posted June 27, 2005 10:19 AM            

OK, let me rip Bush. It's obvious Larry Diamond was a poor choice for advisor, senior or junior. The problem is that there are always other considerations beyond the narrow interests of any single department, bureau or agency, in war as in business.

To get real, the US could have crushed Iraq with a military force deployment and war plan which would have wiped it off the face of the Earth..literally.

That wasn't the plan. Part of the plan for the aftermath, the reconstruction, the shepherding of a new government was to do the heavy lifting..militarily, to do the training, to bring Iraqis along institutionally, to train an officer corps loyal to Iraq..not to Saddam or any other group while also training the troops, to be there to provide protection while Iraqis sorted their political affairs, type of government and leaders. One of the main ingredients of this kind of operation is time and there is the rub.

A large heavy presence has the feel of occupation, not assistance, has the feel of control not assistance and is more likely to ignite feelings of hostility..beyond what is to be expected in a volatile and fractured population. The so called insurgency is coming from outside terrorists trying to stop a democratically elected government from being formed and from Sunni elements, a minority who have lost their most favored citizen status and perks they enjoyed under Saddam.

The truth about Iraq is that the infrastructure is being rebuilt and sometimes re-rebuilt after terrorist attacks directed against it. The people of Iraq have decided on their representatives they trust to write a constitution and they are working on it. There will be elections late this year.

All this is going on in the midst of attacks on coalition forces, on Iraqi leaders, on Iraqi citizens and on the infrastructure. In spite of that and in the face of that, Iraqis turned out to vote..about 70%.

A new development finds internal Iraqi insurgents finding, fighting and killing outside terrorist groups which have infiltrated and attacked and killed Iraqi citizens. Believe it or not, this is a positive thing because it shows a unity of identity...as Iraqis, not merely Muslims. Some of these internal groups are being talked to..by other Iraqis and sometimes with the knowledge, understanding and approval of US military commanders in Iraq...or so say reports. Not any reports I've seen on TV or in the NY Times though.

Long story short. The balance between enough force to get the job done without igniting a mass and general insurgency within the country is critical. The wet dream of leftists of an American loss and failure in Iraq is itself a pipedream.

2, 4, 6, 8 years from now, when some terrorist blows up a section of pipeline or bombs an electric grid when there is a permanent and well functioning Iraqi government, leftists will cheer and say..see we knew all along America would fail...see, we were right all along.

posted June 29, 2005 04:58 PM            

In a recent column in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah titled "Thank You America," Muhammad Al-Sheikh described how relations with the U.S. have benefited Saudi Arabia, while Arab nationalism has proven to be "a destructive ideology."

The following translation of Al-Sheikh's article appeared June 18, 2005 in the Saudi English-language daily Arab News:

"What have the Arabs given us Saudis in comparison to what we have gained from our relations with America? I know very well that this is an extremely sensitive issue that many would hesitate to address; they are restrained by a culture of fear that prevents them from confronting controversial and sensitive issues head-on.

"The late King Abdul Aziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, was a resourceful and far-sighted statesman when he chose the Americans rather than the British to come and search for oil in the Kingdom. He did so despite Britain at the time being an important force in the region, with its colonies and dependencies surrounding the infant kingdom. The politics of the time plus the colonial legacies of both Britain and France made King Abdul Aziz distance himself from them and look to the New World.

"Not long after the Americans and their expertise arrived, oil was gushing from beneath the desert sands and the development of the modern Saudi state began.

"Following World War II, the Arab countries had to choose between the two different world systems — communism or capitalism. King Abdul Aziz chose capitalism, the West, and America in particular. Thanks to this relationship that has lasted for more than six decades, we Saudis were able to invest oil revenues in building our country. King Abdul Aziz laid the foundations for a consistent Saudi foreign policy that held the Kingdom's interests above other considerations.

"These are the reasons why the Kingdom flourished while other countries went down or teetered on the verge of collapsing. Those countries bet on the wrong horse and did not realize that survival lies in economic development and modernization. They chose to confine themselves in a cocoon and remain isolated from the rest of the world, blinded by the illusions of nationalism and other false ideologies. It was indeed very strange to hear those fragile regimes labeling themselves progressive while calling us reactionary.

"We must admit that our relations with America were the cornerstone for our development and progress. In return, we must ask what we have gained from our relations with the Arab world. Speaking frankly and unequivocally, all we got from them was trouble. Our brothers, as they call themselves, conspired against us, attacked us, and used all the means at their disposal to derail our plans for unity.

posted July 09, 2005 11:16 PM              

A foreign ministry statement did not deny that such contacts took place but asked whether the purpose of Iraqi remarks was to "avoid responsibility ... and justify a tragedy".

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Ghait said in the statement that now was the time to concentrate on catching those who killed the ambassador, abducted in Baghdad a week ago, and to respect the feelings of the Egyptian people.

It quoted Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba as saying that Baghdad was investigating whether Sherif, the head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission, was in touch with rebels.

On Thursday, the day Egypt confirmed that Sherif was dead, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor repeated his view that some foreign diplomats were in contact with insurgents. He refused to say to which envoys he was referring.

The Egyptian government has come under fire at home for its handling of Sherif's kidnapping. Critics have said it did not do enough to protect the envoy, that it was too slow in making contacts to save him and that it was too hasty in sending such a high-ranking diplomat to an insecure country.

The incident also appears to have driven a wedge between Cairo and Baghdad, through the Egyptian government says it will not allow the killing to disrupt its efforts to help Iraqis.

Abou Gheit said: "News agencies bring us remarks ... which raise questions about their meaning, import and purpose and whether the intent is to avoid responsibility or merely to repeat rumours and justify a tragedy."

He said a serious security effort was needed in Iraq to catch the killers and "to bring back confidence in the possibility of restoring security and stability in Iraq".

"The assistant foreign minister in charge of Arab affairs has been asked to take up these Iraqi remarks with the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Cairo," the statement added.

Egypt has decided to reduce the size of its diplomatic mission in Iraq in response to the killing.

The Al Qaeda organisation in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing Sharif, saying he was an "enemy of God" serving a tyrannical government allied to Jews and Christians. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09371570.htm

posted July 09, 2005 11:16 PM              

SECRET PLAN TO QUIT IRAQ
Sat Jul 09 2005 19:16:16 ET

BRITAIN and America are secretly preparing to withdraw most of their troops from Iraq - despite warnings of the grave consequences for the region, the SUNDAY MAIL in UK is reporting.

A secret paper written by UK Defence Secretary John Reid for Tony Blair reveals that many of the 8,500 British troops in Iraq are set to be brought home within three months, with most of the rest returning six months later.

The leaked document, marked Secret: UK Eyes Only, appears to fly in the face of Mr Blair and President Bush's pledges that Allied forces will not quit until Iraq's own forces are strong enough to take control of security.

If British troops pull out, other members of the Alliance are likely to follow. The memo says other international forces in Southern Iraq currently under British control will have to be handled carefully if Britain withdraws. It says they will not feel safe and may also leave.

