Desert Air, part deux

Greetings blog readers, new and old...I had planned to use this week to talk a little about things here at home, specifically my recent trips to Austin and Houston. However, Eddy and I have been discussing his comments from last week off-line, and so I'm going to let him follow-up. I'll just take a moment to say "thanks" to everyone involved for a great weekend, and if any of you reading this ever find yourself in Austin, Amy's Ice Cream is AWESOME! And now, a word from our soldier...

I was having a bit of a bad day when I answered Kathy's questions, things are better today so I thought I would add to some of the stuff from last week. As for my job, while the details suck (I spend most of my day in front of a computer writing emails and putting together reports of what a good job we're doing) big picture wise it's kind of cool. I run our embedded reporter program and our media engagements, which means if, for example, I think boring reconstruction stories or stories about Iraqis taking steps to put together a functioning regional government are more important than stories of our soldiers kicking in doors and catching bad guys, well I'm the guy interacting with the media so I can push those stories. Also, I was a little harder on the left than perhaps I should have been (see comments from 11/22 most for more details - KS) There is some thoughtful discussion on the left as to what to do with this thing that we've helped create over here (such as Biden's plan). And, while I'm not sure it's the right answer, it is a legitimate question as to whether leaving as soon as possible might be the best thing to do in the long run. I still think that a lot of people are willing to let Bush sink on his own since he was all about going it alone getting into this. It's "Bush's War" and all. That, to me, is sad. It isn't "Bush's War". It's our war, he just happens to be the guy that started it, and it's up to all of us to figure out the best way to end it. Read Tom Freidman's stuff on Iraq for a good idea of what we might try from here. Of course, that brings up another issue: The left could come up with the perfect plan and they would find it difficult to get Bush to listen. I'm reminded once again of the saying that a bad policy is one that leaves you with no good options.

In other news, I thought I would add another "amazing soldier story" and an "amazing Iraqi story". I met an Air Force Captain recently who works with the local Provincial Reconstruction Team (the guys from the state dept who help the Iraqis rebuild/restart their economics and governance type programs). He's the only Veterinarian in our region (about the size of PA). The project he is working on lately is helping the Iraqis in one of the areas we recently more or less secured build a sheep dip facility. Think about that. This guy risks his life to help the Iraqis build a better bathtub for their sheep, so more of the sheep will survive and so the sheep will have better wool, so the Iraqis can make more money from the wool, so they can improve their lives and their local economy. It is, at one and the same time, one of the most selfless things I think I've ever heard of and also one of the more absurd. He literally could get his ass blown off trying to help build a bath tub for sheep.

The "amazing Iraqi" is the commander of the 5th Iraqi Division (which has a 600 year history btw), Major General Saleh. He's a Shi'a who managed to rise to the rank of Major General in Saddam Hussein's Army through competence on the battlefield, not just political connections (he whooped up on the Iranians in several battles where he was severely outnumbered, like 10 to 1 in one fight), without joining the Ba'ath Party, then retired from the army without being assassinated (the fate of many of S.H.'s "retired"competent generals; can't let those guys hang around to challenge the throne). He was called out of retirement specifically, by name, by several leaders (funny story, he kept getting calls from tribal and political leaders to meet with them about coming back to work and he thought they were trying to set him up to get killed. Actually, I guess that isn't really funny). Within a few days of taking over, he fired several high level commanders for corruption and in general started shaking things up. His soldiers like him, his men are apparently a net asset to our guys on joint ops, by all appearances he's the kind of leader we need on our side over here. I'm not sure I *really* want to know how he managed to survive being retired without getting whacked however. Every meeting with local citizens and leaders he attends he starts by emphasizing that they are Iraqis first and their only real hope for the future is to work together. He's been a pretty big driving force behind some of the reconciliation efforts you may have been hearing about in our area. The result: AQI (al Qaeda Iraq) has publicly, by name, but a price on his head and the heads of his family members.