I thought this was an excellent piece by Frederick W. Kagan.

The other country between Iran and Syria might be called "MyRaq"

1. Sunni and Shiite MyRaqis simply hate each other and want to kill each other as they have for centuries. Violence in MyRaq cannot be controlled because it is the reflection of irrational hatred.

2. American troops are seen as occupiers in MyRaq. They are the irritant that drives the violence. If only the U.S. withdrew, the MyRaqis would stop killing one another and the war would end.

3. MyRaq must find its own solutions to its problems. Real peace can result only from political accommodations that the MyRaqi leaders have so far been unwilling to make, largely because the presence of American forces has allowed them to duck making the hard calls.

4. MyRaqis are a bunch of welfare queens who won't do anything for themselves as long as Americans are willing to do it for them. If we want the MyRaqis to establish and maintain security, we've got to pull back and force them to do it. We can leave some training teams to help them work better, but MyRaqi Security Forces should be doing all the heavy lifting in the MyBaghdad Security Plan and throughout the country.

5. Problems in MyRaq come from MyRanian (and MySyrian) influence and intervention. MyRan (a fictitious country that deserves a study of its own) is acting out of self-defense in MyRaq, fearful of an overbearing America that refuses to address its legitimate concerns. Diplomatic overtures toward MyRan would reduce MyRanian interference in MyRaq, leading to peace.

7. MyRaq is an artificial country whose boundaries have no meaning to its people. It should be partitioned into three states--MyKurdistan, MySunnistan, and MyShiitestan--which would then be peaceful and stable. After all, MyRaq was divided into three vilayets when under Ottoman control and we all know how stable it was then.

Unfortunately, the problems facing Iraq--and their solutions--are far more complex.

Read the whole article, it is very enlightening.

This is a great article about Major General Jim Molan, an Austrailian officer who eventually served in Iraq, eventually second in command to US General George Casey.

How many Americans know that it was an Austrailian Coalition General who planned and directed last November's offensive by coalition forces in Fallujah? Who led coalition forces to secure Bagdhad for January's elections?

In April and May last year the battle to protect Iraq's already degraded power grid hung in the balance. On three occasions the power in Baghdad was virtually cut off and sewage and water were not being pumped. At one stage the coalition was running about 800 fuel trucks per day into Iraq to cope after attacks on refinery capacity squeezed petrol supplies.

"We were being extraordinarily defeated on the infrastructure side when I first arrived," Molan says. "When I took over we were down to three or four hours a day of power in Baghdad [it's now about 12] and the bad guys were going out and blowing any pipes they wanted."

At one stage Molan employed giant C17 aircraft direct from California to fly in repair towers for the electricity network. Special dedicated repair teams, protected by security forces, worked around the clock.

You should read the whole article, it's a good read, and you won't hear about it on the MSM.

Despite the sea of pessimism in the media about developments in Iraq, Molan stresses where the insurgents have failed. They have failed to stop the transition to an Iraqi transitional government and failed to stop the January elections. In April last year there was only one usable Iraqi army battalion. There are now more than 100 battalions, many of which have had combat experience.

The key question is whether the US-led coalition can successfully transfer the core counterinsurgency fight to the new Iraqi Government and its security forces. How long will it take? Molan expects coalition military forces to phase down from 2006-07. But he echoes the words of caution of Casey, his former commander: Do not rush the Iraqi Government or security force to failure.

"We will [make the] transition based on the conditions," he says. "The south is pretty healthy. The Kurdish lands are secure. Two of the worst areas of Baghdad are being secured by the Iraqi security forces.

"The Government is just standing on its feet. You have to create capacity in the ministries. There's great relief that Saddam has gone. Extraordinary relief. What concerned all of us was the spirit of Iraq. Had Saddam deprived Iraqis of their spirit? Every so often we saw that no one would step up to the crease and no one would take responsibility. But once they trusted you there was incredible bravery."

We are the sum of our experiences.

Like each and every one of us, my own experiences have left me with my own predispositions to the first impressions of truth. Because of this we need to break out the charts fairly often and take our bearings, examine our positions, make sure that we have not strayed off course.

Unlike some, I do not believe in moral relativism as the Ultimate Truth. There *is* Good and Evil out there, and I do not excuse Evil or Injustice simply because a group of people or a culture has known only this for many years.

I suppose that's one of the several reasons I feel comfortable around Neo-Conservatives.

...on the other hand, there are many things that I believe to be "just so" for no other reason than it was simply the first way I came to know it or perhaps even the only thing I have ever known. Traveling the world in the belly of a great grey Minotaur (Go Navy) has taught me at least that much. There are a lot of ways to be human, a lot of different ways to be happy and to live harmoniously with one another.

Moral Relativism isn't useless. Like any ideology, it leads us astray when we substitute it completely for our own judgment.

Realizing that there is Good, Evil and Just Plain Different is one of the many reasons why I also feel comfortable with people who call themselves RINOs, DINOs, Classical Liberals, Libertarians or Conservative Democrats.

I am primarily uncomfortable with the closeminded people who may be found across the entire political spectrum but seem to be concentrated most heavily on the far left and the far right. Their exploits are the meat and potatoes of the Media Buffet that serves up dinner every night to the masses who are begging for distraction.

The MSM well knows that it is the disturbing, the controversial and the offensive that most easily distracts. They especially love the fallen. Don't we all? The longer the fall, the better the story; the higher the target, the stronger the yearning. Remember the ravenous, almost rabid hunger to take down President Clinton? I do. I felt it myself. To cheapen the White House in such a manner; I still don't believe that the missile strikes against targets in the Sudan were anything but a smokescreen for the Lewisnky coverage.

I try to remember that when I am shocked by this or that story in the news today. The desperate hunger to "take down" the Bush administration is almost farcical.

Look at the Code Pink sponsored Cindy Sheehan, the mother of fallen Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. At a glance, she makes for an excellent spokesperson. Who would assail the integrity of a mother who has sacrificed her son? Surely only the most heartless of bigots. This is what makes her such a valuable tool to groups like Code Pink, an organization that derides our fallen sons and daughters as contemptuous murderers while delivering aid and comfort (medicine, blankets, money) to the insurgents in Iraq.

Reading the transcripts of some of Mrs. Sheehan's public appearances is almost surreal. The transparancy of her scripted comments is appalling. Nuclear War? Palestine?

It's not the first time that this is happened.

It won't be the last.

That's a crying shame.

FURTHER READING:

If you are interested in reading more about Mrs. Sheehan, Michelle Malkin has a good roundup of articles here, here, here, here, and here,.

Greyhawk, a MilBlogger notes that Specilist Sheehan is not able to speak for himself, and offers prayers for the Sheehan family.

Mohammed in Iraq asks Mrs. Sheehen not to waste her son's blood.

More tips of the hat to:

The Free Republic
NPR
New York Sun
Discover the Networks
Front Page Magazine

This is a very touching and poignant piece written by RDC, a military Intelligence Officer in Iraq at the moment.

You'll want to read the whole thing... and then thank RDC, the men and women like him who are defending our liberty as we go about our presently comfortable lives.

