THEY ARE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS WAR...WE AREN'T

That's Victor Davis Hanson's thesis in this piece, which deserves your undivided attention.

Nearly three years after 9/11 we are in the strangest of all paradoxes: a war against fascists that we can easily win but are clearly not ready to fully wage.

We have the best 500,000 soldiers in the history of civilization, a resolute president, and an informed citizenry that has already received a terrible preemptive blow that killed thousands.

Yet what a human comedy it has now all become.

PRICELESS

Sarcasm often doesn't play well in print...but in this case I think it hits the mark.

Dear Arabs,

I am truly sorry that Americans decided to take up arms and sacrifice their own youth in the defense of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the first Gulf War. After we clear up this mess in Iraq, we will refrain from any such activity in the future.

I am truly sorry that I did not hear any of you call for an apology from Muslim extremists after 911. After all, the hijackers were all Arabs.

I am truly sorry that Arabs have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships throughout the Middle East. I am also sorry that the “leaders” of these nations drive their citizens into poverty by keeping all of the wealth in the hands of a select few.

I am also sorry that these governments intentionally breed hate for the U.S. in their religious schools while American schools do the exact opposite...

I am sorry that the U.S. has continued to serve as the biggest financial supporter of poverty stricken Arab nations while wealthy Arab leaders blame the U.S. for all of their problems...

I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state. I am sorry we have not yet dropped at least 100 Daisy cutters on Fallujah in order to stop that effort...

I am sorry that every time the terrorists hide, it just happens to be inside a “Holy Site.”

I am sorry that Muslim extremists have not yet apologized for the U.S.S. Cole, the embassy bombings, and for flying a plane into the World Trade Center, which collapsed in part on Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which is one of our Holy Sites.

Go read the whole thing here.

"ITS NOT ABOUT POLITICS, ITS ABOUT PEOPLE"

"I'm proud to have fought for my country and to protect America," she said, "but I'm more proud to help those people have the same freedoms we have."

Schools have been rebuilt, textbooks purchased and hospitals restored, she said.

"Everything we blew up or they blew up, we're fixing," she said.

News reports don't focus on troops' efforts to provide electricity and clean water to Iraqis.

"It's those things that no one wants to talk about. The whole thing is not about politics. It's about people."

"The media will never show you the guy in the street that gives you a hug and kiss and says, 'Thank you, please don't leave my country.' That doesn't get TV ratings."

THE BRIDE WORE WHITE

Nothing unusual in that...except she's a soldier, in Baghdad, marrying a soldier in Colorado...ah, just read the story.

Staff Sgt. Shadow Evans, 30, and Sgt. Rick Everton, 29, married Friday evening in Durango, but for the bride - who was north of Baghdad, Iraq - it was early Saturday morning. She appeared at her wedding only as a foot-tall image on a video screen.

Evans is in Iraq on active duty with the National Guard. She watched her husband and the judge who married them from a laptop.

It's the first time a wedding has been conducted by video from a war zone between two soldiers.

And here is a story about the charitable foundation that provided the video equipment to our soldiers.

Free video teleconferencing (VTC), high-speed Internet systems with e-mail and Web-based phone lines are available to Camp Cooke troops to take them virtually anywhere.

The first facility using donated technology from a not-for-profit organization called the Freedom Calls Foundation will officially open Monday, but many troops have already used the technology to see events they would have otherwise missed.

So far people on camp have seen a live birth on a big screen TV, been married by proxy over VTC, and have seen numerous graduations, all thanks to the foundation and Durost, who has worked double time to get the center prepared for Monday.

TRAIN AS YOU FIGHT

That is the mantra of Army training. This is a great article on the training being given all National Guardsmen at Camp Grafton training area in North Dakota. Training that prepares them for the non-traditional enemies in Iraq.

It used to be that Camp Grafton personnel would drive into Devils Lake to dryclean the cooks' uniforms, said Lt. Col. Adams. Now, any time any vehicle leaves camp, it must be in, at a minimum, a three-vehicle convoy -- two of the vehicles being armed Humvees called "gun ships."

"Devils Lake in our scenario is considered just like a Fallujah," Adams said, referring to the restive Iraqi city.

Guardsmen regularly drive to the south end of the camp in convoys, where they are ambushed by teams of three to seven experienced Guardsmen role-playing insurgents, according to Maj. Jeff Holzworth, the 164th's executive officer. They set up improvised explosive devices, hiding them in a carcass of a dead animal or in a pop can, just as in Iraq. They shoot guns and rocket-propelled grenades. They strike at inopportune times such as at corners and intersections, just as in Iraq.

