Mini Dawn Patrol

Busy day for me as I will be helping out at Kleber and Landsthul today. MaryAnn, Willie and I have boxes upon boxes of foot and hand warmers to deliver to the chaplain's office at Landstuhl. The amount of support for this project has been immense. Soldiers' Angels thanks all those for taking the time to make these and for helping support our wounded heroes that have sacrificed so much.

Here are few reports from Iraq:

Bill Putnam at An independent look at Iraq , a journalist embed, is doing some great reporting from Iraq.

He reports on a Search for IED triggermen:

I heard the boom and didn't think much of it. It could've been anything; a controlled detonation of UXO; or, a mortar or rocket round hitting the FOB. Then the company's internet cafe shut down and I knew it meant something more.

The news came out slowly. No one told me at first. Someone said, "It's a secret, Bill." By then the company was spinning up for something but no one was telling me much. As the sun set, everyone was readying Humvees and gear for something.

Truck drivers come to Bayji from all over Iraq and fill up their trailers. Entering and leaving the refinery takes stamps and paperworks. Typical of a bureaucracy but required when a lot of money is flowing out of that place. The criminal gangs and Bad Boys who run the black market fuel program have set up using counerfiet stamps and paperwork to essentially make tankers disappear once it leaves the refinery's gates. Competition to get in is also pretty tight. A lot of guards will take bribes and the drivers are more than willing to pay them.

Operation Swift Sword was conducted along the same lines of Operation Swarmer month held down river in the deserts between Samarra and Ad Dawr. Helicopters, Black Hawks and Chinooks, air assaulted grunts and junedis out to various Landing Zones in the deserts east of Bayji. Once one the ground they'd look for insurgents and their caches.

Ross at Iraq Pictures in Iraq, shows us here and here how the locals repond to our troops.

Locals from Al Harza Village, near Numaniyah, stand in line just to meet U.S. troops during an operation conducted by the 48th Brigade Combat Team. People don't stand in line to meet the criminals such as Al Queda who violate Islam and Muslim brotherhood and law.

For four months, the “Iraq Index,” a project of the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution, has failed to update a key indicator of Coalition progress.

The data in question records the number of “actionable tips” generated by the Iraqi population. An “actionable tip” is one that contains information regarding anti-government forces that can be used in operational planning by the MNF or by Iraqi Security Forces.

A bit back I was enjoying a nice creamy delicious bowl of ice cream (it wasn't Bluebell but still good) and I had an interesting conversation:

Me: Slurp, Smack, Scarf, Slurp

Buddy from another MiTT Team: So you taking out a convoy tomorrow, where ya going?

Me (surprised): How'd you know we are going on a road trip?

Buddy (laughing): Dude...You ALWAYS have ice cream before you convoy.

Even in this high-tech war of email and satellite phone communication, there’s still something special about old-fashioned mail. With my moving to another location and a more remote place of duty it’s been a while since I’ve seen any mail. In the past few weeks all I’ve received is one lonesome card from my sister.
All that changed on Friday. During our weekly trip to battalion headquarters I got word that there were a bunch of packages waiting for me in the mail room.

I want to talk about two things in this post. The first item up for discussion is a new energy policy for the United States. The second issue is a more frightful issue. Any guesses? Let's just say I, as an American Soldier, do not want to have to go visit Iraq's neighbor.

A week ago, an audiotape featuring the soothing tones of Osama bin Laden surfaced. Last Tuesday, Zarqawi showed up on a video portraying him in a number of militaristic settings.
And just this Saturday, a video featuring Al Qaeda #2 Zawahiri surfaced.

Obviously an Al Qaeda propaganda blitz is underway. However, I do wonder if we are seeing signs of a renewed alliance between Iran and Al Qaeda, and I wonder if Iran played a role in suggesting the brain trust of AQ take to the airwaves at this time.

Everything Could Explode at Any Moment.

The overarching theme of this gathering centered on the passion milbloggers have for sharing their story-matched only by the equally fanatical desire of our readers to find, follow, encourage and support us. (I'm reminded of Norman Rockwell's WWII painting for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post-Homecoming Marine - a newly returned gyrene, clutching a Japanese battle flag, relates his war experiences to the eager ears of neighborhood boys and the guys at his old workplace.) To a person, we milbloggers are amazed how these simple internet diaries, universally started to keep family and friends informed, have taken on a life all their own. Our journals became journalism. Our first hand reporting was countering second hand media retorting. Milbloggings authentic in the trenches voices continues to challenge the reporting of the main stream media, and on a daily basis is calling them out on the carpet. We built them and you came....by the tens and hundreds of thousands. Thank you!

Our friends on the port side of the blogosphere have had quite a time tossing around funny little nicknames for those of us who support the war on terror and use our blogs to express our convictions about it. We've seen the names here at CQ in the comments section -- the term "chickenhawk" has appeared more than once, and others in the blogosphere have assigned us to a unit called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.

(Need more? The previous Dawn Patrol is here.)