A Farewell to Arms

I have been home for several weeks now, enjoying time with my family and friends. I still cannot believe how much we as Americans take for granted and how petty we can be. It is as though we are fat, petulant, spoiled children. We, as a nation, are the greatest the world has ever seen, and yet we could and should be so much more.

I have been reticent about my experiences. I spoke to a church group who had prayed for me and that led to an article in a local paper, but I have actually avoided talking as best I can.

I am not embarrassed or ashamed of my service, quite the contrary; but I very much want to put it behind me. I met some good people and worked with many fine people, and I will remember these people and moments of reward and accomplishment fondly. But as a whole, the deployment was not a time I will look back upon with alacrity. It was an ugly job that was necessary and I did it and now have moved on.

I have a renewed faith in Jesus Christ. Not in religion or even in my church, but in God the Man. I can look back and see that I did not live always as I should, did not approach my worship or my service with the willingness that was deserved and required. I read in Stephen Ambrose how many WWII veterans returned home with a heightened sense of urgency. These veterans, having survived war at its most brutal and cruel, realized an immediacy about their goals that would suffer no trifles. Though I will not compare my war experience to those storied heroes, I can understand the energy they felt upon coming home.

And so goodbye. I have blogged here for almost two years and I have said whatever I wanted to say. I no longer have much interest in politics or even pop culture (though baseball will still find a way to distract me). I may start a new blog that focuses more on faith, or maybe a collaboration similar to faithcommons. Either way, I bid you, reader, a pleasant farewell and the blessings that only God can bestow.

Happiness is Tikrit, Iraq in our rearview mirror

I remember a song from the 70s, I think Mack Davis sang it, about happiness is Lubbock, TX in the rearview mirror. I've never been to Lubbock, so I cannot say if I agree with what seems to be a very disparaging sentiment.

I have spent some time in Iraq, and I can say with honesty, that I was happy to leave. I walked onto the plane and never looked back. Likewise, when we left Kuwait, I walked onto the plane calmly, without drama or emotion, took my seat and settled in for a long flight.

Being home is great, but we are still outprocessing from the Army, so it does not seem real yet. But it was great to be out of danger.

I prayed every day to God for our safety and I know that many prayed for us as well. We were very fortunate to not lose anyone and we suffered no serious injuries. As deployments go, we were very successful.

I watched the news and saw the news from Iraq, news of which I was no longer connected. The insanity goes on there. I will continue to pray for the safety of our soldiers and for the Iraqi people. I pray that God will not harden their hearts, that their can be peace in the region.

Anyway, it is good to be back, happy to look forward and not to look back.

A long shelf life

This from yahoo.com buzzlog. Do we really still ban books? I am sitting here in Iraq "instilling democracy" and some yahoo (sorry for the pun, could not resist) makes a list about free thought and independent ideas that should be suppressed. The irony is delicious.

I am proud to say that I have read 14 of the 25 books on the list. If you go to the link, make sure to read the comments at the bottom, some good stuff. One person asked why the Bible was not on the list, and I think I have seen a banned book list where it was banned.

Makes me want to get on amazon and order them all, and the yahoo list provides handy links to help you do just that!

Goodbye Kirkuk

As my unit prepares to leave Iraq, I have come back to Kirkuk for one last mission – training my replacements. Good mission, the one for which I have been waiting.

Of all the cities, towns and villages I have visited in Iraq, I have spent the most time and become closest to Kirkuk. Called “Little Iraq” because of its multi-ethnic population, Kirkuk is aptly named. It is a microcosm of the larger country and at the same time, a promise of the Iraq that may be.

Predominantly Kurdish in the north, Arab in the south, with a few neighborhoods of Turkomen people in the center, Kurkuk is also called home by Chaldeans and Assyrians, many of whom are Christian. More than a melting pot, though, the residents of Kirkuk live side by side and for the most part at peace.

Kirkuk sits atop roughly half of the oil reserves in Iraq, and almost 6% of earth’s oil reserves. Money, the hope of money, hangs in the air as thick as the gas fumes that everyone notices in their first few moments off the helicopter. At night the skies glow orange as the excess gas is burned off from the oil refineries and on more than one occasion, we have watched as the mid day bright blue was covered by an oily black blanket as attacks on the pipelines resulted in massive plumes of smoke that choked the sky.

I break out some of my pictures from Kirkuk. There are pictures of smiling, waving Iraqi children and plenty of thumbs up from people on the sides of the road. These bring back good memories. I also see scenes of soldiers kicking in doors, of families waiting outside their homes, people scared, people crying, men in cuffs and blind folded, being led away from their families for questioning. In my mind’s eye, I see vehicles on fire and other, indescribable sights that I hope to forget.

I leave here with mixed feelings. I deeply want there to be peace in this area, I want this to be a thriving, healthy place for people to live and work and raise their children. This can be Kirkuk’s future. But Kirkuk is an Iraqi city, and Iraq is a mess. Violence, fear and uncertainty live side by side with hope for the future.

If the future means Kurdistan, then I am hopeful, but also apprehensive, because I know that Kurdistan will be a child borne of great pain. If Kirkuk remains in Iraq, then I fear the future will be as problematic, but maybe with less bloodshed.

Too much blood has been shed, but in this region, blood has been shed for years, for decades, for centuries, perhaps millennia. The political question that is so frequently posed is whether US forces have done any good here. If the political reporter is standing on a balcony of an air conditioned Baghdad hotel, then Baghdad presents an indication that our presence here has been a gross failure. From Kirkuk, though, the qualitative indication is not as certain. The Kurds are free from political oppression and have a hope for the future.

So as I leave, I leave with a hope for the future, uncertainty if I did any good or made things worse, and a somewhat selfish sense of relief. I will go home to where the streets are safe, homes are made secure by police we trust and laws that protect, and our thoughts are free to reach beyond immediate wellbeing. But no matter what, beyond the hopes, apprehensions, uncertainties, fears and longings, one thing is for certain. I can say goodbye.

Goodbye Kirkuk.

Kirkuk, Kurdistan

This geographic misnomer is a political time bomb. Recent news broadcasts from Kirkuk and the entire northern area of Iraq, to include the cities of Erbil and Souliminaya, highlight for the world what we have known for the past year but have not talked about. Add Kurdistan to the list of semi-autonomous regions of the world that long for outright independence.