Embarrassingly, the document says the Americans are split over the plan - and it suggests one of the reasons for getting British troops out is to save money. Mr Reid says cutting UK troop numbers to 3,000 by the middle of next year will save GBP 500million a year, though it will be 18 months before the cash comes through.

The document, Options For Future UK Force Posture In Iraq, is the first conclusive proof that preparations for a major withdrawal from Iraq are well advanced.

The British Government's public position is that UK troops will stay until newly trained Iraqi forces are ready to take control of security. Less than a fortnight ago, Mr Blair said it was 'vital' the US-led coalition stayed until Iraq stabilised, and Mr Bush endorsed his comments.

Mr Reid's memo, prepared for Mr Blair in the past few weeks, shows that in reality, plans to get them out - 'military drawdown,' as he puts it - are well advanced.

It says: 'We have a commitment to hand over to Iraqi control in Al Muthanna and Maysan provinces two of the four provinces under British control in Southern Iraq in October 2005 and in the other two, Dhi Qar and Basra, in April 2006.

Developing... http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

posted July 09, 2005 11:53 PM            

Now, the US and Britain will spend the next week explaining that reducing troop levels will depend on how fast Iraqis can be trained and equipped to take their place.

In the meantime, this kind of report gives terrorists the idea that if they just wait long enough there won't be anyone to oppose them...except newly trained Iraqis.

posted July 10, 2005 05:03 PM              

IRAQ: Attacks on oil facilities cost US $12 billion
05 Jul 2005 15:26:28 GMT
Source: IRIN
BAGHDAD, 5 July (IRIN) - Iraq's Ministry of Oil (MoO) has announced that billions of dollars have been spent on repairing and replacing oil industry infrastructure damaged or destroyed by terrorist attacks nationwide. The money could have been invested in aid and development according to officials.

"The attacks on oil facilities have required very large investments to repair. Billions of dollars have been spent. For sure, if the security situation was better in the country, this money would have been invested in humanitarian and badly needed development programmes," Assem Jihad, spokesman for the MoO, said.

Jihad explained that 315 attacks on oil facilities took place in the two years from June 2003 to June 2005, causing a massive loss of revenue from oil exports at a time when international prices for are high. The cost of repairing the damage to the nation's primary source of income has been more than US $12 billion. Despite US assertions that the insurgency is being tamed, thirty percent of the costly attacks took place this year.

"Insurgents are not only killing hundreds of their countrymen and women but stunting the development of Iraq. These billions would have helped in many public projects to serve Iraqis but we had no choice [but] to divert the money to repairing the oil infrastructure, because it's the main income for the country," he stressed.

Professor Salah Abdu, an economist at Baghdad University, said the $12 billion could have funded one in three of the of planned public reconstruction projects in Iraq.

"This money would be enough to repair the entire water infrastructure in Iraq, giving stability and a better life to so many millions but the US occupation and failure of the new government to bring security to Iraq has landed us in this mess - what a complete waste!" Abdu roared.

Iraqi oil production is currently running at around two million barrels per day, mostly from fields in southern Iraq. Oil experts have said the country should be producing a minimum of seven million barrels daily but only if security improves and $20 billion is invested to improve the ageing oil infrastructure.

As well as the loss of significant quantities of hard currency from the oil attacks, the decrease in production has led to a reduction in local production of petrol which has had a directly negative impact on the economy, Abdu added.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/048e054f68860ab174f834d94c6c9a12.htm

posted July 20, 2005 10:26 PM              

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Wed Jul 20, 5:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A majority of U.S. soldiers in
Iraq say morale is low, according to an Army report that finds psychological stress is weighing particularly heavily on National Guard and Reserve troops.

Still, soldiers' mental health has improved from the early months of the insurgency, and suicides have declined sharply, the report said. Also, substantially fewer soldiers had to be evacuated from Iraq for mental health problems last year.

The Army sent a team of mental health specialists to Iraq and Kuwait late last summer to assess conditions and measure progress in implementing programs designed to fix mental health problems discovered during a similar survey of troops a year earlier. Its report, dated Jan. 30, 2005, was released Wednesday.

The initial inquiry was triggered in part by an unusual surge in suicides among soldiers in Iraq in July 2003. Wednesday's report said the number of suicides in Iraq and Kuwait declined from 24 in 2003 to nine last year.

A suicide prevention program was begun for soldiers in Iraq at the recommendation of the 2003 assessment team.

The overall assessment said 13 percent of soldiers in the most recent study screened positive for a mental health problem, compared with 18 percent a year earlier. Symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress remained the top mental health problem, affecting at least 10 percent of all soldiers checked in the latest survey.

In the anonymous survey, 17 percent of soldiers said they had experienced moderate or severe stress or problems with alcohol, emotions or their families. That compares with 23 percent a year earlier.

The report said reasons for the improvement in mental health are not clear. Among possible explanations: less frequent and less intense combat, more comforts like air conditioning, wider access to mental health services and improved training in handling the stresses associated with deployments and combat.

National Guard and Reserve soldiers who serve in transportation and support units suffered more than others from depression, anxiety and other indications of acute psychological stress, the report said. These soldiers have often been targets of the insurgents' lethal ambushes and roadside bombs, although the report said they had significantly fewer actual combat experiences than soldiers assigned to combat units.

The report recommended that the Army reconsider whether National Guard and Reserve support troops are getting adequate training in combat skills. Even though they do less fighting than combat troops, they might be better suited to cope with wartime stress if they had more confidence in their combat skills, it said.

Only 55 percent of National Guard support soldiers said they have "real confidence" in their unit's ability to perform its mission, compared with 63 percent of active-duty Army support soldiers. And only 28 percent of the Guard troops rated their level of training as high, compared with 50 percent of their active-duty counterparts.

Small focus groups were held to ascertain troop morale.

The report said 54 percent of soldiers rated their units' morale as low or very low. The comparable figure in a year-earlier Army survey was 72 percent. Although respondents said "combat stressors" like mortar attacks were higher in the most recent survey, "noncombat stressors" like uncertain tour lengths were much lower, the report said.

The thing that bothered soldiers the most, the latest assessment said, was the length of their required stay in Iraq. At the start of the war, most were deployed for six months, but now they go for 12 months.

Asked about this, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a
Pentagon news conference that the Army's 12-month requirement is linked in part to its effort to complete a fundamental reorganization of fighting units.

"I've tried to get the Army to look at the length of tours and I think at some point down the road they will," he said.

___

On the Net:

Army report: http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat_ii/OIF-II_REPORT.pdf
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050720/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_us_military_health_4

posted July 22, 2005 10:55 PM              

when i see bahgdad in the news it looks like a hunkered down war zone, not a thriving capitalist civilian zone.....but those leftist photographers are probably choosing their shots with prejudice.......

just wait til the national guard and reserve folks who were chosen to patrol iraq(about half our forces there) find out they have to go to the border and take on iran too....

posted July 22, 2005 11:01 PM              

By Caroline Hawley

Baghdad: It is early afternoon in the emergency room of Yarmouk hospital here.

Medics are on standby for a big influx of casualties from a bomb south of the capital.

But right now they have a more pressing job.