Trust. Trusting someone here can get you killed, yet it is who we as Americans are. We are an open and trusting society. We have our share of faults, just watch the news, our detractors are all too willing, and ready to broadcast our shortcomings. So be it. We are Americans, we rise above it, and no matter what the media portrays on television or on radio we rise above it. No matter how much our allies proclaim our actions to be unjust, and how they will not support this or any other unilateral US action. We rise above it, and when they call us we are there.

Read the entire piece.

Polite tip of the hat to Baldilocks.

According to a story over at the Telegraph, Saddam is depressed.

Oh, my bleeding heart.

I confess. The more I try to understand what is happening in the Middle East, the more I wish I never started digging. It makes my head, heart and soul ache.

I'll be the first to admit that I am something of an idealist. I'm far from perfect, but I try to aim high in everything I do; even when you don't succeed it seems to make for better caliber mistakes... that, and you don't ever really lose sight of what you are trying to accomplish in the first place.

Making your ideals work in reality requires a certain amount of faith; I referred to it above when I talked about not losing sight of what you are trying to accomplish.

...but where is that line in the sand where faith becomes naivety?

I had a hard time discerning that line this evening as I dug through the dusty corners of the internet seeking full disclosure about a story I had recently read concerning liberal activists donating money to Fallujah.

My virtual reconnaissance led me to as good a starting place as any to begin this debriefing... Lance Corporal Jesus A. Suarez del Solar.

LCPL del Solar was killed on March 27, 2003, one of the first casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

From the Camp Pendleton Scout:

Mexico native posthumously awarded citizenship
Lance Cpl. Matthew S. Richards, News Editor

CAMP PENDLETON -A native of Mexico who migrated with his family to the U.S. for the chance to become an "Aztec Warrior" Marine was remembered today at Camp Pendleton's Marine Memorial Chapel by over 100 mourners.

Jesus A. Suarez del Solar. 20. an infantry rifleman assigned to D Company. 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. 1st Marine Division. was killed in action March 30 in Iraq while fulfilling his dream to be a warrior.

"He was proud to be a Marine, but he wanted to be remembered as an Aztec Warrior Marine." Fernando Suarez del Solar, his father. "Upon graduating bootcamp he went to Tijuana and bought a small shrine of an Aztec warrior and said 'father this is me.."'

Suarez del Solar entered the Marine Corps in July of 2001. That was his dream, according to his father.

"The only reason we came over was because of him. It started at the age of 10. He had everything he wanted down there except the option of being a Marine." said his father.

In a mostly silent crowd. a small child's wails gave voice to the soft tears that streaked the faces of many mourners. Suarez del Solar made an impact on his fellow Marines as well.

"Even though he was young, he had what I called an old soul." said Sgt. Troy D. Dearson, Suarez del Solals platoon sergeant with D Co., 1st LAR. "He was very mature for his age."

At the conclusion of the eulogies, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services presented Suarez del Solals wife with a certificate authenticating his citizenship.

Suarez del Solar was not the first to receive such an honor, since President George W. Bush announced that anyone who serves in the military one day past Sept. 11, 2001 may be awarded his or her citizenship through an accelerated process.

(reprinted in its entirety only because it seems to be no longer accessible)

Since his son's death, Fernando Suarez del Solar has become a prominent touring spokesperson and activist for groups like Global Exchange and Code Pink. Because of this, most of the blogs and online newspapers that I found while seeking information on this story were clearly partisan; some even came with advice on how to effectively protest the war in Iraq.

As I recount this tale (which does end in Fallujah, I assure you) I will of course select the bits and pieces that strike me as the most likely and believable.

"In late March, two Marine officers arrived at the Suarez home. Their son had died on the battlefield of a gunshot wound to the head, the officers told the Suarezes. Later, a newspaper reporter called to say Jesus had been killed by "friendly fire." A television reporter called with a third story."

-- Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Suarez said ABC officials contacted him, told him they had information regarding his son's death and paid for his flight to Iraq, where they would tell him what happened to his son. ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff, who was embedded with Suarez's son's unit, had video footage of Jesus in Iraq a week before he died. In a video shown at the presentation, Woodruff revealed from his notes that his son died from a U.S. artillery shell."

-- Western Front Online

I have not found that particular description, "told him that they had information regarding his son's death and paid for his flight to Iraq, where they would tell him what happened to his son" anywhere else, but I certainly don't like the way it was phrased. It does seem that this "video presentation" by Bob Woodruff of ABC has been shown a number of times in a number of locations. I don't like the manipulative overtones I see here.

"Bob Woodruff was with Jesus when the boy died. He says Jesus was killed a day after a military unit sprinkled cluster bombs in an area the Marines were to patrol..." "...The military unit laying the bombs didn't mention their work to the Marines. Jesus, acting as Scout, trampled one of these bombs. He was badly, but not mortally, injured although he was bleeding heavily from a head wound. Several attempts were made to call in a medievac helicopter but the Marines' radio malfunctioned. The helicopter arrived two hours after the explosion and Jesus died in the helicopter on his way to medical care."

-- Mothers Speak

I'm not sure that Bob Woodruff was actually with LCPL de Solar when he died, or if the Cluster Bombs were added to the story later. As you saw above, the Western Front article has him citing an artillery shell.

Here is another:

A USA Today study has found that the U.S. dropped or fired nearly 11,000 cluster bombs or cluster weapons on Iraq during the invasion and Britain dropped 2,000 more. It is unknown how many Iraqis died from cluster bombs. One estimate puts the total at 370. And the attacks left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets. At least eight U.S. soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqis have been killed by unexploded bomblets.

USA Today reports that one of the soldiers killed may have been Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar. He died March 27 after stepping on some type of unexploded ordnance while on reconnaissance patrol outside Baghdad. He was 20 years old. A Marine investigation concluded that the "origin of the ordnance is unknown and really impossible to determine."

But the dead Marine's father, Fernando Suarez del Solar has a different account. He says he was contacted by one of his son's friends, who said the Army dropped cluster weapons on March 26 and not all of the submunitions exploded. He is now seeking an official explanation for his son's death.

-- Democracy Now

What exactly is a Cluster Bomb, and why would we have been using them just outside of Bagdhad at that time?

"Cluster bombs were developed in order to improve the efficiency of aerial attacks, particularly against "soft" targets like personnel. Single bombs are less useful for this purpose because they cover a smaller area (known as a "footprint" in military parlance), and their effectiveness is dependent on the accuracy of the bomb's drop. A cluster bomb functions like a shotgun, covering a wider area with a spread of miniature bombs.

Cluster bomb technology was first used by Germany against the United Kingdom in the Second World War, and developed independently by America and Russia. Cluster bombs are now standard air-dropped munitions for most nations, in a wide variety of types.

Artillery shells that employ similar principles have existed for decades. They are typically referred to as ICM (Improved Conventional Munitions) shells. The US military slang terms for them are "firecracker" or "popcorn" shells, for the many small explosions they cause in the target area."