In my official duties, I still cannot comment or give the appearance of favoritism, or even to speak objectively about honest observations regarding a decided lack of unity in Iraq. We have been spreading the gospel about the benefits of a unified Iraq and how much progress is being made. And everything reported is factual, certainly; but there is a larger truth of which we could not report.

Images of the colorful red, white, and green striped flag with a centered golden sun have made the news lately, but we have seen it almost everyday while in Kirkuk. Army guidance required us to minimize the flag to the point of not showing it; we were supposed to highlight the new Iraqi flag. This was especially problematic during the elections last December when the Kurdish flag flew ubiquitously in storefronts, on cars, and the hands of enthusiastic, hopeful voters. Women wore bright red, white, and green dresses, children played in the streets dressed as purposefully as Scarlet Prynne, and there was a sense of Kurdish nationalism displayed openly, unapologetically and even somewhat defiantly.

Sitting atop six percent of the entire world’s known oil reserves, and over forty percent of Iraq’s oil, Kirkuk is the sweetest plum. I believe many Arabs in the region would not be hard pressed to concede the Kurdish secession, but losing Kirkuk will not be allowed without a struggle. And Kurds will not accept independence without Kirkuk.

As we prepare to leave, I look out across these neighborhoods and can only hope that this region does not plunge into the same hell Baghdad has become.

Red and yellow, black and white

I was sitting outside our office in Kirkuk, Iraq looking at the orange
sky glowing uncompromisingly against the approaching night. The
sky was not orange because of the setting sun but rather from the
oil fields just north of here. The refineries are old and inefficient
and the Iraqis burn off the excess gas and so there are huge fires
that burn continuously, making a desert scape that looks like a
scene from the film Blade Runner.

I thought about what I can take back from this experience. One
thought I will keep with me is how our country is getting better in
terms of being a multi-cultural, pluralistic society. Relatively
speaking, I think we are doing well. I can go home and eat with an
African American, be neighbors with an Asian American, spend
time getting to know Hispanics and people from all backgrounds
and we are all Americans. I read a lot of troubling stories about
immigration concerns at home, and many of these concerns are
viable; but trust me, our diversity is our strength.

Here in Kirkuk, I see the Iraq that may be. There is a large Kurdish
population, Sunni and Shia Arabs, a thriving Turkomen community
and large groups of Assyrians and Chaldeans. Many third country
nationals working here are from Turkey, Nepal, and the Philippines.
There are ethnic and religious lines, to be certain, but the people
live together and there is hope for a brighter future.

It is amazing to think that when my father was a child, just 40 and
50 years ago, black people were unwelcome in some restaurants
and hotels. A person could expect to receive radically different
treatment by virtue of the color of his skin. Growing up, I heard
racial epithets in conversation as common as I heard discussions
about anything else. Voting districts were drawn to dilute the
votes of minorities and the purpose was not only invidious, but
plain and unhidden.

We’ve come along way in a short time, and if you go out into the
world, you can see we are an example of a society that can be.

I recently met a news producer named Omar. He is Kurdish, and
we are the same age. When he was 13, his family was kicked out
of Kirkuk by the Arabs in power and forced to leave their home and
move farther south. Omar described what “being kicked out”
meant by relating a scene where his father’s car was hurriedly
packed while impatient armed men watched. When I was 13, I was
playing little league baseball and sitting on my parents couch
watching MTV.

Four years ago, Omar was shot during a riot that he was
videotaping. His arm was horribly injured and he still bears a
forearm long, disfiguring scar. He is lucky to still have the arm.
His associates took him to the nearest hospital, where he received
the most rudimentary first aid and was then directed to where he
could find another treatment facility. The hospital would not admit
him because he was Kurdish. That was 4 years ago.

What news comes out of Africa describes more racial separation
and injustice. I read a TIME magazine article about how MILLIONS
of Congolese people have been killed, wounded or displaced since
1998, largely due to racial, ethnic, and religious tensions. The film
HOTEL RWANDA was difficult to watch; not only because of the
atrocities dramatized, but that I have no memory of those events.
In 1992, I was a college graduate and regularly read the newspaper
and watched the news, and yet a racial genocide that killed
hundreds of thousands went unnoticed. The ongoing tragedy in
Darfur continues, whether media cameras capture the images or
not.

More and better communication will fix most of the wrongs of this
world. When people live together as equals, get to know each
other, raise children together, worship together, work and play
together, then their differences can become as thin as the outer
layer of skin.

Break Up Iraq to Save It

Here's a post from the LA Times.

Getting Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to relocate might be the only way to salvage the state.

By Michael O'HanlonMICHAEL O'HANLON is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
August 27, 2006

WITH THE IRAQ mission on the brink of outright failure, some analysts are contemplating a "Plan B" — pulling out and trying to prevent the war from spreading to other countries. But rather than accept complete disaster, outright civil war and the likelihood of genocide, we should try to develop a strategy for achieving some minimal level of stability, even if it requires discarding our loftier aims for Iraq.

There is what might be called a "Plan A-" option — facilitating voluntary ethnic relocation within Iraq while retaining a confederal governing structure. We should offer individuals who want to protect themselves and their families the chance to move to an Iraq territory more hospitable to their ethnicity and/or religion.

To a substantial extent this is happening already, but the 100,000 or more internally displaced Iraqis have received scant help or protection to date. With Plan A- as a policy, not an accident, the international community and Iraqi government could help offer housing and jobs to those wishing to move, as well as protection en route. Houses left behind would revert to government ownership, to be offered to individuals of other ethnic groups who wanted them, in what would largely become a program of swapping. Funds for some new home construction would be needed as well.

Obviously, this idea would only work if Iraq's government, through a strong consensus of its Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds, endorsed it. Most Iraqis, in fact, still say they want an integrated country, but if the civil war gets much worse, that option may no longer exist. In that case, reluctant Sunnis could be persuaded if it was made clear that the confederal governing body would distribute all Iraqi oil revenue equitably on a per capita basis, not by geography. Former Baathists, up to a certain rank in the party, also should be quickly "rehabilitated" and allowed to hold jobs and run for office.

For Americans who cherish the notion of multiethnic democracy, actively facilitating voluntary ethnic segregation would be a tough pill to swallow. Some might even go so far as to claim it unethical, making a mockery of the moral purpose we claimed to be furthering when we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein's cruel rule.