Several doctors in blood spattered coats are trying to save the life of a young man rushed in with a bullet-wound that has punctured his lung.

He appears to have been shot, by mistake, by US troops on the road to Baghdad airport.

On an average day, between 20 and 50 people, injured in unrelenting violence, are treated in the emergency room at Yarmouk alone.

Most have been hurt in insurgent bombs, doctors say. But there is also a steady flow of people coming into Iraqi hospitals who have been injured by US soldiers.

"It's very sad," says Dr Mohaned Rahe, "... things aren't improving."
Across town, in the midday heat, simple wooden coffins are being strapped to cars outside Baghdad's main morgue.

The hospital's director, Dr Faeq Baker, has a shocking statistic.

"On average we have 28 bodies turning up daily - 90% of them victims of violence.

"And we don't even see the people killed by explosions because they don't require autopsies," he said.

Last month, his teams had to deal with over 860 bodies, some of them bound and shot in the head.

A significant number, he believes, have been murdered for sectarian motives.

And several had been wearing handcuffs.

Baker thinks they may have been killed by the Iraqi police.

"There are mass killings going on. It is a mess. No one knows who is killing who."

In the Yarmouk hospital, a young bomb victim, Omar Attiya, lies beside a 50-year-old man, Dhia Abbas, who has gunshots to his back and leg.

He says his car was peppered with bullets by US soldiers as he was driving home from visiting his daughter at 10.30pm.

"The roads were empty and maybe they suspected me of something, but there was no warning, they just opened fire."

US convoys are often targeted. The soldiers in them, many of whom have lost colleagues, are often jumpy and nervous.

Most Iraqis drive well back from them, for fear of being shot.

"When the Americans came I was happy we were saved from Saddam Hussein," says Farhan.

"Now I feel only hatred. The way things are now, you don't know when you're going to die and who will kill you, the Americans or the insurgents. And civilians, innocent people are being caught in the middle." http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=2635232

posted July 22, 2005 11:58 PM              

Army Times honors Guard NCO as Soldier of Year
By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
Nebraska Army National Guard Sgt. Jessica Reed is honored as the Army Times' Soldier of the Year by Congressman Tom Osborne (left) of Nebraska and Brian MacKeil, the Army Times news editor.
Nebraska Army National Guard Sgt. Jessica Reed is honored as the Army Times' Soldier of the Year by Congressman Tom Osborne (left) of Nebraska and Brian MacKeil, the Army Times news editor.
Master Sgt. Bob Haskell

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, – A young sergeant who wanted to enlist in the Nebraska Army National Guard when she was 16 and who is now halfway through a year-long tour of duty with her Guard medical unit in Iraq is the Army Times’ Soldier of the Year.

“It’s hard to describe the phenomenal feelings to even be nominated. To be chosen is such a tremendous honor,” said Sgt. Jessica Reed, 22, from Lawrence, Neb., on the evening of July 13 in Washington, D.C.

That’s when Reed and four men were praised and congratulated by members of Congress, generals and admirals. Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska’s adjutant general, attended the reception at the Reserve Officers Association supporting Reed.

A communications specialist in Nebraska’s 313th Medical Company, Reed is the first Army Guard Soldier to be named as the Soldier of the Year by the Army Times, one of the weekly, service-focused newspapers published by the Military Times Media Group. This is the fifth year that group has selected and honored an outstanding Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine and member of the Coast Guard.

“These young men and women that we honor tonight epitomize everything that’s great about America, everything that’s beautiful and wonderful. I am humbled and proud … to be in their company because they are the very, very best of us,” said Sen. John McCain from Arizona, a Vietnam War hero who has attended all five of the award presentations.

“Someday, future generations will look back upon this generation of men and women and say that not only were they the very best, but they changed the world,” added McCain, a former Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for five and a half years.

“These are the ‘everyday heroes’ of the military services. Their efforts unselfishly and consistently go above and beyond the call of duty. These are grass roots awards because these people are nominated by their peers,” said Robert Hodierne, the Military Times senior managing editor.

This year’s winners and other candidates reflect the active role that National Guard and Reserve members are playing during the Global War on Terrorism.

Reed was not the only member of the Reserve components to be honored. Marine Corps Reserve Sgt. Daniel Cotnoir is the Marine Times’ Marine of the Year. Honorable mentions included Sgt. 1st Class Richard Lawrence, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, for Soldier or the Year, and Master Sgt. David Blakely, Puerto Rico Air National Guard, for Airman of the Year.

Reed’s mother, stepfather, her sister and brother-in-law came to Washington for the ceremony.

“I was very excited. I knew she could do it. It’s a very good honor for her,” said Pam Shambaugh, the Soldier’s proud mom.

Congressman Tom Osborne from Nebraska introduced Reed who is stationed this year in Tikrit. Seventy-five members of the Nebraska Guard medical unit, operating 24 ambulances, are serving in seven locations in Iraq, Osborne explained.

Reed was credited with learning “how to install, operate and maintain the new satellite Movement Tracking System used by ambulances and became known as an expert, training other medical companies’ troops on a regular basis, enhancing communications critical to saving life and limb.”

“She has also volunteered for additional duties on several levels, from additional missions to the field sanitation team. She organizes entertainment for her unit and many other activities. She’s also an excellent runner. She’s a high energy person,” said Osborne who led the Cornhuskers to a 255-49-3 record and three national championships during his 24 years as head football coach at the University of Nebraska.

That is where Reed was studying psychology when her company was mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom. She was one semester shy of earning her degree.

She was inspired to join the Guard when she was 16 after meeting a recruiter at Lawrence High School, Reed explained. The recruiter said she was too young. So Reed waited until she was 17 then persuaded her mother to sign the enlistment papers.

Although she experienced some mix emotions about leaving her family and school when her unit was deployed, Reed said she is glad she has had the chance to serve in Iraq. She expects to return to Nebraska in late November.

“It’s definitely interesting to see it firsthand rather than hearing it on the news. You always hear the bad stuff. You don’t really realize all of the good stuff

that’s going on over there as well,” she said. “My unit is really good about working with Iraqi children and fixing them up and making sure they’re OK.

“I’m definitely glad I did it,” added Reed about joining the National Guard. “I want to change the world. I’d still join today.”

posted July 29, 2005 03:10 PM            

Fri Jul 29, 8:18 AM ET

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Iraqi army recruits in northern Iraq on Friday, killing 25 people and wounding 35, police said.

They said the attack occurred outside a municipal building in Rabia, a town 50 miles northwest of Mosul, close to the Syrian border. No other details were immediately available.

Police and army recruits are frequently targeted by insurgents. In recent months, attacks by suicide bombers strapped with explosives -- as opposed to driving explosives- laden cars -- have become more common.

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, and areas to its west have been a focus of insurgent activity over the past year.

U.S. forces believe insurgents have been flowing into Iraq across the border from Syria. Rabia is less than 10 km from the Syrian border. Tal Afar, another town in the area, has been a stronghold of rebels for several months.