"Some recent weapons of this type include the U.S. CBU-97, employed in Serbia in 1999 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Munitions specifically intended for anti-tank use may be set to self-destruct if they reach the ground without locating a target, theoretically reducing the risk of collateral damage to civilians and non-military targets."

-- Wikipedia

It appears to me, at least, that this could have been a likely scenario - especially if we were trying to ensure that the area in question was clear of armor or vehicles. Perhaps the Artillery Shell and Cluster Bomb comments all refer to the ICM shells referenced above.

I don't, however, react with the same kind of suspicion that Mr. Suarez del Solar does now, especially after visiting Iraq with Global Exchange and Code Pink.

"At the hospitals he saw youngsters dying from the lack of medicine and learned that a number of others had been killed picking up unexploded cluster bombs or when trying to hand them in to U.S. soldiers."

"The bombs look like tennis balls or beer cans, Suarez explains. And when the children try to give them to U.S. soldiers, they are shot on the spot -- military orders."

"They say Saddam had illegal weapons. Jesus died because of an illegal weapon. Cluster bombs are illegal under the Geneva Conventions."

"The Americans dropped about 20,000 cluster bombs. Only 20 percent exploded. My son didn't die in the front lines from enemy fire; he died because of the military's negligence."

-- Interpress Service News Agency

Looking into these accusations, I found the following comments issuing a persuasive rebuttal.

"Now as to the previous poster, he states that 'Only 20 percent (of cluster munitions) exploded.' I've researched it, and the military says 95% (minimum) reliability, the ICRC reports a 75% reliability in Kuwait and Kosovo. Strike one.

He then states that 'Cluster bombs are illegal under the Geneva Conventions.' No, under the Geneva Conventions they are prohibited if they cause incidental loss of civilian life or civilian injury that is excessive in relation to the anticipated direct military advantage of the attack. That's a judgment call, not a hard and fast rule of war. Strike two.

He finally states that 'when the children try to give them (unexploded ordnance) to U.S. soldiers, they are shot on the spot -- military orders.' Right. Soldiers are ordered to shoot children. No need for a strike three required if he expects us to swallow that bilge."

-- Kevin Baker commenting on Eject! Eject! Eject!

The only comment that I can add is that the area outside of the city where LCPL del Solar died was not a populated civilian area. I think that the Geneva Convention argument is pretty well closed, and I think that they were after straggler armor/vehicles from the day before.

His numbers are really off as well. Where is he getting a lot of his information from?

"He became an anti-war activist after his 20-year-old son died on March 27 when he stepped on an unexploded U.S. cluster bomblet south of Baghdad.

Suarez del Solar's efforts caught the attention of Medea Benjamin, director of the San Francisco group Global Exchange. Over the past two months, they've linked other parents and family members willing to travel to Iraq."

-- Veterans for Peace

There are other strong indications that Mr. Suarez del Solar has been swayed by the opinions of his new friends in the anti-war movement.

"Jesus Suarez Del Solar wanted to fight in Iraq to prevent an attack on the United States.

'He always told us that he would rather go over there so that those people don't come here and hurt us,' said his wife, Sayne Suarez."

-- Associated Press

That sounds like most of the military people that I know.

"When my son left on February 5, 2003, to go to Iraq, he said, 'I don't believe in this war, but I'm a Marine and I'm going to go do my job. I'm going to try to help the children there have a better life.'"

-- LA City Beat

That doesn't sound like anyone I know in the military at all, but it does sound like the MSM did here at home and just like his father does now. Perhaps my circles are limited, but most of the people I knew in the military had long felt that Iraq was a job left undone. The sanctions that were supposed to be temporary had lasted over a decade, and they weren't working. In fact, the sanctions had killed more innocent civilians than were lost in the war. We were eager to finish it.

"The military is supposed to respect life and serve the American Constitution. This war doesn't respect life or serve the Constitution. It serves only the people in power.

Hispanics have borne a high casualty burden in the war. What does race mean in this war, both fighting in it and against it?

The system abuses Hispanic young people. It recruits inside high schools in the communities with a large Hispanic population. You never see recruiting at Beverly Hills High School. The military says anybody who joins does so voluntarily. But the economic situation around these boys pushes them into joining the military."

-- LA City Beat

Now we have moved beyond what was originally a grieving father's difficulty in dealing with what he saw was the unjust death of his son... and has graduated to parroting the spoon-fed lines of the liberal left. What respect I did have for Mr Solar's grief is beginning to wane.

For the record, the public high school that I attended (Coral Gables Senior High) was an affluent one. We had a Lacrosse team, a Water Polo Team and Jazzercise classes. There were Porsches and BMW's in the student parking lot. James Michener taught a creative writing class there when I was a senior.

...and it was only through the steadfast persistence of the local Navy Recruiting office that I joined the military just before the Gulf War. I had never even considered the military as an option; just like Jesus, it sounded like a good deal.

Mr Suarez del Solar, I'd wager there are recruiters even in Beverly Hills. I'd also wager that what you call "an abusive system" is what most people in the military "being abused" would call an excellent opportunity.

Your own son thought so, a citizen of Mexico here on a green card with little wealth and dreams of becoming a DEA agent.

He was a Hero.

"Basic facts of Fernando Suarez del Solar: He immigrated his family to the United States 9 years ago when son Jesus was 14 years old from Tijuana (not as rumored for the sole purpose of Jesus joining the U.S. Marines). At 18, Jesus voluntarily joined the Marines. The Marines say he was a good Marine. He died in the Iraq invasion a Mexican citizen because father Fernando never secured citizenship for himself or his family..."

"...There is nothing in his background that demonstrates any knowledge of American foreign policy, or of the continuous war for freedom waged by Americans since 1776, or any American history. There is no proof he could even find Iraq on an unmarked map before his son was killed. There is no proof he vociferously objected to his son's enlistment in the Marines. Until his son became famous by death in Iraq, there is no proof Fernando ever made a public utterance on any socio-economic or political subject other than leaving Mexico for America.

There is plenty of proof, however, that Fernando has some media presence. On behalf of others he represents a point of view to the public with many adherents but little power. In fact, the hugely successful Iraq election cut much of the ground out from anti-Iraq war activists, as did President George W. Bush's reelection.

Despite these blows, Fernando finds reporters willing to publish his 'quest for peace' activities. There are no published words of his praising the Iraq people for standing up to terrorists and trooping to the polls to freely elect their own government (an experience Fernando has never had, not having ever voted in a free Mexican election). He offers no condemnatory words towards Muslim car-bombing terrorists who kill innocent women and children in Iraq. Such words would be counter to his 'handlers'' desire to vilify the Iraq war.

He mouths the words he is told to say. He says America has killed more people in Iraq than the recent tsunami did. He is told to ay these things, despite their not being true. He says them and he receives financial succor from these fanatics. They finance him because he is the father of an American Marine who died in the first few days of the war, not because he is brilliant or a fine orator.

There can be no mistake about it, Fernando Suarez del Solar is being used and manipulated - willingly-because he is an unsophisticated Mexican immigrant without a firm educational base. He won't stop it or stop taking the money.

