after the siege and security forces were searching for explosives the militants might have left behind.

Bullet-holes, blood stains, shattered glass, empty cartridges and grenades were evidence of the havoc, he said...

Arab residents had said the gunmen asked them if they were Muslim or Christian before targeting the Christians.

"It happened very quickly. It's difficult to recall it all. I locked the front door and I heard some shots," said Diane Reed, an American shot in the legs when the militants first stormed the complex on Saturday. She was at al-Saad hospital where she underwent two surgeries.

The ministry listed the total death toll in the attack as an American, a Briton, an Italian, a South African, a Swede, eight Indians, two Sri Lankans, three Filipinos, an Egyptian boy and three Saudis. It said 25 people were injured.

Emphasis added.

SOMETHING ELSE YOU DIDN'T SEE ON CNN

The so-called cleric al Sadr has no popular support in Najaf.

After Saddam's fall, Najaf and other holy cities in Iraq's Koran belt had prospered from the inflow of hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iran, Syria, and Bahrain. Many new hotels rose out of the dust to meet the demand, but, because of fighting, construction sites on Najaf's monochromatic streets remained abandoned last week...

Publicly furious with the occupation, the citizens are also privately blaming Sadr for bringing the fighting to the holiest Shiite city, and they say that they will be grateful when he and his ragtag bandit army leave.

"Things were very good two months ago. It was a peaceful town. Then people from outside our city came in [and] the majority of the fighters came from outside of Najaf," said Ali Nasser, 25, while eating a lunch of stewed lamb and rice in the emptied bazaar.

"When the Americans first came here, they played soccer and dominoes with us. They were just like our friends. We didn't even see a tank."

(via Instapundit)

VERY WELL SAID

John Leo says eloquently what I've tried to say in my own hamhanded way for most of a year.

Some 82 percent of the journalists were able to list a news organization that was "especially conservative" (most named Fox News), but an amazing 62 percent could not name any news organization that struck them as "especially liberal." Good grief. Even 60 percent of the Homer Simpson family could probably figure out that the New York Times or National Public Radio qualify as liberal.

In response to the survey, some argue that personal social and political views make no difference if a reporter plays the story straight. Well, yes. But nearly half of those polled told Pew that journalists too often let their ideological views color their work. This is a devastating admission, something like an umpire's union reporting that half its membership likes to favor the home team...

That's why the steady march toward a more liberal newsroom is so puzzling. The news media have to cope with a declining readership and viewership and intense scrutiny of their wayward practices by right-wing outlets and relentlessly critical bloggers. Yet the mainstream media have only those few in-house conservatives who might warn their bosses when news reports are skewing left.

Why does the news business keep hiring more and more people who disagree sharply with the customers, many of whom are already stampeding out the door for a variety of reasons?

"NO EXCEPTIONS"

If straight talk of savagery offends you, if you believe in ethnic and gender diversity but not diversity of thought or if you think there is an acceptable gray area between good and evil, then turn to the funny pages, and take the children, too.

This piece is not for you.

We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.

Some readers didn’t like it...

It doesn’t take a Darwin to figure out that in this world the smartest, the fastest, the strongest, and the most committed always win. No exceptions.

Look at your spouse and children. Look at yourself in the mirror. Then look at the pictures from the paper last Thursday. You better look at them. Those are the people out to kill you.

Who do you think will win? You? Or them? Think you can take your ball and go home and they will leave you alone? Read a little history. Start with last week, last month, last year, and every other year back for half a century. Then go back a thousand years. Nobody hides from this fight.

Like it or not, that’s the way it was and that’s the way it is.

But many Americans don’t get it.

That’s why we published those pictures.

If they jarred you off the sofa, if they offended you, if they scared your children and sent you into a rage at mass murderers or heartless editors, then I say, it’s a start.

(Thanks Deb)

SOMEONE STOLE HIS FLAG

But this story ends much better than it begins.

Within days, forces greater than a thief's sour spirit came to bear on the situation, in the slight and modest form of Lori Floyd.