The point Holzworth said, is to train Guardsmen to look for unusual signs that indicate an ambush.

SELFLESS SERVICE

Soldiers? Certainly. But this story is about spouses.

You must read the whole thing.

One day in early April, Hummel got a short e-mail from her husband, 1st Sgt. Alan Hummel, whose Company A troops are attached to Task Force 1-18 in Tikrit.

One of my soldiers is injured, he wrote. Go to Landstuhl and see him.

She invited Twist to help with the 190-mile drive. When they arrived and began navigating the crowded hallways packed with injured troops, they felt as if they’d landed on the set of a TV medical drama.

“We walked right into the middle of turmoil,” Hummel said. “There was stretcher after stretcher. There was a limb missing here, an eye missing there.”

They carried a handful of snacks for Staff Sgt. Eugene Simpson — the 1-77 Armor soldier they’d come to visit — feeling naked. The troops, they said, looked scared and alone, their eyes begging for some reassurance.

“It all changed that day, when we saw those searching faces,” Twist said.

So Hummel and Twist pooled their money and headed for an Army and Air Force Exchange Service shoppette. They spent all they had buying snacks, and returned to the ward to hand them out. The enthusiasm of the troops moved them to tears — some of the wounded even offered to pay them...

In the two months since, the pair’s effort has blossomed into Operation in FAITH (Friends Aid Injured Troops Hospitalized). Seeking to expand their effort, they gained the support of Lt. Col. Keith Wright, chaplain for the Schweinfurt-based 280th Base Support Battalion.

Wright said, coincidentally, he’d received a request from his counterpart at Landstuhl, asking for help in meeting immediate needs of injured soldiers who were then arriving by the planeload.

Hummel and Twist’s effort is in keeping with their strong Christian faith.

“The need is not always ‘Come and talk to me about Christ,’ ” Twist said. “It’s soldiers who have an immediate need, and we can meet it. Sometimes that goes a lot further.”

HMMMMM....

The 2nd Infantry Division is experiencing a surge in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among soldiers who rotated here from assignments in Iraq or Afghanistan, says a senior health official...

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that occurs when a person is exposed to a traumatic or life threatening event such as war, assault, sexual assault, natural disasters or disasters in general, Dorritie said.

Symptoms include panic attacks, nightmares, insomnia, hyper-vigilance, flashbacks, outbursts of anger and irritability, concentration and attention problems and the inability to relax, she said...

Thirty percent of soldiers who serve in combat zones develop full-blown PTSD and 25 percent have at least some symptoms, Dorritie said. “So at least half of the soldiers in combat zones will have (some form of) PTSD.”

I want to tread lightly here...because I do not want to appear to assign this problem less gravity than it is due.

However, whether it is misquoting by the reporter, or misspeaking by the health official, it seemed to me that the statistics quoted in this article are high.
The article concludes that at least half of our soldiers will have some form of PTSD.

I can't get the site to open, but Google preview allows me to see this statement:

PTSD is observed in up to 30% of those who have been in combat zones

In my mind there is a huge difference between "up to 30%" and "30% will develop".

Then there is this statement from a University of Alabama Birmingham (Good Med school there by the way) site:

About 30 percent of men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD.

Which would seem to discount the "half our soldiers" comment.

My point? Let's not ascribe illness to those who don't have it, let's not create "victims" where they are not and moreover, let's not sow panic where it is not warranted.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Hey ya'll...today is Sarah & Russ's 2d Anniversary. Russ is deployed to Iraq with the 1st Infantry Division, so they are spending this anniversary apart. A lot of us have done this...but that fact only adds to misery's company...it doesn't reduce the misery.

So...do me a favor. Pop over to Sarah's and say a kind word. She's had a lot of negative comment traffic of late - folks who compensate for their inability to hold their own against her intellect by using the internet to call her very nasty names.

Let's change that tone. Send her your best.

TUESDAY, JUNE 15th.

Day 401 of CPT Patti's deployment.

One year, one month, one week.

A soldier who was under CPT Patti's command, but did not deploy with the unit contacted me yesterday to see if I would remove the personally owned items from the office that was CPT Patti's when they left. (The office will belong to the current Gators commander upon their return.)

I spent an hour doing so. The scene reflected our total lack of understanding of just what we were in for, 401 days ago.