But what would truly mock our initial goals would be outright defeat followed by genocide — perhaps similar to what happened in Bosnia in the early 1990s. There, 200,000 people died; in Iraq, which has five times the population, the death toll could be much worse.

Although we should generally favor and support multiethnic democracy, it is not our most important objective — especially not in today's Iraq, where it may no longer even be achievable. For people trying to cope with the country's daily perils, staying alive is a higher priority than living in a diverse neighborhood.

THIS PROPOSAL shares many elements with those that have favored the partitioning of Iraq. But partitionists have never explained how we would get to their preferred solution without massive and violent ethnic cleansing. Confederacy, along with safe passage, property swapping, job-creation programs and oil revenue sharing, provides at least a plausible path forward while in fact avoiding formal partition and holding out hope that the country could someday regain its cohesiveness.

The Bosnia experience is again instructive. We declared a victory of sorts there in 1995, even though a previously diverse society was ultimately divided into three ethnically homogenous pieces through a terribly violent war.

Iraq still has a chance to turn out better, even if our current strategy fails. If we can encourage future ethnic relocation to occur voluntarily and peacefully, rather than through murder, rape and intimidation, we can still salvage an imperfect but real success that ultimately leaves most Iraqis better off than they were under Hussein. And in contrast to Bosnia, where land swaps occurred only after the civil war had largely run its course, Iraq might use such a policy to nip a broader war in the bud.

To move in this direction, no one need immediately decide that Iraq will heretofore be a land of three or four major segregated populations. Rather, individuals can decide themselves where they feel most secure. To the extent that many take up the offer of government help in relocating, the program could be expanded. Much of the resettlement is likely to be within Baghdad, with many Sunnis relocating to neighborhoods west of the Tigris River while Shiites head east.

Radical solutions far different — and far more promising — than "stay the course" need to be designed now. "Give up hope" is not one of them.

If it bleeds, it leads

Spc. Cassandra Groce

KIRKUK, Iraq (July 24, 2006) – These are your news networks, ladies and gentlemen – a constant barrage of death counts throughout the world. If it bleeds, it leads as the statement goes, and I guess the morbid fascination kicks in as yet another death toll is rung throughout the states.

I am beginning to wonder if the major news network “reporting” is truly a reflection of American public interest, and if so, would that mean newspaper readers just scan the obituaries and throw out the rest of the paper?

What do we not hear due to this constant infatuation with who has killed who this week? The general American public is probably unaware of it, but in the last week the Iraqi Army led a large cordon and search, Operation Guagamela, in the majority of the Kirkuk province.

I spent a little over three days in temperatures exceeding 120 degrees, drinking water the temperature of coffee, sleeping in a humvee and spending around 12 hours a day photographing Soldiers searching houses.

It was so hot in fact, my toothbrush melted in the air conditioned humvee. This however, is just to illustrate the kind of conditions that your military personnel worked under to complete this mission.

Over 72 relentless hours in the field, several most wanted insurgents were captured as well as numerous large weapons caches. One of the most impressive aspects was that one of the cities searched was Hawija, rated the number one most dangerous hot zones in Iraq by Newsweek in April. The Army officials here were highly concerned this operation would turn into a deadly affair, yet not a single shot was fired over these three days.

Some bad men were brought down, some significant caches found and an auto shop that built Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, VBIEDs, was shut down. Nobody was hurt. With a large interest-push on how many are dead in Iraq this week, nobody being hurt was good news by itself.

My public affairs team immediately produced a video package and sent it up to the major news networks. This was a success story for Iraq.

The following night we anxiously watched the news for a story over the mission and insurgent captures. A solid hour went by as we watched streaming announcements about Lebanon and Israel and who had killed who. As the stories started recycling it became obvious that the news was not impressed with most wanted being captured or weapons caches. In fact, Iraq had been all but forgotten.

Needless to say, it was disappointing.

The very next day a couple of people in my unit went into Kirkuk for an Iraqi press conference over Operation Guagamela. While there, a VBIED exploded a block over killing 20 people. Imagine our surprise when within hours the story broke through the Israel/Lebanon coverage to report 20 deaths.

If it bleeds, it leads.

While I feel that coverage over the events of the world is important; that what happens throughout the planet, can and will influence us; only reporting the negative events is not a true reflection of our lives.

It worries me that the only way to gain the attention of the media, is at the expense of a human’s life. What worries me more, is that the media plays its stories to what they know Americans want to and will watch.

There and Back again

I have not made an entry in a while, in almost two months. I left Iraq and went home for a much needed break and some pleasant time with my family. I think the official military designation is Rest and Recreation (R&R) but I think a better moniker would be Renewal and Refreshment. I was able to wash away the desert and all thoughts of this place and once again be a husband, father, son, grandson, cousin, friend, and neighbor.

I was asked many times about my experiences and what I thought about our War in Iraq. I have observed before how veterans of prior conflicts great and small have been reluctant to share their experiences. I never understood this until I went home. I answered questions politely and honestly, but the truth of the matter was that I did not want to talk about Iraq or my small part in the war on terror.

At first I thought it was because I was on vacation and I had not seen my family for many months and I just wanted some quiet, fun time. I also attributed part of my reticence to the gregarious nature of my job as a public affairs officer and that I was tired of talking and telling the Soldiers’ story and basically selling the ideas associated with our current defense policy.

For whatever reason, I did not want talk about Iraq and when it came time to post another entry to my blog, the introversion manifested itself as writers block. I have sat in front of this blank screen so many times and no words form on the page. I begin writing and am easily distracted. I go back to work, or go exercise, or read, or check the baseball scores or anything else.

There was a time when I loved to blog, when I posted several times a day, when I thought about and looked forward to what I would share with the world of the blogosphere.

Maybe I’m just burned out, maybe I’m just tired, but I just have nothing else to say. I am so tired of politics and reasons why, when there seems to be no reason. And I don’t blame President Bush; I don’t hate the player, but I do dislike the game. If anything, when it comes to politics I am even more of a fervent libertarian than before.

I think if I blog more it will be about someone I meet or a unique idea that strikes me as significant. I would also like to explore more thoughts on faith.I have spent a lot of time on FaithCommons.org. Reido, Bill, and Brian have been a great source of strength and spiritual renewal. Not being able to attend my small group back home made me long for more faith interaction and I have gotten that at faithcommons.

When I was back at home I did see all of my small group brothers and sisters and that was great, I really missed that experience.

So that’s all for now. I will not post as frequently as I have until I get back my muse or my inspiration or whatever reason I need to type words into the ether.