Floyd, of Endwell, read Brown's letter to the editor published last month in this newspaper: "For the past several years I have posted the colors on our front porch 24/7. They were there through the entire winter, under light at night and proudly waving in the fiercest and slightest breeze. My flag was not there the morning of April 15. I hope the person who removed it has it displayed in a proud manner."

She read it, and she was appalled.

"I know things get stolen every day, but a flag?" says Floyd, 38. "I couldn't believe someone would steal a flag."

She and her family moved here from Troy, Ala., less than a year ago. She didn't know Joseph Brown, but that didn't matter.

Her husband, Tech. Sgt. William E. Floyd, is stationed in Kuwait with the U.S. Air Force Reserves 5th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron.

"I talk to my husband every day by e-mail," she says. "And in conversation I said, 'Guess what? I read a letter in the paper today about somebody who stole a flag.'"

C130 pilots take a flag on every mission with them, she explains, then present them to different people for different reasons. "Could you ask if we could get one for Mr. Brown?" she asked her husband, who is due home early next year.

When her husband went back and told the crew, they were astonished that someone would steal a flag, too -- and they were happy to send one to Joe Brown.

Through the newspaper, Lori contacted Joe and told him what her husband had done on his behalf. She had a very special flag for him, she said. Would he mind if she came by and gave it to him?

Joe was overwhelmed again, but this time with a different set of emotions.

"She's a busy lady," he says. "She has four kids, and she works. To think that she would take the time to ask her husband ... I am just thrilled."

On May 19, Lori and her 9-year-old son Jared pulled up in front of the Browns' house. Joe and Mary were in their living room, where a photograph of their grandson, a Marine, hangs proudly.

Lori handed Joe the folded red, white and blue cloth in a presentation box. It came with a certificate from the crew certifying that the flag had been flown over Baghdad and Kuwait City by Capt. William Thornley and crew of the 181st Airlift Squadron, Texas ANG -- and that the flag was to be presented to one Joseph Brown, Korean War veteran.

No flag ever flew more grandly than the one now waving in the gentle Endicott breeze from a new pole erected on the Browns' porch.

"I was flabbergasted," Joe says. "To think that something so cruel turned into something so beautiful."

WE COME FROM SMALL TOWNS

Interesting statistic.

A news report published last week in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confirmed what many people in rural American have known all along - that small towns pay a disproportionately high price when it comes to war.

The newspaper reported that of 798 Americans killed in Iraq since the war began just over a year ago 47 percent hailed from communities of less than 40,000 residents. That number represents an extraordinary sacrifice on the part of such small towns because they make up only 27 percent of the population.

IT MAKES ME FEEL PROUD
In the end the Iraqis have to do it their way. Seems they've begun.

But the naysayers were astounded, along with the U.N.'s Lakhdar Brahimi and the White House's Robert Blackwill, when Iraqi leaders started acting last week like Iraqi leaders. No thanks, they said to the U.N.-U.S. notion of an interim government of toothless technocrats, and rejected Brahimi's choice for the top slot.

Like real politicians, they cut a few deals and chose one of their own — a secular Shiite, not an Islamist or a Sunni or a Kurd — to be prime minister...

The purpose of all this jockeying is to form an organization capable of holding an election in a country beset by Saddam loyalists and terrorists determined to block that election. This will take Iraqi politicians courageous enough to risk their lives, sensible enough to work closely with coalition generals to protect the voters from the killers, and persuasive enough to enlist many more Iraqis to join the fight for freedom.

Present Iraqi leaders like Alawi are clearly asserting themselves. We will not like all they insist upon. But they are lurching toward a democratic decision, and despite the hand-wringing of Gloomy Gus & Company, that's real progress.

LOVE STORY

Odd thing about the cots though. CPT Patti's troops had segregated sleeping areas, as is, I believe, the norm.