We had left her office intact...as if she were gone for the weekend. Diplomas, pictures and plaques on the wall. Toothbrush, toothpaste and contact lens solution at the sink. (Yes, the commander's office has a sink. Like a bathroom sink. The inclusion of a sink in the office I believe anticipated the normal occurence of a company commander being at work around the clock on many days. Also nearby and available for the commander and 1SG...showers and laundry facilities. Nine - to - five this ain't.)

I viewed the office and chastised myself a bit for our naivete'. Four-hundred and one days ago the 1AD families looked to Bosnia and Kosovo as the model for deployments, and expected a six month absence. I was the pessimist, predicting it would be 9 months. How wrong we were.

But perhaps that was a blessing. Had we known from the outset this deployment would stretch beyond a year, well, I'm guessing the pessimism and depression may have been much deeper and more rampant than it actually was.

That may be the big difference between the 1AD deployment and those who came later, like the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Cav. They have no illusions of a short stay.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNITED STATES ARMY

I got carried away with today being day 400, the significance of the date blew by me until just now.

The United States Army is 229 years old today, thanks to the second Continental Congress.

Younger than most nations armies...but second to none.

Oh...and as Sarah reminds us...its Flag Day too. Give a salute to Old Glory today.

EXACTLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR MEDIA

Story:

Meet the Press host Tim Russert foresees a bloody summer in Iraq as insurgents try to kill off officials of any new government-in-waiting.

"So, too, in Afghanistan," he told Rich Kellman just before Sunday's Meet the Press broadcast. "The warlords are still very much in control of much of the country. The opium production is sky-high, turning the country, in effect, into a narco state," he says.

Who the hell cares what Tim Russert has to say on the subject? He's a talking head on TV...he's supposed to ask the questions. What makes him an authority? Why does the press believe that his opinion is newsworthy?

The so-called press has forgotten everything it ever knew about true journalism.

Pathetic.

GOOD - THEY COULD USE A LITTLE BORDER CONTROL

Iraq will impose visa restrictions as part of its campaign to bolster internal security after the country regains its sovereignty at the end of this month, the interior minister said Sunday.

MEET THE PRESIDENT OF IRAQ

"Hi everybody. I'm new to this business, so you have to cope with me!"
With this casual introduction, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, the first president of Iraq ever to visit Washington, launched into a news conference at the National Press Club after meeting President George W. Bush and other world leaders at last week's G8 summit in Georgia.

Politicians and analysts alike agree that Mr Yawar - an interim appointee whose term will last until elections early next year - made a strong impression in his first foray into international diplomacy...

A Sunni with a strong tribal base, who more recently worked as a telecoms executive in Saudi Arabia, Mr Yawar has been critical of the US failure to ensure security in Iraq.

But standing alongside George W. Bush at the Sea Island summit, Mr Yawar warmly thanked the US president and people for their support, and affirmed their common goals of establishing a "free, democratic, federal Iraq; a country that is a source of stability to the Middle East".

In Washington, he bristled at areporter's suggestion that the caretaker government would exercise only "alleged" sovereignty after the June 30 handover of authority.

And good for you for registering your displeasure at a reporters bias disguised as a question!

THE MEDICS' TORMENT

For the medics of the 31st Combat Support Hospital there is added torment. This hospital not only treats American soldiers. It treats Iraqis, too. Many are innocent civilians. Others, however, are enemy prisoners of war — lying in beds next to the Americans they were trying to kill. It is an ethical conundrum of immense proportions.

"Even if they try to hurt us, we still have to take care of them," explains Delgado. "That's what we do. Even though we're trying to help them and they're laying there on the bed, they yell at you and they look at you like with a mean face, like, 'What are you doing.' I had one the other day trying to hit us when he was all hurt and we were trying to help him. That's just hard."

Isn't that, in some ways, a metaphor for the larger issues in Iraq? Saddam was the cancer, which has now been eliminated, but the establishment of democracy is akin to the painful physical therapy required to restore the patient to full health. Yet, though it results in less than full functioning, some would reject the therapy citing it being "easier just to go on as before."

Easier, yes. Better, no.

WHEN HOLDING HANDS AND SINGING "KUM BY YAH" DOESN'T WORK

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that Iraqis must be willing to kill their own insurgents for order to be restored in the post-Saddam era.

WHILE THE MEDIA CONTINUES ITS OBSESSION WITH EXPLOSIONS A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS BEING BORN

It's going to come as quite a surprise to those who haven't been paying attention.