Propaganda front: a response

Here is one view of Kimberly Johnson's blog post, taken from an e-mail:

I know a Marine that recenetrly came back from Iraq and is now going to community college......and that guy says nothing but racial slurs when referring to Iraqi's. I obviously am out of the loop, and can't possibly relate to what it's like over there, but I think as PA folks you must be careful not to drink the kool-aid that you are trying to sell. Is it reasonable to think that 18-20 year-old soldiers are going to behave like politicians when a journalist is nearby? It's just my opinion, but this war is a war of perceptions, and as much as it hurts to admit it, the perception isn't good.

Also, I would have written...."we've come for the sheep!" on the grenade.

Kimberly Johnson: The propaganda front

Excellent story! I have met LTC Hutson. He is tough, but also very intelligent and deeply concerned about the well being of his soldiers. He is a model battalion commander.

HAWIJAH, Iraq - Lt. Col. Marc Hutson, commander of 101st Division's 1stBattalion, 327 Infantry Regiment, came by for a visit yesterday. He had read my latest installment and was complimentary about my description of the raid, save one sentence. The inclusion of the detail about the grenade inscribed with "Ethnic Cleanser" had disturbed him. He wasn'tangry with me, he said as he pressed his lips together into a tightline. He realized I had only reported what was there.

When he came to see me a second time within the hour, however, I realized that sentence was becoming an issue. Details like that could play into insurgent propaganda, he said.

Also, he wouldn't tolerate demeaning behavior from his soldiers. All ofthe battalion's ammunition would be inspected by day's end to ensure there were no other rounds with offensive graffiti.

"The guy who reacted most to that comment was me," he said. "I don't want it to impact my boys and girls," negatively, he later explained.

For centuries, soldiers have used crude and vulgar language directed at their enemy, and also among themselves. What has changed is how easily that information is now conveyed into public consciousness by the media. Iraq, more than any other war, is a fight playing out in a 24-hour real-time cable news feed under constant public scrutiny. It's a war based largely on perceptions.

Military leaders have to plan information campaigns right alongside battle plans. Commanders, for example, readily exploit insurgent attackson civilians and Iraqi security forces as a basis for statements released to local newspapers and talking points for soldiers out on patrol. It's all an effort meant to sway locals away from the influence of militants. On the other side, insurgents quickly post videos of attacks on websites in an effort to foster a sense that they are powerful. The recent debate over whether U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked a mosque shows how critical perceptions are in this war. The U.S.military in a statement denied it was a mosque and said the building was filled with insurgents, but Iraqi politicians suspended talks to form agovernment to protest the attack. They resumed talks Tuesday.

In this environment, commanders have to worry about off-handed remarks by troops. "If someone takes a comment out of context, it creates more work to undo something that was never done," Hutson says.

"Fundamentally, this war has desensitized young men and women," Hutson continued. He ran his hands over the top of his head as he weighed his words and leaned back in his chair. "It's not all horrible things, like gore and guts. You just drive through this country and you see poverty.After a while, you get used to seeing it. Not necessarily accepting it,but you get desensitized."

Aggravating that is the unrelenting faceless enemy and unwelcoming locals. "After a while, you're not feeling a lot of love," he said offering a slight grin.

Hutson was emphatic that desensitization has not affected his soldiers' performance. "I know that's not how they think," he said referring tothe grenade's slur. But when soldiers are sitting around, joking around and goofing off, "that bravado and desensitization all comes together,"he said.

Hutson acknowledges that many in today's all-volunteer military don't trust the press. "Young soldiers are influenced by what they've heard,"he said. "There's always a story about how the media got in the way,"although he said he has never seen any evidence of that. Realizing the media's place in modern warfare, the military has in recent years started educating soldiers on what can be said to reporters while maintaining security. "The most important piece is making sure soldiers understand the media isn't something to dread."

The commander says he's actually in favor of having journalists embedded with his battalion because it's a way to tell his soldiers' story."There are risks associated with that," of course. But, he added, "I'm going to turn you loose and hope for the best."

Alpha Co. sees progress in Iraqi Police

KIRKUK, Iraq (12 April 2006) - When an Iraqi factory worker found a bag containing what he believed to be IED making materials, he knew who to call – the Iraqi Police station in Taza.
Such a call would seem to be a matter of course for Americans, but in Iraq this kind of action demonstrates a positive step forward for the Iraqi people’s confidence in their police.
“What I like is citizens seeing something out of place and calling the local Iraqi Police. It has taken awhile for local people to trust the coalition forces and the Iraqi Security Forces, but we are starting to see the benefits of the investments in time we have made,” said 2nd Lt. Jeremy Fox of 1st Platoon, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
In visits to two towns in the Kirkuk region of north central Iraq, Fox and his platoon saw first-hand the progress made by the Iraqi Police and Army, and the corresponding trust given by the Iraqi people.
While patrolling the Taza marketplace with local Iraqi Police, coalition forces assisted the IP with handing out flyers providing local citizens with telephone numbers and requests for support.
“Passing out flyers works. The flyers have local telephone numbers that people can call to report trouble and some of these calls have resulted in vital intelligence gathered, some weapons caches found and IED identification,” said Staff Sgt. Brian Anderson of Rochester, NY.
Gathering information on possible insurgent activity, and at the same time building relationships with the Iraqi people, works in outlying areas the same as it does in town.
After leaving Taza, Fox’s platoon and an Iraqi Army company traveled to Marimbak, a farming village of about 500 Sunni Arabs. Fox and an Iraqi Army leader met with the village muktar, a local official similar to a mayor, who talked about politics and how he and his village have come to rely on the IA and IP.
“The more we see them relying on the Iraqi Security Forces, that’s the direction we want to be moving in,” said Fox. “We are trying to set them up for self-sufficiency and self-governance, and all this is geared towards us handing over maneuver space back to the Iraqis.”

Dr. Ron Paul: Sanctions against Iran

I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment. Sanctions do not work and only hurt the economic activities of both countries without affecting significantly any political conflicts. In a word: Cuba. Embargos have not worked since President Jefferson's time, they have not worked in Latin America or China and will not work against Iran. This is a political expedient, a "something must be done" cop out.