I, like Fernando, grieve for his son, Jesus. And, I support 'Green Carder' Fernando's exercise of free speech which he never experienced before. However, he must recognize that his opinion is not his own, it comes from others, others who dishonor his son's life and death."

-- By CalNews.com's Raoul Lowery Contreras

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO

More discussions on the war in Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the efforts of Global Exchange and Code Pink to bring aid and comfort to the people of Fallujah.

If you don't keep your eye on the Department of State's website, perhaps you should!

On January 30, 2005, more than 8 million Iraqi people went to the polls in national elections, 18 provincial elections, and the Kurdistan regional government election.

Feb. 22 fact sheet: U.S. funding for Iraqi reconstruction in 2003 and 2004 included nearly half a billion dollars to support democracy-building programs in Iraq, including projects that specifically help women with democratic organization and advocacy.

Feb. 17 fact sheet: The U.S. and the European Union are committed to a federal, democratic, pluralistic, and unified Iraq. They cooperate closely on the full range of political, economic, development, and security issues affecting Iraq.

Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 fact sheets: The Iraqi people demonstrated their commitment to democracy during the January 30 elections, voting for a Transitional National Assembly, provincial councils, and a Kurdistan regional government. Iraqi officials organized the election and Iraqi security forces protected the polling places.

Feb. 3 fact sheet: The UN Oil-for-Food Program was implemented in December 1996 and ended in November 2003. The United States is committed to ensuring that the serious allegations of fraud, abuse, and corruption related to the program are investigated fully and transparently.

President Bush (Jan. 30): "The Iraqi people, themselves, made this election a resounding success.... This historic election begins the process of drafting and ratifying a new constitution, which will be the basis of a fully democratic Iraqi government.... We will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security. There's more distance to travel on the road to democracy. Yet Iraqis are proving they're equal to the challenge." [more]

Secretary Rice (Jan. 30): "This is the start of a new day for Iraq. It's not perfect. There are parts of the country where people have been intimidated and where the violence is very high. ... [W]hat we are seeing is that Iraqis are voting in large numbers. I think everybody believes it's better than expected. There are parts of the country where we expected a low turnout, but this election is, of course, a first step; and what it really says is that the Iraqi people are not prepared to be fearful and intimidated and kept from their right to exercise their voice." [full text of Fox interview] Also see ABC, CBS, CNN interviews; remarks outside CBS studio; view photos.

Zayad, over on Healing Iraq, posted this today. He is an Iraqi in Jordan at the moment.

Jordanians were wishing Iraqis luck these few days everywhere on the streets. One young man at a mall, on recognising my Iraqi accent, asked me who I would be voting for. I politely told him that I would vote for who I believe is sincere. Strangely, he said that he personally preferred Allawi and hoped most Iraqis would be voting for him. I wished his country luck as well since the King had promised direct elections for municipal councils as a first step. He dismissed that as nothing much and said that "One should start from the 'Head' down, not the other way around". This last remark played on my survival instincts, even though the fellow looked far from being a Jordanian Mukhabarat agent, so I left the man in peace.

I know that only history will be able to look back on these decades and know whether or not the U.S. made wise decisions or shed blood uselessly pursuing foolish ideals... but hearing things like this gives me hope that Freedom might actually spread across the Middle East like a grassfire.

The blogosphere is ripe today, a ready and eager witness to the birth of self-determination and freedom in Iraq.

As usual, there is a good roundup of posts from all sides of the political spectrum over here at
The Command Post.

It's the Iraqi bloggers themselves who made the biggest impact on my perception of this historic day.

From Iraq the Model

The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis s far but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun.

I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".

Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box!

From Democracy in Iraq

I am happy to report...no I am honored to report that I have cast my ballot in our election. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to have some control over the destiny of my nation, a feeling I have not known before! I was one of the first ones to report to our local voting station, and I placed my vote, my stained finger is proof (The authorities are using such a system to make sure people do not vote twice). I was not the only one to show up at the opening of the voting area, there were at least a dozen other Iraqis waiting to take part in this momentus event, and as I left, I saw tens more file in.

From Free Iraqi

I entered the school and the supervisors showed me the way to were I should vote. They and the ING guys were so polite and gentle. I cast my vote and got out, not in a rush at all. This is my Eid and I felt like a king walking in his own kingdom. I saw the same look of confidence and satisfaction in the eyes of all people I met. As I left one of the gurads said to me as he handed me back my cellular phone,"God bless you and your beloved ones. We don't know how to thank you. Please excuse any inconvinience on our part. We wish we didn't have to search you or limit your freedom. You are heroes" I was struck with surprise and felt ashamed. This man was risking his life all these hours in what has become the ytmost target for all terrorists in Iraq and yet he's apologizing and calling us heroes. I thanked him back and told him that he and his comrads are the true heroes and that we can never be grateful enough for their services.

More Iraqi Bloggers for you to investigate:

Ambassador Fayrouz
AYS
Faiza
Ferid
Free Iraqi
Firas
Friends of Democracy
Husayn
Ibn Al Rafidain
Ibrahim
Iraq Elections Blog
Iraq Files
Iraq Pundit
Khalid
Kurdistan Bloggers Union
Kurdo
Ladybird
Majid
Nabil
Najma
Omar, Ali, and Mohammed
Raed
Raed and the Irani
Riverbend
Rose
Sam
Sami
Sarmad
Zeyad

More proof that God works in mysterious ways! A feminine care package ended up in a male marine's hands, and the tampons in it ended up saving a life...

hat tip to Blackfive via Michelle Malkin

Then of course, they had the tampons. When he brought this up my imagination was just running wild, but I let him continue. My son said they had to go on a mission and Marine X wanted the chapstick and lotion for the trip. He grabbed a bunch of the items out of his care package and got in the humvee. As luck would have it he grabbed the tampons, and My son said everyone was teasing him about "not forgetting his feminine hygiene products". My son said things were going well, and then the convoy was ambushed. He said a Marine in the convoy was shot. He said the wound was pretty clean, but it was deep. He said they were administering first aid but couldn't get the bleeding to slow down, and someone said, "Hey use Marine X's tampons". My son said they put the tampon in the wound. At this point my son profoundly told me, "Mom did you know that tampons expand?" ) "Well, yeah!". They successfully slowed the bleeding and got the guy medical attention. When they went to check on him later the surgeon told them, "You guys saved his life". If you hadn't stopped that bleeding he would have bled to death. My son said, "Mom, the tampons sent by the Marine Moms by mistake saved a Marines life." At this point I asked him, "Well what did you do with the rest of the tampons?" He said, "Oh, we divided them up and we all have them in our flak jackets, and I kept two for our first aid kit".

Some people just don't get it. If we don't move as one nation, we're going to get rolled.

When the Army of Ansar al Sunna - a group tied to al Qaeda - attacks an American base near Mosul it should be apparent that Iraq is the front line in the War on Terrorism.

When Christian churches are bombed - as they were on the same day and in the same part of Iraq - and Shia mosques in Karbala and Najaf are targeted as well, it should be clear that the bombers are waging a most unholy war.