Many of the attacks in and around Mosul in the past have been claimed by al Qaeda in Iraq, a group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and allied to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

posted July 29, 2005 06:23 PM            

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Fri Jul 29, 7:20 AM ET

The day the Marines crossed into Iraq, Cpl. James Welter Jr. killed his first man. During his second combat tour, he earned a commendation for leadership skills and coolness under fire, but he brought a nightmare home. Now, with six weeks left in his third fighting tour, his goal is simple.

He hopes to survive.

Welter - Jimmy to his friends - is among about 150 veterans of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment here who have fought in Iraq three times since the war began in March 2003. Each trip, they have endured some of the harshest combat.

They were here for four months at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, when they were at the tip of the invasion spear. In the summer of 2004, during a second tour that lasted 41/2 months, they fought in the streets of Fallujah after insurgents there killed four American contractors, burned and mutilated their bodies and strung two of the corpses from a bridge.

Now, for seven months this year, the Marines are here in Ramadi, the capital of the insurgency and a city thick with roadside bombs. Snipers lie in wait, and at the exits of U.S. military installations, huge warning signs, some inscribed with a skull and crossbones, read: "Complacency Kills!"

The battalion has lost more men in Ramadi than anywhere else: 12 Marines and a Navy corpsman killed in action. Their 13 portraits hang on a wall in battalion headquarters - a grim reminder of what awaits outside the gate.

The frequency with which troops are being sent back to combat is unprecedented in the all-volunteer U.S. military, which was created in 1973 after the draft ended. To boost morale, commanders draw comparisons to the sacrifices of Greatest Generation, those who fought for the duration of World War II. But that war is dust-covered history to those fighting here, and defense researchers concede that they do not yet know what back-to-back-to-back tours of duty will do to this military - or to those fighting.

"It's an open question as to how much we can ask of them," says James Hosek, a RAND Corp., specialist on military retention.

The Marines send troops to Iraq more frequently than the Army, but do so for shorter combat stints that don't last longer than seven months. Three Marine battalions, including the one in which Welter serves, are now fighting for the third time; two more are preparing for third combat hitches. The Army deploys units for longer periods - usually 12 months - but less often. Some Army units are starting a second tour in Iraq this year.

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the Army's personnel division, says re-enlistments have held steady so far. "But we are keeping an eye on that," he says.

Studies about Vietnam veterans are of little use because the nation had a larger, conscript military then and combat was typically limited to a single 12- or 13-month tour. Hosek testified before Congress last year that what limited data exist suggest a third tour could sour the troops and their families and hurt re-enlistments.

Interviews with two dozenMarines in Ramadi, their commanders, and friends and family back homereveal the costin human terms. Like Jimmy Welter, some Marines in this unit enlisted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But that patriotic fervor now seems spent. And what the Marines have endured - Welter's story is typical - speaks to the changes that come with war.

During their first tour, Welter and his unit were greeted as liberators. During the second, they fought a growing rebellion. Now, on the third, many say they are angry to be back, shaken by the loss of more friends and feeling old beyond their years.

"I'm 22 years old. It really feels like I'm 30," Welter says. "I've seen more and done more things at 22 than most people have in 40 years."

Evidence of victory is scant, those interviewed by the newspaper say. Some are stunned that, after all the sacrifices they and others have made, so many Iraqis now seem to hate them.

Their choice to serve has put them on the battlefield three times in three years. Now, many say they just want to go home.

A fiancée's fears:'He's pushing his luck'

Their commander, Lt. Col. Eric Smith, sees the wear and tear.

"This takes a mental toll on these guys," says Smith, 40, of Plano, Texas, who was wounded in combat during a tour last year in another command position.

"I do know they get tired, and I do know they've changed," Smith says. "I mean, their counterparts (back home) are running around getting ****** off because they were unable to register for Psych 303 and they have to start their senior year. These guys are running around worried about being supplied with .50-caliber ammo and not getting shot tomorrow."

The man working to re-enlist them explains the hardships.

"They've done their war, and they're done," says Staff Sgt. William Beschman, the battalion retention officer. Unlike the Marine Corps as a whole, the battle-scarred 1st Battalion, 5th Marines will not meet its re-enlistment goal this year. The largest bonuses in Marine Corps history - a year's salary, or about $20,000 tax-free if they sign up while in Iraq - got few takers. Of 287 first-term Marines in the battalion, just 50 are staying. The goal is 58.

And veterans of the battalion now have a look about them. In Vietnam, it was called the "thousand-yard stare": a weariness devoid of emotion. Cpl. Mike Kelly, 23, wore it as officers award him a Navy commendation for valor at a battalion headquarters ceremony this month.

He's heading home to Boston with hopes of opening a bar. His four-year enlistment - including three tours of duty in Iraq - is almost over. "I just want to live an easy life," he says after the ceremony. "A normal job, nothing fancy. A working stiff. That's my dream."

So does Cpl. Richie Gunter. "I just want to go back to the way things are," says Gunter, 30, who longs to trade Marine fatigues for a T-shirt and jeans and work on the family'stomato farm in Woodland, Calif.

Their loved ones suffer with them. Danielle "Dani" Thurlow of Coloma, Mich., has watched her fiancé, Marine Cpl. Ryan Kling, 22, grow colder and angrier with each tour. "He's pushing his luck," she says.

"I tell a lot of people: I wouldn't wish this on anyone," says Thurlow, 19. "It's very hard. It really is. You're just looking toward the end. That's all you want, is for it to be over."

And Ken Frederking, 69, says he lives in fear that his oldest grandchild, Jimmy Welter, may never find his way home. "What this kid has gone through at his age, it's incredible," the grandfather says. "It just seems like he can't escape."

Keeping in touch with their families - through letters, e-mails and telephone calls - is essential to preserving morale, says Smith, the battalion commander.

"You've got to make sure to not let the Marines get mean," he says. "You can't let the guys go home without their humanity."

Listening to Metallica's'For Whom the Bell Tolls'

Ramadi, a city of 250,000 people along the Euphrates River, is the capital of volatile Anbar province, which includes Fallujah and stretches west to the borders of Jordan and Syria. The governor here is the third in as many months. The first one quit out of fear of reprisal for working with Americans. The second was assassinated.

Tips about insurgent activities in the city have been increasing, Lt. Col. Smith says. Still, the largely Sunni Arab population here seems either indifferent toward or outright supportive of the guerrillas. Barely a thousand people here participated in elections in January.

Clerics have routinely preached violence against Marines. Early this month, loudspeakers from the Saman Mosque in Ramadi blared: "My God: Victory to the enemy of America!"

Marines estimate that there are roughly 2,000 potential insurgent fighters here, rallied by a hard core of perhaps 150 full-time combatants skilled at sniping and roadside bomb ambushes. Suicide car bombers are also a threat.

"They kill us. We kill them," Smith says grimly. He could easily use two more battalions of about 850 Marines each, he says.

With the assistance of two Army battalions operating on the city edge, the Marines have incrementally brought limited security to Ramadi. They do this by aggressively sending out daily and hazardous "presence" patrols, on foot or in armored vehicles. The official acronym for this work is Security and Stability Operations, or SASO.