As the drumbeat for military action against Iran grows louder, some members of Congress are calling to expand the longstanding U.S. trade ban that bars American companies from investing in that nation. In fact, many war hawks in Washington are pushing for a comprehensive international embargo against Iran. The international response has been lukewarm, however, because the world needs Iranian oil. But we cannot underestimate the irrational, almost manic desire of some neoconservatives to attack Iran one way or another, even if it means crippling a major source of oil and destabilizing the worldwide economy.

The black burkah

This is an essay written by one of my soldiers, but the writing was deemed too insensitive for our publication. I post it here as I see it as both accurate and balanced; though somewhat biased by her western perspective. Still, good words that need saying.

KIRKUK PROVINCE, Iraq – (April 16, 2006) The black burkah, that is often pulled out to demonstrate the ultimate depth of women oppression in the Arabic world, is an outfit I rarely see. While there are women who sport this traditional garb, most of the women I have seen throughout mid-Iraq wear a marvelous display of color.
The scarves that cover their hair are often splashed with brilliant shades of the rainbow and fringed with beads. The robes underneath are sometimes equally colorful and may not even match the scarves. This gypsy-like hodgepodge of pattern and color has often made me wonder if it is a secret statement of expression.
Is their clothing an artistic exhibition of all that is veiled by their culture’s archaic ways? Once while out with a civil affairs unit to look at schools being built, we were surprised to discover that at a co-ed school, there were only boys there. When we asked where the girls were, the principal of the school shrugged and said, “Who cares? They are only girls. It really doesn’t matter.”
It really doesn’t matter? While I might blow off most rumblings about women back home, this was a different matter altogether. Women here truly are oppressed. Besides the lack of effort to ensure a female’s education (which, yes, there are exceptions to this) a woman’s involvement in the country of Iraq is rare. The numbers have increased since the removal of Saddam Hussein, but over all pale in comparison to other democratic nations.
I met a woman once who was leaving to train as an Iraqi Policeman. I told her she was my hero to be carving this path in her culture. I was told by one of the police liason’s that most the women did not make it through the academy. Not because they were incompetent, but because the men here would beat them and constantly torment them for being out of society’s place.
If you pay close attention to the cars passing on any given day in Iraq, women are often in the backseat while all the men ride upfront. It reminded me of the 60s, only this dealing with gender. Again, there are exceptions, but I’ve never even seen a woman driving a vehicle.
I am so use to the Iraqi men ruling the culture, and “business” activities, that I was extremely surprised while in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, the unit I went out with had a local female interpreter. The whole day, as she spoke to contractors, business officials and police leaders, I wondered if the men cringed at being forced to communicate through this woman.
She obviously had to have been an exception to the Iraqi girls “not mattering” when it came to education since she spoke fluent English. The first moment I had to speak with her I asked her how she came to be an interpreter. She told me female interpreters were more common in Baghdad (a city I haven’t been to) but that they were still rare. Most women were scared to be interpreters because some of them wound up dead at the hand of their own people.
For a woman to do such a thing it would be considered a disgrace, and she smiled and whispered, “It makes the men feel threatened.” Her family supported her though and she said she wasn’t scared of people trying to hurt her. This was what she wanted to do. I personally, thought she was beautifully fierce.
I have numerous photographs I have taken of the women in this country. Women with eyes downcast, some boldly staring back at the camera, most shadowed by men. While I’m not one to rock the religious belief boat, I recognize that there are women here with dreams beyond flat bread in the morning. I hope that each of these can find her voice in more than mere clothing.

Guarding the Pipeline

Kirkuk, Iraq – The Iraqi Strategic Infrastructure Battalion (SIB) soldier stands on top of a liquid gold mine. That is, he stands atop six percent of the world’s known oil reserve, deep beneath the sands of northern Iraq, in and around Kirkuk.
The SIB, partnered with Bastogne Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, are the guardians of the pipelines that move the oil throughout the country.
“The SIB is a focus for the coalition forces,” said 1st Lt. Jacob Bailey, a Clyde, Texas native and platoon leader from 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Zarqawi said that he will focus on the infrastructure, and so are we.”
Ensuring that the Iraqi soldiers are prepared to guard the pipeline means working closely with the Iraqi leadership at the company and platoon levels.
“The focus is on the platoon leadership, making sure they have a training plan and that they are actively implementing that plan,” said Staff Sgt. Chris DeMarsico of North Adams, Mass. DeMarsico explains the finer points of standing watch to the Iraqi soldiers, quizzing them and their leaders to ensure standards are understood and maintained.
“I want you to take that next step and teach your soldiers; I want you to be a good leader to them,” DeMarsico told one of the Iraqi non-commissioned officers.
Teaching basic leadership and organizational management to the SIB is a challenge, Bastogne Soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts face everyday.
“We teach and instruct the soldiers many times a day to make sure they do what they must,” said Iraqi SIB 1st Lt. Ghasan Ibrahim Ronaye, a platoon leader responsible for several SIB guard posts. “Insha Allah, God willing, we will not be attacked. But if we are we will be trained and ready to act to defend our pipeline.”
“This new teaching is different from our old army instructions, which was based upon an old British model. This is very different, so it will take us time to adapt and to learn this new way; but, this new way is better, more simple and easy to understand,” adds Ronaye.
“I am hopeful for the future,” said Ronaye, “that we will get better at our jobs and that we will be able to protect our country’s oil and our people.”