When Iraqi election workers are shot dead in the streets, as they were last weekend, the murderers' hatred for democracy ought to be obvious.

Yet somehow the debate goes on about whether those fighting us are really enemies of freedom, about whether or not it is imperative they be defeated.

We need to recapture the National Spirit we had when fighting Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. In those days, we even had Hollywood behind the effort. Who can forget people like Mickey Rooney or Glen Miller putting on uniforms themselves, and in a later decade even Elvis? Where did Rosie the Riveter go?

When did we lose that kind of National Pride? Was it the Sixties?

History will view this war not as a war of tanks and guns, missiles or stealth planes, but a war of wills. We are not geared to fight this klind of war, not with our Main Stream Media and people like Michael Moore taking salvos at our rear flanks while the Terrorists strike from the front.

Then, too, there are those who do not defend the killers but argue that the continuing carnage proves the United States can't overcome this foe. If that's true, we might as well convert the Pentagon into condominiums.

What need is there for a multi-billion dollar defense establishment designed to roll back an attack by the Soviet Union? What's the point of a military machine that can topple Saddam Hussein in a few weeks but has to give Iraq back to his cronies a few years later?

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, much criticized of late, appears to understand this. A few days ago, he frankly acknowledged the urgent need to "develop a military designed to meet the challenges of this era."

The military we have now, he explained, "is, in many ways, still organized, trained and best equipped for the more conventional challenges of the past century, when wars were conducted largely between large navies, armies and air forces."

Our current enemies, by contrast, are fighting an "unconventional" war. The combatants who attacked the Forward Operating Base Marez outside Mosul were not attempting to win a battle in the conventional sense; they did not hope to seize the camp any more than the suicide-terrorists who attacked on 9/11 planned to station tanks in New York and Washington.

Instead, the goal of terrorists is simply to slaughter and, of course, terrorize. By so doing, they mean to destroy our will to fight. Lose the will to fight and, by definition, you have been defeated - no matter how high-tech your weaponry, no matter how many troops you have riding in armored Humvees.

Read the entire article over at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

I thought I would share with you a recent exchange I had with a liberally-minded internet friend of mine.

He began like this, with a letter to a small group of carbon copy opinion-wielders like myself and my friend Pat Hurley:

A while back I made note of "wasteful government programs" and had forwarded an article highlighting how wasteful military spending really is (John McCain seems to think so too) and someone replied with the comment that at least "America has something to show for it.".......Well it appears that some of our soldiers will take issue with that. Let me get this right.......We spend billion and billions of taxpayers money and give some of these corporations "blank checks" and many of our soldiers feel they don't even have basics they need. Where is all that taxpayer money going?

To which, I replied...

As it turns out, the soldiers were coached by a reporter, and even the veracity of the claims is now in question. As a veteran of Desert Storm, Mogadishu/Somalia and Bosnia/Herzegovina, let me tell you how creative we are. At one point, we made our own washing machine for greasy uniforms out of a 50 gallon drum, some copper tubing and powered it off the 600 pound auxiliary stream drains and an LP air line. It certainly wasn’t newsworthy of the media back home: SAILORS USE REFUSE TO WASH CLOTHES, WHERE ARE OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS GOING?

You can read the reporter’s article that coached the soldiers here:

Even his own article is less inflammatory and acidic than the mainstream media who went for this like a pit bull on a bone.

None of the troop choppers I ever flew in were armored and the hull of the helo-carrier that I slept in was a half inch thick in most places. A cheap missile would make a good sized hole.

But you know, that didn’t make the news either, not when we took small arms fire and mortars from the beaches in Mogadishu, nor when we traversed the minefields of the Adriatic. It’s a tough job, and we volunteered to do it.

Whiny civilians... quit yer bitchin’ and quit inciting my fellow vets to question their chain of command. We have a job to do. Let us do it. The US Marine Corps are lethal wearing only underwear and brandishing only bare fists. That’s the winning attitude. Inspire decay within the ranks and we’ll fall apart, accomplish nothing.

It disgusts me to see whiny liberals say how much they support the troops while at the same time applaud the cowards who refused to run supplies through the desert, complaining that it was “too dangerous”. That kind of supporting the troops will get people killed, cripple our military.

And in response, he penned:

Michael,

I’m sure even if some of the soldiers were “coached” they wouldn’t have said what they did if it weren’t true. Retired general Tommy Franks was on Fox last night and he acknowledged that the military is deficient in many regards. This simply should NEVER be….given our military budget! And at the same time John McCain has expressed that the Pentagon has done a poor job in its accounting of military spending. My point is simply, this highlights the kind of waste, inefficiency and ineffectiveness that Republicans vow to rid Government of. Yet…..

Although I agree with him on some points, I am no lover of the wasted dollar let alone a billion or so of them... It was not the point I was making with respect to this incident. I concluded:

The fact of the matter is that we don’t know what was true and what was not. All, some, any of it. The soldiers, if they were told that these things were true, would have been incensed on the spot and would have enjoyed “sticking it to the brass”. I know I would have.

My point is, stop fomenting rebellion in the military. It is a taut spring under the best of conditions. You want to change things? Want to cut out the pork? Do it at home through your elected officials. Stop killing our troops, making their job harder, just for the sake of some fiery (and possible false) headlines that drive your ratings up so you can charge more for your advertising.

This is despicable.

Margaret, the Irish born president of CARE International in Iraq, has spent the last 30 years of her life there in Iraq... distributing food and medicine to those in need. She is married to an Iraqi man. She speaks fluent Arabic. She was there for the Iraqi people during the 12 years of sanctions, throughout the present war.

...and now she is being trotted out in front of the camera like Mr. Kenneth Bigley, begging for her life, making a heartfelt appeal to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

If these bastards think that it will break our will, they are mistaken. They will do nothing but strengthen our resolve, feed our determination and ensure their own martyrdom.

It must wrench the hearts of the British.

It certainly wrenches mine.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appeared on a videotape aired Friday, weeping and pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq "and not bring them to Baghdad" because "this might be my last hours."

"Please help me. Please help me," said a terrified Hassan, breaking down in tears and burying her face in a tissue. She said she might be killed like British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was beheaded by his captors earlier this month.

"This might be my last hours," she said in the video aired by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera. She begged the British people to "ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq, and not to bring them here to Baghdad. That's why people like Mr. Bigely and myself are being caught. And maybe we will die like Mr. Bigley. Please, please, I beg of you."

Hassan - an Irish-British-Iraqi national who has been doing humanitarian work in Iraq for 30 years, including distributing medicine and food - appeared haggard, her eyes baggy as she stood alone in front of a bare wall.

Retired General Tommy Franks responds to the Kerry/Edwards accusation that Bush/Cheney "Outsourced" the capture of Osama Bin Laden to Afghan warlords.

