Not everyone appreciates being offered handouts. It can be quite insulting.

Apparently, all those instances of American soldiers passing out toys and candy and school supplies to Afghan children might be doing some harm in counterinsurgency operations. Instead of goodwill, such handouts may be breeding resentment by shaming and embarrassing Afghan parents who aren’t able to provide such items for their children, themselves.

Thomas Ricks has an interesting post, pointing out a piece by David Wood:
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Introduction excerpt from Michael Totten’s The Future of Iraq Pt. IV:

Getting an accurate reading of Iraqi public opinion is hard. It might be impossible. I’ve seen Iraqis cheer American soldiers, and I’ve seen some Iraqis hug American soldiers in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Baghdad. A few weeks ago, though, hundreds of thousands celebrated when Americans evacuated Iraqi cities as stipulated by the Status of Forces Agreement.

It’s theoretically possible that what we’ve seen is not contradictory. Some Iraqis are pro-American. Others are not. Those who celebrated when Americans left may very well be, at least for the most part, different Iraqis than those I’ve seen who greeted Americans warmly.
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Carlos Bledsoe/Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad/Abdulhakim Bledsoe/Human Pondscum gave an interview to the Associated Press, reported yesterday, in which he justifies the killing of Private William Andrew Long as not murder, “because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.”:

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

~~~

Muhammad told the AP he admitted to his actions to police and said he was retaliating against the U.S. military.

“Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally,” Muhammad said. He called it “a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military.”

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

He also said he didn’t specifically plan the shootings that morning.

“It’s been on my mind for awhile. It wasn’t nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know,” said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

~~~

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. “For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate,” he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

No! Certainly not! The U.S. military would never seize and destroy Bibles!

“U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don’t believe in turning the other cheek,” he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said “I didn’t know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did,” especially desecrating the Quran.

Muhammad isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, is he? But then, what crayon in the jihad movement coloring book is?

But he’s got a point.

Here are photos to support Muhammad’s assertions, showing proof positive that “U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women.”:
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Here’s my 2009 Memorial Day video:

Most of the photos come from DoD, and are focused on the current conflicts. The editing is a bit uneven, as I haphazardly imported pictures without a lot of discrimination; but ultimately, what I decided I wanted to convey is the sense of sacrifice of not just the soldiers, but of the military families they leave behind who dare to support them and their mission. I wanted to juxtaposition those photos of them reunited/leaving their families with photos of what their service and sacrifice away from home have gained back in return: Purple fingers….admiration and friendships with Iraqis and Iraqi children….. There’s a poignancy there, because these mothers and fathers should be back home with their own families, who need them in their lives; their children deserve to have their parent holding them- not be half a world away, holding someone else’s child in place of them. And yet, what the soldier does by leaving his family behind, he does on behalf of them…and us.

It is the American soldier who is the best ambassador to other nations; who exemplifies nobility and compassion and who exports our values and traditions. It is the American soldier who represents the best and brightest our country has to offer.

When those Iraqi children in the photos grow up, I hope they remember the kindness and friendship of U.S. soldiers.

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Maybe now that President Obama’s in charge of the war in Iraq, and there’s no need to lie, distort, or half quote truths to oppose the war (can’t oppose it if it’s run by a Democrat)…maybe now people will realize:
1) the matter was never closed by any investigation
2) there’s hundreds of times more information demonstrating ties than there is dismissing them

BAGHDAD — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said Al Qaida worked closely with former operatives in Saddam Hussein regime.

Officials said leading members of the Al Qaida network have coordinated operations with Saddam aides since 2003. They said Al Qaida and Saddam forces attacked Shi’ites in an effort to spark a civil war in Iraq.

“They agreed that Al Qaida would carry out the suicide attacks, while the Baathists [Saddam's ruling party] would do the remote-control bombs,” Al Maliki said.

The Al Qaida-Saddam link, asserted by then-U.S. President George Bush in 2002, came in wake of the reported capture of a leading Al Qaida commander in Iraq.

At the very least, it’s 100% clear (hindsight is 20-20) that yes, Saddam’s regime and the Al Queda network did have operational ties in 2003, and that means the invasion of Iraq
HAS ALWAYS BEEN PART OF THE WAR ON TERROR.
ht regimeofterror
Mark Eichenlaub

Strangely enough, this one doesn’t look so political as it does humanitarian, AND (you better sit down for this) it looks like it doesn’t portray American soldiers as Haliburton stormtroopers, imperialists, neocon tools, or war criminals. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Such a 180 turn in tone couldn’t possibly be because Bush isn’t in power anymore. Nahhh

BAGHDAD (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton assured Iraqis on Saturday that the Obama administration would not abandon their country even as it presses ahead with plans to withdraw American troops amid a recent surge in violence.
…
“Let me assure you and repeat what President Obama said, we are committed to Iraq, we want to see a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq,” she told a nervous but receptive crowd at a town hall meeting at the U.S. Embassy in the capital.

“We are very committed, but the nature of our commitment may look somewhat different because we are going to be withdrawing our combat troops over the next couple of years,” Clinton said.

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Earlier this week an article by Jonathan Landay was published by the failing McClatchy Newspapers. The article asserted that innumerable people had been tortured with the intent and purpose of proving a tie between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Al Queda network of terrorist groups. The article asserted that there never were any ties between the two, and that the torturing of captured Al Queda terrorists was done largely to create a fictional narrative that would support the case for invading Iraq (let’s ignore that the alleged “torture” happened AFTER the invasion of Iraq-just as was done in the article).