This being a military love story, their first date was a walk to chow hall. As the two loaded their belongings on a truck outside the barracks the day before they left Fort McCoy for Iraq, English saw that his wife-to-be was nervous and asked her to walk to the mess hall for something to eat.

Then in Kuwait two weeks later, the night before their platoon was to leave for Baghdad, he approached her while she was doing laundry and the two began a conversation that finally enabled her to get past her shyness.

In Iraq, their platoon occupied a palace that was once the home of one of Saddam Hussein's top aides. After cleaning up the palace, soldiers set up cots in their new home -- with the couple's cots right next to each other.

"I can remember him making the comment that he has to sleep next to me for the next year," said the new Mrs. English, chuckling.

TODAY'S REQUIRED READING

ADAPTING THE MISSION

As the transition of authority nears, our military leaders in Iraq shift to a mission with a different emphasis.

The author of this article points out that "some" don't understand this in view of the continuing engagements with insurgents.

My personal opinion is that this is not a linear process requiring the elimination of all insurgents before we move to the next step. Indeed, to set such a threshold is tantamount to letting the insurgents dictate progress' timetable.

The symbolic victory comes when Iraqis are in charge. And once they are, the success of that Iraqi government becomes the most visible guage of success or failure of the intervention in politics-as-usual in the middle east.

Senior U.S. commanders here say they are writing new orders to shift the focus of the military's mission from offensive combat operations to protecting a new Iraqi government and parts of the economy while building up Iraq's own security forces...

The number of insurgents and terrorists operating in Iraq "will never go to zero," said Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, who on May 15 assumed command of a new multinational corps headquarters that controls the day-to-day military operations in Iraq.

"But what we've got to do is build this base of support," he said, "of people who want to be free, who want to live under a rule of law and want to be prosperous."

"THEY'RE ALL HEROES"

His company returned home just as pictures of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad became international news. Timberman said he saw nothing such as that during his tour and found the images disturbing.

"It doesn't represent the 300,000 soldiers who went through Iraq -- it certainly doesn't represent me or my company," he said.

"I believe everyone I served with ... they're all heroes in my book."

A DAY OF MEANING

The 1AD observes Memorial Day.

Hundreds of soldiers in the 1st Armored Division gathered at dusk yesterday inside an open hangar not far from the battlefield where four of its members had died in just the past 24 hours. The drums beat in rhythm with the patriotic sounds of the trumpets and clarinets, while soldiers with cigarette lighters rushed to keep a ring of torches burning as the sun set.

The drill team clicked and clapped and stomped their feet and guns a methodical waltz between human and machine. Members of the honor guard took their positions, flags hoisted against the backdrop of the airfield and a bombed-out hangar whose twisted metal looked more sinister as darkness set in.

Only their families were missing from the ceremony. And the smell of barbecue. In their place was this realization: The taps that echoed in the stillness of the heavy heat could easily have been for one of them. No soldier forgets that on Memorial Day in a combat zone...

In a speech to the soldiers, Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the commander of the 1st Armored Division, said the holiday would never be the same again for the soldiers.

"Many things won't be the same in our lives after this experience," he said. "Memorial Day is one of them." The difference, he said, would be "so profound that we won't really understand it until we get away from this experience."

A GLIMPSE INTO THE GREEN ZONE

In the heart of Baghdad's military-protected Green Zone, where Cara Scherer lives and works, the petite foreign service officer stepped away from the war's stress and did something for herself: She helped start a weekly salsa night.

She found a dance partner. She met a deejay from Puerto Rico.

"I usually have to talk the GI's into putting down their guns before they twirl me around," Scherer said. "It's a little surreal."

The 28-year-old arrived in Iraq Feb. 20 and has since put in long, demanding days as a U.S. public affairs officer, working mainly with the Iraqi press corps...

After June 30, when the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority intends to hand over authority to the Iraqi government, she will become the assistant administration officer for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Scherer knows that, even within the Green Zone, Baghdad is a dangerous place -- but she believes the work is well worth the risk.