Medevac in Tikrit

Story by Michael Pfaff
Tikrit, Iraq – You never know when the call will come and within seconds you’ll be sprinting toward a Blackhawk helicopter, donning your armor and lifting off.
Soldiers with the 542nd Medical Company keep their gear on their Blackhawk while it’s parked on the flight line because their lives in Iraq revolve around the oath that within ten minutes after a medevac call comes in they will be off the ground and hurtling through the air toward whomever needs their help.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” Spc. Brandon Baskin, a native of Colville, Wash., explained about what it’s like immediately after the call comes in. “You go from zero to sixty like that. There’s no slack time.”
Baskin was thrust into a team chief spot, typically not given to specialists, and it’s early in his crew’s 75-hour work shift. He’s doing his rounds, making sure everything is squared away like a good team chief should do when a call crackles over his handheld radio.
It’s another member of his crew; a medevac has been called in.
“When you hear the ‘medevac, medevac, medevac!’ you just grab your weapon, grab your shirt, and you’re en-route to the aircraft,” Baskin said. “I consider every call urgent until I find out otherwise, which means I’m running.”
Baskin accelerates to sixty and begins rushing toward the helicopter where he finds his crew already beginning to prep the Blackhawk for flight.
Within minutes of the “nine-line” medevac being called in, the Blackhawk is kicking up dust and taking off. Baskin doesn’t hesitate to let in on the secret to getting off the ground quickly.
“Practice; it’s just flat-out practice,” he said.
1st Lt. Samuel Sinclair, the pilot and Versailles, Mo. native, explained the necessity of the intensity and speed of getting the bird off the ground quickly.
“Every minute counts,” he said. “Any amount of time that we can give the medic so that he can provide quality care to the patient helps to save that patient. We’ve got to be very quick about what we’re doing.”
In this case, the patient was stable. An Iraqi Army soldier with a gunshot wound needed to be transported to the medical cache at Contingency Operating Base Speicher for further treatment. But, there are times when the patient isn’t stable. In those cases, every second counts.
Once the Blackhawk made it to the landing zone, medics attending the Iraqi soldier on the ground hastily carried the patient on a litter to the bird. And, within seconds of preparing an IV, the helicopter was off again.
Inside the cabin of the helicopter, basically a portable emergency room, Staff Sgt. Atwon Thompkins, a flight medic and Warrenton, Ga. native, tended to the hurt Iraqi soldier as the Blackhawk flew to the medical cache.
“It’s kind of tight, you just got to know what you are doing,” he said. “You have to stay current with your medical skills.
Thompkins trains every day on his medical skills in order to stay sharp. Today’s mission was during the daylight hours, but there are times when night missions happen and he has to be precise with his treatment.
The entire mission took less than an hour and ended with the Blackhawk dropping the wounded Iraqi Army soldier off with the ground medics.
From start to finish, Sinclair said the medevac crew performed exceptionally, especially with the help from the ground medics who he boasts are really “the stars of the show”.
“This mission was very text-book,” Sinclair said. “If you showed everyone the highlights of this mission, they’d be looking at a bottled medevac mission.”
-30-

Shielding soldiers' families

Fred Phelps and his group are at again. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. — which showed up outside Fort Campbell in February to praise the death of soliders — says it will picket at the Capitol and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center today.

The demonstration in front of the Capitol is to protest a bill that Rep. John Tanner, D-Union City, is co-sponsoring. The Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act would impose a 500-foot restriction on demonstrations at national cemeteries. It also would require that no demonstrations occur an hour prior to and after services at a federal-run cemetery and establishes monetary fines and prison sentences.

Phelps and his followers have shown up at such funerals with the twisted and spiteful message that soldiers are dying in Iraq with God's blessing because of U.S. tolerance toward homosexuals. In addition to the Capitol, the Phelps group plans to go to Walter Reed with a message for injured soldiers recovering from their wounds that they need to foresake the "godless" U.S. Army.

When six members from the Westboro church — minus Phelps himself — showed up at Fort Campbell on the day a memorial service was being conducted on post, they were met by much larger, peaceful counter-demonstrations, which is the American way.

A group of volunteers called the Patriot Guard Riders also have been attending some military funerals in an attempt to shield family members from the demonstrators.The bill in Congress would not silence Phelps. He and his group would still be able to hold demonstrations.

But Washington has long set rules on where and when demonstrations can be legally staged on federal property. You can't, for instance, simply walk into the Capitol building and start screaming out grievances against the government and not expect to be arrested.

People whose loved ones are being buried in federal cemeteries already have lost so much. The least they deserve is some peace as they put their heroes to rest.

Ted and Barry

There has been so much talk about Bonds lately and his alleged steroids use and his proximity to two of the most beloved records in all of sports,records transcending baseball and becoming a part of American culture. Bonds can pass Babe Ruth and Hand Aaron and become the all-time homerun champion, perhaps this season.

The question is not so much that he will take the records but that if and when he does, what will his name atop the record books mean if he has been the beneficiary of illegal drugs? Will the record forever be "tainted" and should there be an asterisk by his name?

Baseball has such a long history that records will be broken by men playing in different eras. Should Bonds be required to get drunk before games and eat hot dogs during games? Bonds has no doubt been the target of shameful, cowardly rascist attacks, but to the same degree as Aaron? If Bonds doped himself up and breaks the record and then dies three years from now due to drug related damage to his body, maybe that would be a fitting enough sidenote to his name in the hallowed records of the game.

But I guess since I am over here serving in the military, I am thinking of another ballplayer who is not mentioned in the recent talk.

Ted Williams, arguably the greatest player ever, was also something of a black hat. Surly and foul-mouthed, he shared with Bonds a disdain for the press and lacked the fan affection offered to Ruth and Aaron. Only after his career did he doff his hat to the Boston fans who longed to know him. But his accomplishments on and off the field leave Bonds behind.

From the ages of 24-26, at an age when Barry Bonds, almost 50 years later, would begin his petulant journey through the sports pages,Ted Williams joined ranks with hundreds of thousands of his generation and fought in WWII. And Williams did not tour with the USO and shake hands,he flew airplanes and fought, risking his life. Seven years later he would sacrifice almost another two years when he flew during the KoreanWar.

Williams finished his Hall of Fame career with 521 homeruns, at the time third behind Ruth and Jimmie Foxx. But he had lost three years of his career, years that to many other athletes represent prime years. He averaged 31 HR a season, and so add those lost years, plus the better part of the two Korean War years to his total, another 155 HR, and then Williams has 672,more than Mays. Extrapolate the idea that these were prime years and that he may have hit more and then Williams may be in the race today.

Perhaps more than the number of fourbaggers hit, is the influence each had on the sport. Barry Bonds represents outstanding play but with a selfishness and disregard for the image he displayed. Williams also represented outstanding play but was also a hero to millions and who stood for ideals greater than himself. If he was ill-tempered and passionate, then he was a serious man who would not be trifled with - and I cannot imagine a scenario where he would wear a wig and dress.

So if or when Barry Bonds surpasses the records, remember and compare these two. One who selfishly played a game for himself, another who played a larger role and on a greater stage.

2006 Baseball season begins

Another season begins and I am once again distracted by the military, (sigh). Last year I was preparing to come over here and so missed most of the season and this year I am here and will miss almost all of this season. Maybe I can get home to see the Series, that would be great. At least I have the internet, that is a good thing.