I attempted to contact Jonathan Landay to nicely and politely inform him that the issue of regime ties had never been closed. He responded nicely, pointed me in the direction of a few reports, then categorically declared that no ties existed and that the intelligence community had known this all along, but the Bush Administration “cherry-picked” intelligence to make its case for war.

After that initial email, Jonathon refused to respond to further attempts at educating him. SO, here we go…
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HE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Let me say [damn, no teleprompter...gonna have to go old school and use a notecard or these people will realize I don't know who they are]…Multinational Force Iraq, Multinational Corps Iraq, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq First Corps, America’s Corp Band: Thanks to all of you.

Listen, I am so honored.

AUDIENCE MEMBER [State Dept Official/appointee who is new in-country]: We love you.
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It was just three days ago that Dave Noble and I were carrying on a debate on Wordsmith’s Afghanistan thread.

In addition to debating just who was “reconcilable” and who was a “Taliban”, I stated my opinion that without substantial changes in Pakistan policy towards their own militants, Afghanistan could very well be a waste of military resources. Add more troops and the US/NATO forces can push back enemy lines into Pakistan…. temporarily. But it will be nothing more than a revolving door of never-ending battles until Pakistan starts pulling it’s weight on their side of the border.

Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is a less educated country with limited urban centers, and composed mostly of poorer tribal areas with no nationalized identity. They throw their allegiance to whomever is winning the back yard battle, and look to see who can offer them the most in return for their loyalty. And sometimes that loyalty is given in exchange for the privilege of staying alive.

I also said I believe that had the US instead deposited the troops in Afghanistan instead of Iraq, the situation would be no different… and likely worse because of the larger US footprint… giving the perception of the US as occupiers instead of defenders. Afghanistan is simply not as ripe for an “awakening” for sundry reasons.

Mata: But what you fail you understand is you could take all 150K plus Iraq troops, put them into Afghanistan then… or now…. and the “success” will be no different. In fact, with that high a US footprint in the country, you would have NO “reconcilables” on which to speculate. Afghanistan-Pakistan is a completely different battle and problem.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates himself confirms this, saying just recently:

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Over the weekend, Curt posted a litany of successes going on over in Iraq within just the past week alone.

If not for alternative media and non-mainstream sources, you’d be hard-pressed to hear anything about the continued positive trend in Iraq. It’s not that the information isn’t there and isn’t being covered and reported on by MSM (note the polls cited below are by ABC, BBC, and NHK); it’s just that they aren’t telegraphed as front-page newsworthy items, worth repeating over and over again until it gets hammered into people’s subconscious…..like “Iraq is a failure” and “Iraq is in a civil war” mantras were repeated over and over…

The good news on Iraq IS a big deal. It IS important that it gets talked about and that the positive stories are repeated over and over and over again.

Investor’s Business Daily:

A poll of average Iraqis conducted by ABC News, the BBC and Japan’s NHK shows significant progress on virtually all fronts. Yet, we’ve heard nary a peep about it from anyone.

Some 85% of respondents said their neighborhood security was “good,” vs. 62% a year ago and just 43% in August of 2007. And 52% said security had gotten better in the last year — during the Bush-Petraeus “surge,” which was widely ridiculed at the time as an unnecessary escalation of the Iraq War.

Support for democracy jumped to 64%, a 21-percentage-point gain since 2007, according to a report on CNSNews.com…. As for how Iraqis felt about the general state of affairs in Iraq, 58% called it “very good” or “quite good,” up significantly from 43% last year and 22% in 2007.

When asked what their concerns are today, Iraqis sound a lot like Americans: Jobs and prices are at the top of their list — not war, not security, not terrorism.

In short, it sounds like we not only won the war, but the peace as well. And for those who cast a skeptical eye on the idea that any Islamic country could ever be democratized, it turns out the former President Bush is winning that debate too.
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I previously posted on this last June. (Skye also posted on the movie). It’s not a movie with a political agenda, unlike all the Hollywood anti-war garbage that’s come out in the last few years, let alone last three decades; but it is pro-military…which means a lot of conservatives are going to like it…..maybe not so much, liberals.

Brothers at War, by Jake Rademacher, opened in selected theaters last Friday. Click here to find out how to bring the movie to a local theater near you.

Here’s a scene from the film:

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Been awhile since anyone looked at what was going on in Iraq. Three years ago it was all the left could talk about since it was going badly. But now that it’s going well, all the success is ignored.

So on to some news from Iraq. First some infrastructure stuff:

Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq focuses on future: operations, maintenance, sustainment

With more than 4,400 projects completed, and many major reconstruction programs of the Gulf Region Division (GRD), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, concluding, GRD’s Operations, Maintenance and Sustainment (OMS) program is gaining ground and increased significance.

The OMS program is aimed at supporting the U.S. Embassy’s goals to ensure the government of Iraq and the Iraqi people are properly prepared to operate and maintain the country’s new infrastructure, and assume responsibility for the nation’s continued reconstruction.

The focus began to morph in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008, according to Steve Rivera, deputy of GRD’s reconstruction division. “We began to see indications that focus was moving away from brick and mortar construction and towards training initiatives. We saw this reinforced when Ambassador Crocker and Gen. Petraeus, testified in front of Congress,” he said.

~~~

“For every facility that GRD completes there is a letter of acceptability signed by the government of Iraq,” Rivera explained. “Included in that agreement is a letter of sustainability, where the government of Iraq agrees to take responsibility of operations and maintenance (O&M) for the facility. That willingness to take responsibility for O&M is part of the cost-sharing agreement between Iraq and the United States.”

Iraqi Army’s General Transportation Regiment Conducts First Port to Depot Mission Read the rest of this entry »