"I think we're all optimistic," she said. "That's why we work together and continue to do what we do. We all care about what happens to Iraq and each other."...

Her goals are to help facilitate a free press and show people that Iraq is progressing. Schools are opening, police forces are being trained, agriculture is improving, she said.

"There are so many good stories that you won't see here in the American press that I see every day," Scherer said. "You know, there's a lot of hope, and there are a lot of hard-working Iraqis that are making big strides."

QUARTERMASTER SOLDIERS

It isn't glamorous work, but the folks they support sure love that they do it.

The unit was stationed roughly 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, providing laundry and support services for surrounding troops.

The company, a Combat Service Support, was responsible for operational field shower systems, field laundry support, and a renovation shop for uniforms, tents and other materials.

The work of the 1001st allowed their fellow soldiers to get a decent shower and clean uniforms, so they could do their job effectively.

"The Army doesn't have a unit like this for no reason," Daren said. "They'd be miserable if we didn't support them."

Daren knows firsthand.

"When we were in Kuwait, we had to wash our clothes out of a bucket for a month," he said. "It was horrible."

Daren said one of the most difficult parts of serving in rural Iraq was the lack of civilization and length of time it took to get things organized.

Eating off a mobile kitchen trailer for three months and waiting seven months for phone service was rough, said Daren.

INDEED

"When we return to our home stations, we must ensure that we never forget those fallen comrades that deployed with us that will not return to their loved ones," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer here, said during a ceremony at Baghdad's Camp Victory.

"They must not have died in vain,'' Sanchez said. ''We must not walk away from this mission. Otherwise, their sacrifices will in fact be in vain. This mission is too important for America, for the world, and for us as warriors."

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

“Sometimes you wonder what they think,” said Maj. Karen Ryan. “Can you imagine rolling in like this to the place where you lived?”...

On Saturday, about 40 U.S. troops brought medicine to this dusty enclave off the beaten path, announced their presence using loudspeakers, then waited. Curious Iraqis peeked out their doors before trickling out to meet the troops in the dusty town square...

“At first no one wanted to come out,” said Sgt. 1st Class Steven Vigil of Pueblo, Colo., and the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, attached to the 39th Brigade Combat Team. “Once we started to bring out the candy, footballs, water and T-shirts, they started coming out of nowhere.”

Dozens of children swarmed the troops as they handed out the free goods. Women were personally invited by the loudspeakers to see “female doctors.” They lined up for help. Old men sought relief for their sore feet and arthritis.

The only people busier than the two physician’s assistants were the two translators as they hurried to translate symptoms and treatments.

On guard was a handful of troops from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the Iraqi equivalent of the National Guard and Reserves in the United States. The troops wore desert camouflage just like the Americans, but some wore sneakers instead of boots and they joined the convoy in Toyota pickups instead of Humvees.

A few weren’t even old enough to shave. One U.S. soldier said the Iraqis likely weren’t packing very many bullets in their automatic weapons.

“We brought them with us to show it’s not just American soldiers [trying to help],” Vigil said.

WORTHY OF NOTE

Each year, Memorial Day pays tribute to those who have died in America’s battles. This year, memorial wreaths will be placed on more female warriors’ graves than ever before.

Since the Iraq war began in March 2003, more women have died serving in Iraq than in any other war in American history. As of May 28, 20 female soldiers have died in Iraq, 13 by enemy fire.

UNSEEN HANDS

I got a little weepy yesterday. You read about it in my Memorial Day post. Got a little down...a little selfish...a little angry.

Then I got up this morning and read the comments and the emails from you. And I'm humbled and a little bit ashamed.

Because there you are, with burdens of your own...in some instances burdens I know for a fact are greater than my own, and you reach out to me and hold me up on a day I felt weak.

I am grateful to you. I am blessed that you joined this small circle of generous, caring folks.

Thank you for reaching out to right me as I stumbled.

Without friends the world is but a wilderness. - Francis Bacon

TUESDAY, JUNE 1st.