Marines call it "SASO World" and see it as anything but secure. "SASO World is 10 times scarier than any offensive," Jimmy Welter says. "In SASO World, like Ramadi, you don't know where the enemy is at. He could be anywhere."

Fair-skinned like his mother, with her eyes and slender frame, Welter wears a history of war across his body. After boot camp, he had the "USMC" tattoo inked into his right forearm; the brazen grim reaper across his right shoulder blade marks his first tour. For the second, a Celtic Cross is etched into his left shoulder and arm. And he plans a memorial to slain friends for his third: "Brothers in Arms, Even in Death," down his ribcage.

He prepares for SASO World with his iPod, often to the beat and lyrics of Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls. The intensity and throbbing rhythm of the heavy metal music stiffen his resolve:

Make his fight on the hill in the early day

Constant chill deep inside

Shouting gun, on they run through the endless gray

On the fight, for they are right, yes, but who's to say?

Each day, along the streets of Ramadi, their patrols in armored Humvees resemble Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a dark and nightmarish Disneyland amusement. A driver speeds and swerves to avoid debris that might hide roadside bombs.

Welter, from his perch in the front passenger seat, has imagined the worst, something catastrophic like that day in June when he lost five friends in a single explosion here: the floor buckling beneath him from the blast, the fireball from burning fuel, and then nothing. Eternity.

Take a look to the sky just before you die. It's the last time you will

The thoughts leave him rubbing the cloth scapular hanging from the Timex on his left wrist. The Roman Catholic token promises Welter dispensation from hell's eternal flames should he die this day.

War was nothing like this during his first tour.

First tour: 'All of us thought we were done'

The fight in 2003 was simple, the enemy clear. Jimmy Welter could point at them - right there, across the berm from where the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment were poised in Kuwait.

The war scrapbook in his mind lays out the images in sequence. The oil fires of the Ramallah fields lighting the night sky on the eve of the attack. The plea of his platoon commander, Lt. Therrel Childers, the first American casualty of the war, writhing from a mortal stomach wound: "It hurts. It hurts." And the scarred, fly-covered face of the Iraqi soldier Welter shot that day. As Welter stood over him, the man pleaded for water before drawing his last breath.

It was all new then, and terrifying. But there was also clarity. It seemed like victory and the war made so much more sense.

Eighteen months before the invasion, Welter had watched the second passenger jet hit the World Trade Center. He saw it on television at Mount Carmel High School, in his working-class south Chicago neighborhood, the day he picked up his transcripts. He was still contemplating enrolling in college, but after seeing the carnage in New York, he chose the Marines instead.

"I wanted to do my fair share," he says.

The invasion of Iraq gave him that chance. He could focus every ounce of the notorious Jimmy Welter temper, the willingness to reason with his fists, bloodying anybody he deemed a threat or a challenge. Always with something to prove, ever since he was 7 and his mother died from a heart attack at 31, her body weakened by multiple sclerosis.

"Just anybody could push his button," says his father, James Welter Sr., 50, an ironworker who raised Jimmy and his younger brother, Joe. "He was one of those kids on the block nobody would mess with, even as skinny and scrawny as he was."

That cockiness seemed to stay with Welter through boot camp - even through that first tour in Iraq, with its brutal opening day of combat and the furious eight-hour firefight as the battalion entered Baghdad weeks later.

It was during that battle that a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helmet of a Marine standing next to Welter as both stood in an armored personnel carrier. The Marine fell unconscious. The grenade was a dud.

Welter felt lucky after that. He and his Marine brethren had been baptized in war. Baghdad lay at their feet. Iraqis were rejoicing. Victory was sweet, or it seemed to be.

"It was a good time to be there," he says of that first tour. "All of us thought we were done."

Second tour:'I'm still not over it, Grandpa'

But as the battalion trained in Okinawa for urban warfare in early 2004, the Marines realized that more fighting awaited them in Iraq.

As in the first tour, the enemy was straight ahead of them. This time, it was in Fallujah. When Marines launched an offensive into the city in April 2004, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines was ordered in. Fighting was block by block.

In those blasted warrens where insurgents were dug in, Jimmy Welter says, he learned something about himself. The scrawny troublemaker from south Chicago, the boy who got bounced from St. Rita High School for bad behavior, suddenly discovered he was cool-headed and canny under fire. In a place where machine gun and mortar rounds blistered the pavement all around his advancing squad, Welter and other veterans of the 2003 invasion calmly directed fire and positioned troops.

At one point in the Fallujah battle, Welter moved to the center of a street, in plain sight of an enemy position, to fire his grenade launcher. The first round fell short. But he could gauge the deficit - "you got to kind of Kentucky-windage it," is the way he explains his technique - and the next shot landed squarely amid insurgents clustered on a rooftop. Then Welter dropped another neatly into a treeline where more enemy fighters were crouched. Then silence.

"Welter showed fierce aggressiveness and leadership beyond his pay grade," reads the Marine Corps Certificate of Commendation he later received. He "kept his bearing and effectively employed his team while also laying devastating fire on the enemy's position with his M203 grenade launcher," the commendation says.

Welter's steadiness amazed Lance Cpl. Jim Cullen, who was then on his first tour. "I was kind of like in awe of him," says Cullen, 21, of Rochester, N.Y. "They just had this confidence," he says of the unit's veterans, a "pride of knowing that when they came in, they freed the country."

The fighting in Fallujah lasted weeks. And when his second tour ended and Welter returned to south Chicago, the chip on his shoulder was gone. He carried himself with the same assurance he had demonstrated in the streets of Fallujah. Everyone could see it. Not once did he and his brother fight.

But his family noticed something else: a nervous anxiety.

And the nightmares began. In them, he is defending a bunker, firing madly at insurgents who come in wave after wave. Killing the other Marines. Leaving Welter alone. Not until the attackers are on top of him does he wake up.

When his grandfather asked him what was wrong, Welter's answer was simple: "I'm still not over it, Grandpa."

Third tour: A close call and headaches

Along a street in Ramadi this year, a bomb exploded near Welter's Humvee.

If timed right, such an explosion can torch the Humvee's fuel tank from below and incinerate Marines inside. Since the battalion arrived in March, insurgents in Ramadi have detonated 175 roadside bombs. Ten Marines have been killed.

"As soon as you leave the gate, it's game on," says Marine Capt. Kelsey "Kelly" Thompson, 36, of Shallowater, Texas. He commands Alpha Company, the unit in which Welter serves. The company has suffered more casualties than any other in the battalion.

"I don't think the Battle of Ramadi can ever be won," Thompson says. "I just think the Battle of Ramadi has to be fought every day."

Marine Reserve Maj. Benjamin Busch, an actor in civilian life who plays Detective Anthony Colicchio on the HBO series The Wire, agrees: "We're going to be continually hunted here until we leave."

Welter was lucky when the bomb went off that day in June.

The shock wave funneled down the gun turret in the roof of the Humvee and blew open the armored doors. With two tires flattened, the Humvee rolled to a stop. Welter will never forget the pressure of the blast, the deafening sound and then the blackness, the ringing in his ears and the throbbing in his head.

The Metallica song speaks to it: Blackened roar, massive roar fills the crumbling sky.