I was talking with my business partner this morning about President Bush. I argued that one of the qualities that I wished the President had is better salesmanship. Don't get me wrong... Integrity comes first and I believe the President has that in spades, but a salesman he is not. A good salesman can sell you something you don't want and make you glad you bought it. A lot of people didn't want this war on Terrorism, and they don't understand the vital necessity of the war in Iraq. President Clinton, as much as I hate him for the way he handled the military and our military obligations, as much as I think that he is enormously responsible for much of the state of terrorism today because he did NOT meet his military obligations... President Clinton would have been able to sell this war, this need, to the citizenry and the world beyond.

Not that he would have had the integrity to deem it important. He would have shuffled it under the rug as best he could.

Just imagine, if you will, if President Bush could have framed the argument that Retired General Tommy Franks made today during the first Presidential Debate:

On more than one occasion, Senator Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America. He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. How did it happen? According to Mr. Kerry, we "outsourced" the job to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality.

First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.

Second, we did not "outsource" military action. We did rely heavily on Afghans because they knew Tora Bora, a mountainous, geographically difficult region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is where Afghan mujahedeen holed up for years, keeping alive their resistance to the Soviet Union. Killing and capturing Taliban and Qaeda fighters was best done by the Afghan fighters who already knew the caves and tunnels.

Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes. Pakistani troops also provided significant help - as many as 100,000 sealed the border and rounded up hundreds of Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Contrary to Senator Kerry, President Bush never "took his eye off the ball" when it came to Osama bin Laden. The war on terrorism has a global focus. It cannot be divided into separate and unrelated wars, one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq. Both are part of the same effort to capture and kill terrorists before they are able to strike America again, potentially with weapons of mass destruction. Terrorist cells are operating in some 60 countries, and the United States, in coordination with dozens of allies, is waging this war on many fronts.

Hat Tip to Little Green Footballs

Dear Faiza,

Thank you very much for your kind letter.

if you live here, and you are Iraqi, you didn`t love saddam, but you can`t see America as an angel...

That is very easy to understand. I agree; there are no angels in war, certainly not us. War is the worst humanity can offer. It is a difficult thing to support, especially when you are brought face to face with those who are affected most.

This is why I think that the Information Age that we are entering will help curb our ignorance of each other, help make war as we know it today much more difficult to wage.

I recall a time when I was in the US Navy, not long after the first Persian Gulf War. We spent several months in the Adriatic Sea supporting Operation Deny Flight. This was our small contribution to the prelude for the war in Bosnia/Herzegovina. Perhaps our mission was ordered as a result of our "lesson learned" after the uprisings (that we encouraged) in Southern Iraq. The Serbs and Croats were fighting each other, and it was our job to make sure that the side with technological superiority did not use aircraft to simply slaughter the other.

I am saddened to say that that this was also a war that I supported. It makes you hang your head at times, to believe one thing and choose to do another. The horrors of that war will be prominent in history books, I am sure. We like to think that genocide was something that happened last in World War II when Adolf Hitler killed millions in the name of racial and political purity. The sad truth is that it still happens today. (It is even happening in Africa as we discuss this)

What the Serbians did to the Croats was repulsive to anyone with any humanity at all. Serbian Soldiers would enter a village, line up any man or boy who could take up arms against them and shoot them on the spot... women were raped as a *military* objective, to "breed out" their enemy, these things by confession from soldiers at the tribunal held afterwards.

One of the worst ironies?

The Croatians had done a similar thing to the Serbians just a few years earlier.

Is it even possible for a war to have a good side and an evil side? I do not think so. Not even for people who intervene. You sell a part of your soul, I think, when you choose to wage war. You will surely be held accountable for it so you had better make a wise bargain, if such a thing is not purely a contradiction in terms.

Noble causes aside, I think that war only happens when it becomes politically feasible and in this case Bosnia / Herzegovina threatened to destabilize Eastern Europe at a time when Europe was trying to form the European Union.

As familiar as any war sounds when compared to the last, this was a unique war, I think. What makes the war so remarkable to me is the fact that it was the first time that you could log on to the internet and listen to / talk to the people who were being bombed. As I recall, that was when the first Blogs started as well, though I am not sure they were even called that then. Like you, they did not see it as some great noble effort; their lives were already difficult to begin with and afterwards...

...still, how can you sit idly by and know that such atrocities are being committed without feeling as if you are partly responsible by doing nothing? I watched the television and saw soldiers and villagers alike discuss terrible horrors... I saw students and families living in the city who were unaffected, crying out for the injustice of our choosing to attack a sovereign nation. You listen to supporters of the old regime, leaders in the rebellion who oppose them, watch the UN Troops as they march in to maintain the peace, mothers who no longer have their children, children who no longer have their mothers, mass graves, lists of war crimes.... Even watching it from the far side of the planet through the distorted lens of mass media, it is difficult to endure. No wonder most Americans pay little attention; focus on our little lives, jobs, family, and pursuits of happiness.

It will take a long time for that region to recuperate, and the bombs did not erase the hatred that one group of people had for another.

After all, Bombs are not built to erase hatred.

To discuss another, earlier conflict... The first Gulf War was difficult to argue against as well. To not act would be akin to being an accomplice. (Sound Familiar?)

That war ended differently.

We did not depose the dictator at the end of that war.

Instead, we used our considerable political and economic leverage against your nation, Iraq. Many speculate as to the motivation of the sanctions afterwards. Perhaps I am naive again, but I think that the leaders of the Arab nations stipulated in private that if we wanted their support then we could not depose an Arab head of state, no matter how despotic. After that, I think it was a misguided morality that demanded we follow the misguided folly of sanctions.

I think that the sanctions were horrible.

Perhaps it *was* noble in the beginning, to think that we could wage "peace" instead of "war", and that won the hearts of the American voters. Well, the voters did not get to see the results of their well-intended handiwork. After 12 years, if I am not mistaken, the sanctions hurt the Iraqi people far more than the war ever did and Sadaam survived and flourished nonetheless. One only has to look at the Oil for Food scandal and imagine how many undiscovered "lifelines" he actually had.

The ideology of the era was called "containment", and eventually we found out how effective that was when dissidents flew our own planes into what was the World Trade Center, killing thousands. On that day, America realized the folly of "Containment" and it changed our mindset completely. There was no way to fight this nationless enemy, but we could strike at the nation states that supported their infrastructure.

Afghanistan was run by the Taliban, who openly supported Al Qaeda. They were an enemy that was easy for the average American to hate; they would not allow their women to attend school, they destroyed books they did not agree with, they used tanks to bring down statues that had stood for thousands of years because they saw them as heretic.

Afghanistan fell.

Now the average American sees the seeds of democracy beginning to grow there; they see discord as well, but it is popularly seen as an unfortunate necessity... never mind the fact that crime was more manageable under their strict rule, that the poppy fields which supplied the opium trade barely existed, that people had at least an orderly, predictable life if not a life of opportunity.

Germany was just as devastated after World War II. It took them decades to recover, but they have - and now they are a powerful, industrial nation and stronger advocates of peace than even we are.

We pat ourselves on the back for the achievements made at gunpoint.

I'm sure that there are many, many people in Afghanistan who do not feel as we do. I'm sure that there are local crime lords who are glad that they do not have the Taliban to answer to.

Soon Iraq demanded our attention.