The first day showed us that the Yankees are as alive as ever with a 15-2 thumping of Zito's Athletics. A slow breaking curve ball is all fun and games until you get jumped on by 200 million dollars worth of fast swinging lumber. Roy Oswalt proved with a 1-0 opening day pitchers duel win that he is the next big thing atop the mound and this should be another big season for him.

As for over here, the Middle Eastern people desperately need baseball. We had a Lebanese reporter come through and he asked me about "America's sport" baseball. Well, if he really wanted to know then he asked the right person, if he was just seeking rhetoric, then he got a bonus. I broke it all down for him and even waxed poetic about the ballet that is the 6-4-3 double play. Beautiful.

World Baseball Classic

Congrats to the Japanese team and to Cuba for making it there. Good show.

Sporting News's Ken Rosenthal said it best:

In an era of sober statistical analysis, endless contract talk and growing steroids indignation, the passion displayed by Latin American fans during the WBC is a reminder of what the game is supopsed to be about: fun.

Here's what some guys on Sportingnews.com had to say:

I could have cared less about the World Baseball Classic, but what I saw shocked me. I saw MLB players laughing, joking, and at the same time, playing ball to win! Isn't that waht sports are about? We've all wanted the talent of the pros to be combined with the passion of college. For a brief moment, I saw that. I saw it in the ballclubs and in the fans and I loved it.

Czech soldier understand Iraqi frustrations and struggles

Kirkuk, Iraq (Mar. 26, 2006) – It’s 1989 in Czechoslovakia, and the children have the day off from school for a mandatory “fun day”. Only, instead of drawing chalk lines on the sidewalk for a game of hopscotch, or climbing through the iron web of a jungle gym, they spend the day donning gas masks, throwing plastic grenades, and navigating through the wilderness with a compass.

Long before she went through basic training for the U.S. Army, Pfc. Jana Rutherford was one of the those children participating in the mandatory fun days in communist Czechoslovakia before the revolution that would lead to the creation of the Czech Republic. Rutherford, 25, is now a driver with the 426th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division stationed in Iraq, after joining the Army in January of 2005. Rutherford’s history with the military began long before then.

She met a Soldier in the U.S. Special Forces, with whom she would later marry and move to Germany. After his tour in Europe was over, she moved with him back to Fort Bragg, N.C.

“When I first came to the states, I didn’t know any English,” she said. Rutherford joked that her English was limited to only a few phrases.

“I knew how to say, ‘Hi, how are you? What is your hobby?’” At Fort Bragg, she found a job at the officer’s club and improved her English. Language wasn’t the only thing she learned though; she also learned a lot about military culture. Rutherford decided she wanted to be a part of that culture.

“The idea of seeing other people being so strongly attached to one another, when you see men and women standing at attention and tears are coming down when the National Anthem is being played, I guess I just wanted to be a part of something like that,” she explained. Rutherford signed up a few years later with the intentions of going to airborne school and returning to Fort Bragg. Her plans didn’t quite happen as expected though, and she was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Soon after, the 101st deployed to Iraq.

“One of the biggest reasons why I joined was that I did want to come to Iraq,” Rutherford said. “I wanted to get that experience my friends were talking about; the friendship among Soldiers. And, I wanted to help the people of Iraq to change to being democratic.”

Rutherford can empathize with a people who have not known the concept of living in a democratic nation. When her native country was being formed from the remains of communist Czechoslovakia, she witnessed firsthand how the transition can be difficult.

“It’s a long process,” Rutherford explained. “It’s not like one day we were Czechoslovakia and the next day Czech Republic, everything was changing and it was affecting a lot of people. It didn’t happen overnight.”

Rutherford now reflects on growing up in a communist country and being so poor that college seemed out of reach. In democratic nations like the United States, she said she has a chance at going to college and pursuing whatever her heart desires. Her stay in Iraq and sacrifice for a country experiencing trying times, much like her native country once did, will hopefully help do the same for a young Iraqi child who wants to go to college one day and pursue a dream. -30-

Army Staff Sergeant Russell Lee Klika

SSG Klika was recognized by DefendAmerica.mil for his talent in the field. Click on this link and see his photo gallery of images from his last two years over here.

Les imbeciles

The French have become caricatures of themselves; it takes a Frenchman to properly satirize the French. If you took the most liberal minded, socialist leaning worker in America, that person would still admit that you must work for your salary, and if you don’t perform or if your position is no longer needed, then you get let go, or the very least re-assigned. These French students want guaranteed employment, should they also protest that they should be guaranteed happiness and self-esteem?

The protesters are a bunch of wine drinking, croissant munching, Maurice Chevalier accent speaking, 35-hour a week working, smoke break taking, oxygen stealing crybabies.

SOMA: A Kurdish english language newspaper

I met Iason Athanasiadis the other night and he introduced me to this new publication. As a matter of fact, the issue he gave me was only the third issue printed.

Lots of good articles written by people who live here and have a vested stake in how all this plays out. He agreed with my "asymmetrical civil war" theory and one of his articles also comparesthis situation to Beirut.

Here is a good exercpt:

The worst aspect about being a Kurd, both raised and living abroad, like I have been, is one that we see coming from miles away, a conversational train-wreck inexorably careening towards you in slow motion.

Michael Yon and the civil war

There has been alot of talk about a civil war here and maybe the definition is different than what we expect. There is no "force on force" that is apparent, but decentralized, asymmetrical warfare at the local level may be a better, more accurate description of the problems here. Perhaps similar to Lebanon of the 70-80s.

THE MESOPOTAMIAN not so much pessimism but rather realism

THE MESOPOTAMIAN

I like this guy. He is optimistic but realistic at the same time. I guess that makes him a pragmatist.

I was eating in the DFAC and we watched a retired general tell us that Iraq is in civil war.

Meanwhile, outside the local Kurds were celebrating a local holiday and a mission returned from having passed out medical supplies and candy to children. The children here are like kids anywhere, wanting to play, wanting to have fun.

This is a complicated mess, nothing simple about it. Saying we are winning or that we are losing, or that there is now a civil war does little to affect the labyrinthine realism of Iraqi children at play and their parents trying to survive and of us going out on missions and eating chow and thinking about calling home.

Bastogne Soldiers Foil Attack

KIRKUK, Iraq — Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team foiled an attempted rocket attack on their forward operating base near the village of Hawijah March 1, after the Soldiers witnessed insurgents setting up for the attempted attack.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment observed a white pick—up truck parked at a known enemy firing position north of their FOB. Three insurgents were setting up a rocket system when the Soldiers notified the battalion’s operations center.