With less than three weeks to go before sovereignty returns to Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials are saying that much of the transfer has already happened.

The new interim Iraqi government has been formed, the old Governing Council has been dissolved and the majority of the ministries, including some crucial ones such as oil, transportation and foreign affairs, have been turned over to Iraqi management.

Walid Saleh, planning director for the Water Resources Ministry, said his ministry used to be controlled by a team of six U.S. water experts. Now, Saleh said, these advisers have become "consultants."

"They work for us," Saleh explained. "They are very good technicians and they give us expertise. But we make the decisions."

Yet the process...provides the clearest preview yet of what the U.S.-Iraqi dynamic will be like after June 30.

On that day, Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, will most likely present a written declaration to the chief of Iraq's judicial council recognizing the nation's sovereignty and formally ending the occupation. After that, the two countries will resume diplomatic relations...

U.S. advisers say they have no more major decrees to issue. All the substantial political changes have been put in place. Several senior advisers to the Iraqi ministries are even leaving the country before June 30 because they say their work is done.

"June 1st was the big event," said one U.S. official, referring to when the new interim Iraqi government was announced.

Marc Sievers, a State Department official and senior adviser to the Iraqi foreign affairs ministry, said Iraqis recently chose diplomats to serve in the nation's 47 embassies. "We were shown the list, we weren't asked," he said. "That's a sovereign decision."

SIGNS OF PROGRESS?

One way to look at this: One who previously believed he could bully his way to the top with his own "army" now seems to accept the only way to the top is through the democratic process.

That looks like progress to me.

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is planning to establish a political party that could participate in democratic elections next year.

Qais al-Khazali, a spokesman for radical cleric, made the announcement today in the Iraqi holy city of Al-Najaf.

PLEASE CONSIDER THAT THE IRAQI POLICE HAVE THE TIME AND RESOURCES TO DO THIS

Iraqi authorities say they have broken up a gang that has been selling ancient artifacts illegally dug up from the area of the ancient city of Babylon.

Four men were arrested in a sting operation early last week, and hundreds of items ranging from statuettes to bowls to tablets with cuneiform writing were recovered, Gen. Muhssin Ali, a senior official in Iraq's Interior Ministry, said Sunday.

Archaeologists and art lovers worldwide have been concerned about the disappearance of Iraq's antiquities into the black market during the U.S. occupation...

Iraqi police were tipped off to the gang, which was dealing in freshly unearthed items. The police then posed as buyers and tape-recorded the transaction with hidden microphones.

FEELING AS IF I STARTED THIS BOOK IN THE 6TH CHAPTER

A reporter talks about...well, nothing really. But a nice little story anyway.

Very dark, very eerie, very alone, very much in a war zone, albeit in a forward operating base that does have pretty tight security out front, but less on the sides and rear.

That's when a pack of wild dogs came after me, barking and snapping and generally being feral.

When I say a pack, I mean two. Fairly small dogs, actually. But still.

I scrambled up on a Humvee, cutting the nellymuffins out of my shin, and surveyed my options. Then I told the two little mutts to "Get the bleep out of my bleeping way or I'd bleep their bleep," in my deepest voice, hopped down, and went on, eventually finding the hovel we call home.

MONDAY, JUNE 14th.

Day 400 of CPT Patti's deployment.

Let's let that sink in a minute.

400.

Four-Hundred.

F-O-U-R H-U-N-D-R-E-D.

One wonders: How much does one change in 400 days? What does 400 days apart do to a marriage?

What does she miss that I haven't thought of?

How does 400 days in a war zone affect one's outlook? How about 400 days spent worrying about one who is in a war zone?

But then...perhaps I think too much. I reread this entry from December 30th.

And I learned that spending 8 months without my wife allows my head to fill with notions and ideas that have no basis in reality. I was very concerned about what changes I would see in her, wrought by so long under such stress and conditions. I had imagined all manner of awful possibilities, and attempted to prepare for them.

But there is no appreciable change in her. If anything she may have lost a fraction of the presumption of good in all people - yet she is still far, far from being as cynical as most folks I know. So I guess I learned that the core of who she is is solid...she is who she is, and I'm just delighted about it.

I learned that being married to Time magazine's Person of the Year is a very, very cool feeling.

I learned that my real life with her is so staggeringly superior to my on-line life as a blogger that it is very doubtful I will continue to do this once she safely returns to me.

And finally, I learned that my cousin is right. You just don't forget how to kiss.

Let's hope.