Leaders of neighboring Arab states said "They have Weapons of Mass Destruction". Defecting Iraqis said "They have Weapons of Mass Destruction". Great Britain, Nigeria, Israel and other nations said "They have Weapons of Mass Destruction". Our own intelligence declared it to be so.

We watched Al Qaeda regrouping after losing a large part of their support infrastructure.

We watch Sadaam and his regime making overtures to Al Qaeda, though we are aware that they actually don't care for each other that much.

The President of the United States makes a decision, and the rest is history, or so it seems from our perspective.

I am not trying to sell you on this perspective.

I am not justifying the war (any war) to you.

I don't think that my perspective is more important or better than yours.

Although I believe in Good and Evil and that some things are simply wrong no matter what culture you were raised in or what God you worship... I think that the list of those things is relatively small and easily agreed upon by most people.

I wrote this seeking to be understood, as I read your writing to seek to understand you.

As human beings we have an opportunity and a duty to study the past so that we do not repeat our mistakes. We have an opportunity and a duty to challenge ourselves to examine the things in our lives, to not simply make decisions out of convenience, to question superficial appearance.

I am just trying to rise to this challenge by examining myself with you as a witness.

What good is an idea that can only live in the dark? A perspective that is only valid in a comfortable home on the other side of the planet?

Not good at all, I think.

Please give my best wishes to you and your family. I hope that the days ahead are easier for you than the days behind, though I know that there are many more obstacles to face.

Very Respectfully,

Michael E. Cummins
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
http://www.i-magery.com

As you have recently read, I wrote a letter to Faiza, an Iraqi mother who lives in Bagdhad and has her own blog: afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com.

It was a short letter, mostly a combination of introspection and apology. After spending a few hours reading her Blog entires some sort of apology seemed necessary, or at least my heavy heart demanded it of me. If you read it, you may be interested in Faiza's reply...

well,no, you are not naive, but it`s your vision..
may be if I were an American , I would think like you :) if you live here, and you are Iraqi, you didn`t love saddam, but you can`t see America as an angel...
yes, there is wrong things, bad actions, evil, benefits for some groupes..
the papers are mixed, but you can fight to keep your mind clear and your vision clean.
I want you to think about Iraqi....and his daily suffering, and his dark future..
support him as brother to brother, defend about his rights of human..
just that ....
don`t have a political view, the political are corrupted and you can`t trust them..
thank you my dear...
wish you good days :)
faiza

Good Evening, Faiza!

Best wishes to you and your entire family. I hope that this letter has found you in good health and spirits.

I will be brief, or at least try to. I can only say that I am sorry for your pain and suffering. I suppose that I am one of those faceless Americans who support this war, if only for that fact that we truly felt convinced that we were in imminent danger. Even after much investigation and introspection, it still appears that way to me. I doubt that this invites your friendship or compassion.

Now that the ball is rolling, however, there is little to do but to see it through. It certainly seems that a hasty exit will do more harm than good. Perhaps I am naive, since I do not believe in some grand conspiracy of empire or oppression. Instead, I think that we are all human, and that we will continue stumbling forward as best we can. Regular people like you or I make mistakes every day... Powerful countries run by regular people make the same mistakes, but they bring forth greater consequences. I truly believe that despite the many horrors and evil that exist today, mankind as a whole is moving in a good direction.

I doubt that is very consoling to you.

I wish that there was something that I could say that would give you even an ounce of hope, but from all that I read there isn't much that I can do personally to affect your struggle.

Still, I wish that it was not so.

In the end, our troops will be gone and I can only hope that your people and mine can forge some kind of useful friendship that benefits everyone... and that the government you establish will truly represent your people even if many of the people there now don't think very kindly of us at the moment.

I hope that this will take place as soon as humanly possible.

Take care, and I look forward to reading your point of view, critical of my country or not.

Very Respectfully,

Michael E. Cummins
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
http://www.i-magery.com

Today I read several more Iraqi blogs. The Internet is such a marvelous tool. It is incredible to me that these people have just a few hours of electricity a day, and they spend that time in front of their computers blogging their thoughts and fears and daily occurrences. Amazing. Yesterday the majority of what I read was hateful toward America - particularly the US government. Michael found some less hateful and biased sources for me today.

Here are the links:

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

http://www.iraq-iraqis.blogspot.com/

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/07/good-news-from-iraq-part-5.html

Mostly I read from the first 2 blogs. It is sad to hear the tales of regular Iraqi people. I feel embarrassed, on one hand, to have been in support of this horrible war. I sympathize with the outrage of the innocent people who were bombed, tortured, had their lives turned upside down,lost family and possessions, etc., etc. To them, things were better under Saddam Hussein - they knew what to expect. I guess either our government overstated the tourture tactics of this regime, or the people who are blogging were not affected by these events.

But, then I think of how it all started. Why didn't Sadaam Hussein disarm? Why did he lie and cheat and murder his people? What would have happened if we had left him and his country alone? Why didn't the Iraqi people stop him from harboring terrorists? Probably for the same reasons the American people would not/could not stop this Iraq war.

Some of the bloggers' rage against the injustice of the 12 year embargo on Iraq and they wonder why we didn't finish off the government during the first Iraq war. But, that would have been too cruel a punishment at the time. Who could have known that the events of the next 12 years would lead us to where we are now?

The stories of Iraqis being tortured by the coalition forces is sickening. Can this be blamed on the desensitization of war? Or is it the corruption of power?

Do you think that John Kerry will solve this problem? I don't. I don't think he has what it takes to lead our country. I don't see any evidence of his diplomatic abilities either. Clinton seemed to be a diplomat, but it was during his years in the White House that Iraq suffered the embargo which crippled the country. Kerry said he would send more of our troops to Iraq. Will that help to get the occupying armies out any quicker? And what will happen when they leave?

Civilization on earth has a long way to go. Perhaps it will never change. I sometimes think of this existence as a schoolroom. We must all learn our lessons - repeating each chapter over and over until we master the text. But with so many people in the world, how can we think that global peace will EVER be achieved?

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

War is a horrible thing. It is mankind at its worst. I can sympathize with the radical left and their intolerance for such depravity. Mankind at its best rejects such things outright. Gandhi was an embodiment of such human bravery, the way he faced down the British with a veritable mob of non-violent protesters. On that day, the British showed the ugly side of their humanity (the one we all possess) as they beat them back.

The face of the war in Iraq is certainly uglier.

When I was participating in the first Persian Gulf War, my contribution was limited to taking lube oil readings on the ship's main engine, making coffee, rousing the watch, monitoring the bilge and measuring potable water levels with a brass plumb bob. No glorious warrior, I.

We were isolated, doing our part of the big job as well as we could. Still, the news would eventually catch up to us. The marines would leave the ship, but not all of them would come back. People would share photos, stories... especially in the berthing, over late night poker games hidden away in parts of the ship where officers rarely tread, and in bars out in town.

I remember one Marine who rode in one of the choppers that flew over Sadaam's palaces and took photos of him strafing the building, putting ugly marks in the side of it. Those photos tucked away in his leather vest was his passport to an evening of drinking and revelry; armed with those, there wasn't a Kurd in Turkiye who would let him buy his own.

