Anybody remember this quote?

"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready, to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June, our forces will be ready."

That was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki back in December of 2006. Of course, June and come and gone, and the U.S. is sending more troops over than ever. Anyone want to follow up and ask how that's going?

Email from a Marine

A Marine I work with forwarded this email from his buddy. As my friend says, it's quite an insight into what things are like.

Hello,

Just a note to let everyone know that my team is back from Iraq and to let you know that if you're curious, the PBS Frontline piece "Gangs of Iraq" is almost exactly what we did and dealt with in Iraq as police advisers. A picture is worth 1000 words, and no offense, but it's a bit tough to have a 3 hour conversation on Iraq with everyone -- especially for some folks whose knowledge is only CNN/Fox News deep.

Everyone has an opinion, yet few folks know even a portion of the facts (good or bad ones). It can be viewed for free at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gangsofiraq/view/
if you are curious. If you're not curious, you're better off. You are free to disregard the rest of the email -- my intent is not to bore folks, just to answer the basic question I have been getting from dozens of folks with a snapshot. Like I said, a picture is worth 1000 words.

After deployment, the family spent a week in the Smokey mountains and 2 weeks at the beach in North Carolina. We were blessed with ideal weather and were fortunate to have some friends come and visit while we were there. I am well-rested and now happy to be back to work. It is really toughest on the families. At least out there, you are with your team and you know what's happening all the time, good or bad. On a couple occasions I had to stay on base for meetings and got a taste of what its like for the families, knowing my team was out there outside the wire without me and not knowing what was happening at that instant. I was pleased to be able to deliver on the promise to the kids of a long beach vacation. Everyone had a great time.

Many have asked me about the situation in Iraq. After 2 tours, one at the CENTCOM headquarters level and the last at the advisor/combat tour level in al Anbar, I realize that the more you learn about Iraq the more complex it gets. Even after all the cultural and language classes, studying terrorism and Arab politics in college and as a military intel officer, I didn't begin to understand the complexities and depth of the issues until I lived with these people.
Political pundits, conservative or liberal, oversimplify. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as running away or "staying the course." We confront an evil in the Arab world, an evil I saw on a daily basis, that is hard to articulate. A historical study unveils that we have been fighting radical Islamic fascists since our inception as a nation with the Barbary wars in the Mediterranean and into our occupation of the Philippines and most recently the spate of terrorism beginning in the 1980s up through 9/11.

In Iraq, we conquered an evil nation, now we are trying to civilize it, to teach them freedom and ethics and the free market, but we are trying to do it on the cheap after handing the keys over to an unprepared government. The good news is that the al Qaida insurgency is weakening because they are unpopular with the Iraqis and they cant stand and fight.. and there are more Iraqi forces trained and willing to fight. The bad news is that Iraq is a nation with a multiplicity of interests -- and those interests, be they religious, tribal, political, or economic, are willing to aggressively use corruption and violence to achieve those goals. Iraq is a nation of intrigue and schemes. Within the Iraqi security forces we saw some true evil: embezzlement, torture, corruption, death squads (targeting other tribes, not just insurgents). These are the people who are supposed to create a stable, free Iraq that will be an example for the region. From what I saw, the region lacks a moral compass, and no amount of cultural relativism can explain away their behavior.

I am not usually a huge fan of PBS, but the "Gangs or Iraq" piece does a good job in capturing what we as advisors faced, without getting into too much political commentary. Perhaps I will write a book or Post article at some point. Right now I am just happy to be back in the United States - back with a culture that generally knows right from wrong even if they sway at times, and back with my family. God bless.

Semper Fidelis,
Jeff

A simple question for George W. Bush

I have a question that I'd like someone in the press corps to pose to Bush before the end of his term:

"President Bush -- you have said, 'It is vital for the Iraqi people to know with certainty that America will not abandon them after we have come this far.'

When you leave office on Jan. 20, 2009, what do you plan to do personally to continue the changes in Iraq?"

The point, of course, is to find out whether post-president Bush plans to just cash in on the lecture circuit or whether he's as committed to Iraqi freedom as he always claims. It's easy (and common) for presidents to walk away from their policies, dust their hands and say, "Well, I did everything I could."

But Bush and Iraq are different. As he reminds us in speech after speech, bringing freedom to Iraq isn't a policy -- it's a calling from God. He also tells us it's necessary if America expects to be safe from terrorist attack ever again.

And to be fair to the president, here are some positions/initiatives that he might offer as proof of his continuing commitment to the country he invaded:

• Become U.S. ambassador to Iraq (my recommendation)
  
• Become consultant to the Iraqi public schools system
  
• Fund and oversee an Iraq-based institute that promotes democracy and a free press
• Fund and oversee a U.S.-based institute that gives future Iraqi leaders hands-on experience in a working democracy
• Start a micro-loan nonprofit using his own money to help struggling Iraqi companies
• Start a company that provides affordable infrastructure rebuilding services to the Iraqi government
  

All of these are quite reasonable and effective things that a former president like Bush could do to prove he's serious about the cause that 3,000+ Americans have already sacrificed for. I can't wait to hear which one he'll choose.