Dawn Patrol - Mini

Sorry busy day, here's a few things definitely worth checking out:

A local Colorado Morning News show host of 850 KOA, Steffan Tubbs begins his second week in Iraq embedded with the US military. He also shares some personal experiences with our troops and all throughout his 'blog' he is posting email addresses of soldiers wishing to receive communication from Americans back home. A must read.

Ralph Peters would like to dispell the Myths of Iraq

I left Baghdad more optimistic than I was before this visit. While cynicism, political bias and the pressure of a 24/7 news cycle accelerate a race to the bottom in reporting, there are good reasons to be soberly hopeful about Iraq's future.

...The patrol leader stepped up to the door with the interpreter and knocked on the door. The gentleman opened the door and immediately started smiling and asking us to come in and sit down. It turns out that we were in the nephew of a sheik’s house. It seems our guys stop in there regularly to talk with him. He is a very prominent person in the area with a bit of influence. He was very courteous to us and offered us to sit down and relax. Of course you can’t really relax but it was nice to sit down for a few minutes.
During the conversation, the funniest thing was said. We had asked the guy if he could turn off his spotlights in his yard for they blinded the guys on guard duty at the base. He said of course, that he would turn them off and that he would be marked with a certain color. If the guards saw anyone else in his yard or near his house after hours to shoot them. I couldn’t’ believe this guy said that. He said he wanted to get rid of the bad guys.

-The Ugandan soldiers that guard the chow hall are polite, but they only know about eight words of English. Don’t force the conversation out of those eight words and they won’t delay your entrance to the chow hall.

-Eye contact is powerful. If you don’t like what a local is doing just hold eye contact for a few seconds. They will quickly stop or move along. ...

...in spite of the admirable job the army is doing in Baghdad, I expect the capital to be the focus of the conflict for a long time given the demographics of the city and its suburbs and I expect these limited battles (and I don't like the term "all-out civil war" that many choose to use) I expect these battles to be concentrated in Baghdad, its suburbs as well as probably a few provinces with mixed populations while the majority of the 18 provinces will remain relatively calm because the parties of the conflict on either side will try to keep their territories of support safe and as far as possible from the frontlines.

In an interview on Al Iraqiya with Ambassador Khalil Zada, the host asked the ambassador about Sadr continuous verbal attack and accusations against US policy. He replied "I want to remind Sadr that Saddam killed his father and that the US toppled Saddam. Without the efforts of the US Saddam would have been in power now and most likely would be followed by his sons and grandsons. He owes us his gratitude for what the American people have done and without us I believe his life would have been in danger. This is the message"

...We are of the belief that the release of captured Iraqi tapes and documents now in the possession of our government should be expedited with all haste. We believe that information contained in those documents would substantiate our government’s stated reasons for going to war with Saddam’s regime. For too long, too many Americans have been led to believe that their government lied to them and subsequently are lukewarm on support of the war and by extension of our troops.

Islam will be Victorious against the West
...“They may take away our freedom to walk the streets and the mosques, but our freedom hasn’t been taken from us on the internet”, he says, smiling.
...Krekar doesn’t represent the Moslem majority in Norway, Europe or in the Moslem world. But he is the representative of an ideologi, a world view and a historical interpretation which is central to the militant Islamist movement from which Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and other groups have sprung.
The background of this first interview in the aftermath of the Muhammed affair is an article Krekar has published on a radical Islamist website about what he thinks is an ongoing war between the mindset of the West and that of Islam.

...While the administration advances on the diplomatic front regarding Iran by bringing the issue to the Security Council, which is expected to declare Iran in violation of nuclear treaty obligations, the Pentagon is looking into the possibility of Israel launching a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.