Eventually we would be able to watch the news. We saw the images on CNN where we bombed Sadaam's army as they traveled along that great road of Death. You could easily imagine the black, smoking line of ruined vehicles and the smell of charred flesh as it mingled in the dust that seemed to come from everywhere and go nowhere. No, I was never privy to such sights first hand, but we traveled the adjacent regions and it was not hard to picture.

I remember hearing that using napalm was the best and only real way to kill the Iraqi troops in their sand bunkers, but I only heard about that once on the news and it was followed by a quick comment from the Department of Defense that we had only done that a few times, and that we would discontinue immediately.

I kind of doubt that we did. After all, it was efficient. I learned the same lessons studying the martial arts as I did in the military: combat is horrible, end it as fast as you can. In a fight, that might mean kicking someone in the groin and sweeping them to the ground. In Iraq, perhaps it meant dropping napalm on bunkers.

I can't really say that I felt bad about the war. Not then, or even now. It was the right thing to do, and we didn't waste any time getting the job done. An evil bastard (that we helped in the past so we could contain Iran) decided that he wanted his neighbor's house, so he took it. The world itself as a community can not condone that and an immediate response is required.

What I do feel bad about is the 12 years of sanctions that we forced the Iraqi people to suffer through.

There is no shortage of horrible pictures on the Internet as a result of us waiting for the problem to fix itself.

It won't, you know.

It won't fix itself.

We learned the hard way, after years of merciful "containment" policies... the problem that we tried to keep our moral heads above reached out and hit us.

Hard.

I have to hand it to President Bush: when the country was screaming for blood, we did nothing for months. I was waiting for an indiscriminate blood bath; such was the rage of our nation.

Eventually, we acted, and the Taliban fell... thus ended the reign of a state government which supported terror.

For all the headlines that I have read in the mass media that decry the failure to link Iraq to Al Queda, I have seen enough to have been convinced that Iraq was an attractive breeding ground that had already been making overtures for years. The 9/11 report said on one hand that there was no direct evidence, and then they list pages and pages of evidence that seems pretty direct to me. Tired of the drubbing that the pundits have been giving President Bush, Wendy spent the better part of the day relentlessly searching on the internet for Weapons of Mass Destruction, links to Al Queda, etc. It did not take her long to find quite a list of things that the media brushes over: nerve gas, sample strains of weapons-grade biochemical agents, missiles that were in violation of the UN mandate, unmanned drones... She also came face to face with the horrors of war.

War is a horrible thing. You can't say it enough times.

But when such cancerous evil takes root, it must be excised or it will infect us all. People do not look back on World War II and give it the same kind of drubbing. It was some kind of noble conflict. People don't remember things like what we did to Dresden; for the most part we just remember how horrible the enemy was and how glad we are that they are gone.

How long did it take Germany to recover?

How long Japan?

Where are these countries now?

Do you honestly think that these futures are not possible for Iraq and Afghanistan?

Just yesterday I read that despite all the horrible news still coming out of Afghanistan, like the departure of Doctors Without Borders and the people who were shot because they carried voters registration cards... 90% of the people have registered to vote.

That country is still so fractured that you couldn't get 90% of them to agree on the fact that the sky is blue, or that peanut butter is king.

Okay, so I slipped that one in there.

The bottom line is that virtually the entire country said quite clearly "We want this freedom!"

It takes time, people. Time... and unfortunately, blood.

Senator Zell Miller (D) put it quite well in his book, A National Party No More:

We've freed a nation from a cruel and oppressive dictator. A free Iraq, most everyone agrees, can transform the Middle East. Isn't that what presidents have wanted to do for many years? Give it time. Of course it's going to be difficult. Of course it's going to be costly. Regrettably, more of our American sons and daughters will die. There will be times when it looks like it's not worth it. But in the long stretch of history, it will be worth it.

Senator John McCain and other well-informed leaders have called Iraq "the central battle on the war on terror." I believe that. Condoleezza Rice spoke plainly and truthfully when she called it a "generational commitment." For someone like me with grandchildren and great-grandchildren, whom I love more than life itself, that is a hard and sobering thought. But with all I've learned from study, age, and experience, I believe, with every fiber of my body, that there comes a time when a civilization has to choose between good and evil, between freedom and tyranny. One of the greatest lessons history has taught us over and over again is that the choice we make between good and evil will reverberate for generations to come. It could make the world a safer place for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is worth the risk.

More blood will be spilt. Our blood. Theirs. The blood of innocents. The blood of the devout. The blood of the ignorant.

I can't get the bad taste out of my mouth, I'll confess. But I still can't shake the feeling that humanity is still stumbling awkwardly in the right direction.

Stay the course.

Today I spent most of the day reading various political articles on Iraq. Now I am spent and conflicted. You know, it would be nice to live in a perfect, peaceful world where everyone is happy and safe and healthy. That would be awesome. It's too bad we are a LONG, LONG way from there.

I decided to find some blogs by Iraqis - or others in Iraq now. I wanted to get an idea of what the people are going through, not from a newspaper or other biased source. I was hoping to find...well, hope. But what I found was Bush-bashing, horror stories of the effects of depleted uranium, general discontent with the state of the country, etc. etc. So, it seems to me now that maybe the Iraqi people didn't WANT to be 'liberated' from Saddam. Now they believe they are an American 'colony', and that the new government is a farce....just puppets put in place by the American government.

I don't know what is true and what is fiction after reading from so many different sources. We (Americans) come across as the enemy, but when I look at the build up to this war, I can see the justification for it. And it is not just me...Bush had the support of Congress, and a very high approval rating from the general public. We can only hope now that Iraq will soon be governing itself.

What incensed me throughout my reading was the criticism for each and every action. Bush and his Administration did not see the 9/11 attacks coming. Well, you know, hindsight is 20/20. It doesn't take much to point the finger after the fact and say, "see, this is where you went wrong."

The CIA/FBI didn't "connect the dots" and come up with a way to avoid the 9/11 tragedy. Ok. Maybe they should have. Maybe Clinton's administration should have known something was brewing. I've read and heard reports that he also got intelligence that showed Bin Laden was out to get us. I even heard that our armed forces/Clinton had the chance to apprehend or kill Bin Laden but didn't do it. Ok. So maybe that was a mistake, or perhaps not.

Now, for the intelligence that lead up to this latest Iraq War. Well, it seems to me that the intelligence agencies got burned for not connecting the dots on the 9/11 attack...so, maybe they connected a few too many dots in pursuing a reason to go to war against Saddam.

The point is, that only time can tell if the choices that were made were correct. It is a real injustice that we cannot tell the future. We can only make the best choices given the information at hand.

I wonder now what John Kerry will do in Iraq if he is elected? I don't believe for one minute that he is truly the person he portrays in his speeches. I've read and heard too much against that. So, the choice...re-elect Bush and stay the course, or, elect Kerry and see what happens. Because once elected, he'll probably come up with a whole new set of priorities.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. - Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)