Circulation (II)

(The story begins here.)

Know what hot is? Hot is when you blink and your eye lids feel the heat off your eyeballs.

You probably didn't want to know that.

Flashback:

The mission is circulation. Paying visits to troops in a slightly more remote location. Grip and grin. Put faces with names. Get a feel for morale. Identify requirements. Chat with the folks they're working with, make sure all is smooth. Make sure all parties know (this part goes without saying) that there are folks above who give a damn.

I am not an inspector, and this isn't an inspection. There's an old truth I subscribe to: combat ready or inspection ready - choose one. This pisses off the people who choose option "b" - so by merely pointing out I'm aware of it I can confirm that these guys are more the first sort just by their response. And in this case all is well. My guys are taking care of business, and those who are supposed to are taking care of them.

Good - so now let's do lunch. The DFAC is large and clean and well staffed. As with any such facility in Iraq I'm amazed at the speed and efficiency of the operation. A steady flow of troops that total in the thousands per meal pass through, with lines rarely extending more than 10 Joes deep. People bearing trays of food and drink move down cafeteria style lines scattered at various points through the facility, and weave their way among others bearing trays of food and drink to tables. Relax and eat, talk business or pleasure with comrades in arms, then move again through the milling crowd to the exit, disposing of everything on the way out. Try this in a civilian facility and collisions and traffic jams would be the norm - here they are rare.

"We've had plenty of food here, but until recently the options have been limited." I'm told. "But things have gotten better recently."

"Really?" I respond. "We had the same situation for a while last month. Story was, one of our convoys got hit..."

"I heard it was the surge. They weren't ready for the food requirements. A lot of ours was redirected to surge bases..."

I ponder that for a moment. Unfortunately, it sounds plausible. "Possible, I suppose," I respond, "but whatever the problem it looks like they've fixed it. Let's hope it stays that way." Nods all around.

The bottom line - we have food in front of us because people risk their lives to bring it here. People eating in DFACs in Iraq respect that and simultaneously take it for granted - they're risking their lives being there too. Speaking of which...

"How's security? How often are you guys getting hit?" I know the answer to this, of course. And maybe they know that I know.

"A while ago we were taking rounds every day. But it's slowed down - a lot, since about the middle of June."

"Mid June?"

"Yes. I'm not kidding - it was rough before then. It's really not so bad now, we still get hit from time to time, but nothing like before."

"You know mid-June is when we really started the surge-related operations in earnest?" A few raised eyebrows. "You know, it might be that you paid for reduced attacks with a couple weeks of fewer entree options."

Arranged along the walls are big screen televisions. On one side of the DFAC they're tuned to the news, on the other, usually sports. But at this moment, The Daily Show is on. John Stewart has his audience rolling in the aisles with snappy one-liners about Iraq. He's killing 'em.

Had you been standing on the Iraq/Syria border at that moment and glanced upward, you'd have seen the vanguard of an invasion of a sort. Dust and sand lifted by heat and wind, high enough to be driven rapidly eastward by even stronger winds aloft. Viewed from below it would appear as an endless brown cloud blocking out the sun. Viewed via satellite from above it would resemble a smoke cloud, fanning out into a wide plume as it blew down wind from a single point of origin.

It's nothing unusual, in the summer it happens damn near every day.

Now:

The cookies are gone. The night passed into day, and night again. The mission was accomplished. It did not make the news. In fact, there wasn't even an MNF-I press release on it. It's nothing unusual, it happens damn near every day.

But here's an interesting one:

PATROL BASE INCHON, Iraq — Citizens tired of terrorism in their communities brought 185 cans of ammunition to Coalition Forces Aug. 9.

Two men from the town of al Taqa delivered the ammunition to Soldiers of 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) working at Patrol Base Inchon, located along the Euphrates River.

The ammunition was for use in Soviet-made DShKa heavy machine guns, and each ammunition can was estimated to contain 40 rounds, for a total of 7,400 machine-gun rounds.

Don't believe it? Try this:

Last night, the CBS Evening News reported the "US military claims 2,000 al Qaeda operatives have been killed so far this year."

But the surge, added CBS, "deserves only part of the credit." Instead, the tide turned "against al Qaeda when Sunni tribes came over to the American side."

WASHINGTON -- Suicide bombers in Iraq are overwhelmingly foreigners bent on destabilizing the government and undermining American interests there, two independent studies have concluded.

"The war on terrorism -- and certainly the war in Iraq -- has failed in decreasing the number of suicide attacks and has really radicalized the Muslim world to create this concept of martyrs without borders," said Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of one of the two studies.

More Americans Back Bush On Iraq, Polls Find

Pollster John Zogby, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat, sees the shifting polls as simply a return of a few Republicans that means little for the president's efforts to persuade Americans that Iraq is salvageable.

The story continues here.