Sitting in the front seat, dripping with fetid black ooze thrown up from the Ramadi street, Welter checked to see if his body was intact. Then he turned to Cullen, who was behind the wheel. The two had grown close during Fallujah and now were best friends. Almost without thinking, they high-fived and burst into laughter. "We made it!" they shouted in unison. But Welter's headaches persisted.

Military medical researchers fear that repeated exposure to these blasts and their concussive effects can cause brain damage. So far, the battalion surgeon has sent at least three Marines home with chronic, persistent cognitive problems stemming from roadside blasts.

Armor was no protection days later when five Marines from Welter's platoon - including a close friend, Cpl. Tyler Trovillion, 23, of Richardson, Texas - died in a roadside blast that demolished their Humvee. The deaths June 15 left Welter and his comrades shaken. Some didn't want to go on patrol.

But after heart-to-heart talks with the chaplain, they were back on the streets in six hours.

Erin Dillon, 21, a waitress and college student who has been dating Welter since he came home from his second tour, says she noticed a real difference in his voice during the phone call he made after Trovillion's death.

"After the whole time of being there, he was starting to be a little scared," she says. "I think maybe he feels his luck is starting to run out, just because he's seen so much and there's so little time left."

Just weeks remain before the battalion finishes its tour in Ramadi and goes home in September. And while on guard duty at the provincial government center, Welter talks about dying.

The government center is an impregnable fortress with bunkers and watch towers that provide interlocking fields of fire for the Marines who guard it. When armed motorcades arrive at the entrance, Marines toss flash-bang grenades to clear the crowd.

Insurgents fire rockets or mortars into the area, or pepper watch towers with rifle fire while dropping off roadside bombs in rice sacks at intersections nearby, hoping to blast some unlucky Marine patrol. The place feels like it's under perpetual siege.

Alpha Company provides security, and platoons alternate four-day shifts here. It is a break from the risky patrols, and it offers time to reflect. On a moonless night, in the blackness of a watch tower, Welter says that if he survives this tour, his duty to the nation is done.

"Three deployments is my hit," he says. "And $20,000 isn't enough for me to come back here again."

Police work in Chicago might be in his future, though he says he may be tired of guns. Welter loves to cook almost anything. Omelets and barbecue are his specialty; perhaps culinary school and a career as a chef?

Talk winds back to the war, and Jimmy Welter echoes a common refrain of third-timers: If death happens, it happens. And the sooner you accept that you are as good as dead, the better you will fight - and the more likely you are to save your sanity.

It is a fatalism echoed by the lyrics of Metallica:

Suffered wounds test their pride

Men of five, still alive through the raging glow

Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

"Everybody's got that feeling." Welter pauses in the darkness. "But they don't really believe it. It's just something they say."

posted July 29, 2005 07:13 PM              

Now that the war is through with me
I’m waking up I can not see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god,wake me

Back in the womb it’s much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can’t look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I’ll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god,wake me
Now the world is gone I’m just one
Oh god,help me hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

posted July 29, 2005 07:14 PM              

JESSICA SIMPSON wants to know where missing footage of her and husband NICK LACHEY's harrowing trip to Iraq got to - because she thinks Americans would like to see just how bad conditions are there.

The pop singers-turned-reality TV couple travelled to the war-torn nation to visit US troops as part of a recent ABC TV variety special, and they were both left shellshocked by what they saw.

But all the controversial moments and harrowing footage of the trip didn't appear in the fun-filled TV show.

Simpson says, "It was unbelievable. They didn't show a lot of what really went on with the enemy attacks and the shelling. There was so much stuff that went on and somehow the tapes got mysteriously misplaced.

posted July 29, 2005 08:13 PM            

By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 28 July 2005

Donald Rumsfeld intends to cut the number of US troops in Iraq The United States military says it is hoping to make a substantial reduction in its forces in Iraq, beginning next spring and summer. General George Casey, the senior US commander in Iraq, said that if political developments continued positively and Iraqi security forces became stronger then there could be sharp cuts in his 135,000-strong force.

The announcement will signal in Iraq that American will to stay in the country is weakening. The latest opinion poll in the US shows that 53 per cent believe the US will not win in Iraq.

At a briefing with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, in Baghdad, General Casey said troop reductions would come after the Iraqi elections at the end of the year.

Many Iraqi officials are sceptical about US claims that an effective Iraqi army and police force is being rapidly trained by the US. They said insurgents are capable of taking over Sunni Arab districts almost at will.

The US remains very much in charge of security in Iraq despite the nominal authority of the Defence and Interior Ministries. No military action happens except on American command. A US plan to cut the number of foreign troops in Iraq to 66,000 by mid-2006 was outlined in a British Government document leaked in the US this month. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said at a joint press conference with Mr Rumsfeld that the Americans should leave as soon as Iraqis are ready. He said: "The great desire of the Iraqi people is to see the coalition forces on their way as soon as [the new Iraqi security forces] take more responsibility." He added that there should be no surprise pull-out.

Ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad ascribe their problems to the US military presence and say nothing would happen if they pulled out. The tendency of US soldiers to treat all Iraqis as potential suicide bombers has led to frequent shootings of innocent Iraqi . The police general in charge of the serious crime squad was shot in the head by US soldiers. Iraqis also blame the US presence for the lack of personal security, notably the frequent kidnappings and robberies. But, given the weakness of the Iraqi security forces, a rapid US departure might lead to a disintegration of government authority in much of the country. Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish member of parliament, thinks the real figure for the numbers of men in the Iraqi security forces is 40,000, not 150,000 as claimed.

The US has always had an ambivalent attitude to rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces. It has wanted them strong when facing the insurgents but has been slow to arm them with effective weapons. Iraqi officials say that "at the end of the day the Americans do not trust us".

Al-Qa'ida in Iraq has said it has killed two kidnapped Algerian envoys because of their government's support for the United States. The statement on a website often used by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi read: " It [Algeria] had sent these two apostates as allies to the Jews and Christians in Iraq. Haven't we warned you against allying yourselves with America?"

Algerian radio interrupted its programming to broadcast an announcement from the office of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, which said that Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi had been executed.

* At least 23 members of a California National Guard battalion serving in Iraq are under investigation for the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees and for a $30,000 extortion scheme involving promises to protect shopkeepers from insurgents, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

Foreign forces

* At present 138,000 American troops are stationed in Iraq, with a total foreign presence of around 170,000.

* The US military has divided Iraq into six major Areas of Responsibility (AORs) maintained by multinational forces from 26 countries. The US 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Irwin, California, leads the Baghdad mission, while the US 42nd Infantry Division from New York State covers Kirkuk, Tikrit and Samarra.

* Since the invasion began, 1,785 American soldiers have died in Iraq, 348 of them since the 31 January elections. About 5,500 US troops have gone absent without leave since the beginning of operations in 2003.

Donald Rumsfeld intends to cut the number of US troops in Iraq
The United States military says it is hoping to make a substantial reduction in its forces in Iraq, beginning next spring and summer. General George Casey, the senior US commander in Iraq, said that if political developments continued positively and Iraqi security forces became stronger then there could be sharp cuts in his 135,000-strong force.