On hearing the news, Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Marc Hutson from Grand Junction, Colo., ordered an artillery strike on the position. When the terrorists heard the artillery guns firing, they immediately ran from the area toward a nearby village.

Rep. Ron Paul: How Government Debt Grows

When government borrows money, the actual borrowers- big spending administrations and politicians- never have to pay it back. Remember, administrations come and go, members of congress become highly paid lobbyists, and bureaucrats retire with safe pensions. The benefits of deficit spending are enjoyed immediately by politicians, who trade pork for votes and enjoy adulation for promising to cure every social ill. The bills always come due later, however. Nobody ever looks back and says, "Congressman so-and-so got us into this mess when he voted for all that spending 20 years ago."

1st BCT trains Taza soldiers in fine points

TAZA, Iraq — Infantry Soldiers here work hard every day to train an Iraqi army company to take over the mission of security in northern Iraq.

Members of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team teach Iraqi army soldiers the finer points of infantry tactics in this primarily Arab village south of Kirkuk.

“Taza, as a community, is primarily Arab and Turkomen, heavily influenced by Arabs. Here there is not so much a Shia to Sunni rivalry as there is a difference between Arabs and Kurds,” said Capt. Nathaniel Conkey, Co. A commander. “The Iraqi company, though, is a good ethnic mix of Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen.”

The 4th Company, 2nd Battalion Iraqi army soldiers train in the Taza compound but are new to the area, having recently transferred from an Iraqi army base north of Kirkuk.

“Moving soldiers to different areas has caused problems,” Conkey explained. “However, the younger soldiers are very motivated and want to learn, and become better soldiers for Iraq.”

Helping the Iraqi army soldiers to become better soldiers is what these US trainers seek to accomplish daily. “The training we give was a part of the Iraqi army basic training, so this is a refresher, “said Staff Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who conducts the “react to sniper” course.“

The Iraqi army troops are very motivated to learn,” Anderson said. “The troops have learned about how to react to contact and react to sniper and first aid tasks. We teach the Iraqi Army [noncommissioned officers] to give hip-pocket training and to keep the training of their soldiers as a priority.”

Making training a high priority is also a main concern for the Iraqi army leadership.

“Iraqi soldiers are motivated to learn and want to become better soldiers,” said Iraqi army Capt. Dillshad Majmal Al-Deen, training officer for 2nd Battalion.

“Iraqi soldiers get a great benefit from the classes and enjoy working with coalition troops,” Al-Deen said. “Iraq is still a country at war and soldiers need to continue training and getting better. A soldier’s job is to train for action on the battlefield.

“I do not make any difference between ethnicities, Arab or Kurd, all are Iraqi soldiers.”

Building a cohesive team of soldiers across ethnic lines is a challenge, but it is paying off as training continues.

“The challenge will be for the Iraqi government to get them what they need to be successful like training, equipment, and controls,” said Sgt. Winston Weaver, who sets up squad leader training.

“They take the training seriously but at the same time they like to learn and they have fun and are very motivated.”

28 insurgents caught, IED materials found

KIRKUK, Iraq — Bastogne soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, working with police in Kirkuk, detained 28 insurgents during search missions last week — thanks in part — to a new method of processing information.

"Within 48 to 72 hours of receiving intelligence information, we detained the insurgent," confirmed Sgt. 1st Class Lawson Adkins, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the intelligence shop for the 1st Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion. "The goal is to take action while the information is still current."

Though every search might not turn out according to plan, the majority of missions are successful, even in areas outside of Kirkuk.

In a recent mission, soldiers from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, conducted a combined search with Iraqi police during which they detained nine suspected terrorists. One of those detained is known to be involved in attacks against Iraqi Security Forces working in and around Kirkuk.

Another of the detainees, a security guard employed by the Northern Oil Company, is linked to attacks against Coalition Forces and is known to transport Improvised Explosive Devices and weapons to and from the nearby village of Hawijah.Hawijah has been a hotbed of insurgent activity since the Bastogne Brigade arrived in Iraq last November.

In another cordon and search, soldiers from Company C, 2nd Battalion detained one terrorist and confiscated material from the IED assembly workshop set up in his home.

Three days later, after receiving another intelligence report of activity in the area, Bastogne soldiers returned to the same residence to find that yet another suspect had reopened the IED workshop with twice as many materials.

In addition to the 28 captured terrorists, the discovery of the workshop filled with IED materials, weapons and fake documentation, soldiers have collected information on a number of insurgent groups working in the area.

"Most of the detainees are leading to more suspects," Adkins said. "Hopefully we will see a drop in their activity and reduce the current threat in Kirkuk."

Michael Pfaff: Bastogne Soldiers bring smiles to sick Iraqi children

Kirkuk, Iraq — Hamed is a 7-year-old boy from Kirkuk. He's been hospitalized for the last two weeks with a respiratory condition — nothing to smile about.

On March 5, however, he was all smiles when "Bastogne" soldiers from the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, visited the children's hospital where he and many other sick children spend their days.

"Our mission was to just help bring a smile to the children's faces," said Capt. Todd Claypool, battalion chaplain. "We want to show we care and build good will within the community."

The soldiers passed out candy and toys donated by several churches that have been in touch with Chaplain Claypool, a native of Shelbyville, Ky.

"It's great of these churches to send toys and candy for the kids," Claypool said. "They really care about the Iraqi people."Soldiers also distributed water and shoes to other needy patients at the hospital.

Claypool noted the gifts not only affected children, but also parents of the sick children."The reception from the parents was phenomenal," he said. "When you have a child that's sick, you're thankful for help. That speaks right to their heart."

Claypool said a mission of this nature is important to STB soldiers as well. They often don't get the chance to participate in humanitarian missions, so it was a break from some of the more stressful missions they normally run.

"If soldiers just see the bad stuff, it's not good for them," Claypool said. "That's really just a small percentage of this country. These people aren't all that different from us; they're just going through a tough time."

Claypool said he takes such missions to heart."I have kids of my own, three wonderful boys," he said with pride. "There's nothing like holding a baby and seeing a child's face light up and knowing you've made a difference in that child's life."

Army Staff Sergeant Russell Lee Klika

SSG Klika is one of our National Guard photographers over here and may be one of the best photographers in the country. Here is a link to DVIDShub.net, where alot of our work ends up and here is a gallery of some of his work.