B36 News - 25 July 2006

I couple days ago I was watching the news and I saw an interview with someone who was upset about some policy that had been enacted at her workplace and she was trying to use an analogy to explain her frusteration. I don't remember exactly what the policy was, but it required her to wear a shirt bearing some sort of message that she felt cast her in a negative light. The analogy she was trying to apply was that the message on this shirt was as bad as if it had said, "I'm an Iraqi."

I sincerely hope that Americans realize that Iraqis are our friends. They're good people and want to beat the terrorists and extremists just as much as, if not more than, we do. Sure there are some bad apples, but aren't there bad apples in America too?(psst, this is a bad apple)

Success is Boring
Traffic jams, waiting in lines, being shocked at the price of what ever it is that you're trying to buy. These are some of the things that nag at the average American. In Iraq these pesky problems are what we're trying to achieve. It's strange how your priorities and perceptions change when you've just been freed from a tyrannical dictator.

American, British and Iraqi forces fought pitched battles here in the fall of 2004, during a sweep of insurgents still loyal to Saddam's regime.

Today, the market is full of faces looking forward to peaceful and uneventful days.

“Before the American Army came to this area, it was full of insurgents and thieves and killers,” said Ali, who declined to give his full name.

Iraqi Logistics
Of the 268,000 ISF that have been trained and equipped, most of them are ground-pounders and trigger-pullers. Now that these guys are putting the smack down, the Iraqi government is taking the next step towards securing their independence from Coalition support. An army without a robust logistics support system cannot fight and the ISF are now moving towards building this system.

Untold Good News from Iraq
I stumbled across an article written by James Crum, the Director of the Iraq Project & Contracting Office (PCO), in which he addresses the good things that have been accomplished in support of the Iraqi population. A lot of the stuff in the article is stuff that I addressed in Winning in Iraq - Measuring Victory, but it's nice to hear it from an official government source. You can read the whole article in the comments section.

Iraqi Army Puttin' the Smack Down
There are several different operations that are referenced in this story and each shows how capable the Iraqi military is becomming. Each time the ISF get a tip, develop an operation, and execute it we take another step towards victory.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, killed five terrorists, wounded 13, and detained 47 during a two-hour firefight in Mahmudiyah South on July 21.

The 6th IA soldiers received a report from an Iraqi citizen that 10 to 15 men were attacking a house in Hayy Al Shuhada. The IA soldiers tracked the gunmen to the Hayy Al Askery neighborhood, where a small-arms battle ensued in which five terrorists were killed and the remainder fled the scene in a white truck.

The Iraqi soldiers followed the terrorists to a residence, whereupon the terrorists abandoned their vehicle. Attack helicopter aviators from Multinational Division Baghdad destroyed the vehicle. Iraqi soldiers detained six suspects who were hiding in a nearby canal and another three who were found by the crew of another military vehicle.