The announcement will signal in Iraq that American will to stay in the country is weakening. The latest opinion poll in the US shows that 53 per cent believe the US will not win in Iraq.

At a briefing with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, in Baghdad, General Casey said troop reductions would come after the Iraqi elections at the end of the year.

Many Iraqi officials are sceptical about US claims that an effective Iraqi army and police force is being rapidly trained by the US. They said insurgents are capable of taking over Sunni Arab districts almost at will.

The US remains very much in charge of security in Iraq despite the nominal authority of the Defence and Interior Ministries. No military action happens except on American command. A US plan to cut the number of foreign troops in Iraq to 66,000 by mid-2006 was outlined in a British Government document leaked in the US this month. The Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said at a joint press conference with Mr Rumsfeld that the Americans should leave as soon as Iraqis are ready. He said: "The great desire of the Iraqi people is to see the coalition forces on their way as soon as [the new Iraqi security forces] take more responsibility." He added that there should be no surprise pull-out.

Ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad ascribe their problems to the US military presence and say nothing would happen if they pulled out. The tendency of US soldiers to treat all Iraqis as potential suicide bombers has led to frequent shootings of innocent Iraqi . The police general in charge of the serious crime squad was shot in the head by US soldiers. Iraqis also blame the US presence for the lack of personal security, notably the frequent kidnappings and robberies. But, given the weakness of the Iraqi security forces, a rapid US departure might lead to a disintegration of government authority in much of the country. Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish member of parliament, thinks the real figure for the numbers of men in the Iraqi security forces is 40,000, not 150,000 as claimed.
The US has always had an ambivalent attitude to rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces. It has wanted them strong when facing the insurgents but has been slow to arm them with effective weapons. Iraqi officials say that "at the end of the day the Americans do not trust us".

Al-Qa'ida in Iraq has said it has killed two kidnapped Algerian envoys because of their government's support for the United States. The statement on a website often used by the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi read: " It [Algeria] had sent these two apostates as allies to the Jews and Christians in Iraq. Haven't we warned you against allying yourselves with America?"

Algerian radio interrupted its programming to broadcast an announcement from the office of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, which said that Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi had been executed.

* At least 23 members of a California National Guard battalion serving in Iraq are under investigation for the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees and for a $30,000 extortion scheme involving promises to protect shopkeepers from insurgents, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

Foreign forces

* At present 138,000 American troops are stationed in Iraq, with a total foreign presence of around 170,000.

* The US military has divided Iraq into six major Areas of Responsibility (AORs) maintained by multinational forces from 26 countries. The US 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Irwin, California, leads the Baghdad mission, while the US 42nd Infantry Division from New York State covers Kirkuk, Tikrit and Samarra.

posted July 29, 2005 11:37 PM            

Mark Yost, editorial page associate editor at the Knight-Ridder newspaper the St. Paul Pioneer Press, wrote the unthinkable - he criticized media coverage of the Iraq war and made himself the target of outraged colleagues for writing that the mainstream media are playing up the bad news about Iraq while ignoring the good news.

"With your column, you have spat on the copy of the brave men and women who are doing their best in terrible conditions," Pioneer Press reporter Chuck Laszewski wrote an open letter. "You have insulted them and demeaned them. I am embarrassed to call you my colleague."

Writing in Front Page magazine, Michael Fumento observed that Yost "couldn't have imagined he was bathing in blood and throwing himself into the shark pen. His media colleagues, Fumento reported "were merciless," noting that Knight-Ridder D.C. Bureau Chief Clark Hoyt "devoted a column to a Yost roast, taking time out only to slam U.S. progress in Iraq. To read it is to know exactly why so many Americans believe we can't trust the media to fairly cover the war."

One reporter, writing on the left-oriented Poynter Institute's Romenesko open blog for journalists, charged that Yost "must not be watching the network nightly newscasts," yet, wrote Fumento, "that's exactly what Yost was criticizing."
David Hannners, another Pioneer Press colleague insisted the media have no obligation to present positive stories "because war itself is a negative thing. Come again? " Fumento asked.

Also on Romenesko's site, Fumento reported that Hoyt's charge that Yost had not been to Iraq was repeated time and again. "It's astonishing that Mark Yost, from the distance and safety of St. Paul, Minnesota, presumes to know what's going on in Iraq." Noted Fumento, "Never mind that Hoyt himself hasn't gone, or surely he'd have said he did."

Knight-Ridder Baghdad Bureau Chief Hannah Allam, chimed in, challenging Yost to go to Baghdad, adding facetiously "it might be too far for Mr. Yost to travel (and I don't blame him, given the treacherous airport road to reach our fortress-like hotel)."
Wrote Fumento, "So she's admitting she stays in a heavily protected hotel, which means she's also in the safety of the Green Zone. She doesn't say that all civilians taking the airport road travel in a vehicle that's so heavily armored it would take a nuclear improvised explosive to stop it."

Fumento, a courageous columnist who never hesitates to prick liberal balloons took out his pen and let the air out of her's:

"As it happens, I did go to Iraq. I was embedded with the Marines at Camp Fallujah in hostile Anbar province, nearly lost my life, and returned with a colostomy bag as a souvenir. But before that I walked and drove through the streets of Fallujah, which for some odd reason fell off the media map right after the major blood-letting ended. I reported back on progress in reconstruction of buildings and providing electricity and water to parts of the area that NEVER had it. And I can't begin to count the e-mails I got from soldiers and Marines thanking me for telling it like it is.

"Yost was right; media coverage on the war is terribly slanted - such that it may threaten our ability to win. This was much more clearly shown in the reaction to his piece than in the column itself. In any case, it's astonishing that his attackers, from the distance and safety of Washington, D.C. and St. Paul, presume to know what's going on in Iraq."

posted July 29, 2005 11:39 PM            

Fallujah, Iraq – Critics of the attack on Fallujah last November often invoked the damning (and mythical) utterance from Vietnam: "We had to destroy the village to save it." Never mind that the alternative to the massive assault on the city backed by artillery, tanks, and aircraft would either be a huge loss of American lives or simply allowing the al-Qaida cut-throat al-Zarqawi to keep it as the terrorist headquarters for all of Iraq. Forget that the city was already crumbling from the neglect of Saddam Hussein's regime. Today Fallujah is on the mend and then some, a symbol of renewal and American-Iraqi cooperation.

Although the area is still "red" – meaning hostile – as is all of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force is extending power lines and laying water and sewage pipes at a steady pace. Rubble and explosive ordinance – some left over from the fighting and some freshly laid by the insurgents – is being removed. Schoolhouses and hospitals are being fixed and erected. As a bonus, military-age males (known by the abbreviation "MAM") are receiving good wages to build things instead of blowing up people.

As I traveled through the slowly repopulating city – about half of the original 250,000 are believed to have returned – I saw awesome scenes of destruction. But I also saw thriving markets, stores selling candy and ice cream, and scores of children delighted to see Americans. I did more waving than the beauty queen in the 4th of July parade and the kids squealed with delight when I took their picture – or pretended to.