Day 387 of my darling wife's deployment. One year, three weeks.

She called me last night. She swears the Camp Victory PX is better than the one we have in Giessen. She said on Sunday she and some friends bought a grill, charcoal and Omaha Steaks and had a cookout by the pool. Then she treated her office to grilled steak for lunch on Memorial Day.

And I'm really, really glad she gets to have these moments of fun. She's worked so long and hard with so few breaks.

MONDAY, MAY 31st.

Memorial Day. Day 386 of CPT Patti's deployment. One year, 20 days.

I watched the national Memorial Day Concert on TV this morning. It featured the National Symphony, the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs. Some actors, some singers. And some amputees from the Global War on Terror.

It was moving. It was disturbing. It seemed as if we tried really hard on this Memorial Day to make it into a day of meaning.

By watching I learned the story of the milkshake man...a previous war (Vietnam?) amputee who volunteers on the amputee ward at Walter Reed. Milkshakes are apparently the superficial center of his ministry to those suffering the same fate as he has endured.

It was moving, but it was hard to watch. See...my darling wife is not yet home safe. I was proud, watching this concert. And I wept. Sitting here alone in my apartment, I wept. Yes...I believe in what we are doing. And I am proud of my wife's service. But I wonder...when less than 250,000 soldiers out of 290,000,000 Americans has served in Iraq, just how invested in this is the average American? Where I have given the last 13 months of my marriage to this effort and many Americans haven't given it 13 minutes of serious reading or contemplation, I can't help ask myself why our investment when others are not willing, though they exploit the freedoms my investment ensures.

Later in my TV day (remember, we are six hours ahead of the east coast. Noon for us is 6:00 am in New York) I see Katie Couric interviewing the Milkshake Man. And I am annoyed. She puts the Milkshake man on the same hurried timeline that stupid show puts all their guests. Moreover, I wonder where has she and her stupid show been all this time. The Milkshake Man has been available...but couldn't be put on the show because they needed the time for stories about prison abuse.

I'm deeply annoyed that Katie Couric treats the Milkshake Man as the story du jour simply because today is Memorial Day. For those of us actually invested in America's defense, every day is a day to contemplate the gravity of the situation. We don't need some red-letter day on a calendar to remind us. In a time of war the vacant side of the bed every evening and morning reminds us.

I switched channels. Tuned to ABC. Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson were interviewing the medical doctor who has been ABC's medical reporter for as long as I can recall. Apparantly he's just released a book. And in it apparantly he declares himself a follower of Christ. And now he's being given the Five-Minute-Interview - same as if he were a member of the Manson gang. He's being treated as if he is a novelty. And this really annoys me because he isn't a novelty...he is a citizen of the America I Live In. But this is the state of the media today. A well-to-do man follows his convictions about helping the downtrodden and giving to the poor and these two talking heads want to profile him as if this is something newsorthy.

Point is - being a Christian is still in the majority in The America I Live In. Check the statistics and you will find the less well-to-do give more to charity in this country than any other group. So where has ABC News been that this doctor is "novel"? Beats me. It's life as usual in the America I Live In.

Today has been an emotional day for me. I feel as if more of America should be holding my hand day in and day out. In reality it feels as if the fraction of the population who are actually invested in the Global War on Terror are all holding each others hands...and a large percentage are holding nothing but politically motivated signs indicating "Bush Lied" and "No Blood For Oil".

And in a weak moment I resent the right that those on the less-than-informed-side have to hold and wave the flag. I feel about that as I occasionally feel about my smile. My parents paid the money to put me in braces. Me? I've been all too willing to smile without thinking about the costs of that nearly perfect smile. Just taking advantage of it. Pretty arrogant, I'd imagine my folks would think as I attempt to rip into a ball of twine with my teeth.

So...all this I encounter today. And then I go read Mark Steyn's column. And I think this country could use a larger bit of investment. Because lack of investment, but enjoyment of the fruits results in some very lazy and ignorant citizens who have no idea of the actual costs.