"We're mostly known for killing the bad guys" says Lt. Col. Harvey Williams, a reserve officer with the Marine 5th Civil Affairs Group. But killing alone can't defeat the insurgency. Win over the populace or lose the war.

Williams and the 5th CAG is in charge of rebuilding the city in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers. He shows the value of drawing on a rich pool of reservists in that prior to be being called up he worked for General Electric, installing new power plants throughout the U.S.

Restoring and expanding access to electricity is top priority here, more so than access to running water because Iraqis pump water up from the mains to tanks on their roof. No electricity, no working pumps.

Williams and his counterpart at the Corp of Engineers, Maj. Daniel Hibner, don't have the simple goal of restoring pre-war Iraq. "The baseline is crappy so why go back to that?" says Williams. "We did do some damage but the repairs are taking these people far beyond where they were."

The goals are ambitious but they're being met. All of Fallujah is scheduled to have electricity by January 2006. The Marines have the responsibility for bringing power to the pole, while the Iraqis take it from the pole into homes and shops.

Progress on bringing drinkable water into homes is even faster. "When we got here, we repaired every potable water system," says Williams. "Every section of the city that had pipelines before has them now." The problem, he says, is that people are squatting near the pipes and knocking holes in them to get water. Thus the further you are from the source, the Euphrates River, the less pressure in the mains until it becomes a trickle.

To fix that, two storage tanks are being built about halfway along the pipelines. These will bring water out to the farthest houses. The second of the tanks will be finished by November says Williams.

Drainage is extremely important in Fallujah because the city is lower than the Euphrates. Flooding during the upcoming rainy season would be inevitable, save that eight pumping stations will be restored by then. A ninth, pulverized by a large American bomb when insurgents occupied it, will be restored by early next year.

There are already enough schools and hospitals to serve the entire community, but they're overcrowded and far from ideal. Everything fixable has or is being repaired and new modern facilities are going up.

Iraqis are renowned for their engineering skills; the military encourages them and not only to make better structures. "The idea is that sooner or later they have to do these kinds of projects by themselves," says Hibner.

Do the insurgents interfere with the reconstruction efforts, I asked? They don't dare," says Williams. "They know if they screw with electricity, water, or sewer systems the people will get angry."

posted July 29, 2005 11:52 PM            

Sign here to become a member of the 14 Per Cent Club. Twenty bucks plus shipping and handling gets you the T-shirt. Credentials for membership derive from a recent study by the Pew Research Center disclosing, in the words of Katharine Seelye of the New York Times on May 9, that 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspapers.

"When specific newspapers were mentioned, The Times fared about average, with 21 percent of readers believing all or most of what they read in The Times and 14 percent believing almost nothing," Seelye reports. Chalk up another victory for the left. We've been at it for 30 years at least, saying that most things in the Times are distortions of reality or outright lies, and here is a robust slice of the American people agreeing with us. Of course, the faint hearts who believe that the left can never win anything will say that the credit should go to moles at the New York Times, boring from within, hollowing out the mighty edifice with year upon year of willful falsehoods until, at last, the whole ponderous structure is crumbling into dust, crushing all within.

True to this point.

Heroic moles, entombed in the rubble of your own making, Judith Miller and all the others, back through to the suzerain of sappers, A.M. Rosenthal, we salute you all! As with any empire on the brink of collapse, frantic orders are being issued from the command bunker. Seelye divulges the program of proposed "reform" devised by the editors.

"Encourage reporters to confirm the accuracy of articles with sources before publication and to solicit feedback from sources after publication. Set up an error-tracking system to detect patterns and trends. Encourage the development of software to detect plagiarism when accusations arise. Increase coverage of middle America, rural areas and religion. Establish a system for evaluating public attacks on The Times's work and determining whether and how to respond."

Can there be any better evidence of the panic that has settled in? If this trend continues, they'll be forcing Tom Friedman to install preventive software based on the works of Noam Chomsky that freezes his hard drive every time he types an untrue sentence.

The Times's "reform" package veers between apologetic sniveling about improved coverage of the heartland (fatter slabs of patronizing nonsense about God-fearing kulaks in Iowa) and quavering barks of defiance at "the relentless public criticism of the paper . . . Mr. Keller [the NYT's editor] asked the committee to consider whether it was 'any longer possible to stand silent and stoic under fire.'"

"'We need to be more assertive about explaining ourselves -- our decisions, our methods, our values, how we operate,' the committee said, acknowledging that 'there are those who love to hate The Times and suggesting a focus instead on people who do not have 'fixed' opinions about the paper."

This is like reading a strategy memo from the dying embers of the Dukakis campaign. I'm glad to say I have no constructive recommendations to offer to the editors of the New York Times, except maybe one suggested by my Nation intern, Mark Hatch-Miller, whom I canvassed for his opinions: "Stop bringing up Jayson Blair every time you screw up. Every time the Times talks about why people don't trust them, they have to mention Blair, but we all would have forgotten him by now if they'd shut up about him for a second. His story is only used to distract us from the real problems at the Times." Aye to that. So far as I know, the Times has never named its reporter Judith Miller as a prime agent in fomenting what has become the most thoroughly discredited propaganda campaign in the entire history of war scares.

On the matter of constructive versus destructive criticism, I'll always opt for the latter. Keep things clean and simple, like "U.S. out of Iraq now." My only quibble with Chomsky down the years has been the implication in all his trenchant criticisms of the Times that somehow the NYT should be getting things right, and that it would be better if it did so.

This has always seemed to me to be a contradiction in terms. The role devised for itself by the New York Times was to be the credible organ of capitalism ("newspaper of record"), with its reports and editorials premised on the belief that American capitalism can produce a just society in which all can enjoy the fruits of their labor, in peaceful harmony with their environment and the rest of the planet.

The evidence is in. The case is proved a million different ways. American capitalism can't do that. It's produced an unjust society run by a tiny slice of obscenely rich people (including the real estate developers owning the New York Times) with a vested and irreversible interest in permanent war and planetary destruction.

Given those premises, how can the Times ever get it right? Why would we want the Times to get it right? On the left, we've always said that the corporate press tells lies, and now, for a variety of reasons, at most, people believe us. The corporate media are discredited, the same way the corporate political parties are. They have zero credibility. Newspapers are dying. The main TV networks have lost a third of their audience over the past 20 years. There's no need for whining that the problem consists of narrowing ownership. The corporate press was just as bad when there were 500 different newspaper owners instead of five. And, for now at least, we have the Web. We're infinitely better off than we were 30 years ago.

posted July 30, 2005 02:22 AM              

*******

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=251

5. All in all, do you think it was worth going to war in Iraq, or not?
.............Worth it 44% Not worth it 53%
2005 Jul 7-10

6. Do you think the war with Iraq has made the U.S. safer — or less safe — from terrorism?

Safer 40 % Less safe 54 % No change 5%
2005 Jul 7-10

7. Do you think the war with Iraq has made the world safer or less safe from terrorism?

Safer 40 % Less safe 52% No change 6%
2005 Jul 7-10 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-07-11-bush